"Stay…" A boy whispered, motioning with a twist of his hand as a group of people huddled amid trees behind him.
Faint winds swirled around him, keeping his scent hidden while he stood nearby a road. The rest of the people were stationed farther away, beyond the range of primary detection means.
The boy wore a hard leather jacket that extended into a hood, covering his entirety, save for the eyes that darted about, observing the place keenly.
His ears pricked as he picked up the sounds of the hooves of horses slamming rhythmically onto the beaten path, approaching in their direction. He raised his hand as the group tensed up in response, awaiting patiently as he watched the approach of the carriage, clenching his hand suddenly.
Boom!
A wall of metal jutted out of the ground, slamming into one of the horses' stomach, sending it flying into the air as part of the carriage was lifted in response. But immediately after, the carriage turned heavy, rooting it to the ground as a wave of mana burst out of it, flattening the surrounding trees.
"Attack!" The boy was Gilthru, now fifteen years in age, having just been promoted into a Grandmaster as he lunged onto the carriage, condensing a metal spear that he chucked at his target.
A metal cage appeared around the carriage, resulting in a sonorous clang as the spear collided with it. Immediately after, the entire wooden carriage turned metallic as one of the surviving horses turned into metal too.
A gust of air blew out of its nose like a steam engine as the metal horse began to run, at speeds faster than before, mowing through the couple of people that stood in its way.
Gilthru's figure flashed in response, using his powers of a Wind Warrior as he arrived above the carriage, condensing a spear that he plunged into it, shocked to see the spear melting when it came into contact with the carriage.
"What the?" He was surprised, leaping out of range as a metal hand jutted out of the carriage, intending to capture him.
A group of Orcs rushed at the carriage, slamming into it when they were stunned by the impact. The metal carriage was just too heavy for their muscly body to topple over. And immediately after, spikes jutted out of the carriage and pierced through their bodies, killing them instantly.
'All of them were Masters…' Gilthru frowned in response, gritting his teeth as he said, "Activate it!"
Boom!
A formation appeared underneath the fleeing carriage, turning the region into a swamp as tree roots jutted out of the swamp and constricted the horse, preventing the carriage from moving.
"Retract!" Suddenly, a solemn voice resounded as the roots lost control unnaturally while the horse nudged into the swamp, bursting with enough power to pull itself out of the swamp and continue to run.
"Even the formation was ineffective?" Gilthru was shocked as he motioned at the Minotaur to keep moving. "Activate the second formation."
The Minotaur closed her eyes, focusing as immediately, the second inlaid formation was activated, this time causing a sea of flames to surge into the carriage, beginning to melt the metal.
But strangely, the Metal Mana circulating through it only intensified in response, stalling its melting as the carriage once again broke out of the formation.
The third formation though, created a domain of ice, turning the metal brittle. But an instant later, a layer of metal cracked before shattering, collapsing to the ground as a new layer of metal covered both the carriage and the horse.
And that wasn't all, arrows suddenly flew out of the carriage, accurately landing on the ambushing group.
"Keuk!" Gilthru grunted as he caught hold of the arrow that flew his way, flinching as he noticed a cut on his palm, a result of him catching hold of the arrow to protect himself.
"What the…?" He was surprised to see the arrow vanish immediately after. 'Even if it's a Metal Arrow created by a Metal Mage, this level of control is too exceptional for a Grandmaster to attain.'
Thinking as such, he gritted his teeth, focusing as suddenly, his Wind Mana billowed out of him, "Everyone, take a step back."
His figure flashed towards the carriage and this time, he only relied upon a wind sword that he had condensed, using it to rapidly hack into the carriage, cutting off one of its corners to peek inside, staring at a middle-aged man that was sweating buckets, his thirteen-year-old daughter that stared nervously, and a boy the same age as him.
The moment he stared at the boy, Gilthru was shocked, able to see mana itself swirling around the boy, as if happy to do so, 'Just…who the heck is this guy?'
In response, the boy calmly stared at him, eyes oozing confidence as he condensed a spear and thrust through the gap.
"Keuk!" Gilthru barely evaded the blow, rolling to the side when multiple arrows flew out of the carriage, targeting him.
He covered himself with a layer of wind and leaped back in reflex, barely taking the arrows when he grunted, collapsing to the ground as a blunt impact slammed into his stomach, shattering his defences.
He kneeled on the ground, staring at the arrow with a spherical arrowhead that fell on the ground, the culprit that had shattered his defences.
He gazed at the figure of the boy that had climbed up the carriage, calmly eyeing him in return before returning to the carriage.
With Gilthru out of commission, the rest of his group didn't dare chase after the carriage, especially since a majority of the group now lay on the ground as corpses.
"Dammit!" Gilthru punched the ground, vexed as he watched the carriage disappear eventually.
He then stared at the Minotaur that approached him, "Gargi, do we have any other formations to use and catch up to them?"
"Our Cartographer is dead." The Minotaur named Gargi sighed, "So, we have no way of catching up to them."
"Aren't you a Thief?" Gilthru asked, "Can't you track them? Besides, they most probably will continue to stick to the road."
"Look around you," Gargi sighed in defeat, "Even our ambush did nothing. All we managed to do was kill a horse. And we lost most of our members. They might be Orcs, but they were still Masters."
"We have no other choice but to retreat."
"Dammit." Gilthru clenched his hand into a fist, "Her Majesty wouldn't let this failure go."
