Kyran activated the Regis Tempering Technique and specifically selected the bones and flesh of his forearms to strengthen. Afterwhich, he endured the pain as he locked the man’s claws in place.
While the man looked at him in disbelief, Kyran already pulled down his arms and, focusing the Regis Tempering Technique on his head, rammed the man—err—wolf man’s chin.
“Guh!” Muto almost blacked out from the attack’s force as his head drew back.
Kyran released the Regis Tempering Technique, and the man’s claws loosened on his forearms.
Before he could jump back, the man’s hand automatically grabbed his right leg, pulling him up before slamming him down on the paved ground.
Kyran gritted his teeth. The moment he was only inches away from getting slammed on the paved ground, he twisted his body and rammed his fists on the ground to counter his fall. Using his free leg, he pulled back and hit the wolf man’s head.
Muto was prepared, however, as he used his free arm to grab Kyran’s foot. He turned his wrist, planning to dislocate Kyran’s ankle.
But Kyran moved his body in the same direction in order to avoid getting a dislocation. While the man was still holding his leg and foot, Kyran took out his two obsidian swords. He grabbed the hilt and slashed the swords toward the man’s legs as soon as it appeared.
“Tsk,” Muto’s brow furrowed as he was forced to let go of Kyran and jumped back to avoid the swords.
The kid had some moves. Was he not only eighteen? How was he able to defend and counter at the same time, as if it was second nature to him? He seemed like a veteran fighter from how fast he adapted to the situation.
Kyran also moved back to put some distance between him and the man. His forearms were still bleeding, but he endured the pain and continued to observe the man in front.
At that moment, Cora’s magic array finally completed accumulating the surrounding energies. Soon after, the whole space within the magic arrays’ range started to distort.
Cora’s eyes narrowed as a reddish-black cube appeared before her.
The cube rotated frenziedly as magic fluctuation filled the air.
Zephyr and Cyneah, who were only a few meters away from the edge of the magic arrays, felt the surrounding air turn heavy.
“S-Something’s happening,” Cyneah said.
Earlier, when Kyran intercepted Sen from pursuing them, Cyneah could only remain silent and be led around by Zephyr. She was not in the position to complain or voice her opinion because she could barely understand what was happening around her. But one thing she was sure of was her desire to have Kyran escape with them. However, she also knew by having him stay behind and keep their pursuers busy; they could have a better chance to escape. So, in the end, she suppressed her desire and remained silent.
“You don’t say,” Zephyr replied with a bitter smile.
Like Cyneah, he was also worried about leaving his new master behind. But he could not defy Kyran’s order, so he focused on their escape.
“N-Nar, w-will he be—.”
“He’ll be fine. Just hang on!” Zephyr told her as he crazily roused his magic around them to increase his speed.
The heaviness in the air somehow lifted, and he managed to break free. After a few seconds, they finally got out of the magic arrays’ range.
Zephyr did not stop and continued to fly toward the town’s border.
[Don’t die, Master.]
He sent Kyran a last telepathic message to which he got a reply of, ‘Don’t jinx me.’
A smile tugged at the corner of Zephyr’s lips as he and Cyneah continued their escape.
Back at Kyran’s side, after ‘hearing’ Zephyr’s words, the heavy weight in his heart had been lifted. Though Zephyr’s words were anything but heart-lifting, at least Kyran confirmed they succeeded in leaving the magic arrays’ area of effect by the tone of Zephyr’s voice.
It was enough.
Muto looked in the direction where the two people with Kyran had fled. He was not worried that they were already outside the range of Cora’s magic arrays. He already knew their scent, and it would be easy to find their trace if Cora failed to pursue them later. He turned his attention back at Kyran, who was silently observing him.
A sneer appeared on Muto’s face. It was not his nature to underestimate his target. However, the information they had of Kyran did not match Muto’s assessment of him.
