Elyx's S Rank Exam

“One thing about life. It had many sorts of people, and people can be classified in their own way. Lets say there was someone who was not biased taking their view of it. They had the ability to view the situation for what it was. They would be able to find six categories among the beings to exist. They were easy to list at first glance when put together. A sample from each group, you can recognize their grouping right away. This is how the unbiased Lerale Magician would see things, say a general for example. Maybe even Cain if he was the one that placed them into groups.

Smart: These are the people with intellect. They have much knowledge, though this does not mean wisdom. They are normally good with memorizing things and keeping those things to mind until later on.

Wise: They are not necessarily the smart people, they are able to analyze situations and react accordingly in the way that would benefit themselves and possibly their partners the most, depending on their situation.

Brawn: Powerful, they may be able to defy physics with their strengths. However, chances are, that is all they have going for them. Intellect or Wisdom does not apply to either of these two unfortunately, and they end up in a lot of trouble due to this, some trouble where strength alone will not get them out.

Special: They have talents of all sorts, they were gifted amazing tricks from the start that can physically be shown to others to impress them. They were often the performers and avoid the fighting. Much less than bards for sure.

Excellent: All of the above being mastered and perfected even. This is a reclusive few, but even then, they still have fatal flaws. For example, how did they get up there without starting from zero? That’s how everyone starts, and if they were to work hard enough, they might eventually catch up to these specific group of people.

Ignite: These are the people that you can only categorize as random. Such reckless actions that don’t even have the strength to match their intentions. Random is probably the only word that could actually fit this description.

So without further ado, I’d like to classify the people in the guild who I believe could be categorized in these ways. Do what you like with it Nimpha, just be sure to give me an idea of how I can help with the info I give you.”

And just like that, a certain She Phoenix was reading the paper over his shoulder of his office. One nice hard smack to the back of the head and his face would slam against the wood of the table. That was not nice, Elyx. I should slam you through the table. But instead, I’m going to hold that off for right now. She would explain. Ignite Rosella, his partner that fought alongside him for almost a year now. A hot temper in her, clearly that was the case. But she constantly taunted him and hurt him like this, by this time, he had full well grown used to such treatment. In return, he did this sort of thing to her, which he eventually regrets doing later. Despite this, they were very close friends, mainly because they knew they could trust each other.

Elyx had been raising her since her birth. When she was just a little Phoenix. It remains a mystery as to why she suddenly gained a human body. And how that was revealed was not quite the most comfortable way. Fortunately, it seemed she at least had some form of undergarment. He might have accidently stabbed her if that were not the case, regardless if he were able to recognize it were her or not.

And so then that was how the both of them continued on. She would normally be the one to bring him the news of an event whenever it had arrived. You received a letter from Kaku. You know, the one that actually has more power over you than I do. Take a good read and get that blade of yours ready. the She Phoenix explained as she then dropped to piece of paper down onto the table. Elyx slightly tilted his head, just so he could roll it over and have it softly hit against his left ear. An okay sort of handwriting, it certainly did not match a certain prankster that he knew of, so it had to be legit.

It sounds a little bit harder than the average S rank job, wouldn’t you agree? And we are going to be soloing this one, so I assume you know the prize of winning would be, right? Ignite explained. He really did teach her well, deduction was a skill that she was able to obtain to a mastery. Elyx had gotten better as well. This time, they had to use the default ruling in order to figure out the answer. And this was the final result that he was able to come up with.

He was considered an A rank mage. Ignite was considered an extra branch of him to the Magic Council, since she did not technically use magic. The fire in her is natural. So overall, they were considered A rank mages. That meant that if you were to solo a job, it could not be any higher than A rank. That being said, if you had another mage of equal or higher ranking than you, then as long as you are with them, you are able to take an S ranked job. At a certain point, at A rank, you could have done the SS ranked jobs. But they were deemed too dangerous later on by the Magic Council, thus banning the A rank mages to do them until they hit S rank. A bummer really, they provided such amazing rewards for completion. Speaking of which, they were basically given an S ranked job for the both of them to complete on their own. Why? This was an examination, this was going to be the job that decides whether they advance to the big leagues of the land of Fiore, or if they get to stay at the “Slightly above average” level. This was not a chance to pass up, he had full strength and a good nights worth of sleep. The pain on his forehead will most likely subdue, the timing of the exam could not have been better.

