A blast of water flew towards the old man from beyond the mist. It looked oddly familiar. More than I’d have liked to admit. Like someone had fired a burst from one of those water cannons the police used for riot control. I knew all about that of course. With a quick step to the side, he dodged it without any trouble.

Are they just going to fight like this? Where is the de-escalation here?!

"Woah there. That wasn't very-" Vrintas was interrupted by the swing of a giant mace as one of Venarius’ comrades hurled himself at the old man.

This wasn't quite the one-on-one I'd expected.

Vrintas leapt backward with surprising agility, sending a wave of fire from his hand to stop the incoming attacks. Now that’s counterintuitive, no? Why is he using fire spells in this wet mess?

I heard Venarius’ annoyingly penetrating voice shout in a language I couldn't quite understand. It sounded a lot like English, yet at the same time was so far off from it. Pure gibberish. More voices answered and then a few more blasts of water came flying, passing the old man and punching right into a tree behind us. Leaving a huge dent in its trunk. The wood creaked loudly under the impact as chunks of it fell to the ground.

What's this pressure? How the hell is that even possible? This was way stronger than a mere water cannon. I did not want to get hit by one of those. Although for now we weren't really the target of any attacks.

Two more coneheads came forward from the mist, each wielding one of those weird maces. The head of which seemed to go on forever, like a loop of twisted metal. The intricate design was composed of spirals and knots, similar to a tangled ball of yarn.

Metal spaghetti on a fork.

All three of Venarius’ minions ducked in an instant before two more water bullets whizzed past them towards Vrintas. These things came seemingly out of nowhere, curving through the air from the weirdest angles. And they were damn fast too. But the old man was just as agile, jumping around the projectiles with ease. Though he had no time to retaliate as immediately after the water blasts had missed their mark, Venarius’ people were already pressing the attack. Their close-combat skills were so miserable even I could tell they had no idea what they were doing. Yet, it was the combination of both things that stopped the old fart from going on the offensive.

"Dance, dance, dance with me old man!" The idiot chanted from inside the haze before another thick stream of water flew towards Vrintas, forcing him to step backwards again to barely avoid a direct hit.

For a brief moment the fog lifted, right where the water had gone through. I saw the silhouette of Venarius moving up, down, left, right and in circles in his water bubble.

What an idiot. This guy is insane. I wondered how long this fight was going to last and if I should even try helping in some way or do something? Vrintas had told us to stay put and I was content with following that order, but I couldn't say the same about a certain someone next to me.

Rheka watched her grandfather's every move with awe, holding both her clutched hands tightly before her as she stared at the spectacle. She didn't look like the type of person who would sit idly by while others risked their lives in a fight.

How old was this girl again?

All of a sudden, she jumped on my back without warning, causing me to crumble to the ground underneath her weight. It'd been a while since we'd done this sort of thing and while she had continued to grow at a steady human’s pace, my growth had halted somewhere during the last year. At this point I was hardly bigger than a medium-sized dog. Well, I wasn't really built for such activity anyways. I'm not a damn horse you hear me? I did have wings, but those were hardly useful.

With much effort I managed to get up onto my feet again with Rheka still clinging on my back.

"Let's go!" She ordered with a huge smile on her face, as I stood up straight once more, despite the excruciating pain in all four of my legs. The second we did that, more water projectiles shot towards our direction from the fog, narrowly missing us both.

"Shit, and then what?" I asked rhetorically, starting to run towards the old man's group, before we were swallowed by the mist. And it got worse than before. So much so that it felt like being inside a giant cloud of cotton candy. I couldn’t see a bloody thing.

"Think of something! You're smart! You read books and stuff!" Rheka shouted while the wings on her head began to flutter in excitement.

The hell?!

We ran circles in the fog trying to find an opening to use but with little success. I could barely see where I was going, let alone anything else around me. The old man had completely disappeared from my vision, which was just fantastic.

All I heard were screams coming from within the haze, only to be interrupted by more loud water blasts swirling by. We hadn’t been hit yet but they came pretty damn close. Why wasn't Vrintas fighting back?

Rheka, are you by any chance stupid? How am I supposed to think of a solution right now? Did that girl even bother asking herself if there even was one before running off to here? Alright, whatever. Thinking time, idiot. I reviewed our options. I had no magic, so I was practically useless. Rheka knew Fireball, Detect and... sure that might work.

"Rheka, use Luminance when I tell you too!" I shouted, running towards the source of the noise.

"Got it!" she answered, before I felt her grip more tightly onto my back.

I picked up my speed as we followed the sound, cutting through the mist. In my mind, all I saw were the red-orange eyes glowing beneath my beautiful white scales and my wings beating hard at my sides. Not like they did anything, but the image in my head was cool. Let me have this moment, okay?

My heart was racing fast. All I could do was to hope that everything went smoothly from this point onwards. Just as always.

"Venarius! I can see your big nose from all the way over here! Stop hiding and face me!" Vrintas shouted. Loud enough for us to hear him.

