Leofred

Magic beasts are as extremely rare as they are extremely powerful. Encounters with them are often deadly and usually result in fatal consequences.

Harlston

Pitch black almost tangible darkness, that was all Leofred could see everywhere he looked. His beard tingled and itched- a direct consequence of his anxiety...

Yes him! A Supreme class Light magic practitioner in his prime was nervous of all things.

The reason for this was because Leofred knew the place he was in...

Standing motionlessly before him, Castus was holding a candle torch. The light from the torch did not reach far, only illuminating the sharp contours of his chiseled good looks.

He had a deathly calm aura about him, one that made Leofred all the more unsettled.

"So, who was he?" Castus asked, his voice so quiet it was like he had whispered.

"The man who killed Wil and injured my son... I want his name."

Leofred sighed exasperatedly to himself. He had already known that this was coming.

"I'll tell you but you'll also have to take my advice seriously," he bargained.

Castus continued staring at his torch, not bothering to reply or even look at him.

This would've seemed offensive to most, but not to Leofred. He had known Castus for a very long time, far longer than even Isabella, his own wife had.

So while he might have seemed rude on the surface, Castus was a loving husband, a caring father, and a great leader. Unfortunately, that was just as far as his circle of susceptibility went...

To everybody else, he was a devil and a monster, a demon who would stop at nothing to get his way and protect the ones he loved.

"The man's name is Nobu," Leofred finally caved.

"He is a rogue Darkness Sage who is wanted dead or alive in Euthoria. He also has a sizeable bounty placed on his head in the Northlands. He was last seen in the former about five years ago and had since disappeared, presumed dead. He only resurfaced a few weeks ago here in the empire and was spotted at random in one or two cities, Salancans not included."

Leofred paused as his tone suddenly turned solemn:

"Castus, I believe he is now under the employ of the Rathaav Eggeshi," he said bleakly.

At the mention of the Rathaav Eggeshi, Castus instantly furrowed his brows. That name was popping up far more often than he preferred.

"Why he targeted your son remains a mystery, even to me," Leofred mumbled.

It just didn't make any sense to him whichever way he tried to look at it. Why would a man in hiding suddenly try to murder a seventeen-year-old in broad daylight? And in a city as big as Salancans no less?

That place was practically crawling with practitioners just itching to prove themselves.

'Unless maybe the boy seriously offended Nobu,' Leofred thought to himself.

After his brief meeting with Hade earlier that evening, he felt like Castus's son was the type to rub many people the wrong way.

However, he did not dare to suggest that, especially not in this place.

"Why he did it barely holds any meaning to me. I will find him and kill him. It's as simple as that," Castus muttered indifferently.

"Castus, I pray you, please listen to me," Leofred implored.

"Nobu can easily be dealt with. Unfortunately, it's not him you should be worried about..."

Castus finally looked at the bearded man with spiky black hair. He did not fail to notice how his old friend's voice had turned even graver than when he mentioned the Rathaav Eggeshi.

"Nobu is not the problem," said Leofred.

"The problem is the man with snake-like golden eyes your son mentioned. Old friend, trust me when I say this but it would be in your absolute best interests to avoid getting entangled with him. As powerful as you are, I'm afraid to say... but even you are no match for him."

A heavy, uncomfortable silence lingered in the air as neither man spoke a word.

Contrary to Leofred's expectations Castus was not angry by any means. No, rather, he was actually surprised.

Although his name was known far and wide and even beyond the empire's borders, in actual truth, only very few people knew the true extent of his powers.

Leofred was a member of that very small select group yet even then, he still believed that he wouldn't stand a chance against the golden-eyed man.

'Just who was the man Hade bumped into?' Castus found himself wondering even more. He spoke slowly:

"Leo, I didn't know you held him in such high regard."

Leofred shook his head.

"One should always know their limits. I know mine, that is why I've survived as long as I have. (Sigh) Castus, you should know yours as well."

He hesitated for a few moments and then, taking risky a gamble, he said:

"While I'm not exactly sure what happened in the last 20 years, your aura is not as vibrant as it used to be."

As soon as Leofred finished his sentence, suddenly, a huge, red serpentine eye sprang open in the darkness behind Castus!

Almost simultaneously, a very oppressive pressure descended in the enclosure. The aura was vile, suffocating, and sinister. Any normal adult man would be crushed to oblivion underneath the immense pressure.

Leofred did not take any chances.

*Whoosh!*

He instantaneously leaped backward at full speed, leaving a cluster of after images, until he was about a hundred meters away.

Once he was certain that he had ample enough distance to escape should things turn awry, he finally looked forward.

The scene before him was repellently frightful, shocking, and horrific. There, behind Castus lay a monstrous scaly black head, with one of its blood-red eyes wide open, glaring menacingly at him.

