The moment the armor lit up, the masked men's formation fell apart completely.
"The canyon guards!"
"The intel was wrong. Retreat!"
Some turned and ran for the canyon entrance, while others hastily raised their magic guns. The guard captain had already drawn his sword. An earthen-yellow magic circle spread beneath the caravan, lifting all twelve wagons half a foot off the ground and revealing shields and capture nets hidden underneath.
The first volley of crossbow bolts struck the shield wall and bounced harmlessly away.
Macao leaped down from the rocky slope. Purple flames swept across the canyon entrance, cutting off three bandits' escape.
"Fairy Tail?" The guard captain recognized the emblem on his chest. "What are you doing here?"
"We came to repair the towers."
"Then why did you jump down from the mountain?"
"It's a complicated job!"
As they spoke, the ambushers up above cut their ropes.
More than a dozen boulders rolled down the steep slope, heading straight for the center of the caravan. The guards were holding the shield wall and couldn't protect both the wagons and the horses in time.
Lin Yuan raised both hands.
The leading boulder suddenly swerved and passed to the left of the caravan. The second was diverted to the right, but the third struck the first two, sending them crashing down with even more rubble.
He didn't send the rocks toward the ambushers.
The canyon was narrow, and any counterattack could trigger a larger collapse. Lin Yuan stretched the distance above the caravan. The boulders had already reached them, but they fell as though caught in an invisible bog.
"Everyone, get away from the wagons!" he shouted.
The guard captain immediately ordered an evacuation. The drivers cut the reins and drove the frightened horses toward safety. Only when the last guard had climbed over the shield wall did Lin Yuan tilt the stretched space toward the depths of the canyon floor.
Rumble!
The boulders passed over the empty wagons and crashed into an unoccupied area, throwing up clouds of dust.
"He stopped the falling rocks all by himself?"
"Quit staring and catch them!"
The guards recovered from their shock and quickly counterattacked. Capture nets flew out from beneath the wagons, trapping the masked men who tried to flee. Shields closed in from both sides, sealing off the canyon entrance.
A piercing rush of wind suddenly sounded from within the dust.
More than a dozen wind blades tore through the capture nets and forced two guards back. The bandit leader pulled off his mask, revealing a cyan Magic Crystal embedded in his wrist, identical to the one at Tower Two.
"There are only two extra wizards. Break through!"
He swung both arms, and a gale swept up sand and stones, forming a massive drill that hurtled straight at the guards' shield wall.
Macao stepped in front and spewed purple flames from his mouth.
"Purple Flare!"
The wind didn't scatter the flames. Instead, they spread inward along the swirling air. In the blink of an eye, the wind drill became a vortex of fire, forcing the bandit leader to cut off his own magic power.
Lin Yuan was about to act when his spatial perception picked up footsteps moving away from the battlefield.
The ambusher who had been hiding up high wasn't fleeing toward the canyon entrance. He was running along the rock wall toward Signal Tower Three, clutching a leather pouch full of Magic Crystals, with several connecting wires protruding from its opening.
"Macao, someone's heading for the tower."
"Leave this to me!"
Lin Yuan erased the distance beneath his feet, crossing two stretches of rocky slope in quick succession.
Hearing him, the ambusher looked back and pressed the magic device in his hand. The crystals in the leather pouch lit up at once, and a gale lifted him into the air, sending him flying toward the signal tower.
"Kid, can you catch the wind?"
"No need to chase you."
Lin Yuan reached out and clenched his hand.
The distance between the ambusher and the signal tower abruptly folded back on itself. He flew forward with all his might, only to return to the same spot again and again, as though going in circles along an endless straight line.
Before he could figure out what was happening, Lin Yuan had walked up behind him and taken the pouch containing the Magic Crystals.
"Give it back!"
The man turned and unleashed a wind blade.
Lin Yuan merely tilted his palm. The wind blade crossed the distance between them and neatly severed the ambusher's own belt. Pockets full of tools and stolen goods clattered to the ground, and his pants slipped halfway down.
The ambusher hurriedly reached for his pants, and the wind magic beneath his feet instantly spiraled out of control. He plunged headfirst into a pile of sand.
The guards who arrived didn't even have to struggle to put him in shackles.
The fighting down on the canyon floor soon ended as well.
The bandit leader could use the Magic Crystal to create powerful winds, but he couldn't break through Macao's Purple Flare head-on. By the time Lin Yuan returned, he was lying on the ground beneath three captured accomplices, still complaining that the merchant who sold him the magic device had exaggerated its effects.
The guard captain finished counting them. "Nineteen people, matching the number we found in our investigation. Good thing you spotted the falling rocks in time."
"He spotted them." Macao pointed at Lin Yuan. "I was busy setting fires."
"You also burned the canvas covers on two wagons."
"They were decoy wagons. They didn't have any medicinal herbs in them."
"The wagons were real!"
Macao looked up at the sky and pretended not to hear.
After questioning the captives, the details quickly came to light. The bandits had made camp in an abandoned quarry to the north. They used the signal towers to lure caravans onto the old road, then used wind-type magic devices to stage disasters and obstruct the repair team. Most of the stolen goods were still piled up at the quarry, and the guards would handle their recovery.
"We've caught them all, so you can leave the rest to us," the guard captain said. "You've been a great help."
The repairman arrived just then. He gazed at the captives strewn across the ground and the scorched wagons, silent for a long while before raising the toolbox in his hand.
"Tower Two is fixed."
Everyone looked at Tower Three, which was still dark, then at the four mountain ridges farther away on the map.
The smile slowly faded from Macao's face.
Lin Yuan took the toolbox and led the way toward the tower door.
"Let's go."
"Where?" Macao asked.
"We're here to repair the towers."