The team lounged lazily around the dinner table, chatting away. An unaware passerby would have assumed that they were just some ordinary officers, de-stressing after a long day of battle.

Suddenly, Katherine’s demeanor changed, which alerted the others, who looked toward her with bated breath. As the support mage, she also had the responsibility of being the long-range telepathic point of communication with the Pooles Kingdom.

After a few moments, Katherine sighed. “It seems that the Empire is sending a team of King-class mages to the front-lines. We’re to intercept and kill them all.”

There was an extended pause, which ended when Jake asked the question the obvious questions on everyone’s minds. “How many is the Empire sending? What are their specialties? Their relative strength?”

Katherine shook her head. “I asked. All they said was that the spy stated that there were about 20 King-class mages, then the transmission cut off. They believe that the spy had been discovered and eliminated.”

Hearing this, Lawrence spoke up. “I don’t like this. He just happens to be able to report the number before the transmission cut out? Either way, 20 King-class mages? We’re strong but…” He looked toward Wesley.

Wesley picked up a Golden Lamb skewer and nonchalantly answered. “We fight.”

Wesley’s confident statement seemed to alleviate the tension, and with that everyone around the table grinned.

“As expected from our leader,” praised Jake, as he tore into a fried Primordial Beast wing. “I suppose you have a plan for this?”

“The plan,” Wesley calmly replied, “is to kill them all.”

Seeing everyone’s exasperated faces around him, he awkwardly cleared his throat and continued.

“We’ll use my variation of the Inclusive Blizzard Seal and ambush them. Katherine, do you have any information on where they are and where they’re headed?”

“Yes.” Katherine promptly replied. “They’re approaching from the mainland and look to be moving Southwest… in about 10 days, they should reach the southern tip of the Demon Continent. The forest there will give us perfect cover for an ambush. It should only take us 5 days to get there, so we should have those 5 days to prepare.”

“That sounds good to me. Does everyone agree?”

A unanimous series of nods around the table.

Wesley continued, “Perfect. We shouldn’t need more than three days of preparation, so we’ll spend another two days here to help the Kingdom with this battle. Katherine, please let the King know that we have accomplished our mission and are ready for a new task. Tell him that we also want our payment tomorrow.”

“Got it. Still though… we’re being paid 90,000 gold coins per task… isn’t this basically stealing?”

Wesley lifted a wine cup to his mouth. “It’s war, Katherine. Everything is more expensive in a time of war. It’s still cheaper for them to pay us than it is to pay a few million soldiers.”

David smiled. “I agree. We’re doing this so that our future children won’t have to. Isn’t that right, darling?” He looked toward Alina, who smiled.

“Shut up.” Alina looked away. “You do realize we’re against the Empire, right? We can’t win.”

David moved forward and hugged Alina from behind. “We don’t need to win, darling. We just need to defend the Kingdom until the Empire gives up. Then we’ll be rewarded with an additional million gold coins each. I’ll buy you an entire island. How about it?”

“Hmph. I’ll just buy the island myself…” Despite her tone, however, Alina willingly leaned back into David’s embrace.

Although Wesley’s team had planned to help the Kingdom defend for another two days before heading off, the battlefield was completely quiet for these two days.

At the end of the second night, the friends all crowded around the dinner table yet again.

Lawrence addressed the others in a matter of fact tone, “The Empire’s forces are obviously just waiting for the King-class mages so that they don’t take too many casualties.”

Though Wesley’s confidence had put the team at ease momentarily, as the reality of the situation sunk in, the air grew heavy once more. They were certainly confident in their abilities, but a single misstep against such powerful opponents could mean death.

An air of unease reverberated throughout the fort as they packed up their belongings and set out once more. To reach their destination, they had to cross some of the Magmont Continent and the entire Dark Sea, a near impossible task for a common mage, and still potentially dangerous even for King-class mage. They decided to use the cover of night alongside a series of invisibility spells to move toward the Demon Continent undetected.

Most of the trip went by without much trouble. Sometimes, some flying beast or another would attempt to ambush Wesley’s team in hopes of catching a quick snack, but such advances ended with a quick trip to hell instead.

One time, an entire flock of Demonic Geese assaulted the team and was quickly put down. Although Demonic Goose meat was toxic to the average human, consuming it was actually very beneficial for certain mages, especially for those who specialized in poison magic, like Jasmine.

As such, she spent the rest of the trip cheerfully gnawing on Demonic Goose meat.

