'For a moment you forgot I was here? How long has it been since I spotted you, you b*stard!'
Matias waved his hand, and the blazing Roc behind him flew toward Neo. It let out a mighty howl and left a trail of deep red flames that instantly turned the surroundings into a fiery scene.
Neo took out a short wooden staff from his storage space. He grabbed its shaft as several light yellow magic arrays of different sizes circled it. In a blink of an eye, the shaft increased in length.
Neo whirled the now one-and-a-half-long wooden staff vertically in front, and it emitted a faint light gold light. A translucent golden barrier materialized before him seconds before the blazing Roc closed the distance.
The blazing Roc collided with the translucent barrier and exploded into deep red flames, smothering Neo in one fell swoop.
Matias dashed forward without even checking whether Neo survived the blazing Roc's attack. As he passed through the trail of deep red flames that the Roc left behind, the flames that covered his body turned a deeper shade of red, further enhancing the power of his Fire magic. In just a few seconds, the color of his flames changed into a shade of red violet.
If others could see Matias, they would probably think that his flames got an upgrade and entered the highest flame level that was said to have only existed in legends, the purple flames of hell. However, those who had personally seen the purple flames of hell would know that it was still far from it. After all, the purple flames of hell could easily reduce everything on its path to ashes, while Matias's flames could only leave deep burnt marks in the surroundings.
Red magic arrays circled Matias's forearms, and two flaming gauntlets materialized, covering them. He unleashed a one-two combo, releasing powerful flaming beams at the spot where Neo had been.
Seven orbs flew out from the sea of flames and went toward Matias. They surrounded him and formed a seven-sided star.
"I've already seen that move before!" Matias growled. "Don't think your move will work on me twice!"
The flames on his body erupted, breaking the seven orb's formation as they swerved out of the flames' range.
"Really? I remember hitting you more than twice using my staff."
Matias's eyes widened as he looked up.
Inches away from his head was a huge head of a hammer hurling down at him. He barely raised his forearms to block the incoming attack before it hit him square on the head.
"You b*stard!"
The flames on Matias's gauntlets erupted, seemingly intent on turning the hammer on Neo's hand to dust.
The hammer emitted a faint golden light, rendering the flames useless.
Matias's eyes constricted after seeing his enhanced flames do nothing to the hammer. He had heard that during the Solo Competition between the Conclave and the Royal Army, 'Try's' staff had been confirmed to have already received a sentient. But Matias refused to believe it. In his opinion, the army only gave an excuse after being defeated by a mage with a lower mage level. Not to mention, his innate magic was only a support type. Seeing how his flames could not even touch it, Matias was at least 70% convinced that the staff might really have gained its own sentient.
But how old was 'Tyr'? How did he manage to upgrade his weapon's level? As far as they knew, mages needed at least twenty years to gain weapons' sentient.
That was not all. Matias only realized that Neo looked perfectly fine after getting smothered by his enhanced flames!
'Damn those enhanced coats of the order!' Matias complained through gritted teeth. In the end, he could only curse at Neo's fire immunity to the Blacksmith Order's uniform.
Light yellow magic arrays circled the hammer's head. It then grew in size, and its weight increased by a second.
"Ngrgh!" Matias gritted his teeth as his knees buckled and his feet sank a few centimeters on the ground. "You and your annoying staff!"
Red magic arrays circled Matias's gauntlets, and two small blazing rocs flew out. They went after Neo, who was suspended in midair while holding his hammer.
Neo released one of his hands that were holding the hammer's shaft. He gestured toward the seven orbs, and they flew toward him while emitting a faint golden light. The orbs doubled and whirled on each side of Neo. Light golden lights connected the seven orbs, forming the heptagon sides. Then the light spread in the middle to complete a heptagon-shaped barrier.
The heptagon-shaped barrier whirled, and the small blazing roc slammed on them.
A small explosion occurred, which was then followed by a shockwave.
