Chapter Two
A knight of the Blue Rose squad ran down the hallways of their squad building, heading straight for the office room where the knights holding higher rankings and merit points sat for the paperwork and reporting to their Captain.
"Vice-Captain Charlotte!" The Knight skidded to halt upon reaching the office room, catching her breath before reporting to the one that held most of the authority after their squad Captain. "It's an emergency!"
"What is it?" A tall and beautiful woman with upper-length blonde hair stood up from her chair. She had an air of nobility around her and a stern expression on her face. She waited for her subordinate to catch her breath.
"We just received an emergency call that the town of Rivendell has been attacked by a group of Mountain Bandits." She reported. "And there are a lot of them."
'The Captain is out near the borders. We will have to take care of this ourselves.' Charlotte didn't waste much time thinking, putting on her armor. "Do you know of their exact numbers?"
"I am sorry but we have no information on that." The knight shook her head in response.
"Gather the higher ranked knights and prepare to move out!" Charlotte ordered. If the number of foes are unknown then it is better to take the strongest attack force in order to deal with any uncertainty that may arise.
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"Miss Elena!"
"Altria!" Elena let out a sigh of relief on the sight of the young girl in her mid teens with finely textured blonde hair and soft green eyes running towards her. 'Thank goodness you are unharmed.'
"I am relieved that you are unharmed, Miss Elena." Altria ran over and hugged the black-haired woman. Pulling away after a few seconds, she looked around as if searching for someone. "I was worried that the bandits might have gotten you two. They didn't come in the direction of our house yet but I was getting worried so sneaking out was the only option. Where's Varre?"
"..." Elena avoided her gaze, trying to find a suitable answer to give the concerned girl standing in front of her. If she were to tell him that he is taking on the bandits, Altria would not even waste a single second in rushing for his aid. "He has gone to call the Mag--"
"He is taking on the bandits all by himself, isn't he?" Altria frowned at Elena's prolonged silence and her futile attempt to cover it up with a pathetic lie. She knew him much better than that. Rather than depending on Magic Knights for help, he would take upon the bandits all by himself and ensure the safety of the town. "Why did you try to hide it from me?"
"...Because knowing you, you would get worried and will definitely want to rush over and aid him." Elena responded. "Even I am worried about him. But this time he promised me that he will not cause me any worry by doing anything reckless. We will just need to have faith in him."
"Then I will be by your side and protect you." Altria suddenly declared, snapping out of her gloomy phase on not being able to fight by Varre's side. "At the very least, allow me to do this much. Shall we head back home?"
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"That's quite the number." Varre muttered to himself at the sight of reinforcements of the bandits arriving. They had taken note of their members falling one-by-one and went on to check out the reason. There were at least eight of them making their way towards him, flying on their respective brooms. "They must have a large number of men at their disposal."
Kicking one of the fallen bandits' broom in the air, Varre jumped on it, applying a very minimal and balanced amount of mana on his feet to keep himself steady on the broom. In his left hand, four small blades of mana materialized. Since his goal was to take them down without burning himself out, he did not bother giving them any shape since it would take more concentration and mana.
"It's just one brat without a grimoire. We will easily be able to take him down!" The bandit leading them declared before activating his magic, making vines emerge from the ground and go after Varre.
"Origin Flash!"
Charging his broadsword with mana, he swung it in the direction of the incoming attack. A bright slash of magic collided with the vines, stopping the attack midway. Then from the resulting smoke, four flying blades made way towards the bandit. The latter reacted quicky bringing his vines in front of him to shield himself.
"Heh easy." His victory was short lived as the moment he let down his defenses, he was slashed in the lower abdomen with a mana reinforced sword. He hadn't expected Varre to close the distance between them during their clash of spells. Mostly mages fight one-another maintaining distance and yet here this brat was doing just the opposite of it. "Aargh!"
The only mages who fought in close-quarters were those who had attributes suited for short-range combat. There were a few exceptions, namely being the Captains of Praying Green Mantis and Black Bulls. Both of them were known for being able to fight both in close and long-range.
Varre was somewhere similar to them in regards to his fighting style.
"You bastard!" The other bandits cursed, launching their spells altogether at the young mage.
Jumping off from his broom, he dodged the long-ranged spells by running around in a haphazard manner. From the recent exchange of blows, he inferred that Varre's physical abilities were honed to their very best and he had insane reflexes, enabling him to timely attack and counter-attack. Despite having meager mana reserves of a commoner, he was physically better.
'I do remember making him akin to King Bradley. I shouldn't let this cheat go waste.' Materializing thin mana swords, resembling the shape of Black Keys used by Church Inquisitors in novels, he flung them towards the bandits while running around, dodging the spells thrown in his direction. 'Sword magic is the true definition of diversity.'
The swords struck the brooms, breaking them and making the bandits fall on the ground. They never expected the brat to target their mode of flight. The aerial advantage they held till now was snatched away from them in an instant.
"Finally got you bastards on the ground. It was honestly getting annoying seeing you all running amok like you own this place." Varre taunted. "It will be easy to hunt you pricks now."
"Eat this!" Two bandits charged lightning in their arms before slamming them on the ground. High voltage electricity traveled through the ground heading straight for the fourteen year old.
