Finally, the light reached the man's face.

I gasped, recognizing his handsome face and short blonde hair. "Terre ... Noble?"

Terra looked at the zombies then leveled me with a perplexed and piercing stare. "What are you doing half way up a mountain, Ria Moore?"

I opened my mouth, trying to come up with an answer, but I didn’t have one. I mean, I couldn’t say that the System told me too. I couldn’t talk about the System at all, so what was the use? But, was this really the place to have that conversation?

He must have thought the same thing, because he said, "Just one moment," Then he disappeared.

I was still staring in shock where Terre used to be when he appeared in the middle of the wandering zombies. With a flick of his wrist, he brandished a bastard shining sword. Instantly, all of the zombies scattered across the ground. I didn't even see his attack, it was that fast.

My eyes widened and I painfully pushed myself up to half kneeling, half leaning on my hip. I knew he was strong. I mean, his aura was unlike anything I'd ever felt before — almost inhuman like — I just didn't know he was that strong. What level was he? Unfortunately, the System that was so good at labeling everything failed me. All it showed for his level was a question mark.

He stared down at the zombie parts with disinterest, as if they were nothing more than mud. With a sweep of his hand, the parts were suddenly flung away into the darkness.

My stomach clenched in horror. I wish it was telekinesis that moved the parts, but I couldn't lie to myself. When he moved his hand, the fog condensed and moved to his actions. He controlled the fog. So, all the fog … was Terre’s? The fog that scared me so badly ... was Terre's?

Terre looked at me, a casual smile curling his mouth like he didn't just demolish those monsters in a snap. "One more to go. What happened to that protective dome you had a minute ago?"

My fried brain stalled again. He knew about the water shield? How? It fell apart before he got here. I just wish it didn’t, because then the fog wouldn’t be touching me like this.

He walked over, his piercing two-toned gaze taking my battered and panicked appearance. "Are you okay?" He crouched down.

Levi zipped around, putting himself between me and Terre.

Terre frowned at the little snake.

The memory of how quickly he killed the zombies flashed in my head. Familiars didn't happen outside of stories, so Terre didn't know that we were connected. What if he killed Levi because he thought the snake was a wild monster? I reached out a shaking hand and snatched Levi to my chest.

"He ... mine ..." Try as I might, I couldn't seem to form a real sentence. All I could feel was the fog rippling around me, brushing against my body and freezing my insides. My chest tightened so much, I couldn't breathe.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a voice screamed over and over. It's not safe! Run! Run! Hide! Don't let the fog touch you! Bad things will happen! All the while, another softer voice calmly whispered, it's okay. You're safe now. But that second voice was completely overpowered by the frantic first voice.

Terre frowned in concern and reached out with his free hand. "What's wrong?" Maybe he wanted to help me up, but this fog coiled around his fingers and wafted towards me with his motion.

I flinched away from the vapor. "Away ..." I mumbled.

"Huh?" He leaned down closer.

Levi lunged forward, snapping at Terre's hand.

Terre drew his hand back, his movements graceful and lightning quick, and Levi missed entirely. I doubted Levi's teeth could even pierce Terre's skin — strong Hunters developed bullet proof skin — but I was still glad that it didn't connect. If Terre turned hostile to Levi, that would be bad.

My fingers tightened on Levi for a second, then I realized I was squishing him. I hurried and let go. "Away ..." I said a little louder, fighting to stabilize my voice. "Take the ... cloud away."

Terre's brows rose on his forehead. "Cloud? The mist? Is that what you're scared of?" He stood up and frowned, perplexed.

Mist. Like Mist Haven, the city that the Nobles created. Now I understood. Terre could use mist magic, so the city was apply named.

