Chương 49: Marina

Maelle felt like everything she'd been through today had been worth it for leading to this moment. Marina was alive! Like she always knew she was. And in among the crowd of people assembled in that gymnasium, Marina's eyes immediately landed on hers. No words were exchanged between them, yet relief, excitement, days of grief that felt like years—so much was conveyed in that brief second. But she wasn't the only one to recognize Marina.

The assassins had too, and her bodyguard's appearance spurred them into action, making a mad dash toward her. Marina flung herself forward, trying to get to her first. Marina was faster, but the assassins were closer, and Archmage Poshit was on their side, as Maelle sensed a flux, and the floor beneath Marina began to pull at her feet. But you didn't become marshal of the Draegorian Guard unless you were the best. Marina immediately understood the counter to this strange spell and manifested her wings.

With a powerful flap she lifted off the treacherous floor while maintaining her forward momentum, and Archmage Poshit's spell could no longer have an effect on her. With mana being fed into each wing stroke for that extra boost in speed, the resulting gust knocked the nearest humans off their feet. At the same time Marina sent a flurry of [Force Bolts] to intercept the assassins. It caught the two in front, flinging them away. They crashed heavily into the wall at the far end of the gym.

The wall was undamaged—no doubt reinforced by powerful wards—but the assassins weren't badly off either. Maelle wouldn't have expected anything less, as Draegorian soldiers were the toughest in the world. The assassins who'd managed to avoid Marina's spells were charging up their own. Six [Fireballs], all elevated to the individual caster's ability, were let loose at once. They were all directed at Maelle. Marina was still too far away.

But that didn't stop her from trying, and Maelle felt a flux flowing toward her. Marina was trying to put up a [Force Wall]. But she already knew there were too many [Fireballs], coming from too many different angles. Maelle pushed Raylin aside, as her friend was the only one still by her side. The other captives and guards and alchemists had already cleared out of the way—they did that from the moment the assassins made their very first move. Then Maelle put up her own [Shield], for whatever good that would do.

"[Freeze Field]." All at once the [Fireballs] were extinguished and a chill filled the entire gymnasium. At the same time the assassins had stopped dead in their tracks, blocked off by a set of [Force Walls] that had sprung up in short order. All eyes turned to Rava, who kept her finger pointed.

"Nobody's to touch that girl." Everyone had felt that flux. It would have been impossible not to. [Freeze Field] was a Tier 8 spell, and Rava had cast it from halfway across the room. This marked her at least on the level of Archmage Poshit, if not higher. Maelle felt that she might even be as strong as Marina. The assassins backed away. She could see the frustration in their eyes. They were this close to accomplishing their mission. But power was power. Marina landed next to her and unmanifested her wings.

The two of them hugged. To be able to touch Marina, to hold her and feel the familiar sisterly comfort of her arms, Maelle never wanted to let her go again.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"It's all my fault. I'm so sorry."

"Shh, shh," Marina soothed.

"It's all right. It's all right now."

"I've been waiting with Virdis, hoping every day that you'd come." But their reunion had to be cut short because they were still in hostile territory. The assassins had returned to Archmage Poshit's side and were having a whispered conversation with an older, well-dressed man. The man turned to Rava.

"I've made a deal with these gentlemen to hand over the girl." Rava looked at him in disgust.

"Your deals don't have anything to do with me." Maelle wondered why the assassins would ask to have her handed over rather than just killed outright. Then she realized that they were hoping to get Rava to stand aside. They must have known that Rava wouldn't let them kill her, yet somehow felt there was a chance she'd let them take her away. Their plan was to kill her later once the archmage could no longer intervene. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road.

If you see it on Amazon, please report it. But of course Rava was no fool. The well-dressed man turned to Archmage Poshit, who nodded in acknowledgment of the silent order. After a brief flare of mana she became [Invisible]. Marina moved to shield her with her body, but Maelle felt mana flowing all around them. Marina, Archmage Poshit, even Rava—everyone was preparing a spell.

Then more trouble came from behind her in the form of a hiss, and she turned to see the snake-lion-whiptail chimera emerging from the dungeon. Clamoring up the staircase behind it were the other chimeras. In that moment everything happened at once. A [Gale] tore her and Marina away from each other. The entire gym filled with smoke and fire. The chimeras roared in a cacophony of different voices and charged out in every direction. A familiar beast came out of nowhere and intercepted one that had aimed toward Maelle.

She recognized it as the one that had killed the chimera in the hills. Luckily its appetite seemed to be more in favor of chimera than dragon, and she was able to get away. She heard Raylin calling out and found her friend close by. Should she look for Marina? No. By herself, Marina was unbeatable. Last time it had been her presence that dragged Marina down. The best thing she could do for her bodyguard was to get herself out of there. She grabbed Raylin and ran.

