Mystical Journey

A tiny breeze swept through the black-leaved woods, causing the leaves to swoosh loudly. Some dandelion seeds glided in the air, and bees buzzed around a bush littered with tiny red flowers.

On the side of the graveyard, in walked a middle-aged man in a black dress suit through the rundown fence.

He looked cleaned up and had a pair of white gloves, like a nobleman who’d just gotten out of a carriage.

Silently, he stared at the headstone with a solemn look on his face, seemingly reminiscing the past.

A faint footstep rattled behind him.

"Who’s there!"

The man turned abruptly, vigilantly stared at the trees behind him.

Deep in the woods, a maroon-colored windbreaker appeared in his sight.

It was a young man walking through the woods with great strides. Stopping ten meters behind the man in suit, he glared at him with a dark look.

"Emin, how dare you show your face here?" The man with red windbreaker said coldly. "Twelve years! This is your first visit here in twelve years!"

"Aren’t you the same?" Man with black suit replied with equal darkness on his face. "Clyde, this is my wife’s tomb, you’re not welcomed here!" He stressed on the word ‘my’.

"You’re the one who killed her! What right do you have to say that? Even her grave is crummy!" The younger man argued.

Both of them confronted each other with their outfits as contrasting as night and day.

Emin, the one wearing a suit, looked around as if searching for something when he realized.

"You were tailing me!"

"How else would I be able to find Hill’s grave?" Clyde, red windbreaker, smirked. "Just give up, Emin, I shouldn’t have let you take Hill back then. I thought she’d have a happy life with you, rather than suffering in the army with me. Had I known... Today, I’m going to settle the score with you!"

"I admit, I’ve failed her, but you’re in no position to lecture me!" Emin stared at his former rival in love. "Clyde A. Jackson, you don’t scare me! I just don’t feel the need to compare with you."

"Why are you still babbling about?" Clyde raised his right arm, revealing a ruby ring on his middle finger. "Come on, show me what you got after all these years!"

All of a sudden, the ring glowed a brilliant red. From the surface of the ruby, a thin red beam shot out.

It landed on the ground and transformed into a huge red-furred wolf as tall as half a person’s height.

Aroooo!

The wolf howled with a red glint in its eyes. Its physique was just like a real wolf if it wasn’t for its glimmering red eyes.

Its fur fluttered in the wind, making a sort of windswept grass plain effect.

The huge red wolf was three meters long and one meter tall, its claws were sharp and deadly, with a little bloodstains on it.

Garen hid inside the bush, stunned at the sight.

Every single detail, from the red beam shooting out of the ruby ring, to the beam transforming into a wolf, had been seen by him.

What’s even more surprising was Clyde, who released the red wolf, was shrouded in a faint red glow. That red light formed an egg shape around him, enfolding him completely without a gap.

"That’s... intriguing..." Garen thought the Secret Methods from Secret Martial Arts were fantastical enough, and the Sword of the Sprite was equally wondrous, but those were top tier forces after all. Unlike those, the two here only represent a normal level for this world!

"A giant red wolf?" Emin kept his face straight, and took out a small silvery-white cane hanging on his waist.

Lightly waving it, the tip of the cane sent out a beam of white light that transformed into a white bear.

Grrrr!

The white bear is as tall as a man when it stood up on its hind legs. It growled at the giant red wolf.

The white bear didn’t look too distinct from a normal polar bear, there was also no special light surrounding Emin.

"Clyde, I lost to you then, but I’ll never lose to you in front of Hill. Never!" Emin took off his white glove, revealing his scarred hands.

"Nothing comes from just talk." Clyde smirked, gesturing with his ring hand. "Attack!"

Red wolf growled and zapped past the right side of the white bear. Its claws glowed red as it sank them into the white bear’s skin, slashing it. The white bear’s fur around the wound was scorched and was emitting a charred scent.

The wolf was so quick, the bear only realized what had happened after the wolf landed behind him.

The patch of grass the red wolf landed on burnt, emitting green smoke.

Roar!

The white bear roared loudly as it pounded at the wolf. It missed.

Crack!

A branch was hit instead. It cracked, sending splinters toward the ground.

The white bear chased after the red wolf, pounding it with its paws and tearing at its torso with its teeth.

The beasts rolled against each other, causing the ground to rumble.

Still hiding, Garen observed the beasts’ attacks.

The wolf’s claws and teeth seems to have the effect of burning things they touch, it was so potent they can blacken trees and grass.

