Chapter 9: Heart and Mind

As Garron flew across the Canyon, he could feel himself getting closer to a nexus point. The ritual was already started, and although incomplete, with the current state it was in, he figured he would use this chance to absorb mana right from the central conduit. He had felt it for sure as they were traveling, so he would use this chance to drain it dry.

If he became a powerful sorcerer, with all this power, he could do so much. He could obtain all of his dreams and desires. He would stop being treated as some artillery or potion kit, and like a proper, respectable person. With this power, he could become king even.

And so, while Garron was suffering from his massive power trip, he was just barely able to block a large ice spike that came flying at him from the woods.

"Impossible...that brat should be dead or drained, so how does he have this much power left?"

In truth, his power was restored thanks to his new potion recipe, but Garron had no idea of that, because Yuu didn't trust to tell anyone anything. He had also been able to read the writing, and therefore had managed to prepare his body with some defensive enchantments before the trap was sprung.

However, Yuu was still angry. Angry at Garron for stabbing Lyo. ANd so...

"Icecle Stampede".

Dozens of large scale ice spikes came flying out of the forest right at Garron. He flew around to avoid them, but as they were coming, he felt a pressense appear as one passed him.

He turned around, just to see Yuu's electric augmented leg kick him right in the face and send him sprawling back, making him fly back in the air. Yuu meanwhile launched several lightning bolts at Garron, not missing this chance, but Garron deployed multiple magic barriers to block.

"To think you still had this much energy left....wait, I see now. So you had a card up your sleeve".

Garron said this as he watched numerous magic gems float around Yuu, orbiting him like a moon to a planet. It appeared that he had several magic gems fully charged, and was now using them to bolster his power. ANd more importantly, he saw the look of anger on Yuu's face.

"But...I still wont be defeated by a brat like you!"

Garron flew up and unleashed countless wind blades at Yuu. Yuu deployed numerous magic barriers and ice shields to block, while also kicking up a windstorm and sending it at Garron. Garron withstood the blow, and conjured up multiple swords to sent at Yuu.

Yuu took evasive action and dodged them, firing off pure mana blasts at him. Several magic circles appeared around Yuu, and the blasts were fired from them all at once, and then continued to fire at them randomly at Garron, making them tough to predict. Garron meanwhile sent a fire torpedo at Yuu, but he countered with a water wave spell.

Garron fired lightning next, but Yuu conjured up rocks to block the attack and then hurled the rocks at Garron. This forced Garron to dodge, which Yuu used to move to where he dodged to and deliver another attack, using a short range wind spell to blast him. Garron projected barriers to block, but some of the damage broke through. However...

A flame spiral came up from below and encircled Yuu, burning his body. Garron took that moment as he would be in shock from burning pain to relax, but Yuu somehow reacted instantly and attacked him with a windblade again.

IMpossible! How was he not in shock from that?!

What Garron did not understand was that he had been burned many times. His father had used an iron on his hand when he took food without asking one time. He had used Yuuki's body to put out his cigarrete butts, and once scarred him with a fireplace poker that had been used to treat the fireplace.

Furthermore, as Yuu, a fire mage had once come into the slum, and made him a subject to learn how well a flame torture spell would work. So, fires and burns were something he was used to, and therefore did not deliver the mental shock it would to normal people. To Yuu, it was something familiar.

Yuu then proceeded to launch several more chunks of ice at him, but Garron was growing in power, and fired beams of light to harm Yuu. Yuu dodged them, but his leg got grazed and it hurt like hell. The fires and burns had also hurt. It might not have shocked him, but he was taking damage.

The two flew through the air. Although Yuu normally didn't do that due to it being mana inefficient, Garron was overflowing with mana so he could do it fine. He was even continuing to gain power from the leylines, and so Yuu was utilizing his collection of Magic Gems he had been charging up over the past year, his emergency trump card, to fight him.

He could not forgive Garron for what he did...betraying the people who trusted him...stabbing Lyo...Yuu had determined that he would die.

"Ascaris!"

Suddenly, a ball of light began to float around Yuu, and his brain's computational power increased. It was at this time his right eye, burning with mana, felt as if it was shifting...his vision blurred slightly, but suddenly something happened that he did not expect. He was suddenly seeing flow of magical energy and leylines, as if it was natural.

Ascaris was a spell to help increase his ability to cast and control magic, but this had never happened before. However, it changed again, allowing his eye to zoom in and out and focus on Garron, somehow, as well as other things. Malicous aura eminated from him....and Yuu felt like he could target him.

"Frost Emperor's Calvalry!"

