—Ah? Is...Is that a magic creature?
A magic creature showing up inside of the city? All his years living in Daerin and not once had Urie ever encountered such an incident. They were all held back outside the wall, or stayed within the confines of Erden's Tower.
Caught off guard—seeing the creature's hand suddenly grow larger as it drew towards his face, Urie shut his eyes as he prepared himself to be struck. A second later, his tensed muscles relaxed. The blow never came.
“Huh?” Urie blinked his eyes open to look at the creature once more.
Comparing it to the two magic creatures he had seen earlier on—it was larger than the shadow wolves but smaller in size than the rock drake. The black fur covering the shadow wolf complemented the description of a predator, but the darkness cloaking the creature in front of him was different. Except for around its glowing eyes, its body was clad in a mist-like color of the abyss, drawing towards it any visible light from the surroundings.
The creature's current posture, in contrast to its lunge at Urie, seemed to have been pushed back a few meters away, while its hand—the one that was used to grab at Urie's face—was set ablaze.
Urie then quickly noticed a flickering spot above the middle of his two eyebrows. A small red glow independent from his control had appeared where he remembered he was hit with a flick of the headmaster's finger. But there was no time to ponder about the peculiarity as the creature pounced at him again with its burning hand.
Urie quickly dodged to the side only to be met with the fast approach of the creature's opposite arm. It was then that the red glow turned into a small flame that moved to slap the creature away, before returning to its spot on Urie's forehead—its shade growing noticeably dimmer.
—This is!? The headmaster called it insurance, but why didn't it come out when we were attacked by the shadow wolf?
Knowing that there was an issue with the credibility of the headmaster's words, and that the creature moved fast enough to be able to outrun him—Urie chose to stand his ground as he did with the shadow wolf. Only this time, Elicia and Celeste weren't here to help him.
“Bah! Come at me monster!” Yelling at the top of his lungs to disperse his fear, Urie gathered mana in preparation to ignite his body once the creature was upon him. Different from usual, the flow of mana in his body was suddenly much calmer and easier to handle, as if the difficulties he had with his mana seed over the past year were a lie.
So instead of just haphazardly spewing out flames like he was used to, Urie envisioned Elicia raising her arms in front of her.
—Elicia would fire off magic like this, right?
At the approaching monster, Urie's forearms glowed bright vermillion before a column of flames emerged from his hands up to his sleeves—engulfing and holding the creature in place.
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“Ah, I only meant to do a fireball!?” Despite the sudden ease of control, Urie was still lacking in actual practice. The creature was continuously bathed in flames until excessive mana fatigue forced the ashen-haired boy to halt. The excitement of smoothly manipulating mana for the first time caused Urie to exceed the amount of usage an eleven-year-old boy's body could handle, and he started to stumble and sway.
—Ah, this is bad. I messed up again...
In his clouded vision, Urie saw the creature covered in flames stagger towards him before he ultimately fell into unconsciousness—dropping onto the warm pavement with a thud.
Still flickering, the small flame on Urie's forehead left once more and flew towards the creature. Upon contact, the flame exploded into conflagration. The creature flew across the air from the impact and splattered on the ground with eerie silence; it remained unmoving and was eventually eaten by the flames spreading across its body.
As the flicker of a small flame used up the entirety of its remaining mana, it no longer returned to Urie's forehead and was promptly extinguished where it was.
Scattered on the ground, embers from the encounter beckoned upon more of the creature's like from the surrounding shadows. They moved like moths attracted to the flame, unafraid of burning themselves while devouring mana with the attribute of fire.
A few black puddles separated from the group and slowly inched towards the unconscious Urie. Their bodies manifested from the ground in a similar fashion to the creature that Urie had just won against, and reached for him in the same threatening manner.
“Hyah!” With a loud cry, the arms of the Nifyr that were about to grab onto Urie were cut from their elbows and fell to the ground. A sharp weapon coated in a glow of crimson had swung down following the shout from a woman with light brown hair.
“Luca hold them off!” The woman picked Urie up from the pavement while yelling at a man with red hair standing guard between her and the Nifyr.
“Stella, go! I'll take care of these pests, head towards Simone and the others!” Two walls of flames were conjured and split a path through the Nifyr after the red-haired man spoke.
“Alright, but be careful, there's a lot of them.” A crease dug itself deep between the woman's eyebrows as she replied. She ran through the seething path with Urie in her arms—her eyes squinting fiercely from the heat.
“Celeste...?”
Stella Varethe widened her eyes in surprise. The boy in her arms had muttered a name while staring at her in a half-conscious state. She quickly stifled the urge to shake the boy awake, and made it a priority to first secure his safety.
“Simone! You're here!” Stella yelled with relief. An effeminate man of the same features as her—light brown hair, slightly pointed ears, and emerald eyes—arrived together with a few members of the Flame Brigade.
Simone's attention was drawn to the boy sleeping soundly in her embrace, “Stella, that child?”
“We found him outside of Erden's Tower. He's muddled and unconscious, but unhurt.”
“Thank goodness. Where's the Captain?”
“He's still at the square. Hurry up and assist him! Even he can't hold that many Nifyr back by himself.”
Simone parted with Stella and rushed to Luca's aid with his group. Meanwhile, Stella headed towards a particular direction—er destination being a house that she'd left unattended for about a year since the disappearance of one of its occupants.
The next day, Urie regained his consciousness. He had awoken with a body covered in muscle sores, and a feeling of fatigue that made it incredibly difficult to unfurl his eyelids.