Asher Versus The Protector Mages 3

"Hehe." The lead mage grinned as he held on tightly to Asher's spear.

"You're a skilled mage, but today will mark your funeral."

Asher's original plan of sealing his right hand with the man's left hand now turned against him as his weapon was also held in place while the other fourth-stage Guardian mage was on his way. If he couldn't turn the situation around and retreat, not only would Asher have lost the perfect opportunity to take down one of them, but he would be facing two fourth-stage Guardian mages at the same time. No matter how good he was, that was a fight that Asher had next to no chance of winning.

Displaying signs of anxiety despite his calm expression, Asher let go of the spear and pointed his left hand in the direction of the approaching mage.

A dark ice wall five inches thick rose up and kept the mage away from the duo.

'A suicidal move.' The lead mage thought.

Asher had already consumed a lot of mana forming a similar wall to block his purple flame vortex and doing so again meant that his current mana was below 40%. Against two mages of the fourth-stage Guardian realm, that wasn't enough to hold his own even with his skills.

Although the man could easily guess that Asher did so in an attempt to get a bit of time to kill him, he wasn't scared.

First off, the wall would only delay his teammate by a second or less. Also, the man was confident in holding his own for five seconds even without his mana. This was because he had a rare defensive artefact that could tank one hit from a fourth-stage Guardian mage.

'He's doomed to die.' The man thought when suddenly, his eyes widened.

Asher was no longer in front of him.

. . .

The fourth-stage Guardian mage was faced with a wall made out of five-inches-thick dark ice. Even so, he wasn't worried about it.

The mage suddenly stopped running and stomped his right foot heavily on the ground. Sharp pointed pillars of earth jutted out from the ground and crashed into the wall of ice.

At first, the wall held on, but by the time the second pillar struck, cracks began to appear. On the third hit, the cracks began to spread from the point of contact and connect with the other damaged areas. When the fifth pillar struck the wall, it finally gave in and collapsed into shattered ice blocks and particles.

The mage immediately dashed forward, intent on reaching Asher as fast as possible. Because of the light fog produced after the ice broke apart, the mage was unable to see ahead during this while until he went past the area of the fog. However, this made him fail to notice that Asher was no longer with his teammate, but was now missing.

Just as the mage had entered the falling ruins of ice blocks and frost mist, a shadow appeared by his side surreptitiously. The shadow immediately swung an object at the mage; an object that looked to be a hand-held weapon just slightly less than a metre.

The mage was abruptly alerted by his senses but he was a step too slow to be able to dodge as a white sword was now swinging down at him. Since he couldn't dodge, the mage did the next best thing he could do and tried to block it, unsheathing the sword hanging on his waist and moving it towards the trajectory of the white sword.

'Once I block it, I'm blasting him off with a spell. At this range, it would be impossible for him to dodge it and he's probably too weak to block it.' The fourth-stage Guardian mage thought.

He didn't know how Asher had arrived so close to him so fast, but he didn't bother to think about it. The mage's focus was on defeating Asher as quickly as possible.

The white sword with a crystal blade came down at the fourth-stage Guardian mage, but he had already unsheathed his sword and placed it in the path of the sword with the intention of blocking it. From the way things looked, Asher's ambush would end up as a failure and he would be in a tight situation right after.

Even so, Asher's eyes gleamed with killing intent and a cold look was plastered on his face.

Din.

The two swords clashed and generated a low sound which before it could even go far, a new development occurred.

The crystal-bladed white sword cut through the mage's weapon with very little resistance and went on to appear before the mage almost immediately.

Because he had never anticipated such a development, the mage was stunned by it and couldn't even react in time. In fact, he was too shocked that the idea of dodging or performing another action never crossed his mind. As a result, Asher's sword reached his neck, and without fail, sliced through it and beheaded the man.

Ever since he had entered this new world, although this wasn't his first kill, this was Asher's first kill of a fourth-stage Guardian mage and his first kill of an opponent stronger than him in terms of mana cultivation.

"How..." The lead mage who Asher had abandoned glanced at the scene in shock.

Never in his life would he have believed that Asher would be able to defeat his teammate with one strike.

'No. It's not his strength; it's that weapon.' The man stared at the white sword with greed and fear.

The reason for such a mix of emotions was because any weapon capable of cutting through the sword of a fourth-stage Guardian mage and killing them in one stroke had to be a Grade two Guardian class weapon and one on a higher scale. This meant that it was capable of rivalling a sixth-stage Guardian mage or even crossing the phase mark and comparing it with a seventh-stage Guardian mage.

It was only natural for the man to desire it yet be fearful of it since it was in the hands of his opponent.

However, one question also sprang up in his head; why did his opponent hide the weapon during their fight? One should know that if Asher had taken it out mid-battle, he could have also utilized the surprise element and defeated the man himself, yet, he held back and only brought it out to take down his teammate.

This was a question that plagued his mind, but without an answer, the man could do nothing about it.

'Doesn't matter. I now know what he's relying on. I just need to beat him and I can find out all the answers and also get my hands on such a precious treasure.' The lead mage grinned.

'I would have to kill that other guy though; can't let the academy or the nobles know that I got my hands on something that good.' The man took a peak at the last surviving member of his squad, the remaining peak rank third-stage Guardian mage.

While the lead mage was scheming, Asher could finally let out an internal sigh of relief. Unbeknownst to the man, Asher's target all along was this fourth-stage Guardian mage.

The lead mage had the hand with him, so even if he tried escaping, Asher could track him down with the connection between it and the orb inside of him, albeit with some difficulty. As for the third-stage Guardian mage, he was the one Asher placed a tracking mark on. In summary, none of them could truly escape him, except for one individual, the deceased fourth-stage Guardian mage. Not only was he stronger and so had a higher chance of escaping successfully, but with the lack of any tracking mechanism on the mage, once he escapes, Asher would lose him.

Asher's original plan was to carry out his plan and eliminate any survivors to prevent any risk of being found. He wanted to frame the mysterious organization for the assault but if a survivor exists, it wouldn't be difficult for the academy's investigation unit to realize that he wasn't part of the mysterious organization. Hence, he had to take down the only person who could play the role of a survivor.

If Asher had revealed the sword earlier in his fight against the lead mage, the 'survivor candidate' would have been prepared for it or even escape right away. Being a fourth-stage Guardian mage, it would take quite some time before Asher would be able to catch up to him and finish him off, and the more time spent, the riskier things got. So, Asher had to keep the sword hidden until he had the perfect opportunity to draw it out against the mage and kill him.

Now that was over, Asher was confident in succeeding and preventing any possible escape.

Asher turned around and glanced at the lead mage who had yet to run away and smiled.

"Now, where were we?"