Zeron was visibly shocked. There were about six men around him. Some of them were from the bout at Lord Cepher's house.

"How did you figure out the riddle?" he asked quietly.

"Did you think I survived your first massacre because I was lucky?" Makon asked. "You fool, how dare you try this with me? ME OF ALL PEOPLE?"

Zeron remained quiet and contemplative. His men began to circle around Makon.

"You're outnumbered." He said. "Surrender now and I'll let you die mercifully."

"Not even double your men could take me on, you bastard. Today is your last day." Makon said. looking directly at Zeron and ignoring the mages beside and behind him. "I won't even give you the courtesy of a merciful death. I'll make sure you die in the most humiliating, degrading way possible. Your death will serve as a deterrent to others."

Zeron chuckled softly. "I've heard of your prowess. But not even you could take on six men, that's impossible."

"You took an innocent woman and nailed her to a wooden board, Like a fucking insect, you bastard!" Makon said. "You will die today. All of you. I will make sure of it."

"Alright man. It's your funeral." Zeron said and attacked.

In one single fluid motion, Makon grabbed his arm and flung him down, while at the same time, blasting one of his men who had gone towards Roe. The rest of the men fired immense blasts at Makon, who didn't even flinch at the pain. He punched Zeron with a blast spell, breaking his armor in two strikes.

Zeron's men overcrowded Makon and pulled him off. He grabbed one and, to everyone's amazement, twisted his neck despite his armor's resistance. the man fell lifeless to the ground his own surprise still on his face.

The rest of the men backed away in shock.

"What the fuck, Zeron?" One of the men said, backing away.

"boohoo! So he's a freakishly strong, so what?" Zeron shot back. "There's Six of us, just don't let him get close to you!"

The men circled around Makon but he only looked directly at Zeron. They clashed again and he went directly for Zeron.

For about thirty minutes the entirety of the battle boiled down to Makon lunging for Zeron and his men pulling him away from Makon. Their blasts and attacks were either dodged or bounced off by Makon.

Zeron was right. Makon was pretty powerful but facing off against six mages was pretty difficult. Each time he got Zeron, they over powered him and forced him to withdraw. After thirty minutes he began to tire out. Having lost sleep for over a day.

Zeron noticed and immediately began to taunt him. Makon smiled.

"What's so funny?" Zeron asked.

"Just before I wiped the streets of Pirun with Ganz's face, I also taunted him." He said. "I'm not going to fall for my own tricks."

"Lord Ganz was unprepared, that's why you even got a single attack in!" One of the men said. "And now we're going to kill you and take your head to him!"

for the first time in the fight, Makon looked away from Zeron at the man, then pointed at him.

"You'll die next."

And he did, in the next bout, Makon lunged for Zeron as he always had, but it was a feint, he reached for the man who'd spoke and with three rapid punches, broke his armor, with a fourth, he buried an energy blade in his torso and pulled it out, leaving the man to bleed out.

Three men lunged at him, he dodged them all and grabbed fourth man, spun him around and punched him in the small of the back. the blow penetrated his armor a little and while it didn't seriously harm him, was painful enough to put him out of the fight for a few minutes.

He kicked Zeron, sending his body flying out of the barn entirely. He would be back in a few seconds, In those few seconds, he killed another man by smashing him into another man, with a green blast construct between the two men. Due to the way spells interacted, the green blast interfered with the more degraded armor causing a brief flickering which Makon targeted with a well placed hotfist directly into his chest.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Zeron rushed back in to find three of his men dead, with three left alive he briefly considered running, but he noticed Makon was starting to pant. He decided he had a chance and spurred on his men to continue to attack.

Makon located the man who he'd punched in the spine earlier and punched him in the exact same location, putting him out of the fight again, this time for longer. He grabbed another man and slammed him into Zeron. Grabbed another man and stomped his head until the armor broke, then cracked his skull.

The fight continued for another twenty minutes, Makon was beginning to tire out and he had killed five men. The last man had given up and ran. Zeron cursed him and promised to find him and kill him later for deserting, But Makon grabbed him and punched him. fought back.

The two men fought for another twenty minutes, in that time, Makon managed to break Zeron's left leg and arm, and Zeron managed to stab Makon in the stomach once. As Makon bled out, he continued to inflict more damage on Zeron, Eventually he just slowed down out of exhaustion and blood loss and went on one knee.

