Time was somehow frozen, but it was still moving on, alongside Amara’s rolling head on the ground.

Koll’s scream pierced through the frozen moment, as he rushed at the spear-wielding bandit, And I did the same. Ignoring the cold sweat covering me, unable to feel the fast thumping of my heart, unaware of the scream at my throat.

Until the bandit moved and spun his spear with such grace that I finally felt my stomach drop.

My eyes darted to Koll and I changed my trajectory. Right before the spear could pierce Koll’s heart, I jumped and created a solid chunk of stone in front of me, coated in mana.

The world blurred. Wind enveloped me and I couldn’t hear anything beside the evergoing whirling of the wind. I rolled on soft ground and the smell of both grass and blood permeated my nose.

I stopped myself from rolling any further, and realized that I was no longer at the gate. Instead Koll and I were thrown away into the field right outside the town. The bandit, who wore a gleaming smile stared directly at me, but didn’t make any move.

I took a short breath. The sight of Amara’s headless body flopping down to the ground, like a puppet without its strings flashed in my mind.

I breathed again. Don’t-think. Don’t. Think. Focus.

Beside me, Koll stood up panting. “I’m goin’ to rip that Gordul Into shreds and pummel ‘im to tha ground!”

“Koll!” I flexed my mana upon him, making him momentarily freeze in confusion. “Get your mind out of the gutter.” I seethed at him, my voice sounding strained, my eyes never leaving the smiling bandit.

Koll grit his teeth. He didn’t say anything in return, instead he conjured a battle hammer made of solid stone.

From the corner James ran to our side. He looked at me and his face was one of nervous discipline, his eyes constantly drifting between me, and the gates. “Amara?”

Koll growled. His growl was almost beast-like, nearly turning into a shout. It seemed as if it took every fiber of his being not to run at him.

“Dead.” I answered. My own cold and unemotional answer passed through my ears, and I felt as if a thousand spiders stung my flesh for a fraction of a second.

The bandit smashed his spear handle to the ground, letting it stand upright. He clasped his hands together, and started to clap.

“Koll.” I grasped Koll’s heavy arm. Koll’s eyes were staring at the bandit, as if he would stare at him hard enough his miserable and unworthy existence would burn to ash.

“Fifteen villages! And in our first town! I finally meet something like you!” The bandit shouted from the gates, blazes from the burning houses of the town passed by him as he talked. “You’ve got one fucked up soul! Why is it so bright?!”

None of us answered the bandit’s gleeful crazy speech. I only tried to analyze the situation. The man was making my hair stand up.

“Why do you look so mad?!” He tilted his head at me, and looked back to where Amara was. The ice dagger was already in the air, flying towards the back of his head before I even knew it.

But his elvish ears twitched and he nonchalantly caught the dagger between his fingertips giving it a half glance. He walked to Amara’s corpse, picked up her head by the silver gray hair and pointed it at us.

Distant glassy eyes looked at me.

And something inside me snapped. White noise enveloped my ears.

I ran, putting mana into my legs. There were distant shouts behind me, but I didn’t care. The first thing the bandit did as I was close enough was to throw her head at me. In response I smashed the head with my fist to the side making it splash into the ground.

He raised an eyebrow at me as I grew closer. His muscles moved, and I glided on the ground, dodging a predictable sweep of his spear, and aimed for his legs. In return he jumped and stabbed the spear at where I was, making the ground crack but missing me in turn.

Koll and James were right behind me, slashing and smashing the bandit stuck in the air, who was held only by his spear. They missed, as he spun in the air with his weapon, as if he was a leaf in the wind.

We didn’t relent.

When he reached the ground, with his smile plastered on his face, we were already on him, too close for him to use the spear efficiently. He stuck the spear into the ground again, and moved with his fists.

Koll was a bit too far for the bandit to reach, but James wasn’t. James was also slower than he was before, clearly taxed. So when the fist came hurling at his heart I swung at the fist with another conjured dagger.

His fist was hard and powerful, but that wasn’t a problem more mana couldn’t solve.

The dagger cut a couple of his fingers and before he could lose his entire hand, he retreated. Taking one step back and grabbing his spear from the ground, he jumped back, distancing himself from us greatly.

“Okay.” He casually said, staring at me right as we were all on him again.

My entire body screamed as we closed up on him, amidst the rampant mana, I could only sense him from up close. I could sense how he wielded more mana than any of us together. He was playing with us.

He started to move much faster than before. Koll and I were already on the move, not against the bandit, but at James. Koll’s hammer placed in the path of the fist shattered, but it gave me enough time to conjure a strong enough wind to throw him away from the town’s gates.

From there, the bandit sprang into action. He too conjured a strong enough wind to put a small distance from us. A small enough distance to keep us in range of his spear.

