With a raised eyebrow, Zini looked at Red, perplexed. “Teach you magic?”

“Yes, teach me,” Red nodded.

“It would be difficult given our current circumstances, not to mention you would need to come from a proper bloodline. Humans can only build talent over time through bloodlines. If none of your ancestors attempted magic, you won’t be able to conjure a single dot of flame,” Zini explained.

Red gazed across the forest. They were about to leave Vitelwood, but the journey to Soalde would still take time. “We have some time to spend unless you have something better to do?”

Zini smiled. “You have me there.”

Breathing in the cool night air, Zini decidedly picked up a rock. “Mana is the key to all life. It is what sustains us. Without mana, our brains would rot, and our bodies would decay.” He crushed the rock with dark magic that took the form of a claw. “For physical fighters like you, mana can enhance your body, or you can harness mana to take a more concentrated form and act as a weapon.”

Red scratched his head. “Mana as a weapon? Like your spells?”

“Quite,” Zini replied. “But for those of us who don’t use physical enhancement, we need to communicate with the world and the forces that rule it and combine what it gives to create an effect. This is what sage symbols and arcane diagrams are, the communication between Eronia’s power and those that conjure magic like mages.”

Zini lifted one of the sleeves of his dark robe, exposing a forearm covered in mana tattoos. “What I have drawn here is similar to the Badlanders. It is old magic meant to curtail the need to draw diagrams and runes.”

“Why doesn’t everyone have tattoos then?” Red asked, picking up a rock and crushing it with just physical strength.

“Once runes and diagrams are etched to the skin, they greatly affect the tattooed mage. It affects the spells you are able to cast as well as changes the makeup of your body,” Zini explained. “With these tattoos, my body is acting as a conduit for the world’s power in order to create a specific magic.”

“Dark magic,” Red remarked.

“Correct. I am akin to a living sage symbol but with these tattoos, I am limited to dark magic only and not all types, mind you. I’m limited to a specific kind.”

Zini waved a hand and a dark skeletal hand appeared that grew tall. It used its bony fingers to pluck out plump fruit high up on a tree. The hand then lowered and handed its pickings to Zini, who offered one of the fruits to Red. “The magic these tattoos grant me is called ‘Umbral Hand’. I can only cast spells that form hands of dark energy.”

“But you vanished when we were all escaping the cave,” Red pointed out with his mouth full, already halfway through his fruit.

“Ah,” he explained, a glimmer of pride in his voice. “That was because I spent countless hours carving powerful enchantments into the walls and ceiling, some of which helped me create a spell capable of transporting me to another underground refuge. You see, I have a knack for creating magical diagrams and runes. But, as you may have noticed during my recent battle, I am limited to only my Umbral Hand spell when I am without any pre-prepared arcane writings. It's a shame, really, to be limited but it's the price one pays for the convenience of casting without preparation.”

Red began to glow blue. Wrapped in imbued mana as Hawl had taught him, Red wanted to familiarize himself with mana since he now had a new way of thinking. His head suddenly swiveled to look ahead.

Zini saw Red tense up and slowed to a stop. “Red?”

“Trouble ahead. Badlanders and I think they made camp,” Red said, worried.

“Then speed us away, if you will,” Zini implored.

A group of ten Badlanders materialized from behind trees. As was for most Badlanders, they wore loose and colorful clothing with sparse armor of leather and bits of metal, leaving their arms bare to flaunt their muscles. Each face glowed with a mana tattoo that covered half of their face, which matched the moon in color. Zini guessed them to be part of a net of people cast out on the edge of the Vitelwood to catch them.

A Badlander at the lead of the group spoke, “Loderans, come with us.”

“No,” Zini answered simply and looked to Red. He cocked his head and gestured they should speed away.

Their obvious intent to flee drew a sneer on the Badlander’s face, who then reached for an animal horn at his side, intending to signal other nearby Badlanders to swarm to their location. The horn popped off his puckered lips as Red appeared before him in a flash and took it before it blew.

“Red, no!” Zini shouted, seeing Red rush in recklessly.

But it was too late. Four walls of shimmering white light shot up, trapping Red between them.

Zini let out a string of curses, his fists clenching at his sides. Having witnessed Red's impressive speed in action, the Badlanders had taken all necessary precautions to avoid being caught off guard again, laying traps through the area. After all, they were renowned as the most skilled man hunters in the world. Before monsters and other Eronian races, humans were what Badlanders practiced hunting the most.

Red hit every wall of light surrounding him, unable to break through. A Badlander walked up to the box of light holding Red, a glowing face tattoo that highlighted his grin as he said, “This meat looks smooth. You some kind of noble?”

“Um, my name is Red Verdinant?” Red lied. Though the lie was terrible, the Badlanders had to take a moment to process it, afraid that they might’ve forgotten if the head of the Verdinant House had a son.

Zini took advantage of their delay and swiftly summoned a colossal skeletal hand to backhand the surrounding Badlanders away from Red. As he moved towards him, he summoned yet another skeletal hand, which descended upon them and created a protective barrier using its bony fingers.

