"So?"
Airys sighed relieved, that kick had left that thief as stunned as the amount of blood that came out of his nose.
"Are you going to tell me why the first thing you do is lose Brat?" The scorn that emanated was such that Airys Airys did the impossible and that sigh of relief came back within her as did her nervousness. "I'm still waiting" Seng asserted and threw the sword straight at Airys who by sheer luck and fear dodged it with a shriek.
"W-what were you expecting?! I just had the worst night of my life for the fifth time in a row! I can't just beat him up…" Airys's tone and volume gradually decreased as Seng approached her with those eyes that she knew too well.
Seng released Echsos like a sack of potatoes.
"Doesn't it bother you that you lost?" Seng's words embedded themselves in her mind. He turned away with a smug demeanor that didn't hide the immense amount of carelessness he felt for her.
For Seng, Airys was nothing more than a useless Brat who only thanks to him has learned what little she knows, but... what about him?
I'm sure you will be a great Teacher one day were her words.
Isn't it the test of a good teacher to make his student be good too?
He frowned. Definitely, once he denies that ridiculousness of the chosen one he would go to give a beating to each of the Archmages, old gullible morons.
"Y-you really are strong…" Airys was surprised and with a jump she stood ready to fight with the most ridiculous pose in the world when she heard Echsos. "I'm sure I would never beat you..."
Her nose was bleeding and she had no choice but to keep her face on the floor while she cleaned herself.
"Please Seng! Teach me to use my soul!" She lifted her face between long, ragged breaths. "I want to control my power like you control your shadow!"
Seng was stunned. He wasn't interested in such nonsense, yet when did he reveal his shadow control? He overheard all of Airys's nonsense using his other ability so he knew exactly that she didn't mention anything else about him to Echsos except for his name.
"How/"
"How do I know?" Echsos smiled, the bargain in front of him was a miracle worth hundreds of broken noses, he was seriously going to explode with happiness if a giant rock didn't fall on him tomorrow to balance his luck. "The same way I know about that little problem that ruined your life and..." he dragged his arm across his face to wipe the blood away. "How to solve it."
"I was going to let you go…" Seng's shadow rose creating sharp tentacles that even the biggest idiot wouldn't want to have around. "But I don't want to break my privacy policy."
"W-wait!" Echsos began to shake, it was all or nothing. "I have the ability to unconsciously absorb the soul knowledge of others!" He closed his eyes and turned his face away from him when he learned that these things could travel up to two meters. "That's why I know about your powers and your problem, but I think my power can help you because it is something that I could know with my ability!"
"Prove it."
"Eh ... I-not that I know everything, but if it's something you think about often..." An information message crossed Echsos' mind like lightning: "Your first name is not Seng" he sputtered confidently after a snap.
However, just when he said it he received one more piece of context on that statement and feared for his life when he saw that Seng indeed increased the number of tentacles and assimilated the countenance of someone who had been reminded of something that had not was nice.
"S-sorry!" he begged hitting his head to the floor. "I don't want to die before becoming a dad!"
Seng watched him and decided to attack Airys with those tentacles, who just dodged them screaming with fright.
"What's wrong?!"
"Good, don't let your guard down."
"Why are you doing that to me?! Do you wanna kill me?!"
"Ok then boy I believe you. You say that you are capable of knowing everything about a person?"
"Y-yeah…" Echsos relaxed and flopped onto his backside.
"Don't ignore me Seng!"
"But like I told you, I don't know how to use it very well so I can just go around knowing things a bit randomly." He blew her nose to end that bleeding once and for all. "Although I know that the more private some information is, the longer it takes me to get it and vice versa."
"How much do you know about me?"
"Just your abilities and what I've told you, if I'm honest I don't even know what you want to deny, but I know that you know that it's something that my power could solve or something like that, do you understand?"
"That you know about my abilities is irritating."
"I-I'm sorry? It's not that I'm doing it wanting to."
"Wait!" screeched Airys. "Seng, he could help me find out what my powers are!"
Seng winced and covered his ear on Airys's side. She was happy, in the last few months she had made zero real progress in that area. She directed a look of expectation and excitement with her arms together in front of her chest at Ehcsos who got him out of the rhythm and made him think about how cute she was.
"Sure he could."
"Really?! Genail!"
"Although as I tried to tell you before Airys, I'm in a predicament ... hehe heh ..."
———————————————————————————————————
"I found it."
Layd touched the ground with his eyes closed. He had buried himself up to his chest so that he could use his power to the fullest as soon as possible. His brown skin resembled that dark land that is seen on days of light rain and his black hair left an exaggerated amount of gray product of the difficult days that he lived since childhood.
"Where?" asked his partner Natsume.
She had shoulder-length brown hair with mysterious emerald highlights. She wore baggy clothes under parts of metal armor that gave the impression that she had lost the rest —which was correct— by having only one shoulder pad, bracer, and so on mostly on the right side.
"Uh ..." Layd looked up at the sky.
"The east is over there" Natsume pointed to the left of him.
"Then to the south and a little west" he said.
Natsume offered him the leather bib back. Although not everything, except the green eyes of both, was different, they were brothers.
Not from father or mother, rather, from experiences.
