'Persistent healing.'
With Mrazivy still in his arms after catching her, Marcus applied his tier four healing magic spell to fix up the light injuries she had sustained.
"Thanks Marcus, I am feeling better now. Would you mind bringing me back over to Eirwen." Mrazivy said once her stomach stopped hurting.
Nodding his head, Marcus flew over to Mrazivy's beast companion that had now righted itself after being hit on the head by James.
"I am sorry Mrazivy, it appears that I am still lacking." Eirwen said, sullen that it had fallen unconscious for a bit and allowed Mrazivy to fall.
"It could not be helped. My brother James is one of the strongest warriors in the kingdom, and Fallon is at the peak of the epic grade, nearly as strong as a legendary beast." Mrazivy said to console her beast companion.
She had honestly never expected to win, and just having been able to put up a good fight was enough for her.
"I suppose we should head back now. It appears we have attracted quite the crowd." James said looking down at the people that looked like a swarm of ants.
Following James' gaze, Marcus could also see that a small crowd of people had exited the castle, naturally curious about the battle that had just raged high in the sky.
The five of them then descended back towards the ground and as they got closer many of the people cheered for James.
Of course, a majority of the spectators had been his own men, and the rest were off duty guards or knights that had been resting.
"That was an excellent battle sir." One of the knights under James' command said, when James and Fallon touched back down on the ground.
"Yes, it was. My little sister and her friend really put up quite the fight." James said praising Marcus and Mrazivy.
James then waved his hand at the crowd, while having Fallon rear up, to put on a little show.
Many of his men, and some of the guards and knights began chanting his name, showing how popular he was with them.
"Looks like your brother is well liked." Marcus said to Mrazivy, as they landed down, and garnered almost no attention.
"It only makes sense; he is known as one of the pillars that protects the kingdom."
After they landed, James, Marcus, and Mrazivy answered some of the questions that were posed towards them, and generally talked to those that had spectated their battle.
Many of them were curious as to why they had suddenly taken to the air and fought, but once James had explained everything, all of his men nodded their heads, and looked expectantly at Mrazivy and Marcus.
"So, what did you think. Was it not fun to fight hand and hand with your beast companion, while flying high in the air?" James said, still hoping to coax Mrazivy to join him.
Still even though that battle had been informative, and Mrazivy could not say she disliked fighting while flying on top of Eirwen, she had no intention of joining her brother.
"Sorry James, but I already have my path."
Hearing Mrazivy's reply James clicked his tongue, and his fellow sky knights also seemed disappointed to not have Mrazivy joining them.
"Well, I already knew what your answer would be, but I at least had to try. Now why do we not find a more private place to talk. You said you visited the crystal caverns and wanted to talk about them, right?"
With that, James and Mrazivy said goodbye to the people that had come out to watch their battle, and along with Marcus they went back into the castle and found a private room.
"Now how was it? Was it as great as you imagined it would be?" James said as he sat down on one of the couches in the room.
"It was actually even better than I had ever imagined, a sight truly to behold. In fact, we found something that even you did not discover."
Mrazivy then told her brother about how in the musical crystal room, and how they discovered the secret that played a beautiful song and unlocked a hidden passageway.
"And at the end of that passageway was another beautiful room with a shrine in it, that was actually a huge musical instrument. It was completely unexpected, but after we looked around and saw no one was home we decided to have our lunch there." Mrazivy said a bright smile on her face as she remembered the experience that ranked as one of the best in her life.
However, what happened next in the story brought the mood down a bit as she told her brother about how they were attacked and then subsequently met a great spirit.
"Sorry that you ran into such a dangerous creature. When we were down there, we did not find anything of the sort, but I suppose that an intelligent monster of that level would know better than to attack an entire squadron of knights." James said, some regret on his face that he had been the cause for his sister to face extreme danger.
"No, it is fine. We pulled through somehow and got lucky that the great spirit Recha showed up. Oh, but that is not all, it turned out that great grandmother Aira had been tailing us the entire time."
Mrazivy then finished up retelling the rest of their adventure, though she did leave out the part where she kissed Marcus.
