Chapter 65

I'm posting some chapters ahead of time on my discord server: https://discord.gg/r2VSvS5kaH

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Princess Tessia and her classmates were engaged in combat with Alacryans. This was a battle for life and death, where one mistake could cost the lives of the entire team. Ten people against hundreds of Alacryans. However ridiculous that might sound, the Dicathenians were fighting back pretty well.

This type of resistance was unforeseen by the Alacryans. They were like dog meat sent in just to die. The stamina of Xyrus's students, though, was slowly diminishing, and mana wasn't infinite. It would've run out long ago if not for the certain badges that were given to them. Countless elixirs were also used during this time, to ease the pain or resupply mana cores.

"Tess! Do it again!"

"Alright!" Raising her hand high in the air, the elven princess chanted a spell. This made vines in the earth rise, crack the land apart, and create a jungle-like environment in an instance. The Alacryans were trapped in this place, greatly restrained from moving.

"Alright, Kathyln, it's your time to shine!" Claire shouted at the dark-haired girl, accompanied by a little smirk. Today, many of those Alacryans won't be going home.

Kathyln menacingly exhaled chilly air. With a swift movement of her hand, she swept the wand in the direction of the vines. She was an ice-deviant, and now she was planning to freeze all the vines Tess had just raised. It didn't take much effort from her, just an ounce of mana. Ice-mana like a wave, spread across the area, covering not only the plants but the Alacryan soldiers as well.

The victim of Kath's ice magic wanted to scream, but before he could do so. He froze, not able to even let out a scream of pain. His death was followed by many others. The remaining who survived and were out of the area couldn't simply shrug off the deaths of their comrades. They stared at the group of frozen statues. This wasn't the end.

"Take this, you damn bastards!"

An angry Theo entered the chat. His rage was leaking through magic. Even his classmates could feel it, as Theo's magic responded to its emotions and created a gravitational circle around him that pressured everyone. It was a horrible act for a warrior, but damn, it felt so good doing it to the enemies. He augmented his hand with an enormous amount of gravity magic and dug into the ice construct.

*Crack* *Crack*

Then, followed by the complete obliteration of frozen remains, the dome of ice was splattered flat on the soil, seizing the Alacryan soldiers in an even more jaw-dropping shock. Hell, even the classmates didn't appreciate this. Now, what would Alacryan do? Obviously, try and avenge the fallen comrades, whatever it takes.

Claire wanted to scold the masculine teen right here. However, there was no time for this. Either they had to run or fight. Without a cover, retreating was a bad idea, so Claire glanced at the conjurers in her group. Tessia has just used the massive plant magic, as well as Kathyln, who froze it. The only possible candidate was now Feyrith, but he was too busy shooting approaching Alacryans.

"Feyfey! Use some spells concentrated on a large area, we'll cover you! Guys, protect Feyrith until he charges up the attack!" Claire instructed her teammates, at what, and everyone responded as expected. Feyrith, not arguing, moved back, and his place was taken by Doradrea. They made a diamond formation with Feyrith at the center of it.

Feyrith was now well protected from all sides. The only thing Feyrith had to do was charge up a spell with mana. This was the problem now. From where would he get so much mana? His wand, made by Gideon himself, didn't absorb as much mana as he required it to at the moment.

'Should I try to absorb the mana? But this will take too much time. Dang it, I'll just put in what I have.'

Feyrith willed all his mana at the tip of his wand, but he wanted more. Doubt appeared in his mind. Thinking that this wasn't enough, he wanted to extract more mana. He went as much as to damage his core by doing this.

As the sweat tickled his nose, he thought. 'No...I need more.' He wanted more, but his body said otherwise. It simply refused to inject more mana into this spell. He cursed out loud, "F*ck!" This outburst was accompanied by a grin. With the words 'F*ck this nobility sh*t', the true Feyfey was released.

'I'll get more, whatever it costs.' The cracks spread all over his core. He thought this would be the end of his magical career, or maybe his life. At least he would've saved his comrades bravely.

"Eat this!"

Just like this, all Feyrith did was throw his wand in the direction of his enemies. "Doradrea, create an earth pillar large enough for us to stand." He instructed with a smug smile. Others stared at him like an idiot. Why the hell would he throw his only weapon, how will he continue to fight?

"Doradrea, do it now."

"Huh...Alright." As told, all she had to do was place her hands on the ground, channel her mana, and raise a pillar. All of them were lifted at least 10 meters above the surface, becoming an easy target for casters.

"Maintain your mana, Doradrea. It will be quite shaky."

*Splash*

Somewhere amongst the crowd of Alacryans, thrown by Feyrith's wand, exploded, creating a wave of water. The wave was strong enough to sweep across the battleground in a few seconds, and there was so much water that it reached the Alacryan's necks.

"Couldn't you do this earlier?!" Not out of anger, Curtis shouted at his friend. He was actually happy his friend could do this, but something was weird. Feyrith looked paler than before. Elven skin was paler than that of a normal human, but not to this level.

"Hey, Feyrith..."

There was no response from Curtis. The elf attempted to turn to the human prince, but stumbled forward and almost fell off the earth pillar. "Feyrith!" Theo used his gravity magic to catch Feyrith falling.

