Not that he needed it against these weaklings.

"Clean up those two stinking rats - and every other diseased vermin in this place!"

He heard the voice of the wolfman captain, Osborne, then began his prismatic invocation of spells, a vast repertoire of magic that would spark wors.h.i.+p and rivalry in the eyes of almost any other mage in the country... That is if they ever had the chance to behold the grand demonstration of mastery.

Level 5: Scrying.

He scouted the positions of his enemies, their equipment and their layout.

As expected, the Osborne detected his scrying spell - but was spooked, and, sensing the killing intent exuding from Lars' body, picked up Linges and began to run.

Lars smiled. The dog had pretty good senses; even blinded and deafened, his primal instincts were enough to recognise an existence higher up in the food chain with just a whiff of his power.

But before he cleaned up the little animals that were so brave as to step foot into the den of humanity, there was only one little problem he had to settle first - the "visitors" had not been kind enough to implement any anti-scrying or anti-listening measures.

Perhaps they were supremely confident of the strength of their distraction to stop the Vizier and invigilators from interfering with their kidnapping? Lars' shrugged.

All the above took a while to describe, but happened in a twinkling of the eye - bolstered by Lars' accelerated mental acuity from his soul-imprint - Insight, that caused his mind, senses, nerves... Everything of his perception to function 10 times greater than even other legendary beings.

As well as his emotions "performing" at 10 times the intensity of another.

Regardless, it was time to ensure any potential prying eyes were blinded, and all and any eaves-dropping spies were deafened.

Blinded and deafened regardless if they were friends or enemies.

Level 5: Private Sanctum[1].

Level 2: Blindness.

Level 2: Deafness.

"What the--"

"Hey, no, what???"

"I can't see!! Careful!"

"On your guard! Anyone? Hey! Guys??"

He heard 4 voices cry out as he flung away the grating of the drain, being careful not to hurt Moira who lay unconscious by his side.

Then when he popped out of the drainage area, he acted without hesitation; to catch the retreating old wolf.

The beastman captain howled in despair and began to run. And as the grey-wolf abandoned his pride and dropped to all fours to flee, the Legendary Mage ignored the other inconsequential beastmen squad members and waved his hand perfunctorily - yet wielded a power great enough to rival that of a small nation.

He pointed a finger at the routed werewolf.

Level 8: Finger of Death.

A feeble looking ray of negative energy shot forward. The young boy had not put much effort into the spell, merely infusing the bare minimum mana needed.

And yet it was still overkill.

The ray closed the gap in half the time it took to blink an eye, shot through the captain's chest and emerged from the other side, then dissipated uselessly on the stone walls - as it would only affect living tissues and organisms.

Yet despite being ineffectual on the granite walls, it was horrifically efficacious on the greying wolf.

There was no drama, no epic struggle or great wailing with thras.h.i.+ng and howling.

One moment Osborne was vigorously racing towards the pa.s.sageways and away to safety; the next, he was a quiet corpse laid out on the ground, lifeless.

Satisfied that the barbarian boy was safe and secure, Lars turned to face his 4 attackers - he had to give them credit where it was due. Despite the fact that he could smell the pungent odour of urine from them (likely from wetting themselves in abject terror at his transcendent power) and taste their fear in the air, they demonstrated nerves of steel.

Knowing they were fated to perish whether they fought or fled, they chose to put their lives on the line in the hopes of buying time for their leader, and in the hopes of making their opponents pay the price. They followed the scent of their enemy and made a beeline straight for him, brandis.h.i.+ng their claws, teeth and blades as the squad showed precise and deadly teamwork.

Only, their captain was already dead.

They were soon to follow.

...And it was just one opponent who would be wiping out their beastman strike squad.

This time, instead of displaying a high-level spell, Lars used a much more direct and brutal approach. He evoked countless Level 1: Magic Missile spells, laying waste on the beastmen with a veritable flood of searing arcane bolts soaring through the air.

The howling beastmen; 2 werewolves, one lumbering bear tribe member and a smaller sized, agile snake-man were instantly reduced to heaps of quivering, charred flesh; pierced through in so many spots that their bodies were no longer intact in a single piece.

Lars briskly walked over to each of the 4 intruder's sides and incinerated the bodies, leaving only ashes remaining. Then he went to check on the half-beastman trainee, pausing long to stare at his body, curious himself as to why he had saved the boy...

He shrugged. He had his own honour...

And anyway, the boy was no threat to him whether now or however many years later; whether in the hallways or in the Arena.

He was merely a wolf pup, no longer fit to stand on the same stage as Lars.

'If he bares his fangs against me... Or against Moira...' He showed an expression of disdain; the look of a supreme ruler looking down at the dogs and cats barking and hissing at him, animals he could put down at any moment.

'I'll just have to pull his fangs out...'

As for their grey-haired leader, he left the body as a sign of the intruder's unimpeded incursion into the depths of the Arena. He was confident that it would be beyond the Vizier's capabilities to uncover signs of his meticulously crafted high-level death magic; magic that he realised was far beyond the discoveries available in this backwater world.

He smirked as he returned to the cubby hole where he and Moira had been placed to feign unconsciousness.

'Not like they would trace the leads to me, anyway...'

Then he dispelled his array of sense hindering spells and rested.

That was a good warm-up.

*

*

*

Author's Note:

Mikael/ Lars' decision is to stick with the name Lars for now, and only reintroduce himself as either name based on the circ.u.mstances. It will be explained MUCH later under what circ.u.mstances it will be :)

[1] This spell ensures privacy. Anyone looking into the area from outside sees only a dark, foggy ma.s.s. Darkvision cannot penetrate it. No sounds, no matter how loud, can escape the area, so n.o.body can eavesdrop from outside. Those inside can see out normally.