Baston almost forgot about the explosion incident at Prius Academy. Although he almost died back then, the puppet came in handy when it blocked the impact. It was a long time ago, but coincidentally, the matter came back for him to finish it. This time, he was afraid he would fail the quest if there was no support to kill the dark wizard. While wondering, Baston ran toward the Carpel Inn and found the place had been devastated much more then the first explosion.
Half of Carpel Inn had already been destroyed, threatening to crumble even more. Fortunately, the people around already fled from there. The place was packed with many knights and wizards, focusing only to one dark wizard who was still standing at the same place. Although Baston didn't see any
casualties, the expression below wasn't good while the dark wizard smiled sinisterly. There must be a fighting while he wasn't around but judging on the condition, it seemed they couldn't handle the dark wizard even though everyone had already surrounded him.
"Why? Don't you want to catch me? What are you waiting for?"
"You damn scourge! Do you think we won't dare?" one of the people below gritted his teeth.
"You dare to scold me?" the dark wizard casted a dark magic to the man.
"Watch out!"
Baston could see it was the same spell that the dark wizard used to obliterate his puppet. There was a black blinking around the body of the man. Before it could proceed further, the wizards around didn't stay silent and quickly casted another spell to nullify it. Slowly, the magic countered each other before everything diminished in front of everyone. The man was alright but his face was pale. He realized he just escaped from his death. If not because the people around who quickly helped him out of predicament, he would just die terribly with no sound.
It seemed everyone wanted to attack but something held their actions. Baston was puzzled, but he didn't know what was going on here before he came. He had to find out first so he hid at obscured alley, summoning the puppet and quickly transformed it into one of the soldiers around. The disguised puppet then slowly blended among the people before he asked someone about the dark wizard.
"Hey, why everyone didn't quickly catch the dark wizard? It seems we are waiting for something…"
The man hit the soldier's head, "Are you fool? Didn't you listen his threat before?"
"What threat? I'm sorry… Because it was too rowdy, I couldn't hear clearly…"
The man then whispered, "That damn dark wizard threatened that he would blow everything into smithereens if we dare to move forward. The captain didn't believe at first and commanded everyone to attack, but with just a simple flick from the dark wizard, half of the building was destroyed easily."
"What? Really?" the soldier looked horrified, "Even though the building here has some protection magic, he could blow it just like that?"
"Exactly… The dark magic is entirely different from what we know, so everyone treated the man carefully from then. We are now afraid just because of one mistake, it will cause the destruction in the surrounding. I'm pretty sure the governor won't like that."
"True… true… Then we just wait here like this?"
"The captain said we just need to hold on here while the support is coming. By then, we only need to help from behind…"
The soldier nodded and he slowly moved back. While everyone still focused their sights to the dark wizard, Baston quietly summoned the puppet back into the old book. The information he got was pretty handful. Unlike the dark wizard he ever faced before at Xavierius family, this one seemed
troublesome because he tended to blow everything if people dared to get closer.
Judging by the fact of what happened before in Prius Academy, the dark wizard was proficient in bombing. His style was more to explosion rather than directly attacking.
Baston wondered what he could do to solve this deadlock. Supposedly, he needed to kill this dark wizard, but the situation didn't permit him to do it. With many people around, it would draw attention to himself if he dared to confront the enemy. By the way, he also didn't have the strength needed in order to cope with this dark wizard. The enemy knew explosion more than him so it was better not to use the same way as before. Doing surprise attack might create an opportunity, but it was a question whether he could kill the man. Perhaps, even before he could touch him, another puppet would be obliterated.
"You shall die…"
There was a sound coming up from nowhere and a couple of seconds after that, the dark wizard quickly ran from where he stood before a flame pillar erected from below. The dark wizard frowned and wanted to use
explosion to one of the people below, but the flame pillar suddenly broke away, revealing fire snakes dancing through the air toward him. Noticing the fast and nimble movement of fire snakes, the dark wizard quickly dodged away. In the meantime, he failed to cast the explosion since he couldn't stand still and concentrated. Once he made the spell, the fire snakes would soon engulf him
badly.
"Knights… Archer…"
The sound reverberated once again, making people woke up and quickly lined up. The knights didn't only excel at swords, but also in other weapons like spear or bow. They readied the arrows, imbuing it with their own
aura before unleashing it to the fleeing dark wizard. Noticing the danger, the man quickly made a small explosion around to protect him. Although it deviated the arrow's direction, the fire snakes still relentlessly moved toward him.
