Author's Note:

Here we go another chapter. Hopefully, it is to your satisfaction and thanks for all the good words. I'm happy to be back too and together with you continue our adventure in this strange land of my creation with Ace as our guide.

Character List

Titles and Abilities

“Is there anyone ready to challenge these two unlikely contenders?” a man in his middle thirties shouted out to the surrounding crowd. He was the one allowed to lead the games between the championship fights and was enjoying it immensely. “They have come from nowhere and now defeated three pairs of opponents in a row! Can’t believe it? Ha! Don’t be fooled by their innocent appearances! These are no simple kids but battle hardened fighters! It’s them who you’ll wish would go easy on you!” he screamed out, motioning at the two boys standing on the arena.

The right one was wearing a red magician’s robe and holding a staff twice his size. He had an elated expression on his face and didn’t seem to be mindful of the danger he was in.

The first few opponents had went easy on them, expecting quick victories but the watchers had learnt in that time. The defeated ones too were telling tales of how different it was to stand on that stage and look into the eyes of the kids. Or more like one of them.

The other, golden haired one.

He was standing slightly behind the other and watching the crowd with calculating eyes. Unlike what was expected of a melee player, he was not wearing any armour. Instead he was dressed in brown ankle boots, dark blue breeches and white shirt with golden buttons. On his neck rested a purple scarf and beside his head a small flame circled.

In fights, he was the one doing most of the work. His swift movements and sharp daggers managed to keep both opponents at bay while poison chipped down their health. Fireballs were just an icing on the cake.

“I will!” a man from the back shouted out. People made a path for him and Ace took a better look at his new opponent.

The man was in his early twenties and wore greenish leather armour. There was a quiver on his back. Behind him walked another guy. That one had heavy armour on and carried a huge sword, claymore.

Monthu murmured something under his breath but Ace ignored him. The guy had gotten used to the idea that his brother was going to fight here but he still grumbled about it. He didn’t trust Ace to be able to keep Par safe, no matter what the previous fights suggested.

“And who you might be?” the organizer asked with a bright smile.

“Cloud there and I’m Vicious” the archer said. “We’re going to show these kids how true men fight!”

Ace smiled at that and motioned for Par to go to the other side of the arena. Then he followed himself a bit slower. /Do you have any other spells?/ he asked him in chat. /These guys are better than the ones we’ve faced before./

Par was quiet for a moment. /Worglan had taught me some spells. What kind do you want?/ /Anything that they wouldn’t expect of you./ /Pillar of flame?/ /Something that has nothing to do with fire?/ /Green wings?/

Ace blinked. /What does that do?/ /I summon a small flying creature that flies around dealing damage./ /Sure, that sounds useful. Use that and other spells. There’s no reason to be stuck on only fireball./

“Are both parties ready?” the organizer asked cheerfully and both duos nodded their agreement. “Then let the match begin! May the best ones win!”

As the last syllable left his mouth, Ace flashed forward with his daggers in his hands. He knew he would be blocked with a giant sword so instead of attacking he lowered his body sideways and slid past the swordsman to the archer. There was only a moment before he would be attacked so he used it to throw his daggers at the opponent.

Only one connected but it was enough for the moment. Ace turned and with a new pair of poisoned daggers blocked the claymore. It was heavy and strong and he felt his daggers straining.

That asked for a different style of fighting. No frontal blocking but more redirecting the blade and thinking of a way to get into the guy’s personal space. That showed up harder than he had expected.

The giant sword was moving in swift arcs that seemed impossible for such a heavy looking weapon. It took Ace’s whole speed to keep his daggers in place to save himself from being slashed in two.

“Par” he shouted out, not wasting time to look back at him. Hopefully, the kid would find a good spell to use.

Something green flashed in the corner of his eyes and he dodged to the right on instinct. It was good he did that or else it might have been him parading a large pecking wound on his cheek.

“The he-” the big man cursed as a small bird that flew close to the speed of light hit him again and again. Ace doubted it dealt any significant damage but he was sure it was annoying as hell.

He decided to leave the guy to the bird for a bit and jumped back to see how Par was doing and where was the archer guy. He had been absent for the whole fight between Ace and the big sword guy. Or more like his ranged support was missing.

