"Let's catch those robbers and get the book back." Kazu's sudden words rendered Gray speechless.
"Wha—How?"
"Gray, what's the best way to check if somebody is trying to find you?"
Gray paused. His expression was pondering. "To be around places where such information is easily available."
Kazu nodded. "What if you know who is after you? And you are hiding in a city. How will you know if they have arrived in the city or not?"
"I..." Gray's eyes widened in realisation. "The gates! If they are at the gates, they could not only find out that, but they can also escape easily."
Kazu smirked. "That's nice one. But, do you think people from the Council present in the city are stupid? They were present at the gates."
Gray blinked. "Oh... no wonder. They got super serious when they noticed us. Is the reason they didn't make contact with us to prevent our targets from knowing about us?"
"If they don't know about us, then it's a perfect strategy. Anyway, now that the escape routes have Council people present, what would they do now?" Kazu started walking away, prompting Grey to follow him.
"If their disguise skills are good, then that shouldn't be a problem, but seeing the reward for this mission to be that high, I bet there are artefacts present to see through disguise.
So, the only possible remaining option is to brute-force their way outside or continue hiding in the city. Given that we don't know which city they are in, the latter option is more suitable for them."
Kazu nodded. He then stopped in front of an ordinary-looking cake shop. "Cool. So, we are on the same page. I would be leaving the fight to you. Don't worry about protecting me or anything. Just go all out."
Kazu picked up a stone from the ground and hurled it at the glass of the shop.
CRACK
The stone flew with normal speed before making contact with the glass and shattering into several pieces.
"Wh—" Gray didn't have time to react as a big iron sphere with spikes and a chain attached to it came above him, causing Gray to jump back.
'That's an interesting weapon. Did Kazu's magic tell him that they were hiding here? Is this magic related to the weap—' Gray's eyes widened as mid-air, he was ambushed from behind, a knife heading towards his neck.
The blade of the knife was glowing with a green colour, signifying some use of magic.
"Ice-Make: Absolute Freeze."
Just as the knife was going to make contact, it disappeared along with the person holding the knife.
"Tch." Gray clicked his tongue at the escape.
Whoosh
Suddenly, the wielder of the spiky ball threw it at Gray again, who was still mid-air.
'How are they moving their weapons so fast? Is it some form of speed enhancement?' An ice-platform appeared beneath Gray, as he kicked it and jumped up, dodging the spiky ball.
Gray landed on the ground with a calm expression as he finally looked at the other attacker, standing beside the first attacker.
The first one was a short-statured man with a big belly. He rotated the spiky ball with the chains above his head, ready to release it any second.
The one beside him was a tall and lean man, who had a scar running down his right eye. He held a short knife in his hand as he looked at Gray with an unreadable expression.
One noticeable thing about him was that his other hand was completely covered with ice.
"Kid, how did you know that we were here?" The short one asked with a threatening expression.
"That's none of your business. I would suggest that you give up the book peacefully. It would be a shame that you got beaten up by a kid, no? Or do you want your body parts to be frozen just like your team mate?"
Gray started walking towards them with a relaxed expression, as if the people in front of him weren't a threat at all.
This seemed to irk the short man. "YOU!" The spiky ball again headed for Gray, however, this time it was covered in green colour.
Gray blinked.
One second, the ball was above the short man's head, and the next second, the spikes on the ball were a few inches away from his eyes.
BAM
An ice-hammer formed above the ball, pushing it downwards.
When it hit the ground, spiderweb-like cracks came from the point of impact, destroying a large portion of the nearby area.
Gray had already jumped up, and a platform appeared in the air, below him as he rushed at the two.
'That tall guy could definitely speed things up. That's what he did with his knife and that iron ball. What is the short guy's magic? Is it something related to strength?' A pla
"Should we escape? This boy is too troublesome to deal with." The tall one replied with a frown.
"It's not still the time. We will leave when the time is right. Also," The short man glanced at the top of the shop.
There sat a boy sitting on the edge, swinging his legs. He was looking at them with amusement.
"He hasn't even done anything, yet I am getting a bad feeling about him. Watch out for him."
A barrage of ice arrows rained upon the two. However, before they could reach them, a green glow enveloped them, and they became a blur.
"Let's see where you can run when there's nowhere to run." Dozens of ice arrows appeared around Gray, before they started raining in a big area around him.
"Are you insane? Aren't you worried about the civilians?" The tall man pointed at the people who were running away.
Gray didn't need to answer, as the answer came soon.
The arrows, which had strayed away from the path, stopped as they hit an invisible barrier.
"We are trapped! Break the barrier!" The tall man rushed behind the short man, who rotated the iron ball at high speeds, using it as a shield against the ice arrows.
The short man grunted. "Do it."
A red glow covered the tall man, apart from the green glow, as the latter kicked at the barrier.
SHATTER
The barrier crumbled like glass under the massive force.
Gray's eyes widened. He wasn't expecting Kazu's barrier to break this easily.
He snapped his head towards Kazu, who had a frown on his face.
"Gray! I can't contain them. Immobilise them somehow." Kazu shouted.
"Fine!" Gray's lips turned into a thin line as he stopped the barrage of arrows. He was counting on Kazu to stop civilians from getting hurt, but now, he would have to do something else.
He put both of his hands on the ground and poured a large amount of Ethernano.
"Ice-make: Absolute Chains"
Before the other two could react, chains made of ice pierced their foot.
"Break them quickly! Otherwise, your leg becomes numb!" The tall man, who had faced something similar, shouted, but it was too late.
Both of their legs had been covered in ice, causing them to drop.
The sudden attack caused the short man to lose control of his weapon. Due to this, he wasn't able to stop the other chains from piercing their bodies.
"Break the ice!" The tall one, with his fist covered with both red and green glow, punched at the ice.
CRACK
The ice shattered like glass.
"It's useless. Your blood is frozen. You should pray that you don't get hypothermia." Gray shook his head.
The tall man wasn't able to move his leg, just like his arm.
A few more chains pierced his body.
"You!" He raised his hand to punch at Gray, who was pretty close to them.
However, mid-way, his arm stopped reacting to him.
Before either of them could say anything else, their entire body froze as they became ice statues.
"Well, wasn't that easy?" Though the other two were dangerous, especially how they could increase both their speed and strength, it wasn't that ridiculous.
They clearly seemed to have some limits; otherwise, they would have used both the glows at the same time from the beginning.
'Guess, all that training was worth it.' He smirked. Since Kazu had started guiding him, Gray had been focused on one aspect of his magic.
Temperature.
Lowering the temperature.
Ice exists around 0 degrees Celsius. However, that wasn't the lowest temperature something could go. In the Kelvin scale, 0 degrees was equivalent to 273 Kelvin.
Absolute Zero was when the temperature was 0 Kelvin.
The 'Absolute' series Gray created was aimed to lower the temperature as much as possible, until one day he reached the point when he could instantly freeze somebody through that temperature.
'I am still far from Absolute Zero.' Gray stopped his pondering and turned his gaze to the top of the once-cake shop.
What he saw shocked him to the core.
Kazu was sitting like he was before. However, he was not alone. Somebody was behind him, holding a knife dangerously close to Kazu's neck.
***
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