Dawn cast its beautiful light upon Barl as the island's residents emerged from their shops, bars, and offices, drawn to behold the sun, nature's lovely gift. They had seen it hundreds, even thousands of times, yet each time their eyes beheld that sight, they felt anew.

The locals near the ship port enjoyed the best view in town, except for the strange noise they could hear.

"Do you hear that?"

"Not just hear. I can smell burning wood. Should we be worried?"

"Nah. It must be the knights doing something. Let's hope they find a clue about our kids."

The locals nodded, completely unaware of what was happening.

---

**Spark...** Levi needed a spark, and for some reason, a lighter came to mind.

*Click... Click...*

As a kid, it was the coolest thing, and as an adult, even cooler.

Levi closed his eyes, wanting a vivid imagination and to feel the image itself. Next thing, he knew, the energy in his body swirling, fighting, and striking, creating what Levi wanted.

Heat rose up, right in front of his palms, and a little spark appeared.

*Click...*

And this time, a sea of flames burst out. The red-hot phenomenon of nature, boon of man and doom as well, engulfed Lark. He couldn't move. It's as if the flames ordered him not to.

Lark reached out his palm. A blue magic shield appeared in front of him, blocking the flames in his way. But that wasn't enough.

"Argh."

He screamed as the flames went behind that barrier and grazed his back, enough to give him a first-degree burn.

Lark was being hurt, and if Levi kept on going like this, there would soon be an opening. He had the secret to unlimited energy, and the desperate sailor didn't.

The entire room was engulfed in flames as the ceiling began to turn to ash, resembling snow from hell.

But then something entered his mind, something really important.

"Blake."

Levi opened his eyes and shouted. In the heat of the moment, he forgot, that Blake was behind Lark. But in the sea of flames, nothing came into Levi's vision.

"Why are you shouting my name?"

Blake said standing beside Levi holding his spear and a slight burn on his left shoulder.

Before Levi let out his attack, Blake's instinct spoke to him, literally. To run and stand beside Levi. He did but the flames managed to catch his shoulder.

Levi squinted and bowed a bit.

Blake just nodded with a worried expression.

"I know you are trying to win, but isn't this overkill? Won't the whole line of ticket counters turn to ash if the fire goes on?"

Levi again nodded. He already knew this.

He wanted to stop the new technique he had just found, but he couldn't. The flames kept pouring out from his palms and denied following his will to stop. Levi learnt to light a fire, and never cared about how to stop it.

It was the first time [Essence] had not obeyed him. Instead of stopping it, Levi came up with another plan. Lessen the energy output.

'I have the mana of an F-rank.'

Immediately, he felt the flames start to lessen, and soon nothing ignited from his hand. But that wasn't the end, the whole room still was on fire and was about to spread to other shops.

Blake looked at Levi who was about to be the cause of the biggest fire the city had ever witnessed.

"Can't you control the remaining flames?"

As he said, the flames, without any interference, slowly died down. Blake looked confused and looked at Levi, who was even more confused.

'What in the hell did I just create?'

The whole room smelled like coal, and the ceiling was about to collapse. Blake and Levi ran out from the store to the back of the ship, and Lark was on their tail.

He swung his sword at Levi. He tried to block it, but the sword managed to give him a cut on his thigh.

A painful groan escaped his mouth. Lark, covered in burns, also took a long breath.

Strong, Levi was a lot stronger than he anticipated and looked. If he hadn't stopped, Lark would have been turned to embers and the whole city too.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Was there a way he could win? Maybe he could. He would win the battle, but the guards would arrest him. And he would never meet his daughter ever again.

He looked to the left. The ship they stood on had passed through a small gap in the ship port to reduce carrying load up to the ship port.

He watched his boss and Kuma fight. One had his whole body covered in golden light and the other, adored by the winds, forming whirlwinds to protect their muse.

But it didn't matter who won that battle, Levi and the other two had already caused too many issues. Since the time they had found out, he had already lost.

"You know what I am trying to do here right?"

Lark said as he looked at the crates.

"And you are here to save them."

Levi and Blake didn't respond and watched the madness in Lark's eye become brighter and darker at the same time.

"I will lose my life. That means these kids don't matter to me anymore."

He profused in anger.

Mana surged in his sword. He lifted his sword to cut down all of those crates in a single slash.

Blake, about to jump to stop him, was stopped by Levi.

"What if your daughter is in one of those crates?"

Levi said.

Lark stopped, he felt his whole world crashing down. He switches between looking at Levi and those boxes.

"Impossible, she wouldn't?"

Levi scuffed at that.

"Captain wouldn't? So you trust the person who kidnapped your daughter?"

Levi had heard the conversation between them from the crate. And he wasn't going to let such information go to waste.

"Just once have you asked her, what her plans were? What was she going to do with these innocent lives, and what she had done to yours? Maybe your daughter was the first victim?"

"Shut up."

Lark shouted. He didn't want to hear nor imagine anything bad happening to his only thread of life in this hell.

Lark seemed clueless. All he focused on was to do what Violet wanted. Never did he decide to stop and analyze what was going on. Like a puppet, he had been doing his work, never asking why those strings were tied to him in the first place.

