With the short-lived scuttle in the market at an end, people were slowly coming out of their hiding spots. Stores were opening back up tentatively, and hiding customers were beginning to scurry off to their origins.

The market was slowly developing the sound of activity, but there were no voices. Only legs shuffling along from place to place.

Shanine followed behind Ash, Chris and Oliver. She was quiet, a part of the group only by the extension of their relationship with Zed.

For a moment she wondered where the other Olympians were. Where was Daniel or Jennifer?

She wasn’t completely sure she would pick them over her current group, but she was sure she would willingly trade Chris for anybody.

They followed behind.

Why didn’t we just attack them? She thought after a while.

She was fairly certain the people who’d taken Zed were all just Awakened. The only threat they posed was with their guns. And she’d heard rumors back at Hillview that guns didn’t really harm Rukh mages. Which meant that Oliver and Chris could’ve saved Zed if they’d wanted.

So why didn’t they?

The group walked slowly through the small town, following a trail Chris kept pointing out. Shanine had no idea what exactly she ever pointed out, but Oliver and Ash seemed to know, so that was good.

But how am I sure we’re going after Zed? She thought. We could be making our way out right now.

No. She shook her head. Oliver wouldn’t leave Zed.

She’d spent only the littlest time around the group, but she’d seen how Oliver was with Zed. He was technically the only one in the group that acted like a friend around Zed. Ash treated Zed like her younger brother’s annoying friend and Chris treated him like…

Well, Chris treated him the way she treated everyone else.

Chris would definitely leave Zed to die. And she was the one leading the group right now, directing it.

“Where are we going?” Shanine asked no one in particular.

At the head of the group, Chris sighed.

“Didn’t you just watch Zed get taken by a group of people, kid?” she asked. “You were right there with us. Where do you think we’re going? The mosque?”

“I’m not a kid. Don’t call me a kid.”

“Then don’t act like one.” Chris didn’t even give her the benefit of looking back. She simply pointed out another thing and everyone followed.

“I hate this,” Shanine muttered as they turned a corner around a small caravan.

“It gets better,” Oliver said.

He was directly in front of her so she assumed he’d heard her.

But what exactly did he mean? When he said ‘it’ did he mean a relationship with Chris? If that was what he was talking about, then she was against it. Even a better behaved Chris didn’t feel enjoyable.

“I don’t think it will,” she replied.

Oliver chuckled lightly. There was something reassuring about the sound, laid back, certain. It reminded her of Zed’s chuckles.

“You take life easily, too. Don’t you?” she said.

Oliver’s face turned thoughtful. “Maybe. I wouldn’t go that far, though.”

Ash snorted in front of him.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she repeated in a mocking voice. “Ollie, I don’t think there’s anyone as chill as you and Red.”

“Oliver’s nothing like Bloodbath,” Chris scowled. “Slow down. I think there are people on the other side.”

Their steps slowed on command.

Shanine watched all three of them change in their demeanor. Where they had been cautious, they were now alert. It was in the way their shoulders relaxed, their steps growing lighter. She watched them crouch a little lower, Oliver’s arms position themselves properly beside him, ready to act should anything happen.

Shanine had seen one aspect of hell in this new world. But what part did they have to have seen to be able to turn so deadly so suddenly on nothing but command.

They didn’t look trained for it, yet the action seemed instinctual. Like they’d learned it even though they hadn’t been taught.

“Careful now,” Oliver told her in a low voice. “If Chris thinks something is dangerous, eleven out of nine times, it is.”

Of course, Shanine rolled her eyes. Dangerous recognizes dangerous.

She eased into a low crouch like the rest of them and continued forward. She kept her steps slower and listened, not for someone but for her own steps. The last thing she wanted to do was step too loudly. That would just—

She paused. There was a tingle in her skin. She looked down at her forearm and found the hair on it all stood on end.

What’s happening?

