‘What’s going on?’ Rick wondered. He could not believe that the ambush was just for the sake of eating chicken. He made a quick observation of the duo in white overalls standing before him. One had a shaved head and sturdy build, making him look like an unmovable bounder, while the other was thin as a stick, with hollow cheeks and his long locks of hair flowing past his shallow cheeks and lying around his shoulders.

"Why should I?" Rick rebuked, stepping away from the duo.

“Oh, why should you it, is it? Because we asked for it you idiot!” the bald man sniggered pursing his lips.

“Alex, can you hurry up with your chit chat?” the s hollow-cheeked said.

“You are no fun Eira,” Alex deadpanned, before turning back to look at Rick, “Ok, you heard the man. We don’t have time apparently.”

Rick inched back, his one hand on the staff on his back, ready to whip it out at a moment’s notice.

“Guys you are being a little unreasonable here. I miss having chicken as much as the next guy, but there is still beast meat that you can have. This little thing here is my pet; can’t we talk it out or something?” Rick reasoned.

“Chicken? Pet?” Alex ridiculed, and then looking at the other beside him laughed, “You hear that Eira? He thinks we want the bird to eat it. What’s more, he calls it his pet.”

“Enough!” the hollow checked Eira grumbled, at whom Rick had no way of making out. He then addressed Rick in a condescending tone, “Do you take us to be one of you street side vagrants? That’s not a chicken in your hand, you know it and so do I. So drop your pretences and hand us that spirit beast over.”

Rick’s heart dropped to his chest, his biggest fear having come true. The duo before him knew of Pip’s true identity of being a spirit beast!

'Over my dead body,' he promised Pip. He knew that his opponents were much stronger than he was, and there was no way to make a quick dash to shake loose the duo especially after witnessing the icicle sticking from his cycle.

“But there are so many spirit beast around, some are even sold for their meat in the Library market,” Rick offered.

“Are you acting naïve or are you really that dumb?” the bald-headed Alex questioned. When Rick made no reply, he looked at his companion and continued, “Oye Eira, I think he really has no idea.”

‘Is there something more to Pip?’ Rick wondered. Corson, the King of Hell’s Western front had called Pip the Divine Firebird. Right after he did check the Lemegeton to check if there was any information on it about the Firebird. The fables of the Firebird were many and based on the cultures around its habitat, it was revered as the harbinger of summer after the frigid winter, the womb from where destruction is birthed or the eternal enemy of Shangyang, the rain-bird. But all accounts spoke of one truth, that no man had ever laid eyes on the birthing of a new Firebird. For they never truly die of old age, they emerge from the flames of their old, reborn.

As Rick recalled the contents of the Lemegeton, he felt a sudden cold in his limbs. Looking down he realized that there was a thin layer of crystal ice spreading up his foot rapidly grabbing hold of his foot.

“Not good!” Rick exclaimed.

He quickly yanked his foot off breaking away from the ice and immediately shuffled a few steps back while drawing out his staff.

“I have nothing against you. But for humanity to survive, we have to sacrifice the weak for resources for the strong,” Eira spoke in his now characteristic matter of fact tone, his arm outstretched pointing at Rick.

‘Long range ice element spell?’ Rick wondered after witnessing Eira’s spell. From what he could recall, there were five Core Runes representing the five elements. He got the Fire Core Rune from Pip’s egg which is how he became a Fire Mage.

Although he was a mage too, the difference in their abilities was too vast. Unlike the Mage archetype, his Hot Hands Spell would be of no use in a long range fight.

'If only,' Rick felt a tinge of regret that the beginner Fire spell was so weak. 'There is no point whining about that, I will make do with what I have,' he reflected, dismissing his reservations.

“Do you really think a few people would be better suited to fight the onslaught invaders coming at the end of the year?” Rick retorted back.

“A single person will not change the tide of the war, but without the burden of protecting the weak, we will be able to withstand the assault Alterversers with that much more freedom.”

Suddenly Rick felt something fly past through his peripheral vision and then, a prick on his face. He touched the spot to find a trickle of blood flowing down his cheek, smearing his palm.

“Hey! Hey!” Alex bellowed, grabbing Eira by his collar, “Be careful with those icicles of yours. If you end up killing the bird by mistake, Boss will have our head.”

