They met on the field in front of the farm house. A tall blonde man in a black coat, and white haired old fire mage named Zoe. Behind the man was the family of Niles and Thisbe, farmers caught in the middle of their debate, guarded by a brown-haired young man. Their eldest son, Lycus, was being held up by another stranger with a scar on his face. Although she was outnumbered, Zoe was calm as she dragged her wooden leg across the dirt and to stand against the blonde haired stranger.

“There’s no need to get violent, Ms. Gaia, we can be civilized about all this...”

“...says the man who just tortured my patient while he’s still in recovery.” The blonde haired man was quickly interrupted by Zoe’s resolve.

“My apologies, perhaps we got off on the wrong foot there.” He pulled his hair back and bowed in a manner of respect. “My name is Castor, a humble mage and messenger of an esteemed organization.”

“I know who you are, I’ve been told all about you and you drones staking out the hunter’s guild messing with my orders.” She looked at the man with the scar on his face. “I’m guessing that makes you Oceanus...” She turned to the youngest of the ground guarding farmer family. “...although I’m not sure about the kid who looks like he’s about to wet his pants.”

“He’s just a rookie, never mind about him.” He shooed off her concerns as irrelevant. “I understand you’ve been trading in some very illegal herbs on this property, a herb that my friend Oceanus has confirmed was in this boy’s blood.” The scarred man dropped the weakened Lycus to the ground and then pulled out a vial or green fluorescent liquid from his pocket.

“By the looks of this blood sample I’d say it’s definitely Emerald Leaf.” He smiled and laughed at how he managed to acquire the blood in the first place.

“A Water Mage that can perform blood tests for anesthesia, you’re either an exceptional hunter or more likely you’re working for a medical corp.” She looked at the broach on the coat of the youngest members of the ground with a very distinguishing feature of a cloud with four faces, facing in four directions. “By the looks of that fancy pin the young welp is wearing I’d say you’re from the Boreas Group.”

The young man’s face turned pale when he realized his mistake. He tried desperately to take off his pin, but his colleagues noticed his struggle and he was met with scours, especially from the man with the scar.

“Jupiter’s Beard, Notes I thought I told you to get rid of that pen while we’re in the field.” His veins were practically throbbing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” The young man quickly pleaded as he put the pin away. “I wasn’t trying to...”

“Forget it, she already knows.” Castor raised his hand to halt his colleagues' rage.

“I don’t see why acquiring medicine should be a crime, when your group does the same.” She casually shrugged.

“Our group goes through proper channels, lady. Up until now, we’ve tolerated your practice because it was limited, but we understand that you’ve acquired the services of an experienced hunter. Now under the authority of the Empire and the Duchy of Aster, I’m going to have to confiscate any illegal goods you may have in your possession.”

“Confiscate, don’t you mean retrieve for the Boreas Group?” From the looks on their faces she could tell them and made the right assumption. “I suppose next you’ll want me to surrender quietly?”

“We don’t want you lady, we just want the emerald leaf.” Oceanus reached out his hand toward the well and summoned a sphere of water by his side.

It multiplied by seven times and surrounded him like orbiting moons. When he grabbed one sphere and stretched it long and sharp like a point, it froze like a spear of ice. Hovering above his head like a sharp spine waiting to be swung, he aimed it straight at Zoe’s head. Castor stretched his fingers revealing sparks of electricity between his palm, playing with it like a piece of string.

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“You know you may be a Grand Master, but the odds are still three to one. Do you really want to make this harder?”

“Wait, am I included in this brawl?”

“Just watch the hay-seeds, and make sure they don’t get in our way.” He saw that the young man had neglected his duties and allowed Thisbe and Niles to get past him to attend to their son.

Notes watched them closer this time like a hawk holding hands up with wind cyclones of turbulent wind spinning about in his palm ready to charge. It was more for intimidation since the young man did not have as much malicious intent as his cohorts. Castor raised his hands toward the sky, opening his palm to a sparks of lightning from his wrist. The clouds above the sky started to grow darker by the second until the roar of thunder started calling from the sky. Zoe recognized this feeling in her bones as the feeling of magic, a Master Fire Mage ability known as Storm.

