23 Ambush

The Sun was scorching hot, two hours went by and the duo were waiting at the entrance of the Village Hall with their effects. They too noticed the parents of the twins hugging them and advising them to study and work hard in the Mage Academy. Hongshan village was big but still small enough to be an acquaintance with almost everyone in town.

The parents were well known in the Hongshan Village Market for being one of the friendliest grocers around. The twins were acknowledged by many for their obedience and sensibility in helping with their parents' work everyday after their school.

Feng was engrossed with his manuals he took from Master Santos so Sen decided to walk towards the twins and greeted them. "Kari, Kura! How have you two been? I heard you both were selected for the Mage Academy."

Kari and Kura looked up and saw Sen. They knew about him because Sen and his family were the only tailors in Hongshan Village and their product's quality were worth the penny. "Brother Sen!" Both of them awkwardly saluted Sen mainly because he was a wearing soldier's outfit.

Kari and Kura heard from their parents that Sen was responsible for the rescue of the town's conscripts and he was promoted to an army soldier from a conscript status. They knew many of their friends lost brothers, fathers from the previous attack. However, more of their friends would lose more if not for Sen's heroic act.

Sen bitterly laughed and asked them to not salute him. "I am not an officer, I am just regular soldier. By the way, Brother Feng and me would be travelling with the both of you a little before the escorts send you to the Mage Academy."

"Ah, Sen thank you for accompanying my two darlings. They had never travelled out of this village before so any familiar faces will help a lot. Do you have sufficient food? I have an extra pack of dried fruit which you can use for rations. " Mr Han, the twin's father spoke out.

"There was no need to thank me and it is fine Mr Han. I believe I brought sufficient rations for myself. Anymore and I probably think my superior might embarrassed me for being a glutton. Besides, my superior said we are moving along the same route so accompanying both Kari and Kura will be a pleasure of mine. Please do look after my parents too while I am away too.

"Sure do Sen. To see you grow up as a fine man, rescuing people from those evil black Monkies. You are the pride of Hongshan Village!" Mr Han replied cheerfully.

A modest sized military convoy came and Major Raizan was right on the dot. He signalled Feng, Kari, Kura and Sen to enter the jeep at the middle of the convoy and subsequently asked Sen, who had the experience of driving a strider to take charge of the jeep.

With the knowledge of the Strider, driving the jeep was like riding a bicycle in the park. Major Raizan also deduced that Sen could possibly be better than the current military jeep driver that he was assigned with.

Going through life and death against the Goblins made Raizan trust Sen more with his life than some random military soldier. While they half expect sudden inter travel planes travel, Raizan decided to keep the twins by his side rather than the soldiers as his personal responsibility of an examiner. Perhaps, he was secretly hoping with Sen around, the twins with high Potential Index for magic...let just say he would like something extraordinary to happen.

The Sun Fox troops opened the gates for the military convoy to move out from the rear of Hongshan village. During the first leg of the trip, Feng read his manuals attentively and Raizan continued his note writing.

Sen chatted with the twins a little since they were slightly intimidated by the current atmosphere of intense studying. However, the entire group did not mind the occasion chatter as Raizan also gave some tips on how to survive in Mage Academy. They past the first village checkpoint without incident and everyone became a little friendlier in the jeep.

"...Hence, the first semester to learn your basics was the most important-" Sen was listening to Raizan's conversation when suddenly the System notified him.

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Abrupt Mission Objective: Survive the ambush.

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"Guys! Plane Travel!" Sen shouted but before any of them they could react, the environment flickered more than usual. The trees and greenery around them turned into large field of sand. The military convoy that was with them disappeared.

They are now travelling in middle of the desert with no directions given. Sen gave no sign of stopping the jeep. His mission was to survive the ambush, and not to stop and enjoy the scenery. However, he felt like cursing the System. "Why was this particular inter plane travel so drastic as compared to the previous two?"

Feng and Raizan looked around and finally realised why Sen was not stopping. Behind them was a herd of bison, with cloaked men riding on them, running towards them and they are catching fast. "Damn, the current jeep is not equipped with the required gear for desert travel!" Raizan exclaimed.

Both Kari and Kura were unfortunately teleported to the plane with them. They turn stunned from the extreme change of circumstances that they were unable to even make a single noise. Sen noticed the fear in them and told them to lay low as he continued to check the rear mirror.

The cloaked men from the herd subsequently begin their attack against them and started hurling simple projectile spells towards the jeep. Most of the attacks were fire based but the fire bolts and projectiles were not enough to faze Sen's driving.

The desert was massive enough to let Sen perform his combat driving to the maximum. Kari wanted to take a look at scene due to a mix of curiosity and the fear of the unknown. However, Raizan shouted and ordered the twins to lay low while he placed his hand out of the jeep's window.

"Lightning Breaker!" A small ball of lightning was dropped from his hand upon summoning and it bounces along the route that they were escaping. As the bison were moving closer to the jeep, the lightning ball that was along their path exploded with strides of purple seen from the rear side of the jeep.

A series of loud thunderclaps was heard and it echoed throughout the whole desert. The multiple impact were tremendous and sand beneath the herd flew high up towards the sky. Sounds of injured Bisons clashed against each other causing the cloaked men to toppled over and be trampled by their fellow hunters. Sen took out his rifle as he was driving and passed it to Feng.

"Feng! There is now a switch to the rifle! The bottom one allows you to fire without bolt action!" Seng swiveled the jeep to the left as another fire projectile came from behind. Feng took the rifle and switched to semi automatic.

The firing rate was a boon to the current situation as he can randomly aim towards the stampede of bisons and still score a hit. No matter the shot fired, it would hit either the cloaked men or the tight formation of the bison herd.

To injure one of the bisons equate to slowing the rest of the herd down. To be able to kill one of the cloaked men help slow down the rate of fire against them. Raizan prepared another Lightning Breaker to slow the herd as well and it was effective.

As things started to look favourable for the Sen and his team, there was a slight tremor coming from the ground.