'Fuck, I am doomed if the boss is under her control. How the hell did he get under her control if he was a captain-level individual? No, I need to do something before it's too late,' Erza's brain was thinking of various solutions to the predicament they found themselves in.
'Wait, charm magic... I got it!' Erza got a lightbulb moment in her brain.
BANG!
A bullet was shot towards Miko.
"Stop it," however, she had said that even before the bullet left the barrel.
Akeru, who was standing in the path, stretched out his hand as he caught the bullet lightning fast without turning back.
"Throw it at her." Akeru turned around to do that, however, what he saw not only shocked him but also Miko.
---
Time--??, Space--???
"Miko-chan, please go out with me?"
Various gasps could be heard throughout the hall.
'What the fuck?' Takuma thought while looking at the confession.
He hadn't seen any signs of this coming, despite knowing both of the people decently, especially the boy who proposed.
"Rudra-kun, though I have known you for a long time, I only like you as a friend. I am afraid that I can't go out with you."
Takuma felt slightly relieved at this outcome as he was one of the people who had a crush on Miko.
He had this crush on her since she saved him.
Though he knew Rudra personally as a friend, so he felt a bit sad as he saw the expression on his face.
"It's completely fine, though I hope that we can still be friends," Rudra said with a wry smile.
Miko nodded at that. "I hope you get a better partner than me in the future."
With that, both parted ways.
Rudra ignored the looks he was getting; he didn't really care if people saw his rejection. That was the only thing in his mind as he came to the base, and now he felt that a weight had been removed from his chest.
Takuma discreetly followed Rudra and after noticing that he reached an isolated spot, where he usually resided, Takuma made his presence known.
"I am sorry... for your loss."
"Hehe, you are making it sound like somebody died," Rudra giggled.
The latter was sitting on the railing of the wall, which oversees the boundary with the forest up ahead.
Purple Orca had been given this spot to prevent beasts from the grand magic zone from coming to the settlements where commoners lived.
Takuma took a seat beside him.
"Do you know that I almost died today?" Rudra suddenly started.
"I heard that you were chasing a suspicious pickpocketer and went into a forest," Takuma said what he knew about the situation.
---
'Uh, this magic... it's very similar to one of the spells that the devil used back then. I guess magics related to affecting the mind are common in this aspect,' Akeru thought as he was hit by Miko's spell.
He had researched about such magic before and even looked at some arrays that could achieve a similar effect.
So, he had countermeasures ready.
'One way could be to expel the mana which is affecting me like I did before in the match with the devil. However, normal knights don't get this option due to the fact that not everyone has a mana zone or a spell that could affect the mana around them, which brings us to the second option.'
Akeru created a magic circle on the inside of his cloak, which had the function of preventing himself from getting affected by foreign mana inside his body.
He also added a failsafe such that if the magic circle got destroyed somehow, it would expel all the mana from his body.
'Though, even with this mana inside my body, I still could function normally with 'Still Spectator'. This spell does artificially increase focus and makes me focus on something. I guess even without my mana zone or knowledge about mana, I would have been her natural enemy.'
"Got you, that would have been dangerous if you had unleashed that. Now come here."
Akeru started walking towards her; it was the exact command his body would have followed if she actually controlled him.
'I guess she is still cautious about whether she controlled me or not, otherwise, I could have reached her in an instant. Though this would lead Erza to act, oh well, I should be able to capture her if I reach the halfway mark. I hope Erza doesn't act before that; otherwise, there's a chance that Miko will escape,' Akeru was very cautious about capturing her, as he wanted to do it swiftly and without any unnecessary complications as he was in enemy territory.
If he had a choice to do things silently and swiftly, then he would rather choose to do that.
BANG!
'Why did she choose to take action so swiftly? Oh well, let's see, I am given more autonomy for this action, let's just grab it,' Akeru thought while grabbing the bullet.
He then turned around and thought about throwing the bullet just at the right pace, which would allow Erza to deflect it and throw her backwards with the least injury.
He was calculating everything.
However, as he turned around, his mind went blank.
He had 'Still Spectator' still active, so whatever he saw was etched in his memory for a long time.
He saw the naked form of Erza standing there.
"That won't work," Miko said, and in the next instant gave a mental command to Akeru.
However, the latter was so caught off guard by what he witnessed, that his focus was not on that.
"Shit!" Miko ran behind with her top speed, instantly realizing that Akeru was just pretending to be under her control.
Akeru noticed Erza's eyes widen as he noticed Miko's retreating form reflecting in her eyes, breaking him out of his stupor.
BOOM!
He moonwalked instantly towards her as she got out of the gate.
Recently he had improved his pure mana applications successfully and reached a level close to Ladros in that.
A purple robe materialized on him.
However, a spatial disturbance was aimed at him coming from the gate, making Akeru focus on his mana zone, which was already spreading out, to neutralize it using Vibratory Chaos.
However, when his mana zone reached outside, he only noticed a spatial gate that was closing.
"FUCK!" Akeru cursed as he reached the other side of the top floor.
'Were they on edge for some reason, seeing as how quickly Takuma acted? It was like they were expecting to get jumped. Was our mission leaked?' Akeru quickly reflected on the entire experience.
'I should have acted instantly when I saw her. That would have given me more chances to capture her, but even in that case, she would have opened the door, and at least Takuma could have escaped as he would have been alerted,' Akeru sighed.
Suddenly, his eyes widened as he felt something in the sky.
He gazed upwards as he saw a man covered in a brownish-rock-like structure, with his fist stretched outwards.
'Is that Broccos? But is he really confident that his armour would hold in my zone? Or is he not aware of my identity?' Akeru thought as he realized that Takuma was already in contact with two shining generals.
'Chaos!' Red and green lightning materialized on Broccos as he entered Akeru's zone.
They were furiously vibrating, intending to demolish his armour and reach him.
Broccos' enlarged fist met Akeru's.
BOOM!
The clash between them was so powerful that the entire floor he was standing on broke.
'It would take a few seconds to break through his defenses, but what gives him the confidence to be suicidal like that? Does he really think that he would be able to escape my mana zone if he enters it once?' Akeru thought as he started plummeting towards the ground along with the large man above him.
The latter did a few more punches, but Akeru easily stopped them with his own punches.
Suddenly, Akeru's eyes widened as he felt a spatial disturbance near the top floor, followed by the amount of mana that a Grand Knight-level individual possesses.
'Erza is there. They were operating under a plan,' Akeru thought with a grim face.
***
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