HP: The Arcane Thief
chapter-184

While Axel was doing his thing, a considerable amount of forces had gathered at Biopark. Among them was also a relic wielder, a stocky man with a big beard and matted hair. He was wearing a cloak that seemed to flutter on its own.

All of these people gathered, and yet, they were doing… nothing. There was nothing for them to do in the first place. In the face of the absolute destruction Axel and his wild flamethrowers were causing, they would just be getting in the way even if they did anything.

"Hahahaha! Who is that boy? I didn't know we had gotten another Relic Wielder." Said the man in the cloak. His name was Asphor.

The rest of the people, who had already seen Axel's trial multiple times, exchanged awkward glances. "That's Chris Martin. Uh… he's not a Relic Wielder."

"What the—? No Relic?" The man looked back at Axel who was controlling an army of rampaging dragons, his laughter gone. "Then, how the FUCK is he doing that?"

'Good Question.'

The rest of the people had idea.

How WAS he doing it? There is no way it can be as easy as he is making it look. No matter how much they thought about, they couldn't find the answer.

"Sir Asphor, we are also currently un clear about that. Chris attempted his academy trial just yesterday so have no idea about his—"

"Academy Trial? How are you talking about?"

"Um, academy trials are test to enroll into the academy—"

"I know that! I'm asking why that is trying into the academy?"

….'Good Question, yet again.'

"Well, he's 16, so he first had to—"

"SIXTEEN?! Are you telling me that guy is SIXTEEN?"

"Y-yes, that's how it's known."

"Which of the Six Families?"

"…He is actually an outsider."

That was it. The Relic Wielder no longer had any words.

"So, a 16 year old guy is fending off the giant monster wave and we are just here leisurely fishing?"

The Captain shook his head firmly. "I've been monitoring the situation. And it seems, that his control over the dragons is slipping. We have to save him when that happens and kill the dragons. This boy is an amazing prodigy. We can't let him die."

Asphor nodded. It was understandable that his control would eventually slip. It was more unbelievable that he held on for so long. "Let's be ready then."

…

No matter how cool he looked from the third person perspective, in reality, Axel was indeed struggling.

The dragons were directed to go into the city and destroy everything in sight. When he suddenly changed the direction of their flight, there was actually a huge amount of resistance.

No matter how strong he was, Axel was still an ant against the combined might of so many enhanced dragons. Controlling the dragons in such a situation was simply impossible.

But, Axel had already anticipated that. And he had a solution. He may not be able to beat so many dragons in terms of physical strength. But... in terms of mental strength? That's his domain.

In that aspect, even if he was up against so many dragon, he was 'hold-my-beer-Imma-do-this-shit' level confident.

He targeted the minds of the Dragons, attacking them repeatedly. In this way, he managed to make them turn around. Axel was hoping that they would no longer follow the orders of the Organisation and hopefully get under his control.

The result was, he did manage to make them forget about trying to escape, but the price was that he had to keep launching collective mental attacks on their minds, effectively rendering them into a stunned state in which they can instinctively react to his direction. Their anger was building up, and Axel's mental energy was draining fast, so there was no way he would be able to keep this up for long.

So, the dragons went on a rampage while Axel held on to the reins for dear life, trying his best to steer them, continuously giving them electric charge to make them keep attacking.

This process was extremely straining for him. For one, his fingers had to move at unimaginable speeds as the dragons would try to turn from time to time.

Also, keeping track of so many string and pulling and letting loose at right time to prevent the fingers from snapping off at the same time attacking the dragons? Well, his mind wasn't doing too well either.

But the persistent bastard he was, Axel managed to pull it off in the end. Now, the situation is like this: He is already at his limit, the monster hoard has been cleared. He has even managed to unlock a few new skills: [Puppeteering] [Taming]. So it has been a rewarding experience in which he found new ways to deal with the situation instead of relying on his existing skills.

But…

'What to do with these dragons now?'

With nothing left to destroy, and him being unable to control them, the dragons are about to go on an absolute rampage.

There is a saying in the wizarding culture: riding a dragon. It's used when someone enters a dangerous situation because it's appealing and rewarding, but then they find themselves unable to get out and about to die any time.

Right now, Axel was literally in that situation . He was riding not one, but a lot of dragons. If that wasn't bad enough, they were also about in a berserk state with him as the target. And if even that wasn't bad enough, their abilities have been enhanced several fold due to the blue markings.

As soon as he loses control of the leashes, Axel is going to be Hunted like an animal.

But, running away and leaving it to the rest of the forces is also not a good plan. He has come so far, only to run away in the end and leave the final merits to someone else? That is no go.

'Well, whatever. Just come, you mindless beasts.' Axel clicked his tongue. He's just going to fight them.

When someone goes through as much as he has, this situation doesn't exactly seem intimidating, especially when he is still in a condition to move.

But, how exactly is he going to fight them? His magical limit has almost been reached. His mind is also pretty drained after attacking all the dragons' minds and also handling so many threads.

