The house of Van Rost had four official emblems three of which were recognized by the crown, the first emblem was the hideous ring I currently had on my left forefinger, it was always on the head of the house at all times, given it away was tantamount to given away leadership of the house and it was enchanted so that only if it was willingly given away could it be worn by another.

The second official emblem was a badge usually given to the elf in charge of running the daily affairs of the house; this gave him the capacity to make critical decisions in the absence of the lord of the house. This was the emblem I usually gave to Galfin or Felina.

The third emblem had vanished along with the previous house leader, but the fourth was meant to be given to Mablung as soon as he rose to the level of a great knight which was one step below the level of a sword saint, the very same emblem that was currently in the hands of Glander who was riding furiously south to the Van Flotina territory.

I immediately instructed Felina to inform captains Erna and Tlerist that they were in charge of the liberation of the town till I returned, before changing into a black sleeveless leather cuirass, a pair of black trousers with leather leg guards, the finishing touches were steel plated boots and gauntlets of my very own design.

After the fight with my grandfather Rumil, I had lamented about how badly my enchanted gauntlets had done against the assault of his battle essence, my enchanting work being of the highest order in my biased opinion I felt the fault lay solely in the shoddy workmanship of the gauntlets used. I had searched through auction houses and weapons shops across my territory to find a suitable replacement when I had stumbled across the current pair of boots and gauntlets I currently wore in my private armory.

The boots and gauntlets had been gifted to me during the feast celebrating me been acknowledged by the crown as head of house Van Rost. They were exquisitely crafted and proudly bore the mark of their creator, a green hammer with a purple ribbon wrapped around the handle. The fact that their creator had placed their sign on it allowed me to track their origin to a smith who lived within the capital territory, one letter to mother later and I had secured an order of a pair of boots and gauntlets as well as two swords.

Now that a suitable base material had been found, it was left to me to enchant the shit out it. Compared to the rush job that I did with Leander’s glasses or even more shoddy work I displayed with the gauntlets I made while rushing to intercept Rumil’s soldiers as they carried the stolen scrolls, this one in comparison was a work of art. I spent three months infusing the steel with pure magical energy, and using moonlight as a catalyst, engraved sixty four Runes into the gloves and ninety seven into the boots, in summary this baby could dish it out and could take it as well.

I sprinted along the forest path at a frightening speed as I raced towards the border, each step propelling me up to thirty meters forward at a time as I circulated my magical energy through the required pathways for lightning fall stage four. My top speed was actually lightning fall stage six but running at those speeds over an extended period of time would leave me completely exhausted and at the mercy of any riff raff who happened to stumble across me.

It was day three of my sprint across the southern territories; I had decided to take the journey alone for two reasons. One Galfin and Mablung had wisely sent a squad of a hundred elves to the Van Flotina territory, there purpose was to detain Glander if they could but if it was too late they were to obtain the house emblem and abandon the little twerp. They would provide security for me once I met up with them.

The second reason was that the full extent of my strength was known to no one, even mother who had the best idea what I was capable of wasn’t aware of some of my darker abilities, after all no one wanted their mother to think them a monster. So if the slightly talented lord who was a mage of unknown strength began to sprint at speed that exceeded the capabilities of anyone ranked below a sword saint, I am sure more than a few eyebrows would be raised in question.

As I vaulted across a river I felt a slight pulse and instantly came to a halt, normally I would have ignored it because pulses both of the magical and battle kind occur naturally in nature, but this was the sixth one I felt today, and I was miles from the location of the places I felt each of the previous ones, it seemed I was being hunted.

With a grunt I moved, sending more energy into the magical pathways of my legs to increase my speed into lightning fall stage five and shot of deeper into the forest. If it was a group of bandits with a quack mage who happened to be in possession of a detection spell I didn’t have time for that, but just to be safe I decided to put some distance between us.