"Wizards… Projectile magic…"
After the knights came, the wizards unleashed their spells. It seemed they already knew beforehand what the sound commanded them into so they didn't waste any time. Any projectile magic like fireball and water needle rushed ahead from any direction. It surrounded the dark wizard with no other path to escape. The man erected magic barrier but because it was bombarded with many magic attacks, the barrier soon collapsed and he took the damage. The fire
snakes also joined the barrage, burning the dark wizard from outside. It couldn't be extinguished easily since it was powered continuously with magic.
"ARRGHHH!!!"
The dark wizard immediately used dark magic to quickly nullify the fire on his body. It was soon extinguished but the skin was charred terribly. The face was also singed and burned, even though most of it came from the hair. Despite the painful wound, there was only sinister grin on his face. He then casted a dark magic which making Baston shocked because he happened to experience it.
"Is he going to explode himself?" Baston thought.
This style reminded Baston back when he faced the dark wizard. At that time, it was also the same pattern when the dark wizard decided to blow herself out. Different from flare magic user, the dark magic still left the caster in terrible shape after the explosion. After the blast, the dark wizard must be in weakened state. At that time, Baston felt he could finish the man once the opportunity struck. Watching the dark wizard was getting ready to finish his explosion, something unexpected happened. Out of nowhere, a
beautiful girl came up from behind.
She simply casted a magic cube surrounded the dark wizard. Once it covered the corners, she simply threw the cube to the air above. At high place, the explosion happened but strangely, there was no tremor nor sound
heard. It was just like the magic cube enclosed the space tightly. After the explosion, the girl brought the cube back and instead of weakened state, the dark wizard was almost healed from the wounds before. There was an uproar among the knights and the wizards below because not only the man could cast such deadly magic, but there was no downside to his life. It should not be like this since any magic would have cause and impact.
The dark wizard tried to break the magic cube, but unfortunately, he couldn't do nothing inside that small space. Even his dark magic couldn't be manifested, making him helpless about what his fate would be.
While everyone was enamored by the beautiful girl, a middle-aged man came up to
her. He bowed down as the greeting, making the people below felt this girl wasn't a simple one. Baston didn't know who was the beautiful girl and the middle-aged man but the resident in Luminos City recognized the man.
The middle-aged man was the governor of Luminos City. Everyone could say between many nobles around here, only him who had the highest authority. It was rare for him to bow down to anyone, except the person
had the higher status than him. At once, only the royalty came up to their minds. Before they could think further, the governor already ordered them to give their best greetings.
"What are you doing? The royal Princess Riquel is in front of you and you don't even bow down?"
"We greet Your Highness, Princess Riquel!" everyone greeted at the same time.
"Forgive me for not attending to your need, Princess Riquel…" the governor said humbly.
"It's alright… I'm just here for a vacation, so it's best for less people to know. Too bad a troublesome fellow appears from nowhere…"
"Yes, it is… Even with our best detection magic, we can't block this dark wizard. It's really a shameful event for Luminos City."
"Ha… ha… ha… Don't push yourself too hard. There's always a special situation like this on a certain day. As long as the casualties are kept minimum, it's already good enough."
While Princess Riquel was having a chat with the governor, the surrounding people couldn't help but gulped down their saliva since the girl was really beautiful. They started to dream if somehow the princess took fancy of them, they would gladly serve her to the end of their lives. Although they needed to clean up, people couldn't help to take a peek a few times to her direction. It seemed it was very hard not to see the beautiful girl, making the finishing work proceeded slowly.
Baston also took a look at Princess Riquel before he kept staring at her, unable to stop himself. By the time he came back into his
sense, a few minutes already passed unknowingly. He closed his eyes while his
heart was beating faster just like the one who fell in love with a girl. Despite the good feeling occurred to him, the fat boy quickly summoned his puppet to replace him in the world while he hid inside the old book. Slowly but sure, he regained his rational thinking and his heart calmed down. Unlike the happy feeling before, he felt such a girl was really dangerous.
"It's really weird. Once I stare at her, I can't look into somewhere else. Although the princess is indeed beautiful, it doesn't make
sense to be enamored strongly unless there's something. Perhaps, a kind of special effect of magic…"
For now, Baston summoned 2 of his puppets. One who was holding the old book and the other was scurrying into the surrounding with the body of small rat. It got closer and closer before he could hear what kind of conversation Princess Riquel and the governor had at the moment. Because the
target was captured, he must know where they were going to bring the dark wizard to. The best one was to kill the dark wizard right here and right now, but despite the urgency, he didn't see any opening.
The dark wizard was stronger than him and these 2 people seemed to be much stronger. There was no way to do a sneak attack unless he could catch them off guard with sure-kill move. Baston then decided to cast his combined magic. This was a secret move and he kept it hidden until now. He never thought today, he had to show it to the world. Whether it would make another trouble, that would be the future problem.