Chapter 22: Bargaining

Perspective: Naila Ketley

I definitely did not recognize what I was seeing.

A spiral of attacks, which protected every angle of his body. They were precise and furious movements. At the same time they were magnificent and unreadable.

I myself believe that he should not be able to describe what he had just done.

Keyner's attacks had two faces. A dualism was what characterized this boy.

So much so that I am reluctant to say what he is now.

From the beginning, he did not want to fight. But this would only be noticed by someone who had already had some contact with him, to realize the obvious of his ideas that are reflected in his facial expressions.

His eyes.

His eyes were empty spheres, which had the look of someone searching for loneliness and destruction.

I can say with propriety, for mine were once the same.

But mine were not accompanied by a part of a Yin-Yang symbol in each eye. With the Yin side on the left, and the Yang side on the right. The symbol was not uniform: it was accompanied by a gray shading, which could give the idea that Keyner was blind.

Seriously, that scared me at first, but now, all I feel is disgust.

Keyner really fell for it.

Now he is a Wizard.

Although he is acting in a very strange way.

His movements are not up to his standard, even considering the assumption that he has been training these past few days. At one point in the fight, those lightning bolts that surrounded him and clearly made him faster were put aside, even though Blue was a step behind in terms of speed.

He knows that his durability is not the best of his status. I've made this abundantly clear when we were practicing something related to martial arts, which he happens to be a pitiful denial of. All it takes is ten minutes of fighting with Lyla and he would be a ground rag.

And what did he mean by "I'm not acting like myself"? Besides that pill he ingested in the last act of the fight.

The pill I knew what it was. But why?

Not only that. If he had been using full strength from the beginning, he would have finished Blue sooner than I thought. But he preferred to use half of his arsenal while keeping that clone in his shadow. It was a trick that doesn't impress me, as this kid always resorts to cheap tricks because of his lack of strength.

We hadn't said anything about fighting one on one, so there was no way that clone who came to see us before knew anything.

-Blue!

-Get out of my way!

Lyla and the others ran towards the guy who had just been shot in the back, hard enough to go through the stealth suit and the flesh of his body, with the projectile being lost in the air. Dying from this he wasn't going to, but I had already given the idea of how convenient it was to have a medic around for a fight against this guy.

-You!

-!

Lyla grabbed the indigo blue sword that was in Blue's now panting hand. An angry lunge turned Keyner into the target of that white weapon that looked more like a projectile with the speed it had accumulated.

-...

But as expected, it was useless.

Keyner already had a rectangular sword in his hands, and used it to hit the one that was thrown, even though he knew it would be destroyed on impact.

That was not his gunblade, but a sword that came out of absolute nothingness.

From the void that existed between the wretch's hands, a visible mass of luminous energy took the metallic form of a sword, a sword with a rectangular blade as white as snow, in which just looking at it for an instant disturbed my eyes with such scintillity.

It gave me a flashback of a cursed person as I clenched my fists.

Marino Sasaki. That girl had a habit of giving others little scares with her splendid ability to draw swords from random places.

Little scares in others, and rather obvious attempts of murder on me, disguised as childish pranks.

My stomach twitches as I remember the day I needed to go to the bathroom at an AWA facility, and as I positioned myself on the toilet, a sword came at high speed in an upward fashion from within it.

Was Keyner using the same spells as Marino? Or is it just a physical and logical replication of his sword attacks? I still don't really understand his powers. I thought they were thunder related.

And using that projection... That looks familiar to me with what was found next to the dead body of the captain of the unit Blue is in now.

So the Wizard who murdered him is with him?

Returning my attention to Keyner, he remained standing, just looking at Blue being carried by the others. Fatigue and doubt were perceptible on his face, as well as any and every state he presented.

He realized that he was being watched by me, looked me in the eye as if to check that I wasn't going to attack him or something, and turned his attention back to the other captains.

...

Now, more than ever, I'll have to make sure that this bastard doesn't die.

But try harder, Keyner. I haven't taken advantage of you enough yet.

Perspective: Keyner Blake

That was a close one.

The last attack I blocked used up all my luck for the next five years of my life left.

