Revelation

“The goods have been safely loaded onto the ship, Boss,” a figure hidden in the darkness of the night spoke as he approached another man who was sitting on a barrel at the village entrance, playing with a weapon called a deer horn knife. The man who had spoken walked with an odd posture, his back bent over low. He stood in front of the man he had called Boss, waiting for the next set of instructions.

However, while waiting, a loud scream penetrated the stillness of the night but it was cut short by a heavy thud.

“Another one?” the one called Boss asked with a nonchalant tone, while the man with the bent posture turned around to look at the direction he had come from.

“Sorry Boss. She managed to get loose while our attention was somewhere else,” the grumpy voice of another man responded. He was a tall and burly man, with broad shoulders and a barrel chest. The two-handed hammer in his left hand was dripping some liquid to the ground. There was no way to verify it through the color in the dark of the night, but it didn’t require a genius for the other two men to figure what it was.

“It’s fine. We’ve got more than we need anyway. We just need to do this one more time, and all of us will be as rich as kings,” the Boss waved the large man off with his right hand and then stood up with a jump, causing the barrel to tumble over backwards and then rolling off somewhere into the night. “What about the others? Are they done with the village?”

“Yea! They are just waiting for your orders,” the large man said, striding forward to stand beside the hunched over figure.

“Shall I let them know to go, Boss?” the hunched over man quickly spoke up, eager to please his boss. He was annoyed when the large man had came over to stand beside him and replied to the earlier question before he could.

“Give them the signal then. We are done here,” the Boss spoke again without any particular hint of an emotion in his voice and began walking back to where the large man and hunched man came from.

-----

An entire village on flames. Covering the entire village, the hunger of the flames aided by the straw roofs and wooden beams of the houses, the literal sea of flames lit up the cold, night sky so brightly that it looked like sunrise. The only sounds were the roaring of the flames, huge pillars of flames that reached towards the sky, and the noise of buildings collapsing under the assault of heat and fire. And in the midst of this calamity, there was not a single sound from any humans despite this being a village.

A team of five Rune Knights, their uniforms showing no indication of being affiliated to which division, had their arrival announced loudly by the dried leaves and branches beneath their feet as they walked towards the scene of the disaster. The reports of the gigantic blaze had only reached them this morning, since their outpost was the nearest. They were led by a thin, bespectacled man, and with two members to each side of him as their expressions became more and more horrified as they neared the ruined village.

“Let’s see what we can find,” the leader spoke in a dry tone. Wordlessly, the other four just nodded and they split up into five directions as they entered the scorched village.

The team took a painstakingly long time of five hours to scour through the entire village. They were meticulous, turning over every single stone to see if they could find any survivors, or at least, if there were any clues to what had caused the widespread and total destruction of the village. However, combing through the disaster site, they had nothing to be even remotely happy about. Every single piece of wood had been reduced to coal, stone walls broken by heat and flames.

And the worst of them all…

“No human remains,” a redheaded woman who was wiping away the soot from her face with a wet handkerchief was the first to answer as she walked up to the somber-looking leader. The man’s expression was so dark, as though he was attending his own funeral. He merely nodded at the report, and then looked at the other three walking over.

“Nothing.” The second reply.

“Same. No corpses.” The third reply.

“Same as theirs. Any luck on your end?” the last member of the team answered and asked as he trudged over with a defeated look on his face.

The leader shook his head again as he took off the specs with his left hand, seemingly peering through it with an absent-minded look. “It’s the same as the other two cases right?”

“Exactly the same. Total devastation by a sea of flames and not a single corpse left to be found. Not even a bone,” the redhead replied again.

“Write up the report when we get back and send it to HQ,” the leader replied with a long sigh.

“What about our theory?” the redhead asked back.

“We have three cases exactly the same. At first glance, we can argue that it is an insanely powerful mage with disaster-level fire magic turned arsonist but the jarring absence of any corpses at all puts this into the category of a monster’s doing. Is everyone unanimous in this conclusion?”

The redhead was the first one to nod at the leader’s statement, with the other three quickly nodding a beat slower as well.

Later that day, a report was sent up to the Rune Knights HQ. Within the report, the three cases with their photographic evidence was laid out in their chronological sequence, having all happened in the same month. Each of the three villages were not close to each other. The report also included the assumptions of the investigators that all three villages had been the unfortunate victim of an unknown man-eating beast that would relentlessly hunt down every single prey until nothing was left and eventually torch the place. The location of the villages being close to the coast was also factored in, lending to the notion that this monster was capable of moving in water.

-----

For a person who had never been to school, the droning of a middle-aged teacher during an extremely boring lesson worked wonders for sleep. Tor, experiencing high school life for the first time ever, in the town of Hargeon was currently engaged in an undercover mission. He was partially disguised, using transformation magic to make him slightly younger so that he could pass off as a high-school student.

The undercover mission was for him to investigate and uncover the true identity of a drug ring that had recently reared its head in the port town. The horrifying aspect of the mission that prompted its urgency was the targets of the drug ring. There had been reports of strange men, appearing here and there around the school compound, giving out free samples of drugs that were highly addictive to the more adventurous students, for lack of a better word. The free samples were a more potent version than what the drug dealers would sell, with the main intention purely to hook them in for a long-lasting business relationship.

The Rune Knights in the local outpost had been working on the case for a month, but there were no new leads via traditional investigation methods. That was until the head of the outpost heard about Tor’s history as a delinquent before joining the Rune Knights and made a request to HQ to borrow his “skills”.

When he found out, Tor was quite amused by the plan that the Hargeon Town Rune Knights Outpost Chief had concocted. He didn’t mind people knowing about his history, and he was definitely more than willing to lend himself to the case if he could be of any help. The plan had been quickly set in motion, with Tor joining the school mid-semester as a transfer student from Era. That had been one week ago.

In this entire week, Tor had played the handsome yet aloof transfer student. He had introduced himself with a cold stare that annoyed the other boys while sending the hearts of his female classmates aflutter. And ever since joining the class, he had always maintained a distant demeanor as if he was against the world and needed no friends. According to the Hargeon chief, advised by one of his younger subordinates, this would be the surefire way to get himself into the most popular of groups and eventually dig his way towards the drug ring.

