Within four days of the incident that occurred between Nick and captain Walsh's platoon, hundreds of students and military personnel approached the site where the mountain range formerly stood.
Rufus Perkins, a second year ace of the Raylam Priest Academy led his group over the plain past the other students that were racing to the area using by using special magic footwear that his family's company had developed that raised the average running speed of its wearer by 100%. He spoke cheerfully to his group members:
"Everyone, based on our maps we are almost at the site of the mountain range, be prepared for a fight!"
A young man who looked similar to Rufus in that he had the same short red hair, freckled face and dimples spoke in a low tone while running beside him:
"Bro, don't you think that we should have seen the mountain range by now, I mean we are running on a plain and the mountain range should be at least a few kilometers high."
Rufus felt strange about the situation as well but he was certain that the Ministry of Magic announced that Nick Capitol was last seen at the mountain range situated within this area. Rufus replied:
"Maybe there are some natural phenomena that is preventing us from perceiving the mountain range at this time."
Lance Perkins responded with a doubtful tone:
"I hope so."
As they reached closer to the foot of where the mountain range was supposed to be, Rufus's group encountered more and more students but they were able to safely get past without incident until a loud explosion appeared within their field of vision many meters in front of them. Rufus's group readied themselves and pressed forward. What they saw up ahead was a brown complexioned young woman with long black hair that was currently aiming her rocket launcher towards two groups of students in an attempt to ward them off.
One of the men from the surrounding groups complained:
"What's wrong with you, all I asked was why a pretty little olive like yourself was traveling alone, no need to get so serious. Hey Dudley, you think that this beauty here is over reacting, right?"
A short, burly man in another group replied:
"Oh yeah. She sure is, she even went as far as to blow up one of my men just now. Hey beauty, why don't you give us some of your sweet equipment as payment for my dead friend's pain and suffering?"
With tears in her eyes, the brown woman replied:
"You bastards, your friend tried to grope me after pretending that he was injured and needed help. I don't owe you anything and if you come any closer, I will blow you all to hell!"
Dudley Junior was starting to feel annoyed with this woman. He and his friends had targeted her because they knew from past encounters that she had a wealth of expensive equipment and weaponry stored in her space band so they wanted to coerce her into handing them over but she turned out to be such a hard stone. That rocket launcher on her shoulder had directly killed one of his group members with one blast even after said group member cast his defensive Copper Skin spell.
(She won't go down easily and even if we kill her, it doesn't mean that we will get anything out of it. What do I do? Hmmm...now that I think about it, this woman is from Richter Order Academy, right? I wonder if she knows anything about Nick Capitol.)
Just when Dudley was about to ask, a group of six people wearing white shoes with glowing orange symbols on them ran towards their standoff and placed themselves between Dudley's two groups and the crying woman. Rufus asked loudly:
"What the hell is going on here?"
When the woman recognized Rufus, she showed a trace of excitement and wiped some of the tears from her eyes. She then spoke:
"Rufus Perkins, do you remember me? My name is Sheila Josephs and we met about a year ago in Shelter Town and discussed magic tools there."
Upon taking a closer look at the woman, Rufus did recognize her. He met her a long time ago and was struck by her beauty but ultimately, she refused his advances with the excuse that she had studying to do.
(It looks like I have an opportunity to show off in front of her. Lucky me.)
Rufus decided to side with Sheila without even knowing what happened and quickly began to curse at Dudley and his companions:
"You bastards! Do you all have limp cocks? Why would you gang up on a woman like this with your numbers? Hmph! If you don't scram in two seconds, you'll be getting a beating from me, Rufus Perkins."
Dudley's leading companion in the other group spoke unhappily at hearing what he thought was Rufus's bullshit and spoke:
"Where the hell did this simp come from? Listen here, get lost before I wack you behind the ears."
Dudley openly spat on the ground and echoed his companion's sentiments:
"Since you want to ride in like a prince, be prepared to die for the damsel in distress!"
Dudley decided not to hesitate since Rufus's arrival indicated that he was about to lose control of the situation.
