Chapter 143 - Spiteful Torrent

Rynold, now together with Prominence Alpha, stared at his enemy.

Since he hadn't interacted with the bodyguard before, Rynold was unaware of who this person was. Not until, out of the corner of his eye, he saw an unconscious Wilfred.

'So, that's the situation.'

The two parties eyed each other carefully, watching the other's every move.

'Is that?'

At first, Rynold was surprised to see the Spirit of Fire be weakened to such a state. It was a rather unexpected situation. But, upon a closer inspection of the enemy, Rynold could finally understand why.

'A coat of water?'

Unlike Rynold's Formless Mana Defense, the veil surrounding the bodyguard had a slight blue tint to it. In addition to that, there was a spectral of colors once sunlight hit the veil. The pattern of colors was extremely similar to that of a rainbow.

Upon realization, Rynold's guard immediately perked up. If he were lax before, he certainly was being serious now.

"Can you back me up?"

Rynold was skeptical if the Spirit of Fire were able to fight. Prominence Alpha's condition was far from ideal. Even though Rynold knew that the Spirit's physical appearance would never be destroyed, it would still need time to recover.

"Never mind that, now. We need to teach that guy a lesson."

The Spirit of Fire's voice was still strong and determined.

Despite his current condition, Prominence Alpha was still clearly rearing to go. The Spirit's fighting prowess was edging him to go all out. After millennia of being stuck inside a rock, Rynold could understand where the Spirit was coming from.

But, Rynold was skeptical of the consequences as well.

Prominence Alpha's thirst for battle could lead to mistakes. Naturally, Rynold knew the Spirit had more sense than that.

Considering the circumstances, though, Rynold wasn't sure if 'sense' still applied.

Without warning, Prominence Alpha charged at the bodyguard, claw first.

To which, the bodyguard reacted by jumping two steps to the side, dodging the attack completely.

However, the Spirit of Fire didn't stop there and continuously swung its claws at the enemy. It was a constant barrage of orange flame trying to slash its prey.

Rynold, naturally, tried to jump in on the fight. But, since it was rather close combat, he didn't know how to. All he could do now was to back the Spirit of Fire up.

'Unyielding Twine!'

Small patches of grass suddenly sprung up from where the bodyguard was standing. Since he was too preoccupied dealing with Prominence Alpha's advances, he didn't notice Rynold's spell until it was too late.

The bodyguard's feet were suddenly tied up. Without counteracting magic or time, he couldn't easily remove the plants that had strung up his feet.

Taking advantage of Rynold's opportune spell, Prominence Alpha's claw managed to connect.

Crash!

The force of the hit snapped Rynold's Unyielding Twine spell while simultaneously threw the bodyguard a good distance away.

The man crashed into the wall, a testament to Prominence Alpha's brutal power.

Steam lifted from where the Spirit of Fire had hit the man. It was a natural chemical reaction when pure heat made contact with water.

However, the bodyguard was still standing. Prominence Alpha's attack was not enough to finish things.

As the bodyguard looked at Rynold and Prominence Alpha with a darkened expression, Rynold suddenly felt the air become heavier.

"This is... pointless."

The bodyguard's voice echoed throughout the room. The tone of his words felt heavy.

Rynold was certain that the man had suffered damage from the brief exchange. So, why the hell did it seem that Rynold was the one backed into a corner?

Mana started to coalesce at the bodyguard, making Rynold tense.

'Shit.'

He immediately sprung in front of Prominence Alpha. Rynold knew that if he didn't protect the Spirit, it would lose its physical form, albeit temporarily.

Still, Rynold wouldn't let that happen if he could help it.

Raising his Mana Gauntlets that were currently in Strength-form, Rynold braced for the attack that's to come.

Mana Infusion! Formless Mana Defense!

Rynold activated all of the spells he had in his arsenal that would coat himself with a veil of Mana. He didn't know how well this would turn out, but it was much better than nothing.

"Spiteful Torrent!"

A burst of water shot out from the bodyguard as Rynold planted his feet on the ground.

Gritting his teeth, Rynold endured. The impact of the spell was equal to the force of an exploded fire hydrant.

Water magic was a tough type of magic to fight against.

Even though Rynold didn't have that much experience in fighting against someone with adequate Water magic, literature provided a lot for Rynold to work with.

Rynold could distinctly remember that Water magic was rather hard to learn. It was the rarer out of the four basic elements and mastery of the spells required thorough discipline. Naturally, because of the system, humans had easier access to this.

Still, Rynold recalled that to produce greater power with Water magic required great mastery and talent.

That being said, Rynold mistakenly took the bodyguard's Spiteful Torrent spell as the powerful one. His lack of experience made him overestimate the power of the bodyguard.

After two seconds of the gushing torrent of water, the spell immediately stopped.

Rynold lowered his gauntlets to take a peek at the spellcaster, who, surprisingly, was exhausted.

He saw this as a big opportunity to end it all. Rynold shot the grapple onto the wall behind the bodyguard and pulled himself forward. Rynold then gripped his fist tightly and yelled.

"Ahh!"

Just when Rynold was about to end it all, the bodyguard suddenly looked at him dead in the eyes and smiled. It wasn't a cockish, arrogant smile. No, it had a genuine tone to it.

