Chapter 244: White spark.

Vaerin dropped to the ground, spasmed a couple of times, and fell silent. It wasn’t like the man was some kind of spiritual leader for the hunters, but he was a friend of several remaining ones. But even those who had neutral relationship with the him felt anger and disgust at the young man’s cruelty."I suggest no one tries anything stupid." Seren said, and his sword burst if flames for a split moment, burning off the blood.

"You shouldn’t have done that." Elred said, but seemed to be reluctant to attack.

"That’s for me to decide!" Seren snorted in return, "You know you can’t do anything to me!"

To Lee this didn’t make sense. Including him, there were twenty two people against five. One of them, the spatial elemental master, was basically out. The guys at Seren’s sides, from what he understood, were water and earth elemental masters – not the most potent opponents.

From the looks of it, there were people who shared Lee’s opinion, and took a couple of steps, positioning them at Elred’s side. Either they didn’t know who the guy or his backing was, or didn’t give a fuck about it in the middle of nowhere. If the five died here, no one would ever find out about it.

"Got it!" The wind elemental master finally dug out the spark, and victoriously presented it to Seren.

Lee’s pupils contracted upon seeing the bright object. It wasn’t red, or green, and not yellow either. It shone with white light, something no one from the group had ever witnessed before. Clearly the spark of the old god was something unique.

Before Lee could think of implications, a gust of wind passed the guy holding the spark, and his right hand, along with the spark, separated from the body and flew to the side. The only one who managed to react to the sudden sneak attack was Seren, probably purely on instinct, and also only because the following slash was aimed at his neck.

Everyone saw the attacker only when Seren blocked the two and a half feet long sword. It was one of the women of the hunter group, a lady of a short and thin build. She clearly was a wind elemental master capable of incredible bursts of speed. Her sneak attack disabled one of the five youths, and almost solved the problem named Seren.

His two goons reacted the moment Seren blocked the attack. A fist that flew into woman’s face missed, but the earth elemental master’s kick landed on her chest. She flew few yards, heavily landing on the rocks, and immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The kick was heavy enough to break few ribs and probably cause internal injuries, but before the youths could employ follow up attacks, Elred stood in front of her, ready to meet them.

No one said anything, but it was clear that the woman’s attack shifted the momentum from Seren’s group. It was obvious that the guys had bitten off more than they could chew. Their best defense was intimidation, but even though they were talented and strong, they were facing over twenty elemental masters.

The hunters were tired and injured, but in life and death struggle would still go all out and surely win in the end. Seren knew that, but banked on avoiding a larger skirmish. The problem was that his side had shown weakness, and now the best way of action was to retreat.

There was another problem. The youth that had his hand cut off, all of the sudden began to scream like a pig that was slaughtered. Blood sprayed from the stump that was left from his arm, and while the pain was probably excruciating, the guy was clearly in shock from the sight.

"Jordi, you’ll be fine. I’ll fix you." Said one of his mates, the one whose punch missed the woman earlier.

He rushed to his buddy, and instantly stopped the bleeding. The faint mist that formed around his hands indicated that he was a skillful water elemental master, and his words weren’t an empty promise.

"That bitch cut off my hand!" Jordy screamed, stating the obvious, "Senior Brother Seren ..."

Either he wanted to complain or ask Seren to kill the woman, but the words stuck in his throat when he saw another youth pick up his hand that still tightly held the spark. He had seen the teenager before and it was clear that the guy was complete waste of space. The problem was – he was holding Jordy’s separated hand in his.

Lee, of course, didn’t care for the hand. He was curious about the spark and when it landed next to his feet, his first impulse was to hide it in his spatial ring and run away.

Fortunately, he stopped himself before he did anything stupid. He didn’t need an extra spark – he needed to understand what the object shining with bright white light was, and how come it allowed the old god to use multiple elements.

"Give me that!" Lee’s thoughts were interrupted by Seren’s order. It wasn’t clear what the guy was asking for – the spark or the cut off hand, but judging from his expression he wasn’t going to accept no

for an answer.

Lee looked back at him, then at the hand holding the spark, then at the hunters. Then he slowly took out the spark from the hand, as if weighing options which one should he give up.

"Sure!" Lee said, and for a split moment Seren’s expression softened, but then everyone’s eyes widened in shock.

Jordi’s hand lit up in flames, within heartbeat transforming to a charred piece of meat. Lee didn’t have the strength and the control of the fire element to burn it to crisp, but even though it caused him internal pain, he took pleasure in the action.

Seeing he had achieved the necessary result, Lee threw the hand to Seren’s feet, and said, "I hope you have some salt. I was out of spices and it might taste somewhat plain."

"Nooooooo ..." Jordi screamed, realizing his extremity was beyond crippled, and couldn’t be recovered even if there was a god of healing present.

"You shouldn’t have done that!" Seren hissed, but Lee happily shrugged.

He said with a wide smile, "Why? It’s not like you guys are leaving this place anyway!"

His careless attitude allowed hunters to relax and realize that now they had only three opponents, one of which was water elemental master and another who possessed the earth affinity. The only really dangerous one was Seren, but against a group of twenty a mere elemental master couldn’t do much.

"I’LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU, BITCHES!" Seren roared, and lit up in flames. The effect was similar to Lee’s flame armor, except more intense. Everyone felt the temperature rising in the vicinity and instinctively took defensive postures preparing for the guy to go berserk.

Lee bit his lower lip in annoyance. He intended to force Seren to retreat with his earlier move, but unfortunately it had the opposite effect. Clearly the guy didn’t put anyone in his eye here, and judging from the intensity of the flames he radiated, his skills allowed him to think this way. Clearly he was not far from becoming an elemental lord and the seal on his chest indicated he actually could’ve been one in his previous life.

Urgghhh ...

Lee spew out a large mouthful of blood, and only then the piercing pain in his abdomen registered in his brain. He had felt it a couple of times before and knew it was the sensation of being stabbed, but it didn’t make any sense.

Seren hadn’t moved a muscle, and stood there, with a weird expression. And Lee felt the rest staring him in a similar way. His sight blurred and he dropped to his knees, and felt someone grabbing the old god’s spark from his hand.

"Senior Brother Seren! Here you go!" He heard Nevin’s voice, "Please don’t be angry! That idiot doesn’t know the difference between heaven and earth!"