Chapter 178: Light magic

Chapter 178: 178: Light magic

Lucard caught the water rope with bloodfire before it reached his neck, but another stone pressure struck his ribs. The force did not look heavy from outside, yet it entered his body like a hammer wrapped in cloth. Pain spread through his chest. He slid back two steps and tasted blood in his mouth.

Alan wiped one eye with his sleeve. "A hidden First Circle light mage. A crystal user who hides his family name. A blood mage who fights like an old monster wearing a young body. This forest became more entertaining than the spring."

Cedric forced himself upright and raised his wand again. "I hate that he sounds pleased."

Lucard wiped blood from his lip. "He is pleased because he is winning."

"That does not help."

"It was not meant to."

Alan lifted his hand.

This time, the attack was different.

The ground did not rise. It sank.

The soft soil under Cedric and Elowen opened like a hungry mouth. It did not collapse all at once. It softened first, as if the earth had turned into thick mud beneath their feet. Cedric reacted fast and jumped back with crystal step, but Elowen was slower. Her injured shoulder made her body uneven, and fear made her step in the wrong direction. Her foot slipped, and the sinking mud caught her ankle.

Elowen pulled once and failed. Panic flashed across her face because the mud was climbing higher. It wrapped around her boot, then her calf, cold and heavy. She tried to use her good hand to push herself free, but the mud only swallowed her fingers too.

Lucard saw it.

He also saw Alan watching him.

A test.

Alan wanted to know whether Elowen truly mattered. He was not only attacking her. He was studying Lucard’s reaction, the speed of his blood threads, and the direction of his eyes. The old man wanted to know if the girl was a weakness, a tool, or only baggage.

Lucard sent a blood thread toward her.

Not too fast.

Not desperate.

Just enough.

Alan’s eyes sharpened, but he did not fully understand whether it was care or calculation. The blood thread wrapped around Elowen’s waist and pulled her free. She hit the ground hard near Cedric, coughing mud from her sleeve. Cedric grabbed her and dragged her back before the sinking soil could catch her again.

Alan’s smile deepened. "So she has some value."

Lucard answered, "Everything has value until spent."

Elowen heard the words and looked at him. Mud stained her cheek, and her eyes shook in a way that was not only fear. She had wanted to believe he had pulled her because some part of him cared. His answer cut that thought before it could breathe. Something in her face changed again, but there was no time to speak.

Cedric shouted, "Lucard!"

Alan had vanished.

No.

Not vanished.

He had sunk into the ground and emerged behind Lucard without sound.

A stone palm struck Lucard’s back. His blood hardened under his skin just before impact, but the blow still threw him forward. He crashed through the red mist and struck one knee against a root. Cedric’s crystal shield formed between him and Alan, but the old man broke it with a lazy wave.

Lucard stood again.

His breathing was steady, but his body understood the gap clearly.

Peak Sixth Circle.

Too strong.

Too controlled.

Too cunning to trap twice.

The first surprise had worked because Alan had not expected Elowen’s light magic. It would not work again. Cedric’s crystal magic could delay him. Lucard’s bloodfire could trouble him. Elowen’s light could blind him once. Together, they could make him take a step back.

But they could not win here.

Lucard reached that conclusion without emotion.

Winning was not the goal anymore.

Survival and keeping the water were enough.

He looked at Cedric.

Cedric understood from one glance and looked like he hated understanding. His fingers tightened around his wand, but he did not argue. Pride mattered less when a peak Sixth Circle elder was standing in front of them like a mountain that had learned patience.

Lucard raised his hand and formed three blood circles in the air. They were bright, obvious, and aggressive. Alan’s attention moved toward them. Cedric lifted his wand and placed crystal mirrors between the circles. Elowen, still on the ground, saw Lucard’s fingers move once behind his back.

A secret sign.

Again.

She did not know why she understood it, but she did.

Light.

Not now.

After the red circle breaks.

Alan stepped forward. "Another trick?"