Leofred gulped subconsciously.

'High-tier magic beast!' His danger sense alerted him. It was the infamous black dragon, Vartan Earlshade!

The dragon's head, forget its body, was simply enormous. Its eye had a diameter about the same length as a full-grown male!

Even then, as hard as it was, Leofred chose to focus solely on Castus who stood calmly before the abysmal creature.

"All I'm saying is that you should let the ones responsible deal with the threat," he pacified. "Your son did not die, that's a win, so take it. The experience might even toughen him up in the long run," he chuckled awkwardly.

Leofred only took a split glance at Castus's familiar and shivered involuntarily. The longer he stayed in this place, the more dangerous it was for him.

"I have a lesson early tomorrow morning, you'll have to excuse me."

He did not wait for a reply, he immediately vanished right after!

Castus barely had any reaction to Leofred's cowardice. Instead, he slowly turned towards his dragon familiar.

"Vartan, you heard what he said. What do you think I should do?" He asked.

The dragon's enormous eye fixed itself on its master. Unlike Leofred, Castus did not cower. Instead, he met the gaze directly with his own.

If one were to observe this scene from afar, it would look utterly ridiculous. A man having a face-off with a dragon whose head only was more than ten times his size!

Nevertheless, Castus did not look the least bit intimidated. He and 'Vartan' stayed for a full two minutes like this until the High black dragon finally backed down and slowly closed its eye.

"You've become lazy," Castus muttered mirthlessly to which the black dragon simply chose to ignore him.

...

Early next morning in the training hall, Hade faced off against a sleepy Leofred who, mind you, had been more than an hour late.

The bearded man once again had on a black blindfold covering his eyes which, to some extent, confirmed Hade's suspicions.

At this point, he was at least seventy-five percent sure that Leofred was indeed Supreme class.

His reasoning stemmed from the fact that whenever he left Greycastle, he wore lenses. The lenses were one way to counter the impetus that was triggered whenever strangers looked into his eyes.

What most people did not know, however, was that the lenses were actually an illusion spell concocted via Mind magic. The spell distorted their view of his eyes so that instead of deep brown, they would see light blue.

The blue, or azure, was merely a side effect of Isabella's Mind magic. Had Hade had the option to choose, he would have opted for a more inconspicuous color, like black or even a lighter shade of brown but oh well, beggars can't be choosers.

Unfortunately, the illusion spell was also not completely failproof. Not only did it fail to rend the issue at its causality, but, it could also only trick Sage class practitioners and below. Those in Supreme class, according to his mother, would be able to read him like a book.

'The black blindfold must be an artifact that does an even better job of impeding his vision,' Hade concluded.

That said, he had still worn his lenses for good measure.

"I hear you are quite adept in physical combat so I will not be training you in that area," said Leofred.

In fact, he was actually fed up of hearing how the boy was a prodigy when it came to fighting without magic.

'So what?!'

While physical attributes were indeed important, there was a limit to what they could accomplish. It almost went without saying that a practitioner's main source of power came from his law of magic.

Leofred couldn't even fathom how up till now, the boy still couldn't even use one spell.

"It is truly a wonder how you even managed to survive the fight against Nobu," he murmured.

Hade arched an eyebrow in question.

"Nobu?"

"Yes, the Dark Sage you encountered in Salancans," Leofred clarified.

"Oops, I don't think I was supposed to give you that information..."

Whilst Leofred chided himself, Hade took a mental note of the name. He was not about to forget it any time soon.

"Anyway, even if you know his name there is very little you can do about it, especially given the pathetic state you are in now," Leofred did not relent with his insults.

"To put it nicely, when it comes to law proficiency, you are absolute trash. By now, most of your peers are mid-Mortal class, the gifted ones might even be late Mortal class and yet here you are, a weak and clueless sprout."

Leofred waited to sense any change in the demeanor or aura of the boy but he was soon disappointed. It was as if he was talking to a robot.

Hade was largely indifferent to all of the hurtful jibes mostly because everything Leofred had said was true.

"Anyway," the bearded continued.

"The best method to fight magic is with magic. The only way you will be able to defend or even escape my attacks is by using magic so I suggest that you prepare yourself."

Leofred waited for some audible reciprocal but once again, he was left disappointed. The fact that he was also blindfolded did not help ease matters. For all he knew the boy was probably not even listening to him. He was about to repeat when Hade beat him to it:

"What the hell are you waiting for?" he asked.

The short and somewhat aloof response rubbed Leofred the wrong way.

He sneered.

"Let's see if you are still as enthusiastic when I'm through with you..."

As soon as he finished speaking-

*Flash!*

A treacherously bright light suddenly shone throughout the hall and the next second, Hade found himself sprawled out on the floor without a clue what the hell had just happened!