[Fireball!!!!]

Kai felt a small chunk of his mana disappear as two small fireballs leapt from Halia’s necklace, each aiming for the head of the top-level deer. The weaker of the two swerved to the side, trying to dodge the fireball. One more mana ticked away from Kai’s reserves as the fireball pulled a 90 degree turn, hitting its mark.

[Mana - 22/27]

Its face ablaze, the deer crashed into the other [Level 14] beast, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. Kai’s attention was quickly drawn away by the other high-level deer, but he caught the sight of earthen spike jutting up to meet the two out-of-control beasts in his peripheral.

The other deer’s tactics were much more straightforward. It charged straight through the comparatively diminutive fireball, angling its unnaturally sharp antlers toward Kai.

Hmph, it’s not a tier two beast after all. Something with this low of intelligence can hardly pose a threat. I’ll take care of it quickly, then team up with Brewan to kill the others.

Kai easily sidestepped the charge, but his own slash did similarly little damage. A small line of red trickled from the deer’s shoulder as it turned back around, madness glimmering in its eyes. He didn’t wait for it to charge again, instead lunging forward and thrusting the tip of the sword at the beast’s throat.

The curved blade of the ruby sword wasn’t designed as a stabbing weapon, but Kai had enough control to make it work. The blade’s sharp edge cut cleanly through the beast’s pelt, slicing just deep enough to find a large vein.

Kai spun away as blood spurted from the deer’s neck, parrying the beast’s antlers as he distanced himself.

Hmph, I dare say that was perfect.

Kai’s gaze left the staggering deer as he scanned the rest of the battlefield, searching for his juniors’ admiring gazes.

“AHHH! Kai, save me!!”

Leo was sprinting down the trail straight at Kai, one of the weaker deer biting at his trailing robes. An extremely lackluster fireball struck the beast’s side, causing it to whirl around and start chasing Kiin instead. It didn’t look like he was going to be able to run for long.

“Kai, intercept them!”

A shout from the opposite direction tore Kai’s attention away from the flagging juniors, and over to the remaining member of the crew.

Not one, not two, but three deer were on Brewan’s tail, but he somehow looked to be faring slightly better than the other two boys. Kai was already familiar with the young mage’s affinity for running from beasts, and it helped that the ones chasing him this time were already injured. One of the deer was missing its entire right front leg, and was barely managing to hobble after the speedy mage. Another looked scorched to the brink of death, barely having endured a barrage from the party’s two weaker mages.

How the… it’s been, like, ten seconds!

Kai’s first strike against the highest level deer was enough to make it slowly bleed out, but it didn’t look like his allies were going to last that long.

Shit, I’m going to have to burn more mana if I want to finish it off in time.

Kai clenched his teeth as his gaze wandered between his opponent and the small horde of deer chasing Brewan.

“Lead them over this way!”

Kai readied his sword, estimating the distance between the deer. If he was going to have to use mana, he was going to make the most out of it.

It costs me about 10 mana to use my technique, and counting the mana Halia is holding onto, I only have 27 left. I might be able to hit all of the deer with one slash…

Kai started directing his mana into the ruby sword, but before it could fully accumulate, he slowed the flow and charged forward. The high-level deer lowered its head, aiming to use its antlers to protect its already wounded neck.

Slice!

The left half of the beast’s rack fell to the ground with a thud, immediately followed by its limp body. Without wasting a second, Kai whirled on his feet and jumped toward the deer chasing after Brewan. A slight crimson halo covered the ruby sword as another small burst of mana entered its blade.

A streak of blue robes dove past Kai, and he swung at the two leading beasts trailing behind Brewan.

[Double Kill!]

[Triple Kill!]

The mana around Kai’s sword finally dried up, and he glanced down at the blue box keeping track of his mana.

[Mana: 7/27]

It had cost him a bit more to keep the technique going, but by stretching it out for three weaker attacks instead of one powerful swing, Kai managed to get more mileage out of it.

Fifteen mana burnt, though… I only have enough to use the normal version of the technique one more time, if I use Halia’s reserved mana.

It seemed Halia had a similar train of thought as Kai, as his mana count updated in the next second.

[Mana (Kai+Halia): 12/32]

The only deer left chasing Brewan was the one that’d been roasted by the two juniors’ initial barrage, and it couldn’t resist at all as Kai executed it without wasting any more mana.

[Quadra Kill!]

With most of the enemies dead, Kai looked around to find where the two juniors were. It didn’t take long, as Kiin’s desperate cries were loud enough that they could probably be heard in Ledville.

“Leo, hurry up! It’s going to eat me!”

Kiin was racing down the path, the final deer chomping at his trailing robes. Kai could see a few scorch marks on the beast’s pelt, but it was in a visibly better condition than the ones chasing Brewan.