Placing his palms onto the desk, he would push himself upwards from his grounded state. His light brown eyes locked onto the paper, and he would quickly scan through it from the distance. Eventually, he gave up, admitting that even with his vision, he could not read it from that far. So the next step was simple. Avoid being lazy and actually pick up the paper before reading it. Great, already the job forces him to not be lazy. If it were S ranked like it promised, they were going to have to deal with enemies as strong as the Dracula guy back at the Sombras Manor. Or maybe they were going to have to face off again with two tribes. That one required for them to have some help from Zack, probably the strongest mage they had witnessed yet. And yet, he was not going to help them out with this....

There was one thing that Elyx finally learned about him though. The research was tough, and all of the reading caused him to show a few veins on his face popping out. Staying up just to understand what it meant, and though nothing was quite too clear, he was able to put the pieces together. Analyzing Zacks previous battles fought and his current magic used, he gave off many signs of it. Remembering his encounter with Aiyana, he learned that the Celestial Spirits can stay out in the real world for as long as they like if they had enough resistance. Another thing about Celestial Spirits, they had a king. The one that ruled all over them, such a powerful being he must be if he were able to look over both Zack, Aiyana, the Zodiacs, and the Chronicles at the same time. All of that while he was not even scratching the surface of what could be in the whole set. That’s right, Elyx confirmed a 13th Zodiac to exist, and that one is Zack. Not only was he a Celestial Spirit, but he was by far one of the strongest. He did not have a key however, so it was not like he could be summoned by a Celestial Spirit user whenever that user felt like it. That was Aiyana, and even then, she has the ability to deny the user of being summoned. The keys alone are a mystery, and the ones who are revealed in front of them are just out of this world, no pun intended.

Still though, Aiyana would be a nice help to the job whenever it was needed. Then again, if he were correct, she probably had some more owners who needed her more than he did when it comes to a job like this. Even if not, what if he were trying to call her while she was flirting with someone, what does he do then? Fortunately, calling her onto the battlefield is not his first resort, maybe they were not as powerful, but he knew that they would not be busy at all. the Chronicles were definitely able to help him out.

So we are going to be beating a lesson into a few raptures, eh? You know, somewhere in another world, I’m sure even harming an animal would be illegal. Or at least, an innocent one. If we are striking first, would we be going against ethics? He would ask. In all honesty, he just felt like being difficult today. The boy could not explain it, it was just an urge to be stubborn. A bit of Iza’s personality must have been rubbing off of him. Ignite took the wheel on this one though, answering back with a very good point. Well this is an animal telling you to do this. I’m an animal telling you to do this. And animals attack each other, since they don’t really have to apply to ethics. All they have to do is apply to survive. There is no such thing as being civil among animals, and if a human just so happens to be a weapon of an animal, then that is how it goes. Now can we hurry up? I want to be burn some of the raptures!

Not that recklessly you don’t. Look a bit closer She Phoenix, read, then weep. We need to bring back the tooth of the leader. Fail to do that, say by burning it for example, and we fail the exam. So you are not going to destroy them all for fun. He explained, crossing him arms, crumpling the paper under his right arm. The She Phoenix hung her head down in sadness, it seemed he had taken all of the joy in this job for her. He did not care, it was not going to be a massacre, this was a hunt for a treasure. This tested their ability to survive, surely, but it also tested their ability to detect and bring back. Just recklessly destroying the whole thing will get them all in trouble.

