At a remote place of the forest, near the city walls, you could see two people confronting one another. One was the young Ariel, while the other was the already quite old and vicious criminal blood drinker.

When Ariel stepped out and faced him, he had already prepared his usual combat defenses, the three ice shields he would have hovering around. From this you could see that although Ariel’s words seemed to be quite light before, he didn’t dare to underestimate his opponent.

Blood drinker on the other hand, was still fuming for being insulted by a brat who still wasn't even 20. While having his eyes turn red from blood lust, he drew his savage sword, which had many “teeth” from all sides of it, without saying another word making it look really intimidating. It was obvious that this sword was created with the desire to inflict as much pain as possible, which made Ariel feel reluctant to even get close to it.

However he soon noticed that his opponent wasn’t as furious as before, but more like a beast eyeing its prey. He started feeling like this blood drinker had quite a unique mindset as he was easily angered, but his anger would quickly be turned into savagery and frightening calmness when facing an opponent.

All of this made Ariel’s discard all the taunt cards he wanted to play, and instead he put more effort into observing his opponent’s moves. It didn’t take long for Ariel’s opponent to start slightly swinging his sword, almost as if having a feel for it but he also was conflicted about how silent the slaver has been. Ariel decided to wait until his opponent moved first before acting.

Currently Ariel stood at about twenty meters from his opponent and was quite confident about his opponent not being able to reach him, even though he hadn’t ever seen the true physical capabilities of a warrior. However his expectations ware overturned when the blood drinker took his first, large step and exploded in terrifying speed, heading straight towards him.

Ariel could barely react when his enemy appeared right in front of, and only by putting everything he could into dodging did he mange to lunge back a bit, avoiding a lethal blow. Unfortunately he heard glass breaking and noticed that he only had two ice shields left, as the previous attack destroyed one.

Taking several steps back Ariel got some distance while blood drinker also retreated, he seemed to be a very careful man and was afraid of Ariel having some kind of counter attack. Noticing that he has some room to breath, Ariel didn’t waste his time and quickly summoned five ice spears around him.

Although doing this makes it easy to keep track of them and they loose their surprise factor, Ariel didn’t want to take chances and this formation would be something that his opponent should be fearful a bit of attacking. The blood drinker, in the mean time was extremely shocked as he spoke. “You are actually able to use spells without chanting, I was right to have retreated. You also have quite a decent reaction speed compared to other mages. It seems there truly are monstrous geniuses like this in the world. Unfortunately you will meet your end here.”

His opponent in the end has mistakenly thought that he took the right choice by retreating. Unfortunately he didn’t know that if he followed up his attack, he might have killed Ariel in the first exchange and be done with it. However Ariel won’t be letting such an unexpected thing to happen again. He tightly gripped one of his newly manifested ice spears, making his beating heart calm down bit by bit.

The slaver leader didn’t know what to do, and the time he spent debating if he should attack, Ariel had already finished regaining his rationality. He looked towards his enemy and began creating plans how to kill him.

Due to experiencing the near death experience he didn’t want to give an opening by using up all of his defenses, so while not shooting out the ice spears hovering around him, he cast a new spell to attack, instead. Ariel’s spell of choice in this situation was the frost bolt since it had decent range and also some dangerous factors to it which will keep his opponent on his toes.

By the time the first Ariel’s frost bolt was shot out, blood drinker had already awoken from his thoughts and after noticing a spell coming towards him, dodged to the side. However that was the reason Ariel chose this, just as the spell went past him, Ariel used its second feature of launching out its spikes.

At such a close range it was extremely hard to evade all of them, but thanks to noticing the activation at the last second, Ariel’s opponent managed to protect himself while dodging and using his sword to ward the spikes off him. Of course under such an unexpected assault he still got several tiny cuts all around his body, making the slave leader frustrated.

Seeing that his attack had only minimal effect, Ariel quickly tried shooting out another one. Unfortunately blood drinker understood that by staying a fair distance form Ariel would definitely end up in his defeat. That’s why he instantly started charging in zigzags toward the young mage.

While staying calm Ariel changed the spell he was preparing at the moment, and this time chose to use ice cone. Just when his enemy reached the required range, he unleashed his spell, covering a decent amount of area in front of him in ice.

