Keller quickly moved towards Nick's side by enveloping himself within a gust of jade-green wind and then suddenly appearing, stooped down, at Nick's left side. Keller placed his right palm on Nick's left breast and willed for a soft gust of jade-green wind to blow over his entire body in back and worth motions; Nick's breathing and physical condition seemed to gradually improve from then on.
While Keller healed Nick, Aston Casper walked to the front of the table of honor and examined Harvey Nefari for injuries. He mused:
(His internal and external injuries are relatively light but his stamina is completely drained and his magic energy reserves are about empty. That was a good fight, better than I witnessed at their age between other rank 2 Magicians that weren't fighting to the death.)
Aston expressionlessly willed for the mass of white clouds that currently held Harvey to wrap around him completely, then they all slowly began to seep into Harvey's pores as he was made to stand up straight by the clouds. When all the clouds seeped into his skin and Harvey finally stood up straight, his deathly pale appearance had become much brighter, about the same as before the battle had taken place.
Harvey gave Aston a respectful, silent bow of appreciation, then turned his attention towards Nick, who was still on the battle stage. The audience had already quietened down as they prepared for the upcoming meal and the journalists wrote down the details of the battle so that they could publish articles later.
Under the influence of Keller's healing spell, Nick slowly stood up until he was completely upright; Keller had also gradually stood up in response to Nick's improving condition. Once Nick stood firmly using his two feet, Keller withdrew his hand from Nick's chest and spoke:
"You did well."
Nick replied:
"Thanks. Can I have my meal now?"
Keller nodded and then led Nick, on foot, to the young man's chair at the table of honor. Harvey soon moved to stand in front of Nick before Nick was able to sit in his chair. Nick asked with exhaustion in his tone:
"What?"
Harvey asked with a plain expression:
"How far are you from becoming rank 3?"
Nick was a little caught off guard by the seemingly random question but he replied honestly since Harvey had been such a worthy opponent:
"I'm still a few years from getting there, mostly because I'm trying to maximize my potential."
Harvey nodded his head in understanding and then spoke to Nick sincerely:
"Don't lose to anyone until then. You and I will have a rematch."
Nick laughed lightly in response to Harvey's apparent competitiveness and replied:
"You know, if I keep on encountering people like you, I may not have a choice in the matter."
Harvey's expression developed into a faint smile upon hearing Nick's subtle praise and he then moved to sit in his own seat beside Veera. Nick followed Harvey's example right after. Veera spoke to Nick and Harvey from her chair with excitement plastered all over her face and belief in her tone:
"I hope that I can become as good as you two, someday."
Harvey's heart skipped a beat when he heard Veera praise him and his face slightly flushed but he did not speak, afraid that he might say something stupid to the young girl. Nick, however, replied disinterestedly:
"That's good, Veera. Work hard. Is the food ready yet?"
As if on cue, over a dozen servers came rushing through the door with trays of dishes and they were all dressed in their clean, white uniforms. Following a command from Keller, everyone within the dining hall was quickly served:
"After a showing like that, a good meal is a just outcome. Please enjoy. Severs, go ahead and distribute the dishes."
The servers did just that and soon, Nick had several dishes of tender magic beast meat and spiced fruits and vegetables in front of him. Nick's indifferent expression slightly eased as he summoned two bags of butter bread from his space band and then used the magic beast meat and vegetables to created sandwiches. After he was done with his preparation, Nick began eating ravenously without having any consideration for decorum.
He held one sandwich with both hands and bit down hard on it before chewing and swallowing. The juices of the tender magic beast meat and the vegetables flowed from his mouth but instead of wiping it clean first, Nick just took another bite of his sandwich when he could. Harvey awkwardly glanced at Nick's eating style as he wielded his knife and fork to gently cut his food into pieces.
