"How long are we going to wait," complained David Goostree. He and his fellow knights had been set up in the trees for almost three hours now. After capturing Mage Wells' pet Ferocious Beast they thought he would have rushed to the creature's side by now.

"Patience. Who knows how far away Wells was when his beast was hurt," Victor Heel said to his fellow Justiciar.

"I get that. But Wells can fly. I've seen him myself. He could have flown here pretty quick."

"Again, we don't know where Wells was. If he went into a Breach or if he was traveling far by flight in the first place, it may take him a while to return. It is also possible that his reported ability to sense his familiar is not as strong as we thought, and he is having trouble locating it."

"Enough." Snapped Justiciar Straus. "Wells will show up. All we have to do is wait, but if you all keep yapping about it, he may realize we are here. I want silence from here on out."

"Yes, sir," the three C Rank knights said quickly.

There was no point in arguing with their commander, even if they did have doubts about his plan. Victor had already expressed those doubts and when, in the first few seconds of fighting the C Rank Snow Hawk one of his brother's had his throat torn open, those doubts seemed validated.

However, Justiciar Straus had chased down the bird. Running along the treetops and landing a blow that broke one of its wings. Once the Ferocious Beast was contained, their team cleared an area and waited. At the time, there was no doubt in any of their minds that Mage Wells would find the clearing from his flying sword, unfortunately, he had not shown up yet. This led to all of them being on edge for several hours, waiting in apprehension for the mage to show up.

The sun was starting to go down and the shadows of the trees were now covering much of the clearing. In another hour at most, it would be night and then they would have to figure out how to guard the cage without being able to see it. Victor was worried Damion would swoop in on his flying sword and whisk the injured beast to safety before any of them could react. As strong as Justiciar Straus was, he could not fly.

A few minutes later, Victor noticed something in the clearing, walking steadily towards the caged Snow Hawk. He and the other Justiciar's instantly went on alert as they watched a man that seemed to glow casually walked from the trees into the clearing.

"It's Mage Wells, he must be wearing some sort of armor," David hissed to Victor.

Justiciar Straus, however, was not so easily deceived.

"It is a decoy," their commander hissed back. "He is using the Ice Clone spell."

"Then what do we do?" Victor asked his commander. "Won't the Ice Clone be able to free the beast?"

"The cage is reinforced and tethered to the ground. I was expecting Wells to rush in personally to free the beast, but he seems a bit cleverer than I thought. Don't worry, the Ice Clone stands no chance of freeing the beast and now we know Wells is around here somewhere. You all, move towards where the clone emerged from the trees. Flush him out. I will keep watch on the cage."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Unfortunately for Damion, Justiciar Straus proved correct that his Ice Clone would not be able to free Phil. The cage was an artifact meant to contain B Rank Demonic Beasts and without the key to open it, Damion would not be able to force it open quickly.

He tried ordering his Ice Clone to pick up the cage and run off with it, but he quickly found that the cage was anchored to the ground securely. Phil was the bait, but luckily, Damion did not fully fall into the trap.

After ordering his Ice Clone into the clearing, Damion had changed locations in the trees, expecting the knights to try and find him. His caution was reward when he spotted the knights moving towards him with True Sight. Deciding it was best to keep them distracted, so they did not have the time to search too thoroughly for him, Damion called back his Ice Clone to fight them.

A moment later the Ice Clone crashed through the trees and slammed into the closet of the C Rank knights. The Ice Clone was essentially a B Rank knight and was easily able to keep the three C Rank knights occupied. If Damion was giving it is all, he could probably defeat them with the Ice Clone alone, but since he was not actively controlling it, just letting it fight through his subconscious control, so it would not be as efficient.

Looking out across the clearing, Damion could see the A Rank knight was still in his original position. Waiting for the Ice mage to make a move no doubt. Now that the C Rank knights were occupied, that is just what Damion did.

Keeping One With Shadows active, Damion cast Shadow Step repeatedly to gradually move across the clearing, keeping to the shadows the trees projected. This was one of the reasons Damion had waited until almost night to act. With the combination of the two spells, he could move across the clearing without being seen, or at least he hoped that was the case. Of course, if his idea did not work, he planned to use the night to make fighting the group of knights easier. After all, with True Sight he could see perfectly in the darkness, and he doubted any of these knights had brought artifacts to assist with fighting in the dark.

Once Damion reached the cage containing Phil, he moved around it, angling himself so it was between him and the A Rank knight, and began studying the enchantments on the cage. He could not rush the deactivation of them, but at the same time, as long as the A Rank knight did not know he was here, he had all the time in the world.

Unfortunately, Damion found the enchantments too complex to overcome without the use of force. He could overpower the enchantments on the cage, but doing so would alert the A Rank for sure. However, there was one method he could use to free Phil that he was certain these knights would have never believed possible.

Casting Manipulate Earth, Damion began to create a void underground beneath the cage. Once the pocket was large enough, Damion cast Portal, focusing to make the portal opening horizontal in the void beneath the cage. Once the portal was open, he then cast Manipulate Earth again and made the ground beneath the cage thinner and thinner until finally the ground collapsed.

Phil's cage fell into the hole Damion had created and right through the Poral that led back to the pair's original meeting spot. He would have made the Portal open somewhere else, but he needed a place fresh in his mind to cast the spell since he already had several other spells active at the moment.

As soon as the cage vanished into the hole, Damion used Shadow Step to move to a nearby shadow and then Blink several times to get himself back into the trees before concealing himself with One With Shadows again.

He would have liked to have dived into the Portal after Phil, but the A Rank knight was moving too quick. If Damion had tried to dive in, there was a chance the knight would have noticed the Portal before it could close.

Not that it mattered, now that Phil was out of harm's way, Damion intended to get some answers. If he was up against an A Rank mage, he never would have entertained this idea, but against a knight, he was confident he could hold his own. And if not, then all he had to do was flee and with Blink and being able to fly on his Ice Sword, he had no doubts that he would be able to escape.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.