As their carriage drew closer to the five people standing in the middle of the unpaved road, Tyler tucked the matter of Unrivaled into the back of his mind, letting go of his complicated thoughts concerning that issue, and then studied the appearance of the five who stood in their way from almost a mile away.
They were all mounted on majestic beasts, befitting the ranks that appeared on the badges on their chests. Which was also a massive clue to their identities, proving they were far from being common bandits.
Of course, their expensive-looking equipments and exotic mounts were already proven enough to disqualify them as bandits, to begin with.
While Tyler was no beast tamer, nor even a beast expert, he was still able the recognize the value and rarity of their mounts. Four of which appeared to be superior Gray wolves, a variation of the ones found somewhere in the Darknar Forest.
The last was of a more advanced species that Uriel's information had its name being a rather rare Twin horned Bengal tiger— which according to Uriel — was not a native beast to this area or season.
"Well hello again, how unfortunate for you that we should meet again so soon. I'll make sure you regret what you've cost me."
The one who spoke with an insincere smile on her face was in fact Teyla — the leader of the Magician's Rank 7 party known as "Thunder."
She addressed them rather casually even though they were still quite a distance away and moving at high speeds. However, the wind suddenly fell silent as it carried the sounds of her rather obnoxious voice clearly to their ears like the roar of thunder.
Hearing that voice again so close to his ears completely soured Tyler's mood as they rapidly approached the five of them. He didn't particularly care for the character of the so-called Rank 7 Magician and expected her appearance here to be nothing but trouble.
Which was why he had no intentions of stopping his carriage to entertain their foolishness. While he could understand the reasoning behind her actions given how hard she must've worked to reach her current rank and status, that still didn't give her the right to take it out on him when all he had done in that meeting was mind his business.
Perhaps she could learn from his example.
He had once been at the absolute bottom and could empathize with her feelings if she had expressed them like a proper adult. However, that was not the case. Hence why he had chosen not to pay her any attention. Given the rather strange interest of Nullen with him, he would rather not make things more complicated for him.
"Don't stop."
Tyler whispered his order to Nadine and she happily complied. She had already been pissed at the constant jabs Teyla had been throwing at Lix during the meeting earlier and if it wasn't for Tyler holding her back, she was already prepared to remove her head.
Naturally, Nadine normally couldn't just ram their carriage right through the five without consequences. She knew their exotic mounts were particularly chosen for their speed and sturdiness. However, they could not withstand a hit from a Six eyed bull head-on.
This was why she believed they were only baiting her so as to control their direction as their mounts were swift enough to maneuver around them and they would easily surpass the speed of the Six eyed bull to force them to stop.
However—
"Max magic - Haste,
Widened Magic - Protection against projectiles,
Charge and Magic Barrier."
In mere seconds, Nadine quadruple cast several 3rd tier spells that hastened the steps of the six-eyed bull while engulfing the entire carriage with an anti-projectile Magic Barrier as they intended to ram their way through the party known as Thunder.
"Seriously, that's your plan! What a coward! I knew someone like you doesn't deserve to be given this quest. What a joke."
Running her mouth as usual, Teyla mocked the decision of Lix when she noticed their carriage wasn't slowing down at all and was rather picking up speed, clearly about to ram them through.
"Don't let them pass!"
Addressing the members of her party, everyone seem to reluctantly draw their weapons as it seems they were a little confused about why they were currently ambushing the most popular merchant group in the city.
Two of her party members appear to be a type of archer with another being a pure mage like Teyla and the last being a fighter like the Vice guild leader of the Magic guild, Kal.
However, as Rank 7 members of the Magic institute, it seems every single one of them was capable of using Magic despite their appeared class.
"Giant FIREBALL!"
"Sunburst"
"Chain Lightning!"
"Thousand Cascading Arrows!"
"Curse Wave!"
Each person launched their own spells at the approaching carriage as every single one of their spells was befitting of the high rank within the Magic guild. With each of them being powerful enough to reduce the entire Magic carriage to dust.
As expected, with the release of their spells came to the loud shattering sounds of glass as the Magic barrier Nadine had cast around the carriage was instantly destroyed and a few of the spells even made their way to the pair seated in front of the carriage.
"Devour everything, Endless Abyss."
Raising a single hand, the effects of the remaining spells were instantly drawn to Lix's Palm as they promptly seem to be absorbed, or rather devoured by it.
"What the bell was that!"
The person who exclaimed was the man mounted on a Gray Wolf in his right hand of Teyla. He seemed to be the oldest in the group and was the sole fighter similar to Kal.
"Watch out!"
As Teyla looked dumbfounded at the unbelievable scene that had been displayed before her, the six-eyed bull had already closed the distance and was already about to ram head-first into her Bengal Tiger with its fiery aura already activated.
