After tasting such a delicacy… I decided to give the cattle some freedom. We will need all the power we can get in the upcoming fight against the West and North… then the South
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Dusk fell once again, the rain settling down as the sun hid behind a curtain of clouds until finally disappearing beyond the horizon. The wet, muddy ground quickly got decorated with the prints of animals, who hurried off toward their sleeping place, some more scared than others. In the forest, droplets of rain still trickled down the large leaves, despite the clouds of rain disappearing.
They made way for a calm, exquisitely beautiful dark sky, sprinkled with stars that shone and glimmered with a faint light. The moon lazily rose, taking its rightful place on the aesthetic canvas.
Through a makeshift road, where grass struggled to grow and bushes were cut, Kai, Onyx and Hideyoshi slowly made their way toward the city. They were in no hurry, despite the frigid cold enveloping them, and their shoes getting covered in muck, dirt, and leaves.
“Kid, are you clearer of mind now?” Hideyoshi’s voice disturbed the white noise of the settling forest.
Kai nodded solemnly, leaving that as the only reply as his gaze trailed the road.
“Say…” The man elongated his words, seemingly thinking about something. “Your ‘Flame Fist’, it was different from all the others I’ve seen. How did you do it?” His tone was sincere, and he even seemed embarrassed to ask Kai, a child, such questions.
The boy raised an eyebrow at the statement, and seemingly thought for a second. Well, there’s no harm in telling him… he’s helped me a lot already.
“I’m sure you already observed me closely, someone of your caliber should be able to discern what I did, right?” He asked a probing question, after all, he couldn’t just give his secrets away so fast. Otherwise, it would seem insincere… I think, is that how it works?
“My sensibility to mana isn’t as good as Mages, kid. You should know that much already…” Hideyoshi sighed with a wry smile. “All I saw was the aftermath, why do you think I asked you to demonstrate it again?”
Hearing that, Kai’s face flushed red with embarrassment, and he turned away. Thankfully the cold was enough to wash away most of the color, and he cleared his throat. Hideyoshi shook his head.
“Well, as you probably saw I struggled with the latter half, and I didn’t know how to ignite the mana…” Upon hearing the word ‘ignite’ Hideyoshi raised an eyebrow, but refrained from saying anything. “So I thought, what makes sparks, right, and sparks are created when two objects of a certain material clash. But then, what if I made mana clash? Because it was rotating so fast but wasn’t getting hot enough, I figured that something must be a catalyst for that… and when I figured it out, I uhm, I wanted to try making actual- making it an actual Flame Fist, so I pulled out a red crystal as a catalyst and used it to cast a minor fire spell which then fused with the rotating mana and… well you saw the result.”
Hideyoshi’s footsteps stopped, and so did Kai’s, who then looked at the man. On his face a complicated mix of disbelief, shock, surprise, and intrigue mixed into an emotion that could only be explained by a twitching eyelid and a half smile he could not control. He slowly turned toward the sky, and sighed, his face returning to normal. Patting Kai on the shoulder, his dried lips parted, letting out a hoarse voice. “Kid… that’s insane. You’re truly insane…”
“Huh? Why?”
“Ichor, listen… the way to ‘ignite’ the mana was to punch faster… your body just wasn’t trained enough for that spell. No Body Mage at your rank has enough mana control to do what you just did, and no Mage has the body to endure it. I think… I think if you used a stronger fire spell your entire arm would have gotten blown off.”
“Uh…” Kai’s pupils widened as he looked at the man, whose serious expression made a pit inside his stomach. “You’re… you’re serious?”
“As serious as can be… Your luck will run out one day, I hope you know that.” After saying that, he gave Kai one last pat on the shoulder before arching his knees and jumping atop a large tree branch. His figure quickly disappeared, and only a faded voice echoed in Kai’s mind. “Someone’s coming…”
Hearing that, he quickly took out his broken mask and threw it on his face, right in time for a group of people to appear within Kai’s field of view. As soon as they appeared, however, his pupils constricted, as he recognized the three. What are they doing here? He thought, then quickly hid away behind a bush, and made himself as small as possible. Onyx followed suit, but instead, he ran away further into the back and sat behind a tree large enough to cover his body.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
In the middle of the group, a woman about as tall as Natasha led the way through the unwelcoming path. Her dark armor rattled as she put one foot in front of the other, the dirty metal reflecting some of the moon’s rays of light. She had a head full of black hair, reaching just slightly past her shoulders. The color of her hair made it almost blend with the darkness of the night, where it not for the glimmering texture. Similarly, her brown eyes shone gently with a soft light, although that may be because of a spell, which was the most likely case. She wore a serious expression on her face, a frown unfitting of such a beauty decorating her eyebrows.
