“Ah?”

“What?”

Mages busy casting their spells felt like something changed all of a sudden. It felt as if a hidden force was pulling them down.

“Gravity spell?”

Plop

They couldn’t stand the intense gravity. Their body bent as they fell on the floor one by one. It was hard to move. They weren’t even given time to run away. The gravity didn’t just affect the position in which they were standing, the insides of their body were also shaken by this sudden force.

“Argh!”

“That- that mage behind the shield- argh!”

“Kill him.”

But that wasn’t all. As the mages tried casting a spell, the air around them started to move as well. Just in a moment, all the air around them moved and disappeared. It was as if something sucked all of it, leaving nothing but emptiness behind.

Vacuum magic.

It was a complicated spell that most people struggle to cast. Even though it is a complicated spell, it is not that strong and the area of effect isn’t really vast. The magic didn’t have that much effect because, if you took away an area’s air, it would just fill again with the air around that space as soon as you cancel the spell. And that was exactly what Kairen needed.

The mages who were suddenly left without air couldn’t breathe… obviously. The pressure on their body caused by the gravity and inability to breathe was really great. They started coughing up blood and gasping for air.

Others who realized what was going on tried attacking Kairen to stop the spell but before they could do anything, the mages helplessly lost consciousness. They would really die if this continued so Kairen released his spell as he didn’t want that to happen.

‘Done!’

All the magic attacks from their enemy stopped. This made the three swordsmen move freely without worrying about anything more than the enemy in front of them.

“Huff Huff.”

Using a huge amount of mana at the same time, Kairen started staggering. He somehow stood straight and tried collecting his breath.

ClANG

Hearing the sound of iron hitting iron, Kairen raised his head. In front of him were three of the enemy’s swordsmen who tried to attack him, Nibel and Reyan were against them. Nibel, pushing two of the enemies back with his sword, talked without looking at Reyan.

“Leave these guys to me and go forth!”

Reyan silently nodded and moved aside. Gripping his sword, he rushed towards the enemies.

Nibel took a step back. He held his sword tougher as he wrapped his aura around it. Three people attacked him at the same time. He dodged to the first one, repelled the second, and got hit by the third.

“Tch.”

His arm was slightly cut and it started to bleed. But he didn’t waste his chance. Taking a large turn, he thrust his sword into one of his opponents’ sides.

“ARGH!”

The man grabbed his side and took a few steps back. The injury wasn’t fatal, but it was deep. The other two rushed at Nibel at the same time.

Kairen, who was standing back and watching, gathered his mana again. The man who was about to cut Nibel’s thigh was blown away by a sudden gust of wind. Nibel used this chance to cut the other one’s arm.

“AAARRGHH! My arm my armmmm!”

The man fell on the floor, grabbing his arm and screaming in pain.

“…”

‘I’m gonna throw up.’

The scene before his eyes was just… too much… He could get used to killing disgusting monsters somehow, but seeing humans being cut and killed wasn’t something one could get used to so easily.

Kairen clasped his trembling hands and bit his lips.

‘I want to go home. I want to go home.’

He really wanted to get away from here, but that seemed impossible.

Kairen tried looking away. He could see Reyan and others fighting in a little bit distance. The ground was dyed red by blood and enemies fell here and there.

Alyx was getting his injured shoulder treated by Ellyn in the back while other bodyguards were also attacking the enemy using guns.

Taking his eyes off of the beautiful view, he looked back at Nibel. He had knocked out the remaining one, who was swept away by the wind and the other one had run away.

Everything seemed to be going fine. There weren’t many of the enemies left at it seemed like the remaining ones would be taken care of soon as well.

But Kairen had an ominous feeling.

‘My inner otaku is telling me that things won’t end this easily…’

He looked back at the enemy line again. Mages were still unconscious and nearly all of the enemies were unable to continue the fight… And… there was the man. The man treated the others as some kind of subordinate. The same guy who had green lines on his uniform standing there.

‘Is he here to just watch?’

Just as he was thinking about that, the man took one step forward. He looked around with the same leisurely manner. They could see his lips that weren’t covered by the mask turn upward to a smirk.

“Not bad… I guess cadets aren’t that useless after all.”

As soon as he talked, all the masked men stopped in their fight. They all looked at him before retreating. His leisure tune suddenly turned cold and serious.

“But don’t think that things will end this easily.”

‘See! I was right!’

His inner otaku’s predictions weren’t wrong!

