“Mr. Mayers, sir! Everything’s in place!” the twelve remaining disciples from the Broadsword school currently under Markus Mayers’ employment saluted, as he approached.

Reinforcements from their school would come soon, hopefully including master Skullsong.

“Good, everyone’s in their positions.” Markus Mayers had trained his underlings to form their current V-shaped formation. It had been a proven tactic throughout the ages, forcing the enemy to step into cross-fire range.

“You are to try and restrain whoever possible, but kill them if necessary.” Markus gave the command. Every slave slain would be money lost. Although, the sleeping gas should work to some effect, nobody would be stupid enough to remain there and take it.

“As for any strong enemies, our objective is to stall them until master Skullsong comes.”

Markus had hardly finished his instructions when the trapdoor leading to his underground prison opened.

Markus tensed, preparing for a magical grapple with that old monster.

Johan confidently emerged.

Who is this? Markus stared in puzzlement.

“Mr. Mayers, sir. This is the one the mage you defeated last week originally wanted to sell.” Someone shouted.

“Oh, really?” Markus was relieved. To be subdued by the man with the eye-patch meant that he was not as strong as that old monster.

But speaking of that monster… Markus’ face fell when he recognized Taliesin following behind.

Damn, it freed itself, Markus was close to losing control of his thoughts in panic.

However, he needed only stall.

“Shape of the Fragmented One, surrender! You are outmatched!” He proclaimed. This was a half-bluff, as last time they had needed trickery to do Taliesin in.

“Ahahahaha”, Taliesin’s croaking laughter echoed. “I would like to see you subdue me without last time’s preparations! And what happened to those charming fellows that manhandled me? Too healthy for their own good?”

The faces of all twelve Broadsword disciples grew red with anger; their martial brothers could not last a couple of hours without medical attention and no healer could permanently cure them. Even their master could do nothing.

“Shape of the Fragmented One, you did not meet me in full combat last time, so you would not know, but I, too, am quite formidable. It’s impossible for you to overcome me while assaulted by twelve martial disciples.”

Taliesin’s croaking laughter intensified.

“Brat from the Mayers family, you truly know history. But you are still quite the idiot! He-he! Did you think that I could escape from a magic-depriving ward and lonsdaleite restraints with my … condition? You really are conceited if you think that everything of note has been recorded and nothing unpredictable will happen. If your ‘auntie’ saw you being such a moron, she would surely be ashamed! Let me inform your idiocy then! Your fellow chief idiot here was the one who defeated all six of your wardens and broke your wards. But, if nature stopped working and you capture us again, spare him some punishment on grounds of common stupidity, will you?”

Taliesin’s mocking was enough to enrage Markus. He brought his hands parallel to each other and caused them to reflect light while adding energy. He then directed his palms outwards towards Johan and Taliesin.

Johan's intuition screamed at him to dodge. He tried to, but was not completely out of the trapdoor and this made him a step too late. The first beam punctured his left lung, while the second beam passed through Taliesin behind him.

However, at the exact same moment Taliesin’s magical energy started restoring their bodies, a process that was completed within a couple of breaths.

“GET THEM!” Markus shouted. The stationed troops and the twelve disciples charged.

“Johan, son, don’t worry about defense but don’t stray too far” Taliesin croaked. “I hope you can understand that much at least?”

Ignoring the insult, Johan nodded and sprang into action. Using all the speed he could muster by pouring martial aura into his legs, he charged the nearest disciple.

He used his left hand to punch the opponent’s chin.

Behind him, the former prisoners charged outside too.

The disciple was startled by Johan’s speed – a typical example of insufficient battle experience. Not being prepared, Johan’s fist knocked him backwards with great force. He split a clear line in the small crowd of people behind.

The slaves charged through that opening.

Johan experienced a strange sensation as his fist momentary seared in pain from the impact and then an itchy but numbing sensation took over while Taliesin’s energy mended it.

One down. Eleven more to go, he thought satisfied. Being able to use his whole body like a weapon was convenient. But he’d still prefer his katana.

His pre-emptive attack was enough to make the opposing disciples retreat a couple of steps to organize. Leaving the other prisoners to the rest of Markus’s people, they coordinately moved forwards again, raising their broadswords in a defensive manner – with their tips turned towards the ground.

By that time, the rest of the charging enemies had collided with the prisoners who had hedged deep into the opening among the encirclement Johan had created.

Johan’s concentration became detached from registering the shouts and clangs of combat while assessed the situation. The new disciples were obviously more well-trained than the wardens he had subdued and, although Johan was far superior individually, they again seemed to be trained in group tactics.

