'How is he?'

Isaiah caught himself as he momentarily lost his balance. Running barefoot on top of the heavy carpet wasn't really helping his already abysmal running speed. It was only because they ran first and Titan was carrying his armor and weapon that they managed to gain some ground, but that was quickly disappearing.

Thud thud thud thud,

Despite his massive size and the aforementioned armor, the giant ran as fast as a four-legged beast. It almost looked like he was flying. Isaiah, being that he was behind Nicole who ran faster than him, began to fire off bolts of lightning at their chaser. But without the luxury of being able to aim his attacks meant that only a few reached their target, and even those that did hit didn't stop the giant's charge in the slightest.

'Damn this...' He gritted his teeth. He could feel his heart pounding like crazy, every beat was feeling like he was being beaten by a thick plastic baton. He closed his eyes and focused on running, in front Nicole was breezing through the hallway, their distance was a bit far but not too far that he couldn't hear her ragged breaths as they went across the mansion and its maze-like hallways.

Isaiah continued to look up, focusing most of his consciousness on keeping his foot and breathing as calmly as possible when he was suddenly enveloped by a vast shadow. Panic took over his mind and in desperation, Isaiah began wildly throwing the many statues lining up on the side to his back in an effort to stop the giant, and though it did meet some level of success, the ache in his head began to grow stronger and stronger, and now his sight was beginning to grow blurry.

'Shit... Shit shit shit.'

Thinking that all was lost, Isaiah braced himself for death when Nischa sharply turned right. Isaiah held a nearby statue which allowed him to turn instantly whilst maintaining his speed but at the expense of his soles which burned in pain. Titan meanwhile couldn't stop in time and went past through the hallway.

This gave him some breathing room, but the race wasn't over yet.

"Stop!" Two guards, who were patrolling the area noticed the two running for them and reached out for their weapons.

Nicole was caught unaware and in an effort to protect herself deliberately slipped her foot, her legs turning red from all the static energy she got from her slide. Isaiah meanwhile slowed himself down and reached his hand out, blowing both guards away towards the door.

"Gah..." Nicole tried to stand back up, but her legs refused to move. What's worse, a thin trickle of blood appeared from where her foot was planted.

"Are you alright?"

"Its... It burns, grk..." She tried to stand again, but as she was unused to such pains, it was quite difficult for her. "Just... Just leave me be, go."

Isaiah gritted his teeth, he could just leave her here and be on his merry way, but...

'She looks cute... Very cute,'

If he was in some kind of novel, this would be the moment he could show off his skills and potentially raise her flag in the process. But as he looked to his back, he was beginning to question whether or not it was worth doing that.

Isaiah lacked social skills after all. He may garner her interest, but surely not be able to keep it. Plus he lacked confidence in his ability to stop the giant from chasing after them.

He knew, that despite living a life of high fantasy, he should still ground his mind in reality.

He decided to ultimately leave her. It would not be in his best interest if he were to die here, just to save a woman he could not save. But as he was about to leave her, the sight of her leaning onto the walls, trying to move as fast as she could, made his heartache. His emotions began overtaking his thoughts, and thus, in spite of his best efforts to try and rationalize his actions, he decided to fight.

"I took you far enough... Might as well finish this." Isaiah clicked his tongue and turned around.

Seeing that the puny mage was willing to engage in combat, Titan slowed down and took out his ax.

The fight was quick,

Isaiah crushed all the statues around them but failed to use them as missiles against the giant as his head ached like never before.

"Gah!" He gasped out loud and fell to the ground.

The giant, who had raised his guard, was rather surprised to see this sudden turn of events, but quickly made his move.

"You were brave enough, trying to fight against me... But a fool you are, thinking you could beat me."

"God, damnit!" Isaiah spat out his anger, and lightning raged in his body. "This stupid fucking magic..." The lightning on his body began to intensify, before suddenly disappearing, "DIE!"

Titan reached his ax out to shield himself, but his speed could not overcome the speed of light and was struck by lightning. An explosion rocked the mansion as Titan's massive frame was thrown deep into the halls. Before he could stand back up, Isaiah reached out to the roof and began collapsing it. His head once more ached, but it was a lot softer than it was before...

