(Kiralne P.O.V.)

I can feel myself getting weaker. This is not good at all. To think that this guy possessed this particular poison... I can't help but feel weary right now. This is really the worst possible outcome for me!

After getting over my initial shock, I started considering my options. Usually this would be the time that I'd escape. Escaping isn't dishonorable for me and I still have an important task to do. Right now, I'd use 'that' to escape but... Krey is still in the forest somewhere or he might have fled to one of the mountains in the Magic Mountain Range. That kid is smart so he would not think of going back to the city. Its all plains on the way back. He'll be spotted easily and escaping from people higher levelled than him is close to impossible.

If what Krey said was true, his supposed master is a powerful mage. At least he might have given Krey a magical item to be able torotect himself or escape since he DID give him a storage ring which in itself is valuable already but... I doubt it would be too effective in a straight out battle and escaping via plain sight is stupid so his only choice would be to hide in the forest or mountains. I don't know how big the area that the monster repelling magic item encompasses nor how effective it is since I cannot base it on Bolg's and Folrido's earnings alone.

Mana-Binding Viper Poison can be considered as a national treasure in a middle-sized country and it still has considerable value in a big power such as Tolkium Kingdom. A successful grand soldier or grand magus can barely afford two vials of diluted mana-binding viper poison and they'd be penniless already. Even with my entire fortune, I can only afford three of them.

But this... this is clearly a more potent poison and much more expensive by at least tenfold! Seriously where did he get that sum of money...?

"Hey stupid bitch! How does it feel for death to be this close to death?" (Bolg)

The sorry excuse for a knight asked me condescendingly. Though he still won't come close to me even though I am clearly groggy right now.

I don't answer and simply stare at him with cold and indifferent gaze, my body poised to easily defend myself. Killing intent slightly flickered around me but I immediately invalidated it. Our clan's virtues will not be dissuaded, even if it is no more. I once more coldly laid eyes upon him. Though it looks like this right now, I am clearly at a disadvantage. Earlier the fight was leaning favorably to my side, but this demon girl... has some tricks up her sleeve that I didn't expect...

"Oh I remember how you always beat me into submission, always humiliating me but today... I will return the favor!" (Bolg)

The threat is real but I find it hard to take seriously since they won't actually confront me directly. A cornered rat will definetely bite back so they are extremely careful around me. I really look down upon these kinds of people. I furrow my brow in displeasure. Bolg and Folrido always got in my way back then, the were only getting they're just desserts, why come after me now?

"Hoh... big words coming from someone idiotic such as you." (Kiralne)

The big dolt only became angrier as he stared at me with bloodshot eyes. Folrido on the other hand is still quiet but the viciousness emanating from his eyes don't escape my attention.

Finally, no more noise! Words are unnecessary when you are fighting for your life. That much is true.

We are currently in a small glade surrounded by tall trees on the left, the short cliff on the back, rubble from our earlier exchange in the front and more trees on the right. Bolg is maintaining a six meter distance as he circles around me, taunting me and waiting for the poison to take full effect. Folrido and the girl are surrounding my flanks entirely ignoring they're stupid companion's antics and also waiting for the poison to do its work.

At least these two are smart, keeping they're guard against someone like me but this is really not good for me. 'That' item currently cannot be used not only because of Krey but... its in my storage ring, which is inaccesible for now. To use my storage ring, I need my refined mana but its suppressed by this damn poison! I can use some of my mana in the refinement base but its too wasteful! Also I still have to look for Krey! This item is suitable for only a single person's use so its stupid to use this.

I am not entirely defenseless though. Even if my mana reserve is suppressed and my speed simply laughable even to me, I can still pose a threat to these guys. A warrior is not like a mage who rely mostly on mana for them to be of use. Each breakthrough of a warrior greatly strengthens and hones their physical capabilities! What happens is that during each breakthrough, their mana core has little change except for the expansion of the mana reserves. But mana infuses itself in the flesh and bones of the warrior, greatly empowering that individual. I do not know how it is for mages but it seems that their minds are more tuned to handling mana. This makes them better mana manipulators than warrior but it doesn't mean that they're better in combat.

A late-stage grand soldier has a very powerful body and great constitution! Even if they attack me altogether right now with full power, I could still fight back!

But... these poison is clearly weakening me at a fast rate. I think that after 20 minutes, I would be completely defenseless and unable to move, much less resist making me easy prey for them. I may perish but... I don't care. I don't fear death, that is a fact but it doesn't mean I have a favorable impression of it. Having death fill your childhood can build up a resistance to such things...

