Rose gulped and waited for him to continue. “Should I get Kimble’s new exclusive chocolate or the premium Dairies coco bar?”

“_”

“Huh…” Rose nearly fell over having heard something unexpected.

“Yeah… you see I am short on this month’s allowance and tomorrow’s the last day when they have that. I tried asking my friends to loan me some so I could buy both but none of them have left any since it’s the weekend. Except for Maddy. But you know her with her attitude she’d make me beg until hell freezes over before lending me any.”

“Serves you right, if you fell on the ground and beg me then I might consider it.” Alex said as he made an impression of her.

“Haha…” Rose laughed at his antics.

Alex, “Yeah laugh away, I knew you wouldn’t believe me… well, believe it or not it’s a dilemma for me.”

Rose, “No that’s not it. Your impression was quite funny and accurate if might say so myself.”

“Oh.”

“As for your crisis, I get it. Our school already gives us low allowance on coupons to purchase something to eat or other accessories.”

Alex, “Right? Michael needs to chill a little and rain some coupons on us.”

Rose released a small chuckle. They began to talk more after that constantly sharing laughs and enjoying themselves.

“We should talk like this more often.” Rose cheeks immediately flushed a little when she realized her thoughts slipped off her mouth.

“I meant to say… only if you’re okay with… it, you know.”

After the library incident with Azmiel and Blake, Rose and Alex hadn’t talked much at least with the normal Rose and not the less talkative Council agent. Even during the martial arts practice, they would only exchange greetings or very small talk. Alex has been very focused on learning from the teachers and helping Nova that he hadn’t had the chance to get close to her.

“Yeah, we should, we should.” Alex agreed with a smile.

They chatted a little more before they left for their dorms.

…

Almost two weeks had gone by since the fight with Flamalio. The number of people keeping a watch on Alex were finally identified. There were 30 people in all belonging to 7 different organizations. All of them waiting for a chance to catch Alex alone. He had been very considerate of his movements the past few days. Since if they found him alone, they’ll immediately overpower him.

The following day Alex snuck out of school at 4:00 a.m. alone and started walking into the forest. Once he made sure he was deep enough, he stopped walking.

“Come on out… all of you, if you don’t, I’ll come to you.” Alex yelled as he hid his shaking hands in his pockets. His voice subtly betrayed a tinge of fear, yet he braved through.

Suddenly the trees around rustled as people started coming down from them.

“It looks like you have finally decided to give up kid.” One of them said. The people present were all belonging to different races with even some humans among them.

‘No empathy even for their own huh, I suppose that was to be expected.’ Alex thought as he tried to find Flamalio who attacked Nova at school.

“Looking for me?” Flamalio asked as he stepped forward. Alex smiled.

“Stay out of this Flamalio, he is Claw Group’s property now.” One of the people said.

“You should know your own place Crabule, this brat belongs to Trion Company’s.” Not after long they all started arguing among themselves.

Alex, “Well gentlemen it’s been a pleasure hearing you argue among yourselves but times up. I hope we never meet again.”

As soon Alex said that a large magic circle formed on the ground beneath them. Everyone immediately vanished; however, Flamalio, the leader of the Claw organization and one other cloaked individual were the only one left as they both at the last second escaped the circle being on the edge of it.

“Oh, the Claw and Mr. Cloak got out, I was hoping it would be only my ugly demon friend Flamalio and I would be here. Didn’t knew there would be 2 others escaping it. Oh well I’ll take on the three of you together then!” Alex declared as he took a fighting stance.

Crabule, “Don’t underestimate me kid or it’ll be the end of you!”

Crabule had legs of a crab and pincers for hand. His other body parts resembled human limbs with a face resembling somewhat of a mixture. He immediately charged at Alex with great speeds launching an attack with his pincer. Alex immediately weaponized his soul holder and got in a defensive stance. However, Crabule’s attack was met with an ice wall which emerged from the ground.

“Who dared stop me?!” Crabule scowled.

Nina, “You’ll have to go through me first to fight him.”

“Nina?!” Alex was surprised to see her here. His plan didn’t include her.

Nina, “What? You thought you’ll do this without me? I’ll take this one.”

“And I’ll take the cloak one on.” Rose in her Council gear said as she jumped off a tree next to Alex’s side. The latter only revealed a nervous smile. His plan also didn’t include her.

Alex looked at Nina and Rose for a brief moment then turned his attention to Flamalio.

“I suppose we could share…” Alex said releasing a sigh.

With that Alex engaged in a battle with Flamalio. Aside from him everyone’s zone was in effect. With this many it would be impossible for anyone to notice the battle which is about to take place.

“I’ll teach you a lesson for interfering with me earlier.” Crabule scoffed.

Crabule chanted a spell as two magic circles appeared to his either side. From those two long pincer hands came out made entirely of stone. Nina chanted her own spell after which she was covered with a thin light blue aura which served as protection against physical and magical attacks. After what happened last time Merissa had taught her this to protect herself better.

The stone-pincers launched a volley of attacks at Nina. They were large however they lacked swiftness. Nina circled around Crabule as she dogged the pincers. Once she had the opportunity, she fired ice in the shape of a crescent moon shaped with a sharp edge which cut down one of the pincers. Soon the other pincer followed the same.

“Take this!” Nina conjured cold water in both of her hands as small specs of ice began to form on her hand. However, before she could do anything, a tall circular stone wall formed in a 10-meter radius trapping the both of them inside. Nina was taken aback by this sudden development. She didn’t even notice when Crabule had put his spell in action.

“If you think you can fight me by conserving your mana, you will be dead before you realize it.” Crabule ridiculed.

Suddenly stone pillars emerged from the ground around her and the next moment narrow shaped spikes popped out of them.

‘As I thought nothing but a small fry.’ Crabule internalized taking this as his victory but he suddenly noticed something in middle of all the pillars. A dome of ice had formed there. Nina was breathing heavily. Her left arm and right leg had been pierced by the pikes which managed to break through her dome shield. Though they missed her vital spots, blood had started oozing out of her wounds.

She mustered all her courage and released her mana. The next moment all the stone pillars turned to ice and started cracking until they finally broke down.

‘I suppose she isn’t completely weak, but I am here for that brat. Better wrap this up.’

“You are somewhat strong but it’s a pity I’ll have to—

Crabule’s stopped midway as his expression immediately turned ugly. The surrounding temperature had dropped very low. Fog started coming out of Crabule’s mouth.  Nina’s wounds were slowly healing. Snow had started falling in 15-meter radius around them.

‘T-This is… it can’t be! A domain type spell?! Or is it actually one? This girl… she could use it at such young age!’