(Black Oil)
Dudley quickly spat out a stream of black oil from his mouth, directing it towards Rufus and his group but Rufus quickly summoned a tennis ball sized spherical device from his space band and threw in on the ground at which point, a rectangular barrier made of blue light appeared and blocked the black oil from reaching his group but that did not stop Dudley from following up with another spell:
(Fire Spit)
Dudley spit towards the black oil that was splattered on the ground and that had soaked much of the grass situated between Rufus and himself. Dudley's spitting action, instead of launching saliva, launched a pellet of fire the size of a billiard ball into the oil which ignited it instantly; a field of large flames was then created.
(Flame Falcon)
Following Dudley's release of a large amount of magic power, a bird the size of a crop duster airplane that was completely made of fire emerged from the flames and crashed into Rufus's barrier of blue light, destroying the barrier and melting the magic tool used to create it before dissipating. The flames then began to spread towards Rufus and his group. Rufus snorted and summoned another strange looking spherical device from his space band and after tapping it, he threw it towards the flames and only a moment later, large ice spikes emerged where the flames were supposed to be, completely replacing them, resulting in the ambient temperature becoming colder.
Rufus followed up by tapping his space band and summoning what appeared to be a flame thrower that hand a small tank attached to it that seemed similar to a backpack. Rufus strapped the tank onto his back and click the trigger near the nozzle of the device after which a flurry of green flames were shot out at Dudley and his groups. The green flames melted the ice spikes that were created by Rufus's device in mere moments and spread towards Dudley and the rest of the opposing students like a wave.
Sensing the high temperature of the strange looking fire, Dudley quickly jumped behind the students who were standing close to him who had already cast their defensive spells. Two earthen walls quickly rose up and blocked the fire but the green flames seemed to consume the earthen walls in an instant. Not only that, before the flames even directly touched them, the two young men that had created the earthen walls with their magic power found themselves suddenly lit on fire with green flames
Dudley's eyes opened wide in shock:
"Is this magic chasing fire? It is fire that perpetuates by consuming magic energy from whatever it touches; it even instantly finds its way to the caster of any spell it touches. It can't be put out with water or other normal methods."
As a Magician that focused on fire related spells, Dudley knew clearly how troublesome the magic chasing fire was and so he did not want to come into contact with it so he shouted to his companions:
"Everyone, retreat."
Dudley and his people quickly turned tail and ran but not before the magic chasing fire consumed and killed several of them. Rufus soon released his right index finger from the trigger of his magic tool and it stopped launching its green flames. Rufus laughed and stored his flame thrower within his space band while watching Dudley and his cronies flee. After about two minutes of keeping their eyes on Dudley and his large group and seeing that they kept running without any intention of returning, Rufus and his five teammates finally turned around to greet the woman that they had helped.
However, as soon as they turned around, a small mechanical fly with ruby red eyes appeared on the left breast area of each of them. One of Rufus's companions questioned in surprise:
"What is this?"
Rufus opened his eyes wide in shock and shouted:
"Everyone, destroy the device. She's betraying..."
Before Rufus could finish his warning, the six mechanical flies burst and then imploded; the space around each person's chest collapsed, creating a large, gruesome cavity in each man's chest, completely destroying their heart. Rufus's vision faded to black, the last thing that he saw being the smiling, smug expression of the woman that he had tried to help. The corpses of the six young men transformed into specks of white light and disappeared before they even hit the ground. Sheila snorted and said:
"What a fool? Did he really think that I needed saving from the likes of that fire breathing imbecile. That bastard Rufus tried to get me to fuck him months ago and was only helping me so that he could try again. Yeah...like that would ever happen. It's survival of the fittest out here son, you should have kept your eyes on the prize."
Sheila chuckled a bit before summoning her map of the area from her space band.
"The foot of the mountain range should be about six hundred meters to the south of here so how comes I'm still not seeing any mountains in sight?"
As soon as Sheila said that, her magic sensing contact lenses picked up multiple large burst of magic energy from the area where the foot of the mountain range should be.
"Something's happening over there. If I want a shot at the inheritance or at killing Nick Capitol, I can't be missing the action. I better hurry."
Sheila clicked her ankles together and a force emerged from her chrome sneakers that lifted her feet about three inches above ground and then she hovered towards the source of the magical disturbance with excitement written all over her face.
