DRIP DROP DRIP DROP
Jackson slowly lowered his arms; the surroundings were now so eerily quiet that he could hear the sweat that fell from his face fall onto his hard leather boots.
(The spell that Nick Capitol cast was incredibly threatening but its power was too spread out and so by using my Ten Thousand Rampaging Sword Auras, I was able to effectively displace most of the impact towards our surroundings.)
The area around the four was currently surrounded by a thick cloud of dust, dirt and debris, blocking their view of the aftermath of Nick's spell on the surrounding terrain.
While still reviewing the previous collision of magic power within his mind, Jackson slowly turned around to address his comrades, saying:
"Nick Capitol has more work to do if such a grand spell could not even harm a hair on our heads. But unfortunately for him, once we remove this cloud of dirt, it will be his time to die..."
The rest of the words that Jackson was about to say got stuck in the back of his throat as he turned enough to catch sight of Ricardo's 'condition'. Celena and Stone immediately noticed it as well and they were enraged as a result.
"GGGGLLLLLLLGLLGLLLLUUUUUUUUAGLGLLLLLUUUUAAAAA!"
Ricardo stood among them, gurgling blood while a sword held by a brown complexioned hand that had mysteriously appeared out of a patch of rippling space was lodged diagonally into the base of his throat - the blade of the sword had gone through the back right area of the base of his neck to exit through the front left area.
Ricardo tried to speak but only blood poured from his mouth and fell to the ground like water being poured from a pitcher. His eyes soon lost the final traces of life before his body began to transform into specks of light and a moment later, Ricardo Glasgow disappeared from the grassy plain. Nick emerged from the rippling space less than a second later and from start to end of his fatal maneuver, only four seconds had passed.
Jackson and Stone raged, both trying to cast spells almost simultaneously but how could their skill and speed in casting spells compete with a soul path scholar's. Nick quickly raised his left palm, magic power oozing from every inch of him and cast:
(Absolute Push.)
Jackson and Stone felt their entire beings quiver, right down to their souls as they were pushed back at cannon ball speed into the cloud of dirt and debris in different directions for what seemed to them like over three dozen meters.
Celena finally reacted by removing her right hand from her belly wound and was about to cast one of her spells but when Nick looked at her from the corner of his right eye, a feeling of crippling fear overwhelmed her as what felt like a creepy aura of malice and dread washed over her; she found herself unable to move her limbs or even speak.
(Huh?)
Nick expected Celena to attack him in a frenzy but she froze in place just as she was about to make a move. This certainly confused him but he wasn't going to hesitate to bring down one of his opponents so that he could ask if she was feeling alright.
Nick raised Pressure Piece above his head with his right arm at rapid speed and just as rapidly swung it down on Celena's head with practised skill, casting:
(Big Sever.)
An arc of almost formless magic power was traced where Nick's sword cut as it sliced Celena in two from head to crotch. The woman died with fear and unwillingness within her gaze but it was too late for regrets.
The profusely bleeding pieces of her corpse quickly transformed into specks of light and disappeared a moment later, only leaving a splatter stain of fresh blood on the grassy ground.
Nick flexed his right arm afterwards, thinking:
(That woman 'choked' in the end, am I really that frightening? In any case, being able to take her down so easily is my good fortune. I have a feeling that if I wasn't able to kill that time path Magician as quickly as I did, things would have gotten pretty desperate for me. He died like he did because he stopped paying attention to his surroundings when my spell, Heavy As A Mountain, was countered; he probably let his guard down because unconsciously, he felt safe within his group's area of influence but that mentality is what killed him.)
Nick was very familiar with how people thought when they were in groups. People would usually become more and more reliant on each other the more familiar they became with each other and this reliance often breeds lazy thinking:
(Oh, I have others watching my back, I don't need to be so guarded when the enemy is so far away. The others will alert me if anything changes.)
Even if this kind of thinking was adopted unconsciously, it would seriously hamper one's ability to defend against surprise attacks and that is exactly what Nick took advantage of.
(Group psychology is pathetic; I read about it in a book in passing one time and I've got to say, such a thing is clearly poison to a combat Magician. An ironic poison maybe, but I doubt any of my opponents is in the mood to appreciate that fact with me right now.)