"I see it sounds like the two of you had a good time. Maybe one of these days we can go there all together and really explore the place. We only scratched the surface, and who knows how deep it really goes."
"Heh, yeah right, with how busy you are I doubt we will ever find the time that." Mrazivy said, knowing that it would pretty much be impossible for her brother to get away for that long.
"Ah, never say never. One day we can get together with all of our siblings and go down together and make it a huge retreat."
Hearing this Mrazivy started laughing louder, since it would be difficult enough just for James to go, but all of them was a pipedream so impossible she knew it would never happen, especially since there was bad blood between many of their siblings.
"How about we try to keep it down to just you. At some point that may at least be possible."
"Okay, it sounds like a plan. How about next spring, I will take some time off then once winter is over and things are less hectic." James said surprising Mrazivy that he was actually making concrete plans.
"Are you sure, what about the sky knights, will they be fine without you for so long?"
"Yeah, I have not had a proper vacation in over a decade. Next spring, I will definitely take some time off. The knights and the kingdom can make do without me for a couple of months."
After saying that James and Mrazivy got to making plans and when all things were set, the two of them had decided to go and delve into depths of the crystal caverns one month after the last snow had melted.
'Now is my chance.' Marcus thought seeing that Mrazivy, and James had finished up their conversation.
"James, I hope you do not mind my asking but what level are you?"
Naturally Marcus had grown curious and seeing as how his beast companion was level fifty-seven, he figured James must be even stronger.
"Hm, I suppose if you know it is not a big deal. Just do not go spreading it around alright?"
Nodding his head Marcus agreed to not spread James' level around, and it was not like he had any reason to anyway.
"I happen to be level sixty-four." James said with a look of pride.
He had worked hard to reach this level, and not many people would ever make it to the same or even higher level.
In fact, the number of people that were around as strong or stronger than him, numbered in only the several dozen within the entire kingdom.
"That is pretty impressive. Only ten levels under Thabon." Marcus said, showing admiration for the strength that James had received.
"Only ten levels you say. The higher you got he more those ten levels make more of a difference. I would prefer it if it you did not compare me to an old monster like Thabon or my great grandmother. They are still in a realm far from where I am currently." James said, not wanting to be put in the same league as Thabon, or Aria.
"Okay I understand. Oh, but there is one more thing. Can I see your lance?"
Naturally he was not going to pass up the chance to examine an amethros weapon up close.
"Sure, I do not mind." James said as he took out his lance and handed it over to Marcus.
With bright eyes Marcus accepted the lance, nearly yanking it out of James hand as he began to feverously look it over.
'Impressive work. Whoever did this was top notch, well above what I am capable of, and must have been at least at the level of skill as Thabon. Damn, half of these formation are completely new to me and so complicated I have no idea what they actually do. And the speed and quality at which it absorbs mana is beyond anything I have ever seen. So, this is amethros. I can see now why it is called the world's strongest metal.'
Looking over every millimeter of the lance, Marcus lost track of time while examining it, and soon over an hour had passed, when James said, "Um, have you finished looking it over yet, I do have other things to do."
Looking up form the lance for the fist time since he had gotten ahold, of it, Marcus could see the concerned expressions on Mrazivy and James' face.
Still, a part of him did not want to let this lance go, and he thought about storing it in his item box and disappearing.
However, he knew that this action would be beyond stupid, since it would not only ruin his relationship with the kingdom, but Mrazivy as well.
"Here you go and thank you for letting me look it over. It certainly is a masterpiece, well beyond anything I could create right now." Marcus said as he handed it back to James.
"Yeah, it is one of the royal family's treasures. Of all the weapons we have this one alone can only be wielded by a member of the royal family, since it used to be Boreas' personal weapon."
A bit surprised, Marcus looked at the lance even more impressed than before, wondering when he might be able to make similar weapon for himself.
"Now it is getting late, and we all have things that need to be done before the meeting in a couple of days." James said, knowing that he had a lot of work to do and little time to get it done.
After that the three of them said their goodbyes before going their sperate ways.. Each going to take care of some last-minute preparations before the kingdom's meeting.
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)reeweb(n)ovel.com