Chapter 6:

A shrill scream broke through the cacophony of noises emanating from the battlefield. Cort shifted his gaze towards the direction of the scream. There, he saw one of the archers being killed by a wolf that hung from her neck. The wolf had a dagger piercing one of its eyes, while the other eye shone with madness and savagery. Blood flowed from between the wolf’s teeth, assuring the girl’s death.

“Elma!!” The other archer cried out in a language Cort did not understand. The man next to the two girls punched the wolf away from the girl and applied pressure on her wound, but the sadness in his eyes told Cort that the man knew exactly how dire the situation was.

The other archer was openly weeping now as she held onto the corpse. With the pressure of the arrows gone, more beasts were pouring into their location.

‘Five minutes.’ Cort thought coldly. ‘They’ll last for five more minutes.’ Compared to them, the two in front were more composed as they continued their attacks. But the signs of sadness were present. This was especially so for the female, as her attacks became more reckless. It was clear that she had given up and simply decided to take as many of them down with her.

“Maybe twenty.” He muttered beneath his breath, before shifting his gaze back towards the panther, only to find it missing. After a few minutes of searching, he deduced that it was no longer in the vicinity.

The other archer was now dead, and the shieldsman made his way towards the other two while carrying the archers’ bodies. Unfortunately, he was killed before reaching them.

‘They are desperate now. 10 minutes.’ He shortened his estimation as the pair’s attacks grew even more reckless.

Soon the female succumbed to the accumulation of wounds on her body, but she still took one down with her as she fell.

The male’s eyes became bloodshot as he began to howl in pain. The howl contained too many emotions for mere words to suffice. Though if Cort had to describe it he’d say it was one of desperation, anger, and desolation.

Cort began to prepare himself to leave the scene as he knew what came next, but before he could take off he felt a maddening aura of anger wash through the area. Curious he turned towards the source which was the silver-headed warrior.

His once clear eyes were now bloodshot beyond recognition, and his skin seemed to crack like glass as red spiderwebs spread throughout. On one hand he carried his shortsword, while on the other he carried the woman’s large sword. He lowered his stance and seemed to still.

The stillness only lasted a second before he disappeared from his spot like a ghost.

‘Pretty fast.’ Cort thought with some surprise, but he could still see the man’s movements clearly. Like lightning, he headed towards the closest wolf and split it in two with astonishing speed. But he didn’t stop there, he attacked faster and further. Soon the entire battlefield was filled with nothing but lines of silver, stained with blood. The beasts were in a confused state as they couldn’t get a hold of the man’s movements. A frightened wolf attempted to escape the slaughter, only to be met with the cold steel of a sword penetrating its brain.

Cort watched the scene with interest. ‘He is now as strong as one-third of the weakest guardian on his own… Interesting’ Cort thought to himself. ‘If he had such abilities, why didn’t he use it earlier?’ He looked back towards the madly dashing figure as if looking for answers. To Cort, the silver flashes of light intertwining resembled a spider’s web.

Soon enough he got his answer. The warrior’s pace slowed down considerably after a few minutes, as blood started to pour out of the cracks on his skin. He was panting now, and although he had killed most of the beasts, a few still lingered. Yet even they dared not approach, and simply waited for him to die. The blood-covered warrior dropped his swords and limped his way towards the woman he fought with previously. He fell down next to her and died with his hand holding hers.

Cort felt a tinge of pity in his heart. ‘He gave his life away for revenge, and yet he did not do it all the way..’ He eyed the monsters that approached the two corpses. He reached for his gun and replaced the engraved bullets with normal ones ‘fifteen wolves, I’ll make do with one magazine.’ His one magazine carried an even ten bullets. Holding his gun to eye level he aimed at the closest wolf, at this point only they remained as all the bears were dead and most of the birds scurried away in fright.

His first shot proved sound as it pierced the wolf’s skull, killing it instantly. ‘The first one’s a warning.’ After the wolves saw the death of their fellow beast, they all stopped moving and chose to stay stationary. The wolves looked at each other as if they were communicating, all while scanning their surroundings for the killer. Finally, one of the braver wolves stepped forward. Two steps later and it lay dead on the floor. By now the wolves learned to correlate the loud sound of a bang with the death of their brethren. They looked towards a single wolf that seemed to be their leader. The wolf stood still for a moment before lying down.

‘Greedy little doggie.’ Cort thought with some amusement. This dog was greedier than even some people he knew. It seemed to be waiting for some other animal to come along and test the waters, and surely his plan was sound as the blood would undoubtedly attract some beasts.

But Cort did not particularly care for the beasts who would come later on. He jumped down from the tree and landed in silence. He made his way along the tree line and got himself into position.

By now the leader had made itself comfortable as its brethren sat beside it. Suddenly a loud bang broke the silence and the leader stood up fully alert. Looking around, it saw two wolves freshly killed. With one sound, two were dead now. Having had enough of this, it ordered the rest to retreat. But before the bark left its mouth, the sound took the lives of two more.

