Unexpected Guest

Nirad City is a large city with a population of just under 1,000,000. It is just 3 days away from the Zlatan Empire's capitol. 

At this time, the sky was turning a shade of pink and blue as the sun was setting over the horizon. High in the beautiful cloudy skies of the city, small bursts of golden light could be seen. 

With how high up the flashes were, no one seemed to notice them. The golden shine of the sun also influenced their inability to see such minuscule happenings. 

If someone were to fly all above the clouds and got closer to these sparks, they would see 2 figures. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The figures exchanged kicks and punches Most of them being blocked by the other person or missing completely. 

The figures were of a woman and a man. The woman wore shiny silver armor and had a blue cape fluttering on her back. She had short blonde hair that was tied in a bun and blue eyes filled with fury. 

The man wore a white robe that matched his ice-white hair and eyes whose iris was red and pupils were white. 

His face was sharp and angular with a heavily feminine appearance but his figure was that of an average man. 

The two individuals were dueling it out while mocking each other. 

"I didn't expect the famed General Karina to not be able to land a hit on me." said the man while laughing. 

The woman he was fighting was General Karina Zlatan. Hearing the man's words, she pushed more mana into her fists and aimed a uppercut to his chin. She was moving at a speed that was impossible for anyone under 9th tier to see. 

The man showed exceptional reflexes as tilted his head to the side just enough so her punch would narrowly miss. 

"Heh." Karina scoffed when she saw this but didn't stop pouring man into her fists. She continuously aimed for the man's head or chest. 

The man just smiled as he looked at her with eyes of intrigue. He kept on dodging at narrow amounts. It was so close that Karina realized that it was on purpose. the man was playing with her. 

Treating her as someone he didn't even need to put in real effort to dodge. The anger in her blue eyes was only further fueled by this. 

"All you Marksins can do is skirt around our borders. Someone who doesn't dare to face us head-on shouldn't be speaking." She attempted to return an insult to the man. 

"That's why I'm here. I'm telling you that Marksin is ready to fight Zlatan in a real war. No more random skirmishes across the border where we just flee." The man had pride in his words as he was utterly serious about the change in stance. 

He came from Marksin, a country that borders Zlatan in the north. He had invaded so close to their capitol that someone like Karina would be able to feel his presence. 

His presence so deep on Zlatan land meant that the unofficial declaration of war had come. 

As Karina mixed in some quick kicks into her attack she asked "So does that mean I should expect an official declaration for my brother's birthday? What a gift that would be!" 

She was being as sarcastic as possible but the man took no offense. 

"No. As cowardly as we've been in the past, we are a respectable nation. His Highness will send the declaration a month later. He believes his old friend should enjoy his birthday while he still can." 

The man spoke as if the emperor wouldn't ever be able to celebrate another birthday. His attempt of provocation worked. 

"HOW DARE YOU!" Karina screamed with such anger and hatred that the clouds under them were split apart. A radius of many miles worth of clouds was erased in a second. 

"HAAAAAAA!!!" She channeled her man to the fullest as her entire body donned a golden glow. Her light element mana coated her entire body. 

It increased her agility, strength, reaction time, and speed by a ridiculous margin. She took this chance to pounce on the man. 

The man's eyes widened as he also channeled his man for the first time in this fight. But it was too late. 

Bang! 

Karina kicked him straight in the chest and sent him flying across the sky, creating a white streak. Before the man could even react, she was upon him again. 

Bang!

This time she punched him straight on the jaw. She sent him crashing down to the ground. 

BOOM!

Debris of dirt, rocks, and grass flew all over the place as the man landed directly onto an expansive field. Dust clouded the area as Karina flew straight down. 

She didn't want to give the man even a second to breathe. 

"Fuck you!" The man's voice sounded from the dust as the man in his voice cleared the area. 

The force he crashed with had created a mile-wide crater that was tens of feet deep. He had already coated his body with mana that was a mix of red and white, just like his strange eyes. 

"Hah!" he blasted off the ground and flew to meet Karina mid-air. 

The two started to clash in full force. They started to trade blows equally as every kick and punch that connected caused the surrounding plains to crumble. The shockwaves were devastating.

Fortunately, Karina had made sure to push ick the man fr from the city before she engaged in such a fight. If they did it even somewhat near the city, it would have caused immense casualties

'Damnit!" Unlike before, the man could not dodge everything. Most of her moves connected as her control and benefits from her element were much higher than his. 

"Ugh! Khuk!" He coughed up spurts of blood. His white robe was stained in his own blood. He groaned in pain as many bones had been broken. 

"If it weren't for those eyes of yours, you would be long dead." Karina knew that the only reason the man was still standing was because of his unique yes.

It allowed the man to have an insane reaction time. Even now, he was using his man to fuel his eyes. 

It was the only way to keep up with someone like her who had such precise control over the light element. Karina could confidently say that she is one of the fastest 9th tiers on this part of the continent. Few people could keep up with her in terms of speed. 

"I didn't come here with the intention to have a serious fight. I am completely unprepared to beat her. I need to get out." the man thought in his head. 

He wouldn't be able to last long under her relentless assault. He needed to quickly escape and inform the other 9th tiers about how much stronger Karina had gotten. ]His purpose here was just to properly Karina before they prepared for war. 

He was expecting to be able to provoke her and gauge her just enough to understand where her strength stood. He didn't expect her to explode and start going all out. 

