The Third Party - Chapter 88

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs., 8 months)

The two carved a magic circle each on mid air, with the runes depicting release and suspend. Release was the rune they needed to open whatever is inside the floating magic circle, and suspend was needed for any backlash that may occur.

As what they have learned on the texts they reread in one of their books for runes and magic circles.

Alfred approached the magic circle with the rune of release in hand, followed closely by Lyn with the rune of suspend.

Both of them simultaneously released their magic circles, Lyn’s stopping short to create the suspended space that they needed, while Alfred’s went directly to the magic circle on top of the rubble.

Bright light shone from the two magic circles colliding, then turned purple. Once the light dimmed, the two immediately understood that their operation was a success.

But there’s a downside, and it appeared in the form of another magic circle replacing the one they had nullified.

The magic circle they were trying to decode or take down, was a form of arcane magic circle that is meant to protect anything in its given space, it’s traits are deception, reactor/regeneration, and deduction.

Deception and deduction were two forms of its defensive capabilities, able to deceive any wielder of magic from knowing of its origins, and being able to calculate the much needed magic it will use to set anyone astray trying to break it.

Reactor or regeneration was the trait that allows this arcane magic circle to replenish its lost energies through the methods used by practitioners applied to it.

And now, Lyn and Alfred are facing it’s two defensive traits, deception in the form of having more than one magic circle to nullify, and deduction, whether the magic circle is far stronger than before or weaker.

Both Lyn and Alfred know of this since she, Alfred and their friend Brock, made this kind of magic circle. Guess they have more work for them. The two went back to conjuring more magic circles of release, and injecting them with the right amount of mana so as to break the protection.

Earlier, from a high altitude place.

A person who had just woken up from his sleep, happily stretched his limbs, got out from his bed made of straws, although elevated in the form of a standard bed, and went out of his wooden house to soak up the morning sun high up in the mountains.

The trees below his house making for a perfect cover of coziness and nature. The area before him was cleared quite generously so he wouldn’t be suffocated from all those greens.

Felsin smiled as he breathed the chill in the air giving him a refresh from the drowsiness from earlier, still clad in his sleeping garments, he went back inside his house to bath, make breakfast and eat.

While eating breakfast of rice and soap made from light vegetables and meat, Felsin felt a fluctuation from the barrier above him.

He finished his meal, went out of his house, and looked at the left direction where the sun was rising. With enhanced sight and a little bit of assistance from his magic, his vision zoomed in on the two figures flying at a distance, whom had just exited the valley’s barrier.

‘Interesting, what could those two be up to.’ He thought to himself, conjuring a magic circle below him, intending to teleport himself to the village bellow the mountain. ‘I’ll have to ask the leaders about this.’

Purple energy covered Felsin’s body before disappearing. The calm morning caressing the mountain tops, left to its own devices.

The student’s morning exercises were still ongoing, just right outside the field were the three masters observing, but contrary to their plan with the other masters, the three watched blankly as the other two masters joined the students in their training.

Ras and Kilean had joined them and had started a competition among the kids.

They were competing to who could do the most out of every exercise the students were doing, even indulging themselves with the weights Ken made.

They even turned bossy and forced the nine to vigorously execute the exercise, the people staring from afar can’t help but sigh and face palm inside. It seems as though these two were made for doing this.

Especially with the way the two flaunt their oh so perfect muscular body, glistening under all that sweat, a feast for the eyes for anyone who would pass by.

Both female and male, if they chose to swing that way.

And as expected they gathered quite the crowd, mostly consisting of female beasts and Celine’s tribe as well.

“These two are definitely show offs.” Lana couldn’t help but say while pouting, it was almost time for their magic training and the two aren’t even done moving their limbs up and about.

“They’re enjoying themselves.” replied Ulysses, with that monotonous voice. Not particularly caring or hating the situation.

“Yeah, but they’re dragging the situation on.” reasoned Lana exasperatedly, Ulysses only shrugged, for clearly they can’t do anything with the situation.

“She’s right, we need to put a hold on to this before we lose valuable time.” said Klein, taking action by walking towards the group, Lana happily skipped beside him, while Ulysses dragged behind.

In an abrupt motion, Ulysses body hauled forward from the sudden impact colliding with his body from behind, and when he turned his head to the right where he suspected a head laid, he saw that charming smiling face of Felsin.