Immediately, painful memories surfaced in my mind. I once more drive them back as I have been doing all these years. Its not useful in this situation. I can't be distracted right now. I observed my opponents while preparing to flee and confirm if Krey is safe. I will not fight them head-on in my gradually deteriorating state. That is just foolish.

Without unfocusing my gaze at them, I silently fiddled with the sacred mark in my forehead. I did not tell Krey this but the 'Kiss of Vow" not only makes a special tattoo in the foreheads of the protector and the champion, it also allows the protector to track the champion through their bonds. I didn't want to tell him this because we both agreed that this bond will not be activated... for now. Sharing your emotions with strangers is not a comforting experience.

I have never used it before in fear that we might read our emotions again, and I seriously don't want a bad relationship to sprout between me and that cute kid! I activated the mark's use and instantly, an imperceptible spiral wave of mana resonated with me as its center. This mana wave is basically inexistent except for the user. It was made by the goddess of life after all! It was merely passed onto my clan as we are protectors. Afterwards, like a raindrop falling in a still surface of water, the wave travelled towards every direction. The way it works is that once the wave comes in contact with Krey's mark, I'd know where his location is at but he won't know where I am.

But... not long after the mana wave travelled, I already got a reaction. It's coming from the right...and its near?

"Nu-?!" (Kiralne)

Krey... he's here?! Where is he?! But more importantly why is he here?! I don't try to look for him so that my opponents would not notice it but my face changed into that of panic and helplessness. They misunderstood this as fear and Bolg once more ridiculed me but I ignored it. Only the demon girl seems to be cautious of the change in my expression.

Why is he here?! Shouldn't he be hiding somewhere? That child, why is he being silly now of all times?! Doesn't he know that danger should be avoided at all costs? I frantically thought if ways to keep Krey safe in my current ways when I felt a fluctuation in mana above us. Bolg, Folrido, and the demon girl also looke up, also noticing the fluctuations.

There I saw...

Eh? Isn't this Krey's spells...? No why is he attacking now?! An earth-type projectile appeared above the demon girl but before I screamed for Krey to stop and leave... More of his spells overhead... A purely compressed fireball the size of a grown man and an clear spike of cold ice also appeared out of the mana fluctuations... and they only increased in number!

One, two, three... five... twelve... sixteen spells instantly ! I found myself staring stupidly at the spectacle that only a mage of at least the Archmagus rank can perform! High-speed chain ! Krey is actually capable of that?!

Back in the inn, I've already seen his prowess in instant and chantless invocation and already rated him as a capable mage of the elite level despite him being a middle-stage magus. I had to use my wind/nature skill to completely neutralize his onslaught before and I only had to stop four of them. Each spell belonging to a different element with one having traces of being !

Those three were greatly alarmed and braced themselves for the inevitable. Cold sweat involuntarily apppeared in my forehead, and I swallowed my saliva. This... it might injure them greatly but what is he...?

Before the spells hit the enemies in front of me, I heard leaves and wood crackle in the right as if it was burnt, and felt something hitting hard against my stomach making me involuntarily gasp for air and close my eyes in pain. Thoughthe pain really felt good for awhile.

Then someone whispered closely to my ear-

"Hey, be quiet and stay still. It would be hard to carry you otherwise. [Conceal]" (Krey)

"Kyua!" (Lisana)

A childish voice said to me as I felt darkness covering me. Shockwaves of the explosion as well as varying degrees of temperature were felt as I vaguely notice someone carrying me, moving fast in a certain direction.

(Krey P.O.V.)

Four [Impact Bullets], four [Compressed Fireballs], four [Ice Cones} tweaked to last for a long duration and ready for . Check. Mana-reserve filled to a third of its capacity. Check. Mana Force Manipulation. Check. Okay, preparations are ready! Begin!

By my will, Mana Force Manipulation made a spot for my refined mana to the spells over their heads and instantly [Impact Bullets], [Compressed Fireballs], [Ice Cones] readily appeared. I don't want any impurities in the space where my refined mana will do its work. My spells will be useleas otherwise! Before they do they're work, I dispelled the [Conceal] spell and I casted [Wind Run], [Body Burst], [Fiery Surge] and used {Telekinesis} to speedily arrive in front of Kiralne and... hit her gut. This made her fall into a semi-unconscious state.

