Music flooded throughout the regal ballroom as the finely dressed nobles danced in tune to the music. A man walked onto the stage and stood next to a tall drape. He clapped his hands, causing the music to slowly stop. All the nobles stopped dancing and headed to their seats. The guy straightened his tie before he raised his arms to form a Y shape.
"Welcome everyone to yet another glorious Founders Banquet and today we have an exquisite assortment of trinkets and rare artifacts for today's auction". Multiple artifacts were then brought out and the guy started the auction. Meanwhile, on the roof, a silver-haired guy with pale cyan eyes boredly watched the auction playout, through the glass dome ceiling. The guy laid down and yawned.
"Maybe that intel was bogus,". The guy scratched his head in frustration.
"What a pai-". The guy paused for a second as he noticed the auctioneer walking next to the draped object.
"And now for the most recherché item in today's auction.". The guy pulled the drape off the object and the silver-haired guy's interest was peaked. The auctioneer revealed a golden staff with an Azure Gem on the end.
"The staff belonging to the pharaoh of lightning Marok, the Lightning Cowler.". The silver-haired guy smirked and sprung to his feet.
"Glad that intel was correct, definitely owe Lola an apology for doubting her. Now it's showtime.". The guy took a mask out from under his coat and put it over his eyes.
The guy jumped onto the glass panel directly above the staff. He used wind magic to cut a circle in the glass. The glass circle and the guy started to descend. The guy's right foot flashed red and the glass circle flashed blue before the guy spun around with the glass circle sticking to his foot.
The glass quickly flashed red, causing the glass circle to launch off the guy's foot and towards the giant church-like window. The circle crashed into the window and instantly shattered both of them, catching the attention of everyone in the ballroom.
The crowd of nobles started to panic when they recognized the masked guy.
"It's the Phantom!" one of the nobles yelled, as all the nobles started to frantically run away. Phantom snatched the staff mid-air before using wind magic to air-leap up to the now windowless window frame.
"Thank you ever so very much for holding onto this for me but I'll be taking this off your hands now.". The auditioner gritted his teeth and called for the guards. The guards rushed onto the stage and lunged at Phantom.
A sphere of wInd started to gather around Phantom followed by him sending out an air-blast. The air blast sent all the guards flying and crashed into the many tables scattered around the ballroom. Phantom gave a bow before air leaping out of the building. The auditioner angrily kicked one of the empty cases and stormed off while taking out his phone
Phantom parkoured down from the side of the building, with a mix of air platforms and the building itself. He landed on the roof of a house before flashing a faint teal and racing off. Phantom jumped from roof to roof while making sure to stay clear of any guards.
Phantom stopped running for a second. He quickly snapped the gem off of the staff and absorbed the magic inside the gem, causing it to disappear. He suddenly heard a female voice yell out to him.
"Halt!". Phantom turned around and spotted a group of kunoichis. The leader of the group of kunoichis, the one that yelled at him, has cyan hair, which was tied into a flower looking ponytail, and silver eyes; she was also wearing a more armoured version of what the other kunoichis were wearing, whose armour looked like it was designed for ranged combat.
"Surrender and return the staff.". Phantom got an idea and presented the staff, positioning it so that the part where the gem used to be was obscured.
"You mean this?". Before the flower kunoichi could respond, Phantom pretended to accidentally drop the staff, which distracted the kunoichis, before air leaping across the street and landing on the roof of the adjacent building. Phantom taunted the flower kunoichi before running off.
The flower kunoichi ordered three of her six kunoichis to go after the staff before her and the others leapt with her over the street and landed on the roof Phantom was just on and raced after him.
Phantom was impressed they were able to clear that jump without magic. However, his appreciation was cut short when three harpy guards blocked the air between him and the next roof.
The harpies fired a barrage of wind-type magic attacks which Phantom blocked with a barrier. The kunoichis caught up with him and now Phantom was completely surrounded.
"Give up; you're completely surrounded.". Phantom looked slightly annoyed at the flower kunoichi.
"You don't say, flower girl.". Phantom's remark flustered the kunoichi which caused her to get a little angry and let out a long exhale. The kunoichi didn't know what to do since she now knew Phantom could use barrier magic.
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However, her attempts at forming a plan were cut short when three air drills struck the harpies causing them to be sent flying and crashing onto the roofs of buildings. Everyone, including Phantom, looked in the direction of where the air drills came from and spotted the person who fired them, causing Phantom to chuckle.
The figure was wearing a similar outfit to Phantom, apart from having a silver scarf that they used to cover their mouth, they had their bow drawn back with a single white arrow ready.
The flower kunoichi was left in shock as she realized that the person must be the Reaper. The flower kunoichi was also shocked that the Reaper was able to fire and hit three targets from over eighty meters, since the reports she read only stated the Reaper's max range was forty-five meters.
The Reaper sighed before firing the arrow. The arrow flew at supersonic speed reaching the area the encounter was happening at in seconds. Phantom smirked as he jumped and grabbed onto the arrow.
