I suspected something was wrong and was prepared for it. How could I not be? After all, I was fighting a damned mage. They war using their wits as much as their magic. The key to defeating them is to trick them into believing they are one step ahead and outsmarting them. I was attempting that with no prior planning. I had to adapt as I fight, possibly relying on brute force rather than strategy. Her robes of red, blue, and gold hinted at her specialties. Fire, verified, and also advanced enough to cast together with earth. Water, probably but I would bet my coin on ice. It was one of my recorded weaknesses, that alone would qualify as a prime reason for her to be sent after me. Gold, I had no idea. I guessed it either referred to illusion magic- as I witnessed- or as a sign of authority. Or even both. I was hoping she was not strong in the field of illusions. In this forest, that could prove deadly. It could just be an item that let her cast the illusion.

As the magic circle flared to life, a sphere of fire enclosed me. It was hot enough to let me know I could not just run through it even with my endurance. I invoked my contract with [ Corvus Raven ]. They have the ability to form a domain around their body within which they can exert their affinity almost freely. This domain would strengthen their magic as well as weaken other's magic. Soon after, a crow the size of a man approached me from the treetops around. It stopped outside the circle in their archer's blind spot and watched me with amused curiosity. I nodded my head and it cawed. I could feel it fighting against the spell that held me, and after much exertion, the portion of the circle nearest to the raven dimmed. It soon cracked and weakened the fires in that area. Tired, the raven flew away, still out of sight. I jumped quickly through the weak spot and searched for the mage. I found her outline some two hundred feet away walking confidently towards the fire-sphere. I sought to retain the element of surprise and started sneaking towards her. I know I would not make it within a couple dozen feet around her even if I could fool their archer for that long. The mage's perception arts would assure that I won't. But any distance covered was an advantage to a close combatant like me. The raven followed through the sky and I sent it a message to not approach the mage.

I counted the barbarian out of the fight. That left the assassin, archer, and the mage. Now among the trees and their shadows, the assassin would pose a significant threat after he recovered.

Barely after a minute, the archer noticed my escape. Arrows rained down on me, signaling the mage to alertness. With so many trees around, the arrows were not much of a threat. It takes more luck than skill for a long-range archer to hit me in these conditions. But, the mage was a different issue. Enraged at her failure to capture me, she instantly flung seven wind-blades towards me. The wind-blades curved around rocks, tree-trunks and converged onto my position. Then I realized, the forest hindered my dodging ability as much as it helped hide me. I put myself behind a tree and rolled away to not get crushed under it when the wind-blades cut through it.

' I cannot let the mage instant cast those spells. Those almost burned me to death when I was racing towards that trap of hers,' I thought grimly.

I briefly turned around to look at the condition of the assassin. ' He's almost ready to join the fight, a few seconds away maybe.' With that, I decided to use the loophole in the contract between me and the raven.

One astounding fact about Corvus Ravens is that despite being fearsome individually, they still exist in groups. Anywhere between 20 to 50. With huge talons, a penchant for corpses, born with dark affinity and its gruesome magic, they make a proper murder of crows.

The contract lets me have the help of one raven but the loophole forces the whole flock to come to my aid. There are some constraints, I could not give each raven individual orders. All of the flock was considered as one entity and only one order could be carried out by the entire flock. Moreover, there was some amount of flexibility in how the ravens follow through with the help. If the order I gave has enough room for them to act against me, they sure would take that opportunity. After all, I was literally forcing them into the fight.

I once again invoked my contract and I felt with my soul all the ravens around me. They numbered in the sixties, a much larger flock than I expected. I decided to give an order that did not involve them attacking anything. The boundaries of the contract defining their targets might involve me as well. I ordered the flock to form a huge domain in the space between me and the mage. With the domain of an individual raven extending some ten feet around them, if they positioned themselves properly I would have a clear path towards the mage. A path in which she could not instant cast spells. Soon numerous caws of anger filled the air as the various members of the flock perched upon the trees- mostly on the lower branches. With a final harsh cry, the flock unleashed its power and the very air shuddered as their domain formed in front of me.

I walked forward and saw the glaring eyes of the many birds and the mage flinging some more wind blades at me. But this time, they became deformed and broke to pieces after traveling a few meters from her. Suddenly, I felt something approaching me from behind and I turned around. I saw the original raven I contracted with charging towards me. It then slashed me with its talons decorated my body with deep gashes. I pushed it away and tried to find some cover. Somehow, it broke the contract with no repercussions. Mutual agreement to not cause harm to the other party was a compulsory clause for any contract. By bringing its flock into the fight I did not directly harm it, so the contract should still stand. While dodging I extended my senses inward, towards a jumble of symbols- also known as contracts- carved on a part of my soul and noticed some of it missing.

