9 The Cloaked Man
A barrier-type is a spell that enhances a practitioner's magic within a certain geographical radius. It is specially designed to keep combatants in and intruders out.
Barriers are classified into three categories; miniature barriers, advanced barriers, and apex barriers.
Salancans
Hade and Wil were back sitting outside the building Novin had entered roughly ten minutes ago.
Hade's face was pale and his heart had still not calmed down. Although his encounter with the nefarious duo had been brief, barely lasting three seconds, to him, it had felt like an eternity.
The golden-eyed man's gaze had seemed to trap him in a cold, desolate prison... a prison from which there was no escape.
As the elder of the two, Wil tried his best to remain calm and composed but even he did not know what to do.
According to Hade, one of two men walking together had bumped into him, however, Wil had only seen the back of one man, a man donning a cloak and hood over his head.
Even so, despite not having seen the other man himself, Wil believed Hade and never, not even for a second, did he think that he was making it up.
After canceling out all unlikely possibilities, Wil had come to only one conclusion...
Supreme class.
The man with the reptilian golden irises who had frightened Hade to this degree was Supreme class. There was no other explanation.
Dedric and Bartholomew, both of whom trained with Hade on a daily basis, never had this effect on him, and both were in the later stages of Sage class.
"We will wait for Professor Oakenheart here," Wil decided.
They had tried knocking on the door of the mysterious building, and when that failed, tried to barge in forcibly but to no avail. The door would just not budge!
"I'm sure he'll know what to do, or at the very least, know who those men were," Wil continued.
"I checked with people that were close by but none of them saw the man with the golden eyes you are talking about..."
Wil paused as he sucked in a cold breath. "I'm sure you've also realized that there's a chance that the man you saw was Supreme class. A Supreme class practitioner walking around in crowded streets... that is unheard of," Wil furrowed his brows.
Supreme class practitioners were not only very few in number but they also rarely appeared among the general public.
Most were either too busy with important missions, held important posts in the government, or, were hiding away in some uninhabitable corner of the continent in closed cultivation.
"Hey," Wil nudged Hade's shoulder.
"It's going to be alright, okay? I got your back," he assured.
Hade smiled weakly before nodding. 'I probably look pathetic right now,' he grimaced to himself.
"Now, we just have to wait for the professor and tell him about this whole situation... He will decide how we proceed."
Suddenly, "I'm afraid I can't allow that to happen," a raspy voice interrupted.
Hade and Wil turned in shock towards the direction the voice had come from...
Standing almost ten meters away from their current location was a short man donning an insidious black cloak.
It was the same cloaked man from before!
Instinctively, Wil jumped up in front of Hade immediately brandishing his broad sword at the intruder.
"Who the hell are you?!" Wil bared his teeth at the man, part infuriated and part anxious. He had not even seen him appear!
"Kekeke," Nobu laughed.
"You two are quite the clever runts, aren't you? I guess that little redheaded brat really did see the Master," he said, pausing to stretch his limbs.
"I was ordered to kill him but just for the fun of it, I am also going to kill you, the boy with the huge eyes and ponytail... as well."
Before Hade and Wil could react-
"Dark Orb of Confinement!" Nobu chanted and almost immediately, a black dome of radius about twenty meters rose from the ground and surrounded the three of them, obscuring their view of the outside and locking them in!
'A barrier!' Wil panicked.
"Let's make this quick, shall we?" Nobu croaked.
Suddenly, a two-meter-long pike made of a slimy pitch-black substance materialized in his left hand.
"Young Master get back!" Wil shouted to Hade.
In an extremely quick motion that neither of them could track, Nobu launched the pike straight toward Wil's heart with deadly accuracy!
Just in time, the brute managed to conjure an Earth wall from the ground to defend himself but to his dismay, the pike easily broke through, its trajectory not in the least affected!
In a last-ditch effort, Wil used his sword to successfully deflect the pike to the side.
