Book 3: Chapter 18 – Operation: Destroy Tracer

"Shit!" Ace cursed.

"What is it?" Julius asked from Leonel's back when he noticed Ace start to speed up, with Amira and Leonel upping their pace to match. "Are they heading in our direction?"

At a time like this, Ace and Amira were both thankful that Leonel was with them. Although Julius was a powerful mage, his running speed was below average, even for mortals.

"Yeah, unfortunately," Ace answered sombrely as he suddenly led his team in a new direction. "Follow me."

"Dammit!" Ace cursed when he sensed the assassins change directions to follow them. "Why're they chasing us? How're they even able to follow us from so far away."

Ace was only able to sense their presence due to his [Observation], which could reach up to 2.5 kilometres, but haki was an ability unique to him and his mother. The fact that they could track them from over a kilometre away was mindboggling to him.

However, Amira seemed to have thought of something as her head suddenly turned to Leonel before turning back to Ace. "I think they're tracking Leonel."

"Huh, what makes you say that?" Ace asked back.

"Well, although there are ways of tracking us, such methods are only used by major forces, and none of us has done anything to offend any of them. Not recently, anyway.

So the only other possibility that still makes sense is for them to be chasing after Leonel," Amira explained. "There's an item called a tracer that allows you to locate Divine Beasts within a certain radius. Although it's exceedingly rare, I'm pretty sure there are at least two factions able to get their hands on one, namely the Radiant Church and the Cult of Darkness."

"Cult of Darkness?" Ace asked as alarms suddenly went off in his head. "Five years ago, Wukong said that it was the Cult of Darkness that stole a certain dragon egg that caused the Dragon's Pit to start the beast tide that hit Silverlight City."

"You think that Azure Dragon was that Dragon?" Amira asked, understanding what Ace was hinting at.

"It fits. A Divine Beast of that calibre would definitely be enough for them to react like that." Ace continued. "I mean, it would be like them being guaranteed a leader at the Deity realm in the future. With it being a Divine Beast, they would no longer have to fear the human's deities.

I don't know how they could've allowed it to escape, but the chances of there being another Dragon with a Divine Bloodline so far away from the Dragon's Pit is virtually zero. It would also explain the presence of a group from the Cult of Darkness of that strength."

Though they knew they were likely correct with their theory, it didn't actually help them in their current predicament. In fact, knowing they were being chased by the Cult of Darkness only added to their worries.

"They're getting closer," Ace sighed. "What does the tracer look like?"

"It's a fist-sized gem that glows red when it senses the presence of a Divine Beast," Amira explained when she suddenly guessed the reason behind Ace's question. "You're not thinking of trying to destroy it, are you?!"

"Boss, don't!" Leonel said mentally. "If anything, we should split up. If I head off on my own, I should be able to ditch them somewhere and meet ba-"

"Enough!" Ace snapped. "I've made my decision. You guys keep running. I'll intercept them with an ambush, destroy the tracer, and then escape."

"But…"

"You should know that even if I can't fight someone at the ninth rank yet if I want to escape, there's no way they'd be able to stop me," Ace said as he smiled confidently to put their minds at ease. "Just believe in me."

Amira hated feeling so useless. Whilst she had faith in Ace's strength, especially after the improvements he'd shown over the last month, she hated that he always had to face the danger alone to protect them.

'I need to get stronger faster so I can stand by his side,' Amira thought to herself as she saw Ace turn and head back in the opposite direction on his own. "Come on, let's go!"

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Whilst Amira, Leonel, and Julius were heading deeper into the mountain range, Ace was making his way towards the approaching cultists. He showed no nerves as he ran towards them, only a cold composure.

When they were only 500 meters away, Ace suddenly jumped in the air and then, against all logic, he jumped again off the air.

This was the reason he was so confident about escaping. After reaching the fifth rank, he could finally use [Geppo], another one of the techniques from the World Government from his previous life.

It wasn't that he had forgotten about it before, but it was a technique that required one to kick off the air with such force that the air beneath their feet temporarily became solid. It required a lot more strength than [Soru].

