Chapter 12: Lost and Found

Milim

Sen burst out of the stone and landed directly in front of ten well-armed men in hoods. Her heart sank; he’d saved her, and now she was going to watch him die in front of her.

A man with a long sword attacked first, plunging it straight toward Sen.

“Watch out!” she screamed. But it was too late. The sword stabbed directly into Sen and…shattered.

The others attacked. But one moment Sen had been lying in their center, and the next he was gone. No, not gone. He was behind them.

“Shatter Vine Maxima,” he said, bringing a fist down on the heads of two men. Their skulls caved in under the strength of his attack, and they dropped like rocks. Large vines erupted from the ground. They wrapped themselves around the remaining men. Two men with magic artifacts survived because of the protective effects. The other two used spells they’d intended for Sen a moment before to remove the tendrils. The vines continued wrapping around the four that had got caught, slowly tightening. One man with a magic artifact held out a hand and focused on the vines, hoping to free his companions. Sen was on him quickly. “Flesh Sculpt Maxima.” Sen pulled the arm holding the artifact off the man’s body as if it was made of clay. It left no open wound, only a stump that looked like it’d been there since birth. Milim shook her head. That had to be a powerful spell. He’d just used it to pull someone’s arm off.

The man fell in shock. Sen shot a ball of fire into his face.

The last three men focused their energy on Sen; one magic artifact and two spells shot out. The artifact produced a beam of light. Each of the two spells produced powerful icy shards and a blast of electricity, respectively.

Sen grinned and opened his mouth. It didn’t move, but the words came. “Mana Devourer Maxima.”

The attacks converged on him, coalescing into a simple ball of purified mana. He reached out and bit it in half. The hooded men watched in horror as he chewed on their combined attack contemplatively. “Hm, not as good as I had hoped. What are you? Squires? Knights? Weak. Far too weak. I’ll never level up like this.” He flicked a hand toward them. “Butterfly Tri Maxima.” Three ethereal butterflies shot forward and through two of the cultists. They disappeared as it did so, as if they were the illusions. The final butterfly stopped a mere inch in front of the cultist in the middle, hovering in front of his forehead.

Milim sank to her knees. This kind of power shouldn’t even be possible from a first-year. If he could do something like this…he was qualified to teach at the academy. So why was he enrolled as a student?

Sen

His last opponent clenched his eyes shut as if that would save him. The only man left was the shrill-voiced man from earlier. Partly because Sen thought his voice was amusing, and partly because he knew this man could show him where the prisoners were. “You kidnapped two students from Bright Sail Academy, and from the sounds of it four others as well. Where are they?” he asked.

The man pointed to the door on his right. “Through the…through the door,” he stammered. His eyes transfixed on the butterfly hovering in front of him. It flapped its wings as if it would dart forward at any second. He was too in shock to even move out of the way.

“Great, wait here for me.” Sen turned to Milim. “Keep an eye on him, but don’t worry, our friend here will make sure he doesn’t move for you,” he said, nodding toward the butterfly. The butterfly’s wings flapped quickly in response as if to agree. The shrill-voiced man groaned.

Sen opened the door and found six people in Bright Sail Academy uniforms chained to the wall. Among them was Ilm. Next to her, purple-haired Samara. He allowed himself to relax. Samara and the others were asleep. He ran his senses over them and detected some kind of drug in their system. It would certainly be in Ilm’s as well, but she’d resisted it. “Ilm, why did you let them capture you?” he asked. He grabbed the chain tethering her to the wall and shattered it with Aggression.

Ilm pulled her hands free when he finished releasing her and rubbed at her wrist. “Well, I saw a cat. I thought maybe it was the same cat from the other quest, so I chased after it. But when I saw one of those men taking someone, I figured if I let them capture me too, they’d lead me right to the kidnapped victims. But whatever drug they used on us dampened my power to use magic, so I waited for a good time to strike so I could make it count. It…hadn’t come yet.”

Sen nodded. He didn’t like Ilm putting herself in danger, but it wasn’t like this strategy wasn’t one he’d employed before. He placed two fingers on her forehead. “Purge Poison Six-Maxim.”

Samara coughed, and a green liquid splattered the floor. The other hostages did the same. Ilm’s body was more resilient; she’d already fought most of the effects, but she did sneeze and felt better afterwards. “Achoo! Oh, that’s much better!” She beamed.

Sen paused. He suddenly felt a presence; it was as if someone were watching them. He turned his attention toward the corner of the room, sensing mana congregated there. Sen held a hand out and his own mana flooded the corner, pulling about the fabric of the spell. Someone had been watching the prisoners. That meant there were others.

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Milim shouted something in the other room, and Sen cursed. “Ilm, free the others. I’ll go check it out.” He hurried back and found the last hooded man on the end of a fist. Someone had punched directly through the man’s body and now held him by that same arm in the air.

Snake.

“I tried to stop him! I’m sorry,” Milim said.

Snake growled. “As if you could stop me.” He swatted his hand and the corpse on his arm slid off it. “You were supposed to come to me if you ran into danger. What were you thinking?” he spat.

Milim swallowed. “He saved everyone!”

Snake turned on her. “Yeah, well, that was my job.”