{Rin}

As the two of them watched those strange individuals emerge from the fortress, Rin felt chills go up her spine. As the kobolds were ignoring them, it was probably safe to assume that these robed individuals were working alongside those monsters, somehow.

"... So, uh, just to be clear," Rin whispered, "this wasn't planned at all?"

"No. Harriton said he scouted this place, what the hell is going on?" Cara asked herself as one of the men in front of them walked forward. Cara held out her sword and aimed its tip at the man. To the right, one of the robed figures, a woman, raised her hand.

[What?] Rin thought, as her index finger began letting out violet sparks while she drew a spellsign in the air. In front of Rin, a look of recognition passed over Cara, and in an instant, the adventurer was gone.

She disappeared in a flash, and reappeared in front of the robed woman, moving so quickly that Rin didn't register her movements. In one quick slash, Cara sliced her body in half.

And that was how the fighting started.

All of them, ignoring Rin, focused solely on Cara, almost like they could feel the disparity in power between Rin and her teacher. A few of the men to the left started weaving spells together, while the ones closest to Cara pulled out shortswords they had hidden away within their clothes, and tried to attack her. Cara, however, ducked under their swords with ease and slashed the heads off two of them before she turned her attention to the spellcasters.

Blood flew in the air with every slash of Cara's greatsword, all while Rin watched from the side, her eyes fixed on the action happening in front of her.

One of the spellcasters sent lightning flying out towards Cara, and the woman reacted by placing her sword in front of her. Her blade caught the attack, and the lightning swirled around it until it was absorbed.

"Step back," one of the men said to the others. "I will handle this."

The one who had spoken up was dressed in slightly different robes. His were white and purple, as opposed to the black of the others. He unsheathed a curved sword and started walking up calmly towards Cara, while the others, and the kobolds, bowed and stepped back, giving him space.

Cara, intentionally, walked over to where Rin was, standing in front of her.

"Rin," she whispered.

"Y-Yeah?"

"I don't know what these people can do. I'm going to try to fight them, but I don't want to risk you getting hurt. So, right now, I want you to run back to the road and follow it back to the city. Understand?"

"... I..." Rin honestly didn't remember where the road was. This was her first time here, after all, and the two of them had walked a fair bit.

However, still, she understood that being her was only putting herself in danger, as these people clearly had some level of experience fighting, and Cara was heavily outnumbered, meaning she couldn't hope to take care of Rin and keep them at bay at the same time.

So, she said:

"Okay..."

"Good. Get moving," Cara said as she took up a fighting stance.

Rin was frozen for a second, but soon, she willed her legs to move and she began to run away from the small fortress.

"Follow her!" The same man who had stepped forward earlier ordered, and Rin looked back, but she saw Cara quickly dispatch the two who tried to do that, swinging her sword so quickly that they likely didn't even notice they were being attacked before their heads left their bodies.

Finally, the man who Rin guessed was in charge ran up to Cara.

Rin had expected the same result from before to occur, but no. In an instant, the two were trading blows, and he showed himself to be almost as fast as Cara was.

[Yeah, I need to go. This is way out of my league.]

So, Rin left the area while Cara fought. She ran as fast as she could, not looking back at all, hoping she could remember the way to the road that she and Cara had walked earlier. [Maybe this way... no, no. Maybe...]

All she could do was rely on vague familiarities to guide her way. Trees she swore she'd seen before, spaces that provided views of the distant landscapes that she had stopped to look at. She doubted she was retracing her steps perfectly, but this was the only plan she had.

The sounds of fighting were soon behind her, and Rin slowed down, catching her breath. Before she joined the academy, Rin would have been on the ground, dry-heaving, but her cardio had improved to the point where she was only stopping to make sure she was moving the right way.

[I swear, I was here before!] Rin thought as she looked around. [I swear, I was...]

She stopped.

As she was turning and checking the area around her, she saw something. A kobold was standing behind her. One of the "kobold shamans" that she'd seen come out with the robed figures.

Rin instinctively took a step back as the kobold watched her, its slitted eyes fixed on her position.

