Chapter 18 - Market

After making up with Asta, Grim and the rest of the Black Bulls were given a gracious send off by the villagers and eventually left the area of Sosshi village on their brooms. Unfortunately not all was well, before they had arrived and stopped Heath and his men from slaughtering everyone, the mayor of Sosshi village took a stand against the invaders and sadly lost his life in the process. So while Asta, Noelle and Grim were happy over the fact that they had completed their first mission, the villagers were still in a state of mourning.

---

-Black Bulls HQ-

"Hahahaha, congrats on completing your mission." Yami congradulated them once the four of them had settled down. "You guys somehow managed to turn returning a favor into a magic knight sanctioned mission! You guys are seriously hilarious! Look, we even got a star from the Wizard King." Pulling out a small white star, Yami showed it off to the quartet.

"Wait seriously!" Magna exclaimed after seeing it.

"Woah! Its a star..." Asta's eyes widened.

While the two of them were ogling the star, Grim asked the real question.

"What's so important about getting a star from the Wizard King?"

"The stars represent our ranking amongst the magic knight squads. The squad with the most stars is publically recognized as the best." Vanessa commented as she casually walked past them. "The current squad that is recognized as the best is the Golden Dawn with 70 stars."

"Yep!" Yami smiled and put the star on a wall filled with ominous black stars. "Now we have negative 30 stars. Good job runts, here's your pay."

"Pay?" Grim looked up questionably.

"Yeah." He grinned and through over a small bag of cash.

"What a small amount." Noelle mummbled.

Catching it, Grim and the others were thoroughly confused. "I thought you said that we weren't gonna get paid."

"Hmm." He hummed. "After getting your report, the Wizard King deemed your actions as offical magic knight business."

"Oh."

'Well I won't say no to earning money.'

Pocketing the cash, Grim was about to bid his farewells to his group and go look for Luck.

"Hey Grim!" Vanessa called out before he left.

"Yeah?" He turned around.

"Since you guys have just gotten your first pay check, as your senpai I thought it'd be appropriate for me to take you around Castle town."

"Castle town? No thanks."

"Ah c'mon." She slid over to him. "Don't you want to spend some time with your Onee-san?" She said in a flirtatious manner.

"Not especially." He rejected and removed her hand off his shoulder.

"Hmm." She frowned before smiling again. "If you come with us, the first round of drinks will be on me." She whispered into his ear.

'Is this drunkard really trying to bribe me with booze?'

"C'mon Grim!" Asta ran over. "Even Noelle's going."

"I am?"

"I'd rather spar with Luck." Grim commented ignoring Noelle.

Hearing this, Asta started thinking of ways to convince him to join them.

'I got it!'

"If you come with us, I'll spend all day sparring with you."

"Seriously?" Grim raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah!"

While sparring against Luck was fun and all, but fighting against someone who could negate his magic and force him to adapt to an unfavourable situation was more appealing in Grim's mind. Therefore he agreed to Asta's bribe without any hesitation.

"Deal!"

---

"Urgh its the Black Bulls."

"Dammit! Why are they here?"

"Not these guys again!"

Arriving at Castle Town's marketplace, Grim's group was quickly recognized as members of the Black Bulls by their magic knight robes.

'We really aren't popular...'

Ignoring the stares of the surrounding public, Grim's attention was drawn to Noelle's figure. While he couldn't say that he had the best impression of her, his previous hypothesis on how he unlocked more breath styles came to mind after seeing what she did during the Sosshi Village rescue mission. If he was right about needing to be hit by different elements in order to unlock more styles, then it would be logical that getting hit by some moderately powerful water spells could potentially help him unlock a water breath style if one existed. There was only two issues with train of thought. First of all, the amount of damage he took from Theresa and Luck were different and the time needed for the style to awaken also differed greatly. He guessed that the damage he took coralated with the time needed for the style to awaken. This was problematic because Noelle's magic control was not exactly the greatest and she could possibly end up killing him by accident.