I stared at the captain who threw the last sword created by Azure Treasure, while analyzing her body structure, which was of someone with the most worked limbs and the intensity that this sword was handed to me only strengthened my theory.

So now was the time to end the fighting around here. Even recovering the mana that was with my Alter, getting into combat with a martial artist would be making preparations for my body to be cremated, which could consist of having my face deformed at the base of her fists.

-Lyla, don't waste any time and get Blue to the city as soon as possible. You must not have forgotten o-

-I suppose now it's my turn to ask for a negotiation.

-??

Interrupting the second captain's order, I just made the rest of them more alert.

-If you overestimate me too much, I'm going to lose it.

With a smile on my face, I make a joke, erasing any words that might have been said by them for the randomness caused.

-Now he doesn't want to fight.

-??

A voice that I hadn't heard in a while echoed in that open space.

Naila, the first captain of the AWA, raised her voice to help me.

A somewhat short girl with long brown hair, and a face of serious but somehow cute facial expressions.

Days ago, my best friend.

Nowadays, the one who thoughtlessly killed my parents and my two best friends.

All because I was a Wizard.

However, something echoed in my mind while I was in training.

Why didn't she kill me at the first chance? She had the perfect weapon for it. Although I had never seen it.

Why didn't she use her ArcanaTech on me?

-What do you want to negotiate?

The second captain rouses me from my thoughts with his doubt.

I look away from Naila, and turn my gaze back to Blue, who was now leaning on the third captain's shoulder.

-That bitch behind you, the day I fell off the city's South Airport, she got sick or something, right?

-How do you know?

-Because about a month ago I did the same to Marino.

-Did you manage to defeat Marino?

Now it was the seventh captain who had spoken, with a tone of surprise.

-Actually, she spared me.

-Ha. I thought so.

-...

I began to wonder what Marino could be doing at that moment.

Although I already know her location, I can't process any reason for her to have gone to Jack and Caius' memorial.

And if I go any deeper into trying to locate this-

-Boy, my patience has limits.

The third captain deconcentrates me with a thick intimidation, reminding me of the situation I had put myself in.

-From now on, you will need all the forces within your reach. Soon, I will begin part of the treatment with Blue so that you can return to Techmetriun with fewer problems.

-Don't you think you're getting too big that just by defeating Blue we're going to...

-Try to communicate with the city then. Notice how the communication lines are suffering from interference.

I stopped the second captain from cutting my negotiation. Then all of them, except Blue, projected holographic screens in front of each other, and watched them in silence for about two minutes.

-But this...

-It's like I said.

I began to approach Blue slowly. As I took my steps, it was noticeable how disgusted everyone there was with me. I felt as if at any moment, a sword was going to turn my neck into a sheath.

Obviously, my senses were not wrong.

I was now only half a meter away from Blue, with him leaning on the shoulder of the third captain.

I extended my hand straight out toward the captain I had defeated. Along with my movement, the fifth and eighth captain emerged behind me, each carrying a pistol.

-They said to me, "One single wisecrack, and your next fight will start with you losing a piece of your skull.

-Save your threats for when I help your friend, so I can put a hole in you later. I might even let you choose the way you want to lose that voice of yours.

*BANG*

A gunshot sound echoed through the field, and my gaze was directed to the same place everyone else was watching.

The shot had come from a scarlet triple-barrelled pistol, one of the first Captain's signature weapons.

-Don't lose your cool, you two. I can stop this kid's brain activity any time I want, just by moving my index finger.

I felt the coldness of Naila's gaze penetrating my soul, which, accompanied by the heat that was my blood dripping from a small scratch caused on the side of my head by the shot that grazed it, reminded me of the hatred I felt for this girl.

-Don't look at me as if I were your target. It is disrespectful to any human to be targeted by the senses of a disgusting race such as yours.

I look away from her, and ignoring the captains with the barrels of their pistols to my head, turn my attention to Blue movimente.

-But you loved to go to the house of this disgusting race to kill time.

I release a small pulse of mana, and identify my mana that remained in Blue's body. Little by little, I begin to remove it from his body, returning it back to my body, which lasted a few minutes.

-Ready.

Blue had a grimace on his face, but in the end he looked much better.

