Only I Am Level 1

When Julius woke up, Lucas had fallen asleep alongside a huge pile of paperwork. It was still dark outside.

Julius got out to check how long they had left.

”Soleil. ”

A revolving 2d circle of beastly orange began turning in Julius hand, soon a small sphere of light formed.

There didn seem to be a limit to how many times Julius could use Soleil or Hades.

Julius was still quite enthusiastic about his new abilities.

As Julius exited the warmer insides of the carriage and checked the front, he saw two majestic iron-black horses trotting forwards and a completely absent drivers seat.

Julius checked the back of the carriage in anxiety before tapping Lucas irritably.

”Lucas. Lucas. ”

Lucas woke up with a tired grumble.

”What. ”

Julius chuckled weakly.

”Albert. Hes kindve disappeared. ”

Lucas furrowed his eyebrows.

”Don have time for these jokes Julius. ”

And Lucas tried to go back to sleep.

Julius now even more irritated than Lucas yanked him up and dragged him out.

”SEE. ”

Lucas blinked thrice.

”What. ”

Julius cackled.

”But its fine Im pretty sure these horses are auto-traveling or something. ”

Lucas cursed.

”Julius. ”

Julius looked up at Lucas.

”The Eastern-Mountain Bandits of the Land of Iron always take out the driver first. ”

”Eh? ”

”Albert has probably been dragged off and killed. ”

It was the first time Julius had felt a death that wasn his own. The man who he had just talked to… had probably died?

”Th-thats a pretty bold assumption. ”

Lucas sighed.

”Grab the gun and prepare for combat. ”

Lucas pointed to a fancily decorated revolver where Albert had last sat. Julius took it steadily. He had never held a gun in his life before.

Julius felt oddly alive about the upcoming battle. He felt confident with his magic. He could surely just blind all his enemies.

”What about you? What will you use? ”

Lucas looked at Julius like he was genuinely concerned for him.

”My… magic? We don all only know 2 support spells. ”

Lucas looked out of the side of the carriage.

Julius tapped his shoulder quietly.

”They
e here. ”

A group of men dressed in thick fur cloaks and carrying an armament of weapons came into view.

The horses that were mindlessly ramming themselves forwards gradually slowed down before coming to a complete stop.

”Lord Viktah of the Eastern Mountains demands that you hand your goods over quietly. ”

A man with a thick beard spoke out, his muscular arms looked like they were going to burst.

Lucas walked over to the front of the carriage.

”We don have anything. Look at our clothes. ”

The man with the thick beard groomed his beard and examined the carriage before him.

”The horses should please Lord Viktah. ”

Lucas grunted with an ugly irk.

Julius sighed.

”You need help getting them off? ”

The man laughed.

”Stay back you little ones. ”

He sheathed a chipped silver knife, a bit of stained blood on its edges. It had from a glance been cared for very poorly.

”Don want you to get hurt. ”

The entire gang of bandits chortled.

Lucas muttered into Julius ears as 4 bandits came over to unclip the horses from their reins.

”4 seconds, Im ending this. ”

Julius readied his revolver, his throat was sturdy and ready to unleash a Hades to aid Lucas. He truly did not feel like walking to the Kingdom of Iron or wherever it was that they were heading.

A small part of Julius also wanted to avenge Albert.

The bearded man looked at Julius and Lucas as his men unclipped the horse.

”You know how would you boys like to be slave-. ”

Julius face irked left.

He let out a childish yelp.

”How would you like to become blind? ”

”Hades. ”

Julius intense emotions formed a huge circle that encompassed all the bandits and even the horses.

Soon, the circle stopped turning and pulsed, sending all within its grasp blind.

Lucas saw the obvious single and jumped down, using an incantation to structure his magic rather than his body.

Julius could use neither incantations nor body to structure magic.

Lucas looked at the bandits viciously.

”Heed my call, and devour all that stands before me into the sun. ”

The bandits looked around in confusion and anger due to their blind states.

”Scorching Paradise. ”

A medium-sized vibrant orange magic circle started spinning rapidly before a pulse rang out within it.

Soon, a huge vibrant empowering wall of flames stretched out and threatened to devour all of the bandits as it fell upon them.

One of the bandits from the back reacted quickly using his hands to structure a counter-attack the second he heard of the nature of the attack being Scorching Paradise.

Although using hands was more dangerous and produced weaker results, the opponent had basically no idea what spell would appear.

