Mages

After leaving the mountain base, Draven reached the sword to regroup with Sarah. Although Draven looked the same as he felt, Sarah felt something strange about him. His eyes glowed as though there was fire behind those calm eyes.

"You met the Justice force?" asked Sarah. For some reason, the name kinda sounded funny to Sarah.

"Yep," Margoth materialized above Draven's shoulder,

"You didn't kill them right?" asked Sarah. She couldn't say for certain that Draven wouldn't kill the heroes. Granted, he had some twisted moral codes, yet the moral codes would go out the window when the heroes were corrupted. As far as Sarah's research went, everyone in the Justice Force looked clean. They were just run-of-the-mill superheroes.

"We need more information about them," said Draven. Judging by the Justice Force's battle with Sarman, Draven had some idea about their strengths and weaknesses. In fact, he had the confidence to beat them all single-handedly. Yet, Draven did not want to rush into a battle with the heroes without knowing as much as he could about them.

"Let me work my magic," said Sarah before turning her focus back to her workstation. Meanwhile, Draven returned to his table and removed the armor piece by piece. Draven was exhausted after the battle with Sarman. Although it just seemed like jumping onto Sarman and stabbing him to death, it took everything in Draven to kill Sarman. The eternal fire strengthened him by corrupting his very soul.

Draven stretched his muscles. Whenever he moved his arms, Margoth heard a cracking noise from Draven's body. After removing the armor and gulping a mug of water, Draven returned to Sarah's workstation. When he came to her, Sarah had everything ready. She just flicked her wrist as the image of Jonathan in his battle armor appeared before Draven.

"Golden Eagle is a winged superhero who fights crime using a flight harness made from Irinium metal and a mace. Belong to C-class. His real name is Jonathan Cutter. He basically grew up without having to worry about anything. Father was a gold merchant. Mother belonged to a royal family. Have strict moral codes about killing. Top of his batch. Yada yada yada. Leads a superhero team called Justice Force. Ninety-eight percent successful mission rate," Sarah summarized the long paragraph in the mirror to Draven and Margoth.

"What're his powers?" asked Margoth.

"He is not a gifted one. His father made him special armor that enabled him to fly and have slightly better speed than commoners. Despite his lack of superpowers, he has excellent leadership qualities and is trained in every hand-to-hand combat technique known to man," Sarah sounded like she actually admired Jonathan. Which automatically made Margoth hate him more.

"He still had his ass kicked by Sarman. If it weren't for us, the UFH would be scraping him off the ground by now,"

Sarah chuckled, seeing the anger and jealousy within Margoth's eyes.

"Why are you getting so worked up? I just said he looks good, fights well, and seems capable," Sarah intentionally praised him for making Margoth more annoyed and furious.

"Keep talking and make me want to eat your soul more," Margoth growled.

"Who is on his team next? The one who can transform into a big giant just got himself killed. So you can skip him," said Draven.

Sarah waved her hand as the image of Mini appeared in the mirror.

"Superhero name is Mini. C-class superhero. Real name is not in the records. He is Jumbo's twin brother. Is he the dead one?" asked Sarah.

Draven nodded as she continued.

"He can make himself smaller while regaining his human strength,"

"What kind of stupid power is that?" Margoth rolled his eyes.

"Wait, I underestimated his power. He can make himself smaller, go up in a supervillain's ass, and boom, transform into his normal self, killing the guy from within," Margoth chuckled.

"Eww. You are so gross," Sarah raised her brows in utter disgust. She couldn't even imagine. Out of all the things one could do with Mini's superpower, Margoth immediately thought about that.

Even Draven smiled after hearing Marogth, which was extremely rare. After Mini, Sarah brought Cyclops's profile in the mirror.

"She is Eva. Top of her hero class. Goes by the name Cyclops. Possess the power to create cyclones and manipulate wind. The UFH seems to have still tested her power to control the wind. Despite her powers, she is still categorized into C-class,"

Draven made notes about everyone in his mind. He had a feeling he might have to fight them in the near future. After Eva, Sarah brought Ian's profile.

