As the three airships soared in the skies - one approaching the other two - of which one was chasing the other, the distance between the three quickly shrinked.

Soon enough, on the deck of the ship desperately attempting to escape...

“Hide away, I will hold them off for as long as I can!” Butler Cario roared furiously, as he ushered the siblings into the cabin of the airship.

“But…!” The maiden had a tearful expression as she hesitatingly headed inwards. The young man likewise had a twisted expression as he headed in as well.

They did not wish to hide away… But they truly couldn’t meddle in the fight either! After all, the battle that was about to occur was well beyond their capabilities to help in.

...

Meanwhile, an airship 100 meter long, made of a special dark metal, lined with intimidating cannons, crossbows, as well as metal rectangles with electrifying auras quickly closed the gap between the two ships.

Atop this ship... actually stood three Basic mages and a few dozen crewmen armed to the teeth! The combined aura of this ship and its personnel was enough to instill fear into any reasonable being.

Suddenly, an authoritative voice roared from atop the deck. “Fire!”

The longest ranged lasers abruptly began lighting up and gathering energy at this command.

Boooom!

Four bursts of red light emerged from these rectangular laser cannons. Almost instantaneously, they collided with a translucent blue barrier that had appeared around the 50 meter airship, which didn’t waver in the slightest.

Still, seeing this, Butler Cario frowned.

“.5% of the energy was already expended?” he shook his head. “It seems we really are doomed. They bought out their best cannons.” Butler Cario muttered savagely, as his eyes began glowing.

“Nevertheless, if they wish to take us out without a fight, they shall only experience disappointment!” he roared as he summed blazing rays of light on his own from his pupils.

Boom!

Two beams of his own shot towards the opposing airship, which prompted a translucent barrier to momentarily appear, blocking the rays of energy.

...

Meanwhile, on the imposing black ship…

“This old fart is determined to fight till the end, huh. Damnit, he’s wasting all of our energy!” one of the three mages at the head of the metal ship spat venomously, while glaring at the opposing ship with hatred burning in his eyes.

“Futile. When we capture them, our remuneration will easily exceed any damage that he could possibly cause.” another of the three mages smiled maliciously while sizing up the lone man standing on the distant airship.

“Agreed” The last said in a low gravelly voice.

In this world, everything had a cost. Of course maintaining a barrier around an airship was expensive! If two sides insisted upon fighting it out until the reserves of one of them ran out, a needless amount of energy would only be expended; it was self destructive.

And yet, that was most likely exactly what would happen in this fight, which angered the three somewhat. Still, when they thought of the generous rewards that they would receive upon completing their objective, their hearts calmed substantially.

...

Both ships had a fair amount of cannons, as the unassuming airship revealed a number of hidden cannons whilst laserfire was being exchanged. And so, it was naturally bound to be a brutal fight.

After all, the laserfire was simply an appetizer to the real battle; the struggle truly would begin when the cannons came out!

Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!

As soon as the two ships came into cannonfire range, the instruments of war on either side simultaneously sent volley after volley of cannonballs into the other, whilst both ships moved irregularly in a feeble attempt to minimize damage.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The barriers around both ships quickly began flickering, as projectiles collided with them.

It has to be known that as a rich merchant, Toxilis had no lack of essence crystals; even a fraction of a fraction of his wealth in essence crystals was a lot of energy!

As a result, the pursuing airship had to expend an extremely large amount of essence crystals to break through the opposing ship’s shield, while simultaneously catching up to it in a chase.

The expenditure was insane and if it weren’t for the fact that the ship was running low on energy, they could have never hoped to outlast it.

Soon after cannonballs began firing, crossbow fire and various spells landed on the two ships’ barriers, quickening the weakening of the shields considerably.

The ships’ energy reserves quickly dwindled as displays of light and devastating energies appeared around the two ships… 80%, 70%, 50%...

Watching this scene from a window, amidst the shaking airship, the young man within the unassuming airship was feeling endlessly helpless and enraged.

‘Why? Why am I so useless?! Am I really going to sit here and die, idling and helpless?!’ he thought, inwardly cursing at fate.

As he stared outwards, years of pent up frustration trapped just below the surface were reaching the tipping point.

Back when he was just born, many were envious of him. After all, his father was the legendary Merchant Toxilis! To be born under such an exalted figure was definitely worthy of envy.

In most cases, even if one lacked magical talent, there were ways of forcefully unlocking one’s talent with enough wealth and connections. Unfortunately, his sister had a very low affinity in magic, so becoming a mage was next to useless for her, while he... somehow couldn’t even gain a shred of magical talent, no matter what was tried!

How laughable was that?

He could still remember the agonizing days in which his father had tried everything to unlock his talent. Toxilis would always comfort him with kindness in his eyes after every failure. However, the disappointment hidden beneath his gentle expression was unable to be fully hidden.

As a result, he had gained a reputation as an absolute failure, forcing him to instead take up commerce as a trade, growing up in the shadow of his father. It seemed as if he were never destined to be a mage.

Thus, he was essentially helpless in a truly fierce battle...

And soon, the moment that he had been fearing had come, inciting his anguish to a whole nother level.

Smash!

The blue barrier that had been shaking wildly around their airship finally broke apart into countless shards of blue light, leaving the 50 meter airship completely exposed.

At this very moment, butler Cario roared heroically as he made his last stand, and began utilizing his very life force as energy.

“I’ll drag you lot to the depths of hell with me!”

Boom! Boom!

