Throne of Magical Arcana

”You did, Lucien.” Natasha slightly patted his shoulders, ”I guess that, very possibly, there’s a dark knight tracing us. And I’m thinking… when I recover a bit more, maybe we can try to fight back in order to kill this dark knight.”

”I don’t agree.” Lucien shook his head, ”What if it is Tod who’s chasing us, instead of some random knights? Or what if the dark knight is also very powerful? What if they’re using some magic items to trace us?”

Lucien knew very well that Natasha was a great risk taker, but he was not.

”Well… I hear your many ‘what if’, Lucien.” Natasha slightly lifted her purple eyebrows, ”I know that any of your ‘what if’ can easily kill us, but do we have another choice? Sooner or later, they’ll find us.”

Lucien lowered his head. He knew that what Natasha just said was correct.

”All right… we still have to be more prepared.” Lucien looked up at the several faint stars in the sky and roughly estimated their location, ”At least we’ll wait until your power reaches the level of an ordinary knight.”

”I’m afraid we don’t have this much time.” Natasha carefully checked herself and said to Lucien, ”Although the worst impact on my body caused by my Blessing is gone, I still need a couple of hours to recover to the level that you just said.”

Lucien’s eyes slightly opened bigger as he suddenly remembered something important. Reaching his hand into his wet robe, Lucien took out a bunch of magic ingredients for making potions that he got from the archmage’s storeroom and put them on the ground.

”Can any of these help you?” Lucien was a bit hesitant, ”I… I got these from the archmage’s place, to… to sell them for some money.”

Lucien was a bit nervous.

Natasha did not really notice Lucien’s awkwardness, and when she lowered her head, a surprised smile appeared on her face, ”Aether… and vampire’s blood! Awesome!”

Both Aether and vampire blood were ingredients for a very effective healing potion named Water Song. However, they were just raw materials, so Lucien felt quite worried. ”Any side effect?” he asked.

Natasha already grabbed the tube of vampire’s blood in her hand.

”Vampire’s blood… After taking it, I might be bit afraid of sunlight for up to six months, and my blood might feel burning,” answered Natasha casually. Then she pulled out the cork of the tube and smelled the blood, ”Wow… It’s a high grade vampire’s blood! Good for the archmage!”

”Can you recover completely by taking it then?” asked Lucien.

”Well…” Natasha took a deep breath, ”Not really… but if I push myself a bit harder and activated my Blessing again, I might get… probably up to three minutes with the power of a level five knight. After that… I’m done.”

”Done!?” Lucien was shocked.

”No no no…” Natasha laughed, ”I’m not going to die. I mean I won’t be able to walk at all afterwards, and you will need to carry me all the way home.”

”You’d better explain things a bit clearer in situations like that, you know.” Lucien almost rolled his eyes.

”Lucien,” Natasha became serious, ”If Tod was not among them, three minutes would be enough for me to kill the rest of the knights.”

”Then, what if Tod is the one coming after us…” Lucien needed to have a backup plan.

”Then I’d cover you by distracting Tod and the other grand knights, if there was any.” Natasha said to Lucien, ”Meanwhile, you handle the rest of them.”

Natasha leaned her head against Lucien’s shoulder to take a rest. Her purple eyes were bright, and her lips were pressing together in a thin line.

”You want to sacrifice yourself to let me survive?” Lucien asked her.

”Of course not!” Natasha suddenly straightened up her back as if she got scared, ”I cherish my life a lot. Without Thunder, you wouldn’t be able to face the knights on your own. Besides, I’m not gonna really fight against Tod. My duty will be to distract him. That’s all. And you gotta lend me your sword, Alert.”

”That’s too dangerous for you. I don’t agree.” Lucien refused Natasha’s suggestion, ”You keep Thunder. I have a plan which can possibly kill them all, as long as they have no more than five knights chasing after us, and we can get to the place before they find us.”

”What plan? What place?” Natasha was very surprised.

”You’ll see when we get there.” Lucien looked at Natasha’s eyes seriously, ”I cherish my life a lot as well. Trust me, Natasha.”

Natasha confounded a moment, then she smiled, ”I trust you, Lucien.”