A/N: Hello everyone! Another chapter for you all! You know, in all my years of writing it wasn't until this that I realized I've never actually written a fight between people before. Let me know if the choreography was alright! Any questions/suggestions/comments/concerns are appreciated! Now onto review responses!
ScytheMasterX: Thank you very much! I got the idea for this when I was looking for one myself. I decided on Julius as the man for the job because he is my favorite Black Clover character. :)
Naufalrakah0104: I thought the same, there's a crippling lack of Julius fics around.
123ABIR123: I certainly shall! It's been a nice way to relax after a long day!
Thank you to everyone else for your simple compliments, I really appreciate it! Now without further ado, onto the story!
Julius had decided that he would let them come to him. Without any spells in his grimoire, he would have to rely on his intrinsic mana. This mana would allow him some small sense of the future. It was small and vague, but a leg up regardless. He would also have to rely on his hand to hand combat skills he so rarely got to use. He may not hone them, but he did learn much about it in the event he would be left without magic. He was grateful to his past self for this measure of diligence.
"If you want to rob me, then you are more than welcome to try." Julius goaded. He gave a sly grin to taunt the thugs, and it definitely seemed to work.
The tall thug came at him and thrusted toward his chest with wild abandon. Julius stepped to the side before grabbing his arm with both of his hands and swung him over himself, slamming the man back first onto the stone. He immediately turned around toward the other two gaping at him in shock. They quickly composed themselves and both came at him together. Julius swiftly kicked the small one back as he grabbed the wrists of the larger one and headbutted him. He swung the large one around and straight into the tall one as he was getting up, sending them both tumbling back down to the ground. Julius turned back to the short one while the others were recovering and gave him another kick to the head, knocking his lights out. He sensed the others once more coming at him from behind and turned to avoid a blow from the tall one. As he did, a yellow blur flew past him in the middle of his turn. His opponents took full advantage of this opening as the tall thug made for a tackle to knock him further off balance. While Julius was wrestling with him, the large thug closed the gap and rocked Julius with a devastating haymaker straight to the chin. He saw spots in his vision, and it was all he could to to stay conscious for a moment longer, and as he did, he saw a beautiful white haired girl enter the alley.
Julius had begun to stir from his slumber, though strangely, his head did not ache as he had expected it to. Instead, he felt good. As though he was only waking from a restful sleep. His head was resting on a soft surface, not unlike what he would find in the pillows of his bedchambers.
"You really didn't have to help him Lia, it's not like it's our fault that he was knocked out cold."
"Maybe not Puck, but we chased the thief into this alley, so I'd like to do this much at least."
"Oh Lia, my adorable daughter. This is just another reason you're so cute."
Julius heard two unfamiliar voices as he woke. One was very feminine, and the other somewhat ambiguous. He slowly cracked open his eyes and looked up at the person whose legs he was resting on. Though if person was the right term, he was a little unsure. It appeared to him to be a large and animated cat? He had certainly seen more animalistic people among the populace earlier in the day, but not so pronounced.
"Ah! It seems Mr. Lazy is awake!" the cat-like person exclaimed.
Julius turned his gaze to see a woman sitting next to the car. She had long silver-white hair and vibrant purple eyes. She was dressed in somewhat ornamental clothing, though it did not appear to hinder function. They were mostly white with some trappings of purple, as well as a gold-crested emblem upon the sleeves.
"How could I not be awake with you two interrupting my beauty sleep?" Julius responded with a sly grin.
The cat playfully and lightly punched him on the nose as he sat up from where he laid.
"Well I don't know about beauty but you sure took your sweet time you know!" The cat laughed.
"Puck! Don't be rude!"
Julius smiled at the exchange.
"Ahh, don't worry about it young miss. Pride in my beauty aside, it is to my understanding that you've helped me?"
"Oh it was no trouble sir, really. I'm just glad that you're alright."
"Really Lia? Last time I checked we let a thief get away on account of your conscience."
A thief, Julius thought. That must have been the blur that flew by him before his impromptu slumber. But these two were on this mysterious thief's trail when they came upon him. That means they were held up on his account.
"And how long was I out exactly?"
"Only two hours sir." Replied the silver haired girl.
Two hours was not worthy of 'only' in this case, Julius thought. He would help these two catch this thief. Let it be known that the Wizard King always repaid his debts.
"Please, there is no need to call me sir, I'm no one special. Please, call me Julius. And you two are… Puck and Lia, correct?"