Whatever her body was feeling, it wasn’t interpreting it to her properly. It felt like she was receiving raw data and something was preventing her from turning it into information. It distracted her and she almost tripped on a rock.

“Can someone tell the kid to walk more quietly,” Chris said, voice low but full of derision. “She’s going to get us killed.”

Oliver looked back at her with an apologetic expression. But the expression also asked that she comply.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Shanine understood the caution required as well as the weight of her mistake. But she didn’t think it was severe enough to deserve the tone.

Chris was one of the worst kinds of people. Those that believed only in power. She’d been nothing but rude to Zed in the forest, but she’d been less rude ever since they’d survived the crashing of the Olympian ship.

And anytime Zed had displayed his strength she always complimented the negative aspect of it.

How will she treat me if I beat her in a duel, too? She found herself wondering.

It was a stupid thought. Chris was two ranks above her. And while she fought with dexterity and control, Shanine didn’t even know what her magic powers were, yet. She couldn’t even cast a single spell.

And she’d tried everything she knew about connecting to mana without asking anyone.

Oliver chanted a quick spell.

“The pull of the world holds us down.”

A purple orb engulfed his hand. It was deep, almost dark.

“Strong enough?” he asked Chris.

Strong enough for what? Shanine wondered. They hadn’t even exchanged any words. What were they about to do?

Chris looked at Oliver’s hand, thoughtful. “Should be good.” Then she shrugged. “If it’s not, Ash can always drown them.”

“I’m not drowning Awakened,” Ash refused. “That’s just bullying.”

Chris rolled her eyes, then gestured with her hand.

Oliver stepped around the corner and swung his hand as if attempting a practice pitch. The dark, purple orb left his hand, thrown. A few gunshots rang out but Oliver was already back in cover.

“Three,” Chris counted. “Two, one. Go.”

Oliver turned to Shanine. “Stay here.”

Then all three of them darted around the corner, leaving Shanine to herself. She moved towards the corner and peeked around it.

What she saw was impressive but didn’t seem dangerous.

Oliver and the others had dashed out only to slow to an easy walk. In front of them were eight men, each of them held down in a purple dome that shimmered around the edges with cracks of what looked like purple lightning.

Each of them was pressed down to the ground as if by a great weight, groaning and struggling. They had guns, but were more than occupied with holding themselves up from being crushed into the ground.

Oliver looked left, then right.

He looked at Chris. “That was easy.”

“Not really.” Chris shook her head then placed both hands on the ground. “They were just dumb.”

Shanine watched lightning crackle around Chris. Chris body obstructed her view of whatever was happening in front of her, but a moment later, electricity ran through the dome actively. She watched the men inside twitch and spasm before falling silent and motionless.

Shanine held a hand to her mouth. Did she just kill them?

………..

Zed groaned.

He expected his head to hurt but it didn’t. Instead, his chest burned. It was like someone had taken a hot branding iron and branded him with it.

He stared at the notification in front of him.

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* You have been damaged by [Devil’s whip].

* [Regenerate] is in effect.

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“That doesn’t sound good,” he muttered to himself.

He tried to push himself from the rubble, biting back his pain. He grabbed a section of the wall, and pulled. It crumbled against his hand and he fell back down.

Whatever Babajide had hit him with left a black mark on his chest that had singed his already tattered shirt and left a black mark on his chest.

In front of him, Kid, Ronda, and Eitri weren’t faring any better.

Kid and Ronda were caught darting around, evading whips from the black lance in Babajide’s hand. The man stood, unmoving, like some great statue, while his staff did all the work.

As for Eitri, he was busy conjuring up one portal after the other, allowing each whip shatter the moment it came in touch with each created portal.

They seemed to be doing alright, relatively speaking. But while Eitri seemed like he would be able to stand there forever, Kid and Ronda looked like one slip up could be the end for them.

When Zed got up again, he did it without help. The pain was still in his chest but he was more than willing to join in the fight.

