HP: The Arcane Thief

Chapter 194: Fighting for Axel

"What's in his hands?"

"Are those… strings?"

The projection quality of the Atlantian royal meeting room couldn't be questioned. In the dimly lit room, the members could see everything in 3-d structures as if the miniature versions of Axel and the dragons were actually present in front of them. They could see Axel's hands rapidly crisscrossing a bunch of threads. At first, they could still somewhat see what he was doing, but soon, his hand-speed got so fast that they were having difficulty even following his movements.

"W-What's with that speed?"

"What is he trying to do?"

By now, everyone was on the edge of their seats while watching the clip. It seemed that Axel knew what he was doing. He looked calm and composed, and his movements were quick and precise.

Soon, Axel reached the neck of the dragon and cast forth the strings, wrapping the dragons head with it. The dragon roared, shaking its head while deviating from its path while Axel seemed to hold on for dear life.

!!!!

The people in the meeting room could now somewhat see what Axel was trying to do. It seemed he had decided to go against one of the dragons alone, even when it was crystal clear that he wouldn't be able to even put a scratch on that dragonhide.

In these moments, which were most likely going to be his last, his thoughts seemed to radiate from his stubborn face: 'Even if I die, I'm taking down at least one of them with me!'

"This kid…"

The watchers felt their blood-boiling. At this point, every single person was impressed. The kind of will and daring you need to have to pull off something like this, no matter how foolish, had to be respected. The situation seemed like there will be a lot of casualties. And taking this step while clearly having the cowardly choice to run away… there was no way they could call him foolish or reckless now. Instead, they could only respect his choice to die a hero's death.

At this point, they were simply hoping for this talent to somehow survive this catastrophe. Otherwise, it would truly be a pity.

But soon though… something peculiar started happening.

"The dragon's resistance…" someone observed.

"Yeah… it's decreasing, right?"

Yep, no matter how you see, the dragon's struggles were decreasing, something which should be impossible, given the situation. Within a matter of a few seconds, the dragon's struggles had disappeared. Axel now pulled the strings to one side, and the dragon miraculously moved to that side. He then pulled the string to the other side, and the dragon actually moved to that side. Then they saw a blue electric charge travel through the strings… and the dragon blew out flames!

"?????????"

The members weren't able to understand what transpired just now.

"Is he… actually controlling the creature's movements right now?"

"It seemed that way!"

"Preposterous!"

"How?!"

How indeed. That was the biggest question. Everyone here knew that these creatures were under Kraken's control, meaning they won't be following anyone's orders right now, especially ones that interrupt them in their task. Then… how the hell is Axel doing this?

No one seemed to know the answer.

It seemed that Axel might actually survive while leading the dragon away from the gate. The diminution of even one dragon would significantly reduce the damage.

But. Axel seemed to have no plan of doing that. Instead, his dragon flew dangerously close to the dragon next to it.

"What… the hell is he trying to do?"

"Wait… don't tell me he's—"

Before they could even deny the possibility, Axel had already cast the strings.

"He's trying to control another dragon!" Some had thought he would lead the dragon away, some had even thought that he might try fighting other creatures using the dragon. But no one had predicted that he would try to control another dragon at the same time.

While they had yet to figure out how Axel was even controlling the first creature, he had already cast the strings onto the next dragon.

"No way he can actually do it!"

"His fingers will snap off!"

"There will be too many strings to keep track of."

The strings Axel was already controlling must be difficult to handle. When the dragon turns its head, he has to loosen and tighten the strings appropriately. Also, the strain on his hands must be no joke. In such a case, it is already surprising enough that he's handling one. But two at the same time? That would be pushing it.

*ROAR*

The second dragon struggled, but that was only for a few moments. Its struggles were gone much quicker.

"....."

"This is… really incredible." One of the elders acknowledged.

"What do you think, Rethon?" Someone asked the shooting division chief, After all, his dexterity was one of the highest in the kingdom.

The Shooting Division chief Rethon nodded his head seriously as he watched the clip with his arms folded. "It's incredible indeed. He has achieved the peak of dexterity. It took me decades to reach where he is."

"Holy Atas! He can actually match you in terms of dexterity?!"

Fervent discussions had ensued among the members when Axel was controlling two dragons at the same time. But they had no idea… in terms of Dexterity, where their boundaries of comprehension ended, were just the starting point for Axel.