He didn’t give us the small sweep he gave me before. Instead his spear form turned into flourishes and spins, too fast and unpredictable to approach. For Koll at least.

But not for me.

The bandit’s eyes showed only disdain as I simply passed through his form. He turned on the defensive again, letting Koll approach with his reformed stone hammer.

I managed to slice his thigh as Koll swung at him, only for the bandit to expertly divert his swing with his spear towards me. I managed to side step, but stumbled as the ground cracked beneath Koll’s hammer.

Shit.

He didn’t wait, and attacked Koll. his entire body contributed to his spear thrust. I conjured a powerful gale from the ground and practically blew Koll into a burning house.

Only the both of us remained.

The bandit turned toward me, smiling like a snake, skewering where I was on the ground as I rolled back.

“Now, it's only the both of us.” He said, almost blissfully. He lifted his spear and I dodged with a back handspring before he could slash at me. “Why are you here?”

I didn’t answer, instead I rushed at him and managed to evade his spear form, only to step back as he threw a knee kick. But his knee kick formed into a normal kick, much faster than I could dodge, leaving me breathless on the ground.

His crazed laughter sounded out. His spear sought my legs. I rolled, again and again, never getting a chance to regain my balance. He was toying with me.

Koll was already running from behind the bandit, but the twitch in his long ears and the intensifying glee in his eyes told me that he knew. I opened my mouth but I couldn’t say anything as the bandit kept stabbing, barely giving me a moment to take a breath.

When Koll almost reached us, the bandit stopped. He plunged his spear into the ground, forcing mana into it, and swung behind him. Making the ground shatter and blowing enhanced rock shards in Koll’s direction.

Both I and Koll laid on the ground. Breathing hard.

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He approached Koll and put his spear next to his neck before I could react. But he didn’t press, I was ready to jump at him, but I knew I wouldn’t make it in time. I looked at him with razor sharp eyes, feeling my heart thump like a warm drum.

Although I was focused on his next move, I could barely feel the ground beneath me. It was as if I was one breath away from falling into nothing.

“Now.” The bandit looked around at the fire and destruction that surrounded us alongside the dead corpses of the town people and the bandits. “You really made a mess didn’t you? It was supposed to be an easy in, easy out.” He sighed and Koll jerked.

For a moment I was about to lunch at him, thinking he thrusted his spear at his throat. But Koll jerked his head, blinking. He was knocked unconscious from the last attack and he was bleeding from his forehead.

Focusing on the bandit, Koll blinked once more, and his eyes were filled with fire. He started to push the ground beneath him to stand up, until the bandit put the tiniest bit of pressure on the spear, making Koll realize the situation we were in.

“I asked you a question before, didn't I?” The bandit looked directly at me, his tone calm and amused. “It is very rude to ignore someone. So I’ll ask again.” The man looked at me as if I was an ant. “What are you? I’ve never seen a soul like your’s”

Koll’s furious expression slowly broke. He looked at the bandit with wide eyes and clenched teeth. It was as if he was looking at a ghost.

“Well?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I answered between my teeth.

In a blurry speed that I could barely react to, the bandit’s spear stabbed Koll in one of his arms and swiftly returned to lay on his neck, resulting in Koll roaring in pain, his yell echoing along the burning town. “For every question answered wrong, this little dwarf will get another hole, alright?”

“No!”

“Ya fuckin’ piece of shit! I will-”

The bandit yet again moved swiftly, smashing the hilt of the spear at Koll at his stomach, making him wrench, only to return to his neck. “Stay quiet, I’m not talking to you.”

Koll didn’t relent, instead looking straight at the bandit with gnashed teeth and red face. “Why would ya do such things! Sages are supposed ta protect!”

The man, whose eyes never left my sight, looked down at Koll, and smiled a terrible smile. He clicked his tongue and raised his spear, only this time he didn’t point it away from the neck.

I rushed at the bandit. Seeing the spear slowly get thrusted towards his neck. I had used the mana to rush my blood in my eyes again, but it only aided in seeing Koll die slower.

Die like Amara.

Die like Regis’ Mother.

Die like everyone else.

“No!” I roared halfway to him. A powerful torrent of wind pushed beside me and something hit the bandit before he could stab Koll in the throat, sending him flying into a burning house.

“Get up, dwarf.” A familiar soft and calm voice called out.

Koll looked up and grunted. “How’d ya get ‘ere?”

Aubree, Eleanor’s father, stood in the bandit’s place, right above Koll, with a sword in hand. His once fine clothes were torn apart and shredded, showing that he had to face more bandits before he came to us.

I took a small shallow breath, my eyes locked on Koll’s throat, where a spear almost cut it off.