"But he is accompanied, by two people."
They started running to climb the mountain.
"It's fine?"
"I'm not sure so go without me and only make time until I give you my signal."
Natsume took the word of his para-brother and took a deep breath and then ran out twice as fast as before without flinching before the obstacles by jumping them.
———————————————————————————————————
"And that's what happens" Echsos finished commenting sitting on the rock while taking a few bites of the apple that Seng had given him.
"Is it really that valuable for two different groups of people to chase you?" asked Airys, who was also eating.
"This Brat lived in another world" Seng thought bitterly.
"Haha, you're right Seng" Echsos replied. "Sorry," he muttered.
"It doesn't matter" Seng clarified. "Don't try to stop your power."
"And your brothers won't help you?" Airys pointed out.
"It's not that we are real brothers, I barely met them five years ago because orphans like me end up in places like that" Echsos replied.
"Oh, what a shame" she took the last bite of her apple.
"Are you feeling better...? Ehm..."
"Echsos."
"Yes, sorry for the hit Echsos." Seng commented.
"He's lying" "Sure, I asked for it."
"Whatever," Seng tossed the sword at Airys, who barely cut it short without hurting herself thanks to the sheath, and motioned for her to get up as well. "We have to move, any of those couples could find us if you didn't stray too far."
"Rig/"
Echsos's sentence was cut short by the sudden sound of someone sprouting from the branches of the trees. Natsume entered the scene and Echsos' first reaction was to stand behind Seng to hide to no avail.
"Echi stop running away!" exclaimed the newcomer. " I apologize for the trouble he caused you, but he is coming with me. " Natsume assured with a menacing look of an angry older sister.
"Jijiji" Airys scoffed. "Echi sounds cute jijiji."
"Too bad, but I have a deal with this boy so I won't let him go" Seng stated without a hint of fear.
"I'm not interested! My brother is coming with me by hook or by crook!"
"HAHAHAHA!" Airys exploded. "Are you serious?! But we're almost the same age! Haha!" his tummy started to ache. "It may not seem like it but Seng is strong enough to beat all of us here at once easily" she declared all proud of her probationary tutor.
Echsos couldn't help but feel ashamed at how much she underestimated Natsume. I mean he had an idea of how strong Seng was, nonetheless; although she forgot to warn them before her when she talked about them, in her Talent Orphanage she was the strongest.
"Don't/" he fell silent when he read into Seng's soul that he believed exactly the same and even more than Airys boasted.
"I warned you" Natsume warned and prepared to run straight for them.
Airys drew her sword, breaking her own half-second record as if it were a child category. She smiled. Seng and Echsos were close and there was no possibility that this conceited young woman would manage to do much with them aware of her position and her power.
"As long as I know where you're going, speed doesn't matter," she interjected confidently.
So the imminent confusion from falling she disoriented and angered him greatly. Layd's power had created a hole just under her feet. Natsume expected that to happen with Seng as well and for that reason she had concentrated only on closing the gap between them by completely ignoring him.
The dread that Seng's haughty grin provoked in her was etched into her mind.
She had stretched out her arm and for a measly centimeter she was about to take Echsos's and carry him away, however, Seng in addition to not falling —for which she believed a possible failure in Layd's sign— had time to pull Echsos by the shoulder. and emitting a killing intent that revealed to Natsume that she may have received a fatal blow for her carelessness attitude.
"Airys see you there at the hideout!" Seng warned and ran off with Echsos on his back on horseback.
Natsume followed him with a frown and a tremendous amount of teasing him back, albeit with a simple change.
"Silver Breath" She took a deep breath and a silver thread began to come out of her mouth.
As if nothing else the already overwhelming speed increased and Seng was shocked by the sudden presence of the girl to the left of him. Natsume prepared to land a punch that he would have landed had it not been for Seng to use her shadow to completely rotate her body ninety degrees using only the leg that was supported as torque.
The turn was such that Natsume almost collided with a tree.
"How did he...?" She wondered until he saw a clear and astonishing answer.
Seng had expected that she would be fast, but not that fast; So when she found out about Natsume's true capacity, completely changed his route and it was because was the only way that could give him time to get to that hiding place.
A path with broken branches, trees, roots, holes, rivers and in general a natural disaster that a person would never think of crossing because of how stupid such a feat looked.
And thanks to Seng's Shadow's control, those kinds of roads were less of a challenge. For each gap he leaned from some elevated part to create a step. Is the whole path covered by rocks? He glided over his shadow like he was surfing. A wall too high? He would come closer and then go up like an elevator.
Natsume had no choice but to be amazed and understand at once that this subject would be a powerful threat if he didn't want to run away with Echsos, no, probably only she would be able to run away from him with Echsos; if the latter does not resist, of course.
"Wretched" She made a grimace of disgust mixed with excitement of going to compete in the most intense race of her entire life.
———————————————————————————————————
"Are you okay?"
Airys was in a hole of at least five meters deep, again miraculously she had not hurt himself with her sword for having nailed it in an attempt to avoid the fall.
"I don't recommend resisting," Layd said. "It's obvious that you're just learning how to use your soul and stuff."
"Shit…" she cursed with broken lips and scraped hands.