The sun was low behind him, and it was casting the horizon into the long, bleeding sweeps of red and gold. Kai hauled himself down the dusty old road, each step heavy, each gasp a harsh, chilled one in his chest. His body ached from the fight with the Shadowfang Wolf, but behind the pain was a thin, odd string of pride. He had lived. He had fought against a rampaging monster, drawn on a reservoir of strength he did not even know he had, and lived to see another dawn.
"I'm not the same as I was…", he snarled under his breath, his lips curling up in a downbeat, tired smile. He lifted his hand, concentrating for a moment. A thin, pearlescent sheen of light, the summary of his shield magic, clung to his palm before it dissolved. It was thin, trembling even, but it was his. "I can defend myself. I can actually survive."
The words themselves provided him with a glimmer of hope, but the world beyond his ears told a different story. The evening breeze whispered through the tall grass, no longer softly swaying but warning softly in a thousand different ways. The shadows of the warped trees stretched out and spread along the path like outstretched claws. The woods ahead of him, which he would have to hack through in order to continue on down the trail, became denser, darker, and for the first time, the trail that had seemed so conveniently located on his initial day of walking seemed less trail and more trap, one leading him exactly where someone—and now, somehow, something—wanted him to go.
His pride turned bitter to an ancient, tingling paranoia.
Kai's ears pricked at the sound—not wind, but the hard weight of something forcing its way through the underbrush. His footsteps ceased. His heart, its dull, tired thudding, erupted into wild, feral thudding against his chest. He gazed wildly down the line of trees, his fingers still wrapped around the rough rock he still clutched, every muscle in his body coiled to the quivering hair, waiting.
Then, it appeared.
A wolf.
Its coat the black shade of soot, its eyes like smoldering hot coals. Plumes of smoke curled from its nostrils with every intake of air, and the ground beneath its paws was dry and charred. As Kai held his stare upon the creature, a fresh, unfamiliar panel flashed into his vision, overlaying the beast.
[Name: Shadowfang Pyre Hound]
[Level: 4]
[Health: 2000/2000]
[Stamina: 1800/1800]
[Mana: 800/800]
[Magic Type: Fire]
[Status: Mana Bound (Controlled)]
Kai felt his blood freeze. Level 4. Magic Type: Fire. This was not an evolution of the wolf he had fought before; this was a magic user. Twice his pool of mana, its pool. The status Mana Bound (Controlled) fixed his worst fear: this was not an animal; this was a device that had been made specifically for him.
The creature approached, its paws gliding along the ground softly smoking with each movement. It was not growling like any creature; its white glowing red eyes are set on him with an unhuman fierceness, waiting for a command.
Kai backed away, throwing up his trembling arms. "Not again…," he panted, shaking. He strained to invoke his power, to will his shield—his only magic—to appear. He knew it was futile, but it was all he could manage.
The Pyre Hound's jaws opened wide, but they were not snarling. A ball of burning fire occupied them.
With a scream of terror, Kai channeled all his determination into his defense. "Barrier!" A quavering, unsure barrier of light formed just in time for the wolf to launch the fireball at it. The fireball crashed into the barrier with a deafening hiss. The shield lasted for a moment, burning hot, before exploding like glass. The rest of the heat washed over Kai, scorching his clothes and sending him crashing back onto the ground. His mana was nearly spent on that one blow.
He sprang to his feet, his mind reeling. The boulder in his hand did him no good. What could a rock possibly do against flame?
The wolf was about to strike again. Kai was at a loss, his store of mana a burning red in his thoughts. He was far outmatched.
This is it… I'm finished… The wolf's teeth were uncovered, another fireball forming in its throat, set to incinerate him.
Then, just as the beast was about to strike, a burst of blinding blue light sliced through the gloom with a shrill shing.
The fireball dissipated into a cloud of steam as the dagger, its metal burning with an icy cold light, drove itself into the Pyre Hound's shoulder. The hound let out a pained yelp and shock, and fell to its side. Out of the darkening silhouettes of trees emerged a figure—a girl, her silver hair cut short, lit up by the failing light of the sun. She wore a loose but vigilant expression on her face, her stance tense with the flowing suppleness of a born fighter. Her other hand held a replica of the same sword, the blade flashing with the same hot, cold power.
"You're a hothead," she stated in a matter-of-fact tone, her eyes narrowing and her blade poised. Her voice was firm and unyielding, the voice of a woman who had done this many times more than she'd lost count.
Kai blinked at her, dumbfounded and bewildered, the world still spinning. "Who… who are you?"
The girl said nothing. She wrenched at her wrist, and the dagger thrust home in the wolf glinted in the sunlight and then disintegrated into blue sparks of light that reappeared a moment later in her other hand with a soft, magical pop. The wolf yelped weakly, its leg smoking where the blade had sunk, and sprang off into the darkness and was lost into the night.
She didn't move on him until she'd stored away her weapons. "That dog wasn't after you for food," she said at last, soft and unyielding as she approached him. "It was sent. You are being tracked."
Her words hit the air from Kai, confirming the sickening status he'd seen mere seconds earlier. "Sent? I had it on my system… it read 'Controlled'…"
Before he could speak further, Iris's calm voice poured into his thoughts, grittier than usual, bordering on panicked: She's telling the truth. It's not chance. The mana that fueled the monster was being siphoned from the outside to fuel its fire magic. Someone realizes you're here, Kai. And they don't want you living. or dying.
Kai's breath was stuck in his throat. He fainted. Somebody was pursuing him with magic-casting creatures.
The girl looked at him silently, her expression unreadable. Finally she took up her daggers and went away from him. "If you wish to live, you must be stronger. Your defensive magic is untrained. A real enemy, and it will not take a second. You've already made yourself a target, and that is what will kill you if you remain close by without watching."
Kai crawled to his feet unsteadily, his legs trembling with shock and fatigue. "Wait—at least let me know your name."
She looked back over her shoulder, silver hair glinting in the light of the dying sun. "Elara."
The name hovered in the air, a secret.
Kai swallowed his dry throat, his heart still pounding. "Elara… why'd you save me?"
Her eyes froze again. "Because if you lose here, then the wrong people win. And I'm not going to let that happen."
She vanished into the trees before Kai could even ask her questions, her form swallowed by the shadows like she had never been there to begin with.
Silence fell once again, denser and blacker than it had ever been, broken only by Kai's own rasping breath. He watched her disappearing form, his mind a maelstrom of questions. Who was she? How did she get there? And who were following him?
Iris's voice returned, softer now, a breathed caution. Watch yourself, Kai. Her ice or water magic talent is too strong for a novice. She is playing like a seasoned assassin. Those types never are easy friends. Do not trust anyone completely… not even her.
Kai fell to the ground, his muscles screaming in pain, his mind reeling. He had lived, but the difference in power was horrifically apparent. His shield magic, and only power, was like a wooden buckler compared to a cannon. He wasn't being pursued by beasts; he was being pursued by those who could command them.
And his only defense was a shield that could barely knock back a single fireball.
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