20 Nes
"Three, Two, One." Nes kicked herself off the ocean surface and the burst of speed starts to accumulate the inertia. Sen casted Shroud immediately and a burst of mist appeared in front of him.
"Under normal circumstances, the mist probably create a distraction but your movement was still impaired from the attack just now. Creating the shroud does not help you at all!" Nes shouted as she went straight into the middle of the mist where Sen will highly still be.
The moment she entered the mist, a long spear tried to pierce her from the origin of the mist. "Predictable! Decent move against reckless enemies!" Nes dodged the thrust of the long spear easily but suddenly the side of the spear grew and expanded another shroud spear like a branch.
This time, she was not able to dodge it so she parried the spear with her knife. All the momentum she gained from the charge were lost. "Good attempt in distraction! However, this does not change the fact the enemy knows you are injured and unable to move much."
Nes slowly walked towards the center and she encountered even more projectiles like shroud spear, shroud arrows but she easily parried and dodge most of them. "Your capability to produce the forms via the shroud got a little varied and innovating but it is still weak.
Such weak forms will indicate to the enemy that you are anxious, you are tired or perhaps you are just too weak." Nes continued talking until she step in front of the heavily panting Sen.
Sen did not have any strength to say anything more. He was sweating continuously from the large his magical powers expenditure. "Master, good effort this time round." Nes raised her knife and swinged down to stab through his shoulder.
As the blade was reaching the side of Sen's right shoulder, Nes was expecting something like a shield barrier or an illusion created by the shroud but none of it happened. "Perhaps he was really tired." Nes thought to herself. However, the knife edge did not reach the shoulder.
On the contrary. She was unable to move at all. It was as if she was being restrained by something. No matter how much strength she tried to drive knife edge down, she was unable to. Sen's lip curled a little and moved his body back a little before he got up slowly.
"Like what you said, all those were distractions." Sen snapped his finger a little and black lines of thread started to reveal itself in front of Nes. The thread lines were wrapped all over her body as if she was caught in a spider's web.
Sen created a shroud needle and used that to poke the side of Nes frightened face. "Do not forget, I am a tailor's son. Tailors are detail oriented...to a certain point I guess haha!" Blood slowly trinkled out from the needle wound.
Sen dropped his needle, released all the magic and fell to the ocean surface. There was a big splash and it felt he was floating on a real ocean under the moonlight. Nes wiped the blood off her face and complimented Sen for his ingenious idea.
"Now you should be able to grasp that the Shroud spell has limitless potential, like what you will be." Nes knelt down in front of Sen. "Master, you have completed the test for the initiation ceremony. This humble Nes will follow you through and through."
"Was this not a training session?" Sen poked his head out from the ocean's surface at her.
"Yes it is. The system also determined that the training should act as the cover of the initiation ceremony on whether you are deserving to be my Master. Quitting halfway shows that you do not have the determination to wield such magic and not worthy of my presence." Nes commented.
"Huh, I am confused. Did the System not said you are the manifestation of me? Why do I need to go through this at all?"
"User, do you really believe that a majestic bunny girl sprite comes from within you? I thought you liked sarcasm. " The system replied. "And I just follow through with the joke. Hehe! " Nes stick her tongue out.
"Oh my god…." Sen could not believe what he was hearing from the system and Nes.
"Yes, User is right. Nes was a Demigoddess of war magic. The dress that you chose for her was to indicate to her what type of magic you will be awakened to. If you have chosen a purple box, you would have received guidance for Lightning magic."
"There were some complications with her dimensional plane and the system decides to shelter her and a few additional incentives in exchange for her contract to be the Saviour's Magic Mentor and subsequently, to be in Saviour's team. Unfortunately, Nes said that she wished to test your mettle first to see if you are worthy to be her student, hence the training."
"If User had failed her test, the User will still be able to use magic via the System but requires the User to figure how to use the magic all by yourself."
"Then why is she calling me Master? Should I not be the one to call her Master instead?" Sen stood up slowly in front of the kneeling bunny goddess. "Like what the system said, there were some complications.." Nes smiled bitterly.
"User, you do not need to care about this at the moment. The system will reveal the details to you when it is appropriate. For now, please complete the initiation ceremony." The system opened an interface indicated the words needed to be spoken for Sen to commence the ceremony.
Sen followed word by word and Nes had agreed to teach, nurture and protect her new Master.
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"Captain Haben, the scouts reported back and said that the Hongshan Village is now occupied by the 33th Sun Fox Company according to their insignia. It is an estimate but the scouts saw level two fortifications around the village." A communications personnel reported.
"The 33th Sun Fox? That battalion who single handedly repelled five waves of attacks all by themselves before they retreated and not losing a single soldier?" Captain Haben questioned the communications personnel. "Yes Sir, intelligence stated that they were last seen further south and was supposed to reinforced the Bridge of Ebi." The personnel replied back.
"There is something off about their deployment, could the scouts seen it wrongly?"
"I am afraid not Sir." The personnel took a few photographs from the folder he was holding and showed it to the Captain. Haben was not at all happy as he too confirmed the existence of the 33th Sun Fox via the pictures. He massaged his forehead and informed the communications personnel to gather his combat team leaders for a meeting.
All of the leaders assembled into the war office within twenty minutes. The leaders saluted Captain Haben as he came in looking extremely distressed which could be the cause of this urgent meeting. The leaders were slightly worried to see the leader of the Black Jackals, one of more infamous battalions of Black Monarch to have a troubling look. The Captain signalled his leaders to be at ease and started to brief them.
"Gentlemen, sources has stated that Hongshan village is currently occupied by the Sun Foxes." This sentence alone created a lot of chatter within the room with faces of bewilderment. Haben waited a while for the war office to quieten down before he proceeded.
"Central Command too felt this was unusual but ordered us to stick to the timetable. However, they are not sending us to die. The Black Lynx battalion will be deployed with us and we are to coordinate with them to kill the Sun Fox and conquer Hongshan Village."
Central said that it will take approximately two, at most three days for Black Lynx to reach us. We are to proceed with the first wave of attack to probe their defences before attacking them with Black Lynx."
"Jackal Alpha, send your troops forward and scout their defences. Try to give us the details on the number of soldiers, any mobile tanks etc. It could be a feint with the level two fortifications to deter us from attacking or there is someone...something that the Sun Foxes are defending."
"Jackal Beta and Jackal Charlie get your troops ready for combat to depart within the day. The rest are to coordinate with Black Lynx when they arrive. Regardless how big or small the threat is, we will prevail for the Black Emperor." The combat leaders gave a salute and departed quickly from the War Office.
