Supreme Magus novel Chapter 162

- "The security of this place is supposed to be ironclad, instead is a f*cking swiss cheese! First the traitors and now this?" – Aside from the initial surprise, Lith didn’t know if to be angry with the guards or scared for his life.

- "Let’s keep our cool. If they wanted to kill me, they would have slit my throat on the spot. Then we would have discovered the hard way how tough my skin is and how strong my regenerative abilities are. Solus?"

"The bad news is that all their equipment is enchanted and razor-sharp. The good news is that inside the Small World they are just very sharp, very deadly weapons. These guys don’t have access to dimensional items or even their tattoos, for that matter. All they have is what you see."

"Tattoos? What tattoos?" Lith had been so focused on the plague, to have forgot the details about the group of mercenaries that nearly killed him a couple of weeks before. Solus projected in his mind the highlights of their last encounter. –

What they ignored was that for once Varegrave wasn’t the one to blame. The talons had spent a small fortune corrupting one of their old contacts, now in the administration department.

She had provided them authentic uniforms and IDs, otherwise going past the checkpoints would have been impossible.

Magic seals and documents couldn’t be counterfeited, and to have access to such tools they had to pay their contact enough gold to allow her to leave the country and live the rest of her life in luxury.

It was a sum that outshined even Lith’s reward, but they didn’t care, since it came straight from their contractor’s pockets. The mandatory use of the masks had made their work easier, allowing them to move unnoticed until they had found Lith’s tent.

The talons were unaware of his plague doctor persona, they couldn’t care less about the Griffon Kingdom’s crisis. This time they hadn’t come only for Lith’s life, but also for information.

Killing him was just the icing on the cake, erasing the failure that now stained their name. It was a desperate move, because once Lith returned to the academy, they would never get a chance to approach him.

Inside his academy, a Headmaster had godlike powers, even if they managed to infiltrate, they would immediately be discovered and killed by a snap of Linjos’ fingers, activating one of the countless arrays that enveloped the castle.

The academy’s forest was a no-go too. A squad had gone exploring it, and only one man had returned, babbling about a monster Scorpicore that had slaughtered the whole unit with a click of its tongue, releasing a barrage of light blades that turned them into shreds, ignoring all their defences. _{freёwebnovel.com}

The survivor reported that the creature had spared him intentionally, to bring back a message.

"I’m sick and tired of humans hunting for cubs. The next time someone messes with my turf, I’ll come looking for you." Then, it bit both of his arms off before Warping him back into their allegedly secret base.

Alas, the mating season had come, turning the Lord of the forest into an angry murdering machine, having cubs of its own.

The talons hadn’t taken the threat lightly. Sure, an offensive light spell was something out of the legends, no one in his right mind would believe it. Yet the limbless man had traversed hundreds of miles, bypassing the hideout’s protections.

If the Scorpicore knew their location and could come and go freely, the light spell was the least of their worries.

The next option had been capturing Lith’s parents, but they were guarded by two units of the Queen’s corps, every single step they took was protected by arrays. There were more men stationed there than the surviving members of the talons, and they had the field advantage and months of preparation.

As absurd it sounded, the quarantine zone was their only viable option, with a very tight time window. Soon the disappearance of their contact would get noticed, and all her work would be subjected to scrutiny, blowing their cover.

"About two weeks ago, you were supposed to die during an ambush on your way here, yet you survived. Who saved you? What happened to your detail and your aggressors?"

The knife was pressed against Lith’s throat, but it only managed to shave his few facial hairs. The skin was harder than leather, yet elastic. The woman needed to use the tip to spill some blood and make her point.

- "Damn, this array is more dangerous than we thought. It can also make non military weapons lose their edge. – It was the only explanation she could think of, so she informed her teammates of the discovery through their hand signs secret code.

Lith saw the other two switching their heavily enchanted knives and short swords for less powerful ones of the same kind. Both their actions and their questions made no sense to him.

In that moment, though, he was more than happy to indulge their curiosity and stall for time.

- "These guys are persistent. Just killing them would be useless, others may come. I need to find out who they are and what they want." –