Chris stared at the scene before her, stunned and confused. She watched the last shot rebound off Zed’s rune shield, holding back how impressed she was that the shield had held against so many shots.

The validity of the shield was compromised, and knowing it would not survive another shot, she drew her mana, chanted a quick spellform and sent a bolt of lightning off into the distance. It struck Zed’s assailant with enough force to knock him off his feet and the man was dead before he even hit the ground.

Then another shot rang out and she watched in terror as it broke Zed’s shield and blasted a crater in the side of his neck. It blew out a chunk of it so that one side of his neck and a portion of his shoulder was gone.

Zed fell like a dropped rag.

Rage built from deep inside her, a vengeful volcanic god promising retribution, and she called on her specialization. It wrapped around her like an abusive spouse, tainting her mind in thoughts no human should think as she sucked it all in, surrendering herself to the ecstasy of power. Most people thought she was a rare case, a mage with no specialization. But they were wrong. Chris had a specialization, two to be precise, and she stayed away from them because she was not a person she liked when she called them to bear.

The mana around Chris grew tainted, seeming to die as her mana took charge. One of the assailants noted her and raised his gun, taking aim. She swung a carefree hand in his direction and a wave of toxic green mana engulfed him. He was dust before he hit the ground.

A mage who witnessed it stared at Chris with eyes she’d seen once as a Beta mage, terrified and in despair. They called her the monster that she was and it jarred her back to reality.

Chris pulled herself together and rejected her specialization. She pushed the mana pooling around her outward, casting its growing taint aside, expelling it from her. As for the one within, she drew it back into her core and locked it tight, banishing it to a world it had laid dormant in for so long.

Chris turned away from the sight of Zed and charged off in another direction, seeking out Oliver. She refused to dwell on her anger even if a part of it was justified. She might not have been a fan of Zed or even a friend, but he had been growing on her. It wasn’t so easy to not be affected by the death of someone she had spent a number of time with. But Zed was not so close that his death justified all of it. After all, he wasn’t the first mage to die.

He wasn’t her first loss.

In truth, he wasn’t even her loss, if Chris was being honest.

………………………………………..

Jason swung around as the constant booms of gunshots filled the air. The explosions had all but ceased but the killing was far from over. He was already near the exit, avoiding death, ducking quickly as he pushed forward.

There was no guarantee that outside was going to be safer than inside. The probability that there was an ambush waiting just beyond the exit was high enough to dissuade an exit, at least not without a plan. Because no matter the possibility, the truth remained that anywhere was better than here.

Jason grunted as a mage tumbled over him, thrown from across the room by forces he didn’t know. The force of the impact staggered Jason but he kept his footing beneath him so that he didn’t fall. The last thing he wanted was to become stationary. No one ignored the stationary targets for the moving ones.

As Jason hovered near the exit, eyes searching around for any sign of the others, he heard a voice call out to Ned. It was loud and desperate, and he contemplated on the urge to seek it out. Something told him if he found it, he would find Ned.

In the end, Jason decided against it. Ned and Imani were playing back up to his team today which made them important to a certain level, but he couldn’t bring himself to say he liked Imani. Unlike Chris, his dislike for the girl was not in the choice of her love life, it was merely there. It was like seeing a person for the first time and not liking them for no reason. It was simply instinctual. Still, it wasn’t the reason he didn’t go after the opportunity to find Ned. That was much simpler: Ned was not his priority.

Jason continued to hover by the exit as mages died, blood splattering around him so thick he could feel the blood mana rising in the air. The large cacophony of a falling building crumbling around him and the constant booming of gunshots birthed a rondo of death everywhere, and Jason knew a blood mage would be more than happy to stand here. This was where they held the advantage and Jason wondered if a blood mage would emerge victorious against the group of anti-mages attacking at this moment.

He was beginning to contemplate slipping out of the building and waiting for Chris and Zed at the car when he spotted Chris heading for the exit.

Jason looked around and didn’t see Zed following. Chris wasn’t the kind to leave a teammate behind, even if she didn’t like the person. As long as she considered them a teammate, she would do everything in her power to ensure she left no one behind. Dying for them was not an option, though. Jason just couldn’t see her going that far.

If Chris was leaving the building and plunging herself into the world outside, it meant she could find Zed or knew Zed wasn’t inside the chaos.

With a calculative pause taken to ensure a stray bullet or spell didn’t hit him, Jason rushed for the exit and burst out into the night air. It was cooler than the air inside and the killing littered its floors in blood and bodies.

This doesn’t make any sense, he thought as he ran towards Chris, his spellforms flying in all the forms of defense he knew, the form of his specializations evident in the swirl of translucent yellow haze shimmering around him.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The anti-mages weren’t popular in these parts. However, in the parts where they were, they weren’t known to be vicious murderers killing without cause. They fancied themselves as more of heroes, determined to bring death to mages who thought themselves above the law. Rumors had it they were a group of non-mages, but no one believed that since there were no signs or proof of people over the age of eighteen who hadn’t already awakened.

Someone slipped into Jason’s range of attention as he pressed forward and Jason turned with the quick accuracy of a category three Rukh mage. His hand grabbed the wrist of his assailant, and he was ready to bury an orb of concentrated light in their abdomen when he met Chris’ scowling face.

“Where’s Zed?” he asked her, releasing his hold on her wrist only for her to grab his and drag him forward.

“Not the time to worry about him,” she answered, austere, pulling him after her.

“Why not?”

“Because he’s dead.”

…………………………………………….

