Arran crouched atop the hill, carefully watching the road. The Redstone men could arrive any moment now, and when they did, he would attack as soon as they came within range.
He took out the dragonbone bow and nocked an arrow.
"You're using a bow?" Captain Yang asked. Some doubt sounded in his voice. "I thought you're a mage?"
Arran chuckled even as he kept a close watch on the road below. Having bet his life on the belief that Arran was a powerful mage, Captain Yang was clearly worried at seeing him use so plain a weapon.
"Did you expect me to just start throwing around great balls of fire?" he asked.
Captain Yang did not respond for several seconds. I did, actually," he finally said.
"It's not a normal bow," Arran said with a grin. "Just wait and see."
During the past few months of travel he had often practiced with the dragonbone bow, and he knew just how devastating a weapon it was. Even after months of practice, he was unable to fully draw the bow, yet already, the arrows would easily tear through thick trees.
In truth, the bow was a large part of why he felt confident going up against the Redstone men. With his Body Refinement techniques, he would be able to loose at least a dozen arrows before they reached him, each powerful enough to kill even an adept with ease.
As they waited for the Redstone men to appear, it took Arran some effort to stay calm. While he acted confidently for the sake of Captain Yang, this was the first real battle where he could not rely on Master Zhao or Lord Jiang to protect him.
The only time he had faced such odds by himself was when he killed the bandits who had murdered his father, but then, he had not truly fought them, instead burning them as they slept. This time, there would be a real battle, and even if he was confident in his strength, he could not help but feel anxious.
Finally, he saw a group of men emerge from the trees. They were still a good mile away and mostly hidden by the trees along the road, but as they approached, he felt a sense of foreboding.
When he finally got a good look at them, all color drained from Arran's face.
"Run!" he said at once.
"What? I thought—" Captain Yang sounded non-plussed.
"Run, now!" Arran hissed the words, his voice filled with urgency, and this time, Captain Yang did as he was told.
Arran felt a wave of panic as he looked at the Redstone men. There were about two dozen of them, with the four in front on horseback. Of those four, there was one in white robes that marked him as an Academy mage.
Arran cursed under his breath.
For a moment, he considered fleeing. If he ran now, he would be miles away by the time they reached the town, and miles more when they returned. The townsfolk might suffer for his cowardice, but then, perhaps the Redstone men would show them mercy.
He rejected the idea almost instantly. Even if he fled now, he knew that they would come after him. And with them this close, there was no way for him to evade them — eventually, they would catch up, and the fight would be on their terms, not his.
His best choice, he thought, was to fight.
He understood that the odds weren't in his favor. If the Academy mage was a Grandmaster, he had no chance of winning. If he was merely a Master, then perhaps, there was a small chance of survival.
With a shake of his head, he set his fears aside. Worrying would not help him now.
Instead, he thought about how to defeat them. With an Academy mage there, hopefully a Master, his plan of attacking from a distance and making them attack while he whittled down their numbers would no longer work.
At a distance, a Master would kill him with ease, sending magical attacks at Arran that he had no way to defend against. Yet he remembered that Lord Jiang had told him he had the physical strength of a Master himself, and there, he thought, lay his only chance.
He would have to wait until they were close, then hit them with overwhelming force — taking them down before they had a chance to respond, and confronting the Academy mage with physical strength instead of Essence.
Arrow nocked to his bow, he forced himself to wait as they approached. Five hundred paces, four hundred, three hundred… The tension almost overwhelmed him, but he forced himself to remain calm.
Now, they were two hundred paces away, but still, he waited.
Finally, when they were just a hundred paces away, Arran used the Body Refinement technique to pull back the bowstring, then loosed a heavy arrow that soared through the air like a bolt of lightning. Immediately, he shot another, and then another. Before the first arrow struck, another two were already in the air.
The first arrow struck the Academy mage squarely in the chest, and the man was torn from the saddle, his body flung to the ground. Less than a heartbeat later the second arrow soared through the air where the white-robed man had been a moment earlier, instead ripping through the head of one of the Redstone men. The third arrow went wide, tearing another of the horsemen from his saddle, then piercing the man who walked behind him.
