Jux raised his halberd up for what he assumed was going to be the last time against the Thirteenth. In the short time he was “battling” the two, his interest grew to great heights about their abilities.

That’s why they weren’t immediately dead. He took damage but the things he saw from them was enough, in his mind, to justify it. Havel definitely wouldn’t be happy to have known that the roluk escaped but Jux would take her down soon after he finished the vigilante.

As he watched the boy, yes, the boy, weakly move his arm across his body, Jux could think nothing but how much of a waste it was. Although their battle was short and his injuries were next to nothing, they had still put up a good fight and achieved their goal of at least one person escaping.

Knowing that they were as young as they were, around teenage years, impressed him as well. The boy wasn’t part of the Twelve for no reason. His decision-making skills paired with his great physical capabilities served him well in the battle. He would have still been dead in seconds if Jux had wished it to end that quickly, nevertheless, Jux saw potential.

The girl was brave, stupidly so. Yet, that wasn’t something which he could look down upon. Her magic seemed to be much more potent than that of most mages her age. Comparing the two, the Thirteenth certainly lacked in magic power when put against her.

The girl also had good instincts, as Jux would like to call it.

He wondered what would have happened if their goal was to kill him rather than run away. As distracted as he was, perhaps they could have somehow surprised him.

So much potential in both. What a waste.

He thrust his weapon down. It tore through flesh and lodged itself deeply inside the Thirteenth’s chest… or so he thought. The boy had blocked the weapon at the last minute. He wouldn’t give up. Jux wanted to see more but he had already exceeded the tolerance of Havel.

“Tear him to pieces.” he commanded.

With the point of the halberd piercing both of the boy’s arms, they would come off in a matter of seconds. The power increased with Jux’s command and the weapon began to shake.

Jux glanced into the boy’s eyes and froze once he saw them. Blank, empty, almost soulless. They were certainly the eyes of a person close to death yet, the sudden strength behind the boy’s arms made Jux believe otherwise.

In an instant, Jux ripped his halberd free and jumped back. He reinforced his weapon with the power of the wind and waited. He watched, stunned, as the Thirteenth rose from the ground. His arms were still in ruin, a large opening in each one from where Jux attacked.

“You’re resilient,” Jux commented. “I have seen enough now to know that this is... a shame.” Jux thrust his halberd forward, releasing a powerful gust.

Jux readied himself for the moment the boy would dodge. That was when he would finally finish him.

It never came.

The Thirteenth reached out with his battered hand and seemingly held the blast within it. It was as if he were unleashing a wind as strong as Jux’s own.

Was the boy’s affinity wind? Jux threw this notion away immediately. Not once in his attempt to escape did he use any wind magic. Could it be that the boy was simply lacing his hand with so much mana that it could nullify an attack that could burst stone walls?

Jux stepped off toward him. He went low and swung up. The boy wasn’t looking. Nothing about Jux’s movements seemed to register. It was going to be a clean hit. It was an assured hit, a fatal one.

The swing stopped midway. Holding onto the steel, the boy had ended the full strength slash with his mangled left arm.

Jux tried to pull free but his grip on it was too strong. In a motion too fast for any normal person to see, the boy backhanded him. Jux rolled on the floor but quickly stood upright. The hit was good but the Thirteenth was also sent flying.

He stopped defending from the gust to sneak an attack in. It was hard for Jux to imagine if it was worth anything at all. The hit only left a dull pain in his cheek. If it were a strike to the head, perhaps it could be looked as significant but it wasn’t.

Jux made for his weapon. A giant fireball flew towards him.

Twirling the polearm in his hands, he blew away the fireball. As the blinding light cleared, the boy was nowhere to be seen.

Jux’s instincts saved him. He felt a presence behind him and he spun around to defend. His halberd took most of the force but it still pushed him backward.

Something was radically different. If the boy was hiding some kind of power, why didn’t he release it earlier? What was his reason for stashing it? Did he really think he was better off not using it?

Jux shook his head. The possibility came to him that it could be the boy’s ability. If he wielded an ability that could boost his strength so high, then there must be a considerable drawback to it. Then those teleports from before were some of the fastest he’s ever seen.

Jux thought for a moment as the boy craned his neck to the side. Would it be best if he waited for the boy to tire out or to use his own ability in an attempt to end things right away? It had to be the ability.

Each moment he waited, the roluk would get further away.

Jux took one hand off his halberd and started to twirl it as if he were searching for something. “Come here!” he shouted, suddenly jerking his arm.

The boy’s body came rushing towards him. He aimed right for the chest.

Jux’s instincts screamed for him to stop but it was already too late. He saw the boy smile behind his mask.

Inches away from impalement, the Thirteenth gripped the halberd, using nothing but pure strength to hold himself away. His eyes were still empty.

In the next instant, Jux laid strewn atop a fallen bookcase. The loud crash didn’t register. His memories of how he got there did not exist.

He looked forward seeing nothing but the boy whom he had hesitated to kill so many times wielding his halberd and pointing it at him.

‘Ahhh.’ Jux thought. ‘I was too confident.’

He raised the halberd and aimed it just like Jux had done. The mercenary’s end had come and at the hands of a boy he was besting not too long ago.

Jux closed his eyes and waited to be sent to the afterlife. It never came. Feeling time pass with no pain, he allowed himself a peek. To his surprise, as it always seemed to be that day, the Thirteenth struggled to end him.

The boy’s hands shook while holding the weapon and his eyes went wild. Their former lifelessness was now replaced with a frightful expression. Jux, again, wondered why.

The boy turned the polearm around and knocked Jux square on the head. As his conscience faded, he used all his remaining energy to etch his figure into his mind.

‘So young with so much potential… yet, afraid to kill. What a waste.’

