Bright sunlight continued to illuminate the Capital, and the clear blue sky looked almost mockingly calm against the backdrop of black smoke now rising above many districts of the city.
The Capital, usually bursting with life, was now drowning in screams, the roar of destruction, and the echoes of countless battles rolling all the way to the Student Quarter.
The square of the Student Quarter was no less chaotic at that mont.
All the Academy students had been brought there only a minute earlier. Heavy breathing from exhausted students, anxious conversations, and the rapid commands of professors trying to impose so semblance of order on the crowd could be heard everywhere.
So of the instructors had already begun splitting into groups.
So remained in the square to continue protecting the students, while others quickly gathered into separate groups, clearly preparing to return to the Academy and support Valeria and Dukhlas.
“Don’t let the students scatter!”
“Professor Helga, cast a presence-concealing magic circle!”
Amid this entire crowd stood Kael, carefully observing everything happening around him.
His gaze repeatedly drifted to the sky above the city, where new pillars of smoke continued to rise, before returning to the professors hastily organizing the defense of the Student Quarter.
“Only about twenty minutes have passed since the attack began…” he thought tensely. “But the sounds of battle have only grown more intense. Just how many slaves did the beastfolk manage to free?”
But at that mont, new shouts suddenly erupted amid the general chaos.
A group of students ran into the square from one of the side streets.
They were students from Lasthold, whose classes had ended about an hour earlier. Judging by their ragged breathing and frightened faces, they had spent all that ti hiding in the dormitories without understanding what was happening.
So of them were even carrying weapons.
“Soone finally ca!”
“What… Why are there so many Academy students here?”
But in the next mont, one of them suddenly noticed Kael.
The boy’s eyes imdiately widened, and he shouted in the language of Lasthold: “Kael! What’s happening here?!”
Kael sharply raised his head and almost imdiately answered in the sa language, “It looks like the Capital is under attack! But don’t panic—we’re under the professors’ protection right now!”
Only after those words did the youths from Lasthold finally notice that a group of instructors nearby had already begun splitting up.
So of the professors were quickly heading back toward the Academy, while the rest turned toward the crowd of students, clearly preparing to hold the line here.
The heavyset professor with the thick mustache stepped forward and barked in a booming voice, “Maintain order! Spread out among the dormitories and take shelter on the underground levels! As long as we’re here, no one will break through into the Student Quarter!”
In response to the professor’s command, the students quickly began splitting into groups.
Dozens of small streams of students imdiately spread across the square, hurrying toward the Student Quarter dormitories. So continued nervously glancing toward the smoke above the Capital; others clutched weapons or magical scrolls in white-knuckled grips, while so walked almost silently, clearly still unable to grasp the scale of what was happening.
anwhile, Kael quickly slipped closer to the group from Lasthold.
“Everything will be fine, don’t worry,” he said calmly in their language, trying to sound more confident.
After those words, the crowd finally began scattering through the streets of the Student Quarter.
Students ran toward the dormitories in large groups, and soon the narrow streets between the buildings filled with pounding footsteps, heavy breathing, and anxious voices.
Kael moved along with everyone else, continuing to carefully observe everything happening around him.
“Valeria usually watches over our group…” he noted to himself, quickly sweeping his gaze across the rooftops and nearby alleys. “But she isn’t here right now.”
Turning back once more and confirming that none of the professors were specifically watching their group, Kael made his decision instantly.
“Now.”
In the next mont, he deftly slipped into a narrow side alley between the dormitories, separating himself from the main flow of students.
Then he abruptly accelerated.
Gray mana briefly flared through his channels, and Kael shot forward almost silently along the empty street, rapidly heading toward the Capital engulfed in chaos.
But at the exact mont Kael vanished around the bend of the narrow alley, soone in the Lasthold group noticed him slip away.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed instantly, and poorly concealed hatred flashed in his gaze.
He stopped almost imdiately, allowing the other students to continue running past him. Several students looked back in surprise, but Aiden did not even glance in their direction.