"Oh, no, um, that's not-" The girl was cut off by the cheery laughter of Puck, who was very amused by her flusteredness.
"You can just call me Emilia." She said with a slight pout.
"Very well then Emilia, shall we go catch ourselves a thief?"
"Oh, you don't have to help us Julius, We've already caused you enough trouble."
It was apparent that Emilia felt responsible in some way for what had happened to him. For what reason, he could not know. To his eyes it was the fault of the thief who had gone careening past him.
"You have caused me no trouble Emilia, in fact you stayed to help me instead of pursuing your quarry. How could I not repay that debt to a kind young lady such as yourself?"
Emilia looked conflicted
"Do you not find anything wrong with me? Like the way I look…?"
Julius was puzzled. Why did the topic of looks present an issue? Now that he took a closer look though, he could spy pointy ears upon her head. Did she mean the fact that she was an elf? While he had been battling the Eye of the Midnight Sun for some time, he did not see why he should start discriminating against a whole race over the ordeal.
"Why no, I don't. Is there something about you that should be alarming to me?"
"Well if you see no issue then you don't need to worry about it." Emilia cut the conversation short.
Julius was not so rude that he would press it. He simply nodded and gave a gentle smile. As he did, he witnessed Puck shrink in size, down to a point where he could fit into the palm of his hand.
"Ohhh! What kind of magic is that! You can shrink yourself! That's so interesting! It could have so many uses!"
Julius zipped right up to Puck in child-like excitement. Emilia Looked taken aback for a moment as if she had never expected such behavior. She composed herself after a moment.
"Well I am a great spirit, so you can call it spirit magic if you want, teehee!" Puck accentuated his last word by knocking his head with a paw.
"A spirit? That's wonderful! It's rare that I get to see something as powerful as a spirit!"
Julius was very excited, he didn't realize he had been talking to a spirit of another land. The last spirit he had witnessed was Sylph during the Royal Knights selection. If Puck was a spirit, then of what element? He also could make the connection that Emilia was the one he was connected to. She must be a great mage then.
"If Puck is a spirit, then that must make you a mage Emilia. Tell me, what kind of magic do you use?"
Julius then zipped over to Emilia as well, a twinkle in his eyes. Emilia looked flustered for a moment before becoming serious.
"Come on, we can talk while we walk. We shouldn't waste any more time standing around."
Emilia turned and started walking out of the alley with Puck at her side.. She put her hood up as she did. As Julius caught up beside her, he thought she must be really conscious about her appearance. She didn't look that bad to him at least.
"I'm a Spirit Arts user, since you were wondering Julius. And because Puck is a spirit of fire, I use fire attribute magic. I use my natural attribute of fire to condense heat into sub-zero temperatures to create ice."
It was plain to Julius that this place had different magic to what he knew. Using fire magic to create ice?
"And how many types of magic are there exactly?"
Emilia's face twisted in confusion.
"You really don't know? As interested in magic as you seem to be I had thought you would know the basics at least."
"Ah well, I'm not from the local area you see, so I was wondering how differently they might be classified compared to where I come from."
"I don't know where the heck you could come from where it's different but whatever you say." Puck interjected.
Emilia gave Puck a small glare, then began her explanation.
"The first attribute is the one I use, Fire. It's the ability to control the temperature of the mana around you. You can use this to create flames, or ice."
Julius nodded along, Ice magic falling under the fire attribute. It was ironic, thought made sense with explanation.
"The second attribute is Water. This attribute controls the mana of life, and is used my mages in all kinds of healing spells."
So water was tied almost exclusively to healing spells? Interesting indeed.
"The third attribute is Earth. This one manipulates the mana throughout the ground, rock and stone. Mages can use this for defense like creating a wall of stone around oneself, or for offense like shattering fragments of stone around someone. Earth mana also governs divine blessings related to the body."
Divine blessings? Julius thought that he would have to ask more about that when Emilia is finished with her little lesson.
"The fourth attribute is Wind. Mages can use this to manipulate the winds, propelling themselves or creating bladed projectiles of wind. Wind mana also governs divine blessings that take shape outside of the body."
Another mention of divine blessings.
"The next two attributes are much rarer than the rest. The first being the Yin attribute. This attribute can be used to cast spells with some utility, such as depriving an opponent of their senses. An experienced Yin mage can even use offensive spells to inflict direct harm on someone."