This will hurt …

Johan charged towards the center of their formation, where he utilized the most potent tactic he knew to disrupt coordinated attacks; he jumped into one of the incoming attacks, using the opening this created to perform a counter.

Usually, Johan used his martial aura as protection during this reckless maneuver. But with Taliesin's magic continuously restoring him, he did not even bother to do that. Instead, he concentrated his aura on his fist and bludgeoned the enemy disciples.

Two of them were able to put aura on their weapons and armor to fend off his fist.

However, Johan's battle experience and aura quantity allowed him to suppress them, even without a weapon.

A flurry of fist strikes and swung broadswords later it became clear that affording to ignore his own defense made his advantage even bigger.

Meanwhile, Markus was locked in magical combat with Taliesin. The old man controlled a ball of green energy that cleverly danced around Markus’s magical energy’s exploits. At the same time, he poured a separate stream of slightly different energy towards enveloping Johan’s body. Either maneuvering energy in a non-linear path or healing someone without being aware of the exact wound would be impossible even for master, but Taliesin's experience was far beyond even that rank. In fact, if not for his low level of magical energy, describing his skill as master-class would do him disservice.

It was fortunate for Markus that Taliesin faced a number of restrictions. Otherwise the battle would have ended instantly. Markus focused on diverting his adversary’s energy and protect himself. He also conjured small cones of cold, which he propelled outwards using his magical energy; just enough offensive for Taliesin to be forced to disrupt their trajectory.

Out of the corner of his eye, Markus watched as the twelve disciples under his command were gradually brought down, which made his troops lose their morale and loosen the encirclement.

Unfortunately, he could do nothing. When he tried to conjure some bigger chunks of ice to assist, Taliesin took advantage of the opening to pushed his energy against Markus’s in a fleeting attempt to bruteforce a spell upon the latter.

Of course, Markus had also been preparing a couple of trump cards with a miniscule portion of energy he had been stealthily avoiding using. But he needed an adequate opening that never came.

“Aarg! Who is thi-” bam!

“Why’s someone of this caliber unkn-” boom!

“That old monster was one thin-“ boof!

“Dammit! Which school -” bam!

Johan knocked out the opposing disciples one by one. They could only curse in confusion.

His endurance and aura remained at their peek, thanks to Taliesin’s meddling. However, his mental fortitude was also being exhausted after continuously getting wounded and recovering. Especially his fist. Getting through rounds of breaking and recovering had left a deep-seated ache.

If he had been alone, Johan would have been forced to escape against dozens of people whose movements and strength had been enhanced with martial aura. Of course, if he had had his katana, he could easily take on twice as many.

Mages sure are useful.

As Johan knocked out more and more disciples, he was finally able to divert his attention in attacking the rest of the Markus' men whenever they got into range. He didn’t particularly aim to kill, since it was hard to determine the truly wicked ones in the midst of combat.

Still, he doubted anyone he had attacked would recover within the day.

Thanks to his help, the already demoralized men under Markus' employment had a hard time against the slaves. Eventually, the encirclement became too difficult to maintain, even given their superior positional arrangement! Soon, they were forced into retreat that turned into a clamorous rout. Many were killed by the enraged slaves, who shouted pent-up insults at their previous captors as they chased them away.

Most slaves stole hooded garments from those killed or unconscious and then ran to the rooms exiting to the street. Johan trusted most of them would find their way to some form of safety. If not? Well, Johan wasn’t exactly an all-powerful saint and they’d only have their own luck to blame. It was somewhat irresponsible, but such was the world.

The scent of blood permeated the now silent battlefield. Johan lamented the deaths. Perhaps in another time and place they could have been avoided. He took a good look at the results of his actions. He froze when he recognized the detached head of the -almost kind- man that had briefly commented on his strangeness. However, he didn’t think he had done something wrong.

Ultimately everything's the fault of the big fish. he thought.

Speaking of big fish...

Johan run at Markus, who was still locked in magical combat with Taliesin. The energies of the two magicians changed shapes and directions at high speeds, seeking to pry an opening into which they could form strong spells without interruption. Johan had trouble feeling magic, but Taliesin’s energy was visible as a green blur, whereas the Mayers guy’s distorted the airflow as it moved.

Now that he was not supporting anyone else, Taliesin was starting to gain the upper hand. He laughed tauntingly as he handled his energy with ever-increasing dexterity.

Sweat was dripping from Markus' brow and his face had gone red with concentration. Even though he noticed the approaching Johan, he could not react. Veins started bulging on his forehead as he tried to outmaneuver Taliesin using his energy's superior speed.

