Valerian, The Legendary

176 Mistake.

The thunder falcon landed inside the city and watched over the mage taking out rations from the storage bag. Valerian had accumulated a meager some of the money, and his clothes and medicines were mostly stored in the magic bag. So Linea trained her eyes on the mage intently. If the guy made one mistake, he will kill the person.

The mage did all that he needed to do with cold sweat on his forehead. Fortuna pretended to be indifferent but the reason she came inside the city was to make sure that Linea isn’t cheated. She did not show it but she cared about Valerian a lot.

...

In the forest, Valerian and General Kunta watched the Valkyrians attacking the city with all their might. The people were simply too boorish, the attacks had no pattern and they were too noisy. Thinking about it, Valerian said, “It would have been nice if we had a wood archmage in the team.”

Kunta asked back, “Why do you say so, Your Highness?”

The silver-haired boy sighed and replied, “An archmage would have been able to kill these guys by strangling them in vines and poison thorns.”

The general was surprised, he did not expect this young man to be so cruel and ruthless. Valerian turned to look at him, and asked, “Are you surprised by my cruelty, General Kunta?”

The man nodded instinctively, and immediately he wanted to shake his head when Valerian said, “Mercy on your enemy is cruelty to yourself. If you think of it this way you will realize what I mean to say. It was not Sepiantia, that attacked the berserk nation. It is the other way around. They are ensuing wars between the empires, and then they will reap benefits from all the chaos. The battle-scarred nations will be unable to put the differences behind them and will perish.”

Deputy General Kunta realized what Valerian meant at this point. He sighed at the long-sightedness of this young child. He asked, “Your Highness, pardon me but how do you intend to take out the ballista? From my experience, I guess they must have placed a lot of security around them.”

.....

Valerian nodded and said, “You are correct, I will need your help. We should focus on the ballista on the northern side of the city. Your team of soldiers can attack the valkyrians from a distance to attract their attention. I will sneak in and deal with the ballistas.”

The general shook his head and said, “Your Highness, this thing is very dangerous. Your life will be dangered.”

Valerian sighed and said, “You can throw the caution to the wind, I can use shadow element. They will not be able to catch me.”

Kunta nodded, he was assured after this. The shadow magic users could wreak havoc at night and that too around the forest. The plan was settled and all that was left to do now was to attack the enemy at sunset.

...

Time was a fleeting thing and the sky had turned dark before long. Valerian was wearing a black shirt and pants, with his face also covered with a black scarf. His silver hair gleamed in the dark as the moonlight fell on them. He looked at the Deputy General and said, “You can act when I cast a fire Javelin.”

Kunta nodded and watched Valerian rushing into the woods, heading straight for the enemy camps. Valerian had been scouting the enemy camp from the treeline since the morning. He had decided on a few spots that could be used for the incursion. He stood on top of the tallest tree, taking cover by the leaves, blending perfectly with the darkness of night.

After waiting for a few minutes, he took a deep breath and cast a spell, “Umbra Disiectio.”

Then he appeared in the void, his figure was almost invisible, and he cast the spell to appear two hundred meters in the air. Then as he was falling down, he aimed his gaze at the guard line nearest to the tree line, and cast another spell, “Catena Flamma Lancea.”

During the two spells, he did not say a single word, because the enemy were all warriors and their physical senses were higher than the other humans. As soon as his spell finished, an array of ten lances appeared in the void, shining brightly as they shot down at the guards.

The Valkyrians had been expecting an attack, but this number of fiery lances coming at them in the cover of night was still too quick for them to react. The surroundings echoed with explosions. Vaklyrian soldiers became alert and they yelled, “Enemy attack!!”

Valerian cast the shadow dispersion spell again and vanished from the spot to appear back on the top of the tree. The Valkyrians were busy dealing with the after-effects of the attacks. Just as they were trying to find what was going on, a curtain of arrows rained down on them.

An alert soldier looked around and said, “There, they are attacking from that treeline!”

The commander of the guard units took notice and yelled, “Time has come to slay the sapientian rats, brothers, charge!!!”

Just as they charged, General Kunta gave an order, “Retreat steadily.”

They had discussed this with Valerian earlier in the noon, they will retreat and maintain a distance from the Valkyrian soldiers, just enough to make the enemy think that they were within the range and will be able to catch up to them.

Valerian looked at the chaos beneath him and mumbled, “To think these guys are so strong that such a tall tree is conducting vibrations.”

The young boy cast his gaze at the spot he had decided for his incursion and moved his scarf to cover his shining silver head. Then his figure vanished from the top of the tree and appeared near an empty tent. He crouched on the ground and calmed his breathing. This angle of the tent would not be visible to the enemy.

Then he took out his dark knife from the scabbard and moved slowly. The dagger was held in a reverse grip and moved quickly. Looking around he located the first ballista but did not advance quickly, the weapon of war was surrounded by four men and all of them were warriors. Even if the soldiers around them were rushing to deal with the Sapientians, these warriors were standing guard with cold faces.

Valerian sighed and commended the dedication to the duty. Just when he was thinking about moving in for the kill, a thunderous voice sounded in his ears, “Bastards, deal with those rats quickly, and find me a rat inside the camp. I want to see, who dares to sneak into my, Calor Trident’s, campsite.”

This shout made Valerian gulp a mouthful of saliva, this enemy was too strong. Valerian could not sense where this person was speaking from. It was as if the voice was coming from all directions. He thought of a word that made him shiver, “Grandmaster.”

This task just climbed the sky in terms of difficulty. This was a suicide mission. However, now he could not retreat or the grandmaster will sense his movements. All that he could do was move forward. Warriors of higher levels will be able to sense mana fluctuations. He would have to act without alerting the person further.

Griping his dagger hilt, the young child connected a thin thread of mana from it, and with a flick the dagger was thrown at the throat of the guard. The actions were fluent and completed with great precision. The black dagger blended with the dark of night and stabbed right in the throat of the warrior.

The warrior was killed directly. Then he tugged the mana thread and the dagger flew back into his palm. The warrior corpse was standing in a stance of complete attention and his body was at a perfect balance point. The dead warrior did not fall down. Valerian did not have the time to admire the dead warrior and before the other guard facing the almost same direction could sense it, he flicked the dagger again.

The effect was the same, death in a blink. Valerian quickly moved and came below the ballista. Then he peeked at the other two guards and walked closer to the one on his left. The steps were silent and the appearance was invisible, then he jumped up, used his left hand to cover the mouth of the bored guard, and with the right hand, he stabbed through the throat of his victim.

Three out of four guards were taken down, but the fourth guard noticed his movements from the corner of his eye. He turned around and before charging at Valerian, the man yelled, “Intruder!!!”

Valerian’s pupils constricted and cast an earth bind spell. Then he cast a fire javelin spell to pierce through the chest of his enemy, and controlled the ballista, to aim at another ballista posted in the same line. He loaded a big arrow and fired it after aiming slightly. The arrow moved past the people standing in the way and hit the second ballista.

Boom!!

The wooden weapon of war was destroyed by its kin. However, before Valerian had the time to celebrate, he sensed his body freeze, behind him an old man appeared.