Just what are they thinking? Their numbers are their strength, two-on-ones favor us.

I charge the two flanking fools and in response, Eva raises the halberd like a spear to impale me if I feel foolish enough to run at them like a piece of rock. The halfling zigzags behind her from side to side, faking his moves a little too much before pulling out the crossbow and sending a snapshot before retreating. Even though he’s nowhere even close to me.

Despite knowing that I could withstand the projectile and likely any tricky payload it carries, Bennett beat the instinct of dodging into me. Always assume the worst of anything flying your way.

Which is valid.

Instead of giving up my momentum, I fall forward on all fours and allow the arrow to whistle past me. But the other one, the girl, is quite capable and capitalizes on my inconvenience and with a fiery burst appears in my face. By the time I’m about to get back up the incandesced edge of her halberd is already on its way to severe my head.

However, the weapon is not what makes my heart skip. The halfling… he ran past me. It seemed like we were up against complete amateurs but they made a sacrificial play, leaving their best to claw their way towards victory.

Respectable.

The clear rumbling of mages destroying everything in sight means Eli is still quite preoccupied and another opponent is the last thing she needs. Oh, I would love to go after him and wring him by his neck like a chicken if only there wasn’t a red hot piece of pointy metal nearing my eyes concerningly fast.

Damn, why does it have to be fire?

I roll out of her way but Eva follows, repeatably stabbing and slashing as I scramble to my feet only to duck once again as a flaming afterimage of hers repeats her swing. Her moves are quick and quite deadly, her every angle covered in blades and fire. She’s not half bad.

We play around for a while, although I quickly realize time is not on my side and go on the offensive. Let’s see who flinches first.

But as we both commit to an attack I remember something Eli showed me.

I reach for the weapon but instead of touching it I merely direct my Waking Storm’s Shroud into my hand and let go of it once my finger is about to touch the metal. The arc of electricity jumps from my hand right over to the weapon and slaps it away with enough force to almost make Eva spin. From there I simply grab the shaft and a hard yank pulls not only the weapon but also its wielder downwards, who I welcome with a punch right in the jaw. A moderate one to only break the bone a little.

Eva’s eyes lose focus and she falls like a sack of potatoes after merely one hit. Instead of letting her fall I grab the girl by her collar and hoist her on my shoulder, using my other arm to aim.

Then activating a tactical Power Burst, I hurl the unconscious girl with enough force to tear the boots off her feet.

Eli notices the ambush just as the bodies are about to collide and I see her eyes zipping from the halfling to the soaring Eva to me, where they narrow with a grumpy glint. In an instant, with the same move as someone pulling the blanket onto their head, she shields herself from the collision with an arcane barrier.

“Watch where you throw things!” She yells as the shield crumbles. She only gives the two lying on the ground a quick side-eye before turning her attention back to her two opponents.

They’re still standing. Barely. That shield their vanguard carries is completely blackened while its wielding is clearly limping on his left leg. The mage seems unscathed but that’s something Eli can remedy in less than a second.

But I’m not done either. The halfling crawls out from under the unconscious Eva, eyeing me like a daring rat found in the kitchen by a hungry cat. And I still remember him trying to stab Eli in the back…

He makes a run for it, likely hoping to regroup with his team so I give chase. Lightning courses through my legs as Ancient Tempest activates and my speed reaches new heights. It’s a real hassle to control since its power is closer to periodical bursts than constant boost but it does the job.

It does the job very well.

I basically fly after the tiny fellow, however, he’s quick to catch on to the drawback of my speed and turns sharply once I draw close. A deafening explosion steals my gaze for a second but I can’t make out anything due to the smoke and realistically, Eli is the only one here who can make the ground tremble like that.

The halfling tries his luck a few more times and shoots arrows my way hoping for a miracle. It’s pointless as even after I fail to dodge the fifth it merely scratches my skin as Manaforged holds. At last, our chase leads us toward his team, or what’s left of them. A big hole, the pretty grass completely wrecked just like every other time Eli steps foot in the courtyard, and a mage harassed by a dozen pebbles from every side.

My prey has to make a difficult decision. Does he want to face whatever caused that destruction, and can make his teammate useless while scribbling on a piece of paper…or me?

To his misfortune, the choice is taken from him when Eli turns our way. Whatever she’s been working on is clearly finished, considering the lines on the paper growing brighter by the minute.

Knowing her… I stop my pursuit, shield my face, and even retreat a few steps. The last time she made something new it was fiery and zappy, and it melted through bones. I’m not taking any chances.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

And as expected a brilliant flash follows. Except there is no thundering explosion, or tremor, or heat...

“This crap!” Eli’s frustrated growl is the first thing I hear. “That garbage book lied about sequencing! The sound component is completely fried.”

While she’s fuming I catch up to my prey. By simply walking up to him as he’s rolling on the ground, holding his eyes. A little anti-climatic but I wasn’t expecting a valiant final fight either way.

I simply grab his head and hoist him up in the air. “Are we done?”

Even blind he tries lifting his crossbow once more to take a potshot but tightening my finger just a little around his skull makes him turn a little wiser. “Yes! Yes, we’re done.” He squeals, then adds almost whispered. “We didn’t even stand a chance.”

And he’s not wrong.

“What was that magic you used there Eli?” I ask my partner but she doesn’t seem to be as satisfied with our victory as I am.

