Asta was sweating his heart out, but had a satisfied smile on his face. Even in these dire straights, he was more than happy. He couldn't even put it why, was just happy to stand next to Lucas. A chance to finally put his all on the test, to prove his worth in a way, it delighted him at a level he rarely experienced.
"I'm never not ready.", his willpower had never wavered once. The dome that processed each and every single detail, something impossible for any normal mage, was holding strong. They both hadn't used their aura yet, their cards were still plentiful, and their cores weren't empty yet. Thanks to the array, they were able to replenish quite a lot.
Sadly, they were up against a bunch of mages on a similar level. The only saving grace was the massive gap in skill level. These soldiers were trained and had plenty of experience, but if they were tigers, Lucas and Asta were dragons.
Right as Lucas found another way to remove some of the opponents, he suddenly stopped in his tracks as his mind almost connected to something spiritual.
But then they heard a loud scream.
"Hehe, looks like our time to shine is over. We still get the points from them, right?", Lucas relaxed his body as he grew comfortable. They had reached it, their job was basically finished.
"Sure, they only verify the quality of the core, not its origin or state.", Asta retracted most of his dome, to just cover them. Dusting his clothes a bit, he pulled out a small handkerchief to wipe off his sweat. Right when he did so, he noticed Lucas's state, and realized why Lucas wasn't healing his wounds.
"I see, you played it smart. I should've gotten hit as well."
Asta almost looked downtrodden for the smallest of reasons. Valric's mind couldn't, or rather, wouldn't comprehend what was happening in front of him. Lucas and Asta were bantering as if they weren't surrounded by enemy mages.
There was no point in buying some time since they all regenerated their energy at the same rate. Even the arrays on the ground were firmly destroyed, so there was nothing to look for there as well.
"What are you guys talking about?! Forget it! Men!"
"Didn't you get the memo? There's a Rank 3 in this village, and frankly, you guys are fucked.", just mentioning the fact that a Rank 3 might be close put everyone on edge. They all stopped in their tracks as cold sweat dripped down their back.
"Don't think we'll fall for that ruse! We know the Rank 3 that was rumored to be here is just a retired mage. He won't save you!", Valric wasn't impressed as he kept his motivation up.
"Hahaha!", Lucas couldn't help but laugh out loud as his devilish grin brought out the worst fear in their hearts. "Never rekindled a bonfire?"
His last word was just spoken before everyone fell to their knees, some even falling flat on the ground. Something was pressuring them all down and everyone felt the instinctual fear that came with it.
"There's- no- way!", Valric had to scream it out as he recognized the strength of the pressure mounting on him. This was clearly of a Rank 3 mage. Staring towards the source, they found a large tower of smoke on the other side of the hill. The sun had largely gone down, making the cloud vanish into the darkness above.
From the hill, a man slowly appeared, his body covered in flames. In his hands, a large bow made from fire was summoned, the power of which could be sensed from afar. Even Lucas felt impressed by its power. They were all incapable of movement, but at least they weren't forced on the ground.
Still, Lucas found his strength extremely lacking. He was able to stand in the aura of a Rank 2 as a Rank 1, but now, faced with a Rank 3, he had trouble not falling down. As the man slowly raised his bow up, a flaming arrow appeared in his hand.
Lucas felt a hint of fear in his heart. Just because he was a single Rank higher meant he had full dominion over everyone here. That fear quickly turned to anger, furious at how unfair this world was, but mostly at himself. A feeling of incompetency rose to the surface as he felt the pain in his body.
Pulling the arrow back, Valric knew that it was all over. He couldn't even stand up. Say he survived this single attack, would any of his comrades survive? Would he survive a second attack?
'What kind of hell did we step into?', staring at the released arrow, it quickly reached its peak before splitting up in multiple arrows, each with a devastating power. As the arrows rained down, each one hit the heart of his comrades with extreme precision. They all perished in an instant as the arrow tore a hole in their defenses and body before exploding from the inside.
Only Lucas and Asta were left as they stared at the hill. To them, who the man on the hill was, was obvious. Malek had regained his powers, and as expected, they were incredible, a little too incredible for Lucas, even.
As Malek made his way down, they got a closer look at his form. His hair and clothes had taken the form of fire, his body was still the same, though hard to notice through the fire.
'You better be careful about what you say now.'
'No shit dumbass.'
'The fact that he hasn't retracted his aura either means he's completely lost it or suspects us as well.'
'Then let's make things clear for him.'
'Please don't mess this up. Actually, let me take over.', but Malek had already spoken
"Where is Jacob?", his voice was calm, Lucas sensed an underlying rage locked away.
'Alright, look, he's emotional, so we have to soften the blow, and also-'
"Dead. They killed him.", Lucas said flat out. Despite being under pressure, he felt confident in himself.
Malek raised his bow as he created a new arrow. Pointing it at Lucas's face at blank range, the heat coming off the bow and arrow irritated Lucas. His eyes felt the need to close as small sparks made their way over to him.
"You caused this."
Pulling the arrow back, Lucas would be incinerated to ashes if he got hit, yet he flashed a confident smile. "We only delayed the inevitable. Jacob should've told you they were already aiming for this place. We at least tried."
Malek didn't respond as he kept his form. Pulling it slightly more back, he stared deep into the eyes of Lucas. "You still allowed this to happen."
'What the hell are you doing! This..oh we're so screwed!'
