Zalroth, with Iris sitting on his head, stylishly flipped and parkoured from the many floating magic barriers, as he created them, over the many inlets with Ruby, Sophia and Charlotte barely being able to keep up with him. The trio of girls were working up a sweat(With Sophia and Ruby, who had Star on her back, sweating a lot while Charlotte was lightly sweating) as they watched Zalroth quickly get further and further away from them.
"Man and I thought Star was fast when she hears the Candy Cats intro." Ruby exhaustedly remarked as she panted and sweated profusely. Sophia snickered at Ruby's comment, making Ruby glance over at her.
"What's so funny, Fifi?" Ruby intriguingly asked. Ruby's question made Sophia's snickering morph into a light laugh.
"Trust me... if you think he's going fast now, just wait until he actually tries.".
"He can go even faster?!" a bemused Ruby asked.
Charlotte was staring at Zalroth as she was recalling their discussion earlier.
A few minutes ago on the roof of the wagon at the front of the wagon train, Zalroth, Sophia and the kunoichis were all gathered inside a colourless magic shield with a faint silver aura.
"Are you sure it's ok for us to discuss this in the open?" Luna asked as she anxiously looked around.
"Of course, I've made the barrier soundproof," Zalroth stated before he created a smaller version of the magic shield, silver aura included, and says something the others can't hear. He quickly dispelled the magic shield around his head as everyone, excluding the sleeping Lola, Sophia and Heather, was intrigued by the soundproof magic shield.
"So, you're able to apply the sound cancelling effects of the sonokinesis azure ability to the magic shield, how interesting," Heather muttered to herself while she inspected the magic shield.
"Ok, you've got to promise me you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you guys... well except for Minia and Nola, and Kusana, and maybe Akari." Charlotte requested.
"Basically, don't tell anyone who isn't, in some way, involved with the situation; got it," Zalroth remarked. Charlotte nodded her head and placed her hand on her chest.
"We are currently being tutored under Magistrate Zulcrestus," Callie said. Zalroth's eyes lit up and he enthusiastically clapped his hands together, startling everyone inside the magic shield.
"That's why I thought I recognised you lot from somewhere, you're the gals I saw him talking to during that tutoring program thing the folks at Lumilight Academy were running last year," Zalroth remarked as he laughed to himself.
"Yeah, I think I remember you, weren't you the guy who drank all..." Ruby tried to ask before Zalroth cut her off.
"Yes, I was the guy who drank all the alcohol and was completely unfazed," Zalroth replied. A slightly agitated Charlotte loudly coughed to get Zalroth and Ruby to stop talking. Zalroth and Ruby apologised for interrupting and asked Charlotte to continue.
"As I was saying, sensei has assigned us in tracking down the notorious Phantom of Omens, and by extension his cohorts, and we believe the guy who attacked Akari's village might be him," Charlotte explained. Zalroth placed his hand on his chin and nodded his head.
"I-I see..." Zalroth said. Zalroth put on a fake thoughtful look, which worried Charlotte and co slightly.
"That explains why when that injured masked guy attacked me with the striped sword he was surprisingly strong," Zalroth remarked. Charlotte picked up on Zalroth mentioning her striped sword.
"Oh yeah before I forget, Ruby told me you were the one who found my sword and I'd like to both thank you and apologise," Charlotte said before apologetically bowing.
"Apologise for what?".
"Well... if I had to guess the guy who attacked you used my sword right?" Charlotte asked. Zalroth gave a quick shrug.
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"Probably whoever it was tried to take me out with a surprise attack but obviously that didn't happen. I then heard two things fall to the ground and by the time I turned around; the guy used an explosion spell to knock me and the things he dropped away before fleeing" Zalroth mentioned.
"So he dropped Charlotte's sword and his pocket watch when he was startled by your lack of dying, huh?" Heather commented.
"Actually it wasn't the pocket watch he dropped it was his mask," Zalroth informed. The kunoichis were surprised to hear that.
"Wait, you have the Phantom's mask?" Ruby asked with an intrigued tone.
"Nah, Snow took it from me and is using it as a hairpin, so its tracking potential has probably been diluted," Zalroth added. Ruby seemed a little down at hearing that but was too dishearted when Luna reminded her they already know where their target might be.
