Chapter 93. Challenge
The refugees were now close enough that Levi could see their faces. They looked terrified. Desperate. Several of the men in the back had turned around to fire arrows at the Huntsmen – perhaps they were adventurers? – but it did nothing. The Huntsmen were too fast, and in that instant, Levi knew that they wouldn’t make it.
“Almost there!” The commander screamed. Behind him, his men angled the floodlight cannons so that it’d shine directly into the Huntsmen’s eyes, hoping to blind them and slow them down a little. “Come on, just cross the line. You’re almost there, hold strong, keep running damn it!”
The refugees were now only twenty feet away. Fifteen. Ten. They might make it–
A geyser exploded from the earth before them. They yelled in shock, trying to adjust directions to avoid it, but the water suddenly shot outward in both directions to encircle them completely. In less than a second, they were trapped by a gushing stream. One of the men jabbed at it with a sword, and the water lashed out like an angry viper, crushing the sword to bits.
They were completely trapped. Pincered by a raging stream and the Huntsmen behind them. The commander cursed, and the soldiers around them looked resigned and devastated. They knew that it was over.
The refugees cried out in terror, turning around and trying to plead with the Huntsmen.
“Please! Spare us!”
“We’ll do anything!”
“Just let our children go! T-The line’s right there!”
The Huntsmen advanced on them leisurely. Now that they were certain the refugees wouldn’t be able to escape, they seemed to be taking their time with it. They were young, in their early thirties. They wore black masks that covered their lower faces, revealing only cold, emotionless eyes devoid of pity. In that instant, Levi knew that they were consummate professionals. Assassins that wouldn’t be swayed by anything, not emotions or money or favors.
The two children, one of them eight, the other fourteen, were openly crying now. Sobbing into the dirt as they awaited their deaths. The older looked away from the Huntsmen in fear, and coincidentally her stare landed on Levi. Their eyes met, brown locking onto grey.
“Help,” she whimpered. Her voice was weak, so low that Levi only heard it due to the magic enhancing his hearing.
She was only a year or two younger than Ayla.
If Levi acted here, then thousands more might die in the ensuing war. Thousands of people just like the girl in front of him.
He had been in this position before, hadn’t he? Sacrifice the lives of the few for the sake of the many.
But…
The Huntsmen finally reached them. The water circle collapsed, drenching the ground below. The Huntsmen had no need for it anymore. The refugees were all within their range. Now, even if they tried to escape, they’d be instantly cut down. The refugees sensed it too, sagging as they lost their will to fight.
The Huntsmen drew their knives and selected their first targets. They approached them languidly, as though they were on a pleasant evening stroll, not about to execute civilians. One of them stepped over the girl, his shadow falling over her form. She flinched, her eyes dilating in fear, but she had nowhere to escape. Even as she curled tighter into a ball, she didn’t look at the Huntsman behind her. Instead, her gaze was focused solely on Levi.
In just a barely audible whisper, she spoke.
“Please.”
Levi let out a breath.
Ah, fuck it.
Thousands might die as a result of his actions, but he knew that if he didn’t act now, fourteen people in front of him would die.
Levi knew that the last time he’d made a choice like this, his decision had left him sleepless and suffering for three whole years. He didn’t want to go through that again – especially since this time around, he could actually do something.
Besides, he really didn’t want to see the look on Liliya’s face if this incident ever got back to her.
So he did what he wished to do.
“Sorry, Anastasia,” he murmured.
Anastasia’s eyes widened. “What are you–”
All her life, Hana only knew pain.
It drenched every aspect of her existence, like toxic sludge that seeped into the pores of a sponge. No matter how many times she tried to squeeze it out, it would always return, dirtier and uglier than before.
Her parents were executed when she was only five years old. She couldn’t remember anything from before that. The old man that acted as a healer in their village told her that it could either be psychological or due to the head injury she suffered from the soldier that struck in her head when she tried to rush to her parents.
Hana had hated that soldier for the longest time. Now, though, she felt only gratitude. She owed that soldier her life. Anyone who interfered with a public execution was to be put to death as well.
Over the following years, she did her best to survive in the slums. Due to her speed and agile stats, she gained a job as a messenger. She tried her best, but it was never enough. Sickness, poverty, violence, starvation… She experienced it all.
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So when the opportunity came to escape, she didn’t even hesitate to accept. She didn’t care about how her odds of success were so low, they might as well be zero. She didn’t care that the Huntsmen would show her no mercy if, when, they caught her. She didn’t care that the escape offer came from a shadowy cloaked figure that appeared one day in their village, refusing to show their identity.
Call her foolish. She didn’t care.
She just wanted to be able to wake up without fearing for her life every day. She wanted to smell fresh air, air untainted by the constant stench of refuse and waste and death. She wanted to not fall ill every winter because the water supply would get contaminated. She wanted to not be hungry all the time.
The rest of the escapees agreed with her. They listened to the unknown figure’s instructions, taking the exact route that they outlined and finding the wooden cart and horse they’d left for them.
She didn’t know who they were. A member of the Resistance, some traitor inside the Yukihasan military, a concerned third party… It didn’t matter.
