Dante's mind flashes back to Kaito's words, the promise of climbing together, of rising above, Memories of laughter twisted into jeers, of a childhood spent under the weight of ridicule, surge through him like a storm. His heart ignites with fury and purpose, and in that moment, his eyes blaze with a searing, blue light.
The boy who had been pummeling Dante freezes, not from the cold, but from fear. He senses something ancient stirring, something unstoppable. He turns to flee.
But it's too late.
A breath escapes Dante's lips, now misted with frost, and the temperature plummets. Ice explodes outward in a shockwave, racing across the floor, climbing the walls, encasing everything in thick ice.
Slowly, Dante rises from the ground, wiping the blood from his face with a trembling hand.
"I… I'm a mage?" he whispers, awe-struck, as the frost beneath his feet crackles in response.
His surprise is broken realizing Kaito is getting jumped. The members of the Mozam gang have dog piled as a few hold him down.
Before Dante even makes it over there to aid Kaito he handles it. He uses a barrier to send them all away from him. "So I can still use barrier magic?" Kaito questions.
He looks over and sees everything covered in ice. "That was awesome Dante!" Kaito cheers him on. Dante nervously laughs. "Yeah I guess it was cool huh?" Dante says still surprised by his magic.
Kaito and Dante run off and see the gangs vehicle with all of the treasure on it. Dante quickly nabs his moms jewel, from the boy frozen in ice, happy to see it safe.
The vehicle had ALL of the money they had ever taken from the people. Kaito leaps into it. "This is the thing those people were driving around!" He says as he gets in.
As Dante opens a door to follow, he accidentally rips the entire thing off. "What the heck?!" He shouts as he looks at his hands? "Right mages are stronger then normal people."
Kaito is inside just button mashing. "How do you use this thing?" Dante finds the keys and passes them to Kaito. "You put these in the ignition, shift it into drive and press the gas." Dante explains.
Kaito doesn't know what any of that means so Dante puts the keys in for him, and starts the vehicles. He giggles like a child playing a game. Next he slams his foot on the gas, as they accelerate Dante holds the dash for dear life, the vehicle slammed through the wall, and before he knew it they were on the road.
Dante holds on as Kaito drives through the city of Mozam like a madman. Nearly running into other vehicles on the way. He smiles broadly while doing so.
Kaito laughs as he drives around. "This is so cool!" Kaito shouts. Dante opens his eyes and sees Kaito is about to crash. "Look out!" Dante shouts fearfully.
Kaito snatches the steering wheel around another vehicle and then he slams through dumpsters in front of peoples houses. "Sorry!" Kaito shouts as he continues driving.
Members of the Mozam gang had caught up in other vehicles. "They're behind us Kaito!" Dante shouts. Kaito hops out of the driver seat. "Get out there Dante!" Kaito says as Dante timidly climbs to the roof.
Tips. Vehicles in this world are not the same as what we know. They run off of The energy that the barrier from the crystia bulb gives, that's why they only exist under them, unlike the vessels used outside of barrier by empire soldiers, or some adventurers which much be directly siphoned from a magical supply.
A Mozam member jumps on board, swinging a punch aimed for Dante's mid section. Dante throws up is guard, the punches slips through hammering him in the side.... or at least he thought so but he has barely felt it. "Oh, this must be one of the non mages." Dante says. He then smiles a bit. "That used to hurt way more." He thinks.
Dante then wonders to himself. He winds a punch back and he lets it fly. The punch sends the man flying off the vehicle and into a wall of a nearby building. Hitting the wall with a nasty THUMP! Dante shrieks. "I didn't think it'd be that hard," he says biting his nails. "Did I just kill that guy?!" He wonders but thankfully he sees the man stand back up holding his back.
Dante dips back into the vehicle. "Kaito you should get up there." He says and Kaito passes the wheel over to Dante. "I was having so much fun!" He shouts.
More members catch up and Kaito smiles at them. Kaito uses his barrier magic to block the road from the gang catching up to them. Kaito takes a deep breath and struggles as he creates a barrier to ramp the vehicle back up to the middle quarter of the city.
Dante clutches the steering wheel as hard as he possible can as he tries to keep the vehicle straight up the ramp.
Kaito nearly passes out but he's successful in what he did, the vehicle ramps above a group of people as it flies back into the middle quarter. Dante on the inside terrified by what's happening, but Kaito, he's on top of the vehicle absolutely thrilled by the endeavors of the day.
The townsfolk see Kaito standing atop the vehicle as it roars through the city. Kaito giggles full of joy dancing atop it. Dante even notices Smit in the crowd watching them. Then Dante had realized, they haven't touched the ground yet.
The vehicle slams into the ground and they continue speeding all the way back to the inn.
Lilah still sitting inside of her inn worried about Dante feels rumbling outside. She walks out to see what's causing all of the trouble and sees the vehicle flying towards her before braking abruptly.
Lilah's eyes glow ready for a fight as she's unsure of what's happening here.
Dante pops his head out from the window. Clearly dazed. "Hey mama!" Dante shouts at her. She lets her guard down surprised as she walks towards the window.
Dante gets out of the vehicle his legs shaking, as he holds his moms jewel. "Happy birthday mama." He says as he hands her the jewel. Lilah almost breaks into tears seeing her jewel repaired and fixed up.
"Dante how did you?" She questions before Kaito also pops up. "And Dante even got you all of this Blastie! So you don't have to worry about your bills anymore!" Kaito says giving Dante all of the credit.
Lilah holds her prized jewel close to her heart as she smiles brightly still surprised, they're here like this.
Lilah pulls Kaito and Dante in for a hug. "Thank you two so much for all of this!" She pulls them away, grabbing Dante by his shoulders. "Is that why you were gone for so long Dante, I had thought you got jumped!"
Dante sweats and looks away. "Nah, we uhm, just had to figure out how to surprise you is all!" Dante lies through his teeth.
Lilah waves it off. "Whatever it doesn't matter, I couldn't be any more proud of you my brave son." Lilah says and Dante's chest tightens a bit. She had called him brave, and even said she was proud of him. "Come inside, let's order some new stuff for the inn with all this money." Lilah says as she laughs.
Kaito smiles watching the two of them. He had told Lilah he'd fine a way to help with her debts, but luckily for him everything fell in order for them. Looking at it all he couldn't help but to laugh.
After the day is over news of Kaito's exploits quickly travel around as he's the talk of the new adventurers. People couldn't help but speak of the boldness of someone who just arrived a week ago.
"The kid almost completely destroyed the lower quarter."
"Traffic down the entire street, I could barely get here."
"Someone's gotta get that kid under control."
The adventurers just had assumed Kaito had messed up a delivery mission and they all will laugh at how the newbie just keeps messing stuff up.
Kaito's advisor will shake her head. "I can't believe I did his paperwork, now I have to get backlash every time he messes something up." She says.
She stamps his paper with a big red X which writes him off as black list. Meaning no one will do business with him and also he's nothing special. "Maybe this can help save me some face." She says as she then tosses his paper to the side.