37 Serious

Previously, Jay thought this would be a fun battle where he could use all his skills to fight forward to strike at her. One strike of the sword required both the Lord and the head guard to block, and even then they barely managed to stop the sword intent. Neither of them was Tier 1, even if they were close.

The duo worked pretty well together, the guard was extremely strong and seemed to focus on defense overall while the Lord looked as if he was a very strong fighter overall. But when a moment later the girl once more tried to cast a spell Jay suddenly pushed his enemies back, forcing her to stop casting and go backward.

This showed a major weakness of the ancient mages, they had to stand still when casting.

A single scimitar kept flashing forward, blocked by a spear and a sword working together.

This exchange looked like it would continue forever. The road was long and the guards made way. Yet, Jay knew he wouldn't be able to do this for long. When casting the spell earlier he didn't really have sufficient mana so it was compensated for by taking stamina.

Even if some of his mana had returned, his stamina hadn't.

Yet, he was hesitant to use his mana. The people he was facing were the leaders of a prosperous city. And much like himself, they were sure to have some sort of trump card.

There were all sorts of trump cards that existed, Jay for one had a multitude of golems, these weren't items that could be bought easily, and were considered trump cards.

This town seemed very prosperous, their trump card might just be the staff the little girl was holding, or perhaps there was something else. He couldn't help but feel like something was off.

After a minute passed, Jay knew for sure. His intuition told him something was off, but this didn't mean he knew what the correct solution to it would be. And so, he decided to attempt and kill the Lord now, if he managed to kill him in an instant whatever card he had would probably turn useless.

After a particularly powerful slash, Jay backed off a little, breathing heavily. This caused the trio to be somewhat elated. Their weapons were also starting to wear out, even though it was considered top-grade equipment.

The lord of this village was quick on his feet, quietly telling the little girl to cast her spell.

Yet just as the girl as about to oblige she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. The ground to the left of her Lord seemed odd almost as if it was a liquid. Half a second passed but before she could notify her lord a giant spike made out of earth rapidly shot out of the ground.

Jay noticed the girl had seen his spell but she was too la-

Hold up, WHAT!

No time had passed yet the location of the little girl and the enemy Lord had changed. One moment she was standing behind him, yet the next moment they were both to the right of the guard, on the other side of the street the spell was cast!

Time magic!

But the little girl was an ancient mage, even if she had somehow gotten ahold of time magic it wouldn't be instantaneous right?!

Yet here they were. And a moment later the reason got revealed, the orb on top of the girl's staff shattered and the remnants of the mist dissipated in the air.

The enemy lord looked at the spike for a second before responding.

"Thanks, Carmelita, seems like I owe you one. Now let's take out this despicable enemy of ours, using sneak attacks like that!"

Carmelita nodded, completely convinced by her lord's words.

Jay couldn't help but feel slightly wronged amidst all this, since when was using magic like that considered despicable? It was his own fault for not paying enough attention to the terrain around him.

But obviously, this wasn't the biggest thought going through Jay's head. Seeing that the misty orb had shattered he was sure they would no longer be able to use time magic and hence that trump card had been destroyed.

This helped Jay ease his mind. It seemed that his attack was successful in its own way. They probably intended to use that spell in order to kill him, instead, they were forced to waste it in order to save their Lord.

Right now Jay believed he could beat them soon enough. Even if his enemies hadn't lost morale, that didn't change much. He was confident their weapons would break before his stamina would run out.

There were multiple mistakes he believed they might make. It was possible the little girl would run back a bit in order to cast a spell without having to move back. In that case, Jay only had to jump sideways and shoot an icicle at her.

Another mistake that they might make was moving to the offensive. Jay was quicker than them and his attack would surely move faster, killing them.

Whatever way he looked at it, he was in the position to win. And well, this was true, yet it wasn't what happened.

"Argh!"

A spear was thrust from behind him, hitting Jay in his side, just below his armor.

In his fight now there was one thing he hadn't paid attention to. Due to how far he pushed his enemies back they were behind the lines of their guards, making the combined army unable to see them.

Thus, one of the soldiers that saw his Lord was losing decided to take fate into his own hand, striking Jay in a place where he didn't have any armor protecting him.

Just a second after this, he could hear the sounds of battle from behind him.

Moreover, it didn't sound like it came from the combined army fighting the guards, instead, it sounded as if the combined army got attacked in the back, just like what happened to Jay just now.

These couple of events not only shocked Jay but the trio he was fighting as well.