Instead, he slowly turned his gaze to where Kael had just disappeared.
“Worried about your pathetic tavern friends?” he muttered venomously.
A grim smile gradually spread across Aiden’s face.
After everything that had happened at the Academy, the hatred he felt toward Kael had only grown stronger. To Aiden, Kael had long since ceased to be rely an enemy—his very existence felt like a humiliation.
Aiden narrowed his eyes slightly and cast a quick glance toward the central square of the Student Quarter.
“I need to tell Valkeris about this,” he said quietly. “This is my chance.”
And with those words, Aiden spun around sharply and imdiately broke into a run.
✦ ✦ ✦
While more and more students in the Student Quarter were dispersing into the dormitories and descending to the underground levels, Kael was already racing at full speed toward the edge of the Imperial Academy’s grounds.
Gray mana continuously circulated through his channels, noticeably reducing his weight and making every movent lighter. Crushed stone crunched faintly beneath the soles of his boots as Kael vaulted over pathways and decorative shrubs, taking the most direct route.
His amber eyes remained cold and focused.
One after another, the streets of the Capital surfaced in his mind, assembling themselves into a detailed map of the city.
“Lesser Amber Street is slightly to the east…” he calculated rapidly, cutting sharply between two buildings. “The best route is through the alleys, avoiding the main roads.”
Even from here, he could still hear distant explosions, screams, and the heavy thunder of magical clashes.
Kael charged forward without slowing down.
And with every leap, the Academy’s towering outer wall drew closer.
A line of tall trees stretched before it, their leaves rustling anxiously beneath gusts of wind and distant shockwaves. Beyond the wall, plus of smoke were already visible rising above the city, accompanied by the scent of burning, blood, and sothing charred.
“Just a little farther…” Kael thought, abruptly accelerating even more.
As he drew closer to the Academy’s outer wall, a faintly irritated grimace crossed his face.
“I really should have bought at least so kind of weapon beforehand…” he thought irritably, abruptly changing direction.
In the next mont, Kael leaped high into the air, grabbing hold of a thick tree branch. The branch creaked dangerously beneath his weight, but he imdiately used the montum to launch himself even higher, catching the edge of the tall stone wall.
His fingers tightened around the cold stone, and he instantly pulled himself up.
But the mont Kael’s head rose above the wall and the streets of the Capital ca into view, his heart skipped a beat.
“Damn it… I definitely need a weapon for this…” he barely managed to mutter.
Before him lay a small square from which several streets branched in different directions.
The entire cobblestone pavent was drenched in blood so heavily that even the water in the stone fountain at the center of the square had taken on a dark crimson hue. Bodies of both humans and beastfolk were scattered everywhere, and the air was thick with the sll of blood and smoke.
But the worst part was that the battle was still ongoing. Everywhere, traces of mana dispersing after clashes could still be seen.
Imperial soldiers together with ordinary townspeople were trying to hold back the beastfolk in the middle of the square. So rchants gripped kitchen knives and axes, others hid behind overturned carts, while several Imperial knights held a defensive line near one of the streets, preventing the beastfolk from advancing any farther.
Yet even at a glance, it was obvious—there were catastrophically too few soldiers here.
Kael’s eyes darted across the square, assessing the situation.
At that mont, one of the beastfolk burst straight into a group of rchants defending themselves near a ruined shop, roaring with fury.
He wielded a massive two-handed axe taken from one of the dead guards.
His very first strike shattered a wooden shield with a monstrous crack, severing the rchant’s arm just above the elbow in the sa motion. The man scread wildly and collapsed to his knees, while the beastfolk followed through with the strike.
The second rchant was literally split open down to the chest.
Blood and entrails sprayed across the ground, and several nearby people recoiled in horror.
But a second later, accompanied by a flash of turquoise mana, a long spear from an Imperial knight struck from the side.
The spearhead pierced completely through the beastfolk’s flank, erging near his spine.
Yet the beastfolk rely rasped before grabbing the shaft and yanking the knight toward him as if he weighed nothing.
