Jumping down the wall, he conjured up two small flaming daggers. The muscles in his legs bulged as he suddenly sped up, disappearing from the wall in an instant.
The duo stood still, making Razir think they couldn't even handle his speed. A grin appeared on his face as he rushed towards the blond haired mage. Holding his daggers in a reverse grip, just the mere speed at which he was going was enough to blow him away.
A light blue aura enveloped him, but he wasn't able to stop now! He was already close enough to the mage. Right as he lifted his fist to let the dagger completely slice the neck open of his opponent, the man bent his knees and grabbed his arm. Turning his body, he used his own speed and power against him, lifting him in the air and launching him towards the forest.
Crashing through multiple trees, he landed upside down. Razir felt baffled. 'What the hell just happened?'
His signature attack always killed or harmed whoever tried to block it, yet now he was the one blown away. Seeing the blond haired man hold back a laugh, his companion simply stood there with two hands behind his back, as if he didn't have to help in the slightest.
"You fuckers!", getting back up, he rushed, slower than last time, towards the blond mage who had conjured up a strange shield and Blue Flame Sword. Stopping right in front of him, he raised his daggers as a flurry of attacks appeared. The power of the flames were incredible while the sharpness was one of Razir's great prides.
Yet the blond mage only took some steps back as he used the shield to block most of the attacks. The front of the shield took massive damage as the power held within his daggers far outperformed whatever a Rank 2 could create.
Seeing his attacks have impact, Razir was about to push forward before the other mage simple nodded slightly.
Thinking it was a sign of attack, Razir checked for any mana fluctuations, and when he noticed something, he took a step back. Turning his eyes back to the man in front of him, the shield suddenly opened up, blasting his eyeballs with a searing hot light that almost burned them out.
Out of instinct, Razir grabbed his face as outside his view, the dark blue haired mage threw something towards the blond mage. Using his willpower, Razir was able to tell that they hadn't moved yet, giving him the chance to ambush them.
While the pain of his searing eyes hurt him immensely, he had experienced worse pains, the only effect the attack had was the element of surprise. 'They still think I'm blinded, now's my shot!'
Accelerating his movements out of nowhere, the blond mage wasn't impressed as he sidestepped the attack. The mage brought his hand to his protective shields and with a layer of Darkness surrounding his palm, he created a big hole in his defenses.
Hearing a high-pitched sound, Razir felt something enter his sides. A small two-pronged dagger thrusted right through all his defenses.
"Huh?", Razir had his shields destroyed or damaged in fights, but that was always because of a bombastic fight where attacks were impossible to dodge, yet now, that strange dagger was capable of passing through his defenses like it was nothing. It all felt so smooth, all the actions they took were done without any form of hesitation.
As if they had planned for this to happen somehow.
"Goodbye," snapping his fingers, Razir felt a surge of energy from the dagger as it exploded, blowing his body in two pieces.
Razir's upper body landed not far from his lower half. He felt terrible, and his head couldn't tell up from down. Right as his vision started to somewhat better, he felt a hand on his neck and his world turned dark.
The blond mage had ripped out the head and spinal cord. Holding it in that air for a moment, he threw it on the ground as he positioned himself next to his partner, staring at Proktor from a distance.
Jason, who had been watching from afar felt a chill in his bones. He had seen Razir in action plenty of times. The brute power and speed the man displayed was always to his own benefit. Never had he seen such a quick demise. The fact that a Rank 2 did it as well shocked him to his core.
There was a massive gap between Ranks, that was well known, overcoming that meant you would be heralded as a genius, yet all recorded examples in the past showed the weaker mages always being tired. Yet the people in front of his eyes didn't even use that much magic.
'They completely dominated Razir, he didn't even stand a chance!'
The reality before him settled in, Razir felt a cold feeling creep up his spine. Sweat covered his back as he felt his mouth dry up. Even if he twisted the future to the perfect path, if they simply couldn't deal with the threat, was there even a path forward? No matter how prepared you try to be, if the ground suddenly turned into lava, you wouldn't be able to do anything no matter how many tries.
Turning his head he saw Graham, who was meant to be busy managing the flock of monsters, yet now stared wide-eyed at the corpse of Razir. Seeing how easily they took care of his captain, Graham's face was filled with a strange emotion.
Jason had seen the commander in many situations, from extremely dire to unsurvivable in other timelines. Never had he seen the look he had on now. 'Is he... scared?'
All concepts of basic laws were thrown out the window as their opponents took the conventions and trashed them. Their smiling masks terrified Jason.
'This run is fucked!'
Jason knew that things weren't going to end well here. Everything was going great until they send out Razir. Meaning that next time he would have to convince Graham to go instead. While Razir was strong, Graham was much more powerful, he would be able to deal with them. And while Jason felt impending doom encroach unto his heart, he tried to focus on a better future for all.
