Academic Test - Part 4

"Do you really think it was more scary than the time we went against an ice dragon by ourselves?" Night was quick to ask as they were leaving the cavern.

Samuel shook his head, "No you are right, that was by far more scary... although I ain't sure wether the dragon or the lich was more scary." He sighed and thought about the time he had been left without magic and seen his friends die.

He shook his head slowly, "Those times were way more terrifying!" As if she knew exactly what he was thinking about Night seemed to hum in agreement.

"Now then! Time to get back to the rest!" Samuel took one deep breath before activating his spells again, wordless incantations. "Wow you are getting really good at that!" Night exclaimed.

She seemed to be pretty impressed and so was Samuel, he was mostly happy with his own progress. All that fighting with Alsian really helped him quickcast spells in his mind without any form of spoken incantation.

"Well!" He scoffed, "We still got a long way to go."

As he took speed in flying back, it took him quite some time however... because if there was one thing he was lacking it was a map in his head, and everything looked quite different when you were flying in the air compared to being on the ground.

After another hour or so he finally found the correct path and started backtracking, he was a bit surprised not to run into anyone during that time. "Hmm thats odd?"

"What is?" Night instantly asked.

"There is no one -" His words were instantly interrupted by several bolts fired at him, "Samuel!" Night's warning reached him first and he just barely managed to form a magic shield.

But because of it's quick form it didn't go solid enough fast, seven or eight bolts were smashed upon it, but another three passed through.

Samuel was hit in the shoulder by one and another got stuck halfway through his hand, the third one only left a scratch on his arm. Samuel reacted by instantly flying straight up to avoid any more bolts.

It had proven to be the correct decision as several more bolts had hit his previous location. As if a sudden loss for words ocurred, both of his spells suddenly failed and he found himself plummeting really fast.

He looked around as best as he could while freefalling and remembered the time they had practiced cancelling spells and countering spells, a smart little maneouver that they had practiced.

Most spellcasters of the second and third circle knew how to disrupt magic. Because it could be deadly for spellcasters. Unfortunately in the short amount of time falling, he was unable to spot anyone.

It had been a proper ambush. Samuel started to worry, but as the ground approached he quickly aimed one arm at the ground, when he was only a few seconds away from smashing upon the ground he let out as much basic wind magic as he could.

Creating a gust that covered much of the entire small clearing he had fallen into. It stopped enough of his momentum for him not to smash down like a pancake, he suddenly felt two big claws turn him the right side up that helped him land on his two feet.

"Thanks Night!" He gasped and quickly looked around, there didn't seem to be anyone in the direct viscinity, but he had already realized that recasting the spells wouldn't have gotten him far, they could have just cancelled his spells again... especially since he didn't know how many spellcasters there were.

"No problem, quickly treat yourself!" Night spoke while looking in every direction.

Samuel turned his pierced hand and yanked out the bolt and took a good look at his hand, he saw that the veins around the wound were purple. "Shit poison!"

He quickly took out the other bolt in his shoulder and took out an antitoxin potion, "Good thing to come prepared huh?" Night chuckled and Samuel found it funny how she could find something to laugh at in this situation.

"Always the good laugh!" Samuel sighed after drinking the potion, he quickly cast the only spells he could in the category of healing, his wounds closed up but much of the damage remained, he had only stopped the bleeding.

He would need a proper healer to tend to his wounds. He quickly pulled out his blade from it's sheath and just about heard the snapping of twigs.

As if the wolf side of him screamed he realized he heard everything, the clicking of a button and the snapping of a crossbow as he turned in it's direction. With his eyes fully prepared the bolt came flying at an extremely slow pace.

Which made it easy for him to deflect with his sword.

Soon enough he heard many boots walking around, snapping twigs all around him, staying just out of sight but close enough to easily fire more bolts at him. Most of the footsteps left the same kind of heavy impact.

Then there were three more unique ones, one that was extremely heavy, one that was light and one that was more regular.

"You might as well come out!" Samuel snarled at the trees, "I already know you are there... all fifteen of you, sixteen." He added the last word quietly and activated his mana eyes.

Unless an opponent was a trained child of mana, they wouldn't even realize he had done something with his eyes. Samuel saw that there were two spellcasters out of the whole bunch.

"Well well well Ozri! Looks like we caught ourselves a noble bigshot among the snotty whelps!" The three unique footsteps all stepped out of the shadows and faced Samuel directly.

All of them were clad in darker robes, except for the one that had heavy footsteps. He was clad in full armor instead of anything else.

"Darkor Cultists..." Samuel whispered to himself and anger took over.

"Haha! Now that is a good look, truly not fitting for a prestigious student is it?" The man in the middle spoke, although his face was covered there was no question. Mana sense was able to distinguish fairly well between a woman and man.

"You can have the honor of letting us kill you! Or you could join our glorious quest of saving this world from the ones in power young man!" The other spellcaster spoke this time and stepped up.

"I couldn't have said it better myself Ozri!" The first one spoke to his compatriot.

"I only have one question!" Samuel suddenly spoke to the two. "Did any of you by chance participate in the destruction of Greenhild village?"

His question made the two look at eachother and then at him, with the feeling that they were smiling their answer drove him over the edge. "What if we did?" The man named Ozri asked.

Ozri then suddenly realized he was on the ground, wondering what he was doing on the ground he suddenly looked up and saw a body standing without a head. "Wha?" He asked before realizing in horror what had happened.

It took a while for the blood to start spurting, Samuel had been fast as lightning with throwing out a wind slash with his sword, none of the mages had any time to react to his move. "Die!" Samuel quietly spoke.

"OX KILL HIM!" The first mage suddenly yelled in panic, he was still trying to understand what had happened. But he realized that the young mage was extremely dangerous pretty fast, he had been doing his job long enough to know which ones to watch out for.

The big black clad armored man didn't hesitate and charged forward with his greatsword and swung it. Samuel simply stood there, shoving his sword into the ground and raised his arms slightly.

"Iron Mountain!" He spoke and infused his body with the most powerful earth infusion he could handle. Infusion magic was tricky, because other mages couldn't really counteract it.

As the sword came flying down, Samuel raised one hand and caught the sword. He struggled slightly under the massive weight and a single drop of blod ran from his hand.

But everyone looked on in utter disbelief at the mage that had just caught a greatsword from such a huge figure. Without hesitation, Samuel infused his other arm with all the lightning he could.

Solidifying his arm with a mana barrier and lightning surrounding it he yelled out in anger.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAH" As his punch broke through the arm like it was butter, it cracked and the shockwave alone instantly killed the man and sent him flying several meters.

He collided with a rockwood tree that completely shattered and the body kept flying for a little longer before tumbling away out of sight.

Samuel instantly pulled out his sword and charged forward not allowing the last mage any chance to do much. The man quickly extended his arm and fired several black orbs with the incantation "Nebula!"

Samuel snapped his free hand and the spell was interrupted and all the black orbs disappeared, the man let out one last gasp before Samuel cut through him diagonally in one swift motion, blood and intestines splattered all over the place but Samuel did not care.

Samuel expected the others to run, but they didn't get the chance. As the air was filled with many screams and Samuel instantly turned around and saw several soldiers and teachers charge into the clearing. Dealing with whatever remained.

The small clearing suddenly became quite silent as the situation was quickly dealt with. Among the men was the Praetorian Captain from previously and two of the teachers at the beginning, all three of them took a few steps closer to Samuel but the teachers could only look between eachother.

The Captain was the one to step up first. "I can see the stories were not exaggerated!" He spoke while looking over Samuels shoulder at the ones he had killed.