Zarin was shocked at the results of his attack, but it didn't last for long. After the past weeks of fighting the Demon Wolves on an almost daily base, he had made a habit of keeping himself on the task at hand.
Other than Eddie, who was tied up, with chained handcuffs on both arms and a chain connected to a metallic collar at his neck, there was also Oriel standing at the front and right of Eddie. Other than those two, there were only the remains of the person Zarin had just exploded the head.
"You…It is YOU "Oriel screamed as she noticed Zarin,
There were primarily signs of surprise and fear in her voice and eyes as she looked at Zarin.
"Yeah, it is me. So how about you free my friend first? Then we can talk. "
Zarin knew that he had the advantage. Oriel saw how he quickly killed one of her people, and she was just by herself. There was nothing she could do but give up.
But Oriel did something that Zarin didn't expect. She raised her hand, pointed towards Zarin, and said some words in a language he was unfamiliar with. As she did so, sparks of energy formed in front of her hand, and from the sparks came flames. The flames then made a ball of flame, which finished forming in a couple of seconds and then was shot towards Zarin.
It looked similar to Zarin's [Air Rocket] but was made of flames instead of compressed air.
The attack was fast, but Zarin was already on guard, and with his current Agility, he stepped out of the way of the ball of fire. It wasn't too big, and it traveled in a direction it got pointed at, making it easier to avoid it.
Then Zarin noticed a change in the text over the head of the Mayor. Before, it said just Oriel, but now it told Oriel Lvl 9. Zarin knew that if there was no level next to their name, they didn't have one, or they had a way to hide it.
But he never thought that Oriel could have something like that, either a class or a way to hide her level.
She was level 9, which meant she had a higher level than Heymon, who was at level 8 and was thought to be the one with the highest level in the village. Of course, others couldn't see levels of each other, but they could feel the powerful aura of the class of someone if they had a skill or tool to do so.
Of course, Zarin didn't need a tool as it was one of his advantages of reading the powerful aura of somebody, as far as he knew their true name. But others could block even that ability, which was a piece of information he was glad to learn that early on.
Zarin was currently Lvl 7, but that didn't mean he was weaker than Oriel. After all, he had two Max Leveled C-Rank offensive Skills, which he understood wasn't something that someone at his level could easily do. As for Oriel noticed that her attack didn't seem to contain as much force as his, but still, he didn't plan to let it hit him.
So he started his charge on her, as she noticed that her use of spell wasn't instantaneous like his, but it took her some time to chant some arcane words first.
Zarin reached her before she could react and punched her right in her stomach. His Power wasn't the largest of his Stats, but he had found out in his training that he could affect his unarmed attacks to be affected by Agility if he used speed over pure force.
From the last time he punched Oriel, Zarin knew that her Defense wasn't that great, and she didn't even wear any armor. However, this time, he felt some resistance at his hit as his punch connected.
It was almost like when he used his punches on the rough skin of the Demon Wolves but felt more artificial. He could tell that his attack didn't have as much effect as he thought.
As he was ready to hit her again, his inner alarm started ringing, and instead, he sidestepped and jumped away. Sparks of electricity formed at the place he was, and if he was even a split second later, he would get hit by it, and it wouldn't be a pleasant feeling.
There was a grin on Oriel's face as she brought her right thumb over to the right side of her lips to clean some blood that left her mouth from Zarin's hit.
"It is good that you are here. I have some plans for you. "
She let out a wide smile as she said that to let Zarin see her teeth. He quickly noticed that some of them were white artificial teeth, which probably replaced the ones he broke last time. Unfortunately, it wasn't too apparent the difference between her regular teeth and the artificial ones unless one paid close attention or she showed them for an extended period of time.
"You want me to help you make a place for more replacements? That can quickly be done. "
Zarin wasn't afraid of her, as he knew that he still had the upper hand. He understood she had a Mage Class, but he knew she was quite weak because of her level and personality.
Most normal Mages were researchers of the arcane arts and took them a long time for one to pass to decent power. But it was said that once a Mage passed their Base State, they could be even more potent than the rest Basic classes combined.
But for even to end with their Base State, they needed to pass level 100, meaning Oriel was way too far from it, and she was in the low parts of Base Class.
Zarin could also be in a similar situation. Still, his class wasn't a strictly Mage one. Still, a combination of over one, possibly of all three, meaning his potential was much higher.
Zarin didn't charge on her again, as he didn't want to get hit by that electric attack. He didn't hear her chanting anything when she used that, so he had no way to know when she used it, and he wasn't that confident about his battle warnings to be on time every time.
He needed to finish this battle fast, but in what way? Using one of [Burst Of Frost] or [Wind Rocket] had a high chance of obliterating her, but he didn't want to kill her. Instead, he wanted to interrogate her about why she was after Eddie and why she betrayed Lady Emlyn and her family.
Even if he knew he couldn't do anything against the Dark Council currently and that Oriel had almost no relationship with them, he knew that she at least knew how to find them. So even if he didn't plan to get revenge, he at least wanted to try freeing Aldis.
After all, Aldis was a friend and someone who could train Zarin or help him find a tutor for his Warrior Skills.
Of course, if he had no other choice, Zarin didn't have any problem killing Oriel. He didn't know what kind of trouble killing a Mayor would cause him, but he didn't plan to stay here for long, and the villagers didn't like Oriel much either way.
Zarin hadn't brought his wooden swords with him, so he had no weapon. But he changed that by pulling out of a wall hanger one of the torches that lit the place.
He then focused some cold energy on his hand like he tried to release [Burst of Frost] but stopped the Skill before it got fully formed. When he unlocked the Skill, information about it had entered his brain, and since it was the knowledge of a max-out Skill, he picked up some more tricks like the one he just used to put out the fire of the torch.
With just the torch's body, it was like he had a club equipped. His [Sword Mastery] didn't affect it since it wasn't a bladed weapon.
With some confidence in himself, he now had some kind of weapon. Increasing even a little his reach, Zarin charged once more.