“Zenith, is that really you?” she said, tears forming in her eyes.

 

My headache is becoming more intense as this starts. “I’m sorry, do I know you?” I ask her.

 

“Do you really not know me? Its Lucy.” she tells me.

 

“I really don’t. Can you let go of me” I ask her.

 

“Not until I get answers. Please just try”

 

“I don’t know what you want from me. Just let go” I say, trying to pull away from her, but I can’t. Based on her strength, she is a hunter. It’s common knowledge that even a level 2 hunter is stronger than any normal person who hasn’t unlocked the status yet.

 

But before the woman could say anything else, the girl started saying something. “Ms. Lucy, we need to focus on the task”

 

“That’s not important anymore, Ava. If Elijah was wrong then things might be different then what we thought. This could explain things” Lucy told this girl, Ava. When I had heard Ava talk, it sounded familiar but also wrong in some way. And the things that the women brought up in that last comment made my head hurt even more, and she was holding even tighter onto my arm, not letting me get away.

 

Trying to find a path out of this situation, I thought of yelling for help from my family.

 

But then, suddenly, the woman's arm was grabbed. Looking over at who it was, I saw Aria, and she looked super pissed.

 

“What the hell are you doing with my brother!” she said to the women.

 

“Your brother? Who the hell do you think you are?” the woman said to Aria, finally letting go of my arm.

 

“Ms. Lucy, this is one of the targets, Aria Black, holder of the absolute darkness skill” the girl, Ava said.

 

“You know who I am? What the hell is going on?” Aria asked them.

 

“Shit, this is her? Why is she with Zenith?”

 

“The boy is of no importance. He is not the other target”

 

“Fine, contact Elijah and tell him that we made contact with her. I’ll try to subdue her until he gets here” the woman said, pulling out a sword out of thin air. I have heard that's what it looks like when someone pulls something out of their inventory.

 

✾

 

It took Aria and Anthem a few seconds before they noticed that Zenith was no longer behind them.

 

‘You go back and find him, I'll wait for you here” Anthem told Aria. And with that, she went back to look for him.

 

While waiting though, someone came up to talk to Anthem.

 

“Excuse me” she said to him. When he turned to see who it was, he found one of the girls who he had given the orientation too.

 

‘Your… Abby right?” he asked her.

 

“Um, yes I am. I saw you and wanted to come over and say hi” Abby said, very sheepishly.

 

“Oh, well, hi. I am actually waiting for someone” he told her.

 

‘Well, if that's the case, I’ll be quick. Can we exchange numbers?” she asked him.

 

This was pretty normal for Anthem. He was often asked for his number by girls. It was the main way he kept up his playboy lifestyle. He agreed and started to give her his number.

 

“There you go. Text me anytime.” He said, knowing why she was doing this.

 

But before the two of them could say anything else, two men cam up to the two of them.

 

“Yeah, I think that's him.” one of them said coming up to the two of them.

 

“Yeah, let's see?” the other said. “Hey, you Anthem Black?” he asked.

 

“Um, yeah. Who are you?” Anthem responded.

 

“That's not important, but we're going to need you to come with us” one of them says. The two of them then pull out magic guns, a type of weapon created since the dungeon's appearance. They then open fire on Anthem.

 

✾

 

Lucy quickly started to attack Aria. Lucy seemed to be at least competent to Aria who quickly moved out of the way of her attacks. She was in no way ready for a fight right now, and needed to protect Zenith from this person.

 

She still had no idea why the hell she what she was trying to do with Zenith, but he was her main priority right now.

 

Aria’s main ability was her absolute darkness skill, which gave her the ability to control darkness itself. She could form shadows into anything she needed. Currently she was creating a shield to block the attacks from Lucy.

 

Unbonst to Aira, Lucy was not a very powerful hunter, so she was way outclassed in the fight. She was only still standing because Aria refused to counter attack when Zenith was still there. Aria was very self conscious about using her skills in front of Zenith.

 

So their fight continues like that, Lucy trying to force Aria into a corner, and Aria continuing to dodge and block.

 

Then, Aria started to see something. Instead of just one person attacking her, it seemed that there were a dozen people attacking her.