"Since it has come to this, I have to use plan C." The man gritted his teeth which were now red from his own blood. 

"I didn't want to resort to this but you forced me. once again, I have to be a coward." The man looked at Karina with disdain.

Disdain that was meant for himself for he was unable to fight her head on like he claimed. 

"Tsk." Karina clicked her tongue when she heard this. She knew he was going to escape. 

"Cowards." She cursed at him when a necklace floated out of his robes and exploded in a brilliant white light. 

Even with her reaction time, she couldn't tell what exactly the necklace was but her superhuman senses told her it was dangerous. She trusted her instincts so she crossed her arms in front of her. 

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

A large amount of force blasted in all directions as Karina and the man were engulfed in the light. 

...

...

...

Ryan:

We had already been traveling for a week now. Every day after breakfast and lunch, Elina would enter his carriage. 

Elina and Celes would then absorb energy from the gem for as long as they could. I just sat there watching over the 2 with boredom. 

Sometimes I would get a book about alchemy from my father as he told me to at least learn the fundamentals before he started to earnestly teach me. That is basically how the week went. All I did was read, watch over the two, eat and sleep. 

"We should be approaching Nirad." said Elina as she took her hands off the gem. 

Celes did the same as both of them were exhausted. It was lunchtime soon so they were taking a break until after that. 

"Yeah. We should be entering the city to rest at night. No camping today." I told them while flipping through a book. It was about how one should maintain heat levels in alchemy. 

"Ooh, are there any fun things to do in Nirad?" Cles asked with an excited look. We had passed a couple of towns and cities along the way but we never entered them. 

Celes was disappointed as she wanted to see more of the world. She didn't mind though as we camped in various types of forests and plains. I showed her all sorts of plants and animals that were exclusive to the small regions. 

"Hmm, I heard they have a very lively night market." I said after racking my brain. I had once stopped by Nirad a long time ago. 

I heard they had a market that was exclusively held during certain celebratory periods. It also only opened during the night. Since it was only held for an extremely short amount of time a year everything they sold was exclusive. 

I told the girls what I had heard and that got them very interested. Since none of us had gone before, we decided that we would have some fun tonight. 

The next three days were going to be boring anyway so we might as well refresh our minds. 

"Yaa, I'm famished. Books make me so hungry." I said while stretching outside. The carriages had stopped for lunch. 

"You hate reading so much." Celes said. "I remember that you never picked up a book at school unless it was absolutely mandatory." 

"Haha, I don't like reading stuff that I don't want to. I only enjoy books about history and swords." I said while tossing the book I was holding into the carriage. 

"For someone who doesn't like reading, you read awfully fast." Elina added. 

"For things I don't like, the faster I get done with it the better. Why drag it out? I'm just wasting everyone's time like that." I explained. 

"I thought so." Elina nodded as she expected this answer. 

"I wonder what mom made.' I said while we were walking towards the table setup. 

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

All of sudden, a loud noise sounded in the distance. Everyone in the convoy quickly turned their heads to face the noise. Hundreds of us craned our necks as we stared out into the distance. 

There was a brilliant white light that was soon followed by a grayish mushroom cloud. All the elders who were following their respective families quickly reacted as they gathered together. 

"All mages channel your man towards our barrier!" The elders who were mages formed an expanding wall with their mana. 

The guards who were mages also did the same as they added small patches of their own to the barrier. 

Fwoosh!

They reacted well as the shockwaves soon arrived in the form of immense winds. The hastily made barrier was able to hold back most of the force but some of it still got passed. 

All the carriages shook as the trees around us rustled. Luckily, it wasn't much and the shockwave calmed down after a couple of seconds.

"Keep your guard up. There could be secondary shockwaves." yelled August, my great uncle. He was one of the leading mages holding up the barrier. 

He was right to say this as some sort of projectile pierced through the barrier at speed we couldn't even react to.

Boom!

The sound that came after was clearly that of a sonic boom. Meaning, that whatever just flew past us had broken the sound barrier. 

Shatter!

Bang!

The barrier collapsed with the force of collisions and the projectile landed into the clump of first trees behind us. 

The projectile skidded past the surface and slowed itself down after using the ground and trees as a way to break its fall. 

Once the dust left by the crash cleared, the trail left by the crash was deep as the ground had taken a beating. The trees had also been felled. 

A group of elders detached from the main group approached the place where the thing had landed. I, the girls, my parents, and all the nobles followed them as the guards surrounded us. 

In an unknown situation like this, it was best that we stayed close to the elders, even if they were approaching danger. 

When we got close enough to see what..who it was, we were taken deeply by surprise. 

Clad in silver armor that had broken and fractured into pieces and a torn blue cape on her back, with a tall, robust figure, golden blonde hair, and icy blue eyes was a woman I met just recently. 

her hair was disheveled as her bun had fallen apparent. Her short blond hair was a mess as it sprawled out all over. There was blood dripping from her mouth and nose. 

There also seemed to be a fractured left arm as it was bent in a strange manner. It seemed that she had used it to soften her landing. 

Her blue eyes were staring at everyone as she lay there in a sorry, battered state. 

"Ugh!" she groaned as more blood spilled from her mouth. 

General Karina looked at us with an unwavering look. She gritted her teeth but soon relaxed as she recognized the people in front of her. 

That seemed to be the final straw for her body as her eyes rolled back and she fainted.