"Hey! What's wrong?" The remaining guard ran in with worry.
Soon the shaking stopped, and the thug lost consciousness.
This attack from Morpho was slightly better than during the duel, but it was still unskilled. She needed more practice.
While the thug was distracted, Cyril approached him and quickly jabbed him with his finger.
Soon he joined his friend on the ground.
I also need more practice... Cyril thought while looking at the state of the bodies.
They were going to be fine after this; they were simply knocked out with a bit of pain.
Unlike Bran, they will not end up with a completely broken body; these hooligans never did anything to Cyril after all.
Myra looked at the whole process with complicated eyes; at least she didn't need to do anything.
Cyril quickly searched through the bodies and found a key.
While he was capable of opening regular doors with magic, he didn't want to waste more mana than necessary. His earlier experience still scared him somewhat.
Morpho, in the meantime, was flying around the mansion territory, knocking out whatever thug she could find.
Tigris was hiding in Cyril's shadow for now. Rhamn forbade him from doing anything.
Without trying to hide his presence, Cyril calmly opened the doors to the mansion and walked in, like one would in their own home.
Inside there were more people, sitting together on a few couches.
"Who the hell are you?!" They got up in alarm and readied their wooden weapons.
In a hurry, Morpho flew in through the open doors and immediately began attacking.
One by one, she grazed the thugs with her wings as she flew by.
After a few seconds, those she had touched began falling to the ground, shaking with varying intensity.
This caused chaos among the people. Some in panic tried to run away, but that attracted Morpho even more.
She flew around in a bit of a frenzy.
Cyril didn't really mind. He observed with interest the improvements in her skill.
"We surrender! Please!" Soon there were few people still left standing.
"Morpho, stop," Cyril said.
The butterfly reluctantly froze in the air and then returned to Cyril's shoulder.
She was quite tired after this exercise anyway.
"Who are you people?" Cyril asked a question to the scared thugs.
"A-are you a soldier?" On of them asked.
Cyril calmly poked the one who said this. Soon the man fell on the floor to join his other friends.
Compared to Morpho, his technique evoked less pain, at least.
"I am asking a question; please answer," Cyril said while shaking his head.
"We are people who grew tired of the Empire's excessive indulgence in magic. Something must be done about that before the world is doomed!" One of them started saying with passion.
"So we went to join Lapis; we are here to wait for their orders! That's all; we didn't do anything yet!" His expression quickly returned to scared.
"Cyril, they are just some punks. They clearly don't know anything important. Let's take the documents and leave." Myra said with a helpless expression.
Cyril nodded at her words in agreement.
"Someone should've brought a document here today; where is it?" He then asked.
Suddenly Cyril felt the presence of magic nearby and jumped backwards.
In the place where he was standing now was a sizable bolt of ice.
Cyril turned to look at the second floor of the mansion; there was a man they met at the clinic.
"Tsk... You are quite perceptive for a lowly dog of the Empire." The man said in disgust and started going down the ladder.
"Chief! Watch out! The butterfly on his shoulder is poisonous!" The hooligans warned. This only showed how little they knew about magic.
"How did you know I was here?" Joey said with clear hostility.
"We are not working for the Empire! The rightful owner of the document you stole from the clinic asked us to retrieve it." Myra tried to solve the misunderstanding.
"Hah! You expect me to believe that!? Alvin would never associate himself with someone as violent as you people," Joey said in contempt.
It seems Cyril's eagerness to practice backfired.
Myra stared at Cyril with blame. He evaded her gaze.
"Your friends are all in good health; they are just sleeping." Myra further tried to deescalate the situation, but Joey only snorted in response.
"Look, the important part is we are taking that document. It doesn't matter what he has to say about that," Cyril said provocatively and approached the man.
"Tigris, hide further away."
"How arrogant!" Joey replied and immediately cast a spell.
Suddenly Cyril felt himself becoming slower, like moving through water.
Joey activated another spell, and his body was moved with light a few meters away, where he used yet another spell.
A net made of light appeared directly above Cyril's head, enveloping him completely.
All this happened in mere moments. The casting speed of this man was beyond anyone Cyril had faced before.
Right, he must also be a graduate of Ailanthus, Cyril thought without any panic.
If it was someone from their prestigious academy, then they couldn't be underestimated.
Myra at this moment dashed while activating a spell. Soon her body was covered in a barrier.
