Chapter 23,
Never Giving In
Third Person's POV
Koshiro's overflowing with anger right now that he couldn't even control his flow of Mana in his body. The flow is too much that he might use up a lot by just standing there, so Riven decided to speak.
"Koshiro, being angry is not a good thing for you. You're a wind magic user, so you have to be calm, at least, in a battle for you to be able to cast magic properly. Don't give in to anger, your not a fire magic user," Riven gave his fist lecture.
"That's no truth. Just to remind you, I can use fire and wind magic freely," he looked at Riven with bloodthirsty eyes.
"But at least, calm down, brat. It will just course you no good," Riven sighed at him.
With his lecture, Koshiro listened and slowly took a few deep breaths. In and out, in and out, he calms himself down. His Mana's flow calmed down and his breathing was now stable.
"You can start now, I wouldn't mind," Riven insisted and Koshiro replied back with a nod.
Summon his Bow and Arrow, Koshiro distanced himself from the two enemies, and the siblings went out of the battle field to spectate his battle.
With his bow, he aimed at the two at the same time and distanced himself more further. The attacks were blocked by the two using their swords, but Koshiro knew of it, so he casted water magic right away.
"With the fall of the colors rain, I beseech for your power, Waterfall Mira—" Koshiro couldn't finish his sentence because Riven spoke.
"Don't. No matter how calm you are, you can't bring out the full potential of the water magic you use unless you call for their name," Riven shouts at Koshiro
In a flash, he realized it. Goro calls forth for the Gnomes which are the spirits of the earth since he has a contract with them, but he only thinks that you can call forth for the spirits unless you have an elemental spirit contacted with you. With that information, he formulated a new spell in his mind.
"With the flow of the rivers, lake and seas, I beseech for your power, Undine of the Seas, Undine's Protection," Koshiro chanted once again.
'Did he summon Undine's power? No. He just gained a few attribute from his spirit that Master Fiosh mentioned. This is isn't Undine's power, he just called for Undine's support,' Darren thought.
In a sudden, everyone was shocked by a sudden flow of water in the area. It filled the battlefield and formed water mirages of Koshiro and slowly looked like him.
"That damn brat!" Shiru cursed as his sword flamed red.
Darren tries to cut the mirages in half with his blue sword, but it was futile. On the other hand, Shiru's Red Flame Sword can cut of water magic using fire magic.
The two enemies seems like they are trained well. They already mastered the primary blade that can cut off an A-Rank Defensive Shield or Barrier Magic at level 12.
Without hesitation, Darren attacked Koshiro while having Shiru to protect his back. Koshiro, one the other hand, tries his best to distance himself from Darren who keeps on following him. He couldn't even have the time to load his bow to attack since Darren's speed is at another level than he though.
"Water, grant me you strength. Water Sword Art Form Three: Spiral Slash," Darren whispered enough to be heard by me who was near.
"I summon you forth, the Great White Tiger of the Forest of Beasts, Saber," Koshiro chanted as fast as he could.
Saber appeared from a magic circle and bit the back of Darren's sword and unleashed some ice magic to freeze his movements to buy at least a few seconds for Koshiro to gain his composure.
Saber multiplied into many tigers and attacked at the same time, but it was cleared by Shiru and Saber was thrown back.
"That's no good. You need to learn how to fight alone. You should not just rely on your familiars, you know. Fight with them, brat!" Riven shouts from the distance.
Koshiro sent Saber back from where he came from and started muttering something, "Creepy as hell," Shiru spoke.
Slowly, he hid his bow and arrow on his inventory and removed his sword from it's sheath. The sword was green in color and was still weak and undeveloped.
"Koshiro, don't. You're still at the secondary color phase, it'll break," Lira warned him.
Shiru laughed very hard, "Are you an idiot? You can't defeat us with just a weak sword. It'll break easily."
By then, Koshiro stopped mumbling and switched to chanting, "Wind that blows, wind that sings its own tune, I summon forth your power, Swift Blade," slowly, Mana enveloped the sword and the blade was now looking more sharp than before.
He went for Riven's stance and copied it detail by detail, "Wind Sword Art Form One: Silent Slash," his stance shocked everyone, specially Riven who used it against him.
Koshiro aimed at Shiru and he was fast enough to defend, but it was not enough. His sword broke into two pieces and the other was thrown away by the slash.
Riven only thought after seeing the stance, 'This kid is really in a different level than I thought he would be.'
"You Jerk!" Shiru exclaimed in anger.
This time, Shiru was angry that a big fireball was released, but Koshiro dispelled it with his wind magic and summoned a huge whirlwind and it sent Shiru at Riven's direction and Darren couldn't attack on time to protect Shiru who wanted from the attack.
"Koshiro! It's fine to kill this guys. They have these from the Capital of the Knights, after all!" Riven called out to Koshiro while he's holding two posters in his other hand with Darren and Shiru's picture in it, "these guys are an B-Rank criminals. Criminals at that rank are sentenced to death or can be killed by Knights, so it's fine," he added.
