The loud explosion reached even the opposite side where Selv was asleep. It woke him up with a jerk, informing him of the trouble that had occurred. He opened and stuck his head out the window. Immediately, his nose smelled the smoke.
Selv took every information he could get with all of his senses. There was a cloud of smoke rising up from afar. The area around the smoke was bright similar to evening, ignoring the fact that the time was midnight. He heard people’s voice. They were panicking, worried, and feared.
What was this? A fire? But, what about the previous tremor?
He tried to analyze the situation with his little information at hand. But, his location had a bad view because of the many buildings standing. His best was to see the smoke coming out from the north part of the town.
“Selv, it’s an emergency.”
Annatashya entered the room in haste, with a dire expression on her face. Her expression alone convinced him of the direness, so he replied short.
“Explain.”
“An explosion occurred in the business district. Considering the location and time, the chance of it being a mere accident is slim.”
“Damage report.”
“Currently, it’s unknown. But, speculating from the time and direction, it’s likely to happen on the Lord's building.”
Selv retracted his memories to that evening. He had met Haust while he was going out with Annatashya. He remembered him saying something about making Vincent staying up late. They might have nothing to do with the fire. But, that statement confirmed of their most likely location this night.
He couldn’t stay still any longer. Worried about their safety, he changed to his outdoor outfit and tied his sword to his waist. It didn’t take him more than a few minutes to get ready.
“Be careful,” she warned. “We don’t have any information about who might cause it. Who knows what might be in store for you there.”
“Got it. Although, I hope there’s nothing much and people are already evacuating as we speak,” Selv said, hiding the unpleasant feeling in his chest. His body knew that such things were hopeful thinking. The information told him so.
Industrial district, where they handle fire every day and has a huge amount of fuel talk, aside, the business district was the least likely to occur a fire accident. Not to mention, the people there were strict with the usage of fire because of the things they were handling with. A spark of flame could a month worthy of works to become dust in a slight moment of carelessness. No one working there wishes for that to happen. Which was why it was unlikely they forget to turn off the heat or something similar.
He brushed that aside for now. Reasons could wait after he was done. Now, he had to take care of the problem fast.
“Inform people that could help putting out the flame to gather at the location.”
After addressing his last order, he was ready to go to the site.
“I’m going.”
“Be careful.”
Annatashya repeated before went off to do her job. He also followed soon after.
A door opened as he was about to go down the stairs. Nely came out, looking left and right, confused on what had happened. She found Selv and tried to reach him. But, Selv cut her with his words first.
“It’s dangerous! Don’t leave your room!”
That flinched her on the spot, stopping her from taking another step. Selv only realized his mistake after looking at her scared and worried expression. He had caused unnecessary worry because he was in a hurry. That was not a good reason to shout at a child.
So, he approached her. This time, with a gentler tone, he said.
“Sorry. There’s nothing for you to worry about. This place is same,” he said, bending down and looked her straight in the eyes to assure her. “There’s just a fire accident happening outside The smoke might be bad for your body, so be good and stay in your room, okay?”
There was still worry in her eyes. But, he managed to get a nod out of her.
“Good girl.”
He gave her a head pat, giving her a reassuring smile. Nely looked at him in wonder, but soon she found herself put at ease by his big, warm hand. The worry inside her slowly melted away into nothing.
Selv took his hand off her, who was now back on her feet.
“Then, I’m going to evacuate and rescue the people there. I’m off”
After seeing her slightly waving her hand at him, he went out. He dashed out to make up for his lost time.
Outside was noisy with people murmuring as they saw the huge smoke filled the air with a burned smell. They were becoming uneasy because this kind of huge accident rarely happened. He thought leaving their uneasiness unrest was bad. So, he acted.
“Everyone, don’t worry! It’s just a small accident!”
He shouted, gathering their attention on him.
“It’s will end shortly! There’s nothing to worry about!”
There was no basis in his words. After all, he too hadn’t grasp any information. But, that wasn’t what they want to hear. So, he repeated again and again.
Don’t worry. Everything is alright.
He spoke of those empty words which even he thought was shallow. But, the words did their job as it was intended to. People’s utmost trust in Selv let it seeped down to their uneasy heart, calming it.
“If there’s someone who can help, ask them to head to the business district with a mask and fire-proof equipment!”
He left those words before leaving them.
As he was getting closer to the location, people were filling more and more of the street, as if lured by the bright on the distance. With this many people in the street, reaching it will be difficult. He could politely ask them to make way, but with so many voices filling the space, he doubts his voice could reach many.
He looked around, searching for a better route to take. There wasn’t any. Every route was filled with people and getting past them was hard.
