Wizards of the Otherworldly Court: Five, Twenty-three, and Twenty-nine Years

Chapter 5.3 Ronald's Collection: Protecting the Duke from Bandits - Shock

"Yeah, 'cause punching the ground is totally free than describing your Maneg Soul the bottom of everything else," Joshua said sarcastically.

"But you can also attach it to the head and have it sculpt downwards," Ronald pointed out.

"Seriously, even I'm not that stingy." Joshua deadpanned at Ronald's witty remark.

"But still, memorizing this Order is really hard," the Fire Court Wizard complained. "This has been going on for months already and my Maneg Soul still show no signs of memorizing [Burn]."

"But then again, Court Wizards don't memorize Orders, unless it's very basic," Joshua explained. "And that's because..."

""...one, Court Wizards keep modifying Orders, specifically the parameters after the first step or it gets recorded as a new Order. And two, we Court Wizards have high thought process thanks to our Maneg Souls, allowing us to form Orders in our minds faster.""

---

Anyway, if Joshua didn't have his suppression, he would have made a snide remark like "Where did all that bravado of yours go?" jumping into the wall of fire and all, and point out that the talisman they used was much more powerful than Ronald's 'spirit art'.

But then again...

---

"Yes, I get it," Ronald huffed in an annoyed tone. "And besides, even you use Memorized Orders."

"Which makes both of us," Joshua smirked, "alongside her as well..." before saying in downcast.

"...Yeah,"

---

...that feeling would come first.

With his emotion suppression banishing the thoughts that infiltrated in, Joshua silently looked at his adversaries huddled together. The bandits on his side were completely on guard, training their weapons at him defensively at a distance.

"Grr...!" One of the bandits there growled. "Damn you, Ice Spirit Mercenary!"

While he wasn't this 'Ice Spirit Mercenary' the bandit spoke of, Joshua still performed something similar to one in the field between for them to make that conclusion: the three bandits who went ahead and attacked Joshua all but their heads encased in thick ice and their necks slit from left to right with blood from it trickling down the maneg formation that preserved them holding their swords in a charge.

6 bandits killed, ??? remain.

---

"Welp, might as well practice my Order," Joshua said before approaching the remnants of the firewood test dummies.

"Hm? Is it [Ice Layer]?" Ronald recalled. "The one you surprisingly find not to consume that much maneg."

"Yep, after figuring out the right and most efficient wording, I proudly call it the Order I made on my own while you only put a few kinks to your grandpa's Order," Joshua leered his eyes down at his junior.

"Well, I still got the Wizard rank out of it, so it still counts." Ronald shrugged. "Anyway, [Ice Layer]'s the Order that covers enemies in ice, correct?"

"Uh-huh, and I can even freeze them while they're moving. And since it's a formation, it's not gonna shift or fall over once it's made no matter how fast the poor fella's going - the momentum will just bite them back. If it doesn't, then that's what the lock Command's for," Joshua chuckled. "So once it sticks, it'll look like they're playing a twisted version of red light green light - their postures can get hilarious sometimes."

---

Stepping over the corpse of a bandit slain by the knights before he and Ronald got here, Joshua slowly approached the living bandits, passing by the slit bandit who was encased in ice maneg while still in the air, literally floating - though not a problem for Joshua with his stature. There were three more bandits the knights killed before Joshua got between them.

10 bandits killed, ??? remain.

"Gh...!" One of the bandits scowled as he and his colleagues uniformly stepped back as Joshua stepped forward. "Stay back!"

Looks like they think I need to get close to them, Joshua thought. They weren't spirit art users, so they wouldn't exactly know how it worked except through pure observation. A poor observation.

While the display of trapping their comrades in ice then slicing their throats while they couldn't lift a finger in the middle of the hellfire where, that people do know, 'ice spirit arts' couldn't be made didn't strike much fear into the bandits' hearts, it did make them stand back warily with no intention on getting the jump at Joshua.

And that's exactly what he wanted. Because...

---

"You should practice too," Joshua said to Ronald. "Ordering on multiple targets."

---

With duke Illyer telling off his knights, with the head knight Oswald giving his blessings, and the bandits doing absolutely nothing, no one will interrupt one of his longest Orders yet. With blood still on [Emilia's Left Dagger], the Cherished Armament he held, Joshua silently chanted, starting with the bandit constantly grunting at him.

I Order you, attach to man with pink eyes and man with scar on left cheek and man with...

---

WHOOSH CRACKLE CRACKLE

CREME~ CREME~ CREME~

Watching the scene on two sides before him, Allister al Illyer, the duke of Illyer, the war hero of Kirash, a loving husband, and a father to two daughters has his view of the world shattered yet again. But it was to be expected and simply enforced the proof that these young men, Ronald Bell and Joshua Ruze, really were from another world with their own otherworldly powers.

After all, Allister of all people should know that fire spirits never wander into Aquarius' domain and Ronald could never smuggle that many fire talismans into the water territory when they can only be used once, rare as only the most adept spirit art users can make one, and mostly forbidden to carry into other territories of conflicting elements. The duke himself wouldn't let people carry fire talismans that could weaken water spirits in his territory, and yet Ronald consumed the bandits in flames one by one as if he had many at his disposal.

And Joshua? Well, Allister doesn't need to say anything else if the unmelting ice was anything to go by, much less the 'ice talisman' being able to be used in the first place - talismans suffer under conflicting elements as much as spirits do; and ice spirits especially hated fire, much more than water spirits.

However...

"...how they fight looked deceptively and underwhelmingly powerful, whilst their... lack of intent unnerved me..."

...it looked like he still knew nothing of them for what he saw threw everything he had discussed with his head knight out of the window.