The Runic Alchemist

'Cough'

'Cough'

"What's going on..?"

Damian looked behind him where he had put down Anthony and Sam side by side.

"Nothing much... We are just bit screwed in the behind that's all..."

"What in the... We survived.. Or not..? Where did the crazed knight go..?" Anthony got up turning full 360 degrees to see all hundreds of people surrounding them in a circle.

"Who's this dumbass..? Fabian, remove this dumb guy and the passed out boy from here... I need just this pervert here..." The Prince declared while taking out his sword.

There was only 50 meters between Damian and the prince while the rest of the knights had remained at twice that distance. When the group of knight unit commanders tried to walk towards them, the young prince raised one hand and stopped them before they could even walk 10 steps.

The Fabian guy walked forward taking firm steps, so in reply Damian took out his sword from the sheath and stretched his hand sideways covering Anthony behind it. The king's guard got the message and stopped moving.

Looking straight into Damian's eyes Fabian raised both his arms up a bit and created two solid glowing cyan swords, they looked really sharp and dangerous.

"Look around you kid, you have lost."

"Maybe.."

"Accept it then..."

"Gotta finish the job, man. Honor and all that shit you know..?" Damian said tiredly.

He was already running on fumes. Only quarter of his mana had remained. Many of his scrolls were used up too. He had others but unless he retrieved a whole bunch at once just the spatial storage access would cost him 30% of his remaining mana.

"You have guts boy.. I will give you at least that.. despite your size..."

With that he charged towards Damian head first. The mana sense told Damian that the man was second ranker and his ability makes him an Esper. His mana was rather on the low side as far as the second rankers go.

Simple sword strikes, no variations or baits. Damian blocked it easily and used the momentum to make both his and the opponent's swords go up while doing a backflip and creating some more distance. The power behind the attack was lacking a bit. Damian was just checking the toughness of the magical swords Fabian had made which felt pretty solid.

Seeing his attack fail, Fabian tried using Damian's backflip as a chance to extend his sword length to pierce Damian's heart. It might have worked with anyone else but Damian could sense the mana travelling from Fabian's body to his hand and going through the magical sword converting into the solid shape at the tip of the sword... As a result extending it.

Damian dodged easily and then just stood there not using the opening Fabian gave him to attack.

"Are you defensive type..?" Damian asked the question that was genuinely bugging him.

Someone even laughed at that in the distance, it was hard to tell who. However the king's guard did not take it lightly and instantly created two giant cyan slabs on Damian's both sides and crushed them with Damian in the middle. Of course Damian had sensed the mana way before it started forming shapes and jumped out of the way at the last second. Creating some more distance between them.

"Sorry kid... Because of me... You.."

Damian looked behind him and saw Anthony looking into the distance, finally reality dawning upon him. Sneaking in and out was one thing but getting alive from here was just a dream now.

"It was my decision to make..."

Anthony slumped his shoulders and looked down.

"Will they even let us live..?"

However before Damian could find words for his old companion a familiar voice spoke up from behind Alex. He was the one who laughed earlier Damian guessed.

"Not after what you did today..."

"Uncle..? What are you doing here..?" Alex exclaimed.

"Loosing sleep that's what..." The captain of the king's guard said lazily coming forward and standing side by side with his nephew.

"So this is what you do kid, in your spare time..? Break into people's homes..?"

"The kid deserves a second chance..." Damian said lowering his sword, not like he could fight the guy anyway. The Fabian guy also backed away seeing his captain.

"Who are you to decide..?" The prince intervened.

"You have caused too much damage but it seems like it was mostly from your companions. Come with us willingly, join us and I just might be able to help you out here." The handsome knight offered.

The captain of the king's guard looked straight into Damian's eyes. The man might look like a handsome prince charming but his mana was immense, Damian felt like a mouse in front of a mountain. And it was not just the amount, the feel he was getting from his mana signature was terrifying to say the least. As if looking at the storm coming towards you in the middle of the ocean from a little boat.

"What about them..?" Damian asked.

"The kid's fate is sealed. I will see what I can do for the old man."

"Uncle wait for a second, I wanna talk to the pervert..." The prince chimed.

"Ohh yeah..? My little squire..? Is that why you stole my man to sneak off in the night..? Do you even have an idea how worried sick we were..?" The handsome knight fumed.

"I need to do it..." The prince said looking down at his feet.

"Do what..?" handsome knight's voice softened seeing his nephew so serious.

"He is younger than me... I have been training every waking day even before I could remember since when... I need to know whether the attack that I missed was just a fluke or he..." The prince did not finish the sentence instead just stared at Damian.

"It is dangerous Alex, he is too unpredictable..." His uncle warned.

"You are here.. Aren't you..? What can he possibly even do against you..?" The prince smiled at his uncle all proud.

The handsome knight did not show any expressions on his face but Damian did notice the faint signs of a controlled smile. I guess all uncle's in the world were same, they just wanted their nephews and nieces to think they were cool.

The prince of Faerunia coughed twice before looking at Damian and walking few steps towards him.

"I, Alexander Thaddeus Seablaze, challenge you warrior to a duel, with water in my veins and the fury of the tempest in my soul, ready to clash like storm-driven waves against an unyielding shore. Do you accept..?"

"What do I get if I do this..?" Damian asked.

"Glory, What else numbnuts...?" Now that was the prince Damian remembered.

"Defeat my squire and I will train you myself."

"And if I lose or refuse to fight..?"

"You shall all be locked into the same prison your friend just broke out from... You won't die though, rest assured. You will just have to prove your worth to become a worthy squire."

If the result of choosing to fight and not to fight were same Damian did not want to be a plaything for the noble brat for no reason. However there was one thing that maybe... just maybe help him out here. It was a long shot and barely reliable strategy but then again they had already lost, what more could he lose..?

"In the radiance of sun, I stand tall."

Damian said the traditional Dawnstar lines for accepting official challenges looking at the emotionless face of the prince of Faerunia. He wasn't being childish this time, Damian didn't know what was going on in his small head but the kid looked serious. He was looking at him as not just an annoyance anymore but a worthy opponent.

The rest of the people surrounding them backed away. Anthony with resigned face and slumped shoulders picked up Sam, Damian walked up to him and took out one of the biggest runic scroll, some other basic runic scrolls were also inside it which came along with the big one as a mistake from his spatial storage. It's length covered him from head to toe.

Damian did not say anything since he had already made the captain raise his burrows with this, he knew his hearing would be powerful enough to pick up anything he said. But there was no need for words, Anthony with his eyes wide understood what Damian had given him. Damian gave him the big runic scroll and other basic runic scrolls which were a hassle to put back into his spatial storage now.

Everyone in this world were familiar with a runic scroll that Runesmiths and Enchanters made to sell in the various shops but there was one thing common in all of them, a rule or limitation of some sort. They all had fixed size of 30 cm in height and 40 cm in length.

The thing Damian gave to Anthony broke all known rules of magic scroll making, no one would even think about runic scrolls when they saw it. The others basic ones were drawn on paper not like the magical parchment that most shops used.

Anthony also backed away with the rest of them with Sam on his shoulder and the large scroll of attached patches of premium parchment sewed together in his hand.

Damian turned towards the little prince and breathed in and out. The spatial storage access made another cut of 10% in his less than one fourth mana pool. Wasting spells was definitely not something he wanted to do here. Or create a huge fuss about doing spells without chanting. To defeat a first ranker, spells weren't necessary anyways.

Even if the opponent was a prince of a kingdom who trained in the best of conditions all his life.

"Come on, princeling. Let me see that hidden art of yours again..."

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