The Lightning Mage screamed as he felt the raging Storm eat at his body and soul. Ciaran on the other hand found out his element could not only devour kinetic energy and magic, but also life force. The more it ate, the more he healed.
Piece by piece it consumed the man's body, the consumption of the soul was going slower, however, as it couldn't break past the third layer. Once the Storm brute-forced its way into the fourth, the Mage died.
Ciaran clicked his tongue in disappointment, but at least he healed part of the damage and restored some energy. Their fight had been not only a sight to behold but also extremely loud. There was no doubt, more Hunters would come, and the beast would also flock to seek out easy lunch.
Ciaran put on his mask and donned the image of the Hunter White. He couldn't be caught in his real appearance here. Not when he was still injured. He could move now, thanks to the new application of his ability that he discovered, but that was about it. There was no fight left in him.
'I am saved thanks to a form of cannibalism, I don't even know whether I should laugh or cry.' Ciaran thought. He was above most things, but devouring humans whole, even magically, was still a burden on his conscience.
He didn't have time to think about it however, as a few groups were already at his previous location. More than fifty Hunters were investigating the death of the Mage.
"Died in a fight with another Mage. Seeing as he was eaten it was most probably a magical beast. Ladies and gentlemen, we are in luck today, we get to hunt down one of the rarest of all prey. We will hunt a beast that can use magic." One of the Mages said.
This combined group had seven Mages, and about a dozen Rank Fours. It was probably most if not all the elites in the area.
They didn't have to search long before they came in contact with Ciaran, who was tending to his wounds near a tree.
"White, did you see anything?" One of the leaders asked him. They could tell he was injured, but they couldn't tell it was by a Mage.
"I saw a big group heading into the Rank Five territory, and I ran for it. Those things are merciless and vengeful. I didn't want to get caught in a fight in my current state." He said, holding his hand up so they could see it shake.
They were sympathetic. Most of them had been where he stood right now, and even tho he was one of the few that still refused to group up, the priest had said the man had his reasons.
Ciaran had shown him one of his scaly hands, once he was sure the priest wasn't a purist. From then on the man didn't insist anymore. The Archpriest was more than familiar with how his fellow man treated the different and understood where White was coming from.
As such he had left orders to all the leaders to leave him alone, and seeing as he helped them most of the time, the Hunters didn't mind his solitude. Most just thought he was a Darkness user.
To Ciaran's surprise, they were preparing to hunt down the Rank Five.
"I must advise you against it, it will probably kill you all," Ciaran said, unhappy to lose future kills.
They thought he was simply worried about his fellow men, and boosted how great their party was.
As soon as they made it clear he couldn't convince them to turn away, Ciaran forced himself to his feet and headed south.
"I don't want to stay here. If it gets pissed, I will be next. Good luck and safe hunting." He said as he wobbled away.
The party was surprised at how cautious he was, but seeing he could barely walk, they let it go. Then they made their way to the squirrel's territory and found the massacre. Most were outraged but the Mages noted that the victims were killed differently that the mage they saw before.
More research was needed to determine if the killer was the same, or was the lone survivor finished by someone else.
Before long they ran into the master of this territory. Staring them down from a tree, its meaning was clear 'Leave, or die like the rest of them.'
The Mages started casting and the Warriors took out their weapons. They could tell that the others died before they could even defend themselves, so they wanted to be ready.
It was more than a little comical, seeing fifty-plus people being on edge against something smaller than a regular cat, but once it moved, the genre changed from comedy to horror.
In an instant, all the small fry died, and only the mid-level experts were left. The Warriors were able to protect the Mages, and their magical artillery was able to fend it off, or at least the first attack.
"It's an Air user. It only has one attack in it, it springs itself, and attacks with devastating speed. It can't even come close to that speed anytime soon. Get it!" One of the Mages analyzed.
The Earth Warriors stayed behind for protection, but the rest chased after it. The Water Mage used his magic, to freeze the air around it, and slow it down further.
They chased it down for a whole minute before finally one of the Warriors was able to land a kick on its small body. It sent the creature flying into multiple trees. Before it could recover another Warrior had pierced it with his sword.
Like that, a Rank Five had died. The group was sad about the death of their friends, but these things tended to happen.
The mood was getting cheery when one of the Warriors froze. The others looked in the direction where his eyes had landed and froze as well. Countless eyes were watching them from the trees. They looked similar to the squirrel, but only some of them were Rank Four and below. At least thirty of them were in the fifth Rank, however, and there were even some in the Sixth.
"See, this is why I insisted we ran them out of our land. They killed a child, and they even ganged up on him." One of the Sixes said.
The others either sighed or nodded. Before the Hunters could react, they were frozen solid. One of the Sixes had judged that they had nothing of value to add, so he just ended them then and there.
Sadly for the Empire though, it was far from over. The squirrels had sent out a war cry, and many had answered it.
As this was happening, Ciaran had gotten to safety. Once he was in a territory in which nothing could threaten him he was teleported to the pond.
As per the instructions, the dryads couldn't help him at all. So even though he had killed a Mage, he needed to get to safety before they could bring him here and heal him.
"You suck at fighting still, but at least you are making progress," Eleftherios said and laughed at the expense of his disciple. He then waved his hand and the boy was completely healed.
It was always a magical experience to have all of his injuries just vanish like that. Ciaran clenched his hands, undressed, and jumped in the pool.
He couldn't wait to feel his power increase again. The dryads just laughed at the boy acting like an impatient child for once. They then proceeded to get in the pool.
"Brace yourself, kid, this is going to be bad. You woke her up in your last fight, and from now on she will be pushing back in all of our treatments." Verdania said, not a hint of emotion came out of her.
Ciaran nodded and the process began. As always, his blood had dyed the pool red, but now a Storm was brewing above them and it was slowly entering the boy.
It helped him endure the massive amount of pain he was experiencing, but it also suppressed the wraith that was trying to cause problems. Like that three hours passed and another fifteen percent of the third layer was cleaned.
Ciaran was still conscious, but his Storm lost control, and the wraith came into existence. Inside his soul, it trashed and tried to cause as much damage as it could, but the dryads suppressed it as much as they could. The boy passed out, but his Storm didn't stop eating away at the corruption until the vengeful woman went back to sleep.
"It's getting worse Verdania. Every time we do this, it will become progressively harder. I think after a few more times, we might need Mother's help." The dryad Warrior said.
He hated admitting his own incompetence, but his pride was a small price to pay for his boy's well-being.