As Aisha stands on top a cliff, the cold air blowing her long, blonde hair back and the dense clouds blocking the view of the forest below.

She plays with the earings attached to her ears, contemplating existence and thinking of a plan as to how to take Ezra to the Grandmaster. However, her fury and the death of her most prized individual drives her to wish for Ezra's death. She wishes she could take his life now and be done with him, but due to the fear of the consequences, she calms down and sits on the cliff top, her legs on the tip of the cliff, swaying in tandem with the wind.

She looks down with her icy hazel eyes and scans through the clouded chasm, she points a finger at the clouds and shoots a beam of insane firepower aiming at the forest in the mist-veiled abyss.

The beam of flame leaves a hole through the endless white blanket, giving a clear view of the wildlife.

Aisha pouts and stands up and jumps down, descending through the powerful winds which feel as if they could tear her skin off easily.

***

Ezra is with Tahir at the bottom, a day has passed and they've both recovered because of the supplies left by the bandits he's killed mercilessly.

A rushing sound can be heard and when they look up Aisha falls on the path leaving the ground molten around her.

Ezra is taken aback by this turn of events while Tahir hides in the tent out of cowardice.

"I just wish to talk, Ezra."

"If talking includes endless murder then leave me out of it, you better start the battle right now if you wish to have some sort of use out of me."

Aisha chuckles, "i mean what i say, lets talk this out, if you think i like to work of the Grandmaster then you're wrong. He has done bad for both of us so i think we can mutually come to an agreement right now."

"Do elaborate."

"He killed Levitus for failing a mission, he said its your fault but i can't dany what i witnessed myself, both of you deserve my vengence."

"I see, i was merely defending myself, i asume you don't hate me for it seeing as your arm has fully healed."

"I do not hate you, i would have done myself, but if you're willing to come with me to the Grandmast-" Aisha gets cut off.

"No, i refuse."

"Hmm, then don't hate me for this."

Aisha quickly blitzes Ezra and punches him in the stomach with an explosive burst throwing him up in the air and through tree branches greatly bruising and burning him.

She dashes at top speeds and continues to pummel him with fiery strikes, meanwhile, Tahir picks up a sword from the bandit leader's body and he moves in to attack Aisha but she quickly turns around and tries to punch Tahir and is blocked by the sword, Ezra falls to the ground behind her, heavily beaten and bloodied.

Tahir starts exchanging hits with Aisha, but even while Aisha is hitting the blade of the sword she seems to be uninjured and attacking more fiercely each time. Keeping up with her became a task for Tahir and eventualy he became unable to continue, with that, he got beaten.

The person acting as a hero for Ezra ended up getting beaten by the very person he tried to protect him from. A few flaming punches had Tahir on the ground, beaten to a pulp.

At the end of the day, he had no chance. A person with no manna had no ability that could allow him to best a principle in combat, his technique could only get him so far and with now manna-extended reflexes or speed he truly had even less of a chance.

However, after all that, he still stood up, picking his heavily shipped sword and swinging while Aisha's back was turned.

"How can you call yourself a principle... When you can't even kill a powerless swordsman!" Tahir thrusts forward with the blade and stabs her in the back, the tip of the sword going through the other side of her body.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Tahir gets hopeful while the sword is in Aisha's body but the steel blade then begins melting and she turns in a split second and delivers a flaming backhand slap to Tahir's face, sending him flying in the other direction.

"I cannot heal this wound but its not enough to kill me, in a battle... You never know what your enemy is capable of!" Aisha hugs a tree and rips it from the ground with the roots and javelin throws it at Tahir's unconscious body but it gets cut by chains coming from the left side of the tree.

Ezra has woken up and is kneeling on the ground firmly holding the whip in his right hand.

"Flatus!" he unleashes a spell that Aisha block but gets pushed to the road behind her, in retaliation she touches the ground with her fingers and melts the earth before her throwing molten rock and debris at Ezra.

"Scutum proiectum!" he deploys the shield and swings the whip at Aisha injuring her arm and chest in the process.

Jumping back, she attempts to control the remaining lava she summoned but gets countered by another deployable shield, this time Ezra uses it as a platform over the lava to unleash more devastating strikes on Aisha, who is now on the defensive.

