Chapter 262: Under Attack

Stephanie POV

She was a bit taken aback by the drastic change in Julius’s attitude. It wasn’t anything like the smiley and slightly meek boy she had gotten to know during this past week. Instead, she was presented with a boy who exuded confidence bordering on downright arrogance.

Even his posture shifted. It had become much more relaxed but she could also see signs of his muscles coiling like a snake. As if any moment he could strike.

Then George screamed out a warning to the rest of the camp and tried to attack Julius. She was about to step in and stop the unstable man, but in a crazy turn of events, George was completely frozen in place.

All due to the young man whose eyes hadn’t left the vast plains the entire time she had been talking to him. George’s warning seemed to be the trigger that started the chaos. One moment it was a quiet peaceful night and next, she sensed a wave of auras come crashing toward them.

She immediately understood why this mission was rated so dangerously.

She ignored George who was still stuck in place and took out her staff out of her storage ring. She quickly used some mana to tie her hair behind her, there was nothing worse than getting hair in her face when someone was trying to stab her.

Then she looked over at Julius who still had an unnerving smile on his face.

He says he’s not with them, but can I really trust that? She clenched her fist as a wave of indecisiveness washed over her. However, she was made of sterner stuff than her looks may have indicated and quickly made a decision.

“You said that this was all a part of House Easten’s plan, so what should we do?” She asked, already setting up several spells around her.

Julius still maintained that annoying calmness as he stared down an incoming horde of enemies and responded in a level tone.

“Take them out. Don’t worry about keeping any alive for now. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of survivors to question later. The ones who are more important to keep alive are some of their Tier 4s, they will probably know more than all of them.”

She could barely comprehend what she was hearing. A boy not much younger than her brother was talking about killing other humans with such indifference was unsettling. She had only gotten used to such death because she and her team had been sent on many missions to kill or capture vile criminals.

“Is there something wrong?” He asked.

“You don’t have any reservations about killing them?” She asked.

He shrugged uncaringly. “They decided to ambush us in the middle of the night. These aren’t exactly the people to give such empathy.”

She couldn’t help but shrug alongside him. He did make a very valid point.

“What should we do then? You aren’t seriously thinking about attacking them without the others are you?” She asked, expecting some sort of strategy or trick.

But to her surprise, he nodded. “It’s not a bad idea. It would give all of the others time to get ready.”

She couldn’t believe him. Where was this arrogant attitude coming from? He couldn’t seriously think that he could take them all on by his lonesome. It didn’t matter how much he was hiding his strength.

She could already sense multiple Tier 4 auras from the incoming attack.

She didn’t bother trying to argue and went over to the boy, grabbing his arm to pull him back toward the others who were quickly preparing in a sleepy haze.

However, she found that she wasn’t able to budge him a single inch.

She pulled harder once she saw the first group of people off in the distance. Urgently trying to get him to come back with her to the others.

They were out of position and would only get killed this way.

But just as she was about to use her skills to forcibly yank him away, she sensed a huge gathering of mana. It was so powerful and quick that she almost believed it belonged to some sort of Tier 4. However, it wasn’t. It belonged to the young man in front of her.

She observed stunned as the boy, who was a “close combat” fighter weaved an amount of mana that represented a significant size of her pool with ease. The actual weight of the mana made it a little hard to breathe.

All around Julius dozens of small thick pellets the size of her thumb spawned into existence. They were like small blue stars, sparkling in the night. But it wasn’t just the amount of mana that surprised her or how amazingly constructed they were, it was the profoundness of each one.

There was no doubt in her mind that each pellet was packed with more than just one Concept. There had to have been at least three different aspects radiating from them.

“Head back to your team,” he told her softly. “They are going to need your help if they want to survive tonight.”

When she was about to argue, she felt the boy’s aura shroud drop for the first moment she had known him. And it was… terrifying.

A monstrous aura that exuded pure death and destruction flooded from him. She choked as this aura seeped into her own aura and started to wreak havoc on it. Thankfully, it was mainly concentrated around Julius and stopped pretty quickly.

“Sorry, still tweaking some things,” he said apologetically, with a hint of red flushing his cheeks. “Go back, okay?”

This time she could only nod her head, the residual fear from his aura made her much more compliant and quickly made her way toward the others who had already grouped up.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Oh yeah, take him with you,” Julius said while tossing George over to her.

The handsome man was literally tossed over to her and she had to catch him with a softened barrier so that George didn’t smash his face into the dirt. She quickly yanked the man behind her and met up with the others who were desperately trying to find out what was wrong.

Matt was the first one to notice her approaching and came over to her, taking notice of George who was getting pulled behind her with an upraised brow.

“What is going on Steph?”

She filled him in as quickly and in detail as she could. Thankfully, she didn’t have to repeat it either because Rolus had arrived in front of her, listening to her explanation.

After she was finished, the caravan leader looked at the spot where Julius was still patiently waiting for the enemies to arrive with a frown.

“He’s planning to take them all on?”

“He said he will give us time to get ready.”