Chapter 17

Elara and Sapphirus met in the middle, their blades clashing against each other before they were thrown back a bit from the impact. Sapphirus charged at Elara again only to slice at thin air as she had flashed last minute. Elara reappeared behind Sapphirus, her bow replacing the light arrow-like sword she was previously using. Just as she was about to fire, Sapphirus' head jerked sideways, his eye catching her own before he completely turned around and threw multiple glass shards at her.

Elara, who already knew what was coming, dodged the first shard, assuming that this was the special shard, before shattering the rest that followed with her arrow-like sword.

After shattering the last shard, with her path clear once again, she charged at Sapphirus with such speed leaving him barely enough time to react and block her sword with his own glass one.

With them blade to blade again, Sapphirus leaned his head forward a bit and smirked when he was satisfied with their closeness. "It looks like you've figured out my magic princess. Pity. I trained so hard to unlock that spell."

Extremely uncomfortable with the little distance between them, Elara used as much force as possible to push him back before jumping back herself. Now, they were a few meters away from each other, panting due to the fact that this had gone longer than they expected it too.

"Judging by this fight, it clearly wasn't enough." Sapphirus said before he started chuckling.

Elara stood there, staring at Sapphirus as if he had grown 3 heads. Someone clearly dropped him on his head when he was a baby.

Sapphirus abruptly stopped laughing which startled Elara as he had snapped his head back at her with piercing, malicious eyes.

"I guess it's time to go back to the basics."

Without warning, the ground shook beneath Elara and large glass spikes emerged from it, leaving her barely enough time to harness her mana to her feet in order to jump and dodge them.

Although before she could even breath out in relief and land, a giant fly swatter made out of glass came swinging at her and Elara suddenly found herself flying across the town.

Thankfully, she was able to recover from the shock and pain that hit gave her before she could hit the ground and was able to do a backflip mid-air and land on one knee.

Enraged and frustrated that she had been caught off guard and was swatted away like she was just some small bug, she immediately got back up to her feet.

"That bastard, how dare he!"

She then suddenly let out a small squeak and slapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes widening. "Oh my heavens! Did that just come out of my mouth?! Eeep! Nanna would be so disappointed!"

Realizing that she was getting off track, she shook her head.

Now's not the time, Elara. She told herself.

Just as she was about to jump and flash away to get back to the insolent prick that dared to hit a lady, an extremely familiar voice suddenly broke though her rage.

"Elara...?"

Finally taking a good look around, she suddenly realized that she wasn't alone and that her fellow knights and a bunch of random mages just saw her curse and talk to herself.

Oh how embarrassing! Elara thought as red colored her porcelain cheeks.

Her eyes then darted to where the voice came from and saw Noelle kneeling on the ground next to a severely injured person.

A memory flashed before her eyes and suddenly all she could see were her parents' cold and lifeless bodies on the ground.

Panic surged through her body as she rushed to her friend's side, "What happened?!"

As she kneeled down beside Noelle, she finally got a better glimpse at the person and their injuries and a look of dread immediately crossed her face.

"Captain Fuegoleon!? How did this happen?! Noelle?!" Elara turned to face the Silva who mirrored her expression.

"Now's not the time Lara, we need to beat these guys befo—"

"Beat us?" Noelle was cut off by one of the cloaked figures. "Oh that's priceless! Four itty bitty Magic Knights think they could defeat a whole group of older and more experienced mages." The figure mocked, chuckling causing the others to laugh along with him.

A cross look—that if not for the situation at hand would've been cooed at by Noelle—fell over Elara's face and Noelle swore she heard a soft grumble come out from Elara's throat.

"Noe, remember the feeling of casting your Sea Dragon's Lair?" Elara asked the Silva as their eyes met.

Noelle, albeit confused, nodded her head uncertainly, "I thinks so?"

Elara nodded back, "Good. Now concentrate on that feeling and use it on Captain Fuegoleon's wounds." She instructed, before standing up.

"Meanwhile... Asta!" Elara called towards the short albino haired male. When the said male looked her way, she nodded her head shortly to which was reciprocated almost immediately, a silent agreement between the two.

Then Elara turned towards the youngest Vermillion male, "Hey! I'm sorry if this isn't the most formal introduction for a royal, but I'm Elara! I hope you'll let me assist you in beating these guys!" She said, walking to a spot so that the three young offense mages could form a triangle back to back.

Despite his anxiousness over his brother's injuries, Leopold was able to give out a hearty chuckle towards the Lunar mage. "Nice to meet you too, Elara! I'm Leopold Vermillion! Aren't you that Lunate girl from earlier? Lunar magic, eh? With magic like that, you can be my rival too!"