"Ahaha! Mayers boy, I did warn that you're an idiot!" Taliesin laughed. A green light abruptly shot from his body toward Markus, who was too preoccupied with the energy struggle to move his energy back to block it. He jumped sideways, but the green light still hit his arm.

Markus' hair stood on end when he realized what he was hit by. Wearing a pained expression, he quickly reached into a pocket and withdrew a small metallic sphere, which he threw at the taunting at Taliesin.

When the sphere touched Taliesin's energy, it dissolved into a bright golden light and Taliesin's figure froze on the spot, as if stopped in time.

This was Markus' one-use trump card, which he had gained with great effort. Ideally, he would use this interval to either escape or prepare a counterattack.

However, his first action was to freeze his own hand to the bone. The old monster had accelerated the reproduction rate of everything in his arm; every otherwise harmless organism residing on or inside the human body and even his own cells now threatened his life! He hoped he could seek a cure later. For the time being, he was stuck with his arm being dead weight.

But Markus did not have the luxury of dueling on his plans of saving his arm or setting up a counterattack against Taliesin; Johan reached him almost immediately afterwards.

Markus fired a small fireball and a cone of ice in quick succession, but Johann did not even flinch as they landed on the layer of protective aura deployed over his body. Where did such an expert pop out from? Damn that one-eyed! He brought even more trouble than himself! And I can't perform Balthazar's technique with only one hand..

Markus retrieved two large balls of steel, whose surface pulsed with glowing runes and threw them at Johan, guiding their trajectory with magic.

Boom!

Upon collision with Johan's aura, the runes flared and the steel exploded into every direction.

The sound was deafening and the force of the explosion pushed Johan back. Shrapnel mutilated the bodies on the ground, but they only made small scratches on Johan's aura-covered arms. The force of the explosion also caused a small discomfort to his organs. It passed almost immediately though.

Seriously, who is this freak! His body s strength and aura are close to the master level!

With regret, Markus reached again to the insides of his robe and quickly brought out a parchment. The word "Mayers" was written with strange calligraphy on it. Markus bit his tongue and spat blood on the parchment, which glowed blue and moved to hover over his head.

Johan halted his momentum.

His intuition shouted not to go for the kill while that blue light lasted.

Thus he retreated and Markus took the opportunity to start chanting an incantation in a forgotten language, his remaining hand pointing menacingly at Taliesin. Obviously, he prioritized the old monster first, before the situation derailed in a true two-versus-one fight.

Damn! Aren't disciple mages supposed to not have the imagination necessary to evoke incantations? Well, at most it should be an incomplete technique, like mine. Johan thought.

Also, what's with that parchment? It gives off too dangerous a feeling!

He glanced in concern at Taliesin, who was still frozen and decided he had to do something. That incantation felt like trouble.

Johan picked up a broadsword from a fallen disciple and threw it with all his strength towards Markus. The broadsword developed tremendous force and whistled through the air. But when it was about to collide with Markus, blue light charged from the parchment hovering overhead and it was dispelled into motes of light.

Terrifying...

However, Johan noticed that the blue light was slightly paler in color now. Johan was prepared to continue throwing things, when he noticed Taliesin moving.

"-ha! Eh?" Taliesin's vision swam and the scene before him changed. It was as if he had been missing for a few breaths of time. Taliesin looked at Markus chanting and then at Johan looking at him. He easily pieced things together.

"Mayers brat, you hit me with a grain of time powder! How did an idiot like you manage to lay hands on something so valuable? But you look worse for the wear, with that thing that hit you! Hm? The language of Shalaenor? Weren't all their records sealed away from disciples? It seems you were up to much mischief within your clan, but this is useless against me."

Markus' eyes narrowed, but he did not respond. He instead increased the speed of his chanting. He was almost there!

"Oh, and what's this? A decree of life from your clan. You know that's useless in this situation, right?"

Taliesin continued nonchalantly and looked at Johan.

"Oh, mighty nature! Son! Don't stare at him! Just restrain him without hitting and you'll be safe from the decree! Quick, before his pet master comes and makes things complicated with his extra stupidity! I'll handle the incantation."

Johan was ready to follow Taliesin's advice, but stopped again. His instinct clearly sensed danger.

"WHO. ARE. YOU. CALLING. STUPID?" a mighty male voice erupted in anger from the entrance of the room. It reverberated through the collapsed roof into the quiet city.

An imposing hooded figure, even larger than the Beheader, stood there.

"Geez, master, you ruined my surprise attack!" a bossy female voice came from an equally imposing hooded figure following a couple of steps behind.

At the exact same moment, Markus finished his incantation with a triumphant smile.