Zeron was in terrible shape, and utterly terrified of Makon.

"I'll kill you..." Makon growled. "You bastard. I'll kill you!" he ranted. Zeron decided this was probably not his fight and he decided to flee as well. He hobbled out with his broken leg and flickering armor. While Makon slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

---

Ranker and his companions launched out of the house they were in and took down three of the pursuers in one go. By catching them by surprise, they were able to put them into magical locks.

They would of course get out of those locks eventually, but it was great for immobilizing people with magical warfare skills for at least an hour.

They went and finished off the rest of the pursuers who hadn't even noticed their colleagues were gone. The man who'd hosted them was overjoyed, as Ranker had winked to him as he left. it was the first time he'd spoken at length to Warfare mages.

With the pursuers captured, Lakan and his team stopped.

"Hello, Aku'andans!" Ranker called out. They walked towards each other.

"Navons?" Lakan asked.

"Yes." Ranker replied. "I am Ranker, here I have Werfa, Zitan and Lyfan."

"I am Lakan. This is Binko, Regar and Hark." Lakan replied.

"We came here because we heard Ganz is here." Ranker said quietly.

"Well we did spot him this evening." Lakan said. "We did not engage him. He's too dangerous. we called a back up team."

"Would that be Segi Arabambi?" Ranker asked.

"She leads the team, yes." Lakan replied.

"She reached out to us." Ranker said. "She said her team won't be here until afternoon."

"Yes, that tracks. She's coming from Kamado." Lakan said.

"Kamado??" Ranker asked in shock. "She's going to get here from Kamado in... fifteen hours?"

"It appears so." Lakan said.

"No wonder she reached out." Ranker said. "Her team will be extremely exhausted by the time they get here. If they do at all."

While they were talking, another group arrived. This time it was the Pirunese mages, led by a man called Kier.

At this time there were twelve elite warfare mages in Kanam. Far more than any person from Kanam had ever seen at once. They all headed for the governor's office. He came out to meet them himself, albeit separated from them by the thick iron bar gate he stood behind, refusing to open to them.

"We've heard Ganz is here." Ranker said as he walked up to the gate.

"We have seen him here." Lakan said. "Produce him now."

"Well," The governor, a middle aged man with graying hair, said. "Ganz IS here. He is my guest."

"You traitor!" Kier, the Pirunese mage retorted, incensed. "You bring shame to our Kingdom!"

"Governor, Ganz is a war criminal," Ranker said. "hosting him at your house is a grave offense against your king, Karan, all of Gan, and, not to mention, Humanity."

"I accept no such accusations." The governor said. "Ganz remains under my protection. No harm will come to him while he is here. Cry harder!"

"Cry harder?" Lakan asked, confused at the glibness. "you dumbass you're in cahoots with a murderer!"

"You're littering my entrance, you riff raffs." He said in a shrill voice. "Begone!"

"Governor, I assure you, we will break down this building, tear it apart even.." Kier began.

"You can't do any of that." The governor said. "While you were busy running around in my city like a bunch of cats and rats, I was magically fortifying my castle!"

Lakan frowned in confusion.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" he said. "Let me present to you, Ganz's latest work! The armored building!"

A murmur ran across the group, Lakan decided to test it, he activated a hot fist and punched the gate. As soon as his fist made contact, a large, previously invisible forcefield flickered into view for a split second as it absorbed the energy of the attack.

They staggered back in shock. Ganz had somehow figured how to put a body armor around an entire building.

The governor laughed at them from behind his gate and armor.

"None of you can get in here!" he cried gleefully. "It's even a hundred times stronger than body armor! its' beautiful!"

"We'll get in eventually!" Kier shouted.

"Be my fucking guest!" He shot back. Then he turned and walked away.

Over the night, multiple different groups of Mages began to arrive from all over Gan, each group that arrived was informed of Ganz's latest gimmick.

As morning drew close, more and more mages began to arrive, dozens of them. far more mages than had ever gathered in one place before for centuries.

"Wow." Lakan chuckled to Binko, looking at the crowd of mages that were already setting up a siege around the building. "This many mages in one place? Ganz is making history."

"No," Binko replied. "We are making history. This is going to be recorded as the one time we all came together to wipe that cockroach off the face of Gan. It's going to be glorious."