Chapter 96 - Unexpected Meeting
When Zwei heard what her master said, she was confused. Though the level of opponents were somewhat difficult to deal with and even if they went all out they would get a bit injured, but in the end they would still win. So why should they retreat? As if her master was able to hear her own thoughts, Valdel answered.
'I don't want to kill them, since they might just be forced to do this.'
That one sentence made Zwei remember what kind of person her master was. This was the man that wanted to save everyone even his enemies. While Zwei was thinking about her master's flaw, Valdel on the other hand had was thinking about something else. In truth he had another reason for retreating that he didn't tell Zwei. For some reason he felt that even if he goes all out he wouldn't really get any advantage against these opponents.
Valdel couldn't understand it, but he somehow felt that the opponents were actually holding back on him somehow. He wasn't sure why they were holding back, but he knew that these people truly wanted to kill him, which made their actions even more confusing.
...
Zwei who already received her master's orders made an opening for her and Valdel to escape. She charged forward surprising the three enemies. Using this chance Zwei casted a simple binding spell on the three. This spell would last for about two seconds, but those two seconds was more than enough for Valdel who knew how to use body enhancing magic.
Once the two got pass the three blocking the way, Zwei turned back into a sword. Valdel took Zwei and blocked an incoming spell. The caster of the spell was momentarily surprised when he saw his spell getting absorbed by the sword.
Even though they were already aware that the magical sword was able to absorb spells, seeing it with ones own eyes was a different matter. After the failed attempt in using an attack spell, the five of them gave chase.
Since their version of the body enhancing spell, burned a lot more mana than Valdel's they couldn't keep it up for that long. It was a good thing that the first prince predicted that Valdel would somehow escape the five of them.
Of course the five retainers followed their lord's orders but they didn't believe him, since they believed in their strength. Yet now that it actually happened they were once again in awe of their lord's foresight.
Their were knights waiting for Valdel in every direction no matter where he runs off to. Zwei who was with Valdel was amazed that she didn't notice these large amount of people hiding in the surrounding area. She had a few guesses as to how they were able to elude her detection, but that didn't matter at the moment.
'Master what do we do?'
'I see... So this was what that ominous feeling was about.' It turned out that the five weren't holding back, it was just that they had backup prepared.
'Zwei, I'm going all out now! We're breaking out of the encirclement and heading back to Grenton!'
...
Once Valdel was lucky enough to break out of the enemy formation, he was then forced into hiding, since he had used up majority of his mana. Without body enhancement magic, it would take him five days to get back to Grenton.
Also he needed to move during the cover of darkness, since fighting head on against such a large amount of opponents wasn't possible for him.
...
Two days have passed since the first prince's subordinates tried to kill Valdel, but until now they weren't able to accomplish the job. They couldn't head back to their lord with news of failure, so they called in mercenaries to help search.
...
On the third day the first prince's subordinates were finally able to corner Valdel in a cave. Valdel who fled into the unknown cave had no choice but to go deeper in. As he went deeper into the cave, he noticed that this cave wasn't what it seem to be. The inside of the cave had a lighting mechanism, and the deeper he went into the cave the more the cave looked like the inside of some sort of ancient fortress.
Even Zwei who had more experience had no idea what kind of place they stumbled upon. Valdel had not time to admire the various stone paintings as he kept on moving forward. He then reached a dead end.
Seeing that there was no way out made Valdel smile a bit. He remembered what Ren said one time about him having incredible luck, and no matter what the situation he was in, his luck would pull him through.
'I guess you were wrong this time.' Valdel held Zwei and got ready for one final stand. As Valdel stood there sword at hand, the enemy knights arrived at his position. As the knights were about to attack, everyone including Valdel was assaulted by an enormous pressure.
"Who are you people?" A voice that sounded ancient and menacing echoed throughout the hall. The voice that spoke made everyone shiver in fear.
Out of the darkness the wall that looked like a dead end, turned out to be wings. There in front of Valdel stood a man that had wings similar to that of a dragon's, but his form was that of a man. He scanned the people present until his attention was drawn to Valdel. He slowly walked towards Valdel, as the ancient being did this no one dared to move, nay no one even dared to breath loudly.
The ancient being stared at Valdel, looking at him from head to toe.
"I sense the light of the hero within you... The same light that I had a eons ago." Now that the ancient being got closer, Valdel could see he was a stern looking middle aged man.. If Ren saw this person he would be shocked, as this person was none other than the one Ren called the fourth hero, the hero that he thought was dead.