Kim was still in his cuff surrounded by dozens of A-rankers with Mayor Byzark sitting in front of him. Even so, Kim was showing a very calm demeanour.
"To be expected someone who managed to beat Kiria. You seem to be very calm."
"What do you mean Mr. Mayor? I'm really scared right." Replied Kim with a smiling face.
"This kid is getting over his head. Let me rough him a little and see if he can still smile."
"Mazus."
Mazus held back his mana when Byzark stopped him from getting near Kim. Mazus is one of the A-rank who worked for Byzark. As an A-ranker, his combat ability is comparable to Kiria. Not only him, each one of the mana users present beside Kim is as strong as Kiria or even stronger than Kiria ever was.
Each one of them thought that gathering around one person like this was a waste of time since they were confident they could kill Kim easily. But none of them could refuse Byzark order.
"These dogs of yours are loyal." Said Kim while sneering Mazus.
"That's it! He's getting on my nerve!"
This time Byzark only remained silent. Others smirking and even letting out a laugh after seeing Kim making a fool out of himself. For him daring enough to say those words, not just Mazus, even others wanted to join in the fun.
"Hurry up Mazus, I want to go next."
"Don't beat him too much or we won't get any chance."
"Are going to call your mommy now?"
"Hey, don't make fun of him or he's gonna cry."
"Hahahahahahaha."
"Bla bla bla, you guys are barking too loud. Could you please hurry up. I rather than sleep with mosquito flying around than hear your barking."
The room became silent a second after Kim spiteful remarks. Whether it was bravery or stupidity, they sure it is the latter. The room was silent but their heart boils with anger.
"Go Mazus. Beat the shit out of him."
To be fair, this was something Kim brought upon himself so Byzark did not have any intention to intervene. Whether Kim will die or not, that was not of his concern. The reason he took Kim in the first place was to shut his mouth.
It was still unsure whether Kim found about anything after sneakily using his mana sense to search around the mansion. Most probably he won't because of the mana stones that are embedded in the wall of the basement. Even if he did, it won't matter because it seems he will get killed tonight. Byzark wanted to force Kim to work for him by holding Momo hostage. But with Kim dead, the young girl would be his new test subject instead.
Unknowingly, he was smiling the whole time he was thinking about how Kim will helplessly getting killed. How he's going to test Momo with a different experiment. This whole thing was interesting to him and to be the man behind it all was satisfying!
Mazus circulated his mana into his arm which caused his entire muscle to bulge. He punched straight at Kim but an intense feeling suddenly jolted into his whole nerves like lightning which made his stop in the middle. Before he could notice it, his whole body was trembling.
"It must be a mistake!"
"Mazus, why'd you stop?"
He didn't stop his punch on purpose. It was a mere instinct. Even though there was an image of him beating Kim to the ground, his body kept telling him to stop. He was wracking his brain trying to figure out what was happening to his body but all in his mind right now was death waiting for him.
He felt like time has stopped and there was only him and Kim in the room. He looked at Kim sitting there without moving an inch. But then, Kim stood up and broke his cuff with ease. This cause the whole room was set to an uproar. For someone who is not a mana user, Byzark would not be able to understand what was happening but he could tell that something was not right.
That cuff which was binding Kim should be able to suppress an A-rank that is even stronger than Kiria. If any of them were in Kim place, they would die of hunger before breaking out the cuff. Which mean...
"This guy, no way..."
"This couldn't possibly be true right?"
S-rank. The highest rank a mana user could ever achieve. Not many would be able to step into this world of mana where only the strongest will be able to stand. No matter how much a person train, they may not even be able to achieve this rank in their entire lifetime. Some say only those who are born with exceptional mana wielding ability would be able to reach S-rank. Besides that, one could only dream.
Looking at how easily Kim broke from his cuff could only possibly mean one thing, he is as strong as an S-rank!
Some of the mana users tried to escape but the moment they reached the door, it was already frozen solid. One of them pulled out a hammer and tried to smash through the door with an explosion, but it did not leave even a crack on the door.
"We are trapped!"
Byzark was shocked to see the mana users reactions. Kim only broke a cuff and they already decided to run away. The whole scene made him irritated! What's the point of gathering them all if all they could do is to run in fear?
"You guys called yourself A-rank mana users?! He's only one man! Gather up and kill him!"
The moment Byzark sad those words, a flash of fire shoot toward Kim with a bursting power. Then several other mana users appeared beside Byzark and took him away from the fight.
