Ether Hunter

5

Ace had missed his chance to hide, and without any ranged weapons he could only wait and see how Jung would react. When jung finally came out of the tree he saw Ace and instantly realized who he was, hatred burned in his eyes as he coldly spat out.

"I will deal with you in a moment, archer"

He then proceeded to lay Mina down on the ground and look over her wounds, she was barely breathing and her body was very cold. Jung knew it was impossible to save her but he still send the last bit of ether he had coursing through her.

For a moment she seemed to regain some color, and a bit of warmth which brought great relief to Jung, but the joy lasted only a moment before she turned completely lifeless again.

"no… no! you can't die on me Mina! I need you to stay alive, how am I supposed to let you just disappear after all that? I refuse!"

Jung was screaming at Mina while clutching her body in his arms, tears rolling down his cheeks and mixing with the fresh blood on his face, both from himself and from her. Ace was slowly backing away while trying not to make a sound, he wanted to leave this scene more than anything, but he also knew he needed to deal with Jung while he was still very weak. If he left Jung alone he would only come back later and hunt Ace down, most likely with a whole group of hunters at his back.

Ace picked up one of his bags of poison from his belt and was ready to toss the whole thing at Jung whenever he made a move, but Jung was only focusing on Mina and had for a moment forgotten all about Ace.

With Jung's distraction there could not be a better time for Ace to strike and he was just about to throw the bag when Jung did something that made Ace stop in his tracks.

Around Jung was golden flames slowly sprouting from his body and playfully dancing in the air, although the flames seemed flickering and frail ace felt a terrifying amount of ether in the flames. He tossed the poison bag with all his strength, and as it flew through the air towards Jung it made a "poof" sound as it touched one of the flames and instantly turned to ashes.

Ace was completely taken aback with the sudden mortal danger standing in front of him, and the fact that he couldn't see any way to escape either. He knew that Jung was much faster and stronger than himself, and he had at this point not a single ranged weapon left because of the bear lord.

Jung released his embrace and Mina's body fell to the ground, as he stood up his swollen red eyes starred right at ace with deadly venom.

"that bear lord killed them all because of you, Mina died because you shot her with a damn arrow. I am going to tear you limb from limb now"

Truth be told, even with the overwhelming chance of death right in Ace's face he still only had one question in his head, how did that guy absorb her powers?

It seemed weird to be so fixated on something like that just as he was about to die, but since Ace couldn't complete his baptism he was never able strengthen his body with ether. Meaning the more time that would go the stronger all the trainee's would become while he would stay the same.

It was his greatest problem and he knew that he would have to find a way to absorb ether somehow or he would never be able to truly become a warrior, no matter how many weapons and traps he had.

The flickering flames gathered around his palm as he stretched it out in front to point at Ace, he was looking very pale and fatigued as he tried to summon his energy for an attack. The moment he snapped his finger the flames all died out, and Jung fell unconscious on the ground.

Ace was already screaming and had closed his eyes as he was awaiting his certain death by fire, but as time passed and nothing seemed to happen, he opened his eyes to see Jung completely passed out.

The knife had already been drawn the moment he opened his eyes and Ace ran over to land a killing blow before Jung could wake up, he swung the knife down on Jung's head but quickly let go as a golden flame swallowed the blade before it could pierce the skin.

Ace jumped back and expected Jung to stand up like it had been a trap the whole time, but nothing happened, and Ace realized the flames acted by a subconscious part of Jung to protect him.

There was only one thing left for ace to do, and he took out the bag of storm water he had been keeping for last case emergencies. This was to him, truly a desperate situation, the ether hunter was simply too strong and the more time went by the stronger and more dangerous he would become.

Soon it would be impossible for ace to stand the slightest chance against him, and considering how much that hunter hated him, Ace found it doubtful that he would forget about him any time soon.

"shame…"

Ace said quietly as he hated the idea of wasting his secret weapon on a person, but he ignored his regret was just about to throw it when his hand was stopped midair by something very strong and a deep voice came from right behind him.

"that's enough boy, I can't let you kill this child"

Just as he turned his head around, he knew what had spoken, it was a warrior. Not a trainee but a fully-grown adult warrior, it completely paralyzed Ace and he stood mouth wide open while starring at the massive figure.

Although he was a trainee, he had never really met a warrior up close before, since he couldn't gather ether or summon an element he was basically worthless in most of the tribesmen's eyes. The only respect he had ever gotten was hard earned through beating the other trainees and making them respect him through fear.

The warrior released Ace right after he had stopped his throw and went over to pick Jung up from the ground, even though the flames seemed to coil around the warrior as he grabbed Jung it did little more than amuse him.

Ace came to his senses and quickly shouted towards the warrior with panic, he needed to know more than anything what had just happened moments ago.

"how did that guy gain her powers!? I need to know! Please, I don't understand…"

Ace's sudden shout stopped the warrior in his tracks as he was surprised to see a trainee with the guts to yell at a warrior, for a moment he was deciding between punishing Ace for acting so rudely to a warrior or to praise him for showing such guts. He looked at the daring kid before he spoke.

"not a lot of kids your age would dare to yell at me, I am impressed. What you saw was very rare and very dangerous, most people would die if they attempted something like that. It's called synchronization and is the reason I am here right now"

The words filled Ace with awe, and he wanted to know more but he could see the warrior was about to turn around and leave, so he quickly asked a second question.

"can I synchronize if I don't have ether?"

The warrior didn't look back but kept walking away, it was only when the big figure had disappeared from his vision that he heard the man speak.

"no…"