*Clang!*
The pike sank three meters deep into the ground, its power unquestionable.
'Supreme class?!' Wil's huge eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.
'No,' he forced himself to calm down.
Had the cloaked man really been a Supreme class practitioner then both he and Hade would have been dead already.
'Then Sage class, peak Sage class!' Wil realized in horror.
"Wow, you actually defended that?" Nobu was mildly surprised.
"For a Master-class weakling, you are not entirely trash after all. Congratulations, you have managed to pique my interest. That said, I'm sorry to say but in the end... your resistance, no matter how spirited, is all futile."
Two pikes like the first materialized in Nobu's hands, one in either hand. With perhaps even faster speed, he launched them again at Wil, but this time, one was aimed at his heart and the other at his head.
However, he did not stop there... Nobu began to lob more and more pikes in quick succession almost without pause.
Meanwhile, Hade stood rooted in the same spot a couple of meters behind Wil feeling helpless. As much as he wanted to assist Wil, he could barely track the movements of either man.
Why did the cloaked man even want to kill them? Just because he had seen his so-called Master?!
"Tch!" Hade clenched his fists feeling both angry and frustrated.
However, he knew he could not interfere. All he would do was distract Wil and that would prove fatal for the both of them...
Meanwhile, as the number of pikes increased, the speed with which Wil blocked them also increased.
However, although he had somehow adjusted to keeping up with them, the power behind each pike was still very much... bone-shattering.
In no time at all, Wil could barely feel his hands. He could also no longer see some of the pikes. In fact, his sword motions all now relied solely on instinct.
Something had to change... that was a given.
Nobu also frowned. Although he could keep this going for hours on end, he was on a clock.
The power of his Dark Orb of Confinement was formidable but not indomitable.
Even as this battle was going on, Nobu was expending his energy just to keep it up.
However, the barrier was necessary. Without it, he would be exposed.
Salancans was the biggest city in the West. There were experts that even Nobu wouldn't dare to antagonize, and this was especially true now that he had separated from his master.
'I have to finish this quickly or it's my own ass on the line. Tsk! Damned pesky little ant,' Nobu cursed.
Although he had spells that could finish both the brats in one go, none of them were inconspicuous enough for him to remain hidden.
Well, no matter... he would just change his tactic.
"Not so chatty, are we now?" Nobu mocked as he abruptly stopped his barrage.
In the distance, Wil was a pitiful sight. He had dropped to one knee, with his sword supporting the rest of his weight.
His body was drenched in sweat, his hands were swollen and bruised, and his breaths were labored.
And yet:
"No matter what, you will not get past me!" Wil shouted defiantly, his eyes wide and red with rage.
"Don't get cocky brat!" Nobu growled like a bloodthirsty beast.
"If I can't beat you from afar, I'll just close the distance!"
Instantaneously, he sped towards Wil at an incomprehensible speed aiming to finish him off in one blow but in that moment, Wil smiled.
"Bad choice," the brute mumbled as Nobu launched a clawed hand aimed at his face.
"Earth Manipulation! Rock Golem!" Wil shouted.
Immediately, rocks rose forth from the ground and covered his whole body to form a two-meter-tall rock golem!
"My magic can pierce through your stones dummy!" Nobu shrieked, increasing his speed.
He had hesitated for a bit thinking that the brat had a secret weapon... Who knew that it was just a pile of stones?
Wil, even amidst the impending doom, remained calm and unmoved. Yes, his magic was not on par with his foe's... He had figured that out during Nobu's very first attack.
However, he was not the one the cloaked man should've been concerned about...
Just as Nobu's claw was about to maim Wil's armored frame, suddenly, the attack stopped in midair.
'Huh?' Nobu was puzzled. How had the big-eyed brat blocked the attack?! He hadn't even seen him move!
Except that it wasn't Wil who had blocked the attack!
A certain redhead stood by Wil's side, his right hand clenched tightly onto Nobu's wrist.