 

This was the work of Lucy’s companion, Ava. Ava was a skilled user of illusions, which she was currently using to mess with Aria. She was making it seem like there were many more people attacking her then there actually were.

 

This lead Lucy to actually get the advantage. While she was blocking an attack from one of the illusions, Aria would then be hit by an attack from the real Lucy.

 

This causes Aria to back off from them. Knowing that she has to actually try to overcome the annoying illusion magic.

 

But she still needs to protect Zenith. When she looks back over at him, she notices that he does not seem to be doing very good. When she saw him talking to the two of them, she already thought something was wrong with him, but it seems to only be getting worse.

 

Deciding to end the fight quickly, she fully activates her skill.

 

In a second, an orb of darkness forms around the three fighters, Lucy, Ava and Aria. Then after only a second of the orb being up, it falls and the two attackers are on the ground. The two of them are still alive, but both were knocked out by Aria.

 

The orb works by making a room of complete darkness, which can then be used to do whatever to the people inside. Since she has complete control inside of the orb, she just hit them in the head so they got knocked out.

 

Aria then makes her way back to Zenith to check up on him.

 

“Zenith, it's going to be ok. I dealt with the two of them” she said to him.

 

“Yes, you most certainly did deal with them” Someone said from behind Aria.

 

When she turned to see who it was, she saw a man’s face who every hunter in the country knows. Elijah.

 

“Hello, Aria Black. You have something I need.” He says to her.

 

“What the hell is that” She says.

 

“Your skill, Absolute Darkness”

 

“My skill is unique and intrinsic. You can’t have it”

 

“Oh, that won’t stop me. It seems all I have to do is make you break a promise to your brother. I don’t really know what that means though. So, what could you have promised Anthem”

 

“What the hell are you talking about?”

 

“What is the promise you made to Anthem?”

 

“I don’t know? I don’t think I have ever made a promise with Anthem”

 

“Well, that makes things complicated. But I’ll figure it out”

 

Elijah then pulls out a sword from his inventory and gets ready to fight Aria.

 

But before their fight can begin, Zenith says something.

 

“Who… are you?” Zenith said, looking at Elijah. And when Elijah looks back at him, his eyes go wide.

 

“Shit, what are you doing here?” He says to Zenith.

 

But all this seems to do is piss off Aria. Quickly rushing Elijah while he is distracted, Aria creates a dagger from darkness and hits Elijah with it.

 

“Talk to my brother again, and I’ll just kill you”

 

“Your brother, huh. Not just one of them. That was my mistake.” Elijah said, getting up. He pulled a potion from his inventory and drank it, healing his wound. He was also getting angry with that attack.

 

But before any more attacks could be made by either side, a group of swords of light fell between the two of them. And Anthem joined the fight.

 

“Aria, you need to take Zenith and get out of here. Contact the association and get backup as well.” He said, not taking his eyes off of Elijah.

 

“I can’t just leave you.” Aria said.

 

“ARIA! Zenith is my top priority right now, you need to make sure he is safe. I’ll deal with this guy” he says, snapping her out of her rage towards Elijah.

 

And with that, Aria takes Zenith, who had only gotten worse, and bring him to safety, leaving Anthem to deal with Elijah.

 

✾

 

As the two men pulled out their magic guns, Anthem moved to protect Abby who was still standing with him.

 

Magi guns worked by charging a magazine with MP which then shot a number of shots. This meant that they did not have unlimited ammo and would eventually need to reload. Anthem had created several shields of light protecting both Abby and the crowd behind him.

 

Unlike Aria who used more rough constructs, Anthem took care to create his shields, having them appear as a traditional western knight's shield with a visible intricate design. There were around a dozen of them between the two attackers and him.

 

Eventually the volley stops and Anthem is given a chance to make a move.

 

“Abby, you need to run and get everyone still in the area to leave as well. When you get away, contact the authorities and tell them a hunter is attacking the area.” He said quickly to the girl still with him. When the shots first went out a lot of people started to run away.

 

Abby listened and ran at the first shot she got. This left Anthem alone to take care of his two attackers.

 

“I don’t know who the two of you are, but I am not going to take this lightly” Anthem said to them, glowing armor of light forming around him. His absolute light skill allowed him to create constructs out of light, something he used to create armor and weapons. He could also create pure energy blasts with it, but those would create exes damage to the area.

