Scene 19

Outcome

The strong tension never faded. Maxias's heart beat beat harshly into rhythm. Even critical situation, he manged to survive until now. Ever time his movements were made, his heart beat beat faster gradually over time. In order for him not to get spotted by his foes were to moving in arbitrarily so they wouldn't expect him from obvious direction. Julin and Duliah couldn't see him that moment, but they knew he was in the boundary somewhere. Just in case, they observed the surrounding to see if they could feel the presence. Then Julin felt something. He dashed to the left side bursting all the flame he was charging from his hand aiming slightly above in the sky. At the same time flames were released, Maxias appeared in the flame. In Julin's eyes, it looked like Maxias was swept by his flames burnt into ashes. However, there were too much of flames exposed to see if he was actually dead or if he was actually alive. When the flames had disappeared in the air, there was no one. Next thing he knew, he could feel the disturbing aura behind him. It was aura that he never felt before. The aura was dark, he could literally feel the sheer coldness within spines. He was something was coming, but was afraid to move because if he did, he sure was going to die if he did. Of course, this applied same for Duliah as well. she wasn't any close to Julin, but she sensed the peril in the air. Even though she had the upper hand, but it was the first time, she felt vulnerable in the battle. The nineteenth scene will cover the rest of the battle between Maxias and two Mages.

From behind, Maxias asked in a low key tone. What he was asking was one thing, but when he lowered his voice to whisper was very intimidating.

"So, I thought you guys had upper hand, and here is your opening. Are you going to attack me?"

Julin hastily hit the ground with his flame coated hand to make a distance from Maxias. Or so he thought. In a blink of an eye, Maxias was already behind him. As soon as he realized he was behind him, he yelled for a help,

"Duliah! Get your mind together!"

Duliah, who was still locked in a thought whether to move or not, she heard Julin's voice. She got herself together, but when she saw the situation, she panicked. She raised her hand to summon dozens of magical circles at once. There were so many, the circles filled the whole boundary. And when circles were fully drawn, waves of water came out of the circles to sweep Maxias once again. This took him off guard, The water did sweep him, but when he was about to go out of boundary, water that were flowing out of control were manipulated to make a shaped of a circle ending up locking him in the water. With azure ball of water floating in the air, she laughed in a way of taunting.

"Ah, the irony, you were the one who should ave given up. I know I couldn't match stamina against you so I had an idea that would make you speechless. You sure can run and hit, but no Mages nor Swordsman can do something when you are in the water, unless you are a Water Mage, which you are not."

Words came out of her mouth were true, mostly anyway. Maxias swung his katana in the water holding his breath for a while now. Seeing what he was doing, Julin looked up at him making fun of him.

"Don't worry about it, what you were thinking will never work, even if you are the Thirteenth Swordsman. You can't possible bring forth the strength to cut the water itself.It looks like you are the one who will become the prey for them. Have fun being a slave."

If he were to be an average human being, he would had been passed out, but he acted casually as if he got all the time he needed. He started by crossing his legs He let go off the katana he was holding making it to float in the water as he slightly rubbed his facial repetitively.
Despite the fact that Julin and Duliah had the upper hand, how Maxias was acting was making them furious. There was nothing they could do. She used most of her mana to perform magic. She only had the power to let go off the water. Nothing less, nothing more. As for, Julin's fire attribute couldn't help anything.

Minute or so passed by, and Maxias finally uncrossed his legs. It looked like he had something on his mind. He first took off the armor he was wearing, chest plate, shoulder pads, and leg protectors as well. When all the parts came off, he was wearing nothing, but his dull torn out gray shirt and matching pants.He then grabbed the katana once again. and swiftly swung it as the bubbles came out of his mouth. The moment, it went to the other side, it passed through the water. When they saw the katana coming out of the water, hey took a few step backwards as they gasped.

"Impossible! You should at least have the strength of a beast to break the surface of the water. I will never allow you to get out of that water."

As she made a fist again, water started to stiffen and eventually formed to be hard as a metal. Now that water became heavy and hard, Maxias's katana got stuck in the middle of the water. He could not take it out now. Then things got complicated. the time was almost over in the water for him. He was at his limit now. Only if he could make a full swing, he could have had break the water, but now that it's stuck, he was out of option. He closed his eyes to concentrate focusing what to do in this very crisis situation, which could be his last chance to strike back. However, the loud voice came from Shikihime from above.

"Stop! Please, stop, please. I beg of you. Can't you see he is out of his limit? I'll be your so called slave, you were talking about, just let him go!"

"Ha! After what he bragged on about constantly? I don't think so. I will finish this and will take you and him."

While she was having a conversation with Shikihime for the first time, Maxias sighed with disappointed look on his face looking at how pathetic she was. He grabbed his katana yet once again and murmured. The moment he murmured as if he was chanting a magic, katana glowed with blue light. It was so bright it blinded everyone who were immersed into the fight. That moment, katana gradually moved down continuing to slice the water.

They gasped when the ball of water cracked into pieces slowly. And not a minute to waste, Maxias came down from the broken water. He was drenched top and down, but he was smiling when he stood up to face two Mages. He pointed his glowing katana at them and asked kindly again.

"You know we can always stop this. I think I damaged you guys enough. That was the premise of this fight, right? You have no mana to fight back now, and you are too predictable. Also since there is no need for me to worry about water, it's only matter of time. So what's it gonna be?"

It took few minutes for them to decide. They both nodded looking at each other. It seemed like they knew when to give up. Unfortunately, before they could open their mouth, someone passed by Maxias and sliced two Mages in half and one female voice was heard.

"Shuunsui: Devastation."

It was just a second, but when Shikihime looked down she could see every Mages that were surrounding in the alley were massacred in an instant. With frightened face, she stared down at the female who did this. This girl wasn't looking at her, but she knew what she was going to say something so she saved some time because her blabbering about how much she killed was not going to make her guilty. She turned around to face Maxias. Then she greeted him with disturbing words.

"Save it, princess. And as for you, can't even beat these weaklings, Maxias? These guys are all garbage,"