Zini knelt down and began rapidly carving symbols into the ground around the walls of light trapping Red. His dark green eyes flickered rapidly as him mind revolved formulas. He sent a swath of mana to the ground and a formula, cruder than his own, revealed itself.

The skeletal hand around them began to tremble as the Badlanders laid into with attacks.

Red's eyes widened with amazement as he observed one of the Badlanders in action, his jaw dropping as he exclaimed, "This Badlander wields magic!"

Curiosity piqued, Zini took a quick glance towards the direction that Red was pointing at. There he saw a Badlander wielding a curved sword that glinted menacingly in the moonlight. As the sword sliced through the air, it left behind a trail of blue light that arced towards the barrier and rattled it.

Returning his attention back to his work, Zini deftly moved his fingers along the dirt to create more intricate symbols as he explained, "That's Mana Hardening. Physical fighters usually focus on strengthening their bodies, like you do, or they channel their mana to create devastating attacks."

A Badlander attempted to slip through the skeletal hand's fingers but was quickly flicked away by a bony digit. Meanwhile, Red observed another Badlander using Mana Hardening, infusing his body with mana just as Hawl had taught Red. The warrior focused the aura around the weapon to create a denser aura around it. As the Badlander swung the sword, a brilliant blue light shot towards the skeletal barrier, causing it to tremble and leaving a deep mark.

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Red imbued mana around himself. Inquisitively, Red looked to his hand then made it into a fist and began focusing the aura around it until he felt a denser weight to it. Aiming at the light boxing him in, he suddenly struck out with the glowing fist. An explosion on his hand caused Red to yelp in pain.

Zini, about to finish his work, had seen what had happened. “That was foolish,” he remarked warily, “Mana Hardening takes practice. What you did was create an unstable energy with no path to go, so it exploded. Please refrain from committing to experiments while we are trying to survive.”

Red's mind became pensive as the light trapping him was released by Zini's understanding of arcane runes and diagrams. "Let's go," Zini urged as the sound of a horn echoed through the air. It was one of the Badlanders' horns. "We need to move, more of them will arrive soon," he warned.

Red’s fist was glowing again, his experimenting yet to be finished.

“Not again…” Zini groaned.

Red then punched out toward a Badlander lingering and awaiting them outside the skeletal barrier. A blue light in the shape of his fist shot out and landed on the Badlander, creating an indent in his chest and sending him sliding backward into the dirt.

“I did it!” Red cheered. Zini had mentioned a path needed for the mana to go, so Red drew out his aura to create a ramp of sorts for the densely packed mana to follow as he shot it out.

“Amazing,” Zini awed, unable to hide his astonishment.

What do I need those entities for? Red thought triumphantly. I’m skilled in mana!

His body glowed and he disappeared, reappearing behind the Badlanders. A light glowed at his feet, signaling he had triggered another trap but he managed to roll out of the way in time. As he did, he used Mana Hardening to throw a punch at a Badlander’s back and sent him sprawling.

It’s like I have crossbows for fists!

He vanished again in a dust cloud and reappeared on another angle around the Badlanders. He shot out more fist energies that were blocked by the wary Badlanders.

Zini hoisted himself onto a tree branch using a dark skeletal hand, evading any potential attack. He trusted Red's combat skills, having witnessed them firsthand, and decided to let him handle the situation alone. Moreover, Red demonstrated his ability to spot and avoid the traps scattered throughout the area, indicating that he had everything well in hand.

But as Zini thought this, he witnessed Red go against the Badlander that could use Mana Hardening. The Badlander threw a feint and blitzed Red suddenly, putting the young man off balance. Zini’s eyebrows furrowed as Red panicked and exploded his own mana again accidently, throwing himself to the floor.

Why is he so clumsy? Zini asked himself. The Red fighting did not seem like the same martial arts master he had fought in the cave.

Red used his speed advantage to run circles around the Badlander while unleashing a barrage of fist energy. However, the Badlander used his curved sword to parry each blow with ease. Zini’s heart sank when he saw Red get caught by one of the Badlander’s glowing sword counterstrikes.

“What’s wrong with you?” Zini shouted to Red in alarm. “Use your martial arts!”

"I can't!" Red shouted back, his voice strained with pain as he clutched his abdomen where he had been cut. Suddenly, the Badlander materialized behind him, his curved sword glinting in the dim light. Red stumbled forward, desperately dodging the blade as it sent a blue cutting wave through the air. Seizing the opportunity of Red's fumbling state, the Badlander viciously kicked him in the head.

Red's body tumbled violently through the air, his limbs flailing helplessly as he crashed to the ground. The impact knocked him unconscious, leaving Zini in a state of shock at his abrupt defeat. Little did the necromancer know that this version of Red couldn't fight. He didn't know how to time an opponent, properly block a strike, measure distance, or anything that was granted to him by the now-silent entities.

Despite possessing a powerful physique and advanced mana imbuement skills, Red lacked the proficiency to fully utilize them, having been transformed back into a normal person without fighting knowledge.

