Chapter 8 – Wake

At first, I thought I had felt nothing, but that was just the shock. After remembering just what this man had done, or what he was going to do, I realized that it was rage. My jaw was clenched and my fists were clenched so hard that my knuckles turned white.

I stood at the top of the hill with Ciel as memories of my previous life flooded back to me: Memories of my daughter, my grandchildren, and my students. It filled me with regret and rage all over again.

“Cal!”

Ciel had yelled for me and dragged me back to my senses. I had been covered in flames caused by my mana leaking out unintentionally. I’ve got 57 more years under my belt than she does, and she still has a better head on her shoulders than I do. I should really start acting my age.

“Ciel, stick to the forest and fire a volley of Rock Javelins> from behind them. There’s only two of us and over a dozen of them, and Chey can’t hold them off forever like that.”

“Sure, what else?”

“Once you get around their rear flank, shoot for the farthest targets; it doesn’t matter if you hit, so run away, through the forest, back to here as soon as you finish casting.”

She started running down the hill, sticking to the left most forest edge as instructed. I ran opposite of that and waited for her spells to find their targets. She’s more proficient at Earth type Destruction magic than Water, so 8 Rock Javelins> came hurtling from the forest to the front most bandits.

A few of them struck true and downed the aggressors, but 9 remained excluding the burned man. The plan worked; they all turned around as predicted, but before they could finish turning, I ran to the center of the 9 and cast the earth spell Impact>. The mana coursed through my hands into the ground and collapsed it, dropping everyone around me.

Giving them no time to recover, I cast Water Torrent> turning the upturned dirt beneath their feet into a slick arena of mud.

One bandit, undaunted by the squelching quagmire, launched himself in the air towards me, so I cast Lightning Clad> in preparation for the inevitable. In the few seconds that it took me to veil myself with a coat of lightning, he was upon me.

His grimy raider boot came crashing down, aiming for my head, but I parried with a deft circular motion. Even though I redirected most of the impact, it still shook my body.

Out of the corner of my vision, I saw a metallic sheen sweeping beneath his cloak that hadn’t yet had the time to settle, so I spun around and lean my body back, barely avoiding the dagger that would have torn across my chest.

I tried to regain my posture, but he threw the tail end of his cloak at my face. I swatted it out of the air, but he had vanished. Before I could think to look down, my legs had been swept from under me, and I began falling to the ground.

Fearing what would come next, I fed as much mana as I could into the still active Lightning Clad>

The hooded bandit stopped his follow up attack and leaped back to avoid being paralyzed by the electricity.

“… chantless…?”

Field of Lightning> a surge of cobalt lightning arced across the veritable quagmire with me at the epicenter. The hooded bandit’s eyes grew wide in disbelief as the expanse enveloped him.

Those closest were mercilessly electrocuted, everyone else in the area was numbed by the shock. The hood flew off of my opponent from the body spasms caused from the shock, and it revealed two nimble cat ears, set upon his twilight-orange hair: cut somewhat short and spikey, but neat. He seemed to be a cat Demi-Human boy in his late teens. Maybe the spikey hair was my fault now that I think about it.

Chey and the burned man had also been caught in the spell, and were rendered immobile. She’d lost a lot of blood though. Seizing the opportunity, I cast Phoenix Down> on her.

She was enveloped by the distinctive frost-blue flame, and I took note of her severed wrist. It started bubbling at the point of separation, and the flames started burning intensely around the area. I saw bone and muscle sprout from the base until a slightly off color replica of her original hand was left in its place.

This time, the surprise was universal. I was amazed at how omnipotent magic is, the Demi-Human bandit was in awe, and

the burned man shifted from surprise to anger. Good, come at me. I’ll finish what I started 7 years ago.

I overestimated the effectiveness of the paralysis. The Demi-Human was already free and rushing at me, claws extended from his fingers that were as long as steak knives.

Not noticing the blur that was rushing from my left, I cast a simple Shock> spell. It flew from my hand faster than I could stop it, and was intercepted by someone who should have been waiting in the forest, but the Demi-Human I’d been fighting shouted out to her.

“Ciel!” We both shouted in unison.

She was knocked out instantly and a nasty burn streaked over her eyes. The Demi-Human cat-boy scooped her and turned to run off, but an array of boulders flying at me prevented me from giving chase.

I cast a simple wind spell to disperse the dust and debris kicked up by the group of boulders; however, they had already disappeared.

The burned man, who had cast the previous earth magic, was already chanting another spell, fortunately, that meant that he was now ignoring Chey who was still right where she fell, recovering.

[I, who commands the origin of power, orders the essence of earth to burst forth and pierce my enemies.] Clay Darts>

I cast Icy Wind> in a wedge before me to divert the innumerable clay darts towards either side, and rushed forward.

After I diverted the last dart, I was barely 15 feet from him, and I fired off two bolts of fire. I could feel my mana running empty as Lightning Clad> dissipated, but like I said, I’m going to finish what I started, and I’m going to see this cremation to the end.

“Come at me Rennant boy!” He said insidiously as the corner of his mouth rose in a contemptuous smile on his scarred face.

He avoided both of the spells, ducking behind the iced over empty carriage. Aiming for the other children in the carriage across from him, he began chanting some kind of fire magic.

I didn’t have time to figure out exactly what it was. I had to try and stop him, but it was a feint. As I dashed to get in between his spell and the other children, he redirected himself and fired off another volley of clay darts directly in my path.

I didn’t have the time, or the mental stability, to cast a defensive magic, so I prepared to take it head on. It hurt, but curiously I only took glancing blows. Even after saying that, I was bleeding profusely and had one marker sized dart lodged in my right leg. Was he missing me on purpose? Dozens of darts were flying in my direction, and only one scores a direct hit?

“You’re curious as to why I didn’t kill you, aren’t you?” He said with a pompous look of disgust and contempt. “Simply, I am known as Liorre the Slave dealer, and I can’t have my product get too damaged, now can I? I have a reputation to uphold, boy. Though,” he said, motioning to his face, “I must apologize for some damage, you see it’s a little personal.”

Gritting my teeth through the pain, I raised my hand at Liorre who was walking towards me. Becoming dizzy, I began condensing a ball of white flames.

“Oh dear, no. We’re can’t have that again.” Liorre said, casting a magic I didn’t know. His incantation used some words that I wasn’t familiar with, and then the fireball fizzled out in my hand.

“What!? I can’t… be out of mana… yet.” I said as a familiar blackness encroached on my vision.

“You weren’t, at least not before, but I can’t have you using that spell again and killing us both.”

“You canceled my magic… how?”

“Trade secret, boy.”

The last thing I remember is being helped me into the dirt with a deft kick to the temple.

Author's Note: I realize that I've fallen into some cliches in the last few chapters, but stick with me. I did them for a reason, and it helped to build the foundation I needed for character growth. I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

P.S. I'll be going through and editing the chapters after I finish Volume 1.

Cheers! Thank you for reading!