Chapter 248: The Elven Village
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
When Han Jin returned to the magic barrier, Louise and the thief were still fighting on equal ground. Panvin contemplated crossing the barrier to help several times, but decided against it each time. He even shook his head at Han Jin when he noticed Han Jin wanted to help. Louise was a proud girl and would never allow anyone to interfere with her battle, not even her own sister, or she would be instantly enraged.
“You had better hurry, we don’t have much time,” Han Jin said with a frown.
Hearing Han Jin’s urging, anger showed on Louise’s face, and her actions slowed with it. The thief immediately seized this opportunity. He quickly broke away from the fight, turned toward Han Jin, and threw the dagger at his chest in a flash of cold light.
Han Jin was baffled. Did he really look that vulnerable? With a slight s.h.i.+ft of his body, he dodged the dagger. The thief immediately followed after it, however, and swiped another dagger that appeared in his hand at Han Jin’s neck.
Han Jin opened his left hand and tried to grab the thief’s right wrist, yet the thief unexpectedly sunk his elbow, dodged Han Jin’s hand, and instead stabbed his dagger straight toward Han Jin’s left ribs.
Thieves were not as strong as warriors and had even less protection. They often played the role of an ambusher and relied on unexpected and swift attacks to disable enemies. If a thief was visible, he had already lost his biggest advantage. This thief was also nowhere near as fast as Han Jin, and although his strikes were swift and unpredictable, Han Jin’s reaction speed was also extremely fast. He pulled down his left hand and caught the thief’s wrist before his dagger could connect, then swung his right fist at the thief’s face.
Although his right hand was caught, the thief did not panic at all. With a pull of his left hand, another dagger somehow appeared, which he flicked upward at Han Jin’s palm.
Han Jin’s expression turned even colder. His right hand suddenly stopped mid-strike, and the thief’s knife struck only empty air. Meanwhile, Han Jin’s hand again reached forward, this time grabbing the thief’s left wrist.
With both of his wrists caught, the thief finally showed signs of panic. As he desperately struggled to break free, he also raised his foot to kick at Han Jin’s chest.
Han Jin opened his mouth, and a ray of green radiance shot out. The thief had never expected this kind of attack even in his wildest dreams, and by the time he had reacted, it was too late. Besides, with both of his hands caught, he didn’t have much s.p.a.ce to move anyway. With a puff, the radiance shot through the thief’s chest, circled back, and quietly floated above Han Jin.
The light in the thief’s eyes began to dim as he fell to the ground. By the time Louise had charged in front of him, the thief was already dead.
“Hey! He was my opponent!” Louise screamed.
“Are you leaving or not?” Han Jin didn’t bother responding to Louise.
“We are, of course we are!” Panven hurriedly said.
“Did you not hear me? He was my opponent!!” Louise angrily shouted.
“He’s the one that attacked,” Han Jin flatly said. “You are clearly as fast as him, yet you intentionally waited. You wanted him to make a fool of me, right? Sorry to disappoint.”
“You…” With her intentions exposed, Louise’s tone softened a bit. “You are a magician?”
“Battle mage.” Han Jin remembered an opponent he had faced before.
“My Lady, please, enough of this!” Panven walked up and said to Han Jin with an apologetic tone, “Master Raphael, I am truly sorry. My Lady… she has a short temper, please don’t mind her. That fire mage, was it you who…”
“We can talk as we walk.” Han Jin looked at Panvel. “Why does it seem like… you are not in a hurry at all?”
“Why should we be?” Louise curled her mouth.
“My Lady!” Panven gave Louise a disapproving look.
The road in front had been blocked, and the whole procession had to turn the other way. As they continued on their way, Han Jin increasingly felt something was off. They were somehow walking east, but he wanted to go to St. Petersburg; weren’t they going in the complete opposite direction?
At one point, Han Jin decided to simply stop, which also forced Louise and Panven to stop. Both gave him a surprised look.
“Mr. Panven, I think we should go our separate ways. Can you tell me how I can bypa.s.s the Kingdom of Magnificent Light?” Han Jin asked flatly.
Before Panven could speak, Louise opened her mouth, “You idiot! Even if you can circle around the Kingdom of Magnificent Light, you will still need to fly for three days to reach St. Petersburg. If you stay with us, it will only take two.”
“My Lady, please be respectful!” Panven chidded. He then smiled at Han Jin. “Master Raphael, please rest a.s.sured. I promised that we would arrive at St. Petersburg within two days.”
Louise and Panven didn’t look like they were lying, so Han Jin shrugged and said nothing more. As for Louise’s rude remarks, he didn’t really care whether a stranger was respectful or not.
After they traveled for a while longer, the archer finally caught up from behind them. In truth, the whole procession would move faster without that frail woman, and the enemy archers would never catch up so easily.
Han Jin would understand if that woman was someone important, but clearly, no one seemed to care about her. Why bring a burden along then?
