About a few hours after the carriage set off, it was time for a break. Kins are fast, but they have low stamina: They are still the quickest mode of transport.
Jumping out of the carriage, Mizuki yelled to Astrid, "Look up!"
Doing so, she saw a purple dragon soar through pass the clouds. It roared and sailed over them.
"Ooh! So cool!"
"Right?"
Wrong. The dragon made a U-turn, heading right back at them. The duo get ready to fight.
"I'll send you up with my magic, okay?"
Mizuki nodded, and the patch of land he was on raised up. This gave him a huge boost, so he took the opportunity to jump and launch himself to the dragon.
"Time to finally use this new sword."
He unsheathed his blade and infused his mana into it. The blade appeared, a light blue mist drifting off it. Mizuki held his arm out forward and pierced right through the dragon's heart.
"Bullseye."
It screamed in pain before falling to its inevitable death. In spite of that, Mizuki screeched for help while falling.
"I got you."
Astrid makes a hole and fills it with water. The falling boy that landed in it, came out soaking and grumpy.
"Thanks..."
"What was that?" replied Astrid, smugly.
"I said thank you! Now let's go back onto the carriage."
The other passengers applauded Mizuki's performance, then settled back into their carriages. They set off, once again.
***
A few days, and many nights later, they were dropped off by the carriage.
The rider pitied them.
"This is as far as we'll go, I'm afraid. I don't have an issue with you, but the city.... It frightens me."
He was reassured by Astrid.
"It's all good. I understand, I'm still a bit nervous myself. We'll be fine for the rest of the journey."
The man smiled and took off.
"Now," She turned to Mizuki, "On we go."
Minutes afterwards, Mizuki seemed to be confused.
"Astrid, what abilities do you actually have? Because we have a while before we get to the city, and I know like nothing about you, if thats alright?"
"Sure. I don't really know what my power is called but I heard Baron call me a Misfit. Any idea on what that is?"
"No clue, to be honest. Doesn't seem like the type of thing to be proud about, though. I think it's best to keep that to ourselves."
Astrid bobbed her head in agreement.
"So, you know any training methods for magic?"
"Eh.. our training would be totally different. You're a mage, and I'm a swordsman." He said this while getting a sandwich out of his bag and chowing it down. "Take this."
He gave Astrid a ring.
"Oh, proposing to me already?" said Astrid.
"No! Just wear it! Kenta gave it to me. It's to decrease your mana core tier to a 2. You don't know how to supress aura yet so it's been surging out of you. You look so suspicious."
She put the ring on her middle finger. It felt like a huge wall was blocking mana from flowing through her body.
"What about you?"
"I'm going to use an iron sword temporarily. And..." Mizuki lifts up his trousers from the bottom. "I'm wearing these weights to supress my speed."
Astrid lifted her hand as if to try out her abilities to find that she could only use water and earth magic. 'That's annoying.'
***
A month passed by quick, and the pair were getting a bit too strong too quickly from defeating monsters, even with the handicap.
"Maybe we should just focus on getting to the city."
"Yeah."
***