The second issue was Noelle herself. Just the thought of him needing to ask her for help made his skin crawl. He didn't know if it was due to his pride or something else, but he knew that asking her was definitley out of question.

'I really wish I knew some water mages...'

"Hey look! Its that sėxy alcoholic from the Black Bulls!" Someone pointed at Vanessa.

"Oh my God! That silver haired girl is so cute!!"

"Where exactly are you taking us Vanessa?" Grim spoke up.

"Hihihi, to the black market of course."

---

Not finding interest in any of the wares inside the black market shop, Grim chose to stay outside and pass the time.

'Would ice magic work as well? Do I even have an ice style? Would it count as a water style? What about the other elements? I already have fire, it'd make sense if there was a water, wind and earth style...'

While Grim was lost in his thoughts, he was suddenly interrupted by a sudden yell.

"THIEF!!"

"Huh?"

*SWOOSH!!*

Brushing past him at an incredible speed was a hooded guy dressed in all black.

'What the hell?'

"MOVE!!" Asta's voice suddenly sounded out from behind before jumping over him and chasing the hooded guy.

'.....Well this seems more interesting than just standing here.'

Pushing his previous thoughts aside, Grim activated Breath of the Beast in order to catch up with Asta.

*FWOOSH!!*

"GIVE BACK GRANNY'S MONEY!!" Asta shouted and pulled out his grimoire.

'Oh, there was a robbery...'

Pushing forward, Grim finally managed to catch up to Asta while he was pulling out his greatsword from his grimoire.

'That gives me an idea.'

"Asta!" He suddenly yelled and switched to Breath of Flames.

"Eh?" Surprised by Grim suddenly yelling out his name, Asta turned back to look at him.

Seeing Asta slow down, Grim smiled and raised his sword above his head.

[9th form- Rengoku]

Slashing down, a powerful beam of concentrated flames shot towards Asta.

Understanding what he was planning, Asta held the flat part of his sword in front of him and let the beam of fire hit it.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING!!" Noelle screamed after seeing Grim attack Asta.

Ignoring her, both Asta and Grim's eyes met moments before the beam slammed into the sword.

*BOOM!!*

*FWOOSH!!*

Brunting the full force of the blast, Asta was blown off his feet from the impact of the attack and was sent flying towards the escaping thief at a scary speed. If it wasn't for the weight of his giant sword, Grim couldn't imagine the speed he would currently be flying at.

"Huh?" Hearing the explosion, the thief who was now riding on his broomstick turned to look at the airborne Asta.

Using the momentum of the explosion, Asta gripped the hilt of his sword and somehow managed to twist in the air before hurling his sword towards thief like it was a spear.

"SWOOSH!!*

"SHIT!!"

*BANG!!*

Faster than he could react, the sword cut through the air at an astonishing speed before striking the ground in front of him causing several small rocks to be sent flying towards him.

"Erghhh!!" Covering his face to avoiding getting hit by the rocks, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

[Breath of Thunder- 3rd form: Thunder Swarm]

Covered in his yellow aura, yellow coloured lightning crackled along Grim's figure as he appeared behind the thief.

"Oh shi- ARGGHHHHH!!!"

Before he could finish his sentence, Grim released a spinning wave of electricity that caused the man to scream his lungs out before collapsing.

---

"Here you go granny." Asta smiled while returning the purse.

"Oh thank you young man. Here's a little something for your effort." She slipped a single coin into his hand.

"Woah, thanks granny, try not to get robbed in the future."

"Lets go Asta, you promised a fight." Grim interrupted feeling uneasy about the old woman in front of them.

"Hehe, bye granny!" He waved as they left the old woman behind.

"Hmm, what a nice young man." The old woman smiled as magic particles started radiating off her.

"The power to nullify magic and use multiple different magic elements... What interesting boys." Once the magic particles vanished, they revealed the figure of Julius Novachrono... the Wizard King.