“Huuuaaaa- I can’t go any farther…”
Kai turned around, his legs still pumping as he jogged in place, looking at the three teens behind him. Brewan looked like he could keep going, but the other two were both heaving for breath.
“Watch out, Leo! There’s a bear beast coming up behind you!”
Kai pointed behind the exhausted boy with a mock look of terror on his face, prompting Leo to take off running down the path again. Kai ran behind him, making loud huffing noises. He didn’t really sound that much like a bear, but it was convincing enough to put the pep back in Leo’s step.
Kai thought it was pretty funny until Leo conjured a fireball and whipped it backward without even turning his head. It flew straight into Kai’s face, setting his almost-nonexistent facial hair alight. Kai’s mock bear huffing turned into screams of panic as he batted at the flames covering his own face.
[Bahaha, deserved!]
“Halia, help!”
[Haven’t you ever heard of ‘Stop, drop, and roll’?]
Kai dropped to the ground and rolled around a couple times, but it didn’t seem to be doing much. Luckily, Brewan had already turned around and noticed Kai’s peril. He ran over, using the silky cloth of his robes to smother the flame around Kai’s head.
“Sorry! I was trying to hit the bear!” Leo looked around, ready to chuck another fireball at the imaginary bear. Kai quickly slid himself to the right, putting Brewan between himself and the glowing fireball floating over the grimoire in Leo’s hands.
“It’s fine, put the fire away! We must’ve scared the bear away, you don’t need to throw any more spells.” With the fire extinguished, Kai pushed Brewan’s cloak away, and a snort of laughter immediately echoed in his mind.
[Pfft, you need to look in a mirror. Ah, or water.]
When Kai looked up at the rest of the squad, he could see poorly hidden smiles on their faces even as they still tried to catch their breaths.
What are these idiots smiling about? Did Leo do that on purpose, knowing that I was faking the bear? I’ve never had any junior disciples be this disrespectful before!
Kai paused for a second, a frown growing on his slightly-toasted face.
Well, if I ignore Halia. And the other core disciples. And some of the clowns I recruited to the sect… am I just really bad at picking companions?
As Kai’s frown continued to deepen, the boys in front of him could no longer hold in their laughter. Leo broke first, followed by the other two.
“Hah… I’m sorry, I’m not trying to laugh at you, but your eyebrows are gone, and when you frown…”
Kai frowned again, sending the trio into another laughing fit. By the time they calmed down, they were just as out of breath as they had been after running for an hour straight.
Hmph, these three are just as bothersome as the core disciples. Let’s see if they can keep laughing after I make them run for another hour straight-
[Kai, I’m picking up a mana signature on the north side of the trail. It’s in the middle of tier 1.]
“Everyone, cut out the laughing! There’s a beast coming. Leo and Kiin, try to handle it with your spells.”
Moments later, a large deer burst from the underbrush on the far side of the trail. The left side of its antlers were twisted downward at an odd angle, and some of the points faced directly forward.
“It’s coming!”
Kiin dashed backwards in a panic, hiding behind the rest of the group. Leo did a bit better, already having his grimoire out. He whipped a lackluster fireball at the deer, then quickly closed his grimoire and launched a few self-casted flames at it. His first attack went wide, and all of the others washed over the deer’s pelt without doing any noticeable damage.
Luckily, the bright flashes from Leo’s consecutive fireballs were enough to frighten the deer, giving Kai enough time to push Kiin back to the front of their group.
“When there’s a beast, you need to help fight it! If you just stand there, it’ll kill your whole party!”
Kiin fumbled with his new grimoire, turning to the wrong page at first. By the time he opened up the ‘fireball’ spell and started casting it, the deer had already closed the distance and was about to impale a terrified Leo.
Kai was about to dash forward to save him, but before he could move, the ground in front of the beast exploded. A leg-sized earth spike shot up from the ground, too quickly for the deer to dodge it. Crimson blood splattered all over the trail as a large chunk of the beast’s shoulder was ripped off, and it stumbled backwards.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Kai’s two new teammates both stared in shock at the wounded beast for a moment before Kai shouted again. “Why are both of you just standing there? There’s an opening, hit it!”
Now that the deer wasn’t sprinting toward them, the two rookie mages had enough time and composure to actually aim their spells, and the deer quickly perished under a rain of fire.
“Hmph, what was that?! Kiin, why did you try to run? If both of you stood and attacked it, the beast wouldn’t have even gotten close. Without Brewan’s help, Leo would’ve been gored to death! Are you proficient in revival magic???”
Kai turned toward Leo without stopping for a second.
“And you missed half of your spells! Being able to cast them quickly doesn’t do you any good if you only hit the trees behind your enemy. How can you hit me in the face, but not this huge deer?”
