The fist was a blur of skin and knuckles, descending with speed that aimed for Elio's face.
He didn't move.
He didn't even try to dodge. It was as if an invisible iron rod had been driven through his spine, anchoring him to the ground.
Something was holding him there, forcing him to stay rigid, waiting for the impact to be the final hammer blow that shattered his remaining restraint.
Like it was waiting for the impact to burst out the dark mana small Elio had contained.
The golden countdown from the system in his peripheral vision hit another ping.
[Dark Mana escaping in 1…]
Then, the world simply stopped.
A hand, impossibly steady, clamped around the leader's wrist just inches from Elio's nose.
The impact didn't make an exaggerating sound, but the air around the two men rippled, a small shockwave that puffed the dust off the thug's sleeve and sent a chill across Elio's skin.
Elio gasped, the sudden intervention acting like a bucket of ice water poured over his internal fire.
The pressure in his chest, that suffocating, heaviness and burn, suddenly receded, retreating to somewhere deep.
[Dark Constituent Stability: 20%]
The golden text flickered briefly before vanishing. Elio stumbled back, his legs finally finding their strength as the strange control snapped. He collapsed against a stack of crates, his breath coming in ragged.
The thugs didn't wait for an explanation.
They were desperate men, the kind who didn't regard the life of a small kid as anything more than a minor obstacle.
Seeing their leader's arm caught like a twig in a vice, the other three lunged forward.
The man in the hat didn't even take his other hand out of his coat pocket.
With an effortless forward slash of his free arm, the air suddenly screamed. A sharp gust of wind caught all four men in the chest at once.
They weren't just pushed, they were launched. The sound of four heavy bodies hitting the stone ground in unison was a thud that made the ground subtly shake.
"What… How?!" the leader wheezed, clasping his chest as his breath left him in a ragged cloud. He coughed, staring at the man in the hat with wide, bloodshot eyes.
"We couldn't…" *Cough!* *Cough!* "We couldn't feel a wisp of mana from you. You felt like a peasant! How is your wind affinity that sharp?"
The man tilted his head, his wide brim lifting a little to reveal details of his face from his nose bridge down to his chin.
Then, a smirk that was more than intimidating emerged on his face.
"A little trick I picked up," his booming voice echoed in the street, furtherly shaking the rogues to their cores. "Mana concealment is fun. It helps lure fools into the right trap."
With a casual flex of his wrist and a sharp twitch of his fingers, the ground yielded.
The cobblestones beneath the thugs didn't just break, they turned into liquid. The earth groaned, the stone and dirt opened and rose like a closing mouth, swirling around the men's tangled bodies.
Before they could scream or protest, the ground hardened instantly. It turned back into iron-hard stone, gripping them to their shoulders.
They were buried alive in the middle of the street, unmovable and utterly helpless.
Another elemental mastery.
The rogue tamers weren't fools not to know that everything about the capital city was built with materials close to the best, if not the best.
For a man to easily control the very hard ground they knew and have not just another elemental affinity but mastery over the element, his beast was definitely a strong one, and they realized they had been playing with fire all this while.
They knew they couldn't do anything to help themselves in this situation. Their beasts would also be useless.
"Stay there," the man said, turning his back on them as if they were nothing more than discarded trash. "I'll be sending the city guards to collect you shortly. They have very specific, dark cells for tamers like you."
He turned his attention to Elio.
The boy was still trembling, his hazel eyes wide and his skin marred with dirt.
"You've got spirit, kid. Too much of it, maybe," the man said.
A loud grumble reached his ears.
The man turned, tilting his head again.
"Ugh…" Elio smiled nervously. "Just a small ache in the tummy."
"Ache, huh?" The man laughed, loudly. "Come. Follow me."
Elio didn't know why he moved. He was a boy who had learned to fear everyone, to hide from everyone, yet there was something about the way Gaelius walked and spoke. A figure that didn't feel like a threat.
