The Frost Dragon's Squad was regarded as the strongest in the Empire.

Not only did it consist of Dragon Generals, it also housed the most powerful General in the Empire-one that was said to be nearing the realm of Lord.

Each member of this Squad recieved celebrity status, and it would be impossible for any Dragon in the Empire not to recognize them, since they were often the face of the Military or the Empire's forces.

The Squad had remained undefeated for decades, and they had only grown in power since.

And now...

"There's nowhere to run. You're both trapped." The calm man said as he looked at the two enemies of the Empire.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't as surprised as his colleague that they were still standing despite the powerful Magic used, but he was just very adept at not showing any real emotion. Besides, there was still no real cause for alarm.

'That lightning was just a warm-up anyway. It looks like they won't be able to take any more, though...'

The male human was already unconscious, and the female was busy carrying him. She looked more frustrated than worried, and that was probably due to the current state of her partner.

'I could go on analyzing the situation, but there's no use. We're going to win this...' As he thought this, his silvery black hair dancing in the air, he descended to the ground with his colleague.

"L'ester, what do you think? Should I just take care of them myself?" The more expressive General asked him.

He only responded with a slight glance and a small sigh.

'What a silly question, D'aru. Right now, we should focus on the students who require immediate assistance. That means eliminating this trash is scondary, and should be handled in the fastest way possible.' He wanted to say, but everything was a mouthful.

'Besides...' L'ester returned his full gaze on the two humans'... Rather than eliminating them, it'll be better to incapacitate them and bring them in for questioning.'

There was no way humans could resist the torture methods of the Empire. They had brought in a lot of them as guinea pigs, and none of them even lasted a minute or two before cracking.

That was how fragile their brain was.

'We should be able to find out why all of this happened... once we interrigate them.'

As soon as he had this thought, though, a sudden distortion appeared all around the two humans that seemed to be helpless.

'Hm?' His eyes twitched a little as he noticed the shocking and instant burst of energy. ~VWUUUM!~

Space unfolded right there and then, causing a rift to appear around the duo. The instant he noticed this, he recognized what it meant.

"D'aru!"

"U-understood!"

~WHOOSH!~

His colleague rushed towards the two, who were already being sucked into the spatial swirl. It seemed like they would slip away any second, and since D'aru was the physically fastest of the two, it only made sense that he would be the one to chase after them.

But... even he wasn't fast enough.

~FSHUUUU~

For a second, the two Dragon Generals were silent. They looked at the exact spot where their enemies had stood barely a second earlier, each having varying reactions.

D'aru was—as expected-frustrated and annoyed by the fact that his enemy slipped from his grasp. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, but made sure not to display anything more damning.

As for Le'ster, he remained calm as he narrowed his eyes on the suspect area.

'That sudden burst of energy... there was no buildup whatsover, which means it wasn't a Spell cast by those two, and neither was it a skill. Was it an Enchanted Item? No... even the best of those have slow activation time. That leaves one major possibility...' He walked to the part where they stood and tapped the ground with his foot.

'... Rune Magic. They laid out a Teleportation Rune here, and then another Rune to conceal the primary one. That's how they were able to teleport with seemingly no buildup.'

But, how could this be?

'Did they know we would be coming at this exact moment? Why else would they be in the exact position that they needed to be in to escape? Before we intervened, it seemed like they had the upper hand, so why would they even need such an elaborate Rune meant for escape?' Le'ster thought to himself.

The whole thing was suspect.

'It doesn't seem like there are any more Runes around here, and I don't think they're coming back, but... just to be safe, it's better we evacuate.'

He turned to his partner, D'aru, and the latter nodded immediately.

"Are you students okay?" While D'aru took care of calming and securing the students-which was their primary mission-Le'ster found himself deep in thought.

He couldn't get over the two humans who escaped from their grasp.

'Now that this happened, that expression she made has a completely different meaning...'

The 'she' in question was Belle, and her frustrated expression had been previously construed to be generated out of desperation.

She didn't want to face the two Generals alone, and she was bothered that her comrade was knocked unconscious; that was what he initially thought.

But now?

'It seems more like she wanted to fight us on her own... but had to retreat...' He sighed and

shut his eyes.

'Am I just overthinking things?'

Either way, with their task already complete, there was no use to remain here and mull over what could or could not have happened.

'Besides, since HE has been tasked with securing the students in the other Camp, he'll surely

have more luck with getting a prisoner to interrogate.'

Of course, that was if he could hold back well enough.

"We should leave now." Le'ster spoke, moving closer to D'aru, who was done gathering the students and calming them down.

They had been through more horror than many Dragons, and at such a young age too.

'Let's hope even this brings glory to the Empire.'

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Thanks for reading!

Apologies for not uploading yesterday. The Internet was completely down...