The stalemate lasted until a new group of guards arrived and the one-eyed thug moved the blade away from the hostage's throat and pushed the old man forward before plunging the knife in his back.
A corpse would only put them on the high-priority wanted list whereas injuring him would force the guards to waste time with first aid and delay the pursuit.
"I'll take that as a no." Lith Blinked the hostage to safety the moment the thug was far enough to not be affected by the spell as well and make it pointless.
Then, Lith released his middle finger in a flick that generated an air bullet so dense and so fast that it struck at the one-eyed man's sternum with the violence of a roundhouse kick.
The thug flew back against his accomplices, sending them sprawling on the ground as all of his ribs either cracked or broke, turning every breath he took into agony.
A thin man with dirty blonde hair dodged the living bullet and threw a hail of icicles at Lith, who only needed a wave of his left hand to send them against another thug.
His mastery over water magic allowed Lith to manipulate the frozen spikes so that the ice immediately spread inside the wound without spilling a single drop of blood.
'This is no different from the fight at the Hot Pot. Defeating them is the easy part whereas not letting Aran be traumatized is the hard part.' Lith thought while taking another step forward and encasing the stabbed thug in a prison of ice that only left his mouth exposed.
Lith had yet to cast a conventional spell, using solely the vortexes inside the different parts of his body to cast tier zero spells. First, he had used the vortex in his right hand, then the one in the left, and that in his left foot for last.
"Don't look away, Aran." Lith took another step, making the man who had thrown the icicles sink neck-deep into the now suddenly muddy ground. Then, Lith turned the mud back into stone, leaving his prey trapped.
"I'm going to show you that magic isn't about streaks, race, or gender. Magic is only about power and how you wield it." Lith kept his left hand on Aran's leg to both hold and reassure him while he activated the Full Guard spell imbued in the Scalewalker armor.
A blue aura surrounded him, allowing Lith to perceive everything in the space around him without leaving blind spots.
With the enemy too close for comfort, the last man standing unsheathed a longsword and lunged at Lith's head in one fluid movement that he had practiced countless times over the years.
Lith grabbed its tip with three fingers as if it was a fly, twisting and pulling the blade out of its master's hand. In the attempt to not lose his weapon, the thug instinctively jumped forward, landing on Lith's right cross.
The fist crushed his nose while the healing spell it was imbued with healed the thug so quickly that he realized what had happened only when he found himself with his back on the ground, looking at the blue sky.
His nose now looked like a red button with nostrils too thin to breathe, forcing him to use the mouth to survive. Panic and pain sent the thug into hyperventilation, making him faint.
The leader of the group, Iskha, a man even taller than Lith with long black hair and savage blue eyes, finally managed to get up after throwing away his agonizing comrade as if it was just a rag doll.
Lith looked at the bandit leader's eyes becoming bloodshot with fury as Iskha charged forward like a mad bull.
"Never lose your composure. Unlike fury, frenzy will always lose your battles." Lith's sidestep covered the ground in thick ice that made Iskha slip while a simple tap of his heel made a huge rock dart out of the sidewalk, breaking both Iskha's fall and his face.
Much to Lith's surprise, the savage man managed to grab the rock with his hands before it was too late, using the momentum of his fall to flip forward and get back to his feet without ever losing sight of Lith.
"I needed that gold!" Iskha roared, not knowing whether to be more outraged by the mage still carrying a child on his shoulders or by Aran's cheering as if their life-or-death battle was just a puppet show. "Prepare for the beating of a lifetime."
"Don't mind if I do." Lith moved so fast that his figure blurred.
Iskha spotted him again only when Lith executed the variation of Elina's attack on Leegaain that Raaz had taught to all of his sons.
A right hook to the side of the chin blurred Iskha's vision and his head suddenly twisted as the darkness magic conjured by the motion struck him at point-black, sapping his strength.
Lith exploited the momentum to follow up with a roundhouse kick that hit the same spot as the fist, making Iskha's brain bounce against his skull like a pinball and encasing him ice.
The moment Lith's right foot touched the ground, the left darted up and struck Iskha's gonads along with a hail of conjured gravel. The hit almost lifted the giant from the ground and made all the men present instinctively shield their privates with their hands, Aran included.
It was an inconsequential gesture for the spectators, but in Iskha's case, doubling over left him defenseless. Lith grabbed the bandit by the head and sent it crashing against his knee that generated a wave of darkness magic that made Iskha blackout.
"Thank you very much, mage…?" A middle-aged man with a light brown mustache asked while extending his right hand to Lith. He wore a light armor bearing the colors of the city guards of Freshya and the stripes of a captain decorated his shoulders.
"Archmage Lith Verhen!" Aran said while his older brother put him down on the ground before shaking the captain's hand.
"Archmage?" The soldiers echoed with disbelief.
Iskha was still unconscious and trapped in the ice so they could allow themselves to give the stranger a second glance. Only then did they notice the many seemingly non-precious rings on his fingers that were the mark of a powerful mage.
"Yes." Lith said with a reproachful tone. "An Archmage on vacation who didn't want to be recognized."
"Sorry." Aran said to Lith. "It was supposed to be a secret. Can you pretend I didn't say anything?" He then asked the Captain.
"Don't worry, young man, this will remain between us." He said while apologetically shrugging at Lith, who knew that aside from protecting Aran's feeling, there was nothing the Captain could do without angering his Lord.
"Freshya is a boring place this time of the year. I suggest you move to somewhere more interesting." He said.
'Somewhere where the city Lord doesn't know about me.' Lith thought, catching the drift.
'An Archmage, huh? That explains a lot. He should have lots of interesting stuff in his dimensional amulet. This might actually be a blessing in disguise.' Iskha thought while the guards put metal cuffs on his hands and gagged him to keep him from using magic.
