Chapter 6: Spell Scroll

On this day, Lance was sitting on a stone beside a huge river. The river was famous in the whole kingdom. It was called Coiling Dragon River because if you looked from above, it looked like a huge dragon. The river ran through the whole kingdom.

The caravan had stopped here because the Young Lady wanted to see the Ting waterfalls. The Lady and her personal guards had gone downstream some time ago on the horses because it was too rocky for the carriage. He was left with a few guards to look after the caravan.

After a few days of travelling with them, he learned that the carriage contained tribute for the Immortals from the Meng family.

Soon, the small group came back and started packing up to continue their journey. But suddenly a whistling sound came from the forest and something struck the guard beside Lance in the throat.

"Urgg…." The man gurgled and breathed out his last. Lance was shellshocked after seeing the arrow lodged in his throat.

"Enemy attack", screamed someone. But Lance could only here it in the background as he stared at the now dead man.

But the sounds of fighting soon awoke him from his stupor. He looked around and saw masked men fighting the outnumbered guards. The clangs of weapons echoed and dying screams rang out as one by one the guards died. But soon something heavy permeated the air as Lance felt his body slowing down. Even the fighting reduced in intensity.

"How dare you attack a disciple of the Heng Yu Sect.", the pressure seemed to emanate from the captain who was walking towards the masked men with a broadsword in his hands.

Then suddenly he blurred forward, Lance could only see a dark shadow leaving behind corpses which were missing their heads or cut in half. The smell of blood intensified.

"Immortal! Run he is an Immortal…", the man had his head chopped off just as he was about to turn around.

"Captain Chong is an Immortal"

The guards morale surged high as they counterattacked. But soon a similar pressure came from one of the masked men.

"Haha Chong Yun, I expected a cultivator to be sent as a guard but not you! All the better, today you will too will die with that Meng family girl." A shrill laughter rang out as the man stepped forward and blocked the rampaging captain.

"Di Sheng! Is your Crumbling Mountain Sect declaring war on my Heng Yu sect? Kill me? If you think you can kill me with your meager cultivation, then you have lost your mind!" The captain exchanged blows with the masked man.

The masked men's morale surged high too as they stopped retreating. A burly man attacked Lance after he pierced his sword through a guard's chest.

Lance hastily jumped back to avoid the man's slash, but stumbled on a rock and landed on his back. The man raised his sword high then brought in down on Lance.

Lance tried to roll aside but the sword still nicked his arm. A burning pain spread from his arm as he started bleeding. Lance looked down only to see a white bone peeking through the pink flesh. He screamed as his brain finally registered the pain after seeing a piece of his flesh on the ground.

He somehow tried to stumble to his feet but his arm gave out. Then the man kicked him in the chest with a crunch and sent him flying. He landed near another pair of men fighting but they didn't pay him any attention. Another guard had occupied the attention of Lance's opponent.

He slowly tried to crawl away from the fight. But his body didn't comply. His eyes watered as he arms burned and chest ached. The blood loss was making his head dizzy. But he could still hear the sounds of fighting.

Another masked man seemed to have joined the fight between the Immortals. After joining forces, they were suppressing the captain.

"Protect the Young Lady at all costs!" The captain was blocking the Immortals from reaching the carriage. The guards were slowly retreating while keeping the carriage safe.

But then, "Use the scroll!", shouted one the men who was fighting the captain. The other man immediately took out a rolled piece of paper and opened it.

"A spell scroll! No, stop him!" A frenzied shout rang out as the captain disregarded everything else and attacked the man holding the scroll.

A ripple seemed to slowly spread from the scroll towards the carriage. Then a blast so powerful, Lance's eardrums shattered, sent them all flying. The fire burned everything within its reach. Lance immediately blanked out as his body was tossed away like a rag doll.

Fortunately, he was at the edge of the blast radius or he too would have been vaporized like the men at the centre. His body landed in the river with a slash and surfaced soon after. The river swept him away towards the Ting waterfall.

He soon reached the edge of the waterfall. The water tossed him over as he started to freefall. His eyes slowly opened due as he spun in the air and he squinted at the small pond which seemed to be coming towards him at the speed of a shooting star.

Just as he was about to get splattered a hand waved and his speed immediately slowed down. He again blanked out due to the sudden change, but before blanking out he vaguely saw a humanoid figure catching him.

- - - - - - - -

Lance's eyes twitched due to the bright light on his face. His eyelids felt heavy, but he still forced them open slowly. He squinted to eyes and raised his hand to block the light. Then his memories came back as he panicked again.

"You're safe now." A soothing voice rang out. He looked at his arm, but the injury has disappeared. Pink skin shone under the light where his injury had been. Even his felt was fine, the ache seemed to have disappeared. He then noticed a figure beside him. A beautiful female was sitting on a dark wooden chair as she smiled at him.

"Wh-who are you and where am I?" His voice was hoarse as if he hadn't spoken for a few days.

"My name is Anushka and you're in my house, now rest, you need it." She placed her hand on his head and he blanked out for the third time that week.