Getting into a stance waiting for the first attacker Thorn flew up into the sky out of sight leaving them all to be handled by me alone "have fun down there! I'm gonna find something to eat!"
bastard. I was almost grateful for him leaving me alone with them all but found it a little suspicious he didn't want to get involved.
The surrounding elves nodded at each other and ran at me together launching various attacks of nature, earth, poison, water, and light magics. "Now now! Let's have some fun!"
Spinning my freezing energy sword around I jammed it into the earth releasing a bone-chilling blizzard in all directions freezing their attacks in the air slowing their movements.
"Blasted human! White cedar!" An elven girl continued forward and frosted branches shot up from the ground underneath the trees surrounding me as the blizzard kept rampaging around us.
"An enchanter? Your even rarer than sorcerers like me!" Meeting her blade I pulled out a violet blade from my necklace and with a loud clang, the surrounding blizzard waned making it easier to see.
As she pushed against me she took in every detail of my body "that mask and sword! You're the adventurer that disappeared two years ago. Incursik the battle demon!"
Smiling through my mask I revealed my pure black horns atop my skull "to think an elf would even know of me. I'm honored." Infusing more strength into my arms I shoved her blade off me and quickly spun around kicking another elf in the face launching them away spitting blood.
"Have you never heard of battle etiquette?" As the elf flew backward I ran after him grabbing his face and smashing the back of his skull into a recently formed ice pillar knocking him out.
The female elf from before then came running in angrily again "take me seriously!" running past her though I slashed down on the weapons of the two elves following her knocking them into the earth
"face my demon!"
As I froze the two elves to the floor a great tree sprouted underneath her feet growing at a rapid pace. Its branches chased after me but before they could even get close to me they froze over and shattered from the blizzards freezing winds.
The weaker elves were already trapped in ice by the blizzard so with another snap of my fingers it vanished revealing the elf atop the tree along with two others still able to fight.
They quickly grouped up standing beside each other to take me down together as they thought up a plan. My eyes turned to see the cannon had now been recharged and they were preparing to fire another shot.
"7 minutes to reload. Not bad considering its output. That'll be more than enough time for Thorn to fly past."
The elves then returned from their quick meeting with hot air exuding from the bodies when met with the freezing wind around them.
"What are you doing here demon?!"
"Would you believe me if I told you I was fighting the black knight that was riding the meteor earlier and ended up getting dragged along?" The elf's eyes showed they held no weight to my words as they imagined what it must have looked like. "I wanted to leave quickly and quietly but your captain kind of prevented that."
Taking a step forward I spotted several faint red flashes in the opposing elves' pockets.
"Cayde you've got incoming! They've called the entire bloody military to capture you!" Thorns voice was calm yet amazed, it must have been quite the amount for him to sound like that "they'll be on top of you in 15 minutes. What do you want to do?"
Wait until the canons fired at me again. You'll dive down and pick me up immediately after.
"Aw, you don't want to fight an entire army before going home? It'll make for a cool story for your sisters~"
Ignoring Thorn's words I looked to the cannon waiting for the order to fire. The elves were steadily backing away as well, showing they were trying to give room for it to fire.
Ignoring them I immediately ran towards the wall
"What's he doing? Is he insane, he's going to kill himself!"
The elves immediately chased after but were too slow to gain on me with their half frosted bodies. The cannons angle then changed following the direction I ran as the riflemen repeatedly shot around me and archers loosed their arrows
With a black vortex, I was able to shield myself from their bullets and arrows for a time but what I was wanting finally appeared. With a bright yellow glow warming itself, the cannon fired right at me.
With a flash of white thunder, I returned to where I began my sprint letting the cannon fire directly into the ground and appearing right behind the three elves knocking them all out with jabs to the back of their necks.
"Time to go, Thorn!" The black dragon quickly descended flying just above ground level, forging a whip of corruption I tossed the tendril with all my might landing on Thorn's back yanking me up into the air
reeling the white tendril into my hand I quickly landed on Thorn's back and he began his climb up into the sky. "We're never coming here again. Are we?" Thorn asked almost saddened
Looking behind us seeing the sea of green and silver knights I responded "pretty sure I'm going to be blacklisted after this." A cannon shot us but Thorn avoided it with ease "and you as well by the looks of it."
"Eh. Too green so I'm not bothered. But the sheep I ate was almost as tasty as those fruit snakes." Unsurprised by Thorn's words I sat down on his scaly back and prepped for the journey back home to my family.
"I wonder how different they'll be after two months."
***
Trabben Hargeeve POV:
After a few throbbing sensations coursed through my skull, I groaned unpleasantly wanting it to stop. Opening my eyes I found myself surrounded by medical artifacts and surmised I was inside the border wall's medical ward.
"Dammit. So it wasn't just a dream." Not wanting to think about how my ass got beat I closed my eyes forcefully but immediately saw the frenzied silver eyes of the boy that beat me waking back up with a terrified gasp opening my eyes fully.
My vice-captain Siri was sitting on my bed's edge startled by my sudden awakening "captain!" Her shock quickly turned to happiness and she wrapped her arms around me. "You've been asleep for a full day. How do you feel?"
Siri had bandages across her arms and around her neck but she didn't look like she was in much pain unlike me "I feel like my head was split in half. What's my medical?"
Releasing her arms from me she returned to her normal statute self "you have a mild skull fracture along with a few squeezed mana circuits but you should be able-bodied within a few days of rest."
picking up my body I saw more of my squad members in beds with frostbite and cut marks "was that done by the bastard who took me down?"
"Yes. Fortunately, we managed to get some information before he vanished in a Searigan city not far from here."
