Chapter 162: His Dark Flank

The silver dome of the counter-shield held firm against the red digital static at the main gates.

Zorya anchored the ancient magic from the East Basement, but the pressure forced thick blood from her nose.

The Silencer erased the dirt and the trees outside the academy walls and turned the physical world into broken wireframes.

Raziel wiped the blood from his ear and stared through the heavy iron bars.

Elector Mordecai stood fifty yards away in his pristine white robes.

He watched the silver shield block his deletion code.

The ten master sealers moved forward in their dark gray tunics.

They dragged their heavy wooden crates across the dirt road and stopped just outside the perimeter of Zorya’s shield.

They opened the crates and pulled out thick iron chains covered in complex suppression runes.

“They are setting up the tri-point formations,” Gideon warned.

He gripped the iron bars next to Raziel and pointed at the sealers.

“They will anchor those chains into the earth around the shield and channel their mana to crack the dome open. If they secure three points, they will pour the consecrated lead right into the foundation.”

“Get to the hydraulic tunnels,” Raziel ordered Lucian and Gideon.

“Take the dry shaft near the old armory and exit through the western drainage grate outside the walls. Break their lines.”

Lucian nodded and sheathed his practice dagger.

He drew a real, sharpened steel blade from his belt.

The noble did not play games with wooden weapons today.

Gideon grabbed a heavy iron mace from the ground and followed him toward the back of the courtyard.

Raziel turned around and looked up at the second-floor balcony. Lara leaned over the stone railing and pressed her hands against her temples.

“Lara!” Raziel yelled over the humming noise of the silver shield. “Guide them! Tell them exactly where the guards are looking!”

Lara squeezed her eyes shut and pushed her empathic perception net past the academy walls.

She locked onto the hostile emotional signatures of the thirty elite Inquisitors standing on the dirt road.

She felt their cold discipline and their focused bloodlust.

Lucian and Gideon ran through the dark, damp tunnels beneath the academy and navigated the tight stone corridors.

They reached the rusted iron grate on the western wall and pushed it open.

The smell of wet earth and pine needles hit their faces.

They climbed out of the drainage pipe and crouched in the thick brush outside the perimeter.

Lara’s voice echoed directly into Lucian’s mind through a localized communication rune Zorya painted on his collar.

“Two guards on the left flank,” Lara reported from the balcony.

“They are bored and looking toward the main gates. The sealers are fifty yards ahead of you setting up the first iron chain.”

Lucian activated his Stealth Gift and dropped his mana signature to absolute zero.

He erased his physical presence and blended into the shadows of the tree line.

Gideon crouched low and gripped his heavy mace with both hands.

“I take the right guard,” Lucian whispered to the empty air. “You take the left.”

Lucian moved through the brush without making a single sound.

He closed the distance in three seconds and appeared right behind the armored Inquisitor.

He grabbed the man’s chin with his left hand and dragged the sharp steel blade across his exposed throat.

The Inquisitor gurgled and dropped his halberd.

Lucian lowered the dying man to the dirt to prevent the armor from clanking against the ground.

Gideon charged out of the brush and swung his heavy iron mace at the second guard.

He targeted the weak point in the silver breastplate just below the ribs.

CRUNCH!

The iron mace crushed the armor and broke the guard’s ribs.

The man gasped for air and collapsed onto his knees.

Gideon stepped forward and slammed the mace down onto the back of the guard’s helmet to knock him unconscious.

“The left flank is clear,” Lara’s voice echoed through the rune.

“The sealers are driving the first iron stake into the ground thirty yards ahead. Three Inquisitors guard them.”

Lucian wiped the blood from his dagger on the grass.

He looked at Gideon and nodded.

They sprinted through the tree line and approached the sealing team from the blind spot.

Three master sealers knelt in the dirt and hammered a massive iron stake covered in suppression runes into the earth.

Three armored Inquisitors stood in a tight circle around them with their broadswords drawn.

Gideon recognized the defensive formation from his training in the capital.

“They protect the casters at all costs,” Gideon whispered to Lucian.

“They will not break the circle to chase you. You have to force them apart.”

Lucian vanished into stealth again and flanked the group from the right side.

Gideon picked up a heavy rock from the dirt and threw it at the nearest tree.

CRACK.

The noise drew the attention of the three guards.

They tightened their circle and raised their swords toward the sound, expecting a frontal assault.

Lucian materialized inside their defensive perimeter.

He drove his steel dagger into the gap between the first guard’s neck and shoulder guard. The man dropped his sword and grabbed his bleeding neck.

Lucian spun around and kicked the back of the second guard’s knee to drop him to the dirt.

Gideon charged into the chaos and swung his mace at the third guard.

The heavy iron weapon collided with the broadsword and sent a massive shockwave up the guard’s arm.

The guard stumbled backward and lost his balance.

The defensive circle broke.

The three master sealers stopped hammering the iron stake and scrambled to their feet.

They tried to draw their own short swords to defend themselves, but they lacked combat training and reacted too slow.

Lucian stepped past the fallen guards and slashed the first sealer across the chest.

The man screamed and fell backward over the wooden crate.

Gideon tackled the second sealer to the ground and punched him in the face with a heavy, unarmored fist until the man stopped moving.

The third sealer panicked and ran toward the main road to find Elector Mordecai.

Lara’s voice spiked through the communication rune.

“Lucian! Fall back!” Lara screamed from the balcony.

“The entire right flank just shifted! Ten Inquisitors are running straight toward your position!”

Lucian grabbed Gideon by the collar of his gray tunic and yanked him backward.

“We broke the first point of the triangle,”

Lucian yelled and dragged the boy toward the tree line.

“Run!”

They sprinted back into the thick brush and headed for the western drainage grate.

The shouts of the angry Inquisitors echoed through the trees behind them.

Heavy boots crushed the dirt as the elite guards hunted the saboteurs.

Lucian and Gideon bought Zorya the crucial time she needed to stabilize the silver shield, and they crippled the sealing team’s first attempt to breach the foundation.

The physical combat outside the walls turned the siege into a bloody, chaotic brawl.

Raziel stood at the main gates and watched the distant movement in the trees.

He gripped his iron dagger and kept his eyes on Elector Mordecai.

The Elector did not turn around to check on the disrupted left flank.

He ignored the screams of his dying men.

He just stared at the silver dome protecting the academy, and he raised his crystal cane to tap the black Silencer artifact a second time, and…

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