Taking Part in a Survival Game with My Brother

261  Was he hiding it?

The man stepped out of the portal while dragging a teenage girl with him.

"...."

The first thing he saw once he left the portal was a tall, white-haired man standing at the center of the dome.

"Master-"

He closed his mouth without saying the words that were in his mind.

The boss of Philomns, the one that people called Master. He thought the man was him at the first glance as he also had white hair and facial features just like him, but they weren't the same people. He saw his face, which was not even similar to the boss of Philomns. He could also tell it from the immense pressure he was feeling from this man.

"Oh?"

The white-haired man raised an eyebrow as he noticed two new people standing where no one was supposed to enter. He examined the man who was wearing a cloak and the little girl that was hiding behind his back with an interested gaze.

The man's gaze soon wandered around the area, searching for the person he was here for.

"You... wha- gasp... here... Huff..."

He didn't need to search much, as the person himself talked to him first. The man turned his head to look at the person who was curled up in the ground, hiding behind a thick wall of golden-silver cracks.

"...Ren?"

The man took one step towards Kairen. He clenched the spear in his hand as he looked at the state that Kairen was in.

"Huff... Huff..."

He was grabbing his injured shoulder. Blood was oozing out through his trembling fingers. His face was pale and blood was coming out of his mouth and nose like a river. Smaller injuries were seen all over his body and the place where he was sitting was wet with blood. His clothes were torn, his protective mask nowhere to be seen.

"What... Don't... Argh huff."

Kairen tried to warn the soil dude not to get close to the white-haired man, but he couldn't talk properly. His sight was blurry and his head was spinning. He barely gulped down the hot liquid rising in his throat and opened his mouth again to tell the man to run away, but he didn't manage to utter any words.

Just now, the man used an attack that was capable of erasing half of the capital, if not all of it, from the entire map if it was used in Celinden. Just before the red thunderbolt could hit Kairen, he activated his power, using his cracks as a shield.

It was not that effective. He got struck by that thunderbolt in the end, but the destructive power of the attack was greatly reduced thanks to his cracks. That was why he was still alive. Well, barely alive.

He could see the white-haired man raise his hand again. He didn't seem to care about the soil dude or Claire who had suddenly barged into his dome and only focused on Kairen.

As he raised his hand again, another red thunderbolt appeared in the sky. He was only looking at Kairen as if he was determined to take care of him before anything else.

Kairen thought that it was a good thing that he didn't seem to have any intentions of attacking the soil dude. Also, these two people had to get out of here as soon as possible.

"R..un..."

He mustered all his strength to mutter those words.

"Run away... Ron..."

His sight was hazy. That was probably why he didn't notice how the soil dude flinched after hearing his words.

"Aaron..."

He quietly mumbled his brother's name under his lips. The familiar name that he used to call countless times a day. He felt as if it had been ages since he had last called that name.

"..."

The man didn't say anything nor he did move.

RUMBLE

The sky was rumbling. He looked up at the sky before letting go of the spear in his hand.

Clang

The spear fell to the ground.

ONNNGGG

And then, the ground started to shake.

ONNNGGGGG

ONGGGGGGGGGG

The ground was shaking so intensely that even the white-haired man had difficulty standing still and stumbled back and fro.

"Oh?"

He gasped.

"You are a controller?"

Mr. Hey didn't even listen to the man and just strolled toward Kairen. Claire looked at the white-haired man who just called her Mr. Hey a 'Controller' before following him while dangling from the man's arm.

"And your element is Earth? That's rare."

"..."

Again, no reaction from Mr. Hey.

'Earth?'

Claire tilted her head.

'Wasn't it soil?'

22:30

She looked up at her Mr. Hey in silence.

"Ren."

The man touched the cracks surrounding Kairen. Surprisingly, all of the cracks in his way moved away from his path, making way for him to reach Kairen.

The man crouched down on the ground and hesitantly reached out his hand.

RUMBLEEEEE

RUMBLEEEE

The shakings of the ground were getting more and more intense.

Crack

Crack

The cracked Earth was cracking even more.

"Ren!"

He grabbed Kairen's arms and shook his body slightly.

"Ugh!"

Kairen threw up a mouthful of blood before looking up at the man.

"Claire, hurry up!"

The man then yelled at the girl.

"Where should I-"

RUMBLEEEE

She was about to ask where their destination was when the sky rumbled so loud that she was forced to close her mouth and block her ears.

"Nope! I'm not letting you run away!"

They could see the man that was barely standing on the shaking ground move his hand. Small thunderbolts were dancing around his fingertips.

"Claire!"

The man hugged Kairen as he yelled.

"Create a portal and jump into it now!"

"What about you-"

"Leave! You'll die in an instant!"

"Ah!"

She flinched.

"Hahaha! Good that you guys at least have common sense!"

The white-haired man said. He folded his fingers one by one. As he did, the number of thunderbolts around the remaining fingers increased.

ONGGG

As she was told, Claire created a portal and jumped into it. Her Mr. Hey was right. There was a chance that this mage and her Mr. Hey could survive one or two of this man's attacks, but she couldn't. She had to leave if she didn't want to be on their way.

"The portal will close in one minute! Please hurry!"

She screamed that before completely vanishing into the portal.

ZZZZ

ZZAAP

ZZZZ

Now, three of the man's fingers were folded and he was pointing the remaining two and the remaining two men like a gun. Red thunderbolts were roaring around his fingers.

"Ron...."

Kairen mumbled as he clenched the man's clothes. He wanted to tell him to run away, but he couldn't utter any words. They had to jump into the portal. No, if they did, the man's attack would probably follow them into the portal as well. That was why they had to block it.

"...Go..."

He could block it himself. He blocked the first, so he could block the second one as well. This stupid man who came here had to leave before getting hurt.

"Shut up."

Kairen shut his mouth after hearing those words. The man stood up, raising Kairen's limp body with himself.

RUMBLEEEEE

At the same time, a red thunderbolt was shot at them. The thunderbolt that looked like a huge snake, or maybe a dragon, was moving towards them at a high speed.

ONGGGGGG

The ground shook and cracked.

THUMP

CRACK

THUMP

A huge part of the ground suddenly moved up. A huge boulder floated in the air, standing right in the snake's path.

CRUSH

The stone was crushed like it was a thin glass. The red snake continued to charge forward.

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

But that wasn't the only stone boulder that was blocking the snake's path. The ground was torn apart, rattled. It was cut into smaller parts and all of those parts were now trying to stand in the snake's way.

'Huh?'

Kairen, in his blurry vision, stared at the numerous boulders floating in the air.

'Wasn't his power 'soil'?'

How was he controlling the Earth now?

'Ah? Earth?'

Kairen was suddenly reminded of a few things he had seen in the past but had brushed off as unimportant.

'Mascry...'

The mascry was dug out of the ground. The soil all around it was moved but, there was no way that someone only capable of controlling soil could also turn all of the stones surrounding mascry in the mines into the soil.

'That spear...'

It was made out of the soil, he assumed, as the man was able to control it and even turned it into the soil to use the soil as a shield when they were fighting in the Frozen Ocean.

The spear could be made out of the soil, but what about the blade on the tip of it? There is no way someone only capable of controlling soil could control that black metal blade. Also, the fact that someone who could only control soil intentionally lured people to an 'ocean'... Was he only too confident in himself, or was there something else? After all, no matter where you go, there is Earth everywhere, even in the ocean.

And even now, he was moving the huge boulders. There was no way someone only capable of controlling soil could do such a thing.

'No way, was he hiding his power?'