The Crimson Magister

Laura was afraid, no it could not even be said she was merely afraid, she was horrified.

The red-haired elven girl that just grabbed her looked not like the beauty most people would expect but instead to Laura she looked like a monster.

What else could she look like when she was likely the blessed child who slaughtered most of the strike team?

She felt herself being strangled before the blessed child dropped her on the ground, making her almost collapse on her knees due to her relative physical weakness.

She took a moment to take a breath before reaching into her pocket, attempting to find a specific item that would allow her to escape.

Her fingers searched every part of her pocket but she could not see the pale white gem she carried with her.

Instead, she saw the red-haired girl twirling the gem between her fingers as she looked at her with a confused look on her face.

"Looking for this?" she said in a mocking tone as she crushed the gem leaving nothing but dust.

This was a gem of teleportation, allowing users one-time use of [Teleport] magical art, it was Laura's last-ditch trump card that would ensure her survival, and yet before she realized she lost it.

Laura looked at the gem with a horrified expression as the dust of her lifeline was spread to the wind.

"You shouldn't be trying to run away now, teleportation wouldn't work with me anyway," she said with a slight chuckle as the other girl took out her sword, ready to slash her in two if she made any moves.

"I will never betray my boss you arrogant bitch!" Laura shouted as she collected her strength and lunged at the girl in front of her with the hopes of at least inconveniencing her.

And yet it was the same, she felt like she hit an enchanted stone wall with full force while shattering her fist in the process.

She grasped her arm for a moment trying to gather her bearing as the blessed child grabbed her by the neck, she felt her consciousness slip as the elf whispered something.

The Elven girl turned her head towards the other woman "I will read her mind, please watch my back, Azure!"

The other woman nodded as she took a defensive stance leaving Laura and Red haired elf alone.

She tried to flail and free herself but she felt an intrusion inside her mental space.

Laura tried to resist as much as she could, playing tug of war for control of her mind.

She was proud of her mental fortitude and she knew she could resist most forms of mind control, and yet it felt like she couldn't even begin to resist this intrusion.

And so she let the woman enter her mind, after all, she knew this woman would easily overpower her resistance, even with her fortitude she knew her limits as the elf entered her mind and so she would be left with more damage if she tried to resist.

She relaxed as she let the elven girl have near-free reign in her mind, which would make the elf drop her guard and let Laura construct fake memories for the girl to find.

Almost in the same instant, her entire life flashed before her, all her memories laid bare before her as she fell into a trance not allowing her to construct a suitable false memory.

Laura desperately tried to keep her consciousness as she was read like an open book.

All her joy and sadness, all her embarrassing memories, her love for Fang it was all laid bare, even her orders and information about Golden Rose were being revealed as if it was nothing but text upon parchment.

Just as she felt as if she was about to reveal everything the sensation stopped, the intruder in her mind retreating as if nothing happened, her blurry vision focusing once again.

But it did not matter, the invasion of her mind sapped her strength more than any fight ever could, but she noticed remaining Golden Rose Thorns gathering around the trio, their blades at ready.

'Why didn't you run you morons!' She screamed inside her mind as her comrades approached the two elven girls, caution visible on their now unmasked faces.

She was not sure how these two snuck into the camp and caught her alone so easily, and she knew better than to cause unnecessary deaths of her comrades.

Not many would be able to get past all of the members of Golden Rose. And those who could were to not be underestimated.

'A smart thing to do would be to run, I know they understand that they probably stand no chance, but they were here to save one of their officers even if it costs them their life.'' She couldn't help but smile with their display of loyalty.

Two elven women spoke something that she could not overhear before the red-haired girl took three steps forward toward the mob, leaving the other girl to guard Laura and observe her partner's fight.

The red-haired girl's form shimmered, Laura did not know what kind of trick she just used, but it required no incantation or the rune circle.

'How is that even possible, there are only 4 possible ways to use the magic known to humanity, and even blessed children should be bound by them!' She tried to understand how the elf cast the spell and yet it did not fit in any of the known methods of casting.

In all of the human knowledge, Laura was able to gather, there were 4 methods used by all of humanity including primitive casting of lesser species.

 In verbal and Somatic Casting, using their body movement and words a caster would be able to shape the mana in their environment to their whim, be it to take the shape of ice, fire, or anything else depending on the skill of the caster.

Second was casting by use of Catalysts, which would include Staves, Wands, and various jewelry, Catalysts were used by casters that usually lacked the skill to shape mana and thus needed a crutch to help them learn the control which would limit them to a set number of spells.

The third method is a runic circle, by drawing runes in such a pattern that the flow of mana can be directed in a specific way a caster would be able to create permanent magical effects but a drawback of this method was that it required constant source of mana otherwise the circle would fail and so for this end, many kinds of Gems or living batteries were used, for example, enslaved elven mages would generate mana for millennia when used as a battery for a divination circle in various facilities in the Red Dawn.

The fourth method was divine prayer, Prayer to god would allow the caster to become a living catalyst for divine power, and a drawback was that it required a long time to invoke the spell and it had a high possibility of god not hearing your prayer.

'I couldn't hear anything or see any movement from her' She analyzed the scene to try and find an explanation, if she could figure out which method of casting this elf used she could find a way to counter it and run away.

Laura calmed herself as she kept eliminating possible methods used 'I can safely discount prayer as the shimmer was instant without an act of piety shown, and same can be said about verbal and runic'

She stood up slowly to not look like a threat to the woman that was standing next to her 'The only thing I can think of is the catalyst, but I couldn't see anything of that sort on her, if we can find it and destroy it she will be powerless and we would be able to escape'

She tried to analyze the woman from the back, her hands had no wand, no jewelry, and certainly no staff, perhaps she had a ring, or…

She gazed at her back as she noticed a glint of the ruby gemstone on her forehead.

Laura dramatically fell to the ground as she pretended to not have any strength left.

'Unconventional but possible that she uses that gemstone in her circlet' She smiled as she covertly drew a [Message] Runic circle under her body.

She could draw this circle with her eyes closed with how many times she had to do it.

Her fingers glided through the dirt where she "Fell" The outer circle was very simple, as it was meant to only transfer the sound, but the inner circle needed to convert her thought into a voice that would be sent to everyone she designed as her allies.

The standoff between the thorns and the blessed child was intense, Laura felt like she could cut through tension with a knife at this point, at any second fighting would break out, and if she couldn't send the information about the weakness of the enemy they would be killed after all most of their own casters were already either dead or gone with Fang himself.

Her hands shook as she finally finished her runic circle, she channeled a small amount of mana, just enough for a message to be sent to the entire Golden Rose.

"The Ruby on her circlet seems to be her catalyst, destroy it and we might have a chance to run to Razul, elves won't dare follow us there no matter how powerful!" She sighed with relief as she sent the message to her comrades.

Their faces showed that they understood the message.