Part 5

'How is he catching up?'

Isaiah caught himself as he momentarily lost his balance. Running barefoot on top of the heavy carpet wasn't helping his already abysmal running speed, not to mention the friction it caused on his soles. It was only because they ran first and Titan was carrying his heavy armor and weapon that they managed to gain some ground, but that was quickly disappearing.

Thud thud thud thud,

Despite his massive size and heavy gear, the giant ran as fast as a four-legged beast. It almost looked like he was flying. Isaiah, being that he was behind Nicole who ran faster than him, began to fire off bolts of lightning at their chaser. But without the luxury of being able to aim his attacks meant that only a few reached their target, and even those that did hit didn't stop the giant's charge the slightest.

'Damn this...' He gritted his teeth. He could feel his heart pounding like crazy, every beat was feeling like he was being beaten by a thick plastic baseball bat. He looked forward and focused on running, in front Nicole was breezing through the hallway, their distance was a bit far but not too far that he couldn't hear her ragged breaths as they went across the mansion and its maze-like interior.

Isaiah continued to look up, having given up on slowing Titan down with his magic he focused most of his consciousness on keeping his foot and breathing as calm as possible when he was suddenly enveloped by a vast shadow. Panic took over his mind and in desperation, Isaiah began wildly throwing the many statues lining up on the side to his back to stop the giant, and though it did meet some level of success, the ache in his head began to grow stronger and stronger, and now his sight was beginning to grow blurry.

'Shit... Shit, shit shit.'

Thinking that all was lost, Isaiah braced himself for death when Nicole sharply turned right. Isaiah quickly followed after her, seeing a statue nearby he held onto its arms to allow him to 'drift' into her direction, this allowed him to turn instantly whilst maintaining his speed but at the cost of his soles and legs which grazed the ground to burn in pain. Titan meanwhile couldn't stop in time and went past through the hallway and crashed into the wall in a massive explosion. This gave them some breathing room, but the race wasn't over yet.

"Stop!" Two guards, who were patrolling the area noticed the two running for them and reached out for their weapons.

Nicole was caught unaware and accidentally slipped her foot, her legs turning red from all the static energy she got from her slide. Isaiah meanwhile slowed himself down and reached his hand out, blowing both guards away towards the door.

"Gah..." Nicole tried to stand back up, but her legs refused to move herself. What's worse, a thin trickle of blood appeared from where her foot was planted.

"Are you alright?"

"Its... It burns, grk..." She tried to stand again, but as she was unused to such pains, it was quite difficult for her. "Just... Just leave me be, go."

Isaiah gritted his teeth, he could just leave her here and be on his merry way, but...

'She's cute,' Isaiah knew of his lack of social skills, thus an opportunity to impress a cute girl would be hard to come by even with his powers, and this opportunity was a chance that would never return, this was a moment that he could show off his skills at a time where the woman was most impressionable, surely raising her flag in the process. But as he looked back, he was beginning to question whether or not it was worth doing it in the first place, sure she was cute but there were plenty of others, yes he may garner her interest but being able to keep it required a set of skills that he lacked the most.

Most importantly, by bringing her with him he would also have to take care of the problems that she carried. Judging by the fact that he was being held by that noble and her rather princess-like look she must have held importance to the noble back then. Meaning that he would use everything in his power to take her back. But what if she is a legit slave and had nothing to offer to Isaiah in the first place?

He knew, that despite living a life of high fantasy, he should still ground his mind in reality. He decided to ultimately leave her. It would not be in his best interest if he were to die here, just to save a woman he could not save. But as he was about to leave her, the sight of her leaning onto the walls, and desperately trying to move as fast as she could all by herself made his heart ache.

His emotions began overtaking his thoughts, and thus, despite his best efforts to try and rationalize his actions, he decided to fight.

"I took you far enough... Might as well finish this." Isaiah clicked his tongue and turned around, Titan had caught up.

