Chapter 327: The Shameful Disciple
Kraft, satisfied with Kurtz's promise, took his leave and quickly disappeared into the crowd.
Once again, only Kurtz and Serie remained in the dessert shop.
Serie was still somewhat dazed, unconsciously holding her teacup, looking rather absent-minded.
The news that the elven population was dwindling and that they even needed to find partners with other races to continue their bloodline had a far greater impact on this ancient elf than it appeared on the surface.
However, she also understood that if it weren't for Kurtz's help in defeating the demon army, not only the Elf Forest but also the Elf Kingdom would have been destroyed.
At that time, the elven race, having lost its most important settlement, will exist in this world like rootless duckweed, its remnants in the form of villages, before being destroyed one by one by the demons.
Compared to that outcome, the Elven race is in a much better situation now.
At least, it's just a population crisis.
"Serie?" Kurtz called softly, waving his hand in front of her eyes.
"Hmm?" Serie snapped out of her daze and looked at Kurtz with a rare, but adorable, blank expression.
"It's time to go back." Kurtz gestured to the setting sun outside the window.
Serie nodded, put down her teacup, paid the bill, and left the dessert shop.
Thanks to streetlights made from magical ore that absorb sunlight for nighttime illumination, the streets remain brightly lit even late at night.
The tavern next door was filled with the sounds of bustling voices, and the shops were as lively as ever. The two walked side by side toward the headquarters of the Magic Association.
However, just as they crossed a street, a commotion not far ahead caught their attention.
A group of people had formed a circle, discussing the matter, and the sounds of arguing could be faintly heard.
Kurtz paused slightly; with the help of detection magic, he had already sensed that something was amiss.
Behind the cacophony of voices, he could clearly sense numerous powerful magical fluctuations, some of which even carried a hint of familiarity.
Moreover, judging from the arguments at the center of the crowd, it was clearly not an ordinary verbal dispute but something that could escalate into a violent conflict at any moment.
"It seems a bit lively up ahead," Kurtz said, his gaze piercing through the crowd, trying to discern the situation inside.
Serie frowned. She also sensed those magical fluctuations, especially the auras of several mages, which felt very familiar to her.
'It seems to be one of my stupid disciples,' she thought, her expression immediately darkening.
The two walked into the crowd, and thanks to the subtle aura emanating from Kurtz, the onlookers involuntarily made way for them.
After seeing the scene inside the circle, Serie's frown deepened.
Two groups of people were facing off inside the circle.
One group was none other than Evan and her disciples, each of them looking tense and gripping their wands tightly.
The other group was an adventure team of about seven or eight people, with excellent equipment. Three of them wore robes and appeared to be mages, while the other four were burly and exuded a powerful aura, clearly dressed as warriors.
At this moment, two groups of people are arguing fiercely about something.
"It was clearly you who suddenly rushed out and damaged our things!" A hot-tempered mage in the adventurer team shouted.
"Nonsense! It was clearly your cart that went haywire and crashed into us! It has nothing to do with us!" Evan retorted without backing down. Although he was young, under Serie's strict training, his aura was no less formidable than anyone else's.
"Kid, do you know how precious this box of magical materials is? We managed to collect it with great difficulty from the dangerous lands to the west! You couldn't afford to pay for it even if you sold yourself!"
A soldier stepped forward, slamming his battle axe on the ground with a dull thud, conveying a strong sense of threat and sending tremors through the ground.
"It's just a box of magical materials, we can certainly afford to compensate! But this is clearly your fault, don't try to pin it on us!" Legolas said coldly, "I will not accept this kind of slanderous behavior."
Although he and Evan had some conflicts in the past, under these circumstances, he naturally had to stand with the other party.
The two sides exchanged insults; tempers flared, and the atmosphere grew increasingly tense, with the threat of violence hanging over them like a drawn blade.
When Serie saw her disciple appear here and get involved in this street dispute, her first reaction was surprise.
According to her strict training schedule, these little guys should still be studying magic in the association right now, so how did they end up outside?
However, before she could figure out the reason, the argument in the room escalated again. Ultimately, it escalated directly into a battle.
"Let's do IT!"
With a low shout from the warrior who appeared to be the leader of the adventurer team, the battle erupted instantly!
"Idiot!" As the battle began, Serie practically spat out those two words through gritted teeth, her face extremely grim and her hands clenching at her sides.
In her view, her disciples had made the first and most fatal mistake.
Instead of immediately distancing themselves from the opposing soldiers when the conflict broke out, they were already quite close because of the earlier argument.
This is simply the stupidest mistake a mage can make in a battle.
To some extent, a powerful warrior with extensive combat experience has a natural advantage over a mage at close range.
If the opponent also possesses some explosive dash skill or technique to disrupt magic casting, the mage will be put at a significant disadvantage in battle, and may even be instantly defeated before he can even cast a decent spell.
Although the magic system has been dramatically developed and improved over the years, especially under Kurtz's guidance, defensive shield magic has grown into all manner of strange forms, largely compensating for magic's weakness: its tendency to make the body vulnerable.
Various elemental shields and deflection-reversal shields mean that mages are no longer as helpless against physical attacks as they used to be.
However, even the most ingenious shield magic requires reaction time.
Ultimately, it is external and cannot fundamentally change the fact that magicians are far inferior to warriors in physical fitness.
Once a warrior successfully closes in at extremely close range, disrupting the casting rhythm and preventing the shield from deploying in time, defeat is almost inevitable.
And things turned out just as badly as Serie had predicted.
At this almost hand-to-hand distance, Evan and the others didn't have time to cast various mid-to-high-level spells and could only use some simple attack spells.
But those adventurous warriors were clearly highly experienced and worked together seamlessly.
Like tigers among sheep, they charged directly at Evan and his companions, relying on their superior strength and physical abilities, either using their weapons to deflect magical attacks or relying on their armor to withstand them.
At this distance, Evan and his team could only defend passively, and their simple shield magic was quickly broken. The magical barriers shattered like glass under the relentless onslaught.
Almost in the blink of an eye, apart from Evan and Legolas, who were still struggling to hold on thanks to their slightly stronger strength and faster reaction speed, the others had been swiftly subdued and pinned to the ground.
Although they were not seriously injured, they looked extremely disheveled, their clothes torn, and their Pride and Ego thoroughly trampled.
[End of Chapter]
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