Julius wondered how similar this Yin magic was to Yami's dark magic.
"The last attribute is that of Yang. This attribute can be used to strengthen oneself or their allies. You could also conjure objects of light, such as a blade."
Julius had to suppress a wince. Though there was a lot more of a focus on support, Yang magic sounded markedly similar to Light magic. The only magic type that stood a real chance against his time magic. In his prime at least. His 'death' at the hands of Licht was proof enough of that.
"So now you know all the attributes. Any questions?"
Emilia looked at Julius from under her hood. It seemed to him that she was prideful in her knowledge of magic. She seemed to enjoy teaching him.
"Only one, what are these 'diving blessings' that you mentioned?"
"Divine blessings are abilities a person has, and knows of from birth, or the moment they receive them. Getting a useful one is rare, and getting more than one is practically unheard of. There are two types of divine blessing, Earth and Wind. Earth are those that affect your body, make you physically stronger or different. Wind may be something that manifests outside of your body, such as making arrows unable to strike you."
If you instinctively know if you have a divine blessing, then Julius supposed he did not have one. Too bad. As Emilia finished her explanation, they seemed to have entered a small plaza with a pond at its center. Though strangely devoid of people, it was peaceful. This would serve well as a landmark to regroup at.
"Say Emilia, I think it would be more conducive to our efforts to split up our search and reconvene here at a later time. We need to cover more ground, lest we let the thief get away."
"Then we will meet back here in three hours, whether you've found anything out or not."
Julius nodded and gave the two a small wave as he turned to walk away.
"Don't have anything else stolen by another thief!" He shouted with a chuckle.
"You're one to talk, you were getting robbed!" Puck shouted back at him..
At this, Julius let loose a boisterous laugh as he realized how they were both victims. In any case, it was time to really start the search.
Julius felt like he had been going in circles. Every person he questioned and every lead he followed had only led to another dead end. People either did not know or were feeding him lies to get him to go away. Luckily there was still around an hour until he had to go back and meet Emilia. He stood near what appeared to be ghettos. If there was a place he would find information on a thief, this would be the place to go.
He strode into the dirt street that was carved in between the beaten down shacks and tents. Some people gazed at him with lifeless eyes, others with hatred. He was sure much of that had to do with his appearance, but he could not bring himself to get rid of his robes. They were a symbol of what he was striving to become once again. Not that he had anything else to clothe himself with.
Julius picked out a man who seemed to be more willing to talk by his estimate. A scruffy fellow who eyed him up as though he were a money hungry merchant.
"Hello there sir, it seems I have found myself robbed by a thief. You would not happen to know where I could retrieve my stolen goods, would you?"
Julius did not expect that the man would just give him the location of the thief, but perhaps he would let something slip.
"Felt got you good huh? Well I'm not about to cough up her whereabouts to some fancy man for nothing ya hear? Whaddya you got to offer me?" The man rubbed his fingers together as one universally would when talking about money.
As he suspected, the man was as loose-lipped as he had pegged him to be. Just by giving him a name and a gender he had told Julius that he both knew of her and that she either lived there or was there often. So he simply turned to leave, intent on passing the information over to Emilia.
"H-Hey! Where are ya going!?"
Julius ignored the man, he didn't need him anymore.
"And you're sure the girl is in this place, Julius?"
Julius strode once more into the slum city with Emilia in tow. After their discussions when they had met, the hour was late, and it was nearly sundown.
"Well I did get a name after all. Though unless we have another way to search, I fear we are going to be here for a while yet."
While Julius was loath to admit it, being without much magic, unable even to transform into his alias Chronovala. It made it much more difficult to track someone. He didn't have the power to intimidate or the money to bribe.
"Emilia could always ask the lesser spirits of the land!" Puck chimed in.
Julius' eyes began to sparkle once more. Lesser spirits? He had thought that there were only the Great Spirits like Salamander and Sylph, or even Puck. He would definitely enjoy seeing these lesser spirits.
"Good idea Puck, we'll need to find her soon or we'll risk losing you and having to take it slow."
"Why would we lose Puck? Is there some reason that he must go during the night?" Julius was puzzled.
Puck gave a large yawn, then replied to Julius. "Well I go to sleep after the sun goes down. It takes mana to be awake, so I have to have time to recover."
"I see, and Emilia would be much less powerful without your support I take it?"
