*BOOM* a massive explosion of energy erupted from the two’s collision, and a sound that should not have come from flesh and bone roared loudly. The large brute, who was over two and a half meters tall, was blown backwards with such force that the very ground beneath him followed, while both he, and his destroyed shield, crashed through several trees before rolling along the ground like a ragdoll.
Crap! I overdid it! James panicked as he entertained the thought that he had killed his assailant. No no no, what am I thinking? He attacked me first so it’s fine...Right? Despite this sound argument, when he looked at the path of destruction he had just cut out of the forest, he could really only see his actions as overdoing it.
Wait, what happened to the mage? Quickly scanning the area, he found the mage buried underneath a pile of dirt and debris. He laid there, unconscious and groaning, but after a quick examination, James found that he sustained a surprisingly few amount of wounds.
Looks like he was able to defend in time, thank goodness. The other guy however… James jogged down the small path that his attack had cleared out, and he found the brute lying in the dirt face up around 50 meters away.
The man was, thankfully, still intact, however unlike his mage companion, he sustained quite considerable damage. For starters, his left arm which had held his shield, was completely smashed. It twisted unnaturally in several areas, and bone could be seen poking out of the skin. Besides the arm, he also had several deep cuts that ran out along his face and other exposed areas, and his right shoulder blade had been shattered as well.
James was honestly surprised. Although he looked badly injured, the fact that he even survived at all was a testament to an incredibly durable body.
James frowned. He survived, so that’s a good thing… but as for his injuries, they may be beyond me.
Among the magic elements, healing magic was the specialty of priests, who had received the Goddess's blessing. Therefore, it stood to reason that James, who also had the blessing of the Goddess, should be able to use healing magic too.
But I’m not confident in my skills to heal this man… James thought worriedly to himself.
Just because one could use healing magic, doesn’t mean they would excel at it. In the end, it all relied on personal training to become proficient in any field. While James was by no means a weak magician, healing magic had always been his worst magic. This was mostly due to his neglect in training it.
It’s not my fault… with my ‘ability’ healing magic became somewhat obsolete…
Though James did indeed receive a blessing from the Goddess, similar to priests, the true nature of the power he had received was not in the form of healing magic, but something that could be considered far superior. An ability that had stunned his old comrades and allowed him to fight with demons from an early age to quickly accumulate power.
If I leave him here… he’ll die. James thought bitterly. Even if he had only retaliated to an attack they had initiated first, that did not mean he was entirely without blame. For starters, he was the one who had concealed his presence and hid to spy on them. In this world where danger can be found in every corner, it wouldn’t be surprising for them to have mistaken him for a bandit or assassin. He also used far too much force in his attack. From their brief exchange, he had more or less gained an understanding of their level of strength and had judged it to not be a threat to him. But, rather then slip away, he had let his irritation get the better of him and went overboard with his retaliation.
But is it worth the potential drawbacks of using it? That power isn’t something I can just use so carelessly.
As James weighed the concrete benefits and drawbacks, he realized that saving someone who he didn’t know and had ruthlessly attacked him, held absolutely no real value to him. But as he started to walk away from the body, he stopped.
“No one will die… I swear this to you James. I’ll become a hero that you could never be!”
He remembered. The voice of that fool who was constantly obsessed with saving people. Wanting happiness and love to be spread to everyone in the middle of war was just foolhardy, yet that man, his best friend, believed in such virtues til the day that he died.
Haha… Briant, are you still an idiot in this time period as well? I’d hate to disappoint you…
James turned around and drew his sword. The shining silver blade that appeared in his hands was like something out of a fairy tale. He walked over to the brute and pointed the blades tip at him.
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“Rewind” as he spoke the activation word, mystical green light poured out into the surroundings.
*Mage’s point of view*
“Ahhg!” The mage, Rufus, jerked awake. “W-What happened here?” He was lying in the middle of a clearing inside a forest that looked like a tornado had just stormed through.
He remembered that man… the one who had unleashed such a devastating attack on Galand’s shield. He remembered from many years ago, the picture of a senior class representative from his school, a man with fiery red hair that had fired magic with such intensity that everyone in the crowd who had come to the opening ceremony had felt it’s blaze.
That such a person became a bandit of all things… Unthinkable!
Certainly, such a powerful person turning into something like that would be incredibly terrifying. Unfortunately, Rufus did not realize how mistaken he was.
Wait, what happened to Galand?!
