From my thoughts I was interrupted by another gunshot and I felt a bullet crack my head.

Whatever happened to that guy, it was a good enough distraction for them to actually focus and shoot something powerful enough to actually crack my crystal skin.

Of course, I healed, but I was curious how they did it, since the only mana that was remotely powerful near us was the one from the guys who hid in the trees and were preparing something.

I probably should deal with that soon…

The sooner, the better.

-Wisfe moho.

I targeted the ones behind the trees.

I wasn’t even looking at them. Since they were close to the overinfused, magical trees, there wouldn’t be a point. Just prodding those trees with my influence was enough.

I heard a scream of panic and immediately the glob of mana that was being gathered past a couple moments had disappeared.

Of course, it also caught the attention of the “vanguard” so to speak.

All of them turned towards the voice, even including the blinded one.

But, I didn’t give them time to react. I was already on top of them.

All three of them fell down like logs under my swings.

I didn’t really care if I used too much force, but they were resistant enough that I am pretty sure I haven’t done permanent damage.

I think.

Since they were down, I gestured towards the tree where the rustling and screams were still coming from.

-Epvey nop.

The tree replied.

More responsive than most people, it extended its branches and slowly, from the thicket, wrapped in rather copious amounts of branches and leaves, the remaining group appeared.

Bound and unable to move, they were flailing nonetheless.

I was wondering how exactly I should deal with them, before I suddenly felt a flash of light right in front of my face.

Apparently, I was wrong about them being unable to move.

At least, not completely.

At first, I thought that it was just some kind of a spell. Or maybe just pure mana that has been released into the air to blind me, but nope.

While I couldn’t see shapes of objects, my vision suddenly turned back to what I was using when I was completely blind: only seeing flames of mana around me.

Which meant that was not magic.

It was just regular light.

That guy just used a flashbang on me?

First of all, where did he even get one?

I was pretty sure they were bound well enough for them not to be able to pull anything…

But, if he hid it somewhere accessible and just dropped it, I guess it was possible…

Too bad he only managed to blind his own people.

But, even blinded, they weren’t exactly defenseless.

Of course they still could use magic. I mean, I thought so.

It seemed a bit strange that they haven’t used anything so far. If that was me, I’d already burn those branches the moment they attacked me. And yet, they were still here.

I eagerly waited for them to use anything, cast a spell. Something. Why else flashbang me then?

-Fire! FIRE! Geksu!

Here we go. Finally, a spell. Never mind weird wording, at least they were trying something.

But…

-...

-FIRE!

Yeah, however much he tried, nothing was happening.

I was going to say it was because his mind was still rattled and he couldn’t focus or something, but that was not it.

He just had no mana.

Apparently, unable to refuel himself from the environment, that was it.

Quite disappointing, really.

Did they really manage to waste that much on just a failed spell… or whatever that was?

Damn.

I was about to ask about what was with his wording of spells, but immediately remembered that it was not the first time I’ve seen it.

The fresh one in my memory being Mike chanting “Close” and it working.

Why didn’t that work for me?

Well, there was no point asking this guy.

-Well, you’re useless… - I muttered. - Goodnight.

I consecutively grabbed each and every single one of them and drained them dry.

This time, I wasn’t holding back and waited until the mana flame was completely gone.

Dead.

I tossed them all into the pile and moved away a corpse that was the most interesting: the one with strange eyes.

Or, now rather lacking eyes.

I was wondering if that was just light playing tricks on me, but I wasn’t mistaken. His eyes were really grown shut. And I had an idea why…

It was probably my fault. That’s what I get for trying to use spells without visualizing the effect at least once.

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-Now, what do I do with this mess… - I mumbled to myself, thinking.

How many issues were coming from just associating with that stupid organisation. Hell, not even associating. Just it existing was enough of an issue for me.

While their members weren’t really hard to deal with, they still were a pain in the ass. If given enough time, I am sure they would prove problematic.

Why the hell did Mike not deal with them before? More permanently, I mean. Sure, he had some “deals” with them, but it was obvious that they were already done with that. Both sides.

Wait. Didn’t he say he was going to “prepare” something?

Was that something to do with the MIRE?

Suddenly, the idea of leaving him didn’t seem like the smartest one.

But it’s not like I am going to find him. Maybe I could go back to the city and try my luck there? It probably is full of chaos by now… or at least the branch of the MIRE is. Or…

Before I finished my thought, I felt familiar magic.

Another portal.

-Eh…

I couldn’t help but groan. They weren’t going to give up, were they?

But that also gave me an idea.

This time, instead of trying to destroy the portal, I waited for it fully to form.

Soon, the opening was already fully visible, this time on a nearby tree.

That’s a bit different. Same with mana. I guess they had to replace the one who was using this magic before?

I mean, possible, after opening that many…

Didn’t matter anyway. It’s not like I was going to let anyone through.

I didn’t even bother with spells. When I was sure the gateway was fully open, I immediately walked through.

Just to be safe, I extended my hand first, to at least not have anything blow up my face. Literally.

Well, my prediction was almost right, because I definitely felt some resistance when I was about to step through.

Most likely another one of those mercenaries, so I just punched whoever that was.

Worked like a charm.

