Shades of the New World

Chapter 92: Four mages

Just as Ssatsko expected, greedy eyes stared at the group like a pack of hungry hyenas.

It did not take long for a massive street brawl to occur. The guards who were supposed to stop things like these from occurring were simply watching from the sidelines, betting on which side would win.

It might have looked quite precarious from outside, but in all honesty, there were no real dangers to the group, as practically all of the assailants were common people. Mages, Twin-horn commoners and even horn-bearers were a rare breed and even if one was born in the City of Smog, they would promptly be sent underground alongside their family, where street brawls were as rare as someone down there going hungry.

Mages, or Horn bearers who had access to the World of Life and could harden their skin like Arza and Ssatsko would never get hurt even if someone hit them from behind their head with an iron sword. Though, obviously, such things would still hurt them, so they would rather avoid getting hit like that.

Arza and Ssatsko both got much more powerful than before. Arza was basically an untiring machine, with his casual swings breaking some unlucky men's face and limbs. Evin didn't see the boy use any other World other than the World of Life during this little fight.

The boy's justice instinct was supposedly in play, as the boy gazed at his attackers with zeal and fervor. Evin never understood how the boy developed such an extreme personality. Some of the people he attacked had their bodies broken so badly, they would most likely die in the next week.

But the lives that he had taken did not seem to affect the boy himself, as he zealously started targeting his next attacker.

'Well, I guess it beats getting robbed,' Evin thought, but then started wondering how the boy turned out this way.

'Just look at Aran and then look at Arza, who can say that they're father and son? Perhaps the justice side comes from Liza?'

Compared to the boy, Ssatsko was much more precise with his powers. The old man had also become much stronger, as Evin could see him using the World energies much more abundantly. After Ssatsko had his horn increased, its energy storage had become comparable to an average quarter-core mage. Coupled with his vast experience, the old man was a menace on the battlefield.

'I never knew my grandfather had this kind of side to him. I always thought that him and Purzo were the polar opposites, but it turns out that they were both the battle-thirsty type,' Evin thought.

'Well, I couldn't really call him battle-thirsty What's the right word? Battle-eager?'

As for Evin himself, there was no one who dared come close to him. They couldn't really, as Evin had turned an area around himself completely devoid of air. Anyone who got close would find that they were unable to breathe and frightfully turn away. Rith was inside this ring of death, as well, staring at Arza, ready to intercept if anything happened.

Occasionally, someone would throw a knife or a stone at the two, but with Evin's increased focus thanks to the excess oxygen and Karan looking out for his back, the assailants would have a hard time hitting anything.

And if Evin would see some people gathering up stones to bombard them, he would swiftly take care of them, using a few air bullets. His spells weren't anything deadly, just a few soft brushes against their eyes.

"Is this the spell you used on me when we were testing out your new Dark spell?" Rith asked.

"Yes, that one wasn't as extreme as this one, but the principles are the same," Evin answered.

The two were slowly walking towards the city gates, while also leading the other two who wrecked havoc among their lessers.

One would think that the assailants would stop after seeing the disparity in strength, but Evin could see the desperation in the people's eyes and a slight hope that they might end up slightly better than yesterday if they were somehow successful with this reckless attack of theirs.

"Do you know why Lord Kena chooses to keep the two cities so contrasting?" Evin asked.

"Who knows? Perhaps it's a way of keeping one group happy at the expense of others?"

"Killing the chickens to scare the monkey, huh?" Evin muttered.

"What?"

"It means making an example out of someone to threaten the others. Perhaps the residents of the underground city are threatened to be exiled above, if they act out of line," Evin concluded.

It wasn't a new idea. Prisons and prisoners are usually vilified in such a way so that free citizens would try their best to stay legit. It was basically the same concept here, except much more open and direct. Also, the prisoners here were all free to do whatever they wanted, provided that they were able to make it work.

Eventually, the group reached the gates, with Ssatsko and Arza, satisfied with the physical exercise they had just done. Although the exercise was at the expense of a couple hundred broken bodies, it was still exercise, nonetheless.

'Technically,' Evin smirked in his head.

The group went through the gateway without problems, and Rith took out their carriage. For some reason, no one from the city attacked the group after they've left through the city gates.

Evin felt that it was quite weird, but didn't linger on it for long. Evin didn't bother deactivating his Channeling Artifact, since they could still be ambushed outside the city.

The carriage went on for little while, before Arza suddenly warned the group of something.

"I have a very weird feeling like someone strong is looking at me," the boy said suddenly.

'Are you an animal or something?' Evin thought inside, but decided that it wouldn't hurt to listen to the boy's suggestion.

"What do you think?" he asked Rith.

"Let me check," the Cosmic said, and began to cast a spell. But just as she began, an unknown voice interrupted her.

"Don't bother," it said and a group of four appeared before the group out of thin air.

Evin could see two men, one woman and an almost teenage boy materialize in his vision. All of them wore clothes that completely covered their bodies and wore a featureless mask. There were no eye slits or any breathing canals on the mask, giving away its magical nature.

"You lot! Take off your valuables and give them to me this instant! I don't need to tell you what happens if you fail to comply, right?" the teenage boy shouted in a forceful voice. He held one of his hands at his hips and used the other to point at Evin's group. Pride and arrogance were oozing from his demeanor.

The other three stood silently, giving off an eerie feeling. Evin subconsciously touched the ring that Iorn had gifted them.

'Since they're all masked, they don't want to reveal their origins but I suppose they were a guest in the City of Nevernight who saw us purchasing stuff, huh?' Evin reasoned. He glanced at Rith and saw her frowning slightly.

Evin usually used Rith's expressions to gauge the opponent's strength. If she knew what kind of mages the group was facing, she would clearly express it through her expressions and body language.

'Since she's frowning with uncertainty, most of these enemies must be half-cores. The boy should be a quarter-core or something'

"Lord Mage, we're naught but lucky travelers who had something Lord Kena had interest in. It's been-" Evin began talking to buy some time, but the teenage boy suddenly stopped acting like an entitled young master anymore. It was quite weird, since the boy's body language suddenly made a complete 180.

The teenage boy slouched slightly and pointed at Evin's group with his chin.

"It's done, kill them," he said.