Chapter 98 - The Fire Mage (Part 2)

I sped up even more. It wasn't ideal, but it was fast enough. The problem was that this speed consumed mana at an absurd rate, but in that situation, it didn’t matter.

“Damn mages!” he shouted, glancing back and seeing me closing in.

I was just about to catch him when an excruciating pain, like a hot knife being driven into my eyes, hit me.

No! This can’t be happening!

My vision blurred, and my entire body was overtaken by the agony of my mana channels being forged. Before I knew it, I collided with something.

‘Bam!’

I slammed into the soldier at high speed, and we were both sent tumbling down the hill. We rolled and crashed into rocks and branches, but the pain in my eyes was so intense that these injuries felt insignificant in comparison.

I felt a hot liquid coursing through my head, spreading across my brain, and then another impact came. I hit a tree and kept rolling.

‘Splash!’ I ended up in the water.

Fuck! I screamed in my thoughts, struggling to swim back to the surface.

The current was strong, and I saw the soldier struggling to stay afloat. We were being swept away at high speed, crashing into rocks along the way.

You’ve got to be kidding me!

We kept going down the river, which seemed more like a raging torrent, and I desperately tried to swim. The soldier was in deep trouble because of the weight of his armor.

We plunged over several waterfalls, getting pummeled by the force of the current, while the pain in my head made it impossible to think straight. My vision alternated between total darkness and brief moments of clarity. I was going blind.

Damn it! I screamed in my thoughts as the water continued to drag me.

I saw the soldier being carried away by the current, trying to swim. I used my wind element to propel myself towards him, my vision flickering between darkness and brief moments of clarity.

I managed to grab him and punched him in the face.

The man tried to hold on to me, but before we could continue the fight, I saw a huge rock in our path, and we were about to crash into it. He tried to use me as a shield against the rock, but I generated a wind kick that blasted me away from him.

“Shit!” I cursed, now completely blind as the water carried me away. I was swept along by the current, trying to focus my hearing on the soldier. I couldn’t let him escape.

My vision returned, still blurry, but enough to see the soldier desperately trying to reach the shore. I charged a wind bomb in my foot and blasted myself into the air. While airborne, I created another wind explosion that propelled me directly at him just as he reached the shore. I tackled him, and we started rolling again, locked in a desperate struggle.

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He got up and ran away.

“Damn it!” the soldier cursed, his voice full of desperation.

I quickly got to my feet, drawing my sword, but there was a problem. The soldier was doubled in my vision, and the world around me twisted into spirals.

This can’t be happening!

“You little shit! You hurt me, you damn brat!” the soldier yelled, charging at me.

I tried to dodge backward, but it was just an attempt. My sense of distance was completely distorted. The soldier sometimes seemed close, but somehow the distance between us kept stretching as if the world itself was elongating. My vision kept shifting, and I knew it would be useless to try trading blows in that state. To make matters worse, my hearing was also compromised, making it impossible to rely on sound alone.

“I’m going to kill you, you damned little mage!” the soldier screamed, closing in.

Fuck it!

I pointed my hand forward and generated a strong gust of wind, but nothing happened to the soldier.

“What are you trying to do?” he asked, and I realized my vision was in 360 degrees. I was pointing in the completely wrong direction.

Shit... Now what? Maybe I should just generate lightning in every direction and fry this guy.

I tried to turn my body, but I kept seeing the soldier in the same spot, as if the world was spinning along with me.

“Are you crazy?” he said, advancing with his sword.

He’s seeing his enemy spinning in front of him...

I raised my sword, letting sparks crackle along its blade.

“Thunder user!” he shouted and started running away.

I tried to chase after him, but I couldn’t tell which direction he had gone.

You’ve got to be kidding me!

My vision started to adjust, but my hearing disappeared.

It’s just like the day I saw the king, but at least I can see a little now.

I began running, hoping I was heading in the right direction. At least the weird 360-degree vision was gone, and I could see the soldier running away again.

I knew he was probably shouting a bunch of nonsense, but I couldn’t hear a thing.

As I ran to catch up, the soldier suddenly stopped.

As soon as he stopped, my hearing returned, and I could finally hear the world around me again.

Finally!

What I heard was the loud roar of water. We were standing before a waterfall, an abyss with a cascading drop.

I almost ran off this cliff... fuck...

“Surrender or die!” I shouted, getting closer to the soldier, raising my hand and making sure he saw the sparks crackling along my arm.

“That’s impossible! How can you have both wind and lightning elements?”

I noticed he was standing right on the edge of the cliff, with the waterfall beside him.

“I’m part high elf, long story...”

“High elf? I don’t believe that crap,” he said, drawing his sword.

At least I know no one would believe that if it got out.

I ran a little test with the soldier. If he saw me using both elements and didn’t buy the high elf story, then I felt more at ease. It’s unlikely anyone would take that seriously if it leaked.

This guy’s going to die after the maids extract every bit of information from him, so there’s no risk of him spreading it.

He stopped right at the edge of the cliff.

“Surrender or die,” I repeated, intensifying the sparks and their crackling sound.

“Alright! Don’t kill me!”

“Drop your weapon, and even the knife in your left boot,” I said, and he looked surprised.

The man slowly started to pull the sword from its sheath, but suddenly, something orange flew and hit him.

‘Whoosh!’

“Ah!” The man was struck by a fireball and fell off the cliff.

“What!?”

I turned around and saw a beautiful red-haired woman, dressed in armor, with her hands pointed at me.

“Stay still or you’ll die!” she ordered.

The fire mage!

“You’re the one who killed those soldiers!?” I pointed my hand at her, sparks still crackling.

“Is that how it’s going to be, Nathan? Attacking a woman?”

My name? How does she know my name?

“Wait! You’re the red-haired knight!” I said, recognizing her.

It’s the red-haired woman from that day, the one from the kidnapping and the prince’s party.

“I’m sorry about this,” the redhead said, and suddenly, she moved with incredible speed, sprinting toward me.

What kind of speed is that!?

I tried to aim at her, but her speed was terrifying, and before I knew it, she had me in a tight grip.

“Let’s go for a little ride,” she said.

“Let me go!” I tried to shout, but I was being crushed in her embrace.

“No.”

“I’ll shock you!” I threatened, focusing my energy, but the woman did something I never could have imagined.

She jumped off the cliff, taking me with her, and we plunged into the abyss.