A few days ago, in Fri Village…
"No way." Bruno made a face, his eyes going wide. "You're saying that Davi guy is some crazy criminal. Seriously?"
Rosco grimaced, and he slammed his fist down onto the table, cracking it. "And to think I let that bastard run off with Olivia."
The salamander had just been killed and slain by someone they thought was an Arcane Knight. Davi Hawker, the Ebony Knight, had grabbed Olivia and run off, fleeing Fri. He had promised Olivia he would help her become an Arcane Knight, and for a moment, Rosco had felt pride that the girl he had raised was going to be able to follow her dream. That all went out the window, though, when he and his son discovered a real Arcane Knight waiting for them.
She was a tall and imposing woman, with blonde hair tied back and eyes that blazed the color of the sun. Her skin was extremely pale, and most of it was hidden behind silver armor that was shockingly similar to the same suit Davi had worn. A heavy golden lance that glowed floated behind the woman, and she had a long cape that billowed in the wind with the symbol of the sun on it. Rosco had taken the woman back to his home so they could discuss the issue that was Davi Hawker.
"Don't blame yourselves." The woman replied in a cool tone. "Haru knows; he's fooled many people. This Davi Hawker is wanted for many crimes. He's caused widespread destruction in dozens of towns by getting into fights. Normally, when a Knight goes on a mission, it's their job to fix and repair the damage to the town or village they cause, but he hasn't been doing that, leading to a rash of property damage. Not to mention his greatest crime, tax evasion."
"Tax evasion?" Bruno snorted and raised an eyebrow.
"The king taxes villages, towns, and cities, but of course, you have people who travel around." The woman explained. "People like Arcane Knights or merchants. They're given a bit more leeway. Normally, such things are mostly hand-waved for them; however, the issue with this false Knight is he's been reportedly entering dungeons. Dungeon wealth directly belongs to the Kingdom, which is why it's seized by the Knights. They contain magical items that can benefit our soldiers, old spell scrolls that can improve magic, and vast wealth. This man has been stealing all the loot from the dungeons like some sort of goblin and hasn't paid any taxes for it, meaning we don't even know how much he owns or owes."
Bruno rubbed his chin, his look growing serious. "Sounds pretty bad."
"More than you know." The woman nodded.
"That's not what I'm concerned with." Rosco shook his head. "It's the fact that this bastard took one of my kids."
"He kidnapped someone?" The woman raised an eyebrow, a little taken aback. "I see. This is more serious than I thought. I've been tracking him for nearly three years now, but he always manages to slip out of my grasp since he never stays in a place for longer than a day. It doesn't help that I keep getting distracted with other missions. Still, I want to be the one to capture him."
"Why you, specifically?" Bruno asked.
"A personal matter." The woman explained, letting out a sigh. "I was busy taking the corpse of a monster to a nearby city and happened to pass by your village. How bizarre that he and I were so close to one another, and I had no way of knowing. It's infuriating knowing how much destiny has mocked me." The woman growled slightly, and the floating lance behind her twitched and spun around, knocking over a few shelves.
"Whoa, watch it!" Rosco barked out.
The woman stood up from her chair and folded her arms. "I'm going to be setting out at once. Hopefully, I can catch up to them before he escapes again."
"I'll come with you, bro!" Bruno offered, but the woman shook her head.
"No, you'll just slow me down. You're too weak."
"Rude, but okay, bro." Bruno watched the woman as she left the house, her lance closing the door behind her. When she was gone, his father collapsed in his chair and covered his face with his hands. "You okay?"
"No! Of course, I'm not okay!" Rosco barked out. "Olivia was kidnapped by some psychopath, apparently!"
Bruno gave a faint nod and turned to look out the window at Fri Village. A large stone wall was starting to surround their village, and the workers were all working tirelessly to use the supplies Davi had given them. "I don't think so."
"What?"
"I don't think Davi is a bad person," Bruno admitted. "Even after everything I heard. He gave us so many supplies and even showed us how to use all those tools to build the wall. He even let us keep the Salamanders and sell them for our own benefit, and Olivia looked so happy when she was with him." Bruno gave a lopsided grin. "I think he's just a bit of a dunce. Guys that seem to know what they're doing always turn out to be the biggest idiots after all."
"What sort of stupid logic is that!"
Bruno just laughed and shrugged. Later that night, Bruno left Fri Village as the moon settled above their village. He left a note behind for his father, but he was sure the man already knew what he was doing. He wasn't alone either when he left.
"Can't you make it any bigger?" Ash hissed.