The very next mont, he sank his teeth directly into the knight’s neck.
A wet crunch rang out, showering the terrified rchants with blood.
Both imdiately collapsed to the ground, continuing to struggle with each other in their dying agony atop the blood-soaked cobblestones.
Farther down the street, a group of civilians was hastily trying to block the entrance to a narrow alley with an overturned cart. Several n, breathing heavily, threw their shoulders against the wooden wheels while two wounded soldiers stood in front of them, maintaining a trembling semi-transparent mana barrier.
Blue light flickered intermittently, growing weaker and weaker.
Blood flowed continuously from beneath one of the soldiers’ armor, already soaking through his boot, yet he still maintained the barrier, teeth clenched from the strain.
But in the next mont, a shadow suddenly flashed overhead.
A lean beastfolk with disproportionately long arms leaped from the roof of a two-story building directly into the crowd.
Gray bone blades instantly flared to life in his claws.
Before the people even had ti to properly scream, he had already lunged forward.
The beastfolk tore through the crowd, slashing with his daggers. One man imdiately collapsed to the ground, clutching his ripped-open stomach. Another rely spat blood as a bloody line slowly appeared across his neck.
The wounded soldier spun around and, with a roar, tried to strike with his sword.
But the beastfolk abruptly ducked, almost sliding beneath the thrust, then in a single upward motion sliced the soldier’s face open from the chin to the forehead.
Watching all of this, Kael froze for a mont.
Fear suddenly flared inside him, while a heavy wave of nausea rose in his throat from the sll of blood, smoke, and the sight of torn-apart bodies. At the sa ti, sothing inside him seed to crack, and entirely different scenes unexpectedly surfaced before his eyes—the execution of his parents, his sister lying in a pool of blood.
Those images seed to return him to the days of his imprisonnt in the Divine Library. Once again, he felt that burning, clinging guilt that had devoured him day after day.
Then his mind began conjuring new images on its own. Similar bloody scenes, but now with Violet, Girren, Roselle, and Lissandra.
Kael could almost see their lifeless bodies lying in the ruined rry Drunkard Tavern.
But in the very next mont, he sharply slapped himself across the cheek. The sharp crack echoed off the wall, and Kael, gripping the edge of the wall with his other hand, quickly climbed over it, hoarsely forcing out, “They ended up here because of …”
Dropping from the wall onto the cobblestones, Kael slowly straightened.
“I won’t let it happen again,” he said quietly, feeling the gray mana begin circulating faster through his channels once more. “The people close to will never die because of again…”
“Those countless tortures did teach sothing after all…” he thought, briefly recalling the hundreds of tis the God of Knowledge and Madness had tornted him.
And with that thought, sothing inside Kael seed to click into place. Fear and anxiety instantly retreated to the back of his mind, leaving behind only detachnt and cold composure.
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The next mont, Kael’s mind connected with Libero, and his body imdiately beca even lighter. A thin layer of gray mana coated his legs, and then Kael burst forward, almost silently streaking down the blood-soaked street.
His figure flashed between bodies, overturned carts, and bursts of mana so quickly that the eye could barely follow him. People continued screaming nearby, weapons clashed, and beastfolk roared, but Kael was already completely focused on movent.
He kept the entire street within his awareness, analyzing everything around him with lightning speed.
“Until I get a weapon, I need to avoid any direct confrontation…” he noted coolly, abruptly shifting sideways when mana flared ahead.
A fireball slamd into the cobblestones the next instant, scattering stone fragnts and chunks of burning earth in every direction.
Kael did not even slow down.
The image of the square he had glimpsed from the Academy wall quickly resurfaced in his mind.
“There should be a weapons shop at the end of the street…” he thought, vaulting over the body of a dead beastfolk. “I need a weapon. Imdiately.”
At that mont, directly to Kael’s right, one of the Imperial guards brought a heavy iron club crashing down onto a beastfolk’s head with a furious roar.
A wet crack rang out.