The kunoichis were confused when the arrows started to drag Phantom through the air. Phantom telepathically thanked Reaper for the assist. Reaper only scoffed in response. The Reaper noticed some guards were trying to tackle her. She simply dropped three small black orbs that exploded and shrouded the entire bell tower in black smoke and when it cleared the Reaper was gone.
The flower kunoichi watched as the Phantom got away. The kunoichis awkwardly stood around waiting for orders from the flower kunoichi. The flower kunoichi heard the voice of one of the kunoichis that went after the staff.
"Charlotte we found the staff but the gem is missing, over.". Charlotte looked back at Phantom who waved at her.
"Let's go.". The other kunoichi nodded. Charlotte flashed a faint cyan three times, with the other kunoichis doing the same before leaping after Phantom.
He was surprised they were able to increase their mobility, speed, and jump height by two point five times, but figured they wouldn't be able to reach him. However, as he was passing over the city's outer wall. Charlotte Leaped on top of the city wall.
Phantom noticed that she was holding a kunai and that she had a magic circle over her eye. The kunai flashed red before she launched it at Phantom. Before he could respond, the kunai impaled Phantom's hand and destroyed the arrow. Phantom quickly plummeted to the ground. Charlotte watched as Phantom used wind magic to slow his descent and disappeared into the trees.
The other kunoichis caught up to Charlotte. She told them to follow her before they all jumped off the wall and used the same technique Phantom used to slowly descend.
Phantom ran through the forest with the almost none existent sounds of the kunoichis chacing him. However, his run was cut short when he stumbled apon a cliff; he also noticed the river and waterfall right next to him.
"You're cornered now; surrender and return what you've stolen.". Charlotte demanded as the other kunoichi created cyan magic circles. Phantom slowly turned around and did jazz hands.
"I wouldn't call it stealing if I'm taking back something that originally belonged to me in the first place.". Charlotte wasn't entirely sure what Phantom was going on about but just assumed he was just crazy.
"Fine then if you won't surrender willingly.". Charlotte took out her two swords. The blades split apart and transformed into a bladed whip.
"But before we apprehend you, why aren't you showing any signs of poisoning?". Phantom looked puzzled. Charlotte pointed to one of her kunai that were on her belt.
"Ohh... That's simple. I'm immune to poison; it sorta comes with the body.". Charlotte was even more confused now. She wondered if he isn't crazy and is just being cryptic. She told the other kunoichis to keep at a distance.
Charlotte recoiled her arms before launching the two whips at Phantom. He jumped and spun sideways, avoiding both whips. Phantom spotted the three kunoichis simultaneously firing a barrage of lightning bolts at him.
Phantom panicked for a second before remembering he absorbed the magic from the Azure Gem. Phantom quickly pointed his middle finger and index finger at the lightning bolts. The moment the lightning bolts were a few centimetres from Phantom they suddenly curved and started to orbit around him, much to all of the kunoichis' surprise.
Phantom took this chance of confusion to fire all of the lightning back at the three kunoichis. Charlotte used the blades on her whips to block the lightning strikes by repeatedly slashing the lightning in half. Phantom fired an air cannon at Charlotte but a barrier from the red-eyed kunoichi blocked it. Charlotte thanked her before turning one of her whips back into its blade mode. The blade was surrounded by flames before she launched a barrage of fire blades at Phantom.
Phantom countered the fire blades by slicing them in half with air blades, causing the fire to rapidly fly in random directions. Phantom landed and braced himself for the kunoichis' next attack.
However, his attention was diverted by the sound of a female scream. Phantom looked in the direction of the scream and saw that a shard of a fire blade was heading for a silhouette underneath a tree. Phantom created a barrier in front of the silhouette and the fire blade crashed into the barrier, leaving the person unharmed.
Phantom turned his head back to the kunoichis right as Charlotte impaled him in his right lumbar (middle area of the abdomen) with her sword, which was glowing. Phantom coughed up a little blood. He started to mentally panic when he realised that Charlotte was trying to pull off his mask with her free hand.
He twitched his hand and appeared to drop the Azure Gem. Charlotte's eyes darted to the gem and her arm swung and caught the gem. She suddenly thought this might have been a trap and darted her eyes back at Phantom who was starting to surround his arm with flames. Charlotte quickly jumped high into the sky.
"Do it now!". Phantom looked back at the other kunoichi and realized they all had a single giant red magic circle in front of them. The trio casted their spell and a giant wave of flames raced towards Phantom. Before he could even erect a barrier, the fire exploded in front of Phantom. His clothes were scorched and he was sent flying off the cliff, which crumbled a little from the explosion.
Phantom chuckled to himself as he started to lose consciousness before crashing into the river down below. Charlotte landed on the ground and hurried to the edge of the cliff, with the other kunoichis stopping behind her. A magic circle formed around both of Charlotte's eyes as she looked over the area. She sighed and dispelled the magic circles.
"I can't sense him, he must have passed out or is suppressing his aura.".
"Couldn't he have just died?" the blue-eyed kunoichi asked. Charlotte shook her head.
"Unlikely, I saw he was smirking so he must have been sure he'd be fine and since we can't sense him anymore we won't have any luck finding him. So, we should return to Lord Tatsuhito". The kunoichis nodded and followed Charlotte back to the city.