"Name is Sir Ian Roberts. As you can see," Sarah pointed at Ian's mage robes, pointy hat, and the staff in his hand,

"He is a mage who grew up in the great scarlet mountain," said Sarah.

"Normally, the mages from the scarlet mountain don't go up to be a hero in UFH right?" asked Draven.

"Normally, but not always," said Sarah.

"He cast defense spells, offense spells like fireballs, wind blades, and teleportation spells. All the bells and whistles. If I were you, I'd keep an eye on him. Who knows what kind of spells he has in his arsenal?"

"Hey, I have a doubt," Margoth turned his gaze to Draven.

"If we kill him and absorb his soul, will we end up being a mage?"

"I don't think so," Draven shook his head,

"Being a mage is not a superpower. Anyone can be a mage if they train enough in the scarlet mountain. Of course, they have to accept you, but you can be a mage once you are in. You don't have to be a gifted one to be a mage,"

"That cannot be entirely true," Margoth couldn't believe it.

"There must be some requirements to be a mage. Otherwise, every single fuck up could study to be a mage. Imagine everyone we fight is a mage. If I am right, there are plenty of mage schools in etheria right? So why are there only a few mages?"

Margoth's question made both Draven and Sarah think. To Draven, Margoth's words made sense. Until now, Draven paid little to no attention to mages because, as Margoth said, there were only a few in the world. Atleast, the majority of the mages stayed in their schools. Only a few would come out and do good or evil with their powers. A powerful mage could be as strong as a Class-S superhero. In fact, the majority of the mages were categorized as either Class-A or S.

"All I am saying is, if we get the chance, we should go and study a little magic. Having more powers doesn't hurt,"

"By we, you meant Draven right?" Sarah frowned. The last thing Sarah wanted was Draven going against the mages. If Draven had the superpowers he was born with, he could have decimated the mages with enough training. But now, he was not in shape or had enough powers to fight them.

Although Draven defeated all of his enemies rather easily, he hadn't gone against actual powerhouses. Any class-B hero could give a battle of Draven's life. She did not want any of that to happen, at least until Draven was strong enough. However, Margoth kept pushing him against more powerful foes because he was addicted to absorbing souls.

"I have enough shit to deal with. Let's put a pin on being a mage," Draven quickly diminished the tension between Margoth and Sarah.

"He is a Class-A hero. According to the records, the UFH has no clear understanding about the full extent of his powers," said Sarah.

"He has any weaknesses?" asked Margoth.

"Time," Margoth and Sarah turned their gazes to Draven. When he was still the Angel of Lotus, he fought one evil mage who went by the name Celestial Dragon. According to UFH's new class system, Draven would say Celestial Dragon was beyond all S-Class heroes and supervillains. The UFH was almost prepared to bring in the Supremes to deal with him.

Defeating Celestial Dragon single-handedly made the Supremes consider giving Draven an offer to join them. At that time, Draven didn't know his powers threatened them. Instead, Draven felt proud. But now, the mere mention of the Supremes and UFH nauseated him. It cost him his family to realize the UFH and the Supremes were all just a big sham to give people a false sense of security.

"What do you mean time?" asked Margoth.

"You know mages have two types of spells. Short spells. They are quick to cast and not so powerful. On the other hand, they have long spells which take time to cast but are dangerously powerful. Earlier inside the mountain, Ian tried to cast a teleportation spell which took time and Sarman almost killed his team before he finished casting his spell," explained Draven.

"That's why a mage is always surrounded by a team. The others must protect the mage until he can finish casting his powerful spells. Alone, he can escape using a few short spells for some time, but if the battle lasts long enough, a lone mage would almost always lose," said Draven.

"You said almost always," said Margoth.

"Of course, there are some exceptions,"

"Like Sorcerer King Benedict," Sarah quickly interjected with her own thought.

"Yes, like Sorcerer King Benedict. But my words about types of spells stand true. His quick spells are more powerful,"

"Powerful enough to kill us?" asked Margoth.

Draven nodded,

"At this moment, yeah. He can kill us with a few spells. Fortunately, we are not fighting him, are we?"

Draven felt really fortunate that he was up against the Justice Force instead of the Supremes. If that was the case, he knew he and Margoth were super fucked.