Nick stretched out his left arm to his front and cast Absolute Push again, ridding the surrounding area of most of the airborne dirt and debris. The scene that came into view was that of a three meter deep trench that surrounded the spot where Nick now stood and expanded over two dozen meters into the distance in a 360 degree angle.
Suddenly, a flash of blood red light appeared, soon revealing the blood path Magician from earlier standing to Nick's left side and almost simultaneously, the whistle of a blade moving through the air, a sound which Nick was very familiar with, could be heard coming from above his head.
Jackson and Stone had returned and were ready to deal with their troublesome enemy; they both felt it inconceivable that one young man who was not even a licensed Magician could kill half their team but they could not deny that fact. Both men swore in their hearts to defeat Nick Capitol even if they had to sacrifice their own reputation to do it and so they no longer held back.
(Bloody Puppet)
(Execution By Sword)
Streams of blood flowed from Stone's fingertips and eventually formed what looked like a large bear made entirely of blood that stood on two legs, about three times Nick's height; streams of blood extended from all of Stone's right hand's fingers and flowed into the 'blood bear'. Nick ignored the blood bear for the moment in order to protect himself from the imminent sword strike that was on the way.
Jackson's black sword released a pitch black smoke that rose upwards, forming depictions of human faces that expressed agony. Nick quickly manipulated his soul capturing coat in order to expand it into a revolving sphere of soul miasma in an attempt to protect himself, however, when Jackson's sword hit Nick's protective barrier, the barrier visibly shook and after a brief moment of struggle where Jackson increased the strength in his arms by contracting his arm muscles, his sword cut through the protective sphere like it was butter.
Much of the force of Jackson's strike was displaced by Nick's protective sphere but the section of the blade that entered the now partially sliced sphere cut into Nick, starting at his left shoulder. Nick quickly cast Reinforce With Soul with himself as the target and used it to spread a hardened protective covering of soul miasma throughout the areas around and below his left shoulder but at that time, the black smoke emerging from Jackson's sword started to mix with and corrupt Nick's soul miasma, transforming it from translucent to a worrying dull black color. Nick was alarmed:
(That black sword has innate properties of darkness magic. It is corroding the parts of my soul that I'm manipulating with my spell.)
Nick frowned and decided to abandon his soul capturing coat for the second time since he created the spell. While his upper body was trying to resist the force of Jackson's strike, Nick quickly cast Space and spread his special space into his surroundings by more than two dozen meters in all directions. He grit his teeth and used Space to teleport himself away from Jackson and Stone, appearing about twenty meters away from their position.
The protective sphere made using the soul capturing coat dissipated soon thereafter and Jackson's strike that now lost its target struck the ground with spine tingling impact. The section of the ground that was struck split apart, creating a ten meter long crevice that was being corroded at its edges by a dull black magic power that manifested as a thin miasma.
Nick sheathed Pressure Piece, cancelled Space, then held his bleeding left shoulder with his right hand and gritted his teeth, thinking:
(My left shoulder blade has been partially cut through, leaving my left arm limp. I lost a portion of my soul after abandoning the soul capturing coat which is causing my soul some slight irritation but it's manageable, I shouldn't try to cast any more soul path spells that makes use of it unless absolutely necessary, though.)
Nick's situation suddenly became unfavorable but he knew that he had not lost yet. Before he decided on his next move, however, a torrent of blood rapidly moved to his left side and morphed into a bear shaped figure as soon as it reached within two meters of Nick. The 'bear' stood on its hind legs and slapped at Nick with its paw, an aura heavy with blood-red light radiating from it.
Nick felt a threatening pressure coming his way but he did not dare to retreat in the face of his enemy's assault after previously doing so, since his enemies might be prepared for just that. Nick removed his right hand from his left shoulder and with his fresh blood dripping from it, Nick balled his right hand into a fist and used it to strike out immediately at the bear's paw.
(Rumble.)
