Testing My Luck in the New World

Led by Yua’s sharpened ears, we plowed through the trees as fast as we could. Leaves, branches and bushes all snapped and crumpled in our wake. Several animals that likely once considered themselves predators scampered away to hide, rather than get involved.

            I’d teleported us deep inside of Dumort Forest, but kept us well out of sight of the barrier. Our panic made me doubt this decision, but getting jumped the moment we stepped out of the portal wasn’t going to save anyone. And the girl that needed saving was dear to both of us.

            “Have you found Mana yet?”

Yua tore a thick, low-hanging branch straight off a tree and tossed it aside as she ran so I could pass unhindered. Her experience traversing forests demanded she take charge and I was too focused on my menu.

            “Not yet.”

            Using my rights as her master, I been searching for Mana since we stepped out of the portal, but so far, I’ve gotten nothing to show for it. She was still too far to see her outline. Without that, using just the slight tug that pulled me in her general direction was almost as useless as tracking an animal whose existence was assumed at best.

             What I did know was that we were headed towards the barrier by following her.

            “Goddess… It’s like she keeps getting further away.”

            “How’d they even get here so fast?”

            “We were gone for hours. They could have used a cart. Or a fast horse.”

            And thanks to the tarnished reputation of the cat-kin, I doubted anyone at the inn would have tried to stop them from kidnapping her, even if they dragged her through the lobby kicking and screaming. Once they saw she was cat-kin, most probably wouldn’t have lifted a finger to help even after seeing thrown into the back of a cart.

            The much more nail-biting fact that kept me running as fast as I could was that, in order to make it as far as they did this fast, they must have kidnapped her right after we left for the Enchanter.

None of us stopped to check if Arthur was still at the inn, but his room was right above ours. He’d have had plenty of opportunities. And if that wasn’t enough, the timing had to mean that Tillmann likely came up with this plan right after Arthur told him about us.

They both know about my teleportation magic. Waiting up above in his room, knowing we’d want to avoid the innkeeper’s wrath, Arthur just had to wait until he saw Yua and I teleport into the alley. If Erhard’s overworked sleeplessness was anything to go off of, Arthur might have been told to watch the alley all morning to await his chance. And thanks to his own room’s enchantment, all he had to do to keep Yua from noticing this was to close his window.

Arthur and whoever was with him must have been planning on sneaking into our room, wait for us to come back and attack when we had our guards down. Only, they happened to find Mana alone. If Tillmann’s main goal right now was to capture a cat-kin, then taking the defenseless Mana was his best bet.

            And I let it happen.

            Just one failure after another.

            “Wait,” Yua said, coming to a stop. Her ears flicking, she quickly knelt behind a tree. Knowing she stopped for a good reason, but with my own impatience burning, I ducked behind her.

             “What is it?”

            She held a finger to her lips and I held my tongue. Her ears flicked several times before she answered.

            “People are coming.”

            “Do you think they know we’re here?”

            She paused, then shook her head. “No. Their footsteps are calm and they don’t seem to be walking towards us on purpose. We’re probably just unlucky.”

            I sighed. “How many of them are there?”

            “Six.”

            “Shit…”

            As I feared, they stepped up their patrol game by bunching up. Likely to avoid getting overwhelmed by the spriggans again.

            Hand on my sword, I considered what this meant.

            When we first found the thieves, there were twelve of them, including Tillmann and Arthur. Thinking back to my midnight trip into the barrier, I mentally counted out the sleeping bags in the tent and the numbers matched perfectly. Unless some of them doubled up, that should be all we should expect from them.

            So, with Erhard still in the city and at least two of them dead, and not counting the six near us, that leaves Tillmann with a minimum of two more men currently unaccounted for. Whether or not they were inside the barrier with him or if they were the ones chasing Mana around was impossible to say.

            Not that knowing that erases the fact that whoever is chasing Mana is definitely several times her level.

            “We need to get Mana out of here. She’s not with the group headed our way, are they?”

            “No. Alex, you need to teleport Daddy here.”

            Still staring off into the trees, her ears kept at attention, flicking occasionally.

            “You think his nose can track her better than my rights?”

            “I don’t know, but that doesn’t matter right now.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Mana is out there.”

“Alex,” Yua said sharply, turning an openly worried glare my way. “There are too many people coming. And if what you said about their levels is true, then we shouldn’t risk fighting them alone. They aren’t going to be as weak as those guys I beat up in the slave house. We need help.”

            “Right…”

            Without hesitation, I threw my pride to the ground and shot it in the head. I wasn’t about to trade it for Mana’s safety. Tama could help get her back. I’d just grin and bear with his chastising later.

            I drew in a breath and focused on the chief’s tent. The two cots, one for the man in question and his mate, the other for their long-lost daughter. The shelves full of trophies from past battles. The oddly placed crates brimming with potions, medicinal supplies and other keepsakes.

            Keeping all this in my mind with a picture-perfect clarity, I silently cast Dimensional Step.

            Bright blue lights swarmed into existence, slowly building upon themselves until they created a doorway. Once it solidified, all I needed to do was wait for him to step through.

            But he never did.

            “You said he’d be in his tent, right?”

            “He should be. He said he’d be ready to fight.”