Lucard said, "Yes."

"At least you are honest."

Alan sent three stone spears from different angles. They did not fly straight. They curved as they moved, changing direction with small turns that forced Cedric to adjust his mirrors twice. Lucard’s blood circles moved to meet them, and Cedric’s crystal mirrors reflected the bloodfire inside the rings. The hollow filled with red light and blue crystal sparks.

Alan crushed the first circle.

Elowen released light again.

Not as strong as before, but this time she aimed it at the crystal mirrors.

Cedric’s eyes widened because he had not known she could do that.

The light entered the cracked mirrors and split into dozens of thin white flashes. They scattered across the hollow, not to blind Alan fully, but to fill the space with false movement. For a short moment, every mist thread and crystal shard looked like a moving person.

Lucard moved through those flashes.

He did not attack Alan.

He attacked the ground between them.

Bloodfire sank into the trap circle he had hidden earlier, the third circle Cedric had never noticed. The circle had not been under Alan. It had been under Elowen’s position from the start. A bait circle. A weak-looking escape point.

The ground burst with red steam.

Not to kill.

To cover.

"Run," Lucard said.

Cedric did not argue this time. He grabbed Elowen with one arm and Puff with the other, then used crystal step toward the deeper forest. Elowen cried out from the pain in her shoulder, but Cedric did not slow. His crystal steps were rougher now, and each one left a small broken mark on the ground. He hated leaving signs, but there was no time to move cleanly.

Lucard waited half a breath longer.

Alan walked through the steam.

His robe was burned at the hem. His eyes were no longer amused in the same way. "You are willing to use companions as bait."

Lucard looked at him. "You noticed."

"I am old, not blind."

"Then you should also notice the beast behind you."

Alan did not turn.

The ground behind him cracked as something long and dark shot from the mist. It was not the Maw Ironback. It was a serpent-like beast with bark-colored scales and roots growing from its back. Its head opened with four split jaws, and green-black saliva fell from its mouth onto the soil. The light, bloodfire, and broken earth had awakened it from under the hollow.

Alan moved his hand.

Stone wrapped around the serpent’s jaws before they reached his neck. The beast twisted, breaking two trees with its body. Its roots stabbed into the ground and tried to pull Alan’s feet under. Alan finally turned, not because he was afraid, but because ignoring it would be foolish.

Lucard left.

He followed Cedric’s mana trace and Elowen’s faint blood scent through the mist. Behind him, stone and root serpent collided. Alan would kill it or drive it away, but not instantly. Not while the forest itself hated loud magic. Every strong spell Alan used disturbed something else nearby, and Lucard could feel more sleeping things shifting under the roots.

The plan had bought time.

Not much.

But enough.

Lucard caught up with Cedric after several minutes near a steep slope covered in black fern. Cedric was breathing hard. Elowen looked dizzy, and her face was white from pain, but she was conscious.

Cedric glared at Lucard. "You used her light without telling me."

"Yes."

"She is First Circle."

"Yes."

"She could have been crushed."

"Yes."

Elowen looked at Lucard. "You knew he would target me."

"I knew he would test my reaction."

"And you let him?"

"I pulled you out."

"That is not the same."

"No."

Her eyes shook with hurt and anger, but she did not speak further. She understood more than before now. Lucard had saved her, but he had also placed her where danger would look. Both things were true, and that made it worse.

Cedric looked between them, then toward the way they had come. "How long?"

Lucard listened.

The forest behind them shook once.

Then became quiet again.

"Not long," Lucard said.

Cedric’s face darkened. "You said that last time."

"It remains true."

They ran again.

The forest became deeper.

The air grew heavier. The trees bent inward. Strange markings appeared on the bark, not carved by men, but grown naturally like old wounds. Smaller beasts no longer made sound. Even insects had gone quiet. The silence was not empty. It felt full, as if many things were listening and deciding whether the three humans and one rabbit were worth eating.