 

“Don’t take it lightly. We need you to be weakened so when our boss gets here he doesn't need to work that hard.” one of the men says, loading a red magazine into his gun.

 

The color of the magazine represented the magic type in the gun, and red meant fire. When he opened fire again, the bullets burned. When they made contact with the shields, they made little puffs of fire. Anthem then lowered the shields and charged the two attackers.

 

Anthem was a powerful mixed attacker, who had no qualms using all of his skill right now. He created a broadsword out of light and used it to try and break the magic gun the attacker was using.

 

Since there were two of them, this gave one of them a chance to move away and shot at Anthem directly.

 

The shots hit the armor and did nothing to Anthem himself.

 

But what it did do was distract him so his partner can move back before his weapon was broken.

 

That was the main weakness of magic gunners. If their weapon breaks they are out of the fight. And guns break easier than swords do. So they mostly deal with medium to long range, and support. But the two of them were fighting a front liner. They had to use any advantage they could find, including distractions.

 

Anthem was getting annoyed. The attacks from the magic guns, much like any magic, scales with the intelligence of the attacker, or for magic guns, the person who loads the magazine. He could tell that the attackers did not have that much power in their shots. They are skilled in combat, but not as hunters.

 

He figured out quickly that they were more used to fighting people. That was how they were dealing with him like they were. He didn’t want to go all out in case there were people around still. This is one of the moments he was jealous of Aria’s skill. She was able to lessen the destruction of her skill pretty easily. He was the opposite. Pushing his skill to the limit caused a massive amount of destruction around him.

 

So he just needed to hold back a little. While still attacking one of the two, He created a little ball of light behind him. He could launch this ball like an energy blast. It was pretty low power compared to what he could do inside a dungeon, but it would more than do the trick here. Due to the fact that he is in the middle of the two of them meant he didn’t have eyes on one of them.

 

So when he next attacked, and a shot came from right behind him to distract him, instead he continued forward and shot the energy blast right behind him. Since it was a blast of light, it moved just as fast. He then followed through with his attack on the attacker in front of him, cut his gun apart and knocked him out.

 

Turning to see the other attacker, he saw that he was holding his side, and a big chuck of that side was missing. This was nothing a strong healing potion couldn’t fix, and based on their gear, this group was definitely well funded.

 

Going over to the one holding his side, he picks the man up and holds a new sword to his throat.

 

“Who the hell are you?” Anthem asks him

 

Through grunts, the man answers. “We are members of the kings end guild. We came here so our leader could obtain your and your sisters skills.”

 

“What the hell are you talking about? Our skills are unique. How could he obtain them?”

 

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” the man said. Anthem then hit the man with the hilt of his sword and knocked him out.

 

Knowing that his main priority should be finding Aria and regrouping, he goes to look for her, and hoping she found Zenith, and hoping the two of them are ok.

 

Going through the festival grounds, he noticed that most people had gotten away. This meant that wherever he ended up, he could go all out. He eventually finds an area with Aria standing between Zenith and a man he recognized.

 

The man was the leader of the group he had learned was attacking them, Elijah and the kings end guild. He also saw two women on the ground by them. Zenith didn’t seem to be doing well. He had seen Zenith having a panic attack before, and this is exactly what it looked like.

 

Deciding that now that he can go all out, he would get Zenith and Aria out, and take on Elijah until someone came to help. If Aria got away she could contact the association and they could send over other S ranks. And they could have proper equipment.

 

When approaching there fight, he sees Aria prepare for a fight against Elijah. Quickly stoping the charge by placing a number of swords between the two of them, he drops between the two of them.

 

“Aria, you need to take Zenith and get out of here. Contact the association and get backup as well.” Anthem said to Aria.

 

“I can’t just leave you” she said, with a bit of anger in her voice.

 

“ARIA! Zenith is my top priority right now, you need to make sure he is safe. I’ll deal with this guy” Anthem says, making sure she knew why he was telling her this.

 

Anthem knew that she was uncomfortable using her skill in front of Zenith, so as long as he was there, there was very little she could do.

