Jura walked to the carriage and climbed inside. He searched the entire interior only to find a single note, which read:

"Haha."

Jura crumpled the note in his fist. He grit his teeth as he jumped out the back of the carriage. He walked to the side of the road and pulled out his Numbered Breaker, which caused electricity to pulsate out of the sword into the surroundings. He controlled the energy and blasted it at the entire carriage, transforming it into ashes. He continued on to vaporize each corpse that was present, completely erasing them from existence.

Even if Jura wasn't angry, he still would've destroyed everything. If he just left everything, there was a chance for the Knights of Kard to discover any evidence that Jura had failed to consider. He had already experienced such an event, so he personally knows how crafty those investigators can be.

After he vaporized the last corpse, he threw the Life Magician's body over his shoulder and sprinted to the other side of the road opposite of the other DS members. Because the terrain was full of large and small hills alike, it was easy to find a big enough hill to hide behind. Jura created a hole wide enough for the Life Magician to be placed into. He created the hole by stabbing his Breaker into the hill and exploding energy inside it. Of course, he couldn't use that method profusely because he could create too much of a disturbance of the terrain. It was better to have a smaller hole than to have an entire side of a hill missing.

After he was finished, Jura traveled closer to the road. He remained hidden behind the plentiful hills in the surroundings and revealed only part of his head so he could see. The hills progressively became larger the farther they were from the road, so it wasn't just a straight drop from a tall hill to the road. Jura was located approximately fifty meters away from the road.

The only reason why he stayed behind was to wait for any back-up troops that would arrive. There were always usually back-up forces that would be called in to help any soldiers in distress. This was a different situation, however, Jura still stayed behind. The battle was a bit flashier than he had expected, so he assumed at least one magician from the city noticed large mana fluctuations from the battle location. The disturbance would only come from the Life Magician only because he was the sole magician capable of creating large enough mana fluctuations that are detectable from the city. Of course, only a magician of similar power or one that is especially sensitive to mana would be able to notice such a disturbance.

Jura suspected that a Knight Squadron would arrive with an Investigator. In order to give the DS members enough time to make it into the forest, Jura would have to delay the Squadron's advance. Whether or not it was a full Squadron, well, Jura would find out when they arrived.

Now, if the Investigator was on the same level as the Squadron Captain, things would get tricky. Investigators were usually proficient in at least a basic elemental magic, like fire or water. The more efficient ones were adept with elemental magic that includes lightning or light. Those two are more geared toward subduing a runaway suspect, though lightning is better because it is capable of paralyzing muscles. Jura hoped an Investigator wasn't within the Knight Squadron, because that would make the upcoming battle significantly easier.

About twenty minutes passed before Jura sighted a small group of people. They wore plated steel armor which emitted a faint cloud of mana; swords were strapped against their backs and the sheathe was covered by a blue cape that reached to the back of their knees. A red icon showing membership of the Knights of Kard were imprinted on their breastplates and capes. Aside from those Knights, there were two people that stood out.

The first was the Knight Captain that had a red cape instead of blue. Unlike the other Knights, the Captain did not wear a helmet around his head; instead, a red hood was hung over it that created a shadow that covered the top half of his face. A stronger mana cloud permeated around the Captain, which naturally caused others to look at him with a respectful gaze.

The second figure wore a long red, golden-trimmed robe. On the back of his robe was a white symbol of Kard, which was an octagon inside a square. The white symbol signified an Investigator, and, not only that, the man's naturally emanated mana that was much larger than the Captain's. He had long, brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail that only reached his shoulder blades.

Jura watched on with unease. The moment he caught sight of the Investigator was when he breathed out a heavy sigh. He silently cursed to himself as he observed the group as they surveyed the area. The Investigator calmly examined the piles of ash on the road.

The Investigator will obviously send the other Knights to follow the others. I can either ambush on the ground or just attack openly.

Jura stared at the road for a few seconds before faintly smiling.

Or I ambush from above.

Jura focused all his power in his legs. Within a split second, he jumped into the air at a slight angle. A loud bang resounded out from the hill as the ground beneath Jura cracked from his legs' strength. The Investigator turned his head to look at the direction of the sound, however, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. After a couple seconds, he looked back at the piles of ash. He stood up and, while he was in the motion of standing, he saw a small shadow move across the ground. A loud explosion blasted out from the sky which created powerful rays of light to reach the ground.