That short bastard got away "give me the full report. Spare no details." Trying to calm me I laid back down and covered my face with my hand.
"Yes sir. The combatant has been verified as the platinum ranked adventurer, Incursik the battle demon, who is known for killing a dragon hybrid. He disappeared two years ago but recent intelligence shows he made a brief appearance in Preirig three months ago."
A dragon slayer huh.
"He also stated that he was dragged into Elshide against his will by a strange spirit that looks like a black knight that came here as the golden meteor. There are also two individuals from Preirig and Searig who wish to speak to you concerning Incursik and the disappeared knight."
"Send them to me. Perhaps we can work together to get answers." Siri quickly left opening the door of the medical ward allowing a brown-skinned girl with raccoon ears and an ordinary human with Searig colors. "I'm told you wish to discuss our illegal immigrant. Ask away."
The human took a step forward to speak first "I'm Orchard of the Searigan royal knights scouting regiment. My friend here is Mayliff of the Preirigan sweeping talons squad. We came here chasing after the black knight but when we arrived it was nowhere to be found yet Incursik was." Rolling my eyes I waited for the human to get to the point of his question as he continued to speak.
"Did you see any evidence that Incursik fought with anything other than yourself?" Mayliff cut in from her ally's long speech "we need to know if we can be certain if it's safe to say it is dead."
Curious about this knight I asked "why is the spirit so important? What did it do that a small alliance was formed to track it down?"
"A few days ago there was a massive mana disturbance like nothing previously recorded on the borders of all the human nations and Preirig that could be sensed from as far as 5 thousand miles from it. That knight was at the center of it all."
Shocked at the human's words my eyes widened "so this thing was so powerful? Then how come there's not been any trace of it in Elshide?" To answer me Orchard dropped a strange black crystal in my chest. Picking it up I immediately noticed its durability as well as its lightness.
"We believe Incursik drew it to an underground cavern in Preirig and during his combat, the knight attempted to flee dragging Incursik with it into Elshide." Mayliff handed me several photos of the knight as well as traces of incursiks fight with me seeing the glowing veins in the floor.
One of the pictures grabbed Siri's attention "the dragon in this photo. It helped Incursik escape." Not remembering the dragon I thought back to our encounter and the small winged lizard I briefly took from Incursik, was that the dragon? It was so tiny then.
"so, incursik, also aided in its hatching, protecting it to then just kill it? That makes no sense." Mayliff had a bemused expression.
Orchard then pulled out another picture "not necessarily." Mayliff and I stared wildly at the picture of a colossal stone giant "I believe he's gathering ingredients of exotic and hidden beasts for his alchemist partner."
"That's right. There were rumors he worked together with a human before." Mayliff paused for thought then turned to Orchard "what's their name?"
Dropping another picture he showed a burgundy red-haired boy with green eyes teaching a class full of students. "Cayden Barbaten. An alchemist who stopped going to school two months ago."
****
Cayden Barbaten POV:
"This is a bad idea." Ronik pushed the doorbell to the Nallos residence for me and I tried to walk away but was quickly pulled back by his long arm before he jumped into the soul veil.
"Be strong master. I'm sure they will be understanding for the most part."
Blurting out my worry became audible "For the most part? What about the little part?!"
Footsteps then sounded on the other side of the door and with a click it opened to show my mother carrying Lillie in her arms, in a grumble I said: "please don't criticize me." Trying to put on a happy face for them I waited for their reaction.
"Cayde?"
"Brother!" Lillie immediately hopped out of my mother's embrace and jumped into mine before she fell to the floor catching her "you're finally back!" Pressing her face against mine I was unable to see my mother's both happy yet angry expressions.
Suddenly something clung to my leg and twisting my neck seeing past the brown hair in my face I saw Lucy with teary eyes looking up at me "brother..."
shifting Lillie about into one arm I crouched down and patted Lucy's forehead making her tears go away "I'm glad to see you both healthy."
My mother wanted to berate me but not wanting to spoil the mood she walked back inside "dear, Cayde's back!"
Walking behind her Lucy was glued to my leg and Lillie held my arms in place making it difficult to maneuver myself. This is going a lot smoother than I thought it would.
My father finally appeared and was initially happy to see me but his expression quickly changed when he saw me flat-faced being used as a climbing frame for my sisters trying to hold back his laughter. "How was the journey?"
Trying to free myself from my sisters I answered "oh it was great. Incursik took me to the mountains on the northern border to then end up in Elshide. Got a few good items"
"You have any souvenirs?" Answering Lillies question I raised my only free arm and pulled out two elven dresses for little girls
"I took a gamble on the size but they should fit you." The two girls finally released their grip on me and took the dresses.
As they were amazed by them the three beasts took this opportunity to run for safety leaving the soul veil not getting forced into playing with my sisters, just how scared of my sisters, are they? My sisters then left to chase after them leaving me with my parents
After a brief silence, my mother finally vented her emotions "do you have any idea how worried we were?" Forcing me into a hug my attempts to run from the lecture were pointless "weaver kept coming by asking when you would return to teach your classes but that's pointless now that your first year has ended at school!"
"I was more of a teacher than a student anyway so it didn't matter to me." My answer was presented to her with a smile making my mother let go of me and shake her head in disbelief.
"You better not pull any more stunts like this young man!" Getting pulled away by my father she finally left.
Before the two disappeared my father looked me in the eye and said "it's good to see you haven't changed, son." Smiling back grateful for his words my father saw my peace of mind and left with my mother leaving me all alone in the entrance hall.
"I'm really glad Allen works on damage control for me."