As Jazad entered his tent again to look for his equipment, a bright green magic circle appeared and shattered, revealing a magician in thick green robe.
Jazad gave the magician a side glance. "What are you doing here, Bhazud?"
"Kekeke, we haven't met for a few weeks, and this is how you greet me? Come on, I miss having a little spar with you."
"I have task needs to be done. Don't bother me, or I will not hesitate to kill you."
"You always seem to forget that I am an assassin as well."
"It's not that I forget. It's just that you lack the skill for me to consider you as assassin."
Bhazud laughed. "You might be a powerful warrior, but you still don't have the thing us magician can do. Espionage spells, mind and emotion manipulation, elemental manipulation, space time, creating illusion, there are so many things we can do that you cannot."
"I don't need to do much. All I need is my axe." Jazad reached out with his hand, and an axe nearby glowed in divine blue light before flying towards his hand.
Bhazud grinned. "Your enemy is much powerful than you think. For your information, he defeated the Count of Waralia. The Count was a high Diamond Rank magician. You think a mid Diamond Rank warrior could stop him?"
"Stop lying to me. It was his father that defeated the count, not the son."
"HAHAHA! I heard rumors that the son might even be stronger than his own father."
"You are foolish to think so. His father is a golem master. His strength is in a different category," Jazad replied.
"I come here to offer you my help, Jazad. Don't dwell in your arrogance that you can do this mission alone. You might excel in silent assassination, but what you are about to face is a small-scale warfare. Not only that, you have to be quick and certain that the targets will die, because the Conquerer of the West will not be at rest until he found the assassin."
Jazad looked at his axe as he was deep in thoughts. "What is your price?"
"Simple, you help me once if I'm assigned to a mission."
"Done, but tell me. Do you know how the Conquerer of the West defeated the Count of Waralia? I am sure he hired a lot of Diamond Rank magicians."
Bhazud's expression changed. "There's this thing called CS-Armageddon-57. There's not much I know, but this thing is like a large flying warship."
"A warship? Like ship for the sea?"
"Something like that, but it can fly. It's also extremely powerful."
"A warship… but that should not be enough to defeat the count."
"He doesn't only have one. From what I know, he has dozens if not more of these. The other day, the Duke of Wihuland showed off the same flying warship. Apparently, they are called aircraft."
"The Conquerer of the West gave it away?"
"Only one to the Duke, but he might give one to the king as well."
"He's making connection, blending in with the kingdom," Jazad concluded.
"And our employer doesn't like that," Bhazud said. "His son is also accepted to Withokere University."
"No wonder they are going together. But his son is not my real target. It is Helid Ninel."
Bhazud smiled and grabbed a pendant before crushing it. The powder flew into Jazad's nose and he closed his eyes.
"I see… so they want us to kill Tom as well."
Jazad looked at Bhazud. "And you are also assigned to this mission, so I owe you nothing."
Bhazud laughed. "Too bad I cannot fool you."
Jazad grunted. "I will distract his golem army. That's when you appear and kill them all."
Bhazud grinned and vanished immediately.
…
"Wow, Tom, I don't know there are so many wonderful things outside this kingdom," Helid Ninel said. "The story of adventure about your father is so amazing. I love the part where he climbed atop Mount Fargon, and fought his way on the World Tree."
"He's an amazing man." Tom nodded with a smile.
"For someone that came from a lesser continent, he sure is quite powerful."
"Lesser continent?" Tom asked.
"Continents that limit its people from reaching Adamantite Ranks. There are many of those continents."
"Can you travel to these continents?"
"We can, but what's the point? All the resources, knowledge, and everything else is lacking compared to here. It's like staying in a big mansion, then suddenly moving to a poor house."
"I see… is there any continent that is more powerful than this one?" Tom asked.
"Maybe. But I do know that we are neighbors to two powerful continent. They are as powerful as us."
Suddenly, the carriage shook.
"It finally begin," Tom said.
"What happened?"
"An attack," Tom said. He snapped his finger, and a screen appeared, revealing the grassland. One bandit troop after another rushed over the hill, coming from different directions. Their numbers extended without end, numbers so large that it was a shocking sight to behold.
The youngsters' legs turned soft like noodles when they saw this scene. They had sparred and trained hard, but they never saw an actual war before.
So even though they were quite talented, they were not mentally prepared for battle to the death.
"It's much larger than I expected," Tom said.
"Tom, you already know that they are going to attack us? Why don't we change our direction?" Helid asked in panic.
"Why would I? I wanted to meet them."
"Meeting them… are you crazy?"
"You just saw me defeating a magical dragon. What are you scared of?"
That was true. A magical dragon was more terrifying than an army, but still, how could Tom be so calm in this situation?
Suddenly, a series of roars came from the sky. The unassuming clouds turned into white dragons with archers and magicians atop them.
The largest cloud dragon was at the front, with Jazad standing on the head, gazing down at the convoy with his fierce eyes.
"Tom! The son of Aldred! I come here to kill you!"
The youngsters looked at Tom right after that.
"Crap, are we going to die?"
"Cowards," Tom mocked. "All of you are Diamond Rank magicians. Most of our enemies are not."
"But the cloud dragons, and that warrior is a mid Diamond Rank warrior!"
"He's a literal magician killer. All of us doesn't have the chance to fight against him."
Tom sighed. "Nothing will happen. Now sit down and relax. We're going to watch a good show."
