Dragon's Tale 95

I grabbed the mane of the lion tighter with my left hand, the other firmly wrapped around the heft of my spear, ready to counter any attacker. 

Not that I expected that to be the immediate response. 

The image of a man riding a Nemean lion, carrying a bloodied spear, was a scary and impressive sight under any circumstances, the kind that made the guards on the walls of the Dacian School think that it was for the best to leave the glorious experience of volunteering to their friends. 

Especially the danger came from behind them, where it was supposed to be a safe location. 

Of course, I recognized a couple commanders that didn’t share the same idea, but with the speed of the lion, I was long gone before they could give the necessary orders. 

With a great jump, the lion jumped over the great walls of the school, and started running through the streets of Rome. The onlookers were split between gaping in shock and retreating fearfully.

It was a good reaction, considering the storm that was about to envelop the city. The seeds of chaos I seeded across the place were slowly germinating while I was busy rearranging the management structure of Dacian School.

The more of my little gift packages were discovered, the stronger those seeds would take root. 

It was yet to burst into open conflict, so the civilians were unaware of it. If they had been, they would have emptied the streets rather than gaping at the sight of the running lion. 

Interestingly, my expectation of the upcoming disaster was not just intellectual acknowledgment of my own actions. Maybe it was another side effect of my transformation, or maybe it was just about the spectacular nature of the disaster that was about to occur, but the growing sense of tribulation was suffocating as it pressed against my senses. 

As I cut a direct line toward the outer walls, more concrete evidence of the upcoming events started to appear. 

The weight of gathering mana was intense enough to reveal the involvement of at least several sorcerers. That many Roman sorcerers would make even the strongest rival nation tremble in fear. 

Yet, rather than fighting at the borders, they were ready to confront each other. 

Greed was a dangerous poison. 

They were yet to act, because facing a sorcerer was not a simple affair, especially when they were supported by wards. Even from the distance, I could feel the tenseness of their mana, waiting for the slightest excuse to act. 

And, a warrior riding a Nemean Lion while carrying a Patrician weapon — visibly, as I had two others, but the bow and the sword were under a blanket to avoid too much of a commotion — was the excuse they needed. 

“Stop,” exploded a voice like thunder, along with the intimidating feeling of magic. I glanced to the distance, only to see two sorcerers standing side to side, ready to act together, surrounded by a dozen mages, and a few dozen guards, their weapons were already drawn. 

It was a formation that would make an actual army stagger and reassess their idea. 

With my magic impaired, I doubted that I would be the victor of a direct confrontation. My magical potential might have been multiplied several times, but once again, it came at the expense of my casting ability. 

Technically, the Nemean Lion and the Spear of Scipio gave me a fighting chance, especially if I let the transformation — already throbbing excitedly under my skin — go back to the surface and enhance my magical resistance, but it would only make me bog down. 

I could take down two sorcerers and their retinue, but not quickly. And while I was strong, I certainly wasn’t strong enough to challenge all the Sorcerers that could be summoned in Rome. 

Luckily, that wasn’t my plan in the first place. 

I had already put all the fuel I needed to create the commotion. Now, all that was needed was a spark to set them on fire. 

And my sudden charge was that spark. 

The sorcerers in front of me were already casting their spells before I decided on a path to action. 

I paused for a second to read the nature of their spells. Such an action was the first step in any magical combat that wasn’t an ambush, mostly because defending was easier than attacking, especially if the defender identified the nature of the spell accurately. 

It forced Sorcerers to fight in long, carefully measured battles, relying on defensive wards and strategic moves rather than hoping to overwhelm their opponent under the aggressive waves of their own spells. 

Of course, my only battle against a sorcerer happened the exact opposite, but that was only due to the ambient magic that blanketed that battlefield, enough to suffocate his attempts to actually diagnose my spells, allowing me to win an impossible battle through a reckless choice. 

I had enough magic to replicate that trick in a closed and warded space, but unfortunately, one of the biggest cities in the world was hardly an area that I could casually blanket with magic.  

Luckily, even without that, I had other advantages to help me. 

The first one, they had no idea that they were facing a mage — let alone another sorcerer. I didn’t exactly blame them for it, as I hardly looked like a caster while riding a magical lion and brandishing a spear.

The second one, my enhanced magical sensitivity allowed me to read their spells with an accuracy that was impossible to be replicated by them. Thanks to that, not only did I know exactly what they were casting, but also I could identify their target with shocking accuracy. 

And, their spell choice made my job much easier. They were using a wide-are pure magical ward, targeting an area several feet behind me, which meant that they were prioritizing preventing my escape rather than trying to take me down — or worse, trying to kill my mount.

By committing to casting that ward together to prevent the escape of the lion, they made a huge blunder, one that I had no problems abusing. 

I tightened my legs around my mouth and ordered him to charge — the training I had given him while I was disguised as a gladiator working excellently. 

“Defend,” carried one of the mages, taking initiative since the sorcerers were busy with their spells. He was dressed better than others, marking him as one of noble origin. The rest of the mages followed his order and started raining spells to prevent me from reaching the sorcerers, or at least, delay my approach until they could adjust their spells. 

But such an achievement required a couple of seconds, a time more than enough for my mount to cover the distance. My spear was already lashing out, but I didn’t aim at the soldiers, as they were easily handled by my mount. 

No, my spear targeted the panicked spells of the mages, breaking them up before they could touch me or my mount. Soon, I was in the middle of their formation, and two of the mages had already fallen victim to the claws of my mount. 

Then, a wall of flame exploded between me and the sorcerers, far too quick for me to use the spear to destabilize its construction before it showed an effect, blocking my path to them, too thick to be taken down easily, taller than most buildings. 

Killing sorcerers was not an easy task, especially when the two of them turned their full attention to cast a defensive spell. 

Luckily, I didn’t need to kill them. With their magic linked to cast their overwhelming defensive spell, I continued my escape, without fearing their involvement. We disappeared at the end of the street before the sorcerers could cast a spell, the irregular attempts of the mages easily demolished by a slash of my spear. 

Yet, I didn’t charge toward the gate, but changed the direction toward the center of Rome, where many sorcerers were locked in a deadlock.  

They had already felt the presence of a fight, which didn’t help the tenseness of their confrontation. In such a moment, an unknown like me, bursting into the scene, was all that was needed to trigger their battle. 

I didn’t even need to enter their field of view, just getting close to them before flaring my magic was enough to trigger their battle, each side doing their best to finish before the reinforcements arrived on the other side. 

And, in such a tense situation, two battles that exploded back to back were all that was needed to make the others react as well. 

Magic flared all along the city… 

“Mission accomplished,” I smirked as I charged toward the meeting location.