Rebirth of the Phoenix God

With no other option right now, once Fen decided at going all in, he didn't dare to let any hesitation linger in his mind. Right now, he was about to suffocate on this strange liquid that refused to free his airways, even with all the excessive coughing. In fact, every time Fen attempted to clear his throat, he would only end up depriving himself of even more air!

That's why going all-in was the only option right now.

Releasing all the limiters that the young man set to his own power could only lead to a single outcome.

In a flash, a fireball as huge as several houses stacked together covered Fen's entire body, evaporating all the liquid that wasn't safely hidden within the young man's veins!

Wheeze…

Fully surrounded by the sweet flames of his, Fen finally took a life-saving breath, feeling how his heart was picking up its normal pace once again. With his fires blocking both his vision of what was happening outside and the line of sight of anyone that would be stupid enough to attack him, the young man could say that he finally had a moment to rest and analyze the situation.

'Just what the heck hit me?'

While it wasn't totally impossible for the girl that Fen almost managed to kill to be the one behind that strange attack, it wasn't really logical. If she had the power to nearly kill him like that, then why did she bother with using her arcana to manipulate those swords around? Why didn't she just drown everyone by filling their throats with water?

Shaking his head, Fen quickly dropped all the spare thoughts. Even if he could rest a moment within his ball of raging fire, the same couldn't be said about the rest of his group. While it would be lovely if the young man could simply count on the other mercenaries and arcanists to defend against the attack, given how he had to make the charge against the enemy himself right now, it would be stupid to believe that those people were capable of defending Arla!

"I guess it's time to go back to the meat grinder…"

Muttering to himself, Fen finally started to focus on properly controlling his force. Allowing it to rage furiously without any real target to it outside of blocking anyone's approach could work only in a short term. Sooner or later, those capable enemies that were attacking them would find a way to circumvent Fen's defences, or just act like any normal hunter would and pick on the weaker part of their group!

And that was exactly what Fen was worried about.

'Rein it in, rein it in…'

Sadly, controlling such a massive fire that his own force created wasn't something that Fen could do with just a snap. While the young man was pushing himself to the limits, the rate at which he was capable to absorb his fires back into his blood was just too slow!

"Fuck… I need to do something…"

This wasn't the moment for hesitating or trying any half-measures. If the source of the power that almost killed him were to reach the rest of the group, then not only Fen wouldn't have any chances of saving Arla, but even escaping this place alive could prove troublesome without the help and cover from the other mercenaries!

"Fuck, fuck, fuck…"

Fen's mind focused entirely on trying to figure out a way to effectively rejoin the fight was unable to produce any cohesive sentences, even if they were all muttered only under Fen's nose for his own comfort. 

"No, stop."

Reprimanding himself, Fen realised that what he was doing right now was the complete opposite of what he was taught back at the Akhaz arcanist academy. While letting his emotions run amok and fuel his actions could feel liberating, it wasn't the proper way of joining the damned fights!

Shaking his head once again, Fen quickly recollected his thoughts before throwing them all out of his mind. There was no point in worrying over what could be happening right now to the rest of the mercenaries. There was no point worrying over what the enemy would do the defenceless Arla without his intervention. After all, worrying over it would only slow Fen's attempt at wrestling back the control over his own power!

"CONDENSE!"

Feeling that pulling the fires back that he withheld for so long in order to conceal his identity would be between impossible and improbable in any reasonable time, Fen decided to go with another route. Instead of trying to swallow all the flames back, he now put all his mental power to condense them down!

A glint of metal.

Dodge to the side.

Just as Fen noticed how this new approach seemed to work, the decreased thickness of his fire-barrier allowed the enemy on the other side to figure out his exact position. Feeling the cold sensation of the metal brushing right against his skin, Fen's cheek quickly exploded once his blood came into the contact with the everpresent flames!

"CONDENSE!"

Ignoring the sharp pain that started to muddle his mind a bit, Fen shouted once again as if his voice could help his mental actions. With the sword that dared to cut his skin already melting into several pieces under the influence of Fen's fires, it seemed that, just as expected, the condensation of Fen's fires was going correctly!

"Now."

Using the pain of his cheek-wound to sober himself up, Fen finally regained his full clarity. With the fires condensing to the point where his vision was no longer obstructed while his skin started to ache from the overintense heat, the young man was finally ready.

While being a phoenixian arcanist, the standard rules of forming the core didn't seem to apply to him, yet that didn't mean that he couldn't use the knowledge that Draconis arcanists came up with to his own advantage!