            Her ears flicked again and I knew the thieves were drawing closer. They may not have noticed us yet, but they got damned lucky to have found us so soon.

            “…”

            Grinding my teeth, I stuck my head through the portal, saw that the chief’s tent was completely empty and…

            “Tama!! Get over here you muscle-brained asshole!”

            Sure that he’d heard me so long as he was still in the village, I pulled back out of the portal. Sound wasn’t able to traverse the spell, so Yua hadn’t heard what I said. Her attention was still on the incoming thieves.

            And still, nobody stepped through the portal.

            “Was he seriously planning on coming here alone? Where is everyone?”

            I was expecting a horde of cat-kin warriors to be at the ready to jump through my portal at any moment, but none did. It’s like they didn’t even know what was happening.

            And to make things worse, the longer the light of the portal existed, the more chances the thieves were going to have to notice it under all the shade. But Tama still did not come.

            “Yua, let’s just teleport to a different part of the forest to regroup. Mana’s moving more to the East now and I remember a good place to hide there.”

            “… We can’t.”

            Standing, Yua balled her fists and I knew it was too late. The forest was quiet. The thieves must have noticed us somehow.

            My hand on my sword, I watched the portal, ready to cut it the moment that man stepped through. But he didn’t.

            Is he off taking a shit or something?!

            “They’re here,” Yua whispered, her voice darkened with the will to fight.

            “Damn…”

            With no other choice, I cut my portal and let it vanish. I couldn’t risk putting half my focus on maintaining it once the fighting started. Not against that many people.

            Yua dropped her posture, bending her knees to be ready to pounce. Her tail had gone still, as if she didn’t want its usual swaying to alert them. I was both surprised and proud of her in a way. Even against these odds, retreat wasn’t anywhere in her mind.

            Meanwhile, I was hesitant to even draw my sword. Unlike her, I’ve never fought a human. And because of how animals and monsters here vanish after you slay them, it didn’t truly feel as though I’d ever taken a life, either.

Clenching my teeth, focusing on Mana, focusing on Yua, I disappeared just my sheathe into my item box, leaving my blade naked and ready.

I gripped it with both my hands when Yua once more adopted her fighting stance and I heard the shifting of grass. A figured appeared from behind the tree.

He was a man. A human thief named Gregor. He was the man that ran past me after I snuck into the barrier last night. His face just barely visible beneath his helmet, he looked maybe ten years older than us, but the wide-eyed smile that took to his lips when he found us made him look years younger.

            “We’ve been looking all over for you guys. Glad you made it safe and sound,” he said, then turned and waved. “Hey guys! They’re over here!”

            Dumbstruck, I felt my grip on my sword slip, but caught myself and reconfirmed that his info box held the Thief tag. Yua’s ear flicked just as curiously, then a good deal of tension left her shoulders. It was then that I noticed that Gregor’s sword was still in its sheathe.

            Lucky for him, Arthur was not among them.

            Yua and I looked to each other, but it was clear that Gregor wasn’t here to fight.

            “Are you one of the guys that wanted to stage a mutiny?”

            “Ah, already met with Erhard? Good, that will save us some explaining.”

            Not long after he said this, five more men joined behind him. All equipped to fight, they looked like the sort of rag-tag group of thieves you’d find in a video game, but they were all smiles.

            Yua’s ears flicked around almost wildly, as if testing each of their hearts one by one. She came back with nothing.

            Once everyone formed up, Gregor spoke.

“Now that we’re all here, let’s…”

            “Before that,” I pointed my sword at them. “Where’s Mana?”

            “Mana? You mean, like, for casting spells and stuff?”

            “The black-haired cat girl you guys kidnapped!”

            My rights were still unable to pinpoint her location. Wherever she was, whatever she was doing, she was moving. I could only hope that was good news.

            Gregor threw up his hands defensively and said, “We don’t know, I swear. One of the others brought her here, but once she saw the barrier, she tried to wriggle free. He managed to force her under the barrier, but she slipped away. She’s hiding in there somewhere.”

            He pointed off in the same direction as the map marker I put on the barrier. The hilt of my sword trembled under my grip.

            I tried to take it as good news that she was indeed still safe, to an extent. But why didn’t she fight back until she saw the barrier?

            “We’re sorry,” Gregor said, keeping his hands up. None of the others reacted to my blade. “Tillmann said taking one of the women you were with would draw you out. We didn’t have a say.”

            “So he knows we’re coming?”

            “Yes. But that’s why we were hoping to find you before you got to him. Join up with us and we can take him together.”

            “I don’t know about that,” I said, slightly lowering my sword.

            Tillmann seemed ready for anything. Not only did he manage to counteract my Force Sleep spell before I even used it, he already had the necessary potion to do that before we even met. According to the man himself, he’s been around long enough to have what most would probably say was a crazy amount of experience.

And he knows we’re coming. Mutiny or not, he must have plans prepared for just about anything.

“We’re not a bunch of idiots,” Gregor said. “We have a plan.”

Her ears jumping to attention, Yua spoke next.

“And what’s that? If I can’t enter the barrier, that means he has to come to us to fight.”

Gregor shook his head, finally lowering his hands.

“Not true. Beast-folk can enter the barrier just like your friend Mana no problem. You lot just can’t open it. If you say the passphrase, it’ll ignore you. That’s all.”

