The Horseless Carriage Lucan was traveling in had a total of three reinforced crystal windows, that offered a clear enough view of the outside—two on either side and a larger one set into the front partition that allowed the driver to peer into the carriage and confirm the wellbeing of his passengers.

  Lucan’s eyes snapped open and he sat back up instead of continuing pretending to sleep, not like he’d fooled Janis or Mira anyway. Without hiding the urgency in his actions, he scooted over to the front window until his shoulder was pressing against the side of the cabin, before leaning in to get as good of a view of the unfolding fight as he could.

  “Are you that interested, Lucan?” Janis asked, holding true to the only order Lucan had given him and addressing him by name.

  “Never seen an aura knight fight, not for real anyway,” Lucan replied. “Not for real, anyway. You Caravines are too professional, so you never practice at the Velmoria Estate. And it’s hard to catch sight of a fight when you’re perennially guarded by a Fourth-Circle Combat spell. Though this shouldn’t be much of a challenge for your knights, right?”

  “And why do you think so?” Janis asked, his tone remaining professional but there was no doubt more than a hint of curiosity contained in his question.

  “The Golden Road formation will drop the intensity of any mana based attacks by a Knight-Class Mana Beast by one class and a Pawn-Class Mana Beast can’t threaten knights of your caliber,” Lucan hurriedly answered, his eyes eagerly glued to the fight.

  The knights had already dismounted their Northern Warhorses and unsheathed their blades, having moved with a speed that a mage would find difficult to track without a divination spell. Lucan knew none, so he only observed the best he could.

  The Northern warhorses did not neigh in panic, but they retreated all the same. They had been bred for their speed and reflexes and while it was entirely possible that their charge could trample an enemy that was caught offguard, combat was not their forte.

  It was easy to see how the Ironhide Boars had earned their name. Their dense, bristled fur was polished in the hue of Fell-Iron, with each strand being as thick as Lucan’s index finger. Their tusks were hooked, elongated hunting weapons that curved upwards, shimmering in that same metallic sheen the mana beast was known for and their blood-red eyes glimmered with the promise of primal violence.

  Lucan watched as the seven Ironhide Boars that had been charging in a formation that resembled an arrowhead, scrambled as they approached the final stretch that separated them from the Aura Knights.

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  The Ironhide Boars had decided upon making contact with the Aura Knights from every direction they could muster, in what was plausibly an effort to maximize their chances of breaking through the defensive formation of the Aura Knights and plunging the battlefield into chaos.

  Lucan felt his heart racing as the first hint of magic revealed itself on the battlefield. He could only track the three Ironhide Boars that were approaching from his left, as the rest of the view was obscured by the carriage driver’s back, an Aura Knight whose name remained unknown to him yet one who had not abandoned his post in the moment of peril, despite being the most exposed on the battlefield, his attention focused on the reins and on securing an escape if the battle was considered lost.

  Time seemed to slow down for him as the Ironhide boars opened their jaws wide, displaying its tusks in greater detail than Lucan cared for. A muddy brown mist escaped in the action, reforming itself into a crude symbol, a squiggle that intersected itself multiple times yet remained unbroken in its flow, one that now stood suspended in the air before him.

  Lucan’s heart almost skipped a beat.

  That’s a blasted rune, He thought, doing his best to keep his jaw from dropping wide open.

  Lucan watched as earth-attuned mana that appeared to be hued a vibrant amber brown before his mana sight, welled up from the rune that had presumably been forged in its beast core.

  Mages used mediums to cast spells, while mana beasts utilized their beast cores to interface with magic— or at least, that was the prevailing understanding.

  A moment later, a thick armor hewn out of soil rock enveloped each of the Ironhide boars and now, the ground felt like it was trembling beneath each encroaching step they took. Lucan couldn’t help but marvel at the strength of the natural spell, which was the term given to magic cast without the aid of magic circles, despite having been dropped in intensity by one whole class.

  The spell might have been close to that of apprentice level in intensity, but when you coupled the mass of the Ironhide boars, given that they were nearly five feet tall, their natural defenses and the added weight and toughness of the rock armor, any apprentice mage facing such a threat in a one on one battle would simply die.

  His gaze shifted to the Aura Knights that had been readying themselves for the oncoming threat, only to realize that the even knights on the field had paired up at some point in time, with five pairs of formation stage Aura Knights each tracking one Ironhide boar.

  Their longblades were drawn and enveloped by a crimson energy that was so dense when fully unleashed that it was visible in the material world in a way that regular mana could never be. Aura Blade was the most basic skill a Knight could learn, for there was little skill involved in letting the powerful energy flow freely, only necessary practice required to handle its intensity in battle.

  There was only one exception. Daven Caravine stood at the helm of the formation, his hand placed upon the hilt of his blade, his knees lowered and his body primed to explode any direction, but he had not drawn his sword. Two Ironhide boars were charging directly at him.

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