Supreme Magus

Fake mages consumed their mana upon casting a spell, so they had to choose their weapons carefully, or they would waste their strength for nothing.

The Eyes of Menadion spotted several people ahead of the caravan, many of them with a mana core above the orange and a few armed with magical weapons and alchemical tools.

Lith performed a deep scan for cloaking items or unusual life forces, but shared none of his findings with the other magicos.

The attack started the moment the caravan reached a sharp left curve that forced the horses to slow down, exactly as Lith expected. A large tree in front of the caravan fell with a loud noise that covered the sound of flying arrows and bolts of ice.

Lightning wands would produce bright flashes impossible to miss and might set the carriages aflame, destroying their precious cargo.

"Now!" Lith yelled at the top of his lungs the moment the tree started to tilt, his voice reaching far beyond the back of the caravan.

If not for his timely warning, many people would have died before the fight even began, and a few of them died anyway. Only the magicos who had prepared wind and ice shields managed to save the civilians they were tasked to protect.

Earth magic conjured a much sturdier protection, but it was also slower, and failed to cover anyone but the magicos until it was too late.

’Amateurs.’ Lith inwardly sighed.

"Don’t stop! Don’t try to turn around! Keep moving forward!" A wave of his hand conjured two stone pillars at the roadside, lifting the fallen tree high enough to clear the path.

When the second tree fell, cutting off the only escape route that the caravan was supposed to have, the bandits cursed their bad luck. They couldn’t follow a trotting horse for long, and those attacking from the rear were left in the dust and had to run just not to lose sight of their companions.

"Not so fast!" Hegron, the unit leader, threw a Fire Seed far ahead of the road, conjuring an explosion on par with a tier three Fireball.

The bang and the raging fire scared the horses so much that the caravan stopped abruptly and a few carriages toppled over.

"Now! Don’t let anyone escape! Either they surrender or die!" Hegron said as he charged forward.

"Quiet." A word from Lith and a touch of Tiamat Fear calmed the panicked horses immediately. "Stay."

He stepped down from the carriage while raising his blade. The fight was too chaotic and too many people were running around to use a wand from that distance. Lith pretended to be wary of his enemies, but he was just baiting them to reveal their true prowess.

A man covered in winter camouflage garb that left only his green eyes exposed bolted at Lith with a rapier in one hand and a poisoned dagger in the other.

’Is he really this weak, or is he just wearing a cloaking item like me?’ Lith parried both lunges and was amazed to discover the person in front of him truly was an orange-cored human.

"Next." Lith said.

The bandit pivoted on the balls of his feet to ride the momentum of the parry and unleash more attacks before Lith could react, but a flash from the wand and a bolt of ice put an end to the bandit’s life.

"I said next!" Lith shot in the back whoever dared ignore him and tossed the bandit’s corpse at Hergron to intercept a second Fire Seed.

The ensuing explosion was too far from the caravan to threaten the soldiers and covered the road with gore, making the bandits slip.

Two more armed men came at Lith from either side, displaying solid teamwork and swordsmanship. One fell to an ice dart before he could get near Lith, and the other died at Ragnarök’s edge.

Lith moved like a normal human, and the bandit blocked, but the weight of the hand holding the angry blade amounted to several tons. The bandit’s longsword shattered, and his body was cut asunder before he could understand what had happened.

"Next." A hail of poisoned arrows flew at Lith only to be deflected by the gravity sheathe of the Voidwalker armor.

His sword and wand kept finding the exposed backs of the bandits, but now he was crippling rather than killing them.

’If these guys are just regular humans, I need them alive to interrogate them. I don’t care about delivering the cargo. If I find the head of the snake, I can cut it. Then the body will wither, and Keyla’s standing as Ghishal’s ruler will be safe.’

"Die, you arrogant bastard!" Hegron threw a Fire Seed at Lith just for it to be enveloped in a cocoon of air magic and harmlessly stopped in mid-air.

"Thanks for the assist." A flick of Lith’s finger sent the Fire Seed hitting the ground a few meters behind the next wave of bandits.

The explosion threw them off their feet and dismantled their formation. With their numerical advantage and now superior teamwork, the soldiers pushed the bandits back, wounding them deeply.

"Don’t kill them!" Lith yelled. "It’s the only way to find the rest of their gang!"

"Retreat!" Hegron put the next Fire Seed back into the Safe Bag and cursed his bad luck. "Retreat! Re-"

As no hidden champion stepped forward nor a secret weapon appeared, Lith dropped the mask and released his killing intent.

"Run for your lives!" Hegron yelled. "Every man for himself!"

Yet he found himself unable to follow his own order, and so did the rest of the bandits. Their legs seemed to have turned into lead, and nobody could muster the strength to take a single step away from the battlefield.

Lith moved to the wounded, both allies and enemies, healing them but for completely different reasons. He saved the soldiers because they were Keyla’s people, while he brought the bandits back to health because he might have to kill a few to set the example.

As he moved along the caravan, he carried the healthy bandits around with invisible tendrils of Spirit Magic. The human bundle grew thicker as he collected his prizes, and the number of wounded people decreased.

"Everybody take five." Lith said. "I have work to do. You are free to watch, but try not to puke. It would upset the horses."

The merchants were utterly confused and the bandits terrified, so no one questioned his words.

"Who are you really?" Gelm asked.

"A man on the job." Lith shrugged. "Now shut up."

He bound and gagged the bandits like prime roasts after ensuring they had no poison pills in their mouths or means of suicide hidden in their clothes. A thorough search of their belongings didn’t provide him any clue about their identity.

Lith found no recurring tattoo or insignia on their equipment that he could associate with a known gang or criminal organization. Those men clearly knew each other well, but if not for the way they fought together, Lith would have thought they were complete strangers.

"I’m going to interrogate you all, and you are going to answer my questions." Lith said. "Cooperate, and I’ll hand you to the authorities alive. If you don’t, bad things will happen to you. Is that clear?"

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