Starting Out in Magnolia

I woke up and I was shackled in a cell. I looked around me at the cell I was in, it was dingy and the bed I was sitting on was nothing better than a slab of rock.

I took the sights in before I heard the iron door in front of me open. A man in the regalia of a high-ranking Rune Knight walked in.

I looked at him but didn't recognize him. It was fair I guess I didn't remember much about the rune knights as a whole.

He said, "Marcus Fulbright, we have verified the information you have given us on the Balam Alliance and managed to hit many of their safehouses."

"As thanks for your service, all your crimes have been forgiven. You are now a free man. As long as you don't commit any more crimes my rune knight will not bother you."

I nodded, thankful that he wasn't asking me any questions. I had no memory of this person even though it was my body. The life this man had led was completely lost to me.

I walked out of the room not trying to draw any attention to myself. I noticed as I walked down the cellblock that a lot of the prisoners seemed to be looking at me with death glares.

They must have a vendetta against me for being a traitor. Hell, they might be prisoners because I gave information to the Rune Knights getting them captured.

I was led out of the safe house and I realized I was on the outskirts of Magnolia. This was not the inner city but one of the outposts on the fringes.

I guess they didn't want to hold so many prisoners so close to a civilian population. It made sense but I was worried about being ambushed on the way back.

I looked at the street leading to Magnolia it was mostly clear but I would leave the sights of the Rune Knights after walking only around 200 meters away.

I hoped that assassins would not attack so close to a base filled with Rune Knights. I quickly walked down the streets leading to the town but just as I feared on my way there I was ambushed.

They were smart about it as I saw that some type of barrier immediately formed around the ambush, blocking all the noise and sounds I could hear from outside.

The 3 men and women surrounded me on all sides. The largest man closest to me said, "Marcus, Marcus, Marcus, you know the bosses don't like snitches."

"What made you think that you could escape retribution? You aren't special you will die just like the others who dared speak out against us."

I let him talk trying to figure out what abilities each of them had. "Well," I said, "I kind of got tired of the criminal life, you know. Wanted to turn it around and do some good for the world."

Laughter ensued as all four criminals guffawed, "You? Marcus the Maniac wants to do good!? That's a great joke! Now tell us what did they give to make you betray us?"

I was surprised, it seemed that I had a reputation. Hopefully, it wasn't too prevalent or becoming a Wizard Saint would be much harder if I had a bad reputation.

I responded, "I just wanna do some good. Is that too much too hard to believe?"

The lead man said, "Ain't gonna tell us huh? Then men ..."

Before he had time to finish his sentence I rushed him, appearing right in front of him with a Soru and Bo-bup. I hit him in the chest with an armament Haki enhanced Baekdu.

But the woman who I had noticed carried a large staff managed to put a barrier like the one surrounding us in front of the large man.

It blunted the damaged of my knee just enough that it turned from a killing blow into a damaging one. I still had managed to crack his ribs but I hadn't caved his chest in.

Next, I heard one of the men yell, "Molasses Magic: Bog of Sweets."

I immediately felt the air around turn thick like molasses. It made it annoying to move, slowing me around 20%, but more frustratingly it messed with air flows around me stopping me from using my air manipulation skills.

At Lv.1 I was still not confident in using my Wind Dragon Slayer Magic in an actual fight so I decided I just had to deal with not being able to use my wind skills for a while.

I noticed, with my Observation Haki, that the last mage was charging something in his hands and easily dodged out of the way.

It was a pillar of ice that was aimed at my head so I simply tilted my head to the right causing it to miss. But it was not over as the large man that I had just broken the ribs of quickly rose up.

He yelled, "Gravity Magic: Earth."

Now not only was I slowed by the molasses around me but now it felt like I weighed a ton, how annoying. Honestly even slowed now by around 30% these mages were not a threat to me.

Judging by this team composition it looks like they want to capture me. All their magic seems to center around slowing me down and containing me.

I lifted my leg, and with the help of the increased gravity I slammed it down on the ground with enough force to cause a miniature earthquake.