'Vanish.'

Instead of swallowing his flames like the young man attempted to do before, Fen condensed them to the point where they, despite how it was starting to hurt his skin, could be used as a makeshift shield! 

"Now, let's see what's going…"

Confident in his ability to fight with whatever he would face now, Fen was about to finally join the fray when he finally managed to push the fires away from his eyes, stopping his own creation from obstructing his view. But what he saw instantly shut his attempts to cockily speak up down.

"Now, now, let's just sit down and calmly talk."

Sitting right on the edge of the carriage, a masked man was playing with a knife with his left hand, while holding another blade against Arla's throat with his leading hand. While the middle of Fen's group defensive position had all the signs of carnage happening there, for some reason all the people that Fen remembered to be alive before he turned desperate were still amongst the living!

At least, for now, as no one could tell when the various beasts that held them hostage would decide to end their lives!

"What the fuck do you want to talk about?"

This was one of the worst possible situations. Not only was Fen completely alone, but the enemy also outnumbered him by far, the young man still had no clue about the nature of the abilities that the attackers used, and to top it all off, his entire group was taken hostage!

But after analyzing the situation for a moment, it didn't seem as bad it when the reality first slapped Fen in his face.

After all, if the enemy wanted to kill them all, they would've done so already. Unless…

"I will give you one chance to answer my question. If I will like the answer, I might consider letting your toys go. Disappoint me, and they will die all at once."

Instead of relying on its trained monsters to do the speaking, something that after Fen's encounters back at the Akhaz forest the young man knew that was possible, the leader of the entire attack spoke himself, while looking at Fen with a strange look on his face.

"What the heck do you mean by my power? Is it that strange to be an arcanist nowadays? Can you cut the crap and get to the real point that you are hinting at?"

Every single word counted for a thousand right now, yet Fen didn't dare to act carefully. Even though the enemy in front of him was a human rather than a mindless monster, some schemes could be applied with even greater effectiveness against people rather than wild beasts!

And acting as if he was heated by the situation and unable to control his own words, was one of the ways to make it easier for others to believe in his words!

"I see. So, let me make it easier for you. Are you a draconist?"

Bringing the blade of the knife just a bit up, the leader of the oppressive enemy caused a small trail of blood to appear on Arla's throat, slowly trickling down her collarbone.

"If that were to be the case, then for what fucking reason I would risk my life and everything by taking this route in order to leave this rotten place?"

Given how that man was most likely responsible for the attack that almost choked Fen to the death a moment ago, Fen didn't dare to keep acting like someone who he was not. Given how all it would take for that man to put Fen in a situation where ever his unique bloodline wouldn't suffice to save his ass would be to order his trained beasts to put an end to his company, Fen was unwilling to take the risk of lying and upsetting the man.

"I see…"

The short moment when the man clearly sank deeper into his thoughts was one of the longest moments in Fen's life. His entire being along with the safety of both the girl that he promised to protect along with the mercenaries that he could already consider his compadres was on the stakes now!

"I guess that settles it. You can take the hidden path now, but remember - unless the high council decides otherwise, this will be the only time you will ever travel it."

Suddenly breaking the silence with a statement that seemed to come straight from his asshole, the man lifted his knife from Arla's throat before turning his head to the rest of the hostages.

"The part about travelling through this path only once applies to you as well. This time, you are forgiven for helping a Phoenixian arcanist escape the clutches of that inquisition devils. Next time, unless you bring twice as much Phoenixians, you will be killed on the spot."

With his eyes momentarily glued to the caravan's master, this insane man swung his hand in the air…

Only for the three people that Fen saw dying with his own eyes, to actually snap their fingers, shedding the illusion that made them appear headless!

"Men, we are moving out. And you…"

Not even bothering to point fingers, the man looked at Fen with a strange smile. But even before he could react, Arla actually stood up with a strange look at her face, facing the man directly!

"You see…"

Pulling her hand up, she invoked an incredibly small fire on top of her fingers!

Unless she was using some kind of great trick, that could only mean that she was actually an arcanist herself! And there was only one reason why she would hide this fact from literally everyone, Fen included!

"So you are a Phoenixian as well… While your bloodline is nowhere near being as strong as yours…"

Shaking his head and sending a quick glance to Fen, the leader of the attackers quickly hinted who he meant by that.

"... it doesn't really matter. Anyway, you two will come with us. The folks at the academy will be overjoyed to know that two more descendants of this dying bloodline somehow managed to survive!"