Hello Readers! It has been a while since my last chapter. I must admit that last portion of this chapter was a bit hard for me to write. However, it is done, now, as you can see. I hope you will enjoy it!

-----Mooshoo-----

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Calb and Serina were told by Sirram that the city of Tovon was experiencing cases of missing dwarves. He told them of their situation after finding out about Calb’s status, as well as the capability of his PIDO. They agreed to help them, and they had formed a raid party to catch the culprits of the missing dwarves, but a mysterious enemy agent who was hiding in the shadows, out side of the hidden dungeon, sabotaged their raid by somehow informing the bandits about the raid. As a result, the bandits, instead of engaging the attacking squads of dwarves, they all gathered at the exit entrance where Serina’s squad, the 5th squad, was waiting for them. The battle strength comparison of the two opposing forces is 40 bandits versus 10 members of 5th squad. The numerical odds favored the bandits.

After confirming the safety of the 5th squad with Serina, Calb, for the first time, used the present from Pleevon the Mage. As the Guardian Mage of God, Pleevon’s gift to Calb was an affinity for magic that all Pleevonians, except for the dwarves, on the Pleevon Plane were blessed with. That meant that Calb was given the ability to manipulate basic elements of magic, which are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Vegetations.

Since he was not given any spells or incantations, his magic usage was limited to his imagination in manipulation of mana. This is where Calb’s prior experience of living in the world of science helped him. With the understanding of the scientific property, Calb had created two whirlwinds to be placed on each side of him. He then made the whirlwinds to spin outward, away from him, to return inward toward his back, thus producing forward propulsion. It was an idea only he could have thought of in this world of magic.

Aided by the forward propulsion, Calb was making good time. The distance in which the 5th squad took 30 minutes to cover with brisk walk, Calb was taking less than 10 minutes without running out of air. He could have gone faster, but he wanted to preserve his lungs for the battle ahead.

When he got closer to the valley, he was able to see both the 5th squad as well as the other 4 squads with his PIDO. The other 4 squads have caught up to the rear of the bandits, and the battle between them ensued, but the dwarves had to go up a steep, narrow, and winding tunnel where they could only advance one dwarf at a time. However, the same was not true for the bandits who had the tactical advantage of being on the higher ground. Not only were they on a higher ground, they had formed a defense line at an open area where they can gather together to simply cut off the advances of the dwarves, one dwarf at a time. In other words, they held the dwarves down from advancing without stationing large number of bandits as rear guards. That meant they could utilize bulk of their manpower to break through the front where the 5th squad was keeping them at bay.

As such, even though the 5th squad was doing a good job of holding their ground, they have had five casualties and, from the looks of it, one other was about to join the five that were down. With the bandits still numbering around 20, it was a matter of time before they would crumble to the pressure. Calb clearly saw where he was needed. He had to break through the bandits and allow the other 4 squads to join the battle. That was the only option they had left. He called Serina.

‘Serina, things do not look good. I don’t think we can last. The other four squads have caught up to the bandits, but they are at a bottleneck, and they are being kept from advancing. We need to break through the front and release the pressure.’

‘Do…you have…a…plan?’ Unlike before, Serina was no longer leisurely answering Calb. What was, once, an easy task, she couldn’t even talk to Calb properly now that the situation turned sour for the 5th squad. Her concentration was wearing thin, as if it would break with any additional distraction. She dared not to close her eyes, and she also didn’t let up on her mana sensing skill, in order to keep track of the tiring dwarves while beating her opponent back into the dungeon.

‘I do, but I will need your help to watch my back once we break through. You okay? You sound little perturbed.’

‘We have…lost…half…of our numbers…, and they…number in the…high teens….still. I have been…doing okay taking on…two dwarves’ job…, but my…mana is nearly…bottomed out.’ “Get back in there!” Serina nailed the face of one bandit with the rising swat of her staff, after she followed through a parry that sent her spinning toward the unlucky bandit. Though she was flung by her opponent, her recovery seemed so natural that rather than being forced back, she made it look like she had planned for that to happen, and the result was the, just mentioned, unlucky bandit being sent flying back into the dungeon.

‘Whatever…you have got…planned…, you had better…make it…fast!’ After disposing of the unlucky bandit, Serina made her move to go back to the opponent that had pushed her back, in order to pay him back for making her step back unintentionally. It could be said that Calb was to blame for her momentary blunder, as she was forced to divide her attention between Calb and her opponent. Otherwise, she would not have left a momentary opening, in which, her opponent took advantage of the occurrence to push her back. As such, though it was very brief, Serina’s honor as a martial artist was bruised, and she was not about to let it stay that way.

