Another problem popped up, I might even say it's worse than this. Letting it go wild here won't help, Axel and Hector, even my sister might be caught up in its rampage.

My fingers keep moving up and down the knife, vying for a better grip. Sweat rolls down my back, my whole body's hot. I'm blinking furiously.

"Heheh. Look at that, a person with the blood of the Yurfrays is frightened. Kukukuku." one of the guards laugh. "What's up mage boy? Never been in a real fight before? Don't worry, we'll make it fast, don't take it too personally either, it's just a job."

Four of them step towards me.

"Is there even a reason for us to be out here?" one of the Twelve ask.

"Yeah. We're here for that one over there. Apparently he killed the Tenth and captured the Ninth. The two kids go to a magic academy too." another one of them says.

"Alright, let's get him out of the picture first."

One of the Twelve rush to engage Hector, the four traitors take advantage of the distraction launch themselves at me. Gavin and my other guard throw themselves in their way. Gavin parries their attacks, easily facing down two, the same goes for the other knight, with these two here I don't have to worry about the guards.

Worry about the guards? They need to be- I hit my forehead with the butt of my knife.

"Shut, up." I say. My hands wiggle around trying to reaffirm their grasp on the knives, they're both sweaty, I feel like the two objects in my hands would drop if I even loosened my grip a bit.

"Hmmm? That Yurfray kid, doesn't he look familiar Twelfth?" it's Jacob's voice.

"The kid in the alleyway?" it's Talon's.

I see, these two, the two who came over this morning, they're part of the twelve and were the ones in the alley. This is getting worse, they should have some inkling about my abilities.

The four assailants are dispatched by the two knights easily, everyone who witnessed it are reluctant to take their places.

"I'll take on the kid." Jacob says, I turn to watch him as he walks over slowly. "Hey! The least you guys can do is take out one of the knights." he shakes his head. "Seriously, they shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Stay behind me." Gavin pushes me behind him, the other knight holds back the guards. "I can take care of him. You just do what you do best and cast a few spells."

"Heh. So another fodder is going to face me, wonderful." Jacob says stopping.

I don't know how strong the Fifth is but I know for sure that Gavin isn't a joke, he'll be able to hold his own if it's a close ranged match. The biggest problem should be the other five members, 'Talon,' if that's his real name, hasn't used his ability yet. Either he has a limit to how many times he can use it a day, or there's a kind of condition that needs to be met.

I've already warned Axel and Hector, they should be able to keep that in mind.

Listen to him. Rid yourself of those traitors.

I have to fight the Twelve, if I don't I might end up killing all the guards, four are already dead. As long as the blood's not on my hands I don't care.

"I'll take down the Yurfray boy." Talon, the Twelfth, says.

"Gavin, Hector, Axel, close your eyes!" I yell. I pull my arms back and pretend to cast a spell.

Everyone, even the Twelve close their eyes, just as planned. I use my ability to appear right in front of the sightless Twelfth and with one punch, charged with both of my affinities, send him flying backwards. He breaks the door on impact and keeps going, finally landing on top of a few broken barrels. He doesn't move nor look up, he simply lays there.

All eyes are open again, no one saw what I just did, all they know is that I appeared here and that the Twelfth is gone.

"I knew that he was abnormal." the Fifth says.

"I'll take care of him."

A man steps forward, he's wearing a cloak. With a swift movement he removes the hood revealing blue hair and eyes, each a different shade contrasting one another. A roluk.

"Eighth, take care of the other caster." the roluk says.

"Understood."

The Eighth makes for Axel, his movements are quick, far too quick for a mage like Axel to react. I bring out a knife and throw it in the way to intercept him.

"[Blaze]!"

The ground in front of the roluk erupts in flames, I dance away from it, keeping my eyes on Axel.

"[Frost Blast]!" from his hand, Axel shoots a ball of mana that radiates cold. "Rainen!" Axel yells. "I've got it, focus on yours! These guys here will help me out in a close fight!" he motions at the two friendly guards, one swings his sword in a wide arc to deter our enemies, the other stands close to Axel.

"Smart friend you got there. You won't be able to win unless you give your all against me." the roluk says.

"We'll se-" I throw a knife mid sentence to catch him off guard. "e about that."

He's startled by it but is able to put up a barrier. His hand is raised up close to his neck where it would've hit. He closes his eyes and says, "Let's move away from here." I'm not going to let him separate us.

"[Fireball]!"

His still standing barrier defends him from it, but it was only a distraction. Under the cover of the bright reddish flames, I rush him, my fists charged with fire. He stamps his foot on the ground, a piece of the earth rises at a moderate rate from under me. A sidestep takes care of the problem.

"Not bad." he says. "[Earth Pillar]!" he uses the spell again, this time using his voice.

The area of ground that rises is significantly larger, the speed is much faster too. With the amount of force the rising ground has, my body staggers a little bit. Standing at least as tall as the building, the giant earth allows me to look down on everyone here.