So, left with no choice, he headed back a little, to a narrow alley he saw when coming here. There weren’t any people since the view was hidden by the buildings on both sides. He inspected the wall, looking at the height above, and considering something.
“I could do it,” he said, nodding to himself.
Once he concluded that he took a few steps back, taking a deep breath, before running. He built his momentum until it was enough and kicked the ground. He flew toward the wall, kicked it, pushing him to the other side of the wall, and kicked it again. By doing that from one wall to another, he rose up until the roof was within arms reach. He grabbed it. With one last push, he pulled himself up.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Above the roof, there was nothing blocking his way. He could see the whole situation without buildings and people obscuring him. He was able to confirm that the light he saw from away was indeed a fire. There was a building enveloped in flame as he was taking his sweet time.
From there, there was nothing to stop him. He resumed and went straight to the business district. He made use of his trained muscles and reflexes to run on a limited footing and jumped from one roof to another as if parkouring. The tidy and aligned design of the town also played a role in making it easy for him. If there was a need for him to climb and go down a building every now and then, he would exhaust himself before reaching his destination.
The smoke grew thicker as he came closer. Not so much he couldn’t see, but it was worrying. Just in case, he pulled out a cloth and pressed it against his mouth before continuing. This action proved to be fruitful as he was able to notice people’s shadows on the roof, going away from the fire. They were hidden and hard to notice because people’s sight would naturally focus on the fire instead. If he didn’t break his sight form it when pulling out the cloth, he would have missed them.
Climbing up the roof was a good call.
They were suspicious. No doubt. Considering the timing and rope they wore as if to hide their wrongdoing, it was a natural line of thought to think they were the culprit behind the fire.
Selv hesitated for but a second, weighing his priority, before changing his objective. He went after them, tailing while maintaining a certain distance. They showed no signs of noticing him.
Good, he thought. The more he watched their movement, the more he was convinced they were hiding something. Even if they weren’t related to the fire, tailing such suspicious group would be fruitful in some way or another. And, if they were related, it couldn’t be any greater.
Considering their first act was something on this scale, Selv can’t even imagine their next one. They were a dangerous group. He intended to eliminate them all once the opportunity allowed him. Plucking the roots of the problem before it happened. He believed that was the best.
Locking on them with his eyes, he sneaked around. He noticed they seemed to have great physical abilities from the way they had no trouble moving from a roof to another. But, in his eyes, they were somewhat clumsy as if not used to walking on a limited foothold. That was why Selv was able to easily follow them. They were slow. He could just go between them and finished them right there, erasing the slim possibility of him losing the sight of them.
He pondered whether to play it safe or stick with his plan. It was about time for him to move again since they had moved a safe distance away.
It was then he caught something moving at the corner of his eyes. By reflex, he jumped back, dodging whatever was about to hit him.
On the spot he had been, a knife dug itself there with a great force, enough to insert more than half of its blade inside the roof tile. If it hit his flesh, surely, it would go in whole. That didn’t sound appealing at all.
He looked toward the direction it came from. There, standing straight on the edge of a roof not far away, was a robed man. He wore a similar one with the group he was tailing. Was he a part of their group? Such question came to mine.
Then, his eyes found itself noticing the bulge on the man’s head which was visible even from their current distance. He realized there was something attached to the man’s head, possibly, something like horns, ears, or some sort. That spoke of his identity. The man was a demon.
That itself held close to no meaning. The question was whether he was with the previous group or not. If he was, then the chance of the roped people being demons was high.
The way he threw the knife at him was as if to stop him from chasing the previous group. But, the man acted separately from them. It was as if he was acting on his own. Which side was him?
He tried to figure it out, but the severe lack of evidence stopped him from drawing a conclusion. Speculating further was meaningless. He won’t be able to figure anything just by staring at each other. So, in order to dissect the situation, he addressed him.
“Are you with the group over there?” Selv pointed with his chin, not breaking his sight from the robed man, on guard for whatever he might plan for him.
“Who knows,” the man replied, shrugging his shoulders in disinterest.
Selv glared at him, probing his intention. But, he found nothing. He was unable to pull out any information from reading his behaviors. He paid attention to the fluctuation of his voice and the slight body movement.
If he found anything strange from those two, he could know if he was lying. But, as mentioned earlier, he failed to find anything. His voice and body didn’t show any change.
Then, was he telling the truth? He couldn’t say that either. The way there wasn’t any change were suspicious by itself. The man was too calm in this situation that it was unnatural. He had just thrown a knife, close to hitting him. He showed neither the panic if it was an accident, or the hostility if it was intentional. He merely stood there, waiting for Selv’s action.
