Chapter 34: Bad timing

Kalius's PoV (3rd):

Kalius was shocked beyond words. It seemed no matter how highly he estimated Asura he would still exceed his expectations. That last move he used to defeat his son Alexius was what one could call the perfection of movement. With complicated feelings he called together his family for dinner tonight. Even Alexius who normally would ate with the soldiers joined in.

Kalius directly addressed his son: „Alexius what do you think?“ Alexius obviously knew what his father was talking about. It was precisely the reason he had decided to join his family for dinner.

„I can't say. I am afraid this person is beyond my ability to comprehend. I was utterly unable to follow that last move and it seemed to me that was only the surface. Not even considering his magic that we have yet to see, this is not a person we want as an enemy.“

Alexius had spoken the exact thoughts he himself had. Suddenly Alexius smiled: „But luckily as far as I have heard my little sister has taken care of that problem for us right sis?“ And he looked at her with a telling expression. Theresa deeply blushed and only mumbled: „Mind your own business.“

Kalius let out a deep laugh: „Why so timid Theresa? You have a fine eye is all he wanted to say and I have to agree.“ The longer he thought about it the better his mood became.

No one noticed that the fourth person who had joined the table had a gloomy expression one could even say it was the kind of expression one makes when things are not going according to plan. But before Kalius noticed anything his wife Katia smiled at him: „More wine my dear?“

Caro's PoV (3rd):

Finally it was the fourth day of that tournament that Asura had mentioned. Caro was bored as hell because all this time while Asura had been planning, researching and training she had nothing to do but to cultivate.

Well she could talk with Mia but Mia was cultivating like crazy and training her magic every day. She regretted that she never could do anything for her brother so she was determined to become stronger. Caro really admired her for that so she tried to not get in her way as much as possible.

The only other one who was with them was the empress of darkness Kam'ya but that spirit would only listen to Asura's commands otherwise she hardly ever showed herself. Only to convey messages from Asura as Kam'ya could talk with her brother Tempest over any distance. Something like where there is wind there is Tempest and where there is darkness there is Kam'ya. Caro didn't really understand it.

All she did most of the day was train her magic as well and cultivate so when the spirit appeared and told her about Asura's theory she was thrilled. Finally something to do! Asura had thought that the likelihood of a spirit being within the royal castle was quiet high. 

Because in his opinion the spirits seemed to choose resting places at locations that are important to the different races. For example dragon king castle or the Dryad village. The Dryads were the oldest beastkin and had overseen the forest for hundreds of years while dragonking castle has always been the seat of power of the most powerful beastkin.

So most likely either the royal castle, the academy or both should contain a spirit emperor. How true that was was quiet easy to affirm because Kamy'a should be able to sense one of her siblings if she is near enough.

So Caro worked out a smiple plan in accordance to the information Asura had provided. On the fourth day of the tournament most of the humans would not be in the capital. So that was the best time for Caro to infiltrate the castle together with Kamy'a.

Their job was only to find out if a spirit was present and if that was the case, Asura would use his connection to the royal family to simply go and collect it. So when the fourth day of the tournament came around Caro and Kam'ya left for the royal castle leaving Mia behind with a barrier.  

Argus's PoV (3rd):

The fourth day of the grand tournament had finally arrived. Argus von Hohenheim was happily looking forward to whatever kind of miraculous performance Asura had in store for them. Until now he had always exceeded any kind of expectations Argus ever had for the young man and that was pleasing him to no end.

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It was unfortunate that some of the older members of the academy could not participate but Argus had chosen this last day of the tournament for the demon extermination precisely because it was less likely that any kind of innocent bystander would be involved. So while he was sitting down on the royal tribune he was in mental conversation with his ace spy.

„Make no mistakes. Lay down the formation and only then break the barrier. As soon as you broke the barrier don't let anything live. Whatever made such a strong darkness barrier is not our ally. Hit them full force.“

„Yes Master.“

Satisfied with the conversation Argus brought his concentration back to the Ring. Asura was seeded for the first match which the sage suspected had something to do with a certain announcer from the wind department. As Asura came up on the platform he heard in his ear:

„Formation is laid master. Beginning to break the barrier.“ Argus concentrated on the ring again where Asura had not moved neither had his opponent done anything even though Larius had already declared the match as opened. Suddenly Asura's opponent collapsed and the young prodigy suddenly started to talk mainly in the direction of the other contestants:

„The biggest weakness of a mage not of the tenth rank is that he has to cast spells. But what happens if there is no air around him? Sound can't travel and he can't invoke any spells. At the same time no air, means he can't breathe and even preinvoked spells need you to collect your mana. Anyone confident enough that he can use a preinvoked spell within the twenty to thirty seconds it takes before a human faints is welcome to try and take me on.“

All other participants went pale and one after the other dropped out of the tournament. Argus was flabbergasted never had he expected that something like this would happen. Asura with a single move had just defeated all of his opponents at once. Simple but effective.

As he got up and started clapping finally the completely silent crowd one after the other fell in. That was the moment he heard: „Master we broke the barrier, we will move in now.“ Just seconds after the the middle of the ring exploded and while releasing ice cold killing intent that made quiet a few people faint Asura shot off with incredible speed.

Argus was shocked because the direction was where his men were! Suddenly bits and pieces started to come together that didn't make sense before and Argus became deeply pale.

Asura's PoV (1st):

I had just explained to the mages why they could never beat me and I was just glad that this farce was finally over. I guessed that Caro and Kam'ya had more than enough time for their investigation and it would still take a while before anyone would return from this kind of festival. But I had enough of this because I really hate crowds.

So I took the most efficient way I could think of to end this as fast as possible. Well it had worked. But as I was about to turn around and leave suddenly I hear Tempest voice in my head: „Master, Kam'ya and Caro are still in the castle and the barrier around the copse where Mia is has been broken.“

Tempest's voice could be heard clearly in the mind because he doesn't have to rely on wind to speak. I immediately went into fighting mode. My killing intent raised to the max and was released and at the same time I gather all the wind around me and shot off towards Mia.

Shit please make it. While thinking about all the times she had patched me back together I raise my speed to the maximum. It only took me moments to arrive and just with my enhanced senses I can see before arriving that some of the older and more powerful teachers of the academy were gathered around Mia preparing to attack.

The copse was surrounded by guards and Mia was holding onto her water shield that was the only thing between her and death. Like a meteorite with daggers drawn I directly land in the back of the leading mage ramming him into the ground with my two daggers piercing his back. He died instantly.

Before any one could react I shot several wind blades decapitating all the other mages except for a figure in grey that narrowly avoided it. I glare at him and practically snarling: „Get away from my sister.“ and immediately after: „Mia run.“ While using wind magic to hide her.

„Tempest tell Kam'ya and Caro to take care of Mia. They have to hide and wait for me somewhere safe.“ Suddenly I felt my power be highly restricted and I notice that more mages had arrived. Seems like they have deployed some kind of formation. After thinking about it for a second I raise my arms: „I surrender.“

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Chapter 35: Betrayal coming up in about two and maybe I will even write 36 ;) Let's see how it goes