There are reasons for this of course~!

One is because, she overestimates herself. I made her unable to move for awhile because she might do something stupid while I carry her away and escape. She's weakened to the point that even a single punch from my enhanced self would definitely hurt her because of the effects of mana-binding viper poison. This particular mana-binding viper poison is too concentrated. Probably modified by an alchemist. It is designed to instantly suppress the natural ability of an individual to an almost terrifying degree. I say 'almost' because I can easily suppress the poison with my will even if I'm weak right now.

At this time, she no longer has the strength of a late-stage grand soldier. It has been reduced to level of an apprentice magus if compared to a warrior. I discovered this through observation.

Before I never knew the differencea between a mage and warrior because the knowledge imprinted to me was all about magic and magecraft. But when I arrived and concealed myself to watch the fight, I saw refined and raw mana fluctuating? or maybe flickering? around Kiralne. And there I noticed the poison. Intrigued by this, I observed Kiralne's perfect hourglass body that would make any men feel weak in their knees (but not me) and women boil with envy. A few breaths later, I've gained insight between the difference of a mage and a warrior. For mages, their mental prowess and mana core would be severely suppressed to the point of inaction by the poison. Its like they are brain dead, making them useless sacks of meat. And I think warriors have their physical prowess instead of their mental prowess suppressed as well as their respective mana cores.

I deduced this from watching refined mana disperse around her body. I think the breakthroughs for warrior increase their physical abilities. At least that's what I can assume from the phenomenon occuring to my perverted protector.

She might think that she is still strong in body but she is wrong. Very wrong. Dilluted mana-binding poison can instantly suppress your mana core and slowly erode the fields a mage or warrior specializes in. The concentrated one on the other hand os as mentioned above, total domination. She'd be dead right now if it wasn't for the life-preserving antidote mixed in there. Come to think of it why is it mixed with the poison? Hmmm... I'll think about it later~!

The second reason is because I wanted to have revenge. Earlier my plan to watch her get humiliated by her enemies and feel despair was trashed by the person herself! She stood there, like an unyielding valkyrie, ever so confident in her position, gazing at her enemies with emerald green eyes, inside a dim light of frigid coldness.

Seeing her like that, I can't help but see her as 'cool' at that time. This made me even more angry at this revelation so I had planned to hit her hard in the abdomen.

A feeling of satisfaction came over me as I heard her gasp in pain but it immediately turned to confusion. I knew she felt pain but why did I saw a small smile and blushed cheeks in her face? Was my hypothesis wrong and that she was also denied of her mental capability by the poison? A bit worried by this, I first whispered to her-

"Hey, be quiet and stay still. It would be hard to carry you otherwise. [Conceal]." (Krey)

'Hello!' (Lisana)

|Kyua!|

I told her this since I can still see some semblance of consciousness in her. Its better to be safe after all~. Lisana greeted the pervert while I helplessly shake my head and casted [Conceal]. I tweaked the spell with Magic Creation Array so that it would be able to cover Kiralne as well. Then, I princess-carried Kiralne with some difficulty with big help from my buffs and {Telekinesis}. The three assailants saw me but they obviously can't do anything about it. Not when lethal spells are literally just a meter above their heads. Its really disturbing watching the ugly face of the bearded man distort in anger. Not good to look at. The red outfit guy is funny to look at though! Fromthe space in his mask where the eyes are showing, I can see that his eyes are bulging red, clearly passing the stat of being bloodshot. Its like a cartoon character! The demon on the other hand... is just plain creepy. Her plain and expressionless face is fine but those blue eyes... they're staring at me too intensely! Fortunately, i was able to ignore it and looke for a good escape path.

Immediately after, I dashed at the speed of a motorcycle to the nearest mountain's direction as my spells hit their marks. Shockwaves can be felt under my feet as earth, fire and water-type elemental mana surged into a roaring tempest of destruction. Varying degrees of extremely chaotic temperature can be felt in the air. From the corner of my eyes, small and large debris coated with both flames and ice passed me and I worked hard to dodge some of them that are coming towards me as I ran away.

They would not die from this, that I know seeing as they're all grand soldiers. But it would give me time to escape with Kiralne and Lisana.

Right now I'm half a mile away from the ongoing magic tempest of fire and ice, a one hundred meters in diameter. I'm already in a rocky area very close to the mountains. Turning back to see my work from far away, I can't help but still he astonished at the wonders of magic.

