The fire user is disadvantaged because of the rain while I can shatter the earth users constructs. But invisible blasts are harder to deal with. I pulled myself up, augmenting my legs to dash in, but the air mage immediately blasted me back down.
"Kill him G."
The air user continued to fire, pushing me further back into the alley wall. His mana pool seemed infinite. The barrage slowed to a stop as I slumped over. Blood trickled from the wounds on my back. Even with my mana shielding me, taking on three mages was a dangerous task.
"Is he dead?"
"You told me to kill him."
"Should we hide the body?"
The voices grew as they drew closer. The leader snapped at them to calm down.
"Quiet! He's not dead, but he's no threat to us. Leave him," he said, turning away, walking towards the cub.
His lackeys hesitantly nodded and followed their boss. I didn't hide my grin. They hurt me, of course, but in no way down for the count. Training with my father left me with worse injuries. I took a deep breath, letting my mana grow and spread throughout my body. The temperature seemed to drop, five degrees, ten, then twenty.
The leader noticed this abrupt change and whipped around, bracing himself for an attack. His companions, however, weren't as aware. I looked up as I finished casting my spell.
[Freeze]
The rain that pooled on the floor froze over. Ice crept from my fingers to the feet of the mages. The leader, anticipating this, jumped in the air to avoid my attack. As the spell reached his compatriots, the ice crept up their legs, freezing them in place.
The fire woman let out a howl of pain while the air user looked dumbfounded. The woman's cries only escalated as she realized with the torrent of rain and freezing temperatures vastly diminished her magical output. She and her air mage companion were blasting their legs with spells, to no avail. My constant supply of mana held the ice fast.
I rose, manipulating my mana to create a dagger of ice; a technique my father drilled into my head. The leader stared me down as his lackeys continued to struggle against the ice.
"You're a specialist?" he asked, smirking to himself. He circled his companions, wary of the ice encroaching his position. "Some people will pay a lot of money for your corpse."
He roared, rushing towards my position; still wary of the encroaching ice. I readied myself, conjuring two ice spikes and launching them at his position. He easily sidestepped them. As he was a few steps away, his smile widened, as if he'd already won.
His smile and his assault both ended abruptly. Replaced by a blood-curdling scream. He looked down to see a spike ripping through his legs. He glanced back to see the spike I'd thrown had extended and skewered his leg. The fight was over.
I took a deep breath, waved off my ice constructs, and motioned for the lackeys to get their leader. I didn't kill and wasn't intending on starting today. The leader had collapsed to the ground, holding his injured leg.
"Take him and leave," I said, conjuring another spike in my hand. My intimidation seemed to have worked. The lackeys scurried over and grabbed him, ignoring his disapproving glares. They helped him to his feet and turned to leave.
"The boss will not let you live. A specialist that uses ice will turn heads. You can't hide for lon-"
An ice spike to his leg cut his monologue short. He groaned as his minions dragged him away. I turned my attention to the cub. The spiked cage made it difficult to reach it, but once I transformed my dagger into a chisel, it became easier. I began chipping away the cage, leaving only the parts impaling the cubs' paws.
Despite my best efforts, the cub cowered in fear. The cub tried to refuse my attempts to remove the cage spikes, but I successfully removed them. After they were out, the wound immediately closed. The cub was obviously a magical beast.
After many futile attempts to approach the cub, I headed back to the base of the bridge. My plan was to grab the blankets and head back to watch over the cub. The cub, however, spoiled those plans when it followed me out of the alley. It wasn't comfortable with me approaching it, but I guess it trusted me more than the unknown.
The short walk in the rain was agonizing. Unlike the cub, I couldn't instantly heal, and while I've built up a tolerance to the cold, I was not immune to it. When I reached the bridge, I immediately cast a spell to dry myself.
[Drain]
The moisture in my clothing rolled off of the fabric, pooling in a puddle beneath me. I wasn't as practiced in water magic as I was in ice, but Drain was a level one spell. I made my way to the blankets I set up. Removing one from the pile, I laid it out, away from where I would sleep. The cub reluctantly made his way to the blankets and collapsed on top of it.
I walked over to the cub, placed my hand on its head, and cast Drain again. The water pulled itself out of the cub's fur and rolled off, creating a puddle. The cub opened its eyes, but instead of recoiling as it did before, it nuzzled into my hand. I smiled, patting its now dry fur, and before I could pull my hand away something strange happened.
The cub began glowing brighter than it did in the alleyway. The glow grew, encompassing my left hand, then my arm, then my whole body; growing brighter and brighter. It grew to such an intensity I had to turn away and in a flash it was gone. The wounds on my back no longer stung, and a mark had appeared on the back of my left hand. A small circle with the faint outline of a lightning bolt.
I turned towards the cub who had fallen asleep, its chest slowly raising and lowering. Whatever it was I'd just experienced, I would not get any answers tonight. I made my way to my stack of blankets and collapsed on top of them.
I snuck one last glance at the cub before smiling, the darkness of sleep engulfing my consciousness.