Chapter 30: Plan

Zen was the first to move. She shot forward without hesitation, her legs churning across the sodden earth that had been churned to mud by the relentless downpour. Her blade sang through the air in a silent fury, cutting the falling rain into halves, each droplet split cleanly apart as the steel carved its path toward Krovi’s neck with deadly precision.

“Hmm.” Krovi hummed, a note of mild interest coloring the sound. He twisted his body at a ninety-degree angle, the motion fluid as a dancer’s, and the blade whistled past his throat by a hair’s breadth. Zen did not relent. It seemed as though her first strike had been nothing more than a greeting, a mere formality before the true assault. She angled herself sharply, her boots sliding across the mud as she curved to follow Krovi’s evasive movement. Her grip tightened around the hilt, knuckles paling, and she drove the point of her blade toward his neck in a swift, straight stab.

Krovi pivoted again, turning sideways as the stabbing tip sought his flesh. An impressed smile crept onto his lips the moment he realized the intended stab had been a feint. The real attack came in the form of a sideways slash, the blade biting across his chest before he could fully adjust. It tore through the fabric of his shirt and split the skin beneath, inflicting a deep wound that welled with dark blood almost instantly.

“A veteran,” he said, his voice tinged with genuine amusement. His gaze searched her face, finding nothing but unshaken stillness in her eyes. “I haven’t seen you before. Are you a new hire?”

He spoke while weaving through the storm of her blade, his body swaying and twisting as Zen pressed her relentless assault. Her face remained carved from stone, emotionless, her eyes locked onto his in a deadly dance. She understood what this maniac mage was attempting. He sought to crawl under her skin, to pry open a crack in her focus with his words.

“You know,” Krovi continued, dodging yet another attack, though this one too was revealed to be a feint. A double feint. The blade sliced past his left hand and then his right leg before he could fully retreat, opening fresh gashes that leaked crimson down his rain-soaked skin. The wide smile on his lips did not falter. “I was once a veteran like you. Obeying the law. Following orders.”

He sidestepped another thrust, the wind from the blade’s passage stirring his grey beard. “But you know what? I discovered that the law is nothing but a limitation. A limitation the higher-ups use to control us like puppets, using us for their measly little games.” His voice deepened, a current of old bitterness rising beneath the words. “I didn’t want that. I hated it with all my being, because that same law made me lose someone precious. So I tried my best to find a way to return the favor.”

Zen’s blade cut through the rain with unrelenting precision as she aimed for a quick, decisive stab. Her eyes hardened almost imperceptibly when she felt resistance. Krovi had caught the blade’s tip with his right hand, his fingers clamping around the steel while tilting his head slightly to the side. Blood seeped between his knuckles, diluted by the rain, but he held firm.

“Now,” he said, his voice dropping to a near whisper, “I have found where to start my revenge.”

His wide smile stretched further across his weathered face, and his dark greenish-grey eyes widened with that mad light that never seemed to leave them. “And you think I’ll let you stop it?”

Zen’s jaw tightened. She summoned every ounce of her strength and drove the blade forward, forcing it through the resistance of his grip until the tip pierced into his chest. The steel sank deep. Krovi’s smile did not waver. A laugh escaped his lips, a dry, crackling sound that held no pain. He ignored the blade buried in his chest and turned his head, his gaze sliding past Zen to settle on Fiona, who stood in a defensive posture before Sebastian.

Sebastian was still standing, still chanting. The formula he was weaving was nearly complete, its luminous images coiling through the rain-soaked air like threads of living light.

Krovi laughed harder when he recognized the shape the magic was taking. The [Illusion Dispelling] formula. He raised his right hand and pointed, droplets of rain and blood dripping from his extended finger. “Do you truly believe I’ll let you complete that?”

In that very moment, three more figures materialized into existence. Illusions. They burst from the air like reflections torn from a shattered mirror, their smiles wide and their laughter rising in unison with the original. Two of them dashed toward Sebastian and Fiona, while the third rushed at Zen.

