Everyone in the fort looked to the source of the noise collectively. From the previously quite forest a chaotic wind blew out bringing departures to a halt.
Esdras nudged Celine, "don't space out, we're not far from the fort, we should retreat."
"But we don't even know what that is…" Celine was clearly out of her mind.
"Do we have to know what it is? It's dangerous and that's enough for me, lady. Now move it, if it's not a big deal we can tell them we forgot something… oh, wait."
"Don't panic, stay where you are." Senior Ron's voice boomed from above the gate of the fort.
Esdras cursed under his breath, don't move? That was not good news. He had to think of something but he didn't have time.
They appeared.
From the forest they flew above the tree canopies and revealed themselves.
Stirge Lv.1
This horrid monster looks like a cross between a large bat and mosquito. It's legs end in sharp pincers and its long, needle-like proboscis slashes the air as it seeks to feed on the blood of living creatures.
It was just a weak Lv.1 monster, only there were hundreds of them. This is a very easy monster if it was alone, however it moves in packs and usually terrorized the countryside.
Esdras bit his lips but otherwise didn't move, it was an order that he didn't want to risk disobeying, especially when he was right under the fort.
"[Gust]"
With that word green winds swirled and pushed the monsters swarm back, strangely enough it seemed like only the Strige swarm was affected by the wind.
"[Wind Cage] [Gale slicer]"
The green wind formed a sphere around the Striges at once, the Striges were trapped. There was a centrifugal force at the center of the sphere that forced the Stirges to converge.
No matter how much they flapped their disgusting wings they were unable to free themselves. Suddenly from various points green blades of wind shot at the Stirges randomly.
The wind blades were only as big as a palm but they cut through the monsters with fearsome easy. When the blades dissipated, more were unleashed until the wind cage disappeared.
With that hundreds of sliced up bodies fell in a pool of disgusting flesh and blood.
Esdras and the rest of the apprentices stood, rooted in awe and fear. No, not just them, even the soldiers in the fort had the same reaction.
This is the power of a True mage, with only three spells he got rid of a disaster for them. So, effortlessly. At least it looked like that.
"Go on then, don't slack off. The sub tower master is looking forward to your achievements, apprentices." Ron said.
"[Flame tongue]"
With that another one of the True mages besides Ron, pointed his finger and a whip of fire burned the corpses of the monsters asunder.
In fact this was not much of a display, it was just a casual gesture that just annoyed the mages slightly.
"Did you see that spell? The wind cage, ever heard of it?" Celine whispered.
"No, you won't find it either. It's been changed, probably by Ron himself. The original spell should be [Warding winds]." Esdras replied.
"Ah, no wonder many people say that he's likely to become a Great mage in the next twenty years." Celine nodded, looking impressed.
"Really? Why?" Esdras didn't know anything about that.
"You didn't know? Some rumors say that he has a great mana capacity, maybe he already has the same mana quantity as a Great mage…"
Now that she mentioned it, Esdras recalled seeing that Ron's mana stat was significantly higher than everything else.
It wasn't just that, what really stood out to Esdras was how each spell complimented the other to create the greatest possible efficiency.
Esdras and the others separated into their original groups and ten soldiers. The number of soldiers was increased and they were give a wagonload of equipment and supplies to last a week.
Bran, Tara and Theo were extremely nervous, they stole glances at Esdras from time to time. Esdras pretended not to notice, he wanted them squirming. Not knowing what he might do to them or when.
Hehehe, to be honest they had good reason to be wary, after all, Esdras just had to find a random reason to complain to senior Ron and then they would have to suffer the Ironfrost cell.
The Ironfrost cell, was a cell placed in a magical glacier in the tower, cold water permeates through deliberate holes and losing a limb to frostbite was not unusual. It only lasts for a few hours but it was still a punishment worse than death.
When they arrived in the area they followed Esdras's instructions and made their way to the collapsed cave. This is when he gave his first order.
"Okay, set up my tent here, I want it attached to this cave."
The soldiers and the apprentices didn't know why Esdras would give such a weird order but they didn't have the right to ask questions.
The soldiers started taking out the equipment from the wagon, meanwhile Bran and the others were about to take a break.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Esdras's cold voice stopped them in their tracks.
"Ah, we just wanted to take a break and drink some water, that's all." Theo said.
Esdras didn't reply, instead he looked at the soldiers who already started carrying the equipment and said, "put these things down, you soldiers have done enough, why don't you take a break?"
"You can't mean—"
"Yes, I do mean that you guys will make my tent." Esdras smirked.
"What? But we're members of the mage tower, we're the—"
"You don't want to do it? Fine, I don't like to force people to to do anything… although I wonder if senior Ron would be as forgiving as I?" Esdras shook his head.
"F-fine, it's just a tent." Bran snorted.
"That's the spirit." Esdras clapped happily, "oh, also, if I don't like it you will have to adjust it to my satisfaction. A fair warning though, I am a hard man to please."
With the sound of that eerie laugh, Tara and Bran knew that this was only the beginning of their hellish lives under this tyrant.