"Should we retreat for now?"
"He killed Vetto!" Fana screamed at Rhya.
"I know that. I am also angry. But we are not in a position to continue." He pointed at his arm, now reattached.
Fana hesitated. "Okay, how about gathering more information? If we are lucky, we might reduce our future enemies. But... if anyone gets critically injured, then we leave immediately."
Rhya appeared beside the scary-looking guy.
A crack swallowed the spatial mage and sealed shut.
Seeing this, Akeru jabbed at Langris. "Isn't this your mana zone? Why does he control it better than you?"
Langris shot him a glare. "Firstly, I wasn't focusing on that area, so his sudden action caught me off guard. Moreover, the mana around him is hard to control, so I can't do anything about that."
"Excuses." Akeru put his pinky in his ear, "Didn't expect the Vice-captain of the top squad to give such excuses."
Langris's smile strained, a vein popping on his forehead. His fingers twitched, and the next second, it got covered by purplish mana.
He swiped his hand—unleashing a spatial claw.
Patolli, who had tried to sneak attack, found himself barely dodging, a layer of his arm gone.
"Not bad. For a second, I thought you would attack me." Akeru gave an approving nod.
"Wanna test that? I'm feeling tempted. See, my fingers are twitching" Langris showed Akeru his hand.
"You should get it checked by a doctor." Akeru briefly looked at Mimosa, "Would suck if that cost you a battle."
"Enough. Akeru, heal Yami and yourself, and guard the others. I, along with these two, will engage with them." A layer of fire covered Fuegoleon.
"Fine."
Around this time, Yami had come near Akeru along with Asta.
"That guy escaped!" Asta said, gripping his sword tightly.
"It is what it is." Akeru shrugged, a wave of mana released from him.
His mana zone surged to life.
'Healer's Sanctuary'
Both Asta and Yami started healing.
"Nice trick," Yami said, puffing on his cigarette.
'Wait! Was he having a cigarette throughout the battle?'
"So..." Mimosa looked at Akeru.
"Yeah?" Akeru looked like he was noticing her just now, which caused the vermillion-haired girl to roll her eyes.
"Never mind." She sighed, deciding it wasn't worth it.
"You got beat up, kid. For a second, I thought you were going to die." Yami said while looking at Akeru.
"Yeah. I—" Akeru stopped, turned his head and neutralised an attack bypassing his zone. "I was lucky that Langris came on time. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. It feels a bit surreal that I am alive."
"Don't look like a ghost to me," Yami said dryly.
Klaus started conversing with Asta, which soon led to Asta dragging Yuno into the conversation.
Akeru hummed as he looked at the battle taking place.
Langris fought Patolli. Charlotte faced Rhya. Fuegoleon tangled with Fana.
All three of them were getting pushed back by the elves.
"Captain, help them out."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. Use your ace spell. Maybe this time you would take off a head." Akeru rubbed his hands, meeting Yami's eyes.
"Maybe I will."
"I don't think killing is what Magic Knights should be doing..." Klaus uncertainly said.
"Generally, yeah. But these guys have already done serious crimes. Not serious enough for execution, but their strength, along with our inability to capture them, makes this decision a reasonable one." Akeru spoke flatly, like quoting a handbook.
"Well, that does make sense, but it kind of..." Mimosa also had a conflicted look on her face.
"I'm not promoting killing or anything." Akeru raised his hand in surrender. "I have preferred not to kill people most of the time, as it's quite easy to restrict enemies... at least if they are not Grand Magic Knights. Even then, prefer to avoid this, but these guys have crossed the line first. They not only tried to assassinate me but also were performing some questionable experiments."
"Wait, they were the ones who assassinated you? At that dungeon?"
"Yeah. That stupid-looking guy." Akeru pointed his finger at Patolli.
"I see."
"Wait, you can see them fighting?" Akeru asked with a shocked expression.
Mimosa just deadpanned at him. "Peripheral Vision. I have seen standing at one place before, so, guessing who you are referring to ain't like understanding an array"
"As expected of my sensei."
"The wha—"
Click.