He raised his hand, pointed it at Babajide, and cast a rune.

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* You have cast basic rune [Force].

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The effect of the rune shot across the distance to slam into Babajide. But it didn’t have the outcome he expected.

The staff pulled all the whips into one and generated a black shield in front of him. The runespell struck the shield and was deflected into the ceiling.

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* Basic rune [Force] has applied effect [Knock back] on [Devil’s shield]

* [Knock back] does not take effect.

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Devil’s shield?

Zed didn’t like the sound of it. Then what was the staff? The man hadn’t even cast a spell, he’d just conjured the staff out of nowhere.

From the little he knew about magic from the information he’d gathered, there was no such type of magic.

The black shield unfurled itself, revealing Babajide once more. Unsurprisingly, he remained unharmed.

He cocked his head to the side, peering past the others to look at Zed.

“You’re still alive,” he said, voice curious. “A Beta mage shouldn’t have survived a strike from—”

“Please don’t say the Devil’s lance,” Zed said, stepping forward.

Babajide frowned but said nothing.

“I’m still kind of getting new to this whole magic thing,” Zed continued, “and I swear I’ll bunny hop in front of a truck if you call that thing the Devil’s lance.”

Babajide sighed. “A jester until the very end.”

He raised his staff and Zed cast another rune.

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* You have cast rune [Pain].

* Rune [Pain] has applied effect [Pain] on [Babajide].

* [Babajide] is stunned.

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What the hell?

The staff wobbled in Babajide’s hand and it was barely raised an inch above ground level. The man staggered back instead, placed his free hand to his head.

Zed didn’t think about it, he just moved.

“Take him!” he screamed at the others as he crossed the distance. “Take him now!”

Kid charged forward and Eitri drew a rune in the air, even if slowly.

“Left!” Ronda shouted.

Kid ducked to the side, evading a careless swipe of the staff. Unlike earlier, the staff didn’t strike at him with a whip, Babajide had actually swung it.

Zed didn’t care to analyze what had just happened even as Eitri’s rune was concluded and a burst of lightning charged forward.

Kid threw a punch at Babajide and the mage stepped back and away from it. He raised his staff to take the lightning. The lightning was absorbed by the staff only for Babajide to stagger back once more.

Zed’s mind was still on ending the fight quickly. The pain rune had taken a chunk of mana from his reserves. It was an unfortunate sacrifice, but in hindsight, it had been a necessary one.

The black mark on his chest continued to burn, however. It left him with a stinging feeling, one he could bear. They needed to end the fight fast and quick before the next enemy came in.

He knew it was there, watching, waiting. Why? He didn’t know.

Personally, he would prefer not to fight it.

The stranges thing happened as he charged past Eitri. He brought up the rune for [Force] and found another rune hovering in his mind right next to it. It was new to him, but not necessarily new.

He’d seen what it was capable of already, but his worry laid in how much of his mana it would cost him.

Not the time to be thinking about the cost, he thought as he cast [Force] once more.

A blast of purple rings shot out of the rune. It crossed the distance to slam into Babajide.

The mage raised his staff again and a shield forged in front of him. But unlike last time, it didn’t deflect the effect of [Force].

The runespell struck the shield and sent Babajide skidding back and into his chair he’d once used as a throne.

Zed didn’t let up.

“Clear!” he bellowed as Kid stepped in for a follow up.

Kid leaned into his step and threw himself to the side as Zed conjured up a new rune. His fingers twitched as he did. A small headache creeped into the back of his head.

He’d expected it to be a bit stressful, slower. But it wasn’t. It came to him faster than normal.

He fueled the rune with his mana and it took another chunk of it from him. He had half his mana reserves left as the rune crackled to life in a burst of blue mana.

He knew it before his notification even informed him.

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* You have cast basic rune [Lightning].

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Basic rune [Lightning] has applied effect [Electrocute].