The Ruler's Stone

MEETING SOMEONE SIMILAR TO A LOVED ONE

We see the child of that couple who were worried about him. He is standing alone in the school hallway. Three students walk up to him and start bullying him. They laugh at him. One of them says loudly, "Look at that poor kid. You guys know his father is barely a low-rank fighter. He will also be like him. Low rank. He will struggle to live his whole life like a cockroach."

The boy hears them, but he does not care. He is not listening to their words at all. His face is calm, but inside his mind, something else is happening. He feels a large amount of mana in the air. It is very heavy and very strong. It makes the air shake a little. He closes his eyes to feel it better. In his mind he thinks, "That mana... this feeling... it feels like the Principal."

Then we see a flashback for a few seconds. He is standing in the school corridor, watching the Principal and some other strong fighters walk beside him. When they pass, the same heavy mana was in the air. He remembers that feeling clearly.

He opens his eyes again. He thinks, "They might be the ones who are fighting against those beasts outside. The fight is real."

His heart starts beating fast. He quickly feels his bag on his shoulder, holds it tight, and starts running toward the fight scene. He does not think about the bullies anymore.

The students who were bullying him try to stop him. One of them grabs his shoulder hard to pull him back. But the boy is too fast. He moves his shoulder and slips away from his hand. They cannot hold him. He runs fast, door to door, his footsteps echoing in the hallway, and finally he reaches the main entrance of the school.

*Now the scene shifts back to the main fight.*

We see Afe standing on the railway track. His clothes are dusty and his arm has scratches. He is moving his arm slowly, doing a small exercise to gather more power again. He is breathing deeply and focusing. His veins start to glow again as mana moves inside him.

Suddenly, he senses something behind him. He turns his head quickly to look, but the presence vanishes in one second. There is nothing there. He frowns because he feels more uncomfortable mana now. A cold, heavy mana that makes his skin feel strange.

He looks forward. The beasts who were trying to attack him from long range with red blasts have become more strong now. Their eyes are redder. Their mana is darker. Afe steps forward to attack them directly.

But the beasts do something strange. They do not attack him. They start moving randomly. They run left and right, in circles, fast and without any pattern. They are not trying to hit him. It looks like they are trying to puzzle him, to confuse his eyes and his group attack.

Then, without warning, they shoot their red blast again together.

But this time, something shocking happens. Afe sees someone jump in front of him and stop the attack with just one arm. The red blast hits that arm and stops. Fire waves scatter in the air.

Afe's eyes go wide. He is shocked and also excited at the same time. His heart beats fast. He looks closely and says in a low voice, "He has the same power as me."

The camera moves slowly. It is the kid. He is wearing his school uniform. His uniform is shaking from the blast pressure. He is breathing hard because he ran all the way from the school. His arm is raised in front of the blast.

The student looks at Afe, smiles a little, and says, "I'm here to help you, sir."

Afe looked at the child standing in front of him. He was a little surprised. He rubbed his own head with his hand and said, "So what are you doing here, kid?"

The boy looked up at him. His breathing was still fast from running. He replied quickly, "I'm Marki, sir. I felt a large amount of strong mana from the school, so I came here."

Afe looked at him with serious eyes. He said to him, "Now go back to school. I will manage this. Nothing is out of control here. You should not be here."

Marki laughed a little. He said, "Haha, don't worry, sir. I will not be a burden. I will give you backup. I can fight."

Then Afe watched him more clearly. He looked at his face, his uniform, his standing style. For a second, Afe smiled, because the kid's lines reminded him of someone else from his past. Someone brave. Then he got ready. He decided to take help from that kid.

He told him, "Give me backup with your power. You can do that, right?"

Marki nodded his head and replied, "Yes, sir."

Then the fight started again.

Afe ran fast into the group of beasts. He was like a storm. Marki stayed behind and gave him support with magic. He was shooting magic blasts from far to help Afe. But he was still new, so he was making mistakes too. Some of his attacks were almost going to touch Afe himself.

Afe now had to save himself from the beasts and also from Marki's magic. He laughed a little while dodging. But then he became serious. He attacked with full power. He jumped and punched the ground with all his strength.

BOOM!

A big c***k opened on the ground. The c***k spread fast. The beasts lost their balance. They became slow and stopped moving for a second. Afe used that chance and killed them with his power, one by one. Marki was also killing beasts and helping him from behind.

While fighting, Afe thought in his mind, "That kid is not average. He really has potential for fighting."

Now Afe's eyes were searching around. He was trying to find the beasts that just evolved, the ones with the stronger mana. But it looked like they were gone. Their presence had vanished completely.

He looked back at the kid behind him. Marki was using a very powerful attack now. Afe could feel it - that kind of attack uses a lot of mana. It meant the kid was going to be out of mana very soon.

So now Afe made a new plan. He wanted to clear this mission more quickly. He changed his mana level to full charge. His whole body started glowing brighter. Then he attacked the monsters with high speed. So fast that his body was like a blur.

At the same time, Marki was trying to aim at the long-distance beasts, but when he looked, Afe had already killed them all. So Marki changed his aim and attacked the near ones who were trying to attack him. He was also fighting for his own safety now.

That kid watched Afe. He was shocked. Afe had already managed to kill all the beasts in that short time. The ground was covered in their blood. The blood was flowing on the ground like water. Marki's eyes were now only on Afe. He was thinking, "How strong is he?"

Afe finished the last beast and looked back at him. He wiped the blood from his hand and said, "Hey kid, you alright? Thanks for your help. Yep, you did a great job."

He smiled while saying that.