“Ho?! Sleeping just when our fight is just about to begin?! Don’t joke with me!” He roared clearly ticked off. He stretched his hands forward releasing a flurry of chains with pointed edges.

‘Shit!’ Blake cursed in his mind as he quickly flipped Alex on his back and jumped up in the air avoiding the incoming chains.

“Oi! Human you better wake up now or I’ll be the one killing you!” Blake shouted but to no avail. Alex was soundly asleep unaware of what was happening. Blake knew this wasn’t normal and that he had no option but to deal with Azmiel on his own all the while carrying him around.

As Blake descended back on the ground, he launched mana balls at Azmiel to distract him for a few seconds. He quickly tied Alex together with him by a nearby rope kept on the table from his supplies.

Not wasting a second, he tried to reach for the teleportation cube but Azmiel was quicker as his chains blew the table away along with the things kept on it.

“Tch!” Blake saw the cube landing in the corner of the room. He had to somehow get it. There was no way he could beat Azmiel like this now.

Azmiel didn’t waste any time as he quickly summoned a thin sword wrapped in chains along the blade and dashed towards them.

Blake finding a sword laying on the ground picked it up and countered his attack. The duel quickly became one sided as Blake found himself being pushed back. It was impossible for him to exert his full strength with Alex on his back. With a combination of him launching mana balls and countering Azmiel’s sword, Blake was just barely hanging in there.

“Why do you struggle so much Blake boy? For your sister? I’ll tell you what, after killing you and taking that sleeping fool alive, I’ll make sure the Black Cloud finds her. But don’t worry we’ll simply give her a painless death! HAHAHA!” Azmiel said breaking in laughter as the intensity of his attacks increased.

*Clank*

The sound of swords clanging reverberated throughout the room as Blake and Alex flew back by the force. The rope broke separating the two but still bounded by the cuffs.

Blake tiredly looked up and found the cube just within arm’s reach, he tried to grab it.

“Oh no, you don’t, sadly this is the end! Blake boy!” Azmiel said with a grin as he swung his sword in a downward arc releasing a lower powered mortem blade.

An arc of mana slash made its way towards Blake. It was less powerful than the one he used at the school dorm but it was concentrated to cut its target in half.

Blake tried to get up but death was already looming upon him. He was late.

*BOOM*

Blake blinked in surprise as he looked up at the figure clad in black and blue, who had just now deflected the mortem blade.

It was Rose.

“Council Dog? Again?!” Azmiel was getting infuriated now. First his mood was spoiled by Alex sleeping straight throughout their fight while the next moment she shows up like before to stop his plans, making him feel a déjà vu.

“What happened to him?!” Rose asked as she kept her eyes on Azmiel. She and the Council team assigned by Clare had picked up on Blake and Alex’s movements just a while ago. They had realized that the two boys were headed to Nerfadox City and not much later, news about some chaos at a private locker Co. was just it to find them.

“He’s asleep.” Blake responded as he quickly grabbed the cube and began to set its coordinates to earth. He looked around but wasn’t able to locate the anti-magic tool he was going to use to uncuff them. While with Rose here he could probably go about to find it while she fends Azmiel off but there was no guarantee, the individual he sensed just a while ago wouldn’t come up here.

Blake was brave but not foolish enough to take on an inner member of the Black Cloud.

Rose, “What do you mean aslee—

“Don’t ignore me while I’m still here!” Azmiel said with gritted teeth as he roared.

The next moment two large magic circles formed in front of his hands and from them emerged two serpents made of chains making their way towards Rose.

She quickly encompassed her spear in mana as it took the shape of a large mana cladded spear. The serpents bit the two end of the spear and pulled it upwards along with her towards the ceiling to crash her into it.

The cube had already activated as the portal began to open. But Azmiel wasn’t going to let them get away again as he rushed at them with his sword.

*Clank*

Two mana cladded sword collided as Blake countered Azmiel’s attack. However, he was getting pushed back. But that wasn’t the worst thing, he could hear the noise of metal scrapping. The next moment his sword was broken in half by Azmiel’s as it made its way towards Blake’s neck.

But it never reached him as a pitch-black sword stopped it in its tracks.

Azmiel looked wide eyed as he looked at Alex standing in front of him. He was covered in sweat and had slight dark circles as if he hadn’t slept for days. But his appearance wasn’t what surprised Azmiel but the glowing mana erupting from his sword. Alex used all his strength and released a mana slash at point blank, sending Azmiel flying back.

Him and Blake also were flown back into the portal that had opened up from the teleportation cube.

“Alex!!” Rose shouted as she tried to break free of the two serpents pinning her by her spear against the ceiling.

“Oh no you both can’t get away now!” Azmiel shouted as two chains emerged from his hands and stabbed into the ground. As the motion of his flying body died down, he used the chains as a slingshot mechanism and launched himself forward towards the portal at full speed.

The portal had started to close down already. But Azmiel made it in time. As soon as he was gone the serpents vanished causing Rose to fall to the ground. As she weakly tried to maintain her consciousness, she noticed something. A shadow or a silhouette of someone rushing into the portal just before it closed down and vanished into nothing.