Dust rose up into the air but my Observation Haki kept me appraised of all their locations. I immediately brought out my laser rifle and aimed it at the molasses magician.

I tried to shoot him but then another barrier appeared but this time completely surrounding me. The laser managed to punch a hole through the barrier but it only blasted an arm off the mage.

He was still alive and despite his pain, he still managed to cast. "Molasses Magic: Maximized Bog of Sweets."

And now I was around 50% slower. Truly though they can't do much damage, their ability to debuff and annoy me is through the roof.

Just to prove my point I saw that both the large man and the ice mage were charging up attacks. I immediately fired two more shots at them.

This time my aim was better as I managed to blast a hole through the chest of the ice mage but another quick barrier only allowed me to remove the large man's legs instead of his heart.

The out-of-control ice magic from the now-dead mage exploded as suddenly the surrounding area was now covered in a fine layer of ice further obscuring their view.

I jumped into the air dodging a blade of darkness that came from the woman but the increased gravity quickly pulled me back to the ground causing another miniature earthquake.

I quickly dashed to molasses mage wanting to take him out to get rid of the magic slowing me. It was preventing me from using my air manipulation skills and was making me move around 40% slower.

I got to him and quickly crushed his head with a quick downward blow. I looked around to see the state of the situation, but only the woman was still standing.

Now back to nearly full speed I ducked another blade of darkness aimed at me and fired back. She managed to get out of the way making a barrier that reflected the attack back at me.

I had not been expecting it but with the help of the enhanced gravity, I quickly fell to the ground dodging the blow.

The large man after screaming in pain due to losing both his legs, seemed to get a grip on himself and floated into the air with the help of his gravity magic and rushed me.

He yelled, "Gravity Magic: Fists of the Endless Void."

And blackhole appeared around his fist pulling me to his strikes. I saw that along with the large man's attack the woman was preparing another attack.

So I made a quick decision. I let the gravity magic pull me to him and put his body between me and the woman. I put my arm up and used both Tekkai and Armament Haki to block his blow.

It hurt but it didn't even crack my bone. Before he could react I hit him in the head Shigan and made a hole in his brain killing him.

Lastly, I faced the woman. She looked at me in a fury and yelled, "Darkness Magic Forbidden Art: Scythe of the Underworld."

I saw her literally wither in front of my eyes as she gave her life to send a massive scythe of darkness so large that I blotted out my vision right at me.

Knowing I couldn't dodge. I immediately got the Ō Wazamono blade from my inventory and put it in front of me to try and block the attack.

I also used Tekkai and Armament Haki to my fullest. I even used Seimei Kikan to pump as much adrenaline as possible through my system giving me hysterical strength.

The impact of it was massive that I felt microfractures all through my arm bones and my muscles rip in the effort of trying to block this blow.

In the end, I managed to just barely carve the attack in half. Each side of the blade went flying to the left and right of me destroying the buildings next to me.

I heaved in air and I grabbed one of my healing potions and downed it. This one was better than the previous versions as it was specifically prepared for me by Dustin so my ripped muscles and cracked bones healed up.

Then after everything was said and done, a regiment of Rune Knights finally came. I looked up and it was the high-ranking knight.

He said, "Marcus Fulbright what the hell just happened?"

I pointed at the corpses and said, "Go ahead and guess."

I saw him sigh, "Ok come with me, we need your statement of what happened here."

I nodded and followed him back. S-rank missions were really no joke. Not even 10 minutes since I entered this world and I got ambushed by 4 mages that were surprisingly hard to deal with.

They weren't much of a threat but their ability to slow me down and trap me was incredibly annoying. What was especially scary was that last attack.

Even someone who was much weaker than me managed to hurt me and could possibly kill me by sacrificing their life to do so. Have to keep that in mind, everyone here is a potential threat.

I also have to keep in mind as well that now I am going to be faced with well-trained groups of mages that support each other. Individually each mage was a cakewalk but together they became an actual threat.

Well, hopefully this isn't an indication of what's gonna happen in the future. I certainly don't want to constantly deal with ambushes and assassination attempts.