As Ace glanced about, he saw the guy fighting against some shadowy thing. It was all gooey and tried to what looked like eat the guy alive. The archer was cursing and grumbling, trying to get the thing off himself with his bare hands but the thing clung to him and made his whole body sticky.

Ace didn’t need to ask Par where or from whom he had learnt that spell.

“Good work!” he threw to him and then jumped on the distracted archer’s back. He used all his rogue skills, dealing ghastly amounts of damage. And poisoning. “Cloud!” the guy hissed in anger, watching as his health dropped down by a good chunk. He was left with less than a half. “Take care of your one!”

Ace didn’t give the other guy chance to get to him and save his friend; he stabbed in quick succession a few more times before using [Heart-seeker]. That ended the archer’s struggles quickly.

The claymore guy bellowed in anger, screaming something unintelligible to Ace and jumping at him. The green little thing (was that really a bird?) was still attacking him but the guy stopped paying him any attention. “You little dare to kill my fr-” he shouted out at Ace who jumped right at him.

The guy was stunned for a moment but he was a seasoned fighter and by instincts alone managed to dodge a deadly blow, the daggers barely scratching his armour. Ace muttered under his breath as he rolled a few times to soften the fall from his jump.

As he tried to stand up, he felt a presence behind himself. Without thinking he used [Radiant Step] to create an invisible field behind himself and pushed off. And he managed just on time as where he had been crouching just a moment ago a claymore landed.

Ace threw a dagger backwards and used more of the fields to higher himself up in the air. Then he turned back and redirected a slash aimed at his neck. Or so he tried to but the attack had so much force behind it, he was thrown away with a gaping wound on his shoulder.

He hissed in pain while taking a quick glance at his health bar. There were thirty percent left. In other words, one more attack. ‘Damn, that was quick.’

He dropped his remaining dagger and took out two longer, sturdier ones to block another swing. These managed to stay strong against another blow, although, he was pushed back. That was not going to cut it.

“Careful!” Par shouted out from behind and without thinking Ace pushed against the opponent’s blades to jump back. Right where he stood and the enemy had just stepped in to follow him a pillar of flame rose up. It surrounded the man fully but before Ace could enjoy the sight for a bit longer, he burst through to attack Ace again.

Ace didn’t feel like fighting in disadvantage of height so he used [Radiant Step] to lift himself up. Now from there it was easier to block and get in the guy’s face but it was a precarious position. One misstep, one second too long on the same field and he was a dead man. Nothing would save him then.

However, that also meant he could do something unexpected.

When another slash came for him, he blocked it and used the power behind it as a leverage to raise up and kick the man in his head while taking position behind him. From there then use all rogue skills.

His opponent turned with another cutting slash but Ace was already away. He used his invisible fields to raise higher in the air where he couldn’t be attacked.

An uncounted for result of that was that the guy rushed towards the target he could reach then. Par. Ace cursed and pushed himself sideways so he dove towards the guy. He didn’t even notice the upcoming danger, intent of now taking care of the mage kid.

Ace would have continued on his course and sacrificed the mage, but this was Par. The kid deserved better than that. And then there was also Monthu. There would be no end to his grumblings if Ace allowed Par to die.

“Wild vines” he called out but the spell wasn’t a full incantation and that meant it was on the weaker side. The man broke free of the plants, barely slowing down.

”Ice Field” Ace screamed out then. This had to work.

And it did.

In the most wrong way possible. Instead of falling the guy took a good footing and started sliding. Never in his life had Ace considered the possibility that someone would feel at home on ice as much as he did. That should have been impossible.

Before Ace could try anything else, the guy was in front of Par. That wasn’t good. At all.

He pushed against another field and with a new burst of speed rammed into the guy with his daggers. Equipped with [Magma Blade] they pierced his armour and the guy howled in pain. He turned with bloodshot eyes but Ace was through with him. He slashed at his eyes and on top of that made [Flare] burst there.

He hoped it hurt like hell for killing Par.

To his surprise the guy wasn’t dead yet. He screamed in rage and swung his giant sword in all directions as if expecting it to hit. Ace didn’t go anywhere near him, just took out a smaller dagger and coated it in the most potent and fastest working poison he had.

The dagger flew to its mark, straight to the heart with a whispered [Heart-seeker].