Anyways, they had to depart from there and begin the job if they would like to have some sort of reward in the end by Kaku, they would then look over to the door. This was going to be fun, they were soloing S ranked enemies. Sadly though, his spells would only be classified as A ranked according to his guild and the Magic Council. If that were the case, he was going to have to break more than a sweat in order to get that tooth without damaging it, or at least, having it be damaged any further. He did not know specifically why Kaku wanted the tooth of the raptors, but that was what she wanted. Then again, did she not give him a task in a different exam that made him get some dragon bone? And she told him to make some bracelets out of them so that she can address them later. Not once had he taken them off, for no reason at all would he take off the bracelet.

With a blade now in his hands, he and the She Phoenix would then walk out of the office before looking at the Guild Hall. They were not going to be too far away, they were going to be on the Neutral grounds for sure. So in doing so, they probably would have this done within 12 hours at the most. Most of the hours would be spent on finding a safe way to take out the tooth without damaging it. Then again, if the She Phoenix were to take the wheel on the scene, she’d probably punch it out of the mouth of the enemy with all of her strength, and in doing so, she would get it in a bloody form. Maybe she could burn off all of the blood and they could have it clean. Then again, that would get rid more than blood, plus, how bad would burning blood even smell anyways?

They were now on the outside of the Guild Hall and out into the open world. Sort of, they were still in the territory of the guild, but it might as well just be a free world since they pretty much lived like a democracy. Free to do whatever they wanted to do in the guild, which is a nice liberty provided no one takes advantage of it. Such as attempting murder, that is not going to go unpunished, provided it was not done via manslaughter. Even then, with the wrong morals, that manslaughter verdict might still result in guilty, not innocent.

The goal for them was to get up to the Chained City, where most of the unknown is located. As of this current moment, there was only one being that made it to the top, and as of right now, they were a C rank mage. Iayui still to this day has him impressed, because when they were at the city, they had to climb up quite the distance. The chains were told to be so strong, that not even a metal slayer could cut through them, or event make a dent. Bound Iris however was the solution that he needed to solve this puzzle briefly. Pulling out the blade slowly from the sheathe, he looked upwards to see the darkened sky around the city. It seems that the unknown magic that had been untouched was still having some sort of effect on the place. All right, Ignite, hold my hand. We are going to get to the top of this. the boy announced before wrapping his left hand over her right without question. Ignite did not know the effect of Bound Iris, so her reaction most likely would be as random as it could get.

It seemed like she would just flinch out of surprise, but nothing else really. After all, she did the same thing to him in order for them to carry out a unison together. So this was the life of a Caster mage, weird in all honesty, and it could put some mages in some awkward if not threatening situations. For example, a girl who hates the guy would probably slam his face into the ground over and over until eventually, it would make an imprint.

Now to activate the effect of Bound Iris. The boy would close his eyes, breath in before releasing breath, a bit of blue light showing. His energy being focused on his right hand, where his blade was in between. The wind around them would gently spin around the soles of his feet, in a comforting and loving sort of way. His light brown eyes opened once again when he had felt this, this was a test run of the Bound Iris. Hopefully it would not fail them when they got too high. After all, most of his life in attacking was based on the ground. Air Step was designed to make sure that he could fight in the air as well.

His left foot moved up before being stopped, like he had hit a stair step that was above. Looking down, he would see that the air below his foot moved in small waves. Like a delicate tap in water being done. With this shown, he applied his weight onto it, but it did not move. Moving his right foot up, he would feel another step below his foot. Once again, air had caught him again. A third time now, he would gently be holding Ignites body like a weight. She honestly was not too heavy, despite all of the food that said the contrary. No resistance was shown either, making his life a lot easier, and the task was not hard.

Time to take faster steps, he would now begin to jog an almost average jogging pace, the air not even breaking below his steps, not cracking, it was like he was one with the wind once again. A smile would show on his face as he took control of the situation, and began to ran. One thing he noticed though was that his speed in the air was a lot faster than the speed on the ground. Yet, at the same time, he did not have fear for crashing into anything. No obstacles were in his way, maybe this was why many people liked to fight in the air. Since that was the case, he could match them in close combat as well. Such a shame, they are no longer safe by trying to evade in the air. With this newly found speed, he could catch up to them and avoid any incoming projectiles that attempted to shoot him down.