“Keep your hands off me, unless you don’t want them anymore,” Eira warned, without a trace of emotion in his voice.

Alex let go of the collar immediately, a trace of un-admitted fear flashing in his eyes.

“I was aiming for his head,” Eira continued, warning Rick, “I won’t miss the next time.”

"Kid, why don’t you hand over the beast? You will miss it for a day, but in a week you will be counting your lucky stars for making it out alive," Alex appealed.

“You can have Pip over my dead body,” Rick snarled back, hurling a stone at them.

The throw did not even reach the duo.

“You are weak. My spells have a longer range than your throw,” Eira mocked, as the stone rolled over more than five feet before reaching them.

“I will show you the worth of every human,” Rick replied before dashing towards the duo with his staff in hand.

The duo barely let out a smirk, thinking that the boy before them had reached his wit's end when suddenly before them a brown creature, the size of a baby appeared before them.

‘Distract them,’ Rick commanded the golem, hoping Sol’s golem had enough sentience to understand his words.

The golem did not disappoint, although it was only a Worker Golem, incapable of taking part in any actual combat, causing a mild distraction was not beyond its means. Shrinking the size of his band, he used his construct to make his arms into a large Earth blanket, hiding Rick from the view of the duo.

Rick quickly rushed forward closing the distance between himself and the duo. From his view, he could only observe the shrunken figure of the golem and the blanket of soil before it. Suddenly, an icicle pierced through the soil leaving a gaping hole in it. But a moment later the golem’s head joined back without leaving a trace.

‘Good! Now release control over the soil in your hands,’ Rick ordered. He was less than fifteen feet away from the duo now

The next moment, a heap of soil crash in the ground making the vicinity dusty. Rick closed his eyes as he rushed forward, the outline of the duo visible under the debris; he swung the staff at Eira who looked much frailer in comparison to the other.

Baam

The staff hit Eira straight in across his chest, drawing a loud cry from him. Rick followed it up with another swing to his head. But before it could land, a blur appeared and suddenly a burly figure of Alex appeared out of nowhere, absorbing the blow of the staff with his elbow, without a flinch.

“Now it's my turn to shine,” Alex said with a smile. He grabbed Rick’s staff with his other hand and jostled it out of Rick’s hand. Than with s snap against his knee, he broke it into two, tossing the two halves away. Rick stood on the side defenceless, his staff broken and the golem core back in his hand, having used up all his energy, he could only call it back.

“Still alive?” Alex asked the groaning Eira, with a mocking smile.

“Disappointed, are you?” Eira retorted.

“Humph!” Alex voice, turning to look at Rick, “I admit, I underestimated you. You do have some tricks down your sleeves. But let me tell you this, your biggest mistake was coming so close to me”

Rick took a step back, away from Alex. He did manage to take down one of the opponents, but it was not enough, he did not expect Alex to move so fast and appear beside Eira after all.

“No use trying to run away now,” Alex chuckled. He charged at Rick standing less than six feet away.

Bam, before Rick could even raise his arms up, Alex’s punch landed squarely on his face, sending him stumbling back.

“Aah!” Rick cried out, a salty metallic taste of his filled his mouth. Slowly he climbed back to his feet, his hands hanging by his sides.

Alex walked up and grabbed him by the collar with one hand and shuffled through his coat with the other hand.

“Where is the spirit beast?” Alex asked, not finding Pip anywhere.

“Having troubles?” Rick mumbled through his bloody face a smirk on his lips.

Bam, another punch, landed on his abdomen, sucking the air out of him. His legs gave way and he stumbled down for the second time.

Bam, before the pain from the punch even subsided, Alex was already upon him, sending a kick straight into his rolled abdomen. The pain was unlike what he had experienced before and he doubled over grabbing onto his abdomen.

“Where Is The God Damn Bird,” Alex spoke, articulating every word.

But Rick refused to give Pip up, and instead replied, “What bird?”

Alex stretched his hand and picked Rick up by his collar, “Eira, stop lying around uselessly. Go check up ahead. He must have put the bird somewhere there.”

Alex looked back at Rick, holding him by the collar with his left, he pulled back his right hand to land another punch.

But this time Rick was quicker. He grabbed onto Alex’s face and intoned, “Adolebitque Huoagni”.

