My First Rune Knight Mission

Barat called me into his room and when I walked in I could see him looming over a map of the kingdom of Fiore. He was looking at the wooden carving of a demon that was put there.

He said, "Ah Marcus it's you. Well, I am sorry to say that your first mission will not be an easy one, there have been reports that a dark guild by the name of Weeping Twilight plans to summon a demon."

"It is said that the demon they are planning to summon specifically is a demon specialized in illusions and shadow magic."

"Considering that you have shown a propensity to see through illusion during your sparring matches with your Observation Magic we thought you would be the perfect fit."

I nodded and asked, "How strong roughly are the dark mages in the guild and how tough should I expect the Demon to be?"

Bara said, "The guild is not much of a worry, it seems to have only 1 low S-rank Mage, Barry the Bomb. By his name as you would expect he specializes in Explosion Magic."

"There are said to be around 4-5 A-rank mages but we don't have much information on them. We do know that they aren't part of a team however mostly operating independently."

"This guild is mostly known for arms trafficking so most of them have skills that reflect that. Filled with people using mostly holder magic."

"As for the Demon, we believe that it is a high S-rank threat that would usually take around 2-3 S-rank mages to deal with."

"I shouldn't be a problem though, as long as you take down the guild before they summon the demon then you shouldn't have to deal with it."

I began planning, so I was facing probably 1 S-rank and 4-5 A ranks. The B-ranks can be discounted as I can mostly immobilize them using Conquerer's Haki and C-ranks and below are just out cold.

Luckily it seems that they aren't teammates which makes it much easier, they will not be able to work well together.

I then asked, "Do you know where they are held up?"

He said, "They have stayed in an abandoned castle towards the North of Fiore. No civilian population centers nearby. The castle has also been heavily warded."

I nodded, I would attack a well-defended fort, it keeps sounding better and better. This is giving me flashbacks to my fight with the Shark Eaters.

I then asked him more questions about the guild and how they operate but Barat didn't seem to know much more. I guess their information network wasn't that effective.

So the next day I was packed and ready to go. I was put on a train towards my destination and immediately started to feel ill.

Shit, I forgot about this drawback since it was always played off as a joke but Dragonslayers feel sick on moving transport. So a train like this was my worst nightmare.

Now I was not going to be able to take any transport anywhere without becoming useless. If I was on Earth and I needed to go far I would have to do it on foot or risk my life flying on a plane.

It was not a crippling weakness as I was faster than any car back on Earth but was still annoying. I would probably never ride in a car ever again just due to the potential risk it puts my life in.

So I quickly opened one of the train windows and jumped out of it. The staff on the train tried to stop me but once they saw me walking in the air beside the train they relaxed.

This sucked, I was running beside the train following it on its route. Many people stared at me in confusion and wonder but I ignored them.

This was good training for my cardio as I was running all the way across Fiore. It wasn't much of a problem because whenever I started to feel tired I would just eat the air around me.

This was why I wanted to be a Wind Dragon Slayer, near-infinite stamina and vitality. I wouldn't heal my wounds but it would allow me to keep fighting at peak form well after I should've collapsed.

So I ran next to the train till I reached my destination. There I used my Geppo and jumped up into the sky so much that I was obscured by the clouds.

I had a great view and quickly spotted their castle base. I quickly moved myself above it and looked down at it from this great height.

It was too far for me to use my Observation Haki but my 1 eye due to my incredible high perception stat was able to see some of the details.

There I saw that there were around 100 mages and they were all carrying crates of gems, weapons, and human remains into a magic circle.

In the center was a massive mirror inlaid with onyx jewels. So they were preparing to summon the demon right now? Nope, that was definitely not good.

I decided to stop this before it could progress any further. So I kept ascending to the air higher and higher till I nearly reached space.

Here there were so few air particles that Geppoing became an actual challenge. So I stopped. I was going to attack the castle with current my most powerful attack.

This attack pushed my Wind Dragon Slayer and Renewal Taekwondo to its fullest. If they weren't so compatible I wouldn't have been to even attempt this attack so early on in my training.

I covered my entire body in Armament Haki, I entered my most muscular form using Seimei Kikan and my body was aimed directly at the castle.

I stopped my Geppo and started to descend quickly gaining speed as gravity helped pull me down. I then activated my Wind Dragon Slayer Magic and Renewal Taekwondo.

I yelled, "Wind Dragon's Descent from the Heavens."

