Chapter 414 - Flame Master
Elliot pushed Lance off of the way just in time for a red sphere to appear in the air and explode.
"Elliot!" Lance yelled, catching Elliot before they could fall to the ground.
"I'm okay," Elliot said. Connor ran behind him and placed his hands on Elliot's back. "Connor, what are you doing–"
Connor didn't reply. Instead, he took a deep breath and red marks traveled from Elliot's back and into his arms. When it reached his shoulders, he raised both his hands in the air, his palms pointing at the skies.
"Flame Teansder!"
The red marks was sucked out of his arms and shot into the skies like a fountain. Connor was gritting his teeth as he forced his arms to stay still while the burst of flames exit his palms.
"Aww, I missed," a voice spoke above them. It was a man who was riding a wooden elephant. The tusk and tail of the elephant were burning with a bright golden flames that matched the man riding it.
The man's hair was a dark shade of brown. He didn't have any clothing on his upper body, and his thigh and legs were covered with a cloth that was wrapped around his waist.
While he was shirtless, golden embellishments were decorated in his torso. A thick golden necklace, golden straps on his shoulders, and another golden strap in his waist area where it acted as a belt to hold the clothing on his legs.
The man wielded a spear that had two rings on the tip along with the slender diamond blade in the middle. A golden strip was wrapped around the blade and passed through the rings, waving gracefully in the air whenever he moved the spear.
"Kusa!" Kaminari yelled. "What are you doing here?"
The man on the elephant sighed. He then pointed the tip of his spear to Kaminari, "I can't believe you would kill Angin and Sayu for your own gain."
"What?" Kaminari asked. "Kusa, they were corrupted by the darkness. Malice, the Queen of Hell, killed them."
"Lies!" Kusa yelled. "The Abyss taking over our kingdoms is not real. It's a story made up by you and your father to take over the Twelve Kingdoms."
"We could barely manage our own kingdom, why would we try and take all of them?" Kaminari asked. "Kusa, please seek reason."
"Why would you?" Kusa quirked his brow up. "I was asking myself the same damn thing. Why would you, regarded as the strongest Master, would want to take over?"
While Kaminari and Kusa were talking, Elliot had fallen unconscious. Connor kneeled behind him and returned his hands on Elliot back. He closes his eyes and focused.
"Move," Ed said. Connor opened his eyes and did as was told. He let Ed take over, the other boy pointing the tip of his sword on Elliot's back. "Nullify."
A dark red mist seeped out of Elliot's skin. The mist formed a small vortex in the air, seemingly screaming as it slowly rose up and vanished.
"That was a curse, wasn't it?" Lance asked, looking up to glare at the elephant-riding man. "Such intense curse. That man is dangerous."
"He is," Ed said. "But Connor, why didn't you just let me dispell the curse? It would've been much easier if I did it myself."
"I panicked," Connor confessed. "It's been a long time since I've seen a fire that's as aggressive as that. The last time I've seen it was when Cain fought seriously."
"Kusa is a very dangerous man," Emperor Kang spoke. "Among the masters, he has the highest damage output. Apart from that, he has a Burning Curse on his every attack. If you could survive the blow, you can barely live through the after effects."
Kusa's eyebrows suddenly met. He looked at Elliot, the one he got hit and narrowed his eyes, "Who removed my curse?"
"It was me," Ed raised his hand. "You got a problem with that?"
"But that curse wasn't just any curse. It's imbued with a strong magic that I've been training to master for the past five years…" Kusa trailed off. "How could you easily dispell it?"
"That's a trade secret," Ed smirked. "You know how chefs don't spill their secret ingredients? I'm like that."
Kusa grit his teeth in anger. He narrowed his eyes and raised his spear in the air. "Okay, then. I guess I'll just have to get rid of you. I have no use for people who don't give me what I want."
From the tip of his spear was a flaming orb that was growing in size. In just seconds, it turned from a size of a grape and into a size of a hill.
"What Kusa wants…" the Flame Master trailed off. "Is what Kusa gets!"
"The spoiled prince," Kaminari chuckled. He bent his knees and gripped the handle of his sword. The blue electric sparks traveled around his body, radiating brightly as if it was lighting as bright as the flames.
"Everyone, run!" Emperor Kang yelled. "When those two attacks clash, it would create a massive destruction. It would ruin us all!"
The emperor was panicking. He was waving his hands in the air, making several soldiers that were hiding in the bushes come out and run. Emperor Kang looked back to see the Avancians were rather calm.
"Aren't you going to run for your lives?" he asked.
Lance snorted, tapping Ed's back a couple of times. "You got this."
"Of course, I do," Ed smirked, brandishing his sword and rushing to the bright attacks.
As the two Masters charged their powers, the orb on the tip of Kusa's spear was now spinning. Six thin rings spun all around it, making the attack look even more powerful.
"This is for Angin and Sayu!" Kusa yelled. He was about to swing his spear to launch his attack when Ed appeared right in front of it.
Ed had his right arm glow with the bright purple flames. He chuckeld and stabbed the flaming orb like he was sticking a needle on a balloon. "Fwoop."
And like a balloon, the flames exploded but without any force. It vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of the once large and mighty attack.
"W-What?" Kusa couldn't believe his eyes. His giant orb, a powerful attack that could make a city perish, gone in just a split second. He took a look at the one responsible for it, and Ed was grinning while falling to the ground.
He landed on both his feet slamming firmly on the ground. He looked up to see Kusa still speechless.
"You can stop that now," Ed told Kaminari. The latter deactivated his attack and stood upright, looking at Ed and back to Kusa.
"What is going on?" Kaminari gasped.
"There's something off about him," Connor said. "Look at him. There's really something off."
"What's wrong?" Lance asked. He tapped Elliot's cheek, but the boy was unresponsive so he settled on carrying him on his back. "What's something off about him?"
"His aura," Guan Yin said. "Feel his aura. I could sense it too."
Lance's eyes widened. He looked at the two, and then at the still shocked Kusa.
"What the–" he stopped, his eyebrows meeting to confirm it.. "He doesn't have a trace of darkness in him."