'This guy. . . He's no ordinary Knight. His power and skills are beyond a newcomer. We were only told to be careful about his Crimson Gale, but still, if he's new, he will have less control of that power that he might even lose his life, so it means he might not use that power against us.' Darren thought to himself, 'I have mo choice, but to use that,', he added.
He readied his sword when Koshiro started chanting, "Water that flows, Wind that blows. Flame, the core of fire, that burns, and the earth, mother of all beings. I call forth for you power, Elemental Blast!"
Fireballs, waterballs, earth spears, and wind claws appeared, attacking Darren and Shiru which was thrown in the air by Riven. Although Koshiro's great at Wind and Fire, the waterballs he summoned was not strong and the same goes to the earth spears.
Suddenly, the water on the ground left by the previous skill, rose up and dispelled the fire and water magic. The earth magic was weak so it got cut down by Darren's sword and the wind magic was the only one that penetrated the waterfall wall that he created, but he was able to dodge on time.
Shiru, one the other hand, was bleeding all over and he's unconscious. Seeing that view, Riven was shocked. He didn't thought that he would be this type, despite being his first time killing someone.
Koshiro hid his sword back to it's sheath, "That's a lie. From what I was told, they haven't killed anyone yet. They weren't even criminals. Those pictures were made by you using a Technique called 'Painter', aren't I wrong, Sir Riven?" Lira, on the other side, chuckled.
"Oh, how did you know?" Lira asked.
"Like I said. Someone told me," Koshiro repeated.
"Told you?" Riven wondered.
"My skill did, to be precise," Koshiro repeated, once again.
"Is that so. . .?" A faint shock was felt, but it wasn't shown in Riven's face.
Darren, one the other hand, broke the conversation by chanting a spell, "Prison of Unconsciousness."
With those words, Koshiro was enveloped by nothing but pure darkness, not because he fainted, but because he was locked in a special type of spell known as a Magical Domain.
Magical Domains are like another world created by a large amount of Mana and Magical Power of the user. It can be used if you have a huge amount of Mana and Magical Power and it can trap anyone who the user wants to.
A magical domain takes form whatever the person's heart looks like and the while place is under the control of the user who created it. In other words, those who aren't the one who created it are vulnerable inside it.
Koshiro was shocked by the sudden turn of events, "A magical domain?!" Koshiro braised himself.
"You knew?" Darren spoke from in front of Koshiro, "In this Domain, I can make anyone lose consciousness here as I pleases and when they come back outside of this Domain, they're still unconscious. Now, sleep," Darren explained at a cool tone and ordered him.
"Koshiro!" Riven called from the outside after hearing what's happening inside.
"Koshiro!" He called once more.
"It's impossible. He won't wake up. It's futile," said Darren, "It's the end," he pointed at Koshiro with his sword, ready to kill him.
"Aren't you going to be strong enough to protect what's precious to you?" Lira's voice echoed in the Domain.
With those words, Koshiro woke up, but not in the Domain, but inside his consciousness. The guy he saw that time was there sitting on a chair, looking like a king himself.
"I've been wondering myself, but who are you?" He asked, filled with courage.
"Aeris. I'm Sylph's brother. Since I'm inside you, you can never be contracted with her. It as rule," He added an explanation with his introduction.
"What do you need from someone like me?" Koshiro asked once again.
"I hate too much question. For now, since you're the chosen user of Crimson Gale, I'll be bestowing you my help," he smiled, snapping his finger taking Koshiro back to reality.
"This c-can't be. M-my Domain is overpowered?" Darren was shocked.
"Let me tell you a lesson. Never try to kill my user. Ever." Aeris, who was possessing Koshiro said in an arrogant tone. Right now, Koshiro's hair is red in color.
When he was about to be attacked by Aeris, Koshiro stopped him, "Don't kill him."
"Why?" Koshiro didn't replied, "What a kid," he chucked.
Using wind magic, the Domain was ripped apart into pieces, which shocked the others. Darren was restrained by Aeris using wind magic. He lifted Shiru using wind magic and now, the two was beside each other.
"What now?" Aeris asked Koshiro.
"It's my turn," Koshiro said, speaking in the same body, and drawing out his sword.
Slowly, he tapped a part of their body and it healed slowly because of the swords power. The two was shocked by his actions that they couldn't say anything.
"Hmmm...? Why would you do that?" Riven was smiling as he approached Koshiro.
"Gut feeling," He explained.
"You're really something else," Riven laughed hard.
"Leave now before I change my mind. Rest assured, there's no next time if you dared to kill me," Koshiro warned.
"Well then, let's go home, everyone?" Lira smiled.
"Cook us good food, Lira! We both did a good job!" Riven laughed once again.
"But you didn't helped much. You even panicked when Koshiro's in danger," Lira chuckled cunningly.
"S-Shut it!" Riven was embarrassed.
"I've learned a lot today!" Koshiro stretched out.
The two, who was left there, was still dumbfounded by what happened. They only thought of one thing, 'We should've listened to Master Fiosh who told us not to fight with that guy.'
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