Menacing Clifford

The fight continued for about thirty minutes, the place now looked like a vine forest and this was restricting the movements of Clifford. The flow of attacks from the plant mages was too overwhelming for Clifford to handle, even though he wasn't tired, he was mentally stressed. He had only successfully attacked two of the plant mages but it wasn't a fatal attack, the small space available was restricting his attacks too. The fight would've been easier for him if he could climb and wove through the vines but unfortunately for him, the vines were venomous, he had to avoid touching them.

He was powerful enough to withstand attacks from mages that were four stages ahead of him and he was doing a pretty good job at that. Max was an advanced mage, he was giving Clifford a very tough time, the advantage Clifford had over these mages was his endless supply of mana. Since the vines was restricting him from attacking, he would patiently frustrate them till their mana would get exhausted.

"This fucker is really annoying," Max thought. He was frustrated, they had thought Clifford would be easily suppressed by creating a vine forest, unexpectedly, Clifford proved to be stubborn than they had expected. If this continued for a while, they would be eventually depleted of mana. Max easily saw through the trick Clifford was scheming, "Enough with the games! Suppress this brat," he said to a mage that had been hiding the whole time.

Immediately the mage came out of hiding, Clifford felt his aura. The moment he felt the aura, he felt a sudden sense of despair, his brain was screaming danger. Before he could fully understand why he was feeling that way, the mage casted a spell.

"Sacred light of the heavens, descend!!!!" The light mage raised his hands toward the heavens and roared. Immediately, a bright whitish light descended on Clifford, he was stunned by this, he didn't even had any chance to retaliate. Clifford's exposed skin started to burn when the light shone on it, the scene was like a Vampire being burnt when exposed to sunlight. Clifford felt extremely uncomfortable, he attempted to create a small shadow cloud over his head to prevent the light from burning him but he couldn't even cast any shadow spell. He was completely suppressed, his entire body felt weak.

The man that casted the light spell was an advanced light mage, he looked at Clifford with contempt. Light mages and shadow mages are naturally enemies, light mages believed they were superior to shadow mages while shadow mages dreaded the sights of light mages. A shadow mage would not want to face a light mage in a duel, unless the shadow mage was much stronger than the light mage.

The light mage seemed to be enjoying the damage that he had caused to Clifford, he grinned contemptuously at him. Clifford was too weak to do anything, the light spell had stopped tormenting him but he was on his knees, his breathing was weak, he could fall anytime. He had always thought that he was powerful enough to overcome any challenges that could come his way but he had made a grave mistake by thinking this way, he needed to be stronger. He swore that he would not suppress his breakthroughs anymore.

Max's boys grabbed Clifford and dragged him into a nearby building, there, Casper was waiting, he had seen all the action unfold and he was glad that Clifford was finally suppressed. Max's boys tied Clifford's legs and arms, then he was hanged upside down.

Clifford was in a half conscious state, the light spell had melted his energy away. He suddenly felt a cold chill in his body, he was immediately awaken from his half conscious state. His body was drenched in cold water, one of Max's boys had poured a bucket of cold water on him.

"Look at you, so weak and pathetic." Casper brought his face to Clifford's face, he sneered at the latter. Immediately Clifford saw that it was Casper that was responsible for all that had happened, he was filled with rage, he furiously head-butted Casper. Casper was caught unaware, the headbutt from Clifford hit him well, he was filled with rage too, he immediately started to kick Clifford on the chest. Clifford received multiple heavy kicks to his chest from Casper, he started to vomit blood.

"Beg me, call me master and I'll consider sparing you," Casper said to Clifford with a menacing expression.

"Why should I call a coward, my master," Clifford said with an expression mixed with mock and pain.

"You're acting tough? No one is coming to save you," Casper sneered.

"Let me give a piece of advice, You should make sure you kill me, or else, I swear on my life I'll kill you and hang your corpse" Clifford said angrily, he was so angry that he spat a mouthful of blood on the floor.

"Ohhh..no,no, I won't kill you, nahh. But I'll make you wish for death!!!" Casper said, he stretched his hands to Clifford's leg, frost started to appear on Clifford's foot. The frost spreads to his waist, then to his chest and then it covered his whole body. Clifford was defenseless against the chilling energy of the frost, the icy temperature quickly seeped into his body.

Casper let Clifford remained like this for about an hour before he broke the frost from the latter's body. The chilling energy of the frost had sucked the little energy left from him, he looked like a corpse that had been in the morgue for quite some time.

"You're too fucking weak, the fun has not even start," Casper grinned wickedly at the seemingly lifeless Clifford. He tore Clifford's shirt off his body, then he formed ice blades, he made deep cuts on the wrists and chest of Clifford, it took a while but blood eventually started to seep from the open cuts.

Clifford groaned weakly, he glanced at the open cuts on his chest then he looked at his wrists too. "Wait..... where's the bracelet? Where's the bracelet?" Clifford panicked, this bracelet was the only thing he had from his father, he had given his father the bracelet before his father had left for the great war, but the old man had returned the bracelet to him. This bracelet held much importance to him and he couldn't afford to lose it, despite being in an unfavourable condition, getting the bracelet back was the only thing in his mind, he glanced at the floor and was shocked to see that the bracelet was broken. Casper has broken the bracelet when he wanted to cut Clifford's wrist.

"Aaaaaarrrghh!" Clifford screamed furiously. Casper, Max and Max's boys were stunned by this, they wondered where Clifford had found the strength to made such a shocking scream.

Clifford's eyes turned bloodshot, these people were now deadmeat to him.

He remembered the gauntlets that the old man had given him, he quickly equipped the gauntlets with his thought. The spatial ring glowed and the gauntlets appeared on his arm, the gauntlets were black in color, each one had scales on their body and very sharp claws like that of a ferocious eagle. The moment he equipped the gauntlets, he felt a sudden surge of energy in his arms. He stretched his hands side ways, the rope used to tied him was broken like it was thread. The claws from the bracelets grew longer, he swung his arm towards the rope tied to his leg, a black aura the shape of a claw was released from the gauntlet, it flew to the rope and cut it effortlessly. Clifford was loosed, he fell towards the ground but he quickly turned mid way in an acrobatic manner, then he landed on his feet.

Casper and Max and his boys were shocked, they gazed at Clifford's menacing expression and they felt a deep chill of fear. Fleeing was the only thing in their mind.