Nick cast his space path spell and just before his fist and the bear's paw collided, the space in front of his fist shook and the sound of an explosive crackle, like thunder, could be heard. Within the next moment, the bear's paw collided with Nick's fist but was immediately blown away by a blast of intense pressure that destroyed half of the bear's arm. Five thin streams of blood connected to the bear's back that almost seemed like red strings glistened and the bear's arm was regenerated after two seconds.
Nick internally sighed when he saw this and followed up by jumping off the ground and performing one more punch with his right fist but this time aimed at the bear's head.
(Rumble.)
Nick's fist rapidly crashed into the bear's head and after a loud crackling sound was heard, a blast of pressure shot forward and destroyed the bear's head but a moment later, without its head, the bear slapped with its right paw, aimed at Nick's own head. Nick acted quickly despite not having returned to the ground as yet in order to dodge the attack.
(Blink.)
The bear's paw missed Nick by a hair's breadth and slapped only air. Nick appeared about ten meters away, beside his miniature mountain range that had been left floating stationary since Nick had moved to kill the time path Magician. When he was about to make his next move, however, the whistling of a sword cutting through air could be heard once again and Nick quickly unsheathed Pressure Piece with his right hand in response, adeptly turning to face the direction of the incoming attack. Nick struck out with Pressure Piece, colliding with Jackson's black sword that still radiated a black smoke.
Jackson put as much pressure as he could against Pressure Piece with both his hands holding his sword's handle firmly but even with Nick only using his right arm to parry with his sword, Jackson was unable to overwhelm him in terms of raw strength. Jackson's thoughts spun rapidly:
(This man is not simple, he is parrying my attack with only one hand and isn't losing out. He is so young and not only is he good at controlling his magic power, he has clearly trained his body as well.)
Jackson wasn't the type to prolong the inevitable so he decided to end the fight as soon as he was able to. Within the next few seconds, Jackson's body burst out with magic power and he cast a spell with Nick as the target:
(Myriad Clean Cuts)
Jackson's black sword suddenly released three times the amount of black smoke as before and sensing the change, Nick immediately cast Space and spread his special space throughout the area of his and Jackson's confrontation. Jackson quickly withdrew his sword and rapidly followed up with many quick strikes towards Nick, each strike releasing a blackish sword aura. Jackson made nearly a dozen powerful strikes each second that caused Nick's bones to rattle each time he parried with Pressure Piece but ultimately, using the increased sensory capabilities of his special space, his improved strength resulting from the strength path laws that he gained and discretely casting Instinctive Blade repeatedly, Nick was able to keep up with Jackson's sword strikes without buckling or being slashed but the black aura that radiated from each strike invaded Nick's body and resulted in him obtaining light internal injuries.
After twenty seconds had passed and Jackson had made over two hundred life threatening strikes with his sword, none of them having cut Nick directly, Nick coughed out two mouthfuls of blood after which Jackson's spell seemed to have ended and he momentarily stopped his onslaught and backed away by nearly ten feet. Nick pursed his bloody lips and gritted his teeth while trying to take back the initiative by striking out with Pressure Piece with a vertical swing of the sword, casting:
(Big Cleave.)
Nick was currently in too much pain and his soul was too irritated for him to make use of his usual fine control of Space to have his attack cross the distance between him and Jackson instantly. A powerful and sharp wave of almost formless magic power radiated towards Jackson, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up but Jackson did not retreat and instead made a vertical strike of his own against Nick's incoming magic power, casting his spell:
(One Dividing Chop)
Jackson's sword radiated a black aura that formed into a vertical arc of magic power where the sword sliced down; the arc of black sword aura shot out and collided with Nick's own blade aura, slicing through the offending magic power, albeit with difficulty. The power of Nick's Big Cleave split up into two sections and narrowly slid past Jackson by a hair's breadth. Jackson's attack fizzled out in less than five seconds after being worn down by Nick's almost equally sharp magic power.
Before Nick could continue his assault on Jackson, a torrent of blood rapidly flowed to his side, soon transforming once again into the blood bear from before but this time, the blood path Magician had appeared amidst the torrent of blood and was now standing beside the blood bear, his right hand's fingers constantly maintaining a connection with the blood bear via thin streams of blood and his left hand now pointing towards Nick's shoulder wound.
