The Third Party - Chapter 94

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs., 9 months)

While contemplating on how he is going to deal with them troublesome bunch, the person of his worries contentedly sighed, leaning his back on one of the large branches of his tree house.

Gazed at the distance where the kingdom he lives at could be seen, a flash of killing intent surfaced on his eyes at the thought of ever facing those people once again.

Today he would leaving this place, he has recovered enough and surprisingly, increased his power exponentially, unlike before where he knows that he’s already at a certain threshold of his strength, he never imagined that he’d be able to grow his power.

It is common for humans to have a certain bottleneck to reach whether it be caused by their age or body composition, once that point is reached, no one can continue to grow their power, unless they break their limits, but it is showed as dangerous to break one’s limits.

Or that is what they are made to believe. As living proof are Ken and the other humans living on the valley.

The man with white hair closed his eyes, gently relieving himself from the emotion that consumed his mind, but one thing is for sure, he shall see to it that those people who caused him this misfortune, will pay.

Dearly.

With his mind made up, he heaved a sigh, controlled and determined, stood up from the bent tree on this cliff and jumped up, leaving behind a shaking tree but still steadily held on to the side.

The man land on ground at the top and with a quick spell on himself, he cleaned both his clothes and his body of dirt and sweat from the previous activity he did. Now, to travel back to his home, where he’ll be confronting his assailants.

Or the masterminds at least. A breeze swept by him, remembering that fox spirit that visited him from last time and the many times he felt it’s presence, his determination almost wavered when he thought of that comforting feeling that used to envelop him whenever that presence was near.

Not this time, surely, once he’s done with his own matters, he’ll try to find that ‘presence’ after he’d free himself of the people after his head, he only wishes he could give them a brief farewell before setting off.

The sun shined upon the young man, almost looking like a beggar covered in tattered clothing from the same clothes he kept wearing all these weeks, the shade of blue almost fading, but if one would pay attention carefully they’ll notice that the uniform had eccentric design.

Fit for that of a noble. Alas, no one recognizes him in this barren bushy forest, he only has himself and the peace around to accompany him on his journey. Meditating in the morning, and an early lunch, he’s pretty much set to go.

Feeling the fluctuation the spell he left at where the noble man used to rest, Ken turned to look at the direction where he usually flies to, to check up on the human, hands paused, eyes focused.

A torrent of magic gushed out of his eyes in a transparent color, activating glow, Ken watched as the light that signals everything around him consisting of life assaulted his eyes, with a deep inhale and exhale, his vision zoomed in on the noble man.

The outline of the man’s physique showed itself to him in the color of shining white light. Wondering to himself where could this man be going to with determined steps and unwavering demeanor. All the while slowly stuffing himself food at the table.

The rest not noticing the abnormality of their friend, merrily ate with the rest. The exercises almost always drains away their energy. Lucky enough for them, they have enough food to last them a lifetime.

A few minutes later, Ken withdraw his power, content with what he has seen, it seems like the man intends to leave and never come back. He could only wish the man a safe journey ahead.

That may his days of watching after the man and helping him recuperate and grow his strength be the man’s new beginning in life and for his future.

Ken gobbled down the last bits of his food, and drank water, exhaled in content for a few seconds before running away to the field. His friends looking at each other wondering what could this person be thinking about again.

Right at the center of the field, Ken stopped, faced the direction to the east, a magic circle engulfing the proximity of the field appeared.

“Momentum Magic: Flight!” he casted, winding down his body before catapulting upwards with a light trail behind, the magic circle from before, disappearing in a faint fashion.

Ken equipped ‘Concept: Concealed Presence’ and continued flying. At the edge of the barrier he slowed down, floating in mid-air, he activated glow again and looked for the man, he found the man left of his direction and flew closer.

Upon close inspection, the man looked like a beggar, but Ken begs to differ, without missing a beat, he sought out to do what he came here for, taking out a small trinket from one of his pockets,

A token made out of carved fox face that he colored in snow white attached to a string with three pearly white beads on top of the head in a descending order. He dropped the token atop the man’s head causing the man to stop.

Seeing as the man took the token on his head, Ken smirked and flew away, whether the man decides to cherish the trinket he made or not, is entirely up to the person, that’s his gift to him, there’s not much of a problem to it.

An emotion flashed on the man’s eyes when he recognized the carved out head of the animal, it could be that his theory of the ‘fox spirit’ looking after him was true, or that hiding presence was the one who gave this to him.

Either way, subconsciously, he decided that he’ll cherish this trinket. Stuffing it to his pockets, continuing on with his journey ‘home’.

Ken prayed in his heart that he may be able to meet the person once again where he doesn’t need to hide himself anymore and that the man be safe, he doesn’t know it but it feels like if there where something to happen to the three people that he was showed to, he would be in very much big trouble.

He doesn’t like nor wishes for those things to happen.

What’s the use of those years of training if he could not put it to good use, better yet, to utilize it on securing the whatever there is needed to secure of the tasks he was given and he will be given -he has a feeling that other tasks will pop up out of nowhere, he just knows it-.

Then he’ll enter self-doubt, self criticize, self-destruction because of the mistakes he’d made that caused big gaps of grievances to people, oh what a vicious cycle for his over analytical mind.

He knows that this kind of mindset will occur in the future so might as well prepare him mentally before he loses himself in such a state. And he did all those thinking while flying.

Almost passing by the valley.

