"You speak to me as if you know me," Mane whispered through his mask. Yet the faces of the three red eyed people were filled with surprise because they clearly heard what he said. His voice wasn't loud, neither was it as deep as the thunder that reverberated all around Asher City, birthing rain in the process, but they could hear it. They could feel the calmness in his voice, yet that calm only unsettled them.
"What are you doing here? Why are you blocking our path?" The woman who was the Captain of the team asked. She didn't answer Mane's question, rather she feigned ignorance of the current situation.
"You seem to have answers to questions even I do not know," Mane ignored her question. If she could disregard his questioning, then he could do the same. Besides, his Scholar Manual was beckoning him, guiding him, advising him. It was telling him that these people knew a lot about this world, so much so that they even knew the answers to questions he hadn't bothered to think about.
"I just need to keep one of you alive. I would get what I want from that person." Mane stated, as though the outcome of the fight was certain, and his words infuriated the childish lady.
"Do you think we are easy pickings?" she stated, her voice rife with disdain. Her anger at being disregarded pushed her into losing her fear for this Half a Step into the Nightmare Realm powerhouse.
"Be still," Mane turned to the woman he had ignored since he came and said. And immediately the words left his mouth, Edict forced its way onto the childish woman and shackled her movements. Her body went stiff, and she found it difficult to move a single muscle. She felt like one who had been burdened with several weights on every part of her body; as though there was a huge yoke around her neck, sealing her movements.
"Bind; Retrieve" Mane ordered once again, and Edict invisible to the naked eye took up the shape of a rope with a hook at the end and bound the childish woman from head to toe And she fell onto the ground. The hook then flew to Mane's side and embedded itself into the ground right next to him. Then the woman was forcefully pulled towards Mane's side. It was now that the other two red-eyed people realised that something was wrong.
"Number 3!" the man screamed and tried to reach out and grab the childish woman called Number 3. He was angry, for Number 3 wasn't just a colleague, but his lover too!
"Don't, Number 2," his Captain immediately stopped him from doing anything rush. "As long as we deal with him, we would get her back," the Captain reassured the man called Number 2, and he regained his calm. But when he looked at Mane, his face was full of rage. He wished that he could swallow Mane alive and then spit him out.
"Protect," Mane looked down upon the red-eyed woman who was lying to his side with eyes full of terror and deep panic and used Words of Power once again. This was the technique he used to subdue a peak Profound Realmer with such ease. At his order, Edict formed a protective cloak and surrounded the woman, protecting her from the rain and any other destruction that would follow. He needed to let lose, and he wouldn't be able to protect her when the fight begins.
"Are you angry?" Mane asked expressionlessly. "Are you upset?" he continued.
"Do you feel your heart pounding?"
"Does the world around you seem to blur?"
"If you haven't reached this stage then you haven't experienced what I have experienced. You haven't been through what I have been through"
Mane spoke slowly, yet each of his words carried the pain of one who was raging. As he walked thunder bellowed, and lightning flashed ever brightly in the sky above them. The rain fell even stronger, and power that belonged to a man at the 1st Stage of the Earth Realm slowly flooded the place. Lightning danced around Mane's elusive figure, as he prepared to unleash his fury on the two before him.
"My rage, can you handle it?" Mane asked, and he activated Brimstone.
*ROAR*
Fire and lightning came to a temporary consensus, and they danced together around the man who had asked for their aid. Like brothers in arms reunited after a long feud, their crossed swords and melded together. Blue lightning; golden yellow flames. Oh how they surrounded the figure of the Supreme, their voices raised as they cried in expectation.
"Attack him now!" the Captain screamed in fear upon seeing Mane's changes. The fact that Mane was able to freely use an element as destructive as Lightning was a feat that amazed her, but to think that he was also a fire user! She could tell that if they allowed Mane to fully prepare himself, once he was ready they wouldn't be his match. So she immediately gave the order to attack.
"Ahh!" Number 2 bellowed in rage. The only person who was holding him back had given the order, so he could unleash his wrath upon the one who had birthed it. He retrieved a short sword from him cloak and charged at Mane. The Captain wasn't any slower in throwing herself into the fray. In fact, before Number 2 had charged in, she had already pulled out her sword from her cloak and had taken the lead.
The two – man and woman – with swords in hand reached Mane's position in no time, and attacked from both sides in a two prong attack. Their tense gazes relaxed slightly when their swords reached Mane's figure, but once they had cut through him, they noticed that something was wrong. The reason for that was simple. They didn't feel like they were cutting through flesh, but felt like they were only slicing their swords through the wind. In that moment, Mane had used Absolute Darkness to phase through their attacks!
