'The Rising...'
'Bam!'
A Wave of energy blasted out making Oliver jump as his eyes went wide.
Tori and Pako danced around the battlefield each one glaring at each other. Pako swung out with his powerful metal spear pure lightning and blue mana rolling off of him as Tori was just straight up on fire, his heat spilling out getting brighter and brighter as the two had some twisted dance between them.
Off to he side Davi and Oliver stood watching the fight.
"S... So fast." Oliver said with wide eyes.
"Really? Neither of them have gotten serious yet." Davi stated frowning. "Their both mostly just swinging away and testing each other out."
Pako sent out a powerful stab with his spear launching out a bolt of lightning that zapped around slamming into Tori who took the attack head on throwing out a powerful punch and blasting the area around him in flames.
"T... Thats them holding back..." Oliver gulped.
"Yeah..." Davi nodded. "Trust me. The guys you really want to be worried about..." For a moment thoughts of Kuro and Snipes went through his mind. "Those ones are way stronger than either Tori or me..."
Pako threw his spear forward stabbing it into the ground and blasting the sand apart. He let out a roar and jumped into the air spinning around landing down on the spear and clasping his hands together making a large electric lance which he stabbed down. "I'll turn you to ash! Ril Lightning Blast!" He screamed hurling the lance forward as hard as he could putting his all into the attack. "This here is my strongest attack! I don't care if you can heal! One hit and you're ash for sure! Burn in hell!"
Oliver's eyes went wide as he stepped back. For a moment his eyes seemed to glow as his body began to shake. "T... The mana coming off of him is..."
"Wait can you sense it?" Davi asked raising an eyebrow. "Thats pretty nifty you know."
30% of the Population had access to Arcane Energy. Most of those people were Nobles. With Arcane Energy they could use it either Internally to boost their stats upping their senses, speed, and power, or Externally allowing them to throw their Arcane Energy out in the form of spells with their Magic Type. However that was all they could really do with it. For most Arcane Energy was something that could just boost them or let them use a Magic Type. However there were rare people born with Magic Skills, which allowed them to use their mana in certain ways such as Oliver. Some of these Skills were Mana Sensing which allowed a person to see and sense mana. And then there were Graces which were even rarer than skills and didn't rely on the user being skilled rather it used the mana of the world.
"Y... Yeah I can sense Mana as my skill." Oliver said slowly.
"Wait you have a rare magic type, and a skill?"
"I also have a Grace if that helps ease you."
"Seriously! Geez... No wonder they took you. You're like a super secret rare USSR in a game!" Davi said with wide eyes. "Hell I'm half tempted to kidnap you and sell you to the Black Market-"
"What!"
"Kidding. Mostly..."
Oliver shook his head for a moment getting back on topic. "Whatever, that isn't important. I can explain later but we need to move like right now or we're dead!" He said as Tori fired towards Pako's attack at high speeds. "Tell your friend to move and not get hit with that attack!" He yelled out in a panic. "That Pako dude is overflowing with Arcane Energy! He's going to vaporize Tori if he gets hit with that spell-"
"Relax," Davi said casually placing a hand on Olivers shoulder.
"But your friend is going too-"
"Just watch... Tori is... Far stronger than even me. He's powerful. I believe in him and am counting on him to win. So watch him do just that!" Davi announced proudly his smirk growing showing his many shark like teeth as a blue energy seemed to come off of him some of his own energy leaking out.
Tori was still firing forward towards Pako's whos super spell was just about done getting ready to launch it. As he flew forward he twisted his body so that he was side ways as he raised one of his legs up in a half splits motion. He was still spinning forward, and the flames began to bubble out and seep out of his body as his spinning got faster, and faster, turning Tori into an orange blur in mere seconds. The flames actually began to get smaller around his body as they began to focus in on his leg covering it up and expanding around it forming flame like armor as he got ready to unleash a powerful attack right back at Pako.
"Die!" Pako roared slamming his hands forward as the flying lance expanded in size forming more lightning out of it. The heat was so great much of the sand began to convert to pure glass as the attack spun through the air and slammed into Tori's spinning form. "Burn in hell!" There was so much heat and power coming off of it that Oliver felt himself be raised up. He reached out wrapping his arms around Davi hanging off the raven haired teen, as he gave a loud yell. Davi remained standing a knowing smile on his face as his arms were crossed.
"Orange Eagle!" Tori announce kicking up and launching all the flames and Pako's magic high into the air causing them to explode in a hail of energy and rain down magic shocking everyone but Davi as the power faded and Pako's attack failed.
"W... What!" Peko said in horror and shock. "How... How the hell did you do that!" He yelled. He brought his hands up pushing them together as a ball of lightning formed and he thrusted his arms forward sending out another massive blue energy wave. "Row Lightning Barrage! Die! Die, die, die, die, die! Die!" Several smaller beams all fired out of his palms all slamming into energy but not actually harming him all that much. Any damage that was caused to Tori simply healed over due to his Grace as his flames began to slowly pull back in.
"Sucks doesn't it." Tori said giving a sad smile for a moment as he stared down at his fist the flames wrapping around it.
Pako stopped his barrage stepping back eyes filled with horror. "T... This isn't fair! In terms of sheer power I outclass you! If not for those cursed power you'd be dead for sure!"
