Azura didn’t bother with the smuggling tunnel. It would take too much time. Instead she went toward the nearest wall and simply ran over it. Much like she did before the great food fight. She would have to trust the rat-kin to get the others to safety. She had to get to Toren and Gerald before it was too late. Once atop the wall she leaped clearing a dozen houses before she broke into a run. The mages weren’t here… nor were there any kin. She was too late.

“Toren…” Azura sped toward his home. If he wasn’t there then she would check at Gerald’s then back toward Hamal’s. She came to a stop just outside his home.

“Toren!” She yelled. She would have broken down the door but that had already been done.

Inside it looked like a small hurricane had ravaged the home.

“No…” She was too late. Hamal said they were taking the kin as slaves. That must mean he is with the others. Once they found out where he was she would be able to free him.

Azura stepped outside getting ready to race toward Gerald’s. She only took a single step. That was when she saw the body. At first she didn’t even recognize it as a body. It looked like it was a collection of shredded flesh held together by rags. The gruesome sight held her attention as little ticks began sounding alarms in her mind. More connections were made and then rejected because she refused to see it. It wasn’t until she noticed the severed ears lying next to the corpse that it started to become real.

“No. No… No…” Azura shook her head as her body trembled. It must be some other half rabbit-kin. Yeah that must be it. She almost laughed. That sure gave her a fright. It couldn’t be Toren. Not her Toren. Not the kin who’d enjoyed coming up with playful pranks with her. Not the Toren who’d had fantasy adventures with her on the roof tops. Not the Toren who kissed her. Who… loved her…

No! It was defiantly not him.

She would prove it. She would take a closer look and it wouldn’t be him. Just some poor unfortunate kin. It wouldn’t be him… She just had to turn the body over. Yep, that’s all. Then she would see it wasn’t him. Really this distraction was taking too long. She knew it wasn’t him. It couldn’t be him. Hands trembling so violently she fumbled at the body before rolling it over. Her mind having already reaching the conclusion she was denying.

She looked down into Toren’s half ruined face.

“AAARHHH!” Azura screamed into the night. She screamed her denial. Her acceptance. Her loss. Over and over Azura screamed as she cradled the body to her chest. Tears flowed like rivers and all was misery. She kept screaming until the mages came.

Attracted by the noise a group of five mages came across her. They were a mixed group, four of them were human and one was an elf. Two ran up to her. One had blue hair and other a greenish yellow.

“SPECTRAL CHAINS!” The blue haired mage said. Chains shot from his hands wrapping Azura up. She let it as she lowered Toren’s body to the ground. Azura stood unmoving looking down at the body.

“She’s a pretty one,” the blue hair mage said as he drew closer. “I think we should have some fun with this one.” The mage chuckled as he gave the chains a pull. Azura didn’t move. The mage frowned and tugged again. The others laughed.

“Can’t move a girl?” Scoffed a mage further away who was standing next to the violet haired elf.

“Move it girl!” The mage snarled getting right up to her face. Azura slowly turned her head in spasmodic motions toward the mage. Her eyes were wide. Far too wide for her petite face. Her pupils looked small in those oh so wide eyes. Her teeth were bared as if she was a wild mana beast eager for blood. The mage felt very very small. A tiny prey animal stumbling across an apex predator. The mage nearly lost bowel control. Never had he felt such a strong burst of absolute terror. Somehow he knew, without knowing, that he was about to die. The mage started to take a step back when Azura flexed shattering the magical bonds. Her hand shot out at impossible speeds seizing the mage’s jaw. She tore it off with no more difficulty than plucking an apple from a heavily burden tree. The mage would have screamed except his vocal cords had snapped and his tongue flapped around like a neck tie. Tendrils of shredded flesh hung like a twisted beard from the remains of his face. Her next blow went through his chest, demolishing his heart.

The other mages gaped at the bloody fist that exited the mages back. The fist retracted and the body collapsed. Azura regarded the dead mages before her. It wouldn’t be enough. It would never be enough. However, it would be a fine start…

The elf Trenton had been alive for nearly two hundred years. He was an accomplished melee spell caster recognized many times over. He had achieved the rank of high magus before his fifty birthday and grand magus twenty years ago. Among elves he was considered a prodigy. So the fact he was confused on what just happened said a lot. The kin had broken the spectral chains. That wasn’t special. He could have counter with any number of spells. What was shocking was the fact he didn’t feel any magic. Nor did he, when she ruthlessly killed the mage. His mind raced as the other mages reacted in predictable ways casting the spells they were most familiar with. Trenton did none of these things, instead he analyzed the situation. The only explanation he could come up with was a ‘Superior Strength’ spell or better. But such a spell was beyond most human mages let alone a kin. A kin! There has never been a kin mage that he knew of.

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“FIRE LANCE!” The mage closest shouted launching the burning missile. The kin slapped the javelin of fire out of her way with contempt. Trenton gapped.