Seeing that the puny mage was willing to engage in combat, Titan slowed down and took out his axe.

The fight was quick,

Isaiah crushed all the statues around them but failed to use them as missiles against the giant as his head ached like never before.

"Gah!" He gasped out loud and fell to the ground.

Titan, who had raised his guard, was rather surprised to see this sudden turn of events, but quickly made his move.

"You were brave enough, trying to fight against me... But a fool you are, thinking you could beat me."

"God, damn it!" Isaiah spat out his anger, and lightning raged in his body. "This stupid fucking magic..." The lighting on his body began to intensify before suddenly disappearing, "DIE!"

Titan reached his axe out to shield himself, but his speed could not overcome the speed of light, and was struck by lightning. An explosion rocked the mansion as Titan's massive frame was thrown deep into the halls. Before he could stand back up, Isaiah reached out to the roof and collapsed it. His head once more ached, but it was a lot more softer than it was before.

"Haa, haa, haa, haa..." Isaiah wiped his face, he realized that there was blood now pouring from his head. "This stupid weakness." He turned around and looked at Nicole, he wanted to look brave and smile at her to raise more points, but rather than find a face full of admiration, all he saw was her face filled with worry,

"Look out!"

It was too late,

The next thing Isaiah knew, he felt something hard hit his back. Then in the next second, he felt wind rushing his side as his face crashed straight at a wooden door. Bringing it down along with him. Titan was unscathed from the attack, and as Isaiah looked away he threw the stone ceiling that Isaiah had used to trap him and broke his back.

"Aaaaah! Aaaaah!" Isaiah screamed and cried. His whole body felt painful and painless at the same time, his mind was filled with thoughts of dying, pain, sadness, and all other negative emotions. His legs felt grainy, his face felt wet, and his whole body felt like it was blanketed by warm water, it also didn't help that it was the heavy stone ceiling that squashed his back. It was a miracle that he still lived, yet at the same time a curse as he felt pain throughout every inch of his body, both inside and out. "Aaah! Mama! Mama!"

"Herr mage..." Nicole ran towards Isaiah and held his hand. The stone ceiling was too heavy for her to carry, but she had to do something. "Err, err..." Looking around, she noticed that they were in a massive well-lit ballroom.

Tables and chairs lined the sides, with some of them covered by blankets. Trays of silverware were littered about, a sign that some kind of preparations were being made here before the servants abandoned their post. She dug her hands on the scattered cutlery and found a big knife. She then took a look at her arms.

She had been born with an affinity to a magical element, but due to the nature of the said element, she had no proper means of protecting herself, which was the reason that her cuffs were of a weaker grade than what was normally used. And although the chains had been burned away, thus weakening their durability, the cuffs still functioned normally sucking out the mana she had recovered.

'Unlike the new ones, if I could remove just one of this wrist, I should be able to use magic...' The only problem was, 'I have to cut off my hand for that to happen...'

Both cuffs were a tight fit to her wrist, it would be impossible to just force them out of her arms.

'Healing... Gulp... Healing magic should grow my arm back... But... But...' She looked at Isaiah, the man had fainted, and blood flowed everywhere from his body whilst Titan was approaching them. 'I... I should just run...' She told herself, 'He... He fainted and, and...' She continued to stare at Titan and felt a shiver run down her spine as she felt his icy glare, 'I... I can't run...' She looked at Isaiah, "I must save him first..."

She remembered the weakness of her current situation.

Nicole was born with an affinity to the healing element, which meant that though she could heal herself and others she lacked any combat capabilities. Well, even if she did have any she would not have stood any chance against Titan. The man protecting her may have failed, despite his combat abilities, but he was able to bring him down before. That meant only he had the chance to give her the chance she needed to escape...

Realizing that she had no other choice and that death was practically at the door, she braced herself and bit her lip...

