Birth of the Legendary Battle Mage

Chapter 13

“Hmm, it’s time to go get some food from the village. It’s been a while since I went there because I’ve been eating mostly beast meat and wild fruits. Although these fruits and beast meat are tasty sometimes, it’s good to balance my diet. Besides, it’s been a while since I ate an actual meal.” Julius, who had been in the deepest parts of the forest for over 4 months now, spoke his thoughts out loud as he prepared what he would carry to the town. He packed a basket on his back (a basket that was worn as a backpack) and some cash he found the last time he while hunting. “All set.”

‘I always run past this area at top speeds, so I haven’t really explored these parts at all. Hmm, that is something for another day.’ Julius slowed down his running a bit, reducing his speed as he heard a sound in the forest. He was already halfway to the starting point of the forest, so it made sense that it might be humans who made the noise. After all, it sounded human. Getting to the place where the noises came from, it seemed as if a fight just happened in the place. ‘It doesn’t look like it was a fight against a beast though. Did someone betray the team? That happens sometimes. Either that or some people were attacked.’ The forest had very tall trees that were probably hundreds of years old, with very thick wood body achieved through being in a mana rich environment for that long. At the moment, Julius was standing on one such tree. But thanks to cultivation, even at that height, he was able to read the footprints left by the ones who were there before him, noting that a fight had occurred because of the irregularity of the footprints, and that there was no advancement beyond that spot. ‘It looks like the tacks do not continue, which means they are probably heading back.’ “Normally, I would avoid people within the forest, but today might be a good show. This is also an opportunity to test the soul sense technique I learnt recently.” He stood up from his squatting position and vanished into the air.

“Ok I should go too far. Let’s test the technique.” He stopped atop a branch of one of the tall trees, then closed his eyes before activating the technique, “Soul Sense. Hmm, it seems this technique works by resonating the mana (which in Li’s world would be qi) around me with the one in my body. I see why it’s not the most effective during battle.” With his eyes closed, he could sense everything within a 100 metre radius from the spot he was standing. Not exactly everything, just every living thing. “Amazing. I can even sense the ants on the ground, even the animals under the ground. It seems this technique spreads both around me in the literal sense, including above and below. Each group of creature’s soul has it’s own colour, and there seem to be no humans either. These guys are actually pretty fast. There must be some sort of movement magic in play. Let’s see if I can expand my filled of sense.” As Julius focused on increasing the range of the technique, it worked. It increased from 100 metres to 150, then 200, 300, 400, 600... 1 kilometre... >6 kilo metres. “Unimaginable. Wow, is there even a limit? At this rate, I could cover the whole capital of Esnok without breaking a sweet. Alright let’s move, I sensed these guys long ago, and just decided to keep expanding the area of search to test my limits.”

He opened his eyes since the soul sense technique works like a radar, detecting only living organisms (plants and microscopic organisms not included), so every other thing is out of sight with his eyes closed. Unexpectedly, the technique also works with the eyes open, he had already memorized the spot where they were, and calculated the most likely path for them to follow along with other possibilities. During the search, he also caught another group of people who seemed to be moving on foot and not together. ‘The other guys were probably the ones who attacked the guys travelling in unison’, he thought to himself as he dashed forward through the forest at sound breaking speed. In less than two minutes he caught up and was now right behind the guys who were using a flying board magic to travel. They seemed to be adventurers that had maybe entered the forest in search of ancient ruins or lost relics. This means the other guys who seem to be on foot are the attackers. ‘Alright, seems like the friends are here. Let’s watch the show. Hmm, these guys are quite capable. After all they came this deep into the forest. But their attackers are stronger. That guy’s already wounded seriously too.’ As he stopped, the next second, the guys on the flying board jumped off as one of their attackers dropped on them. The flying board dissipated, and the guy who dropped on them jumped back to stay in formation with his teammates.

The attackers were only four in number. 3 of them were mid stage Grandmaster class mages while the other was early stage Grandmaster class. The ones on defence were 7 with one late stage Grandmaster class mage, four mid stage and two early stage Grandmaster class mages. One of the mages in the mid-stage was already badly injured and was as good as a minus. Even so, normally the people on defence should be winning, but why are they been pushed back? Julius could only wonder. Also, his martial senses keep telling him that the four are stronger, but he disagrees, as it just isn’t logical. The ones attack wore weirdly patterned white clothes, while the others were on normal combat clothes and robes.

As they engaged in battle, Julius realized why the guys in white were winning. Normally, mages use magic and are spell casters, and had normal bodies with little or no muscles, while warriors were the opposite being unable to use use mana. Of course, every being possesses mana, but not all can use it. Those who have an aptitude for magic are born with the talent, while others can just leave a normal life being unable to cast even the most useless and lowest spells. Most of these ordinary people become warriors and train their bodies beyond their limits (basically training to become like Bruce Lee. Either Bruce Lee or Shaolin Monks, or Tony Jaa.), ending up as soldiers. There were special cases of people who could utilize mana, but unlike a mage, the mana is used to strengthen their bodies; the differences being that they still couldn’t cast magic spells and they couldn’t increase their mana capacity above what they were born with. These last types of people were referred to as ‘aux warriors’ (auxiliary warriors).