The beastfolk’s skull was literally crushed against the pavent, blood and bone fragnts spraying in every direction. But Kael did not even slow down, slipping past at the exact mont the guard was only beginning to lift the club back up.
His gaze swept rapidly across the battlefield, assessing movents, flashes of mana, and the overall state of the combatants.
“Mostly Channelweaver Mages… and not the strongest Marked Mages,” he noted coolly, noticing that many of the beastfolk were fighting without proper weapons, and their movents occasionally appeared far too erratic.
It was obvious that years of slavery had left their mark. So were so severely emaciated that even maintaining mana seed difficult for them.
“Even though I haven’t reached the level of a Marked Mage yet…” Kael continued inwardly, vaulting sharply over a pile of shattered crates. “Opponents like these won’t be a problem.”
The next mont, he narrowed his eyes slightly as he accelerated again.
“Especially if I can get a pair of combat gauntlets.”
Kael abruptly ducked, and a wave of fire roared directly over his head, singeing the tips of his hair and leaving behind a blast of dry heat.
But he never broke stride.
In the next instant, Kael kicked off the wall of a nearby building, sharply altering his trajectory, and literally flew between two fighters locked in combat.
One of the beastfolk had just raised a clawed paw, preparing to rip open a man’s stomach, when the Imperial soldier snapped his fingers.
A pillar of fla instantly erupted beneath the beastfolk’s feet.
The fire engulfed his fur with a roar, causing the beastfolk to let out a wild scream and stagger frantically down the street. Several burning clumps of fur landed on a shop’s wooden awning, setting it ablaze almost imdiately.
But Kael completely ignored the horror unfolding around him.
His amber eyes swept rapidly across the street, searching the signs. And at that mont, he finally spotted the shop he was looking for, shouting, “There it is!”
The faded image of crossed swords could still be made out on the darkened wooden sign.
But just as Kael made several more swift leaps forward, the situation changed abruptly.
In the next mont, a white-furred beastfolk was literally hurled through the display window of the weapons shop.
A deafening crash rang out.
The glass instantly exploded into fragnts, showering the street with a rain of razor-sharp shards, while the beastfolk’s body rolled across the wooden floor inside the shop with a thunderous impact, smashing through a weapon rack.
Almost imdiately, a terrified woman’s scream sounded from within.
Kael’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“Damn it…” he cursed, without even considering slowing down.
Without changing direction, Kael pushed off the ground and literally launched himself through the shattered display window into the weapons shop.
Glass shards and splintered wood crunched beneath his feet. The sole of his boot slipped for an instant across the scattered debris, but Kael imdiately shifted his center of gravity, maintaining his balance.
His gaze instantly locked onto the white-furred beastfolk.
The beastfolk was already standing in the middle of the wrecked shop, holding a woman by the throat with one hand and lifting her off the floor. The woman desperately struggled to breathe, clawing at his paw with her nails, but the beastfolk paid her no attention.
His other arm was already drawing back.
Judging by the tension in his muscles and the mana flaring around him, he intended to kill her with a single blow.
But at the exact mont the beastfolk was about to strike the woman in the stomach, Kael appeared behind him like a ghost.
Gray mana instantly surged into Kael’s right arm, reinforcing the muscles and making his fist dramatically heavier just before impact.
The next mont, Kael’s fist slamd into the beastfolk’s temple with a thunderous crash.
For an instant, it seed as though an explosion had gone off inside the shop.
The blow was so monstrously heavy that the beastfolk’s body was literally swept across half the store. He smashed through another weapon rack, scattering swords and splintered wood throughout the room, before crashing into the wall with a deafening impact.
The woman imdiately collapsed to the floor, gasping desperately for air while clutching her throat. Her gaze darted frantically around the ruined shop until it finally settled on Kael’s figure in the white Academy uniform.
She clearly had no idea what had just happened.
But the beastfolk was already beginning to rise again.
Spitting blood onto the floor along with several broken teeth, he growled furiously, “Vrokh ulghat…”
Kael rely snorted.
“Takes one to know one.”
But in the next mont, the beastfolk charged forward with a roar.