After some internal debate, when the archers formed a half circle around them from behind, Han Jin finally asked, “Is there anyway for us to move faster?”
Panven also noticed that the archers were closing in and decided they might as well halt altogether. He cast a magic barrier again, and thick mist soon covered everything inside. Panven then smiled, “Master Lola is our leader; we would never abandon her.” He knew exactly what Han Jin meant.
“She is your leader?” Han Jin frowned. He would never believe that bullc.r.a.p.
“Ahahaha… of course not.” Louise suddenly laughed.
“My Lady…” Panven hurriedly tried to stop her.
“None of your concern.” Louise impatiently waved her hand. “We have more than finished our mission already. Even if Nicolas finds out my sister is a fake, it’ll already be too late.”
Panven helplessly shook his head, then shouted, “Prepare yourself! I’m about to cast my spell!” After that, he held his wand tight and started to loudly incant.
Outside, stray arrows occasionally penetrated the fog and landed on the barrier, but this kind of attack couldn’t even leave a scratch. Besides, the archers couldn’t even see what was inside the barrier and could only blindly shoot, posing little threat.
Panven’s wand slowly grew brighter and brighter, and ten streaks of strange light crawled out of the ground like ghost snakes. The light tangled around everyone present, and a wave of blinding light engulfed everyone. Everyone instinctively closed their eyes, and by the time they could see again, they were surrounded by a completely strange terrain. In other words, they had been teleported to somewhere unfamiliar to them.
Han Jin’s eyes were filled with shock. s.p.a.cial Teleportation! A ma.s.s spell that could match the effectiveness of a teleportation matrix! Han Jin finally understood why Panven had always cowered inside the magic barrier: he needed to conserve his magic. With how slow they were moving, this would not be the only time they would be surrounded, and Panven’s spell would be their only hope if this happened again.
Han Jin had once told Yalina, “you can always learn from someone who’s better.” Whether she had taken his advice remained to be seen, but he himself did frequently find inspiration from others. Both Nicola, who could cause natural catastrophes by himself, and Panven, who had just released a ma.s.sive spell, were both enough to shock him. Yalina would never believe someone could cast s.p.a.cial Teleportation by himself; such a spell indeed existed, but had long been lost in history!
Sweat filled Panven’s forehead. He sat down heavily on the gra.s.s and started meditating; clearly, unleas.h.i.+ng a spell as ma.s.sive as Special Teleportation took a big toll on him.
Guards immediately surrounded Panven and alertedly observed their surroundings. Their calm demeanors and fast reactions confirmed Han Jin’s suspicion: this wasn’t the first time they had used Spatial Teleportation.
Han Jin looked into the distance and found a few familiar mountain peaks. It seemed Panven wasn’t able to teleport them far; only five or so miles at most. However, that did not diminish the immense strategic impact a spell like this could have in a battle.
“Is there anything else you want to ask?” Louise walked beside Han Jin. “You might as well ask while he’s meditating!”
Han Jin looked at Louise and suddenly asked, “Lola is your sister?”
“Mhm, you have heard of her too?” Louise’s face instantly lit up with pride.
“Only several days ago,” Han Jin flatly said.
That clearly hurt Louise’s pride, but although she wanted to just leave, she couldn’t resist her curiosity. Ever since she was a child, she had enjoyed being a teacher and found it satisfying to answer questions, yet Han Jin didn’t seem interested at all. Louise bit her teeth. “That’s it? Is that all you wanted to know?”
“You aren’t afraid Nicolas sent me?” Han Jin slowly said, “Mr. Panven is meditating. If I were to plan something, you wouldn’t be able to stop me by yourself.”
“You bear no ill thought against us.”
“What makes you so sure?”
Louise hesitated, then giggled. “Not telling you, that’s a secret.” She was not a complete idiot. She might talk about her mission now that it has been completed, but she would never reveal information that was in her best interests to keep hidden.
Just then, Panven opened his eyes and strenuously stood up. “Alright, we can continue now. We must reach the Elven Village by tonight.”
“By tonight?” Louise blanked. “Are you sure we can lose them by then? If we lure the enemies to the Elven Village and cause them trouble, I will hear no end of it from my sister.”
“My Lady, you underestimate the Elven Village.” Panven smiled. “Anything short of Nicolas sending his Dragon Knights would pose no threat to the village.”
“No, my sister specifically warned me about this. I’m in charge of this matter.” Louise’s face suddenly became determined. “Don’t think I don’t know what you are planning! Ha… you just want to recruit the elves from the village, right? If Nicolas attacks, they will suffer heavy losses, and once the village is destroyed, the now homeless elves will have no choice but to come to us. And if they want revenge, they will have to depend on our support. Also…”
“My… My Lady…” Panven’s face paled.
“That’s what my sister told me. She also told me that she can listen to your advice on everything else, but when it comes to this, never!” Louise said with a glare.