Tor could still remember himself asking this young yet enthusiastic Rune Knight about the plan.

“How sure are you on this?” Tor had asked, and when he got the reply, he wished he had kept his mouth shut instead.

“120%! All the main characters in the manga and anime I’ve watched possess these traits and they are always the centre of attention!” the young man had replied with a fist in the air. At that reply, Tor had just looked at the chief and then walked out of the office.

The bell that finally rang roused all of the other equally drowsy students, the saving grace that ended the torture on their ears and mind. The teacher, either oblivious to the students dozing off in his class or no longer caring about it at all, just packed up his teaching materials, gave a perfunctory “See you all” and promptly walked out of the class. Immediately after, the class erupted into the lively buzz of chatter as the students began discussing their plans after school or whatever that held their interest.

Tor just shifted his head slightly, which was lying sideways on his right arm, facing the window to his side and kept his eyes closed. On the outside, he looked nonchalant and cool, every bit the delinquent transfer student that he had been requested to act as, but on the inside, he was swearing at the young Rune Knight.

‘That newbie! I’m gonna give him a punch by the end of this mission!’

‘Wouldn’t it have been easier for me to go all Spec Ops instead of doing this stupid shonen manga main character shtick for an entire week?’

‘Ahhh! this is killing me!’

“Excuse me!” a timid voice called out from the side, breaking Tor’s inner rambling as he professionally kept himself in character, lazily and unhurriedly raising his head from his arm and then looked at the girl that had approached him.

“Yes, Suka?” Tor had remembered the names of everyone in the class, another requirement to his character who was supposed to appear distant yet close when the situation called for it. The girl speaking to him was Suka Likeay, one of the more timid girls in class and yet was bafflingly one of the few key people that he needed to get close to in order to get into the delinquent gang that had the highest likelihood of making contact with the drug dealers..

As the character designer had hoped, the girl was truly surprised when she heard Tor calling out her name.

“Ezreal, you know my name?” the girl asked in a surprised tone and wide open eyes. Tor was dazed by what she had called him but then he quickly got back into character.

‘Oh yea, my name’s Ezreal for this mission.’

“Yea, the homeroom teacher left the classroom file open on his table when I first came and I memorized everyone’s names,” Tor replied nonchalantly, as if it was the most natural thing to do.

“Erm. There’s this circus in town that’s supposedly to have really good magic acts. Tonight’s their last night in tow. I was wondering if you would be interested to go together?” Suka asked shyly with a red blush across her face and a voice so small she would be whispering if she went softer.

“Sure, I’ve heard of it. What time do you wanna meet up?” Tor replied unhesitatingly, as he sat up straighter before placing the side of his face on his left palm that had been propped up on the table.

Once more surprised by his quick agreement, Suka bowed her head and kept her gaze stuck to the floor while she fidgeted and gave her answer.

“7.00pm at the entrance!” the girl spoke out really quickly before bolting for the door, leaving Tor alone in the empty classroom.

‘I really wanna believe that it’s my natural charm at work rather than accepting that it’s the success of the damn kid’s character design,’ Tor sighed.

‘What the hell am I doing? Thinking if I have the natural charm to attract underage high school girls?’

-----

Tor arrived at the entrance of the circus at 7.00pm sharp, dressed casually in a pair of light blue jeans, white sneakers, black T-shirt with a black hoodie on top of it. The symbol of the Rune Knights in gray color was emblazoned across the back of the hoodie. With his hands stuck in his pockets, high school Tor with his black hair, dyed as part of his disguise, was rather dashing as he approached Suka with a nonchalant gait. However, she wasn’t alone.

Tor almost smirked out in triumph, but he quickly resumed his neutral expression as he got nearer. The people around her were exactly the group of students that he needed to get close to, so that he would get a shot at the drug dealers that had been targeting the underage school students.

As Suka raised her hand fully into the air to wave at Tor to get his attention, the other three girls around her that were chatting animatedly with the other five guys turned to look in the same direction and were slightly stunned. They had always ignored the new transfer student since he had never shown any signs of wanting to mix with them. The guys turned around as well, and gave Tor thoughtful looks.

“What do you guys think?” the tallest boy of the group asked. His name was Amon, with long blonde hair that reached down to his neck. He wore a pair of pointed shades that he thought looked scary, coupled with a thick golden chain around his neck. A mean grin was on his face as he looked at the other boys who reflected his grin. With that tacit understanding, Amon walked to the front of the group, blocking off Suka who was about to walk forward to greet Tor. That also ended up with Amon standing right in front of Tor, the two of them of equal height, staring at each other.

A hint of aggression flickered in Tor’s eyes, before being replaced by amusement. He had acted as though he was complacent but he had already noticed the ill intentions that the group of guys had earlier.

‘How long has it been since I've been involved in a staredown like this?’

Tor smiled slightly at the thought, the right corner of his lips. That tiny smile instantly ticked off Amon.

“What are you grinning at?” Amon growled, his shoulders and back suddenly swelling with tension. His hands were already balled up, veins popping in his forearms as he prepared to swing at Tor, depending on his answer.

“This. You trying to prove you’re the alpha male shtick. Trying to show the girls you are the leader of the pack,” Tor replied. This time, his deprecating smile was fully put on for all to see. And to egg Amon on, Tor even took a step back and opened his arms wide, exposing his chest, inviting the delinquent high schooler. This was bullying but for the sake of the mission, Tor had no choice but to go along with it.

Amon swung his right arm as expected, but instead of a right cross aimed for his chest, the sneaky delinquent threw out a right hook aimed at Tor’s head. Tor merely grinned, casually putting up right palm to block the hook without flinching. It was nothing but a normal punch, by a high schooler at that. The grin on Amon’s face when he swung his fist was quickly wiped off when his fist was stopped, and when he tried pulling his fist out of Tor’s grasp but failing miserably, his face paled dramatically.

