A gentle breeze rustled our clothes, causing my black cloak to sway gracefully in the wind. As my hair was swept away, it revealed the cold, piercing gaze I directed at the five men.
"Hey, that brat isn't an ordinary mage Nageyama."
One of the men spoke up, addressing the person who stood in the center. This man clearly held a position of authority within the group, noticeable from the way the others looked up to him and feared his words. They were able to sense that I wasn't ordinary.
"Nageyama the executioner of Tendon Seis, am I correct?"
I knew who he was the moment I heard that name, after all the true reason I came to Mysthaven all the way from the Silvershade kingdom was to protect Helena Kohana, I was on a job request.
"Oh? Am I that famous even beyond the borders of Mysthaven?"
Nageyama chuckled sinisterly before stretching his left palm towards me seemingly about to make a statement. It was always annoying how the bad guys most especially the higher ranking ones downgrade their opponents.
"It doesn't matter, we'll just have to kill two birds with one stone. Kill him and capture her!."
"Yes sir!."
Responding simultaneously to the instruction given, the four men all dashed forward at once, they approached us in a movement that was in sync, seemingly going for a coordinated attack.
Instantly they surrounded us from all sides which caused Helena to cling to my hand, she knew what they were capable of. They leaped in the air right above us, together the four of them had earth, wind, water and shadow magic respectively.
"Alright let's do this!."
"Yeah together!."
They all pointed their hands downwards towards me and Helen as properties of their magic surrounded their hands.
"Fatal Nebula!."
They all exclaimed, their magic properties of earth, water, wind and shadow essence which engulfed their hands were fired simultaneously, close together it resembled an energized beam of multi colored magic.
On seeing this Helena dug her face into my arm, this was the ultimate combo of the quadruple brothers of Tendon Seis which they used to take down so many opponents in the past.
"Tch don't mock me bastards!."
I inhaled swiftly with my mouth as the energized beam of multi colored magic descended towards me and Helena, when it got closer I yelled out a spell instantly.
"Sacred Wind Art: Wind Boreal Blast!"
I emitted from my mouth a large blast of spiraling wind energy towards the energized beam, on collision with the blast the beam was ripped apart. The four men got caught in the Boreal Blast and being in midair they were blasted right out of the sky and far away from our location. The pressure of the collision and blast gave rise to a cloud of dust which engulfed everywhere.
It's not that they weren't strong, but my magical power was far greater and I utilized one of the lower rank Sacred Arts. According to Xerxes in reference to the past (Chapter 5), the sacred art was a forbidden ability which meant it's spell rankings was between A and S rank.
"Now then.."
The dust settled moments after I spoke and all that was left and visible was Nageyama who had a smile on his face, seeing how things had turned out he was still so positive that his victory was assured.
"Don't get cocky because you dealt with some small fries, me alone is far more than what you can handle brat."
"Oh?"
SWOOSH!
Like the instant turn of events, a gust of wind rushed through the environment the moment I vanished from Helen's side, only my cloak was seen floating above her head before succumbing to the gravitational force.
Seconds later I appeared at the back of Nageyama who was well aware and could read my movements, I unsheathed my sword swiftly from the back of my waist and sent a slice towards the neck of Nageyama. He turned around instantly and caught my hand before the sword could cut him.
Catching my hand alone produced a considerable amount of wind energy which blew through a 4 meter radius around us and the ground beneath us cracked.
"This is getting fun."
I smirked, the battle was beginning to get heated and that was the best sensation there is.
"Let's get down to it, Nageyama!."
With a smile drawn on both our faces, I applied even more pressure than I did earlier to the sword and Nageyama was pushed back a few meters away from me. Immediately he regained his balance we both dashed forward towards each other. A sword made out of ice manifested in the right hand of Nageyama as we both swung out swords towards each other faces.
As our sword collided we ran past each other, Nageyama quickly turned around and swung the sword in his right hand towards my back, in response I backflipped in the air evading it and twisted my body to face him before sending my legs down towards his head.
Raising his left hand over his head he blocked the attempted kick and forcefully extended his hand propelling me backwards. I rotated twice in the air before landing on my feet. With no time to spare we both propelled ourselves towards each other swiftly extending our right fists towards our faces, compressed wind energy engulfed my fist while flames engulfed his.
Our fists collided, an explosion due to the fire and compressed wind energy colliding occured instantly, it sent shockwaves along with little debris of the destroyed ground beneath us everywhere. The shockwave knocked Helen off her feet and she rolled backwards on the ground several times before coming to a stop.
She raised her head a little groaning slightly in pain as her body was a bit delicate.
"A-amazing! So this is how a battle between two skilled mages look like!?"
She exclaimed in excitement as this was her first time watching two mages fight head on, being powerless and all.
"Hehehe, your not half bad! A hybrid huh?"
I chuckled softly after the few exchanges we made, it turns out Nageyama was indeed a hybrid. In this world of magic a hybrid is referred to as one who possess dual magic type.
"Indeed you are no ordinary mage, no one has ever lasted this long in a fight with me. You have earned my respect, it's a shame a mage as skilled as you won't exist in this world anymore."
As he spoke, flames erupted from his body in response to his thirst for battle, he already made up his mind to kill me.
"Is that so?"
A considerable surge of wind energy exploded out of my body as I was now cloaked with the aero surge spell, it seemed the real battle begins now.
"I'm all pumped up, bring it Nageyama!."