Chapter 3: Roiling Fog
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As my mana makes contact with the formation, a low rumble reverberated out from the tree as the mana injected within the formation caused a chain reaction that activated the other four I set up inside the forest, forming a star shape as the spells stored within were amplified and released.
Fog billowed out from the formations and covered a large portion of the forest, obstructing vision and only allowing me to see less than two meters ahead. The spell was nothing much, just a simple [Create Fog] spell that was created through the utilization of my decent affinity to water.
I scrambled up and began to run, the cool fog brushing against my skin and making me shiver slightly.
Behind me, I could hear the bandits arguing about whether they should follow me further into the fog. Gasping for breath, I could hear them reach a consensus.
“There’s still the job,” A gruff voice said, “we can’t risk following a brat like that into the fog. A mage in training by the looks of it, easy pickings for us, but our target today will give us more profit.”
“What if he alerts the caravan about our presence? This fog should have been spotted by the caravan’s guards by now, they must think something fishy’s going on,” Another voice, raspier that the last, said.
“That won’t matter, the boss said that the carriage we’re aiming for is in a rush to deliver materials. If it turns back, the losses would be massive,” A third voice replied, sounding like he was in a hurry.
“Let’s not tarry then,” The raspy voiced bandit said, “the boss’ll skin us alive if we don’t show up.”
“I agree. Let’s leave.”
Their receding footsteps rang out and I felt myself let loose the breath I held in subconsciously. My shoulders sagged and I dropped to my knees, my mind numb from my near-death experience and the mana that remained within my core, a measly third of what it once was.
I’d almost died. I actually almost died.
The thought kept repeating itself within my head, constantly hammering its way into my brain and sending waves of fear coursing through my mind. I stayed like that for a few minutes, feeling nothing as the same thought repeated itself over and over within my head.
Suddenly, from the direction of the road, the sounds of battle erupted and snapped me out of my reverie.
Metal clashed and pained screams reached my ears as people were wounded and killed one after the other. The bandits probably had an unfair advantage due to heavily outnumbering the carriage’s guards.
My face twisted into a grimace; I turned and ran away.
*BANG*
The crates I pushed off the side of the cart fell and created noise as it fell on a bandit, promptly knocking the bastard unconscious.
The merchant that hired us completely underestimated the number of bandits in this area.
Right now, he was hiding inside the carriage while we risked our lives to stop the bandits from claiming the two-cart caravan he brought along. He was lucky that I was too busy fighting bandits else I would’ve killed him myself by now.
Stabbing my sword into the unconscious thug, I ran off to help my friend, Xavier, fight off a pair of bandits.
There was an ugly wound on his right arm, rendering it useless and permanently ending his career as mercenary and it’s all because of the fucker in the cart.
I used my anger as fuel and ignited the water element chi, elemental mana for knights like myself, that I held within my body. My reserves were getting low but I paid it no heed as I whipped my sword to the left and parried a strike from one of the bandits. I immediately counter-attacked and got a good hit into his leg, followed up by a stab that pierced his heart.
My technique was as good as ever, the water element I specialized focusing on healing and defense.
In the corner of my vision, I saw Xavier throw one of his many daggers using his only good arm towards a bandit sneaking up to me from behind. Good man.
It was knocked out of the air by the bandit’s well timed parry, but it most likely saved my life as I didn’t notice the fucker approaching from behind. I flashed him a grin and spun my body around, using my foot as a pivot and slamming my sword into my enemy’s own.
He was knocked to the side and backed off, grouping up with two of his friends to surround me and Xavier, who had teamed up.
‘This ain’t getting anywhere,’ I thought to myself as I kicked a bandit in the chest sending him a few steps back and making him open for a strike, but unable to be struck as that would allow the bandits to capitalize on the opening I would similarly give them.
There were simply too many of them, twice our number, which used to be a dozen, now around eight, and still outnumbered.
One of the bandits, using a pair of spiked iron gloves as weapons, threw a punch towards me that glanced off my forearm, leaving another wound that began to bleed.
My chi was running out, and I could feel the energy within my body begin to drain away as it happened. This was a losing battle, one that we had no choice but to fight in. A flash of light came from my left and I was unable to block, a scream leaving my lips as half my arm flew off. I grit my teeth, 'Fuck!'
Xavier weaved between me and the culprit, deflecting a strike with ease even with his large handicap.
But then, time seemed to slow down as I bandit took notice of the opening we gave and drove a sword through my old friend’s chest from behind. He pulled it out and Xavier collapsed like a sack of fruits, dead.
I watched all of this happen from the ground, my blood pooling underneath me as I desperately tried to stop the bleeding.
This was the time to use it. We were all going to die at this point anyways, so I prepared to ignite my life force for a short boost of strength that should allow me to take at least one of these bastards down with me.
I grabbed my chest and closed my eyes, bearing unbelievable pain as I began to rotate my life force in the place of my chi. I opened my eyes, everything was clearer and sharper, more defined, but I paused as I saw that from behind the bandits came billowing a massive cloud of white.
It blocked out the forest beyond it and looked like a massive white wave that was about to crash down upon us all.
