I jolted upright, fully awake, before I even knew why. Luck, Perception, the link to the system, everything screamed in unison. DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

I was still in my small inn room, the scent of old wood and faint cooking smoke lingering from the night before. Soft dawn light touched my face, and the sky beyond the window was beginning to warm with color, the nightly light show still visible. I shoved my feet into my boots with hurried, uneven movements, my heart thudding as the warning washed over me in waves. My hands shook as I fumbled at the laces, tension building in my chest. My fingers steadied, a smile spread across my face, and a deep calm settled over me. Master had arrived. At last. He was here to take us home. My chest swelled with relief. It had been so long, too long. My friends and family would be waiting. Today, we will all go home.

Strange waves kept coming from the back of my head. DANGER! DANGER!

What danger?

There was nothing to fear. Not with Master here. He would see to everything.

I joined the others in the street, each step lighter than the last. The warning still hummed somewhere deep inside my mind, but it was faint now, like a fly you could wave away. Joy was louder. Joy was everything. Master was everything.

Ahead, the way home stood open. I saw my family already stepping through, faces bright. It was happening. Finally.

A powerful shock wave came from the back of my mind and made me wince. Fire ignited in my veins, burning and twisting through me until my pulse pounded in my ears. Steam curled all around me, rising from my body. The river water rose like a wave in Hawaii and moved toward the pier. Master winced and looked around, his eyes scanning the crowd. My whole body shook.

What was happening? What happened to Master? Did I hurt him? No! No! I can't hurt Master! Master is everything!

Another wave, stronger this time, tore through me. It exploded in my head like shattering glass without sound. Black spots appeared in my field of vision, swelling and fading in and out. My head cleared.

A strange person—creature—swayed on his feet, one hand gripping his head. Something snapped inside me, cold clarity flooding in where devotion had been only moments before. I turned invisible, engaged Stealth and Malith's pendant, and shot upward into the air.

The creature steadied itself and looked around. He was tall—at least two and a half meters—skeletal and bald, his bright yellow skin the color of a ripe lemon. His limbs were unnaturally proportioned, the arms long and very thin, the hands dangling past his knees. Behind him hung a portal—not the swirling black portal of doom, but an opening in space rimmed with blue light. Through it stretched an open field of dark blue, almost black grass, where armed figures stood with weapons aimed at those stepping through. For one moment, before I flew up, I felt powerful waves of mana coming through the portal. The other side had high mana. Maybe even very high mana.

The creature's eyes met mine. I was invisible, but he could see me. His hand lifted. I shot sideways, but the edge of his spell grazed my leg. Pain ignited like fire under my skin. I tore away through the air as fast as possible, casting Healing Touch again and again. Each time it halted the pain's spread for a heartbeat before it resumed, creeping back with biting pain.

I flew away as fast as possible, and he shot into the air after me, closing the distance in a blur. The wind roared in my ears as I banked hard to the side and sent a bolt of lightning over my shoulder. It cracked through the air, but he was too fast, twisting away.

A prickle of mana brushed against my senses, sharp and cold. I didn't see the spell, but I felt it coming and rolled upward, the heat of something tearing past me close enough to make my skin buzz. Another surge, this one from above. I dove, spinning as it hissed past, the pressure of it making my ribs ache.

Pain still burned in my leg. I gritted my teeth and poured Healing Touch into it again and again, all the while diving up and down, left and right to escape the spells. The fire in my leg sputtered and died. Breath came easier. My focus snapped back to fighting.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

I called the wind, feeling it gather at my fingertips, and hurled vortex after vortex toward him. Each one released with a crack that snapped in my ears, the air tasting faintly of ozone as they slammed into his path, shoving him off course. He slipped around most, but each one stole a little of his momentum. Between the vortexes, I threw bolt after bolt of lightning. Most missed. Some grazed him, sparking harmlessly over his skin.

One hit his shoulder. Bright arcs crawled across him before fading. He bared his teeth and lashed out, mana pressure shoving against my senses. I rolled aside; the air cracked where I had been. Another pulse. I ducked under it, heat brushing my cheek.

