Rushing into the woods, the mages in hot pursuit halted in front of the forest.
"Captain, we need to get them. We can't hesitate!"
"Silence! They lured us here and are trying to bait us into the forest. If we go in we would be walking into their trap."
"Sir! What are you suggesting? If we can't proceed here, should we go fight the mage in the sky?"
"No, that-", the captain hadn't even finished his sentence before another one of those large explosions appeared. "What!?", turning around, there was but a single mage floating in the sky. 'An entire squadron was sent after him, yet he remained perfectly fine?!'
"Squad 2 was annihilated? How is that possible?", one of the soldiers remarked. Being so high in the squad numbers, only a Rank 3 could become a captain, yet they were wiped out?
"Stop your bickering, the commander has gone out to fight him. The remaining squads will kill the enemy forces while we deal with these two rogues."
"Yes sir!"
Spreading his willpower far and wide, the man cared little for social norms as he inspected the entire forest, hoping to get some useful intel. He could see a bunch of arrays and places with increased magical presence. The people stood in the center of the forest. One of them waved the moment he felt the captain's willpower wash over him.
Somehow that tiny gesture genuinely infuriated the captain. To be so provoking in such a critical scenario.
"There are two mages, Rank 2, they seem to be on the high end of Rank 2 though."
"We're all on the high end of Rank 2 sir, together with you, we're certain to win."
The captain knew he was right, it would only make sense, but the smiles they had while he inspected them showed absolutely no fear at all.
"You all go deal with them, I'll help the commander take care of the bigger threat."
"Good luck sir!"
"You all as well," flying away, the captain went as fast as he could to attack Malek.
Standing in a small clearing in the woods, Lucas and Asta saw him fly upwards and frowned.
"Hmm, this was outside my expectations. One would expect him to take his chances here," Asta analyzed. They needed a Rank 3 here so that Malek had an easier path forward to the commander. If that didn't work out, they might lose here.
"I don't like to say it, but I'll take some advice from myself," Lucas said as he aimed his arm towards the man.
"Do you really think this is a good idea?"
"Why not?", Lucas didn't blink as he aimed perfectly at the fleeing Rank 3 mage. Unleashing his power, a Dark Beam shot across the sky, alerting everyone nearby. Even the fanatics of The Holy Kingdom in battle saw the spell from afar. Seeing it appear, their fanaticism grew stronger, upping their attacks on the castle.
The target felt the beam approaching, making him conjure up a wall of pure Light that blocked most of its power. When it got through, it ate at his shields, but never broke them completely.
"What in heaven's name was that?"
Had the captain not noticed it earlier, he would be split in two. Staring down into the forest, he felt that all his soldiers were walking into a death trap, but on the other hand, all of this might've been a way to simply stall him.
Stuck in the between choices, he didn't know if he had to go aid his commander, stop the assault of The Holy Kingdom's forces or hunt the rogue mages.
The longer he waited, the more dead would be placed on his back, but a hasty decision might've led to an even worse outcome. They were completely caught off guard. With the enemy forces appearing in the east they hunted plenty of their soldiers. Combining that with the large explosion from the Demon Archer in the sky and the collapse of their protective sphere, the dead were starting to pile up.
If he made a bad decision, hundred of deaths would be placed in his hands. Having his brain split in three options, the man started to think in binary, pure numbers. Which choice resulted in the least amount of deaths?
'Aiding the fortress.'
Having made his decision, he rushed towards the wall to kill as many Holy Soldiers as possible.
Lucas and Asta who watched from afar felt their hearts stop for a second. "What is that buffoon doing!", Asta couldn't help himself anymore. To be threatened with your life and still running away to aid not the commander but some random troops, he just couldn't wrap his head around it.
His companion also stood in silence as he stared at the sky, hoping to see him rise up again, yet nothing came of it. Turning to face Asta, he truly didn't understand what just happened. "Are we the idiots?", Lucas couldn't help but wonder. They had almost everything planned out. This was outside their calculations.
Of course, human behavior was never something easy to predict, rarely could one do so perfectly. It just baffled him since he knew this moment would come, this was meant to happen. The only difference was the fact that Lucas had thought the captain would go after him when he threatened his life.
Or when he showed the power capable of wiping out his entire squadron of most likely friends or good colleagues he would feel bad and help out. Now their plan needed to be adjusted.
"Him helping out the forces in the fortress would result in the idiots all dying a worthless death. This was probably the correct choice for him in a way. Sadly, I did not think he would be so smart," Asta was harsh on himself, not wanting a petty excuse to cover for him.
"Have you forgotten? They're all infected. By now, their core would be acting up, giving the wrong mana or amounts below or above the requested amount. Even if they're not technically soldiers of The Holy Kingdom, fanatics have enough power as it is. The moment the commander left, they'll have made plenty of progress in their conquering of the castle."
"I see. I suppose this change is within the margins. How are they doing by the way?", Asta asked as he stared into the forest and saw the corpses of a few mages. "They are a lot stronger than those other ones. I had expected all of them to die, but there's still ten left."