The boy would then look back down to see that they were not even at the ground level anymore. Ignite did not even seem phased by this height. the only reason that he could think of for that was the fact that she was born with a set of parents who were Phoenix Birds. So they were used to being so high. Either that, or if he dropped her, she had a safe way to land. He did not really know how that would work, considering how he never seen her fly before. Could she fly and he never even knew it? Wait, no, she would need wings to fly. Then again, maybe in her human form, she can levitate with some ability he had not seen in her yet. This thinking to be honest was hurting his head, so he decided to drop the topic.

And so finally, the citys land would be seen a few meters away from eyesight. Letting go of the ability, they would land on the ground of the city. It looked kind of stormy, freaky even. Dark for sure, there have to be more than just raptors, not that they should stick around for too long and find out. Isn’t there some sort of nest where the king is located? Then again, they were kind of small, and not too easy to find either since they were rather scarce. There was a certain Toucan that he heard of in the guild, his file was within his grip, so he might be able to access that bird. However, they were all the way up this high, to get down would be a huge waste of time, time that they probably don’t have. It was an exam after all, it was expected that he and Ignite would be timed. Ignite was a bird, maybe she had a better idea.

She didn’t. Lets begin out search, shall we? She asked before walking casually, not a plan being explained or anything. They were going to not walk aimlessly if they wanted to find their target? But what did a raptor do? As in, where would they naturally go if they wanted to have a safe place to land? Where would their nest be, and how would they know where it was located? Did they have some sort of good vision in the dark? Well, that would help them find their way, but that was about it. If they were to memorize their territory, they did not have much luck on their side, since they could not do the same thing. Wow, this was quite an exam already.

Elyx refused to give up though. So now it was time for him to do some recon on the place. Looking over to the side, he would notice a temple shadow sort of structure far into the distance. That can either be a place where one did a ritual, or more likely, where one could be in a royal court. It was not likely for a bird to be a king with a regular throne and everything like a temple would. However, taking a bit more time to think about it, he was dating a Tanuki Dog, his Guild Master was a wolf, Aria was something of a being that he was not quite sure about yet, but not human for sure; as for the rest, he was unable to confirm. Corliss was human, but that was besides the topic.

So maybe there was some hope in looking over to that area, so he would then pace towards that direction. In doing so however, he would only choke on the front part of his shirt collar as he felt a hand grip the cloth. Instinctively, he sliced behind his back to hit whoever had gripped him, only for the hand to release the hold just in time, and Elyx ended up losing a bit of cloth. Turning around, he would see Ignite with both palms flat up in front of her chest, her facial expression not too approving of that action, but she understood why he did what he did.

Take it easy you idiot! I saw some birds flying in the air. Not quite sure they are raptors though, but if it is an area that the average bird would fly towards, it most likely has a few surrounding homes as well. She explained before pointing upwards into the dark cloudy sky. Her vision must have been better than his, because he could not see a darn thing up there. However, Ignite did not seem to be playing around or luring or whatever the case. In fact, if he did not know any better, he might actually think that she was being serious. Yet at the same time, he believed that she was not trying to throw them through a loop or anything like that. It was better than his plan, at least the She Phoenix had logic behind hers. All right, hang on tight then. She replied to his nod before placing her right hand on the back of his arm. With a quick huff over her shoulder, he would be deadweight onto her.

Admittedly, this was not the first time that this happened, but the boy still felt embarrassed. There was not much to be ashamed of, since no one else made it over to the city, so it was just as likely that no one was watching him. However, this was the first time he was actually conscious while she carried him around like this, and not only that, but while he was in perfect form. Still though, there was nothing he could do. Ignite could see the birds through the dark skies, Elyx could not. So he’d have to rely on her.