As quickly as he could, he jumped up and began searching for his friend in the pile of wreckage that the man with red hair had left behind.
“Galand! Galand! Where are you?!” He shouted as he frantically searched around.
“Guhnn…” He heard the deep groan of his friend a little ways away.
“Galand? Are you all right?!” He rushed over quickly, preparing himself for the worst. Although he had great trust in his friends abilities, he vividly remembered the sight of Galand flying through the air from a great explosion, right before he lost consciousness. Not even he with his monstrous body could escape from something like that unharmed.
He arrived by the body of his friend who was lying much farther away then he thought he would be, and was greatly surprised. Visibly, he looked fine. His arm that had braced his shield wasn’t even broken.
No wait… He’s not just visibly fine, He’s not injured at all! Quickly checking over Galand’s body, he couldn’t find a single trace of damage to be found anywhere. With a quick glance around the area, he even found Galand’s shield and hammer, both completely undamaged.
What on earth happened here…? How is he ok? When he thought about it, no matter how durable his friend was, there was no way for him to take an attack that could cause this much devastation so easily. He and Galand had been training together since Rufus was a young boy, and he knew the older man’s abilities well, so he knew for a fact that the man should have been seriously injured-maybe even dead-from the attack just now.
“GRAHHHH!!!” “AHHH!!” Suddenly, Galand’s eyes shot open, and he leapt up from the ground, scaring Rufus. “Buggin hell! Wha- the, how the, wha’ happnd here?!” As Galand quickly gazed around the area, his eyes widened as he saw the destruction.
“Y-you were struck by the bandit…” Rufus, still recovering from his surprise, breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that his friend was not in any danger.
“What do ya mean I was hit?!” Galand roared. “THAT was not jus’ sum hit!”
“Hey, calm down! I don’t really understand either, but when you stop to think about it, it’s not like it’s something completely impossible! Arch mages from the capital ought to be able to do this much!” Rufus panickedly tried to calm his friend down.
Galand’s eyes narrowed in confusion “Huh? Why woul’ one of them fancy pricks be down here?”
Rufus shrugged. “I didn’t say that he WAS an arch mage, only that there are people of his level that can do that. I think I recognized him, he looked like someone who was in the lead class from the magic school I graduated from.”
“Ok…” Galand finally started to calm down. He jumped up and down, and did some light stretches to get a feel for his body.
“What’s this…?” He felt fine, like he wasn’t injured in the first place. “I know right? I was surprised too, did you use a new magic ability to block all that damage?” Rufus asked, a little irritated that Galand had not shared it with him.
“No… ruddy hell, that guy healed me!” Galand exclaimed. He remembered their clash well. The instant that man’s fist had connected with his shield, his arm had shattered, and he was blown backwards. Rufus doesn’t have healing magic, so unless some wandering priest had stopped to save him and then leave, then the only other option was the red haired man.
“What?” Rufus was skeptical. For someone to use healing magic, they had to have the blessing of a God or Goddess. This was largely limited to priests. Although it wasn’t completely unheard of for someone other than a priest to receive a blessing, the likelihood of one appearing here was quite small.
“Come here, Let me check” Rufus walked around Galand and scanned his body with mana to search for traces of magic. His eyes widened.
“Wh- what is this?!” He had never seen magic like this before.
This depth, I’ve never seen nor heard of magic like this… It feels reminiscent of holy magic, but healing magic leaves behind more abrupt magical charges, not to mention it can’t fix Galand’s hammer and shield.
“I-I don’t know. Maybe he did use healing magic on you...but that wouldn’t make sense would it…”
Why would someone who had just tried to kill you, save you, and then leave without a word? Rufus couldn’t comprehend the actions of the red haired man.
“...Well getting hung over this won’t help. What’s done is done, no use pondering what we don’t understand any longer than this. Come on, it’s already noon, we have to get to Raitzal before night if we want to get a good inn.” Rufus smiled in an attempt to blow things over, but he couldn’t quite get the scene out of his head. That kind of strength, mixed with a type of magic he had never seen nor heard of before, coupled with the fact that Galand appeared to be healed, none of it made sense.
“...Right, lemme grab my things.” Galand was well aware of what his young friend was thinking, and walked over the pick up his shield and hammer, both were similarly undamaged. Unfit for thinking very hard, Galand simply dropped the matter from his mind and let his friend do the pondering. “Les’ go” He gruffly addressed Rufus, and they both began following the path of a certain red haired ‘bandit’.