When Eli, Aerial, and Matilda looked at Harris to know what was wrong, they saw the scene of a body deflating into darkness
"A clone?? Dammit" Harris thought before looking around trying to find where he ran to
Eli immediately put up a barrier in the whole place, to stop him from escaping, when she did that, she then proceeded to spread her mana sense to try to find Rio, but to her disappointment, she didn't find anything
Aerial looked at the scenes and a trace of anger could be seen on her face
"Useless! The two of you can't even capture a 19-year-old boy, what's the point of brother sending you with me?" She said
This sentence made both of them were ashamed and annoyed, it was true that they couldn't capture the kid, however, why was she talking like she was someone important
'The only reason we're putting up with this is that the second prince said we should' Eli thought but didn't dare to say anything
"What are you still doing here? you have the tracker, go capture him!" Aerial Exclaimed waking the pair out of their stupor and dashed out of the auction house
———
In another part of Solia city, a black-robed, black-haired, and purple eyes boy could be seen running through Solia city
'Heh, shadow clone really does come in handy, looks like I need to look out from now on A slight grin appeared on Rio's face as he ran back to the academy
'I assume it's them that managed to put that unknown tracker on me, I should've removed it when I had the chance before, I thought it was an opponent I could handle, not knowing I can still be suppressed, a little power and I'm this arrogant' Rio clenched his fist while reflecting his behavior
'I'm already far enough that they can't catch me, and with the tracker removed they wouldn't know where I am, however, they probably would know my destination since I have been residing there all this time, once I enter the academy they can't catch me, so I should hurry' Rio said increasing his speed to his limit
———
Whilst Rio was fleeing at top speed, A couple of mages and a knight were dumbfounded
They tried to track Rio but realized they couldn't
"Did he somehow remove the tracker?" Harris said
"That can't be, he has to be a 3rd Rank Mage Master that has entered his conscience to get rid of it, it was probably Alchemist Asis that somehow detected it and removed it" Eli replied
"But we could track him before, he couldn't have gone to Elder Asis in this span of time" Harris Refuted
"Who knows, let's worry about that later, since we can't track him, let's head to the academy, where else can he run?" Eli dashed immediately, naturally followed by Harris
"We have to get there before he does, if he gets there first, we won't be able to get him" Eli exclaimed jumping on buildings as fast as she could
Naturally, she had the ability to fly, however, flying was prohibited within the city, so she could only resort to this
———
Eventually, Rio reached the edge of the city and started entering the Forest, with his runic shoes, enchantment, and natural speed, Rio moved like a haze through the forest, Rio wasn't trying to find out what would happen if those two managed to catch up
After 20 minutes of running into the Forest, he gradually started to see the academy, when he saw this, he felt relieved but didn't feel settled until he reached his manor, So Rio kept up with his speed
"five more minutes until I enter the academy barrier at the speed I'm going, from where they shouldn't be able to ent-"
Rio's thoughts were abruptly stopped by the hair rising on his neck, when he felt this, he instantly knew what was coming
Suddenly, Rio dodged left, narrowly missing the wind attack that came from behind him
"tsk, how did he manage to dodge that" Eli clicked her tongue
"Who knew someone like this was so annoying and at his age" Harris grinned before he had a burst of speed, leaving Eli behind and gradually catching up to him
'What a pest, are they testing me? Just because I run doesn't mean I'm weak' Rio sneered
"Boy, just stop it already, your academy is still quite the distance, we simply just wanted to talk to you, why are you making things harder than it has to be," Harris said in a mocking tone
Rio simply ignored but his mind was solely on running 'He's about 500m away'
'400m'
'300m'
'200m'
'100m… Now!'
Rio's dantian started rotating and suddenly [ Bleak Envelopment ] Rio cast instantly
Harris felt the mana signal, then scoffed when realized Rio was trying to cast a spell just now, "Kid, what's the point of doing this now, I will get to you before you can finish casting" However, Harris felt a strange set of danger, he felt the danger not from Rio but from his whole surrounding
When Harris felt this danger, he knew he was too close to Rio to just retreat, so he thought maybe this was some intimidation spell to give Rio some breathing space to finish casting, When Harris thought of this he instantly dashed to Rio at full speed
"NOOO! HARRIS BACK OFF!" Harris heard a call from behind him, naturally, this was Eli, but before Harris had to register what Eli said…
'Psshhh'
DEAD!
Blood and bits of flesh stained all the nearby trees.
When Rio realized that the attack managed to instantly kill Harris, he stopped running, Eli also stopped her running appearing around 200m from Rio
The both of them were running so fast that Eli was now in the center of where the knight comrade splattered
"H-How did you do that," Eli asked, she wasn't bothered too much about Harris, but how Rio managed to instantly cast what seemed to be a level 10 spell, that would take at least a minute if Eli did it herself
Eli instantly turned around and started running with no hesitation, she didn't even know what spell that was, but from what she saw, the shadows from the trees started entering Harris at a remarkable rate until 'boom'
Eli didn't want to stay and stick around to seek if Rio had another one of those up his sleeves, Harris was her meat shield, she only had to support him from a distance,
'How did he manage to instantly cast a peak Earth Level spell instantly, there is no one that can do that except a Magus' Eli was 100% he wasn't, she thought at most Eli was a 2nd Rank mage until she saw the mana fluctuation and realized, he was the same rank as they are, and at his age
'Is he an elf? No, he doesn't have the features, However, Young, 3rd Rank, and Instant cast? Young and 3rd Rank maybe but instant cast…he's definitely an elf in disguise, I need to report back to his highness, if I told him about my findings…' Eli slightly lost herself thinking of the benefits the prince could give her that she forgot about Rio for a second but the eerie voice that was behind her snapped her out of her stupor
"Why are you running away now? This isn't some show where we chase each other back and forth, you said you wanted to talk, and I'm suddenly free" Rio mocked as he poured more mana into his runic shoes, boosting his speed to the limit.
When Eli realized Rio was getting closer she panicked, "Do you know who you are offending by doing this? I work for the …" She spoke with some priding expecting him to stop or at least hesitate but before she could even finish the sentence
"Miss, I don't care…" he said before casting [ Bleak Envelopment ]
Naturally, as a mage Eli, could feel the mana especially when it was this close and aimed at her, so she used what she could. 'Shadow is what's powering this move; how do I stop it?'
Eli was racking her brain, since Eli unlocked her psyche Meridian, her brainstorming was 10x the speed of reality
'Shadow…Shadow?'