(This chapter is not from Marcus' POV)
'Uhhh, why did this have to happen now, I was so close to getting the formation for my new spell perfected. There were plenty of other students that master could have chosen to take with her, but she had to take me. And of course, she also had to pick that idiot Jared as well, of all her other students I like him the least.'
The beautiful young lady sighed deeply wishing that she did not have to make the trip to River Landing as part of the kingdom's reinforcements.
Of course, her master who was sitting in the carriage with her noticed the foul mood she was in and said, "Diana, get your mind out of the clouds we will be there within just a couple of hours, and we will have to get right to work."
Diana shot up when her master addressed her not wanting to receive her ire and promptly responded saying, "Yes Master Aria."
Seeing Diana' reaction Jared the other student of Master Aria let off a quite sinker which caused Diana to send a disdainful glare at him.
'I really wish it had been anyone else but him, he thinks he is so great because he is a few levels higher than me, and his family has the title of marquess, and I am just the daughter of a baronet. And just because our magic works well together we often get paired up for missions. Hopefully we can finish this up quick and I will not have to see his face for a while.'
Just moments later her wish seemed to come true as a loud ringing sound came from Master Aria who promptly took out a message stone that was used for long distance communication.
Her face quickly turned dire as the message was relayed to her.
She then turned to her students and said, "We are going to be speeding up, the monsters sieging River Landing have begun to attack in full force and if we do not arrive soon their defenses will not hold."
Right after Master Aria had told her students of the dire situation Diana herd a loud yell that even pierced through the carriage walls.
"Men prepare yourself River Landing needs our aid now; we advance at full speed until we arrive."
Diana covered her ears, as the loud shout was followed by more shouts of agreement from the rest of the soldiers outside.
'I guess Knight Commander Darius and his troops are in high spirts, I just wish they could be a bit quieter.'
The carriage she was in soon picked up speed causing Diana to brace herself against the carriage less she be tossed around.
The reinforcements from the kingdom bounded forward at full speed and soon could see the southern wall of River Landing.
However, the reinforcements had to stop early as a group of over five thousand ice ants were currently blocking the southern road ensuring that there would be no retreat from River Landing.
When the carriage that they were riding in stopped Diana wondered what could be happening since she was certain they had not arrived yet.
When she decided to take a look outside, she saw the mass of blue ants blocking the road preventing the reinforcements from advancing without dealing with them first.
Upon seeing this Master Aria kicked open the door and said, "Jared, Diana, let the knights handle these insects, the real battle is happening on the north side. Cast your flying magic and the three of us will go and make sure the city is not breached."
With the directions of her master Diana cast her tier three fire magic spell flame jets and lifted off into the sky.
At the same time Jared used his wind magic to begin flying and the three of them shot up into the sky over the ice ants blocking their way.
Some of the ice ants with wings flew up to intercept them, launching shots of their ice acid trying to knock the three mages out of the air.
Diana looked at the ants like they were less than garbage before waving her hand forward and casting a powerful spell.
"Mass Immolation"
A moment after the spell's name left her lips every single one of the ants that had begun to attack the three flying mages burst into flames leaving behind only ashes that quickly blew away.
Seeing this Jared looked back scornfully at Diana and said, "Was it really necessary to use a tier four spell to kill a few ants, we are heading towards the main battlefield and you should try to conserve your mana."
Diana snorted in anger at Jared before saying, "Unlike you I have the mana regeneration skill so by the time we make it over to the northern wall I will have already replenished my mana."
Jared looked at her with hate filling his eyes since not having the mana regeneration skill was the only reason, he had not ascended to the rank of archmage and Diana had mentioned it just to pick on him.
Master Aria looked back at her two students with a look of hopelessness before yelling at them, "If you have time to bicker pick up your pace, if the walls of the city get breached, I will be holding the two of you responsible."
With fear in their eyes both Diana and Jared increased their flight speed to the maximum and shot straight towards the northern wall of River Landing.
The three mages soon passed over the southern side of River Landing and across the river making it to northern side of the city.
They could now see the walls and the soldiers and guards doing their best to defend the city.
The three of them immediately spotted two problem areas, one being the city gate which had been breached and the other being a section of the wall that had lost its mana supply.
Luckily, though both areas were in a precarious situation neither had been breached yet and the three of them immediately flew towards the powerless section of the wall since the destroyed gate was already protected by the strongest knights in River Landing.
