The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

                    The number of enemies was pretty high, and they were increasing by the minute, so Zaos couldn't afford to enhance every single one of his arrows. He tried to knock down the riders, but those sons of a bitches managed to block the projectiles. Before Zaos could run out of patience, he saw Ameria hitting the horses. While not even her could hit their legs with every single shot, she could make the screen in pain by hitting other parts and occasionally making them fall.

              Zaos wanted to kill all the bastards who were on his way, but he decided to follow Ameria's example. The assassins tried to run while zigzagging to avoid the bolts, and some of them were skilled enough to approach the carriage and then prepare to throw their swords, but then Ameria killed them with enhanced bolts.

"You already know how to use that with a crossbow, huh," Zaos said. "I am truly impressed."

"Well, you showed me how to do it dozens of times," Ameria said.

            Learning by watching wasn't easy, but since Zaos taught her the basics of enhancing, Ameria could easily do it. Regardless, Zaos thought that since they were in a hurry, most of the assassins had forgotten their crossbows, but soon some of them who had the weapons appeared, and then they began to fire at Zaos and Ameria. Zaos blocked the projectiles with his sword. Even amidst the dark of the night, Zaos could tell where they were aiming at thanks to Magic Perception.

"This might be bad…" Zaos said. "We can't attack if I try to move my sword like this in such a small space."

            Things were already difficult enough since Zaos was exhausted, and he had to consider the carriage shaking while it moved. As if things weren't bad enough, he noticed that some people were running in the woods. Those were probably some assassins who specialized in high-speed movement, and they were as fast as Zaos while he enhanced his legs with wind magic.

"Be careful to the sides," Zaos said. "There are some assassins in the woods, they will probably attack our horses."

"Shit…" Erean said and then tried to move to the front of the carriage, but he couldn't do much in that situation.

              Erean was skilled enough, but he couldn't fight properly in such a vehicle. Zaos and everyone else already knew that. That was why they were agonizing over the fact that they couldn't do anything either. A certain idea crossed Erean's mind, but he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. Making the carriage lighter and using some of his men to slow down the pursuers would do the trick, but those that stay behind will, without a doubt, lose their lives.

"Cover me for a second, Ameria," Zaos said.

            Ameria had no idea what Zaos was planning, but she nodded anyway. She tried to slow down the enemies as much as possible while Zaos closed his eyes and then held his sword with both hands while assuming his famous tall guard. He always used that one when he was preparing a big swing. Those who knew Zaos's fighting style recognized that, but they couldn't imagine how he was going to swing his sword in such a small place.

  "Fall back and protect your heads," Zaos said after he opened his eyes.

            The enemies were already too close, so Zaos and the others won't have much time to fight or do anything else. Regardless, they obeyed what Zaos said, and soon after, he swung his sword and destroyed a good part of the back of the carriage. At the same time, Zaos fired through the blade of his sword a massive wave of wind that cut the riders and the horses nearby the carriage in half.

              The wave of wind only stopped after flying for dozens of meters and cutting down many enemies and their horses. Once they saw that, the remaining pursuers slowed down. Without their support, the assassins that were running through the woods also slowed down. They didn't want to be cut in half by something they couldn't see either.

              Zaos sighed in relief and then turned around only to find his allies with his eyes wide open. They knew what Zaos could do, but every time they saw it, they couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by his magic attacks.

"Are we still being followed by the assassins in the woods?" Erena asked after taking a deep breath.

"They are outside my range now," Zaos said. "But I wouldn't say that they won't return, once they regroup, they might try to do something else again."

              Erean nodded. That was indeed possible. In the end, it seemed that they wouldn't have enough time to scavenge the mansion again. Despite that, the whole group felt happy with the result of the mission. While they did have some hard times and they still were exhausted, they delivered a massive mental blow on the enemy's army. They invaded their territory and sent messages to all the leaders in all islands. Not to mention, they also sent a message to Sairus kingdom capital. Eventually, they will come to help…

"Even if things go as smoothly as possible, we won't receive any help for at least two months," Zaos thought. "Not to mention, the kingdom will have to use the boats of Vezar to come as fast as possible, this Ferdinand fellow won't let things go our way, so… we still have a long way ahead of us."

              While Zaos was thinking about that, some people inside the carriage were looking at him with some concerned eyes. The more they saw Zaos fighting, the less they could see him as a normal human being. The fact that he could split other human beings with his magic and sword skills without hesitation was one of the things that made him look really scared. Among them, Noemi was the one who was looking mostly at him.