'Huh. Looks like it left a way out for itself. How did it do that? Wish I had noticed this a few days before, I would have had something interesting to do.' I thought curiously, chuckling to myself. At this point, the mage alternated between attacking me and the ravens. Both not getting any results.

Inwardly appreciating the raven's deceit, I turned towards the direction from where it was coming and prepared myself. As it drew closer it got a clear look of my face, my crazed eyes, and stopped. Then it flew around me in a circle and then to a nearby branch and stared at me while perched- showing no intention to further attack me. Ravens are prideful creatures, they do not give up their enmity, not until death. But maybe, it saw my struggle for what it was- a dead man's last dance. And chose to spectate it instead.

Appreciating the raven for not continuing the fight, I nodded towards it and started towards the furious mage and used my gift from the [ Arctic Fox ], [ Mirage ]. At that moment, twenty copies of myself separated from me and all of them began moving towards the mage navigating through the forest. With the help of the contract, my magic was not obstructed at all. I and my copies rapidly covered the distance between us and the mage while the assassin recovered enough to start pursuing me. Only I had a genuine shadow and my mirages' shadows are as fake as them, if not for the ravens' domain obstructing the assassin's senses, he could have found the real one easily. It also hindered his ability to shift from shadows. The mage had to use long chants to use her spells and even then she did not know which figure to target. Still, she did not give up and started chanting.

I was running, jumping over stumps and bushes, the same as my mirages. Each moving independent of me. I was somewhere to the left end of the group and after a few seconds of skipping past trees, I noticed five huge windblades forming around the mage. Those were more stable and powerful than before. She would be foolish to use fire in the middle of the thick forest, the clearing was a different issue. Even if it did not lead to a large forest fire, if it disturbed enough beasts' homes she would be hunted by the strongest denizens of the forest. I did not think much as she completed her chant and started aiming at us. One windblade flew towards the right of the group. It twisted and curved around rocks and trees and slammed into a tree near 4 illusions, destroying the tree. It was so fast that I could hardly predict its path without its twisting trajectory. None of the mirages were damaged and they kept up the chase. The next one hit the ground near another cluster of mirages and still, it did not hurt the illusions.

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The next windblade was aimed at my general area. It moved confusingly and hit a tree a few feet beside me and uprooted it with the force of the collision. Because of the dust and debris or maybe because of the suddenness and ferocity of the attack but I........flinched. That was my second mistake. That was the reaction the mage was looking out for and then she pointed her staff at me. She guided her remaining windblades towards me and rendered my gift [ Mirage ] useless. I should have expected her to be trained to counteract illusion magic, seeing as she was a fellow user.

With little hesitation, I stopped using the gift and all the mirages vanished into the fog. I immediately invoked the [ Arctic Fox's ] another gift, [ Mystic Fog ]. I earned the favor of the arctic fox after finding my own way out of the Snowfog Mountains, her territory. All of a sudden, it suddenly looked like a cloud in the sky decided to make the ground its new home. It enveloped the area and the temperature soon chilled. The ravens cawed in distress but still held their positions. The fog was thick enough to completely hide me from the mage's view. But I could see freely. I watched as I passed the place the windblades hit after missing me in the fog. I stumbled and with one hand holding onto a stray tree coughed blood onto the ground. Too many gifts of different natures invoked too soon after one another, damaging my body. I pushed off the tree and continued absently noticing the increased number of cocoon strings binding my insides.

I was almost there but I would bet my life that the mage had something to protect her close-ranged. I would need my pendant then. But it had a critical weakness. Ice. The fog contained both ice and air affinities. That was why I decided against using it though it was a better solution. I moved quickly towards the mage and there was only a distance of 20 meters between us. The mage still having no idea of my position was shaping a fire and air spell to heat the air and erase the fog with her staff in one hand, while her other hand clutched an orb made of pure, thin ice allowing one to see the swirling snowflakes inside.

I paused for a moment, thinking for any idea to avoid finding out what that orb was capable of. Nothing came to mind. So, I decided to take the simplest route. I took my pendent into my hand and plunged its sharp claw into my chest. The pendant was something I chanced upon when I encountered a magma bear. I did not know its official name. As the claw pierced my skin, it heated up to unknown temperatures and melted. The molten liquid entered my body and changed it from inside to out. I could feel it imbue power into my muscles and bones even as it eroded them. I grew another foot in height and my blood vessels glowed like lava. The infernal strength of fire and earth affinities combined was at my fingertips. It was completely different from my gifts. When I use my gifts, the magic or phenomenon just... happens. I never had any insight into how that took place. If not for the effects, I would doubt if it was real.

