(exactly a week before )

'Hello, my friends. it has been so long since I have last seen you ' .the owner of the voice was a very annoying friend of mine. but if the rumors were true, I can happily bear him.

teacher - you should come out more often. just how long will you keep hunting like that, you maniac. give my students a chance at least no, to get the title of best Hunter

.

me - what can I say, teacher. I have my goals. it's also better for your students. I have seen their arrogance. it's better if a guy like me keeps them pressed down. maybe they will finally leave this city.

that shut him. to be honest his students were pretty strong. some of them could even challenge me right now. the only problem was that they were too engrossed in this cities politics. teacher had seven disciples. four supported the crown, three supported the emperor. normally he would send his disciple. but the situation in the Capitol was so tense that even the disciples could not leave.

teacher - I have a mission for you. normally I leave it my disciple to deal with, but you know the city and to just how much depth my disciples are involved. you of all people just how hard it can be. anyways I think you would be particularly interested in this.

me - that's fine. you have something I want anyways. what is the mission anyways.

teacher - I can't give you anything. just completing the mission is reward enough for you. this time the mission is a baby Minotaur.

me - that's nice to hear, but I need something and it is not any of your precious resources. what I want is your information. are the old men of the city of madness getting ready for war, are the rumors true ?. has the book of the bloody mage finally activated again.

teacher - I already know what you want to know, but don't you think it's already enough that you are getting a minotaurs ability already what more do you want.

me - your information.

( after that we had a few rounds of haggling where let's just say we said a couple of stuff that outsiders should not know. though I can proudly say that I have managed to convince that guy to tell me about the elders, naturally after the mission was over. )

me - that kind of secrets lose their value pretty quickly teacher. isn't it better if you just use them as a reward right now? you know I won't spread it around me anyway. I don't have any allies here.

teacher - okay fine, I will tell you what you want to know, but only after the mission is over and you will owe me a favour, I have a feeling I might need your help anyways.

moving about the city was in hassle in and of itself. forces from either side were busy keeping tabs on each other. men on the fence were often the ones in the worst situation. especially now that the city was going to war soon. both sides kept an eye on me fearing that I would join the other group.

it was a very uncomfortable sensation but I could deal with it.

before leaving the city I had to do shopping for both of my allies. phantom wanted a couple of her novels, ok who am I kidding. she had this entire list. it was enough to fill an entire page. I don't even when she will get the time to read these many books. she also wanted iron ores, mithril bars, and a few chunks of soul iron. it looks like she was trying to craft a dagger again.

phantom is a genius blacksmith. she might not look like it but she, with some help from rock, has crafted a few weapons, that let's just say if she was ready to auction them could even bring the emperor to the auction house. ( not really, but it would become famous. )

rock wanted a lot of food. since the mission rewards this time were something only I was getting, I had to satisfy their demands. otherwise, I will hear about it for many years.

getting two big bags of material, I could finally leave.

( shopping is an irritating affair, especially with the haggling that is involved. maybe that's part of the reason that I hate shopping. so you must understand why I skipped it. )

anyways leaving all that be I quickly have to go to the camp. the tension In the capital was too high.

(after a while in our camp, which we had set up a couple of kilometers away from the Capitol. my friends were not that good at dealing with political tension. )

me - what the hell are you guys doing here, I told you not to use your abilities right now .those guy in the Capital need just one excuse and they will be at each other's throats.

phantom - but we need to cook food, no. do you want us to starve?

rock was using his power to create a small pit in which phantom was throwing sticks.

once lit it would create a large bonfire, that could use to roast larger animals for the glutton that was rock.

me -leave it be, there are still six months before the time for the war begins. while everybody is tense they are not that tense. anyways we got a mission this time. we are going to be hunting for a minotaurs soul.

phantom - so you finally found a minotaur where is it, somewhere on the border. are the phantom world empire planning an attack.

a Minotaur with their abilities and their underground dungeons, could sneak attack us from right below us, that too with an entire army.

rock- well the phantom world empire should be looking to attack us right now, aren't they ?. I mean the black wind empire hasn't even tried to suppress the news.

me - well they won't, it's like an unspoken agreement between the two empires. whenever there is an inheritance of power In either of the countries, the other country must not attack during that time.