Controlling his strength so that he didn’t injure the high schooler, Tor pulled Amon’s outstretched arm downwards to send him stumbling to the ground and caught him in the stomach with a knee. Tor’s strike righted his downwards stumble and sent him dropping back to the ground on his butt instead, the breath knocked out of him. Everyone present was shocked. Those who had gone to the same school knew that Amon was the strongest guy there, but he had been taken down with just one blow. While Amon nursed his bruised stomach, Tor squatted down and held out his hand to the boy.

“You came at me, so I gave it back to you. One for one. Are we good now?” Tor asked with a friendlier smile this time. “Friends?”

-----

The rest of the night was enjoyed amidst raucous laughter and jovial chit chat as the earlier hiccup was glossed over after Amon accepted Tor’s hand, with the latter being accepted into the group. While Tor wasn’t impressed by the various magic acts of the circus, the audience went wild when the performers used their magic spells for entertainment. Certainly, these people were blessed with the ability to use magic, but they didn’t have the desire to use it for a more dangerous line of work.

When the show was almost nearing its end, one of the girls suddenly needed to go to the toilet and the entire group of girls ended up going together. Tor was just watching the show with a blank look on his face, mildly bored and when he heard of this chance to get out and stretch his legs, he quickly volunteered to escort the girls to the restroom.

“Just in case you girls bump into unsavory characters,” Tor simply replied as he followed behind the girls as they headed towards the restroom.

As Tor stood outside the restrooms while the girls were inside, the Rune Knight couldn’t help but notice that the circus staff were acting weirdly. They were moving around in hurried and impatient paces, throwing shifty gazes all around as they moved and whenever they encountered another staff, they would speak suspiciously in hushed tones. Some of them would avert their gazes or move away to somewhere else when they caught Tor staring at them.

The Rune Knight could tell that something was obviously up and he couldn’t figure out what it was, but the answer came to him very quickly. Suka burst out of the restroom ahead of the other girls with a horrified expression on her face.

“Ez- Ezreal! This is bad! This is bad!” the girl spoke in a frightened voice. That immediately caught Tor’s attention and he grabbed the girl by her shoulders to calm her down.

“Slow down, slow down. It’s okay. Did something happen in the restroom?”

“I heard them speaking! They want to capture everyone!” the girl continued speaking in a terrified voice.

“Who are they? Capture who? Take your time, relax, tell me everything you heard.”

Taking a deep breath, Suka organized her thoughts before looking back at Tor with an anxious expression.

“I overheard the circus staff speaking near the restroom. They are planning to set up a magic spell that blocks the entire area to prevent anyone from leaving. They will then capture everyone here to sell as slaves to other countries!” the girl explained in a terrified, hushed voice.

Tor’s gaze instantly hardened, a glint of ferociousness appearing in his eyes. Suka, who had been looking at his face, flinched at the change in Tor’s expression and she would have stepped backwards if Tor hadn’t accidentally tightened his grip on her shoulders. The Rune Knight was considering if he should break his disguise now and tell Suka about his real identity so that he could use his position as a Rune Knight to order the proper evacuation, but before he could make the decision on his own, enemies had already made it for him.

“Over there! That girl!” two other women rushed over, their tone and expressions enough to tell Tor what they wanted to do. Well, one of them at least. The other lady had the physique of a human but her entire body was covered in green scales, which kind of obscured her expression so Tor could only guess. “She overheard us!”

“What about that guy?” the snake woman asked.

“Kill him as well,” the other woman replied icily. Tor recognized her as the tightrope walker as she got nearer in the dim lighting. A katana was pulled out from the sheath on her back as she dashed over, while the snake woman was releasing a dark green mist from her body. The snake woman was the first to strike, pushing her right hand forward, fingertips leading and the dark green mist coagulated to form a huge emerald snake with its jaws wide open, coming for Tor and Suka. While the gigantic green snake got the spotlight, the tightrope walker seemingly disappeared into thin air, her disappearing act obscured by the snake’s large frame.

“Noooooooo!” Suka shrilly cried out as she closed her eyes and covered her ears in the face of her impending doom, but something strange happened. She felt herself being pushed away, and when she opened her eyes, she was staring directly at Tor’s back, her eyes falling on the Rune Knight symbol on the back of his hoodie.

“Just the two of you?” Tor scoffed as lightning began to accumulate in his right hand. He had moved Suka behind him, keeping her out of danger as he confidently faced the attacks thrown in their direction. Lightning crackled wildly as the form of a large shuriken appeared, with Tor throwing it forward at the large snake heading for him. The lightning shuriken spun through the air fiercely and swiftly, leaving a trail of lightning behind it as it sliced cleanly right through the snake’s open jaw, causing it to dissipate back into the green mist it originated from. To his left, three blades of wind were sent in his direction, which the Rune Knight retaliating with another spell of his. Tor lazily waved his left hand, brimming with lightning around it, responding to the three wind blades with three ones of lightning, overpowering the flimsy wind blades and then cutting onwards towards the tightrope walker. The girl’s expression turned for the worst as she tried to evade in mid-air. She managed to move away, but each of the three lightning blades nicked her right arm, leaving three slashes on her.

“He’s (You’re) a mage!” the two women and Suka uttered out at the same time in shock. Tor turned around to look at his one-week classmate, a grin on his actual face. His initial appearance to Suka, which had been transformed through magic to take years off his actual appearance, had disappeared. Even his black hair had reverted back to his normal dirty blonde shade.

“And a Rune Knight,” Tor announced proudly, before turning back to look at the two. The two women, having gotten over the initial shock, were already considering their options. Magic energy was brewing around them in the form of strong winds and green fog. The faint silhouette of a huge green snake reared its head above the snake lady, hissing as its forked tongue extended into the air menacingly.

“Suka, listen to me. Get your friends away from this place as quickly as possible. If you can’t, find a place to hide,” Tor instructed the girl behind him as his casual clothes began to change right in front of them. The fibers of his clothes began to expand and retract, with the colors changing as they gradually took on the form of his Rune Knight uniform. And the moment the transformation was completed, Tor disappeared in a flash of lightning from his original spot.