Many other strange movements could be seen being made towards position of the magical disturbance. Shadows moving across the plain, people with wings on their back flying quickly, students riding strange looking magic beasts to their destinations, some students were even riding on clouds close to the ground and many other strange methods were showcased. Shelia internally remarked while chuckling:
(This place is becoming a gathering of weirdos. If that Nick Capitol leaves this place alive, this mommy here will kowtow to him for six whole generations. Ha, ha...)
Sheila laughed out maniacally as she advanced.
**********************************************
Twenty minutes earlier...
Four individuals made it to the area where a large, expansive trench was all that remained of a once breath taking mountain range. One of the individuals who was a tall, muscular black man who had a faded hair cut and wore the standard green military uniform of the Ministry of Magic spoke to his three companions that were beside him who wore the same uniform:
"You three received the same orders I did. I don't know what's so special about this boy that sergeant Griffiths is willing to take on whoever kills him as a disciple but it is an opportunity nonetheless. Whichever one of us that gets the kill, no hard feelings."
The only female soldier present, who's body was visibly curvy despite her uniform and who had a head full of long, thick, curly black hair spoke in response:
"Why would we have hard feelings over killing some kid? I swear, the higher ups are getting more and more impulsive these days. The students should be here as a part of a learning experience but they are apparently punishing one for daring to stand out. So what if he injured Roy Mathers, the only reason that Roy is a junior enforcer at his age is because of his family, anyone of us could beat him. I'm more interested in whether this kid actually found an inheritance that can help him promote to rank 3."
The man beside the woman who had shoulder length curly red hair and bright green eyes shook his head, saying:
"I don't know what this Nick Capitol's intention was in announcing the existence of the inheritance but has assertion is probably a part of some kind of scheme. No one with sense would reveal the location of such an inheritance. The only reason why I came is because of you three and the fact that we are assigned to move together. I'm not even interested in becoming Griffith's disciple since I've no doubt that I'm going to get to rank 3 soon, anyway."
The fourth person in the grouped laughed at hearing that; he was a young looking man who unlike the others wore his military vest unbuttoned with his black t-shirt underneath clearly visible, he had a vertical scar that extended from an inch above his eye to an inch below it. The white man looked to be in his late twenties, a little younger than his colleagues and had a head full of short, wavy black hair that was clearly held that way by some kind of gel. He spoke with a youthful tone:
"Jackson, if you get to rank 3 before I do, I'll eat my own shoes. In my opinion, whether there is really an inheritance or whether someone gets to be Griffiths's disciple, it doesn't matter. You may not think well of Roy, Celena, but I know that that guy is strong, at least stronger than many other rank 2 junior enforcers and since this Nick Capitol took him down while being a student, he should also be very strong. I'm looking for him with you guys in order to compete with the strong; that's the best way to get to rank 3, not kissing our boss's ass back at the barracks. Besides, don't be a hypocrite Celena, I know that if Roy asked you out, you would jump at the opportunity in order to get your hands on his family's resources."
The woman who was apparently named Celena opened both her eyes wide and asked:
"Ricardo, do you so badly want to die that you are suggesting that I am some kind of slut?"
Ricardo put on a mischievous expression and replied:
"I would never, best girl, I'm just saying that Roy isn't so useless as to lose without reason. His qi path methods are really something. When I once sparred with him, I had to completely freeze the time flowing around him before I was able to take him down, that wasn't easy. Since you all owe me a favor, you should let me have a one on one with the student first so that I can gauge his strength."
The other three looked at each other and nodded in approval; the black man remarked:
"You can take him on first, Ricardo, but if it looks like you are going to be killed, I will step in immediately. I don't want to be put to shame by association."
Ricardo replied:
"Well, aren't you the considerate one, Stone? Don't worry, no junior is going to take my life."
Stone nodded his head and said:
"By the way, what exactly happened to the mountain range? Did the information that we received from Shelter Town explain the details?"
Jackson shook his head and replied:
"No it didn't. It just says that Nick Capitol is involved with its apparent disappearance."
Ricardo snorted and walked forward, speaking while releasing a cloud of magic energy around himself:
"Hmph! Our people are acting mysterious. That kind of shit is likely to get us killed someday, remind me to beat the hell out of whoever disseminated the information later. "
Ricardo waked eight meters ahead of his comrades and looked up at the sky saying:
"Still haven't revealed yourself yet? Fine, I'll act first."
