Arc#3 Interlude: Cornered Rats (2) (Patreon)

Xander did not stop to watch the battlemage leader's head fall off, he immediately capitalized on their shock to slay another one. In just a second, he'd managed to cut down their numbers from six to four.

"Snap out of it and fight!" One of the battlemages roared as he pointed his wand at Xander, but before a spell could be fired from its tip, the knight had already vanished. "Shit. Barriers!"

As expected of Arkhan's core forces, the other battlemages recovered quickly as well. They all got into some kind of formation, and with a wave of their wands, barriers formed with the casters at their center. The barriers did not stop expanding until they eventually came in contact with the other battlemages' barriers.

This seemed to cause a reaction in their spell, fusing their barriers into one giant dome around the four of them.

'How troublesome.'

In the eyes of a mortal, the dome of white light seemed nigh impregnable, but it was actually far more problematic than it seemed.

'I can't just cut it...'

Knights had techniques to cut through spells such as the barrier in front of him, but that would require him to reveal himself, leaving him open to retaliation. Furthermore...

Roars and bird cries pierced the silence of the sewers as the battlemages' spirit beasts manifested into the material world.

Hidden in the shadows, Xander observed his four new opponents.

'A tiger that's obviously fire-attributed; a type of praying mantis, likely attributeless; a small wind-attributed bird of some kind; and a white bear... probably of the ice or light attribute.'

"Hahahaha!" The battlemage that had fired the spell at him earlier laughed loudly while patting the head of the flame-maned tiger. "Are you just gonna keep on hiding!?"

"Bardo! Stop! Don't agitate him further!"

Undeterred by his colleague's warning, Bardo smirked. "I thought Aizen's knights were known for their bravery!?"

'... I'll kill that one next.'

Xander was not particularly impressed or afraid despite the one-versus-four fight becoming a one-versus-eight. In the end, all he had to do was to kill the battlemage and their contracted spirit beast would lose the anchor that kept them rooted to the world.

Aizen did not know much about spirit beasts, but this was a fact they had repeatedly confirmed through past conflicts with Arkhan.

In the end, the number of people he needed to kill was still four.

'I suppose I'll try to siege them down.'

Xander went as far away from them as possible before materializing. His glaive then transformed into a bow. An arrow of darkness rapidly condensed in his hand, aided by the darkness that already existed in his surroundings.

In one fluid motion, he nocked the arrow, pulled the string, and fired. The shadow arrow soundlessly sailed across the air until it collided with the dome of light, producing a sound akin to the gong of a bell.

"Fuck!" Bardo cried out in surprise as the part of the barrier right in front of him was struck by a bolt of shadow energy. "He's over there! Get him!"

The tiger spirit beast passed right through the barrier as it dashed toward Xander. Soon, the white bear followed after it.

Xander fired another five arrows at the barrier before the two beasts made it to where he was, swinging their claws at him. However, he did not try to engage, becoming mist once again. He then traveled to a different part of the sewer and started firing again.

"This isn't sustainable!" Bardo cursed as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "We're running out of magic power to keep up this fortress ritual but he's barely using any!"

"Well, you sure knew how to flap your mouth earlier! Why don't you tell us what else is in that damn head of yours!?"

"Stop arguing and calm down! We have to stop him from moving around like that!"

Bardo gritted his teeth before saying, "I'll do something about it! Just get ready!"

'I can hear you perfectly well, you know?'

Xander was quite far away but sound easily echoed here. Furthermore, his senses were very well developed for a human. Xander continued to bombard their barrier while anticipating whatever it was that they were planning.

And he soon found out.

The flaming tiger was getting close, so Xander wanted to shoot one last time before turning into mist again. But suddenly, the tiger's body lit up with a bright red light as the temperature instantly rose to boiling levels.

'Fuck.'

With the darkness in the sewers momentarily dispersed, Xander's mind worked quickly as his bow was replaced by a large shield that covered most of his body. He leaned against it and braced for impact while taking out a runestone with a defensive effect.

BOOM!

The self-destruction of a spirit beast was not to be underestimated. Xander and his shield were sent flying back, eventually slamming against the tunnel's walls. He quickly procured one of the healing pills that Reivan had given him and popped it into his mouth.

'Crazy bastard. He actually blew up his own spirit beast...'

Even if spirit beasts died in the material world, they ultimately came back to life as long as their "anchors" lived. However, if they self-destructed like that, it would take years before a complete recovery. It wasn't something a battlemage did lightly.

Xander admired their fighting spirit though.

"You guys better take care of him..." Bardo coughed up blood as he fell to his knees, most likely having completely depleted his mana pool.

The barrier around the four lost a bit of its radiance, but it still wouldn't be easy to penetrate.

Furthermore, the tiger spirit beast's sacrifice had destabilized the tunnel that acted as a sewer. The ceiling bore many holes, letting the morning light seep into the tunnel.

'Shit. I should've started this operation at night...'

The situation had grown very disadvantageous for him, but Xander still did not falter.

'I have to kill them all.'

Since his secret was out, none of the battlemages should make it out alive. It would strain the relationship between the kingdom and the republic, to the extent that Arkhan might fully commit to an alliance with the empire.

'Maybe I'll die here. But I'll take these four out first.'

With unshakeable resolve, Xander summoned his glaive again and recklessly dashed toward the four battlemages.

"He's getting desperate!" One battlemage yelled as she pointed her wand at the charging knight. A massive lump of green magic power burst out of the tip and shot toward Xander.

