On the plateau Karl and Zena are having a conversation.
"You nearly took out my entire squadron." Sian yells as he points at Karl. "And you shall pay for it." Two red magic circles appears on Sian's hands.
"The horizon shall bear witness as I, Sian Fresco pass my judgement on you."
'Judgement? Why the fuck are you pulling the victim card?' Zena holds Karl's hand.
Sian's face turns into a predator. "IGNITE."
A powerful yet very concentrated heat ray comes out of the magic circles. Karl disappears along with Zena. The ray hits the ground behind and series of large explosions follows it. These explosions are bigger than Zena's strongest spell, each having the power to destroy a small City.
Small shockwaves shakes the entire forest. Sian clicks his tongue as he notices that he missed. Just then Karl appears out of nowhere and kicks Sian in the face.
'H-hard.' Karl takes step back.
Sian cracks his neck draws his sword. "Try to dodge this."
He slashes horizontally at Karl which leaves a fire trail. The half ring of fire is approaching Karl. Karl grits his teeth and performs levitating steps into the air. Sian notices Karl's unusual movements.
'One step at a time, huh?' Sian summons another circle which looks slightly different than before, it throws a barrage of fireballs. Karl who just landed, uses levitating steps again. But Sian doesn't stop. He continues his barrage at Karl.
'His movements!'
One fireball hits Karl in the shoulder and he falls. Sian steps closer to him. A bright light flashes and a small fireball which looks like a sun zooms at Sian. Uninterested, Sian doesn't even looks at it and slightly leans dodging the spell entirely. The spell goes straight and hits a tree just behind the wagon. The wagon is shakes from the impact.
Sian picks Karl up by his neck. Karl struggles to breath, blood dripping from his injured leg.
"Zena Aurtica. Come out or I will burn this kid alive."
Silence.
"S-she won't come. I already told her to run away. Your efforts are wasted."
"I will decide that." Few seconds passes but Zena doesn't show up. Sian eyes glow orange and a circle appears on his other hand. Just then Karl summons his circle and he smashes a large rock on Sian's head. He releases his grip and Karl falls on the ground.
"You lowlife!" Sian yells and quickly releases a fireball. Karl takes the first step and appears behind Sian. But before he could do anything Sian punches Karl in the gut. "You are so predictable." He doesn't stop and continues to stomp Karl.
'Is this what Ken meant?' Karl tries to summon his circle but fails. 'Fuck. Not now.' He tries again but fails.
"Stop! I am here." Sian stops and everybody notices Zena coming out of the forest.
'This bitch.' Karl curses.
"Stop it, Sian. You are here for me. Leave the innocent kid alone."
Sian walks closer to Zena. "Innocent? This kid killed my entire squadron. You-"
Karl somehow gets up.
"SIR!" The knight near wagon screams. Karl pushes his body once more and uses the levitating steps. Sian uses his heat ray once more and aims at Zena. Karl tackles Sian in the back which changes the path of the ray. It flies up in the air and disappears.
"Couldn't predict this, huh?" Karl grabs Sian and headbutts him.
The knight who was guarding Martin gets off his seat and runs towards Sian. But a wall of fire appears in front of him. "Not so fast." Zena steps up to fight him.
Sian tries to summon another spell but Karl doesn't let him. He continues to punch Sian's head. Zena summons a shield made of pure fire to block the knight's magic which causes a loud sound. Karl glances back, Sian catches him off guard. He pushes Karl off him. Karl curses at himself and runs towards Sian.
From observing Sian Karl understood one thing that he is weak in close combat and Karl will definitely lose in long range.
"You animal!" Sian curses as Karl jumps on his chest. Karl grabs Sian face and tries to bite him. In the struggle Karl scratches Sian's nose. It starts to bleed. Sian slaps Karl away and takes a step back.
'How savage. How ungraceful. How unsightly.'
"ENOUGH!" Sian screams. Suddenly Sian's entire body glows and catches fire.
'Is he committing suicide?' Sian's armour melts away, leaving him in chainmail.
"LEONARD! RUN!" Zena screams at Karl.
