One moment, two groups, comprising 10 mages, were searching for the hostile force that had claimed the lives of 50 of their mages, and in the next moment, they joined in the ranks of the dead. They had not even sensed the Sonic Bullets and their heads had burst open.
The total number of enemy mages was now down to 440.
The kills this time were different. After facing the first loss, Elic had taken some precautions and ordered to cast ‘Life Detector’ and ‘Watching Magic’ spells on all patrolling mages.
The logic was simple.
The Life Detector was a novice-level spell that could indicate whether a being was alive or not. After Life Detector was cast on a person, if the person died in a week, the mage who cast the spell would be alerted of the target’s death.
Watching Magic was slightly more advanced magic that only Prive Level Mages could cast. It was similar to Life Detection Magic but compared to Life Detection, it let the caster watch the person from the outside, giving something similar to a bird’s-eye view.
The 10 mages were under both these spells, and as they died, one of the middle-aged mages beside Elic, started talking. There was no anxious expression on his face, reflecting his experience in such matters.
“Leader Elic, the Patrol Group two is eliminated.”
Elic caught her breath, she was surprsied and for about five seconds she did not said anything and then she asked him to continue.
“Explain.”
“They were walking, patrolling the surrounding area. They were 10 mages in all. As they were still walking, magical energy, the size of a human palm, hit and burst open their heads. Even I could not see the attack. If I am not wrong, as per my experience, the enemy who killed these mages must be a specialized long-distance mage.”
Elic got up from her seat and started pacing back and forth as she was thinking.
The long-range mages were difficult to deal with in most cases. The enemy must have known this area like the back of his or her hand. At night, searching for the enemy was hard, but the enemy was capable of killing more than 60 of their mages, from a long-range, within just 30 minutes. It is best to say the enemy was clearly a Prive Level Mage or above.
Most likely the enemy was a pro when it came to hunting other mages.
After thinking about it for a few minutes, Elic issued new orders.
“Notify all patrols to come back to the camp area. If we want to take the enemy out, we need him to come towards us. His range most likely does not exceed 500 meters.”
Accepting the new orders, two female mages, who were in the room with Elic, stepped outside to convey the plan.
Elic’s plan was straightforward.
She believed the enemy mage’s attack capability would, at most, be around 500 meters. If the patrols were to return to the base that they had set up in Underbroom Cave, then the enemy had to get closer in order to kill them. Once the adversary force attacked again, they could pinpoint the location and then use all their power to surround the enemy and fight back.
The plan itself was clever but Elic incorrectly estimated one big variable — she did not consider that the enemy mage in this context, Nick, was not your everyday mage. Killing enemy mages in the camp from 8 KM was easy as pie for him in his leveled-up avatar.
Nick’s range was not 500 meters as she assumed but it was more than eight times that mark and Nick could also pinpoint the enemy location using Radar Wave.
–
An hour later, Nick killed 30 more mages using Sonic Bullets. He rested as he continued inspecting the enemy and staying vigilant, checking his surroundings from time to time. Earlier, when he and Rabial were fighting against the necromancers, he had been negligent on this count and was attacked by a strong fireball spell.
If not for his passive Iron Blood Energy Shield, his body would have burned to an unrecognizable lump of crisp debris.
As Nick was mulling over these thoughts, he suddenly had an inkling of what Deep Magic Organization was planning.
“Oh, they are backing towards their base. They most likely understand that the enemy is a long-range mage, and they are trying to lure me towards their location, so they could use the power of numbers to trap me.”
The reason why Nick deduced this easily was not that he was a genius in the matters of war strategy and battle plans but because he was from Earth. Every knowledge from his once-home was integrated into his mind. He knew a few things about the art of war, of course, but he needed to apply his mind to this knowledge; he could not use it naturally like an absolute genius.
“It was a good tactic if I were an ordinary long-range mage. But unfortunately for them, I am anything but ordinary.”
Nick made a gun shape with his right hand, and five Sonic Bullets charged towards the five groups that were heading back to base.
Within seconds, bullets flew more than 4 KM and shot their heads, perfectly delivering the death sentence.
This time, there were onlookers around. Seeing their friends dying like this started crushing their mental defenses.
More than 75 mages were killed by now. All these mages died in just a matter of a couple of hours. A deep sense of fear was drilling down to their bones seeing the bloodshed around them.
They did not know what to do or what to expect.
One of the young mages muttered some words.
“This is not a battle anymore; it is a one-sided hunt. We are ducks waiting for our deaths!”
The other young mages, and even some experienced, battle-hardened mages, did not disagree because by now, they too acknowledged the words of the young mage.
They felt the same fear, and that something needed to be done immediately. They did not want to wait for their deaths.
They could accept dying in a magical battle, but not like this.