Elara smiled softly at the Vermillion royal, thankful that despite him subtly mentioning the earlier events in the banquet, he deliberately avoided the fact that she was a disgrace and focused on something else instead. "Thank you for the offer, Leopold senpai. But I think your rivalry with Asta is gonna be a handful to focus on as it is."

(I'm sorry for disrupting your reading but is it weird if Elara calls Leo "senpai"?)

Leopold only chuckled in response, "Nonsense! No one can have too many rivals!"

Elara only shook her head in amusement, knowing that their rivalry wouldn't last long as he would be too busy either riling up or be riled up by Asta to remember.

"Alright then, we'll start by seeing who beats more of these guys!" Elara proposed.

Asta and Leopold's eyes sparkled as their competitiveness shone through, "You're on!" They both exclaimed.

"This is absolutely precious! Not only do they think they could beat us, they're even making a game out of this! At this point, I'm gonna take it as you mocking us!" A cloaked figure piped in.

"And we don't take mocking, lightly." The same figure said as mana started to gather in his right palm once again, promptly followed by the others.

And without missing a single beat, all of them fired at once. Though their attempts were futile as Asta started swinging his sword in a circle, creating an anti-magic miniature twister of some sorts, while Elara had jumped away to avoid getting hit and Leopold was somehow out of the target zone.

"There's no use in fighting." One cloaked figure said as they kept on firing—at only Asta, mind you. It's as if Elara and Leopold were suddenly forgotten for a bit as they focused on the anti-magic user their master had previously told them about.

Rades gave out a smug chuckle before saying, "You need to learn when to give up."

Meanwhile, the others were still focused and slightly intrigued at the ash blonde.

"Oh, so that's him." The cloaked figure, who had previously expressed their enthusiasm in dissecting the poor Bull, muttered under their breath.

"So this is the anti-magic brat our master spoke of." Another cloaked figure mused.

Asta stopped spinning as the firing suddenly stopped. He stood there panting as a fleeting memory that was made only a few hours ago suddenly passed his mind.

"Your exuberance may be your greatest weapon, but keep a cool head, too. If you truly wish to become the Wizard King, that is."

Captain Fuegoloen had told him.

"Keep a cool head... Right, sir?" Asta mumbled. He smirked as a rush of confidence overflowed him from the Captain's words. "I'll stay calm... while I kick their butts!"

The cloaked figure who had done most of the talking seemed the most affronted by this. "This little..."

Though his little cursing was interrupted by a sudden rush of heat, as Leopold has finally had enough of being ignored. Flames surrounded the young Vermillion as he started to get fired up—literally.

"Flame Magic: Exploding Flames!" He exclaimed as he threw the fireball that had formed on his left palm.

The cloaked mages exclaimed, startled, as they dodged the incoming fireballs Leopold kept throwing at them.

"You think I'm going to let you people throw your weight around after what you did to my brother!?" Leopold exclaimed as another fireball formed in his palm.

Elara, who had previously jumped on a nearby roof, had started her onslaught of attacks too. Firing arrow after arrow from a distance like the true marksman she is, taking advantage of the short startle Leopold had given them.

As the three offensive mages fought against the cloaked figures, Noelle had her own troubles as she struggled to do what Elara had told her to.

Noelle tried and tried again, trying to concentrate her magic on Captain Fuegoleon's wounds but it would only form a small bubble before disappearing completely—which incredibly frustrated her.

Why can't I do this!? It's supposed to be a smaller version of Sea Dragon's Lair, shouldn't it be easier to do!? The Silva royal thought, aggravated to the point that if she didn't have any class, she would've been pulling at her pigtails right now.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, knowing that she wouldn't be able to do anything effectively if she didn't have a cool head.

Okay, breathe Noelle, breathe. Lara specifically gave you this job because only you can do it. She's counting on you to do this right. She's counting on you...

Noelle opened her eyes with new found determination flickering in her eyes.

You can do this.

She lifted her wand once again, pointing it towards the severed arm of the Crimson Lions Captain.

I can do this.

Her brows furrowed in concentration as she started to channel her mana through her body and to her wand. A glowing hue of blue started to form in its tip, which caused her to squint her eyes in even more concentration. She then followed Elara's advice and tried to remember the feeling of casting her Sea Dragon's Lair. She then channeled that feeling into her wand too, and soon after, a small bubble had formed in front of her.

Okay, so far so good. Now to get past this stage.

