Where did this pale, gloomy guy even come from?! I specifically hid inside of a graveyard I had yet to rob of its goods so that there would be less chance of running into problems! And yet… And yet! This small man in a dainty little cloak somehow wandered in?!
Not only did he dare appear in the same room as me, but he also stared directly at the coffin I was hiding in. I saw it through a crack in the wood. He locked eye contact with a damned coffin!
Talk about bad luck… It’s like my fortune is bad for some reason.
Since that random man had very clearly noticed that something was off, I didn’t waste time playing games and launched the coffin’s door right at him. That thing hadn’t even been connected to the rest of the coffin to begin with.
To my surprise, this frail-looking, short man, who would seem more at home with doctors attending to him, threw himself to the side and performed a stylish and unnecessary roll with suspicious agility. Especially suspicious was the fact that he managed to instantly reposition himself and stand back up afterwards.
Only then was I able to spot the sword sheathed at his waist, illuminated by faint sunlight peering through a hole that was supposed to be a window.
I snarled, an attempt at expressing myself that ended up looking the same as when I try to smile. The young man seems quite shaken as he takes in my appearance, being just fifteen centimeters short of being two meters tall, with a bear trap for a jaw and generally abnormal body proportions… It is understandable for him to be taken aback.
“We–Were you n–o–ot taught to not st–st–stare at ladies?”
Steel gnashes against steel as I open my maw as wide as it can get, rushing straight toward the frightened youth, hoping to have his skull pop in between my teeth like a tomato before he can even have the chance to unsheathe his weapon. I halt in my tracks mid-way, I know what fear looks like, and he loses it as the initial stupor fades away.
He frowns and willfully stands his ground. This gives me a bad feeling, and for good reason. As soon as I stop, a blueish ball of some kind is launched out of his palm. I barely manage to avoid it as it continues its course and leaves a gaping hole larger than itself through the ceiling.
A damned mage! And what was that?! Did he seriously just cast a mana bullet at me? The most basic spell of all? Am I only worth this much? Are you mocking me because I was never able to even manage that?! Why did I even stop and dodge? Can such a spell even harm me?!
I seethe. I thought that I had gotten over my hatred of magic and those who practice it, but the sheer frustration and anger that I had accumulated as a little girl had never truly gone away. I hated the way those teachers would look at me like I was an idiot, and I hated the way my parents would look at me like I was a failure!
You bastards are magically neutered, too! How dare you judge me?! You’re the ones responsible for my inability to control mana!
It might be a bit much to be set over the edge by the mere sight of a single spell. I do realise that I am boiling with anger over what is essentially nothing, but that wrath does not strip me of my superior intelligence and reasoning skills.
I am just expressing my feelings. And unfortunately, this absolute stranger will have to serve as the stand-in for people who are probably all dead or decrepit old fools by now…
Before this young mage gets the chance to do anything else, I take hold of another nearby coffin, throwing it at him. He seems to have gathered his thoughts completely by now, probably realising that regular coffins being slung at him with nothing but brute force weren’t a threat.
A faint blue and wavy glow manifests for a few moments as he casts what I would assume to be a simple pulse of mana. Another very simple and basic spell. The old coffin is reduced to splinters with ease, but his gaze flickers once that happens.
Realising that this was a distraction only now, huh?
He hastily erects a mana barrier, outstretching both arms to maintain it as though the spell needed to be physically held in place. I may be incapable of even the most basic things when it comes to energy manipulation, but I was taught the theories in abundance, still, and I remembered it all.
Doing unnecessary movements like this was usually the mark of a beginner. They needed to do obvious movements to cast spells, using their arms like wands to direct the mana within them rather than simply manifesting whatever they needed by simply willing their mana to bend to their will…
Here, his first instinct was to create a barrier as he saw me preparing to launch several items in quick succession. It would be a good idea if he weren’t a mere trainee.
Several coffins crashed into the barrier, alongside chairs and whatever tools I could get my hands on… As neat as magic might be, a flimsy little barrier that you needed to use your hands to maintain could easily be broken through using brute force.
This is exactly what happened when I picked up the table in the middle of the room and swung it right at the mage. Like glass, the barrier shattered into pieces, dispersing back into regular… Wisps? Whatever a single piece of that was called.
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Unfortunately, the barrier did its job one last time before succumbing, and the table was diverted off its course, allowing the young mage to not get hit and subsequently run out of the room into the graveyard.
Oh no, you’re not going anywhere! No witnesses!
During the short exchange, the soft rain had turned into a torrential downpour, and to make things worse, the sun was close to completely disappearing over the horizon, so essentially, visibility was horrendous.
Only the glowing orb of light provided good illumination at the moment…
He stared at the entrance to the room, all sounds covered by the raindrops, hand outstretched, ready to fire mana bullets at the slightest signs of movement.
