The first few days after the crossing were quiet, but as we moved on it became harder and harder to dodge the patrols, and we had to head east where the terrain got hilly and thus complex to traverse.

Good luck always run's out, and we were now running on fumes. The valley in front of us was filled with campfires, the only silver lining was that we stumbled on to in at dusk, so chances of discovery were low.

"That looks like an orc army" I said, still not believing our luck.

"A few thousand by the looks of things" she said while studying the sight in front of us. "The question is are they going our way or coming back to their main cities."

I scoffed, "With our luck, they just started some war in the east"

She seemed to get ready to head out "Until we know more it's better not to make plans, I'm going to go get a closer look"

Standing up, I gave her a small kiss, "Be careful."

"Always am." she said, she left everything that was not useful including the weapon then started heading towards the camp.

Without a watch, time was passing even more slowly. I tried to make camp, get some food ready.

But with nothing else to do, I started to practice conjuring food. I tried meditating to increase my visualization, picturing some food in front of me.

Nothing, not even a wisp of anything.

I just didn't have the patience with Alira out into the night. I knew she was always careful, but things sometimes happen.

Unfortunately all my created spells had been 'discovered' through visualization Since I couldn't accept matter to appear out of nothing, there was nothing to visualize, so without even a start I had nothing to improve.

I was stuck, maybe when hunger kicked it I could more easily visualize food.

At least I had a simple incinerate down to a few seconds, all it did was shoot a stream of fire out of my finger. Since it had almost no range, it was only useful for starting fires at night.

I tried to think of any fire spells, but they all seemed better suited for large-scale destruction, which I was trying to avoid.

What I needed was something to increase my speed or reaction time, as it seemed to be my Achilles heel in all the fights so far. I was just too slow.

Hmm...speed, it needed to be based in science, or like the conjuring I wouldn't be able to do it. The Black Hole spell did affect gravity, and gravity warped space.

And it was called the space time continuum, so space should affect time.

I imagined a bubble around me, if I could get the gravity to increase just for the smallest of timeframes, in theory it should slow down time.

The only thing changing was the top of the trees swayed by the wind with the moon in the background, so getting in a comfortable position, I again tried to concentrate on the view while imagining a bubble forming around me.

Nothing happened, but I persevered, since this was at least possible in theory. The branches swayed and swayed, and then it happened, for just a moment it was like they were moving in slow motion.

With renewed interest, I became increasingly aware of the movements of the branches, and soon the occurrences became more and more frequent until the moments appeared to blend together and for a few seconds they almost stood still.

A wave of exhaustion hit me and took me out of my reverie. I collapsed to the ground and tried to keep conscious.

Focus breathe, breathe, b....

I felt a slap across my face and slowly and with great effort opened my eyes, it was like I had hadn't slept for days.

"What happened? Did you faint or something? Or were you just sleepy?" I really couldn't see her face as my vision was still blurry, but she was clearly concerned.

After a few seconds some strength returned enough to said "I need a moment to catch my breath, tell me about the orcs"

She sighted but seemed not to push the matter, "They are too well-equipped, and I saw no obvious injuries, so it must be the beginning of what ever it is they are doing"

I had managed to sin on a log that was near us, and she came and sat near me, "We just have to wait and see if they go south or east and take the other direction."

"Perfect, because I need to sleep for like a day." I was obviously exaggerating, but still, a day of sleep didn't sound too bad.

"So what happened?" clearly her patience was very thin.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I discovered a new spell, and I didn't realize the apparently enormous power consumption, and after a few seconds I passed out"

Looking even more worried said "What spell could have such effect?"

"I can't be certain, but I believe I slowed time a bit."

"What do you mean, you slowed time?"

"Well it seems all melee fighters have better reaction time then me and I have no chance of getting my reaction time down, so the only other option I could think was to instead slow time down"when I said it out loud it did sound a little extreme of a solution.

"OK" it looked like she was trying to understand, "but I still don't understand the slowing time part." by now she knew not to be dismissive of new concepts, no matter how foreign they sounded.

Explaining time dilatation was never an easy thing to do.

"Imagine there is a maximum speed in the universe, absolutely nothing can be faster. Some things can reach this speed, like gravity or light."

"Now you may think time as an abstract concept, but time is connected with everything, we are now traveling through time with this maximum speed, because even time cannot surpass it." she looked unsure like the cogs were still turning, so I gave her a short pause to let her wrap her mind around the concept.

"Now if you let's say manage to move with half the speed of light you would still be bound by the maximum speed so you would only be able to move through time at half the speed we are now moving."

"So you ran with such speed that you fainted?" she didn't look sure of her question, but I was impressed.

"Speed is one way to achieve that, but gravity can also impact space and time, it's called gravitational time dilatation" this time her eyes went wide.

