Both men sat silently on their respective seats.

Although they weren't staring at each other, they were still cautious and ready to fight. In battles, most often than not, the first move decides everything. Being the first in the offensive could mean winning or losing. In a fight where each man know not of their enemies, striking first was nothing but a gamble. Whoever lost their patience, whoever had enough of the momentary peace, would fling for the attack. Tatz (short for tattoo) was still calm and so was Ray. Both men were confident in themselves.

'Knock, knock,' Tatz said. it was clear that he was getting bored.

Sometimes, being on the offensive doesn't always mean doing it physically. Some fighter would do it mentally first to gain the upper hand. Not wanting to back down, Ray responded: 'Who's there?'

'A--', Tatz turned towards him, 'fist!' And went for an attack.

Ray dodged the punch to the face by leaning his head backward, his punch was slower than the man wearing metal knuckles he just fought. Tatz made an expression which was a mix of both disappointment and amazement as his punch missed. It was Ray's turn.

'Knock, knock.'

'Who's there?' Tatz asked with a chuckle.

'A--' Ray turned towards him, 'knife!'

Ray thrusted a knife to the tattooed man, but he simply held the blade of the knife with bare hand to block it. Although the knife was sharp, Tatz's hand did not bleed. He rubbed his chin. 'You're a first, to reply my knock knock with yet another. You're more fun than I think you are,' he let go of his tight grip on the knife. As he did, the blade shattered and fell to the ground. 'However, we're not going anywhere with knock knock jokes.'

'Afraid so.'

'I say, that we bring this outside.'

Ray noticed that the man's black tattoo glowed dimly. When it did, the man seemed to be surging with power. Suddenly, a palm appeared in front of his face and gripped him. Such speed, he thought. Such power. Tatz threw him as if Ray was a stuffed doll towards the wooden wall of the bar. This is bad. Ray tried remembering one of Dunnford's teaching on wind Elemental Magic. He made a wall of air to protect his body and crashed through the wall. He wasn't exactly undamaged, but that was better than without having any defense to reduce the damage.

Without wasting any time, he applied wind Elemental Magic to the soles of his shoes, which allowed him to jump high onto a building's rooftop. He needed some time to recover himself from the damage he just took.

Ray looked down and saw Tatz nonchalantly walked through the walls he just broke. He spotted Ray on top of a rooftop. Again, his tattoos glowed and he jumped to the rooftop Ray was at without any Elemental Magic, as if that was a natural thing for him to do. He still needed some time to recover from the blow.

'I didn't expect you to survive that,' Tatz gave Ray a praise.

'That's not a normal Formulae Magic isn't it?'

'I'm surprised you noticed. Before sending you to your grave, I'll give you the comfort of knowing that it is not a normal Formulae Magic. Done stalling time?'

'Yes,' with that said, Ray jumped over to another building. He decided to run until he was able to regroup his thoughts. As he hopped from building to building, he tried remembering what Elaine once said during their childhood about Formulae Magic.

A rule of Formulae Magic which couldn't be broken: Formulae Magic could not be used on any living being. Based on research, whenever Formulae Magic is directly used onto a living being, it immediately loses its effect. No one was sure why, but that was the way Formulae Magic was. There were a few exceptions to that rule such as Inconvenient Magic and Forbidden Magic. However, Forbidden Magic should be out of the question as there were reasons why it was forbidden.

Ray had researched of all the Formulae Magic inside his own library to get an upper hand in battles. As, knowing what a Magic Formulae do would be better than not knowing at all. One can strategize tactics if he or she know of the effects of the Magic Formulae. However, the inscriptions, the tattoos on the man's skin, wasn't something Ray had ever seen before. It can only be THAT.

Ray felt a hand gripping the back of his shirt. Tatz was quick on catching up to him. With his absurd strength, again he threw Ray away like a stuffed doll. He was more prepared this time and softened his fall with wind Elemental Magic. He was thrown into a bad position however. A position where there were a crowd of people around him.