His clawed paw shot toward Kael’s chest with such force that the air whistled briefly. Yet Kael himself did not even flinch.
At the last instant, he sharply shifted his body aside while simultaneously releasing a short pulse of gray mana directly into his opponent’s arm.
The beastfolk’s strike imdiately lost part of its montum.
But that was not the worst of it.
The mana instantly threw off the balance of his body. The beastfolk’s right arm suddenly seed to fill with lead, becoming several tis heavier than normal.
His balance imdiately pitched forward.
“Grrh?!” the beastfolk staggered, unexpectedly losing his balance.
And Kael was already stepping in.
His leg slid forward sharply, sweeping out the beastfolk’s supporting leg with a precise trip.
The heavy right arm finally dragged the rest of his body down.
The beastfolk’s eyes widened in shock, and he only managed to rasp, “Bask?!”
The next mont, his massive body crashed onto its back with a thunderous impact, his weighted arm smashing through the shop’s wooden floor.
But Kael did not give him even the slightest chance to get back up.
In the sa instant, he sprang upward, and gray mana flared across his entire body, coating muscles and bones in a dense layer.
Then Kael dropped.
As he fell, he increased his own weight many tis over, as though his body had transford into a massive block of stone in a single instant.
The next mont, his elbow slamd directly into the beastfolk’s ribcage with all its force.
The floorboards beneath them burst apart, and the beastfolk’s chest caved inward, ribs shattering and internal organs rupturing. Blood erupted from his maw in a fountain together with chunks of flesh and viscera, splattering the broken floor and the nearest weapon racks.
The beastfolk’s body convulsed once, and his eyes imdiately rolled back.
Kael himself grimaced sharply.
At the mont of impact, a heavy wave of pain shot through his own body as well. Even with mana reinforcent, the recoil from the collision had been monstrous. His elbow gave an unpleasant crack, and the muscles of his arm imdiately answered with a dull, throbbing ache.
Spitting a bit of blood onto the enemy’s corpse, Kael winced and cursed, “Damn it… I nearly broke my own ribs…”
But despite the pain, he did not hesitate.
Gray mana imdiately receded from his body, restoring his normal weight, and Kael quickly rolled off the beastfolk’s corpse and began rising to his feet.
“Th-thank you!” a trembling female voice sounded almost imdiately.
The woman was still sitting on the floor amid shattered glass and scattered weapons, desperately gasping for air after being strangled. Her hands were visibly shaking, and her gaze darted between the dead beastfolk’s body and Kael himself.
But Kael rely shot her a quick glance and said without hesitation, “I need combat gauntlets. Right now.”
The woman visibly flinched at the cold, direct tone.
And only then did Kael realize how terrifying he probably looked—a blood-covered Academy student calmly standing over a mutilated corpse.
He exhaled briefly and added in a slightly softer tone, “I’ll pay for them. But after all this is over.”
For a mont, his gaze flicked toward the street, where screams and the sounds of battle could still be heard.
“Right now, I urgently need a weapon.”
At those words, the woman seed to finally co back to her senses.
She sprang up from the floor, nearly slipping on blood and shattered glass, then began frantically scanning the wrecked shop.
“Gauntlets… gauntlets…” the woman muttered nervously, moving quickly through the debris.
Then she suddenly dashed toward the far wall, where several elegant wooden cases stood.
One of them was now completely shattered, little more than a pile of splinters.
The woman imdiately dropped to her knees and began hurriedly digging through the wreckage with her bare hands, paying no attention to the splinters and sharp fragnts piercing her skin.
anwhile, Kael stepped closer, continuing to listen warily to the sounds outside.
But at that mont, the woman finally found sothing.
“Here!” she almost shouted, abruptly pulling a pair of silver combat gauntlets from the rubble.
Even through the blood, dust, and dim glow of the fires, it was obvious—these gauntlets were exceptional.
Flexible silver plates, assembled from dozens of articulated segnts, overlapped tightly, completely covering the hands, wrists, and forearms all the way to the elbows. The tal looked light, yet every movent conveyed a sense of durability and dangerous weight.