"Haa, haa, haa, haa..." Isaiah wiped his face, there was blood pouring from his forehead. "This stupid weakness..." He turned around and looked at Nicole, he wanted to look brave and smile at her in an effort to raise more points, but rather than find a face full of admiration, all he saw was her face filled with worry,

"Look out!"

It was too late,

The next thing Isaiah knew, he felt something hard hit his back. Then in the next second, he felt the wind rushing his side as his face crashed straight at a wooden door. Brings it down along with him. Titan was unscathed from the attack, and as Isaiah looked away, he threw the stone ceiling that Isaiah had used to trap him and broke his fucking spine.

"Aaaaah! Aaaaah!" Isaiah screamed and cried. His whole body felt painful and painless at the same time, his mind was filled with thoughts of dying, pain, sadness, and all other negative emotions. His legs felt grainy, his face felt wet, his whole body felt like it was blanketed by warm water, it also didn't help that it was the heavy stone ceiling that squashed his back... "Aaah! Mama! Mama!"

"Herr Knight..." Nicole ran towards Isaiah and held his hand. The stone ceiling was too heavy for her to carry, but she had to do something. "Err, err..." Looking around, she noticed that they were in a massive well-lit ballroom.

Tables and chairs lined the sides, with some of them covered by blankets. Trays of silverware were littered about, a sign that some kind of preparations were being made here before the servants abandoned their post. She dug her hands on the scattered cutlery and found a big knife. She then took a look at her arms.

She had been born with an affinity to a magical element, but due to the nature of the said element, she had no proper means of protecting herself, which was the reason that her cuffs were of a weaker grade than what was normally used. And although the chains had been burned away, thus weakening its effects, the cuffs still functioned normally, sucking out the mana she had recovered.

'Unlike the new ones, if I could remove just one of this wrist, I should be able to use magic...' The only problem was, 'I have to cut off my hand for that to happen...'

Both cuffs were a tight fit to her wrist, it would be impossible to just force them out of her arms.

'Healing... Gulp... Healing magic should grow my arm back... But... But...' She looked at Isaiah, the man had fainted, and blood flowed everywhere from his body whilst behind Titan was walking slowly. 'I... I should just run...' She told herself, 'He... He is fainted and, and...' She continued to stare at Titan and felt a shiver run down her spine as she felt his icy glare, 'I... I can't run...'

She looked at Isaiah, "I must save him first..."

She remembered the weakness of her current situation. Nicole was born with the affinity to the healing element, which meant that though she could heal herself she lacked any combat capabilities. Well, even if she did have any she would not have stood any chance against Titan. The man protecting her may have failed, despite his combat abilities, but he was able to bring him down before. That meant only he had the chance to give her the chance she needed to escape...

Realizing that she had no other choice and that death was practically at the door, she braced herself and bit her lip...

"Aaaah!" She sliced her wrist off, and the cuff fell off her hands. She shut her mouth and held the lump of her right hand. White light soon wrapped her arm and then, a new hand was growing out of the lump. Nicole fell to the ground, taking multiple deep breaths to calm the burning rage in her hand before quickly making her way to Isaiah.

"Let the light shine through the darkness. And may the balance of life bring him whole. Ultra Heal!"

A bright white light crawled itself towards Isaiah, enveloping him from top to bottom in mere seconds.

Meanwhile, Titan arrived just in front of them. He easily carried the massive chunk of stone that crushed Isaiah, breaking Nicole's concentration. Looking up, her face was filled with terror as she saw Titan stand before her. With a swipe of his hand, she was thrown away from Isaiah, and Titan turned his attention to the slave.

His body was filled with cuts and bruises the massive chunk caused, while blood seeped from all corners of his body. But the timely aid Nicole gave him was enough to keep him alive. Titan picked him up from the head and observed his face.

He was youthful, a single mole on the left side of his face near his lips disturbed his otherwise smooth creamy-brown face. His hair was short, similar to the young nobles from the north. But his muscles were rather lacking, his shoulders were somewhat jelly, and much of his body lacked any sign of a muscle forming up somewhere.

"You are a mage through and through."

