Warlock Apprentice

While Bobota went to investigate Angor, Angor was having a really bad day on his end.

He rode a sky bus away from the Tree Spirit Garden and when he got off at the Cave Field Stop, he was attacked before he could enter the apprentice town.

The ambusher was a woman’s soul hidden in the woods.

Silvia.

Again, Silvia used her Howling of Souls which tingled Angor’s mind just a little. Next, Angor heard someone laughing in a low voice.

“As I expected. Attempts to shock your soul will not have much effect on you.”

The speaker stood on a tree branch. The hood of his loose wizard robe completely covered his face.

However, Angor already recognized the individual by the strange yet distinctive laughter of the man.

“Saka… you came looking for death so soon?” Angor revealed a grim expression. He had not planned to deal with Saka yet, but the man came to him first.

Saka smiled nonchalantly. “Oh, don’t be mad. I’m just delivering a message for you. Well, maybe also use this chance to do a tiny test on the soul of my third star…”

As Saka talked, Angor began to construct a spell model in his mind space.

Angor could not use Quickened Spells, but thanks to his Axes of the Universe, he could cast spells a lot faster than an average apprentice. By the time Saka noticed the mana ripples from Angor, Angor already had his spell ready—a faint crescent-shaped object appeared around his palm.

Woosh!

A semitransparent wind blade was unleashed toward Saka.

In the last blink second, Saka jumped away, and the wind blade only managed to tear a part of his robe off. The blade crushed inside a tree trunk behind, causing branches and leaves to scatter.

With a swift backflip, Saka landed beside Silvia.

“As I said, I’m only giving you a messa-”

Angor’s second attack came at Saka, along with another shadow which pierced the air with great speed.

Angor used both wind blade and a golden bolt this time. One aimed at Saka’s center, one at his head.

Battles between apprentices were mostly determined by who moved first. Wasting breath before a fight could well cause someone to lose the entire fight.

Saka was not a bloodline user, and he did not have enough physical reflexes to avoid both attacks. However, he was not alone—when the smoke cloud caused by the attacks cleared up, a muscular figure showed up in front of Saka.

‘Venus’ Herrington, the second soul owned by Saka.

There was a faint barrier made of air in front of Herrington which deflected Angor’s wind blade and golden bolt.

“Okay… I thought you’d accept the test as a thank-you after receiving my message. If this is what you want, I’ll take the initiative,” Saka’s voice came from behind Herrington. “I wonder…”

Herrington moved. The bulky soul rushed toward Angor at an insane speed.

“You can resist negative effects on your soul, but can you stand against direct soul attacks? I’m going to get the result today,” Saka spoke from under his robe.

Out of instinct, Angor created an ice wall in front of him to prevent the sudden attack. However, he immediately regretted it when he saw the form of Herrington’s semi-transparent soul moving through the ice wall like it was nothing.

Angor rolled aside and barely avoided the rush. He did not know anything that could cause damage to souls yet, so he still placed his attention on Saka. If he could take this man down, all problems would be solved.

While supporting himself on his left palm, Angor released a series of wind blades from his right hand. More than ten wind blades went for Saka’s vital spots as well as the possible escaping routes around him.

Angor was confident that Herrington would not help Saka survive this one.

“Ho… You’ve grown pretty fast. You can use Crescent Barrage already? And a fivefold one at that,” Saka sounded cheerful. “Now that’s my precious!”

Angor was sure Saka could not get away this time. This psycho might use defensive spells to repel the attacks. However, Angor never expected to get rid of Saka so easily. He had his revolver and Trigger Crossbow as well as enough mana to cast a 30-shot Crescent Barrage, so he planned to wear Saka down bit by bit.

But what happened next quickly voided his plan—Saka did not use anything to protect himself. The wind blades all landed on Saka’s body, tearing the man into several parts.

“He died so fast? No, not likely…” Angor regained balance and frowned at the sight. He could not find any trace of illusion. The blood stains on the ground and blood streaming out from the damaged arteries seemed so real.

While Angor had his attention on Saka’s “corpse”, something suddenly covered him up from above.

Herrington dropped from the air and punched at Angor with a mighty fist covered in light.

Angor tried to move away. It was too late—Herrington’s fist hit his chest in the dead center.

And no, Herrington did not mean to punch. When his fist almost landed on Angor’s body, Herrington spread his hand open and unleashed a beam of light into Angor—toward the depth of Angor’s soul.

Inside the borderless Soul Space, the beam was as small as a trail of dust, but it went direct at Angor’s soul as if something was guiding it.

Without particular means, Angor’s soul was fixed in his Soul Space and could not move around at will. Before the beam could hit his soul though, several green petals moved in front of Angor’s soul as protection. The beam landed on the petal barrier and easily breached them.

The beam was obviously weaker after going through the protection, yet it still managed to reach the soul.

Angor sensed a sharp pain coming from the depth of his soul, which was quickly reflected on his body. Cold sweat instantly covered his forehead. His eyes grew bloodshot, and his muscles began to convulse.