When he next appeared, Tor reappeared in a bright flash of lightning behind the tightrope walker, right hand crackling with insane amounts of lightning that made it sharp enough to cut with and executed the Lightning Cutter,swinging his right hand diagonally upwards from the waist to shoulder across the woman’s back, ripping through her performing clothes to draw a bloody gash. The scream from the woman shattered the tension in the air as the snake woman hurried leapt away, again shocked by the turn of events.

The tightrope walker stepped forward once with her back arched, slightly convulsing from the pain of her back being slashed open as well jolted by the lightning, before collapsing to the ground. But the victory didn’t last long for Tor. He was forced to drop low and leap forward, coming into a roll before he could get back to his feet, as three fluorescent green snakes lunged for his earlier position. Their jaws snapped on thin air but their recovery from that failed sneak attack was no joke. The moment the jaws closed on nothing, all three snakes made a sharp turn in Tor’s direction, chasing after him.

This time, instead of the three snakes biting down at the same time, they took turns, snapping one after another. They were big enough to take away an arm or leg with each bite, so one of them was enough to do massive damage. Tor ran as chaotically as he could, with the three snakes hot on his heels. Being created out of magic meant that their physical form was not limited, allowing them to extend as much as the spell would allow.

And every time Tor made a feint to run in the direction of the snake woman, one of them would retract and aim for his next destination. The snake woman was experienced with her magic and she covered her weakness well.

‘I’m wasting my strength running around like this.’

In actuality, the Rune Knight was trying to conserve his magic energy, forcing him to play this deadly game of snakes and mouse. If all of the performers were in on this mass kidnapping plot, then he was going to have to fight his way through more of them. But at this rate, he was conserving his magic energy but expending too much of his physical stamina. A split second decision was made, and the firm gaze of determination flickered in Tor’s eyes as a black blade appeared in his right hand.

The snake woman was following Tor’s actions closely as well, afraid that missing a beat would give Tor the chance to one-shot her like the tightrope walker. His summoning a sword didn’t go unnoticed, and for fear that this new development would be disastrous for her, she made her own decision as well, rearranging the three snakes to attack Tor from three directions at once. It was an all-or-nothing move, where she would either destroy the Rune Knight by splitting his body three ways or her death if he manages to find his way out of the three.

Unfortunately, the Tor that no longer wanted to play games wasn’t that easy to take down. Black flames erupted around Tor and abruptly disappeared along with him, leaving the three snakes to snap at nothing but thin air again as they shot past his earlier position. The snake woman never felt the sinking feeling of defeat, her life ended abruptly the moment Tor had reappeared beside her, his black sword piercing right into her heart from her left side. He would have preferred to inflict a non-fatal wound, but he knew she could form new snakes from point blank range with that green fog of hers so he couldn’t take the chance.

The green mist around the snake woman that had been swirling around slowly stopped the moment her heart was pierced and as she fell to the ground in a pool of her own blood, the green mist began dispersing in the night breeze.

That wasn’t the only thing that was happening as well. A six-sided magical barrier was raised up at the same time to trap everyone inside, quickly becoming transparent as the sides raced towards the sky. The moment the barrier was up, a second and third spell that affected the entire area of the circus were activated. The second spell was an illusion spell, making the whole area covered by the spell to be empty when viewed from the outside. People on the outside of the spell would see nothing but empty land, as though the circus had never been set up here in the first place.

The third spell was the most potent. Dismay was obvious on Tor’s expression when he suddenly felt himself cut off from his magic, the residual lightning that had crackled around him after using his lightning magic just disappearing. Even when he tried to force it out, there was no response.

‘This is high level magic. It must be a magic artifact!’

While Tor was still caught up looking at his hands, trying again and again to call forth lightning, a whoosh of air could be heard approaching him and he was swept off his feet by a sudden blow to the side of his head. Like a scene right out of a cartoon, Tor’s entire body went stock still as he froze from the impact, before being lifted into the air and to the side, dropping to the ground like a sock puppet.

The one behind the attack pounced on Tor who had already snapped back to his senses the moment he dropped to the ground. The Rune Knight immediately rolled away as soon as he fell, and as he rolled, he could hear the thud of an attack stomping where he had been earlier had he not rolled away. Ears still ringing and head still spinning from the unexpected blow, Tor tried his best to swivel his head in the direction of the second attack he had heard earlier, trying to catch a glimpse of the new attacker.

However, when he finally managed to hold his gaze steady and look, all he saw was a flat patch on the grass. He swung his head wildly around, but again there was only him. To one side of the circus, he could hear the frightened screams of the circus goers and the harsh shouts of instructions from their captors within the huge red and white tent, where everyone had been collected. Tor shook his head again to clear the buzzing in his ears just in time to hear the sound of running on the grass.

It was coming from behind him and he quickly spun around to block, since he wasn’t capable of counterattacking at the moment but to his bewilderment, there was no attacker in sight.

‘He’s invisible? How?’

His blurred mind instantly sharpened and he tried to throw himself to the right but Tor still took a glancing front kick to his left shoulder, causing him to tumble to the side.

“Haha! Are you blind?” came the cackling voice of his attacker, mocking Tor as he dropped onto his back before flipping himself back up.

“Invisibility magic right? I’m actually more curious how you are still using magic now,” Tor asked in a dry tone, as he pushed himself off the ground in the slowest manner possible. The Rune Knight dusted himself off, removing the loose pieces of grass and soil from his clothes after having rolled around on the ground twice. He wasn’t a stranger to invisibility magic, since he owned an artifact that could give him the same invisibility. As he focused, Tor’s breathing noticeably slowed down, white mist coming out with each breath in the cold night air.

Anyone close enough would see that his eyes were glazed over, just staring into the ground as though in a daze. His ears were another different story, twitching minutely repeatedly as he focused on his hearing.

The raucous laughter of the Invisible Man rang out loudly in the night when he realized what Tor was trying to do.

“For real? You wanna counter my invisibility through your hearing?” the man snorted derisively before launching his barrage of attacks.

For the next two minutes, Tor took blows like a standing sandbag, his figure swaying left and right, front and back as he gritted his teeth, absorbing all the punishment that the Invisible Man could throw. The first punches and kicks had tossed him around, but as the onslaught continued, the severity of the blows began to soften, with the frequency dropping as well. A hint of a smirk appeared on Tor’s downcast face, the sneaky glint in his eyes concealed by his messy hair.