Thickened striking segnts with dark engravings protruded from the knuckles and elbow guards, into which barely visible magical runes had been woven. Between the tal plates, fine fabric made from the thinnest threads of magical steel could be seen, allowing the armor to retain its flexibility.
Despite their refined and not overly bulky appearance, the gauntlets looked almost predatory. It was imdiately clear that they had not been crafted to protect hands—they had been crafted to crush bones with bare fists.
The woman imdiately hurried over to Kael, holding the gauntlets out with both hands.
“Here, take them!” she said quickly, still breathing heavily after the terror she had endured. “My shop is modest, but these gauntlets were among the best I had!”
Without wasting words, Kael accepted the gauntlets. This was no ti for sentint.
He imdiately began pulling the gauntlets onto his hands while simultaneously listening to what was happening outside. Another crash sounded sowhere nearby, followed by a cry of pain.
But Kael’s attention quickly shifted to the gauntlets themselves.
Unlike the training models at the Academy, these had neither straps nor crude rivets for fastening.
The mont Kael poured a bit of mana into them, the delicate runes along the segnts imdiately flared with a faint silvery glow.
The next instant, all the tal plates seed to co alive.
With soft clicks, they tightened around his hands and forearms, perfectly adjusting to the shape of his limbs and locking firmly into place.
Caught off guard, Kael even swung his arms sharply, testing the fit. Yet the gauntlets made no sound, did not shift, and did not so much as tremble, as though they had permanently fused with his body.
They fit so naturally and snugly that they no longer felt like a separate weapon, but rather as though they had always been part of his own body.
A faint gleam appeared in Kael’s eyes, and a slightly unsettling grin spread across his face.
“Excellent artisanship…” he said quietly, clenching a fist and feeling the tal segnts glide smoothly along with his fingers.
Looking at the woman, Kael imdiately said harshly, “Hide sowhere safe. You need to survive so I can repay you afterward.”
But the woman only shook her head vigorously.
“You’ve already repaid !” she shouted in a trembling voice. “These gauntlets are worth far less than my life!”
With those words, she hurried toward a door at the back of the shop leading to a storeroom and almost imdiately disappeared inside, slamming the doors shut behind her.
Kael instantly turned his gaze toward one of the surviving weapon racks.
Stepping closer, he shoved the heavy wooden structure aside without effort, completely blocking the entrance to the storeroom.
Only after confirming that the door was no longer conspicuous did Kael exhale briefly and turn back toward the street.
“Lesser Amber Street is just nearby…” he muttered quietly. “I need to hurry.”
The next mont, he sprang out through the shattered display window.
Kael shot forward.
Gray mana flared around his legs, reducing his weight once more, and he practically flew up the street, vaulting over debris, bodies, and pools of blood.
But now his gaze moved differently.
Where before Kael had searched for safe routes and tried to avoid confrontations, his amber eyes now coldly sought out the weakest points in the chaos of battle—the places where he could break through most quickly.
Shifting sideways in the middle of his sprint, Kael suddenly found himself beside a beastfolk who was fighting an Imperial guard in the middle of the street.
The beastfolk had already begun turning his body for a strike.
Black mana flared around his arm, rapidly forming five blades over his claws.
But he never got the chance to finish the attack.
Kael’s heavy steel gauntlet slamd directly into his face.
A dull crack rang out.
The Imperial guard froze for a mont when he saw the unexpected help. A flash of relief had already appeared in his eyes at the thought that the two of them would quickly finish off the enemy together.
But in the very next mont, the beastfolk’s skull literally caved inward.
The enemy’s body was launched backward, tumbling through the air before crashing into the wall of a nearby house with a thunderous impact. The stonework cracked, and the beastfolk slid down dead.
“What the?!” the guard cursed in astonishnt.
But Kael did not even glance in his direction.
He simply rushed past, continuing to sprint up the street at full speed while the silver gauntlets on his hands glead faintly in the light of the fires.