Just when she saw the bubble start to wobble as if on the brink of popping, her resolve shone through and the feeling of casting her spell grew, causing the the bubbled to stabilize and grow.

Noelle's eyes lit up once the familiar sea serpent had made it's appearance, signifying that she had successfully made a mini and sphere version of her Sea Dragon's Lair.

Which unbeknownst to her actually wasn't Sea Dragon's Lair, but the start of something new.

She lightly inched her wand forward as she willed the bubble to move, which made the bubble float towards the Captain's severed arm, and making it stay there, successfully stopping the bleeding.

Now to make sure that the bubble stays there until actually medical help comes.

They say beasts are more formidable when they're wounded. These two... are dangerous. One of the cloaked mages thought as he barely dodged a hit from Asta.

"What the hell are you doing?! Hurry up and kill them!" Rades exclaimed.

"We know!" The cloaked mage who seemed to be the leader of the operation replied.

All of the cloaked mages somehow surrounded the three Magic Knights once again—including Elara who had jumped down from the roof a few minutes prior—their right hands opened in front of them as they focused their mana to it, while the three Knights were back to back, their weapons/magic at the ready.

"They aren't our targets..." the same cloaked mage as before started, "But we'll kill them now!"

With that, the cloaked mages released their attacks straight towards the three young knights. Although, before any of them could land a hit, a familiar water dome appeared around the three, successfully preventing the attacks from hurting them.

"Noelle!" Asta exclaimed in surprise, thankful to the royal in question.

"Don't think that you can kill my friends so easily!" Noelle exclaimed, now inside a water dome herself.

"Thanks Noe!" Elara exclaimed, gratefully, her heart slowing a bit from its anxious state.

She didn't think she would be able to cast another spell anytime soon after fighting with the Blue Rose Knights, saving her manor from the 'things', and fighting that awful excuse of a guy named after a gem. She was already almost reaching her limits when she summoned her light bow, and she was sure that one more spell would definitely put her on the bench.

Sometimes, being a Lunar mage and having to deal with the limitations that came with it, really sucked.

The cloaked mages stood outside Noelle's Sea Dragon's Lair in slight astonishment. "Wow... That's quite the defensive spell." The playful voice rang through the air again as one of the cloaked figures spoke.

"Juding by your appearance, you just be a member of the royal Silva family." Another cloaked figure commented. "In that case, I'll use my grimoire against you. I wouldn't want to be rude."

"Tree Creation Magic: Magic-Draining Roots!" The same cloaked mage casted as his grimoire glowed and flipped to certain page in front of him.

Suddenly, giant stems and branches rose from the ground, climbing up Noelle's Sea Dragon's Lair and sucking up the all the water until the dome was no more.

"No... They swallowed my torrent." Noelle said in disbelief and anxiousness.

From below, Elara swore she heard the roots burp but decided not to comment about it given the situation they were in.

When Asta, Leopold, and Elara saw that the dome was completely gone, the three decided to launch their own attacks, jumping in the air with their weapons and spells ready to hit.

"Your fighting instincts are admirable." The cloaked mage in charge said, his arms raised sidewards as small twisters—with their tip pointing towards the three knights—appeared around him.

"Wind Creation Magic: Tornado Needles!"

And with that, the tips of the small twisters extended thin, narrow swirls speedily towards the three, a lot of them striking Asta and Leopold in different parts of their bodies.

Elara, who had barely escaped by flashing to a different location, had pulled her bow string mid-air, a light arrow instantly appearing within it. Although before she could release it, a stem or branch of some sort had pierced through the side of her stomach, making her lurch forward, her hand accidentally releasing her arrow, missing its target completely.

As this happened, a certain blue haired mage, who was watching from afar, tch-ed.

Sapphirus, who had chased after Elara, when he had swatted her away, immediately hid behind a roof when he saw she landed in the middle of a bunch of his superiors.

He wasn't supposed to be there today. He was just getting bored from staying at the base all the time so he snuck out to watch the chaos that was about to ensue but he was delightfully surprised when he saw the lavender haired girl as he roamed around the capital.

He wasn't risking getting caught and punished, so he just sat there, watching her fight his superiors with her fellow knights. He took this moment to study her every move, taking in as much as he can about her way of fighting so when the opportunity to fight her again rises, he'd be more ready. Although as he watched her get pierced through the stomach, he had almost jumped out of his hiding spot to stop them from killing her. Luckily, he had stopped himself, albeit a little unwillingly, as he knew that going out there wouldn't end too well on his part. So he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning away, ready to leave.