[Kai, hurry up and steal the kill! You only need one more!]

Kai tilted his head as he watched the deer steadily gain ground on Kiin. “One more? For what?”

Halia let out a frustrated snort.

[I’m doing my best announcer voice! Be more enthusiastic! Also, you can't steal any of its mana if you don’t stab it.]

The mention of mana was enough motivation for Kai. Just as he started running toward Kiin, though, a dark figure jumped from the forest next to the deer.

“Fire Punch!”

Leo’s voice echoed through the forest as he thrust his grimoire at the deer, the oversized fireball hovering over its pages slamming into the beast’s neck.

“Now, Kiin!”

The other boy spun around, a slightly smaller fireball hovering over one of his hands. Kai wasn’t even sure when the boy casted it- it looked like he’d been running full tilt, and even Brewan struggled to cast spells when running that fast.

With accuracy that was probably half luck and half adrenaline-fueled skill, Kiin jammed the ball of flame straight down the beast’s gaping maw. The spell detonated a moment later, completely destroying the deer’s upper body.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

[An enemy has been slain.]

[Aww, man. I was so hopeful there. They stole your kill.]

Kai’s eyebrows furrowed. How exactly had they stolen his kill, when he didn’t hurt the beast at all?

That makes no sense, but then again, neither does half of the other stuff she says.

Chalking it up as a classic Halia™ moment, Kai headed over to where Leo and Kiin were standing over the beast’s corpse. Both of the boys had wide smiles on their faces, but their happiness faltered when they saw Kai approaching. Almost all of the feedback he’d given them over the trip had been negative, so they subconsciously prepared themselves to be chewed out again.

“The two of you, and Brewan… good job. You faced a dangerous number of foes, and completed the battle without any of you getting hurt.”

Kai’s gaze focused on Kiin and Leo. “Both of you did an excellent job keeping the deer distracted until you could find an opening. You coordinated an attack, and accounted for your weaknesses to take down your enemy.”

The duo’s only error was not using quite enough firepower to kick off the fight, resulting in one of the deer they’d been assigned to handle chasing Brewan instead. The beast was practically crippled after their initial barrage, though, and truthfully didn’t pose much of a threat.

The boys’ smiles grew as Kai’s long-awaited praise finally arrived.

“And Brewan, you were the MVP,-”

[Heh, hearing you use modern slang is funny. He probably can’t even understand you.]

Kai coughed into his elbow as Halia interrupted him. “I mean, Brewan, you were the most important. You kept everything distracted until I had a chance to cut the beasts down.”

I said before the fight that I would handle two of them, but it ended up being Brewan who had to pick up the slack for both me and the other two. Without Halia’s fireballs to start off the fight, he might not have been able to run for so long.

“I’m still amazed by how strong you are. You cut down four beasts in as many seconds.” Brewan looked over at the small pile of bodies just down the trail. “Even if I burnt all of my mana, I don’t think I could’ve killed all of those.”

[Ahem… sorry to interrupt, but I’ve got good and bad news.]

[Level up!]

[You reached Level 16!]

[Mana +5]

[Mana: 17/37]

[Strength: 55]

[If you’re wondering about your level going up twice… since you’ve gained a total of 5 mana from my experiments, it’s the same as gaining a full level from hunting. It wouldn’t make sense if I didn’t count it toward your level, since that’s how all of the other mages and knights in this world are gaining levels.]

[Unfortunately, that’s not the bad news.]

There was a slight pause before the next message box popped up, and Kai cursed under his breath when he read it.

[Rage Boar- Level 21]

It was just as Kai had feared. A tier 2 beast, right after he spent half of his mana.

[To make matters worse, I can sense another high-level mana signature approaching, but it’s still too far out for me to make out what it is.]

Wonderful.

“We’ve got a tier 2 beast coming, everyone group up!”

Kiin and Leo stood still for a moment, but Brewan immediately pulled out his grimoire and started casting a dispersion spell. It was doubtful if it would have any effect, given the amount of sound they’d made while fighting, but it was worth a shot.

“Can we make it to Ledville before it reaches us?”

[No. I tried to see if Angela and her team are close enough, but they are too far behind for me to sense them with mana. The only option is to fight it.]

And there’s no warehouse full of explosive dust next to us this time. Leo and Kiin and both low on mana, not that their spells would do too much damage to a tier 2 beast anyway. Brewan should have just under half of his mana remaining after casting the dispersion spell, and I only have enough to use Moonlight Slash once. Even if I overload it with all of my mana, I don’t think it’s enough to kill a tough beast like a boar in one blow.

“Halia, do you have anything for this?”

[If I can shove a fireball down its throat, I can probably turn it into a meat firework.]