[It followed me?] Rin thought as the kobold raised a hand. [I don't know what it's doing, but I should probably-]

Her thoughts were cut off when an arm snaked around her neck.

"Khekhekhe," she heard an animalistic cackling in her ear and she shivered when she turned her head, as best she could in that position, and saw that the other kobold was behind her, holding her.

"Agh!" Rin struggled against it, trying to wedge herself away from its grip but this creature, unlike the kobolds she'd fought before, was far, far stronger than her.

And, in front of her, the first kobold Rin had seen began weaving a spellsign as its index finger let out sapphire-colored sparks.

Rin's eyes widened. Panicking, she tried to elbow the kobold in its torso, but the kobold held her tightly regardless. She struggled to breathe, only managing to slip in bits of air as the kobold wasn't holding her tightly enough to choke her completely.

The other kobold continued drawing its spellsign, a long, intricate motion that swirled numerous times until, suddenly, a blue ring was drawn on the dirt, around Rin.

Again, Rin tried to loosen herself, this time, resorting to letting Essence flow through her body, not caring about the aftereffects she'd suffer from doing this.

"AGH!" She cried out as she bashed the back of her head against the kobold's snout, with her Essence in her, and the kobold yelped, finally letting go of her.

But the spell completed, the kobold finished its sign, and just as Rin was about to run away, suddenly, all of her surroundings changed.

Gone were the trees, the distant ruins, the cloudless sky above. Instead, in the blink of an eye, Rin was in someplace cold, damp, and dark, where there was nothing but rocks and black water that reached her waist.

---

{Cara}

Whoever this man was, the leader of these robed figures, he was strong. Cara had to give him that. He moved with precision and agility that hinted at years spent training with Essence, the way all the best warriors did.

However, Cara still had the upper hand. If not for the spellcasters behind him, she would have won already.

But as their swords bounced off each other, clanging and clinking in the air, Cara had to dodge out of the way of multiple magic projectiles at the same time. And, all the while, she could only hope that Rin had found her way.

[Even if she did,] Cara thought as she parried a vertical slash, pushing the man back, [she might run into a monster beyond her capabilities. She's still in danger. I can't waste any time here!]

Cara then took a deep breath and pushed Essence through her veins. She needed to end this now, and these spellcasters were preventing that from happening.

So, in a snapping motion, she threw her greatsword back and the blade pierced through the chest of one of the spellcasters. Then, in a blink, Cara was there, removing that blade and cutting straight through the nearby enemies in one spinning attack. Their bodies hit the ground, red blood spilling from their wounds, as Cara turned back towards the man from earlier.

And she didn't find him.

[... Ran away.] Cara thought as she shook her head. [It doesn't matter. I need to find Rin.]

And so, Cara took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and raised a hand.

She drew a spellsign in the air, a series of circles with dots surrounding them at every layer, and when she finished, she opened her eyes and saw footsteps leading to the woods. [Had to have been Rin's. Move!] She told herself.

Cara sprinted in the footsteps' direction, following them as she blazed past every tree and bush until eventually, she reached an open area.

And here, she saw two kobolds, laughing lowly.

Rin's footsteps stopped here.

Cara unsheathed her sword and casually decapitated both of them, their heads falling to the ground with a pair of thuds before Cara started analyzing this.

[What happened? What ha...]

The answer came to her quickly enough.

The female figure, the first of the robed people she'd killed, had been trying to cast a spell that Cara recognized. It was why she'd charged towards her and ended her so quickly. Because she'd seen that spell before.

It was one that was recently developed, at the Mages Guild in Cradle.

The [Teleportation] spell.

Cara looked back at both kobolds' corpses. They had walked out with the robed figures as though they were old friends.

As Cara put these pieces together in her thoughts, she fell to her knees.

[... Dammit.]

She punched the ground. Once, twice, and then a third time.

[Dammit, dammit, dammit!]

As what had happened to Rin became clear in her mind, she put her hands to her head, understanding that she'd failed to keep the girl safe.