Glints of lightning dyed the sky white followed by rumbling thunders resounded throughout the space.

Adrian's cerulean eyes stared at them nonchalantly and covertly prepared his magic circle.

As there was no way to escape, he had no choice but to fight them, and thanks to staying in the bulb of air under the water, he had time to recover a bit of his stamina.

"Eliminate him."

The moment the leader's words fell, the four of them rushed at Adrian and swung their dagger.

a€“Splat!

"!"

Their eyes widened as their weapons stabbed a thick mud instead of the boy's flesh; a wall of mud encircled Adrian a split second before their attack struck him.

They tried to pull their blade but the mud suddenly spun at incredible speed.

Without thinking much they let go of their weapon and jumped back to avoid splattering mud.

But unfortunately, one of them was too late to dodge it, and the mud splattered right on his face.

"Unf! Unf!"

He staggered backward and fell on his butt. His hands vigorously moved to brush the mud off of his face but it was fruitless as the mud was under Adrian's control.

Shortly after, his whole body began to jerk violently due to a lack of oxygen.

a€“Slash!

Adrian turned around after realizing that his mud barrier was cut open. He watched how the man's dagger approached him with indifferent eyes.

However, Adrian's lips drew an arc and the assassin's blade abruptly stopped a few centimeters away from the boy's heart.

The assassin lowered his vision and his eyes stretched wide after witnessing that the mud had covered half of his body.

He tried to retreat but to no avail. Adrian quickly snatched his weapon and swung it.

"Aarrgghh!!"

Blood spattered on the boy's pale face and the assassin's arm fell to the ground. Adrian dismissed his mud wall and immediately ducked down.

a€“Stab! a€“Stab!

Two flying daggers pierced the assassin's neck and he dropped dead to the mud below. Blood oozed out from his wounds before being rinsed away by the rain.

Adrian rolled sideways and a knife jabbed his previous foothold. He leaped behind when another two daggers rushed at him.

Right after he landed, Adrian immediately activated his wall of mud once again. The mud was seen swirling around him as if alive.

His blue eyes swept the surroundings and three men were left standing; two assassins and their leader.

Adrian didn't know if he had enough Mana to defeat them, but right now, half of his Mana was gone.

Even though he had a Mana Pool beyond that of an adult, that didn't mean he had unlimited Mana.

Especially since he didn't let go of the control of mud using the manipulating method which quickly drained his Mana.

This was because Adrian had no other choice but to do so as a defense; he couldn't rely on his physical stats due to how extraordinary they were.

As of now, he could only patiently wait for them and launched a counterattack.

a€“Rumble! a€“Rumble!

Adrian looked up and an idea emerged.

The moment the surrounding turned white, he hastily chanted a spell.

=====

Soon, a tremendous roar of lightning echoed accompanied by several explosions.

a€“Boom! a€“Boom! a€“Boom!

A burning smell stung his nostrils and when the color returned, three small craters formed on the ground.

There, two black corpses that billowed smoke came into view; they had turned to charcoal.

...two?

a€“Stab!

The boy's eyes stretched wide.

He lowered his eyes only to see blood dripping from a blade that pierced through his heart.

'Ah, Ia€“'

=====

A sky-splitting cry of thunder echoed throughout the expanse and after the blinding flash subsided, a burnt smell pricked his nose.

'Huh? Howa€“'

Wasting no more time, Adrian created a block of the earth behind him and rolled forward.

a€“Stab!

A sound of rasping metal could be heard right after Adrian landed. He turned around and a blade was seen penetrating through his earthen wall.

"Haa... haa..."

Adrian had no idea what was going on, but he would have been lanced to death if he was a millisecond too late.

'Was it... the Gift?'

There were so many things to think about, but for the time being, he would put everything aside and solely focus on the bata€“huh?

His sight suddenly spun and incredible pain filled his body.

Adrian almost kissed the mud, luckily his hands acted fast to support his body before it could touch the dirt.

"Cough!"

Adrian threw up a mouthful of blood. Intense dizziness swirled and something wet slid down from his nostrils.

He touched it and red liquid stained his fingers; he had a nosebleed. Adrian pinched his nose as the blood continued to leak out.

Manipulating natural lighting was indeed costly, he lost three-quarters of his Mana and now he had Mana Exhaustion symptoms.

Mana Exhaustion was the result of too little Mana existing within the Mana Pool.

historical

"How surprising."

a€“Slash!

An oblique blue light was seen and Adrian's earth barrier was cut in half. A loud thud resounded and a black-robed man appeared behind the half-cut wall.

Adrian forced himself to stand and eyed him with a face devoid of any expression.

"You can still manage to stand up after manipulating raw lightning at that large scale, even an adult Elementalist would end up damaging their Mana Pool controlling such power."

Using overly excessively powerful spells could cause damage to the Mana Pool and it was not a simple matter because it could lead to Mana Poisoning.

As the container that used to store Mana was broken, it caused the compartment to continuously absorb Mana, and it would flood your body with Mana which resulted in excruciating pain.

Although Mana Poisoning had no cure at all, people who injured their Mana Pool still had a chance to continue living, albeit they couldn't use Mana anymore.

Thanks to the Tower, they created an item that could absorb the excess Mana in the body and reduce the pain.

However, the patient must continue to be monitored, because this condition was very risky enough to cause instant death.

"So, what the rumors say about you having the high-rank affinity for each elemental is true after all."

Although Adrian appeared to be staring and listening to the man, while in fact, he paid no heed to him at all; Adrian was peeking at the assassin's [Status Window] right now. **

Seeing his statistics, he was a high-ranking assassin. Well, it seemed the sender wanted this boy to die so badly.

As his Mana was almost drained, he couldn't use it and looked like he had to fight him physically.

Adrian readied his dagger and stood on guard. Even though he only had a slim chance to survive, at least he tried his best.