Book 2: Chapter 15

Estan had no time to think and his rusty reflexes kicked in. Simultaneously, Estan leaned backwards, raised his hands up to catch the knife, casted Rocky Shield to cover his head and activated his grade 2 magical defensive robe as the knife closed in.

The earth elemental particles in Estan’s body began to coalesce and a faint outline of a shield was seen over Estan’s head, but the knife slipped past this outline, digging into Estan’s forehead before sliding down to gouge Estan’s left eye and continuing on to rip through his cheek and jaw.

Estan’s half-raised arms faltered and he continued his fall backwards with the force from the knife and the body weight of the demonic looking boy pushing him down even quicker. Instead of piercing Estan’s skull, the trajectory of the knife became a fierce slashing motion.

*thump*

Estan slammed onto the wooden floor, a horrendous wound on his head. The knife was now lodge on Estan’s collarbone, having just nicked his left jugular vein. When the boy saw that his plan had failed, his eyes flashed with ruthlessness and the knife was quickly twisted, loosening it from the bone.

Wreathed in unspeakable pain and feeling the fire of his life dancing precariously in the wind, Estan punched the boy in the ribs with his right fist, just as the knife loosened. Estan felt the snapping of a few ribs and the boy tumbled off. Estan roared through the pain as he quickly got on his foot. Squinting through his one good eye, he could see that the boy was now standing off to the side and eyeing the terrified and confused Gokurk.

“Die!” Estan shouted as he took out a sinister blood-red dagger and charged towards the boy. Estan was enraged, to put it lightly, and wanted to dismember the boy with his own hands. At the same time, Estan didn’t want to let the boy have a chance to cast any spells because he still couldn’t figure out the boy’s mage ranking and level.

Quickly closing the few feet that separated them, Estan stabbed towards the boy with his dagger, a rank 3 magical equipment. The dagger penetrated the air and suddenly elongated, reaching a finally length of six feet, before quickly retracting and returning its normal length.

The boy had thought he’d dodged the dagger but the extension caught him off guard, resulting in a wound to the shoulder.

Estan didn’t care that his first hit had missed and thrusted the dagger out once more.

Estan’s attack missed completely this time as the boy dodged behind the petrified Gokurk who had long since wet his pants.

When Estan saw this, he scoffed and pointing the dagger towards Gokurk’s abdomen, stabbed straight through, the dagger extending pass all of Gokurk’s fat and various organs. Gokurk screamed in agony and he stared at Estan with wide eyes.

Estan ignored Gokurk’s look and quickly stabbed three more times with his dagger before Gokurk managed to fall to the ground, four clean holes now in his stomach. When Gokurk fell to the ground, Estan was shocked to see that there was a knife sticking in Gokurk’s back and that the boy was gone!

“Little Bastard! I’m going to hunt you down and eat you alive!” Estan had been played like a fool and was stabbing Gokurk for no reason. The boy had run! But he couldn’t have gone far and Estan knew that, too, as he stopped casting his spell: Earth Spikes and gave chase.

***

Cyil ran beneath the afternoon sun that blatantly showed his figure moving across the grassy hills. Cyil didn’t know who the man he had attack was, but he could tell that the aging man was a mage and did not have any kind intentions. Cyil’s plan was to kill Gokurk, but his plan had changed when he saw the mage. Cyil knew that he had to kill the mage before he could kill Gokurk and he immediately accepted this change without hesitation.

Something in Cyil had unraveled as he sat in Celestine’s pool of blood. Like a missing cog returning to its rightful place in a machine, Cyil didn’t know what it was, but he now knew that his Grandpa had been wrong in saying he should never kill. Cyil also understood why his Grandpa would contradict himself in saying ‘nothing is absolute’ then tell him killing is absolutely wrong. Cyil smiled as he thought back to Baccaus’ kind eyes and words. Although Cyil could no longer agree with everything Baccaus had taught him, Cyil could agree with Baccaus’ intentions.

Cyil had failed to kill the mage and Gokurk, but he wasn’t irrational enough to try and fight a losing battle. When Cyil’s sneak attack failed, he was already preparing to run. Seeing the magical equipment only cemented Cyil’s plan to flee.