I split my mind. Vortexes spun from one hand. Lightning snapped from the other. Where they met, hellish tornadoes burst into existence, snarling with fire-bright arcs. He twisted through the air, fighting the currents, dodging the strikes. Every time he tried to form a spell, another burst of wind caught him, or a bolt forced him to break away. I kept pressing, faster, harder, filling the sky between us with wind and light until there was no space left for him to breathe, let alone cast.

I split my mind again. The river below surged upward as I pulled water into the fight. Spears of it shot toward him, slicing through the air. Some shattered against an unseen shield; others made him jerk hard to avoid them. I followed with water bullets, sheets of water from above, any form I could force into being.

He closed in again, faster now, so I switched to red lightning. The strike hit his leg, and his clothes caught fire. Another mind split. Burn! I ordered the fire. He was doing something with mana to put it out. I fed air into the blaze, stoking it hotter and hotter and keeping the pressure on the fire element to keep it going.

The fire disappeared in an instant, but I got an idea. I pulled the air from around him, stripping it away. He staggered for a moment and picked up speed. I did too, and shot away even faster, with him on my tail. It was hard to keep the no-air bubble around him, even with a four-way mind split. He staggered again, and his movements became jerky and desperate. He tried to lift his hand again, but I split my mind once more and locked it in place with the water. I kept the pressure tight, forcing him to spend his strength fighting for breath and movement as we weaved and spun through the open sky.

He tried one last rush, but his flight faltered, and his body tilted in the air before plummeting. I watched him fall, twisting end over end, until he hit the ground below and lay still. I dove down with a sword in hand, the wind screaming past my ears. His hand twitched, and he moved his head. I picked up speed, every muscle straining. With my full momentum, the blade packed with mana and sheathed in it from the outside, I hit his neck. The strike went through clean, a sharp jolt running up my arms. His head rolled away into the grass. I collapsed right beside him, chest heaving, vision swimming, my body drained and dizzy.

It took me a few minutes to catch my breath and clear my vision.

Mana: 70/14,000

With the low mana levels in this world, it took over an hour of focused meditation to recover enough to function, but eventually, it climbed back to the level I needed. I stored his body and head, then flew toward the town. One good thing about our fight was that we'd flown away from it. If the fighters on the other side had joined in, I wouldn't have stood a chance.

The portal was gone, and people lay on the ground where it had been. Mostly women, kids, and a few older men. Basically, everyone from the end of the line. The rest of the townsfolk were gone, and I had no idea how to get them back. The ones lying on the ground all had their eyes open, staring at nothing. For a moment, I feared they were dead, but my mana sense told me they were alive, and their chests rose with each breath.

I diagnosed the closest kid, and he was fine. Healthy as a horse, but catatonic or something close to it. Three casts of Healing Touch changed nothing. He kept staring at the sky like before. I checked the rest of the people one by one, and they were all the same, give or take. Some had problems from old age, one woman had an infected cut, another had a lung disease, and one kid had asthma, but overall, they were healthy. Repeated casts of Healing Touch took care of their physical issues, yet their condition stayed the same. The healthy heartbeat under my palm made the stillness worse, like touching living statues. They didn't blink, twitch, or show any flicker of awareness.

The mana density in the air shifted, growing higher and higher. I looked around, trying to figure out why. The connection in my mind flared in warning, and my Luck followed. Perception stayed quiet.

Mana: 165/14,000

I was in no shape for another fight.

It felt wrong to leave them there. Deep down, I knew nothing good awaited them on the other side, but staying meant meeting their fate. Even if I got away later, I wouldn't have a way back to my group, to Rue.

It wasn't a choice. I dropped the body and the head, shot into the air, and flew as fast as my mana levels allowed without looking back. Just in case, I didn't slow until I reached the Gate and crossed it. I didn't know if they had a way to follow me, and I wasn't taking any chances.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.