Kel and Tae didn’t even try to resist the pressure the two imperial guards constantly exuded, falling to a kneeling position at the mercy of the guards. Micro found himself trying to counter the effect by circulating more and more energy through his entire body in order to keep himself standing, the same way he’d done in the dungeon not long ago, but it felt like spinning his tires in the snow. He tried summoning his turtle armour, but the guards’ energy seemed to interfere with his own, rendering him unable to manifest any ability at all.

“A hero with a core? Fascinating.” The male guard said with a frown as he approached Micro.

“I am Azar of the Imperial Guard. You’re the ones accompanying this magician’s thing, correct?”

“I am Lena of the Imperial Guard.” The woman added while walking closer to Kel and Tae. She looked at them with glowing eyes, but her expression showed immense indifference.

“Research Division…”

“You honour our sect with your presence, esteemed guards of the empire…” Kel choked out his greeting.

“I think there has been a misunderstanding…”

“A misunderstanding, you say?” Azar scoffed, grabbing Micro by the shoulder to turn him around violently, completely unaware of Micro’s resistance.

“Are you not being manipulated by this poorly constructed magician’s summon?”

“Enough small talk, Azar.” Lena said with a harsh tone.

“A live specimen is a rare find. Restrain it and we’ll dissect it later. As for these two…”

“I can’t be bothered to take them in. Set them loose.” Azar said indifferently.

“Just a couple jade sect hicks.”

“Master… I’m…” Kel struggled to speak, but he and Tae soon fell to the ground unconscious.

“To think heroes are just popping up in these little mountain villages now…” Lena sighed, her aura filling the air itself with her frustration.

“Just seal it for now so it doesn’t give us any trouble.” Azar ordered his elder comrade.

“You never know what tricks these things are capable of.”

“Aye, sir…” Lena replied, her aura beginning to change slightly.

Before Micro could even find the strength to open his mouth, a glowing net materialized around him, then gradually closed in on him until he was wrapped up so tightly that he could hardly breathe. He tried to break free, but his muscles wouldn't respond. As he fell to the ground, Azar quickly wrapped a rope around him and slung the paralyzed Micro over his back like a piece of luggage. When Azar began walking, Micro could only watch helplessly as Kel and Tae faded into the distance behind him.

“It’s comforting to know that the best the magicians are capable of is a jade core, at the very least...” Azar sighed.

“It’s still disgusting to see them infiltrating these little communities.”

“This one seems to have two pixies attached to it as well, perhaps to serve as energy reserves, though they’re almost depleted...” Lena replied while inspecting Micro from a few paces behind.

“What a strange specimen, indeed…”

“Let’s get moving.” Azar snapped.

“We have two Emerald level dungeons to document on the way back, and this detour has cost us enough time as it is.”

“Patience, Azar.” Lena replied.

“This has been a fruitful development.”

“I long for simpler times…” Azar lamented as they exited the out sect residence and continued stealthily past the poor villages full of mundane farmers and labourers. Several people looked nervously out their windows as the Imperial Guards left their neighbourhood, but Azar and Lena ignored the noise and panic that descended upon the sect when Kel and Tae’s unconscious forms were discovered.

“We tried killing them all, but they multiply like cockroaches.” Lena said with disgust in her voice.

“Don’t you dare kill this one until I’ve taken it apart. I fear it may prove our fears were justified.”

“So you believe they’re growing stronger after all?” Azar said as he began to quicken his walk to a run.

“You think their evil goddess may one day pose a legitimate threat?”

“Look at the empire as it stands, child.” Lena rebuked him, easily matching his pace.

“To think it has resisted enemy invasion for a thousand years, only to be attacked from within. We boast our power to the world, but we’re rotting inside like a dying tree.”

“Enough of your exaggerating, Lena.” Azar chuckled, now running at a speed Micro felt was similar to his own top speed in his original form.

“The day a fake jade core poses a threat to the Sapphire Water Tiger Moon Sect, I’ll eat my armour!”

“Ha!” Micro blurted out, his voice muffled but still audible despite his slow breathing.

“What in the world?!” Azar cried out, and both of the guards suddenly screeched to a halt, kicking up clouds of dust that further stung Micro’s dry, unblinking eyes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You heard that, right?”

“I did, child.” Lena said with a look of excitement on her face.

“A vocalization, if I’m not mistaken. Primitive, but unmistakably significant!”

“We should kill it now!” Azar shouted as he threw Micro to the ground.

“If it can talk, it can cast spells!”

“Look who’s scared now, silly boy.” Lena giggled as she ran over to inspect Micro.

“Tiger… Moon…” Micro managed to mumble through the glowing net.

“Feng…”

“Don’t you dare unbind him, Lena!” Azar shouted angrily as he summoned a massive sword of energy which he gripped defensively with both hands.

“You have your orders, boy.” Lena snapped at him.

“You escort me to the hero, and I deal with it as I see fit.”

“Fools!” Azar shouted, but he obediently refrained from attacking.

“Not a Hero…” Micro mumbled.

“Hold on a moment.” Lena interrupted him as she folded back the part of the glowing net that covered his head.

“There you are. What were you saying?”

“I’m not a Hero.” Micro repeated.

“I’m a Micro.”