"Oh shut the fuck up.", Lucas said out loud, forgetting to respond internally. Both part of Lucas as Asta kept their mouth shut as they awaited Malek's response, but Lucas wouldn't give him the chance.
"If we weren't here your village would've been already destroyed long ago, and the fuck do you mean, we allowed it? Didn't you see what kind of state we were in? We're two men going up against hundreds, fuck off. If you wanna be pissed off, direct your complaints to the fucking enemy commander, asshole!"
Asta felt like he was going insane. He knew Lucas quite well, but this wasn't something he expected in the slightest. He knew Lucas had some strange mood swings, but they were mostly contained. Throwing caution to the wind, Lucas put their lives on the line.
Malek stood in silence as he dispelled his bow and arrow. His clothing returned to normal as his hair returned to its previous state. The pressure vanished, but Lucas nor Asta dared to stand up immediately.
"You're right. I shouldn't direct my anger towards you two, all you've done is help us."
Hearing that Asta felt relieved but also worried. He wanted the other Lucas back, and he quickly got what he wanted as Lucas's posture changed the moment he stood up.
"I'm sorry for my outburst, but like I said. Our enemy is the commander's army, our goals couldn't be more aligned. If you're willing, we can work together to get rid of them.", Lucas suddenly spoke with a lot more diplomatic tone. He also didn't even bother mentioning what happened or why, completely ignoring extremely important matters to make Malek focus on what's next.
"Of course I'm willing, all of those people should pay the price for what they've done. But..", Malek said, but deep down, he knew that if he hunted the people who did this down, eventually, he would lose his powers again. He had experienced it first hand, he knew all too well that walking the path of revenge was a dead end. He even felt his anger struggling to find a place to settle.
"Indeed, not only the commander, but the entire army under the prince's command will turn into our enemy. Our fight will probably never end. Can you come to accept such a result?"
Lucas asked fully knowing he was simply laying out the sweetest bait one could give to a retired mage. If the fights were never ending, Malek's desire for survival and anger towards his opponents would allow him to keep his powers. But even if Lucas made it clear, Malek still had to accept it in his heart.
Asta listened in closely and could put the pieces together rather quickly. "I'm afraid to say that we have already gained the ire of their commander. And if we ever get far enough to have dealt with the Prince, The Holy Kingdom will be breathing down our neck as well. It looks like we'll get real busy soon."
Going against The Holy Kingdom was asking to get killed, but if one played it safe, the fight could go on forever. Revenge might've been a road with a dead end, but if one made it long enough, one would never reach the end.
Malek realized this more than both Lucas and Asta since he's seen what the cycle of revenge truly turned out to be. If he played his cards well, he would be able to hold onto what he had achieved.
Even if it was at the cost of all he held dear. The moment he thought of what happened, his anger flared again, his powers grew under that intense emotion. "You're right. All of them will get what they deserve one way or another."
Lucas stared into his eyes and could almost connect to the man. The seething rage that pulsated behind those pupils, he envisioned his fury, almost tasting it. It felt extremely weird, as if Lucas was experiencing what Malek had gone through. Shaking his head slightly, Lucas focussed on the future.
"Since this place has been destroyed, we have failed in our mission and will return to the headquarters. But assuming you're still on board with fighting back, we'll have plenty of places to attack."
"We'll let the fuckers burn.", Malek's eyes held a tint of red as he stared into the night sky, his eyes piercing the heavens.
"Indeed, Malek.", Lucas couldn't help but smile as he envisioned his plans. Looking over all the bodies, Asta let Lucas go to work since he wouldn't be dirtying his own hands. He had his hands full with cleaning himself up, the sweat on his back had to go, and since Asta didn't use elemental powers, he relied on a more "magicless" solution, towels.
After digging out all the crystals, Lucas and Asta made plans to return to their headquarters, inviting Malek with them.
"If you stay here, they'll just send another party that will be powerful enough to kill a Rank 3.", Lucas explained, but Malek wasn't impressed. To him, all that mattered was the next group he had to slaughter.
"Let them come, I'll incinerate their insides."
Asta shook his head in disappointment. "I understand that you're angry, but I hope you realize that they will simply ignore you if you prove too difficult to best. They'll most likely send out another war party with strong capabilities. Should they fail, they'll either send a Rank 4 or avoid this place like the plague."
Asta was pretty much spot on, Lucas even thought that the enemy army might lure in soldiers from their opponents to this place since Malek didn't look like he would be able to differentiate between soldiers of different allegiance.
Lucas grinned as he plucked another core from one of the dead bodies. Some had been damaged beyond repair because of Malek's attack, but that didn't stop him from collecting them.
"You should know that we are planning to topple the entire enemy army. We were still working on it, and were planning on asking our dear commander for the aid of a Rank 3, but looks like you should be able to fill that spot."
Lucas was talking out of his ass, and Asta didn't mind it in the slightest. They didn't have any plan to topple the enemy army, they had a plan to take a Rank 3 with their own powers, but now that plan was quickly replaced by a single man.
Even so, Asta was more than confident in his own tactical mind, improvising a plan was no trouble for him. Combining that with Lucas's prowess, they were capable of creating a plan from scratch that would overshadow a bunch of tacticians.
Both Asta and Lucas looked at the man in question with the eyes of a vulture, but the man was too blinded by hatred to even notice.