Chapter 15 – Battle

In the inner rim of the fohlorne forest, a man in a magician’s cloak pulls out a gem from the forehead of a level G monster. He tosses it in the air as he walks away from the three corpses, blood and meat will attract more monsters. 

Even he couldn’t handle a horde, Redius thought as he made his way deeper into the forest.

He stopped on a tall tree as he expanded his sense field, looking for his next target. Upon seeing a group of Kitas, he headed toward them. Kitas were a hamster like creatures, but large. Their skin made of tough hide, impenetrable by an average disciple class.

Redius got close as he observed the group, five in total. Area attacks were a magician’s favourite, especially if you gave them time to prepare for it. Though not many magicians could get close to the monsters without the help of knights to block their paths. However, Redius was no ordinary magician. His dark elements cloaked him and masked him as one with the shadows.

Slowly he channelled his fire element, Kitas were weak to fire you see. The temperature in the area rose as Redius prepared his attack.

Soon, the Kitas raised their heads, they sensed a disturbance in the surroundings, but they were too late. As they were about to head off, a ring of fire rose around them. Screams and screeches came from their mouths as they scrambled to stay in the middle.

While they were distracted, numerous tiny fire balls appeared from above them, hurling towards the ground, wherever it landed, grass or monster, ashes followed.

Redius dropped down from his position and headed towards the middle of battle as the flames disappeared leaving a charred and burnt ground with five monsters in the burnt in the middle. He flipped his wrist as 5 gems flew into his hand.

If anyone saw the fight, they would’ve been in awe at Redius. Taking advantage of the confusion with the above fire attack was no easy feat without the abundant of magic which Redius commanded. An average disciple flame would’ve taken longer to completely burn the Kitas, but Redius’ was much stronger.

“Ji ji!” Ji called from the shoulder.

Redius could do nothing but shake his head slightly as he tossed a monster gem to Ji who swallowed it whole. 

Apparently, Redius found that Ji likes eating these gems. Each gem worth quite an amount as well… Looks like this was going to be one expensive companion…

Meanwhile, not too far away from where Redius was, in his previous battle, arrived a ground of ten people.

They landed in formation side by side at the edge of the battle as one stepped forward, crouched and examined the ground.

“Boss, looks like the battle ended not too long ago. Around 3 hours.” The man concluded to another man in the middle, a big burly bearded man who was obviously the leader.

“We’re catching up, we should be on to him soon. Stay cautious.” The leader said in his rough voice.

The team nodded as they followed the tracks of Redius and headed towards where he was now. Not long after they left, several other groups arrived.

Three groups of 4-5 people arrived nearly at the same time, as they looked at each other over the scarred place Redius had left.

“Well… look who it is… if it isn’t the cowardly Ip family, lost your assistant head to someone I heard?” A man in a pale blue cloak said, his cloak meant that he was from the Plenio family.

“Heh… unlike someone who attacked the person who saved their family’s life once. Ever heard of, karma?” Another man from the Ip family stepped forward and replied in a snickering tone.

Both groups held their fangs at each other, clenching their weapons as if to fight any time.

Meanwhile the last group, dressed in pale yellow from the Losrenos family merely watched the interaction as they waited for information on the tracking.

“Why are you here then Losrenos?” Finally after an intense stare at one another, the Ip family turned their attention elsewhere.

“Well, we just wanted to see this special magician.” A man replied with a sly smile. Both the other families snickered at that remark. As if they’d believe him. They were obviously trying to recruit him since Redius had already offended two of the major families, logically he had one place to turn to.

“Don’t get in our way.” The Ip family said as he began to leave.

“Oh? Is that a threat?” The Losrenos family replied.

“You’ll find out.” A voice answered as the family left one by one.

Deep into the inner rim of the forest, Redius just finished another group of monsters. As he was collecting the gems, he face contorted as he sensed people coming to his direction. It wasn’t uncommon to see people in the forest, as a matter of fact, he had already seen a couple of groups as they trained by killing monsters.

But this time, Redius’ instincts told him otherwise. He expanded his sense field and found the group to be of 10 and coming at an extremely fast rate. They would reach him within seconds. He immediately summoned his dark elements and jumped back into the shadow of the forest, blending in.

Soon after he did that, the group arrived as they landed in formation, weapon at the ready scanning the area.

There were ten knights. Four 1st stage disciple, three 2nd stage disciple, two 3rd stage disciple and one initiate knight. This would be tricky.

Redius could take on an initiate knight sure, but he needed a bit of time. He wasn’t so obnoxious to think he could take them all on at the same time even with his jump in power. But he didn’t leave, he wanted to find out as much as possible, they were clearly after him.

“Where is he? We should have caught up by now.” One of the men asked to the group.

“Maybe he saw us coming?” Another guessed as they all surveyed the surrounding.

“How? Sense field?”

“Impossible. The information says he’s a 1st stage disciple magician. Sense fields are only activated in the 3rd stage.” Another explained.

“He must be here somewhere. Spread out. Find him.” Lastly the leader said and the group, well trained, immediately dispersed in groups of two.

Perfect, Redius thought as he watched. Better for me that you’re separated… as he slowly backed away into the shadows of the forest, in the direction of one of the two.