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However as she held the knife close to her wrist, she decided to try her luck at simply breaking the cuffs themselves. As hard as she could she pushed the knife onto the cuff in between her wrist, blood flowed as she bit her lip but in sheer desperation, she soldiered on and soon it broke, freeing her arm from captivity. Now free she noticed that a massive cut was lodged at the lower part of her thumb,

"Aah!" She bit her lip as she recited the spell, "Let-let there be light, let there be an order in chaos. Protect my body and my soul. Heal!"

The wound in her arm slowly disappeared, as if time had reversed and before long it had been done. Her skin had returned to its former self, not a trace of the wound in sight. She then turned to Isaiah.

"Let the light shine through the darkness. And may the balance of life bring him whole. Ultra Heal!"

A bright white light crawled towards Isaiah, enveloping him from top to bottom in mere seconds.

As she was healing Isaiah, Titan arrived behind her. In his hand was the massive chunk of stone that was still dripping with Isaiah's blood.

"Healing?" He muttered as he raised the rock that sandwiched Isaiah, "A poor soul you are."

His voice broke Nicole's concentration and upon looking up saw the massive shadow cast by that chunk. Her face was filled with terror as Titan's hand swiped over her, in a single move she was blown away. She landed not too far atop tables which cushioned her fall but it was still painful.

With her gone, he turned to Isaiah.

His body was filled with cuts and bruises the massive chunk caused, while blood seeped from all corners of his body. But the timely aid Nicole gave him was enough to keep him alive. Titan picked him up from the head and observed his face. He was youthful, a single mole at the left side of his chin near his lips disturbed his otherwise smooth creamy-brown face. His hair was short, similar to the young nobles from the north. But his muscles were rather lacking, his shoulders were somewhat jelly, and much of his body lacked any sign of a muscle forming up somewhere.

"You are a mage through and through."

Titan finished his examination and looked away, ready to discard his body but then Isaiah opened his eyes and turned to Titan. A sudden strong gust of wind blew him away from Titan's grasp. But as Isaiah landed on his foot, they suddenly gave out and he fell to the ground backward,

"Hmmmm..." Isaiah bit his lips, his feet had a static feel to them. He looked back and saw Nicole's unconscious body lying on the ground, he reached out to her, "Ni... Lady, lady, are you alright?"

"Wah, ah?" Nicole looked around, "The healing, I... I cannot heal you properly, I am sorry."

"It's alright." Isaiah shook his head, he could still remember the pain he felt at that time. "That said..."

Titan stood in front, axe in his hand, "You are one wonderful specimen."

"Err, what?"

"To think you could still stand and fight after all that beating, indeed, for a mage you are sturdy."

"You know, I am getting confused here, aren't you here to kill me?"

"Indeed so."

"And you had all the chance to do just exactly that, why didn't you then?"

"Why didn't I? Simple," Titan reached his hand out, "I was testing you, and judging you fit to be my apprentice,"

"Wha-"

Titan remained quiet and kept his hand out. Isaiah felt Nicole hold his hand as if she was worried. This put him in a rather tough spot,

"You... You're joking right?"

Titan once more remained silent,

"And if I don't?"

Titan withdrew his hand and pointed his massive axe at Isaiah,

"You... You don't have to join him..." Nicole splurted out, her voice breaking under panic, "I-I can pay you, yes, my father-my father is the Duke of Swadia, he can give you appropriate rewards if you deliver me back to him... He is rich, really rich, like uber-rich! My father has a fountain made of marble and gold even..."

'The duke of-...' Isaiah brushed up his history lessons and remembered that dukes are at the top of the noble pyramid being only outranked by royalty. 'If her father is a duke, then wouldn't her kidnapper be in real trouble if she escaped? There is nothing more dangerous than a desperate man with everything to lose.'

"What good is money to the dead?" Titan said as if he read his mind,

"We can escape... We can still escape, no need to fight..."

"Can you really escape? Even if you did escape will Lord Caleb allow you to do so?"

