***A.N: There's an issue with the last 2 chapters, I'll sort it out before the end of today!**
"It's… freezing…" One of the bandits said with a low voice, he couldn't even summon enough courage to speak properly.
For the first time in his life, he was truly astounded by someone's ability. Klaus was freezing the lava. This was something he never thought he would experience in this life, but it's happening right before his eyes and he didn't know what to make of it. Klaus, a youth in his twenties was freezing a lava, something that was extremely hot was being frozen solid by a young man. It was an unbelievable sight.
Reynolds and Alice were shocked when they saw what was happening. Klaus exceeded their expectations which was something he rarely does given how highly they all thought of each other. Other than Grey who frequently exceeds their expectations due to his uniqueness, Klaus was not someone they thought would do something like that given the fact that they all thought very highly of him.
"Show off." Reynolds mouthed.
Klaus not only killed his opponent with a single attack, but he also froze a lava. What else could be described as showing off if not this. Klaus was a show off and Reynolds wanted to beat him up for it.
Aries was just as stunned as the bandit. At the moment, she didn't know what to say about this group of friends. There was the freakish Grey, Reynolds who was a high grade summoner, Alice who had a Seelie, and then there's Klaus, someone capable of freezing lava powerful enough to kill them all.
"Hahaha, next time you wouldn't take me to a stupid volcano! I'll turn it into a snow garden!" Klaus laughed like the evil genius he is.
Reynolds and Alice couldn't help but shake their heads.
Everyone present could sense that Klaus' aura was starting to increase, a testament of the lava being suppressed. Aries and the other Fire Elementalists present felt the boost they have starting to decline, not just that, but it was affecting their strength as well. If this continued, then there was a high chance that they would not be able to use their full strength. Luckily, their opponents would also be weakened as well.
Alice on the other hand, although her fire element's strength was seeing a decline, the Seelie, being an Ice Elemental Magical Creature started to surge with power. Just like Klaus, it was being repressed, but not any more.
Klaus unleashed a terrifying cold that spread across the entire place.
"What sort of monster is he?" One of the bandits said.
"A maniacal one, that's for sure." Reynolds answered spitefully.
"Stop being envious. Savor the moment, it's not everyday you get to see a genius in action." Klaus said, annoying Reynolds even more.
"You're a weirdo, I'm very sure of that." Reynolds snorted.
"Haters will hate, but it will not deem my light." Klaus had a smug look on his face.
Alice and Aries went back to their intense battle. This time, the intensity on the side of the bandits dropped drastically, but Alice's strength increased due to the Seelie and she was able to quickly overwhelm her opponent. Before the bandit could try to escape, she froze the bandit.
Unlike Klaus, the Seelie, an Ice Elemental Magical Creature wasn't able to freeze the innards of the bandit. This goes to show just how powerful Klaus' ice ability is. The fact that even Ice Elemental Creatures couldn't compete with him shows his uniqueness.
The bandit frozen by Alice broke the ice and didn't even attempt to continue the battle, he instantly tried to make a getaway the second he was free.
Alice gave chase, thanks to her lightning element, and the decrease in the overall attributes of the bandits due to Klaus freezing the lava, she was faster and was able to catch up to him before he was able to leave the volcano.
"You think you can escape?" She asked.
"No, but I'll kill you!" The bandit laughed and an excited look appeared on his face, he looked at Alice who had a strange expression on her face.
Alice looked around and asked, "How? If I may ask."
The bandit looked around, and then his eyes turned to Klaus.
"You! You froze our array formation?!" The bandit felt like his head was about to explode.
The array formation was the last method he could use to escape when chased into the volcano, but Klaus had unknowingly froze it which means it was not going to work. Without the array, his odds of escaping was slim.
"Fuck!"
"Hahaha, I'll freeze you too if you don't get off my sight!" Klaus was smug, saying whatever he wanted.
"You don't need to worry about him, I'll be enough to deal with you. Just make sure you don't expect anything else to help you out." Alice said and without waiting, she attacked.
The bandit didn't expect Alice to attack instantly, he was hoping to rest for a while, but Alice made it impossible for him to do so.
Aries' opponent wasn't having an easy time either. He had lost one hand, and was bleeding profusely. He was standing with sheer willpower. Dying was not something he wanted to accept, even though he could already tell his chances of survival was minimal, he didn't want to give up until the very end.
Aries wasn't expending too much energy as she fought against the bandit.
Reynolds wasn't bothered with the battle any longer, he was still grumpy that Klaus took away his opponent.
Klaus still had a maniacal look on his face, he looked at Reynolds and said, "You still have time to beg for forgiveness. You know I have a soft spot for you since you've been following me for a while now."
"Beg?! When I'm done with you, you'll be the one who has to beg for forgiveness!" Reynolds was vexed by Klaus' words.
"It's naturally that you feel angered by my brightness, I can't keep it down, if not, I would. Don't worry, my light will shine on you and make you better." Klaus started spouting nonsense, well, to Reynolds it was.
The duo started arguing while Aries and Alice dealt with the bandits. A few minutes later, Alice and Aries were done with their opponents.
Alice, seeing the two still arguing but not as intensely as the start couldn't help but shake her head in embarrassment. The duo didn't have any shame, Grey included.
She knew if he were here, he would've also joined them.
The days of the trio cursing each other flashed through her mind as she saw the duo in this act. Even after so many years, they've not changed. This was one of the things she liked about the guys, no matter what they go through or their current situation, they didn't change towards each other, they still laughed and joked with each other.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Klaus asked, he didn't want to go back to the Phoenix Faction and continue waiting for Grey, for some reason, he felt Grey would still be trying to decipher the array with the Phoenix Faction Leader which would just make them stay there for a while longer while doing nothing.
"Well… there's another place we wanted to raid. We've been getting reports on it for some months now. No one has been chanced since there aren't too many Peak Venerables present in the Faction who are youngsters. The rest are all old guys dying to make a breakthrough." Aries explained.
"What are you waiting for then, let's go!" Klaus said.
"What about Grey?" Alice asked.
"What about him?" Klaus looked at Alice with a weird gaze.
"Nothing, let's go." Alice knew Grey was not going to be free anytime soon and it'll be a pain in the butt if they were to go back and Grey was still in the process of trying to comprehend the array formation. Klaus and Reynolds would probably not let her see the end of it.
Aries took a glance at Alice and realized she just gave in to Klaus'.
'What a weird friendship.' She thought internally.
Normally, the guys are usually the ones who give in to the ladies in most friendships, but in this case, that wasn't the case, rather, Alice was the one who was giving in to Klaus.
To be fair, Alice also didn't like sitting idle, so since there was something to do, it wouldn't be bad to keep Grey waiting.
Seeing that none of them had any issues with heading to the next location, Aries went on to tell them what the situation was.
Apparently, in a neighboring town close to the Phoenix Faction, there have been multiple cases of someone going missing. Mostly those at the Peak of the Sage Plane. When the Faction heard news of it, they sent an Early stage Elemental Venerable Plane member to check it out, but the situation was the same, the person vanished without trace.
It was after a Late stage Venerable disappeared did the Faction get alarmed, mainly due to the fact that the person managed to report back, saying there was a hidden expert at the Peak of the Venerable Plane hiding there.