First of all, Kyran did not look anything like the image on his profile. But that could easily be changed by using transformation magic. However, Kyran’s information did not say anything about him knowing how to use it. It clearly stated that he was new to magic. It also noted that his magic was a forbidden type; Void. Though they had little knowledge of it, they knew that Void magic had no relation to earth magic on which transformation magic relied.
Second, the information about Kyran’s battle sense was of Captain-level. But after their brief exchange, it was clearly above a Captain. The speed in which Kyran thought of his subsequent actions far exceeded that of a Captain. Probably even a Major.
Third, Kyran’s physical strength. That was not a strength a normal human possessed. Muto knew that he was a Regis and made ample preparations in dealing with him. After all, Muto had experienced sparring with a Regis before. But even when using his favorite form, which had a physical strength that could rival a Regis using their Body Tempering Technique, it was still different.
Last would be Kyran’s attitude. His profile stated that he was calm and, from his previous encounter with the army, prioritizes escape. For this reason, they made sure to use Cora’s weapon and her magic first to ensure he would not be able to escape. Now, it appeared Kyran was not planning to run. On the contrary, he planned to stay behind to deal with them to let his friends (?) escape. Speaking of his friends, his profile stated he was a loner. Because of some incident during his military school days, he had distanced himself from outsiders.
‘Interesting,’ Muto thought, feeling excited rather than worried about his findings. ‘If he plans to play with us, then who are we to refuse?’
“Sen! How long are you planning to stay there?” Muto’s voice reverberated in the surrounding.
From the rubble, a small blast occurred as Sen emerged from below. He looked like a mess with his dusty and torn coat. His left cheek was also red and swollen as blood dripped down his nose and the side of his mouth.
“Puh!” Sen spat out three broken teeth.
As he got up, he grumbled, “The crazy son of a b*tch, he made me lose teeth!”
Kyran frowned as he heard Sen’s voice. His voice was not loud, but Kyran heard it. Clearly, the space around here had changed.
But when did the change happen? Kyran felt a little frustrated because he did not sense the change around them earlier, which led to this situation. Even Zephyr failed to notice anything wrong if it were not for Cyneah’s strange ability to see ‘lights,’ these people would have succeeded in capturing the three of them.
Another thing Kyran was wondering about was why these people chose such a complicated magic array just to keep them. The more he pondered, the more he felt he had missed something. He read about spatial manipulation before, and as far as he understood, it was space magic that let a mage transfer or teleport objects anywhere without worrying about objects in between.
“Done.”
The woman’s voice suddenly sounded, snapping Kyran out of his thoughts.
“You can continue the pursuit on those two, Cora.” Muto, who had his eyes on Kyran, said in a low voice that all of them still heard.
“Copy that.”
“Tsk. It was supposed to be my job Leader Muto. Why are you giving it to her?”
“You’ll join me in entertaining this one.”
“Oh, that’s even better~. Can I also take some of his teeth as souvenir?”
“Suit yourself.”
“Alright~.”
“Humph, pervert.”
“That’s enough.”
Kyran heard the exchange between the three and felt somewhat pissed. It seemed these three were not taking him seriously. They did not feel any pressure whatsoever. Did they really think he was a pushover?
Muto saw the light in Kyran’s eyes change even though his expression remained expressionless. He sneered, knowing perfectly well that Kyran was pissed right now.
“Start.”
Muto’s words were directed at Cora.
“Understood.”
Kyran was prepared for whatever they threw at him. At least he thought he was. What happened next, however, proved him wrong.
Cora placed her hands a few inches on each side of the reddish-black cube floating before her. The moment she did, it stopped rotating, and the space around them distorted.
The next thing that happened, Kyran felt a powerful pull that his body made an involuntary move forward.
‘This—!’
Cora spread her arms, and a transparent grayish cube seemed to expand from the reddish-black cube. Soon everything within the magic arrays disappeared one after another.
Kyran’s eyes widened as realization hit him.
Muto smiled as he saw the look of surprise on Kyran’s face. He felt the pull of the cube on his body, and without fighting it, he smiled at Kyran and said, “Let’s change location.”
Muto’s body blurred and disappeared.