Reincarnated In A World Of Mana As A Mechanic
Chapter 27: Reinforcement

Chapter 27: Reinforcement

Ezekiel calmed his thunderously beating heart as he glanced behind him to gaze at the man who had unknowingly crept up from his back.

He wore a butler’s suit, a monocle situated before his left brown colored eyes. One could tell from the grey hair attempting to place its mark on his black hair that, despite his high rank, he had aged quite a bit.

Yet anyone who assumed that his old age would lead to some weakness in his battle style would be painfully aware of their error in judgment. The butler sported such an intense and unique fighting intent that it sent chills up Ezekiel’s spine.

With a wave of the man’s hand, Ezekiel felt a strange force acting onto Anna who hung on his shoulder, as though an invincible force in the air grasped her and placed her at the butler’s side.

The mechanic didn’t feel anything towards his action, merely surprised that the latter had such a robust understanding of the wind element that he had no need to chant spells, directly using his will to displace and shape the wind around him.

(You shouldn’t be surprised, Ez.) Laura’s voice rang out in a timely manner after feeling Ezekiel’s surprise, offering a piece of explanation. (In your dad’s library, I found out that at a certain level one’s understanding of an element can indeed allow them to control it at will. But it’s a lot weaker than actually communing with nature through a spell’s chant, so it’s only used to deal with lower leveled opponents. It’s pretty much useless in an actual same-rank battle unless one’s understanding is absolutely outstanding.)

A look of understanding flashed on Ezekiel’s face, giving him a feeling that such an explanation did indeed make sense.

Meanwhile, helping Anna off Ezekiel’s shoulder and granting her a halo that allowed her to float in the air, the butler smiled warmly and spoke. "Young miss, such a position is not befitting of you."

Anna’s expression still showed a hint of fear as she replied to her butler. "I didn’t have much of a choice, Watson. Thank you for coming so quickly, else I don’t think you would be able to meet up with us on time."

Butler Watson nodded with the same smile still evident on his face, his body turning to Ezekiel before he bowed down in gratitude. "I have to thank you for protecting our young miss. If not for that blatant smoke signal you released and the sound of Hanses’ rampage, I don’t think I could have found this location on time."

Watson’s words made those listening to him have a change of expression into one of surprise as they looked at Ezekiel, not expecting him to have planned everything from the start.

The mechanic shrugged under Watson’s scrutinizing daze and spoke modestly. "It was mostly luck."

Indeed it was, after all Watson would have taken time to locate them if Hanses had decided to avoid bombing through the canyon walls, it was the noise that had attracted Watson while he was rushing over after seeing the smoke Ezekiel had deliberately left behind.

But luck was only a part of it. After all, it was Ezekiel’s on-the-fly idea to anger the mercenary, leading him to possess a delayed response. All the silent taunting was all so the man would follow through with Ezekiel’s hidden plans to cause as much noise as possible and help their arriving reinforcement locate them faster.

Of course, this was only under the premise that there had been reinforcements in the first place. But from his observations of Anna, her family had to be quite powerful. Unlike Ezekiel’s parents who had gotten their nobility just so they could hide in plain sight, Anna’s family had actual experts who were there to ensure that all was well within the family.

Anyways, Hanses’ hazardous methods of controlling his flames had allowed them to escape death multiple times amidst the chase so his taunts were well worth it as they had managed to throw him off guard.

The mercenary stared at the four, who had now been safe due to Watson’s actions, before him before finally moving his sights to the grey haired man before him, his chest rising and falling as hot steam left his lips. "Wind Demon Mage, Mr. Watson. You’ll be interfering?"

As he asked this, a column of fire burst out from beneath his feet, blazing about his figure yet unable to burn even the lint on his uniform, a testament to his precise control of fire. The temperature around him increased once more, causing all those who looked at the scarlet pillar to feel a certain heat well up within their body, as if their organs had begun to stew.

"Hmph." But suddenly, with the snort leaving Watson, a gentle breeze caressed Ezekiel’s body, reducing the temperature around him to its normal range before moving to suppress the scarlet pillar in which Hanses raged within. "You younglings care too much about fame, you would kill bystanders just to save your reputation. Unfortunately for you, I will be participating."

Hanses and the butler stared at each other for a few seconds before the former suddenly emanated a terrifying aura, drawing in fire based mana and circulating them around his figure.

Ezekiel’s expression immediately changed as he sensed this, recognizing the Innate skill trained by both Yuri and Vahn—Silent casting!

It allowed Mages to cast silently, allowing the spells they prepared to remain unknown as multiple individuals could more or less guess the type of spell being cast and prepare counters for them. The skill wasn’t easily learnt, the mechanic’s parents had told him this, so seeing the skill being used by a mercenary caused a twitch to appear on Ezekiel’s expression.

Luckily for the four of them, Watson was diligent enough to have wrapped them in an air bubble before moving them about 500 meters away from the battlefield and placing them on solid ground.

Upon feeling the ground beneath his feet, Ezekiel couldn’t help but cast a curious glance at Anna, wondering who would pay to hire such a powerful mercenary. And why. Surely even if she was the daughter of an Earl, she wasn’t that impressive. Her father was merely an Earl, though important, he was definitely not as important as a Duke or a King.

Which meant there was definitely something special within that cave. And it was special enough to garner the attention of an Earl and the mystery man behind Hanses’ hiring. Unfortunately for him, the ore mine was past the border of the Pytra Forest which belonged to his city, else he would have claimed it as his family’s possession.

A bit of helplessness appeared on his expression as he stared up at the two individuals who stood suspended in the air while they silently began casting their spells. If he had the choice, he would have taken his friends and vacated the premises immediately, but it seemed Watson’s air bubble remained wrapped around them, a precaution he had taken so as to prevent them from being harmed by the aftershock of his approaching battle.

Still, he could only absolve himself to his situation. He believed that if the butler was okay with his Young miss still at the battle site, it meant he was 100% confident in defeating his opponent.

So Ezekiel directly sat cross-legged on the grass, choosing to use the moment to attempt to fix his severely damaged Battlesuit which had been smoking for a while. He even signaled to Yuri and Vahn to do the same, as while their suits weren’t as battered as his, they could still use some quick remodeling.

Anna watched in surprise as their ’armor’ came apart like a jigsaw puzzle, making multiple whirring sounds, malfunctioning a few times but managing to open up the cavities within them, allowing the three to come out, deeply inhaling the fresh air around them.

"It was really hot in there, Ez." Vahn wiped the sweat that had drenched his forehead with his sleeve as he lightly complained to his friend while chuckling. "What a close one."

Yuri shook her head in disapproval. "We’re not out of trouble yet, don’t act as if we are, you idiot."

Vahn stared wide eyed at his sister. "Wow, even such a death chase can’t reduce your nagging. I salute you, sister."

Anna could only stare awkwardly at their mild argument, too out of place to say a word to them.

Ezekiel merely smiled as he listened to their bickering while pulling up his system as he tried as best he could to fix their equipment.

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Ultimate Mechanic System

Name: Ezekiel Flynn

Age: 16

Class: Common Mechanic

Level: 14

EXP: 121/1200

Health: 100%

Psionic Energy: 100%

Strength: 51

Constitution: 56

Intelligence: 63

Agility: 55

Perception: 59

Attribute points: 6

Talent:

Overload (Active) – Level 8:

Grants Host the ability to increase the efficiency and power of his equipped mechanical gear by 13%. Lasts 3 minutes and can only be used once a day.

Quick Equip (Passive) – Level 7

Whenever the Host dons a suit or armor, the speed of equipping and powering up of the suit increases by 70%.

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