The flame was covering Kim's entire body, but he was standing there as if nothing was happening to him in the first place. Only the floor below him was burning. With a wave of a hand, the flame extinguished completely leaving only a trace of smoke floating around in the air. Without having the chance of taking a breath, two steel chains wrapped around Kim's arm, trying to hold Kim down.
Another mana user jumped from behind him while holding a giant sword with of his hands. The sword was brimming with light and he swung it downward, a giant bird made of lighting dove right toward Kim. The lightning bird was fast, but Kim managed to dodge it with a simple sidestep. The chain was holding his arm down, but he could still move. The lightning tear through floor leaving a hole in the middle of the room.
Using the momentum of his sidestep, he pulled the mana user who was holding him with chains toward him and swung him around, smashing the mana user with the lighting sword down to the ground. Within a span of a second, two A-rank mana users were knocked out. There was a moment of hesitation dwelling in the hearts of the mana users within the room, but knowing they were no other choice except to fight, one of them shouted at the top of his lungs, "Don't back down attack!"
Kim had a glimpse of several orbs of mana oozing out from his body which shoots into the body of others and riled up their mana core. Kim did not feel that their strength had increased even for a bit. What changed was their facial expressions. They all had regained their composure. Even those who tried to run away was joining the fight as well. It was an ability to invoke the will to battle. It was similar to Rentap warcry except that Rentap could enhance the strength of his warriors.
Out of nowhere, a claw appeared from the shadow and slashed its way toward Kim. A mana barrier already covering him like a thin sheet of paper so he let the claw through. Strangely, he did not feel any impact when the claw landed. It just passed through him like a gust of wind. But soon after he realized, there was several cut at his arm.
Another claw passed through him and again he did not feel anything except for the sudden injury appeared in his leg. Both his arms and legs were bleeding. Kim was able to see the attack, but he could not understand how it managed to injure his body. Somehow that claw was able to even pass through his mana barrier.
As Kim was slowly getting injured, morale had increased for other mana users. Mazus circulated his mana, and the armour of steel covered his entire body making him look like a behemoth. He charged forward while Kim was distracted with the shadow claw, hoping to land an attack.
But it was impossible for Kim to not notice the Mazus giant build. Other mana users would run away seeing an A-rank behemoth covered with steel charging to their face, but Kim was planning to face Mazus head-on by also charging forward. Kim moved so fast that no one there was able to catch his movement which caught the charging Mazus off-guard. Unknown to him, Kim was already within the range of fist. Kim entire left arm was glowing with bright light and a single punch was sent directly to Mazus's face.
Soon as the fist landed, it sent a vibrating pulse which travelled through Mazus's body. The vibration was so great that it created a shockwave which ruptured the entire clad of steel armour to bits. But the power from the punch sent Mazus flying to the icy door hitting others who tried to run away during the fight. The unbreakable frozen door formed a massive crack just from the sheer impact.
In a mere of a few minutes, Kim has taken down more than half of them. Only six of them left. The flame manipulator, spirit enchanter, the claw user and three of them were protecting Byzark.
"Hear my words, my companion! Fighting all of us must have exhausted him. Don't back down and received my full blessing!"
This time the spirit enchanter exerted his mana into a giant orb of mana which split into two. The moment all of his mana was fully used to form the orb, he passed out and fell to the ground. The two orbs rushed to two directions at incredible speed and get absorbed by two mana users. This time instead of just riling the mana core, the orbs were assimilated into their body which increased their mana.
Kim ignored the flame manipulator and quickly ran toward the other mana user which he suspected to be the claw user! He didn't manage to sense the claw user before, but the direction of the mana orb had exposed his whereabouts. Of course, it was way beyond the enemy knowledge regarding this. Only a sovereign could see the flow of mana. However, the claw user already noticed Kim was coming, and quickly melted into the ground.
Then, his body was slashed with a barrage of claws that appeared out of nowhere. Blood was splattered everywhere on the floor with all the cuts on his body. Even so, he was standing there, smiling. He saw it, the moment the claw user melted into the ground and the moment when he was attacked. It's the shadow! He was a shadow manipulator who could hide in the shadow and another person shadow which would injure the person itself.
With Kim distracted by the shadow manipulator, the flame manipulator has finished fully circulated his mana for one powerful burst of flame. He was going all out, planning to end Kim. His flame burn with a brilliant flame. Behind him, a blurred image of a sparrow with wings spanning several metres was forming. It was his mana spirit!
