The man looked at the kids eyes which glowed dull golden like before without returning back to normal after him being defeated.
“This should be impossible, his petals should have been plucked off by now and eyes should have faded yet none of them are affected. Why are all of them still intact?... This sounds like trouble…" said that man with an odd smile on his face.
He raised his right hand three fingers and pointed towards the kid and took his time to charge up the wind, refining and compressing it into wind shaper than a sword itself. This time it was a sure kill, to be fatal on hit and power much more stronger than the first.
“I don't like to get messy but I will finish the job this time for sure—” but stopped in the middle as he saw the kid standing back up barely with his shaky leg.
‘You better not miss or you will regret it’ as he smiled. It should had been physically impossible for him to be able to stand up but there he stood against all the odds while bleeding heavily. The kid's eyes were still full of life showing no despair but his body was too broken to move anymore than just that.
He had already accepted defeat. It was not that he did not know his place. He knew it better than anyone how useless he was against him yet his eyes were not in despair but peace. If he is going to die either ways. He would go out his own way than the one forced upon him. If it was in his fate to die here. He would choose the path of how he would die rather than run away in fear of it.
The man laughed loudly for the first time and said ‘For your struggles, I shall bestow my name onto you. I am Elenbel. The Prideful King of terror. I acknowledge you as someone of great strength. If only you had the ability to control mana but such a loss that you were not able to learn it. You really are something but such a shame, no one will remember this heroic struggle of yours. You have earned my respect. It's a pity that you must die.’
Elenbel shifted to a serious cold face saying “for I am the strongest in this room”
Bang.
A loud sound of the door being forcefully breaking open came followed by steps and a mysterious, gentle voice. ‘Haha. You dont have to worry about that… I will remember it.’
Elenbel looks at the door instinctively not because of his own will but because the presence was so huge, that it couldn't be ignored by mortals and immortals alike.
A man came through the door. The same tall handsome red haired guy from before. He just smiled as he stepped down the stairs which should be impossible as some one else can not enter when one group is already inside.
“A single man? I guess I got struttled by the door. Wait… how did you get in here? Only one group can go in. Did he lie about being alone? No… that can't be true. There is nothing behind the door.” Elenbel questioned him, “And who are you?”
‘The strongest you mentioned of’ as the red-haired man simply smiles. ‘You see. I have a business with that kid you are about to take out so why don’t we stop pointing the spell?’ He smiled gently, seemingly harmless as he raised his hands a little higher to his chest level to show he had no weapons on him and beneath cloak or even a possible gesture of surrendering.
“Strongest? You have no right to say that when you are surrendering. Why should I listen to someone weaker than me?” said Elenbel, smiling.
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The red haired man said ‘This is not a request but a warning’ as he kept on gently smiling.
The kid yelled ‘Get out of here, he can grow back his whole body. You can not win’, warning the red haired man but in the middle of his sentence, he already started to fall as his legs gave out after he yelled out with little strength he had and relaxed for just a small moment.
‘Its my fault… he is going to die too…’ the kid closed his eyes as he started to fall head first onto the ground.
Elenbel looked at the kid falling and back towards the red-haired man at the door and felt wind splashed from where the kid stood.
‘Huh?’ Elenbel spoke from confusion but had a grin, the man who stood there just disappeared. He had not looked away for more than a second and yet the red-haired man was missing.
Elenbel shifted his gaze to his left and saw him in front, holding, supporting the kid with his left arm and not allowing him to fall onto the ground head first as the kid slowly opened his eye.
Elenbel pointed his finger towards him instantly and noticed the charged up wind and his finger, both missing. It had been cut off the moment he looked back towards the door. Cut by something invisible and the red haired man travelled the distance without anyone noticing, without a single footstep to be made and even managed to cut off the finger.
The red haired man said ‘I warned you’.
“Is this what he meant by we stop pointing out spells…” thought Elenbel as he had a small smile and then his smile faded suddenly.
The red haired man noticed the body of the kid was too cold to even touch normally and was producing mist around him.
The red haired man looked at the kid and said ‘Stand proud for you are not weak. Now leave the rest to adults…’ and his mouth instantly turned a foolish smirk as he said ‘Did I sound cool?’
The kid rotated his head and looked at him confused. The red-haired man said ‘Sorry… It was a joke to lighten things up’. He put the kid down leaning against the wall. ‘But you can rest now. Leave it to adults.’
His red hair was unique yet felt familiar to the kid as he thought ‘Have I seen him before…’ but he can not recall seeing anyone like him in his life or else he would have known.
Elenbel recovered his finger and aimed it right back at the back of the man's head saying “You are lightening things up too much” as he charged up the wind gust with all five fingers.
…
Nothing much happened, Elenbel was just now missing his whole right arm, as if it was reduced into nothingness, as if it just stopped existing overall before he even gestured his attack.
“What do you all have with my hand today? Can you stop putting me through the hassle of regenerating it?” but as he tried to regenerate his hand was regenerating slowly.
“What did you do?”
‘GIve it up.’ the red haired said as he leaned the kid against the wall and sat down, looking at the kid's wounds. The kid's head was bleeding as his right side was covered with blood of his own. His eyes were glowing dull Amber like a rose viewed from above. The clothes had stab markings but there was no blood on his skin and his face was a bit swollen and he had not much strength to move and was freezing to death even when it was not cold.
What odd was that he saw between cracks of the floor stood a single half bloomed rose where his blood had fallen. A single rose covered in blood, growing on the surface where others can never hope to grow and as another drop fell onto the rose, it started blooming yellow on the blood of his, reviving itself to survive even if it has to drink the blood of others.
The red haired man just smiled as he gently said to the kid “Leave it to me and rest up. I am not that weak to die” But the kid was not resting up, still stiff and not easing up in front of the Elenbel.
“Who are you?” said Elenbel as he made a blade from wind and tried slashing him. The blade was much stronger, sharper and condensed as if it was a small storm rotating around his hand.
‘Keep quiet. Cant you see the kid is trying to rest. You are in the way.’ The red haired man looked back with his bright crimson red eyes, almost as if they were bathed in blood.