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both the countries have to follow this deal or face the consequences.

rock - okay then where is this minotaur that you speak of.

opening the map I had gotten from my old friend, teacher. I showed them the location of the last seen location of the Minotaur.

rock - that location is very deep in the phantom world empire. do you want to risk entering the phantom world empire?

me - it's just a hit-and-run mission. we kill the baby Minotaur, we run. The teacher has promised us a quick means of escape.

phantom - how are you planning to enter then. has the teacher given us a method.

me - nope, we will have to pull of the earth bullet maneuver if you want to enter, we can escape the patrol and most of the demihumans tribes.

phantom - no way, have you forgotten the last time we used that method to move about. we all almost lost our lives.

rock - do you want to take that kind of risk, immortal. you do remember the last time that we tried this move, we almost died.

me - I know but, it's a very short hop. we will be fine this time, we won't take the same risk as last time. I will get to crafting the bullet. you rest up rock

(after a while )

I was standing in front of a rough cylinder. well, guns weren't exactly popular in my world. I heard that there was an entire universe that relied on guns. but guns were mostly unknown in this land.

anyways the earthen bullet was created from a somewhat similar principle as a gun. the cylinder that I was making would be the bullet.

rock would be using his powers to push the bullet forward and with some practice, we can reach some ridiculous speeds. one of the main reasons it was useful was that it was very hard to detect. unless a very powerful earth user put all his focus in a small circumference, but cases of that happening were pretty rare. Naturally, there were disadvantages. This power had a very high cost as well. going that deep into the earth, even moving slightly forward would consume a lot of energy. even a skilled ability user like rock, would have to put all his focus to move that rock .then came the friction. the earthern bullet is created using earth, well because if anything else is used it becomes pretty easy to be detected. but the velocities at which we want to move, the friction from the motion would shred our bullet to non-existence in seconds, especially at the velocity we want .another earth manipulator would be needed to keep it in shape. that's where me, my dagger came into action.

the last time I lost my focus for a couple of seconds because rock had called me to inform me that he was running out of energy and would need to stop. the bullet was completely crushed and we were almost buried in the sand. phantom forcefully passed on her ability to us. while I am not sure of what exactly happened, but she lost her ability for two years. two years for a person without abilities is a very difficult situation indeed, a single breeze would be able to kill you, that kind of weakness can change a man or woman, in this case, while I tried my best to protect her. seeing her I am reminded of something an old friend of mine used to say . " men like control. take it from them and only two things will happen. one, they will learn that they didn't need that control, or two desire it so much that it becomes an insatiable thirst ".

I think it helped me when my control was taken from me, I think. but while that little girl's situation was nowhere close to mine, it still scared the shit out of me. that kind of choice can't be taken properly by a person unless he experienced life.

while nothing seems to have changed unless you count her increased obsession with those romance stories of her.

that what scared me. that kind of stuff should affect a man. no man is ever able to forget that powerlessness . to be wronged and to not even have the power to fight those that oppress you . to suffer torture for a hundred years. to be pulled apart piece by piece and then reassembled to be torn apart again.

leave it be, I think it's better if I shut this thing because I will lose my mind if I think about it.

( after a while )

we successfully crossed the borders. nobody discovered us and I did not lose focus this time. it was a short trip lasting I think some five minutes. anyways we had already risen to the surface and were breaking apart the bullet and leave. phantom naturally abandoned us by using her ability.

me - see rock, there was no need for you to be so scared. nothing like last time will happen again.

rock - I know immortal, to be honest rather than me, I was more scared for that kid. she did become stronger after that entire bullet thing didn't she. she has become more calmer under fire. let's hope she doesn't become a daredevil like you are.

me - how am I a daredevil, I think about stuff at least a few times before acting. while I agree I take a few risks, most of them are reasonable.

rock - like the earthern bullet. It comes under banned techniques in the black wind empire and with what happens the last time, a minotaurs soul is not enough to make you take such risks. you are trying to confirm whether those rumors are true or not.

me - is it that obvious.

rock - leave it be, we don't have the time to worry about it. phantom will be waiting.

after that I dug my knife into the bullet willing it to collapse and turn to sand . after a while, the bullet finally completely.

me - why are you...

I stopped seeing the company. they were bull-faced demihumans, often found working under minotaurs.

now was not the time to think. the only element around me was air, so I willed it to move. slowly but steadily, a wind formed in my surroundings. the enemy had not noticed it yet. Wind abilities tend to be very sneaky after all.

me - whichever person is behind this, I promise you, you won't have a happy ending.

Minotaur - so this is the legendary immortal. you are not as mighty as they make you to be to see you barking like this. it's pretty fun to see.

me - what can I say, it's not barking it delaying.

as I said that, the winds around me began to intensify, growing stronger. enough to blow away the meaty bullfaced demihumans. by now my mind is on the verge of blackout .only one thing left to do.

(that was the last thought I had as I threw my dagger to rock who utilized the chaos to escape from our enemies grasp, taking phantom with him )