As the sun began to descend and I was starting to feel the early onset of fatigue another pulse swept across the terrain, this one three times as strong indicating that they were three time as close to me as the last time I felt a pulse. This isn’t good, the only ones who should be able to keep up with are those at the level of the elf saint and there were no elf saints in the service of the house. As this thought crossed my mind I circulated even more energy into the magical pathways in my lower extremities taking me to my maximum speed, but instead of heading even deeper into the forest I began to search for a place I could easily defend, the folly of travelling alone was suddenly becoming more apparent to me.

I came to a halt in a clearing, my sudden arrival sending the deer that were grazing scattering in all directions. I immediately began invoking runes and preparing multiple spells for the upcoming confrontation, imbuing my will into the earth and directing the wind as I wished I soon had six greater Runes in place and was rapidly completing the process for three more.

I sent a pulse out with me at the epicenter, paying close attention I counted three disturbances in my magical pulse quickly heading towards me, however what put me on guard was not their speed but the depth of their aura, they were all at grandfather’s level, their auras were at the level of a general.

My heart quickened, I had not deceived myself to believe my victory over Rumil was of my own doing, he did not have his enchanted blade with him and was only lightly armored, even the sword he had used had been one meant for ceremony and not for battle, there was no doubt in my mind that if Rumil had even been partially ready for me a year ago, I would be either dead or locked away somewhere no longer a thorn in his side. Now I had three of the same caliber of warriors racing towards me, with no support in sight. It seemed the second war minister’s response to my slight had finally arrived.

I firmed my resolve and quickened my chants and invocation completing the three runes and preparing a plan b just in case. Finally everything was settled and I waited patiently for them to catch up. the irony of the situation did not escape me, here I was in the very same situation that I swore to myself I would never allow, in the middle of the forest, alone with hostile individuals racing towards me.

As I reminisced about the errors of my ways, four individuals stepped out of the tree line surrounding the clearing. I was surprised that I had not sensed the fourth individual but on examination I could tell why.

The elf who I had been unable to sense was a male with a closely shaved head, his eyes were sunken and his cheeks were hollow, he looked like a horse who had been run ragged, from the minuscule amount of magical energy I could feel coming of him, I could safely guess he was the mage whose magical pulse I had been sensing, most likely his companions had him working overtime to pinpoint my location while they physically carried him, explaining his diminished state and the fact that a mage could keep up with me.

My gaze swung to the three other individuals that made up the party, they each wore a full set of elfish armor, one green, one red and one a deep purple with dark lines running around it.

A gentle breeze blew through the clearing as we stared at each other. I remained silent because I did not see the point in speaking, they could not lie and say they were here by accident, because I had changed speeds twice and directions once and they had still determinedly chased me.

“Greetings Tal Van Rost of the house of Van Rost, we have heard much about you”. Pretending to be courteous after waylaying somebody doesn’t make you a better person I thought to myself as the one in green finally broke the silence.

I did not reply and continued to simply stare, every second I could get before the fight started increase my odds by leaps and bounds. The magical energy I used to weave the greater Runes were all but restored, my spells were slowly accumulating power, and plan b was coming along nicely, if they continued to try and dialogue with me I would probably have a plan c and d by the time they decide to strike, the only person who might have been able to detect my traps was currently on his hand and knees desperately trying to restore his magical energy.

As we all stood in our respective positions, the warriors in red and purple armor head constantly swiveled about as if searching for something, it was obvious that they did not believe a mage of my perceived caliber would be able to move at the speed at which I was moving in.

“where is the one that supports you, the one that has been teaching you fighting techniques” the simple statement from the purple armored individual was not as eloquent as that of his green clad companion but it allowed me to understand the mentality of my enemy over the last year.

The question Rumil had asked me in passing seemed to have been given life and fostered. Before the fight between Rumil and I in the great hall he had demanded to know who my master was, after all to him I had gotten stronger with far too little effort leading to the thought that I was been tutored from the shadow by a mysterious individual.

