Chapter 324 - V4 (8)

Reserving the mana pool was important but the real reason why the Black Mage banished the avatar of Aarna was that he had no problem believing it would be impossible for Noe to escape death. The demon army of over two thousand that were transported from Hell Realm to Toria Continents using the [Demonic Hordes] spell casted by the Black Mage had finished terrorizing the village market, resulting in killing several while injuring many villagers at the market. The demons quickly surrounded Noe after seeing the [Flame Wall] spell casted by the Hell Fiend earlier to protect Noe vanished shortly after the Hell Fiend was killed. The demons started growling and all they were waiting for was a command from the Black Mage before tearing Noe's body parts to pieces.

Seeing Noe was all alone surrounded by the demon army, the Black Mage mockingly asked, “Now that there is no other strong creature for you to rely on, just another [Force Punch] spell from me would be enough to kill you. Or would you prefer to be devoured by my demons?”

Noe calmly nodded his head showing that he had given up on fighting back and said, “Mister Black Mage, please grant me a last wish before you kill me."

"A wish?"

"Yes, please let me know who hired you to kill me.”

“I don’t have time for that. Just die!” The Black Mage gave the command for the demon army to start attacking Noe.

The twenty Skeletons that were sent to kill the group of fourteen demons earlier came back to the area and started attacking the demon army from the rear. It made the demon army startled for several seconds, given Noe enough time to conjure a Phantom Knight to protect him. One Phantom Knight and twenty Skeleton Warriors conjured by an Intermediate Conjurer Mage were nowhere powerful enough to do much before they were annihilated by the demon army. Noe was once again alone surrounded by countless demons as the Black Mage laughed waiting for Noe's body to be torn to pieces.

“Noe! Noe!” A loud female voice called out Noe’s name from approximately two thousand feet away.

“Mother? No… Get away from here!" Noe desperately shouted when he saw his mother start running in his direction.

Regardless of how many demons there were, Darla wasn't afraid and continued running toward Noe despite he begged her not to. Noe’s calm attitude quickly changed when he saw the Black Mage turn to look at his mother with a smirking smile. The Black Mage then activated the [Demon Anatomy I] spell to transform into a human-size demon and sprinted toward Darla while keeping the evil smirk on his face.

At Noe’s current level, he was no match for the Black Mage, even when he had a strong Fire Warrior Demon, Gazhorn, to be his Soul-bound Creature. Noe has been planning an escape strategy when the Black Mage and Aarna were busy fighting with the Hell Fiend after they defeated Gazhorn. Noe was still waiting for a perfect opportunity to activate [Mana Infusion] technique and gamble a chance of escaping from here by conjuring a powerful creature that can disorient the Black Mage. Fighting back against the demon army wasn't an option because Noe didn't have any training in warrior arts. But running away from them wouldn't be much of an issue and Noe was confident he could run fast enough to avoid getting captured by them. The only problem for Noe was the Black Mage who could easily chase after him using [Demon Anatomy IV] spell.

Noe couldn't run away earlier because the Black Mage had an avatar of Aarna to assist him. The only way for Gazhorn to be able to protect Noe was by staying close to him. The Hell Fiend was also strong because it was summoned using all of Gazhorn's mana pool but it couldn't be controlled and always acted according to how it liked. Noe was hoping the Hell Fiend would be able to drag the battle as long as possible to cause the Black Mage to be concerned about his mana pool and Noe wasn't disappointed. That was why Noe had no problem staying calm after seeing the Black Mage banish the avatar of Aarna because it helped his chance of escaping had tremendously increased. But now that his mother showed up here looking for him, any escape plans Noe had become useless because abandoning his mother wasn't an option.

Noe immediately activated his [Mana Infusion] technique and used all of his remaining mana pool to casted the [Conjure Phantom Knight] spell. Even if Noe failed and only conjured a regular Phantom Knight, he wouldn't hesitate to send that Phantom Knight to sprint toward his mother to protect her as he saw the Black Mage transformed into a human-size demon and ran toward her.

What Noe was afraid would have happened didn’t occur because Noe's luck didn't betray him as a Horse Riding Phantom Knight was conjured. The Phantom threw his greatsword toward the Black Mage, forcing him to dodge aside. The Phantom then grabbed Noe and rode his horse in front of Darla in just seconds. The greatsword that was thrown toward the Black Mage earlier was chained to the horse and the Phantom easily got his greatsword back just by controlling the chain.

Jumped down from the horse, the Phantom harshly grabbed Darla and placed her on the horse to be with Noe. Noe touched the temporary abyss chain linked between him and the Horse Riding Phantom Knight and noticed the Phantom's physical strength only reached the ninth-tier warrior. There was no way the Phantom would be able to defeat the Black Mage; Noe commanded it to buy him as much time as possible while he and his mother escaped from this area using the horse.

As the horse started carrying Noe and his mother away from this area, Noe asked, “Mother, how come I didn't see you on the way here? And why did you come back here?”

“I used the underground tunnel to go home but didn’t see you at home. I knew you must have gone to the market to look for me, that is why I came back here to look for you.” Darla quickly answered as she held Noe tightly, expressing that she was so happy knowing he was still alive.

“The underground tunnel? Right… I was so stupid. The tunnel to help villagers escape from the market in case of an emergency.” Noe slapped himself in the head as he forgot about the underground tunnel his village has.

Because his village was built near the borderline of the Principality of Cylatlond and Cloudia Empire. This was to create a safe passage for the villagers to get out of the market just in case Cloudford city which belonged to the Cloudia Empire sent raid parties to attack. The raid parties normally wouldn't stay in the area for too long because of fear of being arrested by patrol guards of Litmeden city. Raiding the villages for food and coins is one thing, but officially causing a war between two counties is an entirely different thing. That was why the raid parties preferred to attack the village's market and leave within an hour.

Darla stopped Noe from blaming himself for forgetting about the underground tunnel, she grabbed his hand and said “You have left home for two years, it's normal when you can't remember about the tunnel. Your father must have been waiting for us at home. There is fire everywhere. We must get to the tunnel, that is the only safe way out of here.”

“I’m sorry, mother.” Noe happily smiled with tears dropping down on his eyes as he said this.

“What are you apologizing for?” Darla confusedly asked.

Noe was happy to know his mother was fine and there was nothing else more important to him than the safety of his parents. If Noe and his mother run together, the Black Mage will be able to catch up to him shortly after defeating the Phantom Knight because the horse they were riding would also disappear. Running together with his mother would expose the entrance to the underground tunnel to the Black Mage and the demon army that was still chasing after them. Noe knew the Black Mage wouldn’t stop until he killed Noe; it would be unwise for Noe to stay close to his mother because it would cause more danger toward her.. Noe will stay and distract the Black Mage and if the Black Mage kills him, then the Black Mage has no other reason to stay in this area which means his parents wouldn’t be in any more danger.