The two great wizards were moving with speed, bouncing from wall to ceiling to floor in the hall colliding with each other. Kevin caught Marco’s coat and twisted, threw him down. Marco landed on his feet cracking the floor beneath. Kevin landed and fired a stream of hooded ghost like beings using a three circle spell. Marco extended his aura in long multiple streams that pierced the ghosts eliminating them. He created and a flat force field in the shape of dragonest’s insignia above Kevin and it came straight down on him with great force, Kevin resisted holding it up but slowly fell to one knee then to other, the veins in his arms and forehead were bulging, the floor below cracked and he was sinking down.
“you are even older than me Kevin, that magically altered young body of yours will not save you”
Then a magic circle appeared beneath Kevin and he disappeared, the force field fell on the floor and dispersed, the same circle appeared behind marco and Kevin hopped out of it, swiftly marco leaped forward. Kevin approached him, taking the advantage of his small size, marco slipped under his arms and jumped onto his back locked his legs around his neck and fired a magic blast on his back. Kevin flew ahead and crashed into a pillar. He slowly got up bleeding from his temple, his armored robes had broken and torn.
“i see that your age has not affected your fighting skill, but still my magic is more powerful”said Kevin, his dark aura extended like rope with three pointed claw at each end.
It came at marco with speed, he dodged the first claw as it dug into the wall behind him, Kevin pulled himself towards marco and dashed him, he was thrown above another claw came at him and sunk in his back, Kevin pulled on it and slammed him down. Marco was bleeding from his back and his head, the claw had torn off some flesh along with his coat. Kevin swung two more at him in an arc, marco quickly stepped back, the claws stuck into the pillars on opposite side, Kevin pulled on it breaking the pillars, the ceiling came down and collapsed on marco. In moments the debris blasted off at a corner and marco crawled out coughing blood.
Kevin came closer, “this is your suicide, you know you can’t beat me, i have half of the dragon soul in me” he said
“you shall never have the rest of it, even if i have to fight till death”
“then so be it”said Kevin and then hit the floor, a shock wave came from him, marco quickly jumped high and landed sideways on the wall, Marco kicked and leapt towards Kevin.
Kevin jumped towards marco, both formed a giant magic circle infront of them, they came close to each other and their magic collided and sparks were flying around from their magic circles , they were suspended in maid air because of the magic and locked in a power struggle. Kevin formed a plasma bolt in his free hand and pressed it between them. Marco’s magic circle started to crack slowly at first and then in an instant it shattered completely, a piercing strike of intense dark magic went through marco’s torso making a clear hole through his body, followed by a massive explosion of magic that enveloped them both and the entire room into the magical aura.
When the smoke cleared, Kevin was lying on the floor injured, when he got up, saw marco lying at some distance a lot gravely injured and the only movement was of his slow breathing. He picked him up with one hand, Marco’s clothes were drenched in blood and more was flowing out from the hole in his torso forming a puddle below him.
“i told you, you will not win. All this time you wasted your life just to die like this. Soon your mages will also meet the same end. Everything you did was for nothing and now, die knowing that you not just failed him but also your mages and Arystar as well” said Kevin
“you....think this is over, but this has .....just started” he said the last words then
Kevin thrust his hand into the left side of marco’s chest.
While the two guildmasters fought on the upper floor. Downstairs was chaos and fire everywhere, bodies of wizards were lying around. The floor and the walls were painted with blood and ash. The back wall had fallen and the building was slowly crumbling. During the battle a fireball landed in the bar counter setting fire to all the rum and alcohol, there was a huge explosion making a big hole in the wall behind it and debris flew around hitting people at random, taking advantage of this distraction Lukas quickly escaped the fight and was making his towards the upper floor, prancing from the stairs to the wall to beams, he somehow got to the upper floor.
When he came reached the entrance to the hall, he saw Kevin, holding master in one hand and his heart in the other. His eyes widened in disbelief and stunned in shock. Kevin noticed the young wizard at the door, he held up the heart in his hand, blood dripping from it and squished it in his palm and blood spurted out from it all over Kevin’s face and robes, he dropped the heart that fell to the ground with splash of blood.
“NO!”yelled Lukas
Kevin threw marco’s corpse aside and blasted himself upwards, he jumped out from the broken ceiling and was gone. Lukas came running to marco’s blood soaked body that lay in the ruin. He picked up his masters body and braced it in his arms. Beads of tears formed at the corner of his eyes and slowly started to fall down as he saw his master’s dead face and still couldn’t believe that their leader was dead. In a few moments he started realised what he was holding in his arms, the tears now started to flow more freely and rapidly.
Below as the war waged on, the building had started to come down. The walls were cracked and the ceiling was breaking off and there was fire. The enemy wizards were retreating.
“fall back!”yelled gilbert, “it’s coming down, we have to get out of here”
“no!, this is our guild we have to save it”said Erica, he caught her by the shoulders
“if we don’t get out now, we all will die” he said and pushed her towards the exit. Soon all the wizards were escaping the scene.
