Rustle, Rustle.
!!
From the bushes, came an unexpected adversary. His blonde hair looked menacing, as his shadowy face revealed, eyes glowing, widely smiling he said,
"Who could have thought that climbing a high tree and looking from there would make it this easy to find people."
"…"
Crackle, Crackle…!
"Well, Die."
As he said that, he extended his hand and fire sprayed from it like a dragon breath shot and instantly time slowed down.
He probably isn't using his favorite fireballs because of the damage it will do to the nearby property whereas these sprays of fire will quickly disperse if it stays in the air for more than a few seconds.
Even though I can think a hundred times faster than normal humans, I need to come up with something quick so that my body has enough time to act based on my thoughts.
I need to dodge, should I duck? No, he can readjust his aim almost immediately. Then I should jump backwards but I don't know how long the range of his attack is. I might die here.
Should I enter the inventory? No, too much time has passed for that, but I can still take something out of the inventory.
…Right, let's do that!
Woosh!!
______
'Unlike before I won't let my guard down.' I swore to myself, as I immediately used an attack that is impossible to live through as long as you get hit.
I would love to see him survive this,
Woosh!!
With an air splitting sound, my attack landed. I saw my attack dispersing, it seems it has made contact.
Sizzle…
The sizzling sound felt like music to my ears, I eagerly waited for the smoke to clear up so I can see his black burnt to crisp corpse-
!!
"What..How!?" My eyes widened when I saw a shield that had a few black spots in it but that wasn't the cause of my worry because soon after I saw the shield disappearing and Yin running in the opposite direction to mine, running straight into the forest.
"So long, sucker!" Yin mocked me by pointing his middle finger at me before disappearing into the woods. I didn't know what that meant but I was damn sure it wasn't something good.
'I will burn him along with this annoying forest!!!'
My perfectly polished fingernail started glowing in an orange hue, ready to kill…but then I realized I musnt act rashly, with a deep frown I channeled more power into my hand and made a brighter fireball than the one I had made in today's magic classes, this one had intricate patterns inside it and then.
Woosh!!
I shot it upwards, George, Mikey I found him. Even if he has gotten away, he is nothing but a trapped mouse now. Run wherever you want, your location has been compromised.
Now I just have to chase after him,
Tap, Tap!
As I started running on the concrete floor loud tapping noises started echoing.
Let's see where you hide..
!!
Suddenly I stopped and crouched down, my eyes slightly squinted. I have found Yin, I didn't need to even run much and It seems I have found him..
He is panting really hard, his hands are on his bent down knees probably due to the exhaustion of running.
Right I forgot he is really weak, after running for just a minute at his top speed he is this exhausted, oh well that just makes things easier for me.
I approached him slowly as to not reveal myself, now that I think about it, it was stupid of me to reveal myself just to rant to a deadman like that.
When I was a child, I used to go hunting with my father. Thanks to that, I have learnt many invaluable skills, among them are concealment and sneak attacks.
As I approached him, I made sure to just slightly reinforce my hand with fiery mana just enough to kill him while not doing any damage to the nearby trees.
Just when I was about five feets away from him, I hid myself under the bushes. I will sneak attack him in a count to three.
3, 2, 1!
"Hyaaa!!! Die Bitch!"
Contrary to the soft flesh I was expecting I was met with…nothing. Where he once stood there was nothing.
..He couldn't have run away so fast could he? Then I looked at the ground. There was a very clear dust mark of Yin coming and standing here along with my footprints but there was no footprint of him leaving there.
This begs the question where the fuck is he? Could it be..Did he get more than one relic-
Scrunch…Crack!
!!
Behind me I heard the sound of trees stretching and crackling in ways they shouldn't. But looking at the scenarios I didn't flinch, then I heard the all too familiar voice of..
"Alfred."
"Mikey."
We shook hands, tapped each other on the back, he handed me my orb and then he grimly asked, "What happened?"
"I saw Yin," I continued with a deep voice. "I saw him then he disappeared."
"I see, It's okay I can find him, WE can find him." I wanted to say Mike's words of encouragement helped but his grim tone ruined the delivery.
