Warlock Apprentice

Sunders halted his movement in the air.

“Something wrong, my friend?” Kanter came back to Sunders.

Instead of replying, Sunders unleashed a Hand of Spell made from his shadow and pulled a magazine to himself. It was the same magazine fought upon by the two apprentices on the ground.

The magazine was left open, which was currently showing a portrait of someone with blond hair and blue eyes.

“Angor?” Sunders muttered and read the article.

The gentleman’s expression turned dark. Boundless aura of might emerged from his form and slowly enlarging his shadow, which suddenly began to grow and expand until it covered every apprentice like a spider web.

All apprentices stopping moving, including the owner of the magazine who was still trying to shake free from another man’s grasp.

People found it hard to breathe when covered under such evil and violent aura. At the same time, an indescribable pain started to grow inside their chests.

Pong! Pong!

Several muffled explosions were heard among the crowd.

The bodies of several weak level-1 apprentices gave in to the power, and their hearts burst open and tainted the ground with blood and guts.

Kanter was the first one to realize Sunders had done something terrible. He wouldn’t really care if Sunders were simply showing off his power, but the old man was shocked to see Sunders’ shadow becoming alive; the shadow was absorbing the life energy and emotions of people on the scene.

Kanter grimaced. They were staying right at the HQ of Floating Mech City with countless wizards scattered about. Sunders was testing their limits in a really bad way.

“Sunders. You—”

Before Kanter could say anything further, the shadow behind Sunders revealed a grinning mouth at him.

Immediately, Kanter found himself affected by the horror. He quickly floated away from the gentleman.

What did he just do?!

The two words that Kanter spoke out successfully reached Sunders’ ears. Sunders looked around again with an even darker expression as he inspected the web-like shadow around him.

He scoffed, “Don’t overuse the little freedom I granted you.”

Following Sunders’ cold words, the apprentices quickly shook free of the pain inside their bodies. The expanding shadow also began to shrink.

When the shadow returned to being the ordinary shadow behind Sunders’ body, its grinning mouth split wider. “Shouldn’t I take my dear disciple’s body since he is going to become someone’s puppet anyway?”

“The sun is near, and you should wake up from your dream.” Sunders tapped his walking cane in midair; the shadow presence disappeared in a swirl.

Kanter made sure there was no strange shadow lurking around before he asked in a small voice, “What was that? I think your mind isn’t right.”

While speaking, Kanter tried to peek at the magazine in Sunders’ hands. “Bogula’s new puppet?” He frowned.

But what’s that to do with Sunders’ change of attitude? Is that young man his friend or relative?

Sunders closed the magazine. The cover of it had “Precision Sky” printed on it.

“It’s nothing. I saw something interesting, that’s all.” Sunders’ expression remained the same. Still, Kanter was sure his old friend looked distressed, which was rare.

Something interesting?

Kanter saw Sunders going back into the machine tower instead of leaving.

“Hey, Sunders? Where are you going?”

“Looking for someone.”

Those words sounded like a merciless threat.

“Who is it?” Kanter got the feeling that Sunders was going to kill whoever he meant to find.

“A certain arrogant kid with a red head.”

…

Sabot was still waiting outside the machine tower. His mentor, Mithra, just asked him to come here and inform Bogula of something. However, he was shut outside. He then discovered that a confidential meeting was going on inside the building.

Sabot suddenly received a message and frowned.

Two apprentices were caught in a fight in the main city district, which was considered a serious offense.

Typically, this was nothing special because there were Rune Monitors to maintain law and order. However, the matter went out of hand when the said apprentices tore the Rune Monitor to broken parts instead of listening to warnings.

Doing so meant challenging the law system of Floating Mech City. The organizations had issued a warrant for apprehension to any apprentice on guard duties.

However, the criminals were too strong. All apprentices who arrived at the scene were beaten up. This included one of Sabot’s personal student—a high-level Bloodline Apprentice—who had his limbs snapped in close combat.

Since none of the apprentices succeeded in handling the matter, the mission fell upon available wizards.