When the guy disappeared, Ace raised his head to where Par had stood. It was empty and Ace sighed heavily. He was a dead man walking. Monthu was probably already planning ways to have his head.

“Hey! We won! We won!” Par shouted out and Ace turned to the crowd, expecting to see him there. All those that died were removed from the arena and resurrected nearby to be able to see the rest of the fight while their health regenerated back to full.

“This was amazing! You simply flew through the air!” Par added and Ace whirled around as he noticed the sound was coming from behind him. What met his eyes was a red robed kid standing a couple of meters away with a wide smile.

Ace blinked a few times in disbelief. Was he seeing correctly? How could he have survived? “What did you do?” he asked his friend, jogging to him. He really did seem to be alive and fine.

“What do you mean?” Par asked unsure of why his friend had such a strange expression on his face. It almost looked like he was worried about something.

“You were standing there” Ace said motioning to where the kid should have died. “And the guy jumped at you. How are you still alive?”

“Oh, it wasn’t me!” Par said with a laugh. “But Worglan told me not to talk about that spell.”

“That’s for strangers” Ace said with a smile. /Friends don’t have secrets and we’re best friends, right? You know I’d never betray you!/

Par nodded at that and started writing something in the air. He was taking quite a while so Ace went to the organizer. “How did we do? Did we earn anything?” he asked and after a few grumbles the man said quite a large sum. Two hundred gold. “We’ll take in then.”

“Are you already leaving? But you’ve won all your fights! Why would you want to stop? You can probably earn twice as much!” the guy said loudly. There was disbelief written on his face as he was being presented with the fact that his money earning kids wanted to disappear. “You should really stay!”

“No, we’re leaving. I want my money” Ace said, forcefully. “We’re done.”

“Already?” Par asked in a pout. Ace smiled at that but nodded nonetheless. “Yeah, it’s enough for today. We can do this some other time if you really liked it.” “Why? We’re winning, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, listen to your friend! You can still keep going! I’m sure you can still win at least a couple more fights!”

Ace glared at the guy before turning to his friend. “I’m tired. Where you’ve been standing and casting spells, I was running around and fighting. My stamina is very low. If you really want to continue fighting, you should ask someone else to join you.” “Oh...” Par murmured. “It’s enough then. We can do this in the next championship, right?”

Ace nodded with a slight smile. The kid looked so sad and wishful, looking at the arena they were stepping down from. “Don’t worry. There will be many more chances for us to do this and maybe one day we can participate in the championship itself.”

“Really?” Par asked wide-eyed. “You think so?” “Why not? We’re only going to become stronger.”

Par’s eyes glazed over as he tried imagining that and Ace lead him to where Monthu was. “Here happy and alive” he said, presenting him the kid. Monthu gave him a look but breathed a sigh of relief.

“Why did you stop?” Hawk asked from behind. Ace glanced at him. “I overestimated myself” he said simply. “In what?” “Everything.”

That cryptic reply given, he picked his winnings and took a step back to read Par’s message. /It’s a spell that displaces the caster. It creates an identical copy of me that has exact same looks and human like feeling. Even after killing it no one would ever understand that it wasn’t real. In the mean time I’m moved to the right as a ghost. However, I can be hurt there if anyone would ever guess it./

/Keep it a secret then. It’s a really dangerous secret and a wonderful spell. Worglan has been teaching you useful stuff/ he wrote back thoughtfully. He hadn’t expected that from Par, or Skele for that matter. What had he been thinking teaching Par dark magic? Didn’t he notice that the boy was an innocent?

He shook his head. It was too late to worry about that and anyway where was Skele? He hadn’t seen him since they separated and he went to deal with his guild. ‘I should find him. It’s surprising he gave me this much time to do his quest but I should be getting on with it. It’s been ages since I even thought of it.’

“Where are you going?” Aurora asked him from behind. “Aren’t you going to watch the rest of the championship with us?” She looked worried for some reason.

“Nope. I am tired. And bored. I think I’ll go looking for Worglan. Have you seen him anywhere?” he asked, yawning for extra measure. His stamina was on the low side after all the fighting but not that bad. And even if he ran out of energy, [Last Stand] would activate giving him infinite stamina as long as he was in battle.

“He said he was going to check out the library when we separated. He might still be there.”

“Thanks!” he said, throwing her a wide smile and left the arena place.