"You got me there." Tori snorted stepping forward. "If not for my powers I'd be dead. Still... I have them... And like it or not I'm stuck with them... Stuck with the pain. The pain of the flames, but also the pain of knowing just how weak I really am... Having to 'use' that 'mans' damn fire just to keep up... God I really hate it. But... Kicking assholes like you sure does bring a smile to my face!" He announced slamming out a powerful flaming punch right to Pako's face as hard as he could putting his all into the fire punch. "I win."
"W... Who the hell are you two..." Oliver asked falling back.
"Just some idiots looking to get their wish granted." Davi shrugged. "Be it saving loved ones, or wanting to put out a fire. Either way you look at it we're just Davi and Tori."
"S... Seriously... You say that so weirdly... Like a Novel Protagonist or something... Still... Tori was so strong... I'm so jealous! And you..."
"Hmm?"
"You have to be really strong to right?"
"Of course I am!" Davi announced. "I trained with my Grampa for years! And my sister Gloria taught me a lot as well!"
"So you've got to have a rare kind of Magic Type right! Or a Skill, or a Grace!"
"Nope!" Davi announced proudly. "I don't have any Skills, nor a Grace! I also have no idea what my Magic Type is or how to use spells!"
"Wait so you can only use Internal Magic to boost yourself? That isn't very impressive?"
"Well... I do have my Two De-"
"Hey dumbass!" Tori called out walking over as his flames fully died out. He stood naked for a moment making Oliver blush and look away, as Tori began to slip back into his black jump suit. "We're done here right? I assume we can go now. I set all the people in the boat free and told them to leave the beach and head to the guard station."
"Nice!" Davi said giving a thumbs up. "Well then Tori I'll handle everything else!"
'These two...' Oliver thought as he hugged Cath closer to him. 'They're both so strong... And Davi said he wants to be an Arcane Hunter... Compared to the two of them I don't have a right to even compete... They did what I said I would... They're so... Strong...'
"Good..." Tori yawned as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. "In that case I'll just... Be taking my nap now okay..." Tori fell forward suddenly slamming into the ground first as he began to snore loudly making Oliver jump.
"What happened to him!" Oliver asked in a panic. "He passed out!"
"Guess he used a lot of mana..." Davi hummed picking Tori up and throwing the boy over his shoulder. "Don't think about it too hard Oliver. Tori's Grace takes mana from him to heal. It's one of the few Graces that require the user to have mana to work. Because of the fact he's always on fire it means he's always using mana up. That suit he has on lets him lower the flames down though meaning he can recharge mana faster than he uses it with it on. But in order to really go all out he needs to take it off. Tori's strong. Far stronger than me, and he's basically unbillable, but if you wait him out he'll pass right out."
"O... Oh I see..." Oliver nodded. He frowned for a moment before slowly looking away. "S... So you're going to Oleander right?"
"That's right? We're going to be heading there to take the Arcane Hunter entrance exam and try and get into a Guild."
"C... Could I join you?" Oliver asked slowly tapping his finger tips together. "O... Only if you and Tori are both okay with it of course! A... And I'm not expect special treatment of anything! I... I'm not that strong I'll admit, and my mana control is terrible b... But I have the Mana Skill Mana Sensing which allows me to sense Mana, and I have a Grace called The Grace of Undoing... It allows me to undo Mana such as binding Mana, trapping Mana, barriers, and the like, but... Well Graces don't require any skill to use but I dislike, but I'll of course use it if you two want me to so I guess what I'm saying is... Please allow me to join you both!" Oliver said bowing his head as Cath the cat set on it like a hat.
"You want to join us?"
"Y... Yes!"
Davi leaned into Oliver. "Yo man... I don't hate you so I gotta tell ya know, that this is the best chance to run and never look back at us again. Trust me I'm pretty cool and mostly a badass but Tori's a total dic-"
Tori's fist flew out slamming into Davi and knocking him over. "Sleepy..." He yawned out.
"I rest my case..." Davi said slowly standing back up as he held the sleeping immortal.
"S... Still." Oliver nodded his head for a second. "I want to join you both. I want to be strong."
"Strong huh?"
"Yes. So please... I have to get stronger... A lot stronger... I need to reach that sword and with the power of this demon blade I'll do it!" Oliver announced grabbing the golden sword on his back.
"I mean I'm fine with you joining and I guess your dream is cool and all but you should really know Oliver that, that sword isn't one of the ten demon bla-"
Flames exploded out of the boat from behind the group. They slowly turned around and saw all the captives were now free and running off in a panic. And standing at the top of the boat was a very, very pissed off looking, Kaen who glared down at the group of three below.
"You three are..." Flames began to hiss off of his body covering the boat as he got a crazed look in his eyes. "Dead!"
"I totally forgot about him!" Oliver said with wide eyes. Kaen dropped down and began breathing heavily flames rolling off of him. "W... What do we do."
Davi stepped forward still holding Tori's ankles and using the boy as some kind of club as Davi gave his typical shark tooth grin. "You're pretty strong. Guess I'm going to use my secret move on you."
"I'm going to melt the flesh from your bones and turn your skull into my beer mug."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Then in that case..." Davi spun around his other arm coming out as he grabbed Oliver and threw him over his other shoulder. "It's time to run away!" He announced.
"That's your secret move!"
"Yes now shut up!"