Bruno just rolled his eyes and flicked his wand out, creating a bridge made of ice over the ocean, allowing him and Ash to leave their little island behind. "Alright." Bruno declared, pointing out ahead. "If there's one place I know where to find Olivia, it'll be the Arcane Knight entrance exam! Come on, Bro! Let's go make sure she's okay!"
"I'm not doing this for stupid Olivia!" Ash yelled out, his face turning a little red. "I'm going to become an Arcane Knight! A powerful one that won't ever have to be saved ever again!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever! Come on, bro! Our very own adventure is just now beginning!"
***
Present Day…
He figured something was wrong the first time he saw the golems. They had just appeared out of nowhere. That was because they weren't created by a dungeon but rather another mage's own magic. Magic that could create magical constructs or beasts was extremely rare, and only allowed to be used by Arcane Knights or nobles.
The ground shattered as the golem's fist stabbed out of the floor. It wasn't alone either, four more ripping their way up. Davi already donned his armor and dodged one of the strikes and swung out with his claymore, splitting through one of the creatures as they began to form around him.
"Let me get this straight, you attacked your own farmers?" Davi growled out and dodged another strike as the four remaining golems began to swing at him. "Aren't you supposed to be a hero?"
Gray stood in the back watching his golems chase after Davi, who moved shockingly fast despite being in bulky armor. "In truth, those 'farmers' were just my castle guards." The Knight explained. "They would have been able to take a hit. I'm still glad you jumped in and saved him the way you did."
"You are?" Davi questioned, cutting through a third golem. "Care to stop attacking me then?"
"The reason I only summoned five this time is because I learned that's all I can manage. This is a new spell I learned recently from a grimoire that was in a powerful dungeon I soloed." Gray explained. "A few of my guards heard reports of something going on in Daisy and went to check it out. I was getting ready to head to the town and fix the issue myself, but to my shock, it had been settled by a Knight in black armor. I knew who it was instantly and figured you'd be coming this way, so I set my trap. It didn't work out, though. I got a bit cocky with the new spell and summoned too many golems, which is why they attacked my own people. I'm serious when I say this, Mr. Davi. Thank you for saving them. That's why I didn't simply arrest you after you blacked out. I… To be honest, you don't seem like a bad person. Still, I have a job to do. I can at least give you a chance to fight back, though, as thanks for what you did. No good deed should go unpunished."
Davi blocked a strike from the third golem and tore its arm off with his sword. He punched out with his hand and dug his fingers around its throat and tore its head off, tossing it at the fourth one so hard it exploded. "I'm assuming you're the reason I got poisoned?"
"That's right." Gray nodded as the fifth golem grew a jagged spike out of its fist. "This spell is pretty good at taking guys out, since the rock the golems are made out of is toxic."
The final golem jabbed out at Davi, but Davi sidestepped it. "Row Shadow Vault." His shadow expanded and opened up beneath the golem, pulling half of it in, before it instantly closed, slicing it in two. He lifted his foot up and brought it down, stomping on the golem's head and shattering it. "And that's five. You're out of your toys."
Gray unfolded his arms, his smile fading. "Don't get cocky. I could make more, but doing that wouldn't be fair. I don't want just to swarm you with a never-ending army. That'd be boring for both of us." He began to unbutton his shirt and opened it up to reveal a honed body, one made for combat. "Let's settle this like men," Gray announced. "That is, unless you're willing to give up now?"
"If I surrender, what happens?" Davi questioned.
"You'll be sent to a prison created to hold mages, and we'll decide what to do with you. Most likely, you'll be forced to repay your debt." Gray explained. "You're in trouble for a lot of stuff and have quite the bounty. There's a chance you could be thrown in jail for at least five years, maybe more."
"Sorry, but that's not happening." Davi shook his head and readied his sword. "There's something I've been looking for, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. Besides, my brother taught me never to go back on my word, and I promised Olivia I'd help her."
Gray's look softened a bit. "That other girl? I'm guessing she's not in on any of this."
"She isn't. I made sure she didn't go into a dungeon, either. Her only crime is following an idiot like me around for as long as she did."
Gray nodded. "In that case, after I beat you, I'll personally ensure she makes it to the entrance exam, and I'll do my best to help her. I still owe you for helping me earlier, after all."
"You talk as if you are going to beat me. Row Shadow Vault." Davi held his other hand out, and a heavy-duty shotgun came flying into it, which he lifted and pointed at Gray, who didn't even flinch.
Gray's sly grin came back, and the Arcane Knight nodded, quietly making a series of motions with his hands. "That's because I am. Row Earth Spikes!" The entire field rumbled, and Davi stumbled a bit as a wave of rocky spikes stabbed out of the ground.
