Ahead of us, a battle had commenced. The sounds echoing from it made one think that hundreds, or maybe even thousand, must be fighting. That would be far from the truth. In the distance, Elora and I could make out two people.

Or, that was what it looked like at first. A more fitting description would be one man and a being that figuratively had an Aura of disgust. You would think it was a massive amount of monsters combined into one disgusting bag of flesh.

Anyways, I couldn't make out any details of the man fighting this monster. Purple flames swirled around the man's body, in harmony with every movement he made, as he flew in the air around the monster.

The man and the monster continued to rapidly exchange blows. The man tried to cast his purple flames on the monster, but it easily just shrugged it off. The flames never touched the monster, due to some kind barrier around it.

The monster did not just let itself be pelted with flames, though. Stones would lift into the air, and fly at high speeds towards, and when the man dodged, they would simply change course towards, forcing him to continually multitask with attacking and defending. That tactic did not seem to be going that well though. The stones continued to get closer, and the mans flamed seemed weaker.

I wanted to help. Maybe I could get a few shots in before the monster noticed me. That could distract it, and let them man finally kill it. Sounded like a plan!

As I began to stand up, though, Elora forced me right down on my knees again.

“What do you think that you are doing right now?!”, she half-whispered half-shouted at me, her face showing tension.

“I am going to help kill that monster”, I answered, not looking at her, and instead focusing on the battle. If I wanted to do something, I had to hurry.

“Don't”, she said, her voice more serious than I had ever heard from her before. “You know the traditions! ´When gods fight, you shall never intervene´! Even if you help kill the monster, that man might just kill you for interfering. If he is powerful, the teachers may not get here to rescue you. We WILL lay low until that fight is over. Do NOT try to help”

I said nothing and instead continued to watch the fight. I was conflicted in what to do. There was a good chance that that man would die if nobody assisted him against the creature. Maybe, I should just ignore Elora's words, and-

Nope. That's not happening. We are gonna plant our asses, and wait till one of those guys dies. No helping. No assisting. No distracting. No nothing!

Come on! We could probably get out of it if we have to!

Look at what's happening, and tell me that again!

Around the two combatants, a wall of stone was quickly growing by a couple of meters every few seconds. Seeing this, the man quickly stops in his tracks, or, well, whatever equivalent there is for that when you're flying in the air. It confused me, why he would that, but that confusion quickly changed to fear.

Purple flames rapidly exploded out of the man's body, the stones about to him seemingly vaporizing in the heat. The wall that I had thought would spell doom for the man seemed almost weak. In under a second, the stone wall melted to a liquid, and the wall began falling to the ground, where it belonged.

I think… I think I should probably just let them fight.

Oh, really? What makes you think that. Oh yeah. Maybe it's because of that fact that you can feel the heat of that attack nearly a thousand meters away!

Oh, shut up!

I wipe away the accumulated sweat on my forehead and continue looking at the fight.

In retaliation of the wall being turned to liquid, the monster sends melted stone directly towards the man, with it coming for nearly every angle possible. The doesn't let himself get it tough, intensifying his output of flames, instantaneously vaporizing the liquid.

That's when it goes wrong though. Seemingly distracted by something, the man doesn't notice a stone coming at him from the side. It hits him, sending him flying into a nearby pillar. He falls to the ground, unmoving.

“Well… So much for-”

Elora stops mid-sentence, gaping at what was before us.

As the monster neared the unmoving man, a massive purple phoenix came from above, striking the monster directly, no barrier at all. The purple flames covered everything in a fifty-meter radius, making it impossible to see what was going on. What happened after was clear to see. The monster was dead, with what chunks of it on the ground burned to a crisp. The man was untouched, though, with not a hair on his head burnt. Now that I was looking a little closer, that man seemed eerily familiar.

Well, that explains it. That man was none other than Elora´s teacher. For the life of me, though, I just couldn't remember his name.

It's Phil. That's was Morgan called him at least.

Oh. Seemed I did. Phil.

After the floor had cooled down a bit, we rushed over to the stone-pillar, where Elora´s teacher was situated. Elora hurried down on her knees and checked if he was stable, while I made sure that the fight has not attracted anything.

“He is bleeding but it doesn't seem lethal yet”, she said, mainly mumbling those words to herself.

That's when the teacher began coughing up blood. That at least seemed to rouse him from unconsciousness.

“Thanks for that astute observation, student, but-” he stopped, beginning to cough blood up. Elora helped him sit up, with his back against the wall. After a couple more seconds of coughing, he stopped. “But, we have a bigger problem. Every student in this dungeon is in danger.”

I stopped surveying the nearby surroundings and looked at him.

“What danger are we talking about? Another monster?”

“No. Worse. An Anchor. One with Talent of dispelling Magic. The Anchor is currently focussing on Morgan, making it impossible to help those of our students that need it. If any strong monsters, like the one that I just dealt with, appears, the students will certainly not survive that ordeal.”

As he speaks, his words fill me with dread. This is bad. Really bad. This Anchor needs to be stopped.

“Do you know where the Anchor is?”, I ask hurriedly.