Lukas was still for a few moments and then a mass of concrete fell beside him, he realised the place was about to come down. As much as he hated to leave behind his master he had to escape the scene or else he would get buried as well, now he had to save himself. He got up, rubbed off the tears from his eyes and went for the window.
Gilbert and the rest had gathered at the front yard, they could do nothing but helplessly witness the destruction of their guild.
“where is master?”asked fiora, the rest could say nothing and were dumbfounded. As the building was coming down, they saw a figure leapt out breaking a window and fell on the ground. Behind his the entire building came down and with another explosion it was completely destroyed. They came running to Lukas as he slowly got up.
“Lukas!, where is the master? Where is he!?”asked Fiora
For a moment he said nothing, and others began to realise what his silence meant, he looked back at the destroyed guild burning on the ground.
“He is gone” he said
After a few moments the wizards of the destroyed guild just waited in the front yard mourning. Some of the nearby citizens had also gathered at a distance wondering what disaster took place here. From the street ahead arwin and emily came running.At the first sight he was shocked and frightened when he saw the guild burning, he stopped for a moment tried to take in the picture. He looked around and saw the rest of the wizards in the front yard, some resting, most of them injured. There was despair and grief everywhere. The other wizards noticed him but din’t say anything, he came to others
“w-what happened?....how...did this happen?”he asked, they just looked at him with silence. Erica came to him quickly and slapped him hard across his face,
“Where were you!?”she yelled at him, her face was soiled with tears and dress with blood. Then she turned and walked away from him.
He looked up and noticed others were in the same sad state as hers, he was feeling the sadness from others, his eyes became moist and he simply stood there, he guessed what must have happened by the absence of the master at the scene. He stood there watching the fire that consumed the guild. Then later on he caught on with the events of the night from other wizards. When the fire had died out and nothing of the guild was left but ruins, everyone was gone by then.
When there was no soul lingering around, Arystar had arrived there and was searching through the ruins, he was going through the debris that was left. He found the drawer of master marco’s study table which had surprisingly survived. He opened it and investigated it tapping up and down, he lifted the fake bottom under which he found a letter and a locket with the insignia of the guild for a pendant.
...........................................
The next day,
Arystar was on his way to the vault, to check if it was intact. The remaining wizards had gathered at a store house owned by dragonest among other store houses of the noblemen at the western corner of the city. The storehouse contained spare furniture and goods supply of the guild. There were a few chairs, tables and barrels that they used for sitting. They had gathered there and were just lingering, but no one had any words to say. Lukas was sitting alone sulking in a corner. Irena was sitting at a corner on a barrel, along with Gilbert, Erica and others who were seated nearby. A sadness was spread all over the place, a
group of mages approached Irena,
“miss Irena” said one of them, “it was a great loss we suffered and we also heard the news that the council has kicked us out and we no longer an official guild. We think that it is best for us if we moved on, this guild is done”
“what do you mean its done!?”yelled Erica at them angrily
“what are we supposed to just stand here all day, now we won’t be getting any job requests how is this guild suppose to run. Many of our mages died last night and now there are so few of us remaining”
“so we are suppose to just abandon everything”she said
“it is your decision what you are suppose to do, we have made ours”he said, his group of three placed their guild insignia accessory on the table and went out the door.
Irena did nothing but just saw them, when they were out she stood and came front and made an announcement,
“if anyone else wants to leave this guild now, then you may go”she said and sat on her barrel.
Slowly one by one, many mages placed their guild insignia on the table making a pile of it and exited the guild for good. With every mages that quit it pained her too see the mages abandon the guild her master had build, had fallen apart and was now over. After sometime, Gilbert, Erica, Fiora, Arwin, Emily, Gus, Irena and
Lukas were the only people remaining.
They were seated for a while in silence. Gus was pacing in frustration, he came to them and kicked arwin’s stool, he toppled and fell down.
“what the hell is your problem!?” said arwin
“You!!, you are the problem, it’s all your fault this has happened, all your fault that we have to suffer like this!” yelled gus
Arwin got up in rage, “fuck you! asshole! I did nothing, this is not my fault!”
“isn’t it too obvious, that the we were attacked the moment we get informed that we are out of the council.”said gus openly, “you messed with the council arwin!, and we all had to pay the price. This whole attack was the council’s plan to destroy our guild because they think you worked on behalf of the guild when you attacked Vincent Klaus.”
“NO!, that matter was resolved before. This attack has nothing to do with it”said arwin
“shut you fucking gob! or i’ll fill it with horse shit!!” shouted gus furiously and arwin was instantly silent.
Others saw in the ruckus that unfolded before them, some din’t even bothered to pay much attention as it was yet another fight between the two like always.
“so i say we kill this motherfucker!...”he said pointing at arwin, “and hope it will give us some peace of mind”
Gus came closer to him and hit him in the face, arwin spit blood on the floor. Irena suddenly felt a bad vibe, she got up and came infront. Gus attacked him again, but arwin caught his fist......
“arwin!, no don’t!”yelled Irena, arwin punched gus in the face, pulled him down from the neck and hit him in the face again with his knee and pushed him back.
