My Beginning After the End

Ashber Pt. III

"Oh my." Aya said.

"Haha." I laughed once again, as the three presences got closer to us, these aren't Scythes, but they are not normal mages, and that's when multiple people walked through the teleportation gate underground, maybe fifty to one hundred Alacryans, this is hilarious, they think this is enough for me.

"What? Veer, speak up!" Arthur said once again.

I turned to Arthur in the middle of the street. "There are three Retainers, each one on the outside of the town, waiting for us, it seems they were waiting until this very moment to use mana." They were all separated, not one next to the other, this isn't good, with the troops underground numbering over one hundred. "And soldiers just showed up underground, I sense one hundred and eleven."

"Shit." Arthur said, knowing this wasn't exactly what we wanted, but it was fine with me. "Are they together?" The three of us stood there in the dark town, no one around except the figures standing still in the distance.

"Nope." I answered and shrugged. "I think they are trying to split us up." Sylvie finally jumped out of Arthur's coat. "There are four forces, four of us, we have no choice, unless we want to bring the battle into Ashber." I released the clone spell of Stan and had the blood that made him circle my body.

"No, we don't." Aya said, looking in the direction of one of the mana signatures we sensed. "This is what a Retainer feels like, I don't know why, but I'm shaking, my body is telling me to run away."

"Same." Arthur agreed with her, I was the opposite, my body was telling me to face all of them. "Veer, do you know who is out there? Which Retainers?"

"That's the weird thing." I said, scratching my head. "I only know one of these signatures." The other two though, I had no clue who they were, which means, Cylrit is not here, which is strange.

"Who? It's Jagrette isn't it." I nodded at my brother. "Which way?" I pointed to the east. "I'll take her." I think Aya on Jagrette would be better, we know Arthur can beat Jagrette, but is hurt severely, so why not let Aya take her on, so that Arthur and I can fight these two unknowns.

"We need a plan, are we splitting up, or not?" Aya asked, we both turned to Arthur, he was the one who was supposed to be calling the shots around here anyway.

"Three Retainers, right?" Aya and I nodded, Sylvie was staring up at Arthur as well. "Okay, how would they know there are four of us? They really want to split up Sylvie and me?" Oh shit, I don't know if Arthur knows that Sylvie is Agrona's daughter, he has to by now I am pretty sure, and I don't think Arthur can take on Jagrette by himself.

Ten more, no twenty more, oh shit. "Umm." I said, interrupting Arthur. "Fifty more soldiers just stepped through the gate." I was now staring at the ground; it was literally right below us. "Can I suggest something?"

"Go ahead." Arthur knew about my knowledge, and that I couldn't say it out loud at the moment, so he trusts me.

"Arthur, you have Jagrette, Aya and Sylvie will take on the two other Retainers, I'll take on the soldiers underground." I looked up at them, knowing what I needed to do. "Listen, you don't need to win, you just have to stall."

"Stall?" Aya said, confused on want I meant.

"I mean, you don't need to win on your own, after I take down the soldiers, I'll come back up, and fight with whoever needs my help the most." Killing one hundred and sixty soldiers shouldn't be that hard.

"That's a good plan, Cylrit isn't here?" I shook my head at Arthur, I was just as surprised, but what confused me is that there are three Retainers, it looks like Agrona truly doesn't have faith in one of them to take me down anymore, or just really wants me. "So, who are the other two Retainers?"