Chapter 16: Vera's Magic

'Great, she can use magic!' Kyran groaned inwardly and immediately hid all items in his hands into his pouch.

Kyran belatedly wondered how Nolan knew this woman was the array's co-creator. To him, there was no clue at all. From his encounter with the three men earlier, he knew that they could not use their magic as well. But that was not the case with this woman. It was probably the same with the man Nolan killed.

[Hey, don't slack off just because she's a woman.]

"I know," Kyran retorted.

"Humph. Mock all you want, you'll regret it later!" The woman said and ran at him.

Kyran was prepared for the woman's attack. But then, the woman vanished from his sight.

'What!'

[Careful kid, she has space magic!]

"Space magic?"

The woman then appeared to his side, her left hand holding the knife aimed at his throat.

Kyran's eyes narrowed and immediately blocked the attack by hitting her wrist with his forearm.

The woman's expression changed, but she did not stop her attack. Using her right leg, she aimed to kick Kyran.

Kyran who seemed to anticipate the move countered her kick by striking his right palm to the woman's thigh.

The woman showed a surprised look as her attack was stopped twice and she almost lost her balance.

While the woman was confused, Kyran immediately, grabbed the woman's forearm holding the knife, with the same hand that slapped her thigh. He twisted his body while firmly holding the woman's arm with both hands, shifting her weight on his back to throw her down.

"Tsk!"

A yellow magic array immediately covered the woman's body. She vanished before she hit the ground.

'What an annoying magic!' Kyran thought and immediately focused his attention on any sudden movement in the surrounding.

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Vera appeared on a branch of a tree, a few meters away from behind Kyran. She observed him while controlling her breathing to make sure he would not find her.

Earlier, when she went to the coordinates Dior went to, Vera found remnants of a battle. However, she only found the aftermath of fire magic and nothing else.

If Dior fought a forest beast, then there should have been traces left by the beast. But there were none. This meant that he fought something or someone who was able to compete with him without the use of any magic and was able to escape.

Vera ordered two of her men who went with her to search for Dior, while she searched for traces that the 'unknown enemy' might have left.

After almost half an hour of searching, she suddenly sensed an aura nearby and went after it.

Then she found their target.

The truth, she was a little skeptical if she was the one they were looking for after seeing him. Because the young man in front of her was different from the photos she had seen from the report. This was not a boy, but a man. He was young, but his build was no longer that of a boy. She noticed it the first time she attacked, and more so when he tried to throw her down.

How he countered her attacks also surprised her.

She was aware that he was a combat specialist, but he was just a student recently. It was not possible for him to fight on par with her who had experienced more life or death battles. But the brief exchange she had with him was solid proof of his strength. Something that Vera could not deny.

Then she remembered the three men that went MIA. She had yet to confirm what happened to them, but she realized that the last location they were at was not far from here.

It was not hard to connect that they met Kyran and ended up losing. Then after he took care of them, he and Dior might have encountered each other. Which ended with Dior with an unknown status.

Vera did not believe that the person who fought with Dior was Kyran. But so far, all unproved pieces of evidence she found all pointed to Kyran.

'Doesn't matter. I'll make him talk after I deal with him,' she thought.

Then Vera frowned, remembering how Kyran realized what her magic was just after showing it twice.

'Normally, people would think it is only a teleportation spell. Is this guy really a beginner?'

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[Interesting. You have some moves kid.]

"That woman really uses space magic?" Kyran ignored Nolan's taunt and asked.

[Yeah. I've encountered it before, the magic signature is the same.]

"Magic signature?"

[Tell you later. Just focus on her.]

"You're really not going to help?" Kyran asked in exasperation.

[Why? When I can enjoy such a good show? Besides, though her magic may seem troublesome, she can't use it continuously. She just used long-distance space magic not to mention, applied it to her whole body. At most she needed time to recover before she can use it again.]

"Then I need to force her out before she recovers," Kyran said and started to run.

Vera was shocked the moment Kyran started running.

'You're not getting away!' She thought and run after him.

She was a little annoyed that she was forced to use long-distance space magic to avoid being thrown down. She also did that to reassess her situation, thus she did not regret it. Besides, if she was unable to avoid Kyran's counter, the few seconds where she would be disoriented was enough for him to give a finishing blow. Once she lost her consciousness, then the four-colored ruin array would be destroyed.

Still, her magic had yet to fully recover. At most she could only use short-distance space magic. She was not completely hopeless though, but without a trump card at her disposal, fighting Kyran up close would be harder.

Vera took out two knives. Yellow magic arrays appeared and circled around the knives as she threw them at Kyran.

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[Incoming.]

Nolan's warning made Kyran looked around. He found two knives flying toward him from both sides. He looked at the ground in front of him and picked up a long broken tree branch, preparing to meet the two knives.

