Chapter 13

Disappearing act

Ken looks around him surveying the situation and starts to think about their next move

' Eight strike force members, a dozen security members, and about a hundred regular police bots this is bad ‘

~ hey Rin did you take over the port system ~

Rin responds to Ken through the earpiece sounding agitated

- negative there is another techno mage fighting me for control and a good one too this will take a while -

another portal opens in the port and Claus walks out wearing his usual white shirt, black pants, and black coat.

Claus looks at the trio then smiles

- we meet again. there seems to be a new face among you I don't believe we met before Miss Ninja -

Daxia thinks quickly and decides to stall for time for Rin

- my name is Xia Daxia. I am a bounty hunter, what's the meaning of this?-

Claus raises an eyebrow

-interesting well miss Daxia you have with you wanted criminals are you going to try to claim they were your prey or something

Daxia sneers putting one hand on her hip

- I am not claiming it's an obvious fact I have the two of them caught right now do I not? what? are you going to try and steal my prey? -

Claus' lips curl up more finding her obvious lie amusing

- this is very amusing, all right hand them over if you hand them over to me you will get your money since I am the agent tasked with capturing them, and the world government is the one placing the bounty -

Daxia pauses and glances at Ken prompting him to ask Rin again

~ tell me good news ~

a tired Rin responds while breathing heavily

- negative still fighting don't make me waste my focus on you -

Saiko steps forward standing in front of Daxia and facing Claus

_don't worry I got this _

Claus watches her looking more amused and intrigued.

- oh, the moral thief is next. you were always the most interesting one. I wonder, how do you plan to stall for time ?-

Saiko shakes her head

_ No, I am not very good at lying or wasting time nor am I going to claim innocence _

-what is it going to be then? -

_this _

the aether port building begins to rumble quietly

Claus wastes no time to see what the rumbling is.

his expression turns serious and he shouts his order to his men.

- OPEN FIRE-

all eight members of the strike team fire their guns at the trio.

numerous spells are fired by the strike team members but they find all their spells impacting a black sphere of liquid that emerged from Saiko's body and surrounded the trio.

although numerous, the spells used by the strike team were relatively weak.

the strike team was forced to use focused narrow damage spells to avoid friendly fire and innocent casualties since they are in an aether port, which allowed Argus to block them with low difficulty.

the rumbling increases quickly then suddenly all the pipes in the building explode and water floods the aether port sending nearly all of the people outside the building.

when the water clears out only the black ball remains.

the black ball then recedes back into Saiko's body revealing the trio

Daxia smiles at Saiko giving her a thumbs up

- nice one -

ken looks disappointed

~the world is not fair how come your magic is so powerful meanwhile I can barely lift an apple with mine ~

Naoi floats in front of Ken

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

- all magic gets its energy from the divine the closer one is to the divine the stronger their magic becomes and the more energy they are allowed to draw upon -

Ken looks at Naoi annoyed

~ I don't need a lecture from you right now ~

a portal appears in front of them interrupting their happy moment.

a soaked but completely unharmed Claus walks out of the portal looking more confused than angry.

he can't understand these thieves once again they seemed to waste their chance to get away by refusing to go for the kill.

that girl Saiko if she had used her surprise attack in a more lethal way many of the strike team would've died.

instead, she only wasted time.

not only was her attack not lethal being only a wave of water but also the water itself seemed to change its direction in unnatural ways to make sure the people inside it avoid hitting solid objects.

as though the water was trying to protect them from any harm, which surely made it a much harder spell to cast and control.

Claus faces the silver cat.

- I have to admit, I didn't see this coming. I didn't expect such powerful water magic nor such mastery over the water it looked as if the water was alive? -

Claus wonders aloud trying to prompt the sliver cat to confirm or deny his suspicions.

Saiko ignores his attempt to make her explain her magic

_please leave I don't want to hurt you _

-why? why do you not want to hurt me? I can’t figure you out -

he questions her looking very confused.

_ You seem to be a good agent but I can't tell you. if I tell you, you might be silenced. you can't win so just take your team and leave _

Claus blinks shocked then he begins to chuckle

-pffft, well, I can't have you look down on strike team 1 like that, we have a reputation to keep -

portals open all around the trio.

Saiko is able to see members of the strike team on the other sides of the portals, she then hears Claus give his orders.

- all members spell number 13 rapid fire on command fire -

Saiko summons massive ice walls all around the trio which are immediately impacted by 100s of lava bullets.

Claus looks at her with interest.

