-I feel something - I said, standing up and looking around.

-So it’s not my imagination.

So he noticed that too?

We stepped outside of the house, looking carefully in every direction.

But, there was nothing unusual there. Just mana that was coming from the woods around us and the two of us.

-Where’s it coming from?

-I don’t know…

-It’s like…

-Behind!

Just as he yelled, I also noticed the source.

In the house, behind us, something was forming from the residual mana.

No, not residual mana… it was a portal.

A hole opened on the wall right next to me, on the outside wall of the house, next to the door.

And, from the purple haze that formed there stepped out…

-MIRE!

-They followed us!

From the hole in the reality a stream of people started pouring out.

All looking similar to each other, dressed in full military uniforms, covering their faces, sporting guns similar to those I’ve seen in the city.

I could tell that they weren’t exactly weak, but definitely at least on the level of the head guard that we dealt with back there.

I didn’t have time to inspect them closer, because the moment we noticed them, we immediately started running back towards the road.

-They found us that quick?! - I puffed, annoyed. - How in the hell?

-You’re asking me? I was out of it!

I couldn’t answer, because a spell hit me right in the back.

I am not sure what it was, but it did no damage: my crystal still was working flawlessly. I am glad it hit me not Mike, he would’ve gotten seriously hurt. Not being fully crystal had its problems.

Wait, why was I even caring about him? He only was bringing me problems!

-Don’t cast spells, shoot! Shoot them! - someone behind us yelled.

-Hide behind me! - I hissed towards Mike.

-Easier said than done!

Right. While we both were definitely more durable and had more endurance than a regular person, he was slower than me. Plus, he was still wounded from before.

-Fucking…

I had to slow down and put myself between him and the gunfire. I am glad that I made it in time, because I soon felt a barrage hit my body and I almost tumbled down onto the ground.

The gunfire was surprisingly effective.

I am not sure what exactly were those people packing, but the guns were more powerful than the ones I’ve seen before. They still looked the same, though, so… ammo? Maybe the ammo was different?

That was my first guess, but I was not going to stick long enough to find out. We had to either get out or fight.

Judging by the look on Mike's face and the fact that he was about to stop and cast a spell at them was giving me a very clear hint at what he was planning.

I, on the other hand, was not so keen on fighting. I’d probably be able to defeat them, but without killing… I kind of thought it would’ve been problematic. The professional soldier would not get knocked out so easily.

So why not run? I already had some experience in that regard.

Before I made up my mind, though, Mike already has stopped and about to toss a spell. I think it was lightning, because his hand was already raised with sparks of electricity zapping between his fingers.

I didn’t let him finish. Or, well, it wasn’t my plan.

As I was about to pass him, I just picked him up. Just like before, I hoised him against my shoulder unceremoniously and bolted as fast as I could.

Of course, that interrupted his spell. I don’t think he liked that.

But, between his cursing and gunfire, I didn’t care, instead I focused again at speeding myself up.

It came quicker than I expected.

I guess I had some practice.

Again, the surroundings had frozen around me, along with the people. I am not sure if that was thanks to me being used to this state or just because I accidentally poured a bit too much mana into it, but this time, nothing was moving. Beforehand, everything seemed like it was just VERY slow.

No matter. I just had to get away.

As I was about to move with Mike as my baggage, I had a thought.

Should I slow them down?

They managed to track us pretty fast this time, so I’d be smart to at least make their pursuit a bit more annoying.

They used portal magic to get here, so most of the regular ways I could think of were off the table, but…

-Visu, nuwo lek moho.

There was no visible effect, not with the time slowed to a crawl, but I could tell that it worked.

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I targeted the ground under them and commanded the earth to move and bind them, so they should probably have second thoughts about pursuing us. If not… well, we get there when we get there.

With that, I sprinted away.

This time, I wanted to not just run leisurely. If you even can call running with human baggage like that being leisurely.

This time, I wanted to use mana to enhance myself.

I was a bit skeptical about this idea at first, because what was this ability to mess with perception of time if not the exact same thing? Wouldn’t I be just overloading myself?

At least I wanted to get some distance from my would-be captors.

Half an hour later and a stretch of road further, I started focusing on myself.

I was a bit worried that I might accidentally do something weird, but it’s not like I couldn’t just repeat the process again…

I did have to be careful about not dropping the form, because it all was too similar to each other.

But, I made a mistake.

When I focused on myself, I sort of forgot that I was carrying Mike. And the mana that I was intending to absorb myself also flew into him.

Not of consequence, right? It’s not like he wasn’t used to mana or couldn’t absorb it either. Shouldn’t be an issue…

Yeah. That shouldn’t be an issue in the first place…

But, the problem was not that he absorbed what I wanted to pour into myself; the problem was that he continued doing that.

