Chapter 23 Ren Arden (3)
Ren's eyes shot open and he quickly rose to his feet, he was… in a cave?
Ren looked around and his eyes landed on Rauri sleeping on the other side of the cave.
Ren sighed in relief, Máti were truly scary things, to create such a monster? It gave him chills just thinking about it.
Ren felt a sharp pain in his chest and when he looked down, his whole body was practically covered in bandages.
"Hmm… I don't recall killing that thing, did reinforcements arrive?" Ren muttered aloud, waking up the sleeping Rauri.
"Yeah man, you should've seen it! The headmaster arrived and easily destroyed that guy!" Rauri bluffed with an awkward chuckle, he didn't want Ren knowing of his swordsmanship.
"I see…" Ren spoke softly, a fire had been lit within, the desire for strength, Ren didn't want to lose ever again.
Seeing it was still dark outside, Ren went back to sleep, as did Rauri.
…
The next day, Ren moved stiffly outside of the cave, and outside was an endless expanse of snowy trees.
"Where… where are we?" Ren asked Rauri, his arm resting on the entrance of the cave for support.
"Oh yeah, we're like… in the middle of the glacier's domain right now haha." Rauri covered his mouth and began laughing while looking at Ren's dumbfounded expression.
'The glacier territory is pretty much on the other side of the world, how the hell did we get here in a day?' Ren couldn't help but question his situation.
However, now it was light outside, Ren could see Rauri's appearance, and he was surprised yet again to say the least.
Rauri's medium length golden blonde hair was pushed back and he now had a vibrant green eye with a strange triangle pattern inside of it embedded in his forehead.
That was certainly the Máti belonging to the student council president, however there was now two triangles instead of one. Could this be related to it not belonging to Rauri originally? Like Dylan's Máti?
"Ah, my new eye? Isn't it cool?" Rauri spoke, brushing his hair back further and moving the eye around while grinning.
"How hasn't it rejected you or done what Dylan's did and cover your face with that black stuff?" Ren asked, from what he knew, people couldn't simply 'steal' Máti, and even if the Máti didn't reject them it would certainly be significantly weaker or even be detrimental to the user.
Rauri's grin widened, "I don't know, maybe I'm just better!" He chuckled as he made his way over to Ren after stretching.
Ren covered his eyes subconsciously, he didn't fancy getting his eyes stolen by this plunderer.
"Hey hey, I wouldn't take yours, I need you to have them you know." Rauri sighed and placed his hand on Ren's shoulder.
"Yeah but… how could you just steal them?" Ren looked at Rauri with empathetic eyes.
"He was dead anyways, better for me to put them to use then to let them rot away in the body of that brute." Rauri took his hand off Ren's shoulder and gazed into the distance.
…
While traversing the snowy forest of the Glacier kingdom, Ren began training even harder, pushing his body to its utmost limits.
The duo traversed the lands of glacier for several years, slowly blending in with the people and making relationships in order to sneak their way in and destroy the kingdom from the inside.
However, back inside of the Beauchamp kingdom, the king, Julius Beauchamp had fallen ill from guilt due to the death of his son, Rauri Beauchamp several years ago when a monster attacked the academy.
The academy had told him that a barbarian had awakened a monster like Máti and had attacked Rauri and Ren.
No bodies were found, only the butchered corpse of the barbarian that had attacked the academy.
Well, obviously no bodies were found because the two 'dead' students were now slowly destroying the Glacier kingdom from the inside out.
Rauri didn't expect his father to fall ill, and since he was nowhere near the Beauchamp kingdom he had no way of knowing.
Two large men were spotted walking through the glacier territory, one was Ren Arden, now an adult and was a shocking 2.1 meters in height, his muscular frame coated with many scars from innumerable battles, he had long dark scruffy brown hair and two piercing golden eyes with his signature star Máti.
Next to him, was a slightly shorter Rauri Beauchamp of 2 meters tall with long golden hair tied back into a ponytail, his skin was lustrous and practically glowing, not a singular scar traced his beautiful face nor his well toned body other than the strange black mark covering the side of his face. He had three eyes, one a regular blue eye, the other a completely black eye with a strange azure vortex pattern within, and on his forehead was a vibrant green eye with two triangles within eachother.
