Chapter 12: The Defending Swordsman

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"Haa!"

The trio was fighting with renewed ferocity after Dean unlocked his new spell and as that was occurring, another fighting was taking place further away. Alana was dusted and sweating while her coat and boots were slightly ruined and before her was the young man slightly bruised "You really *are* something! If you had joined us, you surely would have been a great addition." he said with innocent and pure eyes of excitement that immediately became full of cruelty and bloodlust "But, since I can see that you would rather die, I will grant you that wish." he said with an extended hand and numerous spheres ppeared beside him. As he was about to attack, he seemed to sense something "Wow, to think those three would do so well, I was too quick calling them trash." he said amazed while looking in another direction, with Alana's eyes narrowing.

Alana showed no hesitation and quickly opened her grimoire. "**Spatial Magic: Divine Rain**!" She called out waving her arms out, creating several spheres of Spatial Magic and launched them at her opponent. The spheres erased everything that they came into contact with.

The boy, however, was calm "It's pointless." he muttered and extended his hand towards her with a gleeful smile "**Spatial Magic: Void Bullet**." he said, with him unleashing numerous rainbow orbs that were cancelling Alana's and after all that was happening for almost a minute "Boring" he said disappointed, doubling suddenly the amount of spheres with which he barraged Alana, with her teleporting them away just in time. "You have three options, dear beautiful lady without a name. Since you can't defeat me, you can join our organization, do a last attempt and die fighting or simply run, your choice." he declared with his hands on his sides, waiting to see what she would say.

Alana let out a grin "My, how cocky we are, when we've just gotten started." she said to him. She held her hand up and spun it in a small motion, creating spatial gates above him. She lowered her hand as entire trees within her vicinity came raining down on top on of him. She then drew her arm in and created a spatial aura around her hand and launched a spatial blast at him.

"Sigh, I told you, didn't I? That it would be your last attempt." he said in a low voice filled with anger and being devoid of cockiness, with him then creating black portals that teleported away both the blast and the trees. "Your attempt was impressive and I have to say, run of the mill spatial mages would have been finished." he said honestly while pointing his finger at her. As he did that, the space above him began distorting, with him ending up having a purple spear of swirling space "**Space Creation Magic: World Piercer**" he said calmly "*This* is what offensive spatial magic is like and I'm warning you, trying to teleport it away is pointless and your spheres are not strong enough to cancel it." he said in a low voice and then fired it.

Alana gritted her teeth and crossed her arms creating a spatial gate before her. "**Spatial Magic: Spatial Vortex**" Within the gate generating spiraling wind of composed of spatial energy emerging from the gate. The spiraling wind altered the distorting spear's trajectory causing it to miss and flew mere inches past her face, cutting her cheek. While also the wind blew by spiraling towards her opponent, slashing and cutting everything in its path.

"You are full of surprises, aren't you?" he wondered annoyed while creating a portal with which he avoided her spell and reappeared past it but then, he had a disgusted face "Weaklings, to think we had so many trash sold-" he said and paused, with him then regaining his composure and smiling "Hey, do you want to see something exciting?" he asked to her indifference and snapped his fingers.

Meanwhile

The trio had just defeated the hooded men, with them breathing heavily and sweating a lot "Finally, it's over" said Dean while wiping off his forehead from sweat and the girls had their hands on their knees, trying to catch their breath.

Three meters away from them, a black portal opened and they became alerted while taking their battle stances and what appeared before them was a huge boar with huge wings and a big tail "What's that?" wondered Dean "I have seen many boars before and I tell you, this one which is three times their size with such potent mana and has wings and tail, isn't normal at all." he explained serious, with the girls considering it obvious and then the boar roared, unleashing a gust of wind that they were trying to resist "Let's go!" he shouted with clad fists.

Alana turned her head in the trio's direction and then looked back at the boy who was smiling viciously at what he did. Alana glared at him in a frustrated manner. "*I have to go help them, but i have to keep him stalled for as long as possible*. *The children will be fine*." She thought in her head.

"I guess you believe that I will go there, right? " wondered the boy with his arms crossed "I figured a lot time ago that you wanted to stall me, but relax. My experimental pet will deal with them and I will simply enjoy the bloody aftermath." he explained.

With him knowing her intentions, she lowered her stance. "Alright then, how we talk while we wait then? What's this experimental pet you have?" She asked out of curiosity.