(Bloody Sabotage)
A large amount of blood immediately shot out of Nick's left shoulder wound and formed into a twisting mass which then crystalized at the end into a point and stabbed into Nick's left foot. Nick pursed his lips tightly to prevent a scream of pain from leaving his mouth. The blood bear, under Stone's manipulation once again became a torrent of blood that pushed towards Nick but Nick remained in his position because of the injury to his left foot and the fact that the spell that had affected his blood was somehow preventing him from teleporting away with Blink or Space.
The torrent of blood soon loomed over Nick and then morphed into the blood bear that was now moving towards Nick with a pouncing motion. The blood bear was now only six feet away as it pounced towards Nick, blood-red light radiating from its claws and a bloody mist emerging from its mouth. Nick quickly swung Pressure Piece horizontally in response to the the blood bear's speedy approach, casting Big Cleave at it as well as Twice The Blade.
The blood bear was almost immediately bombarded with a large wave of sharp magic power that sliced it into over a dozen semi-solid chunks and when the effect of Twice The Blade bombarded it with another wave of sharp magic power, what was left of the blood bear splattered into the surroundings. Nick then pointed Pressure Piece at the blood path Magician and cast Absolute Push on him, sending him backwards against his will at cannon ball speed by over two dozen meters; the blood that stabbed into Nick's foot immediately lost its form and fell onto the ground. Just as Nick was about to turn his attention back to the sword path Magician, he felt a sharp pain spread throughout his back.
(Silent Butcher)
Jackson's sword radiated with an intensely black aura as it bit into Nick's back but within a split second, before his spine was severed, Nick used his special space to create a targeted resistance to Jackson's sword, preventing it from slicing any further into his back; Jackson's black sword vibrated madly as it collided with an extremely thin section of violently warping space. Without turning around, Nick used his special space to sense Jackson's position and cast Absolute Push on him, sending him away by over twenty meters in less that one second.
Nick knew that he was wounded and bleeding from his back but despite his injuries, his limp left arm and all the blood loss, he felt a strange sense of excitement well up in him.
(This is the most alive I've felt since I started studying magic...no, since I was born. I'm not going to lose to these two no matter what!)
Nick looked around himself and realized that the blood path Magician had already recovered from the effects of Absolute Push and was returning, moving along the terrain quickly as an almost spherical mass of rotating blood. Nick sheathed Pressure Piece once again and willed for his miniature mountain range to float into his outstretched right palm.
Nick spread his special space further throughout the surroundings, enveloping the blood path Magician. Stone felt the sudden change but was not deterred by such tricks.
(Nick Capitol is in terrible shape. Those injuries of his would have already forced most students his age to admit defeat. I don't believe that he will last much longer under my and Jackson's attacks.)
While Stone rapidly approached Nick, Nick made some alterations to the laws of the unique space that encased the mountain range using the influence of his special space. He then shouted towards Stone:
"Fine, if you want the inheritance so badly, you can have it!"
Nick then used his special space to teleport the miniature mountain range encased in its unique space to about ten meters above Stone's position and the mountain range's unique space discretely and immediately expanded outwards in all directions to form a ten meter radius imperfect sphere that enveloped Stone; the miniature mountain range then began falling towards the ground as if it had the weight of a feather. Hearing Nick's declaration and sensing the strange object that was falling from above, Stone released his spell, dispersing the blood that surrounded him and stood in place, thinking:
(That object has something to do with the supposed inheritance? The higher ups did instruct us to retrieve the inheritance if it existed and that object does look like a miniature version of the mountain range that should be in this place. Did that man actually steal away an entire mountain range...how is that possible? In any case, I'll retrieve the object, then deal with that young man. If he thinks that by handing over the inheritance, that absolves him of killing two of my teammates, then I will have to correct his foolish thinking personally.)
Stone kept a watchful eye on Nick's actions but seeing that he was doing nothing for the moment and only stood in his spot while breathing heavily, Stone reached out his hands, getting ready to cast a spell to catch the falling object. Nick smiled at this time and willed for the falling mountain range to teleport to almost directly above Stone's head and then using the power of the unique space that now enveloped Stone along with the miniature mountain range, Nick normalized the surrounding gravity around the mountain range and it then fell with its full weight bearing down in a matter of milliseconds.