Looking at his right gauntlet, now splattered with blood and fragnts of bone, Kael noted inwardly, “Excellent. Now I’m making the weapon heavier, not my own arm… That ans the strain on my body will be much lower.”
Clenching his fist slightly, he imdiately realized that after such a devastating strike, he had barely felt any recoil in his hand.
“Now I won’t have to hold back the increase in weight so much.”
Without slowing for even a mont, Kael sharply reduced his own weight and, with a single leap, literally flew over an overturned cart behind which wounded townspeople were hiding.
At that very mont, two beastfolk charged him from opposite sides.
One lunged from the left, trying to sink his claws into Kael’s throat, while the other simultaneously swung a short axe at his side.
But Kael moved faster.
He spun sharply between them, using a brief pulse of gray mana to shift the axe’s trajectory aside, then instantly grabbed the haft with one hand.
And imdiately increased its weight.
The beastfolk’s eyes widened.
In an instant, the weapon beca so heavy that it literally dragged him downward. Unable to control the sudden change in weight, the beastfolk pitched forward and lost his balance.
And Kael was already eting the second opponent with a direct forearm strike.
The weighted gauntlet crashed into the beastfolk’s lower jaw with a crack.
The blow carried so much force that the bone shattered, and half his neck twisted sideways. The beastfolk’s head turned at an almost unnatural angle before his body collapsed limply onto the cobblestones.
As for the second beastfolk, who had fallen to the ground, several townspeople imdiately sward him, stabbing him with blades.
But Kael did not even look at the corpses.
His figure was already racing farther up the street, while ahead, the narrow alley he needed finally appeared between two stone buildings.
Without reducing his speed, Kael turned sharply into it, instantly disappearing from the main street filled with screams, beastfolk roars, and the thunder of a large-scale battle.
It was noticeably quieter here.
Only distant explosions and the crashing of collapsing buildings could still be heard, while the narrow alley carried the scents of blood, smoke, and damp stone.
Kael, anwhile, continued racing forward, his boots barely touching the ground.
And only now, having broken free from the endless slaughter for a few seconds, did he finally realize what had happened.
“The feeling…” Kael thought, looking at the bloodstained silver gauntlets. “It’s as if my fighting strength has increased severalfold…”
Not long ago, he had been forced to carefully calculate the force of every strike to avoid crippling his own body before crippling his opponent.
But now everything had changed.
The gauntlets seed to complent his weight-manipulation magic perfectly.
The gauntlets absorbed most of the strain, allowing Kael to use far more monstrous enhancents without risking the imdiate shattering of his own bones.
And the more clearly he understood that, the faster a new picture of how to fight began to take shape in his mind.
“With a combination like this…” Kael’s amber eyes narrowed slightly. “I’ll be able to kill opponents at my level almost instantly.”
✦ ✦ ✦
At that very mont, sowhere behind him, a brilliant flash of lightning suddenly illuminated the street.
A sharp crack rang out, followed by the sll of scorched flesh filling the air. One of the beastfolk did not even have ti to scream—his body was instantly charred by the strike, collapsing to the ground as a smoking heap.
And only a few seconds later, a figure in an Imperial Academy uniform leisurely stepped out from around the corner.
Sharp blue eyes glead coldly beneath equally blue hair gathered into a tight bun at the back of his head.
It was Aiden.
He slowly turned his gaze toward the alley into which Kael had just disappeared, and murderous intent almost imdiately ignited in his eyes.
Snorting, Aiden quietly said, “Revenge is close at hand, bastard… Your death will be my ticket into the Empire’s elite.”
With those words, he abruptly burst into motion, racing after Kael.
Lightning briefly crackled along his arms and boots, noticeably accelerating his movents.
“Valkeris wants to kill him as brutally as possible…” Aiden smirked to himself as he vaulted over the body of a dead beastfolk. “Well… that won’t be a problem for .”
An anticipatory grin slowly spread across his face.
“After all, I’m a Silver Mage…” he nearly whispered. “And that pup is still only a Steel Mage.”
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