Veera left her chair and went to Nick's side to ask him for a bag of butter bread and when Nick absentmindedly gave her one, she returned to her chair and followed Nick's example of creating a sandwich and eating recklessly. Keller internally sighed as he glanced at his daughter but let her be. Aston lightly laughed in his own seat and then asked Nick:
"Young man, how long to you plan on staying in Sidon?"
Nick stopped eating his sandwich so that he could answer:
"Not much longer, I plan to leave after I finish this meal."
Veera heard that and she stopped eating momentarily but then continued as if she heard nothing. Aston nodded his chubby head in response to Nick's reply and said:
"Well then, the next time that you are near Mertel, you should come and visit me so that I can compare notes with you. You seem to be very well trained."
Nick flippantly replied:
"It only seems that way because I wore my lucky polo shirt today."
Aston awkwardly chuckled in response to Nick's reply, at which point Aston began speaking to Keller and Nick continued eating his meal. Nick finished eating his food faster than the others and found the opportunity to ask Harvey, who was beside him, a question:
"I know of a mission that the Nefari family has undertaken to explore Glory Sea. Do you mind telling me how that is going?"
Normally, Harvey would never discuss family business with an outsider, especially with a commoner, but Nick's skill earned his respect and so he said:
"The mission has mostly gone on without a hitch except that someone from the Auburn family snatched an inheritance from one of my relatives and now the Nefari and Auburn family are openly feuding. It's no big deal, we Nefaris have to discipline one strong family every now and then to keep everyone else in line."
Harvey went back to eating his meal after saying that and Nick thought about Harvey's words for a few minutes before coming to the conclusion:
(Jessie probably did something reckless. It's not my problem but I wonder what inheritance was worth coming into conflict with the Nefaris.)
Soon, Nick declared his intentions to leave after saying goodbye to Veera, Keller took him to the outside of the hall where he spoke to Nick genially:
"Let us exchange numbers so that we can stay in touch. My daughter seems to look up to you and if you can offer her some pointers later on, that would be a big help to me. I can also tell you about things going on inside Forgotten Peril that you might be interested in."
Nick had no problem with staying in touch with people so long as it involved sharing useful information. Both men quickly exchanged numbers. Nick then used Blink several times to quickly leave Keller's mansion and approached the gates of the settlement.
Just as he was about to make his way over to the gates, on foot, an obviously drunken man stumbled over in front of him, falling to the ground. The man seemed to be of Chinese descent, had pale skin and sported a head full of shiny, black hair. The man shakily raised himself from the ground and cursed at Nick:
"You bastard. You cannot trip me, the great John Rebel, and get away with it. Quickly, take this one move!"
The Asian man punched out at Nick with his right fist but his movements were so sloppy that the man stumbled towards Nick's right side and lost his balance, falling to the ground harshly. The man then stayed on the ground, whimpering for a long time.
Nick had no interest in dealing with a drunkard who was obviously too stoned to know what he was doing. As Nick was about to continue walking towards the gates, he heard the man, who seemed to be in his late twenties, wale:
"I'm sorry that I plotted against all of you but I just didn't want to be a sellout anymore! My grandfather would turn in his grave if he knew that I was living like a boot licking dog rather than a man."
Nick shook his head and ignored the man. He walked over to the gate, then past the guards. When he finally left Sidon, he looked at the starless night sky above and whispered:
"I'm a few steps closer to my goal. It took me over a year but a few steps closer to rank 3 is worth it."
Nick used his movement spell, One Meter At A Time, in order to walk five hundred meters away from Sidon's walls in record time, then cast Absolute Push and Absolute Pull to raise himself into the air, about forty meters above ground. After mobilizing twelve of his ghost-white blades from their adjacent space so that they could rotate around him and guard him, Nick flew away from Sidon, towards his next destination.
**************************************************
Carla sat in her office at the Magic Scroll Company's factory, silently signing papers when a man that seemed to be in his early thirties opened her closed office door and walked up to her desk, placing a tablet computer in front of her.
Carla did not even look at the tablet's screen and instead reprimanded the person with a stern tone:
"Noelle, I don't care if you are my younger brother, if you just barge into my office again, I will put you over my right knee and spank you till you apologize."
