243 Diversion of Fire (1/2)

Then, without any warning, the assistant dashed into the flames. His figure disappeared as he ran through the orange and white fire, seemingly disappearing or burning away. No one could tell which was true.

Official Harolt, as well as the other officials, all gathered around the fire, trying to encompass it and soak all remaining tenants. Well, everyone thought official Harolt was doing that. Instead, he disappeared among all the chaos.

Not only did he disappear but he seemed to vanish out of thin air in the blink of an eye. And since no one was keeping their eye on him like before, the man had successfully escaped his responsibilities and fled from the scene of the fire.

Within the flames that's all there was, flames.

Assistant Loire was adept at using fire with his quick attacks and throwing knives. He even wore fireproof clothing in order to better handle his own overwhelming flames. However, even with his skill and aptitude for fire, Assistant Loire was sweating and he could tell that his clothes were still intact but wouldn't be able to survive direct contact with such intense heat.

The assistant weaved through the flaming tents, making sure not to touch them directly. He squeezed by them as fast as possible in order to quickly find the source of the flash fire. It took longer than he would've wanted, but he did manage to make it to the center of the camp.

There was nothing left. The flames had already extinguished themselves because there was nothing left to burn. All that remained was charred ground and gravel with sprinkles of ash covering everything. Also, there was a man standing there, staring back at Assistant Loire.

”Someone finally decided to show up.”

Assistant Loire scoffed as he wiped the sweat from his brow. ”Who are you and why are you doing this?”

”I thought you'd be able to tell?” laughed the man as he held his arms open wide, showing off his Sandros uniform.

”You… You're with Sandros?”

”So, are you here to stop me or question me?” asked the man, still laughing while keeping calm.

”Why can't I do both?” Assistant Loire charged the man at full speed. His dashed steps covered the distance needed as he lunged at the man with a flaming knife.

That man only kept laughing as the knife reached its target but then flew right through it. It was then that Assitant Loire realized that the man's image started to disperse and become more illusory. A solemn look filled with fear crossed Assitant Loire's face.

”Did you really think it would be that easy? Mages like myself wouldn't be able to reach my rank without being able to deal with hand-to-hand combat specialists, like yourself.”

Just when he thought he had avoided the disaster with the fireball whizzing past his face, a second fireball slammed into his back, launching him forward into the ground and burning away the back of his commissioned jacket.

”Come on, that all you got? I thought you'd at least put up a challenge.” The illusory man's figure had returned to view but on the opposite end of the clearing. ”But if you've got nothing else, can you just jump into the flames and save me some time? You won't be able to stop me like this.”

Assistant Loire threw off his coat and let it burn away to cinders. ”Fine, I guess there's no talking, is there?” He twirled dual-wielding daggers as they lit themselves on fire, with the same brightness of the mystery man's flames. ”I guess this will be a good test to see who's stronger. An assistant from Limneer or a lieutenant from Sandros.”

”Hurry up and get serious or I'll get bored and burn everything else to the ground,” the mystery man continued to mock Assistant Loire

Not giving in to the taunt, Assistant Loire once again charged at the mystery man, but this time while hurling flaming knives in order to avoid falling for the same trick twice.

Like before the man's figure became more illusory as knives flew through him but he didn't disperse fully and somehow came back together after each knife passed through him. This only confused the assistant even further but all he could do was continue the attack until he could find a way to stop the man.