Inching his gauntlet up a little, Rynold completely missed the bodyguard and smashed the wall behind him instead. It caused the concrete to crumble and blast backward, his strength showed with just a single punch.

"Why the hell are you smiling?"

Rynold was audibly stifling his frustration. It wouldn't feel right if he just killed someone who was smiling till the very end, not especially if the man was smiling so gleefully.

However, the man didn't answer Rynold's question.

"Damn it. Why?!"

Fuming, Rynold slammed whatever wall there was left with his gauntlet. But, there really was no reason for him to smile. It bothered Rynold so much that he was willing to spend another second asking why.

The bodyguard, though, still didn't answer him.

Seeing as how they were getting nowhere, Prominence Alpha reasoned with Rynold.

"You better kill him off before he does something you'll regret."

As angry as Rynold was, though, he naturally didn't listen to the Spirit of Fire. He immediately grabbed the bodyguard by the collar and stared directly at his face. The two made eye contact, and Rynold soon found out what the man had been focusing on.

He was looking at Wilfred.

The spell that the bodyguard had used rampaged throughout a radius in front of him. It was, for lack of a better explanation, an extremely high-pressure water hose.

However, the bodyguard wasn't aware that Wilfred was behind Rynold and the Spirit at the time.

Because of the bodyguard's sudden outburst, he could have harmed Wilfred, who was behind the enemies. It was an irredeemable mistake. If Rynold hadn't properly defended the Spiteful Torrent spell, the young child would have died.

"If you're not going to do it, then I will."

Prominence Alpha, having significantly more experience in battle, took action. It knew what the unforeseen consequences would be if they let their enemy live.

The Spirit didn't know whether or not Rynold was up to the task. Truth was, it didn't really care. All it knew was sparing enemies without any malice would only come back and bite them in the ass.

"We're leaving."

Rynold didn't know what had come over the man standing before him. A part of him could guess what it was, but Rynold didn't pursue the matter any further. Rynold simply turned around and walked away.

"What? You're just letting him go?!"

"As far as I can tell, he didn't even want to fight. Nobody in their right mind would give up in a middle of a fight for no good reason. I'm betting that you started it in the first place."

Prominence Alpha snickered at Rynold's accusations which, coincidentally, was pretty spot on.

"You're seriously just letting him go?"

Wilfred woke up from his slumber and stared openly at Rynold, who was standing a few feet from him. The prodigal son had woken up from his long slumber to a ruined room with active fires.

"If you're going to let me leave peacefully, I don't see why not. I've got an important job to do."

Rynold pointed at the residential district. From the room they were in, one could just barely see the residential district. But, with the limited view, it was too obvious that the district had gone to ruin.

Without waiting for a response, Rynold left the room the same way he came in. To which, the Spirit of Fire followed not before snickering at the bodyguard once more.

From there, the two reunited with Lissa, and the three of them headed inside the castle.

"Which way?"

Rynold asked the young Princess, hoping that she would know the way to the throne room. However, before he could get an answer, something came up.

"Never mind..."

The path leading to the throne room was scattered with disintegrated objects. The decorative plantlife had decayed and died while other things in the room seemed to have crumbled significantly as well.

The walls and the ground they were standing on had cracks in them that made it seem that the whole building would collapse in on itself.

As the three of them stood still to canvass the damage, Rynold suddenly spoke.

"You're both staying here."

"Why?!"

Surprisingly, Lissa was the first to react. Rynold didn't even have to look at her face to know that she was upset.

"It's way too risky," Rynold explained. "The Duke's powers are growing by the second. Before I got here, it could only affect organic objects, but now it applied to non-organic things too. I'm sorry, but the risk is way too high, and I'm not sure if I could protect you while I'm fighting."

"Then, take me instead."

Prominence Alpha spoke up right after. It was confident that it could deal with whatever half-assed Magic User could do.

However, Rynold still turned it down.

"No, it's even riskier for you. At least with Lissa, she has her physical state to keep her alive. For you... Since you're made entirely out of Mana, the cursed magic would only kill you if you come in contact with it. Your Spirit form would provide some resistance, but, with your current condition..."

Rynold had thought it through before two of them even spoke up. He knew the risks firsthand and accurately assessed who could stand up against the Duke.

It wasn't a surprise that only he could actually stand at odds against him. All they had to do was trust Rynold.

"But... We have people in there!"

Lissa suddenly yelled out, making Rynold raise an eyebrow in response.

"What people?"

The young Princess then explained what happened with the squad that decided to swear loyalty to her. How they were currently in the middle of evacuating the staff and other non-military personnel.

"Fine. Go and get them the hell out of here. But, do not, under any circumstances, go to the throne room. Understand?"

The look on Rynold's face as he spoke to Lissa remained unchanged. It was serious, to the point of extremity. Rynold made it abundantly clear that this was no game. There were actual lives at stake.

"I... I understand. Please be careful..."

Lissa feared for Rynold's safety. She couldn't grasp what Rynold was talking about, but she knew that it was dangerous for Rynold to go anywhere at this point.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just do what I told you. Properly this time."

Rynold said as he walked down the trail that the Duke had so obviously left behind.