"Break!" Xander bellowed out a warcry as he threw his glaive at the spell. A bright explosion filled his vision but he kept on charging, shrugging off any damage with his armor. Once he'd made it through the smoke and dust, the barrier was right before him.

"This crazy bastard!" Another battlemage fired a spell at him from behind the barrier, but it was already too late.

Xander instantly pinpointed the right spot to strike, a glaive appearing in his hands as if it never left him in the first place. With one downward slash, the barrier vanished.

"How the hell do they keep doing that!?" Bardo yelled out incredulously as he took out a handful of spell balls and detonated them all. A myriad of spells flew toward the knight as the exhausted battlemage procured a sword from his spatial ring. "Prepare for melee combat!"

Xander did not even bother defending against such low-level sorcery, letting his armor do all the work. With a lazy flick of his wrist, a dagger of shadow energy pierced into Bardo's head and the battlemage's life was no more.

The other three pulled out kite shields in their left hand while still gripping the wands in their right. With a shrill cry, the praying mantis charged at Xander with inhuman speed while the white bear was running up behind him.

'It's over.'

The darkness may have been Xander's home but close-combat battles like these were the preference of just about any knight. And at such a close distance, a spirit beast's self-destruction would take them all out, which was still a win for him.

'Let's try not to die, though.'

Xander was like a fish in water, easily sidestepping the praying mantis and cutting off a few legs as it passed by. He then weaved past the white bear's downward strike, moving behind it so the battlemages couldn't fire spells at him. Utilizing the temporary obstruction to their line of sight, Xander's body evaporated into black mist once again.

Although no longer invisible and only a tenth as fast, he was still faster than he usually would have. In mist form, Xander instantly arrived and materialized at the side of the closest battlemage, his glaive stabbing toward the Arkhanian's left flank.

"Wha—" The battlemage let out a gasp of shock as his wand lit up but it was already too late. Before he could muster a spell, Xander was already charging at the next battlemage.

'The mantis is gone...'

Xander noted the change in the battlefield as he created another shadow dagger in his left hand and shot it at the white bear's eyes while charging at the only female battlemage in the group.

She readied a spell and yelled. "Now!"

Fwoosh!

Xander's feet left the ground as a fierce gale blew him backward by dozens of meters. He landed in a ditch with barely any sewer water left because of the tiger's self-destruction.

"Ack!"

Before he could regain his bearings, he cried out in pain as something pierced through his armor and dug deeply into his left shoulder. With a grunt, he tried to pull out whatever it was, but it escaped his clutches, flying back to the woman who blew him back.

"Good work, pip!" she yelled in praise as she cast the spell she'd been preparing earlier.

A lance of storms that looked vaguely similar to House Mercer's signature aetherblade art came careening towards him faster than he could move out of the way.

'Damn!'

Xander's body barely managed to melt into black mist again. He rematerialized farther away from them to catch his breath as he cradled the bloody stump that was his left arm.

"Got him!" The other battlemage that had stayed silent the whole time cheered an expression of malice on his face.

The white bear roared as all the water in the sewers froze, including the water that Xander was currently standing on.

'So he was an ice-attribute beast!'

Xander struggled to break free as the bear stomped toward him, its teeth bared. Far into the distance, he could see the male battlemage's wand disappear, replaced by a sword as he stood protectively in front of the other battlemage.

'Finally.'

Wasting no time, Xander's glaive instantly transformed into a weapon from another world called a sniper rifle. He then loaded a pre-made bullet from his spatial ring and fired at the two battlemages who lined themselves up for him perfectly.

Bang!

With a deafening boom, the spellbane bullet pierced the air, passing by the large white bear, and soon penetrating all of the male battlemage's defenses.

"Fwoo..." Xander heaved a weary sigh as he watched the bear vanish into motes of white light.

The two lifeless sorcerers then fell to the floor with a thud.

'There's no rest for the wicked...'

Xander began to shave away the ice holding down his feet. Once he was done, he looted the corpses.

'Eleven wands. A great profit.'

While the shields, combat robes, and other consumable items the battlemages had on them were worth a lot of money on their own, what Aizen truly desired were the wands. After all, they were made of materials that couldn't be found in Aizen or Argonia. So even if Aizen wanted to train sorcerers, they would be limited by the lack of wands — which were paramount to the art of sorcery.

"Oh?" As he dug through their spatial rings, Xander also found some sort of spellbook. He flipped through it just to make sure it wasn't a basic spellbook available just about everywhere and eventually smiled. "Jackpot."

While wands were something only the Spirit Tower of Arkhan could produce, they could easily be looted from the corpses. Advanced knowledge of sorcery, on the other hand, was closely guarded by the tower and the great wizard families.

'Heh.'

Xander was about to laugh but winced. He was rapidly losing blood through his severed left arm.

'This isn't something easy to fix...'

He would have to return to Aizen and have it regrown with the aid of a Sormon adherent. But for now, he took out one of the looted spell balls and activated it. A raging flame erupted from his palm and he used it to sear his open wound. He couldn't help but grimace at the pain, but this was far better than when he lost his leg to a nightmare spawn during his initiation.

Once he was done, he dispersed the giant thorns blocking the path to the surface and waited for a while. If another battlemage came by right after the battle, they could still scry some information from the spirit beasts' residual wills. Xander took some recovery medicine — which, he had a lot of due to direct contact with the manufacturer — and waited.

After he'd lingered enough, Xander used numerous looted spell balls and collapsed the final path as well. Then he took out a special runestone given to him by his Ancestor.

'Mission Complete.'

The runestone was crushed in his hands and in an instant, a puddle of black sludge devoured Xander's body whole.