The man that was apparently named Noelle maintained his cool expression. He was dressed in a pair of fitting black dress pants, a neatly tucked in green dress shirt, a pair of black leather dress shoes and sported a pair of metal rimmed glasses on his pale, white face. His hair was faded at both sides of his head with the top being full of oily, short, brown hair.
The man calmly explained to Carla:
"Take a look at this article originating from Forgotten Peril. Apparently, Nick Capitol defeated Harvey Nefari, one of the princes of the Nefari family, and the various legacy magician families and academies are all raving about it. They are calling it the rise of the commoners as they face off against the old aristocratic class. Of course, the latter is bullshit but it makes for great gossip. Anyway, Grim Lord Academy is not happy that their man was defeated by an unknown from Richter Order Academy and so they are asking the latter for an explanation."
Carla laughed, saying:
"What explanation do they deserve? They are only trying to cover up their bruised ego because their ranking will probably be called into question. Why do you even know about this? Shouldn't you be researching the magic formation designs that I gave you?"
Noelle justified himself:
"I am Carla, but information path is not the same as instant path. You wanted me to find out if those designs exist anywhere else or are similar to anything that the public could get their hands on but I've come up empty so far. It seems that the designs probably are original and hey, it's never a bad thing to be in the loop when it comes to current events."
Carla ignored Noelle for a while so that she could think:
(Nick must be having a good time in Forgotten Peril. His standard is now known by a large number of people which means that he will get more unwanted attention from here on out which might spill onto our business dealings. So be it, I like quiet, but I like resources better. As for the designs, I was still a little skeptical about their origin...but now that I know that Noelle is unable to find similar designs elsewhere, I have no choice but to admit that I cannot fathom Nick's abilities and I should be cautious in how I use him. I have no idea who his teacher might be and I don't want to be forced into a dangerous situation by a Magician that is hiding in the dark. I will ask him to participate in the upcoming inter-family tournament in order to brand him as a Jenner and see how things go from there. That might also help to deter Grim Lord Academy and their apparent grudge.)
Carla dismissed Noelle and went back to signing papers.
******************************************************
Nick flew through the air all night long and while he did come across many magic beasts as a result, he used his twelve ghost-white blades to slice them up before any of them caused him problems.
(The interesting thing about the magic formation that I use to manipulate the blades, that I have now decided to call 'Blade Works', is that although it presents like a spell cast by me, it does not require as much mental effort as a spell of the same standard that I could cast, so I can fly effortlessly while still manipulating multiple blades effectively. Hmmm...why is the latter fact the way it is?)
Nick's intuition soon suggested a reason to him that was likely the best explanation.
(It's because magic formations are laid while containing the self-wills of its creator which reduces the need for its creator to think through actions that the magic formation already considers on its own, similar to having another brain, or like multiple processing threads on a computer.)
Nick then became confused after he came to that conclusion. He mused:
(Self-wills? Isn't that the domain of wisdom path, how can magic formations achieve an effect like that without requiring wisdom path laws?)
An answer came through Nick's intuition one moment later and it excited him.
(It seems that since formations are basically spells, which are by definition the will of the caster manifested outwardly, the intricate and numerous patterns involved in creating magic formations generate a kind of accumulation of wills that become closer related to the Formation Magician's own intentions and mindset, becoming self-will.)
Nick sighed, that was where his understanding of the subject concluded since will, intentions and other mental concepts were truly the domain of wisdom path and were only faintly related to formation path.
(The good thing is that I now know more about this great advantage of magic formations. That means that formation path methods are worth developing and not just ones for menial or random tasks.)
Nick rotated and manipulated his blades increasingly like they were an extension of his own arms and he thought:
(The application of magic formations for use in battle is probably an immense field. He, he, he...)
