"Ha, are you kidding me?" the lightning mage laughed. "You're just fooling us! You have no protectors, not now for sure, and we were just worrying for nothing. By the way, what did you just throw, huh? Decided to pretend you sent a signal for help? Do you think we'll believe you after your blunder? Surround him, guys! Even though he's small, he's a wind mage, God forbid he escapes!"
"You know, I'll tell you the truth before you die," I said, taking out Asura's mask, a gift from the old man, from my spatial bracelet, and also summoning an artifact that was barely visible behind my back. Meanwhile, the three who stood behind the lightning mage began to circle me. The light mage, as expected, moved the most fearfully; if you look closely, he's not even twenty-five, the youngest.
"What are you talking about, what truth?" the lightning mage chuckled, beginning to draw a star map of lightning.
"I killed everyone who came for my tooth myself," I said, putting on the mask and activating the artifact daggers.
"Finish him quickly, guys!" the mage shouted, the lightning mage finishing his star map, he was clearly not in a hurry with this. The other mages also hurried to finish their star maps, but it was too late.
"And now I've thrown the bait," I said, throwing my hands forward. Two daggers, which had been hovering over my left and right shoulders, broke free and flew forward like bullets.
The first pierced the fire mage's chest, in the heart area, the second pierced the lightning mage's. After that, both daggers instantly changed direction. The water mage even managed to summon a storm wave that began to approach me. But alas, in the next moment, his chest was also pierced by a dagger, and the light mage screamed in pain as his leg was almost torn off. Using a gust of wind, I flew up, over the subsiding storm wave, simultaneously retrieving my daggers.
Landing, I headed towards the light mage, who stared at me like a madman. His previous star map had dissipated, so he was rushing to create a new one, but it just wouldn't come together. He tried to crawl back on all fours, he couldn't stand anymore, one leg dangled by a thin strip of skin and flesh, the bone was shattered and broken. How he managed to try to release magic in this state, I don't know. Although mages' bodies are stronger, it doesn't mean their pain threshold is higher.
"Listen to me carefully, I have painkillers. If you tell me where your base is, I'll give it to you," I said, in a chilling voice, finally letting all my rage out. I even lost control of my magical energy circulation for a moment, so bolts of lightning, quite strong, flew out of my entire body, and a strong gust of wind blew. It was clear that after this, this guy almost wet himself.
"Is... is... tru... th?.." he asked, stuttering badly and choking on tears and snot, what a disgusting sight. I must admit, if not for the element of surprise and my artifact, I would clearly not have dared to arrange a meeting with the guardians myself. An artifact can kill a high-level mage if caught off guard.
"Yes, but you have to tell the truth, otherwise you'll become food for the undead, like your friends," I said dryly, simultaneously pulling the lightning mage's phone from his hands and grabbing it on the fly. There was no password on it, so it's unlikely to contain anything important. The photo of the tied-up Lin Yun Er was still open there. While studying it, I also used spatial magic to throw the lightning mage's body off the wall. I could already hear the screams of the undead below. I need to leave here quickly, or the guards will flock here, and then I'll be in trouble.
"I'll tell you everything, just don't kill me! Please!" the light mage suddenly shouted in a normal voice.
"Good," I said, taking the phones from the water and fire mages, they might come in handy.
After that, I headed to the light mage, taking a pre-prepared syringe with painkillers from my spatial bracelet. In general, I needed it in case I was wounded during the fight, so I couldn't cast magic, relieve the pain, and continue the battle. But it will do for this too. Along the way, I threw the two remaining corpses over the wall. There was no point in torturing them, they might have resisted further, everything needed to be resolved quickly here, but as soon as I find Lin Yun Er, I will unleash my imagination.
"Now tell me the address," I said, injecting painkillers into his leg.
In general, this is a rather strong painkiller, on the verge of being a narcotic, it can even cause addiction if the dose is abused, and it is expensive. After that, the light mage quickly told me the address, with a look of relief. Meanwhile, I tied his hands, bandaged his leg, and cut off the excess, also throwing it over the wall. Time was running out, the guards would soon arrive. Tying the light mage tightly and making sure his leg wasn't bleeding, I threw him over my back and headed to the indicated address, using all the wind magic spells I knew, and working at the limit of my capabilities, developing maximum speed.
"Look, if you lied, I'll cut off your other leg and ask again, only this time there will be no painkillers," I said to the light mage while tying him up. "You have only three, well, four attempts left, then only death."
I moved incredibly fast, I think even close to the speed of senior leaders. The roofs served as a convenient platform for me to move, so in five or six minutes, I was in the eastern part of the city, in one of the abandoned districts. It was here that the building indicated by the light mage was located, which, by the way, felt unwell after my run. Even the body of a peak middle-level mage cannot withstand such speed; I only have shortness of breath, although it is heavy.
I quickly found the building I needed, it was a three-story residential building, very dilapidated. Remembering the photo with Lin Yun Er, it's very similar to the place. I landed silently on the roof of this building, straining all my senses, I could feel faint echoes of magic below, it seems this is indeed the place.