Suddenly dozens of ice lances appeared in the sky and shot towards Garron. However, Garron raised his hands, and from the ground a giant tree Golem arose to block it. It then opened its mouth and fired a beam of energy at Yuu, forcing him to fly around and dodge it as several magic circles appeared around him.

"Shockforce!"

Several bolts of lightning fired in quick succession, coming at Garron with the intent to kill. He tried to dodge, but they changed to follow him, so he projected more barriers to block. And meanwhile, as the Golem went to attack Yuu with its arm...

"Frozen World!"

He unleashed a massive spell that coated the entire area with ice, and even altered the weather to make it start snowing. Furthermore....

"Crystal Rain!"

He used his Crystal Rain spell to target the Golem and Garron, bringing down huge chunks of ice. The Golem was severely damaged, so Garron decided to leave it to obstruct Yuu while he went further ahead.

"Not so fast..." those words floated across the wind, as suddenly several arrows of light appeared from the sky and chased after Garron with a serious vigor. Meanwhile, the Tree Golem suddenly was bound by a dozen fire cobras, burning it down without harming the rest of the forest.

From a good distance away, Yuu was sitting on the ground supposed by Verona, holding a bow while gasping for air, his stamina clearly still low as he had not fully recovered. Meanwhile, Cassor was supporting them with fire magic, which was Yuu's weakpoint. He could use it, but it was not as good or as effective for some reason.

Yuu used this chance to chase after Garron, not letting him escape. Garron launched several large rocks that were around using spacial magic, but Yuu flew around them. Unfortunately, they had obstructed his view so he did not see Garron cast the fireball spell which hit him square in the face, but he still had perpetual automatic magic barriers up so he did not take much damage.

"Damn you...you wont stop me!" he shouted, unleashing both a lightning attack and a wind attack at once.

"Resonance Zone!"

He deployed a magic zone around himself that disrupted other people's magic, and with the assistance of that, dodged the attack spells coming at him. However, that spell totally drained two of the sixteen magic stones around him. Through long term flight, another five were down, and using repeated attack spells had drained another two. He had used more then half already, and Garron was only getting stronger.

ANd also, his goal was easier to obtain. All Garron had to do was finish draining the leyline, and if the situation was bad for him, he could flee without even attacking the rest of them. Let himself rest up, and then attack them with full strength and a rested body to finish them off if they failed to escape far enough away even. Meanwhile, Yuu felt that it would be a loss unless Garron was killed right then and there, so he was at a disadvantage in terms of objectives.

"Provinance Winds!"

Yuu accelerated further, and Garron who saw that released a full force gravity zone, where gravity would be multiplied by 20, to smash Yuu into the ground and kill him, or at least make him unable to follow. However, Yuu somehow was able to see that and avoid it.

Garron then flew upward, to get above the tree line, as he launched several wind circular sawblade type things at Yuu. Yuu formed more rock shields to block them, and then launched the rocks at him while preparing his next spell.

"Frozen Judgement!"

Suddenly a large executioner's blade made of ice formed above Garron and came down at him, with clear intent to kill him. Garron formed various barriers while dodging, but it was close and multiple barriers were destroyed. Yuu then moved behind him, but unfortunately, a flame attack came from his back and hit Yuu, with an arm of fire coming out to grab his neck.

"Got you now, brat" Garron said, as he pulled Yuu in closer...and then, from behind Yuu, his shadow seemed to grow blades out of his back and stabbed Garron repeatedly, as if he had lept into the mouth of a large creature. And yet...he was still alive, thanks to the mana flowing into him.

"That was your last trump card...you couldn't out power me".

"I was never trying to outpower you" he said with a smile, when suddenly his body became filled with arrows made of magic power. His head, heart, several other organs, as well as his arms and legs were pierced. "In the first place...I am more of a strategy type then a power type".

Yuu looked around at the familiar scenery, and realized now...up in the air was where Yuu was trying to make Garron go. So that Lyo, who could not move or stand well, would have perfect vision on him. Yuu was never intending to win by himself, from the start he had planned on Lyo.

Because while Lyo was a softy, there was an undeniable fact that if someone was threatening to kill Yuu, he would not hesitate to put an arrow into their head. He might be sappy, but he was not so stupid or cowardly as to let his best friend die.

"D-damn...you....brats...." Garron muttered, desperately clinging to life before falling to the ground as a corpse. Yuu slowed his decent, but ultimately also fell to the ground exhausted. He had three and a half magic gems left of power...it was way too close.

And so, while waiting for the others to reach him, Yuu waited there resting as he stared into the sky of the afternoon.

"I seriously protest this!"