'There you are,' Ace thought to himself as he saw the group of six armoured men swiftly cutting through the forest and more specifically, at the gem hanging from the lanky warrior's waist.

'Rank 8, huh?' Ace noted as he assessed the man whilst he subconsciously thanked heaven it wasn't being held by the leader. 'Okay, let's do this.'

As his thoughts reached that point, his eyes became eerily focused as he became one with nature.

Space compressed around the blade of his obsidian-coloured glaive, but he still managed to swing his polearm with such speed and force that a crescent-shaped blade of compressed air no smaller than him shot towards the leader.

"[Flying Slash]!" Ace voiced icily as he used [Geppo] to launch himself in the direction of his target.

This was another technique he had remembered from his previous life. It was a technique predominantly used by swordsmen that was pretty simple in theory.

By swinging your blade with enough speed and force, you can create a powerful pressure in the form of a compressed air blade.

Unfortunately, the space in this world seemed a lot more stable than his last. It was the reason why all the techniques from his previous world required so much more strength than it would have had he been in his former world. Still, all that mattered was that he could use it now.

Due to him having become one with nature and being so far away when he first made his move, no one, not even the group leader, sensed anything amiss until the attack was near enough on top of him.

Still, as a warrior of the ninth rank with a lot of experience, the man was able to draw the great sword strapped to his back just in time to block the attack, although he was still knocked off balance.

Though Ace would've liked if his attack killed, or at least incapacitated the man, he expected this much from someone that strong. His initial attack was simply to give him enough time to attack his actual target.

Like the others in the group, the lanky sabre wielder was also caught off guard by the [Flying Slash]. By the time he drew his sabre in preparation to face whatever enemy had decided to target them, the hairs on the back of his neck were stood on edge.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow descending from his blind spot at a ridiculous speed. He hurriedly tried to jump out of the way, but space suddenly compressed around him, slowing him down by a large margin.

When used on Julius or even Amira, Impose kept them from moving, but Ace already knew from his tests on Leonel that impose could only somewhat slow the movements of someone with power at the eighth rank. Fortunately, that was all he needed…

Ace's glaive was like a shooting star as it tore through the air. He watched as a shadowy skin-tight aura coated his target's body, but he remained steadfast. Between his [Armament Haki] Coating his blade and his fusion of both states of 'wielding' Ace was full of confidence.

His blade slowed slightly as it pierced the man's head, but ultimately, his glaive pierced through the left side of his skull and out the right, but he wasn't done. The cultist wasn't his primary target in the first place.

Despite the speed he descended, Ace elegantly landed on the ground and swiftly slashed the 'Tracer' in two before using [Soru] to jump back and raise his glaive across his body.

"Ugh!" He grunted as he was sent flying through the air, barely having blocked the leader's slash.

"A warrior at the ninth rank is no joke," Ace muttered as he coughed a mouthful of blood and rolled to his feet.

"Who are you?" The leader asked coldly, hiding the shock in his heart over a mere teen successfully killing one of his strongest men and successfully blocking an attack from him.

Even if it was just a casual strike, it wasn't something a boy so young should be capable of dealing with.

Unfortunately for him, Ace had no intention of wasting any more time with him. He'd already used his connection to Leonel to tell him the tracer was destroyed; now it was time for him to leave.

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A little over two kilometres away, Leonel suddenly came to a complete stop causing Julius to almost go flying off his back.

"What is it?" Amira asked hurriedly. "Did he do it?"

She couldn't help but sigh in relief when she saw Ace's familiar nod, but when she saw the look of worry in his eyes, her heart re-tightened. "What is it? Is he still in danger?"

Leonel looked hesitantly at Amira, he knew the last thing Ace would want was to put Amira in danger, but he didn't even get the chance to lie to her before she jumped on his back.

"If he needs help, then let's go help him!" Amira exclaimed, not leaving any room for discussion. "Hurry up!"

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Book 4 - Chapter 28