As he was wasting his time here, thinking, the previous group was becoming small and smaller in the distance. He was forced to make a decision fast before they disappeared from his sight with the lead to this incident.
So, he decided to ask him a final question before deciding his next course of action.
“Are you the one who caused the fire?”
He went directly to the main point, scraping all the boring leading questions. He waited with his legs ready to kick the ground soon after he received his answer. Where his legs would go, however, depend on the man’s next words.
The man stood still, unmoving, placing his hand to his chin, pondering with his mouth forming a bridge. His mouth was one of the few things visible to Selv. And, that mouth turned into a crescent, followed by an ominous laugh which was out of place. The man laughed, laughed, and laughed to his fill. After laughing enough to question his sanity, he finally spoke as if to replace the stock of laughter that had run out.
“What if I am?” The man boldly said, showing his white canine teeth.
A moment later, Selv was locking blade with the man who had pulled out his from the robe. They were only a few inches away from each other, but for some reason, Selv was unable to see the face behind the hood. It was strange, indeed. When he was still unable to figure out this strange phenomenon, they both took a distance from each other.
Selv followed by closing the distance again, delivering his second strike. It was parried. He was not done. With that momentum, he followed with his third and fourth, not giving the man a chance to counter.
He showed no mercy and rained one attack after another. Unlike the group of robed people, they both were moving fast and nibble despite the foothold. They moved around without even looking down as they moved around. They sometimes jumped, moving to another roof, sometimes slid down, dodging.
The vast space let them moved quite freely with no obstruction. This, however, was a disadvantage to Selv with his limited time. But, for now, he was one-sidedly pushing his opponent. He managed to and few hits as he moved one step faster before the man dodged. Far from a decisive hit, but it was pilling quite a bit.
The man had quite martial prowess ness to be able to keep up with him. But, in the end, Sev was above him.
Few minutes into the fight, Selv feinted him by using the fact he only strikes with fast, straight-forward attacks. The man splendidly fell for it. He blew him away with a clean kick. With the intention of finishing it while the man hadn’t touched the ground, Selv gave a chase. He soon was close enough to deliver the strike. He thought that was it.
At that moment, however, his ears picked up something which was neither the sound of flickering flame or people’s murmuring. It was a voice, speaking in a foreign language he hadn’t heard in a while. Nostalgia didn’t strike him as he managed to pick up a few meaning such as fire, burn, and enemy.
He stopped his track, jumping to the side the moment his leg reached the ground. A ball of fire burned the spot he was at a moment ago, scorching it black. This confirmed his suspicion that the man was a demon. After all, there weren’t any humans capable of using magic of this degree left in the world, including him.
He was not given time to rest as another fireball came without a delay. He dodged since he refrained from having himself cooked into charcoal. Dodging the fireballs that came at him was easy, but the situation was not looking good for him.
The situation was reversed with the presence of magic. He was forced into a middle-range fight where he had no way to fight back. Furthermore, the man was also someone who he managed to keep up with him in close quarters. He did manage to trick him once, but the same trick won’t work on such opponent again.
And now, he needed to look out for the fireballs that seemed eager to engulf him whole. This was too much for his old bones.
It would have been easy if not for the two mastery. He had the confidence to beat him in a close-range fight or finishing him after a spell. But, not both.
Unfortunately for him, he had to handle both since his opponent excelled at both and weren’t hesitate to use it. Since a while now, he was sending Selv fireballs without stopping while waiting for a chance to strike where he was free.
Selv ran, dodging everything thrown at him. Sweats were pouring not only because he had moved around. It went away as he moved vigorously, taking cover behind a water tank, rolling down a roof, jumping at the last second. But, a new one appeared when he barely dodged an incoming fireball.
“Damn it!”
He cursed, still moving around since stopping spelled his end.
He had met a similar opponent when magic was a common phenomenon and his body was without handicap. They were annoying, but he managed somehow by waiting for their stamina to run out. After all, using body their body and magic used up a great amount of energy. This, however, was not the plan he could use anymore. And so, he had no plan left to use in this situation.
To pile it up, he could feel his limit approaching from the acute pain coming from his chest. He coughed, not because he had inhaled the smoke since the cloth covering his mouth had long gone along the fight.
It seemed that wasn’t all of the bad news. Because of a God’s mischief or some sort, the wind blew their way, bringing the smoke with it. Slowly, his vision was obscured until he can barely see anything in front. Obviously, the previous group had long gone from his sight. The only lead to this incident was now hidden behind thick smoke, waiting for a chance to strike him down.
“Now, what to do…”
Selv looked at the smoke with uneasiness while holding his pained chest.