Ray had picked the wrong fight. He thought that the tattoos were merely tattoos, but it wasn't. Tatz was stronger than him and it was a battle Ray couldn't win. He had hopped around in hopes of finding an area without any people, but it seemed that he wasn't able to do that.

Tatz landed in front of him, breaking the road in the process of doing so. That startled many people who were around there closing their shops; panic slowly built up. 'Ray, stop running away, or I'll have to start killing innocents,' Tatz threatened.

Ray could no longer run away to a place without any people. The people around should catch a drift on what was going on and run away from danger. He needed to stall even more time until they do and there wasn't anything better to do that other than making conversation.

'How many?' Ray asked.

'Hm?'

'How many people died to get that tattoo? Or should I say: to get that Extinct Formulae Magic.'

Tatz burst to laughter. Ray had made the right guess. The only reason as to why the Formulae Magic worked directly for Tatz, was because it was made of Extinct Language. A language of the past which no one else can read or use now. Formulae Magic of old are stronger than normal Formulae Magic, however, since no one can read it, it carries a great risk for anyone using it. Tatz's criminal group must have used trial and error method to gain the inscription he was having and sacrificed a great many amount of people. Death was common for anyone who used Extinct Formulae Magic.

'Great analysis. Astonishing! To think that you're a learnt man having wide enough knowledge to know of it. Here's to you Ray,' he gave him claps.

The people around Ray weren't getting away as he had wished to. They were still confused of the situation and their curiosity wasn't washed away by fear yet. There was no choice but to fight.

Using Elemental Magic, Ray coated himself with protective wind, making sure that he was prepared before engaging with Tatz. He wasn't carrying any weapon, but that could not be helped.

After giving Ray sufficient time for his preparation, Tatz's tattoo glowed dimly and he dashed forward, crushing the roads beneath him with each steps. He was fast and strong. It was as if a rolling boulder of stone was heading towards Ray. With a body made agile with the help of wind magic, Ray leapt sideways and dodged his enemy's attack. How many more times could he do that?

As he looked back to see where Tatz was, he was already right behind him, ready to crash his body with force. Not being able to dodge, in a last effort, Ray jumped backward to try and reduce the damage he would get. Luckily, no one was behind him and he crashed to a solid cement wall of a building.

Ray fell to the ground, his back leaning on the wall. He coughed and blood came out from his mouth. His ribs must have been broken from the impact and it must have pierced his lung. Things just went from bad to worse in a short moment. He could hear screams and finally people were starting to disperse away from the scene. But, they were too late to do so.

Tatz stopped on his tracks. He rubbed his cheek and spat out a teeth. 'Impressive Ray. Not only did you leap backward to reduce the impact, you also managed to land a punch on me in that moment.'

Ray's counter landed good. He had also reinforced his punch with wind magic and Tatz should've gone unconscious. Not only did his Extinct Formulae Magic provided him with speed and strength, but it also seemed to grant him durability. If only it didn't, Ray would've won.

Ray could tell that Tatz's steps were getting closer and closer without the need of looking. Until he finally came to a stop in front of him. 'To honor you, Ray, I'll make your death painless.'

Has everyone gone away yet? Ray couldn't risk it. But he couldn't afford dying either. He needed to find option C, but he couldn't think of anything. He had-- to risk it. Tatz raised his arm high and was ready to chop Ray with his bare strength. Before he swung it down however, he was distracted by a voice. A voice which was familiar to Ray's ears.

'I went out of the library and found two people hopping from building to building. One I know of, running away from someone unknown. Next thing I know I see this.'

Ray could see someone carrying a katana on her waist. A katana with black and white grip, and pure white sheathe. A sword which he knew was made of a material called Altune which was supposed to be for shields. Her violet hair was a dead giveaway. The person was a master of the sword who managed to beat Dunnford The Undefeatable. Ray's option C just presented herself.

'Who are you?'

'Just a passerby,' Freya replied.