Chapter 11: Shopping Spree III

Chapter 11: Shopping spree III

Astrid stared at the group of mercenaries in front of him and the group of people left alive from the explosion.

The mercenaries where 10 in number, seven where male and three female. Five of them where clearly swordsmen, with four being mages and their leader, a magic swordsman. A very rare sight, even among mercenaries, after all magic swordsmen are nicknamed the talented for various reasons.

Right now all the people on the floor he was on, where taken hostage. Of course some tried to resist but they were instantly taken down by the mages. Apparently the mercenaries where not weak either. Astrid knelt down at the back of the bunch along with Leo who seemed to be lost in thought. A five year old, lost in thought…a very funny sight to behold. 'AHHHH! Maybe he is just still in shock'.

The mercenaries gathered at the destroyed elevator doors, discussing their further plans. Astrid decided to use the chance to check each of their ranks. Basically in the world of swords and sorcery one could increase their rank by absorbing the Aether in their surroundings. What Astrid did was send a minimal amount of his own aether into the bodies of the mercenaries. 

A normal adept would've been able to sense his aether the instant it left his body, but his father had trained him in the precise control of his aether, always telling him to make his qi output as low as possible, his aether pretty much became invincible after that training.

From what he could sense, the five swordsmen three were middle stage Traveling duelists while the four mages were peak stage hedge wizards and lastly, the Leader who was a middle stage Cadet of the Arcane Blade.

'Shit! I could handle the rest of the mercenaries, but their leader is gonna be a serious problem' Astrid thought, after all he was only a peak stage Apprentice battle mage. 

'Where the fuck is mom when I need her dammit!' Astrid was sure that his mother was aware of what was happening right now. Sure she could handle this easily, but she might want to test how Astrid will handle such a situation. Even she needs to be hard on her son once in a while.

'Let's just see where this goes!' Astrid thought as he noticed one of the civilians standing, to perhaps try and protest. 

"Hey! You there! Why the hell are you taking us hostage?"

Of course some of the other hostages got some balls after the scapegoat had let out what was on his mind, and suddenly almost all of them began questioning the mercenaries.

"Do you fools think you have the right to question us?" The leader replied, releasing his aura, full of killing intent and blood lust, making the hostages back down a little. It was clear he had killed a lot of people to have such a terrifying aura.

"Do u also think you have the right to keep us hostage?" the first civilian who had retorted also answered back releasing a powerful burst of his aether, other aether's also erupted in the hostage area, their aura pouring out making the normal civilian's feel suffocated, some even fainting.

'Ahh! No wonder he was so confident' Astrid thought as the aura of a village shaman poured out of his body. The remaining though where swordsmen ranging from Novice swordsman to village guard. 

"Stupid mage….do you think just the six of you stand a chance against us" The mercenary leader said with a wide evil grin on his face as he used his hand to signal three of the swordsmen to take down the five swordsmen while he sent a mage and another swordsman to handle the village shaman.

Immediately the three swordsmen rushed towards the five hostage swordsmen. Luckily the five hostage swordsmen were quick and decisive enough to move away from the other hostages. It was a quick slaughter though, as the three swordsmen on reaching the five did quick slashes creating a bloody scene, as each of the rebelling swordsmen where cut into three pieces without given as much as a chance to fight. After all they were a whole two ranks above them.

The village shaman on seeing this was instantly angered, after all each of the swordsmen had families and had put their trust in him, only to be slaughtered like animals.

His aura exploded as he encased his body with lightning magic increasing his speed immensely, the other traveling duelist was already upon him, his sword descending on him diagonally, in an attempt to cut him in half, but he with quick reactions, he did a step back, allowing the sword to miss him by just an inch before he regained balance and dashed forward, hitting the swordsman while he was off balance making him fall down.

Instantly flames gathered in his palm, before compressing into the size of a marble, the heat causing Astrid to sweat a little, even from where he was. As he was about to release it though, a water blade was sent his way, but he had already sensed the amount of qi gathering in the mages palms, so he reacted quickly, creating a wall of flames which instantly steamed the water, he smiled darkly before releasing the compressed ball of flames as a beam, which severed the swordsman in half. Blood and guts tainted the clean floors of the mall, while he pointed at the mage, and saying in a low voice, his blonde hair dyed red. "You…You're next!"

The leader of the mercenaries had an amused expression on his face as he watched the Village shaman instantly appear beside the female mage and blasting large hole on her body with the attack he had previously used on the now dead swordsman. 

Astrid stared at the village shaman with a bit of surprise on his face, after all he was efficient in both lightning and fire magic which was good for fighting multiple opponents, which was the exact type of situation right now. "Hmmmm! He might have stood a chance if the leader of the mercenaries wasn't here' Astrid thought as he stared in the direction of the mercenary leader who still kept his composure even after seeing what the village shaman could do, which showed just how confident he was. His face was calm showing that he could easily take down the village shaman, but the village shaman was to over taken by rage to notice.

The other hostages had already started glimpses of hope, but the lingering taste of defeat and fear still lingered in their hearts, after all, even though he had taken down to, there were still eight mercenaries left alive, prepared to attack at any moment.

Another swordsman charged towards the village shaman who was already preparing to dodge was surprisingly cut off guard as the swordsman did a short dash which instantly increased his speed allowing him to reach the village shaman, already doing a downward swing. The village shaman reacted quickly, using one of his palms to send a stream of fire, parrying the sword upward once more while using his other hand to roast the swordsman, all the swordsman could do was scream in pain as he was roasted from the inside out.

He then stared at the mercenary leader once more. He didn't like the smug expression he had on his face. He then looked back at the group of hostages, who were looking at him with hope in their eyes. Seeing their hope filled eyes made him sigh.

"What! Have you decided to give up" The mercenary leader said with a light laugh.

"No! I am just tired of all this front and back scuffle…" The village shaman said as his eyes glared a dangerous yellow color as he raised his arms up, a large amount of aether was directed to his palms, as an aura of fire engulfed him completely, "…When I could take you all out at once!"

His deceleration shocked the mercenaries, while the mercenary leader had a slight frown on his face and folded arms as he watched the large fireball forming on the village shaman's palms.

A sigh escaped from the mercenary leader's mouth, "Well I guess is time to end this" He said as he cracked his neck.

"No! You're wrong, it's time for me, to end you!" The village shaman screamed as he finished forming the large fireball and flinging it in the direction of the mercenaries. Flames engulfed everywhere as the fireball land, destroying the floor they were standing on causing it to collapse unto the one below them, the flames where so hot that some of the dead bodies around the flames turned to ash. Dust and smoke covered everywhere as the engulfing flames burnt everything on the floor.

Luckily Astrid moved fast creating a thin barrier around the hostages after all this was all he could do at the stage he was in, but it was good enough to protect them, leaving them with only little injuries.

The dust and smoke had already began clearing, and things had become more visible for all of them to see, and the sight was horrifying. All the hope that was found in the hostages eyes where lost as they stared at the village shaman who was standing motionless in the middle of the floor, blood flowing from his mouth, the fist of the mercenary leader deeply rooted in his chest, with blood flowing down the wound.

The mercenary's leader's Eyes where cold as he pulled out the village shaman's heart from his chest.

"Haaaaa! I hate showoffs."

….