"I... I helped you out, Herr Mage, please... Don't leave me alone,"

"You don't even know his name..."

"Shut up..." Isaiah opened his mouth and turned to Titan, "Just shut up, okay... Do you work for them? Work for the Kilo guy right?"

"Indeed so?"

Isaiah pointed at his chest, "I've been branded, why would I work for someone whose master gave me that mark?"

"Have you ever heard of my name before boy?" His voice sounded much deeper when he saw those words, "I can easily remove that mark off your body, just as I can easily remove your life. No one will touch you so long as you are under me, not Caleb, not the king, not even god!"

"No... And I don't care."

"I see..." Titan brushed the necklace hanging near his throat, it was a rather large necklace made purely out of gold embedded with twelve brilliantly shining diamonds. "That should tell you."

Isaiah looked at his plate, but couldn't make heads or tails about what such a thing entailed and neither the two of them gave him some insights as to what it meant. That said, considering how everyone was reacting it must have meant that he was in a whole class of strength. The silence was beginning to mount on his psyche. Being the attention of two rather peculiar individuals made Isaiah shy as his introverted side was beginning to take hold of his emotions. He was panicking, trying to find a way out of this situation when Nicole suddenly whispered to him,

"I can move now..."

"I see... I'll distract him, then we run,"

"Yes..."

"Run? Run where?" Titan asked, overhearing their conversation,

"Tsk, whatever!" Isaiah stretched both his arms and at once all the silverware in the room began to fly around like a wall of flies,

"No matter what you throw at me..." Titan held his hand out and began to move forward, the silverware's noise and thick wall covered his vision momentarily and when he finally got out of the tornado of forks, he found both Isaiah and Nicole having run off,

There were three exits from the ballroom. Though it may be difficult to figure out exactly where the two had run off, Titan knew that all three would converge in the exit. And thus he went through the middle path.

Both Isaiah and Nicole ran as fast as they could, having taken the left door and both unaware of the layout of the mansion. That said, they had begun to unconsciously relax and slow down a bit after realizing that Titan was nowhere to be seen or heard. As they turned a corner, Nicole froze up in shock as she saw Titan standing not too far from her, she turned her back and bumped into Isaiah,

"Wha... What's going..."

"Titan..." She looked around and found an open room from the side, "Quick!" She pointed over to the room and the two made their way inside as quickly as they could, they didn't notice the wet floor on the ground and the two fell into each other, buckets of water spilling all over them as mops and brooms and all manner of cleaning paraphernalia fell around their bodies. The smell of dirty water, strong soaps, and chemicals permeated in their bodies.

The whole place was a mess, it also didn't help that the room was pitch black with the door closed. Thus, to not create more noise, Nicole simply stayed still in a very compromising position on top of Isaiah. It also didn't help that the pitch darkness of the room made both very conscious of each other. Both were healthy, young individuals after all.

He was already enamored by Nicole's beauty, but now he got to feel her whole body up close. Her soft but warm breaths were brushing the side of his neck constantly, making him blush redder, while his whole body burned hot from the lust now beginning to boil deep inside him. Though he did his best to suppress himself, her warm breaths and the brushing of their bodies didn't help at all. Even with his best efforts, as this was his first time having such close contact with a lady, his lust began to explode, the lewd thoughts on his mind simply wouldn't disappear with every passing second.

'Little one, calm down... Don't rise, don't rise... Don't destroy my image now...' Isaiah lamented his lack of underwear as he began to think of plain and simple things like houses and buildings, roads and bridges, beaches, and the women in bikinis, hills, and mountains that looked like human body parts. 'Calm down, calm down...'

Nicole herself became very aware of Isaiah, she was able to pick up his emotions rather clearly due to the loss of sight and their proximity. Despite her efforts, the weight of the mops from behind weighed down on her making it rather difficult to separate herself from him for fear that they might make a sound. And then, there was also one thing that she had a hard time trying to ignore no matter how hard she tried.