Ricardo raised his right hand above his head and the cloud of magic energy around him suddenly burst out with great intensity; he cast a spell at that moment:
(Power Lost With Time.)
Nick who was concealing himself with Clear Space in midair and meditating suddenly opened his eyes as he felt the flow of magic energy around him as well as the manifestations of his magic power start to fade as a strange magic power washed over the area. He felt as if every action he took happened at ten times its usual pace.
(That guy down there must have cast one hell of a spell.)
Nick had already noticed Ricardo and the rest but was waiting to see what they would do before he acted. Nick wore a bitter expression as his Clear Space, Absolute Pull, Absolute Push, Soul Capturing Coat and Space were all cancelled abruptly and he started falling from the sky; the unique space that Nick surrounded and housed the mountain range with remained, unaffected, however and fell with him. Nick then cast Blink, teleporting himself and the mountain range and appeared twelve meters away, in front of Ricardo. Nick looked at Ricardo and Ricardo looked at Nick; Ricardo put his right hand at his side and after taking a good look at the man in front of him, he nodded his head.
(This young man fits the description of Nick Capitol.)
Nick didn't care who the man in front of him was but knew that he was strong so he clenched his fists that were at his side, then unclenched them, having adjusted his mentality for a fight. A moment of stillness developed between the two, no one moving and after three seconds passed, Ricardo smiled and quickly waved his right hand upward from his side to a little above his head; at the same time Nick drew Pressure Piece from its sheath at his side and swiftly swung it down. In an instant, both men cast powerful spells:
(Partial Old Age)
(Big Cleave.)
Two waves of magic power immediately move towards each other and collided before silently moving past each other, each heading for its target unopposed.
Ricardo suddenly felt as if the atmosphere became stifling and every breath felt like knives were cutting at his throat as Nick's attack approached him with great speed; Nick suddenly noticed that the hand that held onto Pressure Piece visibly shriveled at his fingers, like they had lost their youthfulness and became wrinkled like that of an old person's. Both Ricardo and Nick acted swiftly to defend themselves before their opponent's method was able to impose on them on further.
Nick cast his spell, Space, and covered his entire body with a special space in the shape of a two by two by two meter cube, then he cast Still Space disrupting the flow of his opponent's offending magic power. His fingers returned to their youthful state soon afterward but he felt an unsettling weakness that persisted among them.
Ricardo almost at the same time cast:
(Five Minutes Ahead)
Ricardo pointed his right index finger to his front and his magic power radiated out in front of himself, artificially pushing the flow of time within the area affected by Nick's attack by five minutes. A moment later, the sharp, imposing magic power that approached him fizzled out and Nick frowned intensely as a result, thinking:
(Why did I just lose the connection with my magic power, what did he do?)
Ricardo smiled smugly, reasoning within his own mind:
(Five Minutes Ahead is a spell that alters the flow of time within a certain area which means increasing the flow of the River of Time in that area artificially. Once the timing surrounding a Magician's power differs from that Magician's own timing, then his spell will lose its source of will and fizzle out. Of course this is only the case for ranged spells that are not robust enough to resist changes brought about by the River of Time.)
Nick pushed the questions within his mind aside since he could not answer them and cast Blink, appearing behind Ricardo at his left side. Nick swung Pressure Piece at his opponent's left shoulder with practised skill, casting:
(Five Blades.)
Ricardo sensed the attack and turned his head slightly; using his peripheral vision and 'quick eyes' talent he noticed that Nick's one sword suddenly multiplied itself, becoming five identical swords but Ricardo could not perceive which one was being held by Nick and they were all striking towards him. Ricardo cast his spell:
(Abrupt Side Step)
Nick then saw Ricardo step out of the way of his attack and circle around his right side to get behind him in mere moments as if he himself was moving in slow motion.
(No, that's not right, it's this bastard that suddenly moved at a speed that I could not physically keep up with but I perceived the whole scene anyway. Is this time magic?)
Nick was unsure but he had a feint inkling borne from his previous experience witnessing the Raylam Priest Academy Student, Saul, using such methods within the shadow goblins' lair years ago.