Davi fired the gun, but the shells missed Gray and instead slammed into the ground, which was bubbling and crawling toward him, more spikes growing out that stabbed into him. Or at least they would have, but he vanished, dropping down into his shadow and rising up out of Gray's a second later.
Davi jammed the gun into Gray's back. "Move and you're-" Gray spun around, and on reflex, Davi pulled the trigger. The weapon went off and tore through Gray's shirt, but it didn't harm his flesh. The bullets shattered on his stomach, and Gray grabbed the shotgun and twisted, ripping the entire thing off. "Huh?" Davi stared down at his gun.
Gray slammed a fist into Davi's stomach, and Davi winced, his armor groaning as he was sent crashing back. With another flick of his hand, Gray caused the earth spikes to twist around and launch toward Davi, who stood back up.
They weren't aimed at any vitals and were instead aiming to halt his movement and keep him trapped, but he was far too fast for that. Davi spun around and sliced out with his claymore, which he coated in an aura of mana, making it stronger and sharper. This allowed it to rip into the spikes and shred them.
As soon as he was done, Davi watched as Gray kneeled down and slammed his hands into the ground, calling out another spell. "Row Earth Wave!" The ground shook even more, and this time, the entire field exploded up as Gray smashed his fist down. The ground launched up as if it were a tidal wave, and Davi felt a wave of pain as it smashed into him.
Stone and rocks flowed out of the ground, twisting like water, carrying Davi through the hedge maze. He felt his armor dent and tear as jagged stones tore into it, and blood dripped down his cheek as a few stones nicked him across his face. The real pain came when he reached the back of the maze, which had a large stone wall on the other side. The wave kept going, smashing him through it. He came tumbling out and crashed down into the ground, but he barely had time to process that before several stone disks came flying out of the hole that had been created through the maze.
One of the disks smashed directly into his head, and the world spun, but he forced himself to stay focused and shouted out a spell, vanishing out of the rock tidal wave, which kept tearing across the land.
Gray came flying out of the hole, riding a stone board, and looked around with wide eyes, not spotting Davi. His board touched down, and he pressed his hand to the ground, about to cast another spell, but then a claymore stabbed out of his shadow and tore into his shoulder. He yelped in pain and flew up, his board rising off the ground just as Davi came flying out of his shadow, having used his vault to escape.
Gray clutched at his bleeding shoulder and made a face. "The gun didn't hurt me, but your sword did?" That meant either Davi was able to swing harder than a shotgun could go off, or his mana was able to reinforce his weapon to the point it was able to counter Gray's own mana, which he was coating his entire skin with to make his flesh harder than steel. Gray gave a pleased grin. "You really are strong."
"Get down here and fight me like a man." Davi declared, waving his sword up at Gray, who was now easily fifty feet off the ground. Using a gun would be pointless. Some mages could pour mana into bullets or arrows to boost them to supernatural levels, but he had always been bad at doing that and could only affect things he was holding or his shadow was connected to. Once the bullets got out of his shadow's range, he'd be unable to keep boosting them, and they'd return to normal and be unable to harm Gray.
"I'm good." Gray grinned and pointed a hand down with a series of finger movements. "Row Earth Shower!" Jagged stone arrows blasted out of the bottom of his board, raining across the battlefield.
"Row Shadow Vault." Davi lifted his free hand, and a greatshield came flying out, which he held up in front of him. The shield began to dent and crack as the rocks tore into it, but it bought him enough time to grab something else out of the vault. With a grunt, he threw his claymore at Gray as hard as he could. Gray twisted through the air, stopping his attack and dodging the sword at the last moment. "Got you." Davi pulled back, revealing a chain that was now around the handle of his sword. The chain pulled the blade back toward Gray, about to stab him in the back, but Gray spun around and caught the blade with his hand.
Rocks grew out of Gray's flesh, forming thick stone gauntlets around his arms. "No, I got you." Gray yanked on the chain as hard as he could and forced Davi off the ground, dragging the man toward him. As Davi reached him, he slammed his other fist down. Davi tried to block it with his shield, but Gray simply punched through it, tearing it to bits and smashing his fist straight into Davi's face, breaking the man's nose. His other arm dropped the sword and grabbed Davi by the wrist, and he held the man up and began to punch him in the chest, caving the armor in and shattering it. "Let me guess," Gray began. "You thought that just because you were able to do a few dungeons and fight monsters, that you were strong? I hate to tell you, but most of the dungeons you entered were likely low-tier ones, which is why we didn't detect them in the first place. The same goes for most of the monsters you fought. Don't get me wrong, you're still strong for a mage, and given enough time, you could maybe one day even be an Arcane Knight, but that's just the thing. You aren't a Knight!" Gray's fingers dug into Davi's chest plate, and he tore it fully. "You're just a big fish in a small pond. Allow me to introduce you to the ocean." Gray let go of Davi's arm, and he slammed his fist down once more.
