Chapter 67

Oracion Seis' Racer

Lyon

This city was impressive to say the least. The buildings weren't what I would expect from an ancient city. If the city was sealed away with Nirvana, then that would mean that this city should be somewhere around 400 years old. While it clearly wasn't a modern city, it still resembled what a city would look like today.

There was virtually nobody around. There weren't even any signs of dark mages. That's why is was a surprise when Sherry was suddenly knocked of her feet and crash into the ground a few feet away from us.

"Sherry!" I ran after her, only to be assaulted by a blur and thrown to the ground as well.

The blur came back around and aimed for Jura, but Richard stepped in the way and successfully caught the blur! A man with spikey blonde hair and a red racing jacket appeared in the blurs place.

"Hoteye, what are you doing?" the racer asked.

"Isn't it obvious, Racer?" A voice from the sky called out, "Our friend here has been affected by Nirvana."

I looked up into the sky and was surprised to find a man riding atop a flying purple serpent.

"Racer, Cobra, please!" Richard called out, "We don't need to fight."

"Now that I can agree with." The man in the sky, who I presume to be Cobra replied, "We don't need to fight. But we do need to take out these mages of light!"

The serpent dive bombed onto Richard. He used him magic to liquify the ground to escape the attack. Unfortunately, this allowed the one I presume to be Racer to escape. With Jura also being swallowed up by the liquified ground, that left me and Sherry as the only two opponents for Racer to deal with.

Sherry and I managed to get up. Knowing that our speedster would probably be coming for us, I was ready to use my Ice Make to create a rampart between us.

"Ice Make: Ram-!" I was cut off by Racer kneeing me in the face.

"Too slow!" He said as I hit the ground.

"Doll Attack: Stone Doll!" Sherry's magic came to life and a slammed down it's fist where Racer was standing. Unfortunately, Racer escaped without issue.

I readied another attack but was met with the same result. Racer was simply too fast for me.

"Richard!" Jura suddenly called out.

While we were dealing with Racer, Jura and Richard were trying to deal with Cobra. I looked in horror and found that the serpent was far in the sky with Richard caught in its fangs. Jura tried to send boulders at Cobra, but he was able to fly out of the way of most of the attacks. The few that might have hit him were destroyed by an invisible force.

He suddenly stopped for a moment before dropping Richard, "Hey racer, finish these guys off and get Hoteye to Master Brain. I can hear Angel."

Racer gave his partner a thumbs up, "Alright, try not to take too long!"

I tried to punch the Oracion Seis member, but he was still too fast for me. He went for a barrage of blows and knocked me back before Sherry came to my rescue and forced him to back off. This man wasn't very strong. I've taken worse beatings, but with his speed, the little shots were really adding up.

"Racer, you need to stop now!" Jura called out, "You're friend has been poisoned!"

In an instant, Racer was on Jura. The ground beneath him turned to liquid and Racer sunk it. He managed to get one hit in on his torso before being forced to retreat. Jura winced and looked down to his torso. There was cut and it was bleeding.

"Hoteye will be fine," Racer explained, "Cubellios's poison is probably the weakest one at our disposal. It is pretty fast acting though."

"Don't worry about me." Richard told Jura, "You have to defeat Racer though, yes! Just please, don't hurt him too much. He is my friend after all!"

Jura nodded his head and turned back to Racer. He sped towards Jura, who just in the nick of time put up a wall of rock.

"Iron Rock Wall!" He called out.

Suddenly though, the rock wall bent around to cover for Hoteye as well.

"Sorry buddy but can't have you interfering." Racer said as he kicked Hoteye in the face.

"Ice Make: Eagle!" Finally having Racer off my back, I was able to cast a spell.

Three ice eagles flew at Racer. He bounced off of Jura's wall to dodge the first one, swerved to the right to dodge the second one, and jumped high in the air to dodge the third one. Jura smashed his wall and launched the debris back at Racer. I turned my eagles around to also intercept him. Instead of making contact though, he jumped off the rocks and managed to land safely. He then dashed towards me.

"Lyon, my love!"

The stone doll extended its arm to protect me. Racer jumped on top of the arm and for a split second, I thought he was going to slash at me with the knife in his hand. Instead, he jumped up again. All I heard was Sherry's scream as blood drop down from above me.

Before I could react, his boot was already against my back. He kicked me into the dolls arm.

"Heh, too easy!" Racer said.

I growled and quickly turned around, just in time to narrowly avoid a slash at my neck. I slammed my hands together to use my Ice Make. He went for another slash at blinding speed, this time he went for my hands.

I fought through the pain as he reared up for another hit, "Ice Make: Tiger!"

As quickly as I could, I mustered up the magic to summon a tiger made of ice. He was only inches from my neck when the tiger headbutted him in the stomach. He was launched back a few paces. The tiger chased after him, intent on keeping him busy.

The tiger bought me no time at all. In an instant, he was on me.

"Ice Make: Prison!" I flipped over him and dropped a prison of ice over him, effectively capturing him.

He zoomed to the other side of the cage and punched at one of the bars, but it wouldn't budge. Seeing as he was essentially incapacitated, I made my way up the stone doll to Sherry. She was kneeling on its head clutching her arm. She had a large cut going across it. She was clenching her teeth and tears were flowing down her cheeks. I gingerly took her hand and fashioned a cast made of ice around her wound. She groaned uncomfortably.

"Are you alright?"

She threw herself onto me and embraced me with her one good arm, "I knew my love for you would make you faster."

While I did need to react faster than I'm used to, I had my reservations that it was her love that pushed me to it. For now, I would give her it though.

"Thank you."

"I'm impressed, Lyon!" came Jura's voice.

I looked down to find Jura supporting a pale Richard.

"According to Richard, Racer uses Slow Magic. It makes everything in the vicinity slow down. We were going to try and get out of his range and attack from there, but you managed to trap him."

Racer sighed from within his cage, "You traitor."

"I'm sorry my friend, but I can't abide by this any longer, yes." Richard replied, "My prayer was to meet my little brother. I can't do that if all I'm chasing is greed. I must spread love, and I can't do that with Oracion Seis."

"So, you're just gonna give up your prayer like that, huh?" Racer asked, "They're all gonna die."

"Not if you don't give up your prayer."

I was confused about where this conversation was going. Sure, Richard had mentioned prayers before, but I didn't think it was a big deal.

"Hold on, what's the big deal with prayers?" I asked.

Richard fell to his knees, pulling Jura down with him. No doubt the work of the poison. Fortunately, Racer was in a speaking mood.

"Our prayers are seals." Racer explained, "If they are given up, our Guild's Ace will be unsealed. And that demon isn't something I would wish on anyone."

"Besides me, I'd say Angel had also given up her prayer." Richard explained.

"What makes you say that?" Jura asked.

"Cobra wouldn't have bailed if there wasn't trouble with Angel." Racer explained, "She's got a similar goal to Hoteye, so she was probably turned as well."

Sherry and I joined Jura and Richard on the ground. I was careful helping her down, she didn't seem to well to me. I figured she may be a little lightheaded or something.

"We should rendezvous with her then." Jura suggested, "If it's likely that she's on our side now, we could use the aid."

"Plus, there's the chance that some of our own men are with her." I added, "But what do we do about him?"

"Iron Rock Wall."

Jura erected an almost identical rock prison around my ice prison. This made it virtually impossible for him to escape.

"We'll be back for you." He told Racer.

Racer glared back at Jura, "I hate this, being caged in like this! I just wanna run…"

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