Skirmish

As the shadow elemental particles vanished, the body of an old shadow elemental path acolyte revealed itself. The insignia and his dark blue cape revealed his affiliation with the blue wolf mercenaries.

The old man could not believe his eyes, and tried to mutter: "How...", but the faint sounds were only audible to Lewis and Orianna, who possessed incredible hearing.

Lewis cursed inwardly. He had fired five blood arrows, and one blood harvesting spell. Each one of these spells took about a twelfth of his arcane pool. With 6.1 points of spirit, he could actually theorically cast twelve such spells, each of them costing roughly 0.5 point of arcane unit. Of course, this did not take into account one's mental fatigue. Casting several spells on a row was very taxing on the mind, not to mention casting until mental exhaustion.

Thus, Lewis only had half of his mana reserves left, and Jorg's right arm was incapacitated. Even if he was a tough individual, the poor lizardman had endured the continuous blow of a steel scorpion by himself for several minutes. Jack was on his guard, trying to find any enemy in the surroundings, but this was in vain.

Orianna squinted as well. In the past three weeks, they had only met with blue wolf mercenaries once from afar. However, Raon's golem was too intimidating, causing the small party of three acolytes to run away. With the golem's ridiculously low speed, they could not close the distance and engage in combat.

The Blue wolf mercenary group was a small-sized faction, with roughly 80 members. However, they were not as united as the crimson clan, and only half of them were involved in the war, the rest of them either away from the Magical court or unwilling to engage in a faction war.

In the Crimson clan, however, forty out of fifty members had already joined the battle. 

Both factions had already had some casualties, but Lewis knew that this bloody war had just begun. His perspicacious eyes and hunch allowed him to react promptly, and take down a scout. Having knowledge about the blue wolf mercenary group's usual party composition, he frowned.

He quickly explained the situation to others: "Listen...Blue wolf mercenaries usually travel in groups of three, or small cohort of six people. Although their composition varies greatly, there are always at least two body refinement acolytes, a nature path healing acolyte as well as a scout. The old man was most likely a scout, meaning that there are probably five acolytes nearby. We have to make a choice: either run away, which should not be too difficult, or fight"

Jack seemed reluctant: "If we run away, this means that Raon must discard his golem, meaning that we won't be able to fill our quota today and more importantly, abandon the steel scorpion body..."

Orianna nodded, seemingly unwilling to run away too, as if the blood essence she had just consumed had earned her some confidence. Plus, the body of a steel scorpion was beyond valuable, as it could fetch for at least twelve magic crystals. It was worth roughly two weeks of hard work.

Jorg pondered for a while and opposed the decision to fight. With his experience, he was unwilling to engage in a battle while injured, having seen countless acolytes die out of greed. 

Seeing Jorg shake his head, and the cowardly acolyte raon shaking his too, the choice was his to make. 

Lewis spoke: "I, too, oppose-"

However, before he could finish his sentence, an icicle condensed from afar and travelled dozens of meters before hitting Jack's chest. Unknowingly, he had drawn his sword to deflect the incoming projectile, but it was not aimed at him. It was aimed at Jack.

The fit imperial knight shook for a couple of second, shock evident on his face, before falling on the ground with a loud *THUMP* noise.

The man who looked promising enough in both Lewis and Janna's eyes, died on the spot. Lewis had seen plenty of individuals, and Jack was among those with the best aptitude for body refinement. He was hard working and more improtantly, had a growth mindset. In ten years, he might have become an advanced rank acolyte. If he had not become an imperial knight and served in the imperial army, instead coming to the Magical Court right away, he might have been an elite beginner rank acolyte already.

What a pity.

Orianna trembled slightly, but she quickly regained her spirit, hiding behind Jorg who had immediately raised his shield in the direction of the icicle. Roan did the same, while Lewis was looking at his surroundings, calmly. Despite his years of experience, he had not expected such a fast and precise attack in these tunnels, especially with no vision at all, so far away from their scout. 

Usually, a scout was meant to scout, and report for information. Yet...It seemed like he had been sacrificed like a pawn, as a mean to lower their guards. Or perhaps...His goal all along was not to scout, but to kill one of them? Did that mean that he had failed to sense his presence. 

Lewis shuddered at the thought of potential enemies attacking them while they had been fighting the steel scorpion...If it happened, even he would have been in danger.

The strength, stealth and precision of the spell made it clear that their opponent was no mere apprentice. It was the skills of an elite beginner rank acolyte...

Orianna started to frown, recognizing their opponent. As someone who had spent the last decade in the Magical Court, she had a good grasp of excellent individuals. Although she seemed rash and hot-blooded in combat, she was actually very diligent in her studies, probably to cover for her low self-esteem and lack blood purity, which was synonymous with her potential. She naturally knew who was part of the Blue Wolf Mercenaries, and who were exceptional among them.

In the crimson clan, there were lonly eight elite beginner rank acolytes, two of them being Lewis and Jorg. The Blue Wolf Mercenaries had twelve of them. In other words, even though the Blue Wolf Mercenaries possessed nearly twice more members, the quality of their members was slightly inferior.

"It is...the Ice Countess Sheila", Orianna warned.