“Have you had enough yet? Why aren’t you dropping dead?” the Invisible Man began to shout in anger. He had the typical weakness that was quite common against mages or fighters that employed stealth. They were used to quick, decisive blows to drop their targets within a few hits, take a short break and then move on to the next. What the Invisible Man had not counted on was Tor’s toughness that was blessed by his lineage. His muscles were getting sore, his strength ebbing while his knuckles were going to bloodied if he punched anymore.

The Rune Knight wasn’t faring that well either, having to take the beating. He wasn’t sure how many more enemies he had to fight, so this situation couldn’t be carried on for so long as well. He had been searching for opportunities, but trying to anticipate the attacks that you can’t see or expect was still impossible for him. When he was sure of the incoming blow, it was too late to dodge.

‘Eight.’

Although he had allowed himself to be an easy target, Tor was still protecting his upper body and head with his arms raised. The moment the eighth punch landed on his left forearm, which was protecting the side of his face, Tor’s right hand pounced onto the Invisible Man’s forearm based on where the punch had landed. Grabbing on to the Invisible Man’s wrist with his own bare fingers, he suddenly realized that like his magic, his access to his Spec Ops uniform which had been specially customized to fit his requirements, had been cut off from him as well by the magic restricting AOE spell that had been cast over the entire circus area.

However, he couldn’t afford to distract himself at this point. Increasing the force of his grip, which caused the Invisible Man to yelp in pain as he had to endure the vice-like grip on his wrist, Tor began to let loose his pent up frustration from having to become a sandbag for this very moment.

“One!” A straight punch to the face. A familiar snapping sound informed him pleasantly that he had accurately smashed the Invisible Man’s nose.

“Two.” An elbow to the side of the head.

“Three.” Another elbow to the neck.

“Four.” An uppercut in the gut.

“Five, six.” Two more uppercuts to the gut.

“Seven.” An open palm upward strike to the bottom of the jaw.

“Eight,” Tor spoke out, in a low tone that carried a sense of finality as his fist collided with the Invisible Man’s face again. Blood spurted into the air from the twice-broken nose, the Invisible Man’s figure as he collapsed to the ground slowly revealing itself throughout the fall as he could no longer have a hold on his magic. He dropped to the ground with a low thud, showing only the white of his eyes in an unconscious state. The Invisible Man, stripped of his invisibility, was an ugly-looking fellow but it wasn’t his appearance that caught Tor’s eye. It was the gauntlet strapped on his right arm, glowing faintly with a green light.

‘That’s probably the magic item giving him the invisibility magic.’

Tor shook his left hand, slightly sore from dishing out eight strikes without any protection. He let out a long sigh. Not being able to use his magic was still fine, he could get by on his melee fighting abilities. Not having his special uniform was much more of a headache, since it was much more a headache to fight without it. Especially when he needed to sneak around now. As he looked around aimlessly, trying to figure out where he should go next, Tor spied something from the corner of his eyes when they swept over the corpse of the snake woman.

“My sword?” Tor blurted out loud. Earlier when the magic restricting barrier had been cast, Tor had been more focused on not being able to use his lightning magic before being punched to the ground. He had forgotten that he had dropped the sword, thinking that like his Spec Ops uniform, it had been forcefully returned to his summoning dimension. Now like a thirsty traveller in the middle of a desert finding an oasis in front, Tor dashed for the fallen sword with all of his strength. His vision tunneled as he reached out for the sword handle, which was where Tor had made a near-fatal mistake.

Just as his fingers closed around the fabric wrapping the sword hilt, an excruciating pain struck Tor from the side, causing him to shout out in pain as he was once more forced to roll on the ground.

“Gahhh!”

The Rune Knight stood up hastily, his stance careless and off guard, to check his injury but before he could even glimpse it, a firm kick planted itself in the middle of his chest and threw him backwards.

‘Fight back! Fight back! Fight back!’

The alarm in Tor’s mind went off like crazy after he took the two hits, the sudden onrush of danger putting him back in the right frame of mind. He gripped the sword in his right hand tightly, having held on tight to it even after being attacked twice, eyes staring ahead at an enemy that was regarding him with a bone-chilling coldness. His left hand was pressing down on the bleeding wound on his side, below the ribs. Three red lines had been cut into Tor’s flesh, cutting through his clothes. The disappearance of his uniform, replaced by his normal clothes that he wore beneath it which happened to consist of a form-fitting black T-shirt and a pair of equally black jeans and white sneakers. This was the base outfit that he used to work with his spec ops uniform’s transformation abilities.

His eyes traced down to the pair of claws that the female was gripping in both her hands, answering the question of what had injured him.

‘So that’s why they had to use the magic restriction spell. These people don’t have the magic firepower to do much damage. They depend on their weapons.’

“You’re the Doll-woman right? The one who wears makeup and dresses like a doll,” Tor simply remarked. “I saw you just now.”

Something flashed in the girl’s eyes, but it disappeared quickly with nary an expression on her indifferent face.

‘Or maybe it’s just all that makeup.’

“Doesn’t matter anyway. Male or female, guy or girl, you guys won’t be leaving here easily if you decided to carry on with your crime,” Tor said in a calm tone as he moved his left hand away from the wound on his side. If he had access to his magic, he would have healed this injury with a snap of his finger. And that put his priorities very clearly into perspective. He needed to remove the magic-restriction AOE spell first, get back his magic, heal himself to full fighting power before he could take down the rest of the criminals.

Without any other words, especially from the Doll-woman who had been silent the whole time, the two combatants began to engage with just their weapons. As they fought, the two seemed to be equally matched but Tor was having difficulties keeping up. His opponent had two weapons, allowing her to fight with more flexibility while Tor had to defend against two attacks with one weapon. He missed his shield, a notion that was rare to come by. Or his shielding spells, which would let him fight with a more reckless style.

The current him was no different than a normal person wielding a sword, one well-placed attack could very well just finish him off.

