Rinae connected her face to her sister. Their lips were practically airtight. What she was doing wasn’t a kiss of admiration but a transference of magic from her stomach into her sister’s. She did this until a third of her magic contents was graciously given away.

This act wasn’t something she was ever taught or even seen, just a few days ago she was quite sure she was the only one of her kind. She instinctively knew how to circulate magic to another. She broke the connection they had.

“They were stronger than I thought.” Rinae peeked the window from the top floor. In the heat of the moment, she chose the closest building and ran in, which so happened to be a three-floor inn. “They must be able to hide the presence of their magic.”

Her carapace began to repair itself. Chitin plates slid from underneath one another taking the spots of the previous. “I want to eat the fire one, alive.” Her mood from earlier was entirely changed. She was livid.

“We can’t have them if we can’t get close.” Her sight of the two mages showed that they stayed in the same spot.

“Then, are we going to starve?” Her clone asked she put a hand to her stomach.

“No…” Rinae recalled the powers of the mages; both excelled in the open. Perhaps if they changed the battlegrounds, perhaps they can get away with a win. “Head to the cave.”

“Sister, I’m hungry! Why do I have to leave?”

“You are not.”

“Then why?”

Rinae didn’t answer; she just looked at her, she felt as if she had a natural superiority over her.

“I see, I'll follow anything you say.” Her armor was just about healed, only minor cracks, and burns remained, healing those would require more magic to be feed to her, more than Rinae was willing to share. She picked up a nearby table and held it overhead.

A boy and his mother had been cowering underneath ever since the duo entered the room. Tears were flowing from the boy as his mother covered his mouth. The two had barely any magic within their bodies, a sure reason for them to have gone so long unnoticed.

“Sister.”

Rinae approached, she looked at the two with the same coldness a dragon would give an ant, she reached out and grabbed the boy by the scruff of his clothes. His mother tried to fight for him; she was no match in strength compared to Rinae.

“Give him back!” She pleaded tears were streaming down her face. Her fear prevented her from getting up. “Please don’t hurt him!”

Her cries fell on deaf ears, Rinae simply turned her back on the woman.

Her clone tossed the table into the wall; it fractured and splintered, ultimately doing its job in destroying the wall. The wooden furniture continued with the momentum it had; it went straight for the mages.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Heh, such a childish trick!” The fire mage opened his palm and created a fireball. He was going to vaporize the incoming furniture and to further extent, the building.

The other mage’s eyes shot wide open, he jumped forward and forced his arm upward. The resulting actions made him miss. The water mage sent his tentacle out into the incoming debris and grabbed the boy that was thrown right behind the table. He rode the aquas appendage down into his arms.

Rinae and her clone jumped from the hole, with the help of her wings she made the great distance, even if she landed a lot quicker with her offshoot hanging on.

“Why did you do that!? They are getting away!” The mage of the fire was furious. He was shaking with rage.

“Soldiers who flee battle are one thing, but you can’t kill the very thing you’ve sworn to protect as a knight!” He was on his knees covering the audible child.

“Raaah.” He yelled He took a look at the direction the two flew off in and followed.

“Stop! What are you doing!?”

“I’m going to finish them off while they are weak!”

“Don’t go off alone, moron! It could be a tr-” He was already out of earshot of the complaints. The water mage sighed and looked to the boy. “Run and find your mom.” He said smiling. The little boy did just that, heading to the very same inn that was almost destroyed. The mage took off after his compatriot.

~^~

The two were sitting high in the canopies of the forest. Watching as the two mages walked underneath. Under the forest any form of darkness was amplified by at least 2, if it was pitch black already it’d be like walking into a void.

“Running off like that, Have you forgotten your training?” He ran in front of the fire mage. “What if more creatures were hiding back here?”

“You’re here, and I have back up.” He retorted stepping to the side to continue walking.

“That’s because I remembered the importance of having a partnership.”

Rinae looked to her clone, and wordlessly the two knew exactly what the plan was. She climbed a fair bit ahead of the mage duo. For her tracking her prey was as natural as breathing, the darkness of the tree’s never obscured her vision, every living creature had a signature aura of magic. Once she was just far ahead of the two, she cut a branch.

The impact was loud and echoed. In her vision the two auras stopped moving, while one took off in the direction, the other that was hesitantly followed by shortly. Her role was finished. Rinae jumped tree to tree as she heard the noise herself. Not having to actually go a forest path allowed her to come out just ahead of them even if they were in full sprint. She stayed next to her clone on the outskirts of the cave.

Her clone jumped down just at the mouth of the cave, she looked behind her and saw the two mages emerge from the treeline. The fire mage raised his hand to ready a fireball attack. She walked right into the cave.

“Damn it,” he muttered, he started for the cave but was stopped by his partner.

“Cool it!”

He struggled against the grip, “Let go of me!”

“Remember there are two of them! That was only one!”

The fire mage finally cooled himself and looked around, trees and darkness surrounded them, even if it wasn’t a trap. He led them into their own graves.

“Then we have two choices, go in there and kill the monster or die out here.” He pointed to the cave.

“I think we should go back.” The water mage suggested.

Rinae jumped down from her tree, the fire and water mage got into a combat stance. A clawing noise came from the cave, The fire mage turned around and saw her clone. The two mages were in between two dangerous situations.