A woman looked in disbelief at her fingers, stained with her blood from Akira's blow. Akira, moments later, attacked the woman, sending her flying into the air before leaping after her to drive her into the ground. Akira ignored the other girls and ran towards the older one. "He ignored me?" Joa said. Meanwhile, Gamble summoned shields and dusted himself off, saying, "Alright, I'll take this girl, you handle Jo. Got it?" Aki, disoriented, asked, "And your wound?" Gamble showed the spot where the wound had been, but there was nothing there, as if the wound had never existed. "My mana has returned," he said, taking off his cloak and jacket. "I'll explain after the fight," Gamble preempted Aki's question, jumping towards the girl, followed by Aki jumping towards Joa. Joa immediately attacked, but Aki dodged her blows before grabbing her sword and delivering a blow that was blocked. "Oh, it's you," Joa said. "What are you doing here?" she added. Aki pushed her with wind into a building while Gamble tried to understand what had been done to the girl. Blocking and dodging attacks with ease, Gamble thought, "Mind control is unlikely, she doesn't use spells. Maybe mana control? No." After a moment, Gamble seemed to know the answer to his question. He parried an attack into the ground with his shield, then, pinning the girl down with his shield, placed his thumb on her forehead, saying the incantation, "May the heavens bless you again and darkness leave you. Release." The girl's eyes glowed, and after a moment, a magical circle appeared on her forehead, which shattered as she regained consciousness. Looking around, she asked Gamble, "Did I... do this?" Gamble said, "No, not you," then took the girl and tried to take her to a safe place. However, when he tried to jump away, Aki was thrown next to him by Joa. "Hehe, weak mortal. Maybe you entertain me?" Joa said. With anger on his face, Gamble left the girl and said, "Wait a moment, okay?" then placed her next to Aki and his shield, and when he walked away, a dome appeared, locking the girl and Aki in. "Don't you need the shield?" Joa asked. To which Gamble responded by jumping towards her and deflecting Akira's strike with his spear, but no flames or anything exploded. "Ha, just a regular strike, tried to steal a spell from a friend?" Joa said with a smile, to which Gamble clenched his fist, and his left eye began to glow blue. "No, I taught Akira that strike... but I'll show you something I created myself," Gamble said, kneeling slightly before disappearing. Joa looked around, ready to attack, but Gamble started running around her, creating a small whirlwind, then, when he was ready, he jumped away, creating a thunderbolt in his hand and throwing it at the dome. The dome was now a prison for Joa, and she couldn't do anything from the inside. Trying to disperse the wind, she would be vulnerable to the lightning. Quickly approaching Aki, Gamble healed her wound, then said to the girl, "Can you run fast?" The girl nodded, and Gamble said, "Great. Run to that hill and there you'll find a house. Tell them that Gamble needs Kaido and Kaen, and Elarina to help, and bring them here." The girl started running while Gamble lowered the barrier for Aki with his shield and ran to help Akira, who was fighting the woman as an equal. "Akira!" Gamble shouted, and when Akira heard him, she pushed the woman away and ran to Gamble. "What is it?" Akira asked. "Do you remember our old prototype for the combined spell?" Akira nodded, and Gamble explained his plan. The woman, getting up, shouted angrily, "Accursed mortals!" before seeing Akira and Gamble performing identical movements as if dancing. The woman smiled like a psychopath, then tried to attack, but a wall of fire formed around Akira and Gamble, with a small pool of water between them. "What in the world is this?" the woman said. Akira and Gamble finished their dance, raising their hands to the sky, and a water dragon flew out of the pool, while flames formed wolves around Akira, and Gamble controlled the dragon's movements with fluid movements reminiscent of the earlier dance, controlling the dragon. The woman, unable to bear the anger anymore, attacked, but the wolves blocked her way. "Out of the way, furballs!" she dispersed the flaming wolves with wind and ran towards Gamble, but Akira stopped her, saying, "Cool, right? Sorry, but we have to stop the fire, so stand aside." The woman screamed with rage in her voice, and Akira took advantage of her momentary distraction, causing the ground to collapse beneath her, trapping her hands and legs in the earth. "You can extinguish the fire, Gamble," Akira said, and Gamble finished the dance, sending the dragon upwards and turning it into rain, extinguishing the fire in the village. "I'm not gay," Akira said, pointing at the woman stuck in the ground. Gamble laughed and said, "You still owe Aki a favor." "By the way, where is she?" Akira asked, and Gamble said, "Probably at home. Let's interrogate this woman, and then we can go." Akira approached the woman and asked, "Why the attack?" The woman said nothing, only gritted her teeth and stared Akira straight in the eyes. Akira said, "We won't get anything out of her," then stood up and said, "We should take care of her, let someone else deal with her," but the woman exploded, "What the hell?" Gamble shouted, brushing himself off, "Let's go," and without a word, walked towards home. Gamble returned for the shields and noticed Joa was gone, but didn't care and went back home, where Kaido immediately asked, "What happened?" "Nothing much, some woman thought she was a god," Gamble said, then said to Akira, "Do you think so too?" Akira nodded and took Aki upstairs to rest. Kaen asked, "Was it because of that king?" Gamble said, "Likely," then Akira's sister, Hana, came downstairs and asked, "Is it over?" to which Kaede replied, "It's over." After a few hours, Gamble and the kids started packing for the trip. Elarina went to Aki's room, who was already awake, and said, "We're leaving soon," and Aki got out of bed, grabbed her sword, and went downstairs with Elarina, where everything was ready and everyone was saying goodbye in front of the house. "Don't forget to stop by for a mission, Akira," Kaede said, to which Akira replied with a smile, "Alright, I promised something to someone anyway." After a while, Hana ran out, saying, "I'm ready," and Gamble looked at Akira, who didn't know what was going on and asked Hana, "Where are you going, young lady?" "With you..." Hana said, and Akira laughed loudly, saying, "Do you want to come with us? Show us you can do a fireball." Hana tried to cast the spell four times, and none of them worked, and Akira laughed, "If you practice, I'll come pick you up myself." She patted Hana on the head, then as they were about to get into the carriage, stopped and said, "Oh, and you'll have helpers at home," "Helpers?" Kaede asked. Then the girl from before ran up. Exhausted, she wiped her cheek with sweat and said, "I'm Natsuki, I'm 13, and I'll be helping you at home from now on," then bowed, and Kaede wanted to scold Akira, but they had already left, and Akira just waved goodbye to them, as did Kaen and Kaido. Hana became friends with Natsuki, and who knows, maybe one day they'll train and become strong enough to stand by the side of the Hero of the Sword and Shield. Meanwhile, Akira, Gamble, and the kids had only one stop left, and that was Stolina Poludzi. The journey would take them five days. "So, four camping nights," Kaen said. "But weren't we supposed to be there in a month?" Akira asked, to which Gamble replied, "I thought there would be more problems, and I miscalculated the distance from our town to Pokeropolis. We traveled there all night at maximum speed, which is... a bit too fast," explained Gamble. Akira lay down in her spot and said to Aki, "You owe me a favor, remember?" Aki nodded and asked, "What do you want?" Akira replied, "That you join us permanently."

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