Shades of the New World

Chapter 139: Hero

Arza still couldn't remember exactly what happened after he was pulled out from Evin's shadow the day that their group was attacked by those weird four mages. He knew something terrible must have happened, since he could remember Ssatsko tightly gripping his eyes. He also remembered how his curiosity got the better of him and he looked behind Ssatsko's hands anyway.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, Arza couldn't remember anything beyond that point. He could only associate the feelings of fear and disgust with those blurry memories. He also knew somehow, that whatever he saw, it was done by a Luminous spell. His affinity with the spell did not let him think otherwise. 

There was also one thing that was crystal clear in his head. Evin had protected him from harm at the cost of his body. Arza also knew that the price was steep, since Kena had seemed to have called the Authority of Life to fix Evin. Everyone else seemed to shrug the matter off their heads for whatever reason, or if they were all just trying to forget about it all But it was too big of a shock to Arza. 

He felt like he was a joke for saying things like he would fight for justice and protect his family and friends. How was he going to protect anyone if he was going to get knocked out in the first clash of the battle? On the other hand, Evin managed to kill the woman who almost killed him and then best another mage in solo combat. Afterwards, he broke the Space barrier around the area and also survived the spell of a lesser-imposer long enough for Kena to arrive to his rescue.

Arza learned these thing by questioning Karan. Ssatsko and Rith stubbornly refused to talk about the matter and only the skinshifter decided that Arza should know of these matters. Perhaps he said these things, since Arza's mental age had become close to a 10-year-old. Karan himself was abducted at around that age, and even before that, he was an orphan in Tower City, so the man didn't quite feel the need to hide the child from such violent scenes.

But even Karan did not dare talk about what the lesser-imposer did to Evin. The skinshifter mentioned how he found it almost unbelievable that Evin could stay sane and functional after that. 

A teardrop materialized in Arza's eyes uncontrollably Noticing it, the boy hurriedly wiped it with his sleeves. His father always told him that men do not cry, so every time, he would force down the emotions down his throat. Arza didn't know why, but he would randomly feel like tearing up.

'What do the teardrops mean?' Arza thought. He remembered asking his father how to not cry, and the latter reminded him to be careful in the following situations: when something sad happens, when something happy happens, and when he feels proud of something.

'I don't feel sad when I think of Evin, I don't feel overly happy when I see him. So, I must feel proud of him,' Arza thought clumsily.

His mind then seemed to clear up unexpectedly due to this idea and Arza thought spiritedly:

'Why am I even thinking so hard about these things?' 

Slowly, Arza exited the World of Thoughts and his gaze fell upon the boy, who glared at him with a mixture of confusion and concern. 

'What is Evin?' Arza thought again, his mind now refocused and sharp. 

"He's my hero," Arza said resolutely. Arza didn't care that Evin was a liar, he didn't care that Evin could be an adult in a child's body. Evin saved his life and that was all that mattered to Arza.

The boy in front looked at him like he was going to choke.

"I can't accept it. You're my friend and I have a duty to make sure you don't follow the footsteps of villains and murderers!" Ellar said and started bringing scrolls and artifacts from his storage ring.

Arza could guess what the boy wanted to do. A multipart spell. Impossibly powerful spells that could change the outcomes of full-scale battles, not to mention simple duels like this one. Since most children in the Tribe Grounds were too young, and unable to focus on too many things at once, a multipart spell was practically impossible to cast here, except of course, if one decided to make up for their lack of ability with scrolls and artifacts. 

Usually, the best method to deal with such spells was to knock out the caster before they manage to finish constructing the spell. But Arza had no intention of interrupting Ellar. He knew that the boy's attack wouldn't be a weak one, but Arza needed to prove a point. He shouted his favorite advice from his father:

"In the end, whoever with the stronger fist is right!"

Arza began to absorb Life energy at an alarming pace, and in a few seconds, his half-mana-core heart was filled to the brim. Arza could feel his heart pumping pure energy alongside his blood throughout his body and the random small sparks increased in intensity and volume. 

The crowd seemed to expect Arza to dash at Ellar and knock him out, but Arza only stood on his spot without moving. The crowd began to speculate about Arza's thoughts, before one of the children shouted that Arza was going to receive the attack without moving! A loud commotion erupted suddenly. 

"Run away!"

"Hit him quickly!"

"What are you doing?"

Childish shouts entered Arza's mind, but he didn't move. He didn't need to.

A minute later, Ellar was done with his spell and took on a pale blue hue that radiated over Chameleon skin's concealment. Twenty giant pillars of ice, which had the runes for Containment, Anti-heat and Expanding depicted all over its frame, took form in the air. The giant pillars were taller than most adults and revolved imposingly around the caster. Ellar, the one who created the spell began to wonder if he was going overboard and glanced at Arza with some hesitation. The crowd gasped with worry and surprise.

"Show me what you got! Come on!" Arza shouted tauntingly with his arms wide open. It was an impressive spell, for sure, but quite useless in combat. Evin would definitely never use these inefficient spells. It was much easier and faster to just punch someone with one's fists.

Ellar grunted angrily at the stubborn boy and directed the pillars of ice towards Arza. The pillars circled the red-haired boy in a rather slow and cautious pace before gradually closing in on him. 

Arza could've jumped out of the spell at any point, but he simply waited for his opponent to finish. Somehow, looking at these pillars which circled him warily like they were afraid of something, Arza just couldn't get himself to act seriously. 

'Evin would've killed this idiot a hundred times at this point,'