Chapter 16 - The Rouge

After sending his daughters and the Atlas game competitors off to Iter, General Jager returned to his office. Instantly an exasperated sigh escaped his body when he saw that the pile of documents on his desk had grown even larger. That explained the sympathetic look his assistant Rose had gave him when he arrived back at HQ. With a deadline of only two days, he wasted no time and began working at his desk.

He must've been working for only a couple hours when he heard a phone ringing.

'Ring!'.

He instinctively glanced at his office phone however, soon discovered it wasn't ringing.

'Ring'.

He turned towards the sound to discover it was his personal phone. Someone was calling him on his personal phone? There weren't many people in the world who had that number and whoever did, knew not to call unless it was a … emergency. His exhausted state was wiped away in an instant, and he quickly answered.

"General we need your help" It was Becka, in background he could hear the distraught voices of children.

"Becka what's wrong?" he asked. To most people she would've sounded completely calm, but he'd known her long enough to identify the panic in her voice.

"Someone got into the orphanage and attacked Lewis. They're both out fighting through Elysi now" she explained and suddenly in that moment the General felt powerful bursts of mana towards the outskirts of Elysi.

'Great'.

"Alright stay inside the orphanage and don't let anyone leave" he told her.

"Already done".

"Good, I'll handle the rest". He put down the phone and stormed away from his desk instantly calming himself as he opened the door.

"Sir?" Rose said clearly concerned about those bursts of mana, and from the look of the faces of every other employee of the floor they were all feeling the same.

"Lewis is under attack in the southern outskirts" he explained. Without delay, Rose nodded, picked up her phone and started making calls. With an annoyed grumble the General headed off towards the stairs.

"Someone, get me Athra!" he called out to the entire HQ.

Lewis and his cloaked assailant where now on the opposite side of the King's canal. He'd successfully got him away from the orphanage, although probably completely shattered the front entrance in doing so. But a broken door could be fixed lost lives couldn't. Speaking of lost lives he was now faced with the problem of innocent citizens getting caught up in their battle. It took less than a second for Lewis to decide his course of action, his fingers curled around the air gripping it tightly. His stalker charged towards him at rapid speeds, but Lewis was faster. He swung his hand through the air, and they were both thrown high into the sky. If Lewis's attacker was ever a bit surprised by what had just happened it didn't let it show. Instantly black, deathly sickles, that looked like they were forged from dragon bone, flew from its worn and tattered cloak, they sliced through the sky towards Lewis. Instantly the wind bent to Lewis's will, and he was spun out of the sickles trajectories. With a flex of his finger his direction changed, and he rocketed towards the cloaked figure. A black gloved fist lashed out towards him but Lewis quicky dodged and gripped the cloth around its neck, using it pull himself in. He thrusted his knee forward sinking it deep into its abdomen, but it gave him no reaction. Not letting his irritation affect him he attempted to follow up with a strike to its head. however, he suddenly dashed back through the air, Just in time to avoid a black sword that severed his afterimage in half. Lewis hesitated for a moment confused on where the razor-sharp obsidian black sword had appeared from, as his attacker hadn't drawn from a subspace and there was no sheath on its body. With a quick headshake he subdued his thoughts and attempted to close the distance, but his neck instinctively snapped to the right just in time to dodge the black blade that was launched at speeds, Lewis couldn't have predicted. Completely caught off guard he failed to react to the black sickles flying towards him. He managed to twist out the trajectory of the first however, the second shredded his shirt and cut across his chest, just barely missing his ribs. Before it could attack him again, Lewis quickly threw out his hands scattering mana into the air, with a flex of his hands the air them between them condensed and crashed into the cloaked figure. It was sent flying into the roof of a nearby house bouncing off its grey tiles like a rock. However, It immediately recovered like nothing had happened and in the blink of an eye dozens of sickles coated in a white-grey, fiery aura shot out from its cloak towards him.

'So you're starting to get serious' Lewis grinned. Floating down towards the roof, he snapped his fingers and dozens orange sparks flew out into the air. In an instant balls of fire surrounded Lewis and with a casual gesture of his hand they charged forward. The sickles and fire collided, resulting in a huge explosions that scattered mana and smoke across the sky. Lewis wasted no time, the wind launched him through the smokescreen, and he came face to face with his opponent, well that was if you could call that black abyss inside its hood a face. Their bodies collided the resulting force sending them flying apart. Using the air, Lewis rotated his body to make sure he faced his opponent and them snapped his fingers. An orange spark darted towards his enemy still stuck in the air, causing an explosion big enough to engulf the entire orphanage.