All he got as an answer was another blast of water rushing towards him, cutting a straight line through the fog. Bingo. Now I could tell not only where the old man was, but also make out where most of our opponents were. I rushed towards where I estimated the middle ground of the battlefield would be. To get into a good position for Rheka to fire her spell without getting hurt by any stray projectiles or physical attacks while doing so. Hopefully.

"Rheka! Now!" I commanded, before shutting my eyes tightly. She gave me a nod, letting go of my back and raising both hands up before clenching them together once more.

I felt my whole body tingle as the mana around us grew brighter and brighter. Energy surged through my veins and reached my back before flowing outward in a massive wave of small shining orbs. A flash of bright light erupted and blinded everyone present within the fog. Just as I had predicted, the fog amplified what would've been just a tiny glowing ball, causing the whole scene inside the thick clouds to look as though we had entered some sort of rainbow filled paradise.

My impromptu flash bomb was a stunning success. It was beautiful yet terrifying at the same time. For a brief moment I almost wished I hadn't taken part in this stupid fight.

And then came the screaming. The air suddenly grew thicker and even warmer than it already was, which must've been the old man finally going on the offensive.

It was hard to tell what was going on, as all I could see was blinding light everywhere. I felt my breaths quicken as adrenaline coursed through my body with each passing second.

"H-how was that?" Rheka asked me, her voice trembling from excitement.

I turned my head slightly towards her, finding her shaking and smiling happily at my response. "Good! Good! This is great!" I replied while she giggled joyfully from ear to ear. I wasn't sure if it was out of fear or pure excitement, but it felt like Rheka was turning into an electric back massager with how intensely she was jiggling on my back. No, it was probably the latter. That girl was fearless.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Al-alright. Again! Do it again!" I yelled out loud above all the racket, trying my best not to let the stress affect my voice too much.

After a good minute, Rheka fired another volley of Luminance. This time the flash bomb she cast turned out a lot stronger, enveloping us both completely and making sure nobody else would be opening their eyes for a decent amount of time. Now wasn't that convenient? It was time for us to go on the offensive too.

As Rheka conjured up another spell, I was already charging towards one of Venarius’ lackeys. I felt an immense heat radiate from my back before Rheka sent a fireball right at him. Apparently, there was no more need for commands from my side. She knew exactly what I wanted to do as soon as I made any movements. The fireball wasn't anywhere big enough to cause damage, but it did catch him by surprise, causing the conehead to fall over onto his stomach with a small squeal. I jumped at him, burying my fangs into the flesh of his leg as deep as I could, before Rheka launched another fireball straight at his face with perfect timing. He screamed in pain, desperately swinging his mace around in every direction to hit something in the mess we'd caused. I let go of his leg as he ran away with his face still on fire.

Nice. I call this... the Mounted Flamethrower! Super effective!

"Let's take them down together!" I told Rheka with my voice still shaking from all the excitement. She nodded, before a stone hit my head out of nowhere.

The hell?

I turned around to figure out who'd be stupid enough to hurl a rock at us and was greeted by a pair of red eyes staring at me. It was the boy. In his hand he held a long strip of leather with a pouch attached to it. The kid had a sling and looked more than ready to continue using it.

"Stop! For god's sake! We're trying to help you out, dumbass!" I shouted with all the voice I’d left.

He shot the second stone towards me without even giving it a second thought. "Help? I'm good, thanks!" He said before disappearing into the fog again. I only saw his silhouette vanishing, before Rheka threw a fireball after him. I hope it hits. Bastard.

As another forceful surge of water rushed past us, barely missing, I stole another glance in Venarius' direction. To my surprise, we had closed in on the fool, causing me to question his accuracy. With this situation at hand, it was clear that we needed to take action. The time had come for us to finally seize the opportunity and strike.

We rushed towards his estimated position and just as he entered my field of view, a large body slammed into us from our flank sending us tumbling through the air like ragdolls. I saw the old man emerge from inside the fog, smirking like a villain who'd just won a battle against the hero of justice. He was covered with burns and cuts, with a thick layer of ash over his smug face. At that moment Vrintas must have been overflowing with pride.

"You children alright?" He asked me, but didn’t bother to wait for an answer before continuing. "What happened to staying put?" His eyes narrowed in annoyance as he kneeled down in front of us, giving his granddaughter a pat on the head right after. "I'm just messing with you, thanks for helping this old man out."

Then came the loudest water blast yet. It blew right past the point where Vrintas had been standing just moments ago, so close that even I flinched back from it. I tried to get up, but a feeling of dizziness overwhelmed my whole being. Alongside it came an intense wave of nausea.

What is going on now? We didn't get hit that... hard. That shouldn't be enough to knock us out. Unless... did we... overdo it? I thought to myself in a frantic manner, trying to stand once more. My balance felt shaky and unstable as though everything was moving in slow motion. And then my vision blurred, as black dots started appearing everywhere around me.

Rheka wasn't off any better from the looks of things either. She was lying next to me. Barely breathing. Her eyes looked distant, and her chest moved in shallow breaths. The last thing I remember seeing before I lost consciousness was the old man running off.

***

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself staring at a clear orange sky. I'd completely lost track of time in that damn fog. Finally, that was over.