When they were only a few thousand feet away they noticed a massive ant flying straight towards the unpowered section of the wall.
Diana seeing this began to prepare her spell when she saw someone jump off the wall and shot towards the ant like a rocket made of darkness.
The two then collided causing a massive explosion in the sky that even impressed Diana.
'I wonder who that is, is it maybe Wade, but his shadow magic does not look like that and he is not rash enough to charge headfirst at a massive flying ant. It must be some expert I do not know.'
The three mages soon made it over to the mana deprived section of the wall just in time to see the figure that had intercepted the flying ant finish it off with a powerful tier four lightning magic spell.
'Wow she can use a tier four spell at her age, she must be nearly as talented as me, but I do not recognize her, I thought I knew of all the other magic prodigies around my age.'
"Diana, Jared stop gawking the ants have stared making it over the wall."
Both of them then looked down to see hundreds of ants climbing on top of the wall and as they were about to prepare their spells, they saw their master pull her hands apart.
They both knew this meant she was casting a big spell and immediately covered their ears with their hands when Master Aria brought her hands back together.
For a moment everything became silent and then a loud burst of sound smashed into the swarm of ants climbing the wall and blasted them all into little pieces.
The attack did not stop with just the ants on the unpowered section of the wall as the sound ripped through every ant within a hundred feet of the entire length of the northern wall of river landing.
Diana looked at the carnage her master had caused with awe. She had heard tale of this spell, but it was her first time seeing her master using her tier six sound magic spell sonic boom.
Master Aria then said to her two students, "Well, I have given the soldiers some breathing room so while I make sure that no more ants get on top of the wall you two should go and deal with the queen and her elite guard before that muscle brain shows up and takes all the glory."
Both Diana and Jared nodded their heads in agreement and flew straight for the queen and her remaining royal guards.
As they flew straight for the queen hundreds of flying ants sensing the threat to their ruler flew to intercept the two mages but were burnt to a crisp or sliced into bits without even slowing the two mages down.
The two of them soon found themselves situated above the ice ant queen and her royal and elite guards who were staring up at the two mages.
Many of the ants began shotting their ice acid directly for the mages planning to eliminate the danger to their queen.
'Like that is going to work.'
"Fire Wall."
As the ice acid flew towards her, the wall of fire she had just conjured evaporated ever ounce of the liquid before it could get anywhere near her.
Looking over she saw that Jared had used a similar spell of the wind verity and had managed to come out unscathed as well.
However, in the next moment Diana felt a sense of incredible danger as a massive flower of ice formed around her before slamming shut.
Jared stared at the large ice flower that had completely engulfed Diana wondering if she survived when a massive column of flame burst out of the flower melting it away.
Diana now freed from the rime flower looked down furiously at the ice ant queen that had cast the spell.
She then cast her gaze towards Jared and said, "Were using it I want this bitch dead now."
Jared looked shocked since this was the first time Diana had willingly asked to use the powerful combination magic they had been forced to practice.
Jared Gave a nod of approval, and while he also did not like working with her, he wanted to wrap this up quickly, so he flew over and the two of them prepared their respective spells.
"Eat this you bitch, Fire Storm"
"Grand Twister."
As the two of them cast their respective tier five fire and wind spell, the two powerful magics combined into a massive flaming twister heading directly towards the ice ant queen and her guards.
All of the ants feeling the power from the combination spell moved to protect their queen with their bodies and abilities.
Many ants tried shooting their ice acid at the flaming tornado while others covered themselves in it to create a barrier around the queen.
The queen herself tired casting another tier four rime flower but while it was a powerful spell it only blocked the flaming twister for a single moment.
The flaming twister then impacted into the wall of ants and ice trying to protect the queen tearing through them like a blender.
As the power of the spell receded both Diana and Jared looked at the area the queen was, only to see that she had managed to survive their combined attack along with her two remaining royal guards.
However, the three strongest ants did not escape unscathed and while the queen only had minor burns here and there the two royal guards were damaged significantly.
Diana looked at the queen angrily before saying "Again, we will finish them off with another one."
Unfortunately, before either of them could cast their next spell a massive white bear over five hundred feet long and three hundred feet tall dropped out of the air and shook the entire battlefield.
The two mages looked over towards the massive beast and could see a familiar man riding on top of its head.
When she saw this Master Aria thought, 'Looks like the two of them could not finish the job before that muscle brain of a knight and his big ass bear arrived.'