151 Punishmen

As he slowly walked up to john and stood in front of him, john didn't move a step or look intimidated. He towered over John with his height and seemed to be around 18 to 20 years of age judging by his face, but his frame wasn't at all big, or medium, rather small. 

He carried a staff on his back, so there was no denying that he was a magician. 

"Yeah... I have one, I can't stand that attitude of yours" Said the man as he placed his hand on john's head 

The man then tried pushing his arm forward but it wouldn't budge. John was standing at the edge next to the bridge, so getting pushed like that would have most likely killed any other normal person. However, john just wouldn't budge" 

"Hu-" 

The man was interrupted as john suddenly grabbed on to his hand and sweeped his leg to trip him up. Because of this the man staggered towards the edge and when he did, John moved behind him locking the young man's arm on his back. 

As the man leaned on the edge, he slowly began to grasp what had just happened 

"Eh? W-What? W-Wait, it was a joke... B-Boss! H-HELP! This kid is crazy!" 

"That's enough." Said the lady 

"Enough? This guy just tried to kill me; you think this is enough? Nah, I think we're missing something." 

John then let go of the man leaning on the edge and due to the lack of balance, he fell off 

"AAAAHHHH!!!" 

And then the scream stopped. 

"!" 

Both Azure and the Lady looked surprised, they really didn't expect john to kill him. His party leader quickly ran towards the edge, to see if he had gotten lucky or survived the fall, and when she did, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. 

"Listen. I'm willing to forgive that guy for now, but take better care of your party members." Said John as he began to cross over the bridge 

Curious Azure looked to see what the lady was witnessing; he was sure that John had killed the guy. 

As he walked towards the edge, he noticed that there was ice on the Area that John was standing, and as he looked down, before he even realised it, he let out a chuckle. 

The guy was frozen onto the wall of the edge, with ice. His whole body and mouth 

The lady breathed a sigh of relief, she then gave a cold look towards her party member who was struggling to cry for help. 

Once John reached the other side of the bridge, he had finally caught up to the three who were waiting. 

"Took you long enough, you dealt with it pretty nicely though." Said Serena as she raised her hand for a high five 

"Haha, thanks" John replied as he gave her a high five 

"Well done!" Said Ariel as she raised her hand expectantly 

"Thanks" John replied as he high fived her too 

"We have other's watching so make sure you properly FC" 

"Right" 

FC was the initials for Fake Chant, it was much easier and less blatant than simply saying Fake chant whether it be by whispers or not. 

"Do we hold back?" Ariel asked 

"Huh? No one will believe them no matter what we do, ah wait, after the beach thing they might... Hm... Master what do you think?" 

"Who cares, go at it." Said Master 

"Thanks master!" Said john as he was about to head towards the monster 

All of the sudden, his arm was grabbed, it was Master Sylvia. 

"Stay, Serena, Ariel, You're up." Said Master Sylvia. 

"Yes!" The two simultaneously replied 

[Wait, were they in on this? Did they really ask master to subdue me? Or was it master?] 

"What's the meaning of this? John asked as he stared at his master" 

"There is no meaning, just watch." 

"But isn't it dangerous for them to go alone?" 

"No matter what happens..." Said Serena 

"Don't intervene, John." Added Ariel 

John then realised that the two were well aware of the risks, yet even still they chose to do it alone, this made john feel slightly conflicted. 

[We're a party... Shouldn't we be working together?] 

That was when john realised that the way he was feeling was how Serena and Ariel felt whenever he'd charge in or do things alone, 

"So, this is what it was like... to not be relied on... Man I really was an idiot..." 

[You only realised this now?] Zestari intervened 

[Oh, shut up!] John retorted 

John decided to watch the battle from afar, he was paying very close attention. Even though he was told not to intervene, there was no way he was going to let anything bad happen to them. 

----------------------------- 

Once Ariel and Serena reached a certain reasonable distance away from the possessed Oni, it raised its head. It truly looked terrifying, but the two girls had seen scarier. 

The Oni went from slowly walking towards them to running 

"Serena, shall we use that?" 

"Sure" 

As the ogre was about to reach them, the two simultaneously jumped to the side in opposite directions and began to go around the golem, while they began a fake chant. 

Wind, a lot of wind began gather in the air above and in between them, after that, the wind turned into a fiery blaze red. 

As the Oni charged straight at Ariel, the blazing red wind began to take the form of a hammer, and when it finally reached her, it quickly swung it's sharp and heavy axe. 

John who saw this felt his heart sink, but contrary to his expectations, Ariel Avoided it by propelling herself in the air and a few meters away. 

[She's using focusing on forming a spell, while using another spell to avoid the Oni... I knew they improved but... This was unexpected.] John thought to himself 

As the giant red wind hammer's form was completed, it gave off an intimidating presence, it was big enough to squash the entire Oni. 

But the spell wasn't done there, particles of air began to gather under the giant hammer, and when a medium sized ball of air, around half the size of the Oni was formed, John realised what they were planning to do with it. 

Ariel propelled herself over to Serena and the rampaging Oni aimlessly swung it's battle axe around, it seemed to be getting faster and stronger the angrier that it got, but before it could get any stronger. 

Ariel propelled herself all the way to Serena and as they left the hammer's attack Radius which the Oni was right in the middle of, the Hammer Struck and the ball of air ignited 

"Intermediate Combined Fire and Wind Magic: Causa Satani ventus malleo!!" The two simultaneously shouted. Translation: EX-PLOSIVE WIND HAMMER!! 

*BOOOOM!*