And she was right about having to hold on, because once he was locked in via his arms around her neck, she flew insanely fast on the ground. Nothing that the boy could touch yet, such speed should be banned. What made things worse was whenever she would enter an area, such as a current forest in which she constantly had to shift to the left or the right, causing his body to swing along with it awkwardly. Her feet were fast for sure, his eyes felt like they were going to dry out. Eventually, she would stop at a certain part of the forest before placing him down, leaving him and his now extremely spiked hair to both wobble as they tried to get back to their original form.

Where did you even learn to move so fast…? The boy asked the She Phoenix through a quivering set of lips. Eyes blurry as well, he would not be able to notice her smirk on her face when she turned around to look back at him. The words that she emitted kind of blurred as well, there was some air blocking the sound and making it more hollow in his ears. I’m not one that you should take lightly. That was merely a warm-up, but the birds don’t seem to fly too fast in the sky. So I took a pit stop, one that allows us to get some water. What do you say? And with that, she would walk over to him before gently pushing him by the shoulder. Incorrectly timed, he almost actually fell due to the push.

Thank you Ignite. He would reply as he gained his vision as quickly as he gained his vision. The bubbles of air suddenly cleared out, and his head was beginning to no longer ache.

However, they did not seem as lucky as they would have hoped. Suddenly, Ignite put her hand out with her facial expression alert. Like hell you will! She exclaimed as a sudden orange light would shine behind him with the sound of crackling to match it. Turning his back around, he would see the defense tactic used to save him. Whatever it was trying to attack him, it did not use magic. Otherwise he’d be able to detect it coming from miles away. Maybe not react to it in time due to his recent experiences, but still see it to warn Ignite. Instead, this moment was a warning for him.

Stepping forward while spinning to the other side, he would see a sudden beast of fire charging through the wall successfully and horned its way over to Ignite. Elyx placed his blade up, the tip of the blade faced diagonally towards the right. What!? Ignite exclaimed, clearly her guard being lowered. That wall has not failed her until now. Looking a bit closely through the fire and being forced to ignore all of the yelling of the best, he noticed that it was a bird. Perfect, they have something that would have been able to help them, and they were going to have to kill it. What was worse, it seemed to have the exact same killing instincts of an actual raptor. If this were one, they had really messed up. Elyx would blame Ignite, naturally. And Ignite would blame the raptor, just as long as it were not herself being blamed.

The beast ended up meeting the blade of the boy as he blocked it, the flames not making it easier. Ignite would jumped above and used his shoulders like a springboard, her hands springing up and causing her body to flip forward. Her right leg raised high before slamming it onto the back of the enemy, the slam against the ground causing much damage. However, in return, it spun around wildly to get her off, which worked unfortunately since she ended up being launched at a tree. Elyx slid back against the dirt before locking his feet in place and stopping his bodies recoil movement.

Time for a little bit of magic to help them out against it. He would snarl as his original body would mirage into four different exact copies of his original self. There was no real body or anything like that, and the damage among them would end up being split by the number of them. However, there was something in them that they could use, and Bound Iris was the only item they needed to execute it. this was the first time using this new spell, but he did not have to force his attention on them, since they thought and acted just like him. They had the same amount of data that he did, so they also understood his plan and the current situation that they were in. Nimpha was a smart mage for letting this spell be released instead of destroying it.

And so it would begin, all four of them would stare at the enemy in the eyes, which is not what one should do to an animal unless you wanted to anger it. That was what they all wanted, because the animal charging at them would only create its own downfall. It worked, the beast that was on fire would begin its charge towards him with a snarl as it roared, the beak gnashing and the body flaming with Ignite’s fire, clearly showing that it was not at all comfortable with this. That also means that it was constantly taking damage since it was fire of an opponent. They all knew this, meaning that they were going to let the fire consume it.