Fiona’s grip tightened on her blade. She moved forward like a ghost cutting through the storm, her body honed by years of experience reacting before conscious thought could catch up. A wild punch came from one of Krovi’s illusionary clones, swinging at her from the left. She sidestepped, the air whistling past her ear as the fist sailed through empty space. The second clone followed without granting her a moment to breathe, launching an uppercut aimed at her chin. Fiona tilted her head, the attack grazing past by the length of a fingernail.

Her gaze snapped sideways. The other figure was moving toward Sebastian. She twisted her body and kicked out at it, her boot cutting through the rain, but her eyes widened when yet another clone materialized directly before her. This one wielded a blade. Its posture was already coiled into the motion of a quick, deadly stab, and her current position left her no room to dodge in time.

Fiona brought her blade up immediately, pressing its flat surface against her vitals as she pushed herself backward, her boots sliding across the mud until she regained her footing. The clone’s blade screeched against her steel, sparks flaring briefly before the rain swallowed them.

“Nice reflexes you have there, young lady,” the clone said, its expression genuinely impressed. “But you know full well that won’t be enough to stop me.”

Fiona’s eyes hardened with irritation as she watched the two illusionary clones smile widely at her. Just as Sebastian had told her minutes ago, it would be a waste of time to cast any formulas on the clones if they could not locate the main body actively sustaining the illusion. That was the reason none of them were using their magic. The real enemy was hidden, and every spell wasted on a fake was a victory handed to Krovi.

Her jaw tightened when she spotted one of the clone rushing toward Sebastian. Her gaze shifted to Sebastian, lingering on him for a moment longer than she intended. ‘Be careful,’ she thought, before forcing her focus back onto the two opponents before her. She shifted into a battle stance, her feet spreading, her blade poised. Without another thought, she charged at the illusions.

Sebastian stood still as Krovi’s clone closed in on him, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. He understood that Krovi was far smarter than his wild appearance suggested. The maniac mage would attempt anything to interrupt his chanting, to prevent him from casting the formula that would expose the main body. Sebastian shifted sideways just as the clone that had unknowingly appeared behind him lunged forward. The attack missed, and the illusion stumbled, slightly off-balance for the briefest of moments. Sebastian pivoted on his heel and delivered a sharp, precise kick to its back. But Krovi dodged, allowing his other clone to charge forward with gathered momentum.

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This particular clone closed the short distance between them in a blur of motion. One moment it was several paces away. The next, it was right in front of Sebastian.

A twisting kick came at Sebastian’s head with blurring speed. Still chanting, he dropped down, nearly into a squat, the air whistling through the space where his head had just been. He was already coiling his muscles to retaliate, to exploit the brief opening that follows any kick, when a fist was already rocketing toward his face. Sebastian’s eyes widened slightly at the unexpected attack. ‘How? He just threw a kick and hasn’t even landed yet—’

Then understanding clicked into place. ‘Ah.. enhancement magic. He’s using an enhancement formula.’

Sebastian jerked his head back, the knuckles grazing his chin. He could feel the wind of the blow, the displaced air stinging his skin. He gave ground, stepping backward through the mud as Krovi pressed forward with another brutal, straight punch. The other clone came from the side, already launching a heavy attack of its own. Sebastian gritted his teeth and stopped the chant, dodging in the nick of time as Krovi’s fist brushed past his throat. His movements felt sluggish compared to Krovi’s magically boosted speed, each dodge a fraction too slow, each retreat a step behind.

“Haha!” The stronger clone laughed when he saw Sebastian had ceased chanting. The partially formed formula dissolved into scattered motes of light, unraveling into nothing. “In the end, you still couldn’t succeed, Your Royal Highness!”

Krovi threw a fist that created a visible distortion in the air, the pressure of the blow warping the rain itself as it hurtled toward Sebastian’s face.