I took a deep breath and sprinted towards her. My empowered body made it feel like I was flying. As I entered her detection range from her left, she whirled around at me. She dropped her spell and noticed my form, focused on the orb, and held it between me and her. The staff glinted a brilliant gold and the orb started pulsing. I leaped towards her and clasped both hands together, spun around in mid-air, and with the clasped hands hit her with all the power I had. My attack hit her golden shield created from the staff and the shield cracked but barely held on. She shot backward like a cannonball from the force of the attack dropping the orb and staff on the spot. My leap earlier still carried me forward a few meters and when I landed I ran forward as fast I could. Barely a few seconds after that, the orb exploded, freezing the area surrounding it and pushing icy mists further outwards. From a bird's view, the large forest had a patch of ice spreading further. I was caught at the edge of the explosion. The glow of my body weakened and the infernal power tore away from my body, melting any ice in my surroundings. I could do nothing but watch as the pendant's power freed itself to fight against the freezing environment. That was the pendant's weakness, it combats against anything cold in the area without the intervention of its owner.

I was rapidly losing power and once the pendant's strength ran out, I would not be able to keep standing, forget about using another gift. I looked ahead and found the mage curled up on the ground right in front of a tree. From the looks of it, she was thrown directly at the tree trunk and her shield broke at the impact. She lay there groaning in pain, with probably a few broken ribs trying to uncork a healing potion. I neared her and clamped my hand around her neck and pulled her up.

Then I heard a roar behind me accompanied by the sound of something cutting through the air. Before I could turn around, a spear punctured through my abdomen. With the velocity of the spear, it would have torn through me and killed the mage in my arms as well. But as soon as the spear started exiting my body from the front I held onto it with my other hand and slowly turned around and looked back.

Standing there, nearly a hundred feet away while quivering with exhaustion was the barbarian. He had a red aura sticking to his body like a second skin and his bloodshot eyes conveyed the rage he poured into his spear throw. With enough strength it left holes in the trees it tore through.

'So, the should-be-dead barbarian is actually a soon-to-be-dead berserker,' I chuckled. The throw took the last of his strength and the berserker fell to his knees, all the while glaring at me. 'Guess that makes it the third mistake of the fight. Anyway, I got what I wanted,' I thought as I turned back to the mage I held up by the neck. I won the fight though two of them would live.

As was the decorum of mages, she was trying something. But this close, she was just a breathing corpse. I squeezed her neck a bit and suffocated her and the mana she was desperately gathering lost form and diffused into the world.

At that moment, all of my body was covered with the cocoon and I only had to say [ Transfer ] to take the first step of my revenge. What best way existed than the death of a mage to celebrate?

I stopped smothering her and she wheezed out with equal amounts of hatred and fear " Y-you..cough... you will not ..cough.. get away with this. They will.. cough..cough .. find a way to-"

"Look into my eyes, mage," I told her and she promptly shut her eyes.' Fear made greater men commit mistakes,' I thought and started squeezing the life out of her. She gasped and clawed at my hands and accidentally looked at my eyes. " [ Share Sight ]," I said, chuckling, and then she saw herself.

I took my arm off the spear and placed it on her head. And the last memory of her life was the sight of her own head being ripped out of her shoulders. Holding her head, I turned around again towards the kneeling berserker and the assassin behind him, both staring in horror and confusion at the head in my head. There was something ecstatic about a mage's demise, at least it was for me. I threw the head at them and screamed in challenge letting out my anger and resentment. Then falling back and resting my body against a tree, I laughed at them. 'Yes, I can fight back. Yes, I will fight back. I will have my vengeance. Not now, but the day will come. And I will not just wait for death anymore. From now on, my life is a tool I will use to get revenge.' I declared to myself, to the world and the Gods above. All of my body was tired, damaged, and wrapped in the cocoon. There was nothing left to do.

Those idiots in front of me looked at me like I was crazy. I gave them a savage grin and realizing something, the assassin shouted " Don't-look don't do it-"

I laughed even harder and muttered to myself " [ Transfer ] ".

A wave of force originating from me, swept everything away. Soon a grey light started covering my body and breaking it down to pieces. I floated upwards as my body turned to dust and the cocoon strings around my bones, muscles, and organs, realized the fate of my body. They sank deeper and deeper and embraced my soul. I released the contract with the ravens and they all took to the sky and flew in circles around my position, almost making it seem like the night sky with a part of it broken in to let sunlight enter. I floated higher until my body did not exist any longer. As quickly as it came, the force vanished, taking me along with it. With my soul protected by metamorphosis, I began my journey.