Cyil only had a few seconds of a headstart on the mage so he was thinking of ways to throw off the mage. Cyil thought of the spells he had in his arsenal and he shook his head. Cyil thought about how he had managed to ambush the mage and thought of trying it again, but looking around the open fields, he discarded that idea, too. Cyil’s mind was working furiously trying to figure out how to survive and he didn’t even realize that no one was chasing him.

***

Estan did not chase after Cyil, but sat on a wooden chair holding a cloth to his neck trying his best to stop the bleeding. As soon as Estan had taken a step forward, the injury to his jugular vein had widened and blood gushed forth like a volcano erupting. Also, the pain from his face and neck finally registered and Estan cursed. He tore open a magical scroll with the water spell: Soft Mending Stream. An almost gelatin form of water appeared and wrapped itself around Estan’s neck like a scarf.

The blood quickly stemmed but the wound was slow to close; Estan could do nothing to Cyil and only gnashed his teeth in anger. He had to keep still and not aggravate the injury otherwise even the Rank 5 level 9 spell could not save him. After 10 minutes, the spell ran out of the predetermined elemental energy stored in it, the water scarf evaporated and Estan grunted. The wound was now mostly healed and as he waited, Estan had generously slathered a sticky brown substance with a strange smell on his facial wounds.

The brown substance was the dung of a magical beast that was known for its healing properties. Estan couldn’t dream to afford any of the magical beast’s physical body and a piece of its dung had already cost him a pretty penny. Still, the effects of the dung was quite good and although Estan’s face would have a nasty scar and his left eyeball could not be salvaged, his face would be healed in a few days.

As Estan finished taking care of his wounds, he stared at the lifeless body of Gokurk on the wooden floor. Estan got up from the chair and kicked Gokurk in the head a few times then, careful not to aggravate his wounds, Estan calmed himself and left the wooden hut, preparing to head back to Leydford. Estan gave up on chasing after Cyil not because too much time had passed, but because he couldn’t even sense Cyil’s aura. Where would he begin to look? How in Nakrul was anyone supposed to find someone without their aura? Estan still couldn’t figure out why Cyil could hide his aura, as Cyil was clearly of a lower mage ranking than him, but Estan didn’t care for the reason. All Estan knew was that he remembered Cyil’s face and that he wouldn’t stop until he saw Cyil’s dead body.

Estan mounted his horse and looked at the horse Gokurk had ridden. Estan took out his dagger and pointed it towards the horse’s head. The dagger extended, retracted and was put away. Estan returned to Leydford at a leisurely pace, thinking about which one of his women he should have tonight.

***

Cyil ran until he reached a patch of woods then dodged inside the tree thicket. He had thought it was odd that the mage wasn’t chasing after him and only sighed in relief when he didn’t see the man after half an hour. Cyil made his way through the woods and reached a small clearing where a small mound of fresh dirt formed.

Cyil looked at the mound then moved to a bush next to the mound and rummaged through it. He took out a sack stuffed with food, some money, and clothes. Cyil took off his dirty shirt and torn pants, replacing them with a fresh pair of clothes that belonged to Celestine. Gokurk’s clothes had been too large so Cyil settled on Celestine’s clothes. Cyil had ransacked the house after awakening from his absent mindedness. Although his mom had told him stealing was bad, Cyil still went ahead and stole; Cyil didn’t mind stealing from Gokurk at all.

Cyil then took a seat on the ground, thought about how his 30 second battle had went today and meditated, patiently waiting in the small woods.

Cyil meditated until the sky grew dark and the night insects began chirping. Looking up at the starry sky, Cyil stood up and swung the sack over his shoulder.

Cyil glanced at the mound of dirt and said, “Celestine, I am not sorry for your death. I am not sorry I killed your father and I am not sorry for our meeting. It was only for a day that I’ve known you, but in that short time you have opened my eyes and for that I thank you. If there is a life after Nakrul, then we shall meet again there. But until then, rest well with the elements.”

After saying those words, Cyil walked away out of the forest and into the great dark.