Finally, they arrived at the southern tip of the Demonic Continent. The sky was overcast - not a single ray of sunlight could be seen on the shadowed forest floor. This was the norm on the Demonic Continent, which was home to the strongest, evilest demons and monsters in the world. It was even rumored that the demons that resided on the continent had a leader, a king, that embodied death itself, an existence that even the Eight Grand Magicians were wary of.

It was the perfect place to set up an ambush.

The first day, the nine mages surveyed the forest.

The second day, the nine mages prepared their trap.

The third day, the nine mages laid in wait.

Just before the sun set on the third day, Jasmine spotted a group of people flying toward the tip of the Demon Continent at high speed.

She sent a mental message to the others. “They’re here!”

Wesley gave the order. “Get into position. Activate on my mark.” He began to draw a seal as the figures in the distance closed in. 1000 feet. 900 feet. 800 feet…

“Activate!”

They stood in a massive magic seal, reaching nearly 100 feet across. Wesley positioned himself in the middle, while the others stood in a broad circle around him.

It was an supportive magic array. With it, Wesley could draw on the mana pools of the rest of his team.

As Wesley’s telepathic order roared in the other’s heads, they simultaneously unleashed their magical energy into the array.

Wesley felt a surge of power course through his body, only barely contained by the magic seal.

High in the air, the twenty King-class magicians sensed the massive energy flux below and halted their advance.

But it was too late. Below, Wesley had already completed the new seal.

Ice Purgatory!

He swiped his finger across the drawn magic seal and instantly, a freezing mist descended upon the twenty figures hovering in the air.

Seeing this, they quickly realized that they didn’t have time to prepare their own spells.

“Run!” The twenty King-class mages quickly turned around and sped away.

Alone, Wesley would not have had the magical energy required to lock down all 20 targets. After all, King-class mages flew at incredibly fast speeds, especially over short distances.

But with the energy provided by the others, Wesley had been able to, nearly instantly, create a land of icy hell that spanned over four square miles. With so little time to react, none of the enemy mages were able to escape the ice.

Although they were trapped, it wasn’t as if the enemy magicians were out of options.

Some elementary-level magical seals could be imprinted onto clothes, jewelry, or even weapons. Even though these seals usually weren’t strong enough to kill a magician of a similar level, they were usable even when the caster was immobilized.

Using these seals, the mages quickly began to fight their way out of the blocks of ice they were enclosed in.

But Wesley’s team was not one to let such an advantage slip by.

As soon as Wesley had activated Ice Purgatory, the rest of his team had already begun to draw seals of their own.

Ice Purgatory, at the end of the day, was a control spell with limited offensive capabilities. Against weaker mages, perhaps it would be able to kill them, but against mages of the King-class level, it could only hold them in place for a few short seconds.

But these few seconds were all Wesley’s team needed.

Katherine completed her seal first.

Arcane Expansion! Using the spell instantly consumed nearly half of Katherine’s remaining mana, but would increase the power of her teammates spells by 20% for the next minute!

Katherine’s timing was truly exquisite. Just as she swiped her finger over the magic seal to activate it, the others finished their own seals.

A mere second after the effects of Arcane Expansion spread over the entire team, a flurry of spells and a lone figure flew towards those trapped in the air.

Two of the trapped mages were unable to escape from the ice and died instantly from the onslaught of spells, while several more were unable to shield themselves in time and were grievously injured.

The one who had flown towards those trapped in the air was Grace. As the close-combat specialist, she was capable of summoning armors to protect herself with. The one she’d chosen for this battle was the Huo Set, an armor set with an affinity for the element of fire. Unlike other mages, close-combat mages relied on summoning stones that contained layers upon layers of magical seals.

She soared high into the air, then adjusted her trajectory so that she hurtled toward the enemy like a meteor from the heavens.

By now, the enemy mages had somewhat regrouped themselves. However, they'd spent all of their strength and time dealing with the spells that had come from below.

With their attention focused below them, Grace swooped in from above!

She raised her hand toward the sky. Grasped in her hand was the matching weapon of the Huo Set, an explosive mace.

That mace came crashing down on the her first victim’s skull, caving it in and sending the rest of the victim’s body towards the ground at what seemed to be the speed of light.

Only seconds had elapsed since the start of the fight and while Wesley’s team had managed to kill three and injure many more, they were still outnumbered.

The fight had only just begun!