I lifted myself up to see Rheka slumbering in the old man's lap. There was nobody else around anymore, so I figured we'd probably won this one. Good job me, good job me!

"You did good." Vrintas told me with a soft smile on his face, still keeping a close eye on his granddaughter. She stirred awake for a moment only to go right back to sleep with a little frown on her face.

"Are you alright?" I asked him.

"I'm fine. But they managed to get away." he admitted with a deep sigh. “Eternalists aren’t known for their prowess, I suppose.”

“Eternalist meaning?”

“Scum. An annoying bunch of self-proclaimed scientists, who go around researching immortality, and any other nonsense connected to it.”

Odd. I couldn’t recall ever having read of those before. Well, not like I had knowledge about every single group of weirdos littered on the continent. But immortality, huh? That sounded interesting.

“Never heard of ‘em.” I said.

“Good. And hopefully you never will again. They’re bad business. Immortality isn’t something you blindly chase after.”

That was fine with me. After all my policy was to at least try and stay out of fights, given the fact my ability to fight was rather... limited. Yet I couldn’t help but be at least a little bit curious. It appeared to me that the old man had history with these folks.

"Well, in the end I wasn't able to chase after them thanks to a certain most dynamic duo."

Oops.

"The Drought is not a kind stranger." He went on. "I remember myself telling you two that in one of our first lessons. And several times after that."

I gave him a small nod before averting his gaze.

"But I did manage to get a hold of my target." Vrintas pointed towards a pile of ash a bit further away from us. Did he...? Well, I guess that's how it goes.

“Eternalist or not, they die all the same. Nightnail is an awful way to go, so I probably did him a favor. Though, I don’t know if the rest of them were inflicted too, or even where they escaped to in the first place.” Vrintas had a deeply troubled look on his face. It seemed like serious business to him.

Yet, one thing came to mind that kept bugging me during the fight.

“Can I ask why you were using fire spells against a water caster?”

To me it didn’t seem like they did much for him or Rheka, with us being in the fog and all.

Vrintas looked at me, almost in surprise. “Well, my strong suit is fire magic. Artifacts such as the rings I use don’t just give me the ability to cast spells of elements I’m not affine to. On top of that. I didn’t quite expect to meet someone of his caliber on our trip!” He chuckled. “So, I was attuned to the wrong spells in general.”

“Right... I guess it’s hard to fight with only four spells under your belt. Even more so if some of those aren’t meant for combat.” I said, nodding profusely.

A brief pause.

"I suppose this was a learning experience for all people involved." The old man gave us a faint smile before suddenly turning away.

"You can come out boy. I know you're hiding behind that tree." Vrintas called out, before a silhouette emerged from the tree, coming up to us one step at a time. It was the brat from earlier.

"That. Doesn't mean I surrender okay!" He shouted in defiance, prompting me to grin.

"Right." Vrintas chuckled. "Sit down, boy."

The kid hesitated before he took a seat on the ground.

"Your companions abandoned you; how does that make you feel?" Vrintas asked with a stern look. Yet, the boy didn't answer. Instead, he just sat there, in silence, as his eyes fixated somewhere on Vrintas' hands. It did seem like he was listening to the old man at least.

"They aren't my companions." The boy's voice quivered as he spoke.

"Why travel with them then?" I interjected. Why would a kid his age tag along with a ragtag circus party like theirs?

"They... said they'd take me to Skyros. My... brother is there. I think." he replied, keeping his gaze fixed straight ahead. It took him some time before looking back to face the old man again.

Vrintas' eyes widened. "Your brother you say..." He paused putting a hand to his chin.

"What's your name, boy?"

He hesitated before answering. "Tavrin. But... Everyone just calls me Tav."

The old man didn't react in any way upon hearing this, staring blankly towards the boy, as if he was frozen in time.

His expression turned serious the moment he spoke once more. "Skyros is... quite a distance away, right?”

Tavrin nodded.

“We'll see what we can do for you then."

Huh? I looked at the old man in surprise. Will we? I mean, I guess? We couldn't just leave him on his own I suppose. Sure, old man. Let's take the rock-slinging bastard with us. Why not?

And then Vrintas spoke again. This time in a language I didn't understand. A familiar sort of gibberish. Directed straight at the boy, who just froze in place with a shocked expression on his face instead of answering.

Rheka woke up, rising from the old man's lap with a stretch, before giving Tav and me a confused look, shaking her head slowly.

"Don't mind him, Rheka." I said in a soft tone, so as not to upset our new friend.

She stood up, raising her hand before pointing straight at Tavrin's face. He gave her a puzzled expression before opening his mouth in an attempt to speak.

"You shot rocks at us from behind like a coward! Next time fight us for real! From the front!" Rheka shouted. Her anger making him flinch in fright for a moment. He eventually closed his mouth after looking around nervously for a while.

"Su.. Sure." he said in a quiet voice.

Rheka nodded once with a wide, smug smile on her face, before turning back towards me and the old man.

"Argi and I will show you how to really fight! And then we fight again.” She pointed at him. “No rocks!"

And with that we continued travelling towards that caravan stop. It took us roughly another two hours to get there. So much for "A bit further on".

Screw you, gramps.