Nick soon came to a very wide river filled with murky water by the time that the sun rose. The river rushed down stream for kilometers and Nick could not see its end from where he was. Nick didn't really have an interest in the river but since he had reached it, he knew that he was closer to the Rot Oak region where they would find the mutant shifter.
Nick continued flying and did not plan to stop even at night until he was near to the Rot Oak region. Nick flew towards his destination for another four months and did not land during the entire journey despite darkness, rain and magic beast attacks. He simply used his magic to overcome the environment and his blades to cut through most of the flying magic beasts that he met along the way. The magic beasts that he could not but down with his twelve ghost-white blades were simply sliced in half by Nick's use of one of his magic swords.
(The great thing about flying is that most rank 2 Magicians don't do it because of magic energy consumption concerns so I have experienced no human interference for the past four months. Is it lonely? Sure, but I'd rather be lonely than waste time with people who are grounded. What's the old saying? Eagles fly alone...yeah. That's so true.)
At midday, Nick flew over a large camp of people that seemed to be making use of tents and a large camp fire that was situated in the middle of their camp. The fire gave off a very pleasant, sweet smelling smoke. Nick stopped in midair to enjoy the fragrance of the smoke for a few minutes but soon, someone from the camp below flew up to meet him, riding on a winged white horse with about twenty more winged horses in tow. Nick went on the alert and remained in his position while mobilizing twenty more of his ghost-white blades from their adjacent space, ready to perform a massacre at any moment.
The man riding the winged horses rose to Nick's level and stopped about fifteen meters in front of him. The man sported a head full of long, blonde hair and had light-blue eyes; he wore a white magician's robe and a pair of secure looking, white cloth shoes. The man spoke to Nick fiercely:
"What are your intentions and why are you hovering over our camp?"
Nick answered plainly:
"I just stopped flying to appreciate the smell of the smoke from your fire. I'll be going on my way now."
Nick turned slightly to show his intention to leave but still kept his ghost-white blades pointed at the man and his winged horses. The man did not believe Nick's story for some reason and warned:
"If you move another inch, dear fellow, I will beset you with such fury that your mother will plead for you in her dreams."
Nick turned back to face the man in response to his threat and replied, clearly displeased:
"What the fuck? Are you Shakespeare come back to life?"
The man ignored Nick's comment and introduced himself:
"My name is West Bailen and I am the head enforcer of the Colt Mining Company. I deem your presence suspicious and a security threat to our operations below so I am detaining you for further questioning. Please comply."
Nick raised his right eye brow in confusion and replied:
"Bro, do you not see the blades floating around me and pointing at you? How do you plan on detaining me?"
The man's body suddenly erupted with magic energy and then a troupe of winged horses emerged from his camp from seemingly out of nowhere, numbering over one hundred and flew up to West's side, staring quietly at the opposing Nick. Nick gasped, thinking:
(Where did all those winged horses suddenly come from, no way that small camp can manage to stable all of them out of sight? They appeared in response to the surge in this guy's magic. Is he an enslavement path Magician?)
Within the next few seconds, West made his move without warning or explaining any further. He waved his right hand and his small army of winged horses raged towards Nick like a beast tide. Nick mobilized sixty more of his ghost-white blades from their adjacent space and sent them forward to meet with the winged horses while rotating madly like power saws.
During the next three minutes, winged horses fell from the sky one after another without even getting the chance to reach Nick because of the agile and sharp ghost-white blades that mowed them down from many angles, given the opportunity. Since the blades were being largely manipulated using Blade Works, this gave Nick the spare mental effort to properly strategize how he would direct them against the magic beast group to have the greatest impact at any one time; that sometimes involved sending dozens of blades at a few winged horses' flanks to strike at them from their blind spots created by the grouping of so many magic beasts in the area.
Although the winged horses appeared ferocious and gallant as they flew through the air, their skin was not that thick and their flesh not that tough so the ghost-white blades cut into them with average efficiency despite only being basic apprentice grade. Nick continuously backed away as the winged horses moved closer and by the time that Nick had moved twenty meters away from his current position, he had killed twenty winged horses without a single one having come into contact with him.
