Sneak Attack

Zayne floated in the air in his innerworld. 

His white hot core spinned extrafast, buzzing happily. 

Control came easily to Claire. She had at least three elements which aid with control, and on top of that she has at least two skills, which help with mana manipulation. Add to that, she was talented in fine control in the first place. 

Zayne … just is not. 

It's not the difference between apples and oranges, it's the difference between controlling coal fire and rocket fuel fire.

The prisoner's arm cuff moved easily, but his core was spinning too fast for the arm cuff to latch on easily. 

Finally Zayne had it stick to his core, just as he was about to redirect his energy through the awakening stone, a small hole opened in the side of his innerworld. 

Octopus like creatures with three arms started flooding through the gate, invading his inner core. These are mana parasites. Many were fried into nothing as soon as they touched his fiery hot planets. Some changed color.. 

Zayne looked in shock at the magic portal. 

He never expected he could even be attacked inside his innerworld. His perception was reset. He retrieved Wrath, his sword. He moved like a bullet, slicing through the critters, absorbing their essence. Despite his speed and destructive ability, in the end, a hundred of these alien octopus still made it to his core. 

Their arms sizzled away as they stuck themselves to his superfast core. 

With each sizzle, they lost their arms, then regrew their body in more of a fire type. 

Sizzle, chuck-kahk… 

Sizzle , chzack … 

Zayne concentrated exactly like when he was taming his sword. 

𖤍

Outside, on the board, the numerous alien creatures were displayed as symbols, each like a tri armed monster. 

The monster shape splashed itself on the screen, startling all the students out of their boredom. This is the first time they are seeing this kind of image. The students did have some idea about the runes. So, they had fun reading what kind of elements their friend had while they awakened. Zayne's was the first they are seeing a mana parasite's picture instead of the rune's picture. 

So, their interest peaked like they were watching a movie. 

Then, in the same movie style sequence, a cut sliced through the parasite's picture, making the parasite dissipate. One after another, the parasites appeared in various shapes. Some fizzled away. Some changed their appearance to fiery tripods right in front of the students eyes on the screen, even these were stabbed through, then devoured. 

The policeman, who was the one to have made the connection and released these parasites, watched in rapt fascination as the creatures got decimated on the screen. He was rapturous with his find. Zayne was not the first person he tried on these parasites. Till now, no matter how talented or useless, almost all the people on whom he used this parasite had become his slaves. Zayne was the first to fight back. 

He expected some loss due to Zayne's fire ability, but to think that his legions of parasites are reduced to a mere handful … 

Add to that, even these remaining handful are being hunted to nothing. 

To think the boy is this powerful ! 

The officer initially only wanted the storage ring, which would be very useful. 

Then the girl turned out to be a traitor. She was wearing an eliminated type of information log necklace. Any active agent would have turned on the usb to wipe out long ago. 

The boy turned out to be a once in a hundred years kind of powerhouse that reapers adore the most. Zayne's kind of elemental with sheer power are prized as the seed donors for Reapers. To think his body is impervious to parasites on top of it ! He wanted the boy's body. 

The officer was not quite old, but he was gaining in his years. He initially planned to shift his body at forty, but now, it seems he could start preparing to change bodies at thirty seven. The boy is just ripe for taking. Fortunately, the base owner of 91 is greedy, so he prepared a deus type of awakening stone. 

The awakening stone comes in a pair. One is for the slaves, whose mana core will be bound to the awakening stone. In this awakening stone that binds, all the spells prepared are utility spells. Even if the owner is lax, sets the awakening stone to take a minimum amount of mana from his slaves, they will never have combat spells to attack the ruling class with. To make the ruse convincing, they will have the basic combat spells, with sub par magic circles. 

The other awakening stone was for nobles, or masters, as it's put in manual. This mana stone dispenses mana like A-grade mana awakening stone, and has a complete set of optimized combat spells. This is reserved for base leaders, and any subordinates who rendered merit. This way, the base leader can keep a tight leash over his subordinates. 

For the officer, it means even after awakening, Zayne will not have enough in his arsenal to fight either him or his forces. ' This boy's body is mine. ' the police officer thought resolutely. 

𖤍

When Claire returned, the roster was half way through, and it was but three in the noon. Now Zayne's awakening was the last, and it was taking place at eleven in the night. From the moment she arrived in the hall, Claire had been immersed in her own innerworld, trying to decode the prisoner arm cuff that came from the awakening stone. 

In the end, all she could figure out from the gigantic magic circle was that it's not going to be a day's work. It will probably take her months to decode this properly. For now, she will note down what she found for today. 

When she opened her eyes, Zayne was already on the podium. The gigantic parasites were being displayed on the screen, shattering one after another. 

Claire had a deja vu looking at the picture. 

She had the strangest feeling she had seen this, but for the life of her, she could not remember how and what of the story. 

However, she did not fail to notice the glint in the corrupt police officer's eyes. 

He was looking at the screen like he had been hungry for years, and finally, he saw the feast of the century spread out in front of him. 

Then, all of a sudden, he looked at something in his hand, and his expression morphed into a murderous rage. 

She frowned. Will the officer act now ? Did he let go of her in favor of Zayne ? In that case, should she help Zayne or let go of him ? 

𖤍

Zayne sliced through the last but one tripod inside his innerworld. He rushed to the last remaining tripod, but it ran away faster and faster. In the end, Zayne still caught up to the little beast. 

The tripod shrunk all its arms, and shivered despite its entire body being made of fire. 

It stood ram straight on its three legs, then bent its head in a bow. Its posture is very similar to a lost general surrendering in the war. 

Zayne paused for a moment. 

Were these creatures sentient ? 

Till now, it did not look like that. The tripod in front of him shivered once more, this time, it decisively turned into an octopus, arms, head eyes beak and all a clone of an octopus, only, it's body is made of pure fire. 

Once again, it rolled up all its arms, got in a straight posture, then executed an unmistakable bow. 

" You want to serve me as your master ? " Zayne asked, just to be sure. 

' Yes. ' The resounding answer came from the octopus. 

Outside, the orb in the corrupt police officer's hand lost its brilliance. 

" Alright. Betray me, you will join your brethren. " Zayne threatened the octopus. 

After a moment, he paused. 

" hmm.. Let's call you Calamari. It will serve as a reminder, if you ever get too ambitious. " Zayne said. At that moment, he did not realize how big of a thing it is for a spirit beast to get a name. 

With a name, came clarity, and with clarity, power. The little parasite evolved from a parasite to a spirit beast by itself. Now that Zayne has given it a name, it has evolved to spirit summon. 

The octopus danced around in the air at the improvement. Then, it jumped on the fast spinning core. This time as soon as Zayne brought the prisoner's arm cuff near the core, the arms extended and caught the cuff. 

Once Calamari held the arm cuff securely, it was easy for Zayne to let the mana flow to the awakening stone. '

With that, copying of the spells began. 

Outside, the progress bar moved forward, displaying the runes and magical circles randomly on the screen from the library. The highest magic spell Zayne copied was the magic furnace, which could create heat equivalent to a pulsar star. Currently, it required almost all of Zayne's mana for a single firing, but the very fact he has enough mana to keep such a thing up is amazing in and of it self. 

Zayne went to the hunter officer to receive his ID. The corrupt police officer's eyes followed him zealously. 

" Congratulations, Zayne Rhafyre. Here's your ID. Your occupation is magic smith. " The officer told him without any change in expression.