Bringing the runes he needed to travel back to the front of his mind, his eyes suddenly locked in on the blond mage in the distance. The man had created a bow and arrow out of Blue Flames. Conjuring up the arrow, pulled it back before letting it loose. The power of the arrow was something he would be able to handle, but his fear made him think otherwise.
"Commander!"
Stepping forward, Graham shot off a blast of water towards the Arrow, yet it pierced right through. Frowning, Graham gathered a large amount of mana to simply conjure an ice wall and send it flying towards the arrow, making it explode in a large cloud of steam.
The shockwave, made Jason take a step to the side so he would be able to hold onto the railing on the tower when his heart suddenly froze. From the cloud of steam a Dark Beam cut right through, removing his left shoulder. His ears unmistakingly heard the sound of his separated arm hitting the ground as the pain set it.
"Dammit! They used the smokescreen to ambush us!" Graham quickly conjured up a bubble of Light that healed their injuries and should at least hold back the power of that attack. "Don't worry Jason, I know people who've specialized in healing. They'll get your arm back."
But the man wasn't even listening anymore. As he used the blood from his wounds to quickly draw foreign runes on the ground, Jason muttered some as well to speed up the process. Graham only glanced at them, knowing they were something he had never seen before, a gear turned one step further.
"Captain Moore! What are you doing?!", there was a certain anger or fear present in his tone.
"I'm going back! There's no salvaging this anymore!", Jason almost screamed it out, as he was suddenly lifted from the ground. Being raised by his collar, Graham's furious look stared right into Jason's determination.
"You're leaving us behind?! What do you think happens to us when you go back?!"
"Like I would know! Right now, there's no saving any of us anymore. I have to return to fix it!"
While Jason knew what he experienced going back, Graham only thought now about his own life when Jason used it. Would Jason disappear, and would he have to fight without one of his captains, or would he also go back and lose his memories?
"You're abandoning us?!", it wasn't even a question, Graham knew all too well what he was trying to do. "I can't allow it!"
"Commander! This is our only way out!"
"You say that, but all isn't lost yet. No matter how many Rank 1's die, as long as I can get rid of them, we can still survive this battle!"
"No you can't! I've already seen us trying to brute force our way forward! We were prey, sheep walking into a slaughterhouse! Look at them, why aren't they taking initiative?", Jason pointed towards the duo who simply stood by and watched the chaos unfold.
Graham knew that right now would be the best time to rush in and use the unbridled chaos to their advantage. Yet they just stood there. Graham let loose of Jason's collar as he spread his willpower.
Scanning further ahead, Graham didn't hold back as he extended it as far as possible. At the very edge, he found it. A single Rank 3 mage, preparing a second arrow.
"There was never a second one, right?", Graham asked Jason while staring forward.
"What?"
"Get down!"
The entire top of the tower blew up in a massive explosion.
As the debris fell, Jason was caught up in it. By the time he was able to open his eyes, smoke, dust and fire surrounding him. The bodies of his friends and colleagues lay all around him. Screams from a few mages echoed in his ringing ears.
Putting some strength in his arm, he tried to push himself off the ground before his arm gave in, planting his face into the very concrete he was supposed to protect. Jason didn't have to look. He could feel his innards touch the open air. The lower half of his body was gone, crushed under the piles of stones.
All was lost, there was no point in trying to reason with reality. Nothing he could possibly do would fix this.
While his mind was still conscious, Jason brought his remaining arm in front of him. His eyes closed, not having any strength to keep them open. Using muscle memory, he started to write the runes necessary to return.
His fingers trembled. He couldn't tell if it was from blood loss or fear. Each stroke of the rune was a whisper, a plea to the universe. One more chance. One more reset.
Suppressing the splitting headache as best he could, the runes slowly started to take form before he lost the strength to lift his finger. A final breath exited his mouth as the world around him turned black, but never flashed white again.
There were a lot of people in the world of Aurora who had the privilege to gain an innate gift from birth. Each one unique, there were many different possibilities. Some were extremely useless, like being capable of telling when it would rain. Others were only usable in certain places or at certain times, limiting the user's possibilities.
Rarely was a gift powerful or useful, like what the young Princess Freya had. Jason was one of the few exceptions where his innate gift had the power to change the world and universe, yet he squandered his gift like so many before him.
Out of fear, many keep their gifts hidden to themselves, not wanting to be exploited or used in experiments. Jason never gave away his secret unless he knew he would return. This resulted in him not having anyone to turn to, nobody that aided him fully.
A wasted gift, thrown in the trash because of poor management and fear of persecution. Jason was one of many prime examples of wasted gifts.