His flame then gradually becoming the shape of his mana spirit. With all his power and will, he shot the raging flame at Kim.
"Burn everything to ashes! Vermillion Sparrow!"
The fiery bird burned brightly like a scarlet sea. As it flew through, the entire floor was burning. Kim looked toward the oncoming bird with shimmering eyes as he exuded loudly in excitement,
"That's a freaking cool of a move!"
The vermillion sparrow swallowed everything in its path and eventually ate Kim in a whole. The mighty flame could reduced anything to ash even if the enemy is stronger than the flame manipulator. Unfortunately, Kim had played with flames from hell before which make his body has extreme resistant with the element of fire. To Kim, the fiery bird was cute.
The flame continued to burn for several minutes before it finally died. To their shock, Kim remained unscathed. Even the flame manipulator feel to his knee feeling helpless. Even with the combination of power between him and the spirit enchanter at full strength he was unable to put Kim down.
Beside the mana users who were protecting Byzark, only the shadow manipulator was left. Before, Kim was at a slight disadvantage as he was unable to land any attack and defend himself from getting hit. Kim raised his a palm and a bright orb of fire appeared. The orb was so bright that his shadow was getting smaller until it was hard to see it anymore. He noticed this while playing with the little fiery bird, the change with is shadow. He thought that this would be effective against the shadow manipulator but all he could hear was laughter.
"I agree, you are strong, but you think you can beat me with that small ball of fire? Shadow is in my control, I created them! Shadow is my domain!"
That moment Kim realized, he mistook one thing. The mana user was not a manipulator, he was a conjurer!
"Welcome to the world of shadow!"
A raven appeared from the shadow and span its wings to cover Kim entire vision. Anywhere Kim was looking there was only darkness. All his sense went disarray as he was unable to differentiate between up and down. Kim was now inside the world of shadow.
"You going to stay with me here until you die!"
"Good!"
Kim unleashed his mana and the earth from the ground rose, forming a dome that covered the entire world of shadow from the outside.
"If you are here then, I'm letting you out. Let's see who of us will die first."
The orb of fire was almost engulfed in the darkness, but suddenly it shines so ever brightly until the lights were overwhelming compared to the shadows. The orb didn't stop increasing its temperature until finally, it burst into a powerful explosion. The earth dome could barely withstand it as the ceiling started to fall over. Unable to escape, the shadow conjurer caught in the explosion and died.
The earth dome opening up, and Kim emerged as the only one standing. Just by himself, he defeated almost all of Byzark's personal mana users who were at least an A-rank! Only be seeing it one could believe the what had happened. Even Byzark and the three other mana users took some time to digest everything.
Kim was supposed to be within his palm, but now, he felt like the food on the dining table. His plan which has been ongoing for many years, now going to ruin in a single night. "Surely these three besides me won't be able to lift a finger against Kim."
Born unable to sense mana, he felt like his future was bleak. He could only see his peers grew more and more powerful with their mana. He couldn't remember how many times he had to lick other people feet and sold his dignity just to get the position he had now. Even so, compared to a mana user, he was just an ordinary human. There's a limit of what he could gain just by being 'kind'. Seeing how leisurely those mana users flinging their power around had arisen his anger for years. The world was unfair to him!
"If only...if only I could use mana."
Then, out of nowhere, the opportunity came to him when he was given with the knowledge of werewolf transmutation. With the choice of giving up his humanity, he could gain the power he always wanted. Even if it meant becoming a monster.
After several trial and errors, finally, he found a sure way method of becoming a werewolf. A method that was found with the sacrifice of many. But he had one final step to test before he could sure of himself. That young man was supposed to be the last sacrifice for this one last step. But never he had imagined the same young man would be the one who would ruin his entire plan.
With the feeling of helplessness Byzark laugh. He laughed his entire lungs out as he thought of what he had been through. It's over now. He took out a syringe which was already filled with some kind of serum and injected the whole thing into his body.
That moment, Kim could sense it. Byzark heart had stopped for a moment and beat once more. As if he was dead once and was being reborn. The heartbeat becoming more powerful every second, and with each beat, Byzark body was gradually changing. Slowly, his mana core started to form and little by little filled with essences of mana. The three guards were shocked because of the mana flowing within the body of Byzark.
"Master Byzark?"
"Are you... are you okay?"
With a distorted voice, Byzark laughed and exerted a powerful mana pressure which caused the three A-ranker barely able to breathe properly.
"This feeling, this great feeling! How lucky you are, mana users!!! Hahahahahahaha!"