*Whoosh*
"Back now!" the Captain ordered, her voice made hoarse from screaming too loud, showing just how anxious she was. She kicked the ground that had softened due to the rain furiously and retreated. Although the slippery ground reduced how much ground she could cover, her retreat was a success. But her words of wisdom were too late. For Number 2 didn't share her fast reflexes. When he tried to move back, he realised that his foot was stuck. He down at his leg and saw that from his entire calf downwards, there was a large hand made from the muddied earth keeping him in place. He lifted his head only to see a pair of cold blue pupils staring into his eyes. They were so expressionless that he momentarily forgot about his anger. A strong hand reached out of the orange cloak that the black masked man wore. This hand was entirely covered in flaming lightning, and Number 2 could feel that as long as that hand reached him he would be finished. The hand reached for him and clutched his neck so tightly that he felt all the air he had inhaled being forced out!
"It seems that you cannot handle my rage," Mane stated, his voice contrary to the fire that surrounded his frame. For his voice was cold and unfeeling. Once his hand touched Number 2 the man's figure was engulfed in flame and lightning, and the man who was so mad that he charged in gallantly earlier, screamed in terror and pain as his body was reduced to nothing but ash in less than a few seconds.
"Ahhhh!"
"Number 2!" the Captain gritted her teeth in powerlessness. How foolish she was! To think that she thought that she could handle this demon just because both of them were Half Step into the Nightmare Realm. How could she have ignored the fact that even that stage was divided into several smaller sub-stages? Now she had lost both her colleagues. One of them had been burned alive with fire and lightning – a horrible way to go – whilst the other lay at the feet of the one responsible for this carnage, as her eyes filled with even more fear from seeing how her friend and lover had died. Number 3's eyes turned and locked onto the figure of her Captain. And she spoke with her eyes.
"Run"
That's right. Number 3 could clearly feel the terror of this man. This was someone who could easily subdue a person with his words, and summon fire and lightning effortlessly. Plus he seemed to have control over the earth they stood on and could allow attacks to rain on him without fear for they were not capable of even harming a strand of hair on his head. Even among Ancients, those who could use so many elements with this level of Proficiency were few and far between. This man must surely be a well-respected figure among the Ancients. For his talent was comparable to, if not stronger than that of the Prince of Ancients!
The Captain bit into her lips so hard that they began to bleed. They thought that the only person capable of forcing them into such desperate straits was Ivor the Tattler, and that was why they didn't want to run into that devil. In fact, when Mane had caught up with them, she wasn't worried about how they would get away or if they could defeat him. To her, both options were the only options, and the only problem was the time they would waste in achieving either. For she didn't want to run into Ivor. They thought that the best this black masked man could do was stall them, but he had proven that he was to be feared as much as they feared Ivor. And that was because although he gave off the aura of a Half Step into the Nightmare Realm powerhouse, he was comparable to an actual Nightmare! She wasn't his match – not with her teammates – and definitely not alone. So though it hurt her greatly to make this decision, she turned and tried to run away. She needed to let her people know about this Ancient who could use so many elements and had mysterious powers.
But she seemed to have forgotten something. And Number 3 who was still held captive; whose eyes held a little bit of relief from seeing the figure of her Captain fading into the distance had also forgotten that very same thing. In fact, they had ignored two things.
One: Mane was faster than them. He had caught up to them even when they had a good head start.
Two: He could control lightning
A large bolt of lightning descended from the sky and landed onto the retreating figure of the Captain.
*Crack*
*Boom*
With a loud bang, a new hole was formed on the Asher City streets, and a pitiful figure lay sprawled within. The eyes of this figure were red like the blood that run through the arteries and veins of every human in the world. Yet they were lifeless. There were several scorch marks on the body of the woman called Number 1, and it was almost entirely blackened with most of the cloak that was concealing her frame burnt to a crisp. She was dead.
The eyes of Number 3 were once again filled with pain. The carcass of her Captain was like a large hammer that struck her already fragile heart, and it broke into countless little pieces.
"Now we can talk. There is much I want to know." The cold voice of the one who reaped the lives of the man she loved and the woman she admired sneaked into her ears, and fear filled her eyes once again. When she looked into those blue eyes she saw nothing but despair.
"Undo stillness," Mane ordered, and Number 3 felt the strange power that had made her mute disappear. She could speak again. But she felt no joy, for she knew why she had been given her voice back.
"I won't tell you anything," she remarked bravely even though she was terrified. Although she was afraid, she meant her words. She didn't plan to tell Mane anything.
"I know," Mane nodded his head and squatted next to her. "I have killed two of your people. It isn't surprising that you don't want to speak to me," Mane continued. But then he quickly added, "But who said you have to be willing?"
"So, shall we begin?"