Unsealing Emptiness

Rivalry.

Ozul spent the rest of the day only improving his control over Ball of Purity while Raven and Blaze would, once in a while, go back to accept new tasks.

Most of them consisted of killing some low-rank Beasts.

Around midnight, Ozul took them deeper into the forest because Blaze also needed to hone his Mage skills.

They spent a few hours as Blaze kept stacking up the body count. Each kill would give him insights on how to be preciser in the art of killing.

Their group was quiet most of the time. Ozul was too lazy to talk, and Raven respected his wishes while Blaze did not know what he should even say.

They just had a tacit understanding between themselves to stay quiet and focus on the task at hand.

When they were heading back, Ozul’s ears perked up as he heard the noises from afar. Raven and Blaze were confused as to why he stopped.

They couldn’t hear anything because it was Ozul’s specialty that he could hear or see better in the dark surroundings. His senses would be heightened when the filthy light was not present.

.....

They turned to look in the direction that Ozul was facing. A few seconds later, they could see a group consisting of about five people running towards their direction.

They all looked exhausted and kept panting while they ran. There was only one girl in the group, and she was running beside the man with short blonde hair. Three men with different get-ups followed them as they ran.

Only when Raven and Blaze noticed the three giant Beasts furiously chasing the group did they understand the situation.

Ozul realized that the Beasts chasing the group were all Rank-5! While the strongest person in the group was the short blonde hair guy who was also a Rank-5 Mage.

The girl by his side was a Rank-4 Mage, and the three men following them were only Rank-4 Fighters. They had no chance against the three Rank-5 Beasts whatsoever.

From the badges on the group’s shoulders, anyone could notice that they were also Mercenaries. But Ozul and the rest did not have any intentions of helping.

However, the desperate team of 5 also noticed Ozul’s group. And instead of taking another route, the party of five ran straight towards them!

“Run towards those people! The Beasts will be distracted by them, and we can have chances to escape!!!”- Screamed the blonde man to his teammates.

His expression showed his unwillingness to perform such an evil act to save his life, but in the face of death, he was all the same—a coward.

Since Ozul’s team was pacing only with the walking speed, they quickly caught up to them.

The blonde-haired man and the rest of his group didn’t even glance at them to hide their guilt-ridden faces. It was their fault, and yet, someone else would pay for it.

Of course, Ozul had understood their intentions. More than anything, he was annoyed. Killing those Rank-5 Beasts was not a problem for him, but he disliked the fact that someone had used him.

The blonde-haired man’s group left their sights, and the Beasts approached Ozul’s trio. However, the next second, all three Rank-5 Beasts dropped dead with their heads rolling on the ground.

Darkness was such an absolute thing that it would only blend in with something as pure as itself. But when it mixed in with itself, finding it was nigh impossible.

Ozul may not have achieved a stage where he could spread the Ball of Purity too much for humans’ eyes to notice, but the night provided him with this cheat!

Even Raven and Blaze did not notice how the Beasts were killed because of the dark surroundings!

Raven got out of her stupor and was going to chase the group that ran past them together with Blaze, but Ozul stopped them saying;

“Don’t bother chasing.”-

“But, how can we let those bastards go like that?”- Raven wanted to tear apart each one of them because they had the intention to kill Ozul!

He may be strong enough to not care either way, but how dare those parasites even think of such a thing?!

“You think I’m not annoyed?”- Ozul said with a deadpan face. Raven understood the tone and did not say anything further.

“The blondie had a Gold Rank Mercenary insignia on his shoulder... And how many Gold Rank Mercenaries do you think... resides in Adron City?”

Raven understood the meaning behind his words and bowed her head in shame as she had not noticed such an obvious point.

Blaze had not even asked any question and stopped on his spot. But his eyes still burned with an unnoticeable glare towards the direction of the escaped group.

Ozul noticed their annoyance and shook his head.

‘They should control their anger...’- Ozul thought before he shook his head.

Ozul understood that their reason for anger was because he was involved in the incident. Otherwise, they were pretty cool-headed.

Well, cool-headed for the most part.

Raven only showed cold expression whenever she was angered. Blaze, on the other hand, had shown his wild side while slaughtering his enemies!

There would be a wide smile on his face whenever he faced his foes. His sharp canines would only add to the wild yet the attractive appearance of his.

Basically, Blaze was someone that people called a Battle Maniac.

Ozul did not care about this nature of his as it meant that Blaze would not back down from a fight.

They did not care about the dead bodies of the Beasts and just took their Mana Cores. Only these Cores were somewhat expensive enough for their efforts.

————————

-On the other side of the Forest-

The group had already left the forest, and they were slumped on the ground panting while their eyes would dart towards the woods occasionally.

One of the men spoke up when he noticed that no one came out of the woods even after a long time;

“B-boss Larry, D-do you think those p-people are dead?”-

The question was asked to the blonde man that led the group.

“Do you think that they could have survived three Rank-5 Beasts?... It was our only way...”-The blonde man now named Larry replied while his head was bowed in shame.

The only woman in the group came to comfort Larry as she said;

“It’s not your fault... W-we did it because it was our only chance to survive.”- Even her voice was trembling from the earlier fear of death that chased them.

“I...know...”- Larry said with his now dry throat.

————————

-Back to Ozul’s group-

It took them about an hour to leave the woods and again walk the streets of the City. As always, the usually loud areas were quietened down a notch because of the night. Another reason why Ozul loved the nights so much.

Blaze went to submit all the missions that they had completed during this time while Ozul and Raven went towards their home.

Ozul was tired. It was not because he had run out of stamina or something, but due to how he had to practice all day.

He was dead tired after all the training with his Ball of Purity. He was improving with each step.

But arriving in the garden made him let go of all the fatigue as he went to sit on his favourite spot in this new garden.

Blaze came later at night while Raven was training on the other side of the garden as not to disturb Ozul. She did not like the fact that Blaze could catch up to her with only a little bit of training.

She could only train harder not to be left behind by him. However, Blaze also joined in on her training.

Hence began the heated training between them to surpass the other!

Even when the Sun rose the next morning, Raven and Blaze were still competing to see who will last longer. Circulating the Mana in your body was a tedious thing, and continuing for the whole night would exhaust any Mage under Rank-6.

Only the next morning did Ozul find out about their ‘rivalry’ in training harder.