The Lone Wanderer

There was something strange about the creature, its plumage glowing brightly for some reason, the wind swirling behind its wings leaving a green trail in its passing. Yet even these afterimages faded a second later, the boy’s bleeding body the only evidence of the encounter.

“Sarin, are you ok?!” Rodrick reached for his cousin.

His wounds looked nasty, but he should be conscious. Or so he thought. Tipping the boy over, the blood froze in Rodrick’s veins as he noticed Sarin’s lifeless eyes staring at nothing.

“H-How?!” he struggled to believe it. The injuries were serious, but not lethal.

“Run! NOW!!” the spectacled girl suddenly shouted, her frightened demeanour dropped like a bad act. She grabbed the other two by the wrists, dragging them along as she ran towards the town.

Rodrick tossed them a glance, debating for a second whether to stop them, before shaking his head. Their priority right now was to defend themselves against the mysterious creature. The peasants, they could handle later.

Standing back-to-back with Bessinda, they scanned their surroundings, on the lookout for the strange bird. It didn’t take them long to find it, as it didn’t even bother hiding. It was perched atop a thick branch a few dozen metres away, looking at them playfully.

“Yellow?” Bessinda asked in confusion.

It was true. A cursory glance via Mana Sense revealed a bright Yellow star thrumming in the crow’s sternum. Its size fit too. However, there were plenty of things out of place, making it different to any beast they’d seen before. A series of Yellow lines branched out of the bird’s core, filling its entire frame like veins. They reached everywhere, except for a band looping around its abdomen which appeared empty for some reason. The same markings appeared on its plumage in Rodrick’s regular sight, though they were a deeper, amber colour.

Beyond that, a second set of lines covered the monster’s body. These were a humble Red colour through Mana Sense, a faint green otherwise. They didn’t look like veins, instead swirling throughout the creature’s visage like gales of wind. Just what was this monster?! Was it using magic, somehow?!

“Don’t worry about Micky. He’s going to sit this one out.” a male voice came from Rodrick’s right.

Still weary of the monstrous crow, he only dared to take a glimpse at the newcomer by the corner of his eyes. He was a young man of average height, two sets of lines glowing on his own body, just like the beast. They were working together! Though his were both Orange through Mana Sense, silver and cyan in his normal vision.

The newcomer wielded a cyan rod – some kind of quarterstaff, perhaps? Normally, Rodrick would have laughed at a pure construct of such a low grade, but he wasn’t in the mood to take anything lightly right now.

“Who the fuck are you?!” Bessinda hissed. “Are you the one who killed the others at the border?”

The man didn’t bother responding. The lines on his skin grew even brighter, his muscles bulging as motes of mana leaked out of his pores. At first, they shrouded him in a dual halo, but they soon blended together into wisps of teal. The young man’s flesh turned crimson all over, as beads of sweat formed one after the other.

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“Shoot him down!” Rodrick yelled, not daring to wait any longer.

At the same time, he launched two pressurized orbs of water at him, trying to blast his head off. Bessinda followed up with a couple fireballs of her own a moment later.

The intruder didn’t seem to mind the attacks, however. Having seemingly expected them, he spun the rod in his hands, smashing the spells apart one after the other, slowly advancing towards them.

Each of his steps was measured and heavy, raising a screen of mud. As for his blows, they shattered the projectiles into fiery flares or splashes of water. Together, the colourful splotches of brown, orange and blue painted quite the contrast against the dull tapestry of the Grisly Bog, but Rodrick didn’t care to appreciate it.

He didn’t pause for a second, and neither did Bessinda. The bastard couldn’t possibly deflect all the projectiles! His weapon might be harder than it should’ve been, but its durability wasn’t without limits. It already bent and cracked with each blow, forcing that asshole to keep flooding it with mana.

Drawing more power from their cores, the cousins continued their relentless barrage, occasionally throwing the crow a fleeting glance – just to make sure it wouldn’t interfere.

And just when their opponent crossed about half the distance to them, the cyan construct finally snapped in half. The young man had to bob his head, barely dodging a fireball aimed at his face.

‘Took you long enough.’ Rodrick grinned.

He still had no idea how an Orange spell had survived this long against their own, but it didn’t really matter. Their opponent was screwed without it. Or was he?

The young man clicked his tongue in annoyance, but he didn’t seem to panic. Contrary to Rodrick’s expectations, the broken Quarterstaff didn’t dissipate either! Its owner kept holding the two pieces, now wielding them separately as he resumed his steady march towards them.

“What the fuck are you?!” Bessinda snapped, gathering a much greater volume of mana in her hands.

“Don’t! He’s just baiting you!” Rodrick tried to stop her, but she didn’t listen.

She unleashed four larger fireballs at the man. This time, he didn’t even try parrying them, choosing to leap out of the way instead. Clearly, he was smart enough to not try pitting his broken weapon against a Yellow’s all-out-attack. Somehow, the bastard could read all of their intentions!

Even worse, his reserves never seemed to run out. The man kept replenishing them with each breath. That idiot, Bessinda, hadn’t realized they’d already lost!

“Dodge!” Rodrick warned her, as he saw the two rods spinning towards her.

At least she listened this time, barely avoiding them.

Still, she fell limp into the mud a second later, having been hit by something.

“How?” he wondered, noticing there was less of the teal smoke shrouding his opponent’s body than before. Had he used it to fuel some kind of sneak attack?

Shaking the pointless questions out of his head, he turned around to leave. He wasn’t out of mana yet, but he could tell he was outmatched. Even if he could somehow catch the bastard unprepared, the crow was still looking at him with hunger in its piercing silver eyes.

‘It’s pointless! There’s no way I can outrun them!’

He didn’t even bother trying, as the spectacled girl emerged from the trees ahead, cutting his path forward. They were all in cahoots!

“You guys were a disappointment.” the young man spoke. “The other group were much tougher than you.”

Rodrick clenched his fist in anger, though he didn’t retort. He knew it was true. Their lower combat ability was why their family only sent them on low-risk missions like this. Who could have expected it would turn out this way?!

“What do you want?” Rodrick spat, evaluating his situation.

“Many things…” the young man said. “But from you? Only a few answers.” he added, inching closer.

Rodrick didn’t miss how the bastard exchanged a glance with the girl.

‘Maybe I can try taking her hostage? She doesn’t look like a fighter. She didn’t participate in the scuffle just now.’

The odds of this working were laughable, but he didn’t see a better option. Yet, just when he was about to go through with his makeshift plan, the young man spoke again.

“Don’t bother.” he said, manifesting a teal sickle in each hand. “Just spare us both the pointless effort and empty your core.” he added, his tone not leaving much room for debate.

‘How did he know?’ Rodrick wondered, taking another look at his opponent’s face.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The silver lines reached into the bastard’s eyes, his pupils glowing. Was this how he kept reading their intentions?

Gritting his teeth, he slowly extended his arms to his sides, pouring what little mana he had left harmlessly by his feet. He did briefly consider using the puddle for a sneak attack, but the young man narrowed his eyes, clearly having sensed it too.

“I know about your bloodline, so don’t try anything funny with it either.”

Rodrick sighed, knowing he was fucked.

“What do you want to know?”

The young man smiled coldly.

“Everything.”