Ren and Hiro were in change of the 8th and the 7th streets. They had managed to evacuate masses towards the north and the east. They were a human shield against the advancing forces.

Ren had silver eyes that almost looked like he was blind. His brown short hair and a button curtain were well groomed like a nobleman he was. He was a year younger than Hiro.

Hiro had forest green eyes, a top knot hairstyle and a clear shaved beard. They were wearing the maroon royal guardian cloaks.

Ren was a fine particle magic user. He could manipulate almost any powdered substance. At the heat of battle his eyes changed yellow and with his magic, he covered the two main streets with a cloud of gray dust. The army surged in the streets and no longer had they went through the cloud of gray dust that they realized their mistake.

They choked on the dust, finding it hard to breathe and there was little visibility. To make it worse the dust was irritating their eyes, ears and noses, numbing their senses.

But that was just the beginning of their ordeal. As they were slowly and cautiously advancing in the dense cloud, they heard loud shrieks and screams resounding from all around them. They were being slaughtered one by one. In panic they hysterically unleashed magic attacks all over the place, hoping to miraculously land a strike on whoever was slaying them but they were missing miserably. Ren slayed about 30 of them in a span of 2 minutes until one came up with a brilliant idea to jump up the roofs above the cloud of dust.

It was a good idea if it wasn’t for Hiro, who was anxiously waiting for them above the cloud of dust. He had already set his traps as he anticipated them to try to leap from roof to roof. At the top of the street, there were lit candles on both sides of the street and there were two more at the far end of the street. The 4 candles formed a rectangle and within this rectangle was a cold trap.

As the first man leapt to the roof, he immediately froze just as his feet went above the candle level. And Hiro appeared before him instantly. What was more instant was how his torso was sliced diagonally in two with just one strike. More jumped up and they met a similar fate if not worse. Their blood rained on the streets as they were annihilated.

Yahto saw the gray cloud from a distance as he was scanning the battlefield from the top of a roof. He was thinking of joining up with Ahuiliz but since he was a wind user he thought he could help clear the cloud. Had he known that his best buddy was being killed, he could’ve went to his rescue without a second thought.

Unbeknownst to him that his friend was dying, he charged towards the 7th street. He stood at the top of the street and hit the ground with his long club and immediately a gust of powerful vapor violently blew the dust away and the candles fell off the roofs as the wooden houses razed to the ground. Even some of the weaker allied warriors were blown by the vapor and scalded by the blistering heat.

Ren instantly felt like he was naked when the dust was blown away. He had met his nemesis, a wind magic user. And not just any wind. It was a vaporizing wind. Yahto casually strutted towards him. Screeching sounds resonated as he dragged the club on the paved path. He noticed Hiro on the roof but was unbothered by his presence. The rest of the allied warriors left Yahto alone in the street at his command and they rampaged through the city.

Yahto seemed like he wanted to end the fight as quickly as possible to join up with Ahuiliz. And without wasting time, he swiftly stormed towards Ren and swung the club at his head. It missed by a whisker and as it hit the ground, the sun surface hot vapor blasted him into the air, tearing through his clothes and scalding his skin.

Airborne Ren’s yellow eyes turned back to their natural silver color and two circular orange rings appeared. He knew he had to fight at full strength because his foe meant business.

Yahto too decided to gear up his spectra. His orange eyes turned red and a scorching red flame glowed around him. His level of power caused a tremor in the city and his magic aura overpowered any magic in the whole city. Everybody who was fighting or running for their lives, stopped for a second when they felt that kind of magic.

Ren knew he bit more than he could chew. He was levels below Yahto and he soon realized just how powerful a red rank was.

The two engaged in a fierce sword versus club battle. Clinking sounds resounded and flares sparked across the street as Ren was losing ground. Out of nowhere a gust of vapor blasted through Ren’s body causing severe scalds than before. Not only that, he was cut in multiple places around his body. The vapor cut through his magic armor with ease.

He was flabbergasted by the attack that he thought he didn’t armor himself. Well the magic armor did its job. Its just that the job was way too powerful for the armor to contain and if it wasn’t for the magic armor he was blaming, the cuts could’ve been more devastating and his body could’ve been vaporized.

Ren quickly closed up his wounds as he was backing away. He acknowledged that he was only fighting to hold Yahto off to buy some time for civilians to escape. He already made peace with the fact that he might not see his son and wife again.

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Hiro was still perched on the roof, closely watching Yahto. He was studying him and so did Ren. The next attack confirmed their assumptions. As Yahto swung the club, vapor gusted out and struck Ren.

‘The club must be behind the wind attack.’ They thought to themselves.

Yahto brandished it again and this time Ren leapt back and he solidified his gray dust to a concrete, streamlined block and dispersed the vapor. Out of frustration, Yahto tried to clobber the block with his club but Ren changed the composition again and it became dust. His face went red with fury and annoyance as his effort went to waste. He grew more frustrated with his weapon so much that he hurled it at Ren and it cannoned through 13 houses before it came to a stop.

The red intense flames around Yahto intensified as he lunged to engage Ren in close combat. Ren was no match for his speed, his power and fluidity in attack. He was mostly dodging the attacks while backing away to create some space between them. Yahto set him up for a body punch and as it was about to land, Ren blocked with his elbow and a familiar pain stunned him. But this time it was way more painful than the first.