 

They quickly left, leaving Anthem to deal with Elijah.

 

“Well, I can always get absolute darkness another time” Elijah said, then looked right at Anthem. “Lets see what I have to do for you” he then said.

 

“What the hell are you talking about? Your underling said you needed our skills. How does that work?”

 

“That's not important. But can I ask you a question. What the hell is this promise you and your sister made to Zenith?”

 

This surprised Anthem. Knowing who Aria and him were was expected. Hunter license for association members are public records. Their skills and status are unknown, but their names and faces aren’t. But there is no way this man should know who Zenith is.

 

“How the hell do you know my brother’s name?” Anthem said, with pure rage in his voice.

 

“That is quite complicated. And not important. If you aren’t going to tell me this promise, then I think we only have one thing left to do” He said, then attacked quickly with a blast of fire.

 

Anthem blocked the attack quickly with a light shield. He then blasted back with several different beams of light.

 

But an orb of light is formed around Elijah, completely blocking the light beams.

 

Anthem, noticing the light, is completely surprised.

 

“That’s reflect magic. You have access to that high level of a skill”. Reflect magic is a form of light magic that was obtainable only via skill orb or as an intrinsic skill. It was considered very high level, and very powerful.

 

“Why wouldn’t I have powerful skills? I am the leader of the dark guild Kings End. I will obtain any power I must for my goals”

 

Trying to close the distance in the fight, Anthem used one of the abilities he has from absolute light, a pseudo teleportation. He becomes a group of light particles, then reappears somewhere else. And where he ends up is right behind Elijah.

 

He tries to cut him down, dealing massive damage to Elijah and pushing him back.

 

When he gets back up, he coughs and blood comes out of his mouth.

 

“Wow, it seems you are a lot more powerful then I saw coming. Even to the point where my skill’s second effect activated. I might also need to try a lot harder to deal with you.”

 

“What the hell are you talking about know”

 

“Nothing that important. But let me ask you, why would you need to promise to never hurt Zenith again?” Elijah asked.

 

Anthem had no clue where he had learned this. It was true that Anthem and Aria promised Zenith they would never hurt him again, but that was something only the two of them knew about. Not even Zenith was awake when the promise was made.

 

Getting more annoyed with Elijah's constant questions, Anthem decided to stop talking back to him and just focus on the fight. This time, the aggressor was Elijah. He fired more fire at Anthem, but he blocked it again. Or at least he tried.

 

This attack was far more powerful than the last fire attack, and was even a different color. Fire magic, unlike light and dark magic, didn’t have a different form, so Anthem was confused by the change in color, since all fire magic was the same color, no matter the user.

 

“Oh, it doesn't seem like you know that one. That was inferno magic, a unique skill held by a hunter out of australia. It's just like fire magic, but more powerful” Elijah said.

 

This just confused Anthem. He had heard of the inferno magic user. The man was on the way to becoming a national rank hunter, the highest rank a hunter can become. His fire magic was really strong. But he had no clue how Elijah could have someone else's unique skill.

 

But before anything else could happen, more hunters came rushing into the area.

 

“Well, it seems my time is done for the day. I’ll be seeing you again, Anthem” Elijah said, then used his inferno magic to create a wall of fire between him and the hunters. They could see him grab the two unconscious women and leave. A few people tried to follow, but there was nothing they could do.

 

✾

 

As we run away from the festival, my head continues to pound. I have no clue what was going on, but when I saw that man who Aria fought and Anthem is fighting now, I felt an uncontrollable hatred towards him.

 

I have no clue who he is. All I knew was that I hated him.

 

We had gotten pretty far away from the festival when we stopped and Aria called the association and told them that the kings end guild attacked the festival. Since we live near a major city with several guilds, the association said they would send everyone they could.

 

“Aria, you have to go back and help him” I told Aria.

 

“I can’t. The only reason he can do what he is doing now, is because he knows you're with me. As long as you are near there, I need to be with you” she told me.

 

“Ok” I say back to her and sit down on the ground. My headache kept getting worse and worse. I had no clue what was going on but it felt like the world was coming down around me.

 

And that continued, until my head just gave out and I collapsed on the ground, and fall unconscious.

 

As this happens, I hear Aria call out to me.