10 Seconds

“I’m actually not that heartless. How about this, I’ll give you about ten seconds, and you can choose whether you want to fight or flee. Hahaha...you should be grateful that I’m being this kind.”

Kyon watched Arias patiently like the young man was a little bunny that he could kill anytime. He smirked and let out a cruel laugh, arms spread wide to show that he was willing to let Arias attack him or run away without doing anything. In this situation, Arias was totally under his mercy. There was no way the young man could escape.

Arias gritted his teeth angrily. He knew that Kyon was not being merciful to him at all, the man was just a predator toying with its prey. This was an insult, and it stung. It seemed like he had no worth in the eyes of this man at all. Whether Arias was a mage or a Powerless, that did not make any difference for Kyon. An acolyte mage’s power seemed insignificant in the eyes of an adept like him.

“If you’re not going to move, then I’ll start counting. One, two, three...”

Kyon raised the corner of his lips into a cruel smile. He licked his lips as he watched the prey in front of him out of habit. The eyes that gazed upon Arias looked like those of a bloodthirsty wolf. The man’s current expression looked very hideous to Arias.

Arias’ mind worked to come up with a plan that would help him get out of this alive. He might not be able to face the man directly, but that did not mean he was at his wit’s end. His eyes examined the forest that surrounded him, looking for a way out. He sent the Shadow Demon Sword back into his dimensional ring.

“Has your fear made you go out of your mind? I think the sword you were holding a moment ago looked better than the dagger you are holding now. At least it could take more damage than that toy dagger.”

Kyon narrowed his eyes and watched the young man who just put away the long sword and pulled out a dagger with surprise. From his speculation, that silver longsword had to be at least a mid-level weapon. He felt its power, it was quite strong, and he was actually planning to take it after he had killed Arias. The dagger in Arias’ hand, however, was very different from the Shadow Demon Sword. It was not even a magical weapon.

There was no response from Arias. He just took a Moon-Bathed Elixir to heal his wound before staring at Kyon with determination. There was no sign of fear in his eyes.

Arias held the dagger in his hand and shifted his stance, preparing to attack. He quietly chanted a magical skill, making a magic circle appear on the dagger. Bolts of lightning appeared all across the blade, shining so brightly that it hurt Kyon’s eyes when he looked at it. Thunder Magic was a rare sight that he had never seen before. It surprised him, but he was not scared.

“Aren’t you full of surprises? What is that lightning on your dagger…? Well, it seems like you won’t tell me what kind of silly trick you’re playing even if I asked. Then, I’ll just have to force it out of you before I kill you.”

Kyon licked his lips wickedly. He started to think that he would have fun killing this prey. The only order he had received was to kill the target, but now there were a lot of questions he wanted answers to before he finally killed Arias. He was thinking about ways he could torture and force the secrets out of him. Who knew, if he learned how to use lightning like Arias, he might become a very powerful mage.

“Hmm...where did I leave off? Never mind. Five, six, seven…”

Kyon was still having fun with his little game. He continued to count and wait for the time to finally begin. He wanted to see his prey struggle, fighting for his life. That should be quite fun to watch.

“You scum!”

Arias lost all his temper and cursed out. His heart burned with anger from being insulted. Using the Cloud Stride technique, sparks of lightning appeared at his feet, and his body lunged forward with great speed. He needed to make this attack from the distance that would allow him to be most accurate. Arias was putting everything he had into this move.

“Eight, nine...so boring.”

Kyon acted like he could not see Arias charging toward him. He continued to count without a care in the world. He let out a yawn as an insult to the young mage’s incoming attack.

He might seem to lack defense and was full of openings, but Kyon was still keeping his eyes on Arias. He knew that this person had no chance of beating him, but it would be very humiliating if he got injured while performing a simple task like eliminating this weak mage.

Using one hand, Kyon quickly cast the “Wall of Wind,” and a strong wind appeared whirling furiously around his body. He did not want a single scratch on him from this fight. The Wall of Wind he was using was just a low-level skill, but it was more than enough to defend against Arias’ lunging attack.

He was waiting for Arias to charge at him, and when the young man came close enough, Kyon would use that moment to attack him. Murderous intent was flowing out of Kyon’s body.

WOOSH!

But it appeared that Kyon had miscalculated. Arias, who he thought would charge toward him, threw the dagger instead of attacking at close quarters. Bolts of lightning covered the entire dagger, giving it the appearance of lightning striking down from the sky. It seemed that Arias had more power than he had expected.