(If this guy is using time magic, then this fight will be difficult.)
Nick knew next to nothing about time magic and it was one of those troublesome paths that had truly mystical and almost inscrutable effects.
Ricardo made a slicing motion with his right hand leisurely toward Nick's back, casting:
(Partial Old Age)
Nick began to feel a penetrating weakness at his back and in response, quickly cancelled Five Blades and cast:
(Soul Pulse.)
Nick's pitch black eyes gleamed as a powerful force radiated outwards from his soul.
(No matter how fast you move, you can't out maneuver the soul path method of a soul path scholar.)
Ricardo felt a strong wave of magic power crash into him which threw him off his feet and away from Nick by a little over eight meters; Nick quickly turned around to see his opponent falling to the ground like a thrown toy. Ricardo felt his mind becoming unfocused and he bled a little from his nose as he fell onto the ground but he jumped back to his feet almost immediately even though his body ached from the physical impact of Nick's spell. He ran towards Nick with a speed that Nick found unnatural as if it was out of place with the movement of Ricardo's limbs, at least in the way that he was perceiving those movements.
(Racing Against Time)
Ricardo arrived in front of Nick within mere moments and cast two spells one after the other:
(Time Like Mud)
(Partial Old Age)
Ricardo placed his right palm against Nick's stomach and Nick immediately lost most of the sensation within his lower abdomen after which Nick was forced to spit out a mouthful of blood. Nick tried to react by swinging Pressure Piece in order cut into Ricardo's right arm but his movements suddenly turned sluggish and slow; no matter how he tried, it was like he was now forced to move at a rate almost five times slower but his mind kept racing during this time.
(Shit! I have to move this fucker away from me.)
Nick ignored the discomfort he was feeling and cast a spell with his torso as the target. Ricardo followed up his spells by withdrawing his right arm from Nick's abdomen, then bowing his right arm and then immediately using it to strike out with a harsh punch. When Ricardo's punch hit Nick's lower abdomen, however, it felt like he had hit a steel wall and he had to withdraw his hand again but this time while feeling a numbing pain from the impact; Ricardo then realized that a translucent miasma was now radiating from Nick's torso.
(Reinforced With Soul.)
Nick had used his soul path spell to harden his torso in order to defend himself for the time being. A moment later, Nick's movement speed returned to normal and he then cast a spell to restrict Ricardo:
(Soul Pressure.)
Ricardo felt an irresistible force push down on him, halting his free movement which gave Nick a momentary reprieve from Ricardo's offensive, so within two seconds Nick recovered from the discomfort caused by the effects of Ricardo's spell that lingered within his lower abdomen and struck out with Pressure Piece, ruthlessly casting Big Sever as he tried to cut into Ricardo's neck, slicing at his opponent's right side with with a skillful horizontal swing.
Ricardo could feel the magic power emanating from Nick's sword and only one word came to mind at the moment before Nick's sword made contact:
(Death!)
Ricardo already had a spell half prepared just in case he needed to cast it to save his life and at this time, his mind went into overdrive in order to finish forming its laws within his mindscape which took mere milliseconds for him because he was so familiar with its laws. In an instant after that, he cast:
(Place In Time)
Ricardo suddenly disappeared from where he stood and Nick's attack hit thin air; the power of Big Sever flew out from Pressure Piece but since it now had no taget, it fizzled out after traveling a few meters.
Nick looked around in order to find out where his opponent had run off to and it did not take him long to find him standing at the same spot as the three other people that he came to this place with. Nick snorted and cast Blink, returning to the spot where he had left his mountain range encased within his unique space. Throughout the fight with Ricardo, he had not moved it from this spot because that would have increased the burden on his mental focus. Nick thought about how the fight had been thus far and internally commented:
(Whoever that is, he's damn tough. I suspect that he is using time path magic and it is not easy to defend against. The spell that he used to shrivel my hand and harm my lower abdomen is still causing me to feel weakness in those areas. The next time we face off, I have to kill him quickly.)