"Huh. Well, let's go finish it," Lucas said as he walked towards the woods. Grabbing a stone spear he made earlier. The tip was covered in runes, forming a small array that had a tiny but effective function.
"Hmm, I don't like having that captain join them anyhow. Are you okay doing this on your own? I'm going to go inspect the battle between the two forces and make sure both sides are destroyed."
"Sure," Lucas said as he waved his arm. Asta flew off, giving Lucas some breathing room.
'Want to give it another shot?'
'...'
'It's not an all out battle, but you'll be able to do what you want.'
'I'll try.'
Switching, Lucas' mood swung drastically. From the tactical persona, he felt sad. Somberly walked through the forest, his spear barely gripped in his hand, part Lucas was trying to find the joy in battle.
Erasing his presence, magic barely leaking out. The trick was to cover his body in darkness to remove more of his being, but using Eleven's spell was deemed to be enough for an ambush.
Along his path, he found dead mages, some punctured by spears, others choked to death by tiny strings. While extremely hard to see, if one paid attention, all the trees above were connected by a series of webs. If you tried to fly upwards, you would only place your neck in a noose.
On the ground, there were plenty of traps and attacks that had but one goal, spread panic in order for them to fly upwards. As Lucas walked under the corpses that were strung up above him, he felt a presence approaching. Halting in his steps, he waited behind a large tree.
Right when the presence walked past the tree, Lucas pierced the spear towards the mage, who sensed the killing intent, barely dodging it. The mage took a step back and fired an arc of concentrated fire towards Lucas, who sidestepped the attack, but had his cheek singed.
Scraping of the bark from a nearby tree, he threw it towards the mage, who closed his eyes in response and stomped his foot on the ground. Three spears around Lucas shot up from the ground, aiming to puncture him like a porcupine.
Grabbing the spear, he pulled himself forward and sliced the air with his spear, as the mage had predicted what Lucas would do, he stood ready with another spell, creating a Dark Blade that he shot forward.
Lucas clenched his muscles as an aura of Light shot out of him, partially blinding the mage and removing the Dark Blade. Rushing in close, Lucas thrusted his spear forward, only for the mage to have parried his attack. Using the momentum, Lucas turned around and used the back of his arm to conjure Ice Spikes. Waving his arm towards the mage, the spikes shot forward, but he had conjured a wall to protect himself.
Right as he regained his footing, the wall was launched towards him. Not reacting fast enough, Lucas turned his body and let his shoulder take the impact. The wall exploded around him, pushing him back. The mage behind it had conjured two daggers of ice, throwing them and conjuring up a flame beam.
Seeing the power of the beam, Lucas took his chances. The daggers pierced his shoulder, but didn't damage the muscle enough for him to lose control. Covering his arms in pure ice, he blocked the beam while stepping forward. Seeing his attack had no effect, he halted his fire attack before using a newly conjured stone dagger to pierce Lucas's stomach.
Turning his body slightly, he let the dagger grace his skin, using the room, Lucas raised his legs and stomped on the knee of the mage, bending it backwards, completely breaking his leg.
Jumping back, Lucas had already healed his wounds since they were mostly superficial.
"You bastard," the mage wasn't done yet though as he summoned a bunch of darkness arrows he launched at irregular intervals to throw Lucas off guard. Stomping the ground, a block of condensed earth popped up from the ground. Kicking it towards the other leg of the mage, the man used his broken leg to narrowly dodge it.
The block flew towards the nearby tree, completely obliterating the bottom of the stump, letting the tree fall down upon the mage.
Caught in its crown, the mage tried to focus on where Lucas was at, but Lucas suddenly jumped in the air, grasping his hand in the open air.
The mage had seen plenty of his friend meet that fate, his heart skipped a beat as he realized his body was covered in the threads. Quickly raising his hand, he conjured up a dark sphere to remove some of the threads before he was suddenly raised upwards.
The threads were lifting him up by his neck, chocking the life out of him. The sharp strings started to puncture his skin, wringing his neck into pieces. If he was Lucas he could've used his skin as a gateway to escape, but as a conventional mage, he had no such tricks. Raising his hand, he conjured up a ball of fire, not caring if he had to turn the entire forest to ash in turn.
Lucas, who stood on the ground pulling on a bunch of strings, raised his spear and threw it towards the mage. As the spear pierced his body, it got stuck, letting the blood drip down the shaft. He hung there for a few seconds before the life was gone from his eyes.
Letting go, the body fell lifelessly on the ground.
"They're stronger than I expected."
'Indeed, though I have to say you didn't fight like you normally would.'
"What do you mean?"
'Your typical brutality was missing, there were multiple windows where I imagined you breaking the man's neck while suffering a wound or two.'
"Weren't you the one nagging me about not being careless with our body?"
'Yes, but I didn't think you would actually listen.'
"Whatever, the pain is sobering me up at least. I'll get there."
Pulling the spear from the body, Lucas digged his hand into the hole to grab his core and stored it away. "Nine left."