To her left was a man, as tall as a tree and as dark as the night, his bald head reflecting any light falling upon it. His clothes were worn and tattered, however the ground seemingly shook with every step he took. To add to his fearsome appearance, a large, unsheathed sword hung from his back, its ferrous surface shining slightly with the crimson rust of blood. A serious expression decorated his face, and he frowned as the woman spoke.
On the opposite end, to the woman’s right, stood a man whose height seemed subpar compared to the man walking next to him. He had a frail frame, so thin that one would think a simple gust of wind would take him away. However, despite the environment and entourage he found himself with, his skin was fair, almost as pale as Kai’s, except that was for two completely different reasons.
A pair of round glasses hid the man’s emerald eyes, and a sly smile decorated his face, his lips forming into a ‘V’ shape toward the center. Unlike the large man, he seemed to be in high spirits, and even excited.
These three were the people Kai had seen at Karfi’s bar that night, whereupon he made a deal with them. He hadn’t seen them in a good amount of time, not because it was his choice, but because the circumstances didn’t allow it. How many times did I nearly die in that time… am I actually suicidal? Kai chuckled to himself and kept on watching the three.
However, Kai had no way to know what they were talking about, not unless they got closer. And they did, as shortly after their voices landed in Kai’s ears. “Yasa, are you sure that the child's information is trustworthy?” The large man asked, his deep voice almost making Kai take a step backward.
The woman, Yasa, shook her head. “It should be, I wasn’t able to verify, however the fact that we do not have any response from the southeast region isn’t giving me much hope.”
“Then don’t you think we should rush over there, why are we waiting for the kid?” The thin man, Lutha, asked.
“Our word is our bond. Even if we work for the military now, don’t forget where we started.” Yasa said, her footsteps slowing down slightly. “Although he’s a bit weird… Natasha assured me, and after hearing about what he did to that thing… I believe he can be a good asset.”
“But he’s still so young.” Lutha retorted, “Though he does have the Obborik… and I do wish to study it more…”
“Then why are you questioning this so much?”
“I don’t want to have to look after a child…”
Hearing that, Yasa scoffed and stopped in place, the other two following suit. “Oh I think he can look after himself just fine,” She said, her eyes glancing directly at Kai’s hiding place, her eyes glowing with a soft light. “Isn’t that right, kid?”
A shiver ran down his spine as the words entered his ears, and he let out a sigh while getting up. “I guess I’m not that good at hiding, am I?”
“Oh, you’re awful at it. Anyone worth their skills in scouting would have seen you from a mile away. The same goes for the mutt.”
“He-”
“He’s not a mutt!” Lutha spoke before Kai could even let out a word, his emerald eyes shining with determination. “He’s a fine specimen from the one and only Obborik race. Little is known about them, and yet this kid has one just strolling around, how dare you call him a mutt?!”
Yasa sighed and shook her head, waving Lutha away, completely disregarding his speech. “Well, I’m sure you heard most of that. Truth be told, we’re walking on thin ice. My boss is really worried about these things and the more time we waste the worse it gets. We’ve waited this long for you, and you go and get… Gosh, what happened to your mask?” She gasped after a bit of moonlight snuck through the canopy, illuminating Kai’s burnt and melted fox mask.
“Ah, right, big beast. Good job back there, well at least what I heard of it.”
“Thank you,” Kai said in a low voice, his face slightly red. However, he quickly threw away the shyness and turned toward Yasa. “When do you plan on leaving?”
“We planned to leave a couple of days ago, however, we waited for you to wake up and heal.”
After hearing her words, Kai fell into pensive silence. I need to settle accounts with Raymond and check up on Brahm… and hopefully, he can help me fix my technique problem… ugh that seems more difficult than figuring out invisibility.
“How much more time are you willing to wait?” He asked after considering everything.
This time it was Yasa’s turn to think, however, it didn’t take long for her to come up with a response.
“One week.”
“Can you make it two?”
Lutha’s expression, and even the large man’s, changed to one of anxiety, displease obvious on their face. Yasa’s was not much better, however, as she and Kai locked eyes… she suddenly had a feeling that maybe it was worth waiting. “Two weeks, no more.”
Kai’s expression immediately lit up, and he almost jumped with joy. “Thank you, Miss Yasa. You won’t regret it.” After getting his reply, he quickly whistled for Onyx, and, with a quick goodbye, dashed toward the city.
“Yasa… two weeks.” The bald man said, his eyes fixated on Kai.
“It’s fine, I had something else I wanted to check here anyway… gives me time.”
“You mean…?”
“Yes, we’re going to hunt those little parasites… I’ll get Raymond’s help.”