Neo was forced to jump back from the explosion, but the two heptagon-shaped barriers shielded him from the front to reduce the impact of the explosion's shockwave.
Matias also jumped back, crossing his forearms to protect his head from the shockwave.
As Neo landed on the ground, his sensors sounded after detecting several incoming attacks from all sides.
'One, two, three... seven different magic attacks coming from different directions,' Neo processed the data his sensors had detected and made a move.
The original seven orbs doubled again, instantly increasing the number of orbs circling around him to 21. Neo waved his hand, and the 21 orbs formed into three groups, forming a triangular barrier. After which, they scattered and blocked the incoming magic attacks.
At the same time, Neo scanned the magic energy from these seven attacks and looked up his database to find a match.
Before he could receive the result, another attack came from above.
Neo failed to react on time.
To be precise, he was unable to react because the range of this attack was too huge, and his processing capability could not deduce his next course of action in a short time.
BAM!
Neo fell to his knees as the gravity around him multiplied. Based on his computation, the gravity within fifty meters of his surroundings had multiplied seven-fold.
If Kyran had not used the best materials when he created his puppets, Neo would have already been flattened.
"We are not here to play around, Matias."
Neo's eyes contracted as he recognized the person who had just spoken. In his eyes, the information on Tobias appeared.
And written under Tobias's information was a priority code. In case Neo encountered Tobias, Kyran had input a priority to escape code on its system.
Matias scowled as he looked up. But he did not refute and undid his magic immediately before standing straight.
"Yes, cousin Tobias."
Tobias looked down at Neo as he flew down from above.
Neo remained on his knees. The 21 orbs were also stuck on the ground, and no matter how much magic energy he drew from the surroundings and into the orbs, they were still unable to rise.
Tobias landed two meters from where Neo knelt. A haughty smile formed on his lips as he walked slowly toward the latter.
The increase in gravity did not cause his slow movements. After all, he was immune to his magic's nature. He only wanted to relish the sight of 'Tyr' kneeling before him and was taking his time.
"Ah... How I love the sight of you kneeling."
With great difficulty, Neo looked at him.
Seeing Neo's indifferent expression, Tobias felt a little peeved.
Like Matias, Tobias also hated how 'Tyr' always wore an unfazed expression. As if nothing could deter him, and even when he was in a bind, he would emerge as the victor in the end.
The two had no idea Neo's expression was his default face. Besides, he was currently assessing the situation and was forming a plan to execute Kyran's escape code. After formulating several plans, Neo rejected them because the probability of success was below 30%.
Frankly, his requirement for a successful escape was not many. He only needed to escape in one piece. Getting injured was out of the question. Apart from getting injured meant exposing what his body was made of, replacing the 'injured' body part would likely make his master go ballistic.
If Matias and Tobias joined forces, there was a bigger chance that Neo would end up with a destroyed limb or two.
Left with no good option, Neo opted for the safest route: stall for time by gathering intel.
"You two are not supposed to be here," Neo started.
Tobias sneered at him and responded at once, "Nor are you. And yet here you are."
Based on Tobias's reply, he appeared unaware of the situation in the army's warehouses. But there was also a chance that he was feigning ignorance.
"How did you find me?"
Matias scowled, "Trying to stall for time? It's useless. Even if you call for others, they cannot help you. My cousin is an Exalted; even if your master comes to save you, he is only a Grand Master. In front of my cousin, he is nothing."
"I never expected you to say those words to the person whom you wanted to be your master."
"Shut up! Since he did not take me, I don't care about that old man!"
"Do not let him rile you up, Matias," Tobias warned him with a slight frown. Then he looked at Neo and said, "There is no point in talking. Sleep."
He flicked his hand, and a talisman flew out of his hand and landed on Neo's forehead.
The talisman glowed green as it activated.
What happened next left Matias and Tobias to look at Neo in disbelief.
The talisman's Sleep spell would have affected even an Exalted mage. However, the spell did not seem to work on Neo!
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