Outside he took a breath of fresh air. Tons of people meant humid air and lack of personal space which Ace really liked. It was much better when he was alone. His face muscles relaxed and his smile disappeared.

For no reason he took out his cane and closed his eyes while activating [Echo], At first second it was all black and scary but soon shapes started to take form. Different materials returned a different sound wave, even size and form were passed through that.

In time the whole road shaped up and Ace could easily walk forward without any fear of hitting something. Every bump in the road was accounted for in his sight.

It was an interesting way to walk around so he did exactly that. He thought about going for the library but he decided that he didn’t want that yet.

First he found a washer’s shop and gave them all his clothes to clean, then went to make some new ones. He was running out of them pretty quickly in a dungeon and was close to being forced to wearing simple cloth as a toga once again.

The shopkeeper promised to have them made by tomorrow after seeing the gold coins in Ace’s hands and happily he left he shop to go to his basement. He had expected to find it looted or overrun by some creatures as it had been months since he’d last been here but to his surprise it wasn’t the case.

His herbs were still drying, a few elixirs he’d left still standing in the corners and even his pots and bottles were still here. He smiled at that and lost himself in the brewing.

Ace wasn’t a real alchemist. He wasn’t crazy about it but he found it fun to mix all those different tinctures and create something overly different. Like sometimes you used three or even four poisonous herbs and what you received showed up to be a miraculous potion.

And then there was the testing. Unlike real crazies he didn’t like testing stuff on himself and preferred using others. His opponents sometimes were even more stunned by his supposed poison healing them than if they had been poisoned. Monsters especially.

He laughed remembering the goblins who just stood and stared around after that had happened. You aren’t supposed to heal or strengthen your enemies!

He wasted some four-five hours in his little cave before once again venturing out and finding Worglan. The guy had been hidden in the deepest corner of the library in a small room Ace would have sworn didn’t exist before.

It was made up of two bookcases with heavy tomes in black covers without any names and a desk on which another bunch of those books on it. The whole room itself, however, did not have an ominous feeling. It was painted light cream and a candle glowed warmly on the table.

“What are you doing here?” Ace asked Skele who was sitting with a book that clearly had a couple thousand of pages and weighted more than any normal person would ever want to hold.

The human bones under the beautiful layered illusion raised their skull to look at him. “You told me to stay around you, but you ran away yourself. Repeatedly.”

Ace had the decency to raise his eyes sideways in an it wasn’t me expression. Skele gave him a yeah sure look before shaking his head. “I came here to be alone where there wouldn’t be a chance of the illusion looking out of place.”

“What happened?” “Some adventurer decided to rob me and his dagger passed right through my ribs...”

Ace burst out laughing at that. He would have given much to see the reaction of the rogue whose blade hit thin air and his hand got stuck in Skele’s ribs. It had to be hilarious. “Sorry” Ace murmured, chuckling. There was no remorse in his voice.

“What did you come here for?” “I think we should start up on your life goal.” “You still remember that? I thought you’d already forgotten all about it.” Ace just shook his head. “I was preoccupied. First you’ve distracted me with that blindness and then my group showed up wanting an adventure.”

Skele didn’t look like he’d believed that until Ace remembered he was controlling the guy’s emotions. Or more like what was reflected on his face. The guy was a skeleton! He didn’t have face expressions! He was only guessing them himself and, of course, he wouldn’t believe himself when he knew he was lying...

There was a puzzled expression on Skele’s face, not sure why Ace had quietened down suddenly. ‘And that’s me again’ Ace thought, one corner of his mouth lifting up. “Did you learn anything while you’ve been in your city?”

The man shook his head. At least that wasn’t part of the illusion that Ace modified unconsciously. “No. I was with your friends when you had run away.”

Ace rolled his eyes. “I didn’t run away. I had a mission given to me by a dying father to save his daughter. I had to do it!” It wasn’t important to share the fact that it could be said he’d sought out that quest himself.

“What happened?” “I managed and now am finally free.” Skele nodded at that as if it was a good explanation. “Will you let me explore the city alone for a while?” Ace looked up at the man in surprise. What was he asking for? And why was he asking for it?

