When the group saw Greyson draw his sword, they immediately got into formation. Every face grew serious and the atmosphere grew cold. The blue in Greyson"s eyes grew deeper as ice particles grew around the scene. Jumping off Al"s back, Greyson made the first move and slashed down at the leader while the ice particles coagulated into spikes that attacked the rest of the group. Obviously trained, the group quickly dodged while the leader summoned a rock wall in front to block the sword attack. Seeing the wall form, Greyson quickly opened his mouth and blew out cold air. Ice formed around the wall before he lashed out a quick kick. The wall smashed into pieces and Greyson quickly followed through with a quick follow-up swing of his sword. Caught by surprise, the leader could only quick try to dodge and allowed for the sword to make a large cut down his chest. Spitting blood, he landed on the ground, however, he quickly cast a spell that formed an earth dome around himself for protection. Greyson meant to quickly attack, but the rest of the group had already recovered and started their own attack.They created an array and all cast out the same water strike from all angles. Before any of the attacks got close, however, a wind burst through that completely dissipated the attack. A silver blur flashed in between the group and Greyson.
"8 to 1? That seems a little too unfair, don"t you think? I"ll even the playing field a little. Grey, you just take care of the head while I get rid of the others." Greyson looked over and raised an eyebrow.
"You, helping? Why the sudden enthusiasm?"
"Hmph! When have I ever not been useful? I just don"t act most of the time because I want to allow you to experience hards.h.i.+p and continue growing as a magician. Imagine if someone at my strength acted out all the time for you, wouldn"t I be babying you? You would never learn to be independent!"
"I just see a plain case of laziness..." Greyson rolled his eyes.
"LAZY?! Why of all the ingrates I have ever met!"
The two partners continued bickering as the rest of the group looked on in shock. Were the two of them just ignoring their presence? Glancing at each other, they all imperceptibly nodded to each other before attacking.
"Well, aren"t they rude? Interrupting two people talking like this..." Lucius stopped fighting with Greyson and turned his attention back to the group. His tails lashed out and wind slices followed. In harmony with Lucius, Greyson focused his concentration towards the dome that was still protecting the leader. Steadying his stance, Greyson brought Genesis above his head. Focusing his mana, it began focusing on the sword forming a cold storm. Propelling himself towards the dome, Greyson brought his sword down and the earth smashed apart. The leader was sent flying back from the explosion into the trees. Following quickly behind, Greyson blew cold air again at the leader"s body. Putting out a weak hand, the leader tried to block the air to no avail. Inch by inch his body froze over except for his head. Greyson slowly approached and reached out towards the mask. Yanking it off, a handsome, but cold face was revealed.
"Why are you chasing the siblings?" Greyson continued asking. However, the man did not say a word and closed his eyes.
"I really dislike killing anybody, but if this will lead to future problems, I will do what I have to do." Coldness leaking from his voice, Greyson stared down the leader.
"What relation do you have with them?" Finally opening his mouth, the man did not answer and instead voiced his own question. Thinking about it, Greyson could not find any reason to not answer, so he just shrugged.
"No relation. I just met them a couple minutes ago. However, I have some use for them so I decided to step in. Your group was also too weak, so it did not endanger me in any way." Hearing the last sentence, the leader opened his eyes and glared. "Well, you are in this state, and I am like this, so I did not say anything wrong. Give me a reason to not take their side."
"They most likely did not tell you the entire story, if they even told a remotely truthful story."
"What is your take on the situation, then? You must have a good reason for chasing them through the woods."
"Those are just the spoiled brats of the Greentree family! You would not understand. They run amok in the city and kill whoever, steal whatever, and their family allows them to get away with it all. This group of people is a bunch of victims or family of the victims. We waited for the perfect moment to finally ambush them and take revenge. We were finally about to have that until someone interfered in the middle." At this point, he glanced up and angrily looked over at Greyson. Shrugging again, Greyson did not respond right away. However, his eyes did narrow slightly. Definitely a different side to the story from earlier, but he did not immediately believe the sob story from the leader. He still wanted to use the siblings to get into the city, since regular citizens did not work only the powerful ones with connections did. Which person did he trust? At this point, Lucius had already come over after knocking out the rest of the group. Greyson mentally gave him the rundown and asked for his opinion. Both of them began fighting about who to help and who to trust. Lucius stopped talking at one point and looked to be deeply thinking about it.
"What is it, Lu?"
"Ugh, I really didn"t want to do something like this since I just recovered..." Lucius just sighed helplessly. "Can you create some cover for the both of us? This is something that other people cannot see."
"Cover?" Nodding, Greyson quickly created a rock wall around the both of them.
"I"m presently too weak to use this bloodline spell fully, so I will only be able to see if we will have bad luck if we trust the leader or the siblings. I will probably sleep again for a while afterwards, don"t be surprised later." Speaking thus far, Lucius spat out some blood and drew a pattern on the ground. His body started to weaken once more and the mana started to gather in the middle of his forehead. Greyson looked on in worry and could feel the red bond on his wrist burning. Finally, an extra slit appeared on Lucius" forehead. Little by little, the slit slowly opened. Lucius could only manage to get a sliver of the eye to open, however, it was enough to forecast for this situation. He could feel his body rapidly weakening and his consciousness growing dim, so he quickly turned towards Greyson and spat out three words.
