Chapter 439 - Ambush

"Right then, that should be all the traps." Kuromi smiled as she stood up on one of the tallest trees.

"Shiro, how is Phillip's scouting party doing?"

"They managed to catch a glimpse of the royal family approaching in the distance. I'd say they will arrive in another 2 to 3 hours give or take? It should be enough time for us to finish off any small details that we might have missed." Shiro replied while looking at the situation through one of her orbs.

"And what about the situation in Teriu?"

"Most of the civilians have been evacuated to a camp further away from the city since they know that things are going to be hectic soon. There are still a few people who are reluctant and don't believe in the rumours but at this point, until they see for themselves, nothing will convince them."

"Tch, annoying." Kuromi frowned.

"Forget it. We did our part by warning them. If they get killed in the battle, they can't blame us."

Shaking her head, she looked towards the guards that were with them.

"Take up archer positions around here. Make sure to draw all of their attention so that Shiro can land a devastating spear throw from the riverbanks." Kuromi ordered as they nodded their heads and scattered through the woods with bows in hand.

"Do you want to give me an orb as well so you can teleport to me once you've thrown the spear?" She asked since it was quite risky to be cornered by the river. 

"Don't worry, I've already set up a few orbs around the place so I have quite a few escape options." Shiro smiled.

"Alright, I'm counting on you."

Watching Shiro dashed towards the rivers, Kuromi had a smile on her face as she shook her head and started to set up her own archer spot.

As they waited in their ambush locations, Phillip and his scouts came back and reported to Kuromi. Assigning them a few places to be, they were now completely ready to ambush the royal family.

###

"Brother, it's quite a surprise to see you coming to assist us? I thought you were going to keep indulging yourself in Yoru." A woman said as she had a rather cold expression on her face.

She was currently sitting on an open roof carriage that had warhorses pulling the vehicle forwards. Margin in rhythm, soldiers held the royal family's flag up with pride.

"Well… two people caught my attention lately and they seemed to be quite involved with the whole Teriu city situation so naturally, I can't miss this." The man said with a shrug. He was also the same person that had fed Tau the information which led to his downfall.

He was called Alta Muir, second prince of the Muir royal family, and had been sent to Yoru due to his less than acceptable behaviour.

As for the woman he was talking to, her name was Rialin Muir, eldest princess of the Muir family. She was also known as the War Maiden due to her exceptional Energy control and battle prowess that lets her dominate the battlefield.

Originally, she had not planned to come to Teriu since the original agreement was to have the families deliver the spell to the capital and allow the families that acquired it to study the spell for a short while.

However, things got out of hand once rumours started to spread. Families that had no knowledge of the spell were now interested as they each prepared for a war of sorts. Between saving one city worth of families to several cities worth, the royal family would naturally choose the latter option.

"Mn, two people huh? Are they girls again?" Rialin asked with a frown.

"*cough* Yes bu-"

"Alta, how many times must I tell you to stop playing around and actually settle down with someone before you're killed due to your frivolous nature." Rialin reprimanded as she narrowed her eyes with annoyance. She knew that this brother of her's wasn't exactly the strongest person around so his nature was just asking for someone to kill him.

"Of course sis. I'll keep that in mind." Alta nodded but Rialin knew that this brother of her's didn't take her words into heart.

"Everyone! We will reach Arental soon so give it one last push and then you can take a break in the town!" Rialin called out since she knew that the soldiers were tired from the journey. Despite being one of the stronger soldiers, they couldn't reinforce their body constantly or else they'll waste a lot of their energy, making it hard for them to fight at full potential when it is most needed.

Suddenly, danger washed over her senses as Riali frowned and looked around her. Widening her eyes, she saw a hail of enchanted arrows descend upon them.

"TAKE COVER!" She shouted out before raising her hand into the air.

Surging Celestial Energy through her arms, a magic circle expanded out around her as she tried to protect as many of the soldiers as she could.

Unfortunately, those that weren't as prepared were pierced by a blanket of arrows and died on the spot. Despite being people that could use Celestial Energy to an amazing degree, they were killed before they could even utilise their best weapon.

"Ambush! Everyone get ready for combat!" Rialin shouted out once more before grabbing the halberd that was beside her.

Jumping off her carriage, she tracked the arrows back to their source and saw that most of the enemies were in the forest.

Furrowing her brows, she wasn't exactly eager to go into the forest since this was uncharted territory. There could be a myriad of traps in the forest that will put her in a disadvantageous situation where her strength wouldn't do much on the battlefield.

"Defensive formations! Cast your spells and bombard the woods! Do not care about the damage for it is a small price to pay for their treason!" Rialin ordered while slamming her halberd into the ground.

Erecting a few stone walls around them, that acted as a temporary shield for now.

However, what she didn't know was that this only made it easier for Shiro to land her spear.

"Seems like it's my time to shine." Shiro smiled as she observed the situation from the opposite side of the river.

Taking a deep breath, she activated her Celestial Raiment and readied her spear. Four layers of magic circles could be seen on the body of the spear as a cosmic aura seemed to leak out from the blade, forming an iridescent veil crafted from a miniature galaxy.

Closing her eyes, she took a moment to fully visualise the effects of her spell before twisting her body and threw the spear with as much force as she could muster from reinforcing her body.

*BANG!!!!!

Shooting up into the sky, the spear seemed to have transformed into a shooting star.

With just the initial impact of throwing the spear, the ground under her foot cracked apart as her body sunk slightly into the ground.

Waiting for a moment so that the spear could reach terminal velocity, Shiro then activated a fifth magic circle that wrapped around her wrists as an orb could be seen slowly expanding from the spear tip.

"Teleport." She muttered with a grin.

Reappearing in the middle of the royal family's formation, Riali could only widen her eyes after feeling a horrific surge of energy suddenly appearing behind her.

*BOOM!!!!!!!!

Before she could even react, the spear came into contact with the ground. Reducing the ground to dust, some of the soldiers that weren't prepared for the impact were immediately reduced to dust while those that had been prepared were less fortunate. They had to experience the pain of having their body ground down to dust since there wasn't anything they could do as they were in the middle of the impact zone.

As for Alta, he had long been reduced to ashes.

"Damn it!" Riali cried out in anger since the best thing she could do right now was to just withstand the explosion with her physical body and hope that she survived.

Activating a second chained explosion, Shiro then teleported the spear back into her hands with the second orb she had placed on the spear tip.

Jumping up on some trees to get a decent vantage point, she looked at the giant crater that she had created with satisfaction.

However, before she could speak, a halberd entered her view as it was aimed for her head.

Quickly raising her spear to parry the halberd, her body was flung back from the impact. Twisting her body in the air, she landed without too much of a problem and looked towards the person who had thrown the halberd.

Standing in the centre of the crater, Riali stood with blood dripping from every part of her body. But despite her seemingly lethal injuries, Shiro could see that her wounds were slowly regenerating.

"Damn, that shot cost me around 35% of my energy and you're telling me she can regenerate it all back? The hell is wrong with this trial." Shiro muttered as her smile twitched a little.