I clap my hands and summon two black magic circles under my arm. Air coming out of my mouth slowly turns cold, cold enough to freeze. With a single movement of my fingers, small icicle spikes launch at Myleane's direction.
The red beast smirks as the icy spikes fail to pierce their skin. They evaporate the moment they make contact with her skin. "You have to do much more than this kid."
I smile at her and point upwards. Myleane spots Mr. Red who is about to flatten her. "A distraction?"
BAM! The ground below Mr. Red's feet cracks due to impact, in the dust he spots Myleane and punches at her.
Like a monkey, Myleane performs multiple inhuman somersaults to barely escape from Mr. Red's hands. Between her somersaults, her feet almost make contact with Mr. Red's beard. "Oops!"
She lands on her hands and pushes the ground below. In the next second, she is in the air above Mr. Red's large stature only to land few metres away.
I launch another barrage of icy spikes at her but this time I aim specifically at her legs. With a prideful grin, Myleane tanks every spike and sarcastically yawns to further mock me. Unlucky for her, I was not planning to hurt her, I was only occupying her.
"URUGHHH!" With a roar, Mr. Red dashes at Myleane. But just like a feather, she simply pushes herself off the ground which sent her over Mr. Red's head. "I won't fall for same trick twice."
I summon a single icy spike and rotate it clockwise at very speed. My eyes were sterned at Myleane's feet. 'Any second now.'
Just as she was about to land few meters away from Mr. Red, I launched the fast rotating spike, it flew just under Myleane's feet, when it made contact, Myleane's entire foot froze which made her a slip.
THUD! She glared at me with fiery eyes. "You brat. I was going easy on you but now you done it!"
I noticed hot steam coming off Myleane's skin. 'What's that? A spell?'
She slowly stood up and cracked her neck. Her devilish grin made me rethink my options. The intensity of steam kept on increasing so much so even I felt it from a distance. The surrounding steam slowly formed a mist which covered Myleane and her surroundings.
I gritted my teeth and pumped mana into my arms. 'Come on!' Even though she was hidden behind a wall of mist, I could notice her in my mana field.
She was moving, up and down. Up and down. Up and down.
"Are you warming up?"
Myleane suddenly moved at an unnatural speed only to appear infront of me. I was baffled when I first saw her, my instinct told me that this was no human. Myleane's skin turned bright red, veins visible all over her body, her eyes filled with bloodlust yet somehow her already creepy grin became even more terrifying.
I stepped back but it was so slow, she was about to grab me. Just then something pulled her back into the mist.
I almost tripped my next step. 'She almost got me!' This time I didn't need mana field to see what's happening behind the mist.
"URGH!"
"Let go of me you old fart!"
THUD! THUD! Sounds fighting and grunting echoed in my ears.
For a second, I saw a large silhouette smashing Myleane down in the ground.
BAM!
"Mr. Red?" I walked ahead only to see Mr. Red punching Myleane deeper into the ground.
He punched so hard that her nose broke and multiple teeth flew out. I noticed his hands were slightly burned by touching her.
"Was she that hot?" I asked in a cheeky tone.
Mr. Red stopped punching and looked at me, he slowly stood and spoke in a heavy tone. "Ask her."
Myleane's bloodied face barely moved let alone answer my question. "I don't think she is going to be talking soon."
Mr. Red shrugged me off and grabbed her leg. I heard Myleane moaning in pain. "What are you doing?" I asked the tall man who was wearing an apron.
Mr. Red finally changed his expression and smiled at me. "Cooling her off."
He started spinning Myleane like she was a yo-yo and threw her high in the air. The red beast flew past half of the forest and fell in the water fountain decorated with the statue of water spirit.
I showed a thumbs up to Mr. Red and made our way to his cake shop. Once again, he made me the red omlette on an entire pan without even asking and sat across me. "Eat it."
I smiled awkwardly and ate a piece of the omelette. Suddenly Mr. Red bowed his head down at me. "Please save my daughter." He said with a heavy tone.
I took another bite of the omelette, it was really good.
Marie stood beside her husband and poured some water for me. "We failed to understand your goodwill. The very next day after our last conversation, we called the physician for Maddy's scheduled examination and he actually said that her condition has improved. He even prescribed new medicines which might help with her recovery."
"Do not take those medicines. Your daughter's case is extremely sensitive, one wrong move and she could suffer greatly."
Marie and Mr. Red looked at eachother briefly before agreeing to my request.
'Well, she could actually improve too. If the medicines are right which is very unlikely but it's better to be safe than sorry. Also I want their money.'
"Then Altaris, please help our daughter." This time Marie also bows her head.
I eat the last piece of omelette before drinking the water. "Puah! I will. Afterall, I promised to be her friend."
Marie and Mr. Red looked delighted, this was one of the rarest moments where Mr. Red actually showed genuine emotions.
"Ahem! Helping your daughter is simple, we just need the ore. But the tricky part is entering the dungeon that deep."
Marie looked at her husband with worried eyes. "Why? Are they not allowing you back in?"
I answer instead of Mr. Red. "The problem is me. You see, I started exploring the dungeon roughly a week ago that makes me a white ribboned explorer and Mr. Red here is- Ahem! A black ribboned explorer. So we need to find other people to make our party 'balanced.'"
Marie nodded and glanced at Mr. Red. "No. No. You promised me when we married that you will give up on adventuring, give up putting your life at risk."
"But my love, it's for our daughter."
Marie caressed her husband's rough cheek but Mr. Red's eyes were stern. "No. Let me worry about that and kid."
"Yes sir?" I blurted out 'sir' because Mr. Red resembled my drill master back in the empire, not face but personality.
"Meet me at the guild in 2 days. I gather some of my old friends for the job."
After hearing Mr. Red's statement, I was jumping in back of my mind. 'Great! His friends should also be black ribboned, right? This meant I could dive deeper than intended. Exploration will be a cake walk and we could stumble upon of ancient treasure too.'
Mr. Red got up and so did I. "Well then Mr. Red, I shall see you in 2 days." I bowed like a noble which surprised both of them.
When I was traversing through the dirty alleyways of dungeon city, my mind was busy planning for this next dive. 'Hmm. My mana capacity is too little, even though quality is rising pretty steadily it is no use if I have no mana.'
Dora spoke up after a long time. 'Why don't you offer some sacrifices?'
'What do you think I am? Some kind of demon?'
'I mean you have a black magic circle.'
Before I could answer Dora, I noticed something familiar in my mana field. "It can't be!"
I pumped mana into my legs and jumped on top of nearby building. People who were walking beside me, freaked out and began yelling. "Altar! It's an Altar!"
I didn't have any attention to spare for them, I focused my mana field and separated a familiar connection.
'What's wrong master?' Dora asked me, she was geninuely scared after seeing me this serious. She feared that we were attacked by something strong. Little did she know, something was going to be attacked by me.
I ran to one roof to another, jumped over windows and slid through some cables. Lucky for me that dungeon was such a dystopian city, people were mismanaged and infrastructure was poor which made blending and disappearing really easy. Also, these black communication cables were everywhere, attached to building to building.
'There!'
I spotted a unique person with white hair and minimal attire walking in the crowd. Many people were glancing at her, some appropriately, some not.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I yelled on top of my lungs.
The crowd looked at me, they were confused to see a child yelling on top of a tall building.
Alexia also spotted me, her response was to hide but how could she hide from me.
I jumped down of the building and unsheathed Melsier's blade only to throw in her direction.