A smile graced my lips as I remained silent letting the questions go un-answered, the more they feared me or the individual they perceived behind me the more wiggle room I had.

Seeing the smirk on my face, the demeanor of my armored stalker instantly became more hostile.

“Enough, grab the child and let us be on our way, he will either brake in interrogation or the one who supports him will show their hand” red said and instantly he flashed forward towards me his hand stretched forward to seize me.

The moment he stepped forward I invoke the first of my nine greater Runes, the Rune of fire. With me at its center a pillar of blue fire shot into the air surrounding me and obscuring me from sight, I crouched down and swept to pebbles

into my hand bringing them to my lips and whispering a simple incantation before letting one fall.

“You cannot hide forever little one” a voice drifted from the outside of my fire wall and one side began to bulge inwards as they attempted to breach it.

I waited patiently within the circle of flames circulating my magical energy within my pathways calmly. My eyes flashed around observing everything that I could, creating contingency plan and counter measures until finally a green gauntlet breached the fire wall and an arm followed, I struck instantly.

Leaping into the air above the intruder I descended as light as a feather and invoked my personally created battle magic, Ten Ton Step. Using the pull of Arethama’s gravity as a catalyst and earth magic to amplify the effect my weight was multiplied many times over and my simple step was turned into a deadly blunt weapon.

I descended on my assailant like a judgment from heaven, making contact as their head breached the fire wall smashing it into the ground, a tremor shook the surrounding area as the ground yielded to the power of my attack but to my surprise the helmet did not cave in, I silently praised the prowess of the maker of this armor.

As I prepared to repeat the attack with my other foot, the tip of a clay-more ripped through the fire wall and pierced towards me forcing me to flip backwards as the warrior in red armor stepped through the flames through the opening he had cut for himself, but I had not stayed stationary after my retreat, I fled at high speed out of the fire circle and with a thought it violently exploded with the two warriors within it.

“You are a vicious little shit aren’t you” the Purple armored warrior, who had so far stayed out of the skirmish stated as he raced towards me broad sword in both hands.

“That would be lord shit to you” I spoke for the first time thrusting forward and launching a fire attack in the shape of a palm at him.

With a simple swipe he cut the attack to bits then using his second sword launched a sword strike in my direction.

A translucent crescent shaped energy shot towards me, a whistling sound following it as it sliced through the air towards me, I swayed to the left leaning back on the heel of my feet and like a figure skater skating backwards I quickly retreated in an S shaped pattern.

Even as I fled I brought my gauntlet encased hand in front of me and my fingers began to rapidly form hand seals.

Hand seals were the sign language of arcane magic, with every Rune having a corresponding hand seal it was quicker than casting the actual rune itself but only applied to lesser runes and with half its power.

As my seal work completed itself, fifty balls of fire burst into existence around me and shot towards the purple armored warrior slamming into him one after the other, even though his enchanted armor protected him from all of the damage the bright balls of fire served its purpose, to temporary blind him.

I stepped forward, instantly cutting the distance between me and the purple warrior in an instant, with a flick of my wrist a five inch hidden blade appeared in my hands and I thrust it towards the space between his shoulder and neck, but even as I internally rejoiced I felt danger approach from my left, I immediately withdrew my hand and rapidly retreated as a bolt of lightning pierced through the area I was a moment ago.

Both myself and the purple warrior’s gaze swung to the origin of the lightning spell, the previously exhausted mage had rapidly recovered his expended energy at a rate that left even me impressed and had decided to join the fray, why I was surprised that the second war minister had talented mages in his employ was somewhat foolish after all he was the minister in charge of magic.

“The fire wall Rune, a hidden battle skill and high proficiency in hand seals. It is as we suspected he should have a hidden backer”.

Casting a glance over to the area my exploding fire wall had decimated, the red armored warrior stepped through the bellowing smoke that engulfed that area looking for better or worse unharmed, emerging beside him was the warrior clad in green, his story however was a different one.

