“If I had to estimate, I’d say there were ten of them in addition to the apprentice. All competent mages from the looks of it.”

Dryn had managed to spy on the group on his way back.

“I might not be able to hold all of them off. Would it be fine if I let the entourage through?”

“You mean you’re only fighting the apprentice? I expected more from you.”

Cruel’s disappointed. I don’t know if she actually thought that highly of Dryn prior or she’s just irking him to do more.

“You only utter those words for the sole reason that you’ve never faced one. I’d even consider myself fortunate to survive a fight against one.”

It doesn’t seem to work on Dryn, much to Cruel’s dismay.

“Fine. We’ll handle the rest somehow.”

“I can at least promise that the apprentice will never get to you.”

“Okay. I guess this is goodbye.”

I say that in a somber tone. I don’t really know Dryn all too well, but he is helping us in a big way.

“Indeed. Until we meet again, my friend.”

“Everyone, stay alert. I’ll remind you once more: our targets are a pale woman and a white-haired boy. The woman’s cursed and the boy’s inept with magic.”

For someone commanding a loud and obnoxious bunch, the boss sure is soft-spoken.

It’s the middle of the day, and we’ve arrived at the woods outside of town. It gives off an ominous feeling, but what doesn’t around here? This entire area’s a cesspool of every kind of criminal out there. It’s all because it can't be monitored by the overseer.

The top brass has since given up on these places, so imagine the look on our faces when we saw an apprentice of all people offer us a job. It’s gonna pay incredibly well.

“Our fates intertwine once more, Ran of the east.”

A man with spiked hair stands just outside the forest. He doesn’t fit the descriptions we were given.

“So you know who I am. Tell me, did you lie about everything back then?”

Even unsheathing his blade lets out an overpowering amount of mana. He’s getting serious. Who is this guy and how’d he provoke Ran that easily?

“I’ll take him. This bastard’s going to be a good warm-up.”

Elva walks in front of the apprentice.

“No, go inside the forest. He’s not your target. I’ll handle this one.”

The large man realizes that he’s overstepping and complies.

We all run towards the forest. The man who was standing against us just lets us through. I can’t help but laugh at his courage. People call me insane, but not even I have the gall to face an apprentice.

“Over here, Luke.”

I hear Rod’s voice. I see him with Elva a short distance from me and proceed to come to them.

“You know the plan. Don’t do anything stupid.”

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Since one of the guys we’re after is cursed and the other’s a novice, they’d have to fight us with little to no magic which is borderline impossible.

Non-magical attacks just won’t affect anyone with a decent coat of mana on them. That’s why we have Rod volunteering to bait them out by focusing his mana on his sword which makes his body more vulnerable.

We suddenly hear screams in the distance. Looks like some of our guys met them already. By the sound of it, they were too weak to even handle a bunch of chumps like these.

“I hear someone coming.”

Elva whispers to me. I hear it too. It’s the sound of someone sprinting. No, they’re running. Can someone really run that fast?

The footsteps stop. Did they jump? I look towards Rod and see a silhouette already so close to him. It’s most likely the cursed woman. I almost shout for him to dodge, but I know better. He can handle that.

Rod’s easily the best fighter among us. He swings his blade towards the attacker with speed surpassing my vision. The figure ducks the slash with inhuman movement and tries to slice Rod with a pole weapon. Then, we feel a sudden surge of mana closing in fast on him. It hits Rod square in the face.

“Let’s go, boy!”

Elva tells me as he moves out of our hiding place. He leaps towards the direction of the two people fighting and causes a localized earthquake which puts the woman off balance, but not before wounding Rod’s leg. I’m unaffected and so would Rod if he were standing as we have sturdy and heavy boots on. I focus on making a steel net out of my mana and use force to throw it at her.

We feel another intense flow of mana from a short distance away from earlier. The novice throws another ball, this time aiming for the net I just made. It succeeds in pushing my net back which gives the woman an opportunity to flee. None of us could really catch up to her.

I was too naive. I never should’ve trusted our boss no matter how high up he is. The information he gave us can’t be any more wrong. How? Who are these people?

“Dammit!”

I hear Rod shout in frustration.

“You okay?”

“Keep up.”

Cruel passes me in a moment’s notice. She doesn’t even stop to rest. What’s more is she seems to be enjoying this. She had a wide grin on her face the brief moment I saw it.

We’ve dealt with four people so far. They were easy to beat because they were isolated. Cruel would lunge at them and I’d take some water out of my gourd and fire it. The mage would either have to focus their mana to block my attack which leaves some of their body vulnerable for Cruel to strike or take the hit.

All four mages blocked me on reflex. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Our last fight, however, was against a team of three. They almost got Cruel, and eventually would have captured me as well. We need to be more careful. If only I could tell her that.

I catch up to her already engaging in a fight. She didn’t even wait for me this time.

This person seems more distressed than any of the previous ones we’ve encountered.

He immediately makes a mistake. He focuses all of his mana on his upper body. Cruel bombards him with a flurry of hits until she gets to his legs. The man screams in pain as he falls down.

All of a sudden, two people come out and jump on her.

Both of them are about to punch Cruel with their fists wrapped in rocks. She backsteps which causes their fists to collide. The rocks explode into tiny fragments. Some of them manage to hit Cruel, but neither of the men were affected. She’s sustained quite a bit of damage and yet she still moves like nothing happened. I have to help her.

In my rush, I completely forget about my own weakness. Because I only have four seconds to charge and fire my attacks, I have to focus a lot of mana in a short period of time. This makes me a lot more noticeable to mages that aren’t in deep concentration. I start charging my attack too early. One of them senses it and throws a rock at me with as much speed as I would throw mine.

My vision’s blurry and I’m light-headed. What happened? I remember getting attacked by one of the mages we were fighting.

Oh, it hit me on the head. I’m bleeding from the side of my head. It burns. I still hear them fighting. I turn my head towards the direction of the sound and a bunch of blurry images moving.

I can’t do anything. It takes so much effort to move. I think I’m about to pass out from all the blood Ioss.

Is this it? Is this where I die? There has to be something I can do. I can’t even think straight.

I can’t help but feel regret. I shouldn’t have gone on this crazy adventure. I had the option of saying no way back when. I’d be rotting in a dungeon after getting captured by the overseer’s men right now, but I’d be alive.

But what’s done is done. I can’t go back to the past and change my decisions. This is fate. This is death.

“What I want from you is to not fail when it counts. That’s it.”

It’s as if she’s here telling me that. I’ve already failed, though. What else can I do?

“You’ll be learning to control and create something everyone’s familiar with: water.”

As my memories of the past week flash in my mind, I get an epiphany.