I remember the first morning after moving back. Remembered the mist lake rippling against the window, and how scared I was when Micah rushed into it. I freaked out then, but it wasn't as debilitating as it was now. Why? What was the difference? Was it because my family wasn't with me now, so I didn’t have anyone to protect? Or because I was in the wilds, away from civilizations? Whatever the reason, the fact that I was so damn scared of the mist wasn't logical. It was just water vapor. Dad said the mist only reacted to people with ill intentions, but I didn't have any. I mean, I didn't think I did. So what was going on?

Terre waved a hand. The thick mist that pooled around us suddenly drew back, clearing out a ten-foot circle, like someone used a cookie cutter. It was disconcerting to see the water vapor swirling like I was in the eye of a storm, but at least it wasn't touching me.

I took a breath, my mind finally relaxing enough to string together a thought.

"Better?" Terre asked, bemused.

I nodded. "Thank you." I swallowed hard, trying to figure out what to say. My actions were really weird, but I didn't have an explanation for them. I wish I knew why I went to pieces in the mist too.

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"Of course." He turned his head and peered into the darkness like he could clearly see. "I didn't know there was a wraith nest so close by. I need to take care of it before it moves any closer to the city." The fog grew taller and intensified, becoming so thick that the torch orb couldn't even penetrate it.

Somewhere in the distance behind Terre, the wraith screamed. Where was it, and why was it taking so long to come back? It can’t be because of the mist, can it?

The sound sent a shiver down my spine. It wasn’t just the monster’s sound, it was also the casual confidence Terre spoke with. Like not winning wasn’t even a possibility. As if dealing with monsters like this was as natural as breathing. The same monster that defeated me so badly that I couldn’t even breathe properly around it. I had no business getting in a battle between the two powerhouses.

But I didn't want to be a damsel in distress. I spent my whole life hiding in a safe bubble my family made and the reason I became a Hunter was to break that bubble. Even if I failed at it, I wanted to fail while trying.

Terre was friends with Uncle Maveric. What if he told Uncle I wasn't good enough to go into the wilds? Dad hated the fact that I was a Hunter, something I always felt guilty about. Without Uncle backing me up, being a Hunter would be miserable. I couldn't give it up, not until I reached level fifty and found out why Mom died. But could I really withstand a cold war with all of my family? No, I didn't think so.

Maybe I was over thinking. Maybe Terre wouldn't say anything like that to Uncle. But I suddenly realized that I didn't have that much faith in him. A week ago, I might have, because I knew that he was Uncle's friend, but now, I felt differently now. I trusted Terre ... and at the same time, I didn’t.

I also couldn't forget that he was the monster in the mist. Every instinct in my body screamed that the mist was dangerous, which meant that Terre was dangerous. Did Uncle know? Or was Terre hiding it?

"I want to help, too," I said.

If I handled the fight like with Star and the gigaroaches, always keeping Terre between me and the wraith while providing backup water arrows, I wouldn't be deadweight. I might even enable him some attacks of opportunity, if my water magic affected the wraith at all.

Terre's brows rose again, as if he couldn't believe what I just said.

Levi tore his glowering eyes off Terre to give me a matching expression, his belief seeping through our bond.

I refused to back down. Since he didn’t like that idea, I went for a different angle. "Or I can help with the zombies."

"I'm not actually worried about them," Terre waved a hand dismissively. "And you're injured. You couldn't even get up a minute ago. Joining a big fight right now isn't a good idea."

I jumped to my feet and threw back my shoulders. "I'm okay." Was I? No, not really. Regen did a little patch work while I was sitting so my HP was at fifty percent and my MP was a third of the way full, but I was far from ‘okay.’ And most of it had to do with mental, but with Terre here, I could ignore it for now.

His lips smiled, but his blue and gold eyes were cool as stone. "Try saying that to a blind man." Without another word, he turned and walked to the edge of the small clearing in the fog.

