[Lilith]
"Hraaagh!" I yelled, swinging my sword at Mandy. My sword connected with his Bo staff, sparks flying and the water splashed around us. The pink haired boy smiled menacingly as he braved for it, holding us both into a standoff.
"Wow, you really are strong. A true shonen hero!" Mandy said, he pushed forward on me. His strength took me by surprise, having me put more effort into holding him.
"A what?!" I asked him, confused. What's a shonen?
"Forget it! I'm talking to myself!" As he said that, he pushed himself away from me. Both of us sliding backwards, the water splashing and creating a rainbow shower. "I just wanna suck you dry!" The pink haired boy then licked the blood dripping from his nose.
I held my Fire king style stance, looking back at Kota. Kota was grabbing his staff that was just a couple of feet from him. The black haired boy looked quite tired, probably from all the fighting.
"Kota, are you alright?" I asked him. If he was tired, maybe it's best for him to get Kale to help us. Something is off with this Mandy person…
"Phew…Yeah." Kota took a breather. He weakly stood up when he grabbed his staff. "Don't let him get the jump on you."
"Hah! A lesson learned, huh?" I heard Mandy laugh.
He's probably exhausted, but he still wants to help me. I'll need to be a bit defensive to make sure he's fine. But what can I do?
Kale has told me that when it comes to fighting alongside a mage, you make sure communicating is key. Knowing what the mage will do will make it easier for the whole group to know what they need to do. If Kota is going to cast a spell, I need to make sure I'm not in its Fire range or bait that thing he's targeting into his range. If I'm able to push Mandy back, maybe that'll give Kota an opening.
"I'll give you an opening, a good shot at his head. Use that stone thing you did earlier." I said to Kota. He looked at me with surprise for a moment. He then nodded, aiming his staff forward.
I looked back at Mandy, who was casually leaning against his Bo staff. His casualness was getting on my nerves, why's he so laid back and mocking us?
"Yadayada-Done now?" Mandy swung his bo staff, warming up his arms. "Sheesh, talk about boring! I gotta stand here and listen to you two make plans, hurry up so I can beat the shit out of you!" He gave me a mocking smile. He then pointed at me and Kota. "It's not like I've been in this sort of situation before. Too many times I've had to kill groups who thought they'd catch me."
I gritted my teeth, anger surged through me. "How many have you killed?!"
"Oh, I don't know…" Mandy smirked. "Not really a numbers person, I just swing this thing and take the people's mana."
"Why?!"
Mandy stopped smirking, he began to frown once he heard that from me. "That's none of your business." He then dashed immediately at me, his staff twirling around him. "I'm done talking now!"
With my left eye, I can see things faster. My perception is enchanted enough to where I can react faster than anyone else, it's like everything slows down as I move at normal speed.
I watched as Mandy took charge and spun around, his bo staff twirling in the air before he grabbed it and swung as he spun. I saw it all, but…it was fast! My dragon eye can't slow this guy down?
I quickly ducked the swing, feeling the wind of the swing blow my hair. I quickly then pulled myself up and tried to slash upwards, but Mandy swiftly brought his staff down with both hands, halting my slash and forcing my blade back to the floor. He then used his feet to dig my blade into the watery ground. All of it took me by surprise, He's fast!
"I'm gonna have so much fun ripping that mana of yours out of you!" Mandy said as he lifted his right hand, it drifted close to me.
"Lilith, move!" I heard Kota yell. I was so caught off by Mandy that I haven't even moved, hearing Kota immediately let me focus. I quickly ripped my blade from underneath Mandy's staff, jumping back to gain distance from him. I skirted next to Kota, who shot an earth spell. A large rounded stone short from the end of his staff and sped its way to Mandy. Mandy quickly deflected it, ricocheting the stone into the water.
"I think we're in trouble." Kota said, glaring at Mandy. "He's too fast for me. We need to slow him down. Let me use Quicksand on him, hopefully that'll slow him down enough for you to hit him." He looked at me. "Just wait for me to cast it."
I watched as Kota's staff hummed, the ground beneath us rumbled for a moment before the ground beneath Mandy began to sink. The water turned into a darkish brown as it began to turn to mud, slowly sinking Mandy.
"Oh. I'm Sinking….Oh, Help me." Mandy said in a monotone voice.
"Now!" Kota said. I immediately moved forward, homing in on Mandy. I can finish this in one slash, right here! He can't move right now!
As I zoned in on Mandy, something caught my attention. To my right, where the empty forest was, something stirred.
