It looked like things weren't going all that smoothly for the ice magician attacking the transcended earth magician as one would expect.

Despite Xeonith panicking and almost wetting his pants, when it came to the strength and amount of spells he could lash out at the moment's notice he wasn't a pushover by any means.

The brown-haired capture target despite being an absolute scum was a powerful transcended earth magician and although the ice mana's aura hampered the speed at which his spells appeared after he shouted the incantation, the spells themselves were still just as strong and managed to keep the murderer at bay.

It appears that the two were at a stalemate.

Until the murderer could actually physically grab Xeonith or hit him with a spell, there was no way to seal his mana flow completely.

"Haa… Good…

"

Zoemi breathed out and his breath became a white mist, the ice attribute was truly fearsome…

…and so was the expression on the face of the black-haired boy.

Having Xeonith die by the hands of the murderer while pissing himself from fear would be good, poetic even – but the beastly voice inside of him was roaring for participation.

"Shadow connect – cobweb

"

Zoemi clenched his fists and activated a mixed spell, the next second tens and hundreds of hair-width shadow sprouted up from beneath his feet and connected to every single shadow inside the warehouse, essentially making it the boy's territory.

——

"ROCK BARRAGE! ROCK BLAST! ROCK…!

"

Xeonith was shouting his lungs out, keeping the spells coming and forcing the pale-blue-haired man to keep his distance…

"HMPH!

"

The murderer scoffed and stomped his foot and a wave of ice erupted from underneath it, throwing itself at the brown-haired boy.

"EARTH WALL! STONE WALL! STONE BARRAGE!

"

The direct attack was immediately stopped by the mound of soil breaking through the wooden floor, followed closely by a much bigger and sturdier one that instantly started shooting out pieces of itself forcing the murderer to jump back and dodge, often tanking the missiles with his body covered in a protective layer of ice.

"STONE BLAST!

"

*BOOOOOOM*

"GHU-AGH…!

"

No matter how pitiful the squeals of the heir of the Derizno family were, the way he chained his spells together was impressive – as the projectiles stuck into the ice armor exploded at his next incantation, throwing the ice-magician back and slamming him against the wall and caused him to spit out a mouthful of blood.

"Stone…! Huh…?! Ah!

"

Xeonith was in the middle of the next panicky incantation when he realized that there was something wrong since the oppressive freezing aura had subsided substantially and he even dared to peek over from his defenses – ending up gasping with excitement.

"Ahahahaha! Of course! Who do you think I am?! No maniac stands up a chance against me!

"

The brown-haired boy changed from the fearful to overconfident in a matter of second which was a common trait of a coward and laughed at the wounded man.

"Why don't you come over and finish me off the? Fucking Deriznos' brat!

"

The pale-blue-haired man spat out more blood and bared his teeth in a furious grin.

He tried to raise his hand to properly aim the ice spear and impale the cheeky brat but he realized a bit too late that his arms were really messed up with muscles and tendons, his right shoulder had even exposed bones, cracked because of the explosion.

"Pffft…! AHAHAHAHAHA! Say whatever you want, loser – nothing changes the fact that I overpowered you by my superior tactics!

"

"Pissing yourself count's as a tactic? At least have enough shame to admit that you overpowered me because you put more mana in your offensive spells than I did to my defensive ones – you have as many tactics as those pants of yours frozen solid because of urine.

"

The brown-haired boy laughed triumphantly but was put back in his place instantly by the scruffy pale-blue-haired man.

"…bark as much as you want, dog. But it is I Xeonith Zarble Derizno am the one to discover your identity and will put your crimes to an end!

"

Xeonith gritted his teeth but having his opponents on the ropes helped cool down his temper and regain his composure – which only lead to making him become that much more proud and confident.

"Discover my identity…? Are you kidding me…?

"

"…!

"

The pale-blue-haired man twitched and glared up at the brown-haired boy, making him flinch and step right back behind his magic walls.

"I am Ludier Galamroze, the pawns of your father assassinated my family to get their hands on the mines in my territory. It was your father who pushed me into this… so I will make sure that he will learn the taste of his own medicine!

"

Ludier growled and the temperature around him dropped like a rock, freezing over his ow wounds and spreading ice and frost all around him.