Oliver crept forward. He kept his distance from his quarry, affecting the visage of a man on a simple stroll. From the little the world after the second awakening had taught him, in certain situations, the best way to follow after someone was to simply walk as if you had a destination in mind. That way you blend in with the crowd of mundane people no matter how few.

Oliver’s controlled chase had dwindled slowly when Ash came into view. He was a good distance away now, hiding within the tall grass. He laid flat on his stomach, motionless, listening to the night air ruffle each blade of grass, waiting. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when he was done waiting. His intention had been to let the man be if he proved to be a simple mage. Now that he was a mage tied to Ash in a way that led to secret rendezvous, Oliver wasn’t sure anymore.

Would he follow the man when they were done? Would he follow Ash? Would he leave them both and pretend none of this had happened?

Oliver was still contemplating his dilemma when he felt Ash’s aura come alive in combat. He waited, as she drew on spellforms, hitting the mage with combination attacks, mixing water and ice in a combination she was growing accustomed to. Sometimes Oliver wondered if she was trying to gain an ice specialization.

Ash’s opponent took her attacks without releasing his aura, and while Oliver had a feeling Ash believed she had simple taken him by surprise, he knew better. If a mage took her attacks without even a leak in his aura, that meant he was much stronger than she was. When the mage shrugged out of the hold of her ice spells, Oliver was all but certain Ash couldn’t take him alone.

Oliver was coming to his feet when explosions rocked the air and lit up the sky. He jerked where he was hidden, turning his gaze behind him when he felt Ash’s opponent’s aura come alive.

Fear seeped into him quickly and all thoughts of the auditorium and the explosions were relegated to a part of his mind where the unimportant went to die as he charged forward.

Oliver ran at his sister, a gravity spellform already forming around his hands. He threw each one at the mage, arms swinging low and horizontal, hoping to buy enough time until he was next to Ash.

Ash’s opponent reacted casually giving Oliver enough time to reach Ash. He came to a stop beside her, a wary expression on his face.

“Ollie,” Ash said, alarmed.

“No time for questions,” he told her, not taking his eyes from the mage who’d batted his gravity orbs aside as if they were nothing but balloons.

Oliver stared at the man who remained smirking and had no doubt the man had been aware of his presence all along.

“What happened to the auditorium?” Ash asked. “What was that explosion?”

“What part of no time for questions don’t you understand?” he replied. “Or would you like me to start asking questions of my own?”

“It’s not what you think.”

“And it doesn’t matter right now. What matters is the mage in front of us.” Oliver was already drawing on his mana again, his mind running through supporting spellforms. He would need something with earth and plant attribute for this terrain. Hopefully, the man would have none of them for his specialization.

“Are you the brother,” the mage asked casually. “I heard there was a brother.”

Oliver was ready for a fight but if the man was willing to talk, he was more than happy to oblige.

“She’s got another brother inside,” he said. “He’s bigger and scarier.”

“So you are the brother,” the mage mused. “I was expecting someone on the fairer side.” He rubbed his chin. “I guess you must be adopted.”

Oliver frowned at that. Normally he’d crack a joke about it, point out the man’s inaccuracy. But with the state of mind Imani had put him in tonight, and his constant battle not to think about what Ash was doing with the mage right now, he wasn’t much for jokes.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Leave it,” Ash said, tugging at Oliver’s sleeves. “Let’s just get out of here and get back to the others.”

Yeah, Oliver thought, knowing it was the last thing he wanted to do. The others were in somewhere chaotic. They would survive, he knew at least that much. Chris was strong enough to avoid any serious harm in an explosion and Jason was the strongest of them. Zed was the weakest but his regeneration attribute made him pretty much difficult to kill, so unless there was a truly irate mage dedicated to the task of killing him, Zed would survive. In simpler terms, Chris would escape their situation, Jason would stroll through it, and Zed would live longer than it could kill him.

“Listen to your sister, boy,” the mage said, oblivious to Oliver’s thoughts. “She does what is necessary.”

Oliver frowned at the man’s words. The mage was one of those pompous fools who thought themselves better than others. It was in the way the man spoke, pronouncing every syllable in each word. If there was one thing Oliver knew, it was that a man who pronounced ‘necessary’ with all the vowel sounds was a man not to be trusted.

He looked at Ash through the side of his eyes. And yet she trusted him.

Oliver’s disappointment was palpable but was also wrong for the place and time.

“If you turn back and leave,” the mage continued. “I will not follow. I will not pursue. And I will not…”

The man’s words trailed away as his face deadened to that of a man paying attention, listening to something. He raised a hand to his ear, touching two fingers to it.

“Repeat,” he said, austere. “You have confirmed this? I see. Pull out then, there’s no point in wasting anymore time.”

The mage dropped his hand to his side with a resigned sigh then turned his attention to Ash.

“Do you know,” he said to her, ignoring Oliver, “that you are the only good thing that has happened tonight? Don’t get me wrong, other good things have happened, but for me you’re the only good thing. Keep what you have, and if you need help or have questions, which I’m sure you will, you know how to find me.”

The mage turned from them with an uncomfortable scowl and walked away. Ash was impatient beside Oliver but Oliver was more than happy to see the man go. They were both Rukhs but he hadn’t been confident he could’ve taken the man in a fight, even with Ash at his side.

“Who was that?” he asked when the man was a sight growing thinner in the distance.

“No questions,” Ash said, turning to look at the auditorium in the distance. “You said so yourself.”

Oliver turned with her and saw the madness behind him. Considering the number of explosions, he had expected this, but seeing it with his own eyes was terrifying. Fire and smoke lit up the skies like a bonfire for the gods.