He caught up to them easily but didn’t want to fight immediately. They were still close to the others and anything could attract their attention. So he waited patiently, until he thought there was enough distance from the others, he made his move.

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Three ice lances flew straight at the two from their blind spot, immediately killing one of them and disabling the other. 

They were 1st and 2nd stage disciples, they stood no chance against Redius. And the fact that his dark element hid him perfectly from them. Well, they were as good as dead.

Redius walked out from his hiding and immediately covered the small area with his dark element. Any sound inside could not be heard from the outside. He could not keep it long.

“Who are you?” The man said as he coughed out blood.

“I’m the one who asks the questions.” Redius said as he pulled out the impaled ice inside him causing more blood to spill. 

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

“… heh… I’m not telling you anything…” The man replied snickering.

“We’ll see about that…” Then agonized screams came from the man as Redius cauterized his wounds with a flame in his hand.

“You… you’re… a flame magician?... two elements?...” The man replied feebly. His answer was his scream as Redius stabbed his arm with another ice lance.

He quickly broke under the pain and told Redius everything. After, Redius cleaning sliced his throat with a thin ice blade and burnt the corpses. He retracted the dark shroud around them and headed for another group of two.

From the information he got, the group was a mercenary group called The Bloody Tigers. The group took the bounty of Redius to kill/capture him. Their employers was unknown as its never shown. But word had it, and it was pretty accurate, that the major families were making a move on him.

Redius pondered the information as he made his way to another group. With what he did to some of the major families, he believed the information. He knew they’d come for him some time. He smiled devilishly as he jumped from tree to tree, group to group.

Within an hour or two, he had already dispatched 4 groups, leaving only the leader and another member. It wasn’t hard for Redius, without the need to keep anyone alive, he merely stayed in the shadows waiting for a right time and killed him cleanly.

At last, he arrived near the leader of the group.

“Something doesn’t feel right…” The leader muttered as he eyed his surrounding cautiously. “Call back the others…” He said to the other member.

The other member obeyed and shoot a flame into the sky, Redius guessed it was a signal to group. But only he knew, no one was coming.

Just as the last member shot the signal, Redius made his move and sent 10 ice lances at the two of them. He had to finish the last member quickly to go 1 on 1 with the leader, making it easier for him.

He purposely sent 4 ice lances at the leader to occupy him and as an insurance sent 6 lances at the member. The latter blocked a few but in vain as the rest pierced him ending his life.

The leader, as expected, came out unscathed. Only an angry look as he looked Redius with red blooded eyes.

“Where are my men?!” He bellowed at Redius, when he couldn't see the reply signal.

“I think you already know the answer.” Redius replied calmly as if he was stating a trivial fact.

“AHHH!!!” The leader shouted as he charged at Redius, a full dark blue aura covered him. The sign of an initiate knight.

Redius dodged swiftly to the side, but before he could concentrate on a spell, the leader was already on him again.

“Tsk…” As Redius summoned a shield but was knocked back by the force. He was at the peak of 1st stage, the leader was nearing the 2nd stage, that was why he was more powerful than Redius had anticipated.

Redius gathered aura on his foot to increase his speed as he battled the leader.

Redius circled him as the leader kept chasing him, ice lanses appeared and flew into the ground as the leader dodged or parried them. Ice shields summoned and broken as the leader smashed them down with his aura slashes.

Soon Redius retreated a few metres away from the fight. He may have taken more than he could chew he thought. But Redius was not undeterred, he still had tricks up his sleeve. Especially his dark element, and he had yet to use his aura fully.

Then, the leader sent a whirlwind of aura slashes at Redius and charged right after following the slashes. But he soon noticed the inconsistency, his speed was slower. He looked down below him and realized, the whole ground was covered with a thin layer of ice.

Redius’ ice lances which missed wasn’t for nothing, he controlled it so that when they came in contact with the ground, it would explode outward creating ice patches on the ground. It was his strategy to bring his surroundings to his advantage.

Redius had the speed advantage on ice now as he quickly dodged and parried the aura slashes. He bought his hand in front of his chest toward the large area covered with ice.

The leaders face turned white as he could feel a tremendous magical energy gathering towards Redius. He knew he was going for the killing blow, he had to get out of the ice quickly.

He was too late.

Redius had already finished gathering the power needed, as a soft blanket of icy mist covered the floor of their battleground.

“Ice…grave…” Redius muttered under his breath as the mist coverged quickly into the middle to where the icy ground lay. And almost in a split second, hundreds upon hundreds of ice spikes erupted from the ground piercing everything in its wake.

Redius steadied himself, the spell had cost him most of his magical power, and he would need some time to recover. He lifted his head and saw the lifeless body of the leader impale by several large ice spikes from the ground.

Redius had done it. He knew if he used aura he could’ve fought the battle much easier, but he wanted to see if he could win by magic alone. Though he did use some aura, he was able to pull it off. It was worth it as he could feel a breakthrough in his power. He knew that soon, he’d be able to advance into 3rd stage disciple with his magic power. All that he needed was to do the same with his aura.

A small smile came on his face as he scavenged the belongings of the leader. He placed the found item ring in his own.

But suddenly he turned his head to meet an aura slash comparable to the leaders and a voice that cried,

“DIE!”