In the middle of a clearing deep within the mountain range of magical beasts, a giant Landwyrm of the sixth rank was viciously attacking a young girl.
But despite their size difference, the young teen calmly evaded each strike wielding her twin katanas to leave small cuts where possible.
“[Blinding Light],” Amira called out, causing an incredibly to be emitted from the tips of her swords.
The light easily blinded the beast, allowing Amira to close in with incredible speed turning into a blur as she danced around the enormous dragon-type beast leaving a myriad of gaping slash wounds on its body.
As it couldn’t see, the wyrm screeched and roared as it violently flailed around, hoping to catch its attacker with a lucky attack. But, unfortunately, Amira could see each of its attacks coming a mile away.
By the time it regained its sight, it saw compressed air gathered around the blade of one of her swords. Its cold reptilian eyes turned into pinholes as it felt the threat of death looming, but after all the damage it had accumulated, it was too weak to even attempt to dodge.
A deafening roar escaped its mouth as a giant ball of fire began to take form between its jaws.
“[Wind Slash],” Amira called out as she slashed her sword across her body.
The wyrm launched its fireball at the same time, and yet the crescent blade made of pure wind tore through the air at an alarming speed chopping the man-sized ball of fire in half and continuing on to slice straight through the upper half of the dragon’s still opened mouth leaving it with only half of its head.
“Not good enough,” Amira sighed to herself, disappointed with her performance.
“Not good enough? You do realise you jumped two ranks to defeat a dragon-type magical beast, don’t you?” Ace asked helplessly as he suddenly appeared behind her. “Most people our age could only dream about an accomplishment half as impressive.”
“That sounds oddly patronising coming from you,” Amira snorted, giving the dark-haired teen an almost threatening stare.
“I agree,” Julius said as he waddled over from the tree he took cover behind. “It’s definitely patronising. Very patronising!”
“Who asked you, fatty!” Ace snorted, glaring at the round teen as if he was daring him to continue.
“Mira, Ace is bullying me again,” Julius said as he hurried to Amira’s side.
“Why are you running to Mira like she’s your older sister?” Ace asked disdainfully. “You do realise you’re the oldest one here, don’t you?”
“And why are you taking your frustration out on him for telling the truth,” Amira retorted. “Why’s the top disciple for five consecutive years, in an institution for geniuses, trying to talk for “most people our age”?”
Ace looked blankly at Amira, not knowing how to respond.
“That’s what I thought!” The little Amazonian snorted.
“Since you actually started speaking to me, all you do is take fatty’s side and gang up on me,” Ace mumbled under his breath, knowing that arguing was all but pointless.
“What was that?” Amira asked, raising an eyebrow as she stared Ace down.
“Nothing,” Ace hurriedly replied. “I was just saying how amazing you were in your fight.”
“I didn’t think so,” Amira replied. “Come on fatty, let’s go relax whilst Ace brings tonight’s dinner back to the campsite.”
Ace could only watch helplessly as Amira and Fatty hurried away.
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The trio had been in the mountain range for over a month now. The first week had been pretty tough on Amira and Julius as there had been several assassination attempts made on them, but thankfully, none of their would-be attackers were too powerful, and Ace was there.
After their first attack, Ace made sure to keep his [Observation] spread over a 100-meter radius. When not compressed, his [Observation] reached over 2.2 kilometers, so 100-meters was easily maintainable for the current him.
Julius, or fatty as he was known by his peers, struggled to adapt the most. Not because Ace and Amira forced him to get involved in the battles but because he truly hated the blood and gore that came with them.
It was only after a few days that Julius told them that before he became a mage, he was the only son of a single mom, who was also a magic chef – A chef who uses magic to cook.
Unfortunately, he never got to meet his father, as he died in a battle for the Rhine Empire before he was born.
Even though it was only him and his mother, he never wanted for anything, and because of her position as a magic chef, they were a well-respected family within their town.
Unfortunately, those days of peace came to an end when his town suffered the assault of a saint-level warrior who was angered by our city lord who had apparently stolen a treasure from under his nose.
He ended up being the sole survivor of that massacre, with his mother using all her power to save his life.
Ace and Amira could see the distress on their classmate’s face as he forced himself to relive that traumatic incident, but he continued anyway.
He explained how the only things he had left of his mothers were the pendant he wore on his neck and her mage’s tome. It was with that tome that he taught himself fire magic.
He didn’t know he was particularly talented until much later. All he knew was that tome would give him a chance to start on the right path to avenge his mother.
After the massacre, he was taken to an orphanage in a neighbouring town, where he was bullied for being such a loner. The bullying was so bad that he was beaten severely on a nearly daily basis, but he didn’t care. The only thing on his mind was avenging his mother.
Eventually, he broke through to the first rank as a fire mage. And like most children who suddenly developed the ability to protect themselves after being bullied, he intended to use his newfound powers on his bullies.
The next time they came to pick on him, he had every intention of burning them to a crisp when a memory of his mother surfaced. It was on one of the anniversaries of his late father’s death. It was the only time he ever remembered his mother crying. She practically begged him never to take up fighting. She wanted him to grow up without having to worry for his life because of a fight that didn’t have anything to do with him.
As he said that, a sorrowful smile suffused his lips as he explained that deep down, he knew his mother would never expect him to not at least protect himself if someone wanted his life. Still, his mother was a woman who gave him everything he ever wanted and asked for nothing in return; how could he bring himself to ignore the only request she ever made of him?
Amira promised that when she became a saint in the future, she would go and hunt down the saint and bring his head for him to lay at his mother’s grave.
When he heard that, a desolate smile appeared on Julius’ face as he explained that Lauriella had already offered to do the same thing. As tempted as he was, he couldn’t bring himself to accept her offer.
If his mother was ever to be avenged, it needed to be with his own hands. He refused to let anyone else do it on his behalf. If he did, he would never be able to face his mother in the afterlife.
Ace was left speechless when he learnt the truth about Julius’ past. He knew how cruel and merciless the world could be; just their first few days in the wild had proven it. But after everything he’d experienced in his previous life, how could he ever tell Julius he was making a mistake? In fact, he respected the overweight teen now more than ever.
To be born with the talent to reach a level where he’d almost definitely be able to avenge his mother one day, and yet because of something his mother asked of him when he was still a toddler, he not only chose against revenge, he also refused to take the easy way out and ask someone else to do it on his behalf…
That kind of inner strength was beyond rare.
Since then, their group of three became closer than ever. And even though he never helped in terms of actual combat, Julius made sure to fill their stomachs with fantastic food daily.
Although cooking in the wild was said to be a big no-no, with Ace’s [Observation], they were able to quickly deal with any and all potential problems, giving Julius a chance to cook freely.
“Wooh, fatty, you really outdid yourself with that one,” Ace complimented as he lay back to relax whilst his food digested.
“You really did,” Amira added. “You’re better than the chefs in the palace back home.”
“I’m glad you liked it,” Julius beamed.
Since he couldn’t avenge her, he decided to honour his mother by following in her footsteps as a magic chef. Hearing others praise his cooking was like music to his ears.
Whilst Amira and Julius were talking amongst themselves, Ace suddenly sat up straight. A look of shock appearing on his face. ‘Is that…’
“What is it?” Fatty asked. “Is someone coming?”
Amira quickly stored all their items in her interspatial ring, thinking that trouble was approaching.
“Not exactly,” Ace said as a fiendish grin took shape on his devilishly handsome face. “I just saw an old friend I’ve been looking forward to meeting again.”