Breathing heavily, Kage grips tightly to his bow and arrow, it aimed directly at his opponent,

“Do you think Kage can win this?” Lyra asks, spectating with the others

“Depends on how good he is at reading people,” Karina replies,

….. Claude says nothing, watching the two fervently, with a silly smile on his on face,

…..

“This is going to easy,” Saito, laughs cracking his knuckles.

“Stop standing there quietly, are you getting cold feet,

Or are we going to do this!?”

“I’m ready.” Kage taking a big breath

He fires a magicless arrow first,

“That’s all you got,” Saito scoffs, Blocking with a mud wall,

“Earth-”

Splash!

Another arrow this time erupts into a stream of water, hitting the heavy-set man,

Before he can react to it, Kage already has another magic arrow loaded, shooting it straight at his feet, it explodes into an icy breeze freezing the water from before, the lack of friction toppling the big man over,

Crash!

He hits the ground hard

…..

“Aww, Aww, Aww!” Saito flinches before Kage even begin to start beating on him,

“I concede!

I concede!”

….

“Pfffchchhh!

Aahhahahahaa!” Claude bursts into laughter

“This never gets old!

Ohhh! Saito you kill me!”

“Am I missing something?” Lyra looks puzzled,

“Saito has never won a battle in his life,

Yet he is prone to making spontaneous challenges,

I can’t with this guy,” Claude wiping his tears,

Even Amelia can’t help but laugh, opposed to her usually composure,

She laughs infectiously loud,

…

“That guy, whose name I don’t know, got lucky,” Saito stumbles up to them rubbing his ass,

“You can call him Kage, don’t pretend like you don’t know his name, you already lost to him,

A guy with no attribute,

That has to be your worst loss to date,” Claude mocks

“I’m going back to my room.” Saito grunts,

“Don’t think you can get away that easy!” Lyra asserts,

“You were spying us, tell us why, or I might not go as easy on you like Kage,”

“Is that a date?” He smiles perversely,

“You can beat me if you’re into that,”

……

“”Wow, wow, wow” Apollo raising his sword to the man,

“Back up,”

“It was only a joke bro,” he steps back,

“He does this with every woman, always thinks they are interested in him” Claude explains,

“His usual tactic is to challenge them to a battle in which if he wins, they will go on a date with him,

He has never won once, even against my sister,”

“Hey that one was different,” Saito argues,

“Amelia clearly likes me, she doesn’t talk to anyone but yet spoke to me,

That says something, so I went easy on her,”

“You were annoying me!” Amelia suddenly barks,

“Look…” Karina rubbing her forehead, already tired of Saito

“What was your reason for spying on us?

Tell me now or I will not hesitate to cut your tongue out,”

….

“I was on my way to storage, for some magic stones-” He blurts almost like scolded child,

“-And I heard Claude say something about evolved magic, so I listened in for a bit,

Until I heard that your friend, Kage, had no attribute, so I thought maybe this may be the right opportunity to get my first, win you know,”

“That’s all?” Karina drawls,

“Well~ if you lik-”

“Go away,” she shoos the burly man.

“Speaking of Kage,” Apollo mentions,

“Why is he still in the middle of sparring area just lying there?”

“Aye Kage!” Lyra calls….

……..

(That was easier than I thought,

I understand it now,

As long I can outthink my opponents, I can win,

And thinking is something I do best)

I lay spread out across, the hardwood floor of the sparring section, looking upwards to the transparent crystals that hang from the stone ceiling,

(I wonder what color lights they’ll illuminate once night arrives?)

The walls are all jagged and chipped from experiencing many spars, or maybe just rigorous training in general,

Even a place so violent, feels somewhat warm, feel like a home,

(Have I ever had a home before?)

“Aghh!”

(It’s so annoying not being able to recall anything,

What frustrates me even more is the fact that it isn’t that I’ve forgotten, more like my mind won’t let me remember,

I know it’s in there somewhere, I can feel it)

“Hey!” Lyra walking over me

“Get up, don’t tell me you are gassed out,”

“No, I was just thinking,”

“About…?”

“Stuff, obviously,”

Lyra rolls her eyes,

“Where did, that guy, Saito go, Lyra?

I had some questions ask about him about the music he plays,”

“Karina ran shooed him away,

I hope I don’t bump into that weirdo again,” Lyra grimaces….

***

“Soo~ how do feel about winning your first battle Kage?”

“….

I feel like you should get off me Karina,”

“Not much of a celebrator, are you?” she frowns rolling to other side of my bed,

“When are you going to stop this, Karina?

The desire following and pleasure seeking, I mean”

….

“Why should I?” her entire demeanour changes,

“Take away all those things and what would be left Kage?

Depression?

Existential dread of life without meaning?”

“There can be more things to life than pleasure,” I debate,

“Like?

Name them.”

“…....”

“That’s what I thought,

Ugh, your already ruined my mood now,

Take off your clothes, Kage”

“No.”

“Alright well I’m leaving then,” the girl gets up huffing off,

The door slams behind her.

(Weird.)

“Your weird, a voice comes from a corner of my room,”

“Pinoki?

“Why is someone always in here?” I bury myself in the sheets,

“I am only staying here just in case that girl, Amber, does not murder me in my sleep,”

“Who’s Amber?”

“The rude girl with the Auburn hair who met us at the door when we first arrived.”

“Orr, her,

What did you do?”

“Well excuse me Kage, how dare you assume I did anything at all,”

“Since we got here, I’ve rarely seen you, Pinoki, always secretly going off on your own,

I can only assume you did something shady”

“I was doing what any good adventurer would do and that is gather reconnaissance,”

“…?

So, you mean snooping around,”

“I wouldn’t use such a vulgar phrasing, but I’ll pretend like your correct,”

“Did you find out anything that we should be worried about?”

“Nothing yet, however I did end up getting caught in Amber’s room rummaging through her, err, clothes, per-say,

She walked in on me,

And now I fear for my life,”

“You could have gone to Apollo’s room then,”

“Not Mr.-goody-good, he would probably offer me up to her on a silver platter,”

“He is just like his father I hear,”

“Speaking of that Kage, how much do you buy what the Guild master said about you two being related?”

“First of all, he didn’t say that he thought that, only because I apparently look similar to Apollo’s alleged father,”

“You make it sound more complicated than it needs to be, Kage.”

“Well, what I mean to say that is we’re not related in the slightest,

I do have a hunch though, that maybe his father came from the same place as me,

Maybe I’m overthinking again”

“Huh?

So, you’re like form the same tribe or race?” Pinoki quizzes

“Tribe, that’s a guess, is all I can really say,

I don’t know, everything is so foggy,”

(Do I even have a group I belong to?)

“On the topic of weird things only you understand,” Pinoki’s eyes gleam

“I just remembered something,”

….

“So, I manged to sneak into the first section of the artifact storage room,

Noo, I didn’t take anything in case you are thinking that,

I have long since changed my stealing ways,

Well, anyway there was another door inside, a magic sealed one, not even my shadows could unlock it….” He takes a dramatic pause,

“Go on,” I press on, starting to get intrigued,

“I could not see what was inside, obviously,” Pinoki continues,

“But I did hear a queer humming sound from behind the door,”

“Humming sound?

Wait, Pinoki, you don’t mean-”

“-Yes, there might be another ‘blue flame,’ here.”