Without wasting time, Axel had cast the third and fourth harnesses, capturing two more creatures.

"...."

The shooting division's chief had his jaw dropped hanging open, all air of expertise gone.

"Four dragons…at the same time."

"He's really pushing it."

"He's playing with fire,"

"This guy can even handle polygamy."

"This has to be it! … Right?"

Somehow, the tense atmosphere was receding the more they watched Axel. Instead, a funny feeling of absolute incredulity was rising, as a result of events that would have you question reality.

"He's going for another one!"

"And another!"

But… even now, the surprises were.. Just beginning.

"He's casting multiple harnesses at the same time now!"

Indeed. During this time, Axel had quickly gotten the hang of the new skill he had unlocked [Puppeteering] [Taming]. His dexterity and mental ability, the two basics requirements of these skills, were already mastered to an extreme level. Thus, when the knowledge settled into his head, his proficiency rate skyrocketed by real-time application.

So now… instead of losing control of the creatures, slowing down, or messing up so many threads, he was only getting faster. The glistening of the threads around him increased as he began taking control of multiple creatures at once from a distance using the distance-casting technique he learnt from [Puppeteering].

Very soon, he had the whole brood of dragons under his control.

"I can't believe it…"

"The whole dragon army…"

"This clip can't be real."

People had now arrived at the final stage: Denial.

Something so absurd that it must be fake. Right now, even the chances of the clip being fake and the princess jumping up and saying "IT'S-A-PRANK!" seemed much higher than the possibility of this clip being real.

At this moment, the General, who had been silently sitting behind the princess, cleared his throat, attracting everyone's attention. "There are no doubts about the validity of this clip. Whatever you see is what happened not long ago."

The general rarely speaks, unless it's a serious matter. So when h confirmed the legitimacy of the clip, everyone had to come to terms with the fact, that this impossible thing actually happened.

"What… What is he doing now?"

They now saw the whole army of dragons flying into an arc, turning into their direction of the flying creatures.

"No way…"

The soldiers present on the field cheered as the dragons, which had almost reached the exit, turned away at the last moment, and the members in the meeting room felt the same. So many dragons… and he had gotten them all.

Axel stood on the back of the gigantic dragon, leading an army of dragons towards the incoming monster hoard. His bloody fingers, wrapped up in hundreds of thousands of strings, stopped moving for a while as he formed a single handseal.

Just as he reached the intersection with the rest of the hoard, the camera zoomed in on his face, only to show it warping into a grin. "[Lightning Affinity: Lightning Stream]"

*Bzzzzz*

Blue Lightning ran through the thousands of strings connecting the dragons, and scorching flames painted the sky red, extracting dying screeches from thousands of creatures at once.

Standing on the back of the dragon while panting slightly, Axel looked over the scene like an apostle executing divine retribution.

!!!!!

Goosebumps prickled up on the skins of every member present as they watched the scene unfold in awe.

"Oh my~" Lady Garmos murmured, crossing her legs.

The scene was so awe-inspiring that it was scorched into the minds of everyone present.

Another member let out a breath. "So, this is why…" This is why the emergency was canceled all of a sudden.

"He's actually turning the tides single-handedly!"

"At this rate, he might solve the whole problem on his own!"

"But... the ground hoard…"

""Oh…" When someone mentioned, it was only then did they realized! The ground hoard should have already reached the weak line of defense, which would have a tough time blocking it!

It was at this moment that the camera followed the bodies of thousands of falling creatures to show the situation on the ground.

"What?!"

They saw that the ground creatures were all taking detours, obstructed by pitch black flames that were spreading rapidly on the ground, courtes of Akiko, who was flying over the ground while casting them.

"Isn't that…?"

"Darkness Flames…"

Seeing those flames, at once, the attention was focused on one person present in the meeting room: Kyrin Tenebrous.

But Kyrin was too preoccupied at the moment to pay attention to them. She was looking at the clip with a somewhat lost/pissed look on her face. No one had the guts to bother her at this moment, so they just watched the clip too.

"So… this is how…"

This is how the catastrophe was avoided. Just two individuals managed to accomplish something that would be out of bounds for even a large military force.

"The creatures are currently in the kracked state, meaning they won't run out of fire even if he obliterates the whole army!" Someone observed.

