It was still the dead of night, when sounds reached Ishrin’s ears and roused him from his fugue state. As his brain spun up to gear, he looked around and studied the dark surroundings. The moon was gone, hidden by a thick layer of black clouds that had covered the whole sky like a uniform tapestry of night. In the distance, the lights of the city were closer than they were before, but still far enough away that he couldn’t see the individual buildings.

The sounds became clearer as he got closer to the source, and a flash of light briefly pinpointed the location they were coming from. In a split-second decision, Ishrin decided to head towards the clump of trees in the distance from where the sounds – clearly those of a battle – were coming from. He ran as quickly as he could while maintaining stealth, and tried to gently wake the pixie up. She was his only weapon beside some basic magic cantrips his weak Tier 1 body could support. Fighting with his bare hands was also out of the question for obvious reasons.

Another explosion. This time, Ishrin heard the pained yelp of a girl and saw shadows quickly move towards it. He pushed his legs faster, forgoing all stealth. The pained cries coming from the deep foliage were too much to ignore, especially if he wanted to turn over a new leaf like he had promised the god.

By the time he arrived, the situation was dire. There were beasts, monsters of fur and claw standing tall on their hind legs. They were circling around the kneeling form of a young woman, dripping blood from several large gashes through her whole body. She was shivering, panting and panicking, yet still holding up her twin weapons in one last act of defiance against the monster.

Then her eyes locked onto his. Recognition dawned on her as she realized he was only a Tier 1, and since Liù was still hidden in a pocket, she must have thought that Ishrin was in danger because she tried to stand and put herself between him and the monsters, yelling to get their attention.

“What are you doing?” The girl cried out. “You need to ruuuu—” the last word dragged on.

Suddenly everything was immobile and still. Silence reigned supreme. The monster at the head of the pack was frozen with its mouth open, about to unleash its mighty roar but now forever frozen into immobility.

In Ishrin’s right hand the Tier 3 core he had gathered earlier that day shattered into fine dust, which stopped midway into falling to the ground as the effect of the spell affected it. But Ishrin was in too much pain to care – the core breaking was the intended effect after all. His mind was focused on the pain of his internal Tier 1 core cracking from the effort of casting a spell two tiers above him, and trying to contain its power.

This… is going to cripple my foundation.

He didn’t have time to despair for his foundation. The spell was on a timer.

Ishrin gathered himself, leaving behind a stunned pixie who had not been spared from the time-freezing effect due to lack of control, and stumbled towards the lead monster.

Yeah, too close. Liù would have never reacted in time.

Its jaws were mere centimeters away from the woman’s face. Just as he was about to examine her, to determine if she was injured, something caught his eye. Her dark, long hair was fluttering in the wind.

The spell is dissipating.

He didn’t have time. Turning his attention to the roaring werewolf, he wound up his arm and delivered a punch. Then the spell shattered.

An explosion and displacement of air threw Ishrin, the young woman and the mangled pieces of the monster into the air. Ishrin landed in a tumble, hurting but not injured, and immediately rushed to the now unconscious woman. All that was left of the monster was blood and misshapen gore, and now finally Liù had recovered from her shock and was standing between the Ishrin and the rest of the monster pack, glowing like a miniature sun.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The explosion was the result of delivering a normal punch while time all around was almost frozen still. The force had been multiplied a thousandfold, a sonic boom from the air moving too quickly too suddenly had thrown them all into the air, and the monster was simply not sturdy enough to remain solid.

It worked perfectly.

Liù faced the rest of the pack. She didn’t even need to release her attack as the monsters turned and ran for the hills. Instead, she settled for trying to extract the core from the mangled alpha that Ishrin had killed, yanking at it with her little body and a strain of her wings. It would have been a cute scene, but Ishrin had rushed to the injured woman the moment he knew the situation was under control, and was trying his best to stabilize her.

This is not looking good. My core is fried… what can we do?