Titan finished his examination and looked away, ready to discard his body but then Isaiah opened his eyes and turned to Titan. A sudden strong gust of wind blew him away from Titan's grasp. But as he landed on his foot, they suddenly gave out and he fell to the ground backward,

"Hmmm..." Isaiah bit his lips, his feet had a static feel to them. He looked back and saw Nicole's unconscious body laying on the ground, he reached out to her, "Ni... Lady, lady, are you alright?"

"Wah, ah?" Nicole looked around, "The healing, I... I cannot heal you properly, I am sorry."

"It's alright." Isaiah shook his head, he could still remember the pain he felt at that time. "That said..."

Titan stood in front, ax in his hand, "You are one wonderful specimen..."

"Err, what?"

"To think you could still stand and fight after all that beating, indeed, for a mage you are sturdy."

"You know, I am getting confused here, aren't you here to kill me?"

"Indeed so."

"And you had all the chance to do just exactly that, why didn't you then?"

"Why didn't I? Simple," Titan reached his hand out, "Your fit to be my apprentice,"

"Wha-"

Titan remained quiet and kept his hand out. Isaiah felt Nicole hold his hand as if she was worried. This put him in a rather tough spot,

"Your... Your joking right?"

Titan once more remained silent,

"And if I don't?"

Titan withdrew his hand and pointed his massive ax at Isaiah,

"You... You don't have to join him..." Nicole splurted out, her voice breaking under panic, "I... I can pay you, yes, my father... My father is the duke of Swadia, he can give you appropriate rewards if you deliver me back to him..."

"What good is money to the dead?"

"We can escape... We can still escape, no need to fight..."

"Can you really escape? After this, I will fight properly, no more walking around."

"I... I helped you out, Herr Knight, please... Don't leave me alone,"

"You don't even know his name..."

"Shut up..." Isaiah opened his mouth and turned to Titan, "Just shut up, okay... Do you work for them? Work for the Kilo guy right?"

"Indeed so?"

Isaiah pointed at his chest, "I've been branded, why would I work for someone whose master gave me that mark?"

"Have you ever heard of my name before boy?" His voice sounded much deeper when he saw those words,

"No... And I don't care."

"I see..." Titan brushed the necklace at hanging near his throat, it was a rather large necklace, made purely out of gold, like a plate, embedded with twelve brilliantly shining diamonds. "That should tell you..."

Isaiah looked at his plate, but couldn't make heads or tails about what such a thing entailed. That said, neither did the two others in the room offer him any insights as to what that may be...

The silence was beginning to mount on his psyche. Being the attention of two rather peculiar individuals made Isaiah rather shy as his introverted side was beginning to take hold of his emotions. He was panicking, trying to find a way out of this situation when Nicole suddenly whispered to him,

'I can move now...'

'I see... I'll distract him, then we run,'

'Yes...'

"Run? Run where?" Titan asked, overhearing their conversation,

"Tsk, whatever!" Isaiah stretched both his arms and at once all the silverware in the room began to fly around like a wall of flies,

"No matter what you throw at me..." Titan held his hand out and began to move forward, the silverware's noise and a thick wall covered his vision momentarily and when he finally got out of the tornado of forks, he found both Isaiah and Nicole having runoff,

There were three exits from the ballroom. Though it may be difficult to figure out exactly where the two had run off, Titan knew that all three would converge at the exit. And thus he went through the middle exit.

Both Isaiah and Nicole ran as fast as they could, taking the left door and both unaware of the layout of the mansion. That said, they had begun to unconsciously relax and slow down a bit after realizing that Titan was nowhere to be seen or heard.

As they turned a corner, Nicole froze up in shock as she saw Titan standing not too far from her, she turned her back and bumped onto Isaiah,

"Wha... What's going..."

"Titan..." She looked around and found an open room from the side, "Quick!" She pointed over to the room and the two made their way inside as quickly as they could, they didn't notice the wet floor on the ground and the two fell into each other, buckets of water spilling all over them as mops and brooms and all manner of cleaning paraphernalia fell around their bodies.

The whole place was a mess, it also didn't help that the room was pitch black with the door closed. Thus, in an effort to not create more noise, Nicole simply stayed still in her very compromising spot on top of Isaiah. It also didn't help that the pitch darkness of the room made both very conscious of each other.

Both were healthy young individuals after all.