And Sabot happened to be responsible for the district where the fight broke out.

The organization had sent a direct order that requested Sabot to go there immediately. The man had no choice but to leave the machine tower for now.

From his transmitter, he saw that both brawlers—one man and a woman—were outsiders.

The male offender was wearing a pale blue robe which glowed with the effect of runes. He had a single fish scale growing between his eyebrows. The man was flying around while riding on a giant whale.

The female was an absolute beauty who showed nothing other than holiness and purity with her snow-white wings and equally white silk veil. However, from the poor quality of the transmitter image, Sabot couldn’t tell if the woman was a humanoid or a human with wing transplants.

When Sabot arrived, he found the entire district submerged under seawater. The mortals running the shops nearby all activated the defense mechanisms of the buildings and hoped for survival, while the apprentice guards who were knocked out earlier were drifting helplessly in the water.

Sabot immediately exerted his wizard aura, which forced the fighters to stop and look his way.

“Professor…” Sabot’s student pleaded in the water. All of his arms and legs were twisting in strange angles.

Sabot growled.

“The old man has come to protect his chick…” the winged woman commented.

“Heh. So this is the best thing this city can do.” The whale-riding man didn’t contain his sarcasm.

Sabot scoffed. He already inspected. Both offenders were only level-2 apprentices. As for how they fought off all the stronger opponents… Sabot glanced at the blue whale and the pair of wings growing on the woman’s back.

The whale was a familiar pet that was half-step to wizard level, while those wings also showed similar ripples—it must be something transplanted from a wizard-level Winged Folk.

Sabot approached them slowly. His aura was making it difficult for the brawlers to move.

Sabot’s aura kept growing until the man and woman began to see a black bear howling toward the sky. There was the mark of a half-moon printed at the bear’s chest.

“‘Mad Bear’ Sabot…” The woman was surprised to recognize who had come.

“I don’t care what your problem is. Anyone who dares to break the city rules to such an extent will be executed!” Sabot bellowed.

Quickly, the young man turned into a puddle and sank inside the water tides below.

The woman also moved. With a mighty flap of her wings, countless needle-like arrows were unleashed toward Sabot.

Sabot completely disregarded the attack. He slammed an enchanted fist down, which visibly broke the very space around him, forcing both the man and the woman to lose their composure. They then collapsed on some debris.

The power of the fist shattered the blue whale, which turned into another blue puddle and went inside the man’s forehead scale.

As the offenders watched in horror, Sabot raised his fist again.

He suddenly felt his transmitter vibrating, which suggested a new message. This one also came from the law enforcement department, but it was only a brief one.

[Do NOT harm anyone. Bring them back.]

Sabot questioned the reason behind the decision.

[The Child of Ocean and the Avatar of Light.]

…

The day was brightened by sunlight by the time Sabot finally dealt with these offenders who happened to possess really important backgrounds.

“Damn it. The garden attracted all sorts of geniuses and whatnot from all over the world. And I had to lower my fist in front of these weaklings!” Sabot returned to the lower side of the city while cursing.

He wondered if Bogula’s conference had ended.

When he thought about Angor’s matter, his mood quickly became uneasy again.

This wasn’t something he should postpone. According to Mithra, Sunders already arrived at Floating Mech City. Only gods knew what would happen if the terrible gentleman discovered what happened to his precious student.

Sabot already sensed something was wrong before reaching the tower. The area around the tower was always bustling with apprentices because another research department sat nearby. Now, however, Sabot found the place to be as quiet as a graveyard.

There was no noise from any apprentices.

When he sensed the powerful aura of wizards being openly displayed, his instinct told him that something might have gone wrong.

Moving at a faster pace, he went to the tower. Upon getting closer, he clearly sensed two powerful auras confronting each other.

Before he could proceed further, a voice stopped him.

“Don’t go in there, Sabot. It’s not something you can deal with now.”

It was one of his friends who just spoke.

“But who’s fighting at the HQ of Floating Mech City?” Sabot asked.

“I don’t know the reason. Mister Phantom suddenly just, started to duke it out with Bogula!”