Serina’s body mirrored her staff, as it dipped and flailed. It was as if she was waltzing through the battle field with her staff as her waltzing partner, and just as the dancers maneuver around the ballroom without bumping into other dancers, Serina weaved in and out of the other combatants’ scuffle to catch up to her target while dealing numerous damages to those that she happened to pass during her pursuit. She moved as if she was the only one moving while everyone else was in suspended animation.

She took a step to her side. Then she stepped back to her original position with a backward sweep of her staff to knock another unfortunate bandit, that was about to deal a killing blow to one of the tired out dwarves, into the air, to be put in a reverse position of meeting the blade of his supposed victim’s axe instead. Finally, catching up to the bandit that had managed to luckily push her back and escape, Serina leaped into the air and somersaulted over the bandit’s head to cut off his hard earned escape.

“Don’t tell me you thought you could escape!” Serina coolly tapped her foot on the ground while leaning on her staff, as if she had been waiting long. “No one is getting past me!”

“Don’t get cocky, you little bitch! I’ll teach you a lesson in humility!” The escaping bandit, knowing that Serina was the last obstacle to his freedom reached behind his back to pull out a little rod. The rod was no bigger than his hand, but Serina instantly knew that it wasn’t any ordinary rod. Its shape was that of a three twigs intertwined into one, but it had a metallic shine. Then, suddenly, the ends of the twigs let out a fiery glow as they extended out into three little fire snakes 2 meters long. The three fire snakes, as if they sniffed out the enemy, recoiled in three different directions to a crouch, waiting for an opening to strike at Serina with moment’s notice.

Seeing the new development, Serina calmly took her battle stance. Contrary to her calm composure, she didn’t like what she saw. This was the first time she had seen any weapon that seemed to have a life of its own. Though she was confident that she could defeat the bandit, as his stance was full of openings, the three fire snakes coming out of the bandit’s rod added uncertainties that may spell trouble for her. As such, she opted to use the mana she had been conserving for the moment when Calb would arrive. Taking note of the fire attribute of the bandit’s rod, Serina turned her mana to expel all the warmth from her staff, and thus, her staff took on a frosty appearance.

What Serina had just done to her staff by manipulating mana into expelling warmth from her staff was similar to how Calb used his mana, as well as the surrounding mana, to create whirlwind, but what she had just done could not be considered magic. Even though both utilized fundamental traits of mana, the potency in which mana manifested into something that can be considered as transformation of substantial magnitude was what made Calb’s whirlwind different from frosty appearance of Serina’s staff. In other words, her means of countering a magical rod with a fire trait can be considered as a subpar countermeasure. However, that did not mean the odds were against her. As long as she kept the contact time short, there was hope.

Noticing the grave expression in Serina’s face, the bandit’s composure improved. “Ahh, did someone lose her nerve? Why so serious? Huh?” The bandit threw her a menacing smile as he feigned poking motion with his rod. “You don’t have to worry about any pain. I will make sure to burn you alive. Ha ha haa ha!”

The bandit made an amateur mistake. Enjoying the sudden turn of an event, he cocked his head up to laugh a little bit too much, and before he knew it Serina’s staff was quickly heading toward his chin. However, even faster were the three fire snakes. Before her staff could actually reach her intended target, the three snakes took a hold of the staff, and thus, halting its advance. At the same time, there appeared light smoke where the snakes bit onto the staff. Though the bites didn’t penetrate the staff, where their teeth made contact with the wood was getting charred as the fire ate away the cool surface of the staff. Serina quickly spun her staff and promptly pulled it out of the jaws of the fire snakes as the spin she had put on the staff loosened the grip the snakes had on the staff.

Serina was in a shock! She had expected that the mana cooled staff would not be a match for the heat from the fire snakes, but she had not expected the fire snakes to be able to block a solid object. In fact, she had also not expected that the snakes would grab onto her staff with such strength. “How is it that a fire, which is supposed to be intangible, have a property of a solid? And not only that, how are they this strong!?” So many thoughts crossed Serina’s mind.