After taking another triple-cut wound to his left thigh, Tor was forced to make another risky decision. His weapon’s longer reach was no use against the claws that the Doll-woman wielded, allowing her to weave in and out of his swings as she wished. With that additional wound now, Tor had to end things fast before he sustained another one of this level. Hardening his resolve, Tor began baiting his opponent with another opportunity to break past his defenses.

Doll-woman took it like a kid being offered a candy, coming in fast and low with her claws prepped to shred through Tor’s chest. Tor’s eyes glinted with excitement, since the fish had taken the bait. Now he had to reel it in carefully, or there wouldn’t be any more chance. He would be the one gutted like a fish instead.

The moment Doll-woman swept in for the kill, her form fixed to deliver the killing blow, Tor dropped his sword from his grip and stepped right into her range. Doll-woman’s indifferent expression finally broke as a look of surprise came through the layer of thick makeup. She had calculated everything perfectly, when to pull back her arms and then swipe Tor in his chest. But Tor, having moved forward in advance, threw off her calculations. The Rune Knight smirked as he finally got the upper hand in the situation and without any hint of remorse, threw out a few punches.

The first of them struck the female combatant in her face, smashing the nose of another enemy, and then followed by an uppercut to her lower jaw and a solid front kick right into her abdomen. The three attacks weren’t enough to pay her back for the two injuries she had inflicted on him, but it did the job of dropping the enemy to the ground. Doll-woman sprawled to the ground, spread-eagled on her back, her claws released from her grasp. Tor catched up to her in less than a second, his sword already back in his right hand and looked down on his enemy on the ground.

He knelt down on the ground beside her, and with left palm, covered her entire face before smudging and wiping away her makeup with his hand. Beneath the thick makeup was the face of an angry girl led astray.

“You are young, but I won’t be lenient with you. You are going to jail with the rest of the other lunatics when I’m done here,” Tor remarked. Doll-woman, or rather, Doll-girl had said nothing in response, merely looking back at him with hate in her eyes. Tor shrugged and knocked the side of her head with the butt of his sword’s hilt, knocking her out before straightening up and walking to the large tent where everyone was captured. He walked with a limp, the wound to the thigh hampering his progress while the wound on his side caused him to wince with each jolt.

‘Will I even be able to last until I reach the boss?’ Doubt gnawed at Tor’s confidence to carry out this impromptu hostage rescue situation. Tor did nothing to dispel those doubts, instead, he just chose to move onwards towards the large tent, regardless of what may come. Even if he was injured and armed with only a sword, he was still a Rune Knight, and nothing was going to stop him from doing his job.

Expecting to see the boss of this whole farce in the tent along with the captured hostages when he tore the flap of the tent away, Tor was faced with nothing but emptiness. Only a single person was left, and he wasn’t one of the hostages. Instead, he was the acrobat that had appeared at the beginning of the show, performing opposite the tight-rope walker. He was perched with perfect balance on the tightrope that spanned the width of the tent, looking down at Tor like a bird of prey.

“Not bad that you managed to make it here. Got a little bit of nasty injuries in the process too, I see,” the acrobat mused with a mischievous grin from above.

Tor angled his head upwards to look at the acrobat, with a deadpan look on his face. He had felt like he was completely drained when he arrived at the empty tent, so he wasn’t really in the mood to go around in circles with the acrobat.

“Where have they been brought to? And I guess you are here to take care of loose ends. Me. Right?”

There was no mistaking the fatigue in Tor’s voice, which the acrobat so gleefully enjoyed.

“You’re too late. Everyone’s been loaded on the ship as we speak. And yes, I’m here to kill you in case the weaker ones fail to do the job.”

“Weaker ones huh? I guess you are stronger than them?” Tor continued asking. It wasn’t his style to engage in pre-battle banter like this. He was trying to bait the acrobat into revealing more information. So far, the monkey-like man had already told him about their ship, which made sense for the sea to be their escape route since Hargeon was a port town. Using a ship was also the only way to transport a horrifyingly large number of hostages away without much complication. Another reason was that he just wanted to take a break. He had fought against four opponents on three fronts one after another with barely a break in between. Not to mention the number of injuries that was slowly accumulating on him.

Taking a long breath, Tor held up his sword, pointing it at the acrobat.

“Just get this over with. I don’t have much time left to spare on you.”

“You took the words out of my mouth,” the acrobat spat out in return but his venomous words never made their full impact as his eyes went wide with shock. Despite possessing no magic to enhance his strength, Tor’s daily training had considerably improved his own natural strength as well. It was with his own strength that the Rune Knight flipped his sword around into a reverse grip and launched it at high speeds at the acrobat perched on the tightrope.

The acrobat freaked out, not expecting for his opponent to use his only weapon as a projectile with no way of getting it back immediately, and was unable to react in time. The sword aimed for the chest struck true, but by stroke of luck, instead of the soft sound of forged steel slicing into flesh and bone, the sound of something made of porcelain cracked and shattered instead. However, the very sound of that something shattering brought on very different expressions to the two combatants.

“No!!!” the acrobat shouted fearfully the moment he broke his fall from the tightrope by rolling on the ground, mitigating the overall damage from the fall.

“Yes!!!” was Tor’s voice, loud and reverberating as thunder roared and lightning crackled from his body. The Rune Knight disappeared at once from his very location in a flash of lightning and reappeared right beside the acrobat, with his fist swung into the air. The acrobat who had just stood back up didn’t find the earth beneath him for too long as he was knocked up into the air along with a jolt of electricity shooting through his entire body by Tor’s uppercut. However, his ascent was very quickly cut short and once more put into a descent with Tor teleporting right above him and whipped him down to the ground with a well-placed axe kick to the acrobat’s exposed abdomen.

The circus performer crashed back down to the ground and created a large cloud of dust and dirt around him. He was coughing severely as every part of his body seemed to scream with pain. Tor landed on the ground gently, the tip of his boots touching the ground first before stepping down firmly. He was finally back in his Spec Ops uniform, taking on the appearance of the standard Rune Knight black uniform. A thin smile was on his lips, right hand outstretched to call back his sword, whistling as it sliced through the air before slowing down for Tor to snatch it out of the air.

