Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

'What happened…' Zack's eyes suddenly flew open as he looked at the sky above. The sun had long since vanished and was replaced by the moon and stars.

Zack tried to remember what had happened. But his memory was hazy. He only remembered getting the jewel from the woman and his memory was blank after that.

[ Emma, are you awake? ]

Zack decided to see whether Emma was nearby or not. He slowly sat up to see that he was in a different place than he remembered.

After looking around, Zack saw that he was alone in the middle of dunes. The tribesmen were nowhere to be seen and Emma was gone too.

Standing up, the black-haired boy checked his inventory to see that the jewel was safely placed there.

[ Zack, I think I am buried under the sand. ] As soon as he received Emma's reply, Zack turned his gaze towards the dunes.

[ I will try to find you but there are like ten dunes here. Try digging yourself out. ]

[ Easier said than done. ]

Zack walked up to one of the dunes as he started putting the sand away. Due to the guild leader's special ability, he was able to tell that Emma was buried under that particular dune.

"That was not a fun experience…" Emma muttered as she shook the sand off her hair and body. It had taken a good ten minutes of digging to get her out of the storm and Emma hadn't been able to do much during the time.

"So, any idea where we are?" She asked before looking around.

"We are still in the desert but I have no idea how far we are from the border." Zack was about to open the map to check how far Trishapat city was but he was suddenly interrupted.

"We are fifty-five kilometers away from the border." A figure suddenly appeared behind the duo, making them jump a little. "So you are the two trusted people His Majesty sent."

Hearing the word His Majesty, the duo realized that the figure must be Ezio. They turned around to see a hooded figure staring back at them.

[ Be on guard. ]

[ What did you think I would do? Fangirl over a random hooded figure I met in the middle of the desert? ]

[ At least your spirit didn't get buried. ]

[ Bad joke. ]

"My name is Ezio and I am the duke of the western region." The figure spoke in a deep voice before he turned around and started walking. "Come, we have a lot of things to see through."

Zack and Emma exchanged a glance before they started following the hooded figure. Something about Ezio didn't feel right to the duo so they decided to maintain their distance.

'Daedalus, Icarus, closely follow us but don't make your presence known.' Zack said telepathically as having the two eagles close to them would be reassuring.

However, Ezio was an individual who could beat the two eagles. Hark as well as Alek Griffin were strong individuals too so beating the eagles wasn't too much of a task for them.

After ten minutes of walking behind Ezio, Zack and Emma were still on guard. They were about to relax down if nothing out of the ordinary happened in the next few minutes.

Suddenly, a shriek resounded around the desert followed by a murder of desert crows flying away.

The murder of crows immediately triggered something inside Zack's mind as he remembered certain words he had heard.

"When the birds fly away, run behind them." He mumbled and saw Ezio stop in his path.

In the instance that happened, Zack called upon the two eagles and took out Chastiefol and Eirias.

[ The person has been identified to be from the light side… ]

[ A reevaluation is being conducted. ]

Emma too summoned Khryselakatos and aimed the bow towards Ezio. The hooded man turned back and stared at the duo.

In the night sky, his eyes suddenly started glowing golden.

[ The person has been identified to be from the dark side. ]

[ Eirias's special property is activated. ]

The sword started burning with blue flames while Chastiefol revolved around Zack in a circle.

Ezio started chuckling at the duo before he suddenly threw red chains at them. But before the chains could reach them and do anything, two eagles dived down from the sky.

Daedalus aimed at Ezio's neck while Icarus went towards his head. However, the duke was no pushover and called the chains back to attack the eagles.

Fortunately, the two eagles had already flown away but Daedalus had left a few of his feathers down. He used them to pierce the duke's backside and cause him some damage.

Ezio had no time to react as he was barraged by the incoming feathers. The duke jumped in the air while only getting hit by a few feathers.

However, his face was revealed to the duo.

Both Zack and Emma were stunned by the scene in front of their eyes as two long black lines were running across one side of Ezio's face.

Eirias's flames started glowing even more brightly when the marks were revealed.

""Ah!"" Zack and Emma simultaneously felt a slight pain in their left eye as they looked at the black lines.

It seemed to awaken something deep inside the duo as a notification appeared in front of them.

[ The sword Eirias is reacting violently. Duel Ex Machina initiated. ]

[ The bow Khryselakatos is reacting violently. Duel Ex Machina initiated. ]

Zack was suddenly pulled forward by his weapon as the blue flames around the sword thickened.

Emma's bow on the other hand started glowing brightly before an arrow appeared in the bow. Emma's hand moved against her will as she shot the arrow towards Ezio.

Simultaneously, Zack slashed forward which released a huge blue flame slash to travel forward. The duo then felt their weapons returning to normal and immediately jumped on top of Daedalus and Icarus.

Ezio's eyes widened when he saw the arrow and flames traveling his way. He immediately lifted his fingers to the black lines on the side of his face and activated his powers.

A horrible aura surrounded his body as he jumped forward and took out a dagger from his clothes. He quickly cut a slash across his palm before drenching the dagger in his blood and moving towards the two attacks.

Ezio slashed forward with all his might as the dagger seemed to extend in a long sword. The blood dripped over the edge of the blade.

The newly transformed long sword clashed with the oncoming arrow before throwing it away and facing the blue flame slash head-on.

A huge explosion took place as the collision between the two attacks gave rise to smoke.

Zack and Emma saw this from afar yet they could tell that the duke managed to survive the attack.

However, when the smoke cleared away, they saw that the golden arrow Emma had shot was stuck in the back of the duke's neck and was making blood flow out at a rapid pace.

[ What was that attack? ]

Zack asked as he saw Ezio's eyes rolling in the back of his head and his body falling down on the ground.

A pool of blood surrounded his body and soon enough, his body went limp. It was clear that he was dead but to make sure that nothing happened, Zack threw his blue flames over the duke's body.

Ezio's clothes started burning before his entire body caught fire.

< 100000 exp received >

Zack's eyes almost fell out of their sockets when he saw the exp number in front of him. He turned to look at Emma who had gotten a similar notification. It looked as though killing a duke had given them an sht ton of exp.

Zack and Emma had both jumped 10 levels at once. The former was sitting at level 41 while the latter was at level 40.

Both had gotten 50 stat points to put in their stats. Emma spent her between agility and vitality while Zack put ten of the points in each of his stat.

At the same time, a commotion had started on the forums as Zack suddenly shot up to the third spot on the leaderboard while Emma appeared at the fifth spot.

All the players were baffled by this sudden development as they wondered whether the duo had cheated in some way.

Soon, the trending topic was of Zack and Emma's sudden climb up the leaderboard.

The duo didn't know whether this feature had been there since the beginning or not. What they did know was that they were back to their former glory.