Chapter 24: A Challenge (1)

"Who sent you?"

Hearing his question, Enoch simply smiled and responded. "Don't worry, you'll find out eventually. Now be a good boy and surrender quietly."

It was a long shot, but if he agreed, there was no need for a fight. He still found this whole situation strange. No matter how strong a person was, taking on a large number of mages at once would be a challenge even he would not be able to overcome. 

Staring at the men around him, Caleb just sighed and took off his coat. "I guess the only way to do this is to fight. Fair warning, I'm not going to go easy on you. Not to mention you guys will be the perfect guinea pigs." Caleb hasn't actively applied his genetic manipulation abilities to another person. Sure, he had taken a look at the genome of his assistant back home, but that was only to compare and contrast. 

"That's a fair point, men incapacitate him!" Enoch exclaimed and his men launched into action. The combat mages were the first to move. Their speed and reaction outshines those of pure mages. The pure mages instead cast their first spell before the combat mages arrived before Caleb.

Caleb observed closely to see what they had up their sleeves. And they didn't disappoint. As soon as the order was given, four of the men, each to one of the cardinals pointed their right hands forward projecting a magic circle that spanned slowly.

"Tempest lift!"

They exclaimed and immediately afterwards, a strong cyclic gale was generated beneath Caleb lifting him off the ground. The intensity of the spell threw him around chaotically. 

Reaching a height of 15m in the air, he sensed two men already waiting for him. Caleb forcefully rotated his body to face them and crossed his arms in an attempt to block the blows coming his way.

~BAM!~

~BOOOOM!~

From the impact of the punch, Caleb was sent back to the ground like a cannonball. Inside the mini crater with a depth of about 2m, Caleb slowly stood back up. 

'Mmm...as expected; it barely stung.' He lifted his head when he sensed another group of three mages closing in on him. Not escaping his heightened senses was a mage hidden in the shadows also approaching. He focused on the visible mages first. One was covered in lightning arcs, another in flames and the third in galeforce.

"Over here pretty boy!" The one covered in flames drew his attention while the other two closed in from his left and right flanks. Their speed was nothing to scoff at either. They moved in sync and all three delivered their attacks.

Caleb lifted his left leg and stomped the ground with a loud boom. Immediately after, a stone wall manifested from the ground to surround him. 

~BOOOM!~

The attack of the three resounded heavily in the evening sky. The dust cloud mixed in with the flames, lightning and gale spread out in a large radius. The other men quickly distanced themselves. Caleb completely erased his presence to hide from their senses.

Inside the generated cloud, Caleb's attackers frowned and looked around. They knew their attack had failed. Their target was also missing. Losing sight of your opponent in a fight was a fatal error that one may not be alive to regret.

"Where is he?!" One of the attackers exclaimed, frantically looking for Caleb. The man in question however appeared before a spot on the ground where the shadow-attributed mages hide.

Caleb plunged his right hand inside the shadow, dragging out the assassin by the neck. Normally, a fire-attributed combat mage had no way of interacting with the other attributes, besides a pure mage, but Caleb was the exception. With the genes for the other attributes all unlocked, it was but a simple convenience.

The mage held by the neck struggled to escape his grasp but to no avail. Without waiting on ceremony or talk, he slammed him into the ground with a resounding boom, instantly knocking the mage unconscious. 

The sound alerted the mages close to him and they closed in on the location. Of course, Caleb had already disappeared. He appeared behind the lightning user already coating his right hand in lightning striking him directly in the upper spine with a palm strike resulting in a crunching sound. 

~CRACK~

~CRACKLE!~

"Arhhh...!" The lightning user screamed in agony while spewing blood. The shock and suddenness of the attack put him out of his misery. "Yorm!" Before his partners could see what happened, Caleb was already behind another. This time, he utilized wind magic to form a hand blade and inflicted numerous cuts on him in a split second before incapacitating him with a blow to the head.

The last attacker, the fire user decided to exit the dust cloud and regroup with the others. However, a hand closed in on his neck the moment he turned around. 

Caleb lifted him off the ground with his right hand glowing with an intense heat. The sizzling of his skin made the man groan in agony. He couldn't even scream for help. But he didn't have to.

~WHOOSH~

A strong gale quickly came in to push the dust away. At this point, the darkness of night was already setting in. Enoch and the rest of his men half expected their colleague and Caleb to be engaged in a battle going back and forth. But when they heard that scream early, they knew those three were in trouble.

Still with his opponent in hand, Caleb looked at the others with a small grin. "This isn't even a challenge. Come on and show me what you've got." He provoked them. This could not even be called a fight. Even using his mana to use his attributes was him being generous. His base stats alone were enough. 

"Tch... Mages, distance yourselves and attack whenever you see an opening. Combat mages, don't let up!" He commanded and they moved. Enoch had noticed his men were still alive.

'Looks like he doesn't intend to kill. That gives us the advantage. My healers will have no problem with him.' 

"Everyone, don't hold back and go all out."

The combat mages moved in on Caleb still standing with one of them being held by the neck. Each one of them activated their attributes to increase the strength they can bring out.

Caleb's senses allowed him to see in all directions without having to particularly use his eyes. He could see as clear as day even in the absence of total light. 

As they closed in on him, Caleb threw the man in his hand at one of the groups closing in.

~WHOOSH~

"Urghh....!" They screamed in pain when their colleague was thrown into them and blown away. The speed of the throw was faster than they anticipated. One second they were approaching, the next they were all over the place!

In another burst of speed, Caleb closed the distance to the mages approaching from his right. To those in the distance, he moved in a blur they couldn't keep up with and the ones he approached only saw him instantly appear right in front of them.

They panicked and quickly launched their attacks. 

~BOOOOM!~

The combination of fire, wind blades, lightning, water and earth-attributed attacks created a large explosion. Amidst the attacks, Caleb emerged right out without a scratch and appeared in front of one of them.

With his right hand covered in lightning, he grabbed the man's face and slammed him into the ground with a boom. Each of his attacks was aimed at knocking them out. He quickly moved to the others and incapacitated them within the blink of an eye.

All this happened instantly with almost no time lapse. The pure mages did not have a chance to attack as he moved too fast. Whenever he briefly paused, he was amid their colleagues.

'10 down, 39 more to go.' Caleb deduced, looking at the still-approaching combat mages.