“We can escort you to the barrier,” said another of the thieves. “Then we’ll let you in. You’ll have to act like we’ve captured you, but when we bring you to Tillmann, we can all gang up on him.”

“He’s ridiculously strong,” another added. “Without your magic, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“And he can’t beat us if we all attack at the same time.”

““Yea!””

I blinked at them as they pat themselves on the back for this master plan.

“That’s your plan? Seriously?”

They were taken aback by my lack of enthusiasm, but who could blame me? This smelled so much like a trap that I was surprised my Detect Trap ability didn’t pop off.

I looked to Yua after her ears gave them a once over, but she shook her head. No lies had been detected. And here I was hoping they’d do more than just add to our numbers.

“If we’re pretending to be your prisoners,” I said. “Can I assume you’re expecting us to hand over our weapons? Or that you mean to tie us up?”

I pointed the tip of my sword to one of the thieves that hadn’t said anything yet. For whatever reason, he was wearing a length of rope as a sash. Either he had even less fashion sense than Yua, or they were expecting us to be idiots.

“Nah,” Gregor said with a dismissive wave. “You can’t fight if we did that. Plus, it’s not like you can give up your magic, right? Well, I mean, we could gag you, but…”

So, they know about my magic, but not my ability to cast it silently? At least there’s a little bit of good news. Tillmann must have been too heated after I tried to break the barrier to notice I didn’t incant my teleportation spell.

I glanced at Yua and could tell without a word between us that she didn’t fully believe them either.

“So what do you think? If you have a better plan, we’re all ears.”

I let out a quiet breath and thought it over. They were clearly up to something, that or they were just unbearably stupid and deserving of Tillmann’s complaints, but I honestly didn’t have much of a plan either.

Causing a distraction so I could slip inside the barrier wasn’t bound to work a second time. I could teleport us to the other side of the barrier and slip inside, but these guys would just follow, trapping us inside the barrier with Tillmann and the rest. At least pretending to work with them would allow us to keep an eye on them.

“... Erhard said you’d want something for your help.”

“Yes. Where done with this crap. Lord Argento’s already been found out and the mine’s almost empty. There’s no point in being here anymore, but Tillmann won’t let us leave. The man’s lost his mind.”

Lord Argento was caught? When did that happen? As happy as I am to learn that we weren’t going to have to stick our noses into international issues, it was a shame he got away.

“We want out of this place without so much as a slap on the wrist for what we’ve done,” Gregor continued. “We want our crimes to be forgiven and for you to forget you ever saw us. As I’m sure you know, the risk of going against Tillmann is worth that much. We’ll fight and when we’re done, teleport us out of here and you’ll never see us again.”

“Never see you again, huh? I’ve been promised that three times this week and so far, at least two of those promises have been broken.”

            I was starting to have doubts about Erhard’s sincerity, especially after he left out the bit about Lord Argento, but we’ll have to meet with him again later regardless. And after what he’s done, Arthur isn’t making it out of this until Yua and I have our way with him.

            “Please. We need your help.”

            The thieves pleaded and, I had to admit, their acting was not bad. Hard to say it wasn’t at least a little believable when I knew they were trapped behind multiple fronts, each being more dangerous than the last.

            This was a trap, the question was what do we do about it? I tried opening a portal for Tama behind them while we talked, but the bastard still didn’t show up. We should have just gone to the village first.

            I looked to Yua and received another nod. She was ready for anything.

            My eyes still on Gregor’s, I squeezed the hilt of my sword.

            “One last question before we decide if helping you is worth it.”

            “Alright. If I can answer it, I will.”

            “Good. Then why did Arthur tell us how to get into the barrier if he never actually betrayed Tillmann?”

            This one stumped them and for good reason.

I thought we had Arthur’s help in the bag after he shared that bit of information with us. Him locking himself up in Guerraway after spilling the beans should have kept him safe from Tillmann’s retribution, the distance was more than enough, and he still went back.

Maybe he forgot something important in their camp, but short of accidentally leaving a purse overflowing with gold behind, why risk going back after leaking what should have been devastating information for their little setup?

As I worked through all these facts on our way out here, the only conclusion I could come to was that Tillmann had been trying to capture a cat-kin from the beginning. And Arthur only told us how to get into the barrier in hopes that we would actually try to sneak in. They’d capture or kill me, then Yua and Mana wouldn’t be able to pass through the barrier on their own due to their race. Meaning they’d be stuck inside once I was no longer a threat.

Only they weren’t expecting drunk me to be dumb enough to sneak in by myself.

“It’s because we found some sort of spying box in the forest near the barrier,” Gregor said finally. “It was hard to spot, but it was pointed at the barrier. Tillmann said it didn’t have any seams, like it had been made with magic, so he figured someone other than the cat-kin was spying on us. He wanted to lure the culprit in to, well, quiet him.”

Hearing this, I had to actively stop myself from face-palming. I was right on one count, but apparently, we were only in this mess because I didn’t destroy the box I made with Material Creation when Yua and I first started watching them. Mana showing up and making noise had been a distraction, but that was exceedingly stupid of me.

What sort of spy leaves behind evidence like that?

