18. Double Trouble: Lord Ezra and Princess Evelyn

The man approached Blaze slowly. Although he suppressed Blaze throughout the fight, it took a toll on him. Attacking and defending against any sneak attack was exhausting for him. He exhausted too much mana and brain power. Blaze was cunning, too.

The man squatted down and turned Blaze's face to identify his assailant. Blaze lay on his back, facing away from the man and appearing lifeless. As the man turned Blaze's face towards him, Blaze suddenly opened his eyes and swiftly plunged a hidden knife into the man's eyes. He quickly withdrew the blade and slit the man's throat in one fluid motion, then followed up with a powerful uppercut that sent the man hurtling through the air.

"Inexperienced fool," Blaze cursed under his breath as he got to his feet, swaying unsteadily.

Blaze finally turned to face the man, who lay writhing on the ground, clutching his neck and trying in vain to stem the flow of blood from his fresh wounds.

Blaze walked toward the man but stopped after he was ten meters from the man. A dying and cornered prey is dangerous and ruthless. Moreover, if he repeated the same mistake as the man, he would be a fool.

The man's speech was slurred and difficult to understand as blood spilled from his mouth. "Kni... kni... knife... where…" he muttered, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Where did I get the knife? It was the first knife I threw," Blaze completed and answered the man's question.

Despite his injuries, the man managed to speak in a quavering voice, his words jumbled and disjointed. "You... you planned this," he accused Blaze, his tone filled with stunned disbelief.

"Although I planned it, that was not how I envisioned the series of events. Like the part where you can control your icicles in different directions: that wasn't taken into consideration. I guess I was lucky. You can die now," Blaze said calmly. He wasn't a fan of talking along with the enemy.

"You… you… will pay!" The night finally regained its serenity as the man died. Blaze fell to the ground with the icicles still stuck in his shoulder.

Suddenly, Blaze heard running footsteps. It made him hold his breath and remain still as he lay on his back. He was in a weakened phase: Fighting now is tantamount to suicide.

The running footstep halted when it got close to the battlefield, from his estimation of the footstep sound. Suddenly, the footsteps started approaching him. Blaze tried his best to stop his eyebrow from twitching.

"I killed Blaze? So, that's how the notorious Blaze died?" Blaze suddenly heard the voice of the person he wanted to murder the most.

"Kill your mother! You son of a bitch. You sent me to death with your inaccurate information." Blaze sprang up from the ground and choked Robin. Even the cool-headed Blaze couldn't hold himself.

"Ghost! Ghost!" Robin's voice echoed through the forest as he screamed.

Blaze quickly covered his mouth.

"I'm not a ghost."

"Then what's that devil's fork poking me on my chest? You must have gotten that weapon from hell," Robin's voice quavered as he spoke while shivering.

Blaze's eyes flicked downwards to his wounded shoulder, where the two icicles were still lodged. He could see that the base of the icicles, which were now pointed, were poking through the holes in Robin's armor and that they had become shorter and more uneven over time.

Blaze had no choice but to release his killing intent a little. "Can you open your eyes?" He questioned coldly.

Robin quickly opened his eyes.

"You're not dead?" Robin questioned in shock.

"Do you want me dead so badly?" Blaze replied coldly.

"No. No. But the blood…" Robin's voice trailed off.

"They are the blood of that bastard!" Blaze grumbled through gritted teeth while pointing at the icicle man.

Aphrodite giggled sweetly from the top of the carriage, where she sat comfortably with crossed legs. Her blue eyes flickered as she stared at Blaze, but Blaze pretended not to see her. If he suddenly talks to her, maybe Robin might scream 'ghost' or even die of fright as she is invisible. Even if he explained, Robin would believe he's not a ghost.

Robin quickly ran to see the man. When he got close enough to see the man's face, his face scrunched up in confusion. Suddenly, his eyes abruptly opened wide as he seemed to have remembered something terrifying.

"What was his element?" Robin asked quickly with impatience seen on his face.

"He was using icicles," Blaze replied.

The color drained from Robin's face as he recognized the man's identity. "Oh no," he whispered, his voice quaking with fear. "He's the Ice Reaper, one of Lord Ezra's minions. We're doomed," he said, his fear palpable.

"We can deal with that later," Blaze said in a steady voice, trying to keep Robin from panicking. "Our main concern right now is to get the chest and get out of here before anyone else shows up. And don't worry, I was careful. No one saw me when I took him down," he reassured Robin, who was still visibly shaken.

Both of them walked to the carriage and Robin brought out a key he took from the Ice Reaper. He unlocked the first chest and red gemstones greeted their vision. In the big chest, there were only four red stones and two translucent stones.

"Is that mana stone?" Blaze asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Bloodstones," Robin said in a daze, with all his focus on the bloodstone.

"What about the translucent ones?" Blaze questioned.

"Bloodstones," Robin spoke absentmindedly, still entranced by the stones.

Pam!

A slap from Blaze to the back of Robin's head woke him up from his daze.

"What are those stones?" Blaze asked coldly this time around.

"The red ones are bloodstone while the translucent ones are D-rank mana stone," Robin explained.

"Open the other chest so that we can leave. Staying here too much is detrimental to us. We need to get back to the academy before anybody notices our absence," Blaze said calmly.

Robin rushed and opened the second chest, also curious about what it might present.

However, the moment their chest opened, a loud voice made them block their ears.

"You son of a bitch," A girl with red hair alighted weakly from the box.

"You are surrounded. I've already informed my mother before you successfully abduct me. The Dragon Empire has already sent reinforcement," the girl spoke with a smirk while waving her amulet.

She was gorgeous, but her message made Blaze squint behind the mask.

"You… you… Princess Evelyn!" Robin stuttered and yelled in shock.

"You know her?" Blaze asked quietly.

"She's the third princess of the Phoenix Kingdom. We are in for trouble." Robin briefly explained to Blaze before rushing towards Princess Evelyn.

As Robin approached her, he quickly bowed and began to explain. "Please, listen to me," he pleaded. "We had nothing to do with the Ice Reaper. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Humph! You've colluded and killed your boss so that you can play good guys. This place will be your burial ground," Princess Evelyn grinned evilly.

'Do I have a karma with the royalties of every Kingdom?' Blaze thought with a weak sigh. Moreover, all of them have a strange abnormality in their brain.

Blaze pulled Robin to the side and suggested in a hushed tone, "What if we kidnap her or kill her? We are masked,"

"Hell no!" Robin screamed, but a slap from Blaze to his head shut him up.

Robin replied in a hushed tone, "If we try to kill her, her bloodline will react. That will be the end of us. Worse of all, taking her with us will reveal our location. Why do you think she was in a chest? Wait! You don't know about bloodlines?"

"So there's nothing we can do to her to make her call off the soldiers encroaching our location?" Blaze ignored his question.

"Nope. The only thing is to beg her."

"What if we leave without her?" Blaze suggested.

"Hell! Didn't you hear what she said? Our only option is to beg her."

Blaze was worried that if his location got exposed, all those bounty hunters would come for him like hungry fishes.