“You kids are all the same.” Zoe shook her head as she stood in a defensive stance. “You think bigger is better when really you waste too much power spreading your energies so thin.”

“I admit, it’s mostly for show, but there are some advantages to this technique...” His eyes shifted to over his shoulder. “...like this!”

His eyes lit up like sparks as a bolt of lightning landed from the sky onto the field behind him. Everyone was momentarily blinded and shocked from the sudden hit on the field. Zoe’s ears were ringing, but she was left unharmed by the flash, as her eyes started to adjust to the situation she noticed where the lightning had struck. Falling near the ground of scorched grass, she saw Anthony rolled over covered in static sparks that radiated from his leather gear. From the looks he managed to avoid a direct lightning strike, but just barely with reflexes that a normal man shouldn’t even possess.

“You must be the new hunter I’ve heard so much about.” Castor smiled. “You’re quick, I’ll give you that, not many hunters can avoid a direct hit from a lightning bolt.” He turned to Oceanus. “Oceanus, if you please.”

“With pleasure.” The Water Mage waved his hand to release his giant icicle straight at the fallen soldier.

With little time to react, Anthony got up and ran toward the house for cover. Suddenly, the giant icicle shattered into several dozen shards with a lethal capacity of a small fast moving knife. It spread in a plume of destruction that improved its impact twenty folds as Anthony continued to run and dodge to the best of abilities. The shards managed to graze him by the arms and legs but he kept running ignoring the destruction they left in their path. The small ice shards tore through the walls, the windows, the dirt like a hail of arrowheads. In an instant they started evaporating like dry ice, transforming to mist in the darkness creating a cold chill in the atmosphere.

Anthony’s wounds did not bleed much, but even a scratch left a cold burning sensation on his skin from the freezing cold dry ice on his skin. As he witnessed the Water Mage reloading a second water sphere for attack, he took out his knife and began his offense. Zoe on the other hand had her hands occupied with Castor and his continuous barrage of lightning bolts falling from the sky at Master Zoe. She couldn’t dodge as well as she used to with only one good leg, but she had learned to defend herself very well. With her hand she compressed lighting into a sphere the size of a large ball and slowly walked forward. Every time the lightning struck, another lighting bolt shot out from the sphere connecting the current and canceling out the bolt mid-strike.

This wasn’t an easy process, as Zoe’s fingers jumbled and tumbled, controlling the right amount of energy that entered and exited. If it wasn’t a perfect strike, the sphere would lose its integrity, so Zoe had to constantly twiddle her fingers trying to adjust the smallest spark. It was a complex process that barely gave her enough time to take a step forward but Castor kept up his barrage, certain she would fall before he did.

While all this was happening, nobody seemed to realize a third member was sneaking up behind Notes. The young wind mage had been captivated at how fast Anthony could dodge and how well Zoe could defend. Keeping one eye on the hostages and one eye on the fight, Notes lost track of a figure sneaking up behind his shoulders. He didn’t even notice a large sphere of water she carried under her arms and stretched it back like a sling. Before the young wind mage even noticed what was going on, he felt a strong spray of water pushing him with the force of a high pressure geyser shooting straight at him. It was enough force to push the wind mage down and roll him several feet away. It was then that Thisbe noticed their rescuer, Clio, having emerged to save the day.

“Quickly, grab you son, we can take cover in the woods while Zoe and Anthony deal with these ruffians.”

“Are you sure they’ll be able to?” She asked.

“Believe me, you can’t underestimate either of them.”

Before the Wind Mage had time to recover, Niles and his wife helped Clio carry their son away into the woods. The forest was not deep, but they knew it well enough to know where to hide, and hopefully they could stay out of the way of this bout of Mages and hunters. Anthony kept dodging sharps of ice, but could barely get closer enough to attack, Master Zoe was slowly limping her way toward the castor. The battle of wills continued with no signs of who would come out the true victor.