He knew she'd live. She had to.

After all, he was the one that was going to kill her.

Asta, Leopold, and Elara fell to the ground with holes littered all over their limp bodies, although in Elara's case only one fairly huge one.

"He's...he's too fast..." Leopold stated weakly before completely passing out.

"Asta! Elara! Leopold!" Noelle exclaimed in worry.

"Now, let's end this." The cloaked mage in charge said.

Another group of the thin, narrow swirls of wind shot out from the twisters, racing towards the three vulnerable knights.

"No!" Noelle yelled as she watched from the side.

But before any of the swirls could hit, a giant blob of mercury came crashing to the ground, successfully shielding the three young knights from any further harm.

"Ooh, what's this magic? I've never seen anything like this before!" The playful, cloaked mage wondered excitedly.

Elara, with slight difficulty, mostly because of the pain it caused, lifted her head slightly to catch a glimpse of her rescuers.

The giant blob of mercury cleared on the top, revealing all the Magic Knights who had previously been sucked into the Spacial magic and were sent away.

"E-Everyone..." Noelle gasped in shock and relief.

"The Magic Knights..." The cloaked mage in charge mumbled in his own astonishment.

"How dare you send us that far away?" Alecdora, who landed on the roof next to where a pale, gangly man with curly, pale green hair that reached his shoulders, demanded.

"Impossible... They managed to return here from that distance so quickly?" The pale, gangly man said in disbelief.

"We really didn't want to, but we all worked together to get back." Alecdora explained. "I guess you could call it super compound magic."

"Joining forced once in a while isn't so bad." The plump Golden Dawn member mused shortly after chuckling.

"Well, I guess men aren't completely useless." Sol admitted, scratching her nape.

"I'll acknowledge their abilities. Nothing more." Captain Charlotte stated, her tone indifferent.

"I'm never working with them again." Solid commented, sounding disgusted.

"We really don't play well with others." Nebra added to her brother's statement.

"But our nine Magic Knights squads exist solely to protect the peace of the Clover Kingdom!" Captain Nozel stated, stepping forward.

"Noelle-san!" Mimosa exclaimed as she made a beeline towards where Noelle was kneeling beside Captain Fuegoleon's body.

"Mimosa, please take care of Captain Fuegoleon." Noelle pleaded in urgency.

Mimosa kneeled down beside the Captain's body and stared in disbelief for a few moments, "No... How could something like this happen to someone like Captain Fuegoleon?"

Mimosa's grimoire floated in front of her and glowed. In an instant, Mimosa's Princess-Healing Flower Robe was activated as a green glow surrounded her and Captain Fuegoleon.

"You did a great job stopping the bleeding Noelle, now it's my turn to help Captain Fuegoleon." Mimosa said to the youngest Silva.

Noelle only nodded in reply, her face serious as she watched Mimosa heal Captain Fuegoleon.

"Hey, wake up!" Klaus had found his way to Asta's side and was trying to see if the said boy was still alive. Relief instantly flooded over him when he saw that Asta was still breathing albeit seeming to be in a lot of pain.

Though he didn't stay relieved for long as his face turned serious as he observed the situation. "They put Captian Fuegoleon and the others in such a state. Who..."

Elara, who—with a lot of effort and pain—had somehow pushed herself up into a sitting position, clutched the wound beside her stomach area in a poor attempt in stopping the bleeding.

Sol saw this and immediately made a dash for the lavender haired girl, Captain Charlotte not too far behind. "Elara! Are you okay? I'm sorry we had to leave you in the hands of these men."

Elara managed a smile towards the Blue Roses, which despite being a bit weak, still had the same effect as it always does. "I'm fine, thank you for worrying Sol-senpai. I was just caught off guard. I think it was Asta and Leopold-senpai that dealt with more damage."

From the rooftops, the pale, gangly man opened up a spacial portal and jumpd through it, reappearing behind the cloaked mage who was most likely in charge. "It'll cost us if we keep fighting. Let's retreat." He suggested to his comrades.

"Don't be in such a hurry." Captain Nozel said as his grimoire glowed, threateningly.

"Mercury Magic: Rain of Silver!"

Silver drops started falling from the sky as it rained mercury which alarmed the cloaked mages.

Except one.

"Gel Magic: Sticky Salamander!" The playful cloaked mage casted, producing a giant salamander made out of what looked like purple-ish gel.

"My magic will just pierce through something like that." Captian Nozel said.

