Chapter 53: Sudden Betrayal

"Well, be it in the past or the present, I guess war is still war. Compassion isn't exactly something you can afford to pay attention to," said a voice coming from right under the leader of the Volztain Country's group.

"Who's there?!" The leader immediately changed the spears' direction and jumped while shooting the spears below. At his level three, the spears easily pierced several tens of meters in a fraction of a second, destroying anything that could possibly be below there.

*Puft, puft, puft, puft...*

However, the sound of piercing spears on the ground wasn't what really caught the attention of everyone. Instead, it was the sound of tens of bullets piercing into the leader's body from behind.

Everyone was taken aback, and the shots against Alvin's group stopped instantly. Everyone then looked in the direction the shots came. There, right in the middle of the little squad, one of their members held the weapon high, aiming at his own leader and shooting nonstop!

"Stop!"

*Bang, bang, bang, bang...*

*Puft, puft, puft, puft...*

All the other shooters immediately turned their weapons to the guy and shot as well. They couldn't understand. How could their companion suddenly betray them like this? Their squad was quite old, and they all knew each other. And yet, here the guy was, shooting the squad leader.

*Tud, tud...*

The man who shot the leader then fell to the ground, dead after being shot so many times. He wasn't the only one to fall.

Their leader, the Level Three Magus, also fell to the ground, but he wasn't dead yet. When he felt the bullets hitting his unprotected back, he immediately redirected his Magic Energy there to defend. He was gravely injured, but he wouldn't die straight away.

*Zush!*

"Nando!"

Immediately, the leader's Familiar detached from his finger and assumed his Familiar Form before covering the guy with his own Brown Magic Energy. Without waiting for anything, he used his Magic Energy and flew into the distance with the leader, not looking back. He had to be fast, or Nando would die.

"Not good!" One of the soldiers quickly turned his weapon back to Alvin's group, but Nayala had already made her move. Other than Nando and his Familiar, all the other soldiers there were Level One Maguses or not Maguses at all.

*Bang!*

One of the soldiers was sent flying, not being able to resist Nayal's attack. How could he? Nayala was a seasoned soldier who knew the terrain well. At level two, a Level One magus would pose no threat to her... However, there were another eight soldiers, and all of them shot at Nayala at the same time.

*Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang...*

Shots were fired, and Nayala had to protect herself again. The weapons were indeed made to deal with Maguses.

*Swish, swish!*

Yet, two Wind Blades suddenly came out of the first dead soldier's body, the same one that had betrayed his group. Those two wind blades took another two soldiers by surprise, not giving them a chance to defend themselves at all. Why would they? The guy was supposed to be dead! Instantly, another two heads fell down.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE?!" One of the soldiers screamed and once again pointed at the guy's dead body, filling it with holes while the others took distance from it. Of course, the others didn't forget Nayala and continued shooting to pin her down.

*Boom!*

It was at that moment that one of the soldiers, who wasn't a magus, had his head pierced by an Earth First. Alvin, who had never killed another human before, finally made his move. He wasn't confident he could finish a fellow Level One Magus. So, making use of the fact the soldiers seemed to have forgotten about him and Connor, he made his move against one of the normal soldiers.

*Bang!*

He wasn't the only one. Connor and Tratil also made their move. However, they weren't as direct as Alvin. Because Connor hesitated, he only managed to break several bones of the soldier he attacked, but the guy wasn't killed.

"You!" The soldier did his best to lift his weapon to shoot again. Unfortunately...

*Kabrum!*

A bolt of Lightning came crashing down on him, immediately ending his life. It was Kafril, the other Magus that remained stayed with Nayala's group.

Now, only four soldiers remained, and even though they were Level One Maguses, they absolutely couldn't avert their attention from Nayala. It was their and their Familiars' Magic Energy that allowed them to keep Nayala pinned down, forcing her to keep her Red Magic Energy Barrier up to protect herself.

Seeing the situation they were in, the soldiers despaired. Alvin and Connor were free to attack them, and they still don't know how a dead body shot two Wind Blades or where the Lightning Bolt came from. Thinking bout it now, they still didn't understand why their trusted companion betrayed them in the first place.

"Retreat!"

Without another choice, the remaining soldiers immediately turned around and began to run. Staying there would only bring death, and they still might die anyway if Nayala decided to hunt them down.

However, Nayala did not do so. She had spent a lot of her Magic Energy to deal with this situation, so she had to conserve as much as possible. Since they wanted to flee, she welcomed them to do so. She was more interested in knowing why the enemy soldier had betrayed them. Nonetheless, it salved her group's life. S~eaʀᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

It was then that a Core floated out of the first dead soldier's body, and a small and ethereal humanoid form appeared. 'As expected, using Magic Energy to control the Magic Energy Channels of a person is possible, just like I did with Alvin. I'm glad it worked so well,' Linfel thought to himself. 'Too bad it would only work for a second and the target can't be a Magus...

At least not a Magus with the same power or stronger than me.'

"Linfel!" Alvin quickly ran to his side.

Connor also approached him. "Holy shit! Was it you?!"

Kafril sighed in relief. "It is good that we are all okay. Still..."

Nayala naturally saw Linfel leaving the guy's body and had to ask. "H-How did you do that? How can you control someone?"

Linfel faintly smiled. "Don't expect me to be able to do this again so easily. It only worked because the guy wasn't a Magus and also because he himself didn't expect something would try to control his body. By the time he realized and tried to force himself to stop, his team had already started to shoot him."

Nayala looked at Linfel and didn't know what to say. She had never heard about Familiars being able to control others' bodies. Of course, that wasn't the time to inquire more about it. "Whatever you did does not matter now. We don't have enough time. We need to hurry back.

Let's go!"