Reacting in time, the man shoved Teyla out of the way as even her higher-ranked mount would take significant damage if it ever tried to tank a full charge from a Six eyed bull not to mention its speed had been greatly increased by haste magic.
"Don't just stand there! After them, and fire everything you have!"
Quickly recovering from her previous stupor, Teyla immediately gave an order the group reacted quickly and their mounts moved with incredible speed. Almost instantly catching up to them.
Tyler sighed inwardly. Frankly, he didn't want to get into any direct altercations with a member of the Magic institute which was also why he tried his best not to pay attention to Teyla's mockeries.
However, this had gone too far. He had hoped using the God Tier artifact, Depths of the Abyss, to utterly crush the spells of all five Rank 7 magicians would discourage them from chasing after them especially since the feat was accomplished by the Rank 2 magician they were looking down on.
Yet, he wasn't blessed with any such luck.
Chasing after their carriages with increasing pace, it quickly became painfully obvious how much their rare mounts outclassed the speed of the Six eyed bull as they rapidly began to gain ground on them.
"Thunderclap!"
Releasing a spell, the force of a sonic boom shattered Nadine's barrier once again as it proceeded to slam into the back of the Magic carriage but failed to destroy it.
At this point, there was no reason for Tyler to hold back anymore as they had finally moved far enough from the city to avoid being noticed by any sentries. However, as he stood up and turned to face the five surrounding them, an evil smile crept across Teyla's face as she signaled something to her party members.
Tyler was just about to use one of his spells when—
[Notice: I have sensed several spacial distortions ahead. Magic disruption has been activated and is now in progress.]
'Wait what!'
Tyler was not surprised by the spatial distortion ahead of them. After all, even without using his normal perception skills, he was still well aware of the space around him and had sensed the disturbance a while back.
He hadn't been sure if Teyla was capable of such a thing but had taken precautions to prevent it from affecting his travels. However, the Magic disruption had taken him by surprise.
Thinking back to it now, he had seen two of Teyla's men shatter a blackened orb a fraction of a second ago. Following that, the Magic essence around him was rapidly being killed off, preventing any spells or skills from being activated in such a state.
Although this didn't affect skills that were already in use or that were activated internally, it was still a bothersome ability for someone like Teyla to possess and Tyler could not help but wonder how on Neron she had managed to get her hands on something he hadn't even heard of.
However, it didn't matter if the Magic essence around him was completely nonexistent, such a thing could truly only hinder Tyler for a second as he could always just break the potential of his spells and activate them with his own mana, and thus, this annoying venture had only succeeded in prevention him from activating his spell so he only needed to try again.
However—
"NOW!"
"Huh"
As Tyler prepared the use a spell once more, he noticed the evil smile on Teyla's face had grown even wilder as she yelled her command and in the next moment, his six-eyed bull stepped on a delayed Magic circle as countless bone spikes suddenly shot up from the ground, skewering Mike to a thousand piecing.
The forced stop had also caused the carriage front to shatter as its body was thrown over the spikes but it seems they would eventually be next as it looked as though the spikes went on forever.
"Die bastard!!"
Teyla's expression grew even more unsightly as her formerly pretty face became twisted in an ugly expression that mirrored the depths of her heart.
"I- I can't believe this..."
Tyler's eyes widened as he witnessed his second mount, Mike being turned into minced meat without him being able to stop it. His arrogance in handling the situation seems to have backfired badly as he had been completely blindsided by this reality.
His body trembled as their carriage somersaulted over the bone spikes and their bodies flew aimlessly in the air.
"The five members of Thunder soon came to a stop in front of the carriage and Teyla couldn't help but laugh maniacally at the words that had left Lix's mouth.
"Believe it! The so-called great and mysterious Lix is about to die for such a cheap trick. What! You didn't think we set any traps around here. Face it, without the use of your Magic you're completely useless, now die a pathetic death for your foolishness."
"This... tsk... unforgivable."
"Huh!?"
*Boom!
The words of mockery Teyla was about to spree were immediately replaced by an exaggerated grasp of disbelief as the Magic vaster known as Lix had casually shattered the thousand curse spikes simply by landing in its midst as he casually caught his falling companion and a cold gaze washed over her body from the shadows of the hood that no longer completely covered his face.
A thrill of fear, terror, and despair washed over her very soul as her life suddenly began to flash before her eyes. It felt as though she was standing before death itself.
"To think someone like you is capable of angering me so. No, that's wrong. That was not my fault, I foolishly allowed trash like you to exist before me, so why wouldn't you kill Mike? You just need to know one thing, your death will not be quick."
Although the terror from his gaze alone had rendered her all but paralyzed. One word still stuck in her mind as she could help but think.
'Who the fuck is Mike!?'
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