Recovered from the sudden attack that would have knocked him silly being thwarted by the fire snakes, the bandit beamed with delight. “Thought you had me, didn’t you, you little martial arts freak? “

“I must admit that it caught me off guard, and I also admit that beating you up will be a bit more difficult task, but don’t you think you are being a bit too pathetic about this whole situation when you are getting cocky just because your magic rod is doing all the fighting for you, since you, obviously, do not have any talent for fighting? What? Did your group of bandits get desperate to recruit someone useless like you into their group? You should be ashamed that you are a Lamean with your pathetic martial arts ability.” Serina made sure to pronounce the word “pathetic” with extra emphasis to get the bandit’s blood going. She wanted to make him get careless through her taunting because she needed to take care of him before Calb arrives in order for his plan to go as he planned.

“You little bitch, take this!” The bandit pulled back his rod like he would a whip and flung the fire snakes toward Serina’s face, to which she both dodged and swiped away the fire snakes with her staff for a safety measure.

“You think you can dodge forever?” He whipped the fire snakes at Serina again and again. “Do you feel lucky, huh? Bitch?”

Serina’s taunting was a success. Regardless of the weapon, weapon is only good as the person that is handling the weapon. As such, there are right ways and wrong ways of using various weapons. The way the bandit was using his magic rod was not how it was intended to be used. Though it seemed logical to swing about the fire snakes at the opponent, like he was toward Serina, the actual intended purpose behind the magic rod was for the fire snakes to be able to provide defense for its user as well as providing occasional offense when the opportunity arises, on their own. That means the fire snakes were almost artificially intelligent in that they can, automatically, choose the optimal means of defense as well as an attack. In other words, the user can simply hold onto the rod in one position and the snakes would defend as well as attack for the user. In this sense, this magic rod was even greater defensive item than a normal shield where its user must have some skills with the shield to gain full benefit of its protective property.

The fact that the bandit chose to actively use the rod as a weapon akin to a whip, he was, unknowingly, putting restrictions on the movements of the fire snakes, as all the flinging motions of the whip make it so that their movements are dictated by the user rather than the snakes themselves. As such, in the eyes of Serina, the fire snakes were no different from any other normal whip. Only difference would be that she couldn’t allow much contact to be established between the snakes and her staff, as evidenced by earlier example. As for the fire snakes, they made endless attempts to bite down on Serina as they got close to her, but all that can be seen by Serina were futile efforts made by the snakes to lunge at her, only to be swayed back and forth, uncontrollably, with every angry flicks of their owner, in his effort to hit her with them.

After repeated dodging and many near misses, Serina finally saw an opening! She spun 90 degrees away from the bandit as she reared her staff sideways, and she poked the bandit in his stomach with the back end of her staff. Then she followed through and swung the front end of her staff hitting the bottom end of his magic rod, square on the very tip. The magic rod slipped from his grip, and as soon as the contact between the user and the rod terminated, the fire snakes retracted back into the magic rod, and what landed in Serina’s hand was a short, uniquely shaped little, metallic rod.

The bandit was on his knees, shocked out of his wits. He could not believe what had just happened. The ever so omnipotent feeling that he has had was no more, and the trump card which was in his hands just a moment ago was now in Serina’s hand instead.

Though Serina had every intention to return the favor by burning the bandit with his own weapon, she knew that Calb was near. The success of his plan came first.

‘Okay. I am nearly there, but I need everyone to make a way for me to rush in the dungeon when I get there. It will be a one shot thing. I will knock everyone down with the gift that I have received from Pleevon. I need you to follow in right behind me while the bandits are down and guard my back while I deal with their rear guards.’

‘You had better make sure you take care of those rear guards quickly because I don’t think I will be able to hold them back all by myself for long.’

‘Okay. I’ll count on you!’ Calb cut off the mental message, and yelled, “5th SQUAD, MAKE WAY!”

Serina quickly swatted the bandit’s head in front of her with her staff and side-stepped to allow Calb’s passage, and Dwarf number 2, reading the atmosphere, flung himself at the bandits that were attacking Dwarf number 3 to just barely make enough room for Calb to rush in.

As for Calb, he had increased the spinning rate on his whirlwinds and charged to the front of the bandits. Then with a swipe of his arms, he sent the two whirlwinds, now, miniature hurricanes into the entrance of the dungeon.

Bandits, seeing a new combatant coming at them with two hurricanes at his side, tried to get out of the way, but they forgot that they were crowded inside of a dungeon, and before they new it, they were flung back inside the dungeon.

Without stopping to confirm the result of his attack, Calb made an eye contact with Serina and rushed inside before the bandits could regroup. Serina, not losing a beat, followed right in behind him.