He looked around. His mana sight was weakened, but working, and activating it he saw many natural treasures shining in the underbrush. They were of a low tier, but what they lacked in potency he could make up using the core Liù was extracting, quantity and his expertise.

Pain shot up in his abdomen, his cracked core damaging ever further, but he struggled up to his feet and went to gathering.

“Liù, start drawing a circle in the soil all around her. You can do that, can you?”

The pixie nodded, and Ishrin went to work.

***

Ishrin sat, slumped against a tree. Weak morning light shone through a thin layer of clouds and tree foliage to caress his face, but he was too tired to care. Before him were the burned-out lines of a ritual circle he had to draw with his own blood, weakening himself even further, and the desiccated remains of many medicinal plants and a spent monster core.

At the center of it all was the sleeping figure who had received the impromptu medial ritual. She was snoring lightly, but the sun hitting her face was slowly making her come awake. Her eyes opened ever so slightly, and in moments her brain caught up with her and she shot to her feet.

“Where am I?” The girl asked, noticing the ritual circle. Her face went from confused to scared to enraged and she struggled to get up. “What have you done to me?”

“Nothing! I have healed you.” Ishrin said with a smile, but too weak to get up.

“You lie!” She shouted.

Then she took a good look at herself. As she calmed herself down, she looked at Ishrin and then at her own body, then back at Ishrin.

“My wounds?” She said. “They are gone. You really healed me!”

He stiffly got up, and Liù helped him fetch her a large leaf full of water they gathered during the night, which she gingerly took.

“Water on a leaf?” She scoffed. “You are weird!”

“I’m new here. I don’t have anything on me.” Ishrin said. “A leaf had to make do.”

“And who’s the little creature hiding in your hair?”

“She’s Liù, a pixie made of elemental light.”

Liù poked her head out of the hair she was hiding in only to stare at the girl with a frown. The girl tried to smile at her, but she looked away and disappeared.

“Did she kill that Sycoraptor with that strange beam?”

“Yeah!” Ishrin said, offering the girl a hand. “Is that the name of that monster? Why raptor? Looked like a wolf.”

“Beats me,” the girl shrugged. “You look hurt.”

Ishrin inhaled sharply. That action too brought pain. “I’ll manage.”

“Thank you. For saving me.” She brushed the dirt from her legs and straightened her armor.

“I’m Ishrin, what’s your name?”

“Ishrin… A very strange name, you’re not from around here, are you?”

Ishrin shook his head.

“I see,” the girl paused. “My name is Lisette.” She paused again, as if looking for the right words. “I don’t think I could have outrun a pack of angry Sycoraptors chasing me. I owe you my life.”

Her voice was somber and serious. Ishrin brushed it off with a smile.

“Its no big deal, really.” He said, not wanting her to know about his foundation. Unfortunately, he was saying this while wincing in pain and pale as a sheet.

He didn’t know whether she understood or if she simply took his words at face value, but she dropped the matter. After some chitchat she agreed to help him walk and the duo took off towards the city that could now be seen in the distance beneath the towering mountain.

“I believe these weapons are yours.”

Lisette stared. “You have a storage skill. It is… pretty.”

Ishrin nodded. “Pretty handy, but I can’t really use it for combat.”

The girl didn’t answer immediately, instead assuming a pensive face. After a while, she said: “I believe that with some experimentation you can find a way to weaponize it.”

She went silent after that, leaving Ishrin to his thoughts. Mostly, he was intrigued at seeing a completely new side of her, serious tone and all, that had emerged as soon as they talked about fighting and was gone a moment later. In fact, Lisette was currently in a staring contest with Liù to see which of the two broke eye contact first, all traces of the mature, cold and calculating warrior gone from her face in favor of a sort of childish serious stubbornness in her game.

Ishrin shrugged. I don’t know what her deal is, but it’s not up to me to pry.

He patted himself on the metaphorical back for being such a good functioning adult. He wondered what his wife would say if she saw him now.