******
A few minutes ago.
"Shit!" Khali cursed as he saw the base fall on his head. He activated two magic rings, generating two domes of water before freezing them. However, he saw the ice crack quickly as the tunnel's weight pressed down on him.
He quickly summoned the rock worm and had it dig a tunnel and flee. The rock worm dug through the earth as if swimming, until it reached the sewer. Khali jumped out of the hole and looked around. He saw a small group of 10 thugs passed out around, but wasted no time investigating and blasted the ceiling with mana bullets, before jumping out.
'If I was discovered, so was Athos. I have to find him before he gets caught-' His thoughts were cut off when he saw the state of the city. He had destroyed the ground and appeared on top of the slums, but no one cared. Everyone was too busy trying to save their own lives to care about him.
People were running all over the place, while others with red eyes were killing anyone who came into their field of vision. The bandits tried to kill the crazed ones, but the situation was very chaotic and they couldn't organize themselves.
'It will be difficult to find Athos in the midst of this chaos. I need a top view. Find Athos for me.' thought Khali, summoning the night owl and ordering it to fly over the city and find Athos.
But before she could fly 10 meters, an arrow of fire hit her in the wing, before the flame spread throughout her body.
'From where?' Khali used mana vision to look around and noticed hooded figures on the rooftops. They removed the hood from the robes they wore and deactivated their invisibility. The medallion they all carried on their chests revealed that they were mages of the order of magic.
All of them were second-layer mages and they added up to 10 in all. The mana vision also revealed that all the items they used were magic tools. They looked at Khali in surprise and began to cast their spells.
"He's pretty strong, isn't he? But his items are no big deal." Random Mage 1.
"Is he a wandering mage? Or is he a renegade mage of the order?" Random Mage 2.
"Don't let your guard down, you idiots. He's also casting his spells, and one of you could end up getting killed, so be careful." The leader of the mage group scolded.
The order mages didn't have any spells ready. The plan was to bury him alive, they were here in case he managed to survive, but they got distracted by the chaos of the city and missed the chance for a surprise attack.
'This is bad, very bad. There are too many, I have to find a way to escape... His thought was interrupted by a stone spear trying to impale him. He jumped back to dodge it, only for the ground where he fell to turn to quicksand and his feet to sink in, before hardening again.
"I don't know who you are, but why are you causing all this chaos and senseless deaths?" Rickley asked, stepping out of a hole in the floor.
Balls of fire, bullets of wind, spikes of ice and arrows of light rained down on him, but none of the attacks managed to hit him. Khali used sheer brute force to shatter the stone floor, before freezing the ground and sliding, as if skating. He fired ice spears in response, but the mages didn't even bother to dodge, just activated defensive items and continued to attack him.
"I'm not to blame for all of this. Although I have a vague idea who is responsible." Khali spoke with a cynical smile as he cast a great spell at Ricley.
A blue glow appeared beneath Ricley, before a 10-meter-wide pillar of water appeared and froze him. Ricley panicked slightly and created a barrier of pure mana around him. The barrier began to crack the instant it was formed by the pressure of the pillar, making Ricley have to expend more and more mana to maintain his integrity.
Khali waved his wand and the ice partially melted, water entering the barrier through the cracks before freezing again, preventing the barrier from repairing itself no matter how much energy Ricley poured into the barrier.
"Do something, you idiots!" Ricley shouted to his companions as the ice came closer and closer. He felt his body shiver from the cold and frost began to build up on his clothes.
"See what I said? If an idiot lets his guard down, he might get caught." The mage leader spoke, hurling fireballs at the khali to try to distract him, but shields of ice blocked the spell.
The mages also cast their spells on him, but Khali slid across the frozen ground, dodging most of them. He had learned the sensory field and cool mind from Athos, so avoiding these monotonous attacks was child's play for him.
Khali took a bottle from his belt pocket and threw it on the ground in front of the ice pillar, before melting all the pollar. The pillar turned to water at the same instant the bottle shattered against the ground, releasing a lightning storm. Khali didn't trust the leather bags Athos used and stored the lightning powder Athos created for him in a bottle, as well as his potions.
Ricley was electrocuted, falling to the ground in spasms. Without the constant supply of mana, the barrier quickly broke as Khali again froze the water.
To Khali's misfortune, a hole opened up in the ground and swallowed Ricley's unconscious body before closing, preventing the ice from hitting him. Khali saw the earth move and a hole opened up next to the captain and Ricley's body appeared. One of the light mages stopped attacking him and started healing the unconscious Ricley.
