Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 10th day

I never was much of a selfless person, but something came over me when I saw that giant bolt of lightning. Pumping out much of my own mana, I made a thick white shield over me and Ava, the lightning bolt hit it, and the force of it punching against my wall was transmitted to me as well. It felt like a truck hit me in my chest, I felt a cough coming up. Coughing, I put my palm over my mouth, and saw what came out. Shit, blood, I already lost a bit when I was practicing. My consciousness was already feeling a bit fuzzy.

The bolt was still going strong against my wall which was folding a bit against the pressure, the wall wasn’t going to last. Wiping off the blood on my palm, I grabbed Ava and ran to a nearby building. The sensors of mana around here that were used to alert the official mages must have gone off by now, they would be here any minute and the surprise attacker would likely run if he knew what was good for him.

The mana inside my body was going berserk inside the building I hid inside, a standard apartment building’s ground level. My eyes constricted, the mana inside me never felt this disoriented before, I had to do something or else it would all explode. Was my attacker directly interfering with my own mana, or was it something else. Whatever it was, I had to cleanse myself from this before it got any more out of hand. Taking a deep breath, I focused on my surroundings, sensing a small mana signature close to the right of me. I unleashed all of the mana inside me, painstakingly processing it all into a little water stream 2 centimeters across. The violent, and seemingly unending, jet stream impacted with what sounded like the flesh of someone.

I looked around my surroundings, there did not seem to be a response. Cautiously, I stood up from my position and looked around. The building was relatively undamaged, with just the small jet stream being the only spell unleashed here, Ava was silent, completely stationary in her position and I couldn’t blame her. A minute had passed, my alertness had gone down a few notches when no response was in sight. A moment's hesitation before I decided to check upon the corpse, just to make sure that my attacker really died.

When I went to the body, it had a clean 2cm hole on its chest, pierced through to the other side. The boy had blonde hair, blue eyes and a medium build, with a heavyset jacket and hair on the longer side. It was not the first time I took a human life, I avoided it if I could but, I suppose this was a special occasion. The first time I took another sentient being's life was when a demon of some sort, they have so many sub-species that differentiating is near impossible to me, invaded me and my mothers home.

It was just a sudden outburst, an accidental discharge of the mana inside me that went out uncontrollably. Pure, unadulterated mana in its rawest form impacted that demon who looked about the age of 15, or the equivalent to them. A child, really, only 2 years older than me at the time. His eyes full of life fading still keep me up most days, the eyes of a living, breathing, sentient being that had hopes and dreams, same as I did. Sighing, I turned away from the body, reminiscing about my first kill was not a particularly enjoyable experience.

Mid-step away from the body, the sound of a paper tearing was heard. I whipped my head back and the body wasn’t there anymore, shit, it was a trap. My mana reserves were far too low for me to tank this, so in a split second, I decided to run. A huge mana-signature, around 80% of my reserves, was what I felt behind me. Erecting mini walls of earth behind me as I ran to Ava, the trap exploded. The heat was sweltering, feeling like a fire was raging upon my back, the shockwave released resonated inside me. My organs felt like they were glass hit by a large hammer, a large amount of blood was expelled, with most of my organs bleeding. Blood leaked out of my mouth like a waterfall, my vision felt blurred, and my head didn’t feel any better.

Thankfully, the walls I made did save me from the worst of the explosion, with just the residual effects still reaching my way. My consciousness was heavy, thoughts were slow to form but they were still there. I noticed that Ava, who I was running to, had run off far away far before I even started to run to her. Shit, my mana supply was running low.

“Where are you!”, I shouted out, in a desperate attempt to buy some time. Surprisingly, my attacker stepped out, with the same appearance as the paper figurine I first thought was his body. I widened my eyes, he had Ava hostage with him, but he didn’t seem to know about the mana signature on her. Weird.

“Why did you attack me.”, I asked, more ordered him to tell me rather than ask. He was contemplating for a moment, before nodding and answering “For a ritual.” As curt as it was, it gave me some insight.

“You’re the serial killer?”, fuck, if that was the case then I’m really screwed. He was holding back some laughter, I could sense it. A deep sense of disgust welled up inside me, a magic user attacking those defenseless made me sick. “All those lives for what, a ritual? Why?” Anything for more time.

“Why? Oh, you have no idea why.” He, no it, this was a monster, started. “Killing is pure bliss, that’s it. There is no reason why, no abusive parents, nothing. Seeing the people squirm beneath me as they inch closer to their death, that is why I kill. Oh, and it just so happens to help me advance.” Fuck, this thing was an absolute psychopath. Reasoning with it is a joke, but time was necessary.

“Advance?”I was genuinely confused on this point, what advancement, advancement in magic skills? This was the first time it had a real emotion, confusement. “Wait, you don’t know? How very interesting, I guess they withheld this tidbit. Oh you poor, unfortunate soul. How uncharacteristic of Iabrun, withholding something that makes their people better for a war? Tsk, oh well. It isn’t my job to teach you.”

“Now, to finish this j-” was what he started before I launched my own attack, enough time had accrued, the mana inside me had gone into Ava’s mark. Remotely controlling this amount of mana was heavily taxing, my internal bleeding had gotten worse, I could barely stand due to the amount of blood loss, but barely is enough. Shaping the raw mana in Ava’s mark, I could see that it was becoming increasingly worse for her as well, blood was leaking from her mouth. I shot out the accumulated mana, now in the form of a fiery inferno that blazed beautifully, the scarlet flames engulfing the monster in its entirety, burning him thoroughly.

Ava had already ran towards me right after I released the spell, saving me some trouble. The building had gone eerily quiet, unnervingly quiet. The tenebrific building was enhanced by the late night shadows, strengthening the fear in my heart. The residents had to still be alive, a collapse of the building was not what me or him was going for, and our spells only affected the ground floor.

The heat could have, conceivably, killed some but not all, so it was quiet, too quiet. It was eerie, making me want to leave as fast as I could. “Good, you’re smart”, a voice rang out, halting me dead in my tracks. 10 copies of the same figure sprang out of the darkness, all clapping with the same rhythm and intensity. I never was much of a religious man, but praying was likely the only thing I could do at the moment.

“Smart, but not smart enough.” was what it was repeating, the smugness in the statement radiated out, it could be felt in the air. Nothing to do but pray, I suppose, so I started muttering, “Oh Great God of War, The Engine of the Play, Director of Conflicts, Lord of the Battle, Symbol of Blood, I beseech you to provide me with help in this predicament.” Nothing seemed to happen, which was to be expected.

“Now, time to really fin-”, it couldn’t finish that as well, the building had been toppled by something. Using the small, small amount of mana left, I erected a small mana shield around me, and Ava that stuck close to me. Well, it seems like my prayer may have been answered. I saw my attacker running away, and my senses were filled with new mana signatures. Guess the official mages arrived, just in time I suppose. Maybe my prayer expedited it a bit, heh. My ravaged body fell, my consciousness saw the mages coming for me as I fell down, the last image before I fell unconscious.