I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing, but stopped when he thrust his left hand into the air. The mist swirled around us like a tornado, all the while leaving the eye perfectly clear. Then the spinning vapor rose up, as if stabbing the black sky. A deafening crack, like a plate shattering on tile, thundered overhead followed by the wraith's wailing, hissing scream. A thin rip appeared in the black sky, letting in a sliver of sunlight. The rip webbed out, growing and multiplying until it covered the entire sky, breaking the darkness into pieces. All at once, the illusion around the wraith's lair disintegrated.

My eyes watered from the blinding sunlight. I blinked away the tears that formed ... and realized that I was wrong about my surroundings on all accounts. I thought me and Levi rolled a valley with green bushes and trees before we triggered the wraith's black hole lair. Nope. We actually entered the illusion sometime while we were rolling. The decent looking valley was also an illusion.

We were really standing on a plateau, still halfway up the mountain. There was nothing natural about the vast slab of rock. For starters, it was the wrong color. The stone under my feet was gray, while most of the mountain rock had a reddish hue. It didn't follow the curve of the mountain, nor were there any plants on it. A chill seeped down my spine. The edge of the plateau was a lot closer to me than where I thought the edge of the valley was. If I tried to run out of the 'valley,' I would have run right off the cliff without knowing otherwise. Technically, the wraith saved my life by swooping in to ‘play’ with me.

After the illusion broke, the mist lightened up to a faint haze, although it still covered the whole plateau. Didn’t Terre need the mist for his battle? Was this just him being considerate to me? Super powerful or not, I hope he wasn’t putting himself at a disadvantage because of me.

Black smoke bunched and swirled somewhere on the far end of the plateau, right against the mountain slope. It wasn't very big, but the wraith's fluid-looking body, which floated right above it, was very eye-catching. The monster bobbed like a balloon on a tether, it was so realistic I could practically see a figurative string connecting the two. No, wait. There was a thin black thread between the monster and smoke. Was the black smoke seeping into the wraith?

The sky, which was bright blue with white cotton clouds, suddenly dimmed. There weren’t any clouds, or obstructions to the sun, the whole sky just darkened by several degrees. Was the wraith trying to rebuild its lair? And what was the black smoke? It didn't seem natural, but it didn't seem like a monster either. No, there was something weird about it.

Terre hummed low. “Oh, so that’s what’s going on.” Instead of explaining himself, he stepped into the mist, but not before he tossed, "Stay here," over his shoulder. His body disappeared, just like when he was fighting the zombies. Now that I knew he had that ability, I watched closer to see how it worked. How the fog bunched around him and, with a slight magical fluctuation, his body dissolved into the mist.

He appeared on the other side of the plateau, next to the wraith. His bastard sword appeared in his hand, the shining silvery blade glinting in the dim sunlight. No, the blade was actually glowing. It was hard to see during the day for this distance, but there was a definite white light coming from the blade. The hazy mist converged around the sword, like metallic dust to a magnet.

Magic. Magic was pooled around his weapon, just like what I did. But Uncle said that no one else could do that. Before today, I thought Terre was simply a strong melee Hunter. But was he like me? A battle mage?

Terre attacked, his actions faster than my eyes could keep up with. All I could catch was the light arch his sword left behind. The wraith, however, didn't have the same problem. It disappeared and reappeared twenty feet away, unscathed from his attack. Terre turned and followed after. The battle was a collage of black and white explosions and flashing silver arcs. The wraith moved so fast, it was like multiple phantoms were playing peekaboo. Sometimes those phantoms even attacked Terre, only to disappear when he cut them in half. All the while, it stayed within fifty feet of the black smoke. Every time it neared, a thread connected to the smoke and monster. And each time, the wraith got faster. Stronger. How much longer before Terre was overpowered?

Levi watched from my shoulder, wishing that he could bite both Terre and the wraith to death. But even he had to admit that we couldn't keep up. For now.

My hand fisted until it was painful. I wanted to be that strong too. I ... didn't want to hide behind anyone ever again.

A movement in the corner of my eyes drew my attention.

The chunks of zombie parts that Terre scattered earlier started to shiver. Then move together, reforming their bodies.