Life Hunter

A dozen auras surfaced from the dense crowd and the same number of people charged toward the carriage. These people killed at least a hundred innocent people who were around them by just kicking the ground.

As expected, panic ensued and the citizens in the plaza started fleeing while the ones who released their auras attacked the carriage with their magic.

Fire, ice, lightning, earth, wind; all kinds of magic exploded at the same time on their target and created an explosion that covered the entirety of the plaza. Everyone there died almost instantly, only the stronger ones barely survived.

Also, the people behind Arima, which included Lanya, were totally safe. They saw that Arima hadn't moved at all nor used magic. He also didn't protect them on purpose. He just stood there and the explosion was blocked by his body. Nothing more, nothing less. But still, no damage was made to him.

"What's happening?" Lanya asked, maybe a bit too calmly in the eyes of surrounding victims.

Arima hummed, "If I'm not wrong, that carriage was from the royal family of this continent. Well, it also means that it relates to the most influential family on this planet. And someone just tried to assassinate the person inside that carriage, in public."

Lanya didn't respond and just looked at where the magic had detonated. When the smoke and dust scattered, the carriage was still there with not even a single scratch on it. Though, all the soldiers around it had become dead bodies, destroyed, and disfigured.

"Those attackers must be around the ninth level, but not higher than that," Arima commented and Lanya nodded in agreement.

Those same attackers surrounded the carriage and started gathering their mana. At the same time, a man opened the door of the carriage and stepped out. It was a young man with good features and a really imposing aura. He looked around coldly.

"Who dares to assault the royal family?" He inquired coldly to the people encircling him.

No one responded to him and they just conjured more magic. This time, it was even stronger than before. The man sneered and a circle appeared below him. He waved his hand and the magics flew toward the sky the moment they entered the circle's boundary before exploding in the sky.

"Oh," Arima exclaimed after seeing that. "Tenth level. That guy is talented. He deviated all these attacks with only neutral magic," He said and created a bench to sit on and Lanya sat down next to him.

"So, is he strong? Can he deal with this?" Lanya asked. At that point, the people who had been saved by Arima just decided to run, they didn't want to rely on these two bizarre people.

"He's quite strong. There's no doubt. But he may not be able to actually 'win'…" Arima paused and squinted his eyes, "There's another factor in this fight," He added and Lanya focused her eyes on this battle again.

A few of the attackers rushed toward the man with swords in hands. The man took out a beautiful silver sword and clashed with them. Each swing of their weapon could slaughter another hundred people. Fortunately, there was no one around anymore. The man easily pushed back the assailants and even severed the arm of one of them.

When the sword-wielding attackers retreated, their accomplices released magic once again. For this one, it was compressed fire magic cast by all of them at the same time. The man clicked his tongue and his surroundings froze in an instant. Only the carriage behind him received no damage whatsoever.

He put his hands on the ground and an even bigger area was frozen, "[Ice Pillar]," He chanted and ice started rising from the ground and forcefully rammed the fire wave.

Just after that, as if they had predicted that outcome, the attackers once again charged and continued their fight.

"Why is he doing this?" Far away, Lanya was perplexed.

Arima smiled and glanced at her, "That guy is at the tenth level. Normally, he should have been able to kill those guys easily. But right now, it's a bit different. He can't use magics too powerful or else he could harm the city and its citizens by accident. It seems that he doesn't want that to happen. He could have killed them already if he had clashed with that fire head-on. But it would have caused irreparable consequences. Also, he hasn't moved from his position once. He must be protecting that royal carriage. Although it appears to possess some really good resistance, the aggressors shouldn't be underestimated. If they dared to target that vehicle, they should have a plan for it. That man took it into consideration and is staying beside it. He is also paying attention to see if there's maybe a stronger person who is waiting to strike him by surprise," Arima slowly and clearly explained everything.

Lanya listened wide-eyed. She couldn't believe Arima had analyzed the situation so patently by literally watching from a bench. She couldn't even fathom the amount of experience it would require.

A few seconds after, Arima stood up.

"Well, shall I intervene, now? It will soon be five minutes since it began. It will be too late by then," He uttered and disappeared from his position. Leaving Lanya behind for her to observe.

At the same time, one of the attackers chanted something and instantly died as he vomited blood. Above his dead body, a red orb appeared. Another attacker grabbed it and started intoning along with all of the other assailants.

When the man they were battling saw that, his countenance changed drastically, "One of them killed himself and expelled his life force out his body for his comrades to use. They're crazy! What should I do? I can't deviate this one…" He started thinking really hard but it was too late. A deafening sound resounded and huge fireball, a thousand meters large, fell toward him.

His eyes narrowed, "Bastards! That's a large-scale magic! They want me to choose between the carriage or the lives of tens of thousands of innocents!?" He shouted and eyed the carriage behind him. He bit his lip so hard that it bled.

"Sorry," He gritted his teeth and was prepared to send that fireball as far as he could to minimize the number of deaths.

"You don't need to be sorry. I will take care of it," The man's actions halted when he heard a voice behind him. He immediately tried to look. But the person who had talked to him was already in front of him when he turned his head. That simple thing stunned him.

"[Libera Fratres Tuos Fame] (Relieve your hunger)," Arima slowly chanted, and the world around him decelerated.