"Investigator, above you!" The Captain shouted.

The Investigator instantly formed a barrier of condensed mana above his head as he looked up. He saw a dark figure with pure white hair, surrounded by lightning, speeding down toward him. He saw the glint of a sword tip connect with his mana barrier before it ripped through the barrier like it was paper. The Investigator instantly side-stepped to dodged the sword, however, he was still slashed down his chest; blood splattered onto his robes and the ground.

Jura's sword and body smashed against the ground as he instantaneously produced an explosion of electricity, which sent a wave of energy outward followed by a shock wave of sound. The regular Knight's ears started to bleed as they were blasted off their feet. The Captain shielded himself with raw mana as he unsheathed his sword, which was covered with magical symbols.

At the exact moment he could move, the Captain sprinted toward Jura. Fire burst out from his feet as he shot toward Jura which he sword raised in a thrusting position. The Captain crossed the distance between him and Jura within a second as he thrust his sword toward Jura's head. Jura instantly reared backward as he slashed his sword upward.

The Captain forcefully stopped himself just in-front of Jura's sword as he created another barrier of mana. A large explosion of energy burst in-front of the Captain, destroying his barrier and tearing his hood of his head. The Captain countered by controlling mana above the explosion and transforming it into a giant fireball before slamming it down toward Jura.

Jura wavered at the sight of the fireball as he blasted to the side. He didn't control the power he used, causing him to smash into one of the regular Knights that had struggled to stand. Jura's body smashed the steel covering the Knight, taking the Knight with him. He finally smashed against the ground, which instantly killed the Knight. Jura used the force behind his collision with the ground to flip upward off the Knight and onto his feet as he forced himself to stop. The Knight's body rushed past him as blood trailed from the corpse.

Jura looked at the Captain as his face turned red. His eyes filled with dangerous light, Jura shouted:

"Alex, Sulcoss!"

The Captain, Alex, locked eyes with Jura as he frowned.

"Black Death."

Jura's brow slightly twitched at the nickname before he said:

"Sacrificing your own men, what kind of monster are you?!"

"I don't need your opinion. I will use my resources as much as I need in order to capture you."

Alex looked behind him toward the Investigator and said:

"Investigator, you will need your Breaker for this fight."

The Investigator frowned at Alex's statement. He had never had to use his Breaker in an investigation before because his magical talent was higher than other Investigators. Despite this, although he couldn't see any mana fluctuations surrounding Jura, he knew Jura was someone he should take seriously. Through his many experiences with murderers and other criminals, he knew that he should not underestimate an enemy. Especially now that he was injured. He was slowly healing his injury with mana, but because his expertise wasn't focused on healing magic, his lack of skill caused the injury to heal rather slowly.

The Investigator stood up and moved next to Alex; a metallic staff slid out from his palm. The staff had a multi-colored orb at the top of it, and the numbers 430193 were engraved upon the staff's shaft. Ripples of energy emanated out from the orb as if to show its power.

One of the regular Knights had sneaked up behind Jura since the start of the fight. He raised his sword and sprinted the last several meters in order to slice Jura's head off his body. Unfortunately for him, a surge of lightning blasted out from Jura's sword and smashed against his body. The Knight was sent flying back into a small hill a bit away from the road. Pieces of steel broke apart as the Knight smashed into the hill.

Jura watched Alex's face and saw that he had no change in expression. It was if Alex didn't care at all about that Knight. Jura grit his teeth as he, Alex, and the Investigator watched each other. Jura flexed the muscles in his legs and, before jumped forward, he exploded energy from the blade behind him to propel his body with even more force. He shot toward Alex and cloaked his fist with energy. He punched straight at Alex's face and, predicting Alex to dodge, he gripped his sword's handle tightly.

Alex side-stepped and thrust his sword toward Jura. Jura did a half somersault in mid-air, bending his body so that Alex's sword pierced empty space. While Jura was still moving, with the top of his head facing the ground, he slashed toward the Investigator with his sword. Jura's sword tip sliced straight through the Investigator's stomach, making blood spurt out from his new wound. However, the sword did not cut deep enough to allow the organs to spill out.

