Before everyone digested the shock of the preceding events, Ewan pulled his neck gaiter up, dimmed his presence, and browsed his family’s journal for ‘Mystic’—he couldn’t let the fox come with him without knowing how to prevent her illusions.
The fuzzy words weren’t a blur anymore, the book had crisp and clear letters, written neatly. The fog was a sign of a ‘suggestion’ type spell, he read. Time was of the essence, so he didn’t dig deep. The basics and the prevention, he focused on the two parts. Shock, pain, and intense emotions, they could shatter the fog, unless the caster was far more powerful than the target. The caster’s death could also solve the problem. And an expert in Mystic-Anima could clear the fog too.
The last two weren’t possible in his situation—one per choice, the other by inability. But the first three were feasible.
“You’re hurt!” Nana asked, rushing over, looking at the wounds on his forehead and his shoulder.
“I’m fine,” Ewan said. This was good news, she still cared for him, the fog hadn't consumed her all yet. “Lift your top.” And she pulled it up from the side, flinching when the clothes touched the wound. Ewan crouched and examined it—the gash was deep; the attack had split the muscle, and it still gushed blood.
Iris.
She came out of the vortex and jumped on his shoulders when he called. Ewan pressed the wound to stop the bleeding and let Iris heal it, eroding the lingering hostile Anima from the giant.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve waiting here after what you did,” the girl among the trio said, her nostrils flared and her eyes spewing fire, leaves stuck in her shoulder-length dusty hair.
“I apologize for that; it was a life and death moment. I had limited options, so I did whatever I could to survive,” Ewan said, focused on Nana’s wound, his arms drenched in her blood as it dripped to the ground from his elbows. And the blood pool shimmered under the moonlight.
“Sendy, let it go, we don’t need a fight,” one of the boys said, the one who cast the wood element spell before.
“I’m with Sendy on this one,” the other boy said in a nasal voice, wiping the snot off his face, leaving a streak of it on his cheek. “He almost got us killed!”
“We’re all Ashevas here, just trying to live through this mess. Let’s not fight among ourselves,” Ewan said. As he spoke, threads of mist swirled in his mind again. He frowned; the fox must’ve noticed something was amiss. But he could prevent it now, her threat level had dropped.
Pain was the easiest to induce, so he clawed his shoulder wound. The twinge shook him, he recoiled and hissed a sharp cold breath, gritting his teeth. The self-damage agonized him, but it also cleared the brewing mist, no sign left again.
“Ewan!” Nana yelped.
“It’s fine,” he whispered, smiling under the gaiter when looking up at her. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“You think it’s that easy? You say sorry and we’ll let it go?” Sendy said.
“What’d you want then?” Ewan stood up; Nana’s wound was better now. The hostile Anima had receded, Iris could do the rest easily. “If you want compensation, I won't give any. If you want a fight, though I don’t want to, I’ll gladly oblige.”
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“No, we don’t want a fight. You don’t have to compensate us either,” the boy holding the other two back said.
“Broden!!” the girl and the other boy yelled. “He used us as bait!” the boy said.
“This isn't the time.” Broden glared at the two. “Would you like to join us? We have a group, we’re looking for a way out,” he said, turning to Ewan and Nana.
“No thanks,” Ewan said. His overstrained spirit picked up some movements a moment later; three people, his ‘group’ must be here.
“Sendy! Canyn! Are you hurt?” One of the three newcomers, another boy but a bit older, asked. “Broden, what happened?”
Their group convened at a distance and whispered while Ewan considered leaving. He had no intention of joining them, so staying here any further made no sense. More important matters awaited him, like how to prevent the Yurnawa Astylinds from sensing the pest. They hated the World Eater too much; it was annoying and life threatening. His Ryvia might do the trick, but he had to test it out.
Nana grabbed his t-shirt and inched closer to him, trembling all over.
“Hmm?” Ewan turned to look at her.
“It’s her, May,” she said, staring at one of the two girls among the three newcomers.
Ewan frowned and glanced at the group. “You sure?” he asked, and Nana nodded.
A group of six, out in the forest, in a no man’s land, and they met May?
What a fucking coincidence…
Was it the Nine-Tailed? Could she also control possibilities? Ewan stared at the fox in her hands. There wasn’t any record of this, not even a slight mention or speculation either. And he hadn't used his ‘Luck Roulette’ too—this wasn’t because of the bad luck backlash. Yet, out of the innumerable people they could meet, they met her. Pure coincidence? He looked at where the space crack was before, he couldn’t rule out its involvement….
“What’d you wanna do?” he asked.
“Let’s leave,” she said, gripping harder.
“Okay.” Ewan brought Iris inside the rune, preparing to leave.
“Wait,” the older boy said, walking towards Ewan, his nostrils flaring. “It isn't very friendly to leave without saying anything. It definitely isn't friendly to use people as bait.”
“I wasn’t trying to be,” Ewan said. “Desperate times, desperate measures. I already apologized for that, don’t push the matter anymore, it’s for your own good.”
“The least you could do is show us your face while you talk,” May said.
Ewan sighed. He had no intention of continuing this façade. None of them could come close to his level, he could kill them within moments if he wished to. There was no point in indulging them anymore.
“Havanna?” the last girl who joined later with May asked. She looked familiar….
Verina…
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Status: Injured | Hypovolemia
Step-0 [4th Awakening]
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 1.5
Spirit: 7.8
Anima: [Fire – 7.8 | Ice – 3.6 | Blood – 7.8]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 0]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-0 [4th Awakening]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-0 [Level-4] [Grade-C]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-0 [Level-5] [Grade-B]
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Blood Lotus [Iris]: Step-0 [Level-4] [Grade-C]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Anima-Crystals; Obsidian Dagger; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 111
Crelith: 4984