Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Reacher Academy.r

The Magic Academy was the only place that remained untouched by the light from Ruhrees' Beacon of Ardour.r

Its entirety already had a layer of protection cast by the Headmaster of the Academy, a Mage who was considered to be the strongest Arch-Mage of the age. Granted, his skill as an Arch-Mage only relayed his progression in Magecraft. In terms of stages, he was no more advanced than Ruhrees or Gillewart.r

Still, his mastery of the combat form was enough to resist even the effects of a high tier Divine Blessing, which said quite a lot about how strong he was.r

Currently, in the tallest and grandest tower within the Reacher Academy grounds, Tallo was looking out the large, trapezoid window with his teacher, Arch-Mage Verys at his side.r

The rather picturesque scenery of the extensive, beautiful glow, coupled with strings of rainbow-like flares over every structure within the city, could have been a simple, relaxing image. However, the quake of the ground, followed by the fragments of the glow from Ruhrees' Divine Blessing breaking off from Genhuis' infrastructure brought on an ominous sense of foreboding instead.r

In addition to the horned, blue creature that had infiltrated the city since the unrest began, another had crashed the wall, bypassing the formation of Capital Service Knights and Mages.r

It was short with burly arms and legs that stressed the amount of physical might built into it. Unreasonable physical might that defied logic.r

From a glance, one could tell it was extremely resilient too because of its skin which almost seemed like armour, given its cobalt sheen.r

Fortunately, to prevent the continued march of this creature into the city, a determined figure streaked through the air and bashed her shield into its face.r

The attack while completely nullified by the short stack of bulk, succeeded in making it stop moving.r

That could be considered a win in this situation.r

Ornamont's sharp gaze, brimming with inhuman levels of attention could be felt even from this distance by the two Mages. It seemed the woman had learnt a lesson she wasn't willing to go through again.r

"Are we not going to help them? This is our city too," Tallo turned to his teacher and asked.r

"Good question," the older man said.r

There was pause following this promising response but not a great follow-up. Actually, there was none.r

"But...?" Tallo said with a slightly frustrated gaze.r

"But what?" Arch-Mage Verys asked, confused.r

A thick, blood vein bobbed on Tallo's temple.r

"Why aren't we helping?!" he questioned through his teeth.r

"Oh. There are many reasons. For one, Mages aren't known for jumping straight into dangerous situations without performing extensive analysis. You have been able to see past the walls, have you not? Most Magecraft Patches rudimentary and otherwise are proving ineffective against these monsters, even when taking into account the fact that the Capital Service Mages involved are only Prime Mages," Verys said.r

Tallo's face hardened.r

His teacher chuckled at his reaction.r

"I know you're dead set on achieving the impossible but sometimes, you must trust your eyed and wait," Verys advised.r

Ever since Tallo the young Mage had expressed his intent to join the Premium Age Royale, Verys had been skeptical. He knew the young man to have conflicting, or more aptly, contradicting outlooks on life and he himself acknowledged it, but he had wondered a great deal.r

Tallo was kind-hearted, unwilling to see innocent and even guilty people suffer in any way. He'd even feel remorse when witnessing a death sentence being issued for a murderer. Visible pangs of empathy itched in his heart. He'd propose to stake his life whenever he could to defend even common folk when disasters befell them.r

However, when Tallo was not a mere bystander, an onlooker, or a mere third party to an event...r

When he was the one dolling out punishment or facing an opponent in a simple spar or duel, he tended to be... ruthless. He could be cold hearted where he had empathised, when his role was changed.r

It was a bit hypocritical.r

However, this could be explained by his drive, which was the same as what most Mages had, though perhaps a bit excessive. Tallo intended to elevate his skill in the combat form by pitting himself against powerful opponents. This, according to the young Mage, was his reason for joining the Premium Age Royale. The fights he would get to participate in would be a great learning experience for a combat Mage like him, but he was also looking forward to what the EverSword House had to offer the victors.r

He wasn't naive enough to believe Rearren's speech at the beginning of the event, but he knew there was an endgame and sadly for Verys, the young man was counting on him should something go wrong.r

The keener minds were extremely suspicious of the Premium Age Royale, after all.r

