Chapter 72 - Those Who Fight Further

"Spears towards the front! The magician doesn't seem able to hit anything far away. Those with shields, defend the spearmen from that pesky wolf." Luna managed to cut down one of his men so the enemy leader was pissed off by her actions. Gren's use of magic only temporarily prevented them from moving so they weren't as angry towards him. One might argue that it's hypocritical to be angry at people for defending themselves but they had gotten used to people just giving in to their demands.

A dozen pointed blades were aimed towards Gren and Luna now--their fighting spirit renewed by the prospects of getting another healer for their side. Once they had him safely hidden away there were many ways that they could get him to do their bidding. The circle kept getting tighter and the spears were almost at striking distance now.

All around Gren and Luna, statues came crashing down from above--crushing many of the spears. The statues disappeared and revealed the men surrounding them, completely dumbfounded by the current events. "Now!" With Gren's signal, Luna launched towards the closest enemy; her claws tearing through his throat as she moved onwards towards the next target. Gren followed as close behind her as he could and used his shovel to strike towards someone approaching Luna from her blind spot.

Gren's shovel glanced off of the man's shield but the AI deployed another statue above him, crushing the man along with his shield. With Luna's claws and the AI's assistance they were able to escape from the encirclement. Gren didn't notice when Luna took a slash from someone's dagger to her side. He was surprised to see that she was bleeding before he moved closer to heal her. Gren hopped on Luna's back and gripped on to her fur in preparation for her to start running as he heard the AI say something.

Coins? Gren watched in horror as dozens of gold coins were shot into the air like confetti, raining down on his enemies. Most of the enemies were distracted since they rarely got to see a gold coin--allowing Luna to gain some distance from the front of the pack. A few of the enemy beastmen were able to catch up but Gren used his magic to form icicles and launched them back, causing them severe injuries to the group and even taking the life of one unlucky man. Luna had pulled away from whatever was interfering with his spell-casting and he was able to completely block their path at the end of the street.

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"I think we've lost them." Gren hopped off of Luna's back while she took a break to catch her breath. She had been running for a while now with no signs that anybody was still following behind them. "We should probably hide just to be safe. Get into the alley. I can use the snow to hide our presence."

Gren had been making sure to cover their tracks using his magic but if they were seen in the streets then it was all over. Gren was beginning to feel the effects of magic fatigue. If he continued to use magic like he had been then he'd definitely pass out from magic deficiency. Gren built another igloo around the two of them and covered it with snow, making sure to leave a small hole just for air.

After a few minutes inside the igloo there was a group of people running down the road. From what they were saying they seemed to be the pursuers still trying to find the two of them. Gren didn't want to risk being seen so he decided to stay in place for the night. "It'll be safer to move in the morning. Let's get some rest."

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"We had one opportunity to catch that magician before everybody else knew about them and you blithering idiots let them get away." In front of the well-dressed man that targeted Gren earlier was his boss, a rough-looking man with sharp eyes. The sun was already up and both of them looked tired. "Several of our men are dead and we've got nothing to show for it. Now I've got to answer to the big man about why we didn't inform him before we made our move. We've lost too much money on this side mission. How are you going to fix this problem?"

"I'll get my eyes and ears on the street to find out where they came from. See why they were in the slums." He figured that if he could find out the person's identity then they would be able to get a second chance at capturing them. A magician that can use multiple magic types seemingly endlessly like that is a one of a kind and any losses would be worth it if they could capture them. "We already know that he was seen with a centaur earlier in the day. We can follow that lead."

"That's not the problem I'm talking about. I need you to tell me what you plan on sacrificing to appease the higher-ups." The so-called big man had already passed on the order that the magician was off-limits. There was nothing that the sharp-eyed boss could do about it if he wanted his group to survive. "It was you jumping the gun that caused them to escape. There were only three of them and you couldn't even manage to capture one. Even if you're not prepared to lose your life you should at least expect to lose a pound of flesh."

"How is taking my life going to fix the situation?"

"It's called hyperbole. If killing you solved everything then we wouldn't be having this conversation. Let me rephrase my earlier question. What should we take from you to show how sincere you are towards the council?" The only thing those old bags cared about was profit and deaths meant payouts to their families. Thankfully the person that made the mistake came from a somewhat well-off family or else he'd have to dip in to his own private funds to cover the costs.

Just when the well-dressed man wanted to defend himself, someone started knocking heavily on the door. "Come in." A short woman entered the room. "This had better be important for you to be interrupting my business."

She gave a small bow before stating her reason for disturbing him. "The warehouse was set on fire earlier today. We've already managed to put out the fires but we don't know what group the attacker belonged to."

"Attacker? It was only one person? Do we at least know what their motive was? Just how bad were the damages?" The day just kept getting worse for the boss--he was starting to think about a change in careers. The warehouse carried more than just his own goods and he couldn't afford to replace everything in it.

"There wasn't much damage to the goods. Some cheap wooden sculptures and clothes were damaged but that's it. The building itself will be fine after replacing some of the walls; there was no major structural damage." The business was more important than the attacker so she led with that information first.

"As for the attacker, we've got mixed reports. Some of the men claimed that it was a red demon that could breathe fire while some others described it as a metal monster that shot flames from its eyes. We're not sure who or what it was. The only thing we know for certain is that it said that it would be back if we didn't return something to it."

"I wonder if Gitiani is nice this time of year. It's cold outside so I'll need to pack warmer clothes."

"Boss, please wake up and face reality. If you go on vacation now then there won't be a guild when you come back."

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