Chapter 4

As they stood in the small circular, Lily took a deep breath. She may mocked his nickname a day before, but there was a reason he got it.

The Blood Awakened. Every one had a different story about how Alexander got that nickname, but there is one thing all people agree on – it needed with a massacre.

They agreed on a simple combat, no magic.

Lily knew that she was physically strong, she had a Blessing after all, but she couldn’t help but doubt herself after Alexander took off his t-shirt.

The Blessing only amplified what one already had, and since Lily was a cheerleader, she had to be strong in arms, but rumors were that her opponent got his Blessing with a peak physical condition and after his little show, she was starting to believe that.

He nodded at her signifying that he was ready and she did too. Match started.

The rules were simple, stepping outside of the arena or surrendering meant defeat.

She went in at him first and threw a strong punch and a follow up. He dodged first one and deflected second one. Alexander took the opportunity and tried to finish early with a throat punch, but Lily stepped back.

With a smirk on his face, he returned the favor. A furry of attacks went toward her head. Lily dodged the most and had to block a few, but seeing that he was overpowering her, she stepped back once again.

‘Shit, I will be out of ring at this rate.’ Something in her just couldn’t accept to lose to Alexander. It was probably the way he openly flirted with her mom, or the way he looks at her – like she was inferior.

Bravely, she launched at him with a punch. He grabbed her hand, but she immediately followed up with a second one. Alexander grabbed that one too, but she followed again with a kick to his hip.

Alexander, not expecting that, jumped backwards, but she still grazed his hip, thus getting first blood.

She was beyond happy. ‘Heh, not so great now?’

Of course, Alexander was far from finished.

He rushed at her and sent a few punches, Lily, now with more confidence, easily blocked and evaded them. Deciding that it was time for counter attack, she sidestepped to dodge his latest attack and before she could throw a punch of her own, Alexander jumped at her.

Of all the things that Lily expected, this was not it. While Alexander did not have a lithe physique, far from it, he didn’t have a buff physique either. It was hard to imagine him in a wrestle.

But that’s was happening right now. Alexander, nearly two heads taller than Lily, and definitely stronger, was trying to bring Lily on the floor.

Lily tried everything: she tried leg kicks, dirty kick and more, but unfortunately, she ended up on the ground.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Alexander took her in a chokehold and to Lily’s credit, she didn’t give up until her eyes only saw green.

She wanted to surrender, but she couldn’t catch a breath so she decided to do the only thing she could.

‘Lightning’s Stillness.’

Her already dim eyes diluted and her brain went into overload. Everything appeared slower than it was and the only one that could move normally was she herself.

She sent Alexander a few normal punches, but since she was in chokehold, they came from a weird angle.

‘Hopefully, that’s enough.’

Lightnings Stillness was a very powerful spell which allowed multiple things. She was much faster under the spell’s influence and she could see things in slow motion, something to do brain processing to information too fast.

She expected Alexander to raise some shield or to summon his armor, but nothing of that happened. He just let the punches hit him and on the place he was supposed to be hit, a chunk of ice appeared and defense him.

His Instinctive Defense, the weakest of defenses, protected him.

“It was a good brawl.” He said to Lily and I couldn’t decide if he was for real or not.

I snorted and nodded. As much as she disliked him, it was a definitely good fight.

‘Wow, she is a great fighter.’ I didn’t praise people often, but I always gave credit where it was due.

‘Well, maybe I won’t need to completely babysit her on our mission.’

I went to a shooting arena and waited for the person in there to finish. It was incredible how big this building was and still so full all the time.

My eternal grumpy mood was improving, I was sure of it. Adrenaline does that to a man

As the man left, he took a look at me went for salute. I shook my head at him.

Military formalities were not required in Arena.

As I entered shooting grounds, I heard a voice. “Important! Alexander Hunter, Lily Manda, Noir Strahen and Rohan Ron immediately to go to the Head of Space Department’s office!”

And of course, before I could even form a thought, I was teleported.

What awaited there was completely unexpected. Nero, as usually, sitting on his table, his grin just a little from tense.

Right from him stood a figure that seemed to defy magic itself. It felt wrong – like it shouldn’t exist. Just looking at the figure made my mana unstable.

‘What the fuck is this?’ It felt like I was inside of a tornado even though I was just looking at this.

“Let me introduce to you to my dear friend! Her name is Salyanne. You may recognize her as one of the Three of Magi.

Well, that explained all this.

“Arggh.” Only then did I notice that Lily fell on the floor and that an exceptionally handsome man was having troubles breathing.

The older man though was sweating a little bit just like me.

“These are just kids, let them be, Salyanne.” Nero argued.

“You are to go to Egypt and retrieve whatever there is that poses a potential danger to people. You have permit to kill only if attacker attacks anyone with the intent of murder. You are to travel tomorrow with mechanical means. Effective from tomorrow.”With that, Salyanne disappeared.

My head was about to burst. Her voice was not a normal voice, it was mana personified speaking.

I massaged my temple. “A little rude, isn’t she?”

“Well, she only means the best.” My master chuckled.

I looked around and saw the effects of Ms. Mana. The handsome man was bleeding from his eyes and Lily was puking last three years of food out of her.

Nero waited for all to recover and then started.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome here. First of all, before saying anything more, I would like to introduce you all.”

He clapped to himself and continued.

“This older gentleman goes by Noir Strahen and is more known by his monicker: Earthshaker. His achievements over the countless years, along with his ascension to the ranks of earth Master Magician made him eligible for the rank of Major. He is going to be a leader of this mission.”

Everyone turned to Noir and he gave us a little bow. He was wearing a nice brown suit and a brown hat. His hair and eyes were as brown as his clothes.

After a little pause, Nero continued.

“This, may I add, very handsome young lad is Alexander Hunter. He may be only eighteen years old, but he is already stacked up so many achievements that they completely overshadow many of our older members. Being the only Awakened, the only Magician, that is in two Secret Divisions and the fact that he already has a Domain spell got him a rank of Major. Known by many nicknames such as: the Blood Awakened and Northern Ice, he is your vice-leader.”

Everyone took a look at me, Noir especially. We shared a nod.

Nero cleared his throat. “This gifted young girl, the only girl here, is called Lily Manda. During her ascension to the ranks of Awakened, she touched upon the essence of lightning and earned herself a never seen before ability. With her humble, but important contributions elevated her to the military rank of Sergeant.

Lily just gave her usual condescending look to everyone.

“And the last but not the least, Dr. Rohan. He may be an apprentice and he may not have a military rank, but he is one hell of rune reader. He has studied runes and specialized himself in ancient civilizations. He is going to be a great help to you.”

Nero gave very deep bow and ended his theatrical introduction. “Thank you for listening.”

I gave Rohan a long look. ‘Runes, huh?’ I learned a little bit of runes long, long time ago. I eventually gave up on them, but Rohan and I may have a few interesting discussions.

A few seconds later, Nero told us. “Anyway, now that introductions are due, l think it is time to tell you the contents of this mission.”