Either because he was knocked unconscious by my vicious blow to the head or he was too enraged to the threat that an exploding pillar of fire would do to him, the green warrior had not been able to defend against the explosion in time and it showed.

His armor was undamaged but from the gaps between his joints and neck area thin streams of blood trailed down to the ground, he held his helmeted head with his left hand and a long thin elfish blade in his right, killing intent came of him in waves and his eyes were firmly fixed on me.

“YOU ARROGANT BRAT, I WILL CUT OF YOUR ARMS THEN YOUR LEGS, I WILL SEAR THE WOUNDS CLOSE TO PRESERVE YOUR LIFE THEN FLAY THE SKIN FROM YOUR BODY BIT BY BIT WHILE FORCING YOU TO EAT EVERY LAST PIECE!” he bellowed at me, then shot forward like a bullet.

I barely had enough time to guard against the attack but it proved futile as his kick connected firmly with the left side of my torso shattering my ribs and flinging me into the air and into a massive tree. I bounced of the tree surface slamming into the ground where I immediately forced myself to go into a roll even though all I wanted to do right there and then was curl into a ball and cry.

An instant after I rolled away from that spot, a blade pieced through sinking into the ground till it reached its hilt, I kept on rolling till before leaping to my feet and racing into the forest shamelessly retreating.

“Now, now, we need him alive to answer questions” a voice echoed out directly to my left and I glanced over to see the elf in the purple armor sprinting alongside me easily keeping pace.

“screw that he only needs a head and a body to answer questions, the rest is mine” another voice this time filled with hate echoed out directly behind me, instinctively I ducked and a blade whistled through where my head used to be. I leapt from squatting position catapulting myself into the tree tops where I leapt from branch to branch sprinting through the forest canopy.

“If you claim he needs his head why are you trying to behead him” the third armored warrior asked as the flat side of a clay-more swung down towards me. I lifted my arms in a cross guard as the attack approached, but my shattered ribs made my left hand a step slow ruining the effectiveness of my block, the blow sent me crashing back down to the forest floor.

As my body raced to the ground and enemies closed in on all sides, I cast aside any hope of keeping my strength hidden. It had taken the element of surprise against an unprepared Rumil for me to claim victory, but against even one of these generals it would take all my strength to keep my life, but with the three of them working in concert standing my ground was proving immensely difficulty.

With a twirl of my waist I landed hand first on the ground immediately channeling magical energy into it to resonate with the earth, numerous spikes, eight inches thick and five feet long shot out of the ground racing to meet red and green, with barely a though they bated the missiles away but that was to be expected, after all that was merely a stalling tactic.

As soon as my magical energy completely synchronized with the earth beneath me, I flung myself backwards allowing my three assailants to continue pursuing me, however the moment they crossed over the patch of land that I had synchronized with, the earth literally opened its jaws and swallowed them whole.

Without as much as a moment to be proud of myself I turned and raced back towards the clearing. The seventh tier spell earth beast entrapment was a restraining spell with no offensive capabilities; it was yet another stalling tactic to buy me enough time to home in on my true target.

I burst back into the clearing, much to the shock of its only inhabitant, the three armored assailants supporting mage. Even thought I had up to eight greater runes hidden all over the forest clearing, it would take only a word of warning from this mage to give the three armored indiiduals sufficient time to evade any attack I throw at them, so the most dangerous person to me wasn’t the three powerful general level opponents seeking to dismember me but this magician who could destroy all my well laid plans.

Gritting my teeth against the pain of my shifting ribs, I rotated all the energy in my body pushing me all the way up to lightning fall step 6 and shot towards my target. The terrified mage hastily chanted a lightning spell but a well placed fire ball forced him to defend himself instead of attack me and I rapidly closed the distance between us.