"Took you long enough!" I heard Mandy say, a smile grew on his face as this mysterious thing came out of the forest. A large figure came right for me, a fist balled up and ready to hit me.
"Huh?!" Not good, I can't even react to this! I tried to block the incoming fist, but it was too late.
The first landed right in my stomach, sending me flying across the river. I didn't have time to react to it, It caught me way off. I tumbled and fell before I laid on my side. The pain coursed through my whole chest area, my sword drifted in the waters as I tried to recuperate from the stomach hit. The pain was so much that I couldn't even get up. This is bad, I think I have a broken rib or something.
I-I need to get up for Kota. He's going to get killed!
****
[Kota]
"Lilith!" I yelled, watching as the large ominous figure gave her a hard right swing. What the hell is that thing?
Its face was disfigured, an iron mask holding its head in place. Its tattered clothes made it resemble a knight of sorts, but what was the most striking thing about this thing was its left arm. A metallic almost robotic looking arm hung idly.
"Sorry." It said, it was a clear masculine voice. "I was finishing clearing up our site before I saw the fire in the sky…"
Oh shit. Did I lead him here? That's bad, Really bad! I should have expected Mandy to have at least something else up his sleeve before I did that. This guy just took one punch to take down Lilith, what the hell is up with this dude?
"Late, Victor! Had to use up all the Puppets for these two!" Mandy said, annoyed. "And why does it take you so long to pack our stuff?!"
The large figure named Victor awkwardly shrugged. "It's hard to grab things when your hands are the size of mine." The large disfigured man then looked at me. "Are you struggling with these two?"
I hadn't even realized it, but the man was hunching his back. Once he straightened out, he stood a good eight feet. Even from a couple of meters away, I could tell how much He towered over Mandy and me as he glanced around.
Even with his iron mask on, Victor looked quite displeased with what he was seeing. He turned to Mandy, raising his right arm in a disapproving manner. "I guess I should've come along."
"Nuh-uh! I just couldn't let myself have all the fun!" Mandy put his hands on his waist. "Plus, I gotta fight that one boy!"
Victor panned to me. His white lifeless eyes stared into mine. "Hrm…"
"He's the one I was talking about! You know, the cute silent casting one!"
"Mhm…" He continued to stare at me.
"…Are we going to harvest these two as well?" He finally said.
"Hmm…" Mandy thought for a moment. He then smiled as he snapped his finger. "Grab the boy."
Fwooosh! Water sprayed upwards, I looked towards where victor was and realized that he was a mere two feet away from me.
Victor somehow managed to leap right towards me at a dangerous speed. His left metallic arm stretched out, I couldn't react fast enough as he firmly clenched my in his grip. His hand wrapped around my arms, causing me to drop my staff.
"Gah!" I yelped as he held me up, Victor then casually turned around and dangled me towards Mandy.
"Got him."
"Look at you doing something for once in your life!" Mandy smiled. "Most of the time, you stay in the back and watch. But here you are taking charge."
"I only do what is necessary. Whether it be to protect you or to do what is out of your reach."
"…Is that a short joke?"
"No."
Mandy stared at Victor for a moment, contemplating what to say before he shook his head and walked towards us. He held out his hand as well.
I tried to squirm my way out of Victor's grasp, but his grip was too strong. He ended up tightening his grip, hurt my hands. I watched as Mandy drew closer to me, clearly in joy as I squirmed.
"Now let's get a taste of this boy. Let's start off slow…" His hand was placed firmly onto my chest.
"Do not take long. We still need to grab the blue haired girl."
"Haha, you mean girls! Didn't even realize the girl we were targeting had a sister!"
"There are two?" Victors questioned.
"I guess so!" Mandy paused, I could see that his hand began to glow. He began to siphon my mana.
I began to feel something being pulled from me, as if something was grabbing something inside me and physically taking it out. I could see from looking down that there was a prismatic colored light shining from where Mandy had his hand.
As he was siphoning my mana, Mandy's expressions changed from joy to…confusion?
He pulled his hand away, looking at it quizzically. He began to back away from me. "What the…Your Mana is nothing like I've siphoned before." He looked at me seriously, he pulled his bo staff upwards and poked me with it.
"You…Something is wrong with you. Why do I feel two different Mana's inside you?"
Two different mana's? Is he feeling mine and Duvul's at the same time? He's sucking both mine and Duvul's mana out!
"Two mana pools inside you?" Victor asked behind me.
"That means trouble…and I don't want to deal with that!" Mandy geared his bo staff, ready to smack me with it. "Say your prayers, lover boy!"