'Settle down,' She whispered, her voice partly shaken after she felt the poking thing between her legs, 'Not now...'

However, to the grand master of loneliness, those words spoken by a beauty had the opposite effects, especially the words 'Not now' which implied something else entirely. This broke Isaiah's reasoning, his lust ballooned up which instantly consumed his sanity and his body now began demanding to feel her even more. Isaiah tried to stop himself, he knew it was wrong but his hands began to move by themselves, they first touched her back.

He felt her shaking body suddenly go still when he moved his hand on her back. He felt guilty and told himself not to continue but when she gripped his shoulder tightly, it was giving him mixed signals. Just as he was about to continue with his adventure, the sudden loud thud of Titan's footsteps made him go limper than a man with erectile dysfunction.

Gone were all notions of perversion in his thoughts as he waited and listened to the sounds of his steps. Even Nicole who took rapid breaths had grown very quiet, both had stifled their breaths. Soon, the footsteps grew quieter and quieter, before eventually growing silent. Nicole was the first to break the silence, she asked in the lowest voice possible,

"Is he gone?"

"I... I think so." Isaiah took a deep breath and began to move out of Nicole, "Sorry, for that..."

"It... It's alright, it wasn't your fault..."

"It... Still, I am sorry."

The room was still dark, and the two, though no longer touching each other were still aware of each other's presence. Silence befell them as they tried to figure out how exactly they could move out of this embarrassing situation when they felt the air suddenly drop. Isaiah grabbed Nicole and shielded her when the door exploded into a thousand pieces, followed by Titan pulling away the entire front wall, the stone crumbling from his back... Light entered the room instantly, and their wet figures emerged. Nicole froze still as she stared at Titan's eyes while Isaiah looked back,

All of a sudden, Titan grabbed Isaiah by the neck and lifted him.

"Gaah!"

Isaiah flailed about choking, he vainly smacked his fist onto Titan's massive arms as his head turned blue,

Nicole broke out of her fear and began to throw at the items that littered their area in an effort to free Isaiah,

"Stop!" She loudly demanded as she struck him with a broom, only for the handle to break, "Put him down! Why are you doing this?"

Titan turned his eyes to Nicole and quietly glared at her. Being subjected to such an intense hate-filled gaze made her breathing grow heavier and her legs began to shake before giving in entirely. With her now silent, Titan turned back to Isaiah only to find him holding his helmet, as his palms erupted into an intense storm. The electricity began to surround his helmet and enter his body,

"Gah!"

The large knight recoiled in pain as he let go of him. Isaiah took a deep breath to keep himself steady and without wasting even more movements, turned back and crushed the wall behind them. Taking Nicole by the hand, they then both leaped down and crashed into the ground below, a bush of some kind cushioning their fall. Their fall wasn't too deep and thus both managed to get away with only minor injuries.

"Are you alright?" Isaiah asked Nicole who still looked scared,

"Y... Yes, yes... How about you?"

"Good, now, let's go..."

"Right."

The two then proceeded away from the mansion as quickly as they could, thankfully the guards were all busy dealing with the slave revolt inside thus they met minimal resistance. What little did intercept them were swiftly dealt by Isaiah with a swipe of his hand.

Upon reaching the wall, Isaiah's adrenalin rush ended suddenly sapping all his energy away he fell to the ground, gnashing his chin to the hard dirt below causing it to bleed, nonetheless, he stood up and with what little energy he had left he used to create little holes in the wall for the two of them to climb to the top. Once above he paused and surveyed the mansion, sweat drenched his whole body from head to toe while his heart beat so loudly he felt like going deaf. He chuckled, this was the most exercise he had done in his whole life.

'I should exercise more, lose up the fats, and increase those muscles.' He wiped his forehead as he began his descent. Though he wished to rest the day was not yet over, there was some distance to be made first.