Ally? (1)

[Union's HQ][Iris]

We were currently on the lookout, as yesterday's attack showed that the demons had become more aggressive than before.

Normally they wouldn't send that many demons into one fight but considering that previously we were the ones being aggressive during Amadeus's absence, they probably wanted to retake more ground.

"He is right there again", Leo said while pointing at the cliff.

I grabbed a telescope and was able to see a kid with a fox mask, and a suit, but it was already clear who it was.

Leo then took out his bow and shot an arrow toward the appraiser.

*Swoosh

I watched in anticipation until the arrow was stopped in the middle of the air right as it was about to hit the target.

Then a demon with three horns on its head became visible.

"Amadeus", Leo muttered.

The appraiser then got up and went back into the camp, but I could still see Amadeus staring at us with a huge grin on his face.

Leo and I, both seemed to think that something bad would be happening soon enough, so we decided to tell everyone to get prepared as yesterday the attack happened soon after the appraiser sat down on the cliff.

And our predictions weren't wrong whatsoever, as only 30 minutes later, the ground trembled and a huge undead lord covered in a glacial armor started to run towards us.

Leo looked around and noticed something and said, "They indeed have a summon wizard"

Bres shook his head and started to run towards the giant in glacial armor.

Me, Leo, and Lashar soon followed behind him.

The undead lord then swung his giant ax and Bres blocked it with his magic shields, I tried to chain the summon with my light chains but it was to no avail.

Leo was capable of piercing the ice armor and brought down the undead lord, but we all knew it wasn't going to be so easy.

Not long after Leo screamed at me, and a shield appeared to my right, then a strong wind created by something hitting the shield pushed me back.

Amadeus soon revealed himself and jumped back to where I could see Yuki and Botis standing.

Although normal assassins would sneak around and then fight with fast attacks or things like that, Amadeus wasn't exactly like that, he was someone that would back off after every attack, and that was because he had a low endurance.

During a fight many years ago, Amadeus who was a new duke, tried to continue attacking me after he was blocked only to be almost killed by one of Leo's arrows and a punch from Bres.

Although Bres is known as the shield, he also has an incredible strength that could easily kill an (SS) ranked magician or assassin, and if Amadeus was any unluckier that day, he would have been killed.

That is why Amadeus now uses the strategy of attacking us once and retreating, also Amadeus's invisibility stops working after attacking someone or receiving damage, meaning it is just like a passive invisibility until the action starts.

But due to these types of attacks from Amadeus, Botis is capable of forming a poison bomb that can be launched at us, although it does indeed release poison upon impact, thanks to Bres magic shields, everything relating to the attack is eliminated.

Botis also uses poison screens which are his most powerful attacks but since they could affect him and his allies, he decides against using them other than for retreating and defense.

He can't really cast it that far since it has a small range and he knows that if he were to cast that spell, we would just retreat, making the poison useless.

Yuki's ice magic is also something to look out for during these fights, her ice magic is extremely strong and durable while also being extremely fast due to one of her skills.

Although we do have one more (SS) ranked with us, Lashar is extremely useless and should be counted as an (A) ranked magician.

Normally these fights would be even, but this time the undead lord is causing a lot of trouble together with Yuki's ice armor.

Thankfully, Leo's arrows are strong enough to bring him down, but considering his immortality, it is just a waste of energy and also due to Yuki's magic walls, I never have the chance to use my light chains.

It was then that something in the sky caught my attention, a large fireball was headed toward Yuki and Botis, they were able to dodge it, but it gave Leo enough time to shoot an arrow that hit Botis in the shoulder.

Unfortunately, Amadeus using this time window was able to sneak up to Lashar and stab him in the stomach with his large claws, Leo was quick to notice and shot an arrow at Amadeus, who instantly backed out after the attack.

*Thud

Lashar fell to the ground and Leo instantly called for backup from the HQ.

They seemed to want to retreat because of Botis's injury, but even then, the undead lord didn't stop advancing forward, Yuki stayed giving him protection while Bres and I were stopping his advances.

I could see that Botis was trying to call someone using a communication device, but it seemed like it wasn't working as the undead lord didn't stop attacking us.

Soon a warrior from our side arrived and was able to pick up Lashar and retreat.

Even though Lashar is in critical condition while Botis only has an injury on his shoulder, they didn't seem to think of Lashar as much as they decided that they were now at a disadvantage.

We continued to battle against the undead while Yuki, was trying her best to not let the undead lord be captured by my light chain.

It was only after around 30 minutes that the undead finally stopped charging forward and finally started to back off.

We all let out a sigh of relief and were finally able to back off, and it wasn't long until every squadron soon stopped attacking each other and returned to their respective sides.

I arrived back at HQ and was informed that Lashar was in critical condition, so he wouldn't be able to battle for a while.

Then I received a notice on my communication device that said, [Meeting At HQ]. Similar to humans, we the Union, also used watches as our communication devices as it was better than something that would just fall off our pockets like a phone.

I went to the meeting tent and was able to see the tense atmosphere surrounding everyone in the room, even the human was unsure of the situation.

I sat on my usual spot and the chairman soon began to speak.

"Although today's battle wasn't exactly the best, it also wasn't the worst, even though one of our commanders is currently in a bad state, we are lucky that it was Lashar and not someone else"

Bres, who just heard words insulting his comrade stood up and glared at the chairman, but before he could say anything, Leo told him to calm down.

"Calm down? One of our friends almost got killed and he dares to trample on his honor!", Bres said in an outraged voice.

Leo then said, "Although I agree, that the chairman said it in a bad way, I believe you also agree that if that was Iris instead of Lashar getting stabbed, then it would have also ended way worse than just that"

Bres was angry but also understood that we could have probably been wiped out if I or Leo were the ones getting eliminated from the fight.

The chairman apologized for his rude words and then asked for a report of the situation.

We explained that the demons were now using the undead lord as a sort of tank to advance while protecting it with ice magic to stop me from using light chains of it.

Then Leo mentioned the fireball that landed on Yuki and Botis that allowed for Leo to hit Botis on the shoulder.

The chairman then said, "Lashar must have done a good job launching that fireball at them, although it didn't end in the best way possible"

Hearing praises for his allies, Bres nodded his head in agreement until Lucia the human spoke.

"That wasn't a fireball created by Lashar or anything"

"Huh?", Said Bres in an angry tone.

"The fireball was released by the wizard from the Lich"

Hearing this, everyone in the room was in confusion, normally Leo would be able to easily know about these things but he was too focused on shooting Botis that he didn't notice, it was also because of that, that he didn't spot Amadeus approaching our side.

The human then continued to speak, "The undead wizard was throwing fireballs everywhere or that would be what most people would think, but in fact, he was launching fireballs at large groups of demons"

"Huh?"

"He was still launching fireballs at the Union but those weren't thrown at large groups and they were also easily blocked by our mages, but since he was behind the demons, they didn't notice that he was in fact attacking them as well"

"So you are saying that the wizard was attacking his own allies?", I asked in confusion.

"Yes, that is correct", She said and Leo soon stated, "The attack on Yuki and Botis also seemed almost planned, as the wizard only attacked after both of them had used a spell, forcing them to dodge it"

The room was silent for a while until the chairman said something that caused everyone to look at him strangely.