As I used it to make a massive wind dragon all-around around 50x bigger than the Blue Dragon's Kick. I also removed my air resistance, allowing me to go faster than terminal velocity.

So a massive 100-meter-long eastern dragon made of wind impacted the barrier around the castle and after a moment shattered it into pieces.

I kept my momentum adding Conquer's Haki to this as well making people truly believe that a massive dragon had descended upon them.

After hitting the ground the massive impact destroyed the entire castle, leveling it from the power of my kick. I saw that the ritual circle had also been irreparably damaged.

I looked around at the devastation and the managed corpses of mages who were not strong enough to stand up to my most powerful attack.

I scanned the area till I notice that 1 building was still standing and out from it came 6 men, I assume the S-rank and 5 A-rank of the Weeping Twilight guild.

I immediately rushed at Barry wanting to kill the biggest threat first, yelling, "Wind Dragon's Rokuogan!"

One of them, I assumed the person who set up the wards around the castle and building tried to stop me from moving but the wards around the castle were broken and the ones around the building were not much better.

Barry did manage to move back using explosions to propel himself. While he had dodged direct contact with my fist the shockwave of the Rokuogan still hit him.

I saw the armor he was wearing shatter and I dealt incredible amounts of internal damage to him. But then the other mages seem to snap out of it and got in motion.

2 of them seemed to be gun mages, one of them wielding a bazooka and the other wielding a normal revolver.

The man with the Bazooka yelled, "Explosive Shot!"

While the Revolver man yelled, "Quick Shots!"

The bazooka blast was too wide of a range so it did manage to hit me, luckily I managed to enter the outskirts of the blast radius so it didn't do much damage.

The quick shots though were annoying, with the warding magic slowing me down and me having to dodge the bazooka blast 3 of them managed to hit me.

With my Armament Haki, it didn't blow a hole through me but where it hit I did gain microfractures to bone there slowing me down.

Then 2 more of the men came at me at close range blocking off the gunner's view of me and protecting me with their bodies. I smiled this is why teamwork was so important.

They tried to use their Sword and Axe magic but they had just entered my preferred range. I easily dodged their powerful swings, using Kami-e to twist my body into an unnatural shape but keeping me in range.

I quickly retaliated when they had their weapons out of position, killing the axman with a Haki-infused Hwechook but the swordsman smartly dropped his weapon to block my blow with his arms.

I broke both his arms but he was still alive, that was good as he still provided protection for me against the gunmen.

I tossed his body into their tight group and they seemed to not know how to respond, so in their confusion at what to do with their comrade, I quickly moved in and killed the Bazooka mage.

The ward mage managed to pull the revolver mage out of the way and that left a clear shot to the previously downed Barry to me.

He yelled, "Supernova!"

I jumped back drawing the O Wazamono from my inventory to block some of the damage. I got out of the center of the blast radius but the explosion rocked me back.

It broke one of my arms and gave me third-degree burns all over my body. I tried to suck in air to begin healing myself but then I noticed something I was not getting more energized but more tired.

I looked at the last member of the group who through the entire fight hadn't done anything. He had vials in his pockets, shit he was a poison mage.

I hate dealing with poison! He probably released some of the poison into the air which is why consuming the air isn't healing me as the poison is also mixed in there.

I quickly down an antidote and healing potion then yelled, "Renewal Taekwondo Wind Dragon's Kick!"

A miniature wind dragon compared to the one I had made to destroy this castle appeared and hit all 4 of the men. The warder did manage to get his wards in the way to block but the others weren't so lucky.

The poisoner and revolver mage died, with the vials that the poison made breaking releasing more toxic fumes into the air.

Barry had managed to survive losing both his arm in the process, however. He yelled, "Use Plan Fallen Dusk!"

Quickly before I managed to react the Warder did something and I saw that every member of the Weeping Twilight Guild start to disintegrate.

Their bodies were sucked into the broken ritual circle and it turned an ominous red. The Mirror that had been pristine despite all the fighting, broke.

And out of its shards came a massive demon made of glittering onyx gems and kaleidoscopic mirror shards that seemed to reflect scenes from worlds different from the one I was in.

Here I was facing a demon with poison wafting through the air preventing me from consuming air and tired after destroying an entire guild.

This was not the worst possible position to be in, at least I was healed from the wounds during the fight by my healing potion.

I honestly think that all of this is just part of the S-rank trail. I was being nearly perfectly countered in every way, the poison to remove my ability to consume air and a basically guaranteed summoning of the demon.

But I had to stop whining so I looked at the demon ready to fight for my life.