For a second I thought that it was just my mistake and wanted to cut him off, but that was not it. He was actively draining me?

-What…

And if that wasn’t enough, he started twitching.

Well, it was hard to say that was even “twitching”, it was just some irregular slow movements that I could only think was him twitching if we were not in “different time”, so to speak.

But, it was changing.

I could tell that it was getting faster. He was getting faster. The movements were starting to get more pronounced and the twitches easier to notice, and at the same time that much harder to control.

If it was to continue, I was going to drop him!

Should I just toss him away and stop touching him?

That would probably stop my mana from draining.

It’s not like I had an issue with lack of energy, but it was still concerning. Was he… doing that on purpose?

I stopped and wondered, how should I even do that? But at that point he was already not only flailing, but also making some weird noises.

-Calm down, you sack of problems…- I muttered to myself, trying to grab him better, but I felt something unexpected.

His grip.

His hand actually found my own shoulder and locked onto it with surprising force.

It didn’t hurt, but I didn’t expect him to be able to move that fast. Was this strange state of mine diminishing?

No, that was not it. Just one look at the surroundings could tell me that everything else was as still as it was before. It was just him that was speeding up.

-Whaaat… aaareee…

Ah.

So that was it.

It’s not like he was just groaning to himself or making weird noises.

He was trying to speak. But, since there was a massive difference in our speeds, it was just unrecognizable gibberish to me.

That is, until now.

I guess that’s where my mana was going?

Did he do that on purpose? I mean, it should be possible. He used to use this himself, but why did he need to borrow my magic?

I did have to ask later, but first, let’s let him acclimate to the situation.

-...yooou… dooingg… carryyiing mee like that…!?

The further into the sentence, the faster he was able to talk and finally he was as coherent as it should be.

Not only that, he also was able to wrestle himself out of my grasp and stand on his own two legs in front of me.

-We sort of were in a hurry.

-Where is this?! What did you do!?

-Er… I ran away? That’s what you wanted, right? - I asked, a bit confused with his uncertainty.

-Yes! But how?! Did you teleport us!?

-Of course not. Just started running. I mean, with this I am pretty fast, so…

-This? What “this”?

-Look around. Can’t you tell? - I said, gesturing with my hand.

He followed my gesture and at first it seemed like he had no idea what I was talking about, but the more he looked, the wider his eyes were opened.

-The time… stopped?!

-What? No! I mean, it sort of looks like that, but look, stuff is moving! We are just fast.

-Fast?! That makes no sense!

-No sense? It’s the same ability you used!

-I used?! What are you…

He finally understood.

-But how the hell then am I able to talk to you?!

-Didn’t you haste yourself?

-I wanted to, but you grabbed me and then… then…

-See? I don’t know why, but you also borrowed a bit of my mana to do that, but that doesn’t matter. Can you run?

-Of course! But… this is unprecedented.

-Why?

-I mean… I could speed myself up… but not to this degree.

-What do you mean, “not this degree”?

-Just that! It’s not like I ever tried to push myself further, but…

-”Push further”? Neither did I.

-So how are we here?

-...

-Does that even matter? We probably should move… - I said, breaking the silence that suddenly fell on us.

-True. How far are they?

-Not sure. But I made sure that they were outside my range before I stopped and…

-Your range?

-Range of detection. I can’t feel their mana.

-And how far is that?

-I’m not certain myself - I said, shrugging. - That’s why I want to move.

I was not going to tell him how far I could sense mana. I mean, he probably should know from his own experience. And if not, that’s another reason to not tell him.

-Right… True. Let’s.

But, even with him being eager to move, we weren’t going exactly fast.

Sure, both of us could run, but he decided to just have a brisk walk instead. His reasoning was that it’s not smart to move too fast in our circumstances, that we were going to leave traces of our passage that were easy to follow.

While that was true, I bet that’s not the main reason he wanted to do that. I am pretty sure that it was just him being still a bit wounded and not used to his body that made him slower.

Well, not like we had little time to work with, anyway…

-Why did you stop, anyway? - he asked me when we were maybe twenty minutes into our march.

-I wanted to go faster - I said simply.

-And you stopped…?

-Eh… I wanted to enhance myself so I could run faster, but your body sapped my energy. And then you woke up.

-Woke up…?

-You know what I mean.

-You were plenty fast before. Why do that even?

I rolled my eyes.

-Look, I just wanted to get away. Nothing else.

-Ehe… - he seemed a bit suspicious, but gave up. - Sure… whatever.

While I sort of was understanding why he was suspicious, there was nothing I could do. After all, I was telling the truth.