BZZ BZZ

The man raised his right hand. Something was wiggling around his hand, making a weird sound. It looked like a purple and blue colored electricity current, or maybe lightning. The purple electricity was threateningly becoming bigger. It really looked dangerous.

“An attribute?”

Kairen could hear Reyan mumbling under his lips.

‘Is that an attribute?’

Kairen looked closely. He could tell that it wasn’t a magic spell. It didn’t look like aura either. Then what Reyan said must be true.

Among powers that humans could use, there was a unique power called Nature. As its name showed, people with this power could control parts of nature. Ability users who can control an attribute of nature. It was a long name so people just called them Attribute Users. The naming wasn’t correct but anyway, that was it.

People with this power could do different things. Some could move the air as they wanted and some could create fire out of nowhere. Of course, these people who could use essential elements of nature were really rare. Most of the attribute users were only able to create small gusts of winds or move some sand and such…

From what Kairen could see, the man in front of them was seemingly able to create and use electricity. Seeing that, Kairen quickly created a shield around everyone. He was low in mana and this one was the only thing he could do.

The man looked at his subordinates, most of them injured or unconscious. Then turned his head towards Mr. Rhoads. The politician was still hiding behind everyone. Seeing his gaze on him, Mr. Rhoads shuddered even more.

The man then raised his electricity-wrapped hand. The current around his hand got bigger and suddenly exploded out.

BAANGG

A strong force was shot towards them. It hit Kairen’s shield, making a loud sound. The shield shook and broke down. The electricity current, wakened by the shield, jumped towards the bodyguards. Alyx, standing near them raised his sword to protect himself and the others. The current hit his sword and threw him back. Alyx flew to the air for a moment then hit a building and fell to the ground. He didn’t move after that.

“What the hell!”

“Alyx!”

But they didn’t have time to check his condition. The man moved his hand once more, shooting electricity once more.

Reyan moved in front of everyone, extending his aura like a small one-man shield. Ellyn wrapped everyone in a few layers of shield magic as well. Kairen used all of his remaining mana as well, adding layers to Ellyn’s shield. This all happened in a few seconds.

The attack moved their way once more, destroying the shields and hitting Reyan. But unlike Alyx, he wasn’t thrown away. There were two lines on the floor created by Reyan’s feet as he was pushed back by the shock, but he was still standing, panting heavily. Blood was dripping down from his hands and arms as they were hurt while being hit by the attack.

The moment that the electricity disappeared, the figure of a man was right in front of Reyan’s face.

‘What the hell!’

Electric current was visible all around his body like a coat. He raised his left hand, also wrapped with electricity, and punched Reyan.

“Argh!”

Kairen, standing just behind him could hear the sound of bones cracking in his body. Reyan staggered a few steps and bent down from the pain.

‘That must hurt so much!’

Even while in pain, Reyan still raised his sword to attack. The man caught his arm with one hand and his throat by the other.

“Reyan!”

This looked dangerous. Reyan was bleeding while being suffocated.

Kairen was scared. He wanted to run away. He wanted to take as much distance from this man as possible. He didn’t want to get beaten. He didn’t want to die.

But he couldn’t move. It was as if his feet were glued to the ground. He could see Reyan struggling whit the man. He seemed to be out of aura. Reyan was in danger. He wouldn’t be able to get away from that man’s grip at this rate.

Kairen didn’t want him to get hurt. He didn’t know why; he just didn’t want anything to happen to him. it was as if a voice was telling him to do something, a voice inside his head was telling him to stop the man. To save his friend.

‘I don’t have mana… how am I…’

CLANG

The sword fell out of Reyan’s hand, it was as if strength was leaving his body.

“Let him go!”

Nibel jumped in between them, but he was also hit by an electric current and sent flying away.

-Save them.

-I must save them.

-They are my friends; I must do something.

‘They are not my friends. I have met them just a few times. I should run away. I don’t want to die. I can’t do anything.’

But instead of running away, Kairen started casting a spell.

‘What the fuck am I doing?’

Why should he save them? He doesn’t have the power to do so. His soul that was supposed to hold all his mana was now empty. There was nothing… nothing…

But the spell was being cast at a tremendous speed.

‘Huh?’

He felt a power fill the empty slots of the spell that was supposed to be filled with mana at the moment. It wasn’t mana… he was sure of it. He sensed a strong power inside his soul. Stronger than aura. The power felt familiar. Kairen’s body was getting filled with that unknown power.

‘What is it?’

Kairen didn’t think about it. he didn’t have the time so. He tried to use that power.. he completed the spell and released it.