I awoke and blinked my eyes a few times. I was surrounded by pure blackness, and I relieved a sigh. I had expected to see the blue-grey stones again. I willed a dull light orb and tossed it to the cleaning. It seemed I had fallen the rest of the way down the hole and was able to drag myself into my tunnel.

Where the shaft going up had been was now a pile of rubble. The explosion from the massive turtle had closed the shaft for me. What in the world was that thing? It was big enough to hold an entire sailing vessel on its backside.

I checked myself for injuries, finding none. They had probably fixed themselves as I lay unconscious if I had them. Getting to my feet, I began running towards the room with my tunnels. I decided to check one of the tunnels on the west side and made my way up the ladder.

The first thing I noticed was what looked to be the light of the dawn coming through the crack as I raised the shaft’s top. I had been out for a while. Checking my Mana, it looked like I was only out for a minute at most. I hadn’t regained much of my Mana back.

[ Mana: 2035/2500 ]

The second thing I noticed was the lack of tents and soldiers in every direction I looked. Then I felt the rumbling behind, and my blood ran cold as I looked towards the city. The first thing I noticed about the giant war turtle was that there were two now. Then looking past the two massive creatures, I could see the city on fire. The walls had crumbled, and If I had to guess, I was knocked out far longer than I had thought.

I threw the cap of the shaft to the side and looked around. The sun was setting to the west, not rising. The war had started. I sent out a feeling of concern to Luin and got nothing back. Dread filled me, and I jumped out of the tunnel and ran towards the burning city.

The massive snakeheads didn’t seem to be looking behind them, their gazes on the city. I felt the air thrum a moment later as the snake turtle on the left shot two of its massive fireballs from the guns coming out of its shell. Moments later, two explosions rocked inside the city.

I came up behind the beast and pushed a Tier 3 blue Fireball into my mind before releasing it to fly and hit its back right leg. The spell exploded against its skin, and when the smoke vanished, its leg sat unharmed. The damn beast didn’t even bother to turn and regard me. The spell I thought made me a formidable mage was nothing to something like this.

I looked towards the wall, seeing a large opening. I threw on Speed Aura to the max and ran into the city.

[ Mana: 1947/2500 ]

Looking around the ruined city, I spotted a group of the Akhusite soldiers leaving a house and dragging behind them a kicking and screaming Beastkin. I sped towards them, three Ice Lances forming above my head before hurtling through the air to piece three of them in the sides. All three went down instantly. Their bodies crumpled on the street.

One of the remaining soldiers yelled something and then turned around to stab the Beastkin with his sword. I pushed my Speed Aura further and felt the push back but kept running forward. My hammer slammed into his surprised face a second later with a flash.

I turned around and dove to the side just as the last two soldiers’ swords arched through the spot I had vacated. I scrambled to my feet, letting my Speed Aura go, as I cursed myself for how much Mana I had just used.

[ Mana: 1751/2500 ]

I reached into my side bag and pulled out two Shards. The last two of the soldiers split, moving sideways to surround me. I crushed both Shards in my hands, tossing the Fireballs at the shocked men. They tried to dive out of the way, but the explosions caught both, killing the men.

I looked around and couldn’t see any others. I helped the Beastkin up and asked him if he could get anywhere safe. The Beastkin explained others had taken refuge inside the Fyr Mine. I looked down at the soldiers' bodies. None of them were turning into cores. If I couldn’t get cores, I would be in trouble soon.

I told him to lead the way. Six blocks later, we ran into another group of soldiers. I pushed the Beastkin to the side. The arrow hadn’t hit him. Instead, The arrow hit me in my side, and I groaned with pain before taking out more Shards and rushing the archer. He didn’t die from the explosion, but his clothing caught fire, and he began yelling as he ran away from the fight to fall dead in the middle of the street moments later.

The two men with swords and shields rushed me. Another Shard sent them flying apart to crash into the buildings. I waited for them to get up, but they sat there unmoving. The last two men holding spears looked at one another before fleeing. I slapped on my Speed Aura again and caught up with them. My mace took the left one in the small of his back with a flash.

The second spun around to try and skewer me, but I knocked it to the side with the mace. The enchantment went off, obliterating the shaft, and sent the man flying as he held the shaft with a death grip. I walked over to the moaning man and ended him with another flash.

I went and grabbed the trembling Beastkin and told him to get it together and get me to the Fyr Mine. We turned the corner, and the Beastkin pointed towards a stone building, telling me the entrance was inside. The building looked to have been created like a sturdy keep, and I could see a few craters around the building. The snake-turtle creature couldn’t destroy it.

As we drew close, I spotted another group of soldiers carrying what looked like kegs over their shoulders and placing them against the door of the mine’s keep.

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“Fyrpowder!” the Beastkin shouted.

They were about to blast the doors open. I didn’t bother to tell him to hide. He could figure that out for himself. I slammed the Speed Aura to max again, feeling my Mana drain quickly. I reached the closest in seconds, taking him out with a flash. The third and fourth men, including myself, weren’t as lucky. I hit the third man with an underhanded swing, taking out his legs.

