The Strongest Spellblade

I held the runes in the air in front of me. Keeping runes active for a long period of time wasn’t advisable since they could distort and it constantly drained one’s Mana as the runes made of Mana kept trying to disperse. But the main thing was surviving the first attack, which would likely be overwhelming.

The magical carriage suddenly came to halt. Out the window, three elves suddenly appeared and thrust their spears at the magical carriage, clearly using some kind of skill. My runes activated as a shield appeared around the magical carriage for two seconds.

Their spears hit the shield, leaving cracks behind in the barrier. I slammed the door open and used my Explosion wand right away. Since the Mana that made up the shield and my wand came from the same source, I was able to let one pass through the other. An advanced application of runes and Mana, but quite useful.

One elf lost their head as they were struck at almost point blank range. Ozy leapt off my shoulder at the other elf. Lanner had opened the door on the other side and unleashed three wand bursts at the other elf.

“Ahhh!” the elf screamed as Ozy used Petrifying Gaze followed up with Toxic Breath and Empowered Bite on the elf’s neck.

The third elf was blown away by Lanner if the screams were anything to go by. I noted the driver was running away. My Danger Sense flared.

“Ward!”

An arrow hit the spell skill, shattering it and striking my heavy armor, puncturing it slightly. I hadn’t even seen the arrow except a blur. A burst of cold Mana spread from the arrow. That kind of power behind a single arrow, which meant that there was a legend elvish archer out there.

I told Ozy to move into the forest off the dirt road to pin down the legend. My Danger Sense flared again.

“Ward.” I moved while blocking the attack. The arrow grazed my armor and a burst of fire was unleashed where it grazed my armor and it impacted the ground. I couldn’t see where the attacks were coming from.

“Stay in the carriage,” I called out and quickly moved to the driver’s seat at the front and the outside. It really was an older model, thankfully I still knew how to drive it.

“Ward! Ward!”

This time the arrow was stopped. Ozy let me know he had found the legend. He attacked the legend by altering the space around the elf. That was the distraction I needed to climb up on the driver’s seat. I stabbed my sword into the seat next to me, since I didn’t have time to put it away.

I grabbed the controls and took off. We had no chance against a legendary elvish archer like this. The carriage shot off down the dirt road as I completely ignored everything regarding safety and focused on only speed.

The road curved slightly ahead. “Everyone to the left side of the carriage!” I screamed out as I took the turn. The wheels on the left side lifted up slightly as we sped around it on two wheels.

Ozy was already retreating by flying up into the air and following us while keeping an eye on the elvish legend who was running and keeping pace with the magical carriage. The left wheels slammed back down onto the ground and I could hear the frame groan as we kept speeding down the dirt road.

“Lanner! You need to attack behind us. Wild Tail and Yor make sure he doesn’t fall off!” I shouted. The gnome leaned out of the doorway with Wild Tail and Yor holding onto him as the elvish legend chased after us along the dirt road. Ozy was letting me know what was going on behind me through our bond.

Lanner quickly began to cycle through his wands. The elvish legend dodged while chasing us and firing his bow. I jerked the magical carriage to the side, sending Lanner tumbling back inside as the arrow barely missed us. If that arrow had hit him, he would have instantly died. The arrow exploded with a large burst of cold Mana.

Ozy let me know that the elvish legend was using potions to keep his stamina up. That was the other difference between a legend like this and the demons besides the greater range of skills. They had proper equipment and potions.

“Right side!” I called out as a turn came up. The magical carriage tilted slightly but didn’t lift off the ground as I took the turn at high speed. “Stright for a while!”

Lanner leaned out of the magical carriage again and unleashed more attacks with his wands. The legend dodged and took aim with his bow again. “Hold on!” I jerked the magical carriage as a burst of flame was unleashed near one of the rear wheels. The legend was targeting the magical carriage.

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He fired another arrow and I managed to dodge a second burst of flame. The legend was slowly falling behind. I said a silent thank you to the dwarf Anerac who had taught me driving so long ago.

While the elven legend could fire while running, attacking slowed him down slightly, enough for us to get more of a lead. He was also draining his stamina rapidly chasing the magical carriage. While he could keep up, he couldn’t gain ground on us while I kept it going at full speed.

We hit a small bump in the road and the magical carriage went airborn for a few seconds before slamming back down onto the road. If there wasn’t an elvish legend chasing us, then going this fast would be madness. But after that first arrow, that had broken my spell skill and punctured my armor, I knew we had no chance against that kind of opponent.

The elves were well known for their legendary archers. Their hit and run attacks were the stuff of nightmares. Most adventurers were close in fighters or they used spell skills. Arrows were incredibly hard to counter, even if they weren’t the best way to clear the dungeon.