"Trust the siblings!" After these words were uttered, the blood pattern on the ground shattered and the third eye disappeared. Lucius weakly fainted to the ground and entered another deep sleep. Greyson rushed over and gently placed the sleeping Lucius inside his robe. A cold glint in his eyes, he will the walls to collapse and faced the leader once more.
"I"m afraid I will believe in the siblings this time." The man"s expression sank as he understood the implication of Greyson"s words. Looking towards the leader and the rest of the group, Greyson summoned ice into the air and froze all of the bodies. Slas.h.i.+ng down with Genesis, he sent blasts of fire to burst apart the bodies. Seeing that no traces were left behind, Greyson looked on with sadness and sighed. Killing people would never get easier, however, if he let them go, who knows what kind of revenge plot would follow. Walking slowly back to Al, Greyson reminisced to his first time killing a person. He could still feel the wave of nausea that came over him. Even these strangers today p.r.i.c.ked at his heart, but he knew he could not be weak. Hardening his gaze, he made it back to where Al was waiting. Gesturing to the turtle, Greyson was soon face-to-face again with the siblings he had just saved. Both sister and brother took a couple minutes to orient themselves again and looked around the forest in confusion. As if suddenly remembering their situation, their guards went up and they quickly glanced around.
"No need to look. The group that was chasing after you is already taken care of." Greyson"s cold voice rang out. Hearing his words, the siblings both looked completely shocked, but then let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you! Do not worry, my words were not false. You should follow us back to the city for your rewards." Yvette quickly calmed herself and retrieved her original dignified demeanor.
"I do not need your rewards, that is not the reason I made a move to save either of you."
"Then, for what reason did you a.s.sist us?" Furrowing her brows, Yvette and Lucas both looked slightly wary for his answer.
"Due to some unexpected circ.u.mstances, I ended up getting separated from the caravan I was traveling with, so I have no way into the nearest city. I was hoping that you could use your connection to help me."
"Oh, just something like this? Of course, we can help with that! I will do you one better and have my father get you a permit and identification so you can easily travel into other cities as well." Inwardly relieved to hear such a simple request, Yvette"s face quickly returned to a polite smile.
"Well, that would be really helpful. I will have to thank you in advance." Finally letting out a smile, Greyson felt pleased by his earlier decision to help them. In his happiness, he missed the fact that both siblings blushed looking at his smile. Although, Greyson"s elf features were hidden, the tied back long black hair and sapphire blue eyes emphasized his handsome features. Even the silver dragon tattoo on the right side of his face added a mysterious charm. Oblivious, Greyson willed Al to grow bigger and soon the three were off towards Iris City.
...
During their travels, Greyson was surprised by the information he was able to gather. According to the siblings, he had been stuck in that dungeon much longer than he previously believed. In half a month, he would already be turning fourteen. They had also skipped over the first two outer countries and were only another two away from reaching the closest Beast Empire border. Currently, he was on his way to the capital of the third country. Iris City was the imperial capital of the empire of Rainbow Country. Similar to Lunar City of the Moon Empire back in Snow Country. The Greentree family of Yvette and Lucas was a powerful n.o.ble family and one of the top four powers in the country. Lucas and Yvette were technically part of a branch family since their father was the second son and thus the brother to the current head of the family. Both of them were also born with inferior magic talent compared to a lot of their cousins which was why they were still so weak even now. Greyson had already seen through both of them. Yvette was only an intermediate level stage five magician while Lucas was an advanced level stage one. As the heir of the second family, Lucas received preferential treatment which was why he was able to surpa.s.s his older sister. Apparently, though, the young master of the family was a young genius. He was 20 years old and a magister level stage one magician. Although this seems less impressive in front of Greyson, most outer region children do not reach the magister level until they are 25 or even later which means they will most likely be magister level magicians their entire lives due to the spa.r.s.e resources. The Greentree family were all earth magicians, however, the young master was born a dual water and earth magician which made his position as the next head extremely solid.
Listening to Yvette and Lucas brag about their older cousin made Greyson even more desperate to hurry to the Beast Empire. At that point, he could eat the Calming Fruit and finally advance to the magister level. His preparations were finished ages ago for this advancement and he was just missing one last step.
After three days of traveling, a humongous outline of a city finally came into view from afar. Greyson could not help but be in awe of the city. It was the most beautiful place he had ever seen. Lots of beautiful nature remained inside the city with gla.s.s-like building structures that reflected rainbows from the sunlight. He could see where the name Rainbow Country came from if this was what the capital looked like. Yvette and Lucas could see the fascination in Greyson"s eyes and they puffed out their chests and lifted their chins a little higher. They were extremely proud of their home city and believed it to be one of the most beautiful cities in the entire Human Empire.