Unprepared for Nick's trick and not understanding the depths of Nick's competence, Stone was caught by surprise as the falling object suddenly fell towards him with speed that he could not react to. The object fell on his head and despite its size which was no bigger than a sports trophy, its sheer weight was not something that Stone's bare body could resist. Stone's head burst like a watermelon and the rest of his body was then pinned down onto the ground and partially crushed under the weight of the miniature mountain range. Within the next second, Stone's corpse transformed into specks of white light and disappeared.
Nick laughed maniacally when he saw that his scheme had actually succeeded.
(So battles aren't just about throwing attacks at your opponent. You can also use the circumstances and their ignorance to create fatal schemes against them.)
Nick felt enlightened but quickly turned his attention to the sudden burst of magic energy that he was sensing from the direction which he had flung the sword path Magician to.
Jackson held his black sword with both hands and slowly walked forward towards Nick. He had witnessed Stone's death and felt a mix of shock, disbelief and anger; shock that Nick managed to kill his three teammates, disbelief that he did so by himself and anger that Nick laughed in response like a mad man when Stone died.
Jackson was determined to finish Nick off within the next few minutes and was now casting a spell that would ensure that outcome. Jackson's body erupted with black sword aura and his muscles visibly bulged while his black sword emitted a rising cloud of thick black smoke that spread to the clouds above and tainted them a black color. Nick then observed Jackson's body fade in and out as he took each step forward, the black sword aura around him growing more and more intense. Jackson breathed in deeply and then exhaled, whispering:
"Likeness Of The Sword Demon"
Nick could not hear what he said but watched as Jackson slashed diagonally with his sword using both arms while covered with black smoke and sword aura; the sword aura erupted towards Nick's position instantly.
Nick reacted quickly:
(Instinctive Blade.)
Nick swung Pressure Piece in order to parry the sword aura coming directly at him but when he did that successfully, the portion of the sword aura that slid past him sliced into the ground one meter behind him, creating a narrow crevice that emitted thick black smoke. As Jackson continued to walk forward slowly, he slashed towards Nick with his sword once again; Nick parried but another crevice emitting black smoke was created some distance away from him.
Jackson slashed at Nick ten more times before he reached within twelve eight meters of Nick but by this time, Nick's arms were bruised purple and a portion of his face, neck, arms and torso was emitting black smoke, clearly indirectly tainted by Jackson's strange sword aura.
Nick felt like death was approaching him quickly as his right arm weakened, his vision became blurry and his magic energy reserves reached below 7,000 magical units. He could barely move now because of the corroding magic power that had invaded his body but Nick remained as determined as ever not to go down without giving everything he had.
Jackson stopped walking forward when he reached within six meters of Nick and said:
"You are a very strong young man but you should know your own limits."
Those words reverberated in Nick's mind but he almost immediately voiced a denial without too much thought:
"Shut your mouth, I have no limits! I am going to cut you into pieces!"
Within his mindscape, the figure of golden light immediately stopped walking when Nick made his declaration and looked towards the sky filled with stars. With a face almost identical to Nick's, it opened its mouth as if to speak but no words could be heard but soon a dull, glowing red symbol drawn in Nickel appeared on the figure's forehead that read: 'Dominate'.
Nick's body erupted with the final portion of his magic power and information describing a set of rule path laws flooded into his mind.
(Where did these rule path laws come from? They are written in my own mystical language, Nickel and I am sensing an absurd level of violence encoded in their intent. I...think I can make use of them right now.)
Nick's rule path intuition was stimulated and his thoughts spun at rapid speed as he modified the laws of his spell, Big Sever, to incorporate the new laws into it. Doing so surprisingly only took him two seconds with his mind working rapidly.
Jackson noticed that Nick's stare became blank but he did not care for what Nick was going through at the moment as he had already decided to end the young man's life with no consideration for anything else. Jackson raised his black sword above his head with both arms and the black smoke that emitted from it spread towards the sky even more intensely and tainted all the clouds within the area with a black hue.