“You have a name?” Lena asked as she inspected him with glowing eyes.

“Perhaps some lingering memories of a past life? Where is your master?”

“My master…?” Micro coughed.

“Yes, who controls you now? Are you able to answer freely? What is your mission?” Lena asked quickly before restraining herself.

“My driver… is not on this world…” Micro replied sadly.

“My master… is the baldy, from the turtle sect…”

“Fascinating…” Lena mumbled as she monitored his heart beat closely.

“I’m not sure what it’s trying to say, but it’s clearly conscious!”

“I’m going to the imperial city…” Micro continued in a daze.

“Your purpose is to attack the city?” Lena asked.

“To make friends… at the tournament…”

“What purpose does a tournament of cultivators serve the magicians? Are you meeting others there?”

“We’re representing the sect… I’m not a magician.” Micro replied as he strained his mind to come up with an answer to resolve the situation.

“The summoning that brought me here…”

“So you were summoned after all?”

“It failed.” Micro coughed again, his breathing still heavily restricted by the net.

“I escaped, and Kel helped me. The sect leader helped me fix my core…”

“Are you hearing what I’m hearing, Azar?” Lena asked Azar with overflowing enthusiasm.

“The soul in this vessel is completely intact!”

“So?” Azar scoffed, gripping his sword even tighter.

“Are you as stupid as you are strong, Azar?!” Lena laughed.

“It means it’s a living witness to a summoning! Forget dissecting it, we need to extract all the information it holds! Change of plans, boy. We’re going straight to the sect.”

“You know we have to report to the commander first, you senile old-”

“We don’t have time! His vessel could deteriorate at any moment! You know how these vessels are.” Lena explained with urgency.

“It could also explode at any moment.” Azar argued.

“And we have no defense against chaos energy attacks.”

“We can take precautions at the auxiliary temple.” She asserted as she started dragging him by the feet back to Azar.

“Here, pick him up. We’ll return to the sect at once!”

“I’m leaving none of this out of my next report…” Azar mumbled as the sword disappeared from his hands and he reached out to grab the tightly bound Micro again. The net began to slither back up Micro’s body toward his head as they began to walk.

“Good, then we’ll-” Lena began, but she was suddenly caught off guard by a flash of light.

“Gah! My shoulder!”

Suddenly, a barrage of energy projectiles flew out of Micro’s pocket, more powerful than any Micro had seen before. They tore through Lena’s shoulder with ease, sending a mist of blood out behind her as she reeled in shock. Azar managed to deflect several with his sword, but one went straight through his foot, causing him to cry out in pain. Micro, just as surprised as the guards, suddenly found himself unrestrained as Lena’s ability to maintain the mysterious skill waned.

“Run, dummy!” Blue’s voice suddenly rang out.

“That way!”

Micro replied to her order faster than he’d ever replied to the weight of a foot on his accelerator pedal, and poured all the energy he could gather into his legs as he began to run in the direction Blue was pointing.

“Don’t look back any time soon!” Blue shouted as she guided Micro across a valley toward the towering southern mountains.

“I used up most of your energy on those attacks!”

“You syphoned my fuel again?!” Micro replied with a gasp.

“Shut up and run!” She snapped back.

“I looked ahead while I still had some of your energy... Head up that mountain there, just past the trees! Hurry…!”

“Okay!” Micro shouted back, doing his best not to fall every time he tripped over a rock. Holding his hands in front of him as he ran, he managed not to collide too hard with any trees as he entered the forested base of the mountain range, and he felt surprisingly comfortable running up the side of the first mountain he came to.

After climbing a short way up the mountain, he took a moment to look over his shoulder, and was disappointed to see the two guards not far behind him, and catching up quickly.

“We’re not going to make it, Blue!” He panted, unable to speed up anymore.

“Brace yourself then.” Blue replied.

“This will hurt.”

Suddenly, with a snap of her fingers, Micro was surrounded by a blue light. Before He had time to observe it, however, it enveloped him similarly to the net which the imperial guard had used. But it didn’t stop at surrounding him. He began to feel like his entire body was being stretched and pulled through the air, faster and faster until he wasn’t sure his body was the same shape anymore. He wondered if Nora had summoned him again, but the next thing he saw wasn’t the starry sky, but the inside of a cave.

“Where are-” micro began, then he suddenly vomited and fell to his knees.

“Agh…!”

Blue crawled out of his pocket and looked back at him with a weary expression.

“The blink spell… I can bring stuff with me…” She explained through her gasps for air.

“But it takes more energy than I have… So I used yours… all of it…”

“I need… fuel…” Micro mumbled, struggling to gather any of the ambient energy around him.

“Hungry…”

“No time… There…” Blue huffed, unable to pick herself up off the floor, pointing behind Micro with a shaking hand.

“They’ll be here soon!. Go!”

Replying instinctively to Blue's command, Micro grabbed her in his hand and kicked off the ground with what little strength he had, not even looking in the direction he had jumped. He brought his other foot forward to take another step as he wheezed and coughed.

“There!” Azar’s voice suddenly echoed in the cave, but Micro’s only concerned with his next step.

“Huh?” Micro blurted out as his foot landed on nothing at all. He opened his eyes wide to look around, but all he could see was a familiar green glow.

And then everything was dark.