Who said that I needed to use doors, though?
Ramming straight through the flimsy wall of piled-up rocks, a swing of the arm caught the mage in the back of his shoulder, sending him flying as I felt the satisfying sensation of bones breaking.
He cried out in pain as he rolled into the dirt, which was rapidly turning into mud. I knew that his pain was genuine as I felt a flood of negative emotions… That spicy anger… That delectable fear… And that hint of sorrow… Why did he feel sad from the very moment he spotted me? I don’t remember ever meeting this guy…
But no matter, I wasn’t planning on asking questions to a mage. People who could spawn projectiles out of thin air weren’t the kind that I wanted to bother extracting negative emotions out of.
Running up to him, I stomped down onto his head, but using a pulse of mana, he pushed himself out of the way, using his hand to lift himself off the ground. Our eyes met. I do not like the way he stares at me one bit.
His left arm is hanging loosely, he is covered in mud, and it looks like he could drop unconscious at any moment. He was already completely drenched by the rain.
He finally unsheathed his blade.
It looks somewhat familiar… Didn’t Benait’s sword look the exact same?
Nonsense, even if he is affiliated with that guard, how would he have known where to look to find me? By just randomly checking everything suspicious that happened inside the city? Nonsensical.
The rain further intensified, and a flash of lightning illuminated a distant cloud. The sound of thunder reached the graveyard five seconds later. It was at this moment that the mage swung his blade, launching a concentrated slash of mana straight at me.
It was a good thing that spells could be seen even by non-mages, and even better that everything this one did was preceded by a wide, telegraphed movement, allowing me to move out of the way… But this young man must have decided to stop playing around as he repeatedly swung his sword using his usable arm.
Casting blue slashes after blue slashes like some madman, clearly deciding to say hell to the concept of preserving energy as he attacked with wild abandon, nearly toppling over due to the width of his attacks on multiple occasions, but the damned mage just wouldn’t fall.
Damnit! Several of the slashes hit me, leaving cuts into my bones of steel, and severing pieces of growing flesh.
The latter would bleed abundantly when struck, but what really mattered was my steel body, even with the slashes, thankfully, couldn’t just carve right through me. The damage was mounting with every hit.
Seeing no end to the mage’s recklessness, I lunged forward and ignored a slash that left a gash across my face, opening my maw wide as I basically threw myself at him.
“Foul beast!”
He spoke his first words since the start of this, and at the same time, he twisted his body and put his useless arm between the rest of him and me, letting me clamp down on it.
I bear the full force of my jaw down on the useless arm, but it is not reduced to goo as it should be. My only thought is that he is focusing as much of his mana as possible into reinforcing his arm, rendering me unable to crush the limb easily.
He underestimates my means, however, rather than simply trying to overcome his defences, I reel back both of my fists, slamming down onto him.
They are met with a barrier.
He is holding on.
Annoying bastard… Worse comes to worse, I started shaking my head violently from side to side, similarly to how an alligator would dismember its prey, but the mana augmentation in his arm is proving durable still, refusing to be torn apart whilst his barrier stops him from being slammed into the mud at full force.
I keep on hammering down with my fists. I can’t feel the progress, but I know that it has to be weakening. I just have to keep trying, having to focus so utterly on not getting turned into a pulp. There is simply no way for him to actually fight back.
Something hit me in the head. Or rather, something went through my head–Namely, a sword that had been stabbed too deeply through my freaking face, the crossguard was pressed up against my steel skull.
It… Hurts like hell, but otherwise? I’m perfectly fine.
“Nic-Nice try…”
This little action of his came with dire consequences, as imbuing his sword and right arm with the sharpness and strength to pierce my skull had to take away from other places, the next sudden motion I made with my head tears his left arm off, and he is thrown on the mud, hard.
In fact, fortune must have realised that it had been unjust towards me, as he was not only flung against the ground, but straight into the side of a tombstone as well.
That bastard is still conscious…
As much as he seemed frail and sickly, it seemed like this mage actually had some physical training and was, thus, not as fragile as he looked when draped in his cloak.
In any case, not liking that he somehow managed to find a way to harm me when he was literally ensnared by my jaw, I did rush forward with the intent to stomp down on him until his skull was fused with the mud beneath.
I can only take one step forward before a blue glow obstructs my sight. The sword lodged in my skull was growing luminous, and before I could even reach out to try and do something about it, it exploded.
Taking with it a large portion of my head above my maw.
I was… Still fine, surprisingly. But the blast took out my eyes.
I can’t see shit! Don’t you dare think you won! I remember where you are! Let’s see if you can move out of the way before I get to you!
Not to mention, his torn-off arm is ready for consumption, I might just regain my sight soon enough…