“Uly!!!” The other two masters turned around abruptly to see a large man wrapping himself around their friend’s back, with Ulysses’ tiny frame, it’s a bit of a worry since Felsin was a bit taller and larger than him.

But no matter, the Black Panther didn’t flinch and just nonchalantly walked forward, Felsin’s long legs dragging from behind him. Despite being old, Felsin still carried that youthful face, as if he was still in his prime despite being officially called a grandpa by his brother’s granddaughter.

All the masters are still in their prime as well. Thought that might help.

“What brings you here Fel?” asked Lana just as Ulysses neared them. Felsin released his hold from Ulysses and happily skipped beside Lana and gave her a hug, which the other reciprocated.

“I came to visit.” He said, with all smiles, he then approached Klein as well, went to his back and gave the tall man a hug.

“It’s good to see you as well old friend.” said Klein, appreciating the warm big hugs this man never fails to give to anyone he was close to. Felsin retracted from the hug and returned to Ulysses’ side.

“Awww, don’t make it sound like I’m so old, look I’m still young and strong.” There it is the playful nature this person always seem to exude even in the most unprecedented situations.

“Really, what do you need to be here?” said Ulysses, which tuned down the other’s blatant teasing and trolling around.

“Yeah, about that, did you give permission for those two to leave outside the barrier?” he asked, catching the three masters off guard.

“What do you- What?” exclaimed Klein, not knowing whether he should be angry at Ken or not, a frown was slowly creeping up unto his gentle face. The other two fared no better, as they had also given permission for Ken to go.

“Maybe I should have waited to tell you guys… meh there’s no use crying over spilt milk.” said Felsin nonchalantly. Klein massaged the sides of his temple, Lana overthinking to herself, while Ulysses just stayed calm.

“Grandpa!” shouted by a girl from a distance, the four looked at the direction where the voice came from and saw Celine quickly approaching their way, or more like towards Felsin.

Felsin welcomed the girl with open-arms, and together, the two happily giggled as Felsin spun the girl around.

“How is my favorite granddaughter doing? I hope your parents are not wearing you out so much” said Felsin, grinning widely, mirroring Celine’s wide smile.

“Not at all grandpa, I’ve been doing very well.” she gave her grandfather a tight hug before retracting, but still under her grandfather’s arms. If one would look at the pair, they would mistake them for a father and daughter duo, as they looked so similar to one another.

“What brings you here grandpa?” she asked.

“Why to visit my granddaughter of course, what else would I be doing here?” replied Felsin, the two getting lost in their own world of chatter.

“Umm, excuse me you two, Celine still has class to attend to, would you mind?” said Ulysses beside Felsin.

“Oh, uh, right.” He put down her granddaughter on the ground softly. “Don’t worry my little flower, we’ll have plenty of time later to catch up, right now you have to finish your classes, okay?” Celine gave him a nod and happily skipped back to her group.

Finally things were back to normal, well, normal as it may seem as the person beside Felsin has had a dark aura since the moment he was ignored by the other, the other two masters could not help but be silent.

They wouldn’t want to tease their friend right now or they’ll receive the short end of the stick and get themselves scolded to no end by this temperous panther when it comes to Felsin.

Really, why can’t he realize that he’s acting that way whenever the other is with him. The other’s just so indescribably dense, coupled with Felsin’s nature, made it all the more difficult for the two of them, especially the masters when they’re being served dog food right out of the platter.

“Right, about the other two, do you think- OW!” Felsin held his left leg that got kicked by Ulysses as the latter angrily stomped back towards the shade of the tree, intending to sit down.

He was sulking, but he doesn’t know why, and hitting Felsin was the only thing he could do since that was the object of his annoyance, so screw the guy.

Of course Felsin caught up to his favorite beast person, fawning over and asking what was the matter. The other two that were left behind could only awkwardly watch as the larger man tried to console their friend, which was obviously not working.

“We should change the class’ routine for now and hastily go back before Ulysses does something stupid.” said Klein.

“Agreed.” Lana could only sigh, the two of them rushing towards the other two masters with the group and forcefully made them stop exercising and move on to the next class.

Of course there were groans of dissatisfaction from the two and exhales of relief from the rest, which they cleared out right after. The two hastily returning to their friend before their guest could bug him any further.

