Chapter 123: The Change of Mindset [1]
Chapter 123: The Change of Mindset [1]
***
"Huff...Huff" Michael huffed.
How did it come to this?
He wiped off the large amount of blood on his face.
No.
It wasn't someone elses blood.
It was his own.
***
[20 Minutes Earlier]
Elizabeth and Michael successfully infiltrated the building.
And what Michael saw made his eyes widen in disgust.
Slaves chained to poles that stood erect by the sides of the walls.
Some walking through the floor, their toes chained to each other in a line.
Hatred and disrespect welled up in Michael's being.
Small cinders started to ignite on his arm.
But he was quickly stopped as he felt a cold hand on his shoulder.
The cold helped him calm down and he turned back to look at Elizabeth.
She shook her head.
Yes.
It wasn't the time for this.
They had to act quickly and swiftly.
Nodding in agreement, both of them ignored the slaves and hurried to the stairs.
As much as he wanted to save them right now, it wasn't the time right now.
He gritted his teeth and looked them in the eye.
His gaze seemed to say.
'I'll come back for you guys, just wait.'
Without waiting for their reaction, his feet caught fire and he shot upstairs with Elizabeth. They arrived at the second floor.
It didn't take long for them to find guards waiting for them.
Fortunately, they fell quickly under the combined teamwork of the duo.
They were only second order or tier, people even Michael could handle in multiple.
And for Elizabeth, who was at the brink of reaching the 4th order in a week or two, they were a piece of cake.
They opened doors to find even more slaves locked up in the rooms.
The next floor was the last floor of the building.
Clearing the rooms, they ran to the corner of the corridor.
But just as Elizabeth, who was in front turned, Michael saw a large first strike straight to her chin.
She came crashing back toward him but quickly stabilized herself with an ice wall.
"You okay?" Michael asked as he kept his attention at front.
A tall man with a wide stature entered their view.
He was bearing a dirty white vest with black trousers.
With shaggy black hair and dirty brown eyes, he looked at them with a smirk.
According to the information provided, his name was Richard James.
He was a 3rd order Nature elemental clovist.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Elizabeth assured.
Richard pointed at her.
"You..."
"You will be a nice dirty slave in my collection, bitch."
Michael's face twitched at the offensive remark.
Fire coated his arm as he leaned in, ready to pounce.
Elizabeth also bent down before raising her hand in a single motion.
A large mass of ice erupted from the floor, engulfing Richard whole.
Following up, Michael encased the ice in an earth coating.
He had already talked with Elizabeth about his elements.
She had seen them so there was no way to hide them.
Fortunately, she understood everything and why he hid them.
But since she had seen them, there was no problem in using those elements here.
And just as expected, Elizabeth said nothing and clenched her hand into a fist.
A sharp cracking sound was heard in the air as the ice broke into a million tiny shards along with the earth.
But to their surprise, what came out was a cocoon made of frozen vines, probably affected by
the ice.
The vines slowly receded to show an almost unharmed Richard with only some scratches and
cuts.
He smiled widely.
"Oh, you shrimps are actually strong." He remarked before waving his hand forward.
Vines crawled out of the walls with multiple blooms on them.
They shot toward Elizabeth and Michael who barely dodged them by diving into the nearby
room.
They were at an enormous disadvantage i narrow hallway.
Unfortunately, even the room wasn't enough as multiple vines broke out from the floor.
They coiled around Elizabeth and Michael, stringing them tight.
A small sound of pain erupted from jboth of them as the needles dug into their body.
Blood seeped out and suddenly, the blooms popped.
A glittering yellow powder soiled the dirty air, but Michael was quick to respond.
He clenched his hand underneath the vines and instantly, a cerulean green ball of air covered
their heads.
It regulated around it at fast speeds, keeping the powder away.
Richard, who previously had his eyes widened because of Michael, shot towards Elizabeth
with his arm covered in thin needles.
But the latter wasn't just going to take it as multiple frozen swords formed in the air.
They sliced through the air at Richard.
Michael was finally able to somehow sneak his hand out of the vines.
