After hearing Verkan's plan in more detail, Zaos realized that the idea was the most appropriate for the situation. They waited for a while for a while until it became obvious that some of them were sleeping. It was impossible for each one of them to be sleeping, though. So, precision was more than necessary.
Verkan left their position and slowly approached the enemies' camp. For a while, Zaos lost him, but after a while, he saw him slowly crawling. More than a few times, Zaos lost sight of him. Verkan was really good at moving stealthily.
Zaos began to move as well, in order for them to attack almost at the same time from opposite directions. Zaos reached his position at the exact moment, several piles of snow exploded, and the cloaked figures showed up. Even from that crawling position, Verkan managed to charge.
Verkan split one of the cloaked figures, even before his target could raise their weapon. Before anyone could react, he immediately charged at others. Right at that moment, the four mages showed up. Almost instantly, Zaos fired a Fire Sword and hit the back of one of them. The target fell on the ground, lifeless instantly.
When the other targets noticed what happened, Zaos was already about to fire another Fire Sword. His second target turned around, only to have his neck pierced by a Fire Sword. Zaos managed to cast pretty fast, but not fast enough. The two remaining targets approached one another, and they cast a transparent barrier in front of them. At the same time, they fired Fire Arrows toward him.
Hiding was no longer necessary, so, after getting up, Zaos dodged the magic projectile and grabbed his sword. In the end, the two figures couldn't help but froze when they saw the kid in front of him, holding a sword as big as himself.
The very moment Zaos dashed, the enemies began to fire at him again. The projectiles were fast, but Zaos was already used to that level of speed, thanks to his own projectiles. When the Fire Arrows hit his sword, Zaos didn't feel any weight behind them, but the flames made him slightly close his eyes.
"I can't block so close to my face…" Zaos thought.
The two followers of the demon god fired several Fire Arrows in a quick succession. Zaos didn't know how to cast that spell. Still, their speed was insane… it was at the same level in which he could cast the most straightforward offensive spell: Earth Bullet. However, when the projectiles got close enough, Zaos swung his sword and stopped three of them. When the next three approached, Zaos did the same by swinging his sword upward.
At that moment, Zaos was only ten meters away from the enemies. They immediately moved away from each other and made the barrier disappear… It was a defensive spell made to block only magic attacks.
The very moment that happened, Zaos finished the incantation of another Fire Sword, his target also fired Fire Arrow and the two projectiles collided. Still, his attack won the exchange and then hit the face of the enemy. The target trembled in agony as their face burned, but after a few moments, it stopped as well.
In the short window where Zaos wondered if he had to attack that foe to finish them off, the remaining target moved away and finished casting three Fire Arrows… that was some speed of casting. Zaos couldn't begin to understand how they could fire so many magic projectiles at the same time. Regardless, Zaos swung his sword to deflect them, but the foe imagined that Zaos would do that, and they fired two of them at his head and the other at his left chest. Zaos blocked the two that were aimed at his head. Still, the other one hit his right hand after the swing of his attack, piercing it all the way through his chest… the pain made Zaos sweat cold. Still, after several moments, he realized that his vitals hadn't been hit.
Your Magic Resistance has reached level 02
Your Magic Resistance has reached level 03
Your Magic Resistance has reached level 04
Your Magic Resistance has reached level 05
Ignoring the pain, Zaos dashed at the final target, and the cloaked figures prepared another spell. However, Zaos was much faster and hit their stomach with the hilt of the sword. They had to keep at least one of them alive for information, and the pain didn't make him forget that. After the last follower of the demon god fell unconscious, Zaos turned around. They saw Verkan facing three of the remaining enemies at the same time. He had a wound on his forehead and cheek. He also wasn't moving his left arm. As expected, even a veteran warrior would have a hard time fighting one versus eight.
Zaos ignored the pain in his right arm and chest and then cast a Fire Sword that immediately exploded after hitting the nape of one of them. The attack surprised the two others for a single instant, and Verkan used that chance to charge and behead them at the same time.
Your Sorcery has reached level 38
Your Sorcery has reached level 39
As Zaos approached Verkan, he cast Heal on himself several times to stop the bleeding and decrease the pain in his wounds. The pain was quickly decreasing, but the burn marks were still there. It looked like those will give him a hard time… before Zaos could use all of his mana, he used Heal several times on Verkan as well.
"You can even heal wounds, huh," Verkan said and then sighed in relief. "You sure are a well-prepared kid. I can't imagine your father making you learn all those spells to prepare yourself for this job, though."
Zaos decided to ignore Verkan for the time being, and he approached the corpses. This time, he didn't hesitate, and the feeling of guilt for taking so many lives was small. However, he couldn't help but shiver when he saw the faces under the hoods… there wasn't a single thing weird about them. The mages didn't look much different from humans…