In her other hand was a dagger she acquired somewhere.
A flash of light appeared at the place Joey was standing, and the whole mansion was filled with light blue smoke.
Myra missed with her lunge and warily looked around. The mage was nowhere to be seen.
At the same time, Cyril, with a simple movement, broke free of his bindings and looked around as well.
Morpho flew from his shoulder to somewhere unseen.
Suddenly Cyril twisted his body and dodged a bolt of some kind of energy.
He immediately dashed in the direction it came from. No one was there.
But on the ground a wide circle of magic was emitting bright light; the moment Cyril was in range, it exploded, enveloping Cyril with some kind of bubble.
Cyril felt his movements slowing down again, this time to an even greater degree.
"How are you still moving? The spell doesn't affect you as much? Interesting..." The mage's voice rang out from somewhere in the fog. It was hard to pinpoint exactly where.
While Joey was saying that, Myra cast a spell, and a shockwave of wind was sent out in an attempt to clear the area.
But the peculiar fog wasn't affected. Myra clicked her tongue in frustration and ran towards Cyril.
Another bolt of energy was sent after Cyril; it passed through the bubble with no problem and approached him.
Cyril's hand suddenly sped up, leaving bluish afterimages.
In a smooth motion, he caught the spell with his hand.
It felt like someone tried to screw a bolt in the middle of his hand, but other than that he was fine.
"Hmm..." A voice of contemplation could be heard coming from the fog.
At this moment, Myra finally arrived by his side; she cast a spell point-blank, and the bubble had crumbled from some force.
Cyril was now free, but they still had no idea how to find the mage in this weird fog.
And if Joey decides to escape, there is no way for them to prevent it.
"You can't keep this up; how much mana do you have left?" Said Cyril.
At this moment some object flew straight at his face; Cyril dodged with a tilt of his head.
It turned out to be a glass vial.
"I have plenty of mana potions; don't worry about me," Joey replied with confidence.
Something began to form in the fog around Cyril and Myra—numerous thin needles of ice that soon shot outward with impressive speed.
The two activated a shield in time, blocking all of the attacks, but they kept coming.
A seemingly unending supply of ice shards was blasting them.
"Duck!" Cyril screamed to Myra urgently.
Myra, without thinking, immediately hugged the floor, disrupting the shield.
Cyril also stopped supporting the barrier and put his hands in front of him. He was going to try something.
He made a circular motion with his hand, and a wave of energy was sent out from his body.
It enveloped the area around him with mana, disrupting all things magical around him. He wasn't able to perform it at Selene's level, but this was enough.
The ice bolts and the fog were dispelled with no issue, allowing Cyril to take a clear look around.
Joey was standing closer than he thought. With a surprised expression, he was staring at Cyril's movements.
Immediately Cyril dashed, reaching Joey in a moment. He sent out a quick jab at his chest.
Joey was able to cast a shield of light at the last second. This managed to block the physical attack with difficulty.
This created a bit of a stalemate where Cyril was trying to break the shield and Joey tried to maintain it.
"Joey! We are not enemies; we are here on the mission from Charles!" Myra yelled.
Her words surprised Joey; in a single motion, he overcharged the shield, blasting Cyril's attack away.
In this moment, Joey turned to Myra and opened his mouth, but suddenly something swooped in and hit the mage on the shoulder; it was Morpho.
Joey, with a twisted expression, took a few steps back, clutching his shoulder.
With panic he immediately did something, nullifying the technique, but before he could relax a fist flew in his face, followed by a kick from Myra.
Joey fell on the ground with a broken nose and raised his hands. "Stop! "You know the leader?..."
He only had the time to say this before both Cyril and Myra attacked at the same time again.
Under their combined attacks he didn't have the time to nullify the "Heavenly Dragon's Judgement!" and slowly started losing his consciousness.
The last thing he managed to hear was the mocking voice of Myra: "Sorry, I lied."
With this the fight was finished.
After the caster went down, the fog around the mansion started to disappear on its own, revealing the broken-down area.
Most of the hooligans have escaped already, but they weren't important anyways.
Cyril stood with his hands resting on his knees, taking deep breaths.
This was a slightly tougher fight than he initially expected.
"But we won! A graduate is only worth this much in front of us."
"Cyril, let's try talking to him when Joey wakes up. This was a fight that didn't have to happen," Myra said with a wry expression.
"Sure," Cyril nodded. He was already satisfied enough.