Sometimes, it was similar to days like this whenever Felsin visited, always ending up in an argument, but a fun filled one for him, and a lot of problems for the two. Gradually the crowd had slowly dispersed to carry on with their daily lives.

“Flin,

HEY Flin!

FLIN!” Flin snapped out of his stupor when Ken had shook him. He glanced at Ken then back at the person by the tree whose gaze was sweeping before him.

“Yes?” he squeaked out.

“We’re leaving now, I’m done with what I came here.” despite them talking normally, the two were not heard by the person before them, slowly creeping away from the area, or in their case, floating away.

“Strange, clearly I thought someone was here.” said the man behind them, startling the two, they abruptly turned their heads to the man’s direction to determine whether they were found out or not,

But seeing that the man wasn’t looking in their direction they could now sigh safely, simultaneously. The two looked at each other and chuckled at one another. Such a silly situation this was.

Creeping out that if they were to be found out, they would be in big trouble, add that to the part that they do not know the person, so how will they be in big trouble, and most of all Flin doesn’t know the reason why Ken was here.

He thought that Ken was supposed to visit his trees.

The two had flown out of sight from the cliff where the tree was, but not before remembering that he has something to do first before leaving.

“Flin, wait here, I forgot something.” Ken said.

“But didn’t you just said that you were done with what you wanted to do?” asked Flin in confusion.

“Okay, let’s do it this way, I added another thing I wanted to do.” Ken gave him a cheeky smile while the other only crossed his arms, with a raised brow. Ken gave him no minute as he flew towards the location where they were just seconds ago.

Flin could only shake his head. This time Ken cancelled his concealing ability of both concept and illusion magic and simultaneously casted another illusion magic on him.

His figure turned that into a nine-tailed white fox with white flames trailing from his ears and the tip of his tails. Flin stared wide eyed at the image ken conjured.

Just as the man was about to leave, he felt a presence before him, and as he blinked a mystical beast landed gracefully before him, elegantly sitting on its hind legs in mid-air.

He was frozen on his spot at the sheer shock of seeing something such as this one before him, maybe out of fear or admiration for the creature, but nonetheless he could not help but stare.

Both creature and man entered what could be considered a staring contest under the greatly complimenting lighting and scenery before them. The former just snickering to himself at whatever absurd idea went into his head,

While the latter admired the beautiful creature before him.

When suddenly the creature tilted slightly to the side, followed by its paw waving at the man. The man was startled at his own wits, but before he could gather his bearings the white creature with nine tails jumped above and did another push with its legs to propel him further to the top.

The man tried to follow where the creature could have gone, but all that he caught was a glimpse of the tails and the trail of white flames, before finally disappearing. Shock was still ridden deep into his system.

Slowly calming himself and sitting on the tree, trying to gather his thoughts.

Meanwhile, Ken entered mirage and concept mode, while happily flying towards Flin. The other still wide eyed at what his friend did.

“Did you just-“

“Copy your beast form? Yes!” Ken exclaimed happily, as if it was the most fun achievement he had done.

“But why?” asked Flin.

“Just to have some fun.” There it is again, that cheeky smile. ”Come, let’s return, they’re probably waiting for us.” said Ken and pulled Flin again, flying back to the barrier. The latter left helpless with this friend of his, oh how excruciating.

Since it was still morning nearing almost snack time for them, Ken had a wonderful idea just to spend the day a little more efficiently, he did not suspect that he would be done with it so easily.

He was particularly worried that the barrier would not let them in or out of its vicinity, but since it didn’t offer much of a resistance, Ken has more time in his belt.

He held Flin’s hand startling the other quite a bit, but calmed down when Ken was the one holding his hand. Right after the two of them passed the barrier, Ken abruptly teleported them both back at their field.

The action surprising Flin and the rest of the people at the field who were getting ready for magic training.

“Let’s go to the BEACH!!!” He shouted, and just as instantly, a large purple magic circle formed below sixteen people, and in the next second their figures vanished from the field.

At the south border of the Valley, sixteen figures and a large magic circle appeared at the beach that was the only entrance to the valley. Before anyone could speak or think of anything, another shout resounded around them.

“MIZU!!!!!” as a figure dashed in front of them leaving a T-shirt behind and jumping towards the sea water, under this bright sunny day.

The group stared in disbelief at the person happily splashing about on the water. Ken’s smile, radiating sunshine all over him, with that hair flowing freely and the water glistening on his body.

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