“I guess those broken pieces make up the magic artifact for the magic restriction spell eh?” Tor remarked as he glanced at the broken pieces of white-green porcelain on the ground beside the acrobat. He could barely make out its original shape, probably a rectangle badge or something.

“Are we ready to answer some questions now?” Tor spoke up again as his sword tip slashed through the air, and landed in front of the acrobat’s neck, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down in an agitated pace.

-----

A bolt of lightning shot up from the circus tent right up into the sky, creating a trail of golden light behind it. At the head of the bolt was Tor, head angled upwards, arms tight by his sides, body as straight as an arrow. His sharp ascent slowed down as he climbed higher into the sky, until he could finally see six huge glowing runes on each side of the hexagonal barrier that stopped anyone within from escaping. Each glowing rune was actually one sixth of a large magic artifact, and when raised up into the sky with the proper array being arranged, the barrier took form.

However, for such a powerful magic that covered this large area to come from an artifact, its weakness was also glaringly obvious. Based on what the acrobat had said, under a minimal amount of threat with a very sharp sword next to his neck, the only way to destroy the barrier was to destroy the six runes. With a sweep of his hands, six blades of pure lightning materialized around Tor, each one pointing at one of the runes before shooting towards their target. The swords of lightning shout out like comets towards the runes and each rune was destroyed in an explosion of lightning without fail, with each side of the barrier dissipating.

The moment the barrier was down, Tor pulled out his iLac and called the local chief. His request was turned into an order instantly, and within five minutes, a squad of local Rune Knights swarmed around the circus area. As per his instructions, they found the unconscious criminals quickly, since there wasn't anyone else to busy themselves with. Another squad had also been dispatched to head to the port, on standby to receive Tor’s next orders.

By that time, Tor was already enroute to the port by flight. Wings made out lightning flared out behind him, leaving a golden trail of light behind him as he sped towards the ship that the acrobat had spilled out without holding anything back. It was a cruise ship, with the name “Le Grande Vemilla” spelled out in a fancy, cursive font on the side of the hull. From the outwards appearance, it was one of the most luxurious cruise ships that would cost a bomb. But upon closer inspection, Tor began to see something else beneath the fancy facade.

Huge guns were integrated into the ship’s design, melding into the natural curves and corners of the ship, camouflaged to make them unnoticeable until too late. The size of the gun barrels indicated the caliber of cannons that they could fire, which Tor had no doubt could shoot him out of the air once fired. If those bullets could reach him.

“Look for a ship called Le Grande Vemilla. Keep your distance but prepare to storm it on my signal,” Tor spoke through his iLac before tossing it into his storage dimension. It was such a natural thing for him to do that he had only felt the pinch of it after being trapped in that magic-restricting barrier earlier. The Rune Knight decided to drop lower and then fly around the entire ship to get a sense of what he was going to dive into, but the moment Tor dove down slightly to an altitude that allowed him greater visibility, a long black chain sped through the air at ridiculous speeds to create a sonic boom in its wake. The black chain, coming from the ship below, had a weight attached to its end and it partially succeeded in its mission. The long black chain that never seemed to run out was actually trying to bind itself around Tor’s neck, but Tor still managed to instinctively raise his left arm up just in time to have it bound together, so that he wasn’t strangled.

The moment the chain tied around his neck and left arm successfully, the chain grew taut with a metallic clink and instantly Tor was plucked out of the air.

The winged Rune Knight crashed onto the deck of the cruiser with a loud crash, his lightning wings working like crazy to slow down the drop but it only barely helped. Tor laid on his back on the deck, amidst wrecked pieces of wood, eyes opened wide without blinking for a few seconds as he took a deep breath. He had barely saved himself by activating his defensive spell in the last few moment of the descent, letting the barrier take the full brunt of the fall.

‘That was close.’

The defensive spell had been destroyed after absorbing the impact, his lightning wings deactivated as well. And amidst the dust cloud that had been created on his crash, Tor began to pull himself up.

His rising silhouette amidst the settling dust cloud was greeted with a smirk somewhere from the deck.

“I would have been disappointed if that drop killed you,” a very familiar voice spoke up. The light in Tor’s eyes dimmed as the voice reached his ears. He knew this voice.

“Etsuya,” was his reply as he stepped forward, with nary a scratch on him. On his way over here, Tor had already fully healed his injuries with his magic, and his torn clothing had already long overlapped with his uniform.

“Now, now. Wipe that murderous gaze off your face, Fulgur,” the man once known as the Golden Hand, one of the top executives of the Red Eagle criminal organization, a man so cruel and cold that he would do anything to make a profit. In his eyes, the only thing that mattered was Jewels and more Jewels, and he would very willingly massacre an entire village if he needed to.

“I always thought you were low. But this is a new low, Etsuya,” Tor remarked, doing nothing to mask his bristling anger. Facing the perpetrator of such a large kidnapping scheme was one thing, knowing that it was someone that should have been captured and someone that he personally knew made him want to burst in anger.

“Enough with this nonsensical exchange. We both know what we need to do. But let’s see if you have what it takes to do it,” Etsuya spoke menacingly as he half-smiled, half-snarled. As he stepped forward, his hands slowly stretched out to the sides, and sharp blades of black steel began to slide out from beneath his sleeves all the way from his shoulder to his arm. Where blades didn’t sprout, metal plates rose up to protect, creating armor.

Tor’s eyes went wide again, as he recognized this magic. He recognized the magic, but it didn’t belong to Etsuya.

“What did you do? How did you steal Kanuro’s Black Knight magic?” Tor growled.

“What’s the point in answering a dead man’s questions?” Etsuya mocked in return as he moved forward with a speed unbefitting that of a heavily armored mage, his black metal-plated right fist smashing forward. Tor leapt to the side, avoiding the frontal attack but it wasn’t the end of Etsuya’s attack. A curved black blade that was the same length of his entire lower arm sprung up from his right arm and Etsuya fluidly swung his entire arm to the right at the end of his punch. It was pulled off with such a fluidness that showed the extent of his mastery with the magic.