In response, Varre stabbed his weapon on the ground, right in the path of their spell before running away from there. Forming a pair of shortswords in his palms, he covered his feet in a thin layer of mana to give his speed an extra boost. This was termed as Partial Mana Skin where instead of focusing on covering the entire body with mana, it was focused at one point, making it more efficient at the time of need.
This is only possible when the user has precise control over the magic in their body. Those with higher mana reserves are unable to utilize this unlike those with lower reserves. The ones with lower mana reserves know where they lack and tend to come up with innovative ideas to cover their shortcomings.
'Reason why Zora and Magna were a few of my favorites..'
"Metal is a good conductor of electricity, you dumbasses!" Varre grinned as the sword he left behind, absorbed all of the lightning and channeled it underground.
Closing in the distance with his superior speed, Varre attempted to strike down both of them with his sword, only for them to increase the distance by cloaking themselves in lightning and zapping away at the last second.
"Shit!" Varre swore and the next thing he knew, he was hit by a metallic spiked club, sending him flying. 'Of course they got the advantage in numbers!'
"You might have gotten lucky back there with those losers." The bandit with the mace smirked, spinning his weapon in his hands. "But now your luck has run out."
"Against the seven of us. You are just a little punk without a Grimoire." Another bandit added with a confident grin. Now that the brat was cornered, all they have to do is make sure to knock him unconscious and take him to their boss.
They stepped forward to where he crashed, readying their magic just in case the brat springs back to life again. Getting in close range without any precaution would basically be suicide on their part.
'Thanks for acting up to my expectations.' They suddenly felt the fluctuating mana upon getting too close to where Varre had crashed onto. A pair of Origin Flashes struck them all collectively, sending them crashing to the opposite buildings on the streets.
"I was never the type to fight head on without proper planning." Varre emerged from the debris, his right hand resting on his torso. He stared down at the now fallen and bleeding band of bandits before walking away. "I might have overestimated my abilities though. There is still a long way to go in order to reach that level."
This was a real life and not a video game scenario. Nor it was a scenario he reads in novels or sees in the anime. In his situation death is the real deal. Who knows, he might not get lucky a second time if were to die again. The chances of him reincarnating somewhere else is slim. That hardly happens in any isekai novel.
Once you are transported to another world, there is hardly any other option than spending the rest of your life in that place. Unless there is actually a condition to get back to your world. But that only happens if one isn't dead on the other side.
'Enough for the gloomy thoughts. I should check whether there are more bandits around or not before going to look for mother.' He noticed a few of the town residents peeking either from their windows or the alleyways they were hiding in. It seems they had seen the full fight and were slowly emerging, now that the area is safe. 'Time to get famous hehe.'
"The magic knights are here!" Someone from the crowd cheered, pointing upwards in the sky where several robed mages flew through the skies of Rivendell Town. Upon closer look at their descent, they were revealed to be the members of Blue Rose Squad.
"My debut is ruined...anyways.." Sighing to himself, he took a look at the magic knights and noticed Charlotte giving out orders to her fellow knights. Her subordinates nodded before heading deeper into the town to take care of the remaining bandits. The other squad members got busy picking up the unconscious bandits lying around. "If Charlotte is here then this means it's Sol's hometown as well."
"You there." Charlotte walked up to him, snapping him out from his temporary chain of thoughts. "I heard from the townsfolk that it was you who took down these bandits. A commendable deed, I must say."
"I just got lucky." Varre replied with a slight bow as a sign of respect.
"How very humble." Charlotte eyed him, taking note of the fact that he lacks one essential item every mage should be having. "You aren't fifteen yet are you?"
"I will be in the next year." Varre responded, a cold sweat running down his head. 'I think I stood out way too much. Not my fault though.'
"A kid yet to receive his Grimoire took down ten mages who possessed their respective grimoires and had mastery over their attributes." The Vice-Captain mused. "I don't think that's just simple luck. My eyes don't deceive me when I say you have got immense talent as a potential magic knight."
"I look forward to next year's entrance ceremony." With that said, she stepped on her broom and zoomed through the skies, following the lead of her subordinates at the interior of the town.
'Well what's done is done.'
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The remaining bandits and their leader were dealt with at a much faster pace with the arrival of the Blue Rose Squad. Said bandits stood no chance against the group of experienced magic knights. The citizens of the town cheered when the Blue Rose tied up all the bandits and took them for a long stay in the cells.
"This street and from here a left turn.." Varre roamed around, trying to find his house with the best of abilities. The memories of the original 'Varre' wasn't helping much in this regard. He cannot even ask anyone around since there's hardly anyone who would forget their own house address. He feared people would start calling him weird and many other names instead of helping.
"Varre!!"
"Who--?" Before he could register it, he was tackled into a tight bear hug by what he could assume as a golden blur. Getting a hold of his balance, he nervously grabbed the person by their shoulders and pulled away from the hug. "Oh my bad. I shouldn't have done that. You could still have injuries from fighting the bandits."
Varre didn't quite register what the girl spoke, his gaze fixated on her face, her soft green eyes, her well-textured blonde hair and the mannerisms with which she carried herself. His memories didn't quite answer the question revolving in his mind and he dared not to say it out loud.
'Who in the blazes is this new OC?'