That shouldn’t be possible. A barrier or similar spell was need to block such an attack. Or a counter spell. Not just… hitting it. The kin appeared unconcern as she began walking toward them twitching with each step.

Trenton readied himself.

“GREATER STRENGTH.”

“GREATER HASTE.”

“ORICHALCUM BODY.”

Trenton was a close combat mage specialist. If this kin thought to fight him hand to hand she was a fool. He was particularly proud of Orichalcum Body. That spell alone took him nearly five years to master. Unlike iron skin or steel skin, a body spell affect not just the exterior but the interior as well. His muscles and bones were all reinforced to be as strong as Orichalcum, well it was more of a rank of the spell rather than any relation to strength of the metal.

Just as Trenton casted so did the other mages. The two human mages near him were spooked and casted barrier spells. The one who casted fire lance went on the offensive.

“FIRE SWORD!” A sword of fire appeared in his hand. It was an impressive piece of conjuration. He charged the half cat-kin. He made it four steps and crumpled. What was left of his body floated four feet off the ground in a roughly spherical shape two feet in diameter. It was like some unseen force had grabbed him applying pressure from all sides. The sphere fell to the ground with a wet thwack. It rolled slowly downhill leaving a crimson trail behind it.

Trenton felt real fear for the first time. He sense no traces of magic. This was dangerous. Trenton reached for the ambient mana attempting to refill his pool when he received another shock. The mana was thin, almost gone. Of course the mana here didn’t compare to his homeland, but this wasn’t right. He tried to grab what he could. All of it slipped out of his grasp. A greater force was pulling it elsewhere. Trenton swallowed and activated his mana sight. The magic of the world shown brightly before him… or would have if there was any significant amount. The only sources of mana were himself and his two human comrades. The dead mages were leaking their mana to the environment. That mana, and all the ambient mana, was swirling around the kin as she kept walking toward them. It was a whirlpool steadily draining the area of mana. Yet, there was none in the kin. None at all. The mana was just… disappearing. That was impossible. All living things needed mana. Even nulls had mana although theirs were sluggish, asleep. This girl had none. She shouldn’t be alive.

“EMPOWERED DEATH LANCE!” The red hair mage next to him shouted safe in his bubble. The other mage had his eyes closed channeling all his mana into a single spell.

The kin moved. Even with his ‘Greater Haste’ spell active he didn’t see her move. Some type of short range teleport spell? That must be it. She appeared next to the barrier and punched it. A shock-wave tore the barrier apart. The mage inside was reduced to a fine bloody mist and splattered pieces of meat.

Trenton leaped at her pushing his body to his limit. He swung a knife edge chop at her neck. She caught his wrist in a lazy motion as she regarded the mage still gathering his mana. Trenton readied another chop with his free hand when the cat-kin squeezed.

His ‘Orichalcum Body’ spell should have protected him from most harm. Indeed, he hadn’t been seriously hurt since he had mastered the spell. He could take a blow from a twenty pound Warhammer and not even feel it. He felt this. The flesh and bone of his wrist flowed like clay squishing between the cat-kin’s fingers as his hand fell toward the earth.

“AAAHH!” Trenton screamed as he took several steps back looking at his stump in disbelief.

“SUN STRIKE!” The other mage shouted. All his mana was expelled in a single blast of light and heat. The beam hit the cat-kin and Trenton lost sight of her as he was blinded by the radiance. That was a powerful working. The spell itself wasn’t that complex but the vast amount of mana the mage had put into the spell would have melted through a city wall and combusted anything behind it for some distance. The kin had to be dead.

The mage collapsed to his knees vomiting as his barrier dissolved. His mana was depleted. With the lack of ambient mana he wouldn’t be recovering anytime soon. The spots faded from Trenton’s vision.

His world stopped. The cat-kin was still there. However the spell appeared to have finally affected her. Her clothes were gone. Charred to ash. That was the most significant damage. The girl’s skin was red in places. Like she got a moderate sun burn. That was all.

The mage trembled as the cat-kin appeared next to him. Her fists were clenched together above her head. The blow fell. The mage was liquefied below her like pancake batter.

“TELEPORT!” Trenton shouted as the cat-kin turned her murderous gaze toward him. Her reaching hand passed through his body as he left the madness behind.

Azura snarled. The damn mage got away. She winced at her burns. She hadn’t believed they could hurt her. Foolish. She’d just been so angry that she wanted them to suffer. It had overwritten her better judgment. Now around a third of her ki had been exhausted from that attack. The burns weren’t important. They were already healing and by the time she got back to the cave there would be no trace left. The mages dealt with, she returned to Toren. Azura closed his one good eye and gave it a small kiss. Her rage was unstated. She wanted more. Killing the mages hadn’t been enough. Not nearly enough. However she pushed that aside for now. She had work to do. She went inside Toren’s home. There she found fresh clothes that fit her well enough and a large blanket. Taking the blanket she wrapped his body and left Deepmere. She promised if she found any mages on the way she would kill them. She would kill them all.