"Since you've warned me about the potential identity of the guy; I feel it's only fair I do the same.". The kunoichis' nodded their heads and listened intently.
"As you know, I joined up with the villagers for three reasons; the first is that we happen to be going to the same place, to protect the villagers to their location and the other is to catch the guy who attacked their village.".
"Ok... does that mean you know something that might be a cause for concern?" Alex asked.
"Indeed, before you arrived at the wagons with Sophia, a ran into the Death Reaper of the Whispering Woods, she's the one who gave me the pocket watch, and she told me that the village attacker had come into contact with a cluster of angorthite.". The kunoichis and Sophia were shocked to hear Zalroth had interacted with the Death Reaper but were also worried about the guy coming into contact with angorthite.
"Wait, is that why you wanted to go after the guy as soon as possible because he might metamorphize and transform into a heathian?" Ruby asked. Zalroth cringed a little at hearing the word heathian.
"Yeah because if that happens I'd have a hard time dealing with them given my natural inability to use light or holy magic," Zalroth stated.
"Also, I think Silhouette sounds cooler," Zalroth added. The group nodded their heads.
"Yeah, heathian does sound a bit tacky but that's not important right now..." Charlotte remarked as she thought about something.
"Ok, I think we should have a group of four go with Zalroth to look for the Phantom and the rest of us will remain here to defend the wagons, in Zalroth's place." Charlotte offered. The group agreed that Ruby had to be on the Phantom searching team but the group couldn't decide who the other three members should be.
After about ten minutes of none stop debating, Zalroth had heard enough.
"Alright-alright, that's enough why don't you just decide with rock paper scissors?" Zalroth offered. Everyone, except Zalroth and Ruby, quickly gathered in a circle. Zalroth counted down from three and everyone threw their hands forwards; Sophia and Charlotte managed to win with scissors with the two doing fist pumps while the others wondered if they should go again or not.
"You know I think Iris should go." Elizabeth offered. At first, the other paper choosers weren't sure but slowly realised that it was a sound choice.
"Yeah, she's got the ability to create golems and would mean she'd be able to stop an imminent cave-in if the interaction against the Phantom goes south," Zalroth added. Zalroth proceeded to reach into his tails and flung Minia and Nola out before carefully pulling Kusana out and letting her float away from him. Zalroth picked the sleeping Lola up and handed her to Kusana.
"If anything happens wake Lola up and have her contact me, got it?". Kusana firmly nodded her head. Zalroth also asked Kusana if she could tell Iris he needs her help with something. Kusana said she would, in her usual Kusana way, before flying out of the magic shield and towards the wagon Iris was probably in.
Back in the present, the group continued to parkoured over the inlets before Zalroth did a one-handed handstand on a floating magic barrier when he felt Iris tugging on his hair. Zalroth looked up at Iris as she stopped pulling his hair.
"Don't you think you're going a little fast, the others are struggling to keep up," Iris explained while gesturing to the others. Zalroth glanced over at the others and watched them exhaustedly collapse onto the barriers. Zalroth spun to his feet before hopping over to Sophia and the others.
Star, with a worried expression, repeatedly poked Ruby on her cheek as Zalroth combined all the barriers the girls were on into a single large magic barrier and landed on it.
"Are you three alright?" Zalroth asked as he fanned the three with wind magic. Charlotte managed to get onto one knee and calmed her breathing.
"Yeah but I don't think we can keep this up much longer, none stop jumping isn't as easy as I assumed it'd be," Charlotte explained. Iris leaned down in front of Zalroth's face.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just carry them, so we can get to the Terrorizer asap?" Iris offered. Zalroth tried to ask if they wanted to try Iris' idea but before any of them could answer Star chimed in.
"Absolutely," Star yelled before she easily picked Ruby up, catching Zalroth by surprise, and chucked her into Zalroth's tails. Star quickly tossed Sophia and Charlotte into the tails before hopping in herself. Zalroth thought about saying something but suddenly got a smug expression before turning around.
Zalroth slammed his foot on the barrier, causing it to dramatically tilt, as lightning started to course around his legs before Zalroth began to glow blue while the others glowed faintly red. Iris tried to warn Charlotte, Ruby and Star about how fast Zalroth was about to move but her words got slightly distorted as Zalroth instantly leapt into the distance.