chapter 8

While the leader lowered his sword, a cry of pain was heard and blood was scattered on the floor ...

After hearing that scream and not feeling any pain, Paul decided to open his eyes and observe what was happening.

The scene in front of his eyes left him surprised and confused. The leader who was recently about to kill him was now on the ground with a severed arm, as his breathing indicated, he was also unconscious.

Looking away from the leader, Paul watched the other people.

The muscular man had now released Jack and like his leader was also unconscious on the floor, the same was the case with the woman who was now unconscious on the floor and had released his wand.

Knowing that now the spell would have stopped working, Paul used his strength to break the ice, something he managed to do easily because the ice was now not being reinforced by the woman's magic.

After breaking free, Paul approached Jack and asked - Are you okay, friend?-

-woof- Jack barked and nodded to say he was fine.

Paul let out a sigh of relief and said - I see, that's good - Paul said as he stroked Jack.

After a while, Paul stopped stroking Jack and asked - Jack, do you know what happened? - Paul asked Jack.

Jack shook his head and looked confused at unconscious people, after all, he had also closed his eyes at the time they were going to kill Paul because he didn't want to see how they killed his friend.

Seeing that Jack shook his head Paul felt a little disappointed and decided to go back to where the leader was to see if he found any clues.

When he returned to where the leader was, Paul carefully watched the surroundings for clues. After searching carefully he finally found something strange.

The arm that was cut to the leader was not close and the same happened with the sword. Seeing this, Paul looked around for the leader's arm and sword.

He searched nearby places but found nothing, then decided to search out of the way and approached the trees. He searched the nearby trees but unfortunately, he found nothing either.

Already disappointed and deciding not to go deeper into the trees, Paul turned around and headed to where the people were.

Just after Paul turned around there was a noise behind him hitting a tree.

Turning quickly Paul observed what had caused the noise and what he saw left him a little disturbed.

In a tree where Paul was 100% sure there was nothing before, now he was a bloody arm pinned by a sword.

Seeing this, Paul was alarmed and looked around in search of anyone but did not find anyone, there was not even any change in the surroundings if we ignore the arm.

This only managed to scare Paul, after all in the surroundings there was probably a person who did not know his intentions and is skilled enough to cut off a person's arm and leave him unconscious along with two other people in just an instant, In addition to that we add that this person stealthily approached him from behind and stuck in a tree the arm that recently cut.

You can call it what you want but for Paul, that was scary enough to scare him.

Frightened, Paul approached the arm cautiously to check it.

While Paul was checking, he couldn't find anything strange in the arm, clearly ignoring the fact that it is just one arm, but when he looked in detail, he managed to see that a piece of paper was showing on his hand.

Quickly Paul took the paper from him and watched him. The paper was folded perfectly and does not seem to be stained with blood at all but this is something that Paul did not notice at all since all his attention was focused on his name that was written in the middle of the paper.

Paul carefully unwrapped the paper and read it.

- "You can do what you want with those people.

You decide if they live or die.

Don't worry too much about who I am.

I'm here to help."-

After reading the note Paul did not know what to think, clearly the unknown person helped him recently saving him from death, but that does not stop being very suspicious.

Paul did not understand why this person was helping him, he could have thought he was a strong person passing by and casually decided to help the child who was in danger or simply had some kind of conflict with those people, but obviously, none was the case.

That person seemed to know who he was since he wrote his name on the paper and clearly did not care what happened to other people as he let him decide on their life and death. But this only left more questions in Paul's mind, who was that person? Why did he help him? Does he have hidden intentions?

This caused Paul to feel frustrated about not getting answers, therefore, although frustrated and afraid of everything that is going on, Paul decided to put this problem on hold because he clearly could not do anything, the other person was much stronger than him. and he would probably only find out something if the other person wishes to.

Deciding this, Paul turned around and headed towards the place where were the unconscious people were to solve that problem.

-Let them live or not?- That was the question that constantly ran through Paul's head.

The most logical thing would be to kill them to avoid future problems since they are probably seeking revenge for what happened to their leader today. but something inside Paul told him not to do it at this time.

Not for pity or because he didn't want to kill anyone, no, Paul knew very well how the world worked.

In this world the one who rules is the strongest, if it had not been for the person who saved him he was dead right now and Jack was being sold to the highest bidder, so Paul although he does not think he likes to kill he would do it to protect to the people who care about him and himself.

At least that was what his father always taught him.

That is why Paul did not refuse to kill them, but something inside told him to wait and grow stronger so that in the future he can look for them and end them himself without anyone's help. Reflecting on that, Paul decided to heed his instinct and let them live.

With that decided, Paul turned around and prepared to return to his trip. He wrapped his sword, picked up his backpack that had fallen at some point in his fight and after a little thought he decided to also steal the money that these people carried with them.

With everything ready Paul called Jack to follow him and embarked again on his journey to the city of Lirilia leaving behind the leader bleeding and unconscious along with his two companions also unconscious.

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While walking Paul had many things in mind, he was constantly thinking about his mistakes in the previous battle that almost cost him his life and Jack's freedom, he was also thinking about who could be the man who helped him and why he decided to do it.

In the previous battle, he was very confident and it was not with everything from the beginning, he could have transformed his arms and with that, he was sure that he could have finished at least one person.

He was careless when he constantly lost sight of people and let them take him by surprise, he also realized his inexperience and ignorance regarding how other wizards fight or that they might be preparing, for example, the fact that spiritual wizards they always have a spare wand, that lack of knowledge almost cost him his life.

Another big mistake he could think of was fighting with those people without any prior knowledge of them, without knowing how they fight, without knowing how strong they were. On second thought he could have fled the moment he heard the voices, he had the confidence of being able to run away and if the other people insisted on following him he could have hidden and attacked at a time where they were most vulnerable.

Thinking about that Paul decided that the moment he entered the school he would study as much as possible about the different types of wizards, how they fought and what their possible weaknesses were.

Now all that remained to be thought was the case of the mysterious man, Paul was sure that he did not know anyone other than his father who is strong enough to do what the mysterious man did, and is willing to help him.

But his father could not be since he was working away from the city and would not return in at least a month. That left Paul without options and left him a little uncomfortable because it was possible that at that time he was being followed by a man much stronger than him, of whom he did not know his identity or his intentions.

Sighing, Paul stopped thinking about it and accelerated a bit to get to the city faster, not knowing that he was right about his last thought.

...

As Paul walked away little by little you could see a man dressed completely in a tight black battle suit that seemed to focus more on improving speed and not hindering the movements of the person than on the defense, the person also wore a mask completely white covering all his face except the eyes where there were a couple of holes for the person to see.

As the man watched Paul walk away, he took a paper from one of his pockets and quickly began writing on it. When the man finished writing he read it again to make sure he wrote the correct words.

Satisfied with what he wrote, the man placed the paper in a device he had on his wrist and said softly.

-for the master-

After that, the paper was surrounded by blue light before disappearing into nothingness.

Seeing this, the man simply stood still waiting for something, after a while the device on his wrist shone again and another paper appeared on it. Quickly reading it, the man nodded and destroyed the paper before following Paul again.