While it's a first, this chapter is dedicated to Coyote169 as well as Triad_lust.
Thanks for the Golden Tickets and powerstones. It's an honor having you donate so much to the book.
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During the battle between Raiden and Keith, Seth had successfully managed to carry Taro far into the distance. He brought him out of the forest and close to its entrance.
He found a tall tree and after placing Taro on top and administering more treatment to guarantee that Taro could wake without anyone's aid, Seth sprinted back to the battleground.
He had rescued his friend and now, he planned to do the same to his teacher.
During his solo training journeys before, Seth had wandered into the other half of this area.
The mountainous landscape was known as The Deadlands due to the ratio of people that died in there compared to the survivors because of its high level of dungeons.
Seth had found two of such dungeons as one would even prove very difficult for Class Six magic users because he had visited them for reasons only known to him.
He planned to lure Keith away from Raiden and into that dungeon where he could fully unleash his strength without having to worry about getting found out.
The principal almost discovered last time so he didn't want to take any chances this time.
As Seth got closer, he heard a body drop to the ground, and then a shout followed.
He dropped a brown leather on the floor before advancing further.
As he closed in on the spot, he heard Keith's voice. "Well… I won't be needing you then."
Seth arrived just in time to see Keith's sword descending upon Raiden's abdomen, aiming for his core to render his status as a magic user useless.
"Wait!" Seth's voice echoed bringing the descending sword to a halt just as the tip dug into Raiden's abdomen making his body jolt.
Both parties turned to see Seth standing at the same spot he had been the last time they saw him before he ran off.
Seth stood bravely twenty meters away from Keith or Raiden as he opened his mouth to speak. "You're after me, not him."
"Let him go and come after me instead." Seth requested.
"And why should I let him live? I could as well just kill him and then kill you next after I'm done with him. It's not like you can outrun me anyways." Keith eyed Seth with the same level of confidence as he always had.
"Because I'll escape the moment you kill him." Seth spoke, pulling out a short brown scroll from his pocket.
As he pulled it out, Keith's eyes widened in shock and terror. "How'd you get a teleportation scroll? I thought those didn't exist anymore?"
Teleportation scrolls as the name implied was a scroll used hundreds of years ago as a means of transportation. They consisted of certain locations and once torn, they took the user or users to the location registered on the scroll.
While they were expensive and one-time use, they did their job extremely well as they could come in handy in serious situations since the activation of such scrolls depending on their quality.
Keith spoke of their nonexistence because they were made by special rune inscribers, a subgroup of rune inscribers who had gone out of work.
"That doesn't matter. Although I don't know your name, I know who sent you and the moment I leave this place, be sure that your end will come. So kill him and die a while after or leave him and come with me." Seth demanded, giving Keith two options to pick from while holding the scroll between two hands.
Now, Keith was stuck in a dilemma. All Seth said could happen and Keith had to decide which he would go with.
The option wasn't too hard as, after a moment, actions followed.
Keith pulled his sword out of Raiden and slowly walked forward. "The latter it is since I can always come back to kill him." Keith answered, not hiding his thoughts from Seth.
"Good choice." Seth smiled and conjured small wind which wrapped around the teleportation scroll in his hand and flew toward Raiden.
Raiden was still conscious so he heard Seth's words which made his face twist. "The scroll should take you back to the entrance where you'll find Taro. Take care of yourselves since I'll be joining you soon."
"Bold words kid… bold words." Keith said with a grin.
"Let's go then." Seth spoke and Keith followed behind, leaving the half-dead Raiden to tend to himself or die trying.
The only reason why Keith agreed to follow after Seth was his pride and confidence. He believed he could kill this fourteen-year-old kid at any time.
It was still night as there was still a bit over an hour before midnight. Everywhere was eerily quiet as they walked aside the crunching of dried leaves beneath their feet and the occasional howling of beasts in the forest.
Either fortunately or unfortunately, Seth and Keith didn't come across any as they moved forward, Keith a few feet behind Seth.
Then Seth stopped and bent to the ground.
"What're you doing?" Keith asked when he noticed Seth pick a brown leather scroll from the floor.
After having seen the first teleportation scroll, his brain rang alarms. 'This brat had two!'
He was wrong. Seth had a lot more as he was the one who had made them. If others found out, he'd be toast but luckily, that would remain a huge secret.
Seth's voice echoed out and Keith heard it clearly. "We're going for a short trip."
Rip!
The leather scroll was torn and a magic circle appeared on the floor, expanding all the way to engulf Seth and Keith in the next few seconds, a blinding light ensued and when it ended, they were gone.
They had teleported.
Thud!
In an underground cave that was over five hundred meters in size with lots of tunnels, two bodies landed in a tunnel and while one still struggled to register this location unto his brain, the other pulled off his necklace and mana exploded out from him.
"I'm all ready now." Seth spoke to Keith who now knew something was wrong.
No, everything was wrong. He had met three targets and had failed to eliminate any and now, his main target was giving off way more pressure than himself.
"Curse you!" He yelled and launched himself at Seth with his sword stabbing forward.
"Hey! That's too early." Seth raised a brow and a pillar shot out of the right side of the wall.
Boom!
It slammed into Keith's right ribcage.
"Ugh." He moaned in pain as his body was flung to the left side of the wall.
"It's too early to be in pain." Seth spoke and another pillar shot out of the left side, slamming into Keith's left rib cage, throwing him to the other side.
"Arghhhh!"
Keith shouted, brimming with power and ready for the next attack which descended from above.
Reinforced with droves of mana to strengthen himself and his sword, Keith attacked the pillar.
Boom!
Chunks of rocks exploded in all directions as the pillar was destroyed.
Before Keith could celebrate, two pillars shot forward. One from the left and another from the right in angles where Keith could only evade or block one while the other would undoubtedly land on him.
While Seth was letting out mana without reserve, a tiny portion was slowly leaving his body without him knowing. Like a woven thread with life, the portion of mana leaving Seth's body made its way deeper into the cave as it headed towards something unknown.