Touch of Fate

Chapter 130: Getting Serious

As had become habit for him in stressful situations, Mike circulated mana into his head, enhancing his Willpower through Water Magic. His eyes turned blue, as the world seemed to slow down around him. Already moving, he took a second to establish his plan.

The assassin had started with a kidney blow. From what Mike recalled about kidney injuries, they caused a debilitating amount of pain, and can lead to death if untreated. A few of the stories he'd read in the past mentioned that is was one of the most effective means of quietly killing someone from behind, since it prevented them from taking any action for a few seconds, even when the would-be assassin was moving in for a killing blow.

Judging from the manner in which the man had pulled the dagger free and was angling it towards the Emmanuel's throat, he evidently planned to do just that. A small part of Mike's expanded consciousness registered two other men, dressed as butlers, which were approaching swiftly.

After identifying a few critical steps, Mike put his plan into action. While turning to face the assassins and drawing his sword, he sent a current of mana into the combatants' shadows. A spike of pure darkness erupted from the ground, impaling the man, before quickly dissipating. With his next step, Mike placed a hand on Emmanuel as he fell forward, and channeled an intense blast of healing magic. The older mage gasped as he landed on his hands and knees.

With another step, Mike brought his sword up to block the strike of the assassin on the right, while emitting an intense beam of fire with his left. As the second assassin fell back with smoking hole burned through the center of his chest, he swept the dagger of the last remaining enemy aside, and decapitated him with the backswing.

Mike exhaled the breath he had been holding, and turned back towards his advisor. "Sir, the cannons!" He exclaimed, before moving in the direction of the increasingly panicky students.

Emmanuel looked at him for a second, before the horrifying realization dawned on him. He glanced up at the air ship, and began chanting quickly, under his breath.

Sprinting back to his table, Mike could determine that, assuming the enemy had timed it correctly, the cannons should fire before he could get there. So he summoned up as much mana as he could hold, preparing to do one of two things, should his advisor prove unable to stop the assault.

With a deafening roar, the airship fired. Cannons belching torrents of fire as a broadside of shells were launched in the gathering's direction.

A small part of Mike's mind realized that he had unconsciously activated his Aerosense skill, and was using it to calculate trajectories and arrival times. The rest of him was too consumed with the task at hand to pay it much attention.

Emmanuel finished his spell, creating a series of small portals in the air, which swallowed the shells, sending them somewhere else presumably. However, he missed two of the lethal projectiles.

Determining the proper alignment based on their trajectories, Mike used Earth Magic to propel two tables into the air, in an effort to intercept the shells. They collided with a titanic explosion, causing shrapnel to rain down on the crowd. Several students were injured in the process, but he didn't have time to worry about that right now.

Mike couldn't figure out the enemy's objective. If they simply wanted to slaughter the gathered students, bombarding them from a distance would be sufficient. Getting close like this seemed foolhardy considering the number of mages present in the crowd. It was almost as if the broadside had been cursory, a sort of expected distraction, and their true objective was somewhere else.

Keeping that in mind, he suspected that, with the length of time required to reload and the failure of the first round, they would take a different course of action now. As he watched, the ship began to descend, and a large number of humanoid figures starting lining up on deck.

A quick glance at his companions told him that they would not be of assistance without detoxification, as all of them were in various states of unconsciousness. Brenden had even fallen from his chair, and was lying on the ground.

Mike also noticed that the servers had begun to return, now armed with a variety of weapons. The few students and instructors who had either not partaken in the meal, or resisted the effects of the drug, were engaging the vanguard of this new enemy group.

Surveying the situation, Mike determined that he needed to either move the students to a safe location or cure them of the drug and allow them to defend themselves. The former be difficult to achieve with his own power, and the latter would take too long without some means of curing multiple people at the same time. So, he sent a quick mental message, and then devoted a portion of his mind to working on a magical solution.

Meanwhile, he summoned another portion of his magic, and began reciting a chant he'd learned recently. "Protect that which is mine, and reject that which is not. [Earthen Barricade]"

A wall of earth sprung up from the ground creating a barrier between the erstwhile servers and the unconscious students. It stood nearly 3m tall and spanned dozens of meters in both directions. Unfortunately, it wasn't particularly strong and not nearly long enough, so when the disguised assassins overcame their shock, some of them began tearing down the wall, while the rest started moving around it. Mike figured he had less than a minute till they bypassed it in some way.