While Nick was establishing his next course of action, Ricardo stood among his companions, breathing heavily and eyeing Nick who still seemed to be in relatively good shape despite their brief battle. He then eyed the strange object floating beside Nick that remained in place during their interaction and wondered:
(What is that? My intuition is telling me that it has something to do with the disappearance of the mountain range that is supposed to be at this location but if that is the case, that student over there is not simple at all. He actually caused me to expend almost all of my magic energy casting my best spells in that short encounter and even forced me to use my life saving method, Place In Time. The latter spell teleports my body to a place that I had been at during the past twenty five minutes; it requires about half my magic energy to pull off, though. No wonder Roy lost to this man, he is definitely a tough nut and I can tell that he is using more that one type of magic.)
Licensed Magicians usually specialized in terms of the type of magic that they used in order to gain a greater proficiency with that type of magic. This specialization would usually determine a number of things, including: how quickly they could cast their spells, their level of magical awareness and the strength of their intuition in relation to magical phenomena; all of those things would be what adds up to a Magicians combat ability and potential. It was the goal of most licensed rank 2, rank 3 and many rank 4 Magicians to become masters at their specialty but such an attainment was difficult to obtain but one thing was for sure and Ricardo knew it:
(Masters are extremely powerful and are usually paced at special positions within the ministry even if they do not necessarily have a high rank. That guy...although he is just a student, he is too skilled at using his magic to have low attainment, so then how can he be using more than one type of magic so well? I can identify soul path and space path but he could be using using other paths as well. Not only that, he seems to have the same or greater magic holding capacity than I do; even after our fight, he still seemed like he could carry on further.)
Nick's strength confused Ricardo.
(How is a student who has been at his academy for at most a couple of years this powerful?)
The other three Magicians were intrigued at watching the fight between Nick and Ricardo and Celena asked Ricardo:
"Is he strong?"
Ricardo calmed his breathing and responded solemnly:
"Stronger than what's detailed in the reports."
Celena smiled and stared at Nick who was now standing in place, seeming to be waiting for them to make their move. Celena said to the other three while twisting her long, black, braided hair:
"It's my turn now."
Ricardo remained silent and watched as Celena took steps towards Nick and stopped only when they were ten meters apart. Nick readied himself when the woman in front of him made her final step by casting Soul Capturing Coat and stood in place with his long sleeved, translucent coat fluttering. Celena squinted her eyes and then raised her right index finger, casting her spell:
(Purple Qi)
Suddenly, a purple mist formed within the atmosphere and covered both Nick and Celena like an impenetrable fog. Nick covered his nose and mouth because he could tell that the nature of the mist was poisonous after having experienced Dave McKoy's poison path method first hand. He internally snorted and countered with his own spell:
(Soul Beast Summoning.)
Magic power burst out from Nick as his soul capturing coat writhed and then twenty figures emerge from it; each figure was translucent and shaped like a magic beast but had no distinct features. Nick willed and they ran throughout the purple mist randomly while searching for the woman that had created the purple mist. Nick could hardly see so he decided to remove himself from the current situation to at least gain his bearings.
(Grey Room.)
Nick spent three minutes forming the laws for this spell before it was successfully cast. At that time he and the miniature mountain range seemed to disappear. Celena was left angry and confused while hiding somewhere within the purple qi.
(What the hell is going on? Where did he go? My plan was to keep him surrounded by my purple qi and use its poison to weaken him but these strange magic beasts suddenly appeared, clearly searching for me and now my target has disappeared. I can sense everything enveloped by my qi so I can easily enough evade the beasts buy that Nick Capitol has really disappeared and so has that strange object that he had with him. I should probably cancel this spell...)
While Celena was deciding her next course of action, unbeknownst to her, Nick was now staring right at her from within his grey room. He floated in place with his now smoke like body and looked squarely into the eyes of his opponent but she could not sense him.
(Being within the grey room, not only can I recover from the effects of her poison, I can use it to see through her mist and move near her position. Hmph! I can tell that she is weaker than my previous opponent but if I did not have this particular space path spell, her method would have been troublesome but unfortunately for her, she met me.)
