"I really do not know if you are here to help or just to cause trouble. Sit tight, I am going to speed up."
Kai straddled a magic motorcycle. This was another toy he had dug out of the Warfire King's Armory.
As long as it had mana, it could run at insane speed, and it worked on snow, in the mountains, even over water.
It really was an all purpose machine.
"I did not know this place would be this cold. And why in the world are you carrying a motorcycle around."
Lucy hugged Kai tightly from behind, trying to steal some warmth from him while still finding the time to complain.
"It is a tool of war, so it counts as part of my armory. Stop talking, shut your mouth. I am going to accelerate again."
Kai took out a detection compass, a magic tool that could track the location of a target based on their aura.
Before coming out, he had taken something that held Macao's magic signature from Romeo. He was using that as the lure to track him.
As Kai poured more mana in, the bike's speed surged yet again.
Lucy clung to him even harder. In that instant, she felt like she was not riding a bike but flying.
This speed was ridiculous. On top of that, they were in the mountains. Did he not worry about plunging straight off a cliff.
As Kai raced on without slowing, the distance between them and Macao shrank. It was not long before they saw a white ape in the mountains ahead.
"There is some kind of animal in front of us. Hurry and dodge."
"Dodge. Dodge what. We are going to hit it head on."
Lucy screamed, but it did not help at all.
"HOO, HOO, HOO?!"
The white ape had been about to attack them, but as it watched the bike hurtling closer without slowing in the slightest, it suddenly felt something was very wrong.
Danger prickled up its spine. It turned and tried to leap out of the way, but it was already too late.
BANG!
The motorcycle smashed into the Balkan. The impact launched both of them into the air.
Kai stepped hard on the bike, using it as a springboard to kick off, and jumped. In midair he unleashed a flurry of blows, his Euler style fists pounding the Balkan until it crashed to the ground, completely defeated.
By the time the bike and the Balkan both hit the ground, the fight was already over.
"That was so fast. So strong."
When Lucy finally came back to herself, her mouth was hanging open. In the instant of the collision, her mind had gone completely blank.
Even in that kind of situation, Kai had reacted first and seized the chance to take the enemy down in one go.
Kai hurried over to the battered and bloodied Macao and began treating him. First he stopped the bleeding, then he poured a bottle of potion down his throat.
"What happened here. This man is Macao, right."
Lucy quickly handed him the medical kit and started helping, while asking in confusion.
"So that is how it is."
Looking over Macao's wounds, Lucy finally felt, deep in her bones, just how dangerous the life of a wizard really was.
At the same time, she gained a whole new understanding of Kai's strength. Other people had fought desperately and still could not beat the monster.
Kai had just walked up and one shotted it. That was seriously outside the norm.
"Aaaahhh."
Macao suddenly jolted awake. The potion Kai had fed him earlier was taking effect. Right now his entire body felt like it was on fire.
But his life had been pulled back from the edge.
"K Kai. You are the one who saved me."
Lucy's face changed the moment she heard that. It was not just one monster.
It was one man against twenty.
And the guild had expected that to be done by a single wizard.
The words everyone had said back at the guild replayed in her mind. Only now did she truly understand what they meant.
Just then, when they had still thought the area was clear, the surrounding snow jumped and split, and a whole cluster of mounds burst open.
From each snow cocoon, another Balkan crawled out. Vicious grins split their faces as they lumbered toward Kai and the others.
"B Balkans are charging us. There have to be at least a hundred of them."
Kai finished bandaging Macao's last wound, sealing it off, then stood up and walked alone toward the approaching Balkans.
He smiled. The space behind his back rippled, and in an instant the sky around them filled with guns and cannons.