I paused and it took me a moment to recognize what it was.
Was that… fog?
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Would I really be able to move on if those people got killed?
Would I still be able to wake up in the morning without a weight hanging on my chest?
Would I continue to sleep peacefully at night knowing that I let this, this… slaughter happen?
And most importantly, would I continue to take the same course of action I did today throughout my journey?
I… didn’t want that to happen.
And because of this, I made one of the stupidest decisions I could possibly make.
I looked back at the fog, tugged at my mana, and made the giant wall of white follow me as I ran towards the people I originally intended to forsake.
Stupid, stupid, I’m so fucking stupid for doing this. And yet, I’m still going to do it for some fucking reason!
White daggers of pain assaulted my mind as my mana was drained by another large portion, much less than a fourth of it remaining.
The fog, churned and billowed, turned and roiled, it followed me as I chanted a spell and felt it begin to manifest with far less difficulty than normal.
Sounds of battle approached my ears and the scent of blood filled my nose like water, making me gag and tremble with the sensation of drowning in a murky lake. I clenched my fists and felt my nails dig into my skin, the pain giving me some sense of clarity.
The fog had stretched thin as it strayed away from the formations, I could see at least five meters in front of me now. My aim should be a bit better with this.
At this point I had an offensive spell ready in one of my hands, but when I arrived at the actual battle, I almost lost concentration as I staggered in place. Blood was splattered everywhere and corpses of more than a dozen once-living people were lain strewn across the ground while a dozen more fought with savagery, using every tool at their disposal to keep themselves alive.
I stood stunned for a moment until something caught my attention, three bandits surrounded a man with one arm remaining, two of them leaving to kill more innocents while the remaining one raised his sword to finish the man off.
The man was staring at me; staring at the fog that followed me from behind.
Seeing the helpless look in his eyes filled me with anger, I raised one of my hands and released my spell with a scream. Even I did not know whether fear or anger was the cause of this guttural shout.
The mana that accumulated in my hand materialized and exploded forth in one quick instant, a wickedly sharp shard of ice as long as a shortsword leaving my hand and making my arm recoil upwards violently due to the sheer power of its release.
Noticing my shout, the bandit turned back just in time to see the icicle to hit one of his legs, cutting off a very large chunk and disabling his movement. He fell down with a wretched scream and a foaming mouth which made me sigh in relief, I aimed for his torso with the intention to kill, but luckily my aim was off.
I ran to the bearded man on the ground and checked his condition, “Hey,” I said waving my hands frantically in front of his face, “Hey!”
His eyes regained a bit of clarity as he focused on me, “Stop that boy,” he said, “else my knuckle’ll meet yer head. Thanks for the help by the way,” He flashed me a grin.
I ripped off one of my robe’s sleeves and prepared to tie a tourniquet for the man, but his hand stopped me, “Jus’ let me be.”
“What?” I asked, stunned as I tried to force the rag onto his wound, “Stop resisting! Tell me, is the blood loss getting to you and making you senile? Do you want to die or something—“
“Quiet down lad,” He said, “watch.”
His eyes closed and suddenly, I could feel the fog around me thin. It condensed into a thick cloud that gathered around his stump. The moisture within the cloud seemed to drain away as it progressively became smaller and smaller.
What was he doing?
Just as I began to guess at his work, the two bandits from before entered my peripheral vision, rushing towards us with anger in their eyes upon seeing their dead friend.
I was caught unprepared and I fumbled with my chant, making it shorter in exchange for increasing its mana cost, sending another sharp slash of pain through my mind.
As the four arrived, the fog thinned even more as the spell left my hand and impaled a bandit through the gut. I unconsciously used the recoil to back off, no time to check if the bandit I hit was dead or not.
Panic and adrenaline surged through me, my eyes bloodshot and the taste of copper in my mouth as countless needles of pain stabbed themselves into my head.
I groaned and grit my teeth, looking up as the other bandit whipped his sword towards my head, looking as if it could very well cut it right off. What happened next though, caught me even more unprepared.
Before the blade could reach my neck, a fist heavily impacted against the thug’s face, sending him off the ground and into the air for a few feet before he collapsed on the ground, twitching.
In front of me was the bearded man from before. His face was still pale, but it was better than before and his arm had stopped bleeding. He looked down at one of the corpses on the ground with a hole on its chest and closed his eyes for a moment as he sucked in a deep breath.
I looked at him in a daze and he opened his mouth to speak, looking every bit like an imposing veteran.
“As the vice-captain of the Horned-Devil Mercenary Group, and as repayment for saving my life, I guarantee your safety until the end of this battle,” He said, “Now, stop trying to kill yourself.”
His hand descended, a blur that hit the back of my neck, caused my vision to darken and my control on my mana slip.
‘What… is with this guy?’ My final thoughts entered my head as I lost consciousness.
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Author's Note:
Here's the chapter everyone! I hope you all enjoyed, this one took a bit of time to get correctly. And as for the 'Nothing Much' review, should I un-justify my paragraphs or keep it as it is? Speaking of reviews, thank you Gizmo, I hope you stick around to update it and inflate my ego even more in the future. :D
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