She stomps on the ground and raises lava upwards, building a wall to stop Ezra from advancing further and making his whip break aswell.

The wall falls and Ezra retreats while Aisha prepares an attack. All of her strenght is getting used for a single rush of lava, like a rising ocean tide that devestates entire buildings.

And while the lava flies forward Ezra phases through it and attacks Aisha that was left wide open because of the previous wave.

"Flatus!" he yells, to Aisha's shock, he blows her left arm off again.

When Ezra lands, Aisha looks at him in fury and unsheates her sword. With it, she breaks the ground forward and beats him down with debris.

"I see why she died to you, but i seek to be better than all above me!" She invokes as tides of magma rush at Ezra's direction but change path's in the last moment.

"I forgot i was supposed to take you alive, almost ended you there." she chuckles to herself while pointing her sword at the rubble.

"I should just take you now, there is nobody that can possibly save you and now possible way for you to escape with you head. Face it, Ezra, you lost."

"So long the skin on my body is covering my bones i will not surrender! You can take me but don't think i will ever let you do as you desire, bitch!"

She looks at him, stuned. He is bloody and he apears like he will fall over with a mild gust of wind. But doesn't waver one bit when faced with Aisha's presence.

They both hear a sound of cracking in the background and turn in curiosity just to witness Tahir's shaky and unsteady body barely get up from the earth.

"See, you can't defeat us Aisha!" Says Ezra, happily.

"You're stupid to think a child and a manna-less person can defeat a master such as me!"

an hour ago

Tahir wakes up inside strange, tight walls, all laid with bricks. Before him stands a tight hallway, as he passes through the corridor he picks up a scent in the air, it reeks of bloodshed, dust and animal feces.

At the end of the hallway he sees an sword empaled in the ground, he touches the handle gently and hears a voice deep in his sub-conscious.

"Vini, Vidi, Vici." The voice echoes in his head. It somehow lights two torches but this seems to be his third row of torches.

Before long he finds himself on the road laying behind Ezra and Aisha as they fight but is unable to stand up himself.

Feelings of guilt and shame to his inability make him deeply afraid for Ezra, after all, what if he gets hurt or dies? He is just a child after all, such a predicament would be quite terrible.

He is just a "spellcaster" nobody and he can't even protect a child from death, how can he call himself a protector if he can't protect anybody?

But still, he understands that, even if he gets up and joins the fight he knows that he would just be as useless as ever, proving to everybody in his past that he is indeed, just as weak as they told him.

But in his despair, he sees Aisha's left hand flying off.

Such an otherwise meaningless sight fills Tahir with hope and determination.

He gets up. Bloodied and bruised.

Aisha sees her chance and dashes at him trying to eliminate him with one strike but he picks up the heavily chipped sword and blocks her attack.

Shocked, Aisha attacks him continuosly, faster than ever before but he blocks each one and cuts her across from her body, the wound seriously deep.

She finds herself surrounded and in a moment of desperation she makes a dome of magma and launches it at them making them back away.

Ezra barely makes it and colapses due to his injuries but is still able to keep conscious.

Tahir on the other hand dodges effortlessly and still stands on his feet, unbothered by her desperate attack.

Ezra sees a flashing room infront of him and walks forward just to see the same sight at Tahir did and he now fully colapses unconscious. Tahir tries to buy him some time to wake up, knowing what Ezra is experiencing despite not being able see his visions.

Aisha is breathing heavily seeing Tahir in front of her making her fear him for the first time.

Meanwhile Ezra touches the handle of the sword in his mind and two torches light up, on his second row of torches.

But even after that he still doesn't wake up, this makes him go into a panic as to what went wrong with his mind.

Tahir is still fighting Aisha in the waking world and is holding his own against her, even able to injure her.

Due to her hand being cut and other injuries slowing her down she is unable to fight at full power, especially since she can't use her dominant hand anymore. She cannot regenerate because of the energy usage of such an act and she is getting overpowered by a simple swordsman.

She fears that if she gets hit more she will die so she retreats into the darkness and Tahir finally gets a break to check up on Ezra but he isn't moving nor do his eyelids do so much as twitch when Tahir shakes him. Knowing something is wrong he carries him through the night with the energy he has left in order to find someone to help him.