Whenever the blue markings on the kraken members start glowing, they are said to have entered the "Kracked" state. Of course there are various downsides to this state like loosing lifespan and such, but it still boosts the users abilities by a huge factor while also giving them a huge amount of energy.

This terrifying buff is one of the reasons why Kraken had managed to contend so long against the Kingdom. That's why the members have always hated those blue markings.

But right now…

"To use those damned markings to destroy their own plans… I like this kid!" Said the Flame Elder, looking at the massacre with a grim satisfaction visible on his face.

"Indeed. Who would have thought? That unreasonable power is now backfiring on those bastards… literally." said the Lightning elder.

"But… can HE really keep this up?" Asked the wind Elder. The wind elder was the oldest and most knowledgeable member of the council. He is usually quiet and doesn't speak much. But whenever he does, his opinions are valued.

It was only then did the members noticed, Axel indeed seemed to be struggling. Blood was dripping from his fingers, which were still moving at unbelievable, his face was going pale, and he was continuously supplying lightning current to keep the dragon to breathe fire.

Magic exhaustion, mental exhaustion, or physical exhaustion (Hands). Axel seemed to be approaching his limit in all three.

"I don't think he'll be able to keep this up. He's only 16." Someone said, but that just made the situation seem even more absurd as everyone realized Axel was only 16.

Everyone watched while on the edge of their seats Axel wiped out the complete hoard of the sky.

"He did it! He actually did it!"

"All on his own, he wiped out all the sky creatures!"

"But… is he going to be alright? It does seem that he has crossed his limit several times over."

As everyone looked at Axel now, they couldn't help worrying about his well-being. Every second, they could only feel their concern increasing as Axel's hands kept getting worse and his face paler. It seemed like he would fall any time.

"But... What is he doing now?"

"Atlas's trident! This boy is mad!"

"He's going after the ground hoard!"

It seemed that Axel didn't know the meaning of "giving up", because he had now decided to even go for the ground hoard.

"How is that possible?"

Even the Princess, who had already seen the clip, still couldn't come to terms with the situation. "Aqua, analyze Chris Martin's possibility of continuing the hunt." She asked.

Aqua was the main AI of Atlantis. Its use had restricted levels but since this was the Royal princess, she could naturally access the highest version.

"Analyzing… analysis completed. The possibility of continuation 0%."

But contrary to what the AI generated, Axel did not stop at all.

"How…"

The AI seemed to recognize it as a question. "The target is conserving his magic and only healing the necessary part of his damaged fingers. He has exceeded the maximum limit of pain tolerance and magical control."

Still continuing even in this situation…

As the members watched Axel burning down the struggling creatures even while he no longer seemed to have any strength level in him, a chill settled in their hearts.

Merciless on the enemy and himself. This guy… would be a terrible enemy to have.

Everyone watched with slight horror as Axel methodically flew the dragons over each and every corner and killed all the creatures as if exterminating pests.

In the end, the beast invasion was finally over, but the dragons were starting to struggle now, and Axel really didn't seem to be able to handle it anymore.

"He seems to be in trouble now."

"Indeed. The dragons are slowly turning hostile towards him."

It seemed that whatever method Axel was using to control the dragons was now running out as the dragons were now struggling against the bindings.

"Captain Demanis, I take it you had him rescued at this moment and exterminated the dragons?" One of the high ranking division chiefs asked.

Demanis, the Captain of the Maverick troop, swallowed his saliva.

"Actually… I was really about to. But…"

Before he could complete his sentence, the dragons in the clip suddenly went berserk, all attacking Axel.

"No!"

"He's done for!"

"This can't be happening!"

"Is he… really going to die?"

Everyone who hadn't already watched the clip stood up from their seats. It couldn't be helped at this point. While watching the clip, they had already integrated Axel as one of "their" people. Imagine their disappointment when this guy is killed by something like this after solving a problem that even they would have trouble handling alone.

It was only then did Axel show his incredible agility and footwork.

Within a few seconds, the dragons were lying on the ground in a heap as Axel indifferently landed in front.

"...."

What just happened?

Lady's Garmos was the first to speak as she parted her lips. "I am recruiting him." she declared, her breathing slightly uneven.

Thus began the war for Axel.

....

A.N.: Next: Reward

Next next: Black Ops Training

Next... next: Axel Vs Kyrin, Serious Fight

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Next: Identity Revealed

Next: Nephew

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