"There's someone fighting Fredrick's group! A young boy!" Mela shouted as she quickly opened her eyes.
"Hm?" Arthur's interest was piqued, and a smile spread across his face.
"Let's go and stop him immediately." Mark said. Mela nodded and proceeded to head towards Fredrick's group.
"Stop," Arthur said. Mark and Mela halted, looking at Arthur, who slipped his hands into his pockets. "I'll go there myself," he said with a smile.
Shinra dashed towards Alexa's direction again, but an ice dagger hurtled straight towards the left side of his face. With a swipe of his hand, it shattered into pieces. Another ice dagger was thrown at Shinra's face, and he swiped his hand once more, breaking it into fragments.
Fredrick charged towards Shinra, rotating his spear. He swung it swiftly at Shinra's head, but Shinra was quick to react, ducking down to avoid the attack. Undeterred, Fredrick jumped up and launched five ice daggers at Shinra, who leapt backward, dodging the assault.
Fredrick rotated his spear behind him, then suddenly stopped and shouted, "Rhea!"
Rhea charged towards Shinra with her daggers at the ready, prepared to slash through him. Aiden joined the attack, which surprised Fredrick.
"He's fast," Fredrick noted. Aiden attacked Shinra with his fist from the left, while Rhea attacked from the right. However, Shinra was quick to react; he blocked the attack with both hands, and his eyes glowed purple.
"That's it," Shinra said as he quickly formed a glowing purple thread around his fingers. The thread began to slash through anything it touched, but Aiden quickly reacted by jumping backward, dodging the attack.
Rhea was slower to react and received a huge number of cuts on different parts of her body, which began to drip out blood. "Damn it," she said, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Don't worry, I'll help!" Cedric began to move. "Healer..." Shinra said as he quickly raised his hands, forming five glowing purple threads. He lowered them towards the ground, and they began to slice the ground apart, aiming for Cedric.
However, Alexa had slightly recovered. She dashed quickly towards Cedric and formed another barrier while gritting her teeth in pain from the attack inflicted on her by Shinra.
The threads touched the barrier, but it didn't break easily, which caused a light smile to appear on Cedric's face.
Then he touched Alexa's back with his hands, and it began to emit a green glow, healing the wounds on her body. Fredrick quickly formed another ice spear and launched it towards Shinra, who tilted his head to the left, dodging the spear. However, he grabbed hold of it, which surprised Fredrick.
"He grabbed hold of the spear without any side effects?" Fredrick said. Shinra jumped and spun his body while in mid-air, throwing the spear back at Fredrick. Fredrick quickly reacted, turning the spear into ice daggers, and dashed towards Shinra, ready for close combat.
Fredrick swung the ice daggers left and right, aiming to cause damage to Shinra. However, Shinra blocked and broke the daggers into pieces with his fist wrapped in glowing purple threads.
"Damn it. In that case, I just have to infuse more mana into my daggers," Fredrick thought. He quickly formed another dagger and threw it upwards, causing a slightly confused expression on Shinra's face. Fredrick jumped and kicked the dagger at Shinra's face, which caused part of it to bleed.
Fredrick wasn't done yet; he formed another dagger and proceeded to cause damage to Shinra's arm. Shinra quickly reacted by blocking the dagger with his hand, but this time, it didn't break, which caused a slight smile to appear on Fredrick's face.
Rhea dashed towards Shinra and punched him in the rib, but his armor was too strong to crack. Shinra jumped backward and fired twenty menacing glowing purple needles instantly.
"Damn it." Fredrick said as he quickly formed one ice dagger and joined it together with the one he held before, forming an ice spear. He began to block the needles, but about three of them touched his skin, causing a purple burst of energy that sent him flying.
Rhea tried to block the needles, but they were too fast for her to react to, and the needles released a burst of energy that caused more damage to her. Aiden gritted his teeth and proceeded to attack Shinra, but Shinra appeared right in front of him and struck Aiden's face with his knee, making Aiden's nose bleed.
"Rest in peace," Shinra said as the threads began to slice Aiden's face. However, Aiden's glowing blue eyes widened, and a blue lightning coated his entire body, striking Shinra's body and sending him flying at a frightening speed. A huge amount of dust was unleashed.
