Fiendish Surprise

Kies looked up just in time to see something flying at him. He instinctively ducked and heard a small explosion go off behind followed by the sound of wood splintering.

"Ack!" A piece of wood blew off the stand and hit Kies on his back and knocked him onto the ground. Without thinking, Kies immediately rolled to his side. Not a moment later, he heard a small crackle strike the ground where he just was a split second ago.

Kies pushed himself off the ground and quickly raised his hands and created a barrier of wind facing towards where he believed the attacks were coming from.

"Something that thin and weak won't be of any use," the voice told Kies.

A bolt of magic hit Kies's barrier and exploded, shattering it and sending him flying back into the wall. Kies groaned as his body collided with the brick and fell on his stomach. Ignoring the pain, Kies launched himself to the side and watched as another bolt of magic exploded in front of him. Whoever was attacking him was giving him no time to catch his breath.

Kies managed to roll onto his feet and blindly shot a blast of wind magic in the general direction of his assailant. He couldn't look and see if the magic had hit or not since there were probably more attacks already coming his way.

Kies knew that he stood no chance against the mage that was attacking him. His wind magic was far weaker than whatever magic they were using. He needed to escape. As he ran, he searched around for the alleyway that he had come from. He found it but saw that it got blocked off by some rubble from the previous explosion. He could clear it away but it would take some time to do so and Kies was pretty sure that his attacker wouldn't give him the chance to do that.

Kies hastily scanned the plaza and found an escape route, but it was a risky one. He would have to run from where he was across half of the plaza in order to make it to the street that leads downtown. It looks like there was no other choice and so he decided to go for it. Speed was what wind magic users specialized in so hopefully he would be able to outrun the enemy's attacks.

Kies didn't hesitate and made a break for it. He heard small explosions go off behind him as he ran but didn't stop.

"Oh, you're quite fast. But, will that really be enough to save you?" the voice taunted.

Kies glanced at where the voice had come from and saw the enemy for the first time. Kies's eyes widened as he saw that it was a demon that was attacking him, and he wasn't alone. There was a hooded person behind him spectating. Kies couldn't identify them since they were hiding their face but it was probably another demon.

'I can't be distracted.' Kies shook his head and then kept his eyes on the demon that was firing spells at him. He followed the bolts with his eyes and zig-zagged around to dodge the ones that were fired in front of him.

Strangely enough, even though Kies was dodging all of the attacks, the demon didn't look angry or at the very least concerned. Instead, he stood there with the same smile on his face.

Kies didn't know what was going on in the demon's mind. He was almost at the exit but the demon didn't seem to care. Kies had a bad feeling about it.

Suddenly, the ground in front of Kies exploded and knocked him back. He landed on the ground a few feet away from the exit.

"Surprise, surprise!" the demon shouted cheerfully. I had those magic mines prepared for the knights when they came but it looks like you triggered the trap before they could."

Kies slowly raised his head. His ears were ringing and his vision was blurry. He hadn't heard everything the demon said and only heard the words magic mines and trap. All he knew was that he had fallen for some sort of trap.

"Stop playing around, we have work to do," the hooded demon told the other demon in a feminine voice. They sounded rather irritated.

"Okay, okay, fine," the first demon responded. He waved his hands in the air and magic circles appeared around him. "You were quite good for a human if I say so myself. It's a shame-"

"Shut your mouth and do it already!" the female demon shouted at the male demon to finish Kies off.

"Okay, I got it! Sheesh, if only you didn't take everything so seriously." The demon snapped his fingers and the magic circles began to glow. "Sorry, but this is goodbye."

***

On the way back to the mansion, Nina noticed that there were almost no people on the streets anymore. The only ones left were slaves and even they were in the midst of packing things up or leaving.

The knight turned around and saw her expression as she was watching the slaves and told her, "I don't like the idea of having slaves either, especially when we were once allies."

"If only the nobles would stop being so selfish..." Nina said. She disliked the nobles, despite being one herself. She wished that they would care more for the kingdom rather than choosing their own interests.

"Hey. not all of them are bad. But it's because most of them are that things are like this." Nina kept silent. She knew that there were nobles trying to do something about it. In fact, her dad was one of them, but since there were so many of them, they couldn't really change anything.

"We're very close to your mansion now, we can see part of it from here," the knight pointed out.

"Actually, can you drop me off by at the fountain instead?" Nina asked. There was a very high chance that Kies was waiting at the fountain for her as she had told him. She didn't want to keep him waiting there any longer in case he was.

"May I ask for the reason?"

"Someone is waiting there for me."

"I see." The knight continued heading towards the mansion and told her, "The knights that were here early evacuated everything so your friend is likely at home right now."

"Oh, I see. But just in case, can we visit the fountain?"

The knight reassured Nina that her friend was safe and once again told her that her friend was probably at home and that she didn't need to worry about them. "You can find them tomorrow once everything settles down."

Nina sighed. It looked like the knight had no intention of going to the fountain. She really hoped that what the knight said was true and that Kies was at home waiting for her.

They arrived at the mansion within a few minutes and the knight helped Nina off the horse. The knight whistled and said, "That is one magnificent looking mansion. Well, I'll be off now. Take care, little Miss." With that, the knight rode off, leaving Nina at the front gates of the mansion.

Nina wasted no time and immediately headed to the back of the mansion. It was the first place she would check when she was trying to find Kies since he spent most of his time back there training. Nina found that it was empty except for the field of silver flowers that had started to bloom. The sun was setting and the flowers gave off a soft glow. It would be even more beautiful once the sun had set completely.

But there was no time to admire the flowers. Nina hurried back to where she came from and quickly opened the door to the mansion, startling a maid.

"Aaaaah!" The maid jumped in surprise and then realized who it was. "Wait, Miss Nina?"

"Did Kies come back?" Nina asked, hoping for the answer to be yes.

"Um, I don't believe I saw him but I was in the kitchen the entire time so he might have come back."

Nina thanked the maid and then hurried upstairs. She wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and she tumbled over a bag as she walked by her room while trying to reach Kies' which was at the end of the hallway.

"Oof!" Nina fell on the floor and turned over to see what she had tripped over. It was the bag with the dress and jewelry. She had knocked over it and the contents inside had spilled out across the floor.

Nina felt a small sense of relief wash over her seeing the bag. If it was here then it meant that Kies might be in his room. Having calmed down a little, Nina walked towards Kies's room. On the way, she noticed the bird necklace that she had brought on the floor. She had wanted to give it Kies as a present.

Kies had always looked after her. When she was younger, she was always getting into trouble and Kies was always there to get her out of it. She had been wanting to get something for Kies for a while now to show her gratitude. She picked up the necklace and continued towards Kies's room. She was ready to surprise him with it.

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