The bear was strong, its skin and fur seems to be able to withstand heavy damage, it hasn’t been hurt much in its few clashes with the wolf. Only when it was bitten that some tear wound appeared.

While the beasts were fighting, their masters didn’t even move, they just stood there without actions of any kind.

Garen observed carefully and was shocked to find them both surrounded by egg-shaped lights of their beasts’ color, and their feet are not touching the ground, but instead slightly hovering above.

"This is a Luminarists’ totem?" Garen noticed the none of wounds on both of the beasts bled. The flesh that was torn off the body just disappeared in a swirl of red or white light.

The two beasts kept tearing at each other, their attacks affected nearby trees and rocks, making a mess. However, as if with tacit understanding, they didn’t even go near the tombstone, so Garen on the other end of the clearing wasn’t concerned about safety at all.

"If these two beasts were totems, their destruction level is about the same as a Grade D in the Martial Arts world..." Garen eyeballed from the wreckage they’ve caused.

The two Luminarists were very normal, their power levels are only mediocre.

In other words, anyone who’s a Luminarist would have the power level of at least a Grade D Martial Artist.

Recalling the memory he received, there were other stronger Luminarists in the future. Garen winced.

"There are other stronger Luminarists, this world is stronger than the Martial Arts World!"

Crack!

The white bear snapped a tree with a half-meter diameter with its paw. Some parts of the tree fell off and hit Clyde, but was immediately blocked by the red glow surrounding him and bounced off.

"So that’s why they don’t fight themselves, they have that light-thing protecting them."

Garen noted.

He realized the Luminarists in the memory were all like that, they never ordered their totems to attack other Luminarists. Looks like this was the reason behind that.

White bear finally caved after defending against the red wolf’s burning attacks. Its wounds cumulated, but it still kept fighting, roaring, as if saying it will take the red wolf down together with it even if it dies.

Not far away, Emin’s eyes were bloodshot and he’s clenching his jaw, flicking his cane in the air continuously, as if there were something there.

"Have you gone mad!" Clyde’s face went frantic. "You’ll destroy your totem if you keep this up!"

The words didn’t even registered in Emin’s brains, he just kept flicking his cane with frenzy.

Arooo...

The red wolf was finally pounded on its abdomen and was sent rolling. Red light spots detached from its body and dissipated in the air.

"Don’t force me to do this!" Clyde’s face showed a savagery that wasn’t there. "Don’t you think you’re the only person daring enough to sacrifice your totem!"

"Do it then!" Emin replied, gritting his teeth.

A slight hesitation flickered in Clyde’s eyes.

In that instant, white bear charged at the wolf, lifting it skyward.

Roar!

White bear seemed to have increased his strength dramatically, no matter how hard red wolf struggled, it just couldn’t get away. The bear claws ripped into the wolf, tearing it apart.

"Sivak!" Clyde screamed.

Raising his right hand, the ruby ring erupted into a burst of radiant red.

The red wolf’s torso tremored, flashing red, and started to bloat up, the bigger it got, the redder it flashed.

Boom!

The red wolf exploded like a balloon bursting, golden flames billowed out of its torso.

The ground shook, the booming sound of the explosion spread in all direction centering the beasts.

The trees and the soil shot outward along with the blaze, devouring the two Luminarists. Scorching red liquid spewed as far as twenty to thirty meters away, igniting the trees around.

Garen already felt something’s wrong when Clyde screamed and bolted away. When he heard the explosion, he rolled on the ground and ran a dozen meters.

"It’s almost as powerful as a high-explosive bomb... That’s something." He commented as he stood up.

The flames stopped advancing not far before him. Within a twenty-meter radius, every rock and tree and flower had been burnt black. All the trees were felled by the force of the explosion, burning trunks and branches were everywhere on the ground.

"Such force..." Garen looked at the center of the explosion, trying to catch a glimpse of the two Luminarists.

Boom!

An explosion larger than the last one. Once again, blazing fire burst out from the explosion center and charged at him.

"F*ck!" Garen turned and took off. The impact carried him for several meters and set him down beside a tree. If it wasn’t for his foundation in Martial Arts, he would’ve eaten dirt.

He glanced backward. Centered around the two Luminarists, everything within thirty meter radius in the black-leaved forest had been turned into a sea of fire. Trunks, bushes, grass patches, even rocks, everything was on fire.

The fiery red shone on his clothes, dyeing them bright red. His hair and parts of his clothes were slightly scorched, too.