[Three weeks prior to the attack on the north]

Everyone was desperate to increase their chances of survival, and Annie was no different. Thus far, she had been relatively useless, a weaker Michael with not even a quarter of his skills.

The only reason she was still on the battlefield was to help gather arrows and to assist in case of an emergency. However, being a one trick pony sat poorly with Annie.

"Teach me how to use fire,” she muttered, her forehead touching the sand. Her silver-white hair was disheveled and full of knots, a testament of how little time she or anyone else had to waste.

“Little girl, get up. We cannot help you even if we want to.”

Unlike in Finn’s imagination, the mercenary mages Annie spoke to wore steel armor with chainmail underneath. They held mid-sized shields in one hand and staves in the other.

Their armor was light and full of scratches and dents. The staves were small with missing pieces and poorly crafted orange crystals at the top.

A tall and lanky woman approached Annie.

“There are two ways to use combat magic," she explained. "You can learn the forms mana must take from a master, or you can buy a crystal which already holds these forms.

None of us here have received formal training, so we make use of the second method.”

“Then, can I practice with your staff for just an hour? I want to feel what it’s like to use fire magic.”

Annie kept her head down. She did not need to pretend to be a magic fanatic, because she was one in the flesh.

‘Say yes. Say yes. Say yes.’

“No.” The woman shook her head. “This staff is my livelihood and my most precious possession. No mage will hand her crystal to another.”

“You can hold onto it,” said Annie. “If I could just touch it...”

“No.” The woman turned her back. “I’m sorry.”

The tall mage walked away from Annie as did the other mages. The girl gritted her teeth and grabbed a fist full of sand.

She had known of this second method of using magic ever since she had encountered the golem. However, crystals were expensive and hard to come by even on the battlefield.

Mages fought from the back lines, and in the rare event that one perished, a successor to their crystal was likely nearby. A friend, a comrade, a brother, or a sister: Each mage’s crystal was always promised to another.

‘I will never steal something so precious,’ Annie had decided for herself. Although frustrated, she raised her head from the sand.

However, when she did there was something floating in front of her eyes. A fist sized rock was circling her head. Most of the mercenaries had left, but around 10 feet in front of her, one lone, bald, old man had remained.

“Fire magic is energy efficient and highly destructive, but it also takes months, if not years, to learn.” The old man smirked. “However, if you’re willing to learn something a bit more basic and crude, then I guess I can help.”

[Back to the present]

Annie focused on the pebbles in her hand and replaced the mana inside them with her own. There were no fancy forms or patterns or runes to this technique.

‘Take over and rule,’ she remembered the old man’s words.

The mana expenditure was horrendous, and control over the pebbles disappeared five feet away from the caster.

However, this particular caster was not reliant on crystals. She had a pool of blue mana as large as her body and the aim of a trained marksman.

“Run!” she yelled at the boys while shooting the goblin with two dozen pebbles as if straight out of a gatling gun. A black energy field materialized out of the goblin’s crystal and blocked the incoming attack while also covering its master’s vision.

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The army of monsters in the distance created a dust cloud so large it reached all the way to where Finn and Luca were running for their lives. Annie grabbed more pebbles and several more sharks charged at the boys.

Even with Finn’s enhanced body, he could attack or run, but he could not do both. Razor sharp teeth approached his liver and grazed his skin. Before they could go any further, Finn stepped back and plunged his knife into the monster’s skull.

‘Three down, seven to go.’ Since the main army was still some distance away, there was still a chance they could escape.

Suddenly, Finn heard Luca wail. He turned to see the boy’s silhouette missing half an arm and running for his life towards Annie.

Pebbles flew into the shark behind him, but several more drew close.

“Damnit!” Finn ran between the elf and the sharks, while black fireballs flew above his head. ‘If we get to Annie with the sharks on our tail, she’s dead and so are we.’

Unfortunately, the goblin had a similar idea. While Finn attacked one of the sharks chasing Luca, it circled around their skirmish and then flew straight towards the mage.

The shark it was riding opened its jaws wide and the goblin shot several fireballs to keep Annie busy.