She stomps towards me and I notice the dude who carried the tower shield, and whose name I didn’t bother to learn, climbing out of a pit and crawling after Eli. However, before I can even say a word, the earth wraps around him and drags him back down in a tight embrace. The boy begs and claws at the ground… all for naught.

That’ll teach him a good lesson.

Their plan wasn’t even that bad. They faked the hammer and anvil expecting me to avoid the lighting mage and tried to bog me down to get rid of Eli first in a 3v1. The foundation was solid. Execution? Not so much.

“Thank the Gods you didn’t drag this out.” Martha grumbles and checks on the injuried. “But did you really need to break her jaw?” She complains to me as Eva’s face doesn’t exactly look… healthy. “And Elyssia, was that a halfassed light Rune?”

“Hey, I’m still learning and I barely had any time to scratch it down.” The girl in question huffs in outrage. “Besides. it worked.”

“Yeah, yeah, well done. Go wash or whatever I don’t care, just don’t die or disappear in the next two days before we hand you over to the Academy.” She waves us off before disappearing with the halfling and my projectile. “Gods, I’m too old for this.”

“That was fun.” I chirp as we head out.

“Makes me wonder what to expect from the Academy.” Eli answers, already deep in thought. “Hope they have courses on inscriptions, all of them. Anyway, I gotta go, the Runes won’t carve themselves.

“Just don’t blow anything up.” I remark as she speeds down the corridor.

“Oh, but I will.”

***

The days up to the departure went… complicated. For me at least.

Every day felt slightly more tense as our day of departure neared. I’m pretty oblivious to most things in Eborden, be it culture, renowned institutions, legends, and trends… but even I’ve learned to understand the weight of Sereban, the Shining City. And that means this Academy place has to be something phenomenal.

It became apparent people were willing to go quite far for the opportunity that just fell into my lap and would probably pass out with their mouths foaming if they found out how little I cared about it. Originally that is.

However, I can’t stand it. The excitement is there, the drive to grow alongside people my age, to spend time with them, and to continue this… adventure with Elyssia. It’s all there and it disgusts me.

My people are suffering, starving, or might even be actively dying out there at this very moment and what do I do about it? Eat a hearty dinner? Learn history? Have… fun?

Elyssia is like family and the most important person in my life right now and her parents… they treat me like their child… and I just can’t help but enjoy every moment of it. I want their care and love but it's eating me from the inside… it feels like betrayal.

“You’re making that face again.” Elyssia says while lying on her stomach in the grass beside me, a quill in hand and some scribbled paper in her face.

“You can’t even see me.” I answer and roll to my side to make it even more difficult in case she tries to look.

“And you haven’t denied it.” She throws a piece of paper overhead that lands in front of me and turns into purple smoke. “Stupid connectors… Listen to me Valka, and listen well!” She grabs my shoulder out of nowhere and tries to roll me back with absolutely no success, so she just climbs over me to look me in the face. “Is there anything you can do right now? Anything worth mulling over?”

I just look away instead of answering. We have already had this discussion, many times.

“Fine.” She lets go of me and leans back. “If you really want to go then I won't stop you and about my promise… I will have to sort things out once you disappear but I’ll come right after you once I’m ready.” She says every single word with utmost seriousness.

I just blink in confusion as all my answers prepared for the usual conversation crumble. Every time in the past she tried to reason with me, pointed out why I shouldn’t be hard on myself, and reassured me that everything would be alright.

Not this time. This time it’s all up to me.

“I’ll be honest Valka, your worries are not baseless.” She looks up at the sky while talking to me. “You might be the last member of your tribe already and all I did until now was hold you back from doing the right thing, albeit stupid, thing. From saving even a single soul. I know I took the decision from you and I see it’s causing you a lot more harm than I ever imagined so the choice… I’m giving it back.” Her eyes return down to meet mine with a sad smile. “The Fist might be a bit crabby about your disappearance but let that be my problem. I dragged you along in the first place.”

Ever since she started her monologue I wished she never opened her mouth. The choice, the freedom she just gave me… it’s a burden. A burden she’s been carrying until now, the burden of my future and maybe that of my entire tribe.

It’s heavy and cold.

After Elyssia has no more words for me she just lays back down and puts a hand on mine without giving the gesture too much attention. This has been her way of telling me I’m not alone ever since that night in Solermo.

I feel my muscles twitching as a part of me screams to move while the other begs to stay. One side is telling me to try and go even if it means I throw everything I have now away and probably die before doing anything meaningful. The other one is scared to let go of the warmth and the only solid point in my life.

A voice of cowardice… weakness… reason? It’s whispering to me that I deserve the good things and that my people are just as strong as me. To live for myself a little…

“You’re quite cruel sometimes, you know that?” I make up my mind but refuse to say it out loud. I don’t have to.

“If you’re referring to me poking where it hurts for your sake instead of saying what you want to hear even though even I don’t believe my words… Yeah, I’m aware.” She answers plainly. “It’s one of my greatest qualities.”

“Don’t take my word for it, but I doubt you’ll be able to make many, if any, friends while letting that greatness of yours off the leash.” I realize only after finishing the sentence that I’m doing exactly the thing I’m talking about.

“It’s fine, I have the pretty privilege.” She giggles. “Besides-”

“The delegation will be here any minute now, get going!” Bennett arrives like a bull, completely oblivious to the moppy atmosphere that lingered around me just seconds ago. “And stop lying in the grass, your clothes will get dirty!”

I’m starting to understand why Elyssia has beef with this man…