Aubree didn’t offer any aid as Koll stood up, instead he only gave me a side glance and focused on the burning house, from which the bandit slowly came out. He had a fresh cut on his tunic, but no blood whatsoever. “I hear you scream at kids every morning, from my home that is. I heard you this time as well.”

Koll huffed, placing his hand on his wounded shoulder, he burned the bleeding wound and grunted, all the while eying the bandit.

The bandit’s clothes were burning, but he stepped out unharmed, neither from the flames, the impact, or the swift slash that Aubree gave. From his battle with us, to the way he prioritized the weakest link and his fighting style, he was clearly not like the other bandits.

He was experienced.

Aubree’s scarred and cut ears twitched. “Did any of you sense how much mana he had left?” He inquired quietly, eyeing the bandit as he casually snuffed his flaming clothes with his hands.

“He had more than me, Koll, and James combined. He is proficient with the spear, he can conjure winds and break stone from the ground pretty well. Didn’t show any proficiency in other conjuring abilities.” I gave him a quick rundown and Aubree nodded with a frown.

“He can hear you, speak quietly.” Aubree said quietly and I clenched my jaw, forgetting that the bandit was an elf.

Koll grunted as he created another hammer. His eyes burned with deep but subtle wrath, like cool coals. “‘E’s a good enhancer.” He said under his breath. “Think we can take ‘im?”

Aubree gave a quick nod, “He can also cool himself. He might use ice magic of some sort.” He analyzed with a stony expression and cold eyes locked on the bandit.

The three of us stood united looking at the bandit. When the flames on his clothes snuffed out. He looked at us with a small frown. Eying Aubree, and me, ignoring Koll.

He stepped towards us, spear held behind his back in a position to thrust.

“He will try to eliminate Koll first as the weakest link, then he’ll try to test you. Or the opposite. We’ll need to work together, cover each other, and wear him down.” I gave my thoughts, and after a moment they both nodded.

It’s possible.

The bandit stopped and thrust his spear into the ground forcing mana into it. “Dodge!” I yelled and both I and Aubree followed after Koll as the bandit lifted an entire boulder and threw it at us.

The boulder was easy to dodge. The problem was that the bandit was gone right as the boulder obscured him from our sight. My hair stood up again and my head snapped towards the back of the boulder. On which the bandit was clinging with his hand.

He jumped off from it on us, his spear held by his fingertips for a longer reach, all in purpose to stab Koll.

I went on the defensive, jumping and creating a solid chunk of rock and putting it between Koll’s neck and the spear. Nonetheless we were both blown back from the force of the attack, leaving Aubree alone with the bandit.

Aubree managed to get a hit on him with his sword, but only a minor one. To which the bandit smiled.

As both Koll and I started to run back in their direction, I realized that while Aubree was proficient with the sword, the difference in the amount of mana put him in a disadvantage. As each blow the bandit has given made Aubree step back.

Aubree managed to conjure a wind blade, but it only managed to slash his clothing and nothing more. There was no other way to kill him other than wear him down.

Koll stayed behind me as we rushed the bandit. With him focused on Aubree I managed to slip through his form and cut him, making him shift his attention between the three of us.

Aubree and I were on the offensive, cracking the man’s defenses. When he would try to hit us with a dangerous move that would put even himself in a disadvantage to tilt the odds in his favor, Koll would find a hole and manage to land a hit full of mana, knocking his game off.

Hammer, sword and dagger worked in tandem.

The man was the one who was slowly stepping back, he may not have given any grunts or yelps. Not even a sound of pain as he was battered, slashed and even burned as I managed to grab a hold of his leg for a fraction of a moment.

But he was getting more damaged. And with each and every moment his face transformed into a mask of pure hatred. His left eye got bloodshot and started to bleed profusely without us doing anything, and I recognized the technique he used.

Time slowed down, but Aubree and I matched the bandit’s speed as he made his move on Koll. He was using so much mana, that it seeped out of his skin into the surrounding, showering us all with his wild bloodlust.

Aubree managed to get in front of Koll in time as the bandit gathered an insane amount of mana in the point of his spear. The blade of the spear was blocked by Aubree’s sword, but the forceful wind that was gathered in its tip released.

Both Aubree and Koll shoot like a bullet through the town, breaking scorched buildings down. I on the other hand was thrown to one of the town’s stone walls from the strong gales of the blast.

My vision almost turned black and I was breathing hard. I got off the hole in the wall that I made and fell to the ground. The wind blast was so powerful that the nearby burning buildings collapsed, sending embers flying into the air in large amounts.

After a moment, I managed to get myself up. My entire body was aching, but it mattered not. If I didn’t die, the bandit wouldn’t die. He still had to be killed.

