The Prince Of Magic

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Curiously, she watched him stop, then slowly crouch down with one knee on the ground. He slowly reached out with one hand and gently touched something with his fingers.

The area was dark, so she didn't realized what he was touching until he pulled out a small flashlight from his pocket with his other hand and cast a light on it.

Arturia's brows raised in surprise when she realized that he was touching a wire, which reflected from the flashlight and the light from the crystals.

"Look here." Arash said to her, gesturing to the wire. "A trap, and a dangerous one at that."

As emphasis, Arash looked up and Arturia followed his gaze, green eyes widening slightly in surprise when she noticed something attached on the crystal trees, covertly hidden from the n.a.k.e.d eyes.

It would take someone with great eyesight as the one that Arash has to notice due to how well hidden the devices of what she presumed as bombs.

"By the looks of it, those things seems to be bombs." Arash explained, confirming her assumption as he inspected the objects with critical eyes. "I don't know how many there are, but given the amount of wires that I can see from here, I'm guessing it's a lot. They may be small, but I suspect that they have enough power to blow this part of the island sky high, which won't be good for us."

The former High King's brows knitted in thought.

"The intruder managed to set up an elaborate trap in such a short time?" She stated the words in a questioning manner.

"Well, we did took our time getting here. Bastard probably got bored and took his sweet time in setting this up, most likely just to make our lives difficult." Arash shrugged, then moved the light in front of him. "Look there, see how many wires are connected? From that tree to the next, there're bombs attach on each of them. One trigger will probably create a large domino effect of explosion in one go."

"Which might cause a large explosion that can shake the island." Arturia summarized, emerald eyes narrowing in distaste.

"And will surely wake up an angry alien." Arash continued with a deadpan smile.

"How do we proceed then?" Arturia asked, frowning slightly in disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e. "It'll be dangerous if we simply jump over them. Can you dismantle them?"

"Can't." Arash shook his head, scowling at the wire. "It's too risky since I don't know what kind of set up this is. I've only ever dismantled bear traps and the likes, but not bombs like these. So, this kind of thing is out of my depth. Master probably can, but he's not here right now. Besides, even if I can, I wouldn't be able to since there are bombs on the ground as well. I think they're called mines."

"Then, how can we proceed without triggering these… traps?" Arturia asked again.

"Hmm… we can try that one method." Arash answered in an idle tone, standing up and turning to face her.

Seeing the suspicious glint in his dark brown eyes, Arturia frowned at him as she had an inkling to the plan he was about to propose.

"No, we are not going to use a boat to fly over these things." She refused adamantly.

To her surprise and mild annoyance, Arash blinked and let out a roar of laughter, obviously amused by her response.

"Huh? Wha– No! Hahaha, no, no. That's not it." The tan skinned bowman shook his head with a grin, wiping a tear from his eye. "I was just about to say that we can go around this area. There's a way around this forested part – or should it be crystal forest? – that we can just walk around. Whoever set this up, he probably thought that we're amateurs and could catch us off guard with these bombs."

"Then, off we go." Arturia said with a sigh, relaxing her stance.

With a chuckle at her expense, Arash led the way and the two of them walked around booby trapped entrance.

True to his expectation, there was an open gap by the edge of the path filled crystal trees that was untouched, which surprised Arturia slightly.

Given the elaborate set up of the traps, she had expected that the intruder would not leave such an oversight for them to use. She also had a feeling that the intruder might be quite the scehmer to be able to pull of such a thing.

As they went passed the trap filled area, Arash had taken the time to point out the black pillars in some parts of the area, some of which were close by as they walked past them.

Arturia and Arash were on their guard as they slowly maneuver their way out to the entrance, mindful not to step too close to the black pillars.

There was simply something about them that caused their instincts to ring, as if stepping too carelessly near the pillars would bring about a great danger upon them in less than a moment.

Thus, they both did their best to not be near and carefully treaded their way around them.

It was silent between them the entire time, but they took no notice of it due to their focus on the task of getting to safety.

Few minutes later, Arturia and Arash managed to reach the entrance safely and, without wasting time, stepped into to the crystal valley.

Upon entering, she heard Arash say "whoa" under his breath, causing her to look up, only to share his reaction.

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