Tallo sent his focus back to the violent exchanges.r

"Can we try using more preventative measures instead? Like sealing? Arch-Mage Ryte is pretty proficient in the Binding Patch, right?" he suggested.r

"That is true. If things go so far out of hand, we'll make a cautious attempt. I do confess I'm quite curious about these creatures and their origins. If we manage to catch some of them..." the Arch-Mage stroked his chin with a couple of nods, letting his eager mind run wild.r

*r

Guilds Association. r

Alaris keenly watched Ornamont's stand off against the short creature she was cautiously eyeing behind her mangled shield. r

When the commotion had begun, he had quickly appraised the situation and found it rather... dire. This was especially apparent when he found that Ruhrees', another Incandescent Stage expert was unable to harm the enemy, which gave him a similar feel of hopelessness to seeing Ornamont get sent flying across regions with a single blow from one of the enemies.r

His assessment led him to cull the foolish, adrenaline-induced choice by most mercenaries to dash head first into a fight where the city's safety was concerned.r

Thus, at this moment, the doors to the Guilds Association were sealed by his orders and he was standing before them with a stern visage, his sword at his side.r

'Well, might as well try to help milady,' he said as he drew his gladius from its sheath and knelt on the ground. r

Alaris seemed to meditate for a few seconds while his eyes were closed shut... and then he opened them.r

He raised the gladius and held it horizontally, as if preparing to stab with it, his other hand supporting its blade lightly.r

A light green Perfect Aura dreadfully rose from his body as his eyes pierced through the glowing infrastructure to lock on Ornamont and then the beast before her.r

With a calm breath, Alaris thrusted his sword, the motion to this action being strangely slow but undoubtedly... lethal.r

From the tip of the gladius, an unseen trail of sharp intent made its course in a straight line, passing through obstructions like an apparition to reach Ornamont's back where it seamlessly pushed past without doing any harm and then...r

When the unseen strike reached its true target, a crisp noise, like a saw's teeth scraping against hard wood sounded!r

The short, stout and sturdy blue creature jerked back and paused.r

It then reached in to touch its forehead, where a long, jagged but shallow cut had manifested out of nowhere.r

Ornamont blinked, surprised while Alaris from the distance shook his head dejectedly and sat down.r

"That's confirmation then. It'd take days at my current level of strength to hack through that thing. And here I thought I was bit strong..." he said with self ridiculing chuckle.r

*r

Ruhrees dodged another blow from his opponent and landed on the roof to a small tavern protected by the light from his Beacon of Ardour.r

This was hopeless.r

The two Beacons he had just used were the only forms of his Divine Blessing he wasn't reluctant to employ during battles where fragile lives were at stake.r

The rest... the rest were too dangerous.r

That said, the fact that the Beacon of Extirpation, the offensive arrow of light he had used earlier had failed to even scratch his opponent, made him nervous.r

That Beacon in particular was guaranteed to destroy enemies that wished to do harm specifically when he was guarding innocent lives. The arrow grew stronger in such circumstances, thus when it failed in such an ideal situation...r

'What's worse, this thing packs enough power to break through the protection from the Beacon of Ardour. Even if five Incandescent Stage experts banded together and attacked with their full raw physical strength, they wouldn't be able to do a thing against it. But that creature...'Ruhrees thought.r

The thought of the blue, horned menace taking slow steps towards him cocking back its arm filled him dread. He had to dodge, otherwise he would die if he took such a blow without guarding fully.r

What to do?r

What would he do?r

He had never encountered such a situation.r

At some point, Ruhrees believed that being at the Incandescent Stage guaranteed that he could at least hold his own against any and all foes in the world but that was proving to be very presumptuous. In a wrong way.r

To add insult to injury, there were five more enemies probably as strong as this thing, four still being held off outside and another having invaded the city moments ago.r

This was a treacherous situation and...r

"Hey, why don't you hang back. I'll take care of this," a confident voice suddenly shattered Ruhrees' shaken mental innards.r

Along with the voice, a hand pushed him back as if he was some kind of maiden in distress and this... this struck a bit of a nerve with the Incandescent Stage expert.r

"What are you—" Ruhrees began but he was cut off by the pale man with white hair tied into a ponytail.r

"I said hang back. You'll only get in the way," Aurolio said without sparing the Paladin Champion a glance.r

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