Because Calb had been studying the interior of the dungeon, while on the run, he didn’t need to pause at all to decide on a direction. ‘SQUAD LEADERS, BE READY TO RUSH IN!’ Knowing the rear guards for the bandits are just around the bend, Calb pulled out his staff from his back and held it tightly across his waist, and without any hesitation, he rushed straight at them.

From the back, Serina thought that Calb was just going to push into the rear guards, but she was mistaken. A bright yellow light flashed out of his PIDO, and as if he was a seasoned martial artist, Calb started to spin. Not only was he spinning his way into the rear guards, he had also started to twirl his staff around his waist at the same time, and with every twirl of his staff, he found an enemy’s face that had conveniently “attached” itself to his staff, which at this point, became an extension of his body.

Serina couldn’t believe her eyes. The same Calb that she had methodically beaten to a pulp just the other day, all of a sudden, started to weave in and out of the enemy ranks, and he was giving them a sound beating! “Is there a limit to his growth?” She thought to herself, but before she could immerse herself, anymore, she had regrouping bandits to take care of.

With the reinforcement from the four squads that had come through the dungeon, the remaining bandits were easily captured, and to be sure, dwarves made a second run through the dungeon to see if they missed any bandits. Of course, Calb could easily have used his PIDO to look through the dungeon, but he decided to let the dwarves have their fun exploring the dungeon. Reason being, he had learned enough things about the dwarves from Sirram to know that exploration of an unknown dungeon was the best possible entertainment they could possibly have, next to their love for a righteous battle. The only thing that he was concerned about was Kormor. He had abandoned Kormor, on his way to the valley, for the sake of speed, and he knew that Kormor would be sorely disappointed when he finds out that the battle was already over. He felt sorry for the little guy.

“Umm, Serina, why don’t we head back to Tovon through the dungeon?” Actually, Calb preferred the outside view, but he was reluctant to run into Kormor.

“Yeah, sure, but you will have to tell me about those moves earlier.” Serina was thinking back on the moves he had made while beating down the rear guards.

“What moves are you talking about?”

“Don’t tell me you forgot all about all that spinning and twirling of the staff you did earlier!”

“Oh, that. I thought you were talking about the time when I rushed them bandits at the front entrance.”

“And those twin hurricanes!” Serina added with a pout. She couldn’t believe that Calb had kept such things as secret.

“Are you angry?”

“Of course I am! Why didn’t you tell me you could do all that!?”

“Well, I just found out about it recently when I was talking with your grandfather before we left, and as for the moves with the staff, I didn’t know I would be able to do all that until I have tried it. It just became natural to me. I just knew where to step and where to turn while handling my staff. Do you remember the gifts I have received from the Guardians Pleevon and Lamea?”

“Yeah,”

“Apparently the gift from Lamea made me similar to native Lameans in that I, now, also have an affinity for martial arts and same goes with magic.”

“Isn’t that a cheat?”

“Well, isn’t that what makes me “Oh So Special?” Calb stuck his tongue out to Serina as a tease.

“What? Do you think you have outgrown me? Huh? Do you want me to beat the stuffing out of you again?”

“Ha ha…No, that is not necessary.” Calb stuck both of his hands out to his front and shook them side to side with a smile, trying to calm her down. Even though he had received the gift from Lamea the Warrior, Calb was still nowhere near Serina’s level. Just receiving the gift of affinity for martial arts does not equal years of training acquired by martial arts experts. “But why don’t we talk about this later, and how about we head back?”

Serina looked at Calb with suspicion. “What are you hiding? Why are you in a rush to return?”

Calb returned Serina’s look with a timorous, defensive body language. Though his anxiety was due to his wish to not run into Kormor, his guilty feeling toward Kormor reacted toward Serina because of her suspicious tone of voice. “Well, nothing in particular, but I had thought it would be better if we don’t see Kormor for a while, until today’s excitement settles down….”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well…”

“Huff…Huff…There you are!” The very dwarf Calb wanted to see the least appeared, just like the old sayings that says, ‘Speaking of the devil….If you speak of a tiger….Speaking of the wolf….etc.’

“So where is the action?” Kormor asked eagerly. Even though Kormor had seen the littered bodies of the bandits in the entrance of the dungeon, it was not unlikely that the battle was pushed to the inside of the dungeon. Actually he had hoped that was the case, because, in his heart, he had missed the thrill of a battle for too long! For dwarves that had immigrated to the Lamea Plane from the Pleevon Plane, living as a secret colony of dwarves in the land of humans, that was the one thing they had to sacrifice, opportunity for righteous battles.

“Umm Kormor, the battle’s over.” Calb responded apologetically.

