"It seems I don't even need to intervene."
Nanoda heard the sound of weapons dropping one after another behind her. She knew the outcome was decided.
"Qual, it's time for us to make our exit."
Hearing this, Qual nodded slightly and activated his Flight Magic. He carried Nanoda and flew toward the distant forest.
"Someone is following us."
As they traversed the forest, Nanoda felt a familiar sensation. Although her Mana Perception showed absolutely no reaction, her intuition told her that something dangerous was spying on her and Qual.
Clatter.
A fist-sized, crystal-like white ore was thrown in front of Qual, blocking his path. After the sound of the ore sinking into the soil faded, the surroundings fell into silence once again.
"What is this?"
The sound of wind breaking came from behind his neck. Qual instinctively tried to cast Defensive Magic.
Clang.
Sitting on Qual's shoulder, Nanoda acted as if she had eyes in the back of her head. With one hand, she drew the broken horn from her leg pouch and, in an instant, knocked away the throwing knife aimed at his throat.
"How is this possible? This old one cannot use magic!"
Qual suddenly realized that the moment he tried to condense his Defensive Magic, his mana dissipated involuntarily.
"Magic Sealing Ore."
Looking at the ore on the ground, Nanoda already had a guess.
"Qual, don't move. There's an assassin."
Using Magic Sealing Ore to seal mana before assassinating—leaving aside the difficulty of gathering such ore, an assassin who reveals no presence is no ordinary person. Which faction exactly is intercepting them here?
She couldn't feel any killing intent at all; the opponent was a professional peer. After throwing that knife, the enemy had already changed their hiding spot.
"Is there a problem with this ore? Do I need to pick it up and throw it away?"
"I told you, don't move. Look carefully at your surroundings."
Hearing Nanoda's warning, Qual focused his gaze and his pupils instantly constricted.
The area around the stone was covered in silver threads, like a spiderweb. If he had bent down to pick up the stone, these sharp threads would have sliced his arm open.
"My King, apologies. It seems I am powerless right now."
Unable to use Killing Magic, Qual felt very helpless. It was his first time encountering such a situation.
Nanoda held both broken horns in her hands. She slowly stood up on Qual's shoulder and took a deep breath.
She was waiting. Waiting for that guy to make another move.
Standing on a tree branch as if weightless, hidden among the dense foliage, the assassin frowned. He hadn't expected that broken-horned Demon to be so skilled.
He had assumed these two Demons relied on magic to rampage across the battlefield, and that without magic, they would be prey waiting to be slaughtered.
Thinking a bit more highly of that broken-horned Demon, the assassin decided to strike again. After all, this dense forest was his home ground!
He had long since set traps and special silver threads that cut iron like mud in the vicinity. As long as these two Demons fled in panic, they would fall into the trap.
But contrary to his expectations, aside from the broken-horned Demon suddenly standing up, they didn't move an inch, as if they already knew of his setup.
The assassin this time took out three throwing knives, aiming respectively at Nanoda's head, and Qual's chest and leg.
The three knives sped toward the two Demons from a tree to the side at high speed. At the same time, the assassin secretly shifted his hiding position.
"Are you thinking that this is your home ground?"
A voice suddenly sounded in his ear. The assassin broke out in a cold sweat all over his body.
When on earth...?
Accompanied by the sound of knives clashing, a sharp broken horn sliced off one of the assassin's ears, spraying blood. Dodging wretchedly, the assassin fell to the ground.
Nanoda stood on the branch, looking down at the assassin who had just fallen, dressed in camouflage black clothing.
"How is this possible? Are you an assassin too?"
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
The moment the assassin struck, Nanoda also threw the knives she had previously swiped from Baron Aaron's armory. The three knives collided with precision. At the same time, Nanoda leapt from Qual's shoulder, drifting like a feather close to the assassin who was trying to hide again.
"Sorry, but I actually prefer people to call me a hitman."
Nanoda said expressionlessly.
"I was careless."
When she realized what the assassin was about to do, Nanoda found it was already too late.
Knowing he could not defeat the Demon before him, the killer took the poison hidden in his tooth socket. With bloodshot eyes bulging, he fell to the ground and died just like that.
"I'm still rusty. If it were before, I could have stopped him from taking the poison."
Nanoda jumped down from the tree. She waved the broken horn in her hand a few times, and the blades formed by the air pressure severed all the nearby silver threads.
"Alright, it's safe now."
Qual, whose body had been tense, nodded and bent down to pick up the Magic Sealing Ore.
"An ore capable of disrupting mana; it seems to contain mana itself."
"Don't look at it for now. Help me carry this guy back."
Looking at the corpse on the ground, Nanoda wanted to take it back to see if she could find any clues.
*
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the remnants of Earl Mannier's army had been captured. They followed behind the Imperial Army and the Gaderia Army, returning to Gaderia Territory.
At the front of the column, Vincent was explaining the sequence of events to Baron Aaron.
Hearing that the Imperial Army had originally intended to ambush Gaderia but, by a twist of fate, hijacked Nanoda's stronghold, was defeated by her, and then switched sides, Baron Aaron didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Truly, she and I really have some sort of destiny."
Just as Baron Aaron was lamenting, someone within the Imperial Army quietly drew a longsword, pushed through the crowd, and rushed to stab Baron Aaron on horseback!
"Watch out!"
Seeming sensitive to danger, Yuna thrust her spear-like staff to intercept. However, due to the exhaustion of stamina from fighting and using magic, she only managed to slightly deflect the longsword stabbing at Baron Aaron.
Feeling a stinging pain from his back, it seemed the longsword had hit bone and, by sheer coincidence, got stuck there.
Seeing the fatal strike fail, the soldier tilted his head, fell to the ground, and died from poison.
"Are you alright?!"
Vincent's heart was in his throat. He grabbed hold of Aaron, who was about to fall from his horse.
"Hiss... what on earth is going on?"
Baron Aaron was attacked, and the entire column instantly halted.
Looking at the soldier lying on the ground, Vincent suddenly remembered something a colleague had told him before.
The Empire had once specially trained a unit for assassinating Mages. The outstanding ones among them would serve as the Emperor's secret guards to execute secret missions handed down by the Emperor.
At this moment, cold sweat broke out on Vincent's forehead. He realized that their actions had actually been under surveillance the whole time—the Emperor's secret guards were hiding right beside them!
____
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