Gus turned towards arwin with barely any damage from the attack, a bright red aura surrounded his fist. Arwin attacked him again, gus blocked it and locked his arm and hit twice in his chest, with every hit arwin coughed blood, another hit on the face and kicked him in the torso. Arwin went flying and crashed into the table breaking it. He slowly got up with blood running from his busted lip and red bruise on his right cheek and pain sting in his chest. Gus’s physical enhancement magic was far superior to Arwin’s.
Arwin came running, gus jumped ahead to dash, arwin slided and got behind him, he quickly turned and hit gus on the back of his knee. Arwin caught his arm, climbed over and got his legs round his neck and twisted. It slammed gus on the floor and arwin locked his arm, he pulled on his arm and pushed his neck with his feet, another jerk and it will break the arm.
A burst of magic went through gus’s body and was completely covered with the red aura, he caught arwin’s foot with his free hand and bend it backwards. Arwin quickly released him and stepped back avoiding any damage. As gus got up, arwin quickly kicked him which didn’t even move gus form his position. Arwin repeatedly hit him but din’t even a make a bruise on him. Gus came closer and arwin’s feet moved backwards on their own, he caught arwin by the collar and hit on the face with his forehead breaking his nose, followed by more such hits. Arwin’s head was spinning and his vision a blur.
Arwin was placed against a wall and was taking one hit after another, gus hit him on left eye, arwin fell to the ground swollen, bleeding and sobbing. Then he stopped, the red aura disappeared, he spat on the floor and cursing walked out, slamming the door behind him.
Arwin got up and stumbling somehow came to the long table where the rest were seated and fell into a chair. Usually they would argue and fight all the time, Irena din’t realize first but now she saw gus has brutally beaten him. she placed a bottle of rum on the table
“this might help”she said
Arwin snatched the bottle and gulped in hurriedly, he spurted it back out coughing, “that son of whore!, who does he think he is!?, hits me anytime he wants, cocksucker!”
“you couldn’t help me out when he beat the hell out of me, could you?, you were just enjoying the show”he said glaring at Erica and Gilbert.
“its not my problem that you make others hit you” said gilbert, Erica just ignored him. Fiora and emily sat at other corner of the table, depressed and nothing to say.
“he was frustrated and angry, i guess we all are. He wasn’t thinking straight. Try to understand”said Irena, he drank the rest of the rum form the bottle, the booze helped reduced the sensation of pain and he calmed down.
“No, i don’t understand. He is frustrated, that doesn’t give him any right to take it out on me. I did nothing” said arwin
“you are right he doesn’t have any right”said Lukas, he was standing behind arwin, nobody noticed when he got there, “but what he said was also right” He grabbed arwin and pulled him down, he held one leg of his and dragged him towards the door, everyone got up in surprise.
“not again! you mad man!, leave me!..Ahhh”yelled arwin as the ground hurt him while getting dragged and they were out of the door.
“you guys are still not going to do anything”said Irena
Erica casually sat back in her, “oh let him get beat up. Gus was right, he is reason this happened. Ever since he stepped in this guild, he has caused nothing but trouble for us, it will be even better if he dies. That guy is trouble, we are better off without him. If not for him we might have been fine and in our real guild”she said
“it may appear that way, but it is not his fault and when did we became such that we let our comrades kill each other just to satisfy their anger”said Irena,
“he is the reason our master is dead!”yelled Erica, beads of tears had formed at the corner of her eyes. Irena was silent for a moment.
“you don’t really mean that”she said, Erica turned her eyes down and looked other way. She looked at gilbert and he looked away as well, “..........fine, i’ll go myself” she said and went out.
Lukas had picked him up midway and brought him in an open field, outside the ware house area and threw him on the ground. Arwin looked at him, lukas was ready to fight.
“i am not going to fight you, master’s death has fucked in your mind, you are mental!”he said getting to his feet
“may be i am” said Lukas, with his anger coming up, “the wizard who killed the master is gone but atleast i will eliminate the one responsible for this madness.”
“no please stop!”yelled arwin, “it is not my fault, damn it!”
“you have one chance to defend yourself and i will go for the kill”said Lukas, a thin golden aura surrounded him, he formed a dense sphere of light in his palm and fired at arwin.
Arwin yelled in fear and suddenly another magic energy appeared between them and nullified the attack with an explosion. When the smoke cleared, Arystar was standing between them.
“stop this nonsense at once, you were really going to kill him!?”said arystar
“get out of my way, old man”said Lukas, Arystar’s eyes widened. with sudden movement he appeared behind Arwin and hit him at the back of his neck, unconscious, arwin fell to the ground.
Arystar came forward, now enraged, “how did you know? Tell me how did you find out!?”
Lukas replied with a chuckle, “oh i have my ways, i know it” he said, “i have been itching for this moment, now i will defeat you as well. Many people has this misunderstanding that you are the most powerful wizard in this guild.”
“and when did you betrayed this guild and tried to kill your comrade” said arystar
“he is not my comrade and neither are you, you are not even a mage of this guild. You always disappear and show up once in many months. You just a mercenary” he said
Arystar picked up arwin, crossed the back area and placed him by tree at some distance and then returned.
“alright then, its about time we decided which one of us is better”said Arystar and the two mages were ready to battle.