A moment of spatial confusion later, I was on the other side and with a spell in my face. Well, hand, but it was strong enough that it had taken up all my field of vision.

Didn’t matter. I absorbed it either way without any problem. It did feel strange though: it was the strongest blast of magic I’ve felt from them so far.

I guess that's to be expected. They would be defending their territory a bit more… forcefully.

Not even looking closely, I waved my hand and replied in kind, sowing flames around like a maniac.

Hopefully that would bring some chaos to the building.

That was wishful thinking, though. The moment I used fire, I felt someone counter it with their magic. Or rather I felt mana being absorbed from a spell.

Not unexpected, they were researching the Origin Crystal. It was reasonable to expect that they at least had some working defenses in their own building.

But wait a second.

What building?

I expected to appear in some kind of structure. A hidden base or whatever.

But I was…

In a forest?

And a similar one to the one I’ve just been to boot.

Hold the fuck up.

It WAS the same forest.

There was no mistaking it. Were there two incredibly abundant in mana thickets like that? And what were the odds of me going from one to another?

Nah, maybe they just had some forward camp. Yeah, that could be it. After all, they were in a chase.

But the more I was seeing and feeling, the more I was confused.

There was no one there. Besides the person that countered me.

And that person’s mana was suspiciously familiar.

-What in the fuck!? Mike?!

-Mor?!

It was clear both of us were flabbergasted. Which was strange. Didn’t he just try to teleport to me and then start throwing magic at my face?

-Why in the hell are you teleporting to me!?

-I am not?! I was trying to get to the MIRE! What are you doing defending them?!

-Defending?! I was trying to do the same thing!

-What!?

-I thought your portal was one of theirs! Wait. You want to go to MIRE? Don’t tell me you want to work with them AGAIN? After all that bullshit!?

-Hell no! - he immediately denied my accusations. - I wanted to finally stop their attack and what better option than just go directly to them

With that, we looked at each other.

True, he was surrounded, just like me before, with either knocked out or dead MIRE members. No, they were still alive. And there were quite a lot of them. I guess he was using them as bait? Hm. Or maybe the anchor for the teleport? Risky, in any case. But smart.

It really did seem like we just had a very similar idea.

-Honestly, I didn’t expect to see you again… - he said while preparing to create another portal. - I thought you would be far gone by now.

-Yeah, that was my intention - I answered, deciding there was no point in hiding that fact. - And I would, if not for those maniacs still being after me.

-Hm.

-But it seems like they wanted you more than me. I just got a much smaller group after me. This… I think this is at least three times as much.

-Three times? That’s…

-At least.

-Fuck. They really do think that I am the main danger… - he said in disbelief.

-What, you think I am a bigger one?

-Obviously. You are a lot more… resilient, let’s say.

-So you could be, but you refuse to change your body back.

Yeah, at this point, he already was fully human again. Was that why he wanted that leyline mana? To rebuild himself again?

-I told you. I prefer flesh.

-And I prefer being harder to kill. To each their own, I guess.

-Don’t underestimate me. It’s not like I am just a regular human.

-I am more than aware, thank you.

-Instead of complaining about my decisions, why won’t we focus?

-I am not complaining. Just making an observation - I replied, sighing. - And it’s not like you need me to focus.

-Well…

Of course, I was right.

What we were intending to do was to use a portal once more, hopefully this time landing in some branch of MIRE and deal with them.

I wasn’t really caring about the noise we’d make just appearing out of nowhere, but Mike was adamant on doing it as quietly as possible, hence the delay.

He intended to use another corpse of one of those guys and via that open a way for us. He’d make sure we’d land as far away as it was possible from the original destination, while still being somewhat nearby.

Hopefully, that would land us in the same city and maybe even close to the building in question while still staying hidden. Well, as hidden as you can be appearing out of nowhere in some random street.

I honestly wasn’t really so sure about that being a good tactic to keep things quiet, but it’s not like I cared: after all, I intended to do this out in the open: that’s how I ended up blasting him in the face.

I did remind him that we could accelerate ourselves to leave them completely vulnerable, and he did agree, although only after he opened the portal and made sure everything was in order.

To me, it was a glaring weakness. After all, if he’s done that before, I wouldn’t land a hit on him. Or, well, at least not that soon.

He did say that he wanted to use it, but waited for a moment to give himself a bit of a distraction in the form of some random magic blasting out from the portal. That’s what I’ve eaten to the face. Then, he’d speed himself up and in the ensuing chaos he’d find a way to infiltrate.

I’ve heard better plans.

But hey, I was pretty sure of myself, so I wasn’t arguing with him.

Better this than just being constantly chased.

Speaking of chasing, I noticed that we weren’t getting portaled onto any more.

It was suspicious.

Why would they suddenly stop?

Was I right before about their resources running out?

Well, we were soon to figure that out.

As soon as Mike finishes his portal.

I was only wondering how much of a delay that portal of his is going to have. After all, using someone as an anchor would definitely prove problematic.

He did assure me that it shouldn’t be much more than a few minutes, up to an hour in the worst case, but I was not going to believe that.

Sure, he should know what he was doing, but so what? It’s not like I’ve been bitten in the ass by this kind of thinking.

Whatever the case, we’d soon know.