Chapter 67 - Hidden Hunters

-- Aaris - PoV --

What was that noise? 

'MELVI?! what happened?' She screamed so loud, but should I check on her not?

Screw everything, I need to check on her if she is in real trouble!

I picked up her wand and dashed in the bushes from where the noise came, but squirming behind the bushes was no good, she wasn't there.

'Melvi?' Where has she gone? She was just here!

'Melvi where are you?' I ran into the deep forest and it got really dark, and a faint mist spread through the forest.

'Melvi! Where are you?' I went deeper and the climate suddenly changed, it got colder and colder and suddenly a thin layer of snow came under my feet.

The further I went the colder it got and in a few minutes while surrounding it became as the stormy winter season fell upon this land.

'Melvi?' 

"Oh-ho! Look what we have here?" A boy's voice came from the woods around me.

"Delano, is he the one?" Another voice echoed around.

There are two guys! In the branches around me, do they know something about Melvi?

"Well, then shall we start? Ruined Prince!" The boy who was called by other by name Delano, 

[ MAGIA - HUNTER ]

[ BEAR CLAW  ] Delano chanted, 

***

A magus circle appeared and beneath Aaris and Bear claw spell instantly appeared and closed its teeth, everything was covered in snow mist now and Delano jumped from the tree.

"Hmm looks like I was a bit too rough on him." Delano walked up to his trap.

"Did ya' killed him?" The other boy spoke, he was still hiding in the dense birch trees, 

"Nope! It was just a hollow body spell, not actual metal, it won't hurt him physically but he will be trapped, and the pain would be real too." Delano marched close to it and the most faded away.

"I see, guess I was really lucky back there…" Aaris calmly assessed the situation by sitting on the branch of the tree behind the trap.

"Ho… you are fast, you are one of the few people who have escaped from the bear claw." Delano waved his hand and dispelled the Bear Claw.

"Well then, start talking, where is Melvi?" Aaris hopped from the tree, 

"Melvi who? Oh, that girl? Hmm…. Where is she? Where is she I can't remember-"

Delano started bluffing and taunting Aaris, scratching his head and tapping his feet, he acted like he trying to remember, 

"Let me help you remember." Aaris disappeared from the sight of Delano, and he freaked out, he looked around and saw Aaris in the mid air, beside him with a clenched fist, 

"What the-" Delano couldn't even finish and Aaris punched him with a hard fist and pounded his face in the ground.

In seconds Delon was on the ground in a shallow pit made from the shockwave.

"Damn it! Boris! Help me out!" Delano yelled, 

"On it!

[ MAGIA RUBBER GUM ]

[ CHAMELEON WHIP ]"

A sticky rubber like long rope sprouted from the pit stuck itself with Delano and pulled him to the ground. 

"What was that disgusting thing?!" Aaris jumped back a few feet away from the pit.

"I must say you are strong Rise Kier, and here we thought we will let both of you off the hook at ease but looks like the fun has just started so why don't we invite someone else too to the party!" 

Boris started laughing hysterically and suddenly stopped, 

"Oye Delano, call her!" Boris yelled.

"Attack him! Melvi!" Delano screamed, he again hid himself in the trees.

"Melvi?! Why will she attack-" 

" [ MAGIA TALISMAN ENCHANTING ]

[ FIRE BURSTS ]  "

Suddenly, several Talismans scattered around Aaris, and chain explosions went off in the middle of the forest.

The explosion was so massive many trees broke and burned down, the closest tree turned into ashes, and snow sheets melted into steaming water vapors.

For a few minutes, the snowy land was turned into sizzling terrain, after waiting for a while both Boris and Delano got down.

"Did we get him this time?" Delano was still cautious and walked slowly toward the explosion site, 

"Of course, I saw him enveloping in the flames and even though he is fast, the explosion radius was very vast, he wouldn't be able to run away from it. By the way, was she in the exploded area too?" Boris marched nonchalantly to Aaris, laughing and giggling.

"Nope! she was sitting under the deep pitfall under the ground I made for her." Delano tapped the shoulder of Boris and pointed at his left.

"[ PREY SEIZE ]

Oye, girl, come out!" Delano chanted and ground mushed up and rose Melvi from the ground.

