Scene 17

Drenched

The alley was filled with crowded Mages who were betting on who was going to win and some just drank their beverages that were brought from the bars. One thing for sure, they cared about their bet and money, but they wanted to see blood out of the three Mages. Yes, all they wanted to see one tearing apart with another. On the outside they might be laughing, cheering, and jolly, but in actuality, inside, they were viscous and thirst for blood., They were smirking waiting to see one get worn out. The Mages all had same intent. When fight were to be over, they were expecting to get one of the torn out Mage and enslaved them when they were out of the strength.

Slavery, It was no doubt a major crime, Despite the fact that it was a crime, secretly, Mages tend to enjoy beating Mages into pulp and own them. Of course they locked the Mages who became their slaves. They were collared by chains and owners taped their mouths so they could not call for a help. To go into more depth, the slavery history went all the way back. Thousand years ago, when Mages and Hellbeasts lived all together, there was no hierarchy. There was no rank and the society in the world wasn't governed by anyone. Thereby, someone who was strong got it all. They had power, fame, and worth. They took out many Mages and eventually made them into their slaves. And so on, these kind of Mages gathered together all over the place to make a group called Seindesrado Hories (Sacred Orders). They did all the viscous, cruelest things as possible. They sold, traded, even whipped slaves until they die because they got bored of them. The Mages were only objects to them, own, use, throw away, and get a new one. It was ridiculous cycle. However, nothing lasted forever, many years later, resistance were made and eventually, broke the slavery cycle system. The slavery system were banned and those who went against the law, were executed right away.

Unfortunately, this too was not enough. Sure, the law is still at it and numbers had decreased a lot in years, but there were still Mages those who tried to own other Mages for fun. Due to this, place such as dark alley was made so all the Mages who went bout of the boundary could do illegal things while hiding from all those who were against them. Seeing it was made meant the places were heavily guarded and hard to be found. The seventeenth scene yet again covers the battle scene against Julin and Duliah.

Maxias, observing the surroundings, right away knew what they were up to. He shook his head with a pity look on his face. Then he sighed when he looked toward Julin and Duliah.

"You know what this means right? If one of us loses the fight might become slaves you know. Hmm, let's see when one of us are heavily damaged and tired out, they will wait until one of us is vulnerable. Well, then again, I don't have to explain to you guys, since you are one of

them."

"You are sure worthy opponent, but it's two against one and I already see you finally sweating now. Are you confident that you are capable of winning against us?"

Maxias started stretching his legs and arms getting ready for the fight. He stared right through them with full of disappointment.

"Ha!~ you naive fools, battle isn't over until it's over. Never let your guard down. No matter what the consequences, you have to fight until you are unable to. Don't you just assume who is going to win and who is going to lose. Now, now, now, the matter in this fight is how much stamina one could hold. Welp, I don't know about you guys, but I am pretty confident about my stamina, so the problem is are you?"

When they heard what Maxias had said, they were pretty pissed off. Duliah was a bit unstable, the water demon shook to breakdown, but Julin calmed her down in just the right time to stable the water demon again.

"Che, che, che, stamina? are you being serious? there is something called boundary in here. And within this boundary, you cannot go out, which means that if all the ground within this circle is wet, you are basically in my boundary."

When she rose her hand, water demon too rose its arm. Then the good chunk of water sprouted like the water sprinkles, except the water spread to surround the circle Now there was no escape for Maxias. every escape route was closed, every gap, every single inches that connected to outside of the circle was now taken by the thin solid water. He observed the surrounding him. It didn't look to good seeing every Mages outside dyed in color of the ocean from inside the circle. He cautiously knocked on the solid water with his katana as he raised his voice to ask.

"Hmm, smart move here, but on the other hand, it could be a stupid move. This amount of usage of magical power might consume almost all the mana you have. Do you think you can withstand until that blue monster behind you gets destroyed?"

Duliah didn't answer to that question. She went right ahead to use her water manipulation to control the demon behind her to punch Maxias. Maxias swiftly dodged the punch, but Julin was at it again. He was coming from left side pumping up fire in his both hands. He then threw a punch tackling at him at the same time. However, the attack was too obvious to see. He slightly moved his shoulder back to avoid the punch and smashed him down with his sheathe.

"Are you guys for real? You were full of surprises, what happened to all that? Your moves are getting all sloppy. I am starting to lose interest in you guys."

Maxias slowly shook his head with disappointment as he kicked Julin over to Duliah's side. He then gripped his katana pulling away up to his chest pointing ahead. He took left leg front and right leg back to make a move again.

"Streaming Waters."

With a swift movement, he quickly went over to Julin and Duliah and flourished his katana wide. In reality he swung six slashes in the air. The swing he made was so fast, it made it look like he was just slashing once. At that very moment, atmosphere around changed and air pressure got heavier. Each slashes Maxias made caused the vibration around him. When vibration spread out, invisible waves came out of the the katana in each swing cutting everything around him.

"Gyuutoku style: Wind's whisper."

With a slight of a wind sound in the air, Julin and Duliah were cut instantly. The slashes gave them two crossed lines on their chests and as for the monstrous water behind her was cut in half making destroying the demon form of the water. One of the portion of the water that was manipulated splashed far back out. Thankfully, the water got absorbed by the water that was surrounding the boundary. Thankfully, other half of the body was stabled. It was a bit shaky, but it stayed standing.

While Julin and Duliah checking their wounds, Maxias took this opportunity to get behind them. However, Duliah made her move first by making a hard fist and let go. And when she did, The rest of the monstrous demon turned into plain water again. When it did, the water that was surrounding the boundary fell down drenching all the humid ground. Of course, since Maxias was in the ring, he was soaking wet with ice cold water.

Duliah covered her wound with her hand looking toward Maxias and raised her voice.

"You thought the water I set up was just a show? I set it up just in case I am out of my mana. I had some more time to hold it up, but since it's sliced, I am gonna have to go with plan B, faster than I thought.."

Duliah and Julin faced Maxias eye to eye stretching her arms and legs getting ready to start round two. She asked as she manipulated small portion of water on the ground to make forms of hundreds of bullets in the air as she finally smiled at drenched Swordsman who was now in a pinch.