Before he could react, however, the knives disappeared.

'What?'

[Don't look for it using your eyes!]

Even before Nolan's reminder came to his mind, Kyran already strained his ears for any type of sound.

He stopped and broke the branch into two, holding one in each hand. Then he braced himself and did a 360-degree turn while skillfully cleaving the branch in his hand, around him.

[Phew.]

Nolan whistled as he witnessed how Kyran skillfully deflected the knives that appeared from his blind spot.

'His combat technique is quite good. If he did not apply a strengthening technique to those tree branches, the impact from the knives would've broken it.' He thought.

The knives lost their momentum and pierced the ground after missing Kyran.

'How!' Vera was surprised. She applied space magic to the knives and activated them while Kyran was in the position of 'countering' it. She planned to attack his blind spot. But she did not expect that he would easily adapt to the change and successfully deflect her knives.

As soon as the knives hit the ground, Kyran also stopped turning. He lifted his head and immediately found the woman's location a few meters away.

'Not good!' Vera thought and jumped back to another tree branch.

Kyran immediately ran after the woman. He lifted his right hand and threw the branch he was holding. He twisted his wrist and inserted more force into the throw. The branch flew, but because of the additional strength of the throw, it went past the woman and curved further to the left.

Vera sneered when she saw the branch missed her.

'As expected. He is still inexperienced. He may be good in melee, but he is weak in terms of range attack.'

[Just where the f*ck were you throwing?]

Kyran ignored Nolan and jumped to the tree's branch where the woman just left. He gripped the other branch on his left and shifting his weight on both his legs, he bent his knees and jumped toward the woman. The tree branch he was standing on, broke from the force of his jump.

Vera turned her head and saw Kyran jumped at her, his left hand holding a broken branch was positioned high above his head.

Immediately, she faced Kyran and sneered, "What can you do with that kind of 'weapon'?"

Kyran ignored the woman's mock and cleaved the branch at her.

Vera stepped on another tree branch. Seeing Kyran's attack, she bent her knees and jumped back to avoid it.

But then.

A smile formed on Kyran's lips.

Vera saw this, but before she could react, something heavy came from a blind spot to her right side and hit her head.

"Ah!" She winced as she lost her balance in midair. Kyran's attack also followed, hitting the top of her head with the broken branch in his left hand.

"Ugh!" Vera grimaced and plummeted to the ground.

Kyran followed. Not giving the woman a chance to recover, he immediately grabbed her arm and pinned her down on the ground. He rested his right knee just above the woman's spinal column and exerted a little force on it.

"Argh!" Vera cried out.

"Release the array and I'll let you live," Kyran said and pressed the tree branch he still had at the nape of the woman. He knew it would be faster if he just knocked her out. But somehow he was reluctant to do so.

Vera tried to glare at him. But the smallest movement made her grimace. She could also feel the blood trickling down from the spot where she was hit earlier.

Now she understood that Kyran's throw did not miss. He missed on purpose and attacked in such a way that forces her to be in that spot where the branch that supposedly missed would eventually 'appear'.

"Just kill me!" Vera shouted. The action, however, almost made her pass out.

"Look, lady. I'm not looking down on you by saying this, but I really don't want to kill you."

[Don't give her a chance to buy time and recover her magic.]

Nolan suddenly spoke. He had been observing from his hiding place from the time Kyran launched his counterattack. In case there was a need for him to step in. To be honest, he was speechless at what followed after. He was amazed at how fast Kyran could come up with a strategy.

However, the moment Kyran tried to negotiate with the woman, Nolan snapped awake to remind him.

Kyran sighed and looked at the woman.

"I'm sorry," he said, reaching for the back of the woman's head and chin.

Before Vera could react, Kyran already snapped her neck. She passed out.

Kyran stood up and heard cracking sounds above.

Looking up, he saw cracks appearing within the four-colored ruin array. He heaved a sigh.

Finally, they could leave this place.

The black mist appeared behind him. It dispersed slowly and revealed Nolan, who was also looking at the array.

"You're too soft, kid. Don't tell me you did not kill her just because she was a woman?"

Kyran turned and looked at Nolan. "It's not that."

"What then? You fell for her or something?"

Kyran gave him a blank expression and turned his back to him.

"No. Although she aimed for my neck as if to kill, I didn't feel any hostility from her."

Nolan's eyes narrowed, "No hostility? Well, they still need you alive. She probably just aimed to lethally wound you."

Kyran shook his head. "That's not it. I just feel like she was fighting to survive, not to kill. Sorry I can't really explain it."

Nolan did not reply. He just glanced at the woman who was lying unconscious on the ground. He sort of understood what Kyran meant, but at the same time, he was more concerned with his attitude about killing.

"Remember your position, kid. It's either you or them."

Kyran stopped and looked up at the crumbling array.

"I know."