106 The Desert
The Bone Lord was too powerful, overwhelming, fearless. Arthur did not know why someone like that was there, trying to fetch his disciples and ruin his school.
Did he find that thing before? No, the more he thought about it, the more he was certain he had never seen such a creature.
It went slowly towards Arthur. Its feet did not touch the ground as he was using a flying spell, like a true mage from legends.
“I’ll die like this? No, I don’t want to!”
Arthur tried his best to move his body, yet the strange force coming from the grasp of that creature was something he could not fend off. He would die, and his only chance of survival was if a miracle happened.
Then, everything around Arthur stopped, except him. For a moment, he thought he had awakened a strange ability, but that was not the case. Someone else had come to his rescue.
“Matilda?”
“Arthur, we have little time and lots of things to talk about. Hear me about, please.” Matilda said.
The situation was not favorable to ask questions, so he shut up and listened to what she had to say to him.
“My real name is not Matilda, but Elyhane, the princess of elves. You and I met before, in that clothing store. I was using a disguise as an old woman.”
“I was fleeing from that old lich, but he found me. The reason I came here looking for you was because of the time-space magic. I felt an energy coming from you, so I knew you had the affinity to it, just like me, one of the 5 people that ever had that affinity, 6 now with you,”
“although I’m strong, we cannot face the Bone Lord, or else we will die. I had never thought he would find me here, and now even you are caught up in this situation.”
“When the first victim appeared, I knew it was him, so I made up precautions for when he strikes us. Now, you have a choice to make.”
Matilda said a lot of things in a short time, but Arthur was so focused he understood everything that was happening.
“She’s an elf? And one of the 5 people that can use time-space magic? This is incredible. I mean, we will die to that lich!”
“I set up a teleportation array and linked a few people to this academy. Sadly, I did not have the power to send all of you, but I picked up the most talented disciples of yours, and obviously, all the teachers.”
“The array will teleport you all to a random location around the world, and even I don’t know where.”
“Don’t worry about the few students that will remain here. The Bone Lord will also be caught in the array, and sent to another location, far from here,”
“Do you want me to do this? You’ll have to start your magic school from scratch, or maybe it will never be built again.”
“What choice do I have? We will all die if we face this Bone Lord.”
“That is correct.”
Now that things were getting better in Odemore, all of it was lost. Arthur promised himself that would be the last time others would take things from him.
“Screw this. Send us away from here. In the future, I’ll come looking for this pile of bones and cremate him.”
Matilda nodded and executed the magic array. All the students that had been marked vanished in an instant, appearing in a new location, all of them together.
Arthur, Wisa, Jane, Harmony, Kai, Theo, Sully, and many other talented people from Odemore had been chosen.
The Bone Lord was also sent to a far place, and only Matilda and some students remained.
“I hope they went to a good place. I’ll gather all the students, and help them in any way I can.” Matilda thought.
~~~~
A dry air. A place with sand, and few vegetation. It was a place far from Grathia; the kingdom where Jane lived as a princess.
Shukar Empire, a vast mass of land mostly covered by a rough desert that few could withstand.
The people from Shukar also used magic, but different from the rest. They lived in tribes, and the magic was inscribed on their bodies using tattoos.
Another prominent technique from the Shukar tribes was beast taming, as these came in handy when traveling through the desert and fighting among tribes.
Arthur and his few students had teleported to this place near an oasis. It had plants and fresh water nearby, which was something that could save their lives until they adjusted to that place.
“Where are we? What happened?”
No one could understand, as only Arthur knew what had happened.
“Everyone, listen to me, your leader.”
They all looked up directly at Arthur, and he explained everything that had happened with all the details.
“Now that things were working out, fuck.” Theo cursed and almost punched the sand beneath to vent his anger.
“Master, are you all right?” Kai said, walking towards Arthur to see if he was okay after hearing about his fight against the mysterious lich.
Arthur had not seen Kai in a while, not after having to use a student identity, but now that was long gone.
“Were are we?” Jane said, looking at their surroundings to access the situation.
Wisa, who once was an adventurer, had more information about the world than the rest, so she blurted, “if I’m not mistaken, this should be the Shukar Empire, and if it is, we are in danger.”
“Danger? What do you mean?” Arthur asked, curious as he had never heard about such a place.
“The people here are fierce, and almost all of them live in tribes. They will kill us at first sight, especially seeing how we look like outsiders.”
“Tribes?”
The first thing that came to Arthur’s mind was cannibals, or worse.
“This cannot be worse than facing the Bone Lord, right?” Arthur thought.
They all rested near the oasis for some time, but someone was already gazing at them.