The enchantment on the hammer went off, turning the man’s lower half into pink mist. The enchantment then went forward three yards to hit the fourth in the chest. It also hit the bottom of the keg he was carrying. The explosion blinded me as I felt myself blast backward before I heard three other explosions go off.

I moaned and blinked away the stars in my eyes. My ears rang, and I stared up at the darkening sky. The pool of my Mana brought me back to the present, and I pushed my Speed Aura away. It had taken another large chunk.

[ Mana: 1294/2500 ]

I picked myself up and looked around. My body hurt all over. Hopefully, my enhanced healing will fix that soon. The group of soldiers was mostly gone. Very few pieces of their bodies could be seen. Still no cores. Could I cut them out of their bodies? I would run out of Mana at the rate I was going. I checked my bag and found I only had twenty of the Fireball Shards left.

I looked down the street to see the Beastkin peak out, see me, then begin to run towards me. I limped over to the mine’s gate and began slamming on the metal door. “Open up, hurry! I got one of yours out here. I need to see if my friends are inside!”

I was greeted with silence. The Beastkin made his way over to me and pulled me over to the other side of the keep. We walked around, and before we reached the corner, he looked around and pushed a brick into the wall.

A small part of the wall sprung open, and inside we were greeted with a plethora of weapons held by Beastkin, Humans, and Gnomes. Seeing the Beastkin to my side, they lowered their weapons and had us rush into the building.

I asked if anyone had seen the blue Kobold or the orphan kids, but no one could recall seeing them. One of the men in the back said he thought he had seen three orphans early rushing into the mine, but he couldn’t be sure.

One of the guards showed me the way, and we went down into the mine. A few minutes later, we came to a massive cavern where groups of people, most guards, packed around campfires.

“Luin! Luke! Owena!” I yelled. I tried to remember the other’s names, yelling them out.

I got a few looks of sympathy from people, but no one spoke up.

‘Has anyone seen a blue Kobold or the orphans or street kids?!”

Again no one spoke up. My heart sank. They were still out there. I hoped they had enough time to get into the bunker I made under the inn’s kitchen. I ran back up the tunnel to the mine’s entrance and had them let me out. The Beastkin I had saved thanked me repeatedly as I left the hidden entrance.

I began running towards the orphanage, hoping everyone was alright. I knew in my gut that something was wrong. I couldn’t feel any emotions coming from Luin and hoped she was inside the bunker with the kids sleeping.

I ran around a corner sharply and regretted it as a massive polearm came out of nowhere, catching me in my midsection, lifting me off my feet, and throwing me across the street and into the side of a building. Pain exploded throughout my body, my breath leaving me.

“Ho, ho. Are you the mage who’s been causing us trouble the last day? Said a beast of a man. His muscles seemed to have muscles. His armor was polished crimson red with golden accents. His massive spear was easily three meters tall. At its top was a single long pointed blade, with what looked like a ribbon hanging from a golden ring attached to the middle of the blade.

“Cat caught your tongue?” No more casting for you then,” he said as he ran towards me.

I reached into my pouch and pulled a handful of the Shards out, crushing them all. Three fireballs popped around my hand. The man didn’t seem surprised, and I willed them to shoot toward him.

The man swatted two of them away like balls in some kind of sport. The third hit him in the chest, and I was glad for a breather. I had to dive to the side as the man kept charging forward as if unharmed. I willed the Ice Wall to form before me, the massive spikes of ice rushing forward to meet him. That seemed to surprise him, and he tried to stop. Instead of getting impaled on one of the shards of ice, he swung his polearm around and shattered the three spikes in front of him.

“My my. What are you? Some kind of dual mage? I’ve never seen a Fire and Ice Class before. Why don’t you work for me? I’ll spare your life. You could make a killing clearing out the unwanted of the empire.”

I had gotten to my feet and looked around. More soldiers were beginning to surround us. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of this. An Idea came to my mind, and I acted before this bastard began to monologue.

The Steam spell surged forward. The man simply held out his palm to block the spell, but it had done wanted I wanted it to do. The area between us was now covered in thick hot steam. The second spell came slower as I pushed both the Tier 2 Fireball and Tier 2 Earth spells together, then added the Tier 1 Arcane on top of it.

I pushed the spell forward, and a much larger ball of magma materialized over my palm. I willed it to shoot forward slightly lower than where I had shot the stream of steam. The steam began to dissipate as I heard the spell hit, and then I heard the man begin to howl in pain.

I looked on in horror as I could finally see the large man on the ground. His bottom half looked to have melted off. I stood frozen and watched him remove flask after flask from his bag to begin drinking them. His pelvis was slowly beginning to reform, and I wasn’t going to miss this chance.

I willed the rest of my Ice Wall to vanish and ran towards the man. The first hit of my hammer flashed, knocking the next vial out of his hand as he howled in pain. The bastard caught my next swing in the palm of his hand and grinned at me. The mace still flashed. I raised the hammer above my head, and he kept the same grin on his face as I swung downwards with all my might.

His grin vanished as the hand that caught the hammer, the arm attached to it, and most of his chest and shoulder's left side vanished into a pink mist.

[ Mana: 948/2500 ]