This lasted for awhile until a foreign lightning-type mana from inside drove away the tempest of destruction and immediately after, electricity flickered ominously. Seeing this, I instantly concentrated on running away to the mountains. I saw a few monsters on the way but I passed them quickly, not giving them a chance to chase us.

...

A few minutes later, I finally arrived somewhere in the middle of a mountain. Trees and shrubs can be seen here and there but most of the things here are boulders and dirt.

Its pretty high up, and only weak and slow monsters are here so I'm pretty safe here as long as I run. My stamina can still hold out as I continously cast [Body Burst]. The downside is that my mana can't hold out for long even with the help of my glaive.

I turned to look once more at the jellyfish-shaped electricity field down below. I feel very anxious about what's inside as it continue to grow bigger. Before it was just a one hundred meters in diameter, the same size as the fiery/icy/rocky tempest but it soon grew bigger. Now its half a kilometer in radius! Its too big! Disturbing sounds coming from the air as electricity bathes it in its essence are heard even this far up. Lightning-type mana is stirring inside of it, churning tendrils of lightning are ever so present. Anything those lightning tendrils touches instantly disintegrates to nothingness. I feel sorry for the trees below but I don't know how to stop that thing.

For now, escaping is my priority and I can hide in the mountains with Kiralne and Liz so even if its some sort of special skill made to annihalate us by our assailants, it won't matter as long as we are far enough.

When I was about to turn back my attention to the rigid mountain path, the dangerous-looking lightning field abruptly shrunk into a tiny shriveling ball of lightning, barely perceptible only through the light it emits. Then suddenly, like a bullet it shot at a fast speed towards... me? What the heck?!

Panicking, I used the last remainder of my mana to cast two [Ice Shields] and placed it three meters in front of me. Most of my mana were spent on continous casting of [Body Burst] and [Wind Run] so I barely have enough mana for protection. The larger-looking ball of lightning arrived instantly and strucked the two ice shields. They barely slowed it down as they were instanly broken into little pieces of ice by the ball of lightning!

Out of options, I decided to rely on my glaive. I slung Kiralne over my left shoulder and put out my glaive from my storage ring and used my right hand to hold my glaive as I used it to block the three-meter ball of lightning. I just hope that the glaive has the setting of negating electricity... Hanging on to that bleak hope, I watch the approaching ball of lightning with enhanced thinking speed thanks to [Body Burst]. In that large ball, I vaguely see the silhoutte of a person holding an axe which met my glaive.

*shiing* *DDOONNG* *bachi bachi bachi*

After the collision, my arm became numb and I fell to my knees dropping Kiralne to the side. Lightning travelled in every fiber of my body, stiffening me up and forcing me to clench my teeth and endure the pain. Kiralne was affected by this too as she instantly awakened, albeit groggy and miserable. Only Liz seems to be fine. She's still clinging to my back, tilting her head in confusion.

'Hey Krey onii-chan~ Are you okay? Why did you kneel down and drop big sis Kiralne? Also what was that ball of light earlier? It was sparkling~!' (Lisana)

|Kyuu~ Kyu? Kyun? Kyuaan? Kyuuuu~!|

Her unnatural upbeat voice resounded in my mind. Is this some sort of game to her? Earlier she was awfully serious about my mental state or some crap but she's having fun getting electrocuted?! Lightning clearly passed through me and affected her but she didn't even flinch! *sigh* It must be because of something in her race trait.

'Liz... I'm injured right now...' (Krey)

'Eh~ I'm sure you can handle it onii-chan~' (Lisana)

|Kyuuua~|

Oh great... she's clearly intoxicated for some reason. Her voice is different, like that of a drunk person. Is lightning alcohol to dragons?

Thinking of something useless again, I watched with painfully squinted eyes the movements of the ball of lightning some distance away. The light slowly died down, revealing the figure of the demon girl in her baggy warrior tunic. Carrying her axe with her, she steadily approached me. Closer and closer. When she is finally just two steps away from me, she stopped and used the flat part of her wickedly sharp axe and asked me with a cold and demanding voice-

"Who are you?" (Demon Girl)

Author Note: Okay just one more chapter before the time skip~ I.E. the demon girl is not an ally. Don't get your hopes up. Here is the 17th chapter! Hope you enjoyed it~

P.S. If anyone is wondering, all the names of the branches of spells and skills will start with 'M'.