The Mana in Rick’s body rushed through the Fire Circulation Path and gathered in the palm of his hand, and as he verbalized the spell, the heat spread over his palm, reaching searing levels.

“Aaaa!” Alex screamed, the lower half of his face left melting under Rick’s grip. He let loose his grip letting Rick off.

Rick was only little better off. The continuous using of his Mana had left him drained of any energy in his body.

As Alex lay withering on the ground screaming in pain, Rick slowly stood back up, this was his chance to escape.

Shoom, before he could even take a step forward, an icicle shot through the air and tore through the calf muscle on his leg.

“Aah!” Rick screamed taking a knee to check the wound, the slick blood already trickling down. It was an icicle the size of the finger poking through his trousers. He quickly looked around, there was Eira squatting beside Alex, checking the wound on his face.

Rick gathered his wits and with a grunt, pulled the icicle soaked red in blood, out.

But it was already too late to escape now, as Rick stood back up, his legs were already immobilized, the cold of the ice numbing his legs, and he was too worn out to use a spell again.

He struggled to break out, but no matter how much he struggled, he could not break free.

'Damn it,', he reached into his pocket fumbling with the golem cores, although he knew he did not have the strength to summon any.

Alex and Eira quietly walked up, looking at Rick with venomous eyes. This mission was not supposed to turn so messy. It was a simple errand to grab a newly born spirit beast off the hands of a kid, their boss had monitored at the Library Market.

‘Did we underestimate him, or is it that we are weak?’ the duo wondered.

“You asshole, you ruined my face,” Alex screamed, half his face covered by a layer of ice.

“Don’t overreact, it will heal in hours with your [Vitality],” Eira replied, “I was wrong to judge you quick. You are stronger than I gave you credit for.”

“For that, I will tell you one thing, why we are after your precious spirit beast,” Eira continued, walking towards Rick, “Two days ago, I was focused on increasing my stealth skill and [Perception] stat, I was aiming to become a ninja. But destiny had chosen a separate path for me. One night I entered this empty mansion to rest for the night. But when I entered, the pool water was letting out this beautiful blue light. I immediately rushed over to see what was in there.

In the pool was a small blue backed turtle, and the lights were coming off from its shell. As I looked at him, the little creature looked back at me,” Eira continued, a spark appearing in his eyes for the first time.

“I bent over and grabbed it out of the water, it was bone-chilling cold and wondrous beauty. It looked at me at gaggled, his eyes fixed on mine, but I could not make out what it wanted. But, at that moment my destiny was laid out before me.

For just the day before, I got this,” from his breast pocket he took out a book, which Rick immediately recognized to be a grimoire. “This is the grimoire of a great Eighteenth Generation Mage. This will not mean anything to you, but just know this that all Mages in the first hundred generations were revered to as Earthly Gods and of all the grimoire I have seen so far, this is the one belonging to the oldest generation that has survived.

It was in there that I read, the way to a smooth and quick rise into becoming a Mage was by absorbing the Mana dry of an infant spirit beast.

I grabbed the turtle in my hands, and did what I must for the sake of the safety of humanity, I sucked the Mana dry off the body of the turtle and in the process even absorbed its spirit beast core, unlocking the spells you find yourself in,” Eira finished his story, a deep melancholy setting on his face.

‘He is not stable,’ Rick realized. It was the silent Eira who was on the verge of having a breakdown, rather than the boisterous other. Eira’s story explained so much about his miraculous spells in had mastered in such a short span of time. Rick promised, ‘They can never lay their hands on Pip.’

“You have to pay whatever the cost to save the human race,” Eira continued, “Tell us where the spirit beast is and you can still walk away alive. You are strong, you qualify to live.”

“Will you sacrifice humanity to save the human race?” Rick replied back, the ice already spreading past his gut.

“If he doesn’t want to answer politely, let me have at him. Either you speak or else you die while I am at it,” Alex spoke up from behind, antsy to lay his hand on Rick for payback.

“That seems to be the only way,” Eira replied, stepping back.

This was the end game now, and Rick completely exhausted, had his head hanging down, standing upright only by the support of his binds.

Suddenly, a voice reverberated in his mind, “Peep!”

Although Rick was staring at his executioner’s hand, his lips rose up in a smile. He spoke back, hoping that Pip got the reply, “It’s going to be okay, don’t come over.”