“What kind of silly trick are you playing this time?”

Kyon raised a scornful smirk. The Wall of Wind concentrated its defense on his upper torso, which was the target of the dagger. The wind was blowing strongly, making it difficult for the dagger to get close. ‘Aiming for the heart, right? A precise aim, but still lacking in power. Even the highest-level acolytes would have trouble penetrating through the Wind of Wall’s defense. Seems like this kid’s got some talent. It's a shame he has to die young.’

The darting dagger collided with the Wall of Wind, two forces fighting against each other like two warriors in a fierce battle. The distinct ability of Thunder was its forceful penetration, but it looked like the difference between their power had made the dagger unable to pierce through the furious wind. The dagger slowly lost its force, as did the lightning surrounding it.

“UGH! Damn it!”

Kyon cried out as he felt the pain coming from his legs. He looked down and saw two tiny needles stuck in each of them. A small amount of blood seeped from the wounds, its color slightly tinged with black. He was not heavily injured, but he knew these were not just some ordinary needles. Arias’ old trick seemed to have worked once again.

“Looks like I’ve been playing around too much. But your ten seconds is over. Now, die!”

Kyon gritted his teeth as he lost his temper. He was both extremely angry and irritated.

“Gusting Fang.”

A radiant green magic circle appeared in front of Kyon before a furious wind quickly rushed toward Arias’ direction. The raging wind looked like numerous small blades charging frantically at Arias.

Arias quickly cast a defensive spell. Several bolts of lightning appeared and formed a protective shield around him. Arias could hear the sound of wind clashing with lightning. Dust was flying everywhere, trees were taking the impact of the clash between Air Magic and Thunder Magic. The marks left by the wind’s force on the trees made it look like several blades had slashed at the wood.

“Hah! Is this the power of the one who’s supposed to kill me?”

Arias used his hand to wipe his face, cleaning the blood that came from small wounds caused by the power of Gusting Fang. He sneered and gave Kyon a challenging look. There were more wounds on his body that looked like the ones left on his face. But all of them seemed to be shallow, nothing major.

Kyon gritted his teeth again in anger. He felt humiliated. That attack should have killed Arias, but all it did was leave him with scratches that looked like they were left by a cat. For a mage like him, this was a disgrace.

“You won’t get away this time!”

Kyon’s shout of anger echoed throughout the area.

“Gusting Fang! What the…”

Kyon used the same skill once more, but all of a sudden, his eyes grew wide in shock. It was like the magical power in his body was not responding to him and nothing came out. It was as if his magical power had been sealed.

He tried to think about the cause of this. His eyes landed on his legs once again, then he looked up at the sneering young man in front of him. Before any thought could form in his mind, the young man had already dashed toward the forest and disappeared. He was about to use a movement skill to chase after him, but it turned out that he could not use any magical skill at all.

“Bastard! Let’s see how far you can get!”

He gritted his teeth in anger, hand reaching to pull the two needles out of his legs before throwing them to the ground in irritation. With the fire of rage burning within him, he dashed after the young man, following the traces he had left. It looked like he was being taunted by an acolyte. If his master knew about this, he would definitely get a severe punishment. And if Arias managed to escape, he did not have to guess what would become of his fate.

Although his magical power was sealed, his physical strength was still as strong as an adept should be. This was the reason why Arias chose to escape rather than fight. The substance that coated the needles was beast venom and some herbs that Arias had brewed seven days prior. Though the poison was not lethal, it did buy him a considerable amount of time. Judging from Kyon’s level, the poison would be completely removed from his body in less than an hour. Arias needed to escape as soon as possible.

Arias chose to head toward the forest instead of going back to the manor. He did not know whether Merson had sent someone else to kill him aside from Kyon. It was still possible that there would be someone waiting in ambush on the way to the manor to finish the job in case Kyon failed. Merson was a very cunning man. During the past month, he was able to completely fool everyone into thinking that he did not care about taking revenge for what happened that day. Everyone in the clan had thought that everything had ended well. It was unexpected, but Merson had managed to perfectly hide his vengeful feeling and used Farhan’s order as a tool to send someone to kill Arias.

“One day, I’ll make sure you all pay for everything you did!”

Arias’ eyes were now full of hatred. His body moved as if it were flowing through the forest. To escape without leaving any trace was quite troublesome, but it meant he would be safer. Beasts and Kyon were both potential threats at the moment, and Arias had to be very cautious.