Davi was rocketed down toward the ground, and he smashed into the grass hard enough to shatter most of the back part of his armor. He coughed up a wave of blood and gasped, somehow still awake.
"Is that all you got?" Davi groaned.
Gray sighed and stepped off his board. "Can you just stop?"
"No," Davi grunted and got to his knees. He wiped away some of his blood. "That's not something I'm good at. Row Shadow Vault." His shadow expanded out and opened up like a wild beast trying to devour the world. Gray felt his foot slip in, and he began to fall into the shadows. He wasn't planning on killing the man with his vault, like he did the snake, but he did plan on using it to almost drown Gray and knock the man out. "Fall." He responded in a cold tone.
Gray was stubborn, though, and summoned up more rocks clinging to the edge of the vault, and he began to climb out. With a growl, Davi began to close the vault. He'd seal it shut just enough to put pressure on Gray and break a rib or two, but as his vault began to close, Gray's hands wrapped around the ground and the other side, and to Davi's shock and horror, he shoved it back. Gray's mana gushed out of him, a bright white light that forced Davi's shadow to open up, and the Arcane Knight fully stepped out of the vault. Davi tried once again to pull him into his vault, but the mana around Gray compressed around the Knight's feet, and he simply stood on the shadow, not being pulled in at all.
Gray let out a soft hum and began to walk across the shadows. "That's quite a neat spell. You're using your shadows and shaping them to stretch and flow like water, pulling things in. You're above normal mages for sure and have a lot of talent, which is why it's a shame you did something like this. If you had just taken the exam from the start, this wouldn't have happened."
"I didn't even know about the stupid exam until recently." Davi spat out, and he threw a punch toward Gray, but the Arcane Knight simply caught it and squeezed down, crushing Davi's hand and shattering the gauntlet.
"Really? If you had just said that from the start instead of picking a fight, we maybe could have avoided this. I mean, you'd still be in trouble, but I would have gone lighter on you. Too late for that now, though." Gray rammed his other arm into Davi's gut, causing the teen to gasp and double over, clutching at his stomach. "You freaking stabbed me so… I'm kind of ticked off."
Davi gasped and struggled to suck in air. He knew Gray was strong, but he didn't think the difference would be this extreme. He had arrogantly assumed he was on a similar level just because he hadn't struggled in forever. As if the training he and his brother did would actually put them above all other threats. How was he going to help Olivia reach this point if he himself wasn't anywhere close?
He was outclassed. He could tell Gray had been toying with him and taking the fight easy. This wasn't even truly a fight for Gray. It was only in this moment it began to occur to Davi just how truly weak he was in the grand scheme of the world. It was also in this moment that a choice was made.
A thought went through Davi Hawker's mind. He wanted to grow more. He wanted to not just reach the same level Gray was but surpass it. He had to.
Gray was strong. That much couldn't be questioned. Despite the power that Gray had, it was still nowhere near the goal he had set for himself. As Davi kneeled and panted, he managed to chuckle as the image of a dragon burned itself into his mind. One that was massive, covered in red scales, and burned the world around it. One that had once saved his brother and him from a never-ending blizzard.
"What's so funny?" Gray asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did I knock you silly or something?"
Davi looked up, his eyes almost glowing with a blue light, and his mana flared out, a flicker of a white aura surrounding him. "Compared to the Dragon, you're nothing special. See, you got it wrong earlier." Gray took a step back, feeling a little surprised at the amount of mana Davi began to unleash, but Davi reached out with the hand that wasn't broken and grabbed Gray's wrist, holding him in place. "I'm not just some big fish in a small pond. I'm not a fish at all. The thing I'm hunting doesn't stay in the ocean. I stared into the depths and decided I was going to escape to the skies where its domain lies. I'm not in a small pond or a big one. I'm not a fish; I'm the thing that swoops in and hunts them. I'm a bird."
"What the fuck?" Was all Gray could say.
"Row Shadow Vault." The shadow beneath Davi expanded, like an endless sea, creeping across the field, and everything began to grow extremely cold, ice seeping out. It was like a black hole had opened up beneath the two of them, attempting to swallow everything up.
"Trying to suck me back into your vault?" Gray forced a smile, despite suddenly feeling nervous. "That won't work—"
Davi inverted his vault. He turned it upside down and poured everything out. The darkness surged up like a tidal wave, as if something massive was ripping its way out of the depths, and in an instant, everything exploded.