The sound of the explosion is deafening, drowning out my yelp of surprise as the ground shakes. Heat and, surprisingly, water wash over me. Flying debris harmlessly bounces off my body, small pokes below my waist.

[Run, Master Lou!]

I follow the instruction, opening my eyes as I sprint forward. Devastation. The hunters have been annihilated. Bodies are strewn haphazardly throughout the area. The force of the explosion gouged a crater in the road. And everything, everything, is scorched.

Oi, what in the Abyss? Why was that so strong? That’s master caster level damage. Adding a bit of air to fire makes it hotter not…whatever this is.

No, I can worry about my unnaturally destructive spell later. My gaze finds Kierra and I focus on her, ignoring the destruction left in my wake as I hurry to catch up. She glances at me as I come up beside her. “The pet?”

“She said it was good for multiple targets…” She didn’t lie.

“Coo!” Bell appears at my feet as we turn a corner. [An impressive display, Master Lou.]

Too impressive. Saints, are all those people dead? They sure looked it. Their armors were on fire. I…ah, damn it! I do not regret this! I gave them fair warning. They were going to attack me, possibly kill me. But it doesn’t feel good to have maybe massacred a bunch of people by accident.

Not to mention this is not getting swept under the rug. Forget the lord and the law. The hunters are going to want my head on a pike. Or they’ll treat me like the Abyss incarnate. If I wasn’t famous, or infamous, in this city before, I certainly will be tomorrow.

A sharp pain to the back of my head jolts me out of my thoughts. I turn to Kierra, who is watching me with a knowing look. “Think on the battle once it is finished.”

I’ve already told myself the same thing. I can mull over my feelings later. First, we need to pick up Gajin, Nomad, and the barmaid. Then we need to get everyone back home before every guild master in Quest storms us.

The wind howls and something pinches my shoulder.

[Archer, above and behind us.]

I look over my shoulder to see a woman flying after us, another arrow already notched. For a brief moment, a vision of Aurelius overlaps her. Perhaps I recognize his brand of disdain, the arrogance of someone used to being above others in a literal sense.

Gritting my teeth, I stop and leap toward her. She curses and tries to move aside but a quick, clumsy burst of air knocks her back into my path. A gust of wind tries to do the same to me but she severely underestimates my weight and power. It feels like a light breeze is washing over me as I grab her ankle.

With a rare lack of consideration for my strength, I hurl her toward the closest building.

I assumed she would slow herself down or at least try to cushion the impact. If she tries, she’s either too slow or too weak. She hits the building and…splatters. That’s the best way I can describe it in the brief moment I observe her before sprinting to catch up to my wife.

After a few minutes of running, Kierra comes to a stop, throwing out an arm to stop me as well. “What’s wrong?” I ask, gaze darting around and finding nothing. Not for a good distance. If there were survivors of my spell, they’ve thought better of pursuing us.

“Can you feel it?” Her eyes are glowing. “A predator is stalking us.”

I have no idea what she’s talking about and am ready to hurry her along when I hear it. Footsteps, kind of far away but getting closer. They sound wrong. There’s an odd cadence to the steps, a hesitation. And the sounds are…getting louder faster than they should. As if the person is sprinting between each step, but that makes no sense.

“Your mundane senses will not help. Listen to your heart. Your instincts.” She sucks in a deep breath. “The air…it trembles. They are extending their domain.”

Trembling air? Domain? “What—”

From the moment I met her, Kierra has pushed me to be stronger. In the beginning, her priority was getting me to change the way I reacted to danger. Most people in a dangerous situation hesitate if they don’t outright freeze. Whether because of fear or a want to analyze the danger makes no difference. Both die as the danger is not considerate enough to wait for them.

My savage wife trained that very normal tendency out of me. She hurled knives and other sharp instruments at me until I learned to move. Duck, dodge, cast, or lash out with a fist, it didn’t matter so long as I did something. Anything.

I don’t see the person dressed head to toe in black and wielding two daggers as they appear behind me. My body subconsciously recognizes danger and I drop as a knife darker than a new moon slices through where my neck was a moment ago.

In the same moment, Kierra lashes out with a kick, catching them in the side. I hear the unmistakable sound of bones shattering as they fly away but before they smack into a building, the figure disappears.

I catch my wife’s arm before she can sprint into the building where I hear our attacker’s pounding heart. “They are injured and moving that way requires great strength,” she says without turning my way. “Quickly, Lou. Before they escape.”

“No.” Are you kidding me? Whoever that is has the null affinity. A well-trained null affinity. I’m sure she has no idea how valuable that is in this kingdom. Important people are going to be upset if we hunt down someone like that, self-defense or not. More importantly, they retreated. I…enough people have died tonight. “We’re going.”

“The battle does not end until the enemy is dead.” She pulls against my grip but I hold steady.

“Now, Kii.”

She stiffens and turns to me, eyes narrowed. I meet her look with my own glare and give her another tug. Slowly, her shoulders relax and her lips turn up in a smirk. After the next tug, she moves on her own, sprinting away from the mysterious null caster.

[I have brought what you requested, my summoner.]

A lithe shadow turns onto the road from a side street. It takes a moment for the instinctive fear the creature invokes to fade as I recognize Geneva. Huddled in a ball against her chest is a red object.

No. Saints…that’s a man, isn’t it? One of the kidnappers. He’s just covered head to toe in blood. Fresh, dripping blood that forms a trail behind us.

What…what did you do?

[I limited casualties as you ordered. No one died.]

Why is there so much blood if no one died?!

[Your kingdom’s casters are too used to controlling their battles. They hunt monsters on their own terms, on pre-determined battlefields, with pre-determined strategies. Give them an intelligent enemy when they are unprepared and they are useless. Are you sure you do not want to conquer this kingdom? You would be doing them a favor.]

Don’t go using conquest to distract me. And we need to talk about the spells you’ve been teaching me.

[Oh? Were they effective?]

Oh, sure. Very effective. Maybe too effective.

She laughs in my mind, a low evil chuckle that makes my stomach cramp and sends a delightful shiver down my spine. [My summoner, there is no such thing.]