"Dont pout Yuu, it will be fine!"

"Its the least we can do for saving us".

"See, I told you we would enjoy a bath together!"

At the moment, Lyo and Yuu were being bathed by Argen and James respectively. They were sitting on the laters laps, as their bodies were being scrubbed from head to toe.

"I hate you! You perverted old man!" he shouted as James began to scrub his lower area".

"Hey now, what is the matter with some male bonding time" James said, as he flexed the arm Yuu could see. Yuu's wet black hair fell across his face as James began to mess with and play with his body a little to tease him.

"Hey! Dont mess with that!" Yuu said, although he was mostly talk by this point. Expending enough magical energy to use most of his gems had seriously depleted him, and his body was sore all over. Lyo was still recovering from the whole stabbing and regeneration thing, so neither of them were capable of moving well. It was amazing Lyo could even fire his bow in that state, let alone use his magic bow skills.

"Sorry, its just so small and playful" James said teasingly, making Yuu's face go red. He wanted to punch him right now.

Well, in the first place, he had almost no mescular development on his body, and he was now sitting naked in the lap of a very muscular body. This was irritating Yuu to no end. Meanwhile, Lyo was just honestly enjoying it.

"Still though, that was some pretty amazing countering on your part, Yuu" Argen mentioned as he helped wash Lyo's armpits, which made Lyo giggle because he was ticklish there. "You kept countering his attacks so well...you had to have used a lot of magic for that".

"Nah...I was saving some mana by countering the element of his attack. I countered fire with water, lightning or wind with earth, and so on. That let me be more efficient".

"Such power in such a small body" James said, poking fun at Yuu's height, which was below the average for a boy his age, while rubbing his belly.

"Please dont do that" Yuu said angrily.

"Either way..." James said, searching around for Yuu's ticklish points, and quickly finding a few. "Its good to laugh every so often!"

James then proceeded to use his extreme speed to do something extremely pointless as tickling all of Yuu's ticklish areas at once. Yuu proceeded to break out into laughter and tried to escape, but his body collapsed and he fell down to the ground, letting James pick him back up and finish washing him.

Once that was all done, they entered the bath. Yuu and Lyo could at least keep themselves sitting upright, so they all say next to each other in a row, sighing with relief.

"I have no idea how we are going to report this back to the guild".

"Really? I thought it was simple? Garron tried murdering everyone for a ritual, we stopped it, the alter kind of got broken in the fighting".

In truth, it was James alone that broke it while fighting lava golems.

"Oh yeah, and we met..."

"You mention us, I will kill you" Yuu said blatently.

"Well, now hold on...we have to. You do deserve a reward after all".

"It seems annoying. Plus, I dont want to go back to the city..."

"Yuu..." Lyo said, a compassionate and sorrowful look in his eyes. "We cant just stay away from people forever...We have to..."

"I get it I get it...I already know that" Yuu said, a bit embarrassed and also a bit as if he predicted Lyo would say that. "Clearly, my hunting has made an impact. Even if you report the rest, they will still investigate again, and the next adventurers might not be nice, but arrogant and villainous jerks..."

Yuu sighed.

"However, we cant go to the city YET" he said, emphasising the yet. "I need to restock a lof of supplies and make preparations. But also, we need more training...and we need to be older. But I know I cant take too much time...so two years. In two years time, when both of us are nine years old, we will head to the nearest city and become adventurers properly, registering in the Guild".

Hearing that, James and Argen were a bit happy. It wasn't entirely what they wanted, but...it was far better then they had hoped. In two years time, when they became nine. They would still be considered children, but...it would certainly be harder to take advantage of them. Especially if they were prepared, and stronger.

Considering who they were, it was extremely reasonable.

"Alright....we will make sure to give you that long. Then in two years, we will see you in Ridgecrest City...does that sound good?"

"Yeah".

Two years of peace. Two years to get stronger, train, and get the supplies they would need out here. And like that, the agreement was made.

And so it was delayed, the world learning about the two abnormalities...

The "Supergenius" Yuu.

The "Heartwarmer" Lyo.

These two best friends would shake the world.

End of Arc 2: Forest Exploration

"Well now" a young boy of around eleven said, as he was sitting on top of the cliff. He was wearing just a red overshirt over a white T shirt with a yellow star with a smiley face on it, blue shorts, and red shoes, as well as a red and white cap on top of his head. He was kicking his feet playfully, watching the scene below, undetected by anyone.

He giggled a bit as he smiled.

"I wonder, Yuu...or rather, Yuuki...what will you do next?"

And then, when someone glanced up at the sky, no one was there to see...