Revered Magus Chapter 9 – Cat and mouse

Rio then returned to studying the spell book and testing it within their break before exiting the Count's territory Since there weren't many bandits near the Count's territory, however, it seems that after exiting the count's territory the guards have increased their senses and risen their guards up. So, Rio decided to stop practicing, it would be good If he had been killed due to his being tired of constant training in magic.

'So far it's been a smooth journ-' before Rio could even finish my thought the horses started to nay from fear and increased in speed. Whilst Rio's carriage was at this point whole like my own personal roller-coaster, Rio didn't enjoy it so he poked his head out of the carriage to see what the problem was. Rio saw 8 people with horses behind the carriage. As usual, the formation was still kept with each guard at each corner but now at sprinting speed.

'Damn it was going so smoothly just another couple of hours and we could've reached the magus academy with no trouble' Rio thought whilst analyzing our 6 pursuers four of them seems to be peak Martial Artist Rank whilst 2 were 1st Rank shicidan Martial Artists. 'Now this is a problem, I could probably take on one Sheridan with difficulty due to my inexperience and body size however there are 2, which I definitely cannot take on.'

The chase lasted for a couple of minutes before the carriage hit the side of the tree and flipped over, at that point Rio jumped out of the carriage, landing safely on the ground.

The bodyguards also stopped and got ready to fight. Rio knew he had to get away somehow, though it was tempting to see how much EXP the six of them would give him, he needed to prioritize his life over temporary benefits. The Bandits and Guards clashed and he immediately fled with his wind chaser martial art skill. The bodyguards and four of the bandits didn't notice however the two shicidan martial artists did as they pursued Rio on their horses.

Luckily before setting out on this trip, Rio went to the black merchant and got everything needed for survival, Rio brought out the short sword from the ring on his right middle finger (Father's ring) and brought out a short sword whilst coating it with some poison from his left middle finger (spatial ring bought from Dolph). Though he possibly couldn't kill them directly he can slowly weaken them and finish them with a wind slice.

Since he is a kid and they probably wouldn't expect a kid to know magic he could use it as a surprise attack but he only had one chance at the surprise attack otherwise they would both be on guard which would put me in a difficult situation.

Rio started sprinting in between trees, trying to widen the distance between them by letting the trees obstruct the horses, which worked and one got off horseback and started chasing me with his speed base martial arts, however, it seemed his partner didn't have a speed based martial art and much slower than his partner.

'I could use this if I speed up and cause the bandits to separate and can try to kill the bandit before his partner could try and catch up.' Rio thought while using wind chaser and shadow shift to put as much gap as possible. When he got exhausted, he would use the energy restorative pill.

After about 5 minutes of playing cat and mouse, Rio decided we were probably far enough from his partner, so he abruptly stopped and turned around to face his opponent. "It seems you're out of energy, using your skills like that would be very taxing little kid, it seems you have some skills but no experience Hehe," he said wryly.

Rio dashed towards him as fast as he could using shadow shift and swung his sword towards his neck, their swords clashed against each other, and he was surprised that a little kid like Rio had such strength. However, he didn't let that distract him as he was defending whilst counter-attacking against him. He knew Rio didn't have a sword martial arts skill.

After about 50 rounds of clashing, Rio pretended to feel tired and let him knock the sword out of his hands, but secretly he swallowed the energy restorative pill he kept under his tongue.

He saw an opening and rushed towards Rio with no hesitation, as he swung his sword intending to decapitate him.

'pshh'

Blood spraying everywhere with the sound of a 'thud' resounding in the surrounding atmosphere. A head dropped on the floor with the remaining expression of joy, naturally, it was the bandit's head. Since he saw Rio with no weapon, he dropped all defense and attacked Rio with the widest swing to the neck, Rio cast a wind slice as quickly as he could, there was a second delay due to casting, however the wind slice shot towards his neck and the rest was history.

[Ding! Host killed a 1st rank Shicidan Martial Artist and obtained 3000 EXP]

But before Rio could bath in victory, he realized he also suffered some injury due to the delay however, Rio still kept in mind his partner was still trying to catch up and he could be here any minute, so Rio devised a plan to take him to since he was slower, he was probably defense and strength-based.

If Rio could catch him off-guard use a wind slice to catch him off-guard, that would be quick and easy but nothing ever goes to plan so he intended to have a backup plan and attack the same specific area the wind slice would attack and follow through with the poison on his short sword. Rio ran in the direction the remaining bandit could be when he thought he was in a good position and lay in wait for him.

A minute passed until Rio started hearing the galloping of the horse, he got ready for when he passed, and as he was passed through, Rio air sliced him targeting the back of his neck while a shadow shifted near his neck to have a follow-through, but before Rio could even follow through the wind slice already decapitated him.

-.-

'Was it that easy? Was he not defense-based? Then why was he so slow.' RIO discarded the thoughts when he finally heard the system notification.

[Ding! Host killed a 1st Rank Shicidan Martial Artist and obtained 3000 EXP]

He could finally breathe a sigh of relief before the bandit's spatial ring caught Rio's eyes