Knowing the box had been made with some sort of magic, and knowing that beast-kin could not use magic, Arthur must have connected it to me after he saw my cat girls defending me when Elane attacked us. He was there. I thought he ran as soon as the commotion started, but he must have stayed long enough to see Yua’s ears. It was likely just a suspicion at that point, but us showing up at his door together afterwards all but confirmed it.

The man was a drunken mess when we first saw him, but he must have come up with this kidnapping plan at least mostly on his own. He shouldn’t have had time to consult Tillmann between Elane attacking us and our meeting at the inn. We underestimated him too.

 Now that I think about it, I’ve been doing that a lot recently. Really hope it doesn’t become a habit.

“So, you guys were trying to trick us from the start?” Yua asked, coming to the same conclusion.

“N-not us. It was just Tillmann.”

Yua’s ear pricked up and her eyes narrowed. Without looking my way, she balled her fists and nodded.

Finally, she detected a lie.

I drew a breath that I was more than happy to let them think was me just thinking this over.

My rights over Mana tugged at my attention. I checked her status and saw that a small chunk of her life bar was missing.

Enough of this farce.

“I see. So, just to be sure, the deal is, you help us beat Tillmann, then I let you all run away? That simple?”

“An easy end to this is all we want. I’m sure Erhard’s told you plenty about his abuse. We want revenge on that bastard just as much as you do.”

Yua tensed. Then I heard the soft metallic pop of a blade being flicked lose from its sheath. Loathed as I am to admit, I became overly familiar with the sound thanks to all the screwing around I did with my own sword, attempting a quick draw like some sort of seasoned samurai, when I should have been doing real training.

And my Memorization ability made sure I remembered that embarrassment clearly.

They must be getting antsy, jumping the gun by springing their trap before we even stepped into it.

“Alright,” I said, taking a step forward. I needed to be a little closer. “You have a deal.”

I extended my hand to shake and as soon as Gregor moved to meet it, lips curling with greed, I pointed to his feet.

“Material Destruction.”

“Wha… Ahh!”

Instantly, the ground beneath him vanished without a trace and he fell into a pit. I tried to make it as wide as possible to swallow up more of them, but it only ended up being enough for him. I clicked my tongue.

The hole lacked in depth too, as it only swallowed him to his waist, but this was enough for what I wanted. Just when his feet hit the bottom of the hole and his knees buckled in surprise, I incanted again to keep up the charade of needing to.

“Material Creation!”

Just as fast, the air around Gregor was instantly filled with compacted soil. His legs and his sword were locked in place. He tried to pull himself free, but the soil didn’t budge. He was just as rooted as any of the forest trees.

“What are you doing?! We had a deal!”

“Yua.”

“Iron Fist!”

Dropping low, Yua slammed her fist into his cheek and his head whipped violently to the side, his teeth scattering into the grass. His eyes fluttered and he dropped face-first onto the forest floor. His health bar had taken a worrying amount of damage, but he was only unconscious. Still, that was one down.

Yua jumped back to her feet, putting herself between me and the rest.

“They figured it out,” one of them said, drawing his sword.

“Material Destruction!”

I tried the same trick on him, but one of the others grabbed him by the collar the moment the ground disappeared.

Man, how do mages in this world get anything done when they are forced to announce their spells before they happen?

“Get ‘em!”

All five of them charged at once.

Yua blocked the sword aimed at her abdomen with her Iron Fist. I’d barely seen it move, but she deflected it easily. Immediately after, she pulled her arm back to parry the strike of a second man before…

            That was as far as I was allowed to watch. The other three, two swords and one spear, came flying at me.

            “Raah!”

Their howls masking the metallic brutality of Yua’s Iron Fist, I was forced to grit my teeth and have faith in her fighting ability. I didn’t have the skill to focus on her without dying myself.

            One man, a Swordsman named Gawin, jumped over the pit I tried to make for him, so I cast Material Destruction again just before he landed. He slipped into a new trench, landing awkwardly enough to illicit a cry of pain, but his friends were too fast for me to follow up.

            “Kill the boy! We only need the girl!”

            A breath caught in my throat.

            As soon as it became clear that my suspicions were correct, fear flooded me. This was no friendly sparring match, nor was it a duel with your father-in-law. It was the real deal.

            My chest was close to bursting as the remaining two ran at me, their every move prolonged, as if in slow motion. The second my attention shifted, Gawin pushed a potion bottle against his lips. He’d be back in the fight by the time he finished drinking.

            Lamenting my own lack of experience, I almost got lost in the steely, savage eyes of the man named Silvano as he swung his sword at my neck.

            I ducked hard and fast, almost falling back before materializing a thick pillar made of dungeon stone between us to block his follow up. His sword clanged against the stone, barely chipping it. He staggered. I silently cast a spell.

            A portal appeared beneath me and I let myself fall through it to land behind the Spearman named Yelis.

Having the Spearman class myself, I knew I couldn’t afford to fight the man at a middling distance, or my sword would be useless. I cut lose with my blade, aiming for his back. His leather armor was thin and my blade was made of high-class metal. It should have been an easy win. But my muscles stiffened and I hesitated.

            Deafening sirens of morality blared within my heart hard enough to stop my blade mid-swing. He was supposed to be just a thief, a criminal that needed to be put down, but he wasn’t. He was more. He was a man. A living breathing man with wants and feelings and the thought of stealing all that away stole my breath. But only for a second as my concern for Mana reignited.