Jackson struck down harshly with his sword, launching a thick arc of sword aura that bled black smoke towards Nick. At that point, focus returned to Nick's eyes and within a split second, Nick raised Pressure Piece and then made a vertical slash while casting his 'new' spell:
(Dominating Splice.)
An arc of crimson red light was created where Nick slashed that glowed intensely, blinding Jackson before it was launched forward. Nick's 'crimson arc' collided with Jackson's black sword aura and cut straight through it at the middle at which point the remaining portions of the black sword aura glowed with traces of red light and cleanly severed apart as if they were sliced even further and dissipated.
Jackson sensed Nick's attack advance towards him even though his vision was still being hampered by the attack's blinding red light. Jackson swung his sword towards the incoming attack using his instincts that had been honed by hundreds of battles in order to parry and destroy the threat but Nick's crimson arc flew through Jackson's sword as if it did not exist and struck his body with no way for him to defend.
Jackson was immediately sliced into two pieces starting at his midsection and the crimson arc dissipated soon thereafter, its blinding glow dissipating along with it, but the two portions of Jackson's body suddenly glowed with traces of red light and severed into dozens of cleanly cut portions. Those portions fell onto the ground in a bloody mess and soon transformed into specks of white light before disappearing.
Nick witnessed the gruesome death of his enemy, then knelt down on his right knee with Pressure Piece firmly stuck into the ground, breathing raggedly. Nick eventually calmed his breathing and then muttered and chuckled:
"When magic is involved, anything can happen. Ha, ha."
**********************************
Back at Shelter Town, a few hours after the battle between Nick and the four MOM soldiers...
Sergeant Robert Griffiths slammed his fist against his desk after reading the latest reports made by four well known soldiers that were also under his command, saying while standing up and staring angrily at the reports:
"These four rank 3 seeds lost to a student? How could this happen?"
A man sitting in front of Griffiths's desk that had a head full of long blond hair that was braided at the right side and who kept his eyes perpetually closed laughed in response to hearing his question, saying:
"So a student has bested some of our people, right? It's not like that hasn't happened in the past, it just never involved a student from a relatively low ranked academy like Richter Order Academy. You're too worked up."
Griffiths looked at the man in front of him and snarled, replying:
"Too worked up? Sergeant Reynold, you know as well as I do that we represent the ministry's face in the Never Ending Battlefield and not only has this young man repeatedly slapped the ministry's face, by virtue of his actions, he's even making fools out of our most promising young Magicians. One of them that was defeated even has the quick eyes talent and was still killed by a surprise attack; if word gets out, we will become a laughing stock for being unable to properly train our people. "
Sergeant Timothy Reynold was slightly intrigued at hearing that one of the defeated soldiers had the quick eyes talent and replied:
"Oh. If I am remembering correctly, there is a young man in our ranks that specializes in time path that possesses that talent. Hmph! Although talents are rare and powerful, a Magician may not be able to fully utilize them if their experience and power is lacking. I myself have the 'storm bringer' talent but I was not able to properly utilize it until I became a wind path master."
Griffiths nodded in agreement. Talents were special powers that a Magician could possess that brought about surprising and often powerful effects when in battle or using magic generally. A magician could be born with a talent but that was not typical and in most cases one had to earn a talent through training, cultivation, sheer luck or a combination of all three. Many powerful Magicians had talents but they were relatively rare at the low ranks and difficult to use. Griffiths thought:
(I have the 'berserker' talent that allows me to increase my physical strength and stamina by many folds but if I use it carelessly, I could rip my own body apart. The quick eyes talent allows its host to observe all movements clearly within intervals of milliseconds; it is a powerful talent when used in combat. The female soldier that fought Nick Capitol reported that she suspects that he has a talent that is able stun his opponents but she admitted that she might be mistaken.)
Griffiths spoke with determination in his tone:
"Our people will 'discipline' that rebellious young man even if I have to go out into the wilderness to give him a few tight slaps myself."
Sergent Reynold laughed in response to sergeant Griffiths's declaration and replied:
"I wish you all the best in your efforts. I came here today to speak about a different matter, however. Three days ago, traces of a rank 3 fire path magic beast was found to the north west of Shelter Town, about four weeks away from here by foot. I intend to form a subjugation squad to go and deal with it. I want you to lend me two rank 3 captains to help me deal with the magic beast."
