Summer Break

Chapter 25

Arthur's group was moving along the river bank, the rocky area where they were expecting the slave traders to attack was coming into view. The area they expected to be attacked was several miles long, so they knew in only a few more minutes they would have to all remain on guard. Everyone's mana cores were full in preparation for the upcoming battle. Claire had just returned her wet stone back into her dimensional ring after sharpening her blade to near perfection. Arthur was driving the wagon, making sure not to push the skitter pulling it too much in case they needed it's strength to escape.

Everyone was as ready as they were going to be, when suddenly Arthur jerked hard on the reins as he pulled them to the side to turn them around.

"Arthur what are you doing?!" Claire asked as she and the others hung on tight to keep from falling out by the sudden movement.

"Sylvie just communicated to me, the others are under attack from the slave traders. They saw right through our plan, and are already waiting for us," Arthur replied, his voice laced with concern for their friends.

Even though they wanted to catch these slave traders, they all agreed that the level of risk just shot way up. With a crack of the reins the skitter was going drastically faster than it was. They didn't get far when a cyclone formed right in front of them, showing them the slave traders were right there.

"Tess, create a cyclone spinning in the opposite direction to disperse it!" Arthur ordered.

Tess nodded and spoke the incantation for her spell, creating another cyclone. Just as expected the cyclones ripped each other apart. However, as the skitter continued moving as fast as it could, which wasn't very fast at all, a stone pillar shot up out of the ground between it and the wagon. The wagon was pushed up onto its two right wheels as the front left wheel was broken and the axle snapped.

"Everyone jump!" Arthur ordered.

Everyone managed to clear the wagon safely before it completely flipped, causing the skitter's harness to also break, allowing it to continue running away.

"Everyone ok?" Arthur asked as he and everyone else recovered.

"Yes, but I'm not sure how much longer that will be the case," Feyrith replied as he pointed to the tree line.

Emerging from the forest were at least fifty men armed with varying close ranged weapons, with over a dozen archers up in the trees with arrows drawn back ready to release. But that wasn't Arthur's biggest concern, he was more concerned with the five mages walking out behind them. Four of them were at varying stages of red cores, and based off of their weapons, three of them were augmentors, and one was a conjurer. The fifth was also a conjurer, but at the solid orange stage. Something about the fifth mage bothered Arthur, it wasn't that he saw him as any kind of real threat, but instead something about him seemed familiar. He was wearing a brown and gold robe, and walked with a conjurer staff to his right, and a cane on his left as he hobbled forward. His hair was completely grey with his hairline receding, and beady eyes. Arthur was confident he knew who this man was, but he couldn't remember, until he spoke.

"So it seems you realized we were waiting for you. Very impressive, but also expected from students of Xyrus academy," the man said with a confident tone to show off what he knew.

Everyone was curious as to how he knew they were Xyrus academy students, until he continued.

"Now as much as I hate many of the noble families in Xyrus after how they treated me, I have no quarrel with you human children. Just surrender Ms. Eralith and her escort and I'll allow you to leave unharmed," The man stated.

Everyone but Arthur looked to Tess as they tried to know how he knew it was really her.

The man chuckled. "I once served the Sapin royal family, so I've seen you before young lady. I also know that you are worth more than every elf I've captured put together," a lewd smirk formed on his face. "That is, if my men can control themselves long enough to collect the ransom." His men laughed and whistled, all wanting a piece of the young female elf.