            However, my hesitation caused him to sense me. Spinning his spear to knock my blade away, he swiftly pulled it back to lunge at me. His strike was so precise and unwavering, that I was forced to fall to the side to avoid it. I put up another pillar between us, but there was no clang to show he’d hit it. He had more patience than Gawin. And he had none of my hesitation.

A quick glance at Yua, said she was fighting with every bit of her iron will still intact. If anything, she too glanced my way, as if she noticed me looking, but she had the freedom to do so. She’d already ripped the sword from one of her opponent’s hands. He replaced it with a long dagger, but she didn’t look remotely scared, despite her earlier warnings against fighting them.

            It was the same fierce look she wore in the dungeons. And that was what I needed. To think of this as that, just another trip to the dungeons. These guys were just monsters getting in the way of me protecting my girls.

            I was no longer on Earth. Earthen ideas of morality didn’t exist here. At least, not to the extent my old mostly peaceful world comforted.

Though I was reluctant, I had a sword. I had my magic. And I had a spell that was damn near useless in the city, but could be exactly what I needed here. More importantly, thanks to last night, I knew it could be particularly effective against these guys if I used it right.

 I jumped away from the stone pillar to see the entire battlefield. Gawin had cured whatever he’d injured and was climbing out of the pit. Silvano was dazed for a moment after my teleporting made me vanish, but he was quick to spot me again. Finally, Yelis was already running me down.

I took it all in and this time, I used Material Destruction beneath my feet.

Dropping at the sound of Silvano and Yelis charging, I opened another portal leading to the pit Gawin was still climbing out of and slipped through.

Before I could completely acclimate to my new surroundings, I saw him. Saw his foot lifting out of the pit to stand and join the others as they lunged for the pit I’d left behind, likely thinking they could skewer me before I could cast another spell.

I cut my portal. Gawin tried to step forward, but I cast my spell before he could.

“Strangle Thorn!”

Using the surrounding plant life as the base for its construction, the grass at his feet quickly changed from loose leaves of grass to thick, barbed vines that shot up. Like the tentacles of an octopus, the vines raced up his legs. The thorns digging dark red trenches in his flesh as they tightened around him.

“Argh!”

He howled in pain as the barbs cut into his calves, drawing enough blood to leave a mark on his health bar. Knowing the tentacles were weaker than they looked from my practicing, I knew the only thing holding him down were the thorns biting into his flesh and the pain they caused every time he moved. But it wouldn’t last long.

I reached out for him and, with a display of skill that disparaged his low level, he forgot his pain and swung his sword behind himself to cut me. Barely managing to use my own as a shield within the narrow pit, our blades crashed into one another.

As they did, I gripped his ankle and…

“Force Sleep!”

“What the… huh?”

Still turned, his blade still locked against mine, Gawin’s eyelids fluttered. As it had with Yua back in the slave house, the spell gave him so little room to try and rouse himself that his eyes were closing before his body grew limp and, vines still clinging to him, he toppled.

His sword slipped from his hands and I let it fall through another portal I made to whisk it away to the far-off land known to the locals simply as the village. In their chief’s tent, no less. Hopefully my muscle-headed father-in-law will notice what the sword means and be ready next time I try to summoning him!

Grumbling to myself, I quickly checked Yua’s status as I created a temporary coffin of stone for the sleeping thief, purely so he couldn’t move in case he woke early.

Yua was faring better than I could have hoped. The slight loss to her health bar said she’d taken a scratch or two, but seeing as how she was taking a more direct approach in her attempt to beat the shit out of her opponents, that was better than we could ask for.

Likewise, Mana was still mostly unharmed.

“He took out Gawin!” shouted Yelis.

“What do you want me to do about it? He keeps teleporting away! I didn’t even hear him chant that time!”

“Just watch my back. I’ll take the lead.”

They were already on the defensive, Yelis facing me, carefully edging this way while Silvano watched their backs for stray portals. Meanwhile my heart was still beating a mile a minute. I tried to take a breath and calm myself.

… If a good way to fight a mage is to force them to waste mana showing off their magic, then shouldn’t forcing a melee fighter to use up their stamina work the same way? No. That’s impossible to tell without seeing the numbers.

Deciding that it was unwise to risk testing the size of my mana pool against their stamina, I corrected and added to that bit of advice to come up with something more functional. With a plan quickly forming in my mind, I cast another spell.

“Rock Throw!”

With an intentionally loud chant, I felt a small amount of mana drain out of my palm to form a small, rounded spearhead of stone. I let it loose as soon as it was ready and it shot forward with all the speed of a paint ball.

Yes. I deliberately held back and watched, memorizing Yelis’s movements as he swatted it out of the air with ease.

He smirked, hopefully thinking I didn’t have enough mana to teleport anymore. He started to move faster.

 I fired my spell at the same exact spot on his body, making sure he heard me chant.

He knocked the stone out of the air with even greater ease and I forced myself to focus on how he did it. The way his feet and shoulders moved with the strike. The way his sword sliced through the air at the same angle each time. The way the muscles in his forearm tightened just before impact, then loosened again, ready to deflect the next shot. Nothing escaped my sight.

A bead of sweat ran down my temple as a third stone spearhead shot through the air, only for it to meet the same fate.

