29 The One Who Should Not Have Been Killed Part 2 (2/2)
The remaining four people from the Falcon Regiment gathered in silence. This time, Sarah was in front, Lucas was at the back, and Pino and Canghong followed Saleen. Sika carried her large cudgel and followed closely behind Saleen. Any sounds within the cave could be heard from afar, and Sarah did not dare go too far beyond the Fog of Confusion. The squad maintained a steady but slow pace as they moved forward.
After about twenty minutes, Sarah stopped and waited for Saleen and the others to catch up before making some hand gestures. Canghong sighed silently. It seemed that luck was back on their side. There was only a small squad ahead of them. The Vulture Regiment did not seem to know that their compatriots behind them had met with mishap, and were instead focused on the squads ahead.
He knew that Saleen was only a Grade 1 mage and would not know the Mute Enchantment spell. He wrote on the ground with his fingers, ”Same spell as before, but at half the speed.”
Saleen nodded his head, indicating that he had understood.
In the fog, the entire squad reduced their speed to half of what it had been before and continued to edge forward. Saleen began to use his instincts to search for the opponent’s assassins. For a junior mage, assassins were most troublesome. Without a high level magic shield, a mage would find it hard to anticipate the sudden attacks of assassins. If the assassin had mastered the sword aura, an attack out of nowhere would easily pierce the defenses of an invisible shield.
Before a mage attained Grade 4, assassins were a mage’s natural enemies, putting them at unease. Saleen did not have much combat experience and most of his knowledge was from books. However, he had committed to memory the one experience shared by mages, which was that in a battle, the assassins should be killed as soon as possible. Regardless of how strong a swordsman was, his skills were balanced at best. As long as the mage did not commit any major errors, it would be easy to win the battle if their opponent was of the same skill level. Although assassins also practiced the sword aura, they were better at hiding. Their sudden bursts of power made them more lethal than swordsmen. The best way to deal with an assassin was to kill them before they could react.
Fortunately for Saleen, while the Fog of Confusion was only a Grade 1 spell, it could not be countered by means other than magic. It was also difficult to determine if the fog was caused by magic or was a natural phenomenon. It was the autumn season, and there was a great deal of fog surrounding the Chaotic Swamp. Saleen found the locations of the two assassins in no time. They were in a crevice in between the rocks at the top of the cave. If Saleen’s manufactured fog had not covered such a large area, it would have been difficult to spot the two assassins.
While Saleen was initially happy, he suddenly wondered why the two assassins were at the back instead of in front of the squad as they typically would be. They could not have discovered his existence, because if they had known that the fog was created by a mage, they would have known that they had been exposed. If that were so, they would not still be hiding at that spot waiting for his magic to take effect.
Saleen grabbed hold of Canghong’s hand and held on to him. He steered his eyes towards the top of the cave, not knowing how to express his thoughts. He regretted not having learned more about mercenaries. Their hand gestures were complicated and were good enough to replace sign language. In desperation, Saleen controlled the Fluorescence spell and beamed a green fluorescent ray into the air to create a sentence: ”Assassins at the back, situation not good.”
Canghong had more experience than Saleen and immediately understood what he meant. At the same time, he was full of admiration for this young mage. Canghong could tell that Saleen and Sika were rookie mercenaries and did not have much experience. However, throughout the journey, they had not created any trouble for him and had instead been the main forces during combat. Without the young mage, the squad would have died at the last encounter. Even if they had killed the holy master, they would have been killed by the witcher spiders after.
Canghong gestured his hand against his throat, indicating for Saleen to kill both of the assassins. Saleen nodded and a white light began to appear in his hands. Despite it being an old fashioned method, a large ice ball flew up towards the top of the cave, aiming for the area in between the two assassins.
The two assassins were more powerful than the previous two. With this sudden attack, not caring whether the ice ball was aimed at them, both leaped out from the crevice.
These were competent assassins, the natural enemies of mages, given their acute sensitivity to dangers. In terms of mental power, a strong assassin was not weaker than a mage, and some assassins even used magical tools.
Saleen sneered to himself: If you could escape this, I would not be a mage. He pursed his lips into a line and focused his mental power, bringing the flying ice ball to a stop right in between both assassins.
To most people, a mage’s magic and a bow and arrow worked the same way. Once a bow was released, there was no way for the arrow to be retracted. However, magic could be manipulated. Such techniques that could pause a spell after it had been released were quite rare. However, not many mages were willing to spend that much mental power to control their spells this way. Given the current scenario, a senior mage would only need to release a magic spell for both assassins to be killed. A mage’s usual consecutive attacks used a Grade 2 release coupled with an instantaneous release, creating the effect of a thunderstorm.