"[Great Gust]!" the roluk yells.

Wind starts pushing against my body, I'm losing the little footing I have left, he's forcing me away. Again I see his mouth open, I have to do something that can help before I'm blown into another area. I move closer to the edge, making it easier for him to throw me off but it also gives me a better chance to hit with my magic.

"[Great Gust]!" he yells again.

"[Pyro Bomb], [Burst Strike]!" I send both attacks down at Henry's attackers. I'm blown off the platform, but my attacks were successful, one looks to be injured from my unexpected attack.

"[Fly]!" the roluk tackles me in mid air, we arc down going behind some other empty buildings. "[Chill Touch]!"

Light blue wisps of air emanate from his hands, the elbow of my left arm goes frigid, his other hand reaches for my face. I struggle to hold it back, he's got me pinned on the ground. I can't teleport because he's on top of me, so I channel my mana into my right arm.

"ARH!" he releases his grip and backs away holding his burned wrist. "Pretty good." he says praising me. "That one usually finishes people. It's a shame that someone so young with such talent has to die. If you give up right now, I'll promise you a quick death."

Getting to my feet I ask, "Why's that?"

He holds two fireballs in his hands, "Because in terms of magic I am superior."

"So?"

"That's not all, you're far too worried about your allies." he says.

"That's why I won't give up." I tell him.

He nods, "I guess I made a mistake bringing them up." he shrugs. "You weren't going to give up anyways, it doesn't matter. Good luck Mister Weaver." he says.

"What do they call you?" I ask.

"Me? I'm the First."

-------------

"Hey, Rainen."

"What is it?" Rainen asked his master.

Reinhard looked sternly at the frowning boy. Lately, that's all the boy had been doing, training against the tree. Reinhard had assigned him the task but he didn't think that the boy would still be at it at this time of day. Reinhard felt a little guilty and promised himself that Rainen would have the next day off.

"Have you shown Hadrian your ability or magic yet?" Reinhard asked.

"No, I don't think that I should. It'll be a useful surprise when we spar later." he said.

Reinhard nodded approvingly. Hiding and concealing skills and information was a large part of fighting. The person who knew the most is able to prepare better and come up with winning strategies. Rainen had been his student for an entire year longer than Hadrian, he was proud that Rainen listened well to his ramblings.

"What's your ability again?" Reinhard asked.

"Don't you already know? Or did you forget?" Rainen asked, still batting away at the tree. The bark was broken and scattered at his feet, Rainen's fists showed hardly any signs of wear. With his body protection spell as high as it was and the training over the years, this much was expected.

"I don't remember you showing it to me." Reinhard lied. Of course he remembered, why wouldn't he? Reinhard asked Rainen the question with curiosity in mind.

"Here." Rainen said. "I'll do it, watch."

Rainen stood still, eyes closed. "Okay." he said. He opened his eyes, and disappeared. Reinhard turned around to find his student standing on the branch of another tree. In another instant, Rainen appeared before him.

"There." he said.

"Do you know how people get their special abilities?" Reinhard asked.

Rainen scratched his chin, "O-of course I know. I've been studying as vigorously as the sun works to wake up in the morning. In fact, I'd say that... I work harder than it does."

"Uh huh." Reinhard knew his student well enough to know that he was lying.

"Abilities are random... right?"

Reinhard sighed, his student wasn't wrong but wasn't right either.

"Close." he said. "Do you really think that ALL abilities are random?"

"I assumed they were, that's what the book said."

"Assuming is a dangerous thing. You can't just go into a fight assuming just one thing, you either need information or plans to account for other factors." Reinhard raps his knuckles on Rainen's head. Rainen rubs the red spot. "You didn't finish the book. There are certain things that point to SOME abilities not being random."

"So you're saying that you don't think my abilities are random." Rainen says.

"That's right. But do you know what those certain things are?" Reinhard asks.

Rainen shakes his head, "No."

Reinhard smiles bitterly, "At least take a guess. Thought you were different from the little boy who used to wait for answers all the time."

"Based on their affinity?"

"Are you asking a question or telling me an answer?"

"It is based on their affinity." Rainen can't hold back his smile. "Right?"

"Wrong." Reinhard says shaking his head. "You're just like my body during winter, can't decide if it's too hot or too cold. Do I need more layers? Nah, I'll be fine. Until I go outside and it tells me to run back in."

"I like the cold." Rainen says.

"Do you want to sleep without a fire tonight then?"

"No thanks, it'll be too cold. I'm weakest to it when I'm sleeping."

"Great. You could just snuggle up with Hadrian."

"I'll pass on that too, maybe if he were cuter and you know... not a guy." Rainen said with a disgusted look on his face.

"I could have sworn you were into men. You never flirt with any of the girls in town. Oh or are you worried that I'll tease you about them?" Reinhard said.

"Pffft... so what was the right answer?" he asked deflecting Reinhard's question.

"It's not confirmed but from what I've read and seen, the ability is sometimes born from the person's desire."

