Kieran’s Attempt

(Typo in past chapters. Only twenty mages, not twenty one, including team captains are participating in the battle against Kieran and his main force.)

"Young master." Luther called out.

"Not yet." Asher replied.

On the battlefield, Kieran's remaining troops were already closing in on Aaron's forces. Against such a massive force, even Aaron's men would find it hard to survive.

Suddenly, twenty of the remaining eighty bandits had branched out from the main force and moved towards Aaron's battlefield. The remaining sixty were now heading straight at Asher and his men.

'Oh? I see.' Asher smiled and stroked his chin.

"Prepare for combat. I overestimated the enemy." Asher said.

Luther immediately gave out the orders as he prepared to intercept the enemy. Only four teams, which translated to twenty mages, were present at the scene including their captains.

Twenty mages versus sixty bandits. Although they were still outnumbered, the odds remained in their favour according to Asher's calculations.

"Let's go."

Luther ordered before dashing forward after which the other nineteen mages followed right behind him.

"Now, what do I do?" Asher sighed.

Aaron and his team of four mages saw as the bandits received reinforcements from the main force, but when they noticed that the reinforcements were just another twenty bandits, they didn't retreat.

The initial team of twenty bandits had already been 60% decimated and only a minute or so had gone by. So, another team of twenty bandits wouldn't do much against them. On the contrary, one could say that these reinforcements had walked right into their deaths.

On the other side, the main force of the bandits and Luther's side finally clashed with each other. Luther had opted to attack rather than wait for the opponents to close in on them at the fortress. The reason for this was because he wanted to seize the advantage by being the on the offensive rather than relying on the fortress' setup to fight defensively.

This had to do with the fact that their mission was a test of sorts by Asher and if they relied on a strategical building like the fortress just to handle a bunch of bandits, it would surely affect their final evaluation. With that in mind, Luther had decided to attack. It wasn't a decision made on the spot as he had already calculated their chances and thought through it before. One should recall that Luther and Aaron were both students of Ol' Fang, who had learned a bit about commanding from Darius.

When the two forces clashed, it was just as Asher had expected. Luther and his group of nineteen mages easily pierced through the sixty-man formation. None of the bandits stood a chance against them with only the second-stage Guardian bandits surviving more than two hits. Even so, Kieran didn't seem to be affected and kept charging forward.

Strangely enough, none of the mages on Luther's side went for him but Kieran didn't think too much about it. He could see that Luther had his eyes on him so he understood the situation very well. At best, Kieran was impressed by the discipline of the mages in focusing on their targets, but he didn't plan to entertain them.

'Leaving a mid-rank third-stage Guardian mage to handle me? Based on the info they should have about me, it would be dumb to do so, but if you add in the unusual occurrences, then he's probably stronger than the mid-rank. Maybe a peak rank or even a fourth-stage Guardian mage.' Kieran thought.

'In that case, I will play along.'

Kieran smirked as he rode towards Luther.

Boom.

Luther fired a spell at the horse Kieran was riding, sending it to its death with an explosion. However, Kieran had already jumped from the horse and avoided the attack.

"Die." Luther growled as he sent a punch at Kieran who was descending from mid air.

Kieran retaliated by swiping his arm across the space in front of him, sending down a few invisible wind blades. By sensing the flow of mana in the air and working with his senses, Luther dodged the attacks sent down by Kieran, using his fists to rake down some of them.

Although both parties had the strength of fourth-stage Guardian mages, they had strangely come to common decision of not utilizing their full prowess. This was even more so for Kieran, who was unaware of Luther's full strength.

'As I guessed, he wields the power of a peak rank third-stage Guardian mage despite being at the mid-rank.' Kieran thought.

'But, is that all?'

Kieran was suspicious of Luther's true strength even though Luther was already displaying a power above his mana level. From the performance of the other mages from Asher's side, most of them wielded a strength two ranks above their man level at least. The mid rank first-stage Guardian mages displayed power on par with early rank second-stage mages, while the mid rank second-stage Guardian mages displayed power at the early rank of the third-stage. There were only few exceptions for the former, but the latter was constant.

Thinking in the same line, the mid rank third-stage Luther, should be able to display power on par with a fourth-stage Guardian mage, but here he was, using the power of a peak rank third-stage Guardian mage instead.

'It's either he's holding back or that is indeed his true power.' Kieran thought.

'No matter. They still don't know my full power. As long as I time it properly, I can kill that brat.'

Right after the duo had clashed multiple times in a few seconds, Kieran made a dash for Asher, ignoring Luther after blasting him away with an attack.

One reason for this was that his main goal all along had been Asher. The other reason had to do with the fact that he was suspicious of Luther's current strength and was attempting to force him to show his full potential.

Kieran had timed his 'escape' in such a way that Luther hadn't expected it, creating enough gap to chase after Asher. If Luther continued displaying the strength of a peak third-stage Guardian mage, he would be unable to catch up to Kieran quickly and Asher would be in trouble.

'Ah, he's coming after me as expected.' Asher smiled inwardly but put on a slightly worried look with a calm facade that could easily be seen through.

When Kieran saw this, he showed no expression on the outside but grinned inwardly. His was furthermore pleased by Asher's reaction of staying behind despite there being a threat headed his way.

'As expected, every noble child is a cocky bastard.'

Kieran had easily noticed from the start that the one in charge of this mission was Asher. He guessed that Darius wanted to give his child more voice in the family, but to do so, Asher had to prove himself worthy. Hence, this bandit subjugation and elimination task was more like a test for Asher.

Believing that this was true, Kieran knew that Asher's pride would prevent him from running away after all, this was also a very important test for him. Apart from that, most children of noble birth had yet to experience any life threatening scenario so their instincts were weak and they mostly looked at situations from a naive point of view. Now for example, Kieran believed that Asher -despite being weak- remained behind because he was overconfident in his strength and also in his forces.

'But that won't help you. Even if you have a trap laid out for me, I will break through it.' Kieran grinned.

He was confident in not just surviving this assault but also succeeding simply because he was a fourth-stage Guardian mage and the opponents were not aware of this.

Luther, who was behind Kieran, looked distraught as he tried his best to catch up to Kieran. But Kieran had planned his escape well so with only the physical power of a peak rank third-stage Guardian mage, Luther was unable to catch up to him and could only try to maintain the gap.

'Hmm? So he is indeed just that?' Kieran thought.

'Then this will be easy.'

Since his opponent was only just that, Kieran felt no need to use his true power against them. Although this could be interpreted as him being lax, Kieran was of the opinion that keeping a trump card till the last moment would do no harm.

"Young master, run!" Luther yelled with a worried look on his face while still running after Kieran.

Asher, who was still on the roof of the fortress, couldn't maintain his calm facade anymore and turned around to retreat.

"It's too late." Kieran laughed as he pointed a finger at Asher.

The gap between them was just twenty five metres diagonally. This distance was well within Kieran's attacking range.

"Die."