Celena was about to cancel her Purple Qi when she sensed an area of space to her left side warp and in the next moment, a fist emerged from the warping space. Before Celena could make sense of the development, she heard a loud crackling noise sound like thunder and then the hair at the back of her neck stood up straight as she sensed imminent danger. She immediately cast one of her life saving spells:
(Hard Qi Armour)
Some of the purple qi around her condensed onto her body within milliseconds, creating a fitting covering of qi. A moment later, a blast of intense pressure that emerged from the fist at her left side crashed into her and she was thrown like a rag doll over twenty meters away, forcing her out of the cloud of purple qi. Ricardo, Stone and Jackson recognized Celena's Hard Qi Armour and were surprised to see her being thrown out of the range of her Purple Qi so violently but they had also heard the loud blast that sounded within the purple qi. The purple qi began to clear up as Celena fell onto and rolled on the ground a fair distance away; the twenty soul beasts that were under Nick's influence gathered around him calmly, waiting for further instructions.
When the purple qi completely dissipated, Nick could be seen standing upright with Pressure Piece firmly within his grasp, his soul capturing coat fluttering and his miniature mountain range floating near his left shoulder. The twenty soul beasts could also be clearly seen and their presence surprised the three soldiers standing at the side, observing the battle.
Celena lifted her body from the ground slowly while covering a portion of her abdomen with her right hand; her hard qi armor made of purple qi almost immediately began to break apart, eventually revealing her poor state. The section of her abdomen that she was holding had a hole punctured through it at the area of impact of Nick's spell that resulted in her bleeding profusely from both her front and back. Nick squinted his eyes as he noticed that her bleeding reduced over time; she was apparently casting some kind of healing spell.
"Hmph!"
Nick snorted and waved Pressure Piece at the distant Celena, casting a spell:
(Vision Of The Blade.)
Celena noticed the burst of magic energy emerging from Nick and went into a battle stance with her feet planted firmly on the ground and her left hand raised in front of her, ready to cast a spell at any time, however, before she could respond, she suddenly found herself somehow being cut into chunks, piece by piece until only her head remained unharmed, floating in midair. She thought:
(Huh? What happened?)
From the perspective of Celena's three companions, she took a battle stance and then began to stare blankly at Nick after he had waved his sword. They all had similar thoughts:
(What spell did he cast on her?)
Nick didn't plan on hesitating so a moment after Celena had become a victim of his spell, Nick pointed his right index finger at her and audibly ordered his soul beasts:
"Tear her to pieces."
The soul beasts immediately rushed toward Celena in a frenzy and reached her position within less than three seconds; the soul beasts were about four times the size of Nick himself but they were incredible quick on their feet. Just before the soul beasts were about to tear into Celena, a cold, aged voice declared:
"I've seen enough. If we continue playing with this student, we are going to be placed into unfortunate circumstances."
Nick frowned at hearing that and turned his head towards the other three Magicians; he had always been keeping a wary eye on them but since they seemed to be committed to staying on the sidelines, Nick had not intended to drag them into the fight just yet.
(It looks like they've grown impatient.)
Nick kept his eye on the black, middle aged man who stretched out his right palm at which point a ball of red, swirling liquid appeared within his palm and in the next instant, over a dozen slender streams of that red liquid shot out from the ball and impaled all twenty soul beasts in mere moments. The soul beasts' movements stopped and a blood red hue spread throughout their body, eventually turning them completely red in color. After that, each soul beast almost simultaneously melted into a pool of blood water.
Nick raised both eyelids at the sight and thought:
(That black guy is on a different level than the two that I've already fought. I didn't even sense his magic power when he cast his spell.)
Celena came out of her stupor after the soul beasts had been killed and transformed into a cloud of pink mist which quickly moved to the side of the middle aged black man.
Nick stared at the group with even more wariness and hostility than before but remained calm internally, plotting his next move:
(I still haven't seen one of them use any methods but from what has happened so far, I should kill the man who uses time path magic first before dealing with the rest. Assuming that the black man uses blood path magic, he is probably the strongest of them so I also need to keep pressure firmly on him to prevent him from getting the upper hand.)
Blood path magic is famous or rather infamous for being extremely formidable in combat situations, so much so that blood path methods, materials and inheritances are not allowed to be sold openly on the market in most countries on Grand Earth.
(Come to think of it, I read one time that the publicly accepted fourth strongest Magician on Grand Earth is a blood path Magician.)