"Did he just use... lightning? That's one of the rarest elements in the mage class," Alexa said in disbelief. Fredrick gritted his teeth in pain and saw what Aiden did to Shinra. He was also shocked by the revelation.
"He has a rare element like me," Fredrick thought. Cedric quickly rushed to Rhea's direction and Sera followed; he began to heal her wounds. She gave him a nod as a sign of thanks. He rushed to Fredrick's side and healed his wounds too, but Fredrick was having difficulty moving properly.
"I'm almost out of mana, and that needle seems to drain my movements," Fredrick said as he looked at where Shinra was. "I can barely create more than three barriers; I'm out of mana," Alexa said, looking at Rhea.
"Rhea, did you know about Aiden having a lightning element?" Alexa asked. Rhea shook her head in response.
"What are we going to do now?" Alexa said, looking at Aiden.
Aiden was panting heavily. "I wonder how long I can last using this," he said. Shinra stood up from the ground slowly, touched his armor, which cracked a little.
Rhea touched her bracelet and looked at Shinra, who formed a long purple glowing needle that stood in the air. "I need to use it," Rhea said, furrowing her eyebrows.
"No wonder my Lord had problems wiping out your family's clan," Shinra said as he approached Aiden. "You are the last of your family. If you die, that means the entire bloodline of Qinsura is dead." Aiden looked at Shinra with furrowed eyebrows.
"Again with the name Qinsura, what is that?" Aiden thought to himself. Shinra bent his knees, ready to dash towards Aiden, but suddenly he felt a force restricting him from moving a muscle.
He looked at where the force was coming from and widened his eyes in surprise. "Another one?" he said as he saw Rhea's eyes glowing pink and her hands shaking slightly. Then she shouted and swiped her left hand, causing Shinra to move towards her direction.
She punched him in the stomach; his armor cracked, and he coughed out blood, which sent him flying. Aiden, seeing this as an opportunity, dashed towards Shinra, who was in mid-air, and punched him on the face.
With a scream from Aiden, the punch caused the bones on the left side of Shinra's face to crack and sent him flying afterward. Aiden bent on one knee and panted heavily.
"We need to run now!" Rhea shouted. Fredrick stood up on his feet and gritted his teeth in pain; he began to run, and Alexa followed suit. Cedric looked at Aiden and shouted, "Aiden, come on!"
"Don't worry, I'll help him out!" Rhea said, and Cedric nodded in response. Rhea quickly rushed to Aiden's side, only for Aiden's left hand to be sliced off, which widened Rhea's eyes. Aiden screamed in pain in the process.
Shinra had quickly recovered and appeared in front of Rhea, giving her a strike on the face with his elbow. Then he dashed towards Aiden's side, who didn't even have time to block the incoming attack.
Shinra swiped his hands in fast reflexes, slashing Aiden's body with the purple glowing thread here and there. The barrage of attacks gave Aiden difficulty breathing properly, and Shinra ended it with a punch that knocked Aiden unconscious.
Cedric stood there, shaking slightly, but he didn't dare move any further while Rhea was on the ground gritting her teeth in pain.
Fredrick heard the impact but didn't stop; he needed to find help. The same went for Alexa, who would have expected something like this to happen.
Shinra noticed that Aiden's heart was still beating but barely. He quickly went for the heart, only for it to be blocked by Aiden's hand, which widened Shinra's eyes in surprise.
Aiden's black hair suddenly turned red, and a huge amount of yellow flames engulfed his body, burning Shinra too. Shinra backed off immediately and looked at his arms, which were taking time to heal properly because of the flames.
Aiden slowly opened his eyes, which transitioned from glowing blue to glowing red.
"What is this?" Shinra said, watching Aiden, who stared at his right hand. His fingernails had turned black, and a laughter erupted from Aiden, surprising Cedric, Rhea, and Shinra.
"Oh?" Aiden noticed he had lost his left arm, but a red aura enveloped the wounded area, forming new flesh instantly. The yellow flames settled down, and a red aura covered his body.
"Aiden?" Cedric called, but Aiden looked at him and laughed. "The worm is unconscious," the being controlling Aiden's body said.
"W-who are you?" Cedric stuttered.
"My name is Garuza, little brat," the being smiled.