"Tsk!" Khali clicked his tongue, annoyed that he couldn't break up with him. He snapped his fingers, causing the ice pillar to explode in a shower of shards toward the mages. The mages took no damage, but the roofs they were on broke, causing them to lose their balance and fall to the ground.
A 5-meter fireball was launched in front of him, forcing Khali to conjure an ice shield to protect himself. The fireball exploded against the shield, the shock wave sending Khali flying and crashing into a wooden wall and shattering it.
Half a second later, a shower of spells hit the hut, blasting it to pieces.
"Did we kill him?" one of the mages asked, all his earlier arrogance fading, replaced by pure nervousness.
One of the wizards waved his wand, causing a gust of wind to sweep away the smoke and allowing them to see the rubble.
"Shit, he got away! Find him!" The captain yelled, seeing nothing but a crater where the hut should have been. Khali had more than enough strength to withstand the shock wave, but he preferred to use momentum to temporarily move away from the battlefield and recover.
He used a mana regeneration potion to regain what he lost by creating the ice pillar and an invisibility potion. He used the same concealment combination as Athos while the mages were still looking for him.
The mages used their mana vision to scan their surroundings, but could not detect Khali. He crept in between three mages and created a dozen ice spikes from the ground.
The mages were impaled precisely on Organs vitals, before transforming into ice statues. They didn't notice the attack until it was too late, dying instantly.
"You son of a bitch!" His companions screamed in anger at their companion's death and to mask their own fear.
'If it continues at this rate, I can kill the others and escape from here to help Athos.' Khali thought about fleeing the scene, but he felt something approaching at high speed towards his back.
Khali turned the moment the object entered his detection field, drawing a short sword from his waist and blocking the attack. A dagger flew straight towards his chest, but Khali managed to block the attack in time.
The dagger was imbued with the ability to shatter the weapon, causing the dagger to explode, shattering the enchanted short sword, and causing a shower of shrapnel to hit Khali.
He looked in the direction the dagger had been thrown and saw a man in a white assassin's garb, with the medallion of the order of magic. Khali gritted his teeth in anger, recognizing the uniform of the white fangs, the order's assassin unit.
They were also the ones who murdered his father when he was a child.
******
A few minutes ago.
"Shit!" Khali cursed as he saw the base fall on his head. He activated two magic rings, generating two domes of water before freezing them. However, he saw the ice crack quickly as the tunnel's weight pressed down on him.
He quickly summoned the rock worm and had it dig a tunnel and flee. The rock worm dug through the earth as if swimming, until it reached the sewer. Khali jumped out of the hole and looked around. He saw a small group of 10 thugs passed out around, but wasted no time investigating and blasted the ceiling with mana bullets, before jumping out.
'If I was discovered, so was Athos. I have to find him before he gets caught-' His thoughts were cut off when he saw the state of the city. He had destroyed the ground and appeared on top of the slums, but no one cared. Everyone was too busy trying to save their own lives to care about him.
People were running all over the place, while others with red eyes were killing anyone who came into their field of vision. The bandits tried to kill the crazed ones, but the situation was very chaotic and they couldn't organize themselves.
'It will be difficult to find Athos in the midst of this chaos. I need a top view. Find Athos for me.' thought Khali, summoning the night owl and ordering it to fly over the city and find Athos.
But before she could fly 10 meters, an arrow of fire hit her in the wing, before the flame spread throughout her body.
'From where?' Khali used mana vision to look around and noticed hooded figures on the rooftops. They removed the hood from the robes they wore and deactivated their invisibility. The medallion they all carried on their chests revealed that they were mages of the order of magic.
All of them were second-layer mages and they added up to 10 in all. The mana vision also revealed that all the items they used were magic tools. They looked at Khali in surprise and began to cast their spells.
"He's pretty strong, isn't he? But his items are no big deal." Random Mage 1.
"Is he a wandering mage? Or is he a renegade mage of the order?" Random Mage 2.
"Don't let your guard down, you idiots. He's also casting his spells, and one of you could end up getting killed, so be careful." The leader of the mage group scolded.
The order mages didn't have any spells ready. The plan was to bury him alive, they were here in case he managed to survive, but they got distracted by the chaos of the city and missed the chance for a surprise attack.
'This is bad, very bad. There are too many, I have to find a way to escape... His thought was interrupted by a stone spear trying to impale him. He jumped back to dodge it, only for the ground where he fell to turn to quicksand and his feet to sink in, before hardening again.