Bound Iris was a weapon that could be other weapons. It was also a weapon immune to magic. What more? Ignite had natural fire, making the weapon even stronger against the fire. All of them would place up Bound Iris before smiling, the swords all getting a little upgrade in the process. A long silver metallic chain would extend from the middle of the sword between the handle and the blade itself. This meant that it was split into two, and now what were once swords were now chains. They had to encase the enemy and let it burn in the fire.

Charing, three of them would move to the sides, two of them to the left and one towards the right. They would then spin the chain towards the side when the beast got close enough, all four of the chains linking. They were all 50 Meters, so with 200 meters worth of chain, they tightly captured the flaming beast and watched it burn. the damage stacked up quickly, and the roars were beginning to die down. This spell was called Haruki’s Shadows, representing the time that the Swordsmans was haunted by his former selves. Fortunately, he was able to conquer them all and fight alongside his sister who once tried to kill him, now ruled a monarch alongside him. And those former selves never haunted him, but assisted him. And here they were, now assisting Elyx.

The beast was left to be nothing but ashes. However, their time to celebrate was not even near, they brought in the attention of quite a few unwanted guests around them. They made themselves present by having one roar, causing the five of them to turn their heads that way. In doing so, all of the Shadows and Ignite were looking through many blurs of Raptors that were locking their eyes onto their prey. And their attention was brought to the mightiest one of all, who did not seem too happy with the current display. Their fallen ally had to die a death with fire, now they were going to fight back. Admittedly, it was the first Raptors fault for trying to get through a wall of fire without thinking there was no punishment for that, but would the Raptors even care? They could not even speak.

Ignite locked her feet with the dirt below her, both of her palms with a flaming ball of fire in each one of them. Her light purple eyes watched the scene, but despite how bad the numbers and size game was, the She Phoenix had a smile on her face as she continued to stare at the king of the Raptors. The Elyxs turned their attention towards the remaining enemies that were there. Each one took a cardinal point, so they would have a full 360 degree view, 90 for each of them. Their Snakeswords were ready, and each of them placed their bodies in a ready position. They were going to have to act on their own, who knew how many of them there were. What was sad for them was the fact that the Snakesword was probably the worst weapon to use on enemies that were part of the environment. Snakeswords handled enemies one at a time, and though it can defend from many enemy attacks, that did not change the fact that the defenses did little to no damage. All that they could hope for was that their shadows would last long enough. Otherwise, he’d be one again and have to deal with multiple enemies with a very uneffective weapon.

And so the battle began, eight of the side raptors began to attack all of the shadows, trying to use their numbers to their advantage. It was time to flee until they could think of a plan. So with that thought in all of their minds, they would jump upwards onto one of the dark forest trees before hitting a few of the branches, all of them standing on a different one now. And so the evasion began, they would hop from branch to branch as they kept together. They knew they did not have much time, since they did not want to keep Ignite in close combat with the rest of the raptors, the king included. And so they wanted to only take a minute or two to discuss while evading.

They were not so lucky as to be given that chance, in the Chained City, the beasts were beyond harder to fight. Therefore, the group of raptors had absolutely no problem with being able to fly and catch up with him. That was beyond amazing, such beasts could kill Black Rose mages who did not expect them coming. A new bit of data for him to add to the Black Rose library so others would be careful and avoid anything too dangerous. If they were able to outsmart him with those numbers and that speed, they could harm just about anyone in his opinion.

So now was the time to execute the next plan. Simply Quickstepping. They might lose each other in doing this, and then they would have to hope for Harukis Shadows to end. But if it did end, it would be one Elyx left with a Snakesword to defend himself. This evasion plan was a terrible idea, now it was not a question of how they were going to defeat the raptors, but how they could escape and live. Ignite would have to deal with the remaining king if that was what it came down to, and that was something he had much regret about. All of them would hope that she were at least all right at that moment.