Blood drinker didn’t have much experience in fighting mages so he easily got caught in Ariel’s plan, getting momentarily frozen. After seeing this, Ariel didn’t waste a second and sent the four ice spears around him to strike.

Unfortunately blood drinker was decently strong and was able to break out of his encasement almost immediately. Using all of his efforts to evade, Ariel’s attack was unable to deal a critical injury to him, but blood drinker’s skill was not enough for him to leave uninjured. His left shoulder and right leg were grazed, reducing his fighting ability by a notch.

Unexpectedly, while not paying any head to his injuries, the slaver leader charged towards him, intending to finish it as fast as possible. Ariel responded by calling back his four ice spears and thrusting out the one in his hands.

His opponent however was capable of easily measuring the trajectories and so he dodged the four coming from the back and the one coming from in front of him, while at the same time unleashing his own attack at Ariel.

Thankfully Ariel still had two ice shields and used one to block the strike, but the blood drinker was fast and instantly went in for his next attack. However he was met with an unexpected ice slice spell from Ariel’s left hand that he prepared while predicting his opponent’s actions.

The sword and the ice blade clashed, soon pushing both of them back and once more creating a distance. Looking at the middle aged man Ariel started to feel that this will be a long fight. Their skill was almost on the same level so neither of them could get an edge, ending up at a stalemate.

Coming to this conclusion Ariel quickly launched himself into the woods. Blood drinker, thinking that Ariel was escaping instantly started chasing him. However what he didn’t expect was that Ariel was just thinking of changing the terrain into something that would be a bit more beneficial to him.

As he entered the woods, another ice spear was launched directly at him. Blocking it with his sword, blood drinker’s fury reached an entirely new level. The next moment he understood what Ariel was planning and complied to do the same.

Like this, their guerrilla battle started and continued for who knows how long. Throughout the time they were battling, Ariel used many spells and also had to re summon many destroyed ice shields to even have a chance at surviving.

Countless attacks were exchange between the two, each trying to eliminate the other person. Only after a couple of hours did they finally break out of this stalemate. Ariel, who has been hiding inside the forest and evading the blood drinker’s blows, was finally driven out of the forestry.

Just when they finally stepped into a clearing again, the slaver leader spoke. “So much trouble for a single brat, but now there is nowhere to run anymore. I have never expected that you would last for such a long time, that’s why I decided to finish you of with my trump card.” Ariel’s opponent started snickering while speaking, he himself however didn’t respond, remaining silent and waited to see his enemy’s plan.

When blood drinker saw this, anger once again flashed in his eyes, but he consoled himself by saying that it won’t be long before Ariel dies. He suddenly took out something and put it on his finger, after Ariel got a better look at it, he realized it to be a storage ring. However he didn’t have much time to think. Blood drinker summoned several swords from inside it and the next moment all of them flew out from his hand and positioned themselves all around Ariel.

While being stunned, Ariel could barely continue to think, while the slaver leader started to laugh and speak. “See? This is my final move. Although I am not truly at sword flight level, but I am already quite close and by making these swords out of a light metal I can use them like this. Now there is no way out for you anymore.” His opponent was clearly confident in himself and already thought that it is his win.

Ariel in the mean time was wracking his brain after snapping out of his stupor. All of his ice shields and most of his Mana was gone, and ice manipulation won’t be able to defend against all of them leaving Ariel in a dilemma.

Unfortunately his opponent looked to be tired of him already and even though he also had many small injuries, he still had some strength left to fight. What’s more, he really wants to be done with this as soon as possible. So at the next moment he directly charged at Ariel while thrusting his sword, at the same time the swords from all around him did the same and started flying towards him.

He easily saw that there was no way to evade or block all of them, making Ariel’s mind think even harder. However no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t think up of a way and when the swords were already upon him he gritted his teeth and stared right in front of him, at the annoying and ugly grin. Although he can’t get out of this unharmed by sacrificing something, a person can always get something in return.

Without a moment of hesitation Ariel leaped at blood drinker, not expecting this he was late to react and soon his sword pierced Ariel’s body. He completely didn’t understand why Ariel did this but at the next moment he suddenly felt something cold in his chest, looking down he saw an exquisite ice spear that Ariel had always kept in his hands during the fight.