A torrent of flames devoured Michael and Elizabeth, burning away the vines.
As Michael came out of the smoke, he noticed that the slaves had fallen asleep because of the
powder.
In the distance, Richard clenched his hands and the vines instantly disintegrated the swords.
He was still in a slight state of shock after seeing Michael manipulate so many elements.
Michael huffed.
He had exhaused quite a bit of mana with those flames and multiple elements.
Though he was 2nd order, he still wasn't proficient enough to do that.
He bent his knees and shot across the floor at Richard along with Elizabeth. But just as he pulled back his punch, he lost balance as he stumbled to ground.
He looked down and saw multiple thin vines looped around his toes.
It was then that his suspicion that something was wrong became true. Elizabeth rushed at Richard, where she struck him with a whip made of frost. The whip collided with a thick branch of tree and was shattered shortly after.
Regardless, Elizabeth smiled subtly.
Her plan wasn't to fight Richard head on in the first place.
All of a sudden, frost started to form on every part of Richard's body, keeping him in place.
Elizabeth grabbed his shoulder where a torrent of icicles dug deep, severing his arm
completely.
"ELIZABETH NO-" Michael words were abruptly halted as his eyes widened.
Elizabeth's arm shot out to Richard's neck, aiming to end him off finally.
But suddenly, her body faltered midair as she fell to ground, her mouth gushing out blood in
large amounts.
A foot landed on her head as it pushed her head deep into the ground.
Her head shook as more blood gushed out, blurring her vision.
She barely brought her hand to her cheek where she touched something veiny.
As she saw a shard of ice in the distance, she saw her reflection in it.
Her cheek...
It was purple with her veins throbbing on the surface with pain.
She was poisoned.
But when?....
Ah.
When the fist struck her at the start.
It slowly built up inside her body before blooming forth.
As for why she didn't realize it...
She knew now.
The man.
He wasn't a 3rd order but rather a 4th order clovist.
He was much stronger than her. The academy was testing them by seeing what would they do
when given the wrong information.
A kick hit her straight in the face, sending her crashing into the wall.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
***
Michael fell to the ground on his knees, blood gushing out of his mouth.
His gaze tremblingly traveled down his body where he saw a knife coming out of his body.
Or more precisely...
His heart.
He choked.
Dark blood and some of his innards came out.
His vision blurred as he looked back, finding a slave standing behind him.
The slave plunged the knife out of Michael's body.
It was tainted crimson red and was dripping with blood.
The slave looked at Michael with fear before running back into the corner with the other
slaves.
"Hahahahahaha, good boy." Richard smirked from the front.
Michael saw him kicking Elizabeth into the wall from his blurred vision.
"Eli..za-" He choked again, dropping to the ground.
A pool of blood formed around his body.
His heart was faltering...
He was going to die soon.
He clenched his fists as hatred and anger welled up within him.
Those slaves...
Those wretched bastard slaves...
If only Michael had went full out from the start without caring about them...
In the end, all he got was betrayed.
He gritted his teeth as tears welled up within his eyes.
These fucking bastards...
He hated killing and thought it as disgusting.
But he failed to see the cruelty of the world.
In an attempt to act heroic and save some unknowns, he had gotten himself and his close
friend killed.
He laughed hoarsely, no sound coming out.
How despicable.
Amon would laugh at this right now.
If only he could be like him.
Michael's life started to fade in front of his eyes.
He hated killing for no reason.
But for once...
Just for once.
He wanted to kill all these fucking wretches here without remorse.
He looked into the far distance of the room.
A muscly man with fiery red hair and golden eyes stood there, his gaze unreadable.
He donned a regal red and golden outfit.
"Solaran..." Michael weakly called out.
He stretched his fingers with the last bit of life he had.
"Help me."
"Help me.....kill them and save her...please."
Michael's eyes closed.
Solaran's face pulled up into a smirk after some seconds of silence.
"Finally brat....took you long enough to fix your head."
He put his hand to Michael's body.
And in the next moment, it flared up with an intense glow.