"He used too much mana!" Tessia realized the situation quickly. She also sensed Feyrith's mana core and it wasn't in the best shape. There were a lot of cracks, and if we look at his current state. It's most likely not a breakthrough through the stage.

"Kath!" Curtis signaled to his sister. She nodded back, crouched down, and placed her hands over Feyrith's core. If she could transfer her mana to Feyrith as Arthur could, then they might be lucky enough to get out of this place quickly.

"I'll try to contact Grawder." Unfortunately, the prince's bond was far away from this place. He sent the lion to escort injured soldiers back to the base. There was little hope of contacting anyone else. They don't even have communication scrolls.

Feyfey's condition, on the other hand, was stable. It just didn't get worse or better. This was a worrying matter. Kathyln dropped a lot of sweat just by transferring so much mana into Feyrith's core. Then she made a blunder. Instead of a steady wave of mana, she pumped too much. Her face turned to shock, feeling how the elf's core began falling apart...? The outer layer crumbled, and inside of it was a new one! The fresh and brightest level of the yellow core stage.

"Hey! His level is changing rapidly!" Theodore noticed the quick change in numbers on the badge. It was rising. From 45, it was now on the number 53, and it didn't stop there! His pale face was also getting color back. "Wait, not only him!"

Theodore's jealousy showed a sign. After seeing Feyrith's level jump up so high, he wanted to check his, and guess what? It was also increasing. Claire, Kathyln, Curtis, Tessia, Doradrea, Theodore, and Feyrith. All of them have received a big boost in their energy levels. The mana levels increased to their peaks and were completely refilled.

"Haha! What in the world... is with this thing?!" Curtis happily chucked. Whatever it was, he was grateful.

'We need to get out of this place.' With newfound strength, Tessia raised more vines. The wet soil would be a pretty tough place to run on, so with these vines sucking out all the water, it should be better. "Guys, we should get out of this place. Jump down." She commanded. Claire gave a nod to others. Theo picked up an unconscious Feyrith, and all of them were ready now.

"Three, two, one, go!" The team jumped down, on the way grabbing onto the vine to softly slide down. Theo was the first one to land on the ground with Fey on his shoulder. Others followed right after.

"To the east, the colony is closer!"

Also, there was a forest on the way, it would reduce their visibility and slow down the Alacryans. Far away from them, a visible crowd of soldiers was forming. This was a sign to hurry up and move, and so they did. With magic, it was no problem to augment and run at superhuman speeds. They were approaching the forest, they had no intel if this forest was free of the enemies. Nonetheless, Claire grabbed onto the tilt of his sword. Her keen sense was telling her, that there was something wrong with this forest, not in a bad way.

'We can use this...'

The attention of enemy soldiers was on them. They could get into the forest and prepare to strike, taking many Alacryans by surprise. "Guys get in the forest and pick up some good positions for ambush!"

"What?! Claire, that's crazy!"

"It's also crazy that we will go straight into a colony, we'll just reveal our main hideout!" Claire was making sense. So everybody stopped arguing, under the effect of adrenaline and hatred of these enemies... They weren't against lessening their numbers even more.

"Let's just do it guys." Theodore chimed in.

"Fine."

They stepped into the boundaries of a forest and dispersed in quick succession. The only thing awaiting him was blood, a lot of it. In this perfect environment for an elf with plant magic, Tessia was a predator. Even just alone, she can hunt hundreds, if not thousands. Claire and Curtis are fire mages, they can simply put this forest ablaze in case of emergency.

With their will to fight intact, they were prepared to meet and greet their enemies.

.

The Alacryans were cautious when entering the forest. They knew there were few, but also knew how combat-capable those enemies were. The squad of five, which distanced itself from the main group, continued their way into the center. Arrogance was their downfall. Thinking they were the strongest, they led them to the trap.

Something grabbed onto their feet and lifted them upside down, and when they looked up, they saw vines. "Shi-!" Before they could scream for help, the vines wrapped around their mouths. The terrified soldiers were immobilized, they could only move their eyes around to search for someone. In the distance, they were met with a pair of green glowing eyes. It stared at the back. Bloodlust was visible in them. The girl to whose eyes those eyes belonged muttered something, and the soldiers lost the light in their eyes.

There were many other traps planted by Tessia, they were just waiting for their unfortunate victim. 'Just like Art...', silent and deadly, like how he dealt with filthy slave traders and saved her. This time it will be her, saving Dicathen from the invaders. She didn't know it though, because there was an enormous creature in her shadow ready to tear apart enemies instead of her.

With others, the situation wasn't so calm. Feyrith woke up, and he was fighting in tandem with Doradrea. The dwarf's earth magic was giving them an advantage. However, the inexperience caused a few problems. Sometimes their traps weren't effective, and enemies avoided them. This caused the retreat of enemy forces. Now, there's the possibility of them coming with an even bigger force...

The guerilla tactics failed, only Tess was able to keep up with her vine magic. Soon it would be useless. The horde of thousands of Alacryan are encircling the forest instead of going in it, and they are capable of burning it down in minutes.