West's expression grew distressed as he felt his heart ache as he watched twenty of his winged horses die without even harming his opponent. He quickly mused:
(Each one of those white Pegasus cost £3,000,000 to raise to rank 2 and the company did so specifically in order to put them under my charge. I can't have them dying like this, like common chickens.)
West immediately and grudgingly recalled his Pegasi, at which point Nick also recalled his ghost-white blades; he had not even lost one during the exchange and so the stronger side was already revealed. Nick jeered at West:
"Are you really an enslavement path Magician?"
West audibly snorted in response to Nick's question but internally sighed:
(You have no idea how difficult enslavement path is. All I do when I am on Grand Earth is train at the company's ranch, day and night and at the end of it, I am still restricted by the amounts and natures of the magic beasts that they give me. If it wasn't for the fact that I have a high aptitude for enslavement path magic and that my salary is £260,000 per month, I would have long since switched to fire path.)
West maintained a straight face as he confidently said:
"Surely, there must be some compromise that we can come to."
Once Nick heard that, he knew that it was equivalent to West's surrender. Nick maintained his indifferent expression and asked:
"Why does your fire's smoke smell like it does?"
West realized what Nick was talking about without much thought and replied to him in an attempt to cool his nerves:
"We are pre-roasting magic beast meat in order to use it to make soup and apparently, the smell of the meat has mixed in with the smoke."
Nick's expression slightly eased as he thought:
(That must be some great meat.)
Nick immediately stored all his blades into their adjacent space and said:
"I'll go to your camp if you give me a large portion of that soup with the magic beast meat."
West's expression became weird as he realized that Nick was serious. He wondered:
(He put away all his blades. Should I attack him now? No, if he put them away, he can probably summon them again. If he wants some food in exchange for his compliance, then I can agree to that.)
"I will feed you if you act rightly within our camp."
West turned around in order to fly back to his company's camp and directed his white Pegasi to do the same. Nick then tailed them slowly towards the camp. He was not afraid that he was walking into a wolves' den since West's standard basically told him all that he needed to know about the strength of this group. He reasoned that if they had a stronger fighter, they would have certainly sent that person along with West to face him instead of risking the death of their enslavement path Magician.
(I've been told that enslavement path Magicians are expensive to raise and that they are considered strategic resources of their organizations. No one would just throw a strategic resource at an unknown enemy unless it was the best that they had to throw.)
Nick flew down to the center of the camp, close to the fire and watched as West's winged horses walked into an opened blue tent one by one before disappearing. The tent seemed only large enough to fit three winged horses side by side but a whole group of over seventy winged horses seem to somehow reside within that tent.
The tent's curtains were quickly closed by West after the last winged horse entered it. West turned his attention to Nick again and at the same time, multiple people began to surround Nick, keeping their distance and watching him warily. West cleared the air, saying:
"Everyone! Relax, my friend here and I have come to an agreement. He'll stay with us for a while during our little operation. Someone get him a hefty serving of soup and meat as soon as it is ready."
The people surrounding the camp fire seemed confused by West's instructions but they had no choice but to leave Nick be and go back to their business. Nick then summoned his picnic table from his space band and a book on magic beast anatomy. He glanced at the large volumes of meat hung up on metal racks near the big fire and then began reading his book, waiting for the soup to arrive.
West watched Nick's actions and found his behavior strange.
(How can he be fine with being in a camp full of people that he does not know without even asking any questions, not even about our operations? I wanted to detain him to prevent him from leaking our location and activities if he were a spy but now it looks like he really only followed me here just to get some food. Come to think of it, I don't even know his name.)
West walked over to Nick's picnic table, sat opposite him and asked seriously:
"How comes you are so calm with being in an unknown camp with strangers?"
