Book 1: Chapter 16

“What took you all so long? I was almost ready to nap.” Baccaus teased the esteemed guild leaders, who were all on their guards closely watching his every action.

No one moved.

“Boo!” Baccaus jumped up off the log, making the eight guild leaders instinctively dodge back. Some even raised their magical equipments and began to chant their spells.

Seeing their reactions, Baccaus laughed so hard he was holding his stomach with his single arm.

Everyone stared at the laughing old man and whispered amongst themselves.

“It’s just as you said. He really lost an arm.”

“This should weaken him by a lot. We’ll get him this time.”

“Don’t let your guards down.”

…

After having his fill of laughter, Baccaus shook his head as if he was quite disappointed. “You bunch are too serious! We’ve been friends for so long and yet you’re still so scared of me.”

A middle aged man draped in loose green robes took this chance to step up. “Baccaus, you’ve been running for so long. Why don’t you just give up the two saint equipment you have in your possession and we’ll never bother you again.”

The green robed man stared at Baccaus, knowing full well he wouldn’t comply.

“Alright alright,” Baccaus raised his only arm up in defeat. “I’ll do it.”

Baccaus waved his arm and a palm sized, coarse jade stone appeared in his hand. “Here is the first one. Take it.”

“What?!” The green robed man gasped. This was too easy right? Even so, the green robed man was too tempted and cautiously approached until he was a few meters in front of Baccaus. “Throw it over. And take out the other saint equipment.”

“One at a time. Come get it ol’ friend. I would only feel assured if you were the one to take it from my hands. Who knows if some other guild leader here might snatch it up if I threw it.”

The green robed man fumed in anger when Baccaus called him ‘ol’ friend’. The green robed man was over three centuries older than Baccaus! But, he had to admit that what Baccaus said made sense.

“Don’t try anything funny.” The green robed man approached and grabbed at the jade stone.

Just as the green robed man was about to touch the stone, it disappeared from Baccaus’ hand.

“Ah,” Baccaus smiled innocently. “I’ve changed my mind.”

The green robed man looked at Baccaus’ crooked smile and exploded out in anger! “Baccaus! Today is the last time you play with me!”

The green robed man slid backwards as if gliding on ice and unleashed the spell he had been preparing for a long time.

Wind Blade!

A ten meter concentrated gust of wind produced a sonic boom as it sliced at Baccaus.

Then, as if on cue, the other guild leaders also unleashed their spells to bombard Baccaus.

The guild leader of Mystic Veil was the second to act as she held up a giant pearl.

Water Prison.

The surrounding 50 meters was instantly encapsulated within a half-dome of water, blocking off all paths of retreat.

Next, the guild leaders of Inferno Death, Raging Flames, and Yellow Sands jointly used some of their strongest attack spells.

Rising Star! Rising Star!

Earth Spike!

Two blue fireballs spun towards Baccaus, while the ground beneath Baccaus jutted towards him while transforming into sharp spikes as they tried to spear him.

Then to make sure Baccaus really couldn’t escape, the guild leader of Dusty Earth created another layer of defense with Earth Wall, superimposing with the Water Prison.

The guild leaders of Black Hand and Glory’s End both stood at the side still chanting their spells.

All of these spells were casted in quick succession. And were all completed in a second.

The eight guild leaders had discussed their plans beforehand to ensure optimal performance. They did not want Baccaus to escape again not only because finding him was a pain but because virtually every guild in Nakrul was chasing after Baccaus. It would be a pity if someone else caught him first.

Baccaus was being chased because he had stolen two extremely precious saint equipments and the holy book of the wizened. The royal capital declared Baccaus a wanted criminal and issued a bounty of 1,000,000,000 magical crystals of any type and three grade 9 magical equipment of any type to the person who brought in Baccaus, or more importantly the two saint equipments and the holy book of the wizened.

The magical crystals reward was an enormous amount capable of nurturing many mages to rank 5 or 6 or even beyond. It would be very helpful for any guild to acquire that reward as it would probably increase their guild rankings drastically. Just this was enough for people to chase after Baccaus not to mention the three grade 9 magical equipments that they could receive! And of any type, too! It had to be said that not even all of the five kings had a grade 9 magical equipment so this reward was inconceivable and drove many mages to seek out Baccaus. Even those secluded mages who normally didn’t bother with political sorts of affairs were driven out to find Baccaus.