With a flick of my wrists two hidden blades fell into my hands and coating them with magical energy I struck, one for the head and one for the heart. A look of regret flashed across the nameless magicians face as blood trailed down his face and chest before his body slumped over lifelessly.

As my heart surged with joy, an impending sense of doom raced up my spine and I hastily tried to retreat but this time I wasn’t quick enough.

A hand slammed against my throat crushing my wind pipe and wrapping around my neck like a metal vice. My lungs which where halfway through inhaling at the time suddenly was unable to draw in air, as horror gripped my heart my eyes wrested on the elf general encased in green who had dirt falling of him.

“So the little lord can use earth as well, it seems we severely underestimated him” a voice sounded out to my left, unable to turn my head on my own accord I could only guess it was the ever calm red clad elf.

“If the others ever find out the amount of trouble this little shit put us through we will never here the end of it” the last of the three voices said indicating all three generals had easily escaped my trap.

As I was dangled above the ground by my neck, my most prominent emission wasn’t pain from my broken ribs or crushed vocal cords, or horror that I was at the mercy of three individual one of which wanted to turn me into a quadriplegic, no my most prominent emotion was relief.

Back on earth it was so commonly used in movies that it was given a title, the monologing. The hero is finally at the mercy of the villain and instead of putting a bullet between the eyes of the man who had been a thorn in your side for the last two hours the villain decides to gloat over the fact he has caught the hero, giving him just enough time to cause a distraction leading to his escape.

With a though I released a stream of magical energy into my gauntlets causing three Runes on each glove to burst into a blazing flash of light, my captures reaction was a natural reflex, he instantly brought his free hand forward to protect his face fearing it was a spell, and in that moment he loosened his grip slightly on my neck and I struck.

My metal gauntlets, apart from being enchanted to the hilt also housed six hidden knives, three in each glove. The first one had been destroyed in my failed attempt to assassinate the purple armored knight, the second and third one were still firmly lodged in the head and heart of the enemy mage, now the fourth blade plunged through the gaps in the visor of the blue knight and into his left eye.

“AAHHH, YOU BASTARD!”

The second his hand loosened slightly, I yanked myself free and rapidly retreated, simultaneously invoking three of the eight remaining greater runes I had laid down earlier at the same time my last two hidden knives fell into my hands, and I flung one into the ground while the second pierced directly into my throat.

For the last minute and a half I was the captive of the blue armored elf with my wind pipe crushed, I had been unable to breathe. The edges of my vision had begun to dim and my thoughts had become sluggish, so the instant I broke free only one thought was prevalent in my mind, clear my airways.

The second the blade pieced through my trachea I inhaled deeply, though it was a bit weird not breathing through my face my lungs didn’t complain about where the air passed through to get to it.

All this happened in an instant, but still to experts an instant was enough time to exchange ten blows each of them potentially life ending, the red and purple armored elves did not take advantage of this however, not because of their sudden feelings of compassion towards me, but because of the rapidly darkening skies and the increasing fury of the winds surrounding us, two of the three runes had begun to manifest themselves and I could finally begin to counter attack.

Boiling fury rolled through my veins as I channeled magical energy into the three spells currently manifesting themselves, all my inadequacies had been laid bare as I had been chased round the forest like a vagrant, I had six broken ribs, a crushed wind pipe and bruises all over my body and all I had managed to inflict on my opponents was one blinded eye, I had grown complacent in luxury and that was going to change.

I lifted my left hand into the sky then clenched my fists and instantly the dark clouds that had been gathering above began to spiral, picking up speed the air soon became turbulent as the wind in the surrounding area soon began to be affected by the spiraling clouds.

My right hand pointed down to the earth and instantly the ground began to tremor and fragment, pieces of rock and dirt of various sizes began to protrude from the ground before taking the form of spikes, twenty seven feet in height and eight feet in diameter.