Though it didn't seem that the cloaked figure was listening as they just suddenly took out a giant syringe with a needle from out of nowhere and injected it to her Salamander creation.

"Dark Magic Item: Special Properties Plus Alpha... absorbed!"

The giant gel salamander suddenly turned into a more pink-ish color and absorbed every drop of mercury that landed on it.

"They managed to deflect the Captain's magic as if it were nothing!" Klaus exclaimed in shock.

What... is that magic item? Captian Nozel thought, slightly apprehensively, though his face definitely didn't show it.

Suddenly the giant gel like salamander started wobbling a bit before one of its front legs raised and grabbed a hold of Asta, taking him away from a befuddled Klaus.

"No—"

"Mine!" The playful cloaked figure said as the salamander placed the gel covered Asta in front of its owner.

"What do you plan to do with him?" Captain Nozel asked. Though "It's a secret!" was the only reply he got.

"Remember this, Magic Knights." The cloaked figure in charge said, closing his grimoire. "We are the Eye of the Midnight Sun..."

"The ones who will destroy the Clover Kingdom."

And just like that, the group was surrounded with Spacial magic before they disappeared, taking Asta with them.

"Asta!" Noelle exclaimed to the spot where the group disappeared while Elara, who was being tended to by Mimosa along with Captain Fuegoleon and Leopold, just sat staring helplessly.

She absolutely hated it when she couldn't do anything. Especially when it came to helping her friends and family.

"They took... Asta." Noelle stood up in disbelief. "We have to save him!" She said turning towards Klaus.

"Noelle, we can't." Klaus said in regrettably.

"But—" Noelle tried to speak in defiance but was cut off.

"It's unfortunate, but we have no way of tracking them." Klaus explained.

"Yes, but—" Noelle tried again, but this time was cut off by her older brother.

"No." Captain Nozel said firmly. "Right now, strengthening the royal capital's defenses takes priority. There's no guarantee that those were the only enemies. We don'thave time or magic to spare on someone like him."

Hearing this, Elara was absolutely speechless, staring at the oldest Silva in pure disbelief. And so was Noelle.

"How are Fuegoleon and Leopold doing?" Captain Nozel asked Mimosa.

Elara wasn't even mad that he only asked about Captain Fuegoleon and Leopold as she was just sporting a stomach wound while the other two were unconcious. She was more mad at the fact that he won't even at least send out her and Noelle to save their squadmate. She couldn't even say anything as it would be disrespectful to talk back to your superiors, and she wasn't taught to be disrespectful. Not only that, she was also part of a noble family that she already dishonored once, she couldn't do that again to her nanna. She knew that being born a noble, she should watch her every word and move, because one mistake, no matter how large or small it is, was going to not only hurt her, but her family too. She learned that the hard way.

She hated being a noble sometimes.

"The best I can do with my magic is first aid! He needs to be taken to the medical ward for more advanced healing magic, or he'll..." Mimosa couldn't even finish her sentence, too sick to even think about the possibility.

"Tch. Some captain he is. How pathetic." Solid commented arrogantly while Nevra giggled at his side. "The Vermillions sure aren't what they used to be. Makes me embarrassed to be a royal."

Elara's head whipped from Captain Nozel to Solid in an instant.

How could they say something so cruel!? She couldn't believe these royals sometimes.

"Solid-oniisama, how could you say that?" Noelle said.

"We are Magic Knights. Our existence is pointless unless we win." Captain Nozel stated.

"Nozel-oniisama..." -Noelle

"That's right! This is going to ruin the reputation of the Crimson Lion Kings—" Solid started to say but was cut off.

"But Solid..." Captain Nozel interrupted his brother sharply. "As we were not present at the fight, we are even less than he is. Strengthen the defenses so that there won't be further damages."

"Right." Solid was sweating in nervousness after being semi-scolded by his older brother and Elara was somewhat pleased with Captain Nozel after he said that, although she still was quite mad at him about Asta.

With that, the group of Magic Knights started to scatter and do their best in reinforcing the defenses in the capital as they couldn't get reinforcements from outside the Noble Realm.

Elara, who was now able to stand and walk—although too much movement is still a bit painful—went with the Blue Rose Knights, this time with Noelle on tow for obvious reasons.

Though as they accompanied and assisted the Blue Roses, the two Black Bull members couldn't take their minds off of their missing member, too worried about his whereabouts.

Asta...

-

Meanwhile, the members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun that just recently caused havoc in the Royal Capital arrived at their base with the still unconscious Asta with them, oblivious about the situation that'll meet them once they enter.

"Hi there. I've been waiting for you."