07. Conclusion and Looming Danger

from behind the dust, cripple could see master Q silhouette walking out slowly. yet cripple could also saw that he had also ever-so slightly dragging his right leg, there was a tinge of blood could be seen around his foot ankle.

yet master Q keeps nonchalant about it,

"d*mn rat, i thought it was some sort of concealed weapon, turns out you're a magician? huhuhu..." he snickered, then he interrogate him, "...when did you awakened as magician rat? where did you get the potion and awakening array?"

seeing cripple kept his silent, master Q tone turns colder and louder.

"if you're really awakened as one, the boss would pretty much recruit you to his rank..." he paused, dangerous glint could be seen in his eyes,

"...but i digress! in consideration of our conflict today i deemed you're dangerous for my future, so you see i don't have any choice but to kill you now, and also..."

on his peripheral, cripple saw pocket face peeking from behind the old sofa, cripple and master Q battle mostly on the other side of the room, making pocket quite safe at the moment.

her blue swollen face was pale, and worries could be seen on her eyes, with bloodied mouth cripple tried to assure her that everything was fine, then he turned his attention back toward master Q ready to retaliate.

this time, pocket was in no condition to believes him, determination flashed her eyes seemingly ready to do something.

"....and also, you expect that little spell could harm me?" he mocked while continuing, "...very well, since you're about to die i'll tell you why i was fine after i got hit by your spell, it was simply because my power right now is comparable to grade 3 warrior, you don't know about aura don't you?"

master Q laugh loudly seemingly proud of himself, then he took half broken blade from under his feet, he brandished it toward the sitting cripple.

"...IN SHORT, I WAS IMMUNE TO MAGIC ATTACK YOU B*STARD RAT! NOW DIE!!! HAHAHHAA." he lunge forward swinging the blade!

just when cripple ready to act, he failed to notice that someone else was faster than master Q! pushing him sideways!

cripple left eye was wide open as he saw his dear buddy pushing him out of the danger! time was seemingly slowing down, he saw pocket face squeezing a smile facing his with her back toward the incoming attack!

SLASH!

THUD!

fresh blood spurted from the back of pocket skinny body! instantly drenched her ragged cloth.

master Q was also surprised as he witnessed the scene, yet he didn't care as he once again slashed toward cripple!

cripple's mind went blank! yet instant later when he saw another incoming attack, his usual busy mind was now going overdrive even without him knowing, he recalled every single detail about his battle with master Q before, not only that but he was also recalling further back at the scene of the executioner magician at the square, particularly about how the mana was able to transform to fire.

just right when master Q slashed down, cripple made his move, he casted brain control in an instant, hoping master Q to fall for it, he stimulate master Q's brain so his worst fear would surface!

cripple knew that master Q has some kind of resistance toward his brain control, nonetheless what he needed was only a moment, a fraction of second when master Q regains his consciousness.

human was always keep allert of his surrounding, no matter where they were or what they're doing, the mind state would always preserves a sliver of vigilance, protecting their moment of vulnerability, even more so for seasoned warrior as master Q, he was trained well in this aspect.

then how to make them vulnearable? they would lose it while in deep sleep. or, when they were in very distressed moment.

just like what was going on right now, master Q slashed forward due to momentum, yet his mind was in dreadful state! as for in an instant his bad memories surfaced ever so slightly.

in a flash, cripple holding up the remaining upper half of his walking stick and stabbed it forward!

just right when master Q refocused his mind, he saw jagged edge of broken walking stick had arrived right in front of his right eye!

CRUNCH!

without any resistance due to his moment of vulnerability, master Q's right eye was directly crushed! the jagged edge of wooden stick was only stopped by his sphenoid bone⑴ inside his skull, preventing it to penetrate towards master Q's brain.

cripple's mind was now on overdrive, he didn't even realize the blood flowing out of his nose was getting stronger.

as he recalled the particular details of the executioner fire, he sends his mana along the body of walking stick, then imagined it to transform to the most flamable gas he knew, the CIF3 or known as chloro trifluoride⑵.

as the the mana nature was transformed, the extremely reactive gas filled master Q's eye socket, in fraction of second it combusted! engulfed his head with yellow-greenish fire in an instant!

due to CIF3 stupidly dangerous nature. everything inside master Q's head was soon melted, it even corroded before it burns! the fire was also coming out from all of his orifices.

everything that happened since the stupidly sacrifical act of pocket until master Q head was now a burning skull took no more than 3 seconds.

master Q didn't know what he came into, he didn't even screamed due to his crushed right eye! all he could saw before death was jagged edge of cripple upper part walking stick which he happened to break before.

thud!

