Lacner firmly cling on Lux.
Lux turned his head at him before answering.
His face can be seen as pale. He is breathing heavily. He tried to take a deep breath but no matter what he does, his breathing doesn't seem to return.
Huff...
Huff...
Looking at his current state, Lux had a cautious expression.
His body and breathing are failing. If you look closely, he is no different than an old man with 1 month of life energy due to the decrease of oxygen in the area.
'No one can blame him for being unable to recover, even I still not recovering' thought Lux while holding his breath.
The spell that was used earlier can pull the oxygen from the surrounding air to create a larger and more severe impact once the target was hit. It can also push the oxygen aside because of the shockwave causing the people nearby to faint.
What's more, is that the places that weren't affected by the explosion were also got their oxygen stolen by the magical energy.
"go away from here for now and recover your breath. you don't have to worry about them, they are safe. they went to a much safer place" said Lux to reassure him.
Lacner had a thoughtful expression upon hearing this.
if what he said is true, then he had no other choice but to recover his breath first before engaging on the battlefield to make it seem like they were protecting her to lure the enemy while buying time for them.
"I understand, then please buy some time for me, I will come there soon," Lacner said with a nod.
Lux also nodded. with that being said, both instantly disappeared from where they were standing and went in the opposite direction.
Lacner had trouble running due to a lack of oxygen and For him, this is the biggest sin as an Ss-rank.
'An Ss-rank is close to dying just by a mere lack of oxygen? It's so funny, isn't it? I can't believe I reached this level without noticing my weakness.' Lacner blamed himself.
Because of this incident, Lacner Realized many weaknesses of his that are dragging him down.
For him, it's his first time moving without being able to breathe properly and after seeing Lux moving without any restriction even with the same condition, multiple thoughts invaded his head craving for more power, however, Lacner was able to stop it by his own will.
Power and weaknesses completely differed from each other, thus, believing his thoughts makes him foolish.
Whatever the case is, surviving is the first thing a hunter should prioritize. that is what he thought.
On the other hand, Lux had fought millions of monsters capable of destroying the world easily and some entities akin to a god.
Some of them had the power to remove the oxygen whenever they wanted to. So this kind of thing is just normal for Lux who killed them.
There're times when he thought he died but his will to survive made the impossible outcome and Lux was grateful to have such a will.
While running, Lux stopped midway as he looked around after noticing something.
'This unusual power, it's an assassin-type mage.' thought Lux.
'He might've concealed himself to the point that a Strong individual like an S-rank hunter is incapable of detecting him like a microscopic organism invisible to the naked eyes, but in front of me, he is nothing but an insect flying around my ears. I can completely sense him' Lux thought to himself as he grabs his katana inside the dimensional storage.'
"Technique deployment, Flame type" he raised his sword covered in flame and aimed beneath his feet.
"!!!"
"Burning ashes!"
Fwosh...
Lux abruptly thrust his katana on the floor causing the Flames warping around it to spread out, engulfing the entire house in flames before the house exploded.
Boom...
Debris starts falling from the sky. Smokes are blocking the view influencing the people nearby to be cautious of their surroundings.
Amidst the smoke, there's a man with a mask covering his face walking toward another person with a cloak.
"Seeing your aura, it seems that you're an illusionist," said Lux to the man covered in gray aura.
"So you knew?" he said.
"Of course, anyone hates a mosquito when it's flying around your ears" Lux answered him calmly.
"You are also the one responsible for spying on us a few days ago" he added.
"I see. I was wondering where the couple went to, it seems that they've left already because of you. And since you are the cause of that, I guess I have no choice but to kill you and extract the information from your brain." He said as his sinister aura starts enveloping around his body.
'He is not on the same level as me, however fighting an illusionist can be pretty annoying too. I have to be careful' Lux said to himself as he prepared for the battle.
'The person in front of me is not an ordinary hunter that's why I have to be careful. I saw him fighting with the flame maiden the other day and the result says so, otherwise, I be the one who's going to die here' thought Hiluman.
The two did a staring contest for a few seconds as no one seems to go for the first blow.
'I supposed he has no intention of attacking first for a while before his magic is completed.' Thought Lux after noticing the magic spell being cast secretly against him.
'Since he's an illusionist, the first one to attack should be me.'
In a split second Lux vanished from his spot and appeared in front of hiluman.
Fwosh...
'He's fast,' hiluman said to himself in surprise.
"Technique deployment, wind type. GaleForce" Lux swung his sword diagonally with 9 slashes covering the entirety of hiluman as it cuts his limbs and some other parts of his body.
Seeing the chopped body of hiluman, Lux muttered: "an illusion huh."
As soon as Lux said this, The pieces of hiluman body gradually turned into mana before returning to the original.
"That's right, I can turn myself into an illusion, and as long as you are not able to find my real body, you have no chance of winning against me," said hiluman as he appeared above Lux before his body disappeared again.
Soon, a huge fireball enough to destroy a small city in one shot appeared on top of his head.
Looking at the huge fireball on top of his head, Lux began to slowly close both of his eyes as if he accepted his death.
Boom...
The fireball landed on his head and demolished the entire mansion including himself, no, to be exact almost half of the city was engulfed by the explosion.
However, everything went back to normal when Lux opened his eyes again.
"Do you think that kind of illusion would work on me? You made it pretty obvious when you created that huge fireball." Said Lux based on what he calculated.
Unfortunately, An S-rank is not capable of creating that huge fireball because of the limit in their mana capacity. It may be true that they're strong enough to conquer a city, but if you compare a city with no hunters inside and an unguarded city, the difference is enough to tell that he couldn't even with just B-rank hunters in it as long as the number is around thousand. The S-rank mana is not enough to kill them all alone without proper strategy.
This is what Lux thought. In the past few years, Lux had seen many hunters who became S-rank with low mana capacity nevertheless none of them weren't capable enough to do it including hiluman.
"You're sense is pretty sharp still you're not enough to defeat me"
Hiluman cast another illusion magic on Lux as the entire world was instantly surrounded by darkness resulting in Lux being unable to see anything.
'Now that he can't see anything, killing him would be much easier. Nonetheless, I still need to use some magic from other directions and conceal my presence to disturb his senses and confuse him.' Thought hiluman while creating hundreds of clones from all directions.
While the gap between them is gradually decreasing, hiluman glanced at him to ensure that he didn't notice yet. Based on what he saw, Lux seems to not have noticed him yet, inducing hiluman to have more confidence in succeeding.
Due to a lack of oxygen, hiluman breathing starts failing for a bit.
This wasn't good for him to drag out.
On the other hand, Lux hadn't shown any response yet regarding his schemes and is calmly organizing the situation.
Is what hiluman thought.
he took a dagger covered in poison that he had hidden within his clothes while closing the distance.
The purpose of the knife is to avoid using magic that could indicate his presence.
'No matter how strong he is, he still has no chance of winning against an illusionist' thought hiluman while pointing the dagger at Lux's neck.
'Don't resent me too much in heaven. It's still your fault for getting in our way'
Hiluman's knife started shining.
'Now then, it's time to finish this...'
Slash-
"...!"
Hiluman took a step back, but he was a moment too late.
Splurt...-!
A deep cut ran through his chest.
"Keogh-"p
Tss, tsss-
The scattered mana throughout the area returned to hiluman body.