"Ha! As if that will work now! Stone ar…

"

*STAB*

Xeonith snorted mockingly, still completely sure of his advantage – the brown-haired boy was about to use the spell turning himself into a golem to make sure that there will be a protective barrier between him and the pale-blue-haired man – but before he could finish his incantation he felt an odd stinging in his left foot and looked down…

…to see a bloodied translucent blade piercing right through his foot…

*SLASH*

…that chopped off half of it the next moment before sinking back into the darkness…!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

"

"?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

"

Xeonith screamed and threw himself back while the fresh wound was spraying blood everywhere, leaving Ludier completely speechless.

This certainly wasn't his doing, as silly as it sounds, his specialties were spears and other piercing projectiles, not actual blades…

"Huh…?!

"

But to add to the weirdness of the situation, the pale-blue-haired man suddenly felt someone's palm touching his back, even though he was supposed to be by the wall…!

No, he DEFINITELY was by the wall!

Who's hand was it?!

"…?!

"

His shock turned into bewilderment when a wave of relief spread through his body in an instant.

One quick look at his wounds was enough to notice all of the healing at a rapid speed, within the few seconds that Xeonith spend tossing and screaming his lungs off, the bloody ragged clothes were the only proof that the pale-blue-haired man was ever hurt.

"What the FUCK is going on here…?!

"

Ludier cursed and, moving away from the wall, saw only a murky shadow in the spot where he was sitting just a moment ago as if the light didn't work properly and forgot to illuminate that one spot.

"C-clay forming…!

"

Xeonith managed to cry out while holding onto what was left of his foot, using the same spell that he made a muzzle for Burushi to stop the bleeding.

"Damn it…! Fuk…! Fuck…! How did y… YOU…?!

"

The brown-haired boy cursed, wiping the tears and snot off of his face, but ended up almost falling over – again – once he saw thee healed up Ludier coming his way.

The pale-blue-haired man was confused about the person – or a group of people – helping him, but he wasn't going to bother figuring it all out while his target was right in front of him.

"Ice pike. Ice lance.

"

Ludier spoke, using the incantations for the first time during that confrontation and two massive spear-like ice projectiles appeared on both sides of his body as he controlled them with his hands.

"Derizno boy, which is quicker in your opinion? Your rocks or my ice?

"

The pale-blue-haired man's face brightened up by a maniacal grin when his readied spells trembled, ready to pierce the brown-haired boy the moment he tries to make his move.

"S…! STONE ARMOR!

"

It turned out that Xeonith was unwilling to compete against Ludier with his attack spells, opting for the protective earth spell that turned him into a ten-foot-tall golem – which was less than half of the destroyed warehouse's height.

But in turn, Xeonith's giving his full attention to Ludier was the objective of the sneaky helper watching over the entire skirmish…

"WHAT THE…?!

"

Funnily enough, Ludier was also the one to notice what was going under the roof o the warehouse, right above the Xeonith's golem-like body, and made him let out a shocked shout that unfortunately made the brown-haired boy look in the same direction too…

"HUH?!

"

That is why the emergence of the monstrous humanoid beast wielding a long translucent ice blade was witnessed by both the murderer and his future victim.

"Boo.

"

The beastly shadow warrior scoffed and burst out of the massive murky shadow, cascading onto the stunned Xeonith like an unrelenting waterfall.

*SHING* *SHING*

*SPLURT*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRFFFFFGGGGGGGGGGGG…!

"

The ice blade sang a mortal song and the hands of the stone golem were trimmed to pitiful stubs that started spraying out crimson blood everywhere as Xeonith stumbled back while screaming in pain while the beastly warrior simply disappeared into the murky shadow that spread on the floor from below the golem's feet as if it was a deep body of water.

"Honestly, I thought that I would be killing a spoiled but otherwise innocent kid to make his father feel the same pain that I did… but I guess that might not be the case… Or am I missing something.

"

Ludier raised squinted his eyes and looked to the side, away from the thrashing brown-haired boy and straight at the shadowy figure that simply stepped out of the murky darkness behind one of the warehouse's support pillars.

"As long as you don't have anything against the Espine family or any of my friends, I am your ally in this fight, sir Galamroze…. but first… Filth, I merely cut off the tips of your fingers and thumbs, seal it with clay and get back up, trash – it's time for you to learn what true despair tastes like… and die.

"

"…!

"

Zoemi nodded at the pale-blue-haired man, surprising him with knowledge about his identity, but without going into details, he turned around and glared down at the wailing Xeonith while making sure that the pieces of mana-infused rock that he cut off would sink right into his shadow and add up to his mana pool.