History would never remember what it could've been.
The duo in the distance watched on with interest.
"Was that really worth the effort? You revealed multiple cards for what? To get rid of the commander? Malek was meant to take him out in the first place."
"I know, I know. Perhaps I was a bit impulsive, but throughout all the chaos and surprises, that man stayed calm and looked at us, not his dying brethren. If he had hatred in his eyes, sure, but he was studying us."
"I find it far-fetched," crossing his arms, Asta didn't like Lucas' approach.
"In his situation, my aura's effect should've been astounding, yet he ignored most of it."
"That move didn't even do that much. I do agree that it should at least be distracting. For him to then still look at us after we got rid of that fool does warrant some caution."
"I'm also disappointed in the attack, my personal rune is extremely powerful, yet the effects were minimal. I'll try to improve upon it for the next time."
Asta nodded as he started to walk forward. Lucas raised his arm to block Asta's way forward. Asta didn't feel offended as they did nothing without reason. Not saying a word, Asta checked the castle with his willpower.
"I see, we should call him, I suppose."
"And let him ruin the entire place? I'd rather they fight far away. What if they break the cores?"
Shooting off a signal, Malek challenged the remaining Rank 3 mage in the castle. While extremely emotional, Malek was powerful. Threatening to blow up the entire castle from afar, the commander rushed out from the smoke to prevent him from doing so.
Their conversation at the end might've been interpreted as a fascinating mix of arrogance, calculation, and casual cruelty in a chilling tone. But they didn't see it that way. Ranks, aura's, willpower, gifts, spells, arrays and any other trucks were all just part of a larger system. True power lies not just in strength, but in knowing how the system works, and then breaking it.
"Why is it so often that the supposed leaders of these places are so battle hungry? They could've easily stayed to defend," Asta questioned. Throughout their travels, there were plenty of times when the forces were extremely willing to fight them. Of course, this only worked against them since they would always booby-trap the entire surroundings.
"I don't know, either way, Malek will take care of him. Now we just have to clean up."
"Indeed, we still need to make a few stops."
Asta and Lucas felt happy with their results. Taking down a Rank 3 mage wasn't an easy feat, yet they did so almost effortlessly.
'In the end, Rank 3 mages are just humans with a bit more power. They'll still die when their head is disconnected from their body.'
'Sure, the issue is their pressure. The moment one of those fuckers uses their aura or pressure, you're meant to be done for.'
'Well, that's where the psychological aspect comes in.'
When Razir first used his aura to pressure Asta and Lucas, they used Malek's aura to counteract it. Having them simply stand and not make a move made Razir think it wasn't effective. If something wasn't effective, people would stop using it.
If he tried it again during the fight, the results would've been different, although Lucas and Asta were sure that they would still win in the end. They had plenty of tricks up their sleeves. The massive wall between Ranks was something everyone was cautious off, making them refrain from going against the tide.
But Lucas and Asta were both people who fought against the system. They knew how it worked, and used it to their advantage.
The fear between Ranks also worked both ways. A Rank 3 mage would let his guard down near a Rank 2 or 1. This also meant that there were more opportunities to attack.
Although that was the case, risking such an endeavor was still mostly suicidal for most. It all depended on the mage they were going up against, and Razir, while powerful, was not one to think things through. Were they up against Graham, they would've had to run depending on the power of their experimental attacks.
Razir was doomed the moment he stepped into Asta's aura. His aura had no offensive capabilities, focussing purely on analyzing and dissecting whatever was in the dome of influence. Lucas realized that brute force was not going to get them anywhere, so he took care of it without switching personalities.
Entering the castle, they used their willpower to detect and consequently remove all the life from the remaining mages. Lucas walked past the corpse of the one that was staring at them from the tower. He had begun scribbling some runes from his blood, but never managed to finish them.
'I just got his arm? I missed that terribly?'
'Told you to aim a bit more to the right.'
'How could you know he even moved in the first place.'
'I just feel it, you don't have a knack for those things in the first place. Why didn't you let me have some fun man?'
'Because raw power wasn't useful here. Maybe later though, since the toughest nut is still on the list.'
'Fine, just don't make me wait too long.'
Staring at the corpse, Lucas started to inspect his writings.
"Interesting, these look like runes, but I don't recognize any of them," Lucas said out loud as Asta used his floating sword to decapitate some of the mages.
"Runes are just a personal interpretation of the world, for all we know they're the same as a basic healing spell."
Lucas nodded before digging his hands into the corpse to get the core. He didn't forget to remember the runes though. If something had the capacity to make them more powerful, nothing stood in their way of getting their hands on it.
Malek joined them not long after with a big satisfied smile and a hand covered in blood, holding a gem within.
"We're done here."