He remembered the paper Violet gave him. Lark took it out and opened it. Blank, nothing was written, except a smiley face, more of a mocking face was drawn.

The paper crumbled upon his rage as he threw it.

"Violet."

He shouted, his voice echoing even within the small confines of the ship. He ran outside, to where Violet was having her fight.

Levi and Blake just watched him leave. Without any exchange of words, they walked out of the crate and started opening them.

*Creak...*

As they had guessed, the kidnapped children were there, unconscious and paler. Blake froze. That sight, those innocent lives like this, glued his hands on his weapon.

"They are alive. The crates are enchanted with wind magic."

The bottoms had magic circles on them, ensuring they wouldn't suffocate inside.

Blake nodded, but the sight in front of him would never ever leave his mind. Horrible things had happened to these children, something that they also wouldn't forget.

Levi put the lid back on. They couldn't just take them out in the open while a fight was happening. Also, it would take ages to take them out.

Using his Sense skill, Levi checked the boxes and breathed a sigh of relief to know all of the children were fine. But there was an odd one.

"That one in the far corner. On the top. It's empty."

Blake looked at Levi and then at the place he pointed at. Skipping over the other crates and boxes of fruits labelled, he reached the crate and opened it. Just like Levi said, it was empty.

He didn't ask how Levi knew. But was it good or an ominous sign of its emptiness?

"Leave it for now. We need to help Kuma. The guards will also be here soon, and you guys need to hide as well."

Levi said.

"Okay."

Blake agreed as the two ran towards the main ship port.

---

"Are you ugly enough that you are so scared to tie that scarf that tightly around your face?"

"Not as ugly as yours."

Violet and Kuma continued to mock each other as they fought, standing at the ocean's edge as if it were their natural habitat. Ten minutes had passed since their battle began. With each exchange of blows, they both understood that holding back wasn't an option.

Although both Violet and Kuma bore numerous cuts, none were severe enough to be fatal. Just minutes prior, they had witnessed flames erupting and then subsiding from the room they had burst out of.

"Tsk."

Violet clicked her tongue. She had failed. Even if he won against Kuma, she was unable to take the ship.

Everything they did was planned with utmost precision. A whole city and group of awakeners couldn't find them, but these three did.

Violet remembered the gaze he had. No fear lived in that eye, no that wasn't it. Nothing lived in that eye or inside that boy.

Kuma didn't let Violet wander too much. He channelled mana into his sword and performed a horizontal slash, letting out a golden slash.

The wind moved to Violet's cutlass, producing a barrier on her weapon, perfectly blocking the attack.

Both of them exchanged attacks similar to this again and again until a scream reached their ears.

"VIOLET."

The pirate momentarily turned back. Lark was running at her, his eyes red, and the sword laced with malice.

Violet smiled. Two tornadoes formed to her left. One launched towards Kuma, and the other towards her puppet. "So you looked at the paper without finishing the job. A bad dog must be punished."

Lark gritted his teeth as he ran into the swirling of winds, something he couldn't win against. The wind cut his nose at first, then his face, and slowly his skin was being peeled off.

But he felt nothing. He wanted to kill that demon of a woman. Pull that filthy tongue of hers and wrap it around her neck.

"Argh." He screamed, trying to escape.

Kuma behind her had cut through the winds. Now, his sword thrusting towards Violet's chest.

Turning back, she smiled,

"Not so fast, my bear."

Another whirlwind started forming on her hands. Before her magic moved, she felt a stinging pain in her left hand.

"Huh?"

An arrow had gone through and stuck in her hand. She didn't have time to register the pain and search for the attacker.

Swiftly, the wind carried her back, away from Kuma's sword, but the mana bound to it cut her stomach.

She clutched the wound and tried to take out a health potion from her spatial ring.

But she had too much on her hands now. Behind her was Lark, hungry for her blood, so much she walked through those piercing winds, through sheer will.

He swung his sword, a bit sloppy, and walking on water, quite wasn't his forte. The sword missed her neck but managed to pierce her thigh, almost cutting it off.

"Grr." Violet gritted her teeth, hiding her pain and desire to scowl. It would be unfitting of a lady like her to scream, that's what she thought.

Before she could even do anything, Kuma was already in front of her, and she sensed an arrow coming to pierce her skull.

"Shit."

Violet closed her eyes. A few seconds passed, one... two, but neither the sword nor the arrow reached her.

She opened her eyes. A red magic barrier protected her from all sides. Kuma's sword struck against the barrier, and the arrow was destroyed when it touched the defence.

"You failed." A voice that she had heard two months ago now came from behind. She turned back and kneeled. Her face, touched by the cold and salty water, didn't wash the sweat on it.

"I-I…..these guys messed it up. I did everything, I could-"

"Don't speak." The man ordered, and Violet shook her head. Kuma watched the man, looking at him. His face was covered by a black mask without any holes even for the eyes to look through.

The man turned to the shipport and noticed two boys looking at it. One with golden eyes, and a spear shook, trying to calm himself.

And the other, red eyes, mixed with silver, with a bow and a quiver on his back. However, even that far, that man seemed to know that boy. For a brief moment only but enough to last a long time.

"So this is how we meet again."

He mumbled to himself with a smile.