After all this time, it was at this point that the three armored elves finally turned serious. When I had fled through the forest they had been confident of catching me, when I had killed their supporting mage they had simply scoffed after all to general level combatants acknowledged by the crown what was a single mage but an existence they could cut down at any time. But now in the face of the looming destruction I had conjured they unrestrainedly released their battle essence but it was far too late.

The tier ten spell from the wind school Tempest Descent and the tier ten spell from the earth school Field of Thorns when cast simultaneously was quite deadly even against those with the title of general, but against two of them it was only problematic and against three merely a hindrance, but the story completely changed when the two spells were fused.

Even as my three opponents flung themselves at me, my left hand descended and my right hand rose until the heel of both palms touched, and the world shook.

An earthquake of immense proportion seized the clearing and the clouds that had been spinning furiously in the sky suddenly descended in a funnel shape smashing into the ground and separating me from the rapidly approaching armored elves.

As the earth continued to tremble, the massive spikes that littered the clearing began to come loose from the ground and were swept by the wind, rising steadily into the sky. I lifted my right foot and stamped firmly into the earth beneath me forming a platform made of earth which slowly started rising as well.

Even though I could not speak my cold gaze said it all, ‘if you dare come and face me’, and like lambs sprinting towards the slaughter they charged through the twister and rushed at me.

“*hmm*, No matter how you posture you are but a child before us” the purple armored elf proudly proclaimed before all three of them sprung forward, and leaping from one floating piece of rock to the other, they rapidly approached me.

The very second there feet left the ground I removed all restraint I had on the fused spell and let nature take its course, and like a religious fanatic condemning a sinner the elements responded vigorously to its newly gained freedom.

The already destructive wind became apocalyptic as even the great and majestic trees at the edge of the forest clearing were ripped up by their roots and sucked into the ever increasing vortex that was the storm.

the rock spikes now joined by the massive trees, served as a deadly grinder, smashing into each other and careening of at new more complex angles making every second within the storm a hundred times more dangerous than the last, and in the middle of it all I stood on my piece of earth unbothered and silently watching as I unleashed the third greater Rune.

Blue flames began to consume the wind tunnel both from the bottom and the top, rapidly progressing until a twister composed of fire wind and debris took up the majority of the forest clearing.

I had watched a documentary back on earth about naturally occurring flame tornadoes and the images I had seen inspired this technique and even though the flame twister stood three skyscrapers high I had named it LITTLE DEVIL.

One of the armored elf finally reached me, swinging his blade straight to my head, but I was not worried anymore, they had given me far too much time to prepare and prepare I had.

With a thought I reduced my hold on the earth platforms hovering within the twister and they also began to spin within the flame twister joining the trees and other loose debris within it.

I leapt slightly into the air and instantly the windswept me away from my approaching assailant, angling myself towards an approaching platform I touched down briefly before taking off again towards a higher platform leaving my three assailants no choice but to chase me.

I rose higher and higher, leaping from platform within the flame encased twister, and the armored elves gave chase occasionally sending out battle essence from their swords in an effort to hinder me, none of them aware that the rock platforms had begun to spin even faster than the twister should propel them to.

*CRUNCH*

A sickening sound rang out from behind me and with and evil smile I turned to look. The green armored elf who had been the most eager to chase me down had let down his guard and leapt after me, only to be intercepted halfway by one of the earthen platforms, in this brief battle between nature and elf, nature had clearly come out victorious. The impact of the collision sent the stunned elf careening through the air where he discovered the second danger of the little devil entrapment.

The twister’s outward rotation of gale force wind seized upon the air borne elf, with my encouragement of course, and sent him straight into the blue flamed wall which promptly exploded as soon as his armor came in contact with it. The explosion sent the dazed elf back into the path of oncoming debris and after getting smashed about for a bit his battered form landed heavily on a floating earth platform.