"The name is Gaelius. You, little one?"
"Elio, sir."
Gaelius led him out of the narrow guts of the city and into a small, warm restaurant tucked away from major eyes.
It smelled of roasted meat, fried vegetables, and fresh bread. A scent so powerful it made Elio's head swim.
Gaelius ordered a big spread. He sat across from Elio, watching the boy silently.
"You're not eating. What's the matter?"
Elio was reluctant. He turned his gaze away from the savoury dishes laid before him, holding himself from the impulse to dig in.
"You know, I always have a nice appetite. I can finish all of these in minutes." Gaelius joked, adjusting his hat to reveal his teeth.
Elio's eyes widened, immediately turning to focus on the dish.
One glance was all it took for Elio to start digging in like a ravenous beast. He tore into a loaf of warm bread with the desperation of a starving animal.
Gaelius laughed softly. "You eat like a wolf. Reminding me of the time I was exactly your age."
Gaelius waited for the boy to finish, and as expected, it didn't take long.
Almost everything in the plates had been cleared.
"I'm sorry, sir. I should have…" Elio spoke with big eyes and a fluster in his cheeks, noticing he had let the hunger get him.
Gaelius casually waved his hand in the air and laughed genuinely.
Elio looked down at his plate, and memories came rushing back.
'Mother used to prepare good dishes like this.'
"Now, tell me… What were you doing in that part of the city all alone?" Gaelius snapped him from the trance.
"Sir, I never meant to even get there," Elio started, looking down at the empty plate and staring at his reflection.
The mockery, the laughter, and the pathetic gurgle of the Bloat Lizard felt like a fresh wound.
He began to speak, hesitantly at first, his voice cracking as he told Gaelius a filtered version of his story. He spoke of being misfortuned from birth, how things never worked well and people avoided him, of how he had contracted the worst beast in recorded history, and how he had recently lost his parents.
He didn't mention the black fire, how he took the lives of his parents or the voices and darkness, but even the mention of his parents made his chest tighten.
[Dark Constituent Stability: 17.]
"I was supposed to go to the Serenum Prestige Academy," Elio muttered, his fingers tracing a knot in the wooden table. "My parents, they gave everything to get me there. But what's the point now? I have a Bloat Lizard. I'll just be the joke of the school. I'm not sure if I can even show my face there with a beast that just glows."
Gaelius seemed to notice the shift in the air, the way the boy's confidence was watered to the ground.
He didn't ask for more details. Instead, he began to tell stories, ridiculous, funny tales of legendary tamers who had accidentally summoned their beasts into their bathtubs, or the time a high Gold Rank tamer fell into faeces of a beast in an expedition.
Elio found himself letting out a small, huffed breath that was almost a laugh. The stability in his chest leveled out, the dark pressure receding once more.
"Elio, I know things have been rough, but I don't want you to feel cursed. Yes, you have a very low beast, but there are many other ways to excel."
"You have a good heart, Elio," Gaelius continued, his voice dropping into a more serious tone. "Most kids your age would have run for the guards or just far away. You stayed to fight for a stranger you thought was helpless."
"I'm not sure about that," Elio whispered, his thoughts drifting back to the sensation, how his thoughts were darkened. "I don't think I'm a good boy. Maybe I wanted to pour everything I was feeling on someone..."
Gaelius didn't judge him. He didn't offer a platitude about heroism. He just stood up and offered a hand to the boy.
Elio took it reluctantly.
"You know, I could have done something far worse to those fools. But your little, cute eyes made me think otherwise."
Elio smiled genuinely.
Then with a more serious tone, "Serenum Prestige, huh?" He asked.
"Yes… They wanted me there." Elio answered again, boring his gaze to the ground.
"The world sees a Bloat Lizard, and they think they know the limits of your soul." He looked at the boy and smiled again.
For once, Elio somewhat saw a spark of hope.
"Come with me. I have something to show you."