It was entirely out of Tor’s expectations on the receiving end of the consecutive double attack. Due to the close proximity between them, Tor hastily summoned Nightblade in his left hand and blocked against Etsuya’s side swing haphazardly. It wasn’t enough as he was pushed to the side from the attack, the swaying ship adding the difficulty of trying to catch a foothold, but enough to keep his life at the moment.

Etsuya was relentless in his attack, as though turning into a berserker. In Tor’s memories, the man had always been acting from the shadows, pulling strings through his more physically and magically capable men to do his bidding. He had never shown himself to be much of a fighter or a mage. This had caused a lapse in Tor’s judgment, putting him on the backfoot. All he could do was repeatedly hold onto Nightblade to defend against Etsuya’s aggressive lineup of punches and swings, each of them appearing simple yet deceptively cunning.

A frontal punch that never connected could suddenly extend into a blade from the knuckles. A stomp into the ground that missed could penetrate the ground to shoot up with a spike from another spot. The attacks would even alternate between heavy, brutish attacks and light, multi-strike combos, constantly catching Tor off-guard.

It was a first for Tor, who was scrambling across the entire deck while Etsuya continued cackling and laughing with mad laughter. The memory of how he had countlessly tried to find ways to steal Tor’s lightning magic and failing without the former knowing about it, and of how he had finally stolen the magic from another comrade he had betrayed at the crumbling moments of their organization played through his mind. He was already beginning to imagine himself ripping this annoying pest, venting the frustration of having his plans ruined by this brat and also the frustration of having failed so many times to steal his magic.

It was even more thrilling as he continued pushing onwards with his stolen Black Knight magic, using it to suppress Tor to the point where he wasn’t even able to use his lightning magic.

‘Kanuro sure went easy on me last time,’ Tor thought to himself as he continued avoiding and defending against Etsuya’s barrage of attacks, thinking back to how the original wielder of the Black Knight magic had often sparred with him, to shape him up in using his lightning magic. In his memories, despite the menacing looking magic, Kanuro had never exuded such an oppressive air when he fought against Tor. Yet, in Etsuya’s hands, it looked like the magic of a demon.

‘Guess it’s time.’

Caught up in the excitement of an illusion, where he truly believed that he was gaining the upper hand over Tor, Etsuya had never realized that despite Tor’s inability to counterattack, he had also never once managed to land an attack on the latter. Enough close shaves here and there planted the illusion deeper in his mind, that he was ever so close to winning. It blinded him to the possibility that Tor might be toying with him, that instead of using brute force against brute force, the Rune Knight was playing him. He was also blinded to his body’s limits. The black metal plates and blades from the magic provided the user exceptional offense and defense, but the very weight of the plates and blades were also a double-edged sword.

As the fight went on, with Tor’s acting getting easier and easier to pull off and with Etsuya’s declining condition, the Rune Knight finally decided that enough was enough.

Tor leapt back a greater distance than usual as Etsuya pounced for the kill. However, when Etsuya compensated for the missed attack by extending a long blade from his knuckles, striking where Tor had escaped to, the latter was already no longer there. Lightning crackled from behind Etsuya as Tor reappeared behind him a flash of lightning. A pair of wings made of lightning roared furiously behind him as he spun around in place the moment he appeared out of thin air, the lightning wings hardening into blades as they ripped through the air.

The lightning wings turned blades cut into the black metal protecting Etsuya’s back, and it wasn’t enough to cut through it, but the momentum and strength of the spell was strong enough for the wings to push Etsuya to crash into the ground.

Lightning gathered around his right fist as he walked forward to the rising Etsuya, smashing the fist of lightning into the man’s chest the moment he turned around to face Tor. Again, the force of the lightning-enhanced punch wasn’t enough to break through the armor but it left plenty of cracks in the armor’s structure. Typically, it would be easy enough to quickly repair it as it was magic, but Tor wasn’t that kind.

Repaying in kind what Etsuya had tried to do to him, lightning gathered in Tor’s hands as he grinned lopsidedly, throwing punch after punch that contained the explosive power of lightning in them.

“Argh!! Why!!!” Etsuya screamed as he tried to resist, being the one being pushed back this time. “I can’t lose!!”

“Yes you can,” was Tor’s reply in a level tone, as he hopped back one step, raising his right arm into the air and swinging it down. “Lightning Bolt.”

The name of the spell was more than enough to describe the spell as a thick bolt of golden lightning crashed down from the skies, striking Etsuya who was already barely standing with the full power of a storm. A resounding boom shook the entire ship, and when the smoke cleared, Etsuya was still standing but unconscious.

“Hmm, always the sore loser,” Tor scoffed as he walked over to the fainted man and gently pushed him in the forehead and caused him to topple over on his back.

“Board the ship,” Tor instructed as he pulled out his iLac and spoke into it. Minutes later, the entire ship was crawling with at least twenty other Rune Knights, with the local chief standing beside Tor as they rested on the deck.

“I can’t thank you enough for your help with this situation, Tor. Also, it seems like this Etsuya was also the one behind three other cases that was purposely made to resemble monster attacks,” the chief said after receiving the report of his subordinates after they had checked out every nook and cranny of the ship.

“Ohh? What’s the story behind that?”

“In the past month, there have been three incidents where each village was totally destroyed, burnt to the ground with nothing left. In every single site, it was all burnt stones and wood. Not a single human remains was found. We thought that it was the attack of a monster.”

“And what made you link it to Etsuya?”

“When we found the hostages, the number of hostages we found below deck is far more than what was captured from the circus. We interviewed a few of them and they confirmed that they Etsuya’s crew had jumped their village, capturing all of their villagers before burning their whole village to the ground. The evil man was kidnapping villages by the whole to supply his human trafficking activities, selling them to other countries as slaves.”

“The bastard was always capable of such stunts.”

“Yes, thankfully this time, you were involved and we managed to capture him and save all the hostages before he brought them out of the country. If that really happened, it would be a disaster.”

“So… since I’ve done a great job, then I guess you can do me a favor?”

“Of course, tell me!”

“Find someone else to solve the high school drug case. Great, thanks, bye!”

“Wait!!!!”

[10805 words]