Hurriedly, Zini formed a claw of dark magic and began scratching runes into the bark of the branch where he was perched. His years of study at a prestigious school had granted him incomparable speed in writing arcane scripts. When he finished, he took a deep breath and the air around him distorted as the runes glowed violet with power, combining with his mana to create a spell. He aimed at Red's unconscious form and shot a bolt of dark energy that struck him.

Satisfied with his aim, Zini began to swing from tree to tree using his Umbral Hand magic to move away from the Badlanders. As he swung, he sensed a disturbance in the mana flow of the forest. Quickly, he swung behind a nearby tree trunk, narrowly avoiding a bolt of blinding light that scorched the bark just inches from his head.

A burning sensation throbbed where the light missed him and struck the tree. Holy magic, Zini thought with dismay. Peeking beyond his cover, he spotted the Badlander group leader holding an artifact that resembled a silver bell. Crafted by the Church of Puradyte during ancient times, the artifact was originally intended for demon slaying rather than clerical purposes.

Holy magic thwarted magic of both demonic and dark nature, its holy aspect a natural enemy for demons and its light element a deterrent for the dark arts. The Badlander had not only prepared well for Red, they had taken into account his abilities as well.

The Badlander group leader whistled and five of his group began to pursue Zini. As a Badlander passed the leader, he was given the silver bell.

Seeing them, Zini cursed and began to swing away again, this time needing to dodge bolts of holy destruction.

"What of this one?" A Badlander grunted, his boot striking Red's unconscious body.

The group leader turned his attention to the fallen figure, eyeing him with a calculating gaze. "Battle Lord Otai would like a word with that one," he said, his tone hinting at a hidden agenda. "Tend to his wound as well."

The Badlander furrowed his brow in confusion. "What makes this one so special?"

"Questions are not your concern," the group leader snapped, his eyes narrowing. "The Battle Lord has taken an interest in him, and we must do as he commands."

Zini swung through the forest, using his colossal skeletal hands like monkey arms to grab from branch to branch. He had been swinging for an hour and had managed to momentarily lose the Badlanders, giving him time to prepare runes for spells. However, he heard twigs cracking behind him as he was drawing, indicating that someone was approaching.

“Halt necromancer,” a voice hissed.

Zini turned and saw the voice belonged to a Badlander who glowed fiercely with mana. A knife was in his hand, pointed at Zini.

The Badlander said, “You’re going to have to come with—” He was interrupted when a skeletal hand emerged from beneath him, but he managed leap away with amazing speed. “Don’t think you can catch me, necromancer! I’m the fastest in the Battle Lord’s troop.”

As Zini battled his enemy, he continued to draw runes on the ground with a dark hand, which began to glow beneath his feet. Sensing an opportunity, the Badlander paused to regain his bearings, but as he did, the ground beneath him turned to quicksand, hindering his movement. Zini’s quickly drawn runes had managed to cast a spell to transform the terrain.

The necromancer retrieved the knife from the fallen Badlander and used it to carve runes onto his skin. The process was agonizing, and the Badlander screamed in pain as Zini worked.

“I truly hate slavers,” Zini said in a low tone, his eyes cold. “You ruin the lives of others without a second thought and without any hint of guilt.” The Badlander trembled as blood dripped from his wounds. “This pain is excruciating. I know because it’s not only the metal but my mana tearing at your flesh as well. Now, imagine how those you enslave feel. This is but a taste of their pain.”

The group of Badlanders sent after Zini heard screams and chased after the sound. They stopped when they found one of their own leaning against a tree. When they approached, they shouted for him but he said nothing.

In getting closer, intricate scripts of unknown origin carved onto the Badlander’s skin shone in a brilliant violet light. Before they could react, the Badlander with carved skin blew up, sending a torrent of dark energy that engulfed them all, reducing them to flaming corpses.

Zini used his dark hands of magic to climb out of a pit that had opened up in the ground nearby, the violet runes along the edges still glowing faintly. As he emerged, he saw a silver bell lying at his feet, its mere presence sending a burning feeling along his skin. Without hesitation, he kicked the bell into the pit and activated the runes on the ground to close it up. He turned away to look up to the night sky and closed his eyes, focusing on the spell he had attached to Red, pinpointing his location.

He’s close by! Zini cheered inwardly. Perhaps he managed to get away after all.

The necromancer was planning to go rescue Red, but if the young brawler had escaped by himself, it would make it all the easier. In a few minutes, Zini swung to a location by a river where he spotted a giant buffalo which made him confused, but when he saw two people near the beast, his eyes nearly popped out. One of them was Red. The other, however, was a Badlander.

The Badlander was a woman with fierce dark eyes and thick red hair that fell down to her feet. Her body was toned and her white face tattoo only took up space around her left eye, forming what seemed to be a swirling spiral. Only coming up to Red's chin in height, she was still taller than Zini.

“Ah, Zini,” Red said with relief in seeing the necromancer swoop down from a tree. “I thought something might’ve happened to you.”

“Who’s this?” Zini asked, pointing at the woman.

“Oh, her. I believe she is my wife.”