In an instant, at least three of the group were dead, and the Academy mage should be injured. Yet the fourth arrow suddenly stopped and shattered in mid-air, and Arran knew the mage still lived.
Without hesitating, he threw the bow in his void bag and sprinted forward at full speed, at the same time gathering Fire Essence in both hands and flinging two massive fireballs toward his enemies.
He wasn't a moment too soon in moving, because as he ran, he suddenly heard a deafening roar, and a moment later he felt a searing heat behind him.
He did not look back, instead using all the Fire Essence he could muster to throw another raging fireball into the group that was now only a few dozen paces ahead of him.
The fireball covered his approach and he rushed toward the group, drawing his sword. The fireball exploded in their midst, and Arran was now close enough that he could feel the heat singe his face, but he did not slow down even as the sudden flash almost blinded him.
The sudden blaze died down a moment later, but the air was still filled with smoke and ashes, as well as the stench of burned flesh. A silhouette appeared in the smoke in front of Arran, and he hacked at it with his sword. A sharp cry sounded as the sword connected, tearing through armor and flesh as if it was paper.
Despite the chaos, Arran did not dare stand still for even a moment, and he rushed forward at another shape that appeared in the smoke. Another Redstone man died in an instant, but as the man died a sudden gust of wind came out of nowhere, clearing the smoke and ashes from the air.
At once, both Arran and his opponents were exposed. At a glance, Arran saw that only a handful of the Redstone men were left standing, but his eye was immediately drawn to the Academy mage. Although the man's white robe was drenched in blood, he was still standing, and a fireball was forming in his hand.
Without stopping, Arran flung a blast of Air at the man — not a moment too soon, because at the same time, the mage threw a white-hot fireball at him. The fireball collided with Arran's blast of Air, and although it wasn't stopped, the impact sent it off course, causing it to hit one of the Redstone men instead. A moment later, the man's charred body fell to the ground.
Seeing this, Arran immediately rushed toward two of the remaining Redstone men, exchanging some quick blows with them while desperately hoping that the Academy mage would not go so far as to attack his own allies. Yet a moment later the mage threw another, larger fireball toward the three of them.
The only thing that saved Arran was a quick use of the Body Refinement technique as he jumped to the side with inhuman strength, but even then, he only barely escaped. As the two men behind him died, he could feel that his left shoulder was badly burned.
As he got to his feet, a young man appeared in front of him. At a glance, he could see the man's nose was misshapen and he was missing his teeth, but he did not have time to give it any thought. He knew that the mage would already be preparing his next attack.
"You! I will—" the man began, raising his sword.
Arran did not let him finish the words. Before the man could react, Arran rushed toward him, grabbing him with his left hand and flinging him toward the Academy mage. His body exploded in the air, hit by whatever spell the mage had just aimed at Arran.
Arran turned toward the mage, sword drawn. Yet before he could attack, another fireball came rushing toward him, and he knew he was too late to dodge it.
In a desperate effort, he struck the fireball with his sword. The sword was torn from his hands by the force of it, but a moment later he realized he was still alive.
Without stopping to think, he rushed the mage, covering ten paces in the blink of an eye. Before the mage could launch another attack Arran was upon him, pulling the man to the ground and raining a hail of blows down on his face.
The attack seemed to have taken the mage by surprise, and he did not react until Arran had already struck a dozen blows to his head. The man tried to raise his arms in defense even as he was lying on his back, but against Arran's furious barrage of punches, it was no use.
The dazed mage made some panicked sounds, as if he was trying to speak through the blood in his mouth, but Arran paid it no heed. He knew that if he gave the man even a second to recover, it would cost him his life.
He kept punching with all his might, the mage's blood splattering his face and getting in his eyes, but he did not cease even as the man stopped moving, blindly raining blows down on his head until he could feel the man's skull shatter beneath his fists.
Finally, he got to his feet, wiping the blood from his eyes. Now, he saw the scene of utter chaos and devastation around him, maimed, mangled and burned bodies strewn across the ground.
He took a deep breath. For some moments, all he could feel was relief at still being alive.