Physics The Greatest Magic
Chapter 58 - 6: Protect

"Why did we stop?" Asked Eleanor who was at the back.

"Sphaera Glacies," John muttered.

The moment he said that, an Ice sphere was formed around them and engulfed the entire carriage.

"We have company. Serena, Ariel are you ready?" John asked as he hopped off the carriage.

"Of course" Serena replied.

Ariel hastily nodded as she followed behind him.

"Okay, let's go," John responded.

As John was about to create a hole in the ice for them to pass through, they were stopped by Eleanor who said, "Wait!"

"What's wrong?" Serena asked.

"I-I want to help..." She muttered.

"He's after you. He's not someone you would be able to beat, in fact, you'd only slow us down." John bluntly said.

They were harsh words, but it's the truth. She's the target. It didn't matter if they got him, if she died, they would lose their benefactor and it would be his win.

"B-But... Because of me Alfred was hurt... I want to be able to protect him..." She said as she started to cry again.

John went up to her and said, "But, you need to stay in here and make sure nothing gets inside, your job is already to protect him, can I count on you to do that?" as he patted her head.

"I'll be able to protect him..?" She asked as tears streamed down her face.

Seeing her like this sort of reminded John of Ariel, she wanted to protect him too. It had made him really happy back then.

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll be glad once he hears you did your best to help him," John said as he continued patting her head.

"John? How much longer?" Asked Serena with an annoyed expression as she looked at his hand.

"Ah! Sorry! I got carried away..." John said as he lifted up his hand.

John was so used to giving Ariel head pats that he didn't even notice.

"I-It's fine... It helped me calm down, Thank you..." She said with a smile as she wiped her tears off her face.

"I don't know why, but seeing John acting kind like that ticks me off... Don't you think so too, Ariel?" Serena whispered.

"John is always kind and I like that part of him, but..." Muttered Ariel as she placed her hands on her chest.

"Sorry if I made you two wait long," John said as he went back to the ice.

"It's fine, why don't you go enjoy yourself more, we won't mind waiting more if you'd like." Said Serena as she made a Hmph sound and turned her head.

'Eh?' He wondered.

"Uhm... Ariel, what's wrong with Serena?" John asked as he looked over at her.

"N-Nothing's wrong, L-Lets just go." Said Ariel while flustered.

'That reaction... What's she hiding...? Argh, I'll just ask when the fight is over? Did I forget a promise or something...? Could it have been her birthday? Wait, how would I even know what day it is? Is there a calendar in this country, Argh! I'm overthinking again!' John thought with .

"John..?" Muttered Serena with a confused tone.

"Nothing, let's go." John said as he opened a hole in the ice sphere.

"Stay safe!" Said Eleanor as she waved at them from the back of the carriage.

"Yeah!" John replied as they walked through and closed the gap.

Now that they were outside, they could finally start.

"Deprehendre." John muttered.

'2... 10... 20... Where's the person behind it? I felt them earlier with deprehendre. How are they avoiding it now?' John wondered..

"How many?" Asked Ariel with an unphased expression.

"Around 20, approaching us, from the side." John said.

"What about the other feeling we sensed?" Asked Serena.

"Don't worry, it'll show up, eventually." John said as he cast levite and furtim.

John grabbed on to Serena and Ariel and flew them to the top of the ice sphere. After that, he deactivated levite and furtim.

From an outsider's perspective, it looked like they teleported. 

'Maybe I should try to create a teleportation spell... But I doubt it'd work, I don't understand much about teleportation either, let's leave this for later.' John thought.

"Furtim Glacies," He muttered.

4 Walls of ice were formed around the Ice sphere that they stood on. There were no openings, and the ice sphere was protected from all sides by the walls.

"We're ready, why don't you come out of hiding?" John said out loud.

Shortly after he said that, shadow wolves started pouring out of the shadows of the rocks beside them. They were in a plain close to the forest, thus they were pretty much in the open.

"Serena and Ariel, back me up!" John said as he leapt straight into the pack.

Midair John propelled himself with velox to increase his speed. He was heading straight for the middle. Like John had guessed, there were 20 shadow wolves. That was probably this person's limit.

'Wait... Maybe I shouldn't have-' John doubted himself.

John crashed straight into the middle of their group and made a loud thud, smoke was formed from the dust of the ground and Serena and Ariel couldn't see what happened.

"John! That idiot, why does he always just charge in?!" Asked Serena as she cast ignis.

"It'll be fine, he always does this." Said Ariel with a smile on her face as she began gathering air in front of her.

Shortly after, John had crashed into them, a crackling sound could be heard. Once the smoke dispersed, it was visible; he had landed safely, and around half of the wolves were frozen.

Right as he crashed, John froze the ground beneath him and made the ice spread to the surrounding wolves. He thought of trying this but didn't expect things to work this smoothly.

"What should I call it..? Ice and I crashed down... Ice crash... so... Credo glacies?" John asked himself.

While he was distracted thinking of a name for his new move, 2 of the shadow wolves jumped right at him.

Before they managed to hit him, one of them was burnt by Serena's ignis and dispersed into thin air while the other was cut into 4 pieces by Ariel's Ventus and disappeared.

"Don't get distracted! What are you even thinking about?!" Asked Serena.

"Uhh, Things! And Thanks for the help!" John said as he dispersed the 2 ice spikes he had formed right before they attacked him.

John was going to deal with them himself, but it was good to know that they were constantly on the lookout. They were improving. 

'Now then, to deal with these 8 wolves... How should I do that?' John wondered.

As he thought that, the wolves started to howl as they backed away from him. Shortly after, an even louder howl came from within the shadow of one of the trees in the distance.

"So that's the thing that attacked us earlier..." John said as he looked over at the shadows.

The shadows of the trees were mixed together and a bigger wolf was coming out of it.

"Is it just me.... Or does it seem stronger than before?" John said as he made a nervous smile.