To her, they were her potential savior.
And that was enough.
The escape was long and difficult. The figure had given them a map upon which was marked countless traps and obstacles. Minefields, tripwires, hidden wardschemes… They had navigated the route with meticulous care, terrified that the map would be wrong and they’d end up getting blown up.
Fortunately, they made it through.
Only for the Huntsmen to catch up to them, a scant dozen or so feet away from the border line.
How cruel life was.
Hana thought she’d been prepared to die. Thought that she’d accepted it.
But…
When it came down to it, she didn’t want to die.
She locked eyes with the young man in front of her. Some Luminarchan adventurer. A noble, judging by his appearance.
Hana doubted he’d care about her. Nobles never did, regardless of where they were from. They’d never stand up for slum rats like her.
But even still…
“Help,” she whispered.
As she expected, he didn’t do anything. Behind her, the Huntsman’s shadow fell over her. The cold sensation of death washed over her.
“Please.”
The young man’s fingers twitched.
And around them the nature came alive.
Earthen spikes burst from the ground below the Huntsmen, threatening to skewer them. They reacted immediately, flipping into the air to avoid the attack – only for the very wind around them to come alive in a vortex of blades. Their clothing tore and their masks ripped as they were forced further back to evade the deadly wind.
The refugees glanced around in disbelief, eyes wide at how nature itself seemed to have inexplicably taken their side. Then, they yelped as the wind turned around and struck them – but instead of attacking them, it pushed them forward.
One of the Huntsmen yelled and lashed out with a water whip faster than the speed of sound, aiming to cut all of the refugees in half. Before the refugees even had time to cry out in fear, though, a wall of flames blasted down above and evaporated the water whip entirely.
And then the refugees were sent tumbling over the red line.
Into Luminarche territory.
Immediately, the gate soldiers and medic team swarmed them, standing before them in protection and administering aid. The refugees were all in shock, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Only the girl seemed to have seen Levi’s fingers twitching as he cast the remote elemental spells. She stared at him for a moment in pure disbelief, her eyes wide.
Then, she smiled, tears welling up.
“Thank you.”
Levi smiled.
Then, he turned back to the Huntsmen. They had neutralized the elemental spells that delayed them and were now approaching the red line, fury in their faces.
“You!” the lead Huntsman shouted. His voice had a heavy, unfamiliar accent. He stopped right before the red line and glared into Levi’s face. “How dare you interfere?”
Levi blinked innocently, looking around before pointing at himself. “Who, me?”
“Yes, you!” Spittle flew from the Huntsman’s face, red with rage. “Don’t try to deny it, we all know you cast those spells!” His two men nodded as they leveled homicidal stares at Levi, their knives glinting menacingly. “Yukihasa will have your head for this!”
“I’m sorry,” Levi smiled placidly. “I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t cast any spells – I was just watching along with the rest of the soldiers here.”
He gestured at the commander and the soldiers. They were all looking at him in horror. To the side, Anastasia had her face in her hands, a resigned air hanging over her, while Selene looked rather amused at the ongoings.
“Horseshit!” the Huntsman snapped. “It was you!”
“Yeah?” Levi grinned, channeling all of his inner Qorbin. “Prove it.”
There was a long moment of silence.
The Huntsman’s face turned from red to purple as he realized that other than his word, he had no actual way of proving Levi had been the one to cast the spells. Levi had used the art of remote casting; instead of shaping his magic within his body and releasing it via his hands, he’d sent his magic outward and shaped it externally. It was exponentially more difficult than normal casting, especially since the ambient mana interfered heavily with mana manipulation outside of the body, but it had the nice effect of making the magic technically untraceable.
Levi had even altered his magic’s wavelength to ensure that the spells couldn’t be matched to his magical signature. An incredibly difficult feat, but one he had taken care to learn years ago.
For reasons…
“You’re really going to play these inane games?” the Huntsman growled. “Do you think you’ll get away with this? Return the escapees, and I may turn a blind eye. If not, then…” A dangerous look entered his dark eyes. “You broke international law first, so I have precedent. I may just come over and take them myself–”
Magic exploded from Levi, suffused with killing intent so thick and oppressive that the very air became miasmic. The three Huntsmen choked as an unbearable pressure slammed down on them, driving them to their knees. Their faces paled as the potent magic practically suffocated them.
“Then do it!” Levi snarled, all pretenses falling away. His grey eyes seemed to glow with a wrathful light as his archmage’s cloak suddenly materialized around him, billowing in a wind that blasted through the clearing. “Come on, take them! What are you waiting for? Cross the line, I fucking dare you!”
The Huntsmen didn’t respond. They were too busy struggling to breathe.
Levi let out a disgusted scoff. “You sicken me.”
He turned around–
Anastasia’s eyes widened as blood splattered to the ground. A silver knife protruded from Levi’s chest, piercing right through his heart. Her hands flew to her mouth.
Selene raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
And Levi…
Levi turned his head around to look behind him. The lead Huntsman had a look of triumph on his face. However, that slowly morphed to terrified horror as instead of collapsing and dying, Levi merely gave him a grin filled with bloodstained teeth.
“Thanks for that.”