Chapter 52: Confrontation 2

"Alright, show yourself!!"

The target shouted, and that caused Luke to stop; the very fact that he shouted those words meant that Luke hadn't been detected yet, but the mage still exercised caution and stayed still while also rethinking his plan.

"My initial attack would kill a C-rank adventurer, meaning this guy is above that and closer to B-rank"

He whispered again. A CCC-rank was not that much stronger than a CC-rank, and a CC-rank isn't that much stronger than a C-rank either. This was true for the D-rank as well. It was why C-ranks can take CCC-rank quests. However, the power gap truly started at the A-rank.

While a BB-rank was stronger than a B-rank, it's still possible for the B-rank to win provided the right amount of preparation; however, once one hits the A-ranks, the difference between A-rank and AA becomes immensely apparent.

Luke got closer to his target and cast another spell. This time, two magic circles appeared before him as he moulded the earth, shaping it into humanoid forms and creating golems.

One of them was buff and bulky while the other was slender and slim, their focus quite clear. Incidentally, only Earth mages could create golems without using [inverse casting] or [IC]. Unlike other mages, after all, Earth is already a solid object; it doesn't need to imitate the properties of a solid object.

The two golems sprung forth in a burst of speed, with the slim golem swiftly moving through the forest, evading trees as it moved towards its target. The bulky was slower but was built for strength rather than speed. It had hammers for hands, while the slim golem had swords for hands.

The slim golem( who will now be referred to as Slim-G) was the first to arrive before its opponent and attacked, swinging its sword, it cut through the air with precision and speed of a sword, aiming to slice through Eon's torso like a hot knife through butter but the man dodged the attack and simply backhanded Slim-G and sent it flying and shattering its body as it slammed on the trees.

Luke huffed as he prepared to make another; he didn't use [PIC] on the golems on purpose as that needlessly consumed mana. However, he was unable to create another golem as his Bulky golem suddenly suffered the same fate as Slim-G.

*BAM!!*

Without warning whatsoever, Luke felt something colliding with his chest, and the force of the attack sent him flying through the trees, crashing through them as he felt the crack of his sternum and his mouth coughing up blood.

"WHAT!!"

He shouted in disbelief, spitting out blood as he did. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to process all that as he was forced to dodge by launching himself high into the sky, dodging the devastating punch that left a ten-metre crater on the ground.

"You're good at hiding, but when you use magic, it's easy to locate you"

Luke quickly formed a platform of the earth beneath his feet, allowing him to float and maintain a distance from his opponent. He would have used inverse casting to make his body light as air; however, he couldn't afford to waste mana.

He used some of the mana to heal the crack on his sternum; healing mages were quite rare as there were few who studied the human body enough to be able to use mana to heal it, while most mages can use minor healing spells only a proper healer can regenerate your limbs.

"So who sent you?"

Eon asked as he looked up at the man doing a bad imitation of that one sand ninja, though he was using earth instead of sand.

'Okay, maybe that comparison doesn't work. He doesn't even have that thing on his back'

He acknowledged, plus the guy didn't even have eyeliner, so his comparison was way off.

"Why do I have to be sent by anyone, did occur to you that I might be angry because of your taunts"

Luke stated as he began to circulate his mana, preparing to cast another spell; mages of sufficient skill had already refined their mana to such a degree that circulation before casting wasn't an issue for them.

"I wanted an excuse so I wouldn't kill you, but if that's what you want, so be it"

Eon informed, of course, he was aware that no adventurer would risk their career by doing something so stupid like this, so Luke Johnson over here was probably being forced to do this.

'But that doesn't give him a pass now, does it?'

He thought he wasn't really mad about this, it was stuff like this that he wanted but at the same time, that doesn't mean he has to let shit slide just because he thought it was fun to do, or at least he has to teach his opps a lesson.

"What Makes you think you c–"

The mage was unable to finish his sentence as in a split second, Eon launched himself with such ferocious power that he speared through the air towards his opponent and grabbed his leg and launched the man straight down.

"FUCK!"

Luke was quick to cast [PIC] on his own body before he crashed onto the ground.

*BOOM!!*

The sound of Luke's body colliding with the ground reverberated throughout the forest, as it created a wide crater and the shockwave shook the trees and forced birds to flee and any nearby animal to flee.

"Fuck!"

The mage exclaimed once again, as he quickly launched himself off the crater formed by his body, dodging the stomping that would have no doubt been fatal, but the shockwave from the attack sent him tumbling across the ground.

Luke quickly found his footing and immediately cast a spell; since his opponent was in a crater, he made chains of earth buffed with [PIC] and wrapped them around his opponent before he launched a hail storm of earth arrows.

Eon exerted his strength and broke free from the hold and with a scream, his body lit on fire and a fire that radiated an intense heat, the fire rapidly extended outward from his body in all directions and the intense heat of the flames burned the arrows turning them into dust at the moment of contact.

Luke found his heart pounding hard and fast against his chest as he tried to create a greater distance between him and his opponent while also making sure not to lose sight of him.

Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead, and the realisation that he wasn't facing any B-rank struck him like lightning; his palms became sweaty, knees weak and he felt the churning of his stomach, ready to throw up.

'This guy achieved elemental fusion?'

He thought; however, looking closer at his foe, he saw something.

"No, he didn't, his body is just on fire, it didn't fuse with the fire"

He whispered in slight relief, [Elemental fusion] was something that was unique to warriors and something that mages were incapable of.

After about 50 metres, Luke had determined that had opened a wide enough distance between him and his foe and thus stopped his retreat and kept himself hidden; however, that was a mistake.

He was currently using enhancement magic [EM], which allowed him to boost his eyesight, which was why he could see Eon as if he was standing just 2 metres away. It was also why when Eon turned towards and looked at him, he jumped back in shock.

'Can he see me?'

He thought to himself, he was obscured by the trees, so from such a distance, he should be well hidden. Just as he thought of that question, his opponent moved towards him, in a burst of incredible speed, closing the distance and in the span of 3 seconds, Eon reached him.

The mage had tried to open the distance further, but he wasn't fast enough, so he found his throat being grabbed by a searing hot hand, one that caused his skin to sizzle like meat on a grill.

It also didn't help that Eon was radiating so much heat that Luke felt he was plunged into the furnace of Dwarven forge, it was suffocating, making it hard for him to breathe.

He thrashed about as he felt the skin of his neck burn under Eon's touch.

"Hiding from me in this form is useless, I can sense your heat signature"

Eon answered, with a slight grin on his face; he was getting a bit bored, so this was a bit of fun.

He took a CCC-rank quest today, as apparently, in order to qualify for a rank-up quest, you need a specific number of completed quests under your name.

If you want to go from C to B-rank without the usual slow rank-ups, then you have to complete quests of a higher rank than you, meaning as a C-rank, he has to complete CC or CCC-rank quests.

"I asked you, who sent you and you didn't answer me so, this is on you"

Eon informed, as he began to prepare to kill the man he held by the neck, he took a deep breath trying to shake off the hesitation.

"Wait… wait.. please… I have a family"

Luke fought through the pain and strained his voice as he spoke. He couldn't afford to die here; if that meant begging for his life, then so be it.

Eon let go of the man, causing him to fall to his knees; Luke ignored his own blistered and burned neck and quickly prostrated himself before Eon.

"Please I'm sorry, I didn't want to do this, I just wanted the money for my family, please don't kill me!"

.....

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a comment.