Nick mentally prepared himself for a fight to the death with these people since he had a feeling that that's what this situation would amount to.
Nevar Stone looked at Celena beside him and asked:
"How are your injuries?"
Celena spoke through gritted teeth:
"They are severe but using my healing spell, they are not life threatening, I just need a few days to completely heal them."
Stone nodded and replied:
"In that case, you'll back up the rest of us from a safe enough distance while we deal with Nick Capitol. Oh, what spell did he use to cause those injuries?"
Celena thought for a moment before replying:
"It should be a space path method. He came out of nowhere and pumped his fist and then the space in front of me shook violently. The next think I knew, I was rolling in the dirt."
Ricardo chuckled a little at the side but quickly shut his mouth when Stone looked at him from the corner of his eye. Stone commanded:
"I will attack him from the front. Ricardo, you must focus on disrupting his magic and his pace while keeping him guessing. Jackson, I want you to remain vigilant for any opportunity to remove his head from his shoulders. When that opportunity presents itself, then take it!"
The two men nodded their heads in approval and then the four soldiers placed their attention on Nick who began to radiate a formless cloud of magic energy. Jackson who stood immediately behind Stone's right side sighed and thought:
(To think that we are taking a child so seriously. If this isn't bullying, then I don't know what is. That being said, this child is slightly unique and looking at Celena's wound, we should kill him as soon as possible before something unpredictable happens.)
Stone, Ricardo, Jackson and Celena also released their magic power and the surroundings became tense with a strange pressure and hostility. A group of brave birds that could be seen flying overhead sensed the situation on the ground and immediately turned to flee in another direction.
Nick snorted and pointed his right index finger at the group; the unique space enveloping the miniature mountain range rippled as Nick cast his spell:
(Heavy As A Mountain!)
The phantom of an upside down mountain range suddenly appeared above the four uniformed Magicians and pushed towards them with an imposing and absolutely violent force; the four felt stifled just looking at it, not even taking into consideration the pressure that they felt bearing down on them. Stone quickly yelled:
"Jackson!"
The white man standing behind stone that seemed to be in his early thirties and that had a black inked tattoo visible on his neck stepped forward at that moment and raised both his arms towards the sky, shouting:
"Ten Thousand Rampaging Sword Auras!"
With Jackson's group at the center, hundreds of thick, visible, navy blue, basin sized, crescent shaped sword qi blasted out in all directions but were mostly directed at the phantom of the mountain range above them. The flow of magic energy within the area became violent as the two methods collided and a blinding blue-silver light enveloped the area, instantly becoming visible to the people that were approaching the site of the battle from hundreds of meters away.
*********************************
Sheila continued to make her way towards the supposed location of the mountain range but then an almost blinding, bluish light appeared in the distance; she quickly covered her eyes with her right arm to block out the light.
(What's going on?)
Sheila then suddenly heard the screams of dozens of people close to her position and after she adjusted her magic sensing contact lenses in order to withstand the intense light, she removed her arm from her face and looked around.
Seeing the state of her surroundings, Sheila's heart almost jumped out of her mouth. Pools of blood now dyed the grass red all around her for hundreds of meters and only a fraction of the people who were rushing towards the mountain range remained standing, quivering in place. Even the soldiers that were present halted their movements and looked towards the source of light with trepidation. She heard one of the soldiers say:
"Wasn't that sword demon Jackson's spell, Ten Thousand Rampaging Sword Auras? That's a rank 2 advanced grade spell. Why the hell is he using it so recklessly here?"
Sheila contemplated:
(A rank 2 advanced grade spell did all of this? Who exactly are the people fighting over there.)
Sheila looked at the blood that had now filled the air with the heavy scent of iron and that was still flowing over the grass; her own blood ran cold at the sight. She quickly turned towards the direction opposite to the blinding light and hovered away as fast as she could with only one thought on her mind:
(It's survival of the fittest out here and somehow I don't think that I qualify as the fittest in this scenario.)
Many others with the same opinion retreated with horror written on their faces. Unbeknownst to the five fighting Magicians, they had created a moment in time that both the students and soldiers present would wake up to in a cold sweat in the middle of the night from dreaming about it for years to come.