Yelis moved, nearly breaking into a sprint before I fired a fourth, more powerful shot.

“Rock Throw!”

I watched as he smirked, watched as he swung his spear to knock it out of the air. Watched as he did so using the exact same movements as before.

            When his spear’s momentum was too fast to pull back, I silently cast Dimensional Step in its path. His spear missed the stone, flying instead into my portal to appear beside me. Briefly surprised by how fast it moved, I gripped the shaft of his weapon and held it as tight as I could. At the same moment a bewildered delirium furrowed his brow, the stone smashed into his sternum.

            “Gah!”

            He doubled over, clutching his chest and when I noticed his grip on his spear weaken, I yanked it through the portal. He managed to fight the pain long enough to stop me from stealing his weapon, but that’s not what I was after.

            With his spear still sticking through my portal, I cut the spell. When the blue lights blinked out of existence, the spear was cut cleanly in half. I let its tip clatter to the ground.

            Still wheezing as he clutched his chest, he looked to the smoothly severed half of the spear in his hand and furrowed his brow, his face paling despite his anger.

            Coughing, he drew a dagger from his belt. Since I needed him to be able to see it to knock it out of the air, my spell had only taken about a quarter of his health, so it was no surprise that he was quick to recover.

            I jumped out of the pit I’d been standing in and filled it with soil, burying the only part of his spear that mattered.

            Okay. Okay. I knocked one unconscious and partially disarmed another. Not bad, but this isn’t going to get us anywhere unless I do some real damage.

            Figuring, hoping, that the Yelis’s lack of a proper Thief class or any sort of dagger-wielding class meant he wasn’t as good with one as he was a spear, I decided to focus on him. And seeing that his sword-wielding partner was still diligently watching their backs, I came up with another plan.

            Making a show of breathing heavily, I made up an effort to take up my sword in both hands. I leveled it at Yelis, drawing a mildly confused look out of him. Then, clenching his teeth as if to suppress a smile, he spoke.

            “Oi. I think he’s out of mana.”

            “Then let’s rush him,” Silvano said, turning to face me. “Most mages suck ass at swingin’ swords.”

            “Hey!” I said. “My wife is right there. Watch your language.”

            I could practically hear her tilting her head in confusion before cutely asking what does suck ass mean, but I ignored the itch asking me to look at her. Can’t have her getting distracted. She seemed to have whittled one of her opponents down to a just a sliver of health, but she wasn’t done yet.

            “He’s stalling,” Yelis said, grinning. “Waiting for the woman to help.”

            “Ha! What a bitch!”

            I sighed.

Well… He’s not wrong. I was stalling, but only to let my mana recharge trait do its thing by giving the casting a quick rest. Thanks to all the spells I’d used, I was running on about a quarter tank of gas. Tama made sure to drill in the fact that a mage running out of mana during a fight was dangerous, so I wasn’t about to let it happen here. These two weren’t going to stop at just knocking me out.

            I just needed a minute or two.

            “Get him!”

            Hopefully I can last that long…

            Emboldened by my apparent weakness, they ran at me. I braced myself with thoughts of nearly everyone I met this week telling me that I suck at fighting keeping me humble despite my small victories.

            As if bleeding for a taste of action, Silvano sped up and around the Yelis to take the lead. His movements were swift and practiced. He looked as though he were gliding through air despite the rapid tapping of his feet against the grass shrinking the distance between us.

            “Multi-slice!”

            In range, Silvano incanted an ability I had yet to unlock. He raised his sword and I blocked with mine on reflex, rather than instinct. In a flash, his blade slammed against mine three times in such rapid succession that I had no chance to react to any of the hits.

            I barely managed to hold onto my sword’s hilt with one hand as it was violently knocked aside. Grinning madly, Silvano quickly pivoted into a horizontal slash.

            My sword too far to protect me, I through up my free hand and cast Material Creation to build another stone pillar. Thankfully, it didn’t require mana, but the materials I had on hand weren’t sturdy enough.

            “Charge Slice!”

            Mid-swing, his blade began to glow with an unfamiliarly faint white light that was almost imperceptible in the day. His sword collided with my stone, but instead of stopping, it continued straight through it like it were nothing more than a block of half-melted butter until it came to a sudden stop about three-quarters of the way through.

            I fell back to avoid it, but a stinging sensation in my cheek said his strike had been too fast. Something warm dripped down my chin. Pain erupted into focus, but then Yelis’s knife flew at me before I could so much as wince.

            My hands shot up to block on reflex, but magic took over and formed another portal. The knife sliced through it and through its other end behind him. His own knife dug into his back.

            “Arrrgh!”

            His knees buckled, but so long as the portal was activated and his arm was through it, he could not fall. I reached out to cast Force Sleep, but Silvano was on me before I could.

            My every muscle tightening at the thought of the scream I knew was about to come, I cut my spell, severing Yelis’s arm as I had his spear so I could avoid Silvano’s slash. The lifeless limb slapped to the ground with a wet thud. Its stillness sickened me, but his agony was much more deafening. He clutched his bleeding stump as he fell to his knees.

            I felt my chest move, but I didn’t taste any air.

One slip up, and that could have been Yua. Or me.

            Bile rose in my throat, but I didn’t have the leeway to let it out.