“Yeah short stuff; you missed out on the fun.” Serina had obviously gotten comfortable with Kormor to be calling him ‘short stuff.’

With dejected face, Kormor moped. “So it did end…without me…. I had my hopes up because it had been a while since, last, I got to re-don a warrior’s spirit. I have missed it so, since our arrival here from Pleevon Plane.”

There are sacrifices we all must make in life, and Kormor, as well as other dwarves of the Tovon city had given up on their life back on Pleevon Plane, in order to settle in Lamea Plane where they can live out their lives without any disgrace over their lack of magical affinity. They knew that they would be missing out on occasional skirmishes they have had with their archenemies the Goblins and Orcs, and they also knew that they would have to live a life of secrecy so that the Lameans do not suspect other planes besides Lamea Plane, as that was the condition set forth by the Lamea the Warrior for letting them a special pilgrimage to the Lamea Plane. However, we do not always know how we will feel after our future endeavors. We think that we will handle our future happenings with conviction and pride, but we forget to consider what we will miss. It is so because we do not always know what we are taking for granted during our present life.

To Serina and Calb, it was obvious that Kormor could hardly contain himself due to disappointment. Of course Serina would have no way of knowing how Kormor was abandoned by Calb, but just seeing dejected Kormor, Calb felt very guilty for what he had done. He didn’t know what to say. Knowing that he must do something, Calb started to walk toward Kormor, trying to think of something positive to say to Kormor. Then a sudden gush of wind passed by both him and Serina, and accompanying the wind was couple of big green blurs zipping front of them and heading toward Kormor.

Calb instantly recognized the blurs. There was no way he could not have recognized them. Why? Because he had spent nearly 70 years of his life fighting them, back in the world of science! Yes, what he saw were the Filtons! Though he had been living a pretty, stress free lifestyle in this world of magic, away from the concerns of his old world, it would be impossible for Calb to have erased his memory of the Filtons in less than a half a year.

“Kormor!” Calb motioned to Serina and ran toward Kormor. Though they had raided bandit’s secret dungeon and captured the remaining bandits, he had no clue as to why they would abduct dwarves. That was until he saw the Filtons. Everything made sense to him now! He knew exactly what was going on. Filtons were greedy race of insects that had insatiable desire for something they do not have, and just from having visited the dwarves in their city of Tovon and seen their exceptional skills in production of magic infused items it was not hard to determine what they wanted from the dwarves. They wanted dwarves produced, magical items, and thus the repeated abductions of industrially skilled dwarves!

Taking into the consideration that Calb have been living a life of a martial artist for the past four months, as well as his recent acquisition of affinity for martial arts, his reaction was very quick. However, the Filtons had a jump start, and on top of that, they were flying. As such, even before Calb could reach Kormor, the two Filtons grabbed the, less than vigilant, Kormor and headed out of the dungeon.

Not wasting any time, Calb recreated the twin whirlwinds and bolted after the Filtons, but by the time he had exited the dungeon, all he could see were the flying figures of the two gigantic praying mantises sharing the load called Kormor. There was no way Calb could catch flying insects by running, despite the help from the whirlwinds.

“How..how is this possible?” All Calb could do was stare at the disappearing insects and a small dot in between them with a pair of dangling legs of Kormor.

“What are those gigantic insects?” Serina caught up to Calb standing by the exit.

“They are the Filtons. The enemies I have been fighting for most of my life.”

“How is it that they are here? I thought you were the only one that ended up in our world from your world?”

“That’s what I had thought as well, but I can’t deny what I see right now. They are definitely Filtons.” Calb had brought out the 3D image from his PIDO to monitor Kormor. All he could hope for was for the Filton’s destination be somewhere close enough where his PIDO can track Kormor. The only consolation was that Kormor was one of the individuals that Calb had already inserted his miniature PIDO before the operation, and although he was not able to communicate with Kormor due to the distance between them being so far, Calb was still seeing Kormor’s signature beep on his 3D map.

“Can you talk to him?”

“No. I have tried without a reply. Luckily, I am still able to pick up the miniature PIDO that I shot into him before the operation. Though I don’t know whether there is a limitation placed upon the stability of the miniature PIDO due to too much distance between it and the original, it is my guess that I would be able to pick up the signal, even if it goes out of my PIDO’s range, once I am closer to him. Though I want to follow him right now, considering we don’t know just how many of them are, it would be better to, first, consult with Sirram before we do anything.”

Calb looked at Serina and said, “We must rescue him!”

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-----Mooshoo-----