As projectiles rained on him, he burnt them all to a crisp with several lasers stemming from his eyes and palms. His already wrinkled and aged figure seemed to only age further as he furiously assaulted the airship, not withholding anything in the slightest.

Blinding lights filled the sky, as a man exploded forth in one final display of might.

-----

Seeing the distant scene, Simon couldn’t help himself from being mildly impressed.

“Jake, be sure to ingrain this in your mind. Though this is a low level fight, that old man is actually quite impressive. To master both time and heat to such an extent at the mere first star core, and to even merge them in this manner to form those beams of energy… Even I probably can’t do so without some practice.” he said with an approving smile.

Jake nodded while watching this morbid and beautiful scene unblinkingly. Such a fight was truly a spectacle, and he had never seen the likes of it before.

Simon on the other hand, had witnessed displays of power hundreds of times more impressive. The only reason he was impressed was because of the old man’s skill.

“Alright Jake. Your master is gonna slap them silly as soon as we arrive. Just sit back and watch.” he said in a laid back manner as he watched this all unfold. By now, they were already very close to the fight and it would only be a minute or two before he descended upon the battlefield.

Roughly a minute later...

“Tsk, Tsk. He was a valiant man. It seems those two young ones are done for.” Simon shook his head. By now, the old man had finally collapsed after destroying the opposing airship’s barrier, killing a mage and over a dozen men. His achievements were truly remarkable.

But as he approached, Simon felt a strange pulse of energy from the ship.

‘Huh? Is that…’

Jake’s eyes also suddenly widened, as he seemed to sense the same thing.

Boom!

Suddenly, a handsome young man with glowing red hair blasted through the roof of the smaller airship. And at the same time, a boundless desolate and baleful aura emerged from his figure.

“ALL OF YOU, DIE!” he roared in a crazed manner, his grief-stricken, incensed words reverberating through the air limitlessly.

He frenziedly leapt over a hundred meter gap between the two battered airships and onto the deck of the other ship. Projectiles immediately launched towards his body, but he ignored them and clobbered the enemies with fists wreathed in flames!

Boom! Boom!

Heads exploded like watermelons, and limbs were thrown asunder as he rampaged about. Even the mages were not spared, as they let out desperate screams and plead for mercy; but no mercy was given.

“Crap, who is this guy?! Didn’t our information say he was talentles-?!” the second mage exclaimed in despair. Unfortunately, at this moment, his magical barrier shattered, and his skull was promptly crushed. He had died before managing to finish his sentence.

“Hahaha, you’ve awakened! Even if you kill me, you are doomed to die!” the last mage laughed maniacally as he put up his last bout of resistance, soon becoming a bloody pulp...

Not even a minute later, the airship was covered with streams of blood, corpses strewn about, and scorch marks all over the place. After the young man collapsed, it was completely silent.

...

“...”

Simon was actually speechless for a moment, before a glow appeared in his eyes.

‘What an excellent find!’

Indeed, what the young man had just gone through was a mana awakening. It was just that his mana awakening was considerably… intense!

In truth, the reason why the man’s burst in power was so pronounced was because of the various techniques that were employed on him in order to release his talent. Though these methods of unleashing his talent were not successful, they nonetheless contributed to his ‘hidden’ talent. And once he unleashed that talent… the results would of course be rather spectacular.

When thinking about it, Simon was reminded of where he had seen such scenes before…

In his old world, the race of elves were known to have extremely potent magical talent, which was capable of shaking the entire planet. However, said talent was also extremely hard to awaken! After all, even most humans would never awaken their talent, let alone elves with talent that were many times more terrifying.

And when they underwent the forceful process of mana awakening, the results were incredibly similar to what the young man underwent...

“Jake, stay back. Allow me to investigate this” Simon commanded Jake solemnly, as he pulled out his wand, before hopping onto the deck of the 50 meter airship in one graceful leap.

Thump.

Suddenly, a shaking young woman appeared from a door leading to its interior with a magical crossbow in her hands.

“Who are you? I’ll have you know that I’m a mage as well!” she threatened, while summoning a flower atop of her hand. Despite what she went through, she still managed to put up a front.

Simon laughed, amused. “Relax, if I wished you harm, you would already be done for.”

The lady frowned. “Who are you to talk in su-”

He merely waved his wand, and suddenly, a phantom of a gorilla nearly fifty meters tall formed from thousands of shards of yellow light conjoined, appearing behind the menacing airship made of metal.

This gorilla was emanating an ancient aura of primordial strength which blanketed everything present in an overbearing fashion, and the phantom slowly pushed forwards, before slowly fading away.

Boom!

Woosh!

Under the influence of the gorilla’s push, the sturdy metal ship launched straight towards Simon at a breakneck speed, which caused both Jake and the young maiden to flinch.

When the metal ship almost arrived, Simon unhurriedly waved his hand again, and a vast and profound phantom of an iceberg appeared around the ship, which caused it to slow considerably until it stopped, a hair’s breadth away from his palm which was now facing outwards.

This was what was possible when one combined a high level of expertise, scientific knowledge, tier two spells, and a powerful wand!

Simon paid the peerlessly beautiful maiden with bulging eyes no attention at all as he hopped onto the ship, making his way towards the young man lying face down on the deck. After all, he was who Simon was truly interested in…

Simon placed a palm on the bloodied young man’s back and closed his eyes.

‘Interesting. How very interesting!’ he couldn’t help but think, intrigued upon gauging the situation within the young man’s body.