            “Bastard!!”

            When my feet refused to move again, my hands worked on instinct to throw up another pillar of stone. And just when I saw the beginning of his charged blade cut through the stone, I cast Shadow Cloak.

            A chill crept up my spine as a heavy gale swept past me. I was sucked deep into one of the endless pockets of shadows in the forest. My field of view swapped with that of the grass beneath us, leaving only the canopy of trees overhead in sight until the top half of the stone pillar fell to the side to reveal Silvano.

His face was crimson with fury and it only grew darker when he didn’t find me. He gripped his sword defensively and turned. I knew he’d assumed I teleported away again when he turned to Yelis. He likely assumed I was going to further incapacitate him the way I had the others, but there was no longer any need.

Yelis’s life bar was fading fast, at about the same speed as the thick blood drained from his stump. He held a potion bottle in his remaining hand and weakly tried to pry it open with his teeth.

And yet, the swordsman made no move to help. Keeping his sword up, he waited for me to act. I watched and waited as well. This time, my strike couldn’t afford to fail.

His gaze shot towards every sound the forest dared to make, expecting to find me. He ignored Yelis’s pleas for help without so much as glancing at him.

Had he already written him off as dead? The thought made me sick. Not only was he condemning someone he’d been working with for months now, he was actively going to let me kill the man through inaction.

Then he turned his attention to the continued sounds of fighting a short distance away. Where Yua was. From how few metallic clangs continued to light up the forest with sound, I guessed she’d finished off one of her opponents. Silvano tightened his grip on his sword’s handle, his left foot turning in their direction before briefly looking over his shoulder. A smirk curled his lips.

Bastard… He’s not planning on attacking her, is he?

Deciding it wasn’t worth waiting to find out, I launched myself out of the shadow. I’d put my morals aside and finish him. Then I’d run to Yua’s side. She might resent me a little for interfering, but that I could bear. She’d lost too much health for me to give into her warrior’s pride.

First to be freed from the shadow, my sword rocketed through the air. Propelled by the same force that pulled me in, I thrust, aiming for his chest.

            Only my blade stopped short.

            Too short. A mere foot away from piercing his body, I’d barely made it out of the shadow when a gauntleted hand appeared and wrapped around the blade of my sword and held firm.

            I hadn’t even noticed him. And now he was kneeling next to me.

            “There ye are, son,” Tillmann said, combing his fingers through his beard. “Looks like the boys started the fightin’ much sooner than they was suppose ta. Guess that means ye didn’t take the bait?”

My heart sank.

I tried to pull my sword free, but it didn’t budge in his grip.

The swordsman turned around, took one look at me and smirked before finally heading to Yelis to uncork his potion.

“Not gonna say nothin’?” Tillmann said. “That’s fine with me. Hmm? What’s this, then?”

With the simple act of turning his wrist over, he forced my arms to give way and checked the underside of my sword. There was a curious glint in his eye as he stared at the metal, but it quickly turned sour.

“Bah. What a piss poor example of forgin’. Ye humans put too much focus on aesthetics. Parundum is such a fine metal. This one looks ta be of the highest quality, too. No impurities. A fine grain. Likely from East Vierre,” he said, then licked it. Smacking his lips like he were at a wine tasting, he continued. “Hmm. Far East. Under the hammer of a dwarf, it’d take a mountain giant’s strength just ta bend it. But this… It’s wasted on ye. So many weak spots.”

With a gruff, disappointed sigh, he reached under his beard and into an unseen pocket. His hand reappeared holding a hammer, but not the one he used as a weapon. This one was smaller, closer to a nail hammer.

“Let’s see…”

Keeping his attention on my sword, completely ignoring my attempts to free it from his grasp, he raised his hammer.

I let go and fell back, but the hammer didn’t fall on me. It struck my sword once in the center of the blade. Then twice more just above the cross guard. Then again, while the sword was still vibrating, he struck the center again, but his hammer flew at a slightly different angle.

He didn’t put any real effort into it. He just swung it as if hammering down a nail that had avenged itself by snagging on his boot after years of being stepped on. And yet, after the fourth hit, my sword snapped.

Shattering like glass, the cross guard and hilt slid off and onto the grass as the blade itself broke into three jagged pieces. Shaking his head, he unfurled his fingers and the last piece dropped, clinking against the rest.

“Piss poor forgin’. Always a tell that it were a human’s make, but sad to see good metal wasted.”

            I couldn’t speak.

            I bought the sword for its durability, and he shattered it with just a couple love taps with his hammer.

            “How did…?!”

            “Woah, now.”

            The second I tried to speak, Tillmann’s hand shot out and clamped my mouth shut. His fingers felt like a mechanical vice wiring my jaw shut. I punched his arm as hard as I could, as many times as I could, but he didn’t budge. I felt like a small child lashing out at his parent.

            “Let’s not have any of them spells, alright? I still have use fer ye. Matter of fact…”

            Reaching under his beard again, this time he produced a potion bottle. But before I could read it, he forcefully tilted my head back. Struggling, I heard the sound of the bottle uncorking. Then I felt his thick, rough fingers prying my lips open.

            Realizing too late what was happening, my tongue was doused in a rancid flavor that was so bitter my lips would have been permanently twisted into a pucker had he not been holding them open.