"Yes, but I'm still capable on my own!" Emilia huffed. Puck and Julius shared a light chuckle.
Whether it was out of embarrassment at their chortles or focus on the task ahead, Emilia wordlessly turned toward the flow of the water below the small bridge they were standing upon. She raised her hands up, and for a moment, there was silence. Then, a show of dazzling lights. A carnival of vibrant colors dancing through the air. A beautiful display of magic if Julius had ever seen one. It reminded him of William's magic in a way, a natural beauty of worldly nature. And then it ended.
"Woooow, that was incredibly pretty!" Julius exclaimed with joy upon his face.
"First time seeing spirits in action huh? Well they are nice, but definitely not as cute as me, hehe!" Puck claimed with an air of pride. It made Julius chuckle.
"The spirits told me where she went, let's go."
Julius nodded and Puck yawned. And then they were off to catch a thief.
Julius and Emilia crept up to the building that the spirits had shown her. Swiftly, but cautiously they edged closer. The reason for their caution? The sun had dipped below the horizon, and Puck had gone to sleep. But they couldn't just postpone the search and risk losing the thief named Felt. Who knew if she would flee the city if she found out she was being pursued so closely.
As they got closer, Julius stopped. Something felt wrong. The mana in the area was disturbed, and he smelled blood. He gestured for Emilia to stop.
"What's wrong?"
"I smell blood. From this far away means someone is likely dead in there." Emilia's eyes widened in shock for a moment before she nodded.
"Wait here, I will go investigate if it's clear. I will retrieve you if it is. If you don't hear anything for five minutes or if you hear fighting, then something is wrong and you need to run."
"I can handle myself Julius, besides, why are you so confident in yourself? You were having trouble with a couple of thugs earlier." Emilia looked at him with worry.
"I may not look like it Emilia, but I was a knight before, and I do have a divine blessing." It would be easier to explain away his time magic as a divine blessing rather than a whole new type of magic. If Emilia showed any suspicion when he had been asking about divine blessings earlier, she did not show it. Instead she looked surprised at his words, and acquiesced.
"Just be careful."
Julius nodded, and with the conversation settled, he walked up to the door of the building. He settled an ear against it and listened. He listened to both the sounds and the flow of the mana inside. There were definitely bodies inside. The repugnant stench of the blood was telling enough of that. He could not hear nor sense anything else inside. Either the perpetrator was clear or his sensitivity to mana was much worse than he thought. Whatever the case, he cracked open the door hoping to peek inside, but the door creaked obnoxiously loudly. Throwing any remaining stealth aside, he flung open the door and jumped inside. It was dark, and he could hardly see anything at all, but at least there was some dim light coming from the full moon in the sky. He could see no one, so he followed the horrid smell to its source. If he didn't have the experience he did, he would have emptied the contents of his stomach at what he saw and smelled.
A large man with his head severed from his body. And a small girl he recognized as the thief laying face down in a massive pool of her own blood. What was likely her own insides were spilling out to the side. Just as Julius recovered from his shock at the grisly sight and made to investigate further, he felt the mana become wild. He leapt back, dodging a slice of a blade aimed at his midsection.
"Oh ho? You were able to sense me? Your insides are something I have to see in that case." The woman who made her appearance grinned maddeningly.
An assassin, and a skilled one at that. It makes sense why he couldn't sense her until she attacked. It seems she was also very twisted in her mind. Julius spared no time for talk or further thought, focused as he was on his own survival. He dodged another blow aimed at his stomach with a backstep and then turned to let a swing made to sever his arm fly past him. He could not see any opening in this woman's defense that he could take advantage of. She was extremely fast and he struggled to follow her. He was unsure if he would even live through this, but at least he could buy some time for Emilia.
"Julius!"
In what seemed like slow motion, he turned to the entrance to see Emilia. What was she thinking!
"Emilia you!-"
Julius suddenly slumped to the ground, a searing pain flowing through him from his stomach. A pool of blood grew under him. He sputtered some out of his mouth. Emilia fell beside him.
'You stupid, foolish girl. Why could you not just listen? You've made this old man look like a failure all over again.'
The assassin walked up to him and crouched down. She stared at the guts that had made their new home upon the wooden floor.
"Ahhh, your insides are beautiful after all~"
He felt the stinging pain of failure biting through his cooling body. He felt tired. He had felt this once before. He fell into deepest slumber. For the second time in his life, he had died.