with still burning skull, master Q body fell forward crashing onto several cabinets.

cripple soon arrived beside pocket face-down body, he saw horrible slash wound trailed from her right back shoulder to her left waist, blood unceasingly flowing out,

as swift as lightning he formed extremely thin mana needle, cripple wouldn't tried something like this before. as making mana as thin as possible would burdened his mental power giving him horrible headache, but he couldn't care less now as he attempted to close pocket wound with a stitch, he pulled several strands of his hair and enhancing it by mana.

as mana acted as a needle and his enhanced hair as thread, he sutures the wound quickly with precision. in no time the wound were closed, then using mana sense he scrutinize the conditon of pockets back without missing any details, he also perceived with relief that pocket was barely alive! yet it was still dangerous as she lost too much blood, if cripple left her by she would soon went into hypovolemic shock!⑶

cripple didn't want it to happen, but soon he heard commotion down below, there were sign of people's coming!

with unbearable headache he began to think, then he glanced toward several book on the shelf, noticing the peculiarity of one of the book and the shelf itself.

he soon creeping closer as fast as he could toward some spears on the ground, he also didn't forget to brought back the mana technique scroll that had been detached from his walking stick,

after stabilizing himself with wooden spear, he soon arrived at the bookshelf, realizing one of the book could be pushed, he did just that.

clank! creeeeeeaaak....

the shelf slides sideways revealing dark passage behind! realizing this as personal escape passage for master Q. soon after, cripple was back to pocket side, he put the scroll on his mouth bitting it hard then he pulled pocket to his back.

using his ragged cloth as rope, he tied pockets hands in front of his neck, he also tied pocket waist to his own, securing her. he could felt pocket breathe had slowed down and her heart beat was getting faster, the sign of losing too much blood.

channeling whatever mana he had left towards his left leg, he began limping steadily toward the escape passage. when he entered, he saw some mechanical part which pulling a sack of sand tied by a rope beside, he then cast small bullet to cut the rope.

creaaaaaa.... bam!

the passage was now sealed once more, inside was pitch-black without any light. fortunately, cripple could saw the golden mana spheres floating around clearly, in dark space the floating spheres were looks like fireflies, he could determined where he should go with the help of mana spheres. then with the help of broken spear as his crutch he start to walk as fast as possible.

just right after cripple carried pocket inside the secret passageway,

outside, the condition was turned dreary, lots of mobs were coming over with weapon on their hands, when they steps inside master Q office, they couldn't helped but gasps.

the room's condition was extremely messy, blood could be seen splattered on the ground, several cabinet and racks were destroyed, there was also a hole on the left side wall.

fire was now began to spread from window curtain toward its surrounding. burning everything on its wake. the mobs was now utterly dumbstruck. as they tries to calm down, one of the thugs saw burly body with its head hidden behind the curtain.

the thug was familiar with the body's outfit as he was one of master Q underling, he was also the one who noticed something unusual happened at their base while he was coming back from outside. coincidently he met with another thugs member on the way, then he asked for some reinforcement.

horror crept out of their faces when they entered the base, they saw many lifeless bodies strewn around on the floor.

"master Q!" the thug threw away his weapon, then he tried to pull his boss leg away from the burning curtain in order to avoid the fire.

yet as he pulled the body back, the other thugs cried out in unison! because what they witnessed was so horrible they feels so nauseated, some of them began to vomit, the body was fine with some bruises on its arm and torso but the head,

the head was completely engulfed by smoke now, fire could still be seen burning within the head from its orifices. the completely intact head was now a burnt skull.

the thug who pulled master Q body's back couldn't helped but jumps back in horror.

"quick we must report this to master mordoc!!!" exclaimed one them.

in unison the remaining thugs were fast on their feet scampered away leaving the now burning room.

***

in one of the brothel's building not far from the thugs den, there was a fancy room on top floor.

if one entered that room, he would be so shocked as the scene inside the room was so horrendous! several n*ked maiden bodies could be seen strewn around the floor.

the maidens looks like around 15 uptill 18 years old, their faces were pale with vacant looks from their blank eyes, if one doesn't look closely. the maiden bodies could passed as a corpse if only they didn't breathe so weakly.

on the fancy bed there was two figures acted on debauchery, the man has fat-greasy figure looks like a pig on its two feet, shaking his hips nonstop against another lifeless figure lied in front of him.

the pale maiden on bed didn't move nor moaning, blood could be seen dripping down on her hips, she tried to struggled free before the man done such a thing to her alas it was all for naught.

the bed creaking louder and louder, the fat man with sinister looks keep going faster, moving his fatty hips back and forth disregarding the maiden states, with an ugly grin he groaned here and there.

while in the middle of his self-indulgance act, the room's door was knocked by someone outside.

hearing the knocking door sounds quite urgent, the fat man increasing his pace, after a moment he stopped suddenly, while keeping his lower region as deep as possible inside the maiden forcefully, with ugly expression on his bloated face, he howled loudly in satisfaction.

thump!

without any sympathy toward the maiden, he just pushed her off the bed after the deed was done.