"Nothing, really. Our organization simply conducts experiments on magic beasts to create new, stronger ones and this one," he said while looking at looking at the direction with the edge of his eyes ",is our newest and weakest" he said.

The beast did another failed charge and was moving its feet to reduce its speed, with it now turning and simply being still for the moment "We don't have enough stamina and mana, so I will try to intercept it  and you will reveal its weak points , Serena while you finish it off,Helen." suggested Dean and the girls nodded. He then run towards it which made it run too, with Dean grabbing its tusks and was getting pushed back until he managed to immobilize it "Now!".

Serena then used her spell which revealed that the beast's weak point was its forehead "Now, Helen!" she shouted as Helen lunged with her halberd which she managed to barely sink in and was about to drive it in further. The beast's eyes bled and it roared, with its muscles becoming larger and it unleashing a wave of fire that pushed the three back.

"Agh!" they shouted, with them being sent flying back smoking and injured.

"It's...too strong...if only...we...were not...exhausted" said Helen in a weakened voice as she tried to get up along with the others, but the beast began charging while clad in flames "*We will die.*" she thought along with the others.

Suddenly, from seemingly out of nowhere, a figure emerged with a sword of its own. The figure appeared to be a young mage with long blue hair and golden colored eyes.

Quickly, a wave of water emerged both around and behind the sword. "**Sword Magic:danza del drago d'acqua**" the young mage swiftly maneuvered around the massive beast as the mage swiped at the knee joint of the boar.

He then jumped up and drew a second sword from his grimoire. "**Sword Magic!: Inseguendo Drago!**" He called for his spell as his pure raw magic power began to flux around him, taking the form of pure blue energy! It began to swerve with extreme speed before he swung his blade out, sending the attack out! a massive dragon's head reached out and slammed its teeth into the beasts forehead!! The wave of power coming from the spell exerted pressure down on the beast and the cut on the joints opened up cause the beasts legs to break!

The trio was amazed at the figure's abilities and skill "Who are you?" asked Draco who couldn't believe that someone who they didn't even know came to their rescue and then, he snapped out of his daze and shouted "The forehead, it's weak spot is the forehead!" he shouted in concern in order to let him know.

"Wait for it..." The mage replied as the dragon made of mana's teeth kept placing more pressure in its bite until it broke through the beasts skull! "Technically, everything's weakness is its 'forehead'. The mage replied as the beast fell lifeless on the floor. The mage then placed his swords away in his grimoire.

"Are you three okay?" The mage asked turning around and revealing he too wore the Black Bulls robe, much to the surprise of the trio.

"A Black Bull member? B-but how-" said a confused Draco who then remembered Kai's words "You are one of those who were selected without doing the exams?" he asked realized.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" The blue haired mage giggled and smiled. " I'm Alessandro Fabbri, I'm Kai's protege." He said as he looked over to the direction Alana was in. "You guys did good here, please leave the rest to me." He said as he could feel the stalemate going on ahead.

The trio then got amazed at hearing he was Kai's protege "Wait for us, Alessandro!" shouted Helen as they were running to catch up to him.

Because of his exhaustion, Dean had to use his Gazelle Galop with which he managed to catch up to him "I know it's selfish since you saved us, for which we are grateful,  but let us help you Alessandro. That guy miss Alana is fighting with has immense mana." pleaded Dean serious while explaining the situation to him.

"Neither of you three can continue, your mana reserves are drastically low and your bodies are physically drained." Alessandro said as a light blue aura began to cover his body. "If you guys come along, you'll just get in the way of the battle." Alessandro responded before he took off running at even greater speed!

"He has a point Dean." said Serena while on top of one of her drones while Helen was on the other one.

"She is right, we will only get in the way." said Helen who didn't want to accept it, but Dean then had the aura around his feet flare up even more.

"I know, but abandoning miss Alana who engaged him because he is too powerful for us, isn't right with me, a Magic Knight shouldn't abandon one of his own!" claimed Dean as he dashed even further away, with the sad girls being now serious.

"Well, if he mentions it like that, it's hard to disagree, don't you think?" asked a smiling Serena Helen while looking at her, with Helen replying with a fired up look "Then, full speed ahead" said Serena as they flew now faster.