The two seemed to be having a deep conversation, and no one, no matter how hard they tried could hear.
Rauri looked at Ren, and spoke "Lawrence Glacier, the prince of the Glacier kingdom is currently on his way back from the frontlines, I want you to go and hold him back long enough for me to destroy this kingdom once and for all." Rauri grinned at Ren, his signature royal grin that Ren had become all to familiar with over the years.
Ren sighed, not being totally confident in his odds against Lawrence Glacier, despite not having a Máti, the guy was extremely strong regardless.
"Haa, okay." Ren sighed again, making Rauri look at him with humour.
…
While Ren was awaiting the arrival of Lawrence Glacier, Rauri Beauchamp was getting active in the Glacier kingdom.
Rauri walked nonchalantly towards the large castle in the middle of the large kingdom.
As he reached the main gates, multiple guards stood in his way.
With one swing of his beautiful golden katana that Ren had crafted specifically for Rauri to wield, multiple heads rolled down the stairs leading to the entrance.
Rauri continued his stroll towards the castle, his 'Chrono-Hunters eye' surveying his surroundings, watching for anyone with enough gall to make a move.
Rauri looked at the barricade that was set up in order to keep him from entering the main castle grounds with a grin.
The green eye on his forehead began to glow vibrantly and a large verdant beam shot out from his forehead and burnt a hole through the barricade big enough for him to walk to.
Walking through the barricade, Rauri placed an eyepatch over his right eye, allowing him to see the world fully in slow motion from his left eye.
Rauri looked at the creature blocking his way into the castle.
'Kōriryū? One of the 6 elder dragons of this world?' Rauri's grin widened as he looked at the beast infront of him, this was Kōriryū, the white ice dragon and the man standing on top of it.
"To think such a prideful beast would submit to a human." Rauri held his golden katana with two hands as his green eye began to glow.
"To think the 'deceased' Rauri Beauchamp would come all this way to see little ole' me?" The elderly man standing atop the white dragon spoke with scorn.
The elderly man was tall, he had long grey hair and white eyes, however within his right pupil was a pale blue snowflake that was spinning slowly.
"Ha! So you knew it was me, geezer. I'm here to make the world a better place, and maybe steal that eye of yours while I'm at it." Rauri spoke with a chuckle as he began to walk forwards with his katana-in-hand.
"Like my eye would accept someone like you." The man spoke with an arrogant sparkle in his eye.
Rauri walked faster, holding his sword high.
After all, the man infront of him was the king of the glacier kingdom, Larry Glacier, one of the three people capable of using magic without incantations without a Máti, however, Ren was the only person able to use magic without magic circles and that was using his Máti.
Rauri's foot stomped the ground, and he muttered "Beauchamp Swordsmanship : page 1, Severance." And when Rauri swung his sword, a huge slash flew towards the white dragon, slicing and incinerating the falling snowflakes.
Larry chuckled, then held out his palm.
"Haa, typical Beauchamp caveman, just swinging your little swords around and expect to win this war." Larry rolled his eyes.
All of a sudden, Rauri's slash disappeared, then reappeared flying back towards Rauri.
Rauri's eyes widened, he didn't expect his attack to be flying right back towards him, no matter, it was coming at him extremely slowly anyways.
Rauri walked forwards, the slash flying right past him and destroying the ground behind him.
Larry's eyes sharpened and he hit Kōriryū on the head, causing the dragon to spread its wings.
Rauri chuckled and whistled.
All of a sudden, a large golden lightning spear was thrown at Kōriryū.
"Oh truest of dragons, grant me your aid." Rauri shouted, spreading his arms wide.
At that moment, Larry leaped from Kōriryū's back, leaving the dragon airborne.
Suddenly, a golden dragon coated in golden lightning descended from the heavens and flew directly towards Kōriryū.
"Fukuryū?!" Larry exclaimed, not expecting the dead dragon king to be in front of him and so alive.
"Eyes on me geezer." A cold voice was heard as Larry looked back to Rauri, who was right infront of him with his sword aimed high.
Larry's Máti span and he attempted to deflect the attack, but Rauri retracted his sword and his green eye began to glow.