“RAIN FORMATION!” shouted Ken exaggeratedly. Teeth clenched as he held up a barrier against a torrent of spells from the Masters as they were suddenly ambushed into a teamfight.

Students versus their Masters.

The other quickly went into positions surrounding Ken, five people on the ground and the other five floating on the air while four on the outer, one directly on top of Ken. Seeing his friend’s reaction, plastered a satisfied smile on his face.

His form relaxed, gone with the desperateness in his eyes even thought the barrier he made was slowly getting chipped away. He glanced at Allen above him and the two locked eye contact, with a gesture alone the two understood what needs to be done.

Allen sent out a single pulse around him carrying a message to their companions. A few seconds of deciphering, the rest turned to look at Allen above for a bit of confirmation, once he received the signal, and had proceeded to assess the situation around them.

A ball of fire as large as a car bypassing everyone overhead.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and simultaneously opened them along with an exhale, his eyes turning the color of deep sea blue, a light glow of the same color pierced through his eyes.

With a smirk, Ken gathered energy coiling to himself, and released it outwards. The barrier broke, sending a pulse of energy everywhere that proceeded to topple over everyone on the vicinity.

The purpose of the energy wave being that only of knocking anyone off their feet and not damaging or harming them whatsoever, a couple of bystanders and some Masters were unfortunate enough to catch the brunt of the spell.

Thinking to themselves that this was just a buffering spell to damage them and knock them out cold, but they were not prepared for the wave to take their body full force and try to topple them over.

Klein, Ras, and Oldin remained standing, proud and surprised at the type of spell they faced, but with their split second decision of cementing their ground from the sudden change of spell effects gave them the chance to remain standing.

Without wasting too much time, a magic circle corresponding to the color of the student’s primary element formed in front of them simultaneously.

“Flame Magic: Soaring Torrent!” -Icarus-

“Shadow Magic: Shadow Arc Blade!” -Lila-

“Fire Magic: Destruction Ball!” -Princes Lang-

“Light Magic: Light Judgment!” -Wilbert-

“Earth Magic: Earth Shaker!” -Glen-

“Ice Magic: Arctic Frost!” -Riyah-

“Spirit Magic: Spirit Blast!” -Flin-

“Ice Magic: Frost Fall!” -Allen-

“Shadow Magic: Umbral Glave!” -Celine-

“Shadow Magic: Shadow Prison!” -Saber-

“Nature Magic: Forest Domain!” -Ken-

Two seconds, the Masters were disoriented, two seconds enough for the eleven students to dish out their spell, some hitting more than one Master at the same time further disorienting them with the impact of the spells.

They did not expect the students to try and hit them unfairly, but they noticed that the spells also did not hurt, only that they, were tumbling backwards more than they should, like they didn’t have that much control on their bodies and just made them stumble backwards.

Unlike Ulysses who got caught by a cage of shadows, and bound in chains. Before they could recover, the students were unto them, tying them up like sacks of potatoes with the help of Ken’s summoned vines from his spell.

Each one of them facing a weapon, a glint of killing intent coated on each of their student’s blades.

Klein’s head was blank, for looking at the interaction that happened so fast but felt so long for each of them Masters, looked so impossible to pull out, the spells did not do any damage, the only significant thing their students have done was push them around.

Wait, push? How many seconds were they out of commission before getting control of their limbs back? Was that… a new spell? Klein stared at the kid holding a scythe to Ras’s neck.

“We forfeit.” said Klein, stopping the struggle of his fellow Masters, all staring at him in shock.

“What do you mean we forfeit? I was just about to burst out from the vines!” exclaimed Mira.

“We… got outsmarted.” The remark immediately put an insulted look on Mira’s face, wanting to retort, but wasn’t able to. “And don’t you try to reason with me, haven’t you noticed that they’ve already prepared spells beforehand, the vines are not ordinary as well, are these… seals Ken?”

Hearing his name, Ken happily turned to his Master and said. “Yes Master! I’m so glad you noticed!”

“But how where you able to learn them when we haven’t taught you?” the tone of curiosity on Oldin’s voice was a lot more dominant in his question.

“Mother and Father taught me.” replied the long haired boy, thinking fondly of his parents.

Everyone’s thoughts were one in the same, ‘What?’

Matters of sealing magic are hard concepts to come by, but look at this kid, speaking like it’s a walk in the park. Wait, that’s not right, Ken didn’t say that it was easy to do, he just replied to the question who taught him.

Okay, there is a need to discuss this, with tea.

“Ken, release us.” Klein said casually. “There is much we need to talk about, and call your parents over as well.”

Even though Ken’s eyebrows perked up in question, nevertheless he did as his Master said, releasing them all from the vines, and called for his parents, running along to the townsquare.

Good thing Kara and Dawn were not with them, Ken should be able to find his parents with the two.

At the corner of his eye, Klein noticed a purple outline of four sided diamonds on the surface of the vines, scrutinizing to himself that those must be the sealing circles, and in large quantities too.

What could be the purpose of having several different seals at once? Meanwhile, the other Masters talked to the students and their good execution of the earlier formation.

Loud chatters and wonders were exclaimed back and forth. The prospect of using a method of fast executions was a good addition to their strategy in fighting unsuspecting enemies or opponents.

Oldin joined Klein in his lost for thought contemplation, thinking back to that kid who shouted ‘Rain Formation’. This is getting interesting by the minute, he never felt so out of it than that time, if other enemies were here to witness that fight,

Oldin was sure he’d be dead by now. Just who is that child.

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