-Thank you.

-...

Really. I was thrilled that he thanked me.

Now, the most important thing would come.

-So, who's next? If you don't mind, I can go ahead and finish him off.

The seventh captain broke the silence with a tendentiously irritating tone.

-No one will attack now.

-??

The second captain answered. And according to where he was looking, he had something to answer with me.

-Baby, are the Wizards who were with you related to our loss of communication?

-Not really. I am the only one responsible.

-Then how did you want to negotiate with us?

-Look, I was not directly responsible.

-I'm still confused, but I know that trusting you will be my best option.

-What?

-Calm down. Xion, what do you think you-

-SHUT THE HELL UP!

The second captain raised his tone of voice to answer the others who were showing their disagreement. But something crossed my mind.

"Xion."

So there is a chance that this guy is him. That must be why he is helping me.

Or maybe I am being too positive. Something that is not going through my mind must be the answer. So I won't get my hopes up.

-Techmetriun has suffered several monster attacks in the last 30 days, if I'm not mistaken. With communications cut off, you should get back to the city as soon as possible.

-And this concern for the city?

-Because I don't want any unnecessary deaths.

-If that were the case, you wouldn't fight with us.

-This fight was just to show that I can be useful.

-So, if you wanted to be useful, why do you contradict yourself in everything you do or say?

-To show you that, even as a Wizard, I don't want the worst for humanity. Even if the most dangerous piece you have on the other side leads me to all this. So...

I approached the second captain while raising my tone of voice. It was not only my tone of voice that increased, but also my nervousness, because if nothing went as planned, I would die right here.

-...assure me that you will prevent deaths by killing the Lightning Mastrea once and for all. Fail in this and I will become the headache you think I am.

-!

-...

I gave my last statement while pointing forward. At first, all the captains were speechless for understanding the situation, but soon after I noticed a second reason for this silence.

-You slug, Techmetriun is to your left.

-Do you want a bullet in your eye too?

Blue who corrected my sense of direction that was nothing but ridiculous.

-Let's go!

The second captain gave a signal to everyone there. Reluctantly, they followed him towards the city.

As they were leaving, I sat down on the ground, trying to catch some of the breath that had been taken from me in the last few minutes.

For now, I was alive.

If the pact didn't punish me for asking the captains to kill Quill, it means that those three also realized that there is something wrong with all of this.

By the way, how are they doing?

I release a pulse of mana, trying to cover a relatively large area so that I can locate them.

Yurion and Morello are fighting with some platoon of humans, and it seems that it was no problem for Morello to use the light solidification that appeared as a result of a power pact between us.

In the camp, that bar of gold was not only to solve any financial problems of mine, but as it was also the proposal of a pact.

As a result, I can now solidify light itself or its absence to create a type of metal. Convenient, but that along with the tactic of keeping an Alter for so long, I used up more than half of my mana.

Soon, the last thing I could do would be to go to Morello.

And even worse to Marino.

Her sharp mana was in turmoil, indicating not only that she was in a fight, but how incredibly angry she was.

The culprit for this must be this entity she is facing.

But it is impossible to even project a physical materialization for this... thing.

Whatever it was, it had mana, but it hid any trace of it within the patterns

Trying to analyze the source of this mana only sent my mind into a spiral of confusion and hallucinations. I could tell that whatever this thing is, it doesn't want anyone identifying it or making contact with it.

And lastly... the second captain.

What worried me about him was not only the superiority he had over everyone else.

But he knew that I was a "candidate for Mastrea".

His name was also Xion, the same as the not-so-old old man who taught me how to fight with pistols.

I had better not waste too many neurons on this.

After all, I had more to worry about now.

I was not alone. I wish I was. It would be a great opportunity to lie down on the ground and take a nap. Ah, there are monsters in this region, I forgot.

But the one who was with me was someone comparable to a monster. And he had a pistol pointed at me.

A scarlet triple-barrelled pistol. The model I have the least good memories of.

-Unlike a month ago, my gun is not jammed, and you have no one to resort to cheap tricks.

It was Naila who intimidated me at that moment.

-How wonderful. Here I thought I could die without settling accounts with you.