He was already enamored by Nicole's beauty, but now he got to feel her whole body up close. Her soft but warm breaths were brushing the side of his neck constantly, making him blush redder, while his whole body burned really hot from the lust now beginning to boil deep inside him. Though he did his best to suppress himself, her warm breaths brushing his cheek and that every time she moved her body would brush itself on his didn't help at all.

Even with his best efforts, as this was his first time having such close contact with a lady, his lust began to explode, and the lewd thoughts on his mind simply wouldn't disappear with every passing second.

'Little one, calm down... Don't rise, don't rise... Don't destroy my image now...' Isaiah began to think of plain and simple things like houses and buildings, roads and bridges, hills and mountains that looked like human body parts... 'Calm down, calm down...'

Nicole herself became very aware of Isaiah, she was able to pick up his emotions rather clearly due to the darkness and their close proximity. Despite her efforts, the weight of the mops from behind weighed down on her making it rather difficult to separate herself from him. And then, there was also one thing that she had a hard time trying to ignore no matter how hard she tried.

'Settle down,' She whispered, her voice partly shaken after she felt the poking thing around her legs, 'Not now...'

However, to the grandmaster of loneliness, those words spoken by a beauty had the opposite effects, especially the words 'Not now,' which implied something else entirely. This broke Isaiah's reasoning, his lust ballooned up, instantly consuming his sanity and his body now began demanding to feel her even more. Isaiah tried to stop himself, he knew it was wrong but his hand began to move by themselves, they first touched her back.

He felt her shaking body suddenly grow still when he moved his hand on her back. He felt guilty and told himself not to continue but when she gripped his shoulder tightly, it was giving him mixed signals. Just as he was about to continue on with his adventure, the sudden loud thud of Titan's footsteps made him go limper than a man with erectile dysfunction.

Gone were all notions of perversion on his thoughts as he waited and listened to the sounds of his steps. Even Nicole who took rapid breaths had grown very quiet, both had stifled their breaths. Soon, the footsteps grew quieter and quieter, before eventually growing silent.

Nicole was the first to break the silence, she asked in the lower voice possible,

'Is he gone?'

'I... I think so.' Isaiah took a deep breath and began to move out of Nicole, 'Sorry, for that...'

'It... It's alright, it wasn't your fault...'

'It... Still, I am sorry.'

The room was still dark, and the two, though no longer touching each other were still aware of each other's presence. Silence befell them as they tried to figure out how exactly they could move out of this embarrassing situation when they felt the air suddenly drop...

Isaiah grabbed Nicole and shielded her when the door exploded into a thousand pieces, followed by Titan pulling away from the entire front wall, the stone crumbling from his back... Light entered the room instantly, and their wet figures emerged. Nicole froze still as she stared at Titan's eyes while Isaiah looked back,

All of a sudden, Titan grabbed Isaiah by the neck and lifted him up.

"Gaah!"

Isaiah flailed about choking, he vainly smacked his fist onto Titan's massive arms as his head turned blue,

Nicole broke out of her fear and began to throw at the items that littered their area in an effort to free Isaiah,

"Stop!" She loudly demanded as she struck him with a broom, only for the handle to break, "Put him down! Why are you doing this?"

Titan turned his eyes to Nicole and quietly glared at her. Being subjected to such an intense hate-filled gaze made her breathing grow heavier and her legs began to shake before giving in entirely. With her now silent, Titan turned back to Isaiah only to find him holding his helmet, before erupting into an intense storm. The electricity began to surround his helmet and enter his body,

"Gah!"

The large knight recoiled in pain as he let go of Isaiah. Isaiah took a deep breath to keep himself steady, and without wasting even more movements, turned back and crushed the wall behind them. Taking Nicole by the hand, they then both leaped down and crashed into the ground below, a bush of some kind cushioning their fall. Their fall wasn't too deep and thus both managed to get away with only minor injuries.

"Are you alright?" Isaiah asked Nicole who still looked scared,

"Y... Yes, yes... How about you?"

"Good, now, let's go..."

"Right."

The two then once more bolted themselves towards the open backyard, many of the guards had proceeded inside, leaving only a few to prevent the escapes. Two tried to intercept their paths, but a quick attack from Isaiah brought them down.

This was the most exercise Isaiah had done in his life, and though his body had been very tired and out of energy, he knew that the day was not yet over.