Attacking with just physical power without infusing magic into his attacks wouldn't leave a dent on these Dragon-hides. Water affinity might expose him as a royal, thus a target of assassination for many, so he's not using that.

So then, how is he going to do it?

Sometimes, the solution can be very simple.

Axel stopped controlling the dragons.

!!!!!!!!!!!

Loud roars reverberated all around as the dragons came to their senses.

Dragons began struggling to get rid of the strings, going into opposite directions.

Axel didn't try to stop them. He couldn't. He let the strings loose, letting the dragons pull as much as they wanted. Instead, he took out all the remaining strings and began running on the big dragons body.

[Arcane Footwork]

Very quickly, all the dragons focused on him as the culprit who had been leading them around by the noose. Fire rained down on him, but Axel was faster, so it could never reach him. Instead, the one to suffer was the Giant Dragon that he was riding.

Now, one thing to be noted is that even though dragons are highly resistant to flames, there is a limit to that resistance. When so much fire power gathered on one dragon, it was bound to suffer damage.

Another thing to be noted is that dragons aren't above attacking their own kind when push comes to shove. So, extremely furious, the Giant black dragon also attacked the nearest dragon.

Meanwhile, Axel had already jumped onto the next dragon after traversing the body of the big black dragon, thus shifting the aggro to this one.

While the dragons all attacked the second dragon, Axel had already jumped onto the third dragon. The strings in his hands were getting less and less Axel travelled from one dragon to another. This process went on for a while as Axel jumped from one dragon to another.

By the time he reached the final dragon, he wasn't even being attacked anymore as the dragons had started fighting among themselves.

Finally, Axel stopped letting the dragons pull more strings and bounded it all on the last dragon.

THRUM

With the continuous supply of strings gone, all of a sudden, hundreds of thousands of strings went taught all at once as all the dragons were rendered immobile, as they found themselves bound in a huge web of strings.

Most of them could no longer even flap their wings. Roaring madly, the dragons all began plunging down in a spiral.

The strings that had bound them were overlapped tens of times. These strings imbued with magic and made from secret Japanese techniques were extremely durable, to begin with, but when overlapped multiple times, these measly strings could produce durability that could rival the dragons' might.

BOOM

The heavy dragons fell to the ground, still tangled in the web. On the other hand, Axel lightly landed on the ground after casting an arresto momentum on himself.

Axel shook off the blood from his finger, walking towards the exit without giving the tangled mess of dragons a second glance. There was no need to. Even though the fall wasn't enough to kill them, when bound like that, they would kill each other without him having to lift a finger.

Ding

[Mission Completed]

[Congrratulation! You have completed an insane level difficulty mission]

[Reward:

Mana+

Custom Skill: Mana Threads]

Axel's eyes widened as the mana depletion gone.

'What… what the hell?'

Akiko zoomed in, riding the Neptunite. Even before the vehicle landed, she jumped off, landing in front of Axel. "Are you alright?"

Axel shrugged. "Yeah, nothing big."

Akiko checked his fingers, and her brows furrowed. "We have to get them treated." Rummaging through her space pouch, she produced a jar that contained a jellylike substance. "Here, this will help," she said as she took his hand and began applying it.

A cooling sensation spread over Axel's finger as his wounds began to close down.

Their eyes met and Akiko looked away. "You were really—"

"Chris Martin."

*Znnnn*

Before she could finish her sentence, someone interrupted them. A high tech vehicle arrived by their side. The low humming sound it produced was enough to show its high power. This was a Maverick. Every rider's wet dream.

Riding it was a man Axel had not seen before. 5 stars proudly gleamed on his shoulders. There was a man beside him who was levitating while fluttering his cloak.

Behind him were other officers, some of them were also riding a Maverick.

"Yeah?"

Looking at Axel, the captain and the rest of the soldiers felt mixed emotions. The things this guy just pulled up were nothing short of Legendary. And yet, it made them feel bitter just trying to compare themselves to him.

"Kid, how did you do that?! Are the kids outside all this amazing now?" It was the man in cloak who started talking.

Axel shrugged. "Is it necessary to answer that?"

The captain beside the man shook his head. "No! Not at all! We just wanted to express our gratitude for what you did. Young man, you've saved a lot of lives today."

Axel nodded. "So, I'm not in any kind of trouble, am I?"

"No no! Why would you think that?"

Axel didn't want to explain it, but being always on the wrong side of law, he was uncomfortable being surrounded by armed uniformed officers. It felt like he would be slapped with some kind of charges.

"Well, can I leave then? I want to continue my sightseeing."

'I did nothing wrong. I'm just an innocent tourist. Also, whoever tries to arrest me will die.'

"....." x everyone

Axel didn't wait for the response. He picked up the Neptunite they had rented and Akiko sat behind him without a word.

"Well, see ya then," He said as he casually saluted them with a three-finger trident sign.

With that, Axel then flew his neptunite on low-level, going through the blockade of soldiers and civilians, who created a path for him almost in reverence than respect. On his way out, Axel patted one of civilians who had witnessed the whole incident. "Good job."

The guy had recorded everything.