Nick indifferently replied without raising his eyes from his book:
"I grew up without anyone liking me, so to me, everyone that I ever met is a stranger. Being around more strangers makes no difference. As for the fact that this is your camp, I'm pretty sure that I could kill a decent amount of you before escaping if things got ugly."
Such an honest response made West frown intensely but since he did not want to come into conflict with Nick at this juncture, he said:
"I'll make sure that they bring you the soup. It is made with magical materials and a special kind of peas found in this region. Once you add the meat over there to it, the soup becomes a delicacy."
With his eyes still glued to his book, Nick broke his indifferent expression to lightly smile and then replied:
"Yeah...that sounds great."
West then called two of his people over and said to them:
"Nick is an important guest, please keep him company while I go see how far the others have gotten in moving our plans along."
West left and made his way into a gold colored tent at the far side of the camp; Nick knew this because he received an image of it via Spatial Awareness. The two people that West had called over remained at Nick's side, standing about two meters away from his picnic table and silently observed him.
They were from the same enforcement unit as West and knew what their boss meant by 'keep him company' and so they discreetly observed Nick's actions but the young man seemed only interested in his book. After about one hour of guarding him, one of Nick's 'guards' walked over to his table and sat opposite him.
This guard was a woman that seemed to be in her late twenties and had dark skin, an athletic body, a bright smile and a head full of long, braided, black hair that reached down to the middle of her back. She wore a magician's robe and shoes similar to West's. She brazenly asked Nick:
"Are you at all interested in what we are doing here?"
Nick replied simply:
"No."
She then asked:
"Then why did you come into our camp?"
Nick replied simply once again:
"I was promised soup."
The woman was internally satisfied in regards to the truth of Nick's intentions because she had a method to detect lies but it showed no reaction to Nick's words.
(Is he really only here for the soup? He's weird.)
Nick's other guard shook his head at his colleague's actions. He knew about her powers that could detect lies and so did West but in the world of magic that consisted of all sorts of Magicians, such methods were of no use at rank 2 since they could be deceived by using a few publicly known methods. He instructed her patiently:
"Jennifer, come and stand by me, you don't need to talk to him."
Jennifer tauntingly pointed her tongue at her colleague and continued to sit with Nick. Nick received an image of the woman's colleague via Spatial Awareness. The man was tall, at about six feet, he had white skin, curly brown hair on his head and dark eyes. He wore similar attire to Jennifer's.
Soon, someone walked over to the camp fire with a large bowl of soup and stripped off pieces of the roasted meat into the soup before taking it over to Nick's picnic table. The person who brought the soup was a twenty something year old man similarly dressed as the rest and he left the soup beside Nick, saying to the tall man:
"Qwain, make sure that you get the bowl back from this free loader before he leaves. I can't keep requesting them from the procurement department every time that you guys let someone steal them away."
After speaking his peace, the man walked away from the picnic table. Nick immediately stored his book into his space band and began eating the soup. Nick did not care about being called a 'free loader' since he had been called worse during his younger years. As for whether there was anything wrong with the soup, he did not consider it.
(I spent my entire life being wary of people and I learnt that people will despise you at first glance but those who are willing to physically harm you after just meeting you are rare, at least from the perspective of someone from a developed country. Such ill-will takes time to manifest unless you are dealing with a sociopath, but then you could just consider yourself unlucky. I do not think that these people seem the type. Also, after I showed my power to West, the man would have to be awfully brave to try something without knowing the limits of my power.)
Nick ate the soup ravenously and soon developed a pleased expression. The meat was as delicious as its smell would suggest and the soup itself was spicy and flavorful, a perfect mixture. Nick spent ten minutes wolfing down his meal and when he was done, he breathed in deeply and said to himself:
"I am grateful for the meal."
Jennifer, who was still sitting in front of Nick, heard Nick's words and thought that he was weirder that she had suspected.
(Is the soup and meat really that good, we eat them all the time?)
Nick immediately handed the soup bowl to the man named Qwain and announced:
"I am ready to leave. Do you two have any objections?"