Heck, even those who were not of the human race were out to get Baccaus. These foreign races did not care about the reward the kingdoms was offering but instead wanted the two saint equipment and the holy book of the wizened for themselves and their race.

All of these things added together made Baccaus the most well-known fugitive on the continent. Another thing that Baccaus was well-known for was his non-ruthlessness. Baccaus never killed his pursuers, even though he could have done so many times already.

Over the course of the sixteen years that Baccaus had been chased he had never once been injured. Instead, it was his pursuers that were injured and on the losing end. Some mages that were at the mercy of Baccaus’s hands eventually gave up on chasing him because they were grateful he had spared them. Others, however, took this as a sign of weakness and continued to chase Baccaus even after repeated failures.

In any case, Baccaus himself wasn’t worried at all and only sought ways to break through to become a rank 8 mage to achieve his dream. This had been Baccus’ goal until he met a little boy name Cyil.

…

Grasp of Darkness! Daybreak Pillar!

Carefully timing their spells, the guild leader of Black Hand and Glory’s End unleashed their spells after the two fireballs from the other guild leaders had reach Baccus.

Daybreak Pillar caused a glaring beam of light to shine down on Baccaus with the intent to immobilize him.

Grasp of Darkness was also used to immobilize Baccaus but its focus was on the periphery around Daybreak Pillar’s range. This was done to avoid the clashing of elements between light and darkness.

Just as these two guild leaders finished casting their spells the other guild leaders began unleashing their innate spells, which could be casted almost instantaneously compared to regular spells that required chanting.

Spells flew from around the encirclement. It was like a fireworks show, lighting up the darkness that was now completely covered by the Earth Wall.

The guild leaders gave it their all and continuously barraged Baccaus, or at least they thought they were.

By now Baccaus was standing behind the guild leader of Yellow Sands, who was completely unaware that the man he was supposed to be attacking was instead behind him.

After a full on minute of attacking, the eight guild leaders stopped to catch their breath and see their results. In the darkness, as the dust cleared, the guild leaders could see that they’d been attacking nothing at all. Baccaus was no longer there!

“Rats! He got away again.” The green robed man who was the guild leader of Lonely Gale cursed.

“Wasted efforts. We’re just not strong enough.” The only female among the guild leaders present sighed.

“That bastard! He dares play with us again!” The guild leader of Black Hand, a jade-masked figure in slick black clothing spat out their disgust through clenched fists.

“I’d thought with a lost arm he would be weaker but we couldn’t even touch him.” Yellow Sand’s guild leader also admitted his defeat.

“Right, he’s just too cool for us,” A voice echoed from behind Yellow Sand’s guild leader, who subconsciously nodded in agreement.

“It’s alright. You can’t touch him but he can touch you.” A hand appeared from behind Yellow Sand’s guild leader and patted him on the back. “You did good.”

“Huh?!” Yellow Sand’s guild leader froze and turned around to see Baccaus standing behind him. Sweating cold bullets, Yellow Sand’s guild leader realized that he hadn’t even noticed Baccaus approaching him. If Baccaus had wanted to kill him then he’d be dead by now.

This thought terrified Yellow Sand’s guild leader and he could only regain his courage with the knowledge that Baccaus never killed his pursuers.

“He’s over here! Baccaus is over here!” Yellow Sand’s guild leader roared as he retreated from Baccaus.

Baccaus did not chase the man but just stood there smiling. “Ah, no one wants to be my friend. I console you and you run away from me.”

The other guild leaders quickly found Baccaus in the darkness, readjusted their directions and renewed their assault.

“Quick! He probably can’t escape the Water Prison and Earth Wall so he’s still in here. As long as he is here we can grind him down and kill him!” An obsessed shout came from the jade-masked figure, who quickly led the charge in casting another Grasp of Darkness.

And so the other guild leaders repeated what they had done before and bombarded Baccaus who had already vanished, only leaving behind an afterimage…