Chapter 32: Blue flames
On a deserted mountain road just outside the new republic, a figure appeared walking silently on the recently deserted road, it was a blue-haired young man with a dragon-shaped tattoo winding around his left arm, wearing a black shirt and trousers he seemed to blend into the night only his light blue hair and the flame of the cigarette hanging on his lips stood out betraying the darkness.
He walked expressionlessly wandering around the area seemingly searching for something his metal boots trampled on the ruins of the recently deserted road, after reaching a certain point the road seemed to fork out and the surroundings started to fade, the blue-haired young man noticed the anomaly but ignored it and kept on his way, soon before he knew it a grey fog filled the whole area surrounding him, as soon as the fog appeared the young man threw away the cigar and with a loud stomp blue flames burst out around filling the whole area the fog and the weird environment being baptized by flames, a shriek of pain resounded and soon the surrounding turned back to normal, the young man found himself back on the deserted road and a transparent lizard monster which was now covered in blue flame was withering in agony in front of him before being completely burnt away turning to ashes.
Taking out a short black cylinder from his trousers he ignited it and sent the flare to the sky a few minutes later a huge rumbling sound came out from the darkness.
it was an armoured steam vehicle that looked like a metal monster, its weight crushed all obstacles as it moved swiftly towards his position.
The menacing vehicle drifted and stopped in front of the blue-haired young man, stepping out of it was a petite short brown-haired woman dressed in a fitting military uniform, she saluted the man standing in front of her and stepped forward picking the ash on the ground putting it into a special container covered with weird lines.
Turning around she found that Zahir had already entered into the vehicle with his eyes closed apparently waiting for her to finish what she was doing and drive him back to the city.
She kept the container in her military bag and hopped back into the metal monster, metal monster was the name of the brand steam vehicles made for the military in their spirit hunting operations, it was fast, doped with spirit ash that could hurt spirit creatures if they were hit by the moving vehicle.
The brand was very expensive it was only because she was an adjutant to Zahir that she was able to apply for the metal monster.
She pulled a lever and with a bang, the engine roared and she sped off in the darkness.
"Zahir, Zahir," the petite girl nudged Zahir with her free hand waking him up from his nap.
Seeing him awake she continued,
" We are close to the city the institute needs your feedback on the paraceum flower cigars."
Paraceum flowers were the new species of flowers discovered about a month after the spirit and material world started reconnecting, they grew in the area with more spirit creatures and energy and were a sort of miracle cure for most unsolvable injuries afflicted by special creatures.
"oh, that, yea they work, the smoke nullified the illusions of the special grade spirit creature," Zahir replied with obvious tiredness in his voice, he had been up all day dealing with several spirit creatures that lurked around.
Spirit creatures nowadays are divided into 2 types, normal grade spirit creatures were those with only instinct and does not possess any special powers apart from being able to become tangible and intangible at will, these type of spirit creatures are easy to handle and can be eliminated by your average bender or martial practitioner armed with a weapon dotted with spirit ash, the other was special grade spirit creatures, these creatures had special almost unsolvable characteristics and did not totally act in accordance with their instincts, instead they already had a semblance of wisdom, every occurrence of special grade spirit creatures caused countless casualties only by either overwhelming force of a grandmaster level bender/martial practitioner or after figuring out the characteristics of the spirit creature and figuring out a way of restraining it, could they be totally killed and even then it was not certain the creatures would be defeated.
The transparent lizard was a special grade spirit creature that was located a few miles away from the city, it was totally invisible and could create an invisible fog that tampered with one's sense of space, anyone entering the fog would become invisible to the outside world and be trapped there until he was eaten by the lizard.
Although the creature was a notoriously difficult one to kill Zahir was able to easily kill the creature based on the paraceum flowers cigarettes that exempted him from the illusion and his blue flames were special they easily burnt through and destroyed spirit creatures, so when he was trapped in the fog that could be regarded as the spirit creatures body a little spark was all that was needed to set it alight.
Although if the paraceum flowers were absent Zahir as a master bender with his special flames could kill the creature but it would make him expend a lot of energy.
Zahir who was already awoke looked out the window as the metal monster drove into the city, the new republic was still one of the safest places in the world even though the high concentration of spirit energy in the republic was twice that of others and attracted more spirit creatures, but with the high concentration of master and grandmaster level figures any spirit creature who was not well hidden and showed up would be dealt with swiftly and accurately, also the new republic had the institute an organization with very high research capabilities in the creation and discovery of weapons and items that restrained the menacing creatures.
"Tiv where are we going," Zahir sat up and asked his adjutant when he noticed she was not taking the road towards the barracks.
"your aunt may said wants to see you that if you didn't she would enter the camp and drag you out herself, and general Raiden had no choice but to give you a vacation," Tiv said with an embarrassed and apologetic smile, she knew Zahir did not like going home.
Zahir's eye twitched upon hearing this, he was sure if he did not go back today she would track him down and force him home, it wasn't the first time she had said something similar and she always fulfilled her promises, with a resigned sigh he kept quiet and rested back in the seat.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone