“Wyat I need a dust cloud as big as you can make it!” Bennett issues the orders. “Stay here with the kid and provide cover fire, I’ll light the targets!”

“Why should I stay with the-”

“Shut up! I outrank you.” Bennett replies and bolts off.

“You retired the Abyss damn it!” The elf shouts after him before stumping the ground amidst a rain of curses.

Just like when you slap a dusty surface the upper layer of the ground peels off in a ridiculous radius, filling the air and making it impossible to see. Next, the ground sinks below our feet until I can barely see over the ledge then… we wait.

With an arrow slotted and eyes sharp Wyat sweeps the area until the first flash in the distance. With a blinding flare and deafening roar metal meets metal. The elf spins and releases arrow after arrow without any delay or hesitation.

I have no clue what’s happening out there and can only make out silhouettes as the strong light shines through the blanket of dust but I still get the gist of their plan. After a short barrage, the elf grabs my arms and jumps out of the pit only for an explosion to level the ground where we stood.

As we’re about to land my carrier flings me into the air and I see him drop his bow, grabbing a dagger and whip from his belt. From my position in the air, I see him throw his dagger at what looks like a gust of air moving through the particles of earth flying all around. Without hesitation, he cracks his whip as a follow-up move and as the first weapon flies past its intended target the whip catches up, wraps around the handle, and curves back.

The only result of the attack I see is a spray of red before an actual person clad in armor appears on his other side swinging a massive hammer down toward the elf. Something darker than the deepest night shimmers around the monstrous weapon’s head, magic dangerous and destructive, so the elf gracefully slips past his new attacker, getting behind his back just as the impact happens. What I can only guess to be void magic erupts from the hammer, eradicating everything in a half circle where it slams into the ground.

The last thing see before screaming and closing my eyes with the ground growing closer is the whip making some whacky moves and the elf locked in melee. Instead of the expected crash and pain I find myself in a princess carry, blinking wildly at the debatably charming elf smirking in my face.

“Don’t make so much noise, I got you.” He throws me over his shoulder, grabs his bow, and starts running.

While being carried like a bag of potatoes I catch a glimpse of some more flashes in the distance, almost like the first one but bigger and… flashier. Then an explosion of a ridiculous size claims the horizon, blowing all the dust away and taking us with it.

As I get up from the ground with a groan and look around something ridiculous falls into my view. A shadow, not much different from the ones that came after me in Meliorport, with an unconscious boy in his arms around my age judging by his short stature. Not a second later Wyat steps in front of me and the shadow throws the ragdoll-like young body behind him with two swords of raging fire materialising in his hands and his eyes turning into little Solaires.

The swords are cool, the rest is pretty scary.

“Move back Elyssia, things are about to get a little dangerous.” Wyat mutters with a serious voice.

What the fuck has been going on until now if things are only about to get dangerous? Not to mention you want me to move back where exactly, nowhere is safe, I can see the old fuck fighting with like four of them from where I’m standing.

I still start running which somehow signals the start of their fight, this shadow proving to be a much tougher nut to crack than any of the previous ones. I sprint back towards the ditch Wyat first made for us to take shelter in, but after the two combatants fly past me in a dance of earth and fire I quickly grind to a halt, turn on my heels and start in the other direction. I’m simply unable to breathe properly with my heart beating in my throat and body shaking uncontrollably so I quickly run out of breath and fall to my knees at a very specific location.

The boy. His fate is so much like mine but unlike me, he got unlucky and lost everything for good. I might be wrong and the shadows just kindly kidnapped him while leaving his parents alive to tell everyone their special son got kidnapped but… yeah, it sounds unlikely. Do I really count myself lucky? Lucky to have a say in how I wanted my little world shattered and my freedom taken? If this guy is the standard then yes… I am lucky. Let’s just hope the glorious Fist of Krieg isn’t a gathering of lowlifes who’ll sell me or treat me like the mean orphanage directors in those second-rate stories.

“Hey,” I slap the boy gently. “Hey, wake up!” The second one is not so gentle but even despite the big red palm print on his face he does not wake up.

Fucking brilliant, what should I do with you now? Wyat is still fighting and the old man is… I don’t know where the hell he disappeared, maybe chasing the rest. Nowhere is safe without those two and they look pretty busy so…

Wyat needs to hurry the fuck up. He seems to be playing a weird back-and-forth game of cat and mouse with the flaming sword-wielding maniac in their own little world of a deadly dance. Seeing the pointless chase an idea pops up in my mind.

I grab my child-sized waterskin from my waist and empty it onto the ground before spreading the water out thin on the rocky surface. The liquid settles on the ground and slowly freezes creating an icy surface where the bad guy likes to dodge around. The idea is to make him lose footing even if just for a fraction of a second and present an opportunity to end this fight.

The elf fights with almost unnecessary grace and flashy movements not nearly as useful as jaw-dropping, like letting the whip curl around his leg before launching it somehow with a sidekick. Or taking an arrow from his quiver and throwing it into what I now realize to be portals he uses to do those disappearing shots, only to grab it out of the air and try slamming it into the opponent’s neck. His style is unpredictable and dangerous.

As if noticing the little trap I made he sacrifices his dagger by hurling it at his opponent before kicking him onto the ice where everything comes together. The shadow draws his sword back and is about to launch a counterattack when he slips. The mistake doesn’t go unpunished and the whip wraps around his neck, pulling him back to the elf who slams an arrow into his chest then kicks him in the chest, drags him back again and drives another arrow through his shoulder and thigh.

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After the third hit a burst of fire drives Wyat back and the enemy finally falls to the ground. As the mercenary is about to go in to finish his job the shadow pulls outa red crystal pulsing with energy that sends shivers down my back and everything seemingly seems to a halt on the battlefield.

“Kid run!” Wyat yells and tries intercepting the enemy springing towards me.

Needless to say, I’m nowhere near fast enough to outrun him and soon he positions himself near the unconscious boy, between me and Wyat with the crystal held high.

“No!” The elf yells as his eyes widen.

“For His Majesty, for the Cleansing!” She shouts and the crystal cracks.

Yeah, she. I totally expected it to be a dude because the outline shadow lacks all the she parts.

Before anything could happen my vision is engulfed by a burst of light and I hear the explosion seconds before its searing heat reaches me. The ground shakes terribly and all I can do is curl up with imminent death in the back of my mind.

Except... I’m still breathing and beside my arms stinging a little I feel very much alive. I try to look around, curious to see what happened only to blink a few times with my murky, patchy vision after someone tried to blind me.

The old man. He’s a bit late, very late. But it seems he arrived just in time to pull up a radiant barrier of light between us and the massive smoldering crater. There’s nothing left where the shadow stood… where the boy was lying unconscious.

Maybe I really am the lucky one.

“Why?” I mutter as I fall to my knees with tension finally leaving my body. “Why did she do that? Why kill both of them instead of just saving her life?”

It’s frustrating. We could’ve saved him, even the bad guy, who’s a girl, could’ve lived if she just fled from the start so why? Is life really worth so little?

Bennett lowers his arms that held the barrier, walks over to me, and checks on my red forearms. They look like I got a sunburn but was dumb enough to stick them out of the window for the rest of the day to make sure they’re cooked properly.

“Sorry lass, I had to jump here fast and burned you a little.” He mutters and of course, pulls out a small jar from his cloak. “This might sting a little but bear with it.”

The grayish goo he scoops out stings like a bitch when it touches my skin, nevertheless I try not to show it and act like a brat. What is this little sting compared to everything that happened around me in the last minute…

“Wyat, are you still kicking?” Bennett shouts and a hand with a thumb up pops out of the ground with the rest of the elf following soon. “To answer your question,” The old man turns to me now. “They failed their mission. Their numbers dwindled, they lost the boy and risked capture. The first two are mistakes unforgivable in the eyes of their masters while the last one… well, you saw the result. She took the boy with her because if they can’t have him then no one can.”

Now I really hate that word; master. Even dogs aren’t loyal to this degree and so I can hardly consider these shadows people if they can’t think for themselves or value their lives so little.

“It’s a shame for the boy.” Wyat stretches sitting at the edge of the little burrow where he hid from the explosion. “No matter, at least I didn’t fail my mission now and we’re up one to zero, we have the girl after all.”

“This is not a game Wyat!” Bennett growls and rubs my arm a bit more harshly making me hiss. “You need to take lives more seriously, that boy deserved to live.”

“As do the countless other street rats and orphans starving at this very moment, working with a collar around their necks or being beaten by their abusive parents.” The elf shrugs nonchalantly. “We’re not heroes Captain, we can’t change the world.”

Acknowledging the problem and then walking around it to act like the people you just talked down makes you worse than the rest… Damn, I like Wyat’s style but now he ruined it all. So many unnecessary deaths and for what? Just because we have something special doesn’t mean we’d reshape the world, be a burden to anyone or turn the world upside down… We just want to live our lives like normal people do. And that boy deserved that as much as anyone else.

“Can we go back to that place and get seconds?” I ask as the dust settles.

The two adult men just stop and blink a few times before bursting out in laughter.

“Sure, their stew was pretty decent.” Bennett chuckles.

[Your group has triumphed over the enemy [Shadow Walker - Dark lvl 633] - [Pyroblade Champion - Fire lvl 421] - [Ethereal Force - Gravity lvl 114].]

[Your Class [Inept Magus] has reached lvl 14 ->18, +1 Free Points, +2 Mana, +3 Willpower, +2 Intelligence, +3 Focus.]

[Your class Skill [Arcane Mastery] has reached lvl 7 -> 12.]

[The general Skill [Savant] has reached lvl 13 ->15.]

[The general Skill [Dodging] has reached lvl 11 ->13.]

[The general Skill [Reflexes] has reached lvl 12.]

[The general Skill [Quick Witted] has reached lvl 12 ->14.]

[Congratulations, you’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Investigate Anomaly]. Would you like to assign the skill to an empty slot?]

Nope, thanks. Where did this even come from? Was it... oh, maybe the necklace I found. Anyway, fighty mage here, not an… Wait, this could prove useful.

Investigate Anomaly: Mana is quite shy despite its volatile nature, hiding its machinations from the prying eyes. Driven by curiosity you grasp at every opportunity to learn more about the events hiding in plain sight, to feel out the intention of the arcane itself.

This makes magic sound like a playful cat… I guess I’ll take it I have some empty slots after all.

[Congratulations, you’ve acquired the Class Skill [Investigate Anomaly lvl 1].]

[Your class [Inept Magus - Arcane] has reached lvl 18. Class advancement is now available, would you like to start the class up?]

[Y/N]

Damn, I did basically nothing back then and got five… at least five levels for it. With that said I had no right to be even close to a battle like that and walk away with only a scratch.

“Hey old man,” I call out to Bennett as we’re walking back towards the ribcage tavern. “I’m level 18 should I-”

“No, your Skills are probably nowhere near their ceiling and we have experts back in Granhall who can give much better advice on advancing as a Mage than the two of us.” He explains after interrupting me.

No need to overexplain things, I wasn’t thinking of doing it anyway. Okay, maybe just a little…

***

And so the three of us continued our journey towards Granhall with no other deliberate stops along the way. With now Wyat joining me in protesting for a proper roof above our heads and actual food on our plates we stopped in villages and roadside taverns much more often so he earned back some of those points he lost for his terrible attitude.

“Is this really necessary?” I ask standing warily by our campfire as the two mercenaries take the next step in teaching me.

“It’s not even that big.” Wyat shrugs.

“Be ready Elyssia, we won’t let you get hurt but fight like your life depends on it!” Bennett tells me while holding my soon-to-be opponent.

A boar way bigger than me and held by its hind leg swings and squeals upside down in his hand. It looks comical and shows just how ridiculously strong the old goat is.

“Can’t we start with something smaller?” I try one last time to weasel my way out of this.

I’m not ready to fight a beast to the death.

[Boar lvl 18]

Even if it’s my level I have absolutely zero experience in… okay I did beat up that boy back in the alley, but still, I have no idea how to do this.

“Smaller things are more agile and thus more dangerous to a Mage, remember that!” Bennett throws another bit of wisdom my way before dropping the boar and retreating to the treetops along with his elf companion.

Just great.