The Power of Activating a Wand

The man who entered the cave wore black leather, with a sharp longsword tucked beneath his arm. Blood could still be seen faintly dripping from it.

Luan glanced at the hand holding the sword and hurriedly pulled Brad back against the cave wall.

"I was just passing by. I saw firelight here, so, cough cough—"

The man in black was injured, but he continued to advance step by step.

Brad could feel Luan's unease from the grip squeezing his arm painfully.

It reminded him of the first time he had fought Luan. He had spent a month in bed afterward.

Luan gripped his wand tightly in his right hand, and Brad understood at once, drawing the rusty family saber he had inherited.

"Cough, I really—"

"You... you have a Night Owl on your hand."

Luan seemed to have used up all his strength just saying that.

"Night Owl? Right. What, do you know it?" The man in black raised his sword-holding right hand as he spoke.

The mark on the back of his hand, black as iron, was now stained with blood, giving the vicious Night Owl tattoo an even more sinister air.

"Yes. My uncle once fought against your people." Luan answered with all his strength.

"Heh, so you're the child of an old friend."

The man in black no longer bothered to hide his intentions. His longsword pointed directly at Luan.

Brad raised his family saber as well, though the hand gripping it had been trembling all along.

Luan understood Brad's feelings perfectly.

Because he had once told Brad stories about the Night Owl as horror tales.

The Mad King's sharpest Blood Blade, arrows that slipped through every opening, the Empire's bloodthirsty fangs, an enemy the Federation army could not defeat...

Those were all the truest descriptions of the Night Owl.

But what Luan remembered most clearly was something else Uncle Neil had said.

"Run! Don't look back!"

Those were the last words Neil's older brother—Luan's father, whom he had never met—had said to Neil.

They were also the words Neil repeated most often when drunk, and the most effective words for Luan to escape his nightmares.

Now, the nightmare had entered reality. Luan had reached the point where he had to run, but the cave entrance was behind the other man.

"Actually, I quite like shepherd children, especially the ones holding toy knives and little sticks, but can't speak."

The man in black spoke with utter contempt.

But as he took another step forward, Luan nervously swung his little stick at him.

"Heh... what—"

Bang!

"Wait—"

Thud!

The little stick in the black-clad man's mouth had merely swayed, yet a person was now lying on the cold ground.

Thud... thud...

The ground trembled faintly, and two rocks fell from the ceiling of the cave.

"Wh-what happened? Wh-why did he jump onto the cave ceiling, then fall back down?"

Brad was even more terrified now. Before he could finish a sentence, he had bitten his tongue twice.

Luan swallowed hard as well. This was his third wand activation test, and the first time he had used it on a person.

Yet the result was astonishingly good.

"Check how he is."

Luan did not answer Brad's question. He kept his wand raised.

He knew full well how formidable the Night Owl were. Even though this one was injured, Luan kept silently repeating the Fire-making spell over and over in his heart.

It was one of the few spells he currently knew that could injure someone.

Luan knew the spell was not particularly powerful, so he kept the Wand Tip aimed at the black-clad man's hair.

It was the only way he could think of to disrupt the Night Owl when he woke up, allowing the two of them to flee.

Brad saw that the little stick in Luan's hand was more useful than his saber, so he gathered his courage and reached toward the man in black.

"He should be unconscious."

Brad felt the black-clad man's neck, then turned to look at Luan.

"Let's go. We need to leave quickly!"

The road at night was difficult to travel, especially a small path the shepherds had abandoned years ago.

Even though Brad knew the direction well, the two of them stumbled along the entire way.

Afraid of being discovered, Luan did not use magic for illumination. Besides, even if he used Lumos, he would not be able to maintain it for long.

Fortunately, the two horses were much better than people. In the darkness, they became the best guides.

Only when patches of blue and red light appeared at the horizon did Luan and Brad finally see Xilin's low city walls.

The cave where the shepherds had rested the previous night had actually been quite lively.

Not long after Luan and Brad left, patrolling soldiers discovered the place and found the Night Owl lying on the ground.

But no matter what they did, they could not wake him. Only after the military doctor arrived was it confirmed that the Night Owl had broken his spine in the fall.

"Hmph! Are you telling me that a Night Owl who slaughtered his way through one of my hundred-man companies broke his spine by falling in this cramped, narrow cave that reeks of horse dung?!"

Lieutenant Colonel Landon Bruce had never been as furious as he was today.

Even though the military doctor accompanying him had repeatedly told him to rest and recuperate, he could not help bringing all his guards to personally inspect the enemy who had injured him.

Only three days ago, Landon had been appointed commander of the Fifth Battalion, First Infantry Regiment, Third Brigade of the Liuyun City subordinate corps.

Before he had even gotten familiar with his five hundred men, he had already lost a fifth of them.

Even he himself had been stabbed in the lower abdomen by the enemy's longsword.

And all of this had been caused by just one Night Owl.

Seeing that the military doctor had fallen silent, Landon questioned him again.

"You're certain that beast broke his spine?"

"Reporting, sir. Confirmed. The break is directly below the neck and is very obvious. It can easily be felt by hand."

The military doctor answered as quickly and concisely as he could.

"Fine. Can he wake up?" Landon asked, struggling to suppress his anger.

"Yes, but once he wakes, he will have no sensation below his neck."

"Good. I only need his head to stay clear!" As he spoke, Landon viciously kicked the black-clad man lying on the ground.

"Someone, fetch the person most skilled at executions. I want every bit of information in that mongrel bird's mouth."

Rather than finding someone skilled at interrogation, he demanded the person most skilled at executions to conduct the questioning. That was Landon's attitude.

While the prisoner was being interrogated, news of the soldiers' massive casualties swiftly reached the army's upper ranks.

Along with it came another piece of secret information.

"The Mad King's sharpest Night Owl Guard broke his spine in a cramped cave."

After returning to Xilin, Luan went straight to Neil and told him in detail about what had happened the previous night.

Neil knew Luan would never joke about the name Night Owl.

So at noon that day, he gathered every trustworthy veteran nearby at his home.

"The Night Owl have come to Xilin? Are Liuyun City's guards just decorations?!"

"What good are guards? Those are Night Owl!"

"Don't say that, Hoke. The most important thing now is to stockpile some food. It looks like war will come sooner than expected."

"That's right. We should split up to buy it. That'll also draw less attention."

A person's attitude toward the enemy could reveal whether they had truly experienced war.

New recruits might be afraid and hesitant at a time like this, or they might be excited.

But veterans first thought about how to survive, and only then how to kill the enemy.

Now, the veterans had to consider not only how to keep themselves alive, but how to keep their families alive as well.

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