"enter..." the fat man spoke.

soon the door opened and a thin middle-aged man around his thirties stepped inside, his countenance wasn't disturbed in slightest watching everything inside the room. clearly this was normal occurance here. the man stopped just few steps away from the bed.

on the bed there sat a naked plump man with bald head, his body looks so bloated due to fat, his face was realy ugly with sinister aura surrounding him, the fatty didn't even bother to cover his n*ked body facing the newly arrived man.

"master mordoc..." he said.

the fatty growled clearly disatisfied by the man disruption, "what is it F? if nothing important just scram!"

the man called F flinched slightly, yet he was able to keep his composure, he bow slightly while saying,

"brother Q was killed..."

raising his eyebrow slightly the fatty soon step down from the bed. then he walked closer.

"what did you say? speak clearly." master mordoc stops just right in front of the bowing F.

F broke in cold sweat, he adjusted his breathing then he gulped, "...just now brother Q was killed by seemingly one of our little asset."

"HMMPF!!" master Mordoc harrumphed loudly, emitting pressure to his surrounding.

due to unknown pressure, F was suddenly thrown back! he fell on his own butt.

"RUBISH!!! you said those little rats were able to kill Q? it wasn't funny joke!!!"

"nonono, master, it was only by one rat!!!" F tried to clarify the situation quickly, his forehead was filled with perspiration. soon after he began to narate what had happened to master Q base.

the looks of understanding soon plastered on master mordoc face, there was a tinge of greed too.

"i see, so you were saying that one of those rats was somehow awakened as magician, and with that he killed that b*stard Q? that Q i known as grade 3 warrior!?"

"it was so master..."

holding his fatty chin master mordoc mumbled, "...how was that possible? he can't be suddenly awakened 'puff' just like that right? also i know Q power was around grade 3 warrior, unless there were something we missed?" then he turned toward F, "...is there anything else?"

"yes, due to fire. our rat base was now destroyed, it wasn't too severe thanks to the storm. but, several rats managed to flee, also...." F paused slightly, he glanced toward his master clearly quite nervous.

"hmp? go on, what happened?"

"...somehow our rats operandi were now exposed to the official guards, they already captures several of our man..." he stuttered in low voice.

"hehehe, CURSED!!! MOTHERF*CKING CURSED!!!" master mordoc unleashed his mana once again, this time it directly destroys several items and killed a few weak maidens in the room.

heaving slightly, master mordoc adjusted his mood, "no matter! make sure those captured b*stard keep their mouth shuts! if any, just kill them! the rats operandi was meant for me to gather inteligent in outer ring, as for those rats whose had fled, i can detect them anytime anyway, we can rebuild it soon..."

"umm, master..."

glared menacingly toward F, master mordoc asked, "....anything else?"

F said meekly, "...its just, what do you want to do with brother Q murderer?"

master mordoc didn't reply in the slightest, soon he reached his extra large wardrobe, he put his clothes finally covered his digusting naked body. a moment later master mordoc leaving the room.

seeing the storm was still blowing wildly outside. in the entrance, master Mordoc stoped, he then glanced back toward F whom followed behind him submissively.

"...you clear up this mess, i'm rather interested in this so-called newly awakened rat.."

F soon bowed once again, "...it shall be done master."

"good..."

master mordoc soon casted some spell on his right hand. from it, there were several invisible white thread flowing towards the air in several different direction, the thread could only be seen by master mordoc.

he soon determined his target, then flew toward the howling storm.

"...you better prepare some more virg*n for me when i got back! the ones before were already broken!!" he shouted while leaving F behind at the brothel entrance.

in the air, the disgusting fatty starts to have some thought,

'...hehehe, magician eh? if i could make him my slave it would be better, those b*stard from witchcraft association sure didn't make it easy for me, huhuhu before my enemies know what i'm doing, i'll get that rat to become my slave! in the future, with two magician. who dares to disobey me in outer ring, maybe i could get middle ring portion or even....' he paused slightly, his eyes was now flickered with greed. '....even inner circle won't be such far fetched dream then...'

"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA", master mordoc fly in moderate speed, his loud laughter soon drowned in the middle of storm.

***

at the same time, outskirt of maron city.