Havlo approached the Dabaux estate from the air. So far his search of the merchant-owned land hadn't turned up anything relevant, though he may have inadvertently made a few farmers believe that their barns were haunted. As he got closer to the Dabaux estate, it became clear that there was indeed something going on. He could sense multiple high-power mana fluxes from below, as well as the presence of several powerful mages. One felt like it could be the invisible flying archmage he'd encountered last night.

There were explosions within the manor, and when he flew low for a closer look, he spotted chimeras and guards chasing each other through the flower gardens. But not everyone looked like they belonged. Some of the people were dressed in an assortment of civilian clothes, and they were following behind two girls... Maelle? He couldn't believe it. How had she found the traffickers before he did? That didn't matter right now.

It looked like she'd busted all the victims out, but they were still trapped within the walls of the compound. Thinking fast, he plopped down a line of [Force Walls] along the north-eastern wall before landing in the forest outside. Next he fired off three simultaneous [Force Bolts], each elevated to Tier 7. While it was risky to be casting spells above Tier 6, he was counting on the fact that there was already so much mana flowing around that no one had the time to be paying his fluxes close attention.

The [Force Bolts] crashed against the wall, weakening it enough that the follow-up [Fireball], similarly elevated, blew all the bricks apart. The [Force Walls] he'd placed along the inside kept everyone on the other side safe from the explosion and subsequent flying debris. Instead the masonry blew outward in his direction. A brick struck his [Shield] with such force that the projectile exploded into a cloud of dust. Maelle was leading all the escapees toward his hole.

He dismissed the [Force Walls] to let everyone through. They fled past him into the forest. A few of them knew some magic, and helped the others find their way in the dark with their [Light] spells. Once it looked like the last of them had cleared the compound, Havlo followed after them, releasing his [Flight] and [Invisibility] spells along the way. The loose chimeras weren't any of his concern, nor whatever battle was being waged among the archmages.

Lady Amberlin's objective in coming to Ardark was the rescue of the kidnapping victims, and that's what he was going to ensure. To do anything more was to risk revealing his identity without good reason. For some reason the group of escapees were slowing down. As he caught up, he realized that one of them was hobbled. No—worse than that, she was virtually being carried by Maelle and the others. He cast a second [Light] orb and shifted it over for a closer look.

A few of them turned to him in alarm, but Maelle waved them down.

"It's all right, I know him!" The hobbled girl's arms were both necrotic, trails of it reaching all the way to her shoulders, and her face was drenched from a high fever.

"What happened?" he demanded.

"She pricked both her hands on some bent pins," Maelle replied.

"That doesn't explain—" No, that wasn't important right now. He took a deep breath." Both hands?"

"Can you help her?" Maelle pleaded. He cast a [Heal] spell on the girl and focused his mana into her. It was a high-tier spell, but no one present should be able to discern it from [Light Heal]. Under these circumstances, he couldn't risk using the weaker spell, as the girl could die if the toxin wasn't cleared before they reached the limit of her healing resistance. The problem was that healing was his weakest discipline.

During his journey with the First Apostle, they'd had the saint to handle this side of things, and he'd focused all his efforts on his own role. The necrotic flesh wasn't receding as quickly as he'd have liked. Meanwhile they were vulnerable here, so close to the chaos of the Dabaux estate. His fears proved to be well justified when he sensed the approach of a powerful presence from the direction of the hole he'd made in the wall. He turned hurriedly to Maelle.

"You have to go—there's someone coming. Get to the city, bring the girl to the Amber Temple. The priests there can treat her. Now go. Go!" The other escapees helped Maelle carry the girl through the forest. There was still quite a ways back to the city, but by his judgment, they should be able to get there with time to spare. He turned to face the approaching presence. By his estimate, this individual was either Tier 6 or Tier 7. Not the mystery archmage he was worried about, but someone to be taken seriously.

As they got closer, he tried to get a read on the spells they'd layered on themselves. There were [Shield], [Infravision] and [Haste], all elevated to Tier 6, as well as [Invisibility] and [Levitation], both Tier 7 spells. This confirmed that he was dealing with an archmage. He checked to make sure he didn't have any high-tier spells active. He'd already dropped [Flight] and [Invisibility]. He also quickly dismissed [Infravision] even though it meant he would no longer be able to see through their [Invisibility].

He wanted to leave the other person guessing as to his true capabilities. Instead he tracked the archmage by their mana presence, which they weren't shy about showing off. When he felt they were getting a bit too close, he sent a [Light] orb out their way to let them know he could tell where they were. The person stopped, and when they spoke, he could tell it was a woman.

"Don't think you can trick me."