Soon a vibrant spinning wheel of silver formed in the air. From it, a stagnant and unmoving wall of wind formed.

The two constructs met and the wind wall broke down but the firewall was significantly weakened. It fell to the ground and collapsed.

Lucas didn stop there, by this point the advantage was major.

Lucas only knew voice incantations so he had to speak as fast as humanly possible.

”Rain down upon my enemies like heavens needles. ”

”Ice maelstrom. ”

A large 2d circle of blue formed above the bandits, it began spinning until stopping. A pulse released from it.

The bandits had no idea where the next attack would come from and all of them were too wise to charge straight into a magician who was releasing destructive abilities with no care for his storage.

Soon, peg-like ice constructs rained down from above with force. They pierced through some bandits and were deflected skillfully by others.

Far beyond the control of Julius, his Hades spell malfunctioned, slipping from his grasp. Soon the huge circle of black that resided above the bandits shrunk and faded. They all regained their vision and snorted, immediately attacking Julius.

They didn attack in close combat however as they were scorched that Julius might release another Scorching Paradise. Rather they attacked with ranged weapons like crossbows.

”Protect me with grace. ”

”Wind dome. ”

A silver circle began rotating before letting out a pulse.

A circular rotating dome of wind surfaced around Lucas. Julius was barely inside.

Julius coughed.

He aimed the revolver at one of the bandits, a small hole opened up in the wind dome for his shot.

”I don know if I can do this. ”

Lucas looked down at him.

”Same old same old. ”

”Annihilate the human within me. ”

”Null point. ”

A 2d grey circle began spinning before letting out a pulse. Julius felt his mind go blanker and all his thoughts became more direct and straight.

Crossbow bolts bounced off the wind dome.

Without a second thought, Julius pulled the trigger.

Bang.

The head of the bandit let out a gush of blood before the bandit fell to the floor.

The recoil made Julius feel like his right hand was dying but null point had nullified it to the point where he could easily shake it off.

Julius instantly turned to his next target.

Realizing that their bolts were just being deflected by the wind dome the bandits unleashed magic.

Julius noticed 2 bandits preparing magic.

Bang.

Bang.

Two dead bandits slumped to the ground. Julius hand was burning. He had no clue what was going on due to the nullification. Just what his head was telling him to do.

Now the group of bandits had been loosely reduced in numbers.

Lucas smirked.

”With this, they probably have no magic users left. ”

Julius checked the revolver.

”3 bullets. ”

Lucas prepared his plan.

”Julius, blind them. ”

Julius in his current state barely had any emotions present, just the cold shallow presence of his mind.

Without thought, Julius leaped out of the wind dome.

”Hades. ”

The same huge omniscient circle of darkness revolved over the bandits, a pulse rang out.

The bandits eyes turned from white to black instantly.

They had been blinded.

Julius brought down the revolver to the nearest bandit.

He saw two functioning eyes, covered in a murky red aura.

And then a well-forged sword of ruby red closed in from his right, coming straight for his neck.

A muffled voice came from his left.

”Flame dash. ”

Soon flames invaded his view, Lucas rose above the bandit with a murky faint red aura covering his eyes who hadn been blinded by Hades.

His legs were engulfed in red flames, his right leg specifically.

Lucas unleashed a swinging kick from his right leg, carrying the mass of a destructive body of flames.

The bandit responded by sending his sword sideways to nullify the power.

Boom.

Flames clashed before rising up, Lucas flame kick had been subsided by a strong blow.

Lucas sighed.

”An Aura User. So you must be Viktah. ”

The bandit nodded silently. He had black two slits on his forehead that formed a T.

The bandits behind Viktah spoke in frenzies.

”Who the hell is that kid? He shouldve run out of mana way back. ”

”It doesn make sense. ”

”Where is he? I wanna pierce through his runt skull. ”

Lucas muttered something quietly.

”Scorching Paradise. ”

A huge flat circle full of omniscient orange ruins formed. It burned the backs of all the bandits.

Soon a pulse rang out from it as it stopped spinning rapidly gradually.

And with it, a blinding wall of destructive and blinding yellow flames crashed downwards.

Devouring the bandits in one go.

As this act of freakish nature ensued, Lucas merely watched over like an apostle of the devil through the scorching yellow.

Such was what he had been deformed into due to the facilities of the kingdom of White.

They may have gave birth to a monster, but they had killed a boy.