A brief conflict

Elsewhere, Salvador and Librada were locked in a vicious battle. From afar it appeared as though they were on even footing, but as they locked blades and distanced themselves once again, Salvador became acutely aware of his disadvantaged position.

What worried him, however, was that Librada never tried to pursue this advantage, which only served to confirm Salvador's guess that this entire attack was solely a delay tactic.

In fact, Salvador guessed that Librada was deliberately holding back, matching his own level on purpose, as if to mock him.

"Ha ha, Salvador! Are you sure you've been training diligently? You're being pushed around by an old cripple!" Librada bellowed then followed up with a hearty chuckle.

'An old cripple? Give me a break...' Librada lamented.

Quickly surveying his surroundings, Salvador confirmed that his men had overall been taking the initiative, and luckily, none of his men had fallen.

Yet.

But until Librada was taken care of, rendezvousing with Prince Adam was not possible.

Deciding to be a bit more aggressive, Salvador altered his stance, holding his sword vertically in both hands and closed his eyes.

"Oh? It seems you're going to show me something interesting," Librada said, As he took a simple stance, ready to respond to Salvador's attack.

As Salvador stood, his body suddenly began to glow with an incandescent white light.

The light rippled across Salvador's crimson armour, creating a captivating scene for anyone witnessing it.

Clearing his mind of useless thoughts, Salvador took a step forward.

There was nothing special or unique about the step. It was a simple step forward. Followed by another.

In medium strides, Salvador made his way towards a perplexed Librada, the white light still surrounding his body.

'What is he...'

As Librada thought, a terrifying realisation dawned upon him.

'I...can't move..!!!'

As Salvador sauntered towards him, Librada, for the first time in this battle, felt a sense of urgency.

Now only a single step from him, Salvador quickly thrust his sword forward, with as little wasted movement as physically possible.

A normal opponent, after they noticed that their movements were restricted, would've panicked, after all not being able to move in the middle of combat was little more than a death sentence.

And the fear brought about by not being able to move would only further root them in their spot, after all this was an ability rooted from Tae, the God of Fear and the Night.

Once activated, it would only prevent an enemy's movement for 6 seconds. However, for every second that the target is afraid, the time of the effect is extended.

There are only two ways to break such an effect, that is, to be fearless, or to have the ability to overcome your fear in a matter of seconds.

Looking at the axe that intersected with his sword, Salvador pondered as to which method Librada had used.

With a vicious grin on his face, Librada spoke.

"What a terrifying ability, I bet you've felled many opponents using it...unfortunately..."

Suddenly, using a burst of power that originated seemingly from nowhere, Librada pushed Salvador back several metres, and went on the offensive, delivering devastating strikes to Salvador, each of which made his arms go numb simply from blocking.

"Such an underhanded ability won't work on me! Hahaha..."

Frowning, Salvador created distance between them once again and wondered what his next course of action should be.

His ability, Abyssal Gaze, was not his only card, in fact, he had dozens, but considering his opponent, he began to doubt their effectiveness.

'Well, guess I'll have to try everything until...'

Sighing, Salvador relaxed his stance and rolled his eyes at the newly arrived figure.

"Forever late aren't we, Commander?"

"Haha, I got a bit caught up,"

As his figure faded into existence, Elric turned his gaze to Librada.

"That's strange, why is there an old coot wearing our glorious armour?" Elric said in a mocking tone.

"Haha, Elric, how rude, is that any way to talk to your teacher?" Librada said, with his characteristic hearty laugh.

Shrugging, Elric drew his sword. "Are you sure you don't want to retreat? There's no one here to save you this time," he said.

'I hope,' he added internally, as he still wasn't sure just where Princess Aurora had gone.

Still smiling, Librada took in the surroundings.

His subordinates had taken heavy losses, there were barely 50 of them left, but that wasn't too worrying, as they would be replaced quickly without much difficulty.

Not to mention even without help, he was confident in his ability to take on the rest of the guardsmen with minor effort.

However, with Elric's arrival, his confidence wavered.

Stroking his stubby beard with a thoughtful expression, Librada quickly came to a conclusion.

'When in doubt, run away,'

"I suppose I'll take you up on that offer after all," he said, before ordering his remaining men to attack Elric all at once.

Of course, such an attack did little to inhibit Elric.

As dozens of figures literally threw themselves at him, Elric's figure simply faded out of existence and reappeared in the direction of Librada

Suddenly, almost instantly, the heads of all the attackers were severed, their bodies simply slumping down in the dirt.

Not even bothering to gaze at the bodies of those he had just slain, Elric's gaze turned towards the forest, where Librada had made his escape.

Though Librada was incredibly fast, Elric knew he was faster, and catching up would not have been hard.

However, for now, his priority was Prince Adam's safety.

"Should we pursue?" Salvador asked.

"...No, the Prince's safety is our priority, Let's move immediately," Elric responded.

Salvador nodded, then turned and gave orders to the guardsmen to prepare to leave.

Luckily, no one was seriously injured, and after a brief headcount that confirmed that no one was missing, the guardsman left, rushing towards the Prince's location.

----------

Deep into the forest, Librada had long stopped running, instead, he was leaning on a boulder with his eyes closed and arms crossed, seemingly waiting for someone.

After a minute of waiting, he sighed and opened his eyes.

"Is he not pursuing? Just when I'd thought we'd be able to have a rematch..." he said, before reaching for a pouch on his armour's belt.

"That being said, if he did pursue me over safeguarding The Prince, I'd have been disappointed..."

Reaching into the pouch, he took out a strange-looking shard of glass.

Infusing a bit of mana into the strange shard, an image suddenly appeared. In that image was Aurora Aegis.

"Your Highness, I've completed my tasks, however, Elric did not chase me, He'll be there soon," he said, saluting as he did.

Aurora did not seem to be bothered by Librada's words, at least, even if she was, Librada wouldn't be able to tell by her facial expressions.

"Hm, It doesn't matter either way. You can return now," her indifferent voice replied.

As soon as she finished speaking, her image disappeared, and Librada put the shard back into the pouch, however, his eyes lingered on the red crystal still within it.

Sighing, Librada let out a short chuckle before reaching for his axe.

As Librada swung his axe, allowing it to cut through the air, a strange phenomenon occurred.

The strange markings on his armour glowed a dim purple colour before strange carvings on his axe that mirrored the ones on his armour did the same.

Librada's axe, which had effortlessly passed through the air at the beginning, slowed briefly, as though it was cutting something.

The axe had seemingly cut through space itself, as a tear in reality had formed in front of Librada, creating a portal to another forest hundreds of kilometres away.

Librada did not hesitate and quickly stepped through the portal, which quickly closed with a crackling sound behind him.