'Wha-' Sian releases a blast of fire from his hands. There was no casting time, no circle, no way to tell that he was going to attack. Karl thinks of using levitating steps but doesn't. Instead, he covers his face and the blast hits him head on. Due to the impact, Karl flies few meters back. Both of his hands look badly burned, his face suffered 1st degree burns and his legs along with stomach area's clothes are ashes now. Despite this he is alive. Karl cannot feel his hands anymore. His face stinging.
"NOO!" Zena screams. Sian's body turns back to normal. She tries to finish this knight but he is fighting too defensive and his earth magic is countering Zena's attacks well. He is only buying time for Sian to end Karl.
Sian aims his hand at Karl. He summons a magic circle.
In a pinch moment, Zena decides to risk it. Her hands catch fire and she punches the ground with all of strength. The ground shakes. This unbalances both Sian and the knight. She fires a small fireball at the knight and dashes towards Karl.
Sian who is on his kneels blasts fire at Karl. Zena pumps her mana into her legs and blasts towards Karl. She picks Karl but Sian's attack intercepted her. She falls on the ground, her shoulder clearly suffered from 3rd degree burns. Karl still not moving.
"Pick him up." Sian orders the knight. The knight who now has a hole in his chest armour his chainmail exposed, runs towards Karl and grabs him by his head.
"Don't do it Sian. He is just a kid. He has nothing do with this. I will do whatever you want." Zena begs.
"Kid? He is an animal. He dared to harm me. ME! THE STRONGEST ADVENTURER IN THE BLOCK!" Sian gives a predatory smile. "He needs to die."
"NO! PLEASE! SIAN. DON'T." Zena smashes her hand on the ground as fails to get up. The knight holds Karl in the air. Sian's left arm burns once more, inches from Karl's heart. "DIE!"
Sian pierces Karl's chest with his burning hand. Blood spills on the ground. His hand goes through easily. Too easily. Sian blinks for a second. Surprised. His is literally went through Karl's body without hurting him.
"Nice try." Karl smiles at Sian. Blood coming out of his nose and eyes. Karl punches Sian in the face. Then, he just falls on the ground and dashes towards Zena's side. 'My hand slipped?' The knight wonders. Zena stands up with Karl's support.
"Round 2?"
Back in academy. "Yes, he went to visit his family. Is there a problem?" Ian asks back.
"But our sources tell us that he is not with his family."
"What sources? I just had a talk with him this morning. He is there." Ian lied as he breathes.
Chief thinks for a second. "We saw him going with some unknown girl."
"Could be his friend? His girlfriend? After all, he is just a student." Andressa's heart sinks more for some reason.
"From previous interrogation and your statement just now, seems like Leonard is a popular guy despite his height." Chief laughs. Ian doesn't even smile.
Few seconds passes with silence.
"That's it. Thank you for assistance." Chief gets up and puts his hand up for a handshake. Ian just nods and leaves along Andressa. Chief sighs and takes hand back.
"Looks like today was not your day, chief." The agent says. Chief laughs. "Everybody makes mistakes." He opens the door and goes outside.
"Where is Sian?" Chief asks.
"He said that he had some personal work."
Chief stretches his arms and yawns "Looks like this case doesn't need to be solved. Let's go to Peter's place. My treat."
Agent looks at the chief. "Didn't you just said that this will bring us to a much bigger case? So, shouldn't we investigate more."
"That will happen eventually, don't worry."
Unconvinced, the agent agrees to the chief.
Just around the corner Andressa is telling Ian everything that happened to her. "And thank the horizon that you came." Andressa says.
"Yeah, your warden called me and told me that you were taken away by federation."
"Why do you have my warden's number?"
"For emergencies like this?" Andressa nods in understanding.
"Anyways, where is Karl?"
"I don't know. I haven't talked to him since yesterday."
"But you said-"
"I lied. Wait, I call him." Ian presses few buttons on his watch and calls Karl.
[User not found.] This message is displayed.
"WHAT?" Ian and Andressa say it in unison.
"D-Did something happened to him?"
"No. No. Maybe, he is out of range or in a restricted zone."
"R-Right."