The Achievement Junkie 243 Diversion of Fire

Then, without any warning, the assistant dashed into the flames. His figure disappeared as he ran through the orange and white fire, seemingly disappearing or burning away. No one could tell which was true.

Official Harolt, as well as the other officials, all gathered around the fire, trying to encompass it and soak all remaining tenants. Well, everyone thought official Harolt was doing that. Instead, he disappeared among all the chaos.

Not only did he disappear but he seemed to vanish out of thin air in the blink of an eye. And since no one was keeping their eye on him like before, the man had successfully escaped his responsibilities and fled from the scene of the fire.

Within the flames that's all there was, flames.

Assistant Loire was adept at using fire with his quick attacks and throwing knives. He even wore fireproof clothing in order to better handle his own overwhelming flames. However, even with his skill and aptitude for fire, Assistant Loire was sweating and he could tell that his clothes were still intact but wouldn't be able to survive direct contact with such intense heat.

The assistant weaved through the flaming tents, making sure not to touch them directly. He squeezed by them as fast as possible in order to quickly find the source of the flash fire. It took longer than he would've wanted, but he did manage to make it to the center of the camp. 

There was nothing left. The flames had already extinguished themselves because there was nothing left to burn. All that remained was charred ground and gravel with sprinkles of ash covering everything. Also, there was a man standing there, staring back at Assistant Loire.

"Someone finally decided to show up."

Assistant Loire scoffed as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "Who are you and why are you doing this?"

"I thought you'd be able to tell?" laughed the man as he held his arms open wide, showing off his Sandros uniform.

"You… You're with Sandros?"

"So, are you here to stop me or question me?" asked the man, still laughing while keeping calm.

"Why can't I do both?" Assistant Loire charged the man at full speed. His dashed steps covered the distance needed as he lunged at the man with a flaming knife.

That man only kept laughing as the knife reached its target but then flew right through it. It was then that Assitant Loire realized that the man's image started to disperse and become more illusory. A solemn look filled with fear crossed Assitant Loire's face.

"Did you really think it would be that easy? Mages like myself wouldn't be able to reach my rank without being able to deal with hand-to-hand combat specialists, like yourself."

A sense of threat spread and shivered over Assitant Loire's body. He glanced to the side as he jumped back, narrowly avoiding the fireball hurled toward him. It wasn't white like most flames but it was still bright orange and yellow, almost enough to burn through his clothing on contact.

Just when he thought he had avoided the disaster with the fireball whizzing past his face, a second fireball slammed into his back, launching him forward into the ground and burning away the back of his commissioned jacket.

"Come on, that all you got? I thought you'd at least put up a challenge." The illusory man's figure had returned to view but on the opposite end of the clearing. "But if you've got nothing else, can you just jump into the flames and save me some time? You won't be able to stop me like this."

Assistant Loire threw off his coat and let it burn away to cinders. "Fine, I guess there's no talking, is there?" He twirled dual-wielding daggers as they lit themselves on fire, with the same brightness of the mystery man's flames. "I guess this will be a good test to see who's stronger. An assistant from Limneer or a lieutenant from Sandros."

"Hurry up and get serious or I'll get bored and burn everything else to the ground," the mystery man continued to mock Assistant Loire

Not giving in to the taunt, Assistant Loire once again charged at the mystery man, but this time while hurling flaming knives in order to avoid falling for the same trick twice.

Like before the man's figure became more illusory as knives flew through him but he didn't disperse fully and somehow came back together after each knife passed through him. This only confused the assistant even further but all he could do was continue the attack until he could find a way to stop the man.

On another side of the camp the man disguised as official Harolt ran through the empty cafeteria, still invisible. He went into the backroom to find a few cooks still there, scrambling to put food way. However, unlike Assitant Loire who presented a threat to Rydel, these cooks weren't even lv. 30.

He quickly dispatched those cooks before they even knew they were dead. Then, he found himself alone with crates and crates of raw and preserved ingredients. Everything with it was within his grasp and at his fingertips with no one to stop him from destroying them.

Yet rather than destroying them, Rydel held out his hand and placed it on one of the large crates. It then disappeared with a flash of his storage ring. The hunter repeated this until he is stored every morsel of food that he could find. He then went to the dead cooks and took all of their storage rings, finding even more supplies.

With this abundance of material and resources, Rydel laughed in the echoes of his mind, 'It's done. Let's get out of here.' 

He then left the camp and the cafeteria altogether just as easily as he had waltzed into the cafeteria and taken everything away with him.

'Great job, Rydel,' replied Jack. 'Okay, Daliea. Stop playing around and just escape. Bowzer will help you out of the white flames and you already know what to do after that.'

'Got it.'

The mysterious man suddenly stopped laughing at Assistant Loire's futile attempts. The same figure which the assistant had been aiming at then dispersed into the air, leaving behind no evidence of a physical form. "I've had enough fun, but thank you for amusing me."

"Get back here, you pestro!" Assistant Loire shouted and ground his teeth as he threw flaming daggers in every which way to try and find his target. But he failed. Raging shouts were droned out by fire as he scoured the ashy remains at the center of the camp to no avail.

The fire continued to rage on without anyone finding a way to stop it. 

The Limneer soldiers soon came to a conclusion. After dousing dozens of tents in water and failing to stop the flash fire, they decided to take down as many tents as possible. They did it in a hurried fashion and didn't bother bundling everything up properly. They rolled everything together and threw it to the side as far as possible in order to keep the tents far from the flames.

Eventually, Assistant Loire returned from within the flames. His clothes were singed and some articles of clothing were missing altogether. The most notable thing about him was the obvious frown which seemed to cover his entire face and distract everyone from his burns and injuries.

The assistant noticed that the fire was still raging but no longer able to spread. He sighed as he angrily glared at the unknown flames which even he couldn't touch without consequence.

"What did you learn?" asked Assistant Dirk.

"We need to investigate the Sandros army."

"And why is that?"

Assistant Loire released a long sigh, filled with both relief and angst. "I fought a lieutenant in there. He was a master of illusions and fire. If we can find that such a person really exists within the Sandros ranks here, then they're the one to blame."

"You know this will change everything. We won't be able to leave tomorrow if that's true and there's no way to keep each side from questioning the other if you go through this," reasoned Assistant Dirk. "Are you sure?"

Assistant Loire shook his head. "We can do it quietly. We don't have to question the Sandros army, we only need to ask them if we can speak with their lieutenants and narrow the search. The man I fought was lv. 35, so we'll keep that in mind and test for their magic type. If there's no match, then we know someone else impersonating them."

Assistant Dirk smirked and gave his fellow assistant the slight nod. "Makes sense. But still, we have to delay our leave a couple of days because of everything that happened, but I think the Sandros army will be fine with a few questions, as will the general."

"Then let's go, right now. Let the officials handle this. We've got something more urgent on our plate."

Both of the assistants walked side-by-side as they casually talked in whispers while any nearby soldiers were scrambling around the remaining flames, waiting for them to die off and allow everyone to search if any of their belongings had miraculously survived.

Chapter end