Meanwhile, Ignite was found in close combat in the small circle of space, big enough for two combatants however. She quickly kicked upwards onto the chin of the raptor that tried to spike her from above, causing it to spin away. However, it did not give in so easily, for its speed was unlike any opponent she had ever seen. So as it spun, it suddenly blurred away. Looking around, she was unable to sense where the opponent was located. Instead of thinking long term and trying to place a barrier around her, she was trying to pinpoint the speedy opponents location, and of course, she would not be able to find it.

It took only a few seconds for her to be pressed on and slammed to the ground from behind, the claws of the giant bird gripping at her neck from behind, pinning her. The She Phoenix sustained terrible amounts of damage since she had no chance to brace the fall, and her vision would begin to blur as she was running around of air due to the grip. However, though she could not think clearly, she normally never relied on thinking anyways. Instead, she was able to react out of instinct, placing her two hands into fists. This caused her to make fire in them, and she would then slam them as hard as she could to the ground. Just barely, she was able to make it burst into the ground with much shock, and the raptor was forced off of her due to its sudden shock.

Instead of being able to take the chance to capitalize on the situation, she ended up stumbling forward due to her lack of current focus and lack of oxygen. This was not looking too good, the king was quite the mighty opponent. His lips would lock into a snarl as she would lock eyes with it. It was on a branch, looking down right back at her, its dark blue eyes glowing in the darkness. It did not give any emotion, maybe it was not thinking too highly of her? If that were the case, it would probably begin to lower its guard, and that would be the worst and last mistake that it could make in its life.

The Harukis Shadows began to fade, Quickstepping had been done for quite some time now, yet he was not able to lose them. And just like that, the original of the four was hopping, and he would not be able to go back into the shadows for a while. So he was going to have to try to the next best thing, just simply go back to the original area. After all, he had lost six of the eight raptors due to the Shadows suddenly disappearing. But with the noises of the two raptors that were pursuing the right Elyx all along would probably attract the rest over, and eight against one would be impossible. Maybe he could not shake them, but try to trick them. Have their bodies work against each other.

There were many trees in the area that were able to guide him with the plan that he had in mind. Gripping one of the branches of the next tree, he would spin upwards, both legs extended before kicking the right leg into the cheek of the first raptor. The second one crashed into the first with much furiousity, weird white solid chunks launched off of the impact. Teeth, the impact due to their strong body armor and speeds mixed together, it was destined to happen in the way it did. They probably would be out of commission for a while as well, giving him enough time to return back to Ignite. And so the pursuit would continue, he had to get back over to the She Phoenix.

With gentle hops to preserve his energy, he would quickly attempt to make his way over there. The goal was to get the tooth of the king, slaughtering the other raptors was not going to be the best option, mainly because he knew with his current numbers against theirs, that would be impossible. Sure, he had plenty of curing spells, he’d be able to keep himself from being knocked out from their hits. But all of the pain he would take and all of the energy he would lose, it would have been better to be knocked out. So therefore, this next attempt was to avoid any more confrontations with the enemy raptors and to get towards the She Phoenix and the king. Hopefully she had been all right.

So of course, Ignite would be the one to launch the first attack, both of her arms crossing until her palms were flat, one over the other. The right one was in front, and fired a snake of fire quickly towards the king, showing no signs in being able to change direction. The King blurred out of sight again, and so Ignite would be smarter about the approach. Spinning her body around with both of her arms out in opposite directions, she’d place fire around her in a dome sort of shape. This enabled protection around her sides, and the king fell for it. It tried to break through the defense of her fire, but bounced off with fire ending up on its body. Now that it was stuck on its feathers, it was not going to be free for quite a while. More than likely, never until it falls and passes out. Now it was time to remove the tooth.

She would lower the walls of fire that were around her so that she would be able to approach the bird. Instead, it lashed out and tried to jump at her again. In much pain though, it ended up falling on the ground instead. This was more of a paralysis to hold it still, but if it kept lashing, she would not be able to get the tooth.