A solution to his current problem had finally formed in his mind, so he focused the entirety of his enhanced Willpower on putting it into use. He began chanting a spell in a forgotten language, one composed of lyrical, flighty tones and complex, musical grammar. A spell that had never existed before this moment.

"In the tides of ancient memory, I bring forth thine mercy. With hands bound by strife, I plead for thine touch. For the salvation of my people, I offer my gratitude. Cleanse that which is tainted, and succor that which is true. [Mists of Cleansing]

Mike felt a tremendous amount of mana surge through him as he bent his will into blending two forms of magic into one. A wave of pure white mist, glowing softly in the afternoon sun, exploded from his outstretched hands, covering the area in an impenetrable cloud. He held it for as long as he could manage before dropping to his knees, feeling lightheaded. His enhancement magic also faded when his mana reserves fell to critical levels.

From the sounds of it, the students were already waking up, now he just needed to get them to start moving. The mist would dissipate in a minute or two, and he needed them to be ready to defend themselves so he could move on to the next phase. He took note of the sounds of combat from another part of the crowd. The enemies on the airship had apparently arrived.

Mike pulled out three of the Tier 1 Mana Potions, and drank them one after the other. Feeling his mana recover to minor degree, he stood and enacted the next part of his plan.

"Come to me, that which is marked, and render thine aid. [Call Marked Object]" He chanted, causing his Salamander Cloak to appear in his hand. He wasn't sure it was going to work, but felt pleasantly surprised that it did. With a gesture he summoned a mask of darkness across his face, completing his disguise.

Turning to his slowly awakening party members, he issued a few commands. "Sera, Tal, Brenden! We are under attack. Rally the students as best you can, and try to deal with the attackers. The mist will fade in less than a minute, so be ready to take action."

He heard the three of them respond quickly, although they were still concealed by the mist.

"Right." Tal replied quickly.

"Airship? When did that get here?" Brenden asked groggily. Evidently, he hadn't recovered from his much larger dose of the drug.

Sera asked, "Wait. What are you planning on doing?"

By this point the mist had cleared sufficiently to let him see vague shapes. "I'm going to make sure that the airship doesn't fire again, and with any luck I'll have a powerful ally to help me." He said, as he burst into action.

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Viscount Wendel frowned at the developments taking place below him. The agents he'd assigned to deal with the Magic Department Chair were easily dispatched by a figure in a grey tunic, allowing the powerful space mage to deal with the majority of their broadside.

He was already sending a mental message to one his followers on the ground, instructing them to keep the mage occupied, when someone succeeded in intercepting the remaining two shells with a pair of tables. Almost immediately afterwards, a wall of earth popped into existence between the students and the rest of their agents. It appeared that a talented Earth Mage had managed to avoid being drugged, and acted in a timely manner.

Tanya, standing to his right glanced at him with a look of concern etched onto her face. It was clear to her that things weren't going according to plan.

Without taking his eyes off of the conflict taking place below, he spoke reassuringly, "Don't worry, my dear. They may be putting up a better fight than anticipated, but I doubt they will be able to handle the full range of the forces I've brought with me."

He turned towards the soldiers gathering on deck in preparation for the assault. "Remember, securing the princess is our primary task. All else is secondary. Succeed and you will all be well rewarded."

A round of hearty cheers greeted the sentiment as the soldiers threw rope ladders over the side and began descending into the confusion below.

The Viscount gave a small smile, before addressing Tanya, "Have the handlers get the beasts ready. We'll need them for our retreat."

A sudden mist exploded over the gathered students, shrouding them from view. The viscount frowned again. "It seems we need to reexamine our contract with the guild. This is twice they've failed to disable a powerful mage before they had the chance to act. It appears that we are paying them too much."

With a shrug he turned his gaze skyward, as his most effective allies descended into view.

[Perhaps it was for the best that we allowed them to cloak themselves in mist. The revelation of what they are fighting will be that much more scarring.]

Five leonine roars split the sky, as the monsters descended into battle, bearing their dangerous charges.