Chapter 195: From the Least Expected Quarter (2/2)

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Mike cursed under his breath. The slippery archer had somehow managed to endure both his and Red's attacks and escape in the ensuing chaos.

[Gotta hand it to him, he knew how to get away.]

Deciding that it would be dangerous to stay grounded in the middle of the enemy army, he messaged Red, telling him to start their retreat. However, the dragon quickly replied with an angry retort. Somehow, he'd been caught in a mire of sorts, and was having a hard time pulling himself free, even with the aid of a few powerful strokes of his wings.

Suspecting magic at play, Mike quickly scanned his surroundings, noting five soldiers standing a fair distance away with looks of concentration on their faces. He didn't need Appraise to see that they were clearly mages in the middle of casting. Deciding that it would be quicker to deal with the origin, than try to counter their spells, he launched himself forward in a blast of Air Magic, pulling the Fang of the Primal from his extradimensional pouch in the process.

One of the mages ran forward to intercept Mike, a look of rage twisting his youthful features. ”Eat this, you dragon bastard! [Flame Missiles]”

A dozen small balls of fire streaked towards him, flying in long twisting streams. There was a time in the not too distant past where such an assault would have caused him some concern, however, that time had passed.

Without halting his breakneck speed, Mike casually dodged the majority of the missiles, and defected the rest with his spear. They exploded into iridescent bursts on contact, but even then they posed him little threat, his Salamander's Cloak giving him all the resistance he needed.

”What?!” The young man cried in shock as his spell was crushed easily, and fear quickly supplanted the rage on his face.

”Brian! Get back!” One of the mages yelled, as a trio of stone bullets were launched at Mike, forcing him to divert his path slightly. The speaker was a stern woman that looked to be in her mid-forties.

[Ah, this must be the one that's trapping Red. A fairly strong earth mage by the looks of it.]

Ignoring the upstart newbie who had fallen in his haste to get away, he made a beeline for the woman, who was frantically trying to chant another spell. He could see the other three members of the team begin to move as well. According to a quick Appraise, two of them were Apprentices Arcane Mages, while the last was a Summoner.

All three of them started chanting their own spells, but Mike wasn't worried about them.

[Why are they so slow?] He wondered to himself. Having grown used to Instructor Johnathan's ridiculously efficient free casting, he found the chanting antics of the Tenundian mages rather silly. However, he wasn't one to fail to capitalize on opportunity when he had one.

With a quick chant of his own, he hurled a pair of stone javelins which impaled the Arcane Mages before they had a chance to finish their own spells. The sight of his comrades' deaths caused the Summoner to flinch, interrupting his words and causing the circle forming at his feet to falter.

To her credit, the Earth Mage was made of sterner stuff and, with seconds to spare, finished her own chant. ”[Earthen Tomb].” She yelled while taking a step back, a grimace on her face as she started her next chant.

The ground Mike was running across shifted suddenly, as two roughly 10m slabs of earth flipped up and attempted to smother him.

[Not bad, but not good enough.] He thought to himself while channeling his own mana into a burst of air, throwing himself forward in a sudden acceleration that caused him to shoot through the closing gap. While still in mid air, he took aim with his weapon.

The Earth Mage had time to raise one warding arm before Mike plunged his spear through her chest. He tried to ignore the agonized gasp that issued from her mouth as he planted a foot on her shoulder, simultaneously withdrawing his weapon while kicking her out of the way. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he pushed himself towards the terrified summoner, who had forgotten every aspect of his training in his terror. It didn't any effort to cut him down.

Finishing the group of four, Mike turned as saw that Red was beginning to work his way out of the mire. Now he just needed to make his own escape. Which proved to be somewhat difficult.

”There he is! Quick, keep the dragon occupied while we take him down!” A confident male voice called from nearby. The sound was accompanied by the sounds of booted feet as dozens of soldiers moved into position.

While the low Tier troops didn't concern Mike that much, he noticed a few individuals that stood out more than the others.

[Looks like they had a team on standby, specifically for the purpose of taking me on. Hm, this might be difficult.] He thought to himself as he started using Appraise on the various enemies.