Meanwhile

The boy had his hand extended at a visibly sweating Alana " Hehehehe, hahahaha!" he suddenly laughed "This whole mission proved to be quite fun. Magic Knights defeating my men, killing the experimental beast, stalling me, oh boy, I really underestimated you. I could finish you right now, but we have some bothering guests." he said as Alessandro appeared and Dean with the girls after a minute "Bravo, bravo, you put a very good show for newbies." he clapped and mockingly congratulated them, much to the four's irritation.

Suddenly, the boy touched his temple "Yes? Are you sure, sir? Understood." he replied serious "We are full of failures today, huh? We can't even take a flower and recruit or kill someone appointed to us? What's wrong with people nowadays?" he wondered to himself exhausted and then looked at everyone "You Black Bulls surely proved to be a handful." he commented while opening a portal behind him "Just pray that you don't have to fight me again because then, I will fight for real." he said while entering the portal.

As the boy was entering his portal, Alana waved her hand back, charging up her Spatial Magic in an attempt to cancel it out. "*I wont let you*" She thought in her head but then noticed her magic had depleted and collapsed to her knees.

The boy and the portal then disappeared, with everyone feeling that he wasn't bluffing at all and while they managed to drive him away, it didn't feel like a victory at all.

Afternoon came

The ones with remaining magic power had to carry everyone else via brooms to the the noble's house "Oh my, I c-c-can't believe it, a handful of Phoenixia's petals!" he said amazed as everyone was outside the mansion, with the trio and Alessandro being overwhelmed by his enthusiasm.

"Still, it wasn't easy to get it." murmured Dean, with the girls doing a "shh" to make him stop. Then, Dean turned over to Alessandro who had his attention at the noble and extended his hand at him who noticed and turned over to him "We didn't introduce ourselves properly. I'm Dean, Helen, Serena, nice to meet you!" he ended up saying while introduing himself and the girls happy.

"It's nice to meet you three too." Alessandro replied smiling. "Like I said earlier, I'm Alessandro, but most people just call me Ale. I'm glad to meet more of my fellow rookies!" he said much to their happiness.

It was night

The trio was outside the base and were gazing on the starry sky "Tt sure was an intense first mission." commented Serena while still looking up.

"Tell me about it." said Helen smiling.

"It was a rocking first mission!" declared Dean who then recalled what happened with Ragnarok "I feel we will see these guys again, but next time, we will be much stronger and we will beat guys like him!" he declared fired up, with the girls sharing the feeling.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the woods, both Alessandro and Kai were seen in a meditative pose. Their magic power was calm and relaxed, with Kai's own magic power seeming non existent, as though he was blending his very being into nature and the air itself.

"So, your fellow rookies. What are your thoughts over them?" Kai asked.

"Well, Dean seems eager to grow the most among them. The other two seem interesting as well. One seems to be the operator and brains of their operation, another seems like a fine supplementary member, someone who can work well wherever she's placed." Ale said as he broke his silence and spoke with enthusiasm.

"Calm down Ale, don't get distracted." Kai calmly responded, not opening his eyes or breaking his concentration. "I heard your mission involved the same organization that intervened in mine."

"Yeah, but the guy ran away when we arrived to back up Miss Alana. So he probably wasn't too high up there in ranking among that group." Ale added before resuming his meditation.

"*Ragnarok, huh? I should do some digging tomorrow.*" Kai thought to himself before getting up. "From here on, Ale, try to be friends with everyone else. Our private training will take a break. I need to use my free time for research."

Ale looked up at Kai and smiled before getting up. "Whatever you say, big bro!" He exclaimed before the two took off walking to the base.

Meanwhile

Back at the base, inside Korag's personal quarters, he was speaking with Alana in private about the event they just transpired. "So, this spatial magic user that interrupted your mission was apart of a group called Ragnarok, hu? Hmm, this timing is unusual. Kai informed me earlier of a much similar situation with him. Seems like whoever they are, they're on the move." He said to himself loud enough for her to hear.

"It would seem so, though from the sounds of it, the one that Kai captured compared to the one that I fought are on two different levels, the one that i fought...I sensed his power rivaled that of a captain. If I hadn't been focusing on stalling and actually fought him, he would have killed me easily." She said, looking down.

"Dont worry about it." Korag said standing up. "In the end, you protected the rookies, drove them away and completed the mission without losing anyone. That's as good as a win in my book." He said patting her on the shoulder. "For now go and rest, when your fully restored, we'll head to the capital to give our report." He continued as he headed out.

"Yes captain." She said, still somewhat gloomy.