“Sure” Ace said, shrugging. “Why do you want it, anyway?” “It’s my city. Or it should have been, had her parents been anything different.” Ace nodded to that, showing a tired expression on Worglan’s face. The man wasn’t sad, everything had happened way too long ago, but there was a longing hidden deep in the eyes for things that could have been.

No one is ever too old to dream.

“Will a couple of weeks be enough for you?” Ace asked after a moment. “Yes” Skele answered in a clear voice. “How do I contact you when I’m done?”

Ace smiled. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll find you when the time to avenge you comes.” Skele nodded at that and rose from his place. “I’ll wait for you in the city” he said and left the room.

Ace snooped around for a bit longer. He pocketed a couple of books, a journal and even found an intricate pen with a stack of empty scrolls. Nothing else caught his eye so he sneaked out after closing the doors and left for the city.

There he looked around and wondered where should he go. He had planned to finish Skele’s quest but the guy threw him off, he wanted some alone time... What was he even planning to do?

Ace shook his head, that was beyond him. He would come to him in a week or two and hope he was finished so the quest could be done. But what now? Should he just run around bored or actually do something?

/How are you doing?/ he wrote to L, maybe the guy had something for him to do. That would solve a lot of his problems.

/Why are you not here? Didn’t you pay a fortune to buy that balcony from the ones who had it?/

/It wasn’t what I expected. Do you have anything for me and my group to do?/

/Give me a moment./ Ace smiled noticing that message. It was exactly what he would expect from the guy. It wasn’t like him to pass up someone who could be used to further up some plans. Even if the guy had failed in a spectacular manner as Ace had with Morion.

It took whole five minutes for L to come up with something. /Do you know Arenan village?/ /No. Should I?/ /It’s a city known for it’s belief in angels. There are dozens of sculptures there and everything is based around them./ /What would you want from a place like that?/

/It receives thousands of travellers everyday seeking the mystery behind angel myths and items. The income from that is tremendous. I need it./ /So you want us to get it under your wing?/ /If I get their support, the surrounding villages should come to me too. It’s a centre of belief. That is also what presents the challenge. They respect nothing but their angels and because of that see no reason to ally themselves with mere mortals. They don’t care about wars and such./

Ace scrunched his face. Where in the world did his special set of abilities or those of his team came in? They had a priestess Aurora but that was all that connected them to religion. And even she cared only as much as it concerned casting her abilities which meant she knew the prayers to cast spells.

/And how are we supposed to do that?/ /You’ll manage. If I can trust someone to do the impossible, it would be you./ /When did I become so trustworthy?/ /You’re not. I’m sure you’ll do something and it can’t possibly end up worse than it already is./ /You didn’t just say that.../ /I did. It really cannot. If it tried becoming worse, it would start becoming better./

/Do you mind sending my group the news?/ /I’ll do it. You’ll leave tomorrow morning./ /Got it./

This done he sneaked into a random mansion and looked for a large mirror. It took him around ten minutes to locate one and standing before it, he changed his appearance. A fox mask covering half his face, black lord robes and a dark blue cloak he’d taken from his very first half-intentional victim.

Then he activated [Mirror Walk] and imagining a random large mirror stepped through. For a moment he found himself in a world consisting of thousands of reflective surfaces and then he was pushed off into a room full of dancing people.

That wasn’t exactly what he had expected when he thought of going out to spread his legend.

However, it didn’t mean he was going to let them live. Adventurers or natives, all of them were just hearts to be pierced. And jumping from the dais the mirror was placed upon, he did just that.

He descended into the thick of revellers with his daggers poised to strike. It was a natives’ celebration so each strike of his took a life; the people were nobles - low levelled but high of birth. Something that didn’t help them in the least.

Soon guards showed up and it became more of a challenge. The armoured man had large swords that tried to cut him up and a few archers showed up too. But their attacks fell flat against his agility. He was just too fast to get hit, and even if the blow or arrow was coming his way unnoticed [Instincts of a Predator] warned him and [Evasion] saved him.

Those two skills were his lifeblood.

He killed but some didn’t want to die. For some reason there were some adventurers in the celebration too. And it didn’t take them long to group up and turn to him as a single unit.

There were around ten of them. Two thirds of them were melee with a couple of mages in the back. He only now noticed how easy was to identify them and in that regard know their strengths and weaknesses, the way to nullify their damage.