The terrible condition lasted for several seconds. When it ended, Angor collapsed on the ground, exhausted.

Inside the Soul Space, his soul gained a fresh wound from the beam attack. At the same time, the Green Velvet released streams of green light which covered the wound up.

Under the green light, Angor’s damaged soul began to recover.

However, Angor knew nothing about what happened inside him. He only panted heavily on the ground.

The soul of Herrington had vanished after that attack. Angor turned his head weakly and saw Saka’s remains still leaking the smell of fresh blood into the air.

“Did I win?” Angor still had a lot of questions regarding the fight, but the result seemed comforting enough.

The comfort did not last long as Saka’s voice came from somewhere nearby.

“Test result: a direct attack against the soul worked wonderfully. But it was weakened to almost 20% of the original power… what a brilliant soul you have, my dear.”

Angor’s pupils constricted. “Saka? You’re still alive?”

Saka sounded as if trying to hold back his laughter with great effort. “To soul wizards, death is only the beginning. But I’m not strong enough to throw away my bodies just yet. We had a good time today! A brief reunion will lead to another beautiful encounter. We shall meet again.”

Saka’s voice grew more distant until it was muffled by the sound of the wind.

Angor stayed on the ground for a while to regain strength. Saka did not show up again when Angor could barely get up, which meant the man probably left for good.

But how?

Angor looked at the broken body on the dirt and wondered.

He suddenly noticed a round-shaped object laying beside a body part entangled in broken wizard robe. It looked like a… crystal ball transmitter.

He could walk now, but his steps were still unstable.

He decided to check out the object. To be safe, Angor intended to use Hand of Spell to pick it up.

But as he limped closer, someone else suddenly laughed in an eerie voice.

“Tsk. The arrogant fool was talking all big just a while ago. Now, look at him! Poor bastard.”

Angor looked around and saw three men appearing from a bush nearby. It was ‘Raging Blade’ Naru, accompanied by the pair of customers Angor met in Prome’s shop the other day, Queena and Tesla.

Unlike before when Naru threw Dave away like picking up a kitten, the man looked injured all over his body like a defeated dog in a ring fight for animals.

“Hey, boss, that’s the one I was talking about. If he sold you the weapon at a better price, you would have won!” Tesla pointed to Angor and yelled.

Queena chuckled and nodded along.

Naru stared at Angor with hatred. “You, huh?”

Angor sighed. This day was miserable.

“Come at me and be done with it. Unlike you lot, I have important matters to do. Time’s a-wastin’.”

Angor did not show the slightest of fear, which worried Naru a little. They saw the fight between Angor and Herrington so they planned to be the collector of spoils. However, Angor’s reaction gave Naru another idea.

“Heh. Still acting strong? You two, get him,” Naru ordered his company while taking several steps back himself.

Tesla looked at Angor with a malevolent and cruel grin.

“Aren’t you a big seller? Ha! Serves you right. I was going to find time to deal with you, but man I ran into such a good chance when walking on the street!”

Tesla stepped toward Angor, but Queena dragged him back.

The woman let out a timid chuckle. “Boy, you can’t get away anyway. Tell me where you found your alchemy weapons. Maybe I can persuade boss into sparing your life.”

This was exactly what Naru was hoping for. The three of them all perked up their ears and waited for Angor’s answer.

“What, you want to kill me?” Angor spoke.

“Yes, if you don’t tell us the truth,” Tesla warned.

Angor sighed again. “Pity… You aren’t really my enemy and I didn’t intend to kill you. But…”

Angor’s tone worried Naru even further. The man stepped back more out of instinct.

Angor already lifted his hand at them and several wind blades went for Queena and Tesla, cutting the unaware pair’s heads off instantly.

Blood rushed into the air from the clean cut on their necks, suggesting that these two people were still alive just a second ago.

“Crescent Barrage? Again?!” Naru exclaimed in surprise. He saw Angor cast a fivefold Crescent Barrage just now. How can he still have enough mana??

Naru turned tail right away. As a Bloodline Wizard, his superior body helped him escape dozens of meters in only a second. Wind blades would not do much damage to him at such a distance.

Angor shook his head. His took out his revolver and pulled the trigger.

Along with the noise of a sonic boom, a bullet shining with Rune of Precision sunk into the back of Naru’s skull and went out between the man’s eyebrows.

One shot, one kill.

Angor did not feel any happier after killing the three people. Naru, who seemed to be the strongest of them, probably was someone who could only make a living on level seven or eight in Sky Tower. Angor was not interested in their lives at all, but they should stay away from him first.

After making sure no one’s alive, Angor walked to Saka’s “corpse” and used Hand of Spell to flip Saka’s robe open.

As he expected, the round object was a crystal ball transmitter.

While puzzled, Angor injected some mana into the object, and a line of characters slowly emerged on the item.

[To My Precious Star:]