"It's not that, I didn't mean he disappeared figuratively, he literally disappeared right in front of my eyes." I said, in a slightly higher pitch.
"What! How?! And from where?"
"I don't know how he did it, or what he did. I have my speculation but that's all there is to it. As for where he disappeared from? Right here, right where we stand."
"Hmm." Mike then mused and said, "What if he used something like an invisibility potion? Or maybe a cloak? Did you see him wearing anything like that?"
"No, and no he couldn't have used any camouflaging abilities."
After all, he wasn't wearing a cloak when I chased him, and there is no way he could mask external signs of movements like footprints and such with just some camouflage ability.
"In that case, let's just wait here," Mike suggested, "Meanwhile.." then he raised both of his hands and then said, "Stretch, Fall."
As soon as he said that, all the trees in our nearby vicinity started falling as if their base had given up, and when I looked at the base of the tree I saw that really was the case. The base of all the trees seemed to have gone…soft.
After he was done, the vicinity looked something similar to what would happen if someone drops a bucket full of water in a grass field at a single point.
All the trees seem to have fallen and have formed a circle in the middle of which stood Me and Mikey.
Then Mike casually said, "Now we wait, if he was here camouflaging into the surroundings then by now he will probably be crushed to death by the heavy trees."
"...Right." Then I continued, "Remind me to never make me your enemy."
Mike just chuckled and said, "Sure."
…
It has been a while, Everybody has joined in our search for Yin.
We haven't left the initial vicinity yet, and since more than two hundred people are concentrated in this area and another fifty or so people are constantly surveilling the entire school grounds.
The fact that we haven't found even a single clue on Yin's whereabouts is slightly bothering me…
Where is he? How strong of a relic did the headmaster give him? And how many relics has he given to him? Just what is happening here…
Many questions are revolving around my head, making it slightly harder to concentrate and to make matters worse the students are also getting agitated as more and more time is passing.
"...hey…."
I wanted to say let's just go to our dorms tonight, but I can't..I have this feeling that if I couldn't kill Yin today...I never will be able to in future.
"Hey! Are you listening?!"
"Huh?! What is it, Geo?" I said, slightly startled.
"Meet, Cye Von Scourge. Cye this is Alfred De Blaze." George then said in a flat tone, then he proceeded to show Cye the place where Yin disappeared.
"Cye is one of the best sensors in the whole academy apart from the i-instructors that is." When me and Geo were far enough he said, which followed by, "Y-You know in a sense he is like a brother to me, his family also deals with Space affinity."
"Oh Really," I looked at him amusingly, "Y-Yeah! You know, he is like…"
George then went on to explain about Cye as if he was some sort of ideal figure to him.
Even though most things that he said were pretty boring, I still smiled and pretended to be interested. It's rare to see an excited and happy George after all.
"I see you guys are having fun." I heard the gruff voice of Mike and then I saw a part of the ground caved in a little far away from us and then Mike came out of it. As if the ground was alive the concrete gave Mike a ride until he was right beside us.
"How did the ground reconnaissance go?" George asked, suddenly becoming serious again.
"Nothing, nice idea though I never thought I could use my powers like that." Mike smiled, even though it looked menacing as fuck.
"T-Thanks! Haha!" George, not getting the slightest bit scared, just laughed out of embarrassment. Promptly gaining respect from the nearby onlookers as they flinched.
Then Mike continued, "That being said, That Cye guy is almost done with his preparations, Geo go supervise him."
Looking at the distant back of George, "What do you know about that Cye Guy?"
"Just some guy who will inherit the barony of some coastline country. Insignificant."
"You think so? I have a gut feeling that there is more to him."
My skin tingled a bit, Mike's gut feelings are generally right. I looked at him, worried "Are you sure?"
"...." Mike didn't say anything and continued to stare at the parting back of George, "How did Geoge ever get his hands on him? After all he is like a prodigy even in this school of prodigies."
Suddenly, my heart raced as words left my mouth, "He volunteered."
!!
What if he isn't on our side! Geo is in danger!
Then my eyes met Cye's, He smiled.