novelBall (18)
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Chapter 67. Ball (18)
When Bloody arrived at the site of the explosion, he saw the knights guarding the area on the ground injured. William was alone in a battle of magic with an old man in a golden mask.
"William!"
Bloody shot sword aura and blew away the black masked person attacking William.
"Ahahaha! Looks like your colleague is here! Butterfly Tribesman!"
"Yes, it seems like it, Leo!"
William guarded his surroundings with his eyes closed. Seeing William with his eyes closed and focused on hearing, Bloody approached William and guarded against the masked people.
"Your eyes!"
"Sorry, I made a mistake."
William's eyes were temporarily blinded by Leo's magic during the interlude when his attention had been diverted to the injured knights from the explosion. Even under such circumstances, against the joint attack of 10 masked people and Leo, he had still managed to block them without major injuries.
Rather, it was correct to say that the masked people were only able to face William because he lost his eyesight at the same time as the surprise attack.
"It's all right, let's end it quickly."
Bloody was still caught up on the half-white masked thief who had escaped, and wanted to handle this situation quickly and go back to the magic school.
"All right, thanks." William unfolded his magic."Frozen arrow!"
William's magic flew towards a masked person, but the other easily evaded it. Being unable to see and having to perceive the enemy's movements through mana, it was difficult to predict and thwart the enemy's movements. However, as long as Bloody was here, it didn't matter that he couldn't see.
Bloody rushed toward the masked person in line with William's magic.
"Not on my watch!" Leo conjured a spell.
Bloody stepped back at the suddenly rising ground, and an arrow flew to where he had retreated. Allowing close combat against a Crow was tantamount to suicide. Well-aware of the fact, the masked people wielded long range weapons.
When Bloody struck down the arrow with a sword, Leo collapsed the raised land in Bloody's direction. As the land crumbled onto Bloody, an ice barrier formed between them and blocked it. It was William's magic.
Bloody darted towards Leo, slipping through a crevice made by the ice barrier. A shower of arrows was unleashed towards him, but he blocked it with his sword.
Leo stabbed the staff into the ground, and white chains emerged from the ground tightly wrapped around Bloody.
Reflexively, Bloody broke the chains with all his might but they leapt up and wound over the broken links.
"You dare!"
At the same time as shooting the ice arrow, William used magic to cut off Leo's magic chains. As he was fending off the ice arrow with magic, Leo was unable to concentrate on the chains; Bloody escaped and attacked.
Kang! Pook!
A masked person shielded against Bloody's sword that was rushing toward Leo.
Kuaaahhh!
The masked person's sword was cut in half as Bloody's sword embedded itself into his body. The man screamed as he grabbed firmly onto Bloody's sword while his comrades shot arrows towards Bloody.
Bloody tried to draw his sword from the masked person's body to deflect the arrows, but the other was desperately holding onto it and so couldn't be freed.
"Let go!"
"I can't do that!"
Pressed by the arrows flying at him, Bloody gave up on pulling the sword out, and instead grabbed the masked person by the collar to use him as a shield.
Kulok!
The masked person became a hedgehog instead of Bloody, but despite being dead, the sword still could not be pulled out of his body.
Bloody gave up on his sword and lifted the masked person's half broken sword.
"Making me feel dirty."
Bloody clicked his tongue at the attack that disregarded the safety of their colleague, and pounced on Leo again.
It was then that he felt a strong mana wave from the direction of the magic school.
"No way! William!"
Bloody turned pale at the thought of the unknown half-white masked thief. Bloody was constantly bogged by the fact that he hadn't chased after the unknown half-white masked thief because he felt no hostility for some reason.
"No, the magic cast on the magic school is still intact." William calmly responded as he cast an attack spell at Leo. The soundproof magic wasn't the only thing that he had cast. Alongside a variety of defense magics, there was also a spell to notify him in case of an invasion. In addition, the princess was wearing a bracelet to alert him of her location in real time so that he could respond even if she were kidnapped.
Rather, it was Leo and the masked people who were flustered.
"Sir Leo!"
When a masked person called, Leo nodded.
According to the original plan, while they held up William and Bloody here, those led by Leo's subordinate, Eagle, would kidnap the princess. But such an aggressive mana wave in the midst of execution was no different from saying they had encountered enemies outside of their expectations.
"Fox! Buy some time! I will head over there myself!"
"Understood!" Fox attacked William at the same time as he spoke.
"Where do you think you are going!"
When Bloody tried to stop Leo, five masked people attacked at the same time.
Leo took advantage of the gap and escaped from his location.
William used magic to create a barrier to block Fox's attack and shouted, "Bloody! Let's go too!"
"Yes!"
Bloody covered the half-broken sword with sword aura and created a mana blade almost 3m long to push back the masked people. Then, he went to William, put him on his back, and fled.
If William's eyes were fine, he would have just flown, but flying blid was dangerous.
"Chase them!" Fox cried.
The masked people shot arrows and threatened Bloody, who was about to leave the scene, but the arrows bounced off William's barrier.
The masked group was forced to chase Bloody and headed for the magic school.
-o-
While waiting at the back gate of the magic school, Malive sensed something strange and led the masked people to the magic school.
"Eagle 9!"
Malive was trying to heal his colleague when he found a subordinate who was kicked from the roof by Denburg and used a healing spell.