"[T'ao t'ieh]," After Arima pronounced his keyword, a six-legged creature which gave the impression of having two bodies but only had one head, emerged. The body and head were that of a tiger. That creature howled and opened his mouth. It started to inhale strongly. The fireball in the sky deformed and was sucked up by the big creature. The latter burped and bowed his head to Arima to thank him for the meal before disappearing.

The flow of time returned to normal and the fire attack had vanished. Before the assailants could react, Arima had already disappeared, leaving thundering lightning at his original place.

They looked around hurriedly and then felt something warm splatter on their necks. When they put their hands on it, they saw the blood tainting their fingers. That was their last sight before they fell to the ground and died beheaded.

Arima reappeared at his original place with Karma, which he sheathed and put away. The man who watched the whole scene unfold was shocked beyond words and imagination. But it wasn't the end of it.

Arima crouched and put his hand on the ground. A magic circle encompassed the entire plaza and the temperature rose.

"[Abstulit Haec Animas Pauperum Inferos] (Take back these poor souls from hell)," Arima chanted and the sky lit up with a vivid orange fire. Pure and beautiful. Everyone in a ten miles radius was entranced by the sight.

"[Venite Phoenix] (Come, Phoenix)," The orange flame took the form of a magnificent bird and started singing. Everything inside the circle began to light up with orange flames. But that fire didn't hurt or burn. It was just warm and enveloped everything caringly.

At some point, the Phoenix shrieked and the flames instantly grew in size. They became brighter and brighter until no one could see anything anymore.

It lasted for a good minute until it ended. When the unknown young man and Lanya opened their eyes, everything around them had been repaired. Every single damage caused by the fight was completely gone.

But there was something even more petrifying that had happened. For some people, it was a miracle, but for others, it would be considered a dreadful scene.

The bodies lying on the ground of the plaza, even those that should have been entirely dismembered or atomized, were restored, and all of them twitched and stood up. They looked around with a pale expression. When each of them realized that there was nothing wrong with their body, they all started crying in joy.

"…Impossible," The man uttered after he saw what was happening. Then, he heard a loud gasp behind him. He turned around and spotted a pale girl around eighteen years old, with pretty blue eyes and long blond hair, standing by the opened carriage.

"Ofia!" The man shouted softly and approached her, "Why did you come out?" He asked while taking a chair from one of the plaza's stalls. He gave it to the girl for her to sit.

"Don't worry, Kyle. Things had calmed down. I was worried so I opened to see what was happening," Ofia rested down on the chair and replied. She looked really weak, "Then… I witnessed what happened," She added while glancing at Arima.

Kyle put himself in front of the girl and stared at Arima, "Who are you?" He tried his best to be severe but he knew that he couldn't protect Ofia at all if the man in front of him decided to make a move. Forget about defending, he would be dead in seconds without realizing how.

"Brother! Please stop, that person saved tens of thousands of our people. You should be more respectful," Ofia raised her voice and her brother could only sigh and step back. In the end, he bowed toward Arima.

"Sorry, and thank you very much. I don't know who you are, but you saved me from doing something that I would regret for my entire life."

Arima smiled, "It's nothing much," By the time he said that Lanya had already arrived next to him. She was viewing the situation with a serious mindset.

"By the way," Arima suddenly looked away and drew Ira. He aimed at a totally random-looking direction and fired. The bullet flew and landed on a single person in the crowd that had woken up.

Ofia widened her eyes "What are you doing?" She wanted to shout but stopped when she saw that the person who was aimed at had caught the bullet with his hand.

The same person gazed at Arima, "My apologies… but I do not want to fight you. Could you let me go?" He pleaded with an emotionless voice.

"Sure. Go. Don't do things like this in the future," Arima responded which surprised not only the two siblings but also Lanya.

"Thank you," The man said and vanished.

"…Who was that?" Kyle asked carefully. He knew he couldn't be forceful against Arima. He didn't want to put himself or his sister at risk.

Arima glanced at him, "That guy was most likely someone hired by the attackers. I instantly realized it by the tone of his voice. It sounded like he had nothing to do with all of this. And also, if I fought him here, the city would really be destroyed. Consider yourself lucky that he didn't act first, or else you would have died in the first minutes."

Kyle shuddered and Arima turned around to leave.

"Please, wait! Could you tell us your name at least?" Ofia asked before Arima had left her sight.

Arima snickered, "Took you long enough," He spoke without turning around, "I'm Arimane Blade. It shouldn't be that hard for you to find out about me. I'm also called the Kind Demon," He waved his hand and left with Lanya.

Ofia kept staring until Arima had left before exhaling, "Kyle, let's go back. We need to report to Father quickly. I'm sure the guard is already coming too."

Kyle nodded, "Yes, I didn't expect them to attack so daringly in town. Also, those assassins, I felt like they didn't have any emotion…" He remarked and scanned the corpses of the assailants. Arima had restored the bodies, but of course, he didn't resurrect them.

"You're right. Let's bring them back," Ofia said after she saw the corpses and then sighed, "I'd really want to know their motive…" She declared and returned inside the carriage along with her brother.

Their escort who had also been revived was lost from the beginning to the end. They only reacted when they were ordered to return to the castle.