Griffiths replied:
"A fire path rank 3 magic beast? Why have I not heard about this up until now?"
Sergeant Reynold shrugged his shoulders and replied:
"I only received a report today because the reporting platoon had been in the middle of a raid of a nest of ash wolves when they made the discovery."
Griffiths thought for a moment while sitting back into his office chair and then replied:
"I'll give you Oliver and Tait. Both will soon be promoted to sergeant rank so following your lead will be good training for them."
Reynold nodded his head in approval and then got up to leave but as he opened the room door, as if suddenly remembering something, he turned towards Griffiths and asked:
"What do you intend to do about Nick Capitol?"
Griffiths sternly replied:
"I was told by commander Wallace that Lieutenant Andrew Wiles is making his way towards Nick Capitol's position in order to have a 'talk' with him. I'll see how that goes before making anymore decisions in regards to that student."
Sergeant Reynold nodded his head in understanding and then left the room, closing the door behind him. Sergent Griffiths then shouted:
"Renice, get in here!"
Two seconds later, a young, white woman with a head full of shiny, long black hair, who maintained an indifferent expression that enhanced the coldness of her black irises and dressed in a standard military uniform that hugged her athletic body entered the room and walked to the right side of sergeant Griffiths, asking expressionlessly:
"What do you need, sir?"
Sergent Griffiths reached out his right hand to lightly caress the woman's crotch while speaking with a pleased tone:
"Get me all the personal information that we have on Nick Capitol. Although he is annoying, he clearly has promise like yourself and if we end up recruiting him, I want to be ahead of the curb in getting him to my side."
The woman remained expressionless as Griffiths affectionately rubbed her private area and spoke with an eerie tone:
"I will get that done for you, my sergeant."
Griffith smiled and replied:
"Many thanks."
*******************************************
Nick was forced to exit his grey room once again after his magic energy had almost bottomed out. He looked at his left shoulder injury and noticed that it had already been mended and only a scar remained but his left arm was still limp and his left shoulder blade still remained sore as the bone and not completely healed.
(Grey Room's side effect of healing me has been convenient in the past but it's not very effective in that regard when dealing with serious injuries.)
Nick sighed internally. It had been over three hours since his battle with the four strong Magicians and he was trying to heal himself of his injuries as soon as possible. he had already tried to use the minor healing potion contained within his space band to quicken the process but they had no effect; his enemy's magic power was clearly too high quality and resulted in injuries that could not be healed with basic grade potions. Nick spoke without thinking:
"If I don't get my hands on a good healing spell, I'm going to end up in a fair amount of trouble when even more troublesome opponents arrive here."
After he said that, Nick heard a voice resound within his surroundings that carried a carefree tone:
"I agree with you one hundred percent. From my perspective, many of your vital organs are currently at dog shit levels of performance and since you reappeared, they have only gotten slightly better than before."
Nick became alarmed at hearing that.
(An enemy? Where are they? How did they get so close to me without me noticing?)
Nick looked around the area but saw no one and nothing worthy of note and was about to cast Space in order to investigate further when the voice sounded again:
"If you cast anymore spells, I will directly kill you with my right thumb."
The malice transmitted by the voice's tone was so palpable and intimidating that Nick immediately stopped his actions. Sweat slid down his face as he thought:
(This presence and aura...another rank 3 Magician?)
Nick asked slightly nervous:
"What do you want?"
The voice chuckled and replied:
"That depends, what do you have to offer?"
Nick thought for a moment before sighing and replying with some amount of tiredness in his tone:
"Your mama's fat puss..."
Before Nick could finish speaking, his left leg completely twisted in the opposite direction resulting in a loud 'cracking' sound. Nick fell to the ground and grit his teeth to avoid screaming despite the extreme pain that he was feeling.
A man suddenly appeared in front of Nick, looming over him with his right eyelid twitching. This man had short black hair that was faded at the sides of his head and wore a green military uniform which had an emblem with three gold bars and two blue, five pointed stars attached to the left breast area. The man asked with a tone that indicated his annoyance:
"My mama's what?"