Quickly understanding what happened, he revealed a pained expression of regret. To think that the infamous blood drinker would end up dying so pathetically at the hands of a boy, such a disgrace.

All the way until his last breath Ariel’s opponent’s eyes showed unwillingness. Unfortunately it didn’t help him in any way to save his miserable life. Only after Ariel felt that blood drinker drew his last breath did he draw out, the already bloody ice spear.

Letting out a breath of relief, the next moment he clutched his stomach. The sword wound was a very heavy wound due to the nature of his opponent’s weapon. He saw that he was quickly bleeding out, so he tried to immediately bandage himself.

Luckily enough, the next moment he heard the rustling of the leaves and turned to look to the left of him with vigilance. Coming out of the wood was his worn out best friend, seemingly satisfied with his job.

After seeing the situation at hand however, Brendon instantly ran up to Ariel and spoke. “You’re bleeding so much. This wound is too dangerous it has gone right through your stomach. It seems this bastard gave you trouble right until the end.” While continuing to speak, Brendon took out something out of his bag.

It was a flask filled with red liquid which was quite familiar to Ariel. What Brendon took out was a healing potion, something that can only be created by alchemists and is extremely expensive. However they are mostly used by adventurers or lone experts, since light magic’s capabilities are still way more efficient.

Fortunately in this situation Brendon was smart enough to bring one, and so he immediately gave it to Ariel. Chugging down the potion Ariel quickly felt his wound healing and even his Mana started refreshing itself at a rapid rate.

As soon as he felt that he recovered to a suitable condition he looked towards Brendon and expressed his thanks. “I am thankful, at least now I don’t have a hole in my stomach. My opponent was quite hard to handle, it is true that experience and skill can have a huge effect on who wins.”

Brendon nodded at his words and responded. “Yeah, but to have defeated such a notorious person is an impressive feat in itself. We have also managed to catch most of the slavers that ran to the forest. Unfortunately the black clothed youth used some kind of strange magic resembling the darkness element to escape. We couldn’t really do anything about it.”

Hearing this Ariel didn’t blame them and just tried comfort him. “A mysterious person like him must have some measures to remain mysterious it is not your fault. You just had too little information about him I think we should be putting more energy into interrogating these guys instead of chasing that youth.”

In response Brendon let out a weak smile as he spoke. “You’re right.” Seeing that his friend is not downcast anymore, Ariel came up to the lying body of blood drinker and started searching it. After some time he still didn’t find any useful clues and was about to give up, but suddenly a crest fell out of one of his pockets.

Bending down and picking it up he saw that the etched crest was that of a two headed horse. Before he could even start thinking, Brendon by his side exclaimed in shock. “Isn’t that the crest of the Hevorin family, are they the ones behind all of this?” Ariel kept looking at the thing in his hands for a few seconds more before he responded. “I think the Hevorin is only a tool that the mysterious organization you have spoke about, is using.”

Brendon appeared to have come to the realization and silently agreed to his theory as he spoke. “I will deal with this later, first we should get back to The Academy. I'm so tired I can barely stand.” Feeling amused Ariel simply complied and followed his friend towards the stationed knights.

In the end all the captured slavers were brought back to be interrogated, the mission also ended almost perfectly, there were no deaths on their side and only some light injuries. With the satisfying feeling in their hearts, Brendon and Ariel quickly returned to the school grounds.

Suddenly stopping on the road, Ariel turned to look at the school café, remembering that Sarah and Erna were going to hang out there until late at night, at least by their words. Thinking that they might still be there he spoke out towards Brendon. “Erna and Sarah should still be at the café. Maybe we should go chat with them a bit?”

His friend seemed to have not known about this and let out a surprised voice. “They are? Well I guess they “would” tell you. I also think we should go see what they are doing, it won’t hurt to say good night to them.”

Both of them turned to walk to the café at the end of their conversation, but in front of them they notice a shadow of a person running at their direction. As it got closer they instantly recognized the person due to her long blue hair.

However currently her hair was in a mess and her face had a panicking expression on it. This visage made a bad premonition start swelling up inside them as they though of what could have riled her up like this and more importantly, why was she alone?

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If you want to read further, visit https://verathragna.wordpress.com/ I will always have an extra chapter there