Everything was silent for a moment and the embers and smoke begin to fade away. Suddenly the air shook as dozens of black sickles came flying towards Lewis. Again all of them coated in a grey fiery aura. He pushed against the air sending it crashing into the projectiles. Some were sent off target or stopped completely however, an unsettling amount where still charging towards him. Lewis viciously smashed his knuckles against each other with earth magic and suddenly the skin from his hands to the top of his forearms cracked and transformed to stone. He crossed his arms to form a guard and about fifteen sickles bounced straight off them without leaving a scratch.

'Where are these weapons coming from' Lewis thought, sensing that his attacker wasn't using a subspace. Suddenly the weapons that Lewis had deflected dissolved in the air to sparks of mana and he noticed none of the weapons he'd been attacked with earlier had vanished as well.

'A magic technique then'. A black blur suddenly appeared in front of him a pair of black swords in its hands. It struck swiftly and efficiently with only one clear goal, to kill Lewis. Lewis faced the onslaught head on, weaving in between the slashes, parrying with his stone arms. Seeing that its attacks where ineffective it began pouring more mana into its weapons and a grey aura coated them, white light trailing after every strike. The blades began to cut into his amour however, Lewis's mind never wavered. He increased the mana augmenting his body and strengthening the spell coating his arms. Their brawl continued, it's ferocity rapidly increasing as they leapt between rooftops their battle taking them all over the southern outskirts as they constantly attempted to overwhelm each other. Suddenly the battle stopped on a random roof near the east of the city. It was only for a moment, but his attacker became completely motionless. An unnerving feeling infected Lewis. It felt like the calm before the storm. Lewis moved quickly and efficiently wasting no movements, Unleashing an explosion and pushing the wind against his body, he accelerated himself to rapid speeds. The stone around his right arm grew into a gauntlet and launched towards his opponent. However, in that moment the storm came. Without warning his opponent's mana surged to an unreal level, almost like it had overloaded. the blade's coating burst out and grew unstable and the cloaked figure seemed to struggle to even hold it. It slashed towards Lewis with incredible speed, the slash created a blazing arc that radiated a white light, releasing all the overloaded mana that had been built up in an instant. The black blade tore apart the rock gauntlet like it was sand and cut deep into Lewis's arm. Lewis pulled his arm back before it could be severed, his eyes wide.

'What the fuck'. Lewis clutched his bleeding arm as he reinforced it with magic again to close the wound, the cracks in the stone now stained crimson. Looking up he could see the black sword had returned to normal. His mind raced as he attempted to figure out what just happened. This mage was using magic and techniques he'd never seen before, and he had no idea what else it could do. Unfortunately his attacker didn't seem to want to give him time to think as mana coated sickles came spinning towards him.

'Again with this seemingly unlimited supply of weapons'. Lewis dodged the first and deflected the second with a swipe of his good arm. He quickly glanced back to see them dissolve into sparks like all the weapons before it.

'Constructs of mana'. With mana enhancing his body to an inhuman level, Lewis closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye and forced a close combat brawl. He had no idea how skilled it was with martial arts, but he knew how skilled he was. He released the earth magic spell and unleashed a plethora of others. Lightning danced around his body and the wind around them grew wild making as it tried to rip his opponent apart. He threw a straight right and black clothed arms were raised to guard it. His fist struck into its arms and yellow sparks shocked its muscle, weakening its own control over its body causing it to tremble. The cloaked figure attempted to retaliate but due to Lewis's lightning its speed had greatly been reduced. Lewis easily grabbed onto the sickle he tried to stab into his kidney and twisted causing the sickle to fall and dissolve into nothingness. Instantly he pulled it towards him and rammed his knee its side and this time it gave him a reaction. It keeled over and Lewis cracked his elbow into the side of its head, sending it crashing down. He stopped its fall by gripping the scruff of its neck. Spinning at the hip and bouncing it across the roof before quickly following. Once he got close enough he spun on the ball of his foot and the shin of his leg soared towards its head. His leg slammed into the cloaked figure, but it wasn't its head.

In the second it took Lewis to reach it, it was able to augment its body reduce the effect of his lightning spell and had raised his hands to catch Lewis's kick. Another grin formed on his face. It's grip tightened around his leg and suddenly he was launched into the sky. The air quickly spun him back towards the roof just in time to see sickles twisting towards him. He channelled his mana with expert speed and a small palm sized flare burnt in the air in front of him. His hand grasped around it and in an instant his body was engulfed in an inferno that flashed a bright blue before becoming an orange, violent fiery aura.

Lewis flew down through the air scorching the sickles to ash when he charged through them. He slammed the cloaked figure down into the roof, decreasing the strength the spell in the last moments in order to not delete someone's house from existence.

Lewis quickly adjusted himself into the full mount and started unleashing an onslaught of hammer fists and elbows, each one causing its head to bounce off the tiles and shatter them. It was unfortunate to whoever owned this house, but he couldn't hold back less than this or he'd be asking to lose.