“Huhuhahahaa!” It screamed incomprehensible words while waiting for the inevitable splash of flesh.

A moment later, blood splurged all over the goblin’s feet. It laughed like the monster it was and the shark rotated as if trying to swallow Annie whole.

However, the boys behind them did not start mourning their loss and the shark below the goblin’s feet twisted a bit too much for comfort.

In fact, it turned its body so much that the goblin fell off it, and as soon as the green creature touched the ground, so did the shark, lifeless and cold.

The goblin’s eyes went wide. It watched the pool of blood surrounding its mount’s body, the boys that were struggling against its minions, and the girl it could barely see behind the wall of dust.

“You did this...”

“So it speaks.”

The goblin’s eerie hiss was interrupted by a rod of steel falling towards its face. In a panic, it rolled backwards, forgetting the black crystal behind and barely dodging the incoming attack.

It was Tommy who had tried to kill it, and he continued his charge with a flurry of attacks.

"Help them!" the boy shouted.

Annie shot all of her pebbles towards the five sharks attacking the boys. However, instead of gathering more, she ran towards the black crystal.

The pebbles hit one of the sharks’ throat and another one’s eye. Finn managed to finish off the first one, and then sacrificed a piece of his left shoulder in order to take out the second.

“Keep running!” he told Luca who had turned his head. The elf lacked a weapon, an eye, and an arm. If not for being a magical species stuffed full of mana for generations on end, he would have collapsed or died already.

“Help!” the elf shouted, his face pale and contorted. He could hear Finn scream behind his back, and Annie was still far.

Although Finn was much faster than a normal human, he was slowing down and the sharks were relentless. One row of teeth scratched his ankle; another tore a gash through his back while the third tried to bite off his hand just as Finn impaled it in the back.

Keeping an eye on his struggle, Annie grabbed whatever pebbles her hand could reach and launched them in his general direction. The crystal was right in front of her.

‘Just ten more steps.’

The goblin’s face contorted as it saw her, and Tommy drew a bit of blood from its chest.

‘Five steps...’

Annie reached out her hand towards the crystal and the goblin suddenly burst into light.

‘Mine.’ Annie touched the crystal. A single finger made contact with its surface before the black ball disappeared from her sight.

“Damn!” She heard Tommy shouting as he ran towards the boys and the sharks.

Annie turned her head towards her left. A few dozen feet away from her, the now pale goblin was hanging onto the black crystal ball for sheer life.

Its body was shriveled-up and sucking in the black mana as if it was an empty can. Its eyes were barely open and its feet were shattered. The monster had exhausted its energy reserves and even broke its body, but it was healing thanks to the crystal at a visible rate.

“Enough!” Annie placed both hands on the ground and sent a shockwave of mana into any nearby pebbles and rocks she could find. “Give it back!”

Three dozen rocks flew towards the whimpering goblin. Some distance away, one of the sharks lay dead on the sand, while Finn held the other two off with just one functional arm.

For every cut he inflicted, he received one in return. For every mortal wound he avoided, he lost a bit of his energy.

His eyes flickered because Tommy would not arrive in time. His one functional arm trembled because he could not see an escape.

Both sharks charged from opposite angles and Finn braced himself for the impact.

However, the goblin suddenly wailed and the sharks stopped. The creatures turned and rushed towards their master only to be sliced by Tommy into way more pieces than necessary. An unimaginable sense of relief fell over Finn, and his feet started to give in.

‘No.’ He stumbled while biting the inner part of his cheek. “Help her,” he told Tommy who had already turned and was now sprinting towards the mages.

Behind their backs, the army of monsters had broken formation and was running, flying, or rolling at full speed towards them. The sand started trembling and the wall was still far.

Annie’s attacks were blocked by a black shield, and behind it, the goblin was quickly recovering its strength.

“Are you ok?” Luca grabbed Finn’s arm and tried to help him walk.

“I can still run.” Finn let go of the elf and trudged towards his friends. “Let’s finish this,” he muttered. “That goblin needs to die.”