The wind shifted.
Zura's brows furrowed.
He stood still, eyes scanning the woods. Something… or someone was there. A flicker of presence. The kind you couldn't see—but you felt. Like cold breath against your neck.
He didn't move.
Didn't blink.
But nothing came.
Then, the sound of wheels crunching dirt echoed from down the path.
A carriage.
Zura tilted his head. "That's not part of the plan."
He narrowed his eyes and stepped off the road, crouching low behind a thicket. The carriage creaked closer under the moonlight. It was too polished, too loud—definitely not a merchant's.
Then he saw them.
Silver Eagle robes.
Two knights rode at the front, one guiding the reins with an impatient look. Another sat perched on top, scanning the woods like a hawk. They weren't trying to be discreet.
Zura clicked his tongue. "So that's their play."
Use the fake merchant trick to bait the bandits.
The idea was good—almost perfect.
But they hadn't done their homework. Didn't talk to the villagers. Didn't wait till nightfall. Zura could already tell—this was gonna fall apart.
The carriage rolled right up to where Zura had been standing minutes ago… and stopped.
One of the Silver Eagle knights jumped down, his hand resting on his grimoire. "Hey!" he barked. "Who goes there?"
Zura stepped out casually, hands in his pockets. "Yo."
They stared at him, confused. Suspicious.
Another knight jumped down and moved closer. "You're not with us… are you?"
Zura didn't respond. Just smirked.
The Silver Eagle knights didn't wait. One muttered something, and their grimoires flared to life. "He's one of the bandits!" someone shouted.
Zura sighed. "Here we go."
Before anyone could make a move, two shadows dropped down from the trees. Vanessa landed on one leg, swirling her thread lazily around her fingers. Magna cracked his knuckles, grinning wide.
"Back off, pretty boys," Magna growled. "He's with us."
One of the Silver Eagles blinked. "Black Bull…?"
Vanessa sipped from a bottle and said, "Try to arrest him again, and I will make you look like a tangled ragdoll."
Zura just stood there, watching the Silver Eagles slowly realize they fucked up.
The whole setup—the fake merchant act, the baiting—they had to drop it now. With Black Bull in the picture, the whole night was going sideways.
And worse…
The bandits watching from the shadows?
They'd seen the chaos. The magic flares. The conflicting squads.
There would be no attack tonight.
Zura stared at the Silver Eagles and muttered, "Good plan… shitty execution."
The branches rustled—louder this time.
Zura instinctively looked up.
More than a dozen figures dropped from the trees in eerie silence. All of them dressed in black from head to toe, faces covered, grimoires already open and glowing.
"…They showed up?" Zura muttered in disbelief. "Even after that mess?"
Sixteen of them. Every single one a magic user.
The bastards didn't hesitate. They launched spells before landing, forcing everyone to scatter.
Boom. Crack. Flashes of light exploded across the village entrance.
"Shit!" Magna shouted as he barely dodged a wave of stone spikes.
Vanessa dove behind the carriage, dragging Zura with a thread. "These guys ain't regular thugs!"
The Silver Eagles retaliated fast, but it was sloppy. Their spells clashed with Black Bull's. One fire spell nearly hit Vanessa. Another Silver Eagle blast tore through a wall inches from Magna's face.
Zura ducked under a wind blade and hissed, "You guys gonna fight together or die like morons?"
But no one listened. The two squads kept bumping into each other. Their lack of coordination was turning the battlefield into a chaotic mess.
This wasn't a skirmish.
It was war.
Zura's breathing quickened, but his expression didn't change. He watched carefully—reading spells, tracking movements.
'I gotta keep my distance… absorb the right spells… but not get hit too hard or else I'm dead meat.'
He saw one of the bandits conjure a chain of electricity—nothing fancy, but sharp and fast. Zura locked eyes with him, sprinted forward, and baited an attack.
The spell struck.
He caught it.
Electricity surged into his arm, forcing him to grit his teeth. His skin sizzled—but his grimoire flickered. A page flipped. The spell was his now.
He didn't stop to smile.
Instead, he lunged at another bandit, the one with the earth-type barrier spell. A quick feint, a dodge, and a well-placed zap from his newly absorbed lightning spear fried the guy's shoulder.
Zura twisted, letting another bolt of energy gather in his hand.
While the others were trying to subdue or restrain the bandits, Zura didn't play by those rules.
He aimed to kill.
He wasn't a knight yet. He wasn't bound by rules.
Every bandit who came at him with bloodlust deserved the same in return.
He launched his lightning javelin straight through the chest of the next idiot who tried to sneak behind Magna.
The man dropped.
Smoke rose from his body.
Vanessa glanced at Zura with wide eyes. "…You're not holding back, huh?"
"Don't have a reason to," Zura muttered. "If they wanted mercy, they should've stayed in the trees."
This was no longer an exam.
It was survival.
And Zura had already decided—
He wasn't dying tonight.
Zura's lightning-cloaked boots crackled against the ground as he sprinted through the chaos, cutting down another bandit without hesitation. Smoke rose from the corpse, chest burned through with the same spell its owner had cast earlier.
He didn't flinch. He didn't feel bad.
These bastards had slaughtered helpless merchants. Robbed them. Left them to rot on the roads like they were trash. And if Zura didn't kill them now, they'd just get thrown into some cushy cell, fed three meals a day, and maybe even break out later to do it all again.
No.
Zura wasn't having that.
He spun to the side as another fire spell came flying at him, barely missing his face. The heat licked his cheek.
"Vanessa! Magna!" he shouted. "Cover me!"
Vanessa heard the seriousness in his voice and immediately moved, manipulating her thread to disrupt two oncoming spells that were aimed at Zura. "I'm on it!"
Magna cursed under his breath but followed through, launching fireballs to block the bandits' flank.
Meanwhile, the Silver Eagle members—
They stood apart, cold and composed, with magic radiating off them in waves. Strong? Yes. Coordinated? Not even close.
One of them even barked at Zura, "Don't get in the way, rookie!"
Zura didn't respond. Just smirked.
'Prideful pricks,' he thought. 'Strong enough to win, but too arrogant to adapt.'
Their clean uniforms and disciplined posture screamed nobility, but their ignorance to the battlefield was showing. They treated it like a training drill. Like they were just here to "clean up."
And the bandits? They saw it too.
After watching Zura kill one of their own with their own magic, the bandits started backing off a bit. Uneasy. Cautious.
They whispered among themselves. Changed position.
Zura noticed it. The fear in their eyes. The hesitation.
Good.
He stared them down, lightning dancing in his hands. "What's wrong?" he called out, his voice calm, sharp. "Thought you were tough shit a minute ago."
One of the bandits launched a chain-spell at him, and Zura caught it again, absorbed it, and—without blinking—fired it back, even sharper, even faster.
The man screamed as he fell.
Another spell was absorbed. Another page flipped in Zura's grimoire.
Vanessa kept watch from behind. Magna stood guard at his flank, blocking incoming spells. "Damn, kid. You're a freakin' menace," Magna said, grinning.
Zura exhaled slowly. "Nah. I'm just cleaning up."
********
A/N- Hey guys, I published 6 chapters this week, but we only got 35 power stones. I am not complaining, but I want more feedback. What should I improve? Is the pacing okay? Or are you not liking the way this story is progressing?
Read my OG novel, and help me win the contest by adding it to your library and supporting it by any means. I publish two chapters every day for that novel, and it has 14 chapters already. Please give it a read!