Shoving a fireball down a tier 2 beast’s throat… sounds surprisingly doable? The stupid things constantly have their mouths open.

Still, their burgeoning plan had a few issues. Kai only had enough mana for Halia to cast a single spell big enough to kill the beast, so they would only have one shot at winning. That wasn’t the main problem, though.

[As a tier two beast, it will definitely have some kind of magic, and we have no way of finding out what that is before the boar uses it.]

Kai nodded, then turned back to his flesh-and-blood teammates.

“Alright, we’ve got a plan. Leo, Kiin, the two of you will be the most important parts of this.”

The two boys straightened up.

“I need the two of you to piss the boar off, enough so that it starts using its magic. Both of you need, and I repeat, need to keep far enough away from it that you don’t get caught up in whatever kind of attack it uses.”

Kai turned to Brewan next.

“After we figure out what kind of magic it has, I’ll need an opening. I don’t care how you do it, just make it forget about me long enough for me to get close. Halia’s going to turn this thing into roast pork.”

Leo raised his hand as Kai finished speaking, and Kai pointed at him like a teacher.

“Who is this Halia you are talking about? I’ve heard you talking to yourself a lot, and thought it might be some kind of mental illness, but now…”

Kai’s brain lagged for a moment as he tried to process Leo’s words, and Brewan spoke up.

“She’s his girlfriend, but in necklace form.” Brewan gestured at the ruby necklace around Kai’s neck. “It’s sweet that they keep each other so close, but I really don’t understand the mechanics of dating an artifact spirit.”

H- Huh?! Dating? Girlfriend?!?!

Kai’s face turned red enough to match the ruby necklace.

Where did he ever get such an idea?! I’d never date someone like Halia, not after all of the torture she’s put me through! She has embarrassed me in front of my juniors so many times, and she always laughs! Sure, her laugh is a little cute, but…

Kai’s face turned an even darker shade of red.

W-what do I mean, her laughter is cute? She’s a monster, worse than the beast coming to kill us! She must be using some evil mind-corrupting magic right now, just to embarrass me further in front of Leo and Kiin! She probably told Brewan to say that, too!

“D-did she tell you to say that?”

Brewan stared at Kai’s cherry-colored face, a mischievous smile painted on his hateable mug. “No, but it’s not that hard to figure out. Whenever I’ve talked to her, she always asks for ideas on how to make you happier. Also, you do know that I can hear you whispering to her every night before you tuck her in before you sleep, right?”

No more blood could accumulate in Kai’s face.

He passed out.

…

…

“Well, shit. He won’t wake up.”

Brewan let go of Kai’s limp body, his expression troubled.

Sure, when a tier-2 beast was approaching probably wasn’t the best time for a discussion of love, but honestly, it wasn’t his fault. He’d only been following the ‘suspension bridge effect’ idea that Halia mentioned to him previously.

Maybe she has some way to wake him up. Or she can control his body like a puppet.

Brewan reached down, pulling the ruby necklace off Kai’s neck. As soon as it was in his hand, Halia’s unusually high-pitched voice echoed in his mind.

[What were you thinking?! Why would you say all of that?????]

“What do you mean? I was just trying to help you out.”

[I never asked you to say any of that! I only mentioned that bridge thing as small talk!]

“And everything else you’ve said about him?”

[None of that matters now!]

Halia’s tone fell until she sounded like she was depressed.

[He’s going to hate me when he wakes up. He won’t believe that I didn’t set this up…]

“You could tell him it was all a dream.”

[Yeah, as if that would work. Kai’s not that dumb.]

Brewan thought for a moment, then called the other two over. “Everyone, put a hand on the talking necklace. It’s emergency meeting time.”

Leo spoke up immediately after making contact with Halia’s necklace.

“So, does Kai, like, have a thing for rocks? I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but…”

[No, that would be our childhood friend, Edwin. We’ll have to put this conversation off for a bit, though. We’ve got company.]

On the far side of the trail clearing, the hideous snout of the rage boar poked through the forest foliage.

[And of course, Kai still won’t wake up. Get it together Halia.You’ll never have a chance if you let all of his friends die, too. We need a new plan.]

After taking a moment to compose herself, she spoke to the group once more.

[Leo, are you a fan of rocket launchers?]

“I’ve never heard of that before, but it sounds cool!”

[Good. I can use sleepy here as a mana battery, but I’m going to need you to give me a good shot.]

Halia used a precious point of mana to replicate the scene of a rpg being fired, followed by the exaggerated explosion of an entire apartment complex.

[Bollywood can’t sue me for this, right?]

“That’s badass! Let’s do it!”

Leo hoisted Kai’s limp body onto his shoulder, aiming his head toward the incoming rage boar.