"Yeah, I know complicated stuff, but I managed to create a bubble that mimicked the gravitational time dilatation"

"But it was too much?" she guessed.

"I was lost in the feeling, but it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, so maybe I can use it three or four times before I get too exhausted" it was still better than nothing.

"Sounds amazing if you can control it, otherwise if it happens instinctively you'll be passed out in the middle of the fight and if you have to concentrate for it to happen it looses a little of its potential"

"I don't think the first part is even possible" but without much thought I said "Try to slap my shoulder, since you're way faster than me the only way to dodge it will be to activate it at will"

"Are you sure? You look ready to pass out again."

"At least I'll get a good night of sleep" I smiled.

A light slap connected with my shoulder and I felt it as I forgot to activate the Mana Shield.

"Aww..." I said

She rolled her eyes, "Oh please..." and immediately hit my shoulder again.

I didn't even try to stop her hits, but by the dozen or so hit I was awake enough that it triggered, and it seems her movement was slowed by four or five times. Remembering not to dwell on it, I reached my hand to grab hers.

She recoiled back, clearly surprised by the speed. I wanted to say something, but the wave of exhaustion hit again.

Next thing I remember the sun is hitting my eye and as I'm turning to escape its blinding light I hear "Morning sleeping beauty"

For a moment, the familiarity of the expression confuses me, but on opening my eyes, it turns out I'm still sleeping in a forest.

"What time is it?" I ask, slowly getting up to find the water container.

"Noon"

"Noon? you should have woken me earlier." I protested.

"I tried, you were snoring and keep turning." she said with a small smile, "I thought you might alert the orcs."

Taking a very serious attitude, I continued, "I did not snore, you take that back."

"How would you know you aren't snoring" she countered.

"I had an app once to track my sleep, no snoring." I was too sleepy to think about modern inventions creeping up in my explanations.

"What?" she said, confused.

"Doesn't matter" after splashing some water on my face I was more alert, "Did the orcs leave yet?"

"I don't know how good fighters they are, but organized they sure aren't, they are still trying to set up wagons to load everything up, but the part that did manage to leave went east."

"Guess we go south" I said, packing my stuff.

We weren't even one hour into our trek when Alira made the all too familiar now sign to stop and be quiet as we were about to cross a road. It didn't take long for a wagon surrounded by orcs to be seen.

They slowly made its way to us. We were on our bellies deep in the foliage so were pretty well camouflaged, so I finally had the chance to get a better look at them.

They looked even scarier in real life, and I had a good imagination. They had no symmetry between body parts, one shoulder was bigger than the other or a hand was longer, it made for a repelling sight but at the same time exuded an aura of primal ferocity.

Thick muscular frames bulged beneath coarse weathered skin, adorned with scars that seemed to be placed in patterns indicating some ritualistic origin covered by tattered leather armors. Long, jagged tusks protruded from their lower jaws, and I could almost discern their visible jagged teeth.

"They look scary as hell" I whispered.

She put her finger on her lips and I acknowledged her wishes by turning back to the caravan.

The wagon was pulled by some kind of juiced up pair of cattle. While most of the orcs were on foot, in the rear guard a mounted orc could be seen. It looked he was riding a raptor straight out of Jurassic Park.

The wagon hit a portion of mud dried up in a ridge like pattern, and it shook from left to right. A very human sound of pain came from the wagon.

I looked at Alira who breathed out as if knowing what I was going to say.

"They have a prisoner." I whispered again, even lower.

"Yes" she had an unusual cold tone.

"Don't you want to rescue the prisoner?" I asked.

"I do" but looked away as if ashamed of her next words, "but if we succeed, they will know someone is crossing their territory. Who knows how long we have to travel. If they are alerted..."

"I understand but leaving the prisoner with those monsters, I killed enough people already." some even permanently maimed because of me, leaving prisoners without even trying a rescue was just too much.

"We don't even know how formidable orcs are, we could be for a rough surprise." she was right, I did had a tendency to ignore common sense, they could be resistant to magic for all I knew.

But I wasn't going to leave it at that, "If you can look me in the eye and say we should leave them, then I won't argue."

For a moment I thought she might refuse but when she breathed out suddenly I knew she relented "Fine, you go distract them with your flashy spells, I'll surprise them." as she said that she began to move slowly ahead.

They were only four of them, five with the mounted guy, so assuming no resistance to spells and with the element of surprise it seemed like good odds.

As I was waiting for Alira to get closer, the wagon shook again because of the road's conditions and new pain sounds could be heard. My attention was drawn to the window of the wagon where a face appeared. It was a woman, she had blood and dirt on her face, but when she turned around I couldn't believe my eyes, she had long thin ears that stretched upward way above her head.

‘Seriously though... an elf?’