That was why there was no supreme legend for the elves. They just couldn’t kill monsters in the dungeon fast enough to reach level 150. And they were also limited by their arrows, which were consumables. Unfortunately, those downsides made them quite effective against other legends and adventurers.

Ozy was falling behind. But there was no other choice. Stopping or slowing down to pick him up would mean death or capture. He could catch up later. He was going to land soon. The use of a legend wouldn’t be able to be denied. That was why there had been other elves in the initial attack. If they could avoid using a legend, then there was plausible deniability.

The legend had probably decided that capturing me was the most important thing. Since if I reported what happened to the Adventurer’s Guild, it would cause a political shockwave throughout the continent. For the legend capturing or killing me was the only outcome they could accept unless they wanted disaster to hit the elves.

An arrow struck the rear of the carriage and there was a burst of heat. The back of the carriage was probably on fire. “Break the rear of the carriage off!” I call out.

Ozy had landed so I couldn’t use his viewpoint to help dodge the arrows anymore. I heard the rear of the magical carriage being smashed apart. “Left side!”

I took another turn as another arrow missed, setting a tree on fire just in front of the magical carriage. The legend probably thought that the magical carriage was sabotaged, that was why he was also pursuing so heavily.

I heard more spell skills being unleashed. They were probably using the hole in the back of the magical carriage. That was good, anything to slow the legend down. The chase continued for another twenty minutes.

An arrow had burst into flames, inside the magical carriage, but was quickly put out. One of the rear wheels was hit, but the arrow was broken apart and the flames didn’t spread. The wheel was slightly damaged, but I didn’t slow down for anything.

The moment my Danger Sense began to decrease, I let out a sigh of relief. The legend had probably hit the limit for the number of stamina potions they could consume. For a brief moment I was tempted to stop and to try and kill them, but I quickly put that foolish idea away.

A legendary archer was a legendary archer. They wouldn’t resort to melee or make foolish mistakes if they didn’t have to. After traveling at high speed for another hour, I finally slowed down and came to a stop.

“Everyone okay?” I asked as the arrow in my shoulder ached.

“Yes,” Garth Stoneskin said. “Couple of close calls there. A legend, an elvish legend. A violation of every accord that has been made. Targeting merchants and adventurers,” he said with a glare and a frown that made me think he had a skill for that expression.

“That was too close,” Lanner said.

“You did a great job,” I replied. Wild Tail was looking nervously around us but he didn’t say anything. I checked the rear wheel it was cracked. The carriage was half burnt and the rear wall was smashed open.

The engine was practically smoking. Also we were almost out of fuel. Pushing things that hard had drained our fuel completely. There was no fuel cannister on the magical carriage, meaning that we would have to talk. “Do you know how much further we have to go?” I asked as I gritted my teeth and ripped the arrow out of my shoulder. I reached into my armor and my spatial pouch to pull out a healing potion.

“Still a ways, no fuel?” Garth Stoneskin asked.

“It is very low. Clearly deliberate, they never meant for us to leave the Moonwood,” I said.

“Curse those elves to nine generations,” Garth Stoneskin spat to the side. “We will have to walk.”

“To an elvish port?” I asked.

“We should be fine if we make it. Maybe. The other option is to cut through the Moonwood, but that is asking to be tracked down and killed,” Garth Stoneskin said.

“Then walking it is after we finish getting everything we can out of this magical carriage. Let’s run the magical carriage for as long as it can go,” I said.

Everyone got back on the magical carriage and I set off at a much more sedate pace. The engine was emitting some black smoke, which was a bad sign. Ozy was slowly catching up with us as he made his way through the woods.

I didn’t have him check the road, since the legend could capture and kill him if he was too close. Ozy could only fly for so long.

The magical carriage gave up around sunset. I pushed it off the dirt road. Yor and I smashed it apart and covered it with leaves. That way it would be hard for anyone following us to know if we still had the magical carriage or not. It probably wouldn’t fool the legend, but I considered it worthwhile for five minutes of work.

Yor picked up Garth Stoneskin and I ended up having to pick up Lanner. His tiny legs weren’t good for running. Wild Tail would just have to endure while we ran. We set off at a light run. Without anyway to know if the legend was pursuing us, we needed to keep traveling until we were literally dead on our feet.

Both Yor and I had stamina potions that we could use. I also shared mine with Wild Tail so he could keep up as well. While my Danger Sense wasn’t being triggered, the elf could have stealth skills. I hadn’t been able to spot them while they had been shooting arrows, so they clearly had some experience with such skills.