The sound of wind howling and the gust of wind stopped Mandy. It seemed like there was a source that was sucking in the wind around us, pulling constantly.
"Feel the pressure and force of nature at hand! Lend me your strength and blow away my enemies with your might! I cast Gale ball!"
Gale ball was an Intermediate wind spell, an upgraded version of the wind ball. This spell was capable of moving extremely fast, and had a lot of punching force to it.
From where our broken carriage was, a large blast of wind cut through the forest and onto the river. Its whistling noise sliced through the air as it sped at lightning speed towards Victor. He didn't have time to react to it as it collided into his side, forcing him to let go of me as he flew off onto the ground.
As I fell onto the ground, I quickly followed up with a water spell. I collected the water from where I was and casted Water Spike, a Beginner Water spell that made a spike. I can't give this guy a chance to react!
As I casted it though, Mandy was already looking in my direction. His eyes darted down to me as he saw the spike coming towards him. He quickly slashed at the spike with his Bo staff and back stepped away from me, his eyes darting from me and from wherever the source of wind magic came from.
Speaking of that, I glanced at where the broken carriage was. Standing in view was a blue haired girl, her golden staff glowing from the sunlight as she stepped out closer to the shore of the river. She donned our school uniform as well.
It was Amelia.
"Y-you get away from those two!" She said, shakingly. She aimed her staff at Mandy, who was looking with caution. "Before you get blasted!"
"Ooh? You're the one I found in that alley. Feisty one you are!" Mandy smiled. "Didn't expect you to be this brave!"
"S-shut up! You kidnapper! You Monster! You look ugly!" Amelia shouted, closing her eyes. What the hell is she doing?!
Mandy looked irritated now. "Huh?! The fuck are you spouting?! Me, ugly? I'm the sexiest damn boy here!" He then lifted his bo staff, twirling it around until it was behind his back. "You want to get beaten?!"
Amelia opened her eyes, a shaky smile crept on her face. "No…But you're about to be."
"Eh?" Mandy looked confused. Suddenly through the trees, a figure zoomed out. It left water trails behind it until it suddenly stopped from what seemed to be something jumping. A shadow casted itself onto Mandy, looking closer and closer as he looked up. As I looked up, I saw that Kale was diving right towards him.
"Don't keep yourself Open!" Kale shouted as he twirled in the air and slashed at Mandy. Mandy was able to block the attack, but not fully. The impact from Kale's attack pushed Mandy's bo staff down to his chest, Kale's blade then cut itself into Mandy's shoulder, blood spewing out.
"Gah, you fucker!" Mandy grunted out as he pushed Kale off of him, the blonde hair man flipping and landing away from him. Mandy held his hand against his shoulder, anger flaring in his eyes, "I'll send you to hell!"
"I don't think so." Kale said, standing up confidently. The forest rustled more as Two figures loomed out from the forest side that Kale came from. "Looks like Kota's Plan worked somehow…Some of Ozoth's forces are here."
"Hey, hey…Don't just call us that. We know each other." One of the figures spoke. It was a man, who was brown skinned. He wore a green button up uniform as well as having a curved sword wrapped around his waist. Actually…something else was different about him, his ears were much longer as well as more Pointed.
Is…That an elf?
"You were lucky we were patrolling. We were close enough to see that large flame spell, so we came to see. Looks like we came just in time, but why did these two kids fight instead of you, Kale?" The other figure approached the river. It was another elf, thought it was a woman. She had black hair, blue eyes underneath the glasses she had. She too wore a green uniform, a long dress that had a belt attached to it with what looked like potions. She held an odd looking sword, one that seemed to resemble a whip? Its blades looked split as it was attached to the whip.
"Shit…" Mandy mumbled in frustration. "Victor! Need assistance!"
The floor rumbled as Victor pulled himself from the ground. The metallic arm he had forced the land to rumbled under its pressure as he stood up. I could see that his side was bruised from Amelia's wind spell. "We need to retreat. We are outnumbered."
"You ain't leaving. King Vergis is asking for your head, Mandy." The brown skinned man said. He drew his curved sword and took a stance in the water. "You've done a lot of damage to our Kingdom, and we aren't letting you leave."
A/N: on a wonky schedule right now, so my uploading schedule is a little different now. I'll most likely be uploading Tuesdays or Thursday or Fridays. Either way, I was able to get this chapter done. Lots of things are happening here, New characters showed up! I've had these characters mind since the beginning of the last volume, i got some cool ideas with them as they are sword users of different styles. Well one of them is, the other is a very special case that I'll explain. Anyways, hope you enjoy this action chapter!