------------

Rainen fought with all his heart, doing this quickly and going to assist the others would be the best. His left arm still lacked the free movement that his other arm had thanks to the chill touch but it was still usable. Even with his left arm like that, he was confident that he could take down a group of guards himself, but that doesn't hold true when talking about a member of the Twelve.

Sweat bombarded out of every pore in his body. For Rainen, a fight like this, even though he wasn't having an easy time, wouldn't cause him to be so nervous. The sweat that came from him was more from his thoughts, he constantly lost focus thinking about how the others were doing.

As soon as the First said what he said, Rainen knew it was true. He didn't come here to fight but to save his sister, he came with guards just on the highly likely chance that a fight would occur, not to mention that his grandparents had insisted.

Rainen let a bomb drop from his bracer into his hand, this one was slightly different, although it was a bomb, it was infused with magic. He only carried one of these in each bracer. He needed to use these now, he had already been fighting the First for a while.

With a flick of his wrist, like someone who threw a card, the bomb swirled in the air towards the first. Rainen readied himself, he was sure of what would happen next, he needed to focus on this attack. Rainen pull his shirt over his nose and squinted his eyes.

The First shielded himself from the impending black ball. Straight through the barrier it went, ignoring the mana placed in front of it's path, the barrier seemed to burst at its arrival.

*POOF*

A powder spread through the air.

*Cough Cough Cough*

The First coughed as the spice entered his nostrils, his eyes grew watery from the attack. Rainen, waiting for this moment, went in with both arms charged with mana.

"[Whirlwind]!" he followed it up with an enhancement spell. "[Bolster Wind]!"

Suddenly, the already powerful winds grew stronger and Rainen's advance was slowed. He could throw a knife but throwing a knife right now would be a bad idea, he'd only lose it to the wind, it could even cause some unintended damage. Rainen focused his gaze on looking through the gaps in the wind, finding it he used his ability.

Rainen's fists struck squarely on the First's side, his only protection being the body spell. Massive pain spread throughout his body but the spell prevented any bones from breaking, and, instead of being sent away, the First's feet were anchored tightly to the ground.

With a roar, he cast the spells, "[Enhance: Iron Fist], [Chill Touch], [Frost Nova]!" all in one breath

The whirlwind dispersed, Rainen tried to move his feet but they were frozen to the ground. The First launched earth shattering hits onto his body, Rainen dodged the first few but was hit by the others. Pain coursed through his body, almost stunning him.

He bent back using his hands to support his body and sent mana into his feet, freeing them of the ice.

"[Frost Arrow]!" the First unleashed a spell.

"[Fireball]!" Rainen countered.

Just powerful enough, the fireball engulfed the thin arrow and continued at the First. He threw up a barrier to negate the attack.

Rainen felt around his chest, even as a mage, the First was decently skilled in close range combat. That much he could tell from where the fists struck and the succession of the spells cast. Breathing heavily in what felt like a long time, ever since his master, he tried to steady his breath.

"Give it up boy. You're talented but that won't get you very far against experienced fighters."

Rainen would've gotten mad at that statement if he had the spare energy but his mind was much more focused on the fight now. When he was picked up by his master, he was certainly talented but that didn't mean he neglected to hone his skills and body.

"Smiling now are you? Only idiots smile in the face of death." the First said.

Rainen threw away his words as nothing more than an attempt to provoke him.

"[Fire Burst]!" fire was released from Rainen's fists.

It hit the barrier uselessly.

"Yurfray, at this ra-"

Two knives flew at him. He put up his barrier again. Rainen appeared and shattered the magic defense. The two knives whizzed past Rainen's head, the First twisted his body to dodge one and he caught the other.

Rainen disappeared again and appeared in the direction of where the other knife was thrown. He caught it and charged, the knife was held in a position perfect for an overhead cut.

The sound of clashing steel echoed through the walls of the empty buildings as the First parried Rainen's attacks. Swing, thrust, kick, sweep, punch, grab. Rainen tried all these things without any results. As he swung again, the First, instead of parrying, blocked it, both knives chipped on impact.

"Shit." Rainen threw away his knife and pulled out two more.

"[Blow Back]!"

Both of them went backwards like ragdolls, and both landed on their feet. Rainen coughed when he stabilized, the wind knocked his breath out.

The First pulled back his hands and started to chant. At the end he yelled, "Burn all, [Pyro Blast]!"

Rainen looked on at the fireball in a weary awe. It was one of the strongest if not the strongest spells he had ever seen, his body told him to move and he tried to teleport away but couldn't.

"Someone save me."

Time slowed for Rainen as he wondered at the voice, were these his own thoughts or that of the demons?

"I'm scared, big brother."

"Ah." Rainen said. "I'm coming. Hold on."

Arching his back, Rainen let the power flow into his hands once again, this time, he wouldn't hold back. He would put a hole through this giant fireball.

Let's see the power of this Oddity. It said. Although, I already know.

His two affinities once again merged, "[Burst Hit]" he finished.