"master, we should stop first! we're in storm!" exclaimed teenage girl on top of the huge flying wooden bird, after 3 days of travelling, both of them were now inside the heavy storm heading straight toward maron city.

CRACK!!! RUMMBLLLEEE!

"UWAAAAH!" screamed the girl, she closed her eyes, squats beside her master while shivering, her usual calm countenance was now pale in panic, she held her book upside-down very tightly covering her top head, seemingly tried to enter the book itself.

stood beside her, the old magician with long white beard, was amused by her antics. he couldn't help but let out a little chuckle.

"who was the one begging travelling with haste before? umm, i can't remember, sigh* my poor old age easily forgotten something." teased her master clearly pleased.

with teary eyes, the girl shoot out a glare to her master seemingly conveying her greavance, yet before she could respond, another lightning flashed right beside their mount.

CRAAACK!!! RUMMMBLLLEEE!

"uwaaaah! sob* sob*, i'm sorry master! this little disciple knew she was wrong! i won't be hasty anymore! please can we land for while? seeking shelter here?" plead her while sobbing, she grabbed her master grey robe in pitiful manner.

shaking his head, "edna? what exactly you're afraid of? aren't we safe here with my spell? protecting us from the rain? we're not even wet here, what's to afraid off from a little thunders...?" then the old magician points ahead, the outline of maron city's rampart could be seen amongst the heavy rain, he said calmly, "as magician you should keep your calmness all the time, beside. it's only few minutes more, just be patient, as magician you should..."

hearing her master began preaching, the girl could only grumbled beside him,

"@$@& #&&* master!~"

the old man shoulders was shivering, hardly holding his laughter back. still, in just few minutes while in the middle of cracking thunder hitting here and there, they were safely arrived at maron city at last.

within the rain storm the city looks bleak at night, the light source was coming from several houses window, there was no one outside right now aside from the travelling pair.

"master! let's go! quick! quick! we need to go to your place!!!" edna whom previously hiding under her book was now jumping up and down in excitement.

CRAAAACK!!! RUMMBBLLEEE!!

again she screamed after lightning strike so close by,

"uwaaaaa!" without thinking about any dignity she quickly scrambled trying to hide under her master robe, surprised that edna trying to crawled inside his robe, the old magician flicked his robe gently away from edna attempt to burrow inside it.

"edna! be mindful of your behaviors!" he spoke sternly while attempting to hold back from laughter, he could hardly contained it now.

'...this silly girl, why did i agree to take her as disciple?...' he thought, but soon his attention had shifted toward the specific side of maron city outer ring.

then with his thought, he commands their mount heading toward east direction of maron city outer ring.

"eh? master master? where are we going?" questioned squating edna while peeking from under her book.

calmly the old magician replied, "i sensed something. and also, seems like your senior brother was in that direction." he pointed toward a certain direction between commoners house.

"senior brother?"

both of them soon arrived at their destination, with a simple flick the huge bird suddenly vanished, both him and edna now floating slowly towards one of the house's rooftop. they landed safely while witnessing the scene beneath.

on the ground below there was an pig-like bald fat-man holding the neck of crippled boy lifting his scrawny body off the ground seemingly threatening his life.

the crippled boy held onto the fatty hand struggling for air, his only left leg kicked back and forth looking miserable.

seeing that, edna blew her top ready to jumps down from the roof, "master! we must save the boy! he looks dying!!!"

yet the old magician held edna's shoulder in place.

"don't be hasty edna...look to your left, your senior brother has come."

edna harrumphed yet she still obeyed her master, then she looked toward her left.

not far from the overweight b*stard, there stood her senior brother often mentioned by her master.

middle-aged man around forties with dark-brown robe. yet because of water damped the robes, it looks like a black one. he stood in calmly in the middle of the road.

thanks to the light coming from the window on his left and right, edna could saw his face rather clearly. however, edna felt uncomfortable after looking at his face.

after all, his face was devoid of any emotion, it felt so unnatural and eerie. there was also mustache with pencil style on his face, on his right chest there was a shield with a scale magician crest fixed on it.

"huh? master? he works with enforcer divison?" edna noticed the dead-pan face man magician crest.

"nod* uhuh, he is quite unique man..." answered her master.

"master, should we help him? i felt that fatty b*stard is stronger than senior..."

shaking his head the old magician smiled and urged her to keep watching. "don't worry, your senior brother wasn't someone easy either, also be mindful to your language edna, as magician we must.."

"...okay okay master i know!" she pouted, interrupting his master advice while clasping both of her ears.

the old magician, "....."

then both of them watching from the rooftop of the confrontation happened below.

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