All eyes turned as Yami sheathed his sword.
Their gaze went towards the trio—all static now.
Each had a deep slash across the gut—and a grimace to match.
"We are leaving." Patolli declared, sending multiple light slashes to buy time.
Rhya opened the portal, Fana going first, followed by Patolli.
'It's about time I use the array Ren especially prepared.' Akeru's face morphed into a wild grin.
---
"Didn't we just have a meeting yesterday? Or was that today?" Rill groaned.
He preferred to slac—delegate tasks, but recently, he has been unable to do that.
"I second that." Akeru wholeheartedly agreed with him.
"Do we really need to come to the meeting? Captains should be enough, no?" Langris pointed his finger at himself and Akeru.
"I second that." Akeru nodded his head frantically, ignoring the betrayed look Rill shot him.
He is ready to do anything to escape such troublesome meetings.
"Where is the foreigner?" Nozel asked.
"He said that he doesn't wa— is hurt from the fight. I came as a proxy, technically." Akeru had an amused smile on his face.
.
"What about Vangance? Did he also get hurt somehow?" Nozel looked at Langris, the latter shrugging.
"Dunno, can't contact him. He informed me beforehand that if such a situation occurs, then I would come as his proxy."
"Smart way to dodge meetings," Rill muttered, eyes gleaming.
He could send his Vice-captain next time to the meeting.
"I don't think that would be valid." As if Akeru could hear his thoughts, he said to Rill.
Before Rill could retort, the door opened.
Everyone stood up and saluted as the Wizard King entered.
"I heard the gist. It seems another major enemy has made itself finally known." Julius frowned.
"Who is this time? And why is this brat always at the centre of the incidents?"
"Hey! Not my fault, everyone's obsessed with me. Anyway, these guys were the same ones who tried to assassinate a while back."
"The one you theorised as a light magic user?"
"Yeah. It's not a theory anymore." Akeru nodded.
"Troublesome." Rill sighed.
"I think you stopped getting missions, no? How did you get involved in this mess?" Rill narrowed his eyes.
Everyone's eyes turned to Akeru.
"Uhh." Akeru briefly glanced at Fuegoleon, who tilted his head.
"I was just 'hanging' out with my squad mates." Akeru started, a cold sweat on his back.
"Okay?" 'Why is he nervous?' Rill looked back between a confused Fuegoleon and a nervous Akeru.
"I went alone to meet someone—just happened to be in the area.
Around that time, I felt a battle happening and went there. A guy, actually two people, were trying to use kids in an experiment which has a side-effect leading to them becoming mana-less. Anyway—"
"Wait—what?" Rill cut him off.
"That's new," Charlotte muttered.
Akeru continued, "Some lunatics. Then their bosses showed up. Like a chain villain, their leader also came. Quite a troublesome guy, too fast to track.
I, err, me and Yami-san bulli— defeated him, but he summoned his three underlings, who were actually stronger than him. Like, does that even make sense? A—"
"Whoa, you're skipping major details! We are here anyway, may as well hear it." Rill's eyes turned towards the Wizard King, ignoring
Akeru's protest of "it is not important currently."
"Well, that's not the main reason, but it tells us about our enemy. Moreover, discussing this here won't cause any harm."
Rill had a smug expression as he looked at Akeru.
"Tch."
"Did you click your tongue?" Rill raised his eyebrow.
"No. The thing is that I don't know many details myself. I only know that my two squad mates and Sister Theresa dealt with those guys before I came."
"Sensei?"
"Yeah." Akeru nodded toward Fuegoleon.
"One of the previous Vice-captains of Crimson Lions?" Julius mused.
"Anyway, the kids got out safely thanks to Finral. We—Me, Yami-san, Langris, Fuegoleon-san and Charlotte-san, managed to push them back after a rough fight."
Nozel narrowed his eyes. "Define rough."
Akeru scratched the back of his neck. "Four enemies, higher mana output than expected. One of them nearly erased me. But it's fine now."
"In the end, who sliced up who?" Jack licked his lips.
Akeru looked around the room. "...I killed Vetto and Rhya."
***