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"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 31: New Magic

"What? A new spell?"

[Select a new spell…accessing Library of Thoth for compatible magical techniques…two options found… Lightning Nova: inflicts medium damage around the caster. Cost: 10 Mana. Thunder Bolt: Inflicts low damage to one target. High chance of paralysis. Cost: 5 mana.]

"Wait… I can only choose one?"

"Grrr!"

"Zephyr!" Seth screamed.

He saw a giant claw going for his face and barely avoided it.

He then felt a sharp pain in his back when the other bear slashed at his back.

"Arrgg!" He clenched his teeth.

'This is not the time to get distracted… I'll take this one.'

He smashed his finger on the message screen.

[Spell selected… Lightning Nova added to Spell List]

"Let's give it a try… Lightning Nova!"

Zephyr shouted.

Sparks appeared around him for a short moment before a wave of electrical energy was ejected from his body, creating a circumference of six meters in diameter around him.

The two bears were hit and let out some painful noises but were yet to fall down.

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"Not enough… once more… Lightning Nova!"

This time, the two beasts collapsed violently against the rocky ground and did not move again.

"Whoa! I didn't know you could do that," Seth stared in awe.

"I didn't… I just learned," Zephyr breathed with difficulty.

"You just learned it now? Like… in the middle of the fight?" Seth asked.

"Yes, but that's not important now…," Zephyr looked back at the four bears approaching.

"Come on, we have to run! The red bears will continue to chase us, we need to keep our distance." Seth yelled.

"There is no longer a need to run away. With this new spell, I can kill those four in a moment!" Zephyr seemed determined.

If they run away now, they will have to start again tomorrow or the next day.

Every day they remain north of the wall is giving the Celestial once more chance to catch them.

They may not be looking for Seth, but the Celestial from Zloria town was surely looking for him.

After all, he was guilty of the worst crime a human could commit… he killed a Celestial.

They will never let him go.

As long as he had a chance of winning, he was not going to retreat any longer.

His current mana was at twenty-four. He had enough for two novas.

'I need to hit the four of them… that will be tricky. I will need to put myself right in the middle of the group.'

He waited for the bears to approach him a bit more. Fortunately for him, the beasts liked to move in tight packs and four of them were very close to each other.

Zephyr held on for the opportune moment and jumped to action.

He jumped into the middle of the group of bears.

In any other situation, this would be outright suicide.

"Lightning Nova!" Not wanting to give the beasts a chance to rip him apart, he used his first spell.

It hit all the bears and staggered them for a second.

Just enough time to use the second one. "Lightning Nova!"

The bears roared in pain and collapsed on the rocky ground.

"I did it!" Zephyr gave a celebratory shout.

"Zephyr!" Seth came running to him. "Are you okay?" He asked with concern.

"I'm perfectly fine! I just need to recover my mana for a few minutes."

"Your back is bleeding!" Seth pointed out.

"Ah… so it is… give it a minute or two," Zephyr said.

"How does that work?" Seth looked very confused.

Zephyr looked around the mountains. He could not see any more bears approaching. "Looks like they finally gave up…"

"I can't believe you killed so many red bears… not even the best hunters could claim something like this." Seth was genuinely impressed.

"We can rest here for a bit." Zephyr suggested since it was not safe to continue until he got his mana back.

"Should I prepare some of this bear meat? It's been over a year since I had the chance to eat red bear meat." Seth licked his lips.

Seth prepared some juicy steaks and stored some more meat for later.

Looking at the position of the sun, it must have been close to midday when they were done resting.

"How long would it take to cross this pass?" Zephyr asked.

"I checked the map before; we still have some distance until the midpoint, so… at least ten hours if we walk at a brisk pace and don't run into any more beasts," Seth said.

"We won't make it before it gets dark." Zephyr was getting worried. This was not the type of place where you wanted to be walking at night.

"After the midpoint, we should find a lot of caves. We could take refuge in one of them," suggested Seth.

"Don't they belong to the red bears?" He recalled some bad memories from the last time he slept inside a cave.

"The bears move around a lot so there are always many empty caves left behind. Also… I'm sure you already killed a large amount of their population. I wouldn't worry too much about the bears. And we can cover the entrance."

They walked for several more hours until a large number of caves started to come into view.

Seth suggested one of the caves close to the road. He appeared to be worried about something.

Zephyr covered the entrance about halfway through with some large rocks and the two boys prepared to sleep.

They should be reaching the end of the passage by tomorrow at midday. Then, they could finally leave these dangerous mountains behind.