The most logical explanation was that the guys in white were aux warriors, since they fought entirely with their bodies. But their magic level cancelled that possibility, since they were as high as Grandmaster class. Another possibility was that someone had found a way to turn magicians into aux warriors artificially. “Most interesting. I’ll have to catch these guys for questioning later, but first.. let them finish their fighting, I don’t enjoy interfering in people’s business. Besides, those adventurers don’t resemble people from the kingdom of Esnok, so they are committing a crime if they are here without permission, which they are since this kingdom prohibits entrance into this forest within its territory.” With every second that passed, Julius got hungrier and could no longer wait for the fight to finish.’I really hate to play hero. It disgusts me.’ “But it can’t be helped, these weaklings would just waste my time. I can’t die of hunger.” He just finished practicing a body refining technique which is separate from his normal cultivation. This particular body refining technique imitates an ‘Immortal Body’ by halting aging for 10,000 years and making your body and internal organs stronger than steel, multiple times over if cultivated to perfection. Julius didn’t have a chance to test its capabilities after mastering the technique because of his hunger, so he kept that at the back of his mind.

“Yaa, whuoo, wuu!...”

*Seww seww streeech*

*Huf huf huf*

“I’m running out of mana, what kind of aux warriors are these? They are too strong!” one of the adventures who was at the late stages of Grandmaster realm said as he moved closer to the small circle they formed around their injured comrade. The guys in white showed no sign of tiredness even after all the fighting, neither have they said a single word. The strongest mage amongst the adventurers seemed to be the oldest in their team, probably above his 50s. The attacker he faced was the one with the most muscles, looking bulky and huge, he was a hulk of a man but incredibly fast. The huge man planted a strong foot into the ground preparing to dash for a final strike, while the old man conjured a shield barrier.

Just as the huge guy was about to charge forward, he felt a hand on his back. He looked around and noticed that his teammates hadn’t moved, and the hand was still on his back. He immediately jumped away from where he was standing, to the side his other teammate was, at least 20 metres away.

“Huh, it’s just a kid.”

“Yes, so why were you so scared?” His teammate responded to what he just said.

Julius’ mood soured immediately. It was already bad because they wasted his time, but they just had to call him a kid. It was probably because of the hunger that was why he was being so petty, since normally he is a calm and reserved kind of person. Only showing his annoying side to comrades. But not this time.

“Hey stupid, who are you calling a kid. Clearly you have no respect for your elders.”

“Who is this brat calling stupid?”

“It’s you, you big, ugly muscled ape. I’m sure your brain is made out of muscles too. And you still call me a brat. That does it.”

There was something Julius didn’t realize. The body refining had another effect, eternal youth. This effect was why it was famous among females before they became immortals, not because of the iron body. Almost any woman that isn’t cultivating another youth sustaining technique as a way to escape the iron body effect cultivated it. Now Julius looked like he did when he was 23, but he hadn’t realized it because of his hunger.

The eldest among the adventurers, the one who was a late stage Grandmaster class mage, was named Sir. Haggard. His second in command who was one of the Grandmaster class mages in the middle stages, Haggard’s nephew Russ, who was in his mid-thirties. Haggard was a wood mage, meaning this forest environment was a big advantage for him, and Russ was a fire mage. Under normal circumstances, the fight wouldn’t be too hard, but their attackers were too fast for them to keep up with, all they could do was defend while finding little spaces to attack. Now, the strange boy that appeared before them in such tattered rags was having an argument with the attackers, but they are still unclear of his motives, or who he is with. These aux warriors wouldn’t even alter a single word when we asked questions, but one of them is currently exchanging words with the stranger boy. For all Haggard knew, he could be their accomplice or similar.

“Uncle, this boy isn’t strong. I can barely feel mana within him. He’s definitely able to enter this deep with the help of an artefact. We should use this opportunity while they are distracted to gain an upper hand in this fight.”

“Ok. Tell Lance to create an Ice prison around this place, then I’ll use ‘Poison vine’ simultaneously to fill the place with poisonous gas. I will be able to control the intensity, so the space around us will be neutral.”

“Ok, that sounds like a plan.”

  Over to Julius and the muscular man. The other man in white standing next to the muscular man got irritated by the petty argument between both of them.

“Hey number 8, stop this useless argument and finish off the scrawny bastard already. We have wasted enough time.”

“Ahh, number 9, you are too impatient. A predator should always have fun with his prey first, before killing it. Too bad, we really don’t have time this time around.” Number 8, who was the bulky muscular one, smiled in a disgusting manner. Since they wore no masks, his irritating smile could be seen quite clearly.

“I’m guessing you guys are assassins. And the fact that your identities are not hidden shows your confidence. But besides the fact that your parents didn’t teach you not to disrespect your elders, you must have heard this rule. Never piss off a hungry man, because a hungry man is an angry man.” In the blink of an eye, a shadowy figure was standing in front of number 9 with four of its finger tips pointing at him through number 8’s abdomen. The next second, number 8 flew past him at an amazing speed, falling more than 20 metres from where he was standing. And finally, the only sound that was heard was number 8’s body slamming against a tree many metres away.

‘What... What just happened?’ This was the thought or similar, that went through everybody’s mind. For someone to move that fast, the ground should have suffered a recoil and sound of moving at such speed and acceleration. Number 9 who always wore a cold and emotionless expression looked like someone who had seen a ghost feasting on a dead body. Everybody was equally shocked, others more than some.

The ones in white were assassins, and in the assassin organization, the lower your number, the stronger you are and vice versa. This meant the person who Julius just killed so effortlessly was a very strong person, considering his number 8.

“Hmm...” Julius’s body language turned from angry to nonchalant in an instant as he stood before number 9 with a balled up fist in front of him. “All I did was give him a normal punch. ‘I didn’t even use a stance’, you lot are really weak. I won’t even be able to test my strength adequately... Hehh.”