Both of the boys hung their heads, the adrenaline and excitement from defeating their first beast quickly being culled by Kai’s harsh judgment of the battle.
[Oi. It’s their first time, and they beat the beast in the end. Positive encouragement goes a lot further than being a prick over a few small mistakes.]
Kai scoffed. “‘Small’ mistakes like those get people killed. The battlefield isn’t a place for coddling.”
[I understand, but I still think you’re wrong. Look at them right now, do you think they are learning better when they look dejected like that, or would it be better if you point out what they did wrong as well as compliment what they did right?]
Brewan walked over to the deer’s corpse, beckoning for Leo and Kiin to come over. “Good job finishing it off, both of you. Leo, your reaction speed was really quick, you need to teach me how to cast spells that fast. I wish my first fight went as well as that did. A lot of beasts have strong pelts, so it can be a bit tough to break through. If you both slow down your casting a little, focus on gathering a little more power and aiming it well, either of you can probably take down a beast like this on your own.”
[See? That’s how you should teach someone.]
Kai shook his head. Being friendly and positive about combat tips was all good and fun until somebody screwed up and found themself crippled or dead. Brewan and Halia’s idea of training only sounded appealing to those who hadn’t lost a friend in battle.
He hadn’t known them for very long yet, but Kai preferred not to have to look for new companions.
None of the boys had a method to preserve the deer’s meat, and with the sun shining overhead, Kai knew that the meat would spoil long before they could make it to Ledville. They’d already been traveling for over an hour, so it wasn’t practical for them to turn around to deliver the meat to the farmers surrounding the academy either.
After a short break occupied by combat tips from Kai and Brewan, the crew took off again. Even though they still had Halia for detection, Kai had them slow down a bit. If there were beasts on the trail this close to the academy, they would almost certainly run into more on their trip.
And where there are weak beasts, there will be strong ones too. I gained quite a few levels from killing the Deep Ursine in Talonia, but even with that, I’m not sure how much of a chance we have against a Tier two beast. Even if he was hurt before, Sydney was a big help fighting the bear, and we had a big environmental advantage too. Brewan is here, but I don’t think I can count on Kiin or Leo to be useful in a real fight.
The crew continued to travel toward Ledville, alternating between jogging and walking. Taking more caution quickly proved to be a good move. Twenty minutes after fighting the first deer, Halia detected another beast a short way off the road. Kai tried letting Kiin and Leo fight it again, but ended up having to step in to save them. They carried on their journey in a similar manner for the rest of the day, finding a beast or two every hour.
Many of them weren’t close enough to the road to actually notice the group of traveling teens, but Halia’s mana sense range was large enough that she could find them even away from the road. The only lamentable thing about her ability to track down beasts was that there probably wouldn’t be any left to hold Angela and her cronies up, letting them travel a bit quicker.
The crew traveled until the sun fell to the horizon, then set up camp. They set off early the next morning, and were making good progress through most of the day, only occasionally encountering middling tier 1 beasts. Their luck ran out a short way from Ledville.
[Beasts. There are five of them up ahead, and they’re all close enough that it’ll be hard to pick any of them off. We can probably get a couple of them with an ambush, but we’ll still have to fight off the rest.]
[Flesh-eating Deer- Level 4]
[Flesh-eating Deer- Level 9]
[Flesh-eating Deer- Level 14]
[Flesh-eating Deer- Level 14]
[Flesh-eating Deer- Level 18]
When he saw the levels of their incoming opponents, Kai immediately moved to the front of the group. Three of the deer matched or surpassed him in levels, and while Kiin and Leo had improved a lot over the course of their travels, it was still a stretch to say that they could handle the two weaker ones.
[I’ll blast one of the strong ones, Brewan can take out another, and you handle the level 18 one?]
We can probably win doing that… but it’ll definitely make a lot of noise, and if a tier 2 beast is attracted over, we’ll be done for. If I want to have any chance at beating a beast that strong, I need all of my mana.
Kai glanced past the beasts, towards the town of Ledville in the distance. Even if they tried to run there, it would take them at least twenty minutes. The beasts in front of them had already locked onto them, so using a dispersion spell would be useless.
Fighting it is, I guess.
“Halia, take the one on the left. Try not to use much mana, it’s fine if you just stall it until I come over. Brewan, do the same for the one on the right.” Kai turned to Leo and Kiin, but both of the boys already had their grimoires out. Neither of them had any idea who ‘Halia’ was, but they knew what their roles in the fight would be.
“We’ll handle the two smaller ones, don’t worry about us.”
Kai’s necklace pulsed with heat, resonating with the flames gathering over the grimoires of the rest of the team. The first serious battle for the future Crescent Moon disciples. Four teens, one necklace, and five man-eating deer.
[Fireball!!!!]
Halia’s unheard warcry kicked off the battle.