            I coughed, trying to spit it out, but his hand closed over my mouth again. For good measure, he then pinched my nose shut.

            “Come now, son. I’m sure ye know how this works. Ye either drink or ye suffocate. Choice is up to ye.”

            I pressed my eyes shut, half in anguish, half in disgust.

I tried. I really tried to hold my breath. I strained and writhed and punched, but all it did was hasten my need for air. Fit as it was, even this new body of mine was incapable of doing anything without oxygen.

            At my limit, I swallowed the bitter liquid. It burned on its way to my stomach, but beside that, I didn’t feel any different. Tillmann watched my throat, nodding with a smirk. Once it was down, he eased his grip, but did not let me go.

            I coughed.

            “What the hell was that? What did you make me – beard?”

            Recoiling at my own words, feeling as though I’d drunkenly misspoke while sober, I tried to correct myself when Tillmann stroked his beard and interrupted calmly.

            “That were an Anti-Focus Poison, but most call it Mage’s Bane.” He wriggled the now empty bottle in front of my eyes before tossing it aside. “See, what this little number does is make ye unable ta hold onto a thought long enough to make use of it. That means no plannin’ yer escape. No thinkin’ fer a way out. And in yer case, no magic. Ye won’t even be able to chant yer spells, let alone cast them.”

            Unwilling to accept his answer, I tried to silently cast Dimensional Step behind him to once more call for help, but nothing appeared. As if my mind were racing full of an incomprehensible number of thoughts, I couldn’t single out the image of Tama’s tent long enough to – tree.  

            What the hell? I can’t even – maple.

            “Heh,” Tillmann snorted and I could smell the booze on his breath. “Looks like its settin’ in nicely. Most what ye need is a drop or two on an arrow head or on ye sword, cut yer opponent and wait for it to take effect. But ye were fast with that teleportation spell last night, son. I had to use all of it to make sure ye didn’t run away.”

            Blinking repeatedly, I tried to focus on what he was saying but found it almost entirely impossible. My memorization trait forced me to memorize it, but it took multiple trips through the memory to get it all down. It was like a download bar freezing and cancelling itself, only to then pick up where it left off after restarting it.

            And this was it starting to take effect?

            “Yelis,” Tillmann said, barely looking over his shoulder. “Ye gonna live?”

            “Y-Yes, Boss.”

            With the arm around Silvano’s shoulder, Yelis wobbled back to his feet. His life bar was no longer fading, the bleeding had stopped.

He glared at me, but said nothing of revenge after seeing my sorry state.

“Good. Then take a seat. Silvano, ye tie this one up and I’ll handle the other…”

            “Let go of him! Iron Fist!”

            His own iron grip still refusing to let me move, and with my mind still working overtime just to understand my surroundings, I could only sit and watch as a fist coated in a bright silvery light shot past and tried to engrave itself upon Tillmann’s cheek.

            But as he had with my sword, he caught it effortlessly. Though Yua’s punch had dented the palm of his gauntlet some, his fingers still held enough strength to wrap around and catch her fist.

            “Nevermind. This is easier. Handling one of ye cat-kin is a lot less tricky than a mage.”

            “Let go of…!”

            Suddenly jerking his elbow back, he pulled Yua off her feet and towards him. Her brief flight through the air was ended with a swift, powerful slap that cracked against her cheek.

            Her body flopped to the floor beside us where lay still.

            “Y-Yua?”

            My beautiful wife’s cheek was already beginning to darken where she’d been hit. Her life bar took a huge hit – kill – , but she was only unconscious – kill. But that didn’t matter as – death!

            Scraping together enough focus to forge a stone dagger with Material Creation straight into my palm, I tried to shove it into his stomach. But I couldn’t.

            He didn’t stop it. I’d succeeded in surprising him, but the thought and desire to kill vanished almost as soon as it appeared. My wrist went limp as soon as the dagger touched his leather apron and my fingers suddenly forgot how to hold it.

            It thudded into the grass before Tillmann picked it up. Unable to control my thoughts well enough to keep myself on my knees, I fell backwards.

            I reached for Yua, but my hand fell limp. With her unconscious visage still in front of me, I tried again, only to lose strength before my fingertips moved.

            It was like my muscles were receiving the call to move loud and clear, only for it to be cut off before they could act.

“Yua! Get up and – cake!”

            “Ha!” Tillmann laughed, turning over my hastily crafted knife. “A stone dagger? Really? What are ye, a caveman? Insultin’ is what it is.”

            He thumped it on my head, but I’d already lost focus on the pain as soon as it occurred. Then I lost it again after feeling it a second later.

            “Alright boys,” he said, standing. “Collect whoever ain’t dead and bring ‘em back into the barrier before the rest of the cats show themselves. I’ll handle these two.”

            “Yes, Boss!”

            Sounding almost relieved for the fighting to be done, both Silvano and Yelis scattered.

            Tillmann surveyed the area a moment, then shook his head with a sigh. Stooping, he grabbed my ankle, then grabbed Yua’s and started walking.

Dragged behind him – failed – watching Yua’s limp neck bob and sway with every step, I could do nothing. She was covered in small cuts, streaks of blood dripping away here, already dried there. But I could do nothing.

The poison meant to keep me quiet had effectively paralyzed me.