The cloaked figure stopped trying to avoid its attacks and raised a guard. It became completely motionless.

'Shit'. Lewis tried to jump back, but he was too slow. A grey fiery fist overloaded with mana slammed into the side of his head. The force of the attack launched him across the southeast sector. His mind spun as he flew over the city the only thing he could feel was something trickle down the side of his face. With pure determination he snapped himself out his daze.

He caught himself with the wind before using it to fling himself back towards the cloaked assailant, who'd leapt through the air after him. They clashed in the sky. He smacked the blade it had drawn from its hand before plummeting them down into the first empty street he saw. He tossed it towards the street headfirst, but it somehow rotated itself and landed on its feet like a cat. With an annoyed grumble Lewis gently placed himself down.

There was only a slight moment of peace before they darted towards each other and engaged in a close-range fight once again. However, now that his opponent had adapted to his lightning their fight was a lot fiercer. They rapidly and efficiently threw out intense punches, elbows, kicks, and knees while dodging any attacks that came at them. To anyone who was watching their fight would've looked more like a choregraphed dance, as they flowed off each other without a moment of peace. They both seemed to be equal, unable to overwhelm each other without losing control of the battle, instead they were both just waiting for their opponent to mess up.

Just as it seemed the street was about to crumble under the pressure of their fight Lewis's prayers were answered. The cloaked assailant made a mistake and Lewis was determined to make it cost it. Whether it was due to exhaustion or impatience it overshot a straight right. Only slightly but it was enough. It couldn't react fast enough as Lewis implanted his fist deep into its gut. The pain it felt clear as day. Its body keeled forward as Lewis's fist twisted like he was trying to grind up its insides. It quickly tried to recover by attempting to catch Lewis off-guard. It threw it's fist towards his jaw but was easily blocked by Lewis's arm that was suddenly coated in a layer of ice. The Ice glistened like diamond as it gripped onto the black clothed arm. In moments it had spread and completely immobilized its right arm. Its breath could be seen escaping its hood as its body temperature plummeted and it tried to avoid cold shock.

Before it could do anything Lewis spun rapidly performing a spinning back kick hitting it straight in the solar plexus with incredible force and he wasn't done yet. The sole of his shoe began to glow orange. Suddenly a fiery explosion erupted from his foot. Ice shattered and his enemy was blown back, rocketing upwards high into the sky. Lewis shot into the air catching up to its trajectory in an instant.

"I was hoping shattering the ice would destroy your arm" he told it seeing its arm seemingly fine "Shame". He grabbed its cloak and lashed it at the closest roof, before send a wall of air crashing into it. It plummeted into the roof with enough force to kill a man before bouncing across the tiles. Just as it was about to fall off the end it summoned a sickle and dug it deep into the grey tiles bringing itself to an instant stop.

The black abyss in its hood ominously stared up at Lewis. It was crouched. Completely motionless. Lewis's eyes went wide. Lightning crackled in his palm, and he launched a yellow bolt towards the black abyss, but it was too late. Once again its mana somehow overloaded, it lashed a sickle towards Lewis. Suddenly the sickle became a monstrous disc shaped tornado of grey and white light. It ripped through the air and tore through Lewis's lightning bolt with ease as it carried on its mission to destroy him. Mana surged inside Lewis, and he held out his hands. Air began to gather a condense into a sphere in his palms that grew more vicious and dangerous as its colour darkened. His hands began tremble as he imbued the sphere with lightning practically creating a small thunderstorm. It launched from his hands with an ear-shattering boom.

The spells smashed against each other, and the south sector quaked as they tore each other apart. Luckily while ripping each other apart the spells rose high enough into the sky that the city remained mostly untouched however, that wasn't Lewis's concern he'd finally figured out what his attacker was. 'Only took me the whole fight' he joked to himself 'I've gotten rusty'. His smile vanished as fast it came. It seemed impossible. They were meant to be extinct.

"If you're wondering, It was the fact that you'd just stop moving that gave it away" Lewis stopped attacking and relaxed his body. Clearly confused his attacker did the same. "Your appearance, overloading your mana whenever you stand still combined with your weapon magic and the fact that your spells change when you use that technique". Lewis stared directly into its abyss "You're a Rouge". It's body tensed.

Lewis continued "How that's possible I don't know, your magic should be extinct … but it doesn't matter" he smiled, "Unfortunately for you I have a good idea how to deal with you now. Now the question is. Do you know how to deal with me?". The Rouge stared at him silently.

"Don't want to talk?". It remained silent. Lewis shrugged and his mana surged. He swung his arm up through the air. The air beneath them shook and Lewis and the Rouge were once again flung into the sky high above the city.