The club that they thought was the only thing that had wind attacks was most definitely not the only thing. And he learned that the hard way. He could’ve never been more wrong. And he paid a steamy price for it. His body scalded as the vapor steamed his skin and he was sliced in about 20 places all around his body. What took the most damage though was his shirt. It tore off his body as he was thrown into the air.

Yahto was not done yet. He unleashed a powerful spiral vapor attack and as it was closing in rapidly, Hiro jumped in front of Ren and stretched out his hand towards the vapor and it immediately turned into a cloud. He condensed the vapor into white cloud with his cooling magic.

“You have fought well Ren, I have learnt a thing or two about this fellow.” Hiro said.

“You can use your full attacks, I will protect you.”

“Okay let’s do this.” Ren replied as the gray dust was covering his wounds and they immediately healed.

More gray dust emerged and solidified into models of a tiger, a lizard and a mole. The mole quickly dug its way underground before the cloud scattered. The gray dust was actually limestone and crushed clay.

The concrete tiger model lunged at him viciously and Yahto steamed it up with vapor but the bond of the concrete grew stronger making the concrete tougher. The tiger closed in and leapt at Yahto.

Ren and Hiro’s eyes were fixed on it as it swung at him. They were hoping it might land a strike however the model quickly shattered to pieces as Yahto struck it with a single blow.

“Is that all you got?” He mocked the two men.

Ren was discouraged by just that single blow. And judging by the smirk on Yahto’s face, he still had a lot in his arsenal.

“Don’t be discouraged Ren.”

“We are not losing against this guy.

“Raise it up again.”

The shattered pieces came back together again and formed the new model of a tiger.

“We attack all at once.” Hiro said and they charged together with the tiger. The lizard was trying its best to join but it was unbelievably slow. It had irritatingly slow, jerky, back and forth movement like it was hesitating to fight. Well that is how the lizard moves. It’s a chameleon model and they are awfully slow.

As they engaged in a fierce battle, out of nowhere a super fast concrete sword flashed right in Yahto’s face, scratching his nose. If he didn’t yank his head,he could’ve been killed in an instant. When he registered what just happened he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was not a concrete sword at all but a long tongue of the ultra slow lizard. Who would have thought such a creature could perform such a blistering fast attack?

Yahto struck the tongue and it crumbled into pieces. The two men charged and took turns attacking Yahto as the lizard patiently waited for another opportunity to present itself and when it did, it launched another tongue attack. This time Yahto anticipated it and blocked with the tiger model. Its head decimated as the concrete tongue pierced right through it.

Ren perceived how useless the tiger was. It was losing at all times and he decided to use its remains as an armor. The shattered pieces made their way to Ren and covered his head like a helmet, a breastplate covered his chest, and gloves of concrete covered his hands and feet.

The battle raged on for another five minutes. And it was surprisingly even. Hiro turned vapor attacks into beautiful clouds and the vapor also strengthened Ren’s concrete. Perhaps what made it more even was Yahto’s frustrations. If he could’ve thought through his attacks, he could’ve already killed the two men. But he was acting out of character and it worked perfectly to Ren and Hiro’s advantage.

All this time the mole was waiting underground in ambush. Waiting for a perfect chance to strike. Ren set him up and the mole emerged from the ground with its mouth widened, salivating in hunger. He was caught off guard and as he leapt up to evade the underground attack, he was met by Ren’s sword. It swiftly cut through his elbow and his hand flew in the air as it detached from him. Everything that could’ve gone wrong had gone horribly wrong for Yahto

As he was stunned, the mole bit his leg, locking it in its conrete mouth. Hiro swung at his neck and as the sword cut through the air, Yahto sacrificed his leg to save his neck. He violently pushed himself backward and his leg ripped out of the iron grip of the mole, severing it in half. It was torn from the lower calf muscle.

Hiro’s sword miserably missed and Yahto landed on his remaining foot. He concentrated his magic on the open wounds to stop the bleeding. He had a missing leg and a missing hand. It was clear now that Ren and Hiro had the upperhand. And not just the upperhand, they had both hands as well.

They lunged at Yahto to land the decisive strike. The mole emerged from the ground and the chameleon launched a concrete tongue sword. Ren and Hiro swung ther swords and in an instant black holes appeared out of nowhere and swallowed them whole. The chameleon and the mole decimated to the ground when Ren was swallowed and Omiros appeared before Yahto.

He touched Yahto and he was instantly transmitted out of the city. He found himself surrounded by healing mages and as their voices grew more inaudible, his eyes shut.

Intense, bloody battles raged on across the whole city. It was already dark when Flavia stumbled upon Daiki and Haru. They were also the members of the 12 guardians.

Flavia had the highest kill rate when the sun faded in the horizon. He had massacred over 300 Abalonians, including helpless women and children.

Daiki and Haru caught his eye on the 26th and 27th street. The two were on a killing spree, valiantly defending the two streets.

‘Now someone worthy to fight.’ Flavia thought as he jumped from roof to roof towards the 26th street.