The entire incident had frozen the other two armored elves and I where we stood, before we slowly turned to face each other, a condescending smile on my face. Even though I could not verbally gloat because of my crushed wind pipe the smile was enough for me, I turned and continued my upward journey to the only earthen platform that remained stagnant in the eye of the twister.

On finally reaching my destination, I turned to survey the havoc I had wrecked on the previously pristine forest clearing. The dark clouds loomed over head and the tree tops were bathed in a sinister blue light as the pillar of wind and flame stood touching the sky and I stood on top of it all.

I let out a sigh as even the stolen moment of pride and arrogance had to be short lived, gazing downwards I noticed the remaining two armored individuals had abandoned their attempts of chasing me down and were now focused on reducing the amount of debris been flung around within the twister, they were already adapting to the situation.

This would have been the optimum time to escape, the green armored elf was barely conscious, still having difficulty staggering to his feet, while the purple and red armored elves were busy shattering any platform or tree that came within their range. In this confusion no one had eyes on me and escaping would only take some effort, but this was also the optimum time to strike and I had already separated one from the herd.

I flung myself of the safety of my perch, and like a falcon I shot towards the blue armored elf. The rune on my gauntlets and metal plated boots were the only warning he received as my fist came into contact with his helmet. I forced the runes on the gauntlet in contact with his helmet to vibrate wildly similarly affecting the protective rune on his helmet thus directly transferring damage to his head.

The force of the blow caused my opponent to stagger while the direct shock to his head made his feet unsteady, I pressed my advantage but the technique I had used to bypass his defensive Runes had a cost. Even as I stepped forward to follow up the attack, I felt my left gauntlet grow heavy as all the runes I had painstakingly engraved into it over three months faded away. Forcing the runes to vibrate like that had warped the metal, making the foundation of the enchantment unstable and causing the enchantment itself to fall apart.

Ignoring the extra weight my left leg shot forward in a low sweep smashing into his unbalanced feet and lifting him clear of the ground, and with a slight shove my air borne opponent was sent towards the flame walls once more.

“Vaklein!”

“Vaklein!”

Two voices tinged with worry rang out from above me as they watched their companion heading towards danger once more, but it was already too late to intervene and I was far from done.

I watched with satisfaction as the one called Vaklein smashed into the wall once more and instantly it exploded again, sending his body spinning back into the twister. With my eyes firmly fixed on the green armored elf, I calculated his path of trajectory and once I confirmed where he was going to be I took a running start of the platform and sailed to intercept him mid air.

“STAY YOUR HAND!”, a furious voice roared from behind me, but I gave it no notice as I shot through the air towards the defenseless elf, where was the compassion when they chased me through the forest loudly discussing how they would dismember me before taking me prisoner, no, the time to stay one hand had long past.

I smashed into the green armored elf and instantly began maneuvering for my final move I grasped his left and right leg in my corresponding hands while placing both of my feet on the helmet of my opponent and then finally I initiated my ten ton step technique, the effects was instant.

We immediately began sinking as the force of the winds could no longer sustain our weight, as we picked up momentum the air resistance had less and less of an effect, soon we were hurtling towards the ground with the speed of a falling star and positioned in such a way for my new friend Vaklein to receive the brunt of it all.

As we finally approached the forest floor, I bent my knees and shoved downwards viciously pounding my opponents head into the ground. A mighty rumble echoed out as the ground gave way and a shock wave radiated outwards only contained by the flame walls around us.

As I executed this technique pain shot through my legs but I gritted my teeth and endured keeping my legs firm and driving my opponent even deeper into the ground.

Suddenly bright lights shone from the helmet beneath my feet as defensive Rune emerged, they flickered in intensity as they struggled to negate the damage it was receiving from the attack before the sound of shattering glass echoed out and the runes burst into tiny particles of light and faded out of existence.

Even after been dropped from such a high point while weighted down with ten tons, the helmet of the armor had not deformed. I stared in shock at the unconscious elf beneath me, what exactly was the armor made from and where could I get it.

