Expedition Or A Trap?

The journey went on; the outside slowly turned from lush, bright grass into dark, burned soil. The stains of magic were written all over. Another carriage joined from behind them already; Akojo dragged them forward. They had scales as skin and stood around three meters tall, mainly consisting of limbs, two legs, and high, bulky bone mass.

“We're entering the warzone just now. Everyone, get your staff to stand by. The instructor stands in the center of the carriage, looking around with pride as each student takes out their staff into their hands. Does everyone remember the lessons I taught?"

Not this again… This is the only thing I hate about this old man.

“Block, Locate, Attack," the carriage shouted in unison, other than Sorin. The instructor instantly locked eyes with him with a powerful glare.

Sorin quickly replied, “Block, locate, attack… We use a physical defense spell to block their projectiles; we then use sensing magic to find the direction it was fired from. And lastly, we use our magic to clear out their hiding spots.”

“You wouldn’t have to explain it if you actually joined this time.” The instructor just looked down in annoyance.

I should stop zoning out. He's right.

The instructor continued, “We can expect medium-range to short-range weapons in this area; if anything, your sensing should detect the projectile from so far that you will have a whole second to cast the defense spell."

Taking a glance back, Sorin saw the veteran carriage. It was traditional insurance if the situation got too intense for fresh faces to allow the veterans to take control to ensure nobody dies early on, considering that mages aren't as common as they should be in a mage city.

Sorin looked over to his right. “Keldric, if we're going to get attacked, I expect you to have my back before any of those people back there do.”

“Like you would need my help anyway; you would be the first person to sense it or attack back even among veterans. A small chuckle left his mouth.

“You are really overestimating me; I might have more capacity considering I have all four elements, but not enough to scout out anywhere more than the veterans or the old man. Sorin took a look at his staff, held tightly upright in both of his hands. It was of premium Ualo bark from the southern continent of Uloraitha, which made it very resistant to fire spells while also providing a way to flush out water through its twisted shape.

"Aearha!" The akojo in front suddenly screamed out before the entire carriage flipped over to its side, causing everyone to fall on top of each other; the instructor seemed to be the only one left standing.

He took his staff out and rushed out of the carriage, allowing more space inside. “Get out now! Use your defense spell instantly."

As each student rushed out of the carriage, Sorin and Keldric also followed out and landed on the ashy dirt burned from fire spells.

No way this is really happening! A real attack on my first patrol. It was so sudden I couldn't react! First I should focus on defense. Physical barrier projection.

A hexagon shape of orange-hued tiles fully surrounded Sorin in a bubble. The other students did the same; they all closed in on each other in defensive formation, covering all sides before switching their barrier to focus ahead of them to lower their magic consumption.

“Everyone, get out your senses to fill them in!" The instructor commanded from the middle of the formation.

Sorin focused his body's magic circulation into his eyes as they started to glow an orange hue; in a matter of a second, his field of vision rose to an inhuman level, around a hundred meters in every direction.

There's no one. But they wouldn't be able to hit us past this range; They must have run away.

The instructor seemed to have the same idea. “Seems they tried doing a hit-and-run." The instructor muttered to himself before addressing his class, “Keep the spell up for another two minutes; I already linked the information through to the veterans.”

I knew they had some sort of magic relay communication, but it fully bypassed my senses. I should ask about that when we get back; I will need to be able to do this sooner rather than later.

Two minutes passed in complete silence.

“Disengage.” Everyone quickly got rid of their defense spell before letting out a sigh of relief. A somewhat familiar classmate during this moment of rest walked up to Sorin.

Sorin just sighed out, “Oh, Kohana, what issue do you have with me this time?”

She had pink eyes and puffed cheeks, and her face rang of anger. “Screw you, Sorin! I was hoping we had a fun, peaceful time, but of course your status has to drag us all arou—”

Wha—

As her voice abruptly ended, blood spewed out of her head sideways before her body limped right and fell onto the ground in a matter of a second.

“Kohana!” Sorin quickly lowered himself, seeing her pink eyes glazed over, not a single response to his words.

What the hell was that? From where? There is nothing. I don't sense anything!

A loud thud came from his left, "Aura!" and then from his right, "Zuko!" All around him were thuds, bodies that fell. Nobody screamed or shouted.

I got to cast a physical barrier projection this instant as big as possible.

Sorin stretched out his staff, casting out the orange hexagons again at an immense reach against protocol, ignoring any rules about putting people in his spell. His reach covered the entire carriage and everyone near him.

He looked around in circles frantically. Death. That's all that was around. Classmates lined up on the ground like an execution ground, with blood pooling all under the ashy soil before getting absorbed.

“Instructor, Keldric,” He exclaimed. The only two figures standing, Keldric stood frozen while the instructor's expression presented it like this was all his fault.

“Sorin, keep that barrier up. I don't want to die either.” Keldric muttered under his ragged breath; he couldn't cast his own spell. Who could, after seeing everyone die? Sorin's instincts saved him, even though he couldn't move anymore.

The instructor got his staff out. “I will call in—” As those words left his mouth, his scarred eye glazed over just like Kohana's, and his body joined the graveyard of bodies without even saying a single word.

They got past my barrier. Instructor, no, no, no. I have the barrier; I did what I was supposed to. I did as the books told us.

His eyes darted around; the barrier was still up. How did they manage to bypass their projectile barrier from a range where they couldn't detect it and also bypass a whole spell?

I can't even tell which direction they shot it from; the barrier didn't react. Not once!

Looking over at Keldric, he quickly grabbed him before dragging himself and Keldric into the carriage.

There isn't a point if they shoot through my barrier; this is the only safe place.

“They're all dead! Sorin… Why are we still alive? Why are we still here?” Keldric was panicking; you can't blame the poor soul who saw this for just a first patrol.

Sorin's barrier dissipated; he didn't need to keep it up if they could bypass it. It was a waste of magic to spend on it. He ducked himself and Keldric deep into the carriage as the veterans behind scrambled towards them, unaware of why there were dead bodies of dark gray robes lying around with a pool of red flooding into the soil.

The tension was building every second, waiting for them to arrive. The threat of death without an ability to defend was devouring them from the inside.