“Yes. Was hunting the Anchor myself before that unholy thing appeared. The Anchor is about 2 kilometres north from here. You need to kill or subdue the Anchor. That is an order.”, he said, coughing more blood up at the end.

I would have done it either way.

“Elora. Stay with your teacher, while I fix this problem. I will be back to get you after”, I said, with a serious tone.

She looked like she wanted to refuse, but my gaze stopped the words from coming out of her mouth. She simply nodded in confirmation and began helping her teacher bandage his wounds.

Before I began running north, the teacher warned me.

“Watch out. The Anchor will know that you're coming, with all that racket I've been making over here”.

Running at full speed, I began noticing a slight difficulty. How would I know where this Anchor was? I mean, if this was an open plain, I would easily be able to spot this individual easily, but with all these stone-pillars every ten meters, locating the Anchor would be a hassle.

After the next few steps, though, it became obvious that I was nearing the target. Before I could even have time to react, something like a wave of energy had swept over me. It had, yet I could still see it with my eyes.

I looked behind me, to try to see the wave, but it had disappeared. How peculiar.

Thinking nothing of it, I began to run again but was forcefully stopped by a feeling of weakness.

I feel to the ground, my legs refusing my orders. I tried using my arms, but they felt as sturdy as wet noodles.

We are getting closer.

Oh, really? Didn't even realize that.

Why was I lying on the floor, though? An Anchor was supposed to stop you from using your Mana, not stop you from using your body.

It's because of the upgrades we did to our body. We´ve enhanced ourselves with traits from Magical Creatures. If they are affected by it, so will we be.

Then why can I still see clearly?

I don't think it can nullify all Magic. That seems like it would take WAY too much energy to do for long periods. Maybe it just reduces how well our Mana flows?

It didn't seem like a straight fact, but maybe there was some truth to it. Looking within myself, it seems that my theory had a little truth, than what I would have preferred. Normally my Mana would flow throughout my body like a tidal wave, filling every nook and cranny, and leaving my body constantly sated. Now, though, it was as if somebody was pinching the source, stopping almost everything from coming out. Sure, something was coming, but it was astronomically smaller.

Try to fight it. It is your Mana. You can make it flow as you please.

And so I did. Not much happened at the start, but, slowly, the amount of Mana flowing increased. It was still a meagre amount, but it was progressing.

I could feel the sensations coming from my body. It had been such a short period, yet it was like they had been starving for a thousand years. I tried widening the flow even more, but it wouldn't budge. Seems there was a limit to resisting after all.

Testing my legs, I had a grin on my face, as they moved. They were shaky, yes, but I could move.

After getting up, with the assistance of a very helpful stone pillar, I began the search for my target yet again. I couldn't stop now that I knew I was close.

After moving for a minute or two, another wave came. This time, though, it was different. While I did stop in my tracks, there was no falling to the ground. My feet were still safely planted on the ground.

Still, it was not fun and games. I could the Mana flow within me tightening. In just a few more of those waves, I would crumple to the ground like before. I needed to fast, and I needed to move now.

My pace increased.

After getting through two more waves, I had finally reached my target. Or, more like, what I hoped to be my target.

Before my was dome made out of the same stuff that the waves were made out of. That had to mean something at least. I couldn't see, what was inside the dome, so it was guesswork from me.

What was a deciding factor, was the effects of it. When I got closer to the dome, my vision became blurry, even when I wasn't looking at it.

The Anchor was inside.

Ready to go, buddy?

…

Buddy?

…

Well… I'm ready, so that means it's time to go.

With that, I stepped inside.

As I moved inside, everything around me changed. Before, I could stone pillars go up for a hundred meters or so. Now… I couldn't see anything. All around was darkness. Everything was darkness, expect… the thing in the middle of the dome. I would call it something resembling a human, but I couldn't make out anything about it, except its existence.

It was weird to think about. But this wasn't a time for thinking. This was a time for action.

Gripping the rock, that I had picked up earlier, I slowly moved towards the Anchor, until I stood just half a meter away from it.

I raised the rock, holding it with both hands, over my head, and swung.

Expecting not to have to hold onto the rock I released the grip on it, just before it had contact… or more like, when it was supposed to have had contact.

It didn't hit the Anchor. It just passed through it and disappeared into the darkness.

“Did you really think that it would be that easy?”, a voice said from behind.

I quickly turned around, ready to defend myself… but there wasn't anybody there.

“Did you think you could kill me?”, the voice said again, this time with a more feminine tone. It was behind me again. No. She was. How could she move so quickly, without making a single sound?!

I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, and fell to the ground, unable to support myself.

The darkness around me receded, revealing a woman standing before me, a rather familiar rock in her hands.

She walked over to me, the rock slowly being raised over her head.

“Nobody tries to kill the great Shani, without dying themself”. A smile was on her lips, and her eyes looked manic.

I closed eyes, slowly accepting my fate. In a second, I would not be conscious.

…

But the blow never came.

Opening my eyes, I saw the woman's face, clear shock on it. Embedded in her neck from behind was a knife. The woman fell to the ground, never what had hit her.

I saw Elora getting her knife out of the woman, and rushing over to me.

But I couldn't keep my eyes open.