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

“Lady Aisha!” Hilda called out, “Where are you? Stop hiding this instant!”

Aisha peeked out from behind an alleyway where Hilda had just narrowly lost her. She giggled as they stumbled around looking for her. There was no doubt she felt guilty about leading them on a wild goose chase, however, Hilda was partly to blame.

Aisha had planned to come visit her brother assuming it was a vacation. When Millicent commanded Hilda to attend, Aisha still saw it as such. Yet, as the days wore on, Hilda proved to be very demanding.

Hilda was doing her job, Aisha knew that, but sometimes it was too suffocating. She didn’t want to feel like she was back inside the mansion. She didn’t want to feel like those days where she’d have to go to her classes and learn a bunch of things that didn’t interest her.

She didn’t want to feel responsible for getting her teachers yelled at because of her incompetence.

“You two.” Hilda pointed down the street, “Search that way. I’ll go this way.”

Aisha fell back and waited for Hilda to pass. It was getting late and she didn’t want to make Hilda lose any sleep, so a quick visit to her brother’s dorm and that should be it. He was also having school the next day.

‘Just a quick visit wouldn’t hurt. Very quick. Less than an hour. Probably an hour.’ she thought.

She ran through the alleyway, so as to not be given away by her hair in the middle of the streets. She knew where her brother was, and since she could see it over many of the buildings, all she had to do was find the right path to get there.

She took some of the less “common” streets, always making sure to check behind her for anyone following. She hadn’t heard of too much crime in Aurora City but it never hurt to be careful.

As she walked down them, she chewed on her little meat snack she had just gotten. In her wish to get away from Hilda, she devised a plan where she would run off as they were getting their food.

It worked.

She smiled at the little shish kabob in her hand.

“Woof!”

She turned around, startled by the sound. “Jeez.” she sighed, “Don’t surprise me like that.” with that statement, she knelt down and motioned for the dog to come over. Interestingly enough, she never seemed to have much trouble with animals, unlike her older brother.

“I’m much more of an animal whisperer than he is aren’t I?” she asked.

The dog barked.

“Thanks.”

As Aisha stood up to leave, the dog looked up expectantly at her. She stared back at it for a while before shrugging. She threw her remaining pieces of meat in the air and the dog ate it happily.

Finally reaching the dorm, she once again peeked out from behind one of the nearby houses for her guards. In the clear, she sunk to the ground and pulled out her scroll, the very one given to her as a present.

She wrote on the paper using her legs to support it, Hey. It started out innocent enough. Do you want to just walk around the city for a little bit? Finished, she waited for a response.

When it didn’t come, she began to wonder if he were asleep. It was possible, considering he had school the night before. She also wasn’t quite sure of his internal clock. Perhaps he was always going to sleep around 8.

Aisha continued to ponder the idea. He had always sent her home before 8. He also never took any quests that would go outside of the city. Could it have actually been that her brother couldn’t sleep well if it was past a certain time?

Or, perhaps her brother was part of a secret organization that only worked at night! They would go on missions to foil evil and protect the peace of the city.

Aisha shook her head. Her thoughts were getting too far out of control. A little speculation was nice, but she knew she shouldn’t let herself go wild with every idea.

She checked the scroll for his reply but it was as blank as it was after she sent the message. There’s no way she would have missed the gentle blue glow of the text in a night as dark as this one. Still, she ran some through it to reveal previous messages.

Nothing she hadn’t read before.

Aisha’s head fell on her knees.

“Am I just being a pest?” she wondered. “He invited me to come over here but we haven’t done that much together… I just wanted to spend more time with him.”

Aisha rapped her own head with her knuckles. He wanted to spend time with her, that much was obvious. The problem, however, seemed like those times were far too short to make up for those eight years lost. So much of that time was wasted.

The last outing was also cut short because of Aisha’s own mischievous acts. She didn’t exactly blame herself for pushing her brother towards Ellar. As partners, they should be getting along. Aisha wanted him to get along with everyone. It’d certainly make his life easier.

As long as he was happy, she could also be happy.

In all their time out together since she came to the city, he had never once spoken of the 8 years when they were separated. She wanted to know more about that empty space. She wanted to fill more of his personality in.

Yet, she blamed herself for never asking. She didn’t ask because a part of her didn’t want to know. She was afraid of learning. She was afraid that she’d resent him if she found out he lived a better life than her.

After being separated for 8 years, she didn’t want to feel any of that.

Aisha’s ears perked up, “Who’s there?” she rolled the scroll back up and put it away. “Come out now or I’ll send a fireball your way!”

She peered into the darkness carefully. The lights in that road were dim if it had any at all. She could hardly make out a figure. She took a step back and a lightning bolt struck her dead in the chest.

She flew back a few feet, landing face down on the rough stone ground. It felt as if her insides were just shaken and scratched all over. She tried to scream. Only weakened moans came from her throat.

She struggled to rise to her feet but couldn’t manage with her meager strength. Everything she had was shaken out of her by the blast. Who would just suddenly attack her? Was it a bandit? Some random criminal looking to make a quick buck?

Aisha focused on the figure that grew more prominent. A man most likely. And with him, hanging over his shoulder, he carried a white sack.

“Nice that red hair, especially one as bright as this, is easy to track.” the man commented, coming ever closer.

“W-what do you want?” she asked weakly. Now she wished that her guards found her. She wished that anyone was around to see or to call for help.

“Me?” he responded with another question as if surprised she even cared about him. “Well, that’s quite obvious.” He threw the bag over his shoulder and loosened the string around it. “You.”

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Author's Note:

I swear that the next chapter won't have a cliffhanger this big. Progress on the reincarnation fiction is a bit stalled right now as I run through what I want it to be. Hopefully it'll be better planned.