Tales of the Legendary Magus

Chapter 228: Solving The Problem

"Oh, Charley, I see you got the people from downstairs, and there seem to be loads of them!" Alexi said when he noticed the woman that led them here who quickly nodded, "Yeah, they were grouped up downstairs, all of them seem to be in fighting condition as well.

Satisfied, Alexi nodded, before briefly going over some of the faces, Villin cautiously took a step to the side making it so that he was situated behind someone else and Alexi couldn't recognize him.

"Alright then all of you, let's get going! The situation is as simple as can be. The statues in the penthouse seem to have suddenly come alive. They've been going down floor by floor attacking guards. Be extremely careful, even those that don't have weapons on them are quick and deadly. Those with weapons are even more dangerous as they can stab someone from a distance away. The only positive point we have is that it seems that the weapons are stuck to the statues' hands. This means that they can't throw weapons, halfsword, or pick anything else up. If their weapon arm gets destroyed, they won't be able to pick it up again with their other hand.

We've lost one guard thus far and five others are seriously hurt. Despite this, the statues don't seem to be going in for the kill, if an opponent is down, they'll deal with anyone standing before anything else. Just try to keep a distance from the statues. We managed to split them up into two areas. Around ten statues have been lured into the eighth floor where we are currently fighting them while the rest, however many there may be, are being held back on the staircase to the ninth. Any healers should stay here while anyone else should either help to hold back the statues on the ninth floor or eliminating those on the eighth floor." Alexi ordered with authority, causing many of the people close to Villin to nod. 

"How many have you taken out thus far?" the male twin asked as he took a step forwards, his sister standing next to him nodded.

"We took out four thus far, two others have been disarmed as far as I'm aware." Alexi promptly responded, this wasn't time to worry about politeness or anything of the like. The brother nodded before walking out the door and heading up, followed by the majority of the people that came with them, a few split off to help the healers while some others went downstairs again upon seeing that this thing may actually be properly dangerous. Villin was pretty sure Alexi saw some people go down but he didn't comment on it, probably because it would only destroy morale and people had every right to question his leadership, it was best not to antagonize anyone, Villin was surprised to see Alexi's competence, when they first met he truly thought Alexi was just a stuck up nobleman who only boasted without having any skill to back it up.

But now he was proved wrong with Alexi showing wits and leadership abilities.

Even though he went unnoticed for the first bit, as the crowd dissipated to go fight, heal, or hide, Villin was soon in the front of the line.

When Alexi, who had been busy explaining the situation in more detail to some people that came up to him, noticed him, he immediately got a chill.

When Alexi saw Villin his hand instinctively went towards his heart as his face got slightly pale, "Y- What are you doing here?" he asked, his tone had lost its previous energy and confidence. 

Villin simply smiled in return "I'm here to join the fight, what else?"

After leaving behind these parting words, he turned around as well, leaving through the door to go up the stairs.

Alexi, who was left behind, felt some cold sweat coming down his forehead, his pale face surprised the people around him, but he quickly gathered himself again and continued giving orders.

As Villin slowly rose up the stairs, he considered what to do. The situation right now was rather annoying. If he fought the statues with his full strength he could probably subdue a few but he would gather a lot of attention and would potentially be sacrificed to Aurus Goodwill. If he held back too much instead, whoever may be monitoring them could take notice and tell the general. In response, they might think he is a spy sent from another force and capture and kill him.

There were no paths to victory here, making the situation very annoying.

"Tch, if only this whole statue thing wouldn't have happened" Villin lamented before an imaginary lightbulb above his head lit up.

He couldn't turn back time but there was something he could do to end what was going on.

After this all was done, there was no way around it that the auction's representative would state it was a test to see how the guards behaved under pressure. This would be fine unless too many guards died. The number was most likely five, maybe six. It was stated that if more than five people died, they may look into the deaths, but it was more likely that they would cancel both the current 'test' and the 'game' to avoid too much backlash. Finding good sacrifices for Aurus was important but the integrity of the auction was much more so. If necessary, the Goodwill family wouldn't have a single problem getting some prisoners from the east to be sacrificed, the only problem was that they would probably have a less active web compared to the talents here.

As for those of the western continent, barely anyone ever got captured from there and if they did they were also most likely some of the weaker ones around.

In reality, all that had to happen was the death of two more people, three at most for this whole thing to end.

If Villin just went ahead and killed two, he obviously couldn't get away with it. If he fought golems with them and accidentally made a mistake causing two people to die, at best he would be seen as incompetent and fired, at worst assumed traitor and killed.

There was still an option though, he just had to sneakily kill a few people without anyone knowing it was him.

When he thought of this, the thought of having to kill someone didn't affect his mental state at all, he didn't know these people so why would he care if some of them died.

He decided to turn around on the stairs and head back to the safe seventh floor, there should be an opportunity to get rid of some of the heavily wounded magi without arousing too much suspicion he wagered. Just as he was about to enter the floor again, he heard a voice from behind him.

"Ah, Villin! I woke up and you were gone! I looked all over but all I found were some people trying to stay out of sight! When I asked what was going on, they said what happened up here, are you okay?"

Surprised by Golmi's appearance and his sudden care, Villin paused in his steps, "Ah, right. Yeah, I'm unhurt, I only got here a bit ago myself." he answered truthfully as he looked at the gullible Golmi.

"Cool! Didn't you say you know healing spells? I do too! We can help out just by staying back, how cool is that!" Golmi now said in an excited tone, confusing Villin.

"Ah right, healing. I guess we could just do that." Villi responded somewhat absentmindedly before following Golmi who had now passed by him and entered the floor.

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"So, how is the situation looking?" Eveline Targentelli asked a shadowy figure before her.

"It seems the golems activated, much earlier than anticipated. Whoever did it either skipped steps or got entered into the game by accessing the secret room behind the fireplace. The golems in the penthouse activated and have caused some havoc already, a man by the name Alexi Gurnov moved quickly though and organized the magi somewhat."

"Hmm, Gurnov you say?" Eveline lamented "He's most likely the brother of the leader of 'The Ravagers', this'd make him a pseudo-nobleman, let's keep our hands off of him. So who activated the golems?"

"Ehm, well, here's the problem. Since nobody had even gotten to the fourth step yet, we didn't expect anyone to get there so soon and we don't know who it was. We should be able to get them when they apply for guard duty though." the man said with a hint of nervousness.

"Hmm, it's okay, we'll indeed find them then," Eveline said before noticing the slight nervousness of the man. "You seem nervous, why, what happened?"

"Well," the shadowy figure said nervously, "When we sensed someone got into the secret room and tried to get there to find out who it was in vain, someone else got the book containing the souls of Harry, Ron, and Dean."

Eveline looked at the man blankly for a few moments before uttering "Huh?"

She seemed completely helpless, the book was extremely valuable, entrusted to her by Herman Goodlaw himself for this very purpose. It was an object of great importance that was used for cases like this where the keeper of it would be monitored.