"Hmm? How was she able to scatter the Talismans from the hole?" Boris looked at Melvi and rubbed his chin, "She doesn't look very agile, so how?" 

"I was surprised too! She is very clever! You won't believe me but she was the one who suggested to me the idea to wrap pocket Talismans which contained the explosive talismans around my Trap arrows which I activated remotely! They were aimed toward the sky so that Raise brat never would've noticed them!" Delano grabbed Melvi's arm and picked her up.

"I see, I didn't actually thought, that your hunting magia can also hypnotize people." Boris stepped further and slowly the vapors were swayed by a strong cold wind and there Aaris stood, burned and wounded.

"We got him! Haha! We got him! but did you get his points?" Delano jumped into excitement.

"Nope! He is tough but good for us, fortunately, our plan is not ruined, call her!" Boris gazed at Melvi and clapped.

"So this was your plan?" Aaris wobbled and took a step, he was still in the shock of the explosions, and his uniform was shredded from places and there were several burns on his body, "Cold Promotion and monopolizing the king's points" 

"You really have thick skin, guess you are not as stupid as I thought." Boris laughed, 

"Why the hell everyone thinks I am stupid!" Aaris consciousness and sight was gradually coming back to him, 

"Delano, do it while he is still weak, he looks like he'll probably die soon!" Boris snapped his finger, and Delano pushed Melvi toward Aaris,

"Oye bitch! Use your Cold Promoti-" 

[ ROUGE FLOW ] Aaris uttered and, 

dense rippling mana surged over his arm in the form of markings, and he disappeared from their eyes along with Melvi.

"Where did he-" Boris panicked and jerked, both of them vanished like they were never there, and Boris and Delano decided to hide and started running.

But before they took their second step, Aaris appeared, 

"Bold of you, never calculated this shit in your plan, did ya?" Aaris was standing in front of them resting his right arm on Delano's and left on Boris's shoulder.

-- Boris - PoV --

Who the fuck is he? The mana radiating from his arm is not normal! I can feel it's oozing a dismal aura on my skin! I can't move! Something it's telling one wrong move and he'll flick my head off my body.

'What are you, Rise Kier?' 

"Me? Just a normal guy, named Rise Kier." He smiled at me, he is insane! How can he smile like this while being so burned and -

His wounds? Where are his burns? Every wound and burn I saw on his body is now enveloped by dark markings! They kind of look like ancient scripts but I have never seen them!.

"By the way guys, how many points do you have?" He walked through between us and wrapped his arms on our shoulder again.

"Bo...Boris has 143 points and I… I have 64 points." This damned Deano! 

'Woah! Care to share a little about your unusual team of two kings and how you earned his many points?' He tightened his grip on our shoulders.

"Me and Delano are both childhood friends from our Noble School, and we took part in Grand Selection together, after the game started me and Delano were in different teams as Pawns and transported to different regions on the island, but we were in contact with each other, while my team hunted down each team in my region, Delano team defeated 2 teams in their region, then just like we did to Melvi, we made each of our teammates to use Cold Promotion.'

" I see, so all of your teammates used their Cold Promotion and took the points of your king and that added up to their previous points, then after using your own Cold Promotion, you summed up your team's points to yourself and became the last member and Kings of your teams, great plan!" He started laughing like a maniac.

"Then how did you find us?" He stopped laughing suddenly.

"After getting enough points we went out of our region and entered yours, then Delano used his Predators eye spell to keep an eye on one of the teams in your region and we came to know about Crown Prince and you are the king of his team, we just waited to for a good opportunity to lure you to an isolated place and that happened when Melvi was behind the bush."

I can't stop trembling, his aura is getting more and more ominous and intense.

"I see! I must say I respect that you are a strong player and strategist, so I will forgive you for everything you did to me." 

Instantly Rise aura disappeared and he looked at us smiling.

Maybe he was a good guy after all-

***

"But! Disturbing a lady in her private time and hurting Melvi, I won't forgive you for that!" 

"Wha-" Delano and Boris gasped, 

And Aaris grabbed both of their skulls and crushed them into the grounds!

"Rise stop!!"