An Owl's Rise

While Evelyn was busy slaughtering his followers, Morten made his move.

He had sent his second in command to deal with the young woman that had brazenly charged into the fray and was certain that his best man would succeed. After all, his strongest adjutant was at the high tier of the mage rank and was capable of using the very rare shadow magic. No normal low tier mage would stand a chance against him.

"All of you, carve a path for me to the carriages. I'll take care of my niece personally." Morten said, giving a command to the strike squad that would be going with him.

He had fifteen of his personal soldiers by his side to assault the camp while his other men attacked at range and spread out the guards' formation. If everything went to plan, he would quickly break through and eliminate the last obstacle that could prevent him from becoming the next head of the Taidale Family.

Unfortunately, he had no idea that several fearsome beasts disguised as humans were going to block his way.

…

"We've got fifteen of the assassins on the move. They're closing in fast. It will only be about half a minute until them upon us." Rehni said, relaying the information she was gathering with magic to Lucia, Bylur, and Aralee.

Now that Evelyn had gone off to fight the group of assailants, detection was being left up to Rehni. With her sound magic she was able to mimic echolocation and scout large areas with high precision.

"Got it. That is probably the bulk of their force. Tell Aralee to stay in the air and support us while keeping an eye out for any enemies that try to sneak in from above. The three of us will intercept the ones charging this way. With Evelyn cutting them down quickly, I'm sure that the Taidale Family's guards will be able to handle the ranged attacks on their own."

After receiving Lucia's orders, Bylur and Rehni took off with her and moved towards where the large group of attackers were coming from.

The area had previously been the least protected since it was where the fewest ranged attacks were directed, but now it was obvious why that was.

When the fifteen attackers emerged from the shadows of the surrounding trees, a few of them showed signs of visible surprise to find Lucia, Bylur, and Aralee waiting for them.

Nevertheless, they were professionals and adapted swiftly. Their group outnumbered their opponents five to one and figured that it would be easy to push through and allow their leader to reach the carriages where their target was hiding.

Splitting up into three teams of five, the assassins moved to eliminate the obstacles in their way quickly.

Yet, despite having the numbers advantage, they found it impossible for any of their attacks to reach. Even though Lucia, Bylur, and Rehni were holding back immensely by only casting spells by creating formation using certain hand movements as most humans did, the three of them still possessed the physical prowess of tyrant rank beasts.

It would be impossible for any of them to be challenged by a mere five low tier and mid-tier mage rank humans.

"Spike Field."

"Frost Cloak."

"Luminescent Sword."

At the same moment Lucia, Bylur, and Rehni finished constructing their spells and launched a fierce counterattack.

Large spears of steel sprouted out of the ground around the five individuals attacking Rehni and skewered two of them to death, while gouging deep wounds into the other three as they hastily avoided fatal blows.

For those fighting against Bylur, the temperature around them suddenly plummeted and the moisture in the air around them froze to their bodies. In only a couple of seconds three of them had become ice statues while the other two used their fire magic to stave off freezing and attempted to escape the area of effect of Bylur's magic.

As for Lucia, she created a blinding blade made of pure light and rapidly slashed those attacking her to ribbons. Not a single one of the five were able to react to her speed and found themselves dead before truly understanding what had happened.

However, it was in this moment that Morten made his move.

Large gelatinous blobs flew towards the three disguised beasts the instant they had attacked, and their guards were down.

At the same time, Morten rushed past, engulfed in a sphere of viscous liquid that spun around like a wheel and accelerated him forward.

Bylur and Rehni were unable to do anything to impede him as they were busy dealing with his attack that was a real threat to them. Unlike all of the soldiers under his command, Morten had reached the arcanist rank and his magic was far more potent.

Lucia though, reacted immediately and disappeared into a flash of light. Morten's attack may have come at her when she was least guarded, but it did not matter since she was more than fast enough to dodge it and give chase towards the man aiming for the young mistress of the Taidale Family.

When she caught up to Morten, Lucia slashed with the Luminescent Sword still in her hands.

With almost no resistance she carved through the protective liquid covering her target.

Except before Lucia's blade could reach, a small pendant Morten was wearing broke off from the chain holding it and expanded into a giant shield.

A resounding sound of metal impacting metal echoed across the area and Lucia's magic shattered in her hands.

Still, the attack had not been totally ineffective. The force behind it pushed Morten off course and launched him and his magic shield away from the carriages.

"Gah!"

Grunting in surprise and pain, Lucia looked down at her arm and found her sleeves and the skin covering her arms sizzling. The liquid that Morten was controlling was not water but some type of acid.

Manipulating her magical energy, Lucia pushed the remaining acid off of her body.

She then pulled out a healing potion and poured half of it on her burned flesh and drank the rest.

Almost immediately the healing magic within the potion healed her injuries and Lucia breathed a sigh of relief.

"I didn't think I was going to get hurt this soon. I shouldn't have underestimated these assassins so much." Lucia grumbled to herself.

It had been rash of her to interact with the liquid Morten controlled without first discerning its properties. She may have been in a hurry to stop him, but she had other means at her disposal that would have put her in less danger.

Still, the battle was not over yet, and now was not the time to ruminate on her mistake.

"I knew that Edgar had hired some mercenaries, but I never imagined that your group would be so strong. The magical energy coming off you feels like a peak mage, but I can tell you're stronger than that. Honestly, you've impressed me." Morten said, staring at Lucia with a look of respect.

He attempted to offer her five times what she was being paid to step aside. After clashing with her once, he chose a new tactic. He knew that fighting off Lucia would be difficult and decided to negotiate instead.