Assassin's Chronicle

"Anfey!" Blavi called hurriedly as he burst into Anfey’s room, panting. Anfey jumped off his bed and hurried after Blavi. He knew that something must have gone wrong, or else Blavi wouldn’t be so panicked. The two left the house and rose into the air with levitation spells, quickly flying towards the mage tower at the center of the town.

"What’s wrong?" Anfey asked when he landed. One of the mages moved aside to show him the Eye of the Sky. In the Eye, a mage was fighting a group of zombies. Nearby, a few necromancers were observing the fight. The necromancers’ identities were unclear, but the mage was very familiar.

"Is that Entos?" Anfey asked. Blavi nodded.

The only time Anfey had seen Saul fight was when Saul attacked the bone dragon in an ambush, and he did not consider it a real fight.

Mages who use dimensional magic were the hardest to fight. Even though a lot of people did not know why dimensional magic was the most dangerous, everyone agreed that it was the most powerful. There were only a few senior magisters in the world, and senior magisters who focused on a single branch of magic were even more rare.

Entos was Saul’s best student and spent years training in the Forest of Death and Wilderness Plain. His every movement and every attack was a display of power and a reminder of why dimensional magic was considered the most powerful magic.

The three necromancers fighting against Entos were all very powerful as well. None of the spells they used needed buffer time, including spells to summon bone lances. Dozens of bone lances streaked through the air towards Entos. Dozens of Nets of Decay covered the ground, layered on top of each other. Walls and cages made of bones appeared out of the ground like trees. The necromancers pelted Entos with other spells as well, hoping to slow his movements. Aside from magic, the necromancers also had thousands of zombies on their side. The zombies surrounded the mages, growling and clawing the air.

Entos, however, held on. He ducked the attack from the necromancers and fired occasion spells at time. He was skilled at dimensional magic and was not afraid of being trapped in cages. Every time he teleported, he would teleport to a location where he would not be discovered easily. After the necromancers spotted him again, they would have to change their formation to attack him.

If Entos wanted to escape, the necromancers would not be able to stop him. However, he was not escaping. He wasn’t even using a magic shield. Was it because he could not or because he was overly confident? Without a magic shield, even the zombies’ attack could be deadly.

Entos appeared to be at a disadvantage, but in reality he was the one controlling the flow of the fight. He only teleported when the necromancers’ spells materialized. Then he would flee and use a spell to cancel out the effects of the spell used against him. This way, Entos was depleting his magic at a much slower rate than the necromancers. Sooner or later the necromancers will use up all of their magic.

The necromancers were not cooperating with each other at all. They would protect themselves first and attack Entos, trying to slow his movements, then they would try to kill him. Because of this, Entos was able to cancel out all three necromancers’ magic with just one spell.

Entos must have decided to fight alone because he knew the necromancers would not cooperate with each other. As long as the necromancers fought as individuals, they would not post a threat to Entos. Had the necromancers cooperated and fought together, Entos would have been forced to seek help.

"Christian," Anfey turned and said, "can we dispatch some backup?"

"Ernest is on the way," Christian said.

The mages suddenly gasped. Entos grabbed a nearby tree and was trapped by a bone cage. A pool of green mud appeared under him. It was an acidic swamp, a staple of death magic. Rumor was that an acidic swamp turned a man into a pile of bones in a few minutes. Two bone lances flew through the air towards Entos.

Suddenly, Entos disappeared from the cage and reappeared from behind a tree after a few seconds. He waved his hand and used a flame spell that easily killed more than a dozen zombies.

One of the necromancers waved his hand impatiently. When his two companions were using negative-effect magic, he summoned a bone lance. Entos froze, then quickly teleported away. He reappeared behind the necromancer and smashed his magic staff into the necromancer’s head. The sword shattered the necromancer’s shield and went through his neck, sending the man’s head flying. Strangely, there was no blood. The necromancer did not fall, either. Instead, he only kept flailing his arms.

Entos was clearly shocked by this. He took a few steps back and teleported again, reappearing far from the necromancer he had just beheaded.

The headless necromancer stumbled for a few moments then crouched down, hands searching through the grassy ground. After a few minutes, he stood again and held a skull. He held the skull carefully and placed it back onto his neck. Then he shook his head, testing if the skull was going to stay on his neck this time.

Entos stared at the necromancer with a mixture of horror and shock.

"My god," Christian whispered in horror. "That’s a bone nymph!" The other mages turned, gaping in horror, when they heard what he just said.

The wounded bone nymph appeared to be very angry. He ripped off his cloak and looked around, searching for Entos. Suddenly, a bright sword radiance ripped through the air and flew towards the bone nymph, slicing through the surrounding zombies. Before the bone nymph could properly react, the sword radiance had already reached it. The creature disappeared in a flash of blinding light.

Entos appeared behind another necromancer and raised his sword. He brought the staff down onto the necromancer’s head. Clearly, he already realized what he was dealing with. The bone nymph’s head fell to the ground and rolled into a bush. Entos jumped away and waved his hand, sending bolts of lightning towards the skull, trying to destroy it.

The third bone nymph jumped, shocked by the speed of its companions’ demise, and tried to flee. However, it was not as fast as Ernest’s sword radiance. Before it could get to the forest, the sword radiance caught up to it and shattered its body.

"Why is he here?" Christian asked, curiously. "Did Ling and Long already arrive at Blackania?"

"They only left two days ago," Anfey said, frowning. "Maybe something happened. Let’s hope it’s not something horrible."