Chapter 329: The Disgraceful Apprentices
Kraft left with Rhodes's promise, satisfied with the outcome. His figure quickly disappeared into the crowd.
Inside the dessert shop, only Rhodes and Serie remained.
Serie was still somewhat dazed, holding her teacup unconsciously, appearing a bit absent-minded.
The dwindling elven population, even to the point of needing to seek unions with other races to continue the bloodline—this news impacted her, an ancient elf, far more than it appeared on the surface.
However, she also understood that without Rhodes's help in defeating the demon army back then, not only the Great Elven Forest but also the Elven Kingdom would have likely perished.
At that time, having lost their most important gathering place, the elven race would have survived in this world like rootless duckweed in scattered villages, only to be destroyed one by one by the demons.
Compared to that ending, the current situation of the elves was much better.
At least it was just a population crisis.
"Serie?" Rhodes called softly, waving his hand in front of her eyes.
"Hm?" Serie snapped back to reality, looking at Rhodes. Such a bewildered little expression was rare, but very cute.
"Time to go back." Rhodes gestured to the sun beginning to set outside the window.
Serie nodded, put down the teacup, paid the bill, and walked out of the dessert shop.
Thanks to streetlamps made of magical ores that absorbed sunlight to illuminate the night, the streets were still bright even though it was getting late.
Noises from a nearby tavern and the bustle of shops filled the air as the two walked side by side toward the Magic Association headquarters.
However, just after crossing a street, a commotion not far ahead caught their attention.
A crowd had gathered in a circle, discussing animatedly, and faint sounds of quarreling could be heard.
Rhodes paused slightly. With the help of detection magic, he had sensed something wrong here long ago.
Behind the noisy human voices, he could clearly perceive numerous decent mana fluctuations. Some even carried auras that felt somewhat familiar to him.
Moreover, judging from the argument in the center of the crowd, this was clearly not an ordinary verbal dispute; it could escalate into armed conflict at any moment.
"Seems lively up ahead," Rhodes said, his gaze piercing through the crowd, trying to see the situation inside.
Serie frowned. She also sensed those mana fluctuations, especially a few mage auras that felt very familiar to her.
Wait, aren't those my foolish apprentices?
The two walked into the crowd. Relying on the invisible aura Rhodes emitted, the onlookers involuntarily opened a path.
Seeing the scene inside the circle, Serie's frown deepened.
Two groups of people were confronting each other.
One group was impressively led by Alvin and her other disciples. Each one looked ready to draw swords, gripping their staffs tightly.
The other group was an adventurer team of about seven or eight people, extremely well-equipped. Three wore robes and looked like mages, while the other four were burly figures radiating formidable auras—clearly warriors.
At this moment, the two groups were arguing fiercely about something.
"—Clearly you rushed out suddenly and smashed our goods!" a short-tempered mage from the adventurer team roared.
"Nonsense! It was your cart that lost control and crashed into us! It has nothing to do with us!" Alvin retorted without weakness. Though young, under Serie's strict training, his imposing manner didn't lose out.
"Kid, do you know how precious this box of magical materials is? We gathered it from dangerous lands in the West with great difficulty! Even selling all of you wouldn't be enough to compensate!"
A warrior stepped forward, slamming his battle axe onto the ground with a dull thud, full of threat.
"Just a box of magical materials? We can certainly afford it! But this is clearly your fault; don't think about pinning it on us!" Legolas said with a cold face. He couldn't accept such slanderous behavior.
Although he usually had some conflicts with Alvin, in this situation, he naturally stood on the same front line.
Insults flew back and forth, tempers rising. The atmosphere grew increasingly tense, looking ready to explode into violence at the slightest disagreement.
Seeing her disciples here and involved in such a street dispute, Serie's first reaction was confusion.
According to her strict training schedule, these little guys should still be researching magic in the Association. Why were they out here?
However, before she could figure out the reason, the argument escalated again.
Finally, it upgraded directly into combat.
"Do it!"
Following a low shout from the warrior who seemed to be the leader of the adventurer team, the battle erupted instantly!
"Idiots!" Seeing the battle start, Serie practically squeezed the word through her teeth, her face extremely ugly.
In her view, her disciples had committed the first and most fatal mistake.
They actually hadn't distanced themselves from the opposing warriors the moment the conflict broke out! Instead, due to the previous argument, the distance between the two sides was quite close.
This was simply the stupidest mistake in a mage's combat handbook.
To some extent, an experienced and powerful warrior naturally countered a mage at close range.
If the opponent also mastered some explosive dash skills or techniques to interrupt magical chanting, the mage would fall into extreme passivity in battle, possibly being instantly defeated before they could even cast a decent spell.
Although under Rhodes's promotion and creation over the years, the magic system had been greatly developed and improved—especially defensive shield magic, which had evolved into myriad forms, largely making up for the mages' physical fragility.
Various elemental shields and deflection/reversal shields meant mages were no longer powerless against physical attacks like in the past.
However, even the most exquisite shield magic required reaction time.
It was ultimately an external object; it couldn't fundamentally change the fact that a mage's physical fitness was far inferior to a warrior's.
Once a warrior successfully closed in at extremely close range, interrupted the casting rhythm, and prevented the shield from deploying in time, defeat was almost certain.
And the development of facts was just as terrible as Serie predicted.
At this distance, which could almost be considered point-blank, Alvin and the others simply didn't have time to cast various intermediate or high-ranking spells. They could only use some simple offensive magic.
But those adventurer warriors were clearly extremely experienced and coordinated well.
Like tigers entering a flock of sheep, relying on their powerful strength and physical fitness, they either blocked magical attacks with weapons or tanked them with armor, charging directly at Alvin and the others.
At this distance, Alvin's group could only defend passively. Simple shield magic was quickly shattered.
Almost in the blink of an eye, aside from Alvin and Legolas who were struggling to hold on thanks to slightly stronger abilities and faster reaction speeds, the others had been neatly subdued and pinned to the ground. Although not seriously injured, they looked extremely wretched.
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