Still moving because of inertia, Jura flew past the two men and completed his somersault in order to land on his feet. Immediately after his feet touched the ground, he jumped into the air. A blast of fire surged underneath him, directly where he was when he landed on the ground. Jura condensed energy in his blade and slashed out at the ground, exploding the energy at the same time. The blast pushed him farther into the air, where he rotated his body to look at the two men.

The Investigator was charging an attack while Alex blasted fire out from his feet to shoot himself toward Jura. He held his sword in a thrust position as he sped toward Jura, ready to pierce through his stomach. Jura exploded another ball of energy to offset Alex's trajectory and to also move himself away from Alex. Alex maneuvered around the explosion by using strong enough fire blasts to change his direction. He faintly looked at the Investigator, slightly nodding to give his approval.

The Investigator shot out four large beams of Light and Darkness energy. The Investigator controlled the energy to move directly toward Jura. Alex blasted himself higher into the air as he raised his blade up. The magical symbols faintly glimmered before the entire blade burst in flames. Alex slashed down his blade, releasing a giant wave of fire at Jura.

Faced with five different attacks at once, Jura used his blade to counter Alex's fire by releasing his own energy. Jura didn't have time to even look back at the result before he rotated his body and exploded energy to shoot himself lower to the ground. Four beams of energy shot straight toward him, and he shot a ball of energy toward one of the Light beams. However, one of the Darkness beams instantly increased in speed and protected the Light beam. The Darkness energy dissipated while the Light energy surged toward Jura with even more speed.

Jura only had enough time to slice his sword into one of the Light beams, destroying it, before the last two beams of energy collided against his body. The Light energy slammed into him, causing him to smash into the ground. The Light energy boiled his body as the Darkness energy plowed onto him, increasing the energy output by at least two times. A full second later, an explosion of energy knocked away the Light and Darkness energies. Jura jumped out of the large crater that was created as steam rolled off his body in clouds.

He was badly burnt, however, fortunately, his robes weren't destroyed. He had created a barrier out of electricity to block the Light and Darkness energies out of desperation, which worked. He hadn't expected the Investigator's magic to be so strong. Usually they only use one element with great proficiency, yet this one was capable of controlling two opposing elements with harmony? Of course, Jura already knew of the harmony of the Light and Darkness elements, but he's incapable of using magic. He knows how difficult it is to control magic because of his experience in the Academy, and even then he had only witnessed one magician using two elements. That magician wasn't using two opposing elements, however.

What Jura didn't know was that the Breaker the Investigator used helped him control elemental energies. He simply wouldn't be capable of controlling Light and Darkness energies together without the help of his Breaker. However, that doesn't mean he's weak. The Investigator has master-level mana manipulation, something that not all Investigators have. Actually, he's the only Junior Investigator that has that high of a skill level.

Right when Jura took a single breath, a wave of fire quickly blasted toward him. He jumped back to avoid the fire, which he just barely accomplished. Although he has an incredibly powerful physical body, he wasn't capable of training his mana quantity. Any person that is unable to use magic is also unable to train their mana quantity. However, Jura was blessed with a higher quantity than normal people. Despite this, his quantity was nowhere near what a magician's would be.

The only reason why Jura was capable of fighting drawn out battles was because he didn't blatantly use his Breaker all the time. Magicians that had large mana pools would extravagantly use their magic and Breakers. Jura didn't have that ability, so he mainly relied on his physical body to take most of the damage until the power behind attacks reached a certain point.

Because of this, Jura was breathing heavily to catch his breath. Although he couldn't train his man quantity, his mana recovery was directly linked with his physical body. Therefore, the more powerful his body was, the faster his mana recovered. However, even when this is so, mana recovery is something that takes time.

Alex landed on the ground, slowing his fall by releasing powerful flames underneath his feet.

"Hey, you can't really be tired already? We just got started." Alex shouted.

"Heh, I'd say I've done pretty well. Haah, injuring an Investigator twice while being attacked by a, haah, Knight Captain? That's pretty badass if you ask me." Jura replied, trying to delay them.

"Oh really? Can you still say that when I cut your hands off and publicly execute you?"

"You're saying that as if you have the ability to do so. If you have any real ability, then why don't you fight against me by yourself?"

"Hpmh, you do realize I haven't even used my Breaker yet, right?"

I'd like to know your thoughts on the story so far! Any questions asked will be answered, unless the answer is a spoiler.