"Go in and check, this is the place, and now let me go!" the light mage, who had slightly recovered, begged. In response, I knocked him out with a punch, causing blood to flow from his nose.
As if to burst, there was a door on the roof leading down. Tying the light mage to the railing on the edge of the roof, hoping he wouldn't fall prematurely, I headed down. The strongest magical energy was felt on the third floor, and a group of quite strong mages was below, on the first. So, we can assume that Lin Yun Er is being held on the third floor under the guard of a strong mage, or on the second, protecting her from penetration from both above and below.
I descended as quietly as possible, soon found myself on the third floor, before starting the reckoning, it is necessary to eliminate the strongest mage. As I approached him, I could feel his strength more and more clearly, he was very close to the high level, if not already reached it. I had already summoned the artifact and prepared the daggers, ready to use them at any moment. However, I didn't plan to kill him on the first encounter; if such a strong mage is here, one can learn a lot of interesting things from him.
Finally, I approached the door behind which I felt this mage. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, I kicked the door open with my bare foot, literally breaking it to splinters. Bursting inside, I immediately shifted my gaze to where I felt the mage. It turned out to be a rather attractive woman of about thirty-five, I even felt a little sorry for her to torture, but information is more important. She also looked at me, she was in complete shock, as she clearly couldn't sense me, I hid my magic well, using energy control skills, although the leakage helped in some way.
Without thinking twice, I aimed two daggers at her legs, and at the same time, two more lightning seals at her hands. From complete surprise, she didn't have time to react, her legs below the knee were literally torn off, causing her to scream loudly, but due to the lightning seals, she quickly passed out. The places where the magic hit turned black, and the effect was like a good shocker on a normal human.
Quickly bandaging her legs so she wouldn't kick the bucket prematurely, I tied her up and, tying her to my back, went down. Her scream should have alerted the whole house, but I wasn't going to leave such a mage alone, even without legs.
Walking into the corridor, I saw mages ascending, about three low-level and one mid-level mage. They had set up quite a base here. With a flick of my wrist, I sent all three low-level mages tumbling down the stairs. It was a weakened wind blade, otherwise, they would have been cut in half, and I didn't want that. The mid-level mage survived, for which he paid with a leg, which my dagger severed, after which, passing by him, I knocked him out with a lightning shock.
Heading down the stairs, I saw that the three low-level mages were also unconscious. Sounds of stomping came from the first floor, and when I was on the second-floor landing, four quite strong mid-level mages started ascending from below. As soon as they saw me, they stopped immediately and backed away as if they had seen some kind of demon. They didn't even try to use magic, though it wouldn't have helped them much anyway.
My two daggers easily severed the legs of these statues, sending them flying down. First, their screams were heard, mixed with the heavy thuds of their heads against the stairs. What a pity, the bodies of mid-level mages are quite sturdy, and even after such a fall, they remained conscious. I don't know if they broke anything, but the pain from the bruises and the absence of legs certainly guarantees that they won't dare to ascend. On the second floor, just like on the third, there were only three rooms, a rather small house, I must admit.
One door was open; apparently, the mages who were first to suffer from my hand had run out from there. The other two rooms were closed. From one of them, I felt two weak magical energies. One was barely discernible, as if the mage was unconscious, and it was also the energy of light magic. That was definitely Lin Yun Er. The second was not much stronger than hers, apart from being conscious. It seemed to be a guard they had placed to protect Lin Yun Er, or rather, to make sure she didn't escape. It was dark magic energy, I'm not entirely sure which kind, I haven't had much contact with it, but it's similar to poison.
Without much thought or hesitation, I also kicked open the door behind which Lin Yun Er was and entered. Upon entering, I saw a rather large room, without furniture, exactly like in the photo. In the corner, bound and unconscious, lay Lin Yun Er. Next to her stood a young girl, about sixteen or seventeen, looking at me with eyes full of horror, inhuman determination, and a desire to live. She was frantically trying to create a star path, as I had suspected, poison magic.
Her appearance slightly cooled the hellfire burning in my chest, and I began to examine her with interest. What was someone like her doing here? Wasn't she too weak? She seemed well-dressed, and not particularly beaten up. Of course, Lin Yun Er wasn't very dirty either, but this girl seemed completely ordinary; she was clearly not a prisoner of the guardians. But then the question arose, why did they take such a weak person on this mission? Were they so confident in the success of the operation?
The moans of the mid-level mages lying on the first floor created a special atmosphere at that moment. The girl couldn't finish the star path; tears streamed from her eyes, and she fell to her knees. It was quite an interesting sight.
I lied a little when I said there was no furniture in the room; in reality, there was one mirror, standing to my side. Turning my gaze to it, I saw not just a person, but a terrible monster, radiating danger. Black robes, floating daggers, a woman unconscious and tied to my back, and most importantly, a white mask with a blood-red, devilishly smiling mouth and narrow eye slits outlined in the same color, which literally blazed red, instilling terror.