-oh, you can use ice too, interesting. all members switch to spell number 9 fire -

Saiko summons more ice walls but to no avail, as the members fire laser beams that travel through the ice unobstructed.

Ken, having already predicted what spell number 9 was going to be, immediately pulls Daxia and Saiko and falls to the floor with them to dodge the laser beams.

he then pulls Daxia towards him and begins to whisper

~I have a plan ~

Daxia looks at him like she was expecting it.

- what took you so long? -

~I wanted to get an idea of their pattern of behavior, now listen ~

after hearing the plan Daxia gets up once the laser beams stop

-all right all right we give up -

Claus looks at her amused

- somehow, I don't believe you -

- oh well you are right we don't -

-FIRE-

all members fire their laser spells again.

having already seen Claus use his spatial magic, Daxia copies his spell and opens multiple portals of her own all around her to catch the laser beams.

the other ends of the portals open right next to each of the strike team members and Claus, sending the laser beams at them.

Sophia who was watching the fight through the cameras, sees all members of the strike team get skewered by the laser beams and screams in shock

- CLAUS -

Sophia then winces in pain, as Rin uses that moment of distraction to take over the system and kick her out.

she ignores Rin and immediately switches her attention to sending medical drones to her teammates and her fiancé but her thought process is interrupted by Claus' calm voice

- I am fine. did you forget I have protective spatial magic on me, the team is also fine they have the same magic on their armor -

-haa, right -

Sophia thighs in relief remembering the defense system that Claus made.

it's in the form of a small chip that works like a digital grimoire and stores portal spells and is equipped with multiple sensors that detect any fast moving object or energy beam that's on a collision course with the body.

the chip then intercepts it with a portal whose other end opens behind the person.

the dimensions of the portal perfectly match the object making it appear as though the object fazed through them.

the strike force team rarely needed to resort to it since their policy is to shoot first and ask questions later, which made Sophia forget about it.

the trio hears Rin shout in their ear through their channels

- I took over the system and ready to teleport you -

Ken's lips curl up when he hears that and gets up and bows toward Claus

~ ladies and gentlemen of strike team 1 that's all for today's show until we meet again~

Daxia then opens a portal below them and the trio falls through the portal and comes out right next to the teleportation pillar where Rin had prepared a portal for them.

they run through the portal leaving Egit and heading to Koya.

a fraction of a second later an exact replica of the pillar's portal opens next to it and lava bullets similar to the ones fired by the strike team fly out and destroy the pillar

Claus raises an eyebrow amused and strokes his chin

- this is my first time seeing a member of the Xia family in action. what a handy little trick they got there -

members of the strike team gather around their leader then one of them with the code number 01 written on his chest walks towards Claus

- what's our next move sir -

Claus looks at Agent 01 his vice leader who worked alongside him for many years.

he is an old dark elf with a rough looking face and a long scar that extends from the center of his forehead to the middle of his left cheek but misses his eye.

although both light elves and dark elves had an affinity to all magic types and thus could learn any magic they desired, they did not view all magic equally.

light elves and dark elves venerated different concepts leading to them viewing certain magic types to be more sacred than others.

light elves venerated life and nature, leading to them viewing the element of fire and magic types related to it as holy.

the highest of which is the mythical life magic.

dark elves on the other hand venerated death and darkness, leading to them viewing the element of water and its related magic types as holy.

the highest of which is the dreaded decay magic.

these beliefs lead to light elves and dark elves being unrivaled masters of fire and water magics respectively.

Claus pauses for a moment to reminisce about the countless battles in which he fought alongside his vice leader in the past and the many times he displayed amazing mastery over water before placing his hand on the shoulder of his old friend.

- tell me Davis have you ever seen water magic no have you ever seen any water behave like this before -

Davis closes his eyes and recalls how the water moved as though it was alive and had a will of its own.

he recalls how it made him feel horrified when the element he knew most refused to obey him, how he feared for his life, and how the water as though in response to his fear gave off a comforting and soothing feeling as though to reassure him, he will be safe.

he finally opens his eyes and shakes his head

- no, I have never seen nor heard of water ever behaving like this -

Claus pats his friend on the back then looks at the rest of his team

- we will return to the base for now -

- what about the criminals - Davis asks - if we leave them now, we will lose track of them -

Claus turns around already starting to walk

- do you think you could win had that water been trying to kill you rather than simply move you away-

Davis flinches at the thought then shakes his head

-no, I couldn't-

-that's what I thought, we need to prepare before we can fight them again besides I am pretty sure I know where they will be heading next -

' And I need to find myself some answers first'