"I don't know who you are, but why are you causing all this chaos and senseless deaths?" Rickley asked, stepping out of a hole in the floor.
Balls of fire, bullets of wind, spikes of ice and arrows of light rained down on him, but none of the attacks managed to hit him. Khali used sheer brute force to shatter the stone floor, before freezing the ground and sliding, as if skating. He fired ice spears in response, but the mages didn't even bother to dodge, just activated defensive items and continued to attack him.
"I'm not to blame for all of this. Although I have a vague idea who is responsible." Khali spoke with a cynical smile as he cast a great spell at Ricley.
A blue glow appeared beneath Ricley, before a 10-meter-wide pillar of water appeared and froze him. Ricley panicked slightly and created a barrier of pure mana around him. The barrier began to crack the instant it was formed by the pressure of the pillar, making Ricley have to expend more and more mana to maintain his integrity.
Khali waved his wand and the ice partially melted, water entering the barrier through the cracks before freezing again, preventing the barrier from repairing itself no matter how much energy Ricley poured into the barrier.
"Do something, you idiots!" Ricley shouted to his companions as the ice came closer and closer. He felt his body shiver from the cold and frost began to build up on his clothes.
"See what I said? If an idiot lets his guard down, he might get caught." The mage leader spoke, hurling fireballs at the khali to try to distract him, but shields of ice blocked the spell.
The mages also cast their spells on him, but Khali slid across the frozen ground, dodging most of them. He had learned the sensory field and cool mind from Athos, so avoiding these monotonous attacks was child's play for him.
Khali took a bottle from his belt pocket and threw it on the ground in front of the ice pillar, before melting all the pollar. The pillar turned to water at the same instant the bottle shattered against the ground, releasing a lightning storm. Khali didn't trust the leather bags Athos used and stored the lightning powder Athos created for him in a bottle, as well as his potions.
Ricley was electrocuted, falling to the ground in spasms. Without the constant supply of mana, the barrier quickly broke as Khali again froze the water.
To Khali's misfortune, a hole opened up in the ground and swallowed Ricley's unconscious body before closing, preventing the ice from hitting him. Khali saw the earth move and a hole opened up next to the captain and Ricley's body appeared. One of the light mages stopped attacking him and started healing the unconscious Ricley.
"Tsk!" Khali clicked his tongue, annoyed that he couldn't break up with him. He snapped his fingers, causing the ice pillar to explode in a shower of shards toward the mages. The mages took no damage, but the roofs they were on broke, causing them to lose their balance and fall to the ground.
A 5-meter fireball was launched in front of him, forcing Khali to conjure an ice shield to protect himself. The fireball exploded against the shield, the shock wave sending Khali flying and crashing into a wooden wall and shattering it.
Half a second later, a shower of spells hit the hut, blasting it to pieces.
"Did we kill him?" one of the mages asked, all his earlier arrogance fading, replaced by pure nervousness.
One of the wizards waved his wand, causing a gust of wind to sweep away the smoke and allowing them to see the rubble.
"Shit, he got away! Find him!" The captain yelled, seeing nothing but a crater where the hut should have been. Khali had more than enough strength to withstand the shock wave, but he preferred to use momentum to temporarily move away from the battlefield and recover.
He used a mana regeneration potion to regain what he lost by creating the ice pillar and an invisibility potion. He used the same concealment combination as Athos while the mages were still looking for him.
The mages used their mana vision to scan their surroundings, but could not detect Khali. He crept in between three mages and created a dozen ice spikes from the ground.
The mages were impaled precisely on Organs vitals, before transforming into ice statues. They didn't notice the attack until it was too late, dying instantly.
"You son of a bitch!" His companions screamed in anger at their companion's death and to mask their own fear.
'If it continues at this rate, I can kill the others and escape from here to help Athos.' Khali thought about fleeing the scene, but he felt something approaching at high speed towards his back.
Khali turned the moment the object entered his detection field, drawing a short sword from his waist and blocking the attack. A dagger flew straight towards his chest, but Khali managed to block the attack in time.
The dagger was imbued with the ability to shatter the weapon, causing the dagger to explode, shattering the enchanted short sword, and causing a shower of shrapnel to hit Khali.
He looked in the direction the dagger had been thrown and saw a man in a white assassin's garb, with the medallion of the order of magic. Khali gritted his teeth in anger, recognizing the uniform of the white fangs, the order's assassin unit.
They were also the ones who murdered his father when he was a child.