A sudden metallic chain arrived on the scene though, from a diagonal direction for sure based on what she could see. Turning her head towards the direction she saw the chain in, she would notice her partner standing on a branch. His left hand on his hip, acting all confident as if nothing they had faced been easier. She knew the truth, and would taunt him if he did not hold the bird still with the chain. The chain wrapped around the body of the king, making sure that it was unable to get out. she had to act quick before its soldiers would arrive on the scene. Though she was confident that she could take them, they had a time limit to finish this. So of course, they would have to end it as soon as possible.

With her usual confident grin, she would place her foot onto the upper beak of the raptor before forcing its mouth open with that foot. Elyx in the meantime placed his blade upwards before looking down, the neck being the target. With one quick slice downwards, he cut through that delicate neck easily, and the king had been beheaded as quickly and painlessly as it could. Ignite did what she did since the dead can’t move their muscles as freely as the living. So it would have been a pain to force that mouth open while the king was still living. With her foot placed upwards, she would stomp onto the biggest tooth that she saw, and it would quickly pop out of place. Naturally, blood would reveal itself onto the scene, but it was not as much as they had expected.

Picking up the tooth, he would tilt his head to the side before nodding his head. They had done the exam, now they had to get off of the land and bring the tooth to Kaku. Maybe he would get something like a necklace. His light brown eyes would lock onto the bracelets on his wrists, they were still there since his B ranking exam. They were natural to him now, like they were a part of his skin. Still though, he would love to know the meaning behind it as well. With a smile on his face, he would look back to the tooth in his hands, not really minding the blood anymore. Maybe back when he was still a mage in training, he might have been phased by such a sight. But now he had grown, responsible and almost completely unafraid. His personality changed as well, hopefully for the better, but not even he was allowed to make that choice. Everyone had a different opinion, there was no sure way to know.

And so they would then begin to walk casually, as if there were not 6 raptors that could be looking for them. There was no reason for them to be so confident either. This was just simply them being rather brave, if not extremely stupid. Regardless of whichever one may be true, they were still going to be doing it regardless. Hopefully it would not be costly to them.

And fortunately for the both of them, they did not engage in any form of battle like reality would have expected. The forest had been clear, now they just had to look for the edge of the chained city and make their way down, preferably using his Air Step ability. It was not hard to find the edge, mainly because Ignite was the one who guided the both of them into the forest, so with her leading the way, she was able to get them to the circular edge. There was no safety rails or anything like that. It reminded him of the mythical swing that apparently had no safety precautions installed, just a wooden plank with two ropes to act as a swing. And if you push hard enough, your body would be over a cliff. Naturally, if you fall off, you die. That was probably why he was not going to tell someone as extreme as Iza about it, because she would not only swing on it, but probably jump and even try to break it. Maybe even force him on it.

The boy would hold onto Ignites hand, forcing the weight of the tooth to be in his knapsack since he would also need one hand to hold the blade that allowed him to use his Air Step. With that being done, his right foot would pace forward gently over the edge, and the air below him began to react below the step with a few waves shimmering. Ignite would attempt to do the same, only to fall and be dead weight on him once again. She was dangling like a piece of string with no weight, it was actually kind of adorable. It was clear that she did not like the current position that she was in though, and he was not going to push her buttons. He liked to live, living was great. Instead, he would hold her up and continued to pace, this time, just go downwards like he were on a huge set of stairs. To get to the bottom would take some time, but he has not yet mastered the full ability, so there was no fast way to get towards the bottom. At least, not yet. Nimpha will teach him if he asked her nicely, he knew that much.

Ignite dangled awkwardly, and her grip was tight onto him. She did not mind heights according to her, but here she was with the grip tight to make sure she did not fall. It would make sense, since she had not been this high. But she was also a Phoenix Bird, right? In fact, any bird in general could not be afraid of heights, correct? Maybe that was all in his head, he would have to ask Iza. Maybe she had a better idea of this, because being a human, he had absolutely no idea.