Special Chapter XIII - Crisis (part 1)

The attacker was unknown, but it's clear that they are from some sort of a group.

It is possible that they are a part of a small rebellion group that is making their debut, or a long-time syndicate group that is waiting for the right chance.

Whoever they are, it doesn't matter. But, it's concerning how incredibly strong they are.

The battle has gone for seven hours, and yet it is still going. About six people have fallen from the mages side, and an unknown amount from theirs. It's an all out magic war, and neither side is letting on.

The enemies were using the mountains as their advantage. They always placed themselves in a much higher position, which made the mages have trouble approaching them.

Their firepower is also nothing to cough at. They kept firing endless Knight tier level magic attacks, which should be impossible.

They wore dark robes with masks, and they all had the same pattern on their masks. It's unclear what those patterns mean, but it's very easy to differentiate between them and the mages.

Their numbers are also plentiful. Despite fighting hundreds of kingdom mages at once, they are holding up just fine.

"Who the hell are they…?"

Julius muttered as he studied the way the enemies were fighting. Each of them were very strong and talented, which makes Julius very worried about the chances of winning.

The one eyed man was then approached by a random mage from the right. The mage saluted as he reported.

"Report, two more have fallen from our side… we couldn't help them."

"Damn it… we can't continue this for long… And Veneo?"

"Still getting ready, sir. It will be done very soon."

"Tell him to hurry."

The mage nodded and left. Right now, the mages have resorted to a plan, which is to take down the enemies using a hidden attack. This shoot-out will last forever unless it's stopped, so they will have to use this plan.

BOOOMM!!!!!

All of a sudden, explosions began occurring on the enemy side. As the enemies exploded, the mages cheered as they watched.

"He did it."

Julius turned his gaze up, and found a few silhouettes flying in the blue skies. One of them is Veneo, and he is dropping bombs to the attackers.

"Light them up, boys."

Veneo in his battle mage outfit said to the mages behind him. There are a total of eight with him, and everyone dropped their magic attacks on them.

From this distance, the enemies wouldn't be able to fire back due to the gravity stopping their attacks. Unless they had a light mage, which doesn't seem to be the case.

The enemies were hit further back into the eastern mountains, where they disappeared on the tall and cold grounds.

"They retreated, huh…?"

Veneo muttered and began flying back down. He arrived next to Julius, who was very glad.

"Fantastic move there, pal!"

"True, but they did escape."

Veneo is not content with this, but Julius knows that as well. But he also knows that continuously fighting unprepared like this will only bring trouble to them, so he is just glad the enemies retreated.

"Okay… now what?"

"Now, we create a plan. They attack from the north-west, there's got to be a reason. Let's head back first and plan."

Julius nodded and turned to his mages, while Veneo left for the floating island. As he leaves, he can hear Julius commanding the mages to take turns in guarding. After commanding the mages, Julius followed Veneo and the two returned to the headquarters together.

When they arrived at the HQ, they were surprised when they saw that the HQ was empty. They looked around, and did find some signs that people were here.

"Where is everybody?"

Julius asked, but Veneo shook his head.

"No one is at the building."

"When you were here, how many people were present?"

"Rather plenty. Which begs the question, where are they?"

Neither Veneo nor Julius can answer, so they had no choice but to ask. Julius took out his communication tool so he could contact his subordinate.

"Faris? Where is-"

"The entire kingdom has been poisoned, sir!"

.