He smiled and charged at them like a madman. The warriors raised their shields as if to defend against him but he didn’t come for them. He used [Void Step] and hoped it worked similar to [Shadow Dash], it’s predecessor.

To his disappointment, that didn’t show up to be the case. Instead of jumping higher up like he was used to, he found himself simply moved in the direction he was going for. Right in the face of the fighters.

That fact alone would have been nothing too horrible but the worst part was that it was horribly disorienting. One moment he was standing in one place and another in a different. Hid mind needed time to rearrange where everything was and only instincts skill paired with evasion saved his life as he was attacked.

Still somewhat confused, he used the ability again. This time he moved away and that was good but once again he was left without any idea of where he was, his mind dizzy from the sudden change.

A few balls of fire and acid flew his way which he dodged and wondered whether he should try to get accustomed to the ability or just kill them all. His natural curiosity easily won out in that and he decided to play around with them. Even if that meant risking his own life and reputation.

He used the ability towards them and.this time tried to attack even if he wasn’t as sure of what he was doing as he would have liked.

Unsurprisingly, it went wide. He ignored it and the fact he looked like a drunk and tried again. And again. And again.

It was hard to say who was more unprepared for one of his attacks to land - him or his opponents. It was his twenty-seventh try and it was starting to look hopeless. But finally it hit its mark.

Or well something, if one wanted to be precise. It was hard to say a plate armour’s left shoulder guard could ever become a designed target for an assassin. His blade passed through it easily, leaving both Ace and his opponent stunned.

Neither had expected that to happen.

The kid was faster to get his bearings back and stab a couple more times in that close range before using [Void Step] again to get away. It was still disorienting but he was getting the hang of it. The only reason it took him so long to hit was that with every try that almost succeeded, the next time he tried something even more ambitious.

That was dangerous but just that much more interesting.

He felt some projectile flying his way, but instead of simply evading he used his ability to move straight forward, back towards the fighters. They raised their shields like the first time but Ace knew better now. He reactivated the ability and appeared right before the mages.

There he activated [Fear of the Hungry] and showed the casters a dance of blades. It was graceful and eye catching but none appreciated his mastery. They were too busy cursing him for their deaths.

When warriors tried to surround him, he used his ability again and blinked away, a wisp of dark smoke left in his step. He noticed that only after the tenth use and after the twentieth one, he found out that it looks like he’s appearing with a bit of it too.

He blinked towards one of the warriors to attack him and after a number of his skills, tried to jump away. But nothing happened. That is if you don’t count a huge blow to the head he received from the furious warrior.

Ace blocked the next hit while evading a swing from another fighter. A stab from the right and a close call from the left. It was getting crowded there and his ability had stopped working for some reason.

It was something he would have expected had he been thinking about it so he just went along with it. If his enemies were using all they had, he could do the same. Slash here, stab there and a kick to the side. Howl in pain for the armour was hard while rolling. Slash at the legs with [Magma Blade] enhanced daggers that passed defences and jump to the left since there was an attack from the right.

Throw your dagger to some guy and jump on another’s head. Stab. Stab. Stab. Loot him with one hand while defending with the other. Evade an attack and smiling rush forward.

Then turn around and use [Void Step]. Blink away the confusion, curse the wig that has long hair that gets in the eyes and stab, stab, stab. Loot.

He played like that for another half an hour before he was finished. It didn’t last long enough for him to satisfy him but there was nothing he could do about that. Even though it was said he never left anyone alive, it wasn’t true. Cowards easily ran away while he was occupied with the brave ones and he didn’t have a way to track them down. He was a madman, not a hunter.

This time the few cowards that escaped had been mostly natives. But there were many of them still around. Lying dead in pools of their own blood.

Ace left them without taking anything. He didn’t steal from natives but gave them a Silver Wing none the less. However, he didn’t shy away from picking things he liked that weren’t on the people of the land.

He made himself a feast in the company of corpses. He ate seasoned chicken from a grand chair at he head of the table. He walked on that same table to reach dishes he had no name for but that looked appetizing. He even licked his fingers after an especially tasty one.

To finish it off, he took a glass of wine and ate a couple of cakes. He also grabbed some apples and other fruits for the future, you never knew when they might come in handy.

When he was done, he got up to the mirror and with a last look back passed through, there were sounds of armour clanking from a nearby hallway.