Some time had passed after the Grand Challenge and after Ahrden became the capital's main topic again, that too died down over the uneventful months that followed. His life went back to normal and everyone did their best to forget that he even existed.
It was a sunny afternoon that offered everything one needed for a pleasant walk in the forest. Initially, Ahrden headed out to look for an ancient artefact supposedly hidden in the area he was at, but he got lost in his thoughts after some time so his search became a relaxed stroll in the woods. He always relished wandering in the untouched nature basking in the beauty that it offered. He started off by teleporting to a location that was quite close to the border between his nation and the Nethedral nation, but he lost track of where he had gone from there.
Since he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, he didn't hear the warriors approaching. When he finally sensed that others were around, he shot his head up and saw four fully armoured foreign warriors standing in front of him. His mind jumped back to the present, and his best estimate was that he was either at a neutral area between the nations or even on foreign soil. He was usually well versed on what land belong to which nation and where exactly the borders were drawn, but since he saw no distinguishing marks in his surrounding, Ahrden could not immediately place where he was. In any case, Ahrden was glad to have mindlessly tumbled into these warriors instead of stealthy rogues. Most likely, both classes sought the same outcome, but their methods differed dearly.
By the look on the soldiers' faces, Ahrden could tell that they weren't going to let him walk out of here alive. For a second, a chill went down Ahrden's spine, and he shivered from the idea of that. Not because it was likely for him to die by their hands, but because if he didn't know magic, he would have been surely dead. Dying for going over an invisible border without any malicious intent was both wrong and terrifying, and it shook Ahrden to the core. Even without being in imminent danger, the thought that his control over the arcane forces was all that separated him from certain death was unnerving, to say that least.
'Look, lads; an unarmed Polenteus traveller,' the one in the front said, while bursting into laughter as he pointed at Ahrden with his long broad sword, which he must have drawn after they first saw him. The others joined in with the laughter.
'You must feel safe under your thick armour, with all your friend backing you up, don't you?' Ahrden asked in a confident and annoyed voice, which immediately got the warriors attention as it wasn't the kind of response they were expecting.
'Are you mad, boy? Do you feel in charge? You are on Nethedral land, and you'll die for that. Do you understand that? You want be tough in your last moments is that it lad?' the leader asked back, clearly confused about why someone would not take such a matter seriously.
'Do you truly wish to kill me because I stepped over an invisible border while walking in the forest unarmed?'
'Without a heartbeat of hesitation. I don't know what they told you while growing up, but the grim reality is that everything beyond your precious little village is a matter of life and death. And you can only make a mistake once. As you have now.'
'And I don't know what they told you while growing up, but steel does not rule above all else.'
'Well, they did tell me that there is nothing above steel, so as your final words, enlighten me.'
Ahrden said nothing but smiled, already focused on gathering the arcane forces.
'As you wish,' the leader said after seeing that Ahrden wasn't going to answer and took a step forward while raising high his broad sword.
Ahrden reached out with his power and wrapped it around the soldier so thoroughly that he could no longer move freely. Then, Ahrden strengthened the hold even further until the leader was unable to move a single finger as he stood there, mid-step. The warrior's eyes went wide as he first felt the resistance, then Ahrden saw the panic rising in him as he completely lost control over his movement.
With his arm reached out, Ahrden concentrated on the heavy sword and sent it flying from the warrior's powerful grip across the forest until it embedded itself into a tree with a thundering sound. The blade slid effortlessly into the flesh of the tree and only stopped when the hilt came in contact with the bark. None of the warriors behind the leader could understand what had just happened, and when they brought their gazes back towards Ahrden, they were shocked to see him gone.
In reality, Ahrden had merely skipped in front of the unmoving leader and was fully covered by the warrior's imposing frame who was still too shocked to make a single sound. Ahrden placed his hand on the chest piece of the warrior and concentrated. Using arcane as an extension of himself; he felt out the connections between the different armour pieces, all of the leather straps holding them together. Once he found all the crucial connections, Ahrden fed power into his spell. The other soldiers started for their leader, who by now was screaming at them to come and save him from Ahrden when he completed his casting; every piece of the armour individually flew off the warrior in different directions with only the chest piece remaining under Ahrden's palm.
It happened so fast, and the other warriors were so unprepared that, at first they didn't even know where the flying metal plates were coming from. Some crushed into the other warriors, some just flew away into the depth of the forest. When all was settled, the three remaining soldiers composed themselves and looked at their leader with astonishment as he stood there no longer having any armour on.
'Do you feel in charge now?' Ahrden asked and sent the leader flying backwards into his standing comrades.
The leader came crashing into two of them and they all went down on the ground with only one remaining standing, who charged at Ahrden immediately. Not putting much power into the spell, Ahrden sent a burst of energy towards the soldier, which caught him off-guard and knocked him off his feet as he fell on his back.
Ahrden got the moment of peace he required for the next spell that he wanted to cast at all three soldiers. When he finalized the spell, he felt the powers obey his command, albeit the effect didn't come at once. By then, all three soldiers were on their feet, ready to charge at Ahrden and after the spell was completed, they merely looked confused, but moments later, all three of them dropped to the ground and screamed.
The spell made their armour heat up until it shone red. Ahrden ceased the spell and instead concentrated on a more complicated one which he usually wouldn't be able to use in the heat of the battle, but given the state of his attackers, he had time now. He directed the spell towards one of the soldiers who was already getting up, and as a result, the ground started shifting under him. The earth then liquefied, and the soldier started sinking into it. Ahrden halted the spell when he was waist-deep, and the ground became solid again, trapping the soldier in the ground.
The other two did their best to get up and continue their attacks, but Ahrden was faster; he lifted one up with a spell and shoved him against a tree with his back against the thick trunk and held him there. He then conjured two blades made up of pure arcane and, after strengthening them to remain solid without his aid, threw them at the soldier held to the tree, pinning him there by the shoulders.
Turning to the last soldier who was still able to attack him, Ahrden concentrated hard and murmured the words of his next spell. As a result, he heard the plates in the soldier's armour as they bent and cracked inwards, crushing the soldier in it. As the space within the still burning hot armour shrunk, the soldier started screaming with such agony that made Ahrden changed his mind. He stopped the spell and reversed it, feeling joy at the relieved sigh of the soldier. He still wanted to make the soldier unable to fight him, but with the change of heart, he chose another way to achieve that. He sucked out all the warmth from the metal armour and cooled them further down as much as he could. The armour quickly turned ice-cold, and moments later, it became impossibly rigid. The soldier could not break apart the once individual parts of his armour, which were now firmly held together by a thick layer of stone-hard ice.
With all of the other soldiers out of the fight, Ahrden strode towards the armourless leader, who, despite only being tossed once, had not moved since. When Ahrden reached him, he saw that his clothes were soaked with blood which at first didn't make sense. When the leader noticed him, he rolled to his back to face him while clutching his side, trying to stop the bleeding of the gaping wound which lay under his palm.
'I'm guessing the fancy steel of one of your own did that,' Ahrden said.
The leader was white as the cotton, and without aid, he was surely going to bleed out. Ahrden crouched down by him forced the soldier's hands away from the wound with a simple spell and placed his own palm over the gash. When he murmured the incantation, the leader screamed like never before, but when Ahrden was done, his wound was no longer bleeding.
The leader looked at his mended injury and turned questioningly towards Ahrden, who asked:
'Do you feel in charge?'