No matter, with the enchantment gone, even though the helmet could withstand my physical attacks there was nothing protecting the wearer from the impact itself, his brain would be like an egg in a jar, all I needed to do was shake it a little and it would crumble.

I lifted my foot once more and activated the ten ton step technique, but just as I was about to thrust it downwards one more, my unconscious victim’s body was suddenly jerked away.

As his body flew past me I reacted instinctively, reaching out and latching on to the closest part of the fleeing armored individual which so happened to be the recently damaged helmet. Whether it was because the elf within was unconscious or the enchantment on the helmet had been destroyed I do not know but in an almost comical manner the helmet simply popped of his head staying in my hand and the rest of the elf shot through the air and landed in the arms of the red armored elf.

It was a steel wire, I thought to myself as I replayed the scene of the theft of my would be victim from right under my feet, literally. The red armored elf was dangerous and it seems they were about to get serious indicating my cue to exit.

With a mocking bow I activated the fifth greater Rune I had laid in place in the little clearing, after all what I had planned next would put even my life as the caster in danger. The very ground underneath me suddenly gaped open beneath my feet.

As gravity began to take its course and I fell through, my remaining two opponents flung themselves at me in an attempt to hinder my escape. At this point if my ability to speak wasn’t impaired by my crushed larynx I would have said something witty, but simply pointing at the collapsing wall of fire behind them would have to suffice as the hole I fell through sealed itself off after me.

As I continued to fall through the darkness a massive explosion rang out above me and the earth which had been repacking itself as I fell through shook fiercely forcing me to increase the magical energy in the rune I had set for it. I had the spell little devil to become unbalanced the minute I relinquished control of it causing it to fold in on itself but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

The entire spells structure, which was by itself was ready to explode at the drop of a hat, was a mixture missing one ingredient, an ingredient that was contained in the hilt of all my hidden knives which currently littered the clearing above.

Lapis, a substance that could be refined from the core of fire based magical beasts and was normally used as an accelerant in the ignition of siege torches and campfire but had a particularly vicious reaction to my blue flames.

I had rigged the hilt of the hidden knives to release this substance once I recalled the runes on their base, the only problem is me getting far enough away to not get caught in the explosion, hence my descent into the abyss of the earth.

I come to a stop in a dark damp cave, as I fell through the ceiling of said cave I released over twenty orbs of light to light up the dark corners of the cave and once I was sure that I was the most sentient and also most dangerous being present I finally let my guard down.

Collapsing unto the ground, I quickly began to rotate my magical energy through all my pathways rapidly increasing my healing factor especially around my collapsed throat, the sooner I could chant magic spells the more reassured I would feel.

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For two days I sat inside the underground cave recovering from my injuries. Two broken ribs and six fractured ones, three shattered finger bones, a crushed wind pipe and overall bruising that left me more black and purple than my original lily white skin, I was beginning to miss the chocolate skin tone I had in my previous life.

In the two days I had felt two different parties scan for my presence, one had been merely six hours after the end of the confrontation between me and the three armored elves while the other had been a day and a half after.

In this period of time along with barely healing most of my injuries and restoring my heavily taxed magic wells I had nothing to do but soothe my bruised ego at the embarrassing beat down I had been subjected to.

I had recently began to gain confidence in my prowess especially after my fight with Rumil, so much so that I had begun to think that even if Shikubu and his fellow monstrosities returned I would be able to hold my own or at the very least flee from the scene with my life intact, how foolish of me.

As soon as the last of my previous broken ribs stopped popping whenever I moved I shot out of the cave, bouncing along the tunnel I had made for my escape till I blasted out of the ground and without looking either way shot of in the direction of the Van Flotina house hold.

I had hoped to get to the main house of the Van Flotina household well before the engagement ceremony to avoid any embarrassing public displays but the delay would see me there the evening before the grand event, but quite frankly I was in the right mood to bully those weaker than me.