The wolves grew frightened as they began to retreat even without the leader’s orders. When two more sounds took another four wolves, the leader grew anxious as it realized that the noise was following them. In a panic, the leader ordered the others to scatter in hopes of confusing the sound. The wolves gladly obliged as each took a direction to run.

The leader ran through the forest with all the strength it could muster, behind it, the sounds continued to echo throughout the forest, four sounds later and the forest regained its tranquility. But the leader did not stop running as fear still overtook its heart. After a few minutes of running, it stopped cautiously. In front of it, a human boy stood silent. His dark eyes looked at the wolf with an unimpressed, and annoyed expression. The wolf bared its teeth with a snarl. It growled menacingly before dashing with mad speed towards the boy, in hopes of a quick kill. Unfortunately, seconds later and the wolf lay dead on the floor with the hilt of a dagger sticking out of its head.

“Tsk.” Cort muttered as he stared at the corpse ‘If only my bullets could pierce through more than two at a time.’ His plan to use one magazine was interrupted by two factors. One was his inability to kill three with one shot, while the other was the leading wolf’s intelligence. Perhaps it was with luck that it came up with the perfect way for him to lose his bullets. ‘I only have three standard magazines left dammit.’ He thought idly as he pulled the dagger from the wolf.

As he was wallowing in his own disappointment, he heard a rustling from his side. As soon as he heard the sound, he disappeared from his own location and appeared on a tree branch nearby. Making his way towards the sound, he found another wolf. ‘Did I miscount?’ He wondered as he stared at the wolf. ‘No, this wolf is not related to the incident.’ He grew disinterested. As he began to wonder what to do next he noticed that the wolf was tracking something. ‘Is it hunting something?’ He focused his gaze forwards as his vision seemed to expand. Luckily for him, his tree was particularly tall, and thus he could see further away. A few miles from his location three bodies were running towards a certain direction. ‘They look young.’ He thought.

Looking at this situation, he thought ‘Why not. It’s not like I have anything better to do, and who knows, maybe those three are heading towards a village or hopefully a city. Cort stalked the prowling wolf. …………………………………………

“Dispel the casting Amy, it's over.” Triste said as she heard the sounds of fighting dying down.

“Yes.”

Triste stopped moving as she assessed the situation. The sun had fully set and darkness overtook the forest. ‘We are close.’ She thought as she studied a map she stole from the warriors’ equipment.

“Amy, rest and recuperate the lost origin energy.” Triste ordered.

Amy sat on the floor.

Sensing the rate at which she absorbed energy, Triste said “You’re close to reaching the stage of Core Formation. When the time for a breakthrough comes, tell me, I’ll assist you.”

“Thank you big sister but I wish to increase my limit further.”

Triste understood what she meant, to a magician the beginning stages were very important as they decided many things. One of the most important was the size of one’s core. The more energy they refined and stored within their soul, the bigger the core. And it goes without saying that a larger core gave a magician an edge over their peers. But conversely, a larger core meant that the difficulty of breaking through was increased.

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew, it’s already impressive that you’ve reached core formation at your age.”

“Yes sister Triste, thank you for your advice.”

“Truly, how the young are ambitious and talented.” The third magician’s soothing voice announced.

“Thank you.” Amy replied mechanically.

A few minutes pass as the magicians waited for Amy to recuperate.

“The tomb is ten minutes away, if we hurry we’ll make it before then. Amy, prepare the sprint spell.” Triste told the group.

In addition to the mission, Triste had another objective, and that was to train Amy and allow her to earn experience. It was for that reason that she had her cast {Lure} as that was quite an energy-demanding spell.

“Yes, big sis.” Amy responded as she began to mutter beneath her breath.

As for the only man of the group, he stood silently by the side.

“I trust sir has a way of moving on his own.” Triste said respectfully.

“Yes, do not mind me.” He replied with a faint smile. His voice was calm and rhythmic, the voice seemed to soothe one’s soul.

Triste noticed how the man seemed to not chant anything. In fact, the man seemed to be half asleep, and unfocused.

‘A Free Former huh….” She thought to herself as she recalled the stories her father used to tell her. According to her father, there existed magicians who treated magic as an extension to their own bodies. Without a chant or model, they controlled magic as easy as they breathed air. Supposedly all Free Form magicians came from Verlau, where the supreme empire stood proud. Triste knew that her ‘guest’ came from Verlau, so she couldn’t help but wonder whether the man was a true free form magician.

“Big sister I’m ready.” Amy said.

“Ok.” Triste began casting the same spell, only it took her far less time. “Follow us” she told the man before saying “{Sprint}!”.

The wind seemed to envelop the two girls as the turned towards a certain direction and sped away. Behind them, they left a trail of leaves that danced with the disappearing winds.

“How flashy.” The magician said before smiling faintly. In a few seconds, he suddenly seemed to pop out of existence. No trace of him was left behind.

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