Jennifer and Qwain both put on troubled expressions and Jennifer denied Nick's intensions without thinking:
"The boss instructed us to keep you here so that is what we will do."
Qwain nodded his head in agreement from his position. Nick replied:
"Oh, so maybe I should tell him directly."
(Dominate The Space.)
Within an instant, a grey magic power spread out and Nick, Jennifer and Qwain disappeared from their position and reappeared within the gold colored tent at the far end of the camp. Jennifer and Qwain were shocked by the development but before they could accuse Nick, they heard the sound of flesh being pierced and someone screaming out loud:
"I don't know where they are, I swear! Please don't kill me!"
Nick looked at the scene in front of him and he was a little caught off guard. West had just then hammered a metal spike into the knee of a man who was bound to a metal chair by leather strips. The hurt man had blood shot eyes and begged pathetically because of the pain. There were two other people inside the ten besides West, Nick, Jennifer and Qwain and they immediately noticed the arrival of the intruders; West also noticed them as well.
West turned to look at Nick and placed down his hammer on top of a small metal table beside him that had wheels attached to the bottom. He spoke with a sigh:
"You are not supposed to be here, guest. This is private business."
The restrained man saw new faces and thought that they could possibly be able to save him, so he shouted:
"Please, help me. West thinks that I know where those bastards hid the company's resources but I don't. Why the hell would I let those bastards run off with £20,000,000,000 worth of raw everlast rubies while I suffer here?"
The man and woman that had resided in this tent with West immediately moved to tape the restrained man's mouth shut but Nick had already heard what he needed to hear.
(Everlast rubies. Hmmm...those are rare earth path magic materials that can be processed into everlast essence which can be used to help cure certain magical diseases. They are extremely valuable but practically useless in their raw form, however, only certain magician families know how to refine them properly. Once refined into everlast essence, the value of the magic material goes up by five times. I recently had a realization that my cultivation requires a lot of money and it looks like an opportunity has presented itself. Good for me.)
Nick spoke indifferently, addressing everyone in the room:
"I'm not sure what this guy has done to deserve what you are doing to him but if rare materials and/or large amounts of money are involved, then I want to know what is going on and if you try to bullshit me, we are going to have a problem."
West, Jennifer and Qwain immediately frowned in response to hearing Nick's threat and released their magic energy at the same time in order to try and intimidate him but Nick was unfazed and countered with his power:
(Dreadful Aura.)
A dark and fear inducing aura spread throughout the tent that made West, Jennifer and Qwain stop their actions immediately and each took a step back in alarm. They realized that clearly, Nick was not messing around but neither were they. The three of them were about to resist the dreadful aura with all their might in order to fight with and suppress Nick, if not kill him. The other three persons present that also included the restrained man sensed the dreadful aura too but since Nick was not truly directing his malice towards them, they only felt a slight discomfort. West cursed inwardly:
(I knew that this bastard was trouble.)
Before the three white robed Magicians could attempt to move on Nick, however, a woman wearing a white lab coat, who had been in the tent with West all this time, intervened, saying:
"Wait! This intruder might be useful. Do you feel that aura...scary? Maybe he can get this fool to give up his accomplices. You don't seem to be able to do it, West."
The man beside her, who was also wearing a white lab coat, backed her up:
"This is an order. If we can hire this man to help us, then do so. I don't care about anything else but getting those everlast rubies back."
Once Nick heard that, he dispelled the dreadful aura and waited. West looked at his two superiors with displeasure and said:
"You told me to keep this matter a secret, now you are saying that we should ask for help?"
The woman sneered and replied:
"Who is it that brought this man into our camp?"
West remained silent after being asked that question. The woman approached Nick and greeted him:
"Hello, my name is Megan Colt of the Colt Mining Company. I believe that I am in need of your help and I will pay you handsomely for it."
Nick turned his head to observe the three white robed Magicians and after making sure that they weren't about to get stupid, He responded to the woman:
"What's this all about?"