"Keeuk! Sir Malive...."
The masked person came to his senses, but fainted again before being able to speak properly.
A solemn Malive climbed the wall to the roof of the magic school, the starting point of the operation. The scene on the roof was disastrous.
"Who... Just who did this?!"
Malive was furious but kept his head cool. He approached the leader of the kidnapping unit, who was lying on the edge of the roof, and performed a healing spell.
The condition was serious. The right arm was cut off so he would never be able to lift a sword again. His bare face had turned black and swollen to the point the original face was no longer recognizable.
"Paladin Mario." Malive called out his colleague's name in grief.
"Get up, Mario."
Mario woke up, his eyes opening a tiny bit as if Malive's heart had touched him.
"Uggh, Malive?"
Though he had regained consciousness, Mario groaned in pain. Malive administered a drug to temporarily numb the pain.
Seeing his mate's complexion clearly improve, Malive vowed, "I won't forgive the one who did this to you." Then he barked orders."Half will collect and treat the Eagle squad. The rest will accomplish the great task that the Eagle team failed to do."
Right now, the priority was to accomplish the great task.
"Understood!"
According to the preliminary reconnaissance, the princess should still be in the waiting room.
"Ready to descend!"
"Ready to descend!"
To stably enter the waiting room, the masked people attached ropes to the roofs.
"Accomplish it in one go without giving them a chance to react!"
Kang!
Suddenly, Malive intuitively cut the magic arrow that flew at him from somewhere and shouted."Cancel descent! Prepare for battle!"
The masked people cut off the rope from their waists, drew their swords, took position, and were on high alert. Once again, Malive deflected the magical arrow that flew at him from afar, and noticed the sniper far away.
The sniper was wearing a half-white mask and holding their target, the princess, in one hand.
"The sniper has the target!
"Chase them!"
"Got it!"
It was clear that that person was responsible for Mario's plight.
"I will not forgive." Malive exuded killing intent.
"I'm going too, " Mario said, picking himself up despite a tottering body. Malive tried to shake his head, but when he saw fighting spirit in Mario's eye, he nodded.
"I'll chase first. Come at your own pace."
"Haha, mission comes first. I won't fall behind."
Malive and his subordinates jumped off the roof, leaving Mario behind. Mario healed himself first with a healing spell.
-o-
Wow! Their reaction was fast.
Had they entered the ballroom, it would become quite annoying, so I intentionally showed them the princess. Carrots were the best way to make a horse run.
I started sprinting with the slumbering princess on my back. I reckon I was going to see quite a few of them in the future, so I poured in a massive amount of magic power to barely put the princess to sleep along with a triple protective shield. With this much, Arelia likely wouldn't get hurt. Maybe.
As I started running away, arrows began to fly at me from the rear. I blocked them with the sword that was gifted to me by the masked leader.
Kang!
Compared to the arrows shot by Mac, the vice captain of the warrior group, it felt like they were shooting straws. Of course, even if it were a straw, it would still hurt to get hit, so let's avoid it.
"You bastard! How dare you touch that sword with that filthy hand!"
I stuck up my middle finger at the masked person who suddenly got angry.
"There's no such thing as yours or mine these days! Your heart is stubborn!"
"You bastard!"
The sound of blood pressure rising seemed to reach all the way here. Then again, how could kidnappers call others dirty?
For now, I had stopped them from going into the banquet hall, but now what?
If I considered fighting, the princess on my back was a concern. However, a magic battle would also be difficult because of the amount of mana I had poured on Arelia was no joke. Usually, even if putting someone to sleep initially took a lot of mana, it was not difficult to maintain the sleep afterwards.
But on the contrary, it took a lot of mana to put Arelia to sleep, and it took even more to maintain. However, the aggressive movements would certainly wake her if I lift the sleep magic.
Then there was also the possibility of a 'blood flowing, flesh exploding' scene, and the princess was too young to witness it.
Well, actually we're the same age. Anyways, she's eating up a lot of mana. It's almost like a mana eating hippo.
No matter how much magic I used after leaving my hometown, the consumption rate had never exceeded the mana recovery rate. But now, trying to put Arelia to sleep felt like a pipe had burst and mana was constantly leaking out.
To exaggerate, if something were to happen to me today, it would not be because of those masked people, but because the princess drained my magic and turned me into a mummy.
I have class scheduled for tomorrow at the training center, but I'm not sure if I would be able to make it now.
"You bastard... No way, that mask!"
The masked man who had been cursing at me shouted in astonishment.
"I've heard that reaction before, and it's getting tiring. I'll give you one point."
Normally, if someone copies someone else, you start growing cold to it. By the way, when I get back, I'll have to re-cast the magic on my mask. It was meaningless to wear a mask when people were recognizing me because of it.
"I'll cut your head off and give it to him!"
The guy who seemed like a leader came at me quickly. I easily flew away.
"Flying! Ugh, I'm going to die."
A groan came out of my mouth. The remaining mana was depleting quickly. Save me!
"Ten consecutive magic bullets!"
Flying in the sky, I shot the masked people with magic bullets. Using a gravity field to stop their movements then shooting would have ensured that at least some of them got hit, but due to my lack of mana, it would have been too much to try to prevent their movements. Sure enough, they all dodged with swift movements.
No matter how I thought about it, running away was the answer.
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