On my way to the center of the blast, a head with gray silver hair on the ground was at the edge of my vision. My head slowly turned in its direction, only to snap towards the destroyed path in which the bandit was blasted. Focus.

My mind started to feel heavy and so did my body, but I pressed on.

I stepped through the path of broken and burning buildings, cooling the air around me as I stepped through flames. And when I sensed a pull, I let my legs carry me faster. Carry me right to the bloodied bandit. He laid upon a broken pile of wood, alongside the wounds we all gave him, one of his eyes was out of his socket and the other bleeding. One of his legs was mangled and so was one of his arms.

His bleeding eye was clearly not seeing, there was no way such an eye could work, and yet it followed my movement perfectly. The bandit laughed, or at least tried to as the small act of letting out air made him cough uncontrollably. “...Makes sense.” He crooked with a smile.

Amara’s gentle smiling face flashed in my mind.

White noise filled my ears again and an uncontrollable warmth flooded my face and body. I conjured an ice dagger and almost threw it with the intention to pierce his head, but froze like a statue. I need answers.

The white noise and the warmth were pressed down, but only by a bit.

“What makes sense?” I asked through gritted teeth.

The bandit gurgled a laugh, blood coming from his mouth. “...That you… Would survive.”

“And why is that?”

The bandit stopped, his breathing was shallow, very shallow. I stepped closer and kneeled, feeling the pull stronger than ever, coming from his heart.

I stared at his chest with wide eyes, at the place where his heart was. I placed my hand on his chest, but besides that we both didn’t move.

“Why did you attack? ‘Fifteen villages’ and I guess that you did them all the same way, ‘easy in easy out.’” I didn’t stare away from his chest, even though I wanted to stare at his remaining eye, to see any type of emotion. Remorse, fear, anger. But without even looking I felt somewhere inside me that his death mattered not.

There was only one thing that mattered about him. The pull.

“What were you after?”

The bandit tilted his head as much as he could, towards my hand, towards his chest, for a second, and smiled. A terrible toothy smile, filled with blood. “You can see?”

I frowned. “What?”

“...No… But you can… sense it some… How…” I tensed as I sensed a small trickle of mana inside the bandit in his heart, and saw him slump to the side. Dead.

Without even thinking, my hand pierced whatever was left of his already torn heart, where the pull was.

Was.

I gritted my teeth and growled, slowly taking my hand out of his empty chest. The pull vanished the moment he killed himself. I rose up to my feet and stared down at his corpse, my hands and legs twitched, wanting to rip, tear and stump the corpse into a bloody puddle.

I looked at his remaining bloody eye, his dead eye. Worthless, piece of shit, annoying eye.

His distant and glassy eye.

Every ounce of anger left me completely. I shivered and took a couple of steps back, hearing a faint mumble between my ears. A mumble whose voice I knew well enough.

I need to get to the others. I tried to focus and started to walk back, trying my best to ignore the mumbling.

Through ashes, flames and destruction, I numbly walked back to the center of the blast, all the while hearing the faint mumble grew ever soo louder.

It felt as if the world was filled with cold liquid metal and I was trying to walk through it. Every step was another mountain climb and every thought, except for ever growing mumbling, was excruciatingly slow and heavy.

By the time I knew it, I was at the center of the blast, panting, my eyes barely kept open. I instinctively knew that I had to find the others, I started to move in the other direction of the blast when gray silver hair caught my eyes.

Amara’s head was smashed into the floor, it was too broken. The jaw was missing, and half of the head was smashed into the floor left with only one eye. One eye open. One eye dead. One eye blaming. Distant and glassy.

Your fault. Mother whispered between my ears, her voice dark and thin, making me jolt. My hair felt as if it was standing on end, and my heart started to beat faster.

Your fault. I turned around and saw eyes looking at me. Dead eyes. They were everywhere. I spun trying to find a spot in which my eyes wouldn’t be able to see their eyes. Her eyes, blaming, screaming, glassy eyes.

Bandits.

Your fault.

Townspeople.

Your. Fault.

Children.

Your! Fault!

Elderly.

Your! Fault!.

“No, no no no, please stop, no!” Someone mumbled, the voice seemed to come right from my side as I kept on spinning. “Someone! Make it stop! Please!” He didn’t speak in the Inyslian human tongue.

No, it was Regis’ tongue. My tongue.

I fell on the floor and curled up into a ball, hands on my ears, gripping them hard, blocking them. But it did not stop the screaming. The yelling. Someone was yelling In regis’ tongue, another yelled at someone to stop. Something tried to take my hands off my ears, it pulled hard and gently.

It was hard to breathe, someone was screaming right in front of me, even though my face was straight on the ground.

The air didn’t enter my lounges.

I was dying.

Dark spots started to cover my sight.

The world grew dark.

Your! Fault!