(It's April Fool guys, if you have any lies to tell, do share, I might use them lmao)
'Fuck, fuck, I won't be able to make it,' Langris thought as he rushed towards Aetheris whose lance was moving to kill Akeru.
Langris was a few meters away from both of them. 'What happened? I wasn't really expecting him to make such a mistake.'
At this moment, Aetheris saw a fearful expression on Akeru's face, which suddenly turned into a smirk.
It confused him, and his confusion increased as Akeru's hand, the one not holding the dagger, grabbed Aetheris' leg.
BANG
Aetheris felt his world slow down as he noticed a very small bullet being released from the tip of the dagger.
At this moment, his entire body stopped completely, like a deer caught in the headlights.
He quickly deactivated his mana zone.
Just as the bullet was a few millimeters away from his forehead, he coated his forehead with mana.
Aetheris' breathing roughened momentarily due to the near-death experience.
He looked down and said, "Even if you hadn't held my leg, I wouldn't have been able to dodge. You just wasted your chance to es—" His eyes widened as he felt multiple spheres made of spatial disturbance being smashed at his body.
Luckily, he had activated the instability spell, such that all spatial disturbances closed upon coming closer to him, thus not harming him.
"Hehe, you lost a lot of your mana, haven't you? I wonder how long you will be able to fight," Akeru said after removing contact with Aetheris.
"Tch, you really are annoying," Aetheris sighed as he started retreating in the direction from where he came.
It was pretty easy for him to lose the grip of a child who can't even use mana properly at the moment.
Langris was going to chase him, but Akeru stopped him.
"We are also low on mana, along with the fact that we don't know how many other cards he has hidden. So unless you have a trump card still hidden, I don't think we should chase after him, Langris-san."
"Tch, we really got defeated, huh," Langris' fists clenched tight as he looked at the back of Aetheris, who was going away from their sight.
"It's fine, we are alive. That's the most important thing in this situation," Rill said while appearing next to them.
"Yeah, though I am surprised that you both learned mana zone," Akeru said while not hiding his shock.
"I have seen yours before and trained in the last two months to replicate it. It's not complete yet," Langris shrugged.
He was trying to appear nonchalant, but Akeru, who could sense the Ki of other people, could sense his giddiness.
"I just got inspired to create it after seeing such an artistic scene."
Akeru and Langris just gave him incredulous stares at his statement.
They tuned out after Rill started boasting about his newest painting, with a lot of technical jargon in it.
'Maybe I should look into specific techniques used in art,' Akeru made a mental note.
After standing guard for more than half an hour while repeatedly checking if Aetheris was hiding in the area around Kiten, they finally went back to their positions.
Akeru finally got back to his bed, looking annoyed.
"Should I sleep again or not? All my sleepiness has been vaporized due to the battle."
Just as he was deciding, he heard multiple knocks on his door.
"Come in," Akeru said as a small hand of water materialized near the lock of the door and unlocked it.
Such was the benefit of having a mana zone.
"Boss, we have got an urgent mission!" A redhead entered his room while giving him a document.
Akeru speed-read through it with a frown.
"Mars has infiltrated the kingdom from another part of the border? And we need to capture him along with his accomplices," Akeru groaned as he looked at the mission in his hand.
"Is Ren coming with us?" Akeru asked while hoping for a yes.
He really liked that reliable man to be on his team.
"Nope, the previous rune expert had been freed of his position, so Ren is the only lead, and our camp couldn't be left without a rune expert."
"What about Kaiser?"
"He returned to Green Praying Mantises yesterday."
"Can I go back too?" Akeru asked with a hopeful expression.
"You should ask Commander about that," Erza gave him an apologetic smile.
"Tch, I will talk with Rill. Are you prepared?"
"Yeah."
"Fine, you start moving in that direction. I will catch up with you after having a talk with Rill," Akeru said while pointing in a direction.
'She would still be in Clover Kingdom, and the chances of getting ambushed by Aetheris should be low. Still, I would talk to Rill quickly.'
"Okay." Erza looked in that direction before looking back at Akeru, who was missing from his position.
Erza quickly started moving in that direction.
'This should be the one where Mars was found. I hope we will still have the trails to locate him,' Erza thought as she moved at her maximum speed.
In a few minutes of her journey, she suddenly felt a large amount of mana appearing on her sensory field from behind.
"What did he say?" Erza asked Akeru, who didn't stop, but rather a big water palm grabbed Erza.
"He said he will let me leave after this mission. I don't even need to get back to the camp now. Just hand Mars to the headquarters, and I am free to go," Akeru said with a smug expression.
"I guess I will also request to go back. The last few months had been fun, but things have been quiet recently," Erza said with a sigh.
"Are you disappointed that you didn't get a proper fight in the time so far?"
"Well yes, the only one which was fun was the spar with you. Apart from that, I guess I remember the fight with that Ice-guy in Cryobastion, though our battle was never completed," Erza said while glaring at Akeru.
"It's not like it was my fault, no?" Akeru said while whistling.
"If you had delayed some time to kill those devils, I would have had a proper battle."
"Jeez, if you want, I could spar with you later," Akeru tried to give her compensation.
"I will fight you again after I am a bit stronger. It would be boring otherwise," Erza whined.
"What do you want me to do then?"
"Find me a person against whom I would have fun fighting."
Akeru hummed as he thought about her request.
"I have a few people in mind in my squad, but it would take them a few months to reach your level."
"Wait, really?" Erza asked, shocked.
She didn't really expect multiple people of around her level to be in Black Bulls.
Not many people could claim to be stronger than her in Blue Rose.
Akeru rolled his eyes at her shock. "Black Bulls have an infamous reputation due to not only taking very few missions but also causing horrible collateral damage in such missions. We are by no means weak; we also have the fewest people out of all the squads."
"Ahem, my bad."
"Captain Yami prefers quality over quantity. Anyway, you are from Blue Rose, aren't you?" Akeru shifted the topic.
"Yeah."
"I never really asked before, but is the rumor of it being comprised of all girls true?"
"We do have some boys, but they are very few in number, so it's almost all girls only," Erza said. Suddenly, her lips morphed into a grin.
"Did you want to join Blue Rose? It's too bad that you are already in Black Bulls; I don't think they allow squad changes," Erza teased.
Akeru just rolled his eyes, not replying to her comment.
'Yeah, no, I am good. I would be eaten alive if I go there,' Akeru thought about the changes he had observed in his body due to hormones.
'Though, it wouldn't be that bad.'
"Anyway, how about I inform you when they are at such a level? Actually," Akeru's face morphed into a grin.
"How about we hold practice spars between our squads? I would talk to both of the captains at a later date, but you could have a spar during that time," Akeru proposed an idea.
"Yeah, that sounds fun."
"I know, right?" Akeru laughed. 'Didn't the captain of Blue Rose have a crush on Captain Yami or something? I am going to have a lot of fun with that.' Akeru barely stopped himself from cackling.
They traveled for a few hours and reached the location where Mars was spotted.
'Was Aetheris acting as a decoy? But why? Wouldn't it be better to send a Captain-level individual if they want to cause trouble like I did? Or are they afraid of losing another such individual? So, did they send Mars instead? Is there a hidden motive of getting rid of him?'
Akeru was thinking of various reasons for the current situation.
He, along with Erza, started following the trail.
There were multiple trails, leading to their getting delayed.
'I really hate clone-type magic,' Akeru cursed as he looked at the sunrise.
It was not until the afternoon that they found the location of where Mars and his group were.
"Is that a Dungeon? No wonder Mars was sent here," Erza said while looking at the entrance of the dungeon.
***
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