*ZIIIPPPP*
A large beam of green plasma was fired directly at the elderly man, to which he summoned a shield of ice in hopes to block it.
Rauri simply laughed and increased the intensity of his beam.
However, at that moment,
"Caswell dual shortsword arts, 10th page : Hurricane Dance."
A beautiful man with short blue hair and two white eyes, one with a blue swirl within, it was his Máti, suddenly flew towards Rauri, his two short swords moving like wind in a spiral, cutting through the falling snow as he flew at Rauri.
Rauri retreated his beam and leaped backwards, this man was moving fast enough for Rauri to barely dodge!
This was Tyler Caswell, the head of the Caswell viscount family.
Rauri's eyes widened, he couldn't fight the both of them, and Fukuryū is occupied fighting Kōriryū.
However, Tyler and Larry suddenly both became distracted.
In the distance, a large golden arc flew off into the sky, cutting mountains and clouds in its wake.
In their distraction, Rauri quickly murmured, "Beauchamp swordsmanship : page 3, Spatial slash."
With a sidways slash, the air suddenly got tight and seemed to collapse in on itself, and Tyler, who was caught in this collapsed space, eyes rolled back and he nearly collapsed, but as he was falling, his eyes returned to normal, the spiral in his eye moving rapidly as he grinned.
Suddenly vanishing, Tyler mocked Rauri, "Can't see me eh?" Rauri's eyes widened as he heard Tyler voice from all around him.
Not wasting any time, Larry summoned his staff, creating multiple ice lances aimed directly at Rauri.
Rauri, feeling extremely disoriented, attempting to dodge the ice lances and the attacks of the invisible Tyler proved impossible.
Suffering a severe injury thanks to an ice spear that flew directly into his abdomen, Rauri's teeth clenched and he stomped down and cried, "Beauchamp Swordsmanship : 9th page, Divide and Conquer!" All of a sudden, the ground around him split into 11 slices, and then a large dome of slashes appeared around him, nearly slicing Tyler to shreds.
However, the dome quickly disappeared and Rauri flew out, flying directly towards Larry, but Larry sighed and waved his hand upwards.
A huge pillar of ice sprung up from the ground, snapping his back and throwing Rauri into the air where Tyler suddenly appeared with his dual short swords aimed high.
Rauri's grin never faded, his green eye glowed violently as a bright green light burst out, the beam flashed through Tyler's chest, causing him to scream in pain, to which Rauri spun midair, moving with such grace despite his broken spine.
"Beauchamp Swordsmanship : page 1, Severance." Rauri cried and swung his golden katana, the slash projection hit Tyler, exploding on impact and Tyler let out one last scream, his body and soul both being severed in half.
Still falling, Rauri tried to take advantage of his burst of adrenaline, sending another 'severance' towards Larry, who laughed mockingly and deflected the attack back towards Rauri.
Rauri couldn't dodge, so he met the attack head on.
Still falling, Rauri muttered "Beauchamp swordsmanship: page 2, counter."
His golden sword met the large slash projection head on, his left arm being crushed under the weight, but the attack didn't hit.
Landing face first on the ground, Rauri looked up at Larry with fury in his eye.
Larry looked down mockingly at Rauri, "all those Máti and still haven't awakened your own." Larry began laughing as he stomped Rauri's head into the ground.
However, when Rauri looked up again, Larry saw an empty eye socket in his forehead, and a large grin on Rauri's face.
His eyes widened in horror, he suddenly backed away, but it was too late.
The green Máti was currently sitting inside of the hood of his coat, the vibrant green veins pulsated with power.
Rauri threw the student council president's Máti at Larry while sending a 'severance' at him.
Rauri had overcharged the Máti before, causing it's power to overflow.
The Máti exploded in an arc, sending a huge wave of fire hot green plasma in a spiral.
Slicing Larry's neck, causing his head to roll, as well as completely slicing the glacier castle in half, the Máti of the student council president disintegrated into ash.
Crawling painfully with his remaining arm, most of his fingers twisted and broken, Rauri reached the severed head of Larry Glacier, with a cocky grin, Rauri shoved his Máti into his forehead, granting him the ability of 'Perfect Deflection'.