"You know, unleashing one's aura is considered impolite," Ogron coldly stated while slowly raising his spear, ready to throw his spear again.
The hovering magician was donned in a black cloak that obscured any specifics of the person's appearance. Reluctantly a manly raspy voice answered in astonishment, "a sentient skeleton that is unaffected by my aura, hmm? It seems like my senses were correct."
But his astonishment was short-lived, and he immediately asked coldly while pointing at Az, "where is the kid's master, or the one responsible for your awakening?"
"So you want to find his master?" Ogron asked in amusement before continuing with, "then it must be your lucky day since that brat is my pupil, hehehe."
Ogron laughed out loudly with a raised chest before stopping abruptly. "And if you don't retract your goddamn aura, I will turn your body into swiss cheese."
The aura pressing down on everyone slowly vanished. But the discussion between the two immediately got interrupted as Otaz and Simeav began to bicker, which one of them would call the first dips on fighting that mysterious magician.
"Three sentient skeletons and a masterless child…," the man remarked, and a pair of crimson eyes slowly glowed under his hood.
"A stray child that in his desperation awoke me," sighed Ogron, feeling a bit of nostalgia before asking, "so tell me, traveler, why are you standing in front of us? I can assure you that the three of us will not be joining you, no matter what you offer."
"I'm not interested in you three," the hooded person commented before slowly floating to the ground. "My initial goal was to recruit the master after sensing the existence of such potent skeletons in the middle of nowhere. But I changed my mind."
But Ogron wasn't swayed by the magician's word and continued aiming at the man while positioning himself slowly between the mage and Az.
"I have an offer for you, kid," the man stated before slowly unveiling his face, revealing a feminine look.
But their shock didn't stop there. The figure, who was around two meters (americano: 6.6 feet) tall, shrank slowly as the sound of bones cracking echoed loudly.
'What the hell is going on!?' was the only thought that shot through Az's head as he watched the man slowly become more and more feminine till a loli the size of his slowly stood in front of him.
"That hurt," a cute feminine voice groaned in pain while adjusting her neck. Only then did her gaze move to Az. "Child… the power you command is fearsome, especially for your age. But your overall strength is lacking, and leading such sentient skeletons will only result in you being killed sooner or later since their worth is ten times their weight in platin."
Ogron nodded in agreement before sighing, "I cannot deny your statement. But without our help, my pupil would be even more in danger since that brat is still a child."
Ogron merely glanced at the loli, which was now at the height of 1.5 meters (americano: 4.9 feet) at best, and sighed, "I cannot deny your statement. But without our help, my pupil would be even more in danger since that brat is still a child."
"I know," replied the female loli magician, that was at best 1.5 meters (americano: 4.9 feet) at best. "Therefore, I have an offer which the kid cannot refuse."
"Kid, I recognize your talent in necromancer. But necromancy is just one of the many paths in the dark arts. I want you to accept me as your master since your talent is wasted in this place," she stated while summoning pitch-black flames in her palms as magic gimmicks.
But Az shook his head before hesitantly answering. "Madam… I would like to join you, but I have more pressing issues. I'm searching for my siblings, and I won't stop till I find them…."
"I see, I see…" she commented before adding, "well, then you met the right person since I'm a master of blood curses. If you accept me as your master and join the school I'm currently teaching at… then I will teach you the curse spell with which you can locate all of your blood relatives, hehe."
Az was still a bit hesitating. Finding his siblings was his first priority, and learning magic came after that. He wasn't willing to put his search to a halt.
Lucky for him, Ogron made the choice for him. Ogron gently placed his stiff skeleton fingers on Az's shoulder before whispering into his ear, "The truth is, accepting her offer is the safest bet to find your siblings…."
After that, he shifted his focus back onto the loli. "We accept your offer under two conditions. First, you will as well carry a certain responsibility for protecting Az. Failure to do so will result in us three taking action ourselves. Also, no experiment can be done on Az's body or mind without our approval," Ogron stated coldly as he let his aura run wild for a second to show her he wasn't joking.
The two parties talked for a few minutes about the contract conditions before the loli left.
"Unfortunally, I have other businesses to attend, so here is my sigil, a compass leading you guys to the academy, and my present for Az. You guys only have to show my sigil to the guards, and you guys will be left in," she explained to Ogron before finally turning her attention to Az. "As for you, you better master the present I gave you."
After throwing an amulet with the shape of a skeleton heart, she continued her journey.
Somewhere else, Luz still rested in a cart and watched the sky. 'I don't know how my siblings are faring their new lives, but I hope they are safe and sound,' he thought as their cart slowly came to a halt.
"Why did we stop?" Luz yawned, and a foul smell instantly invaded his nose, and he almost puked. 'What the hell is that stench!?' he thought as he immediately stood up and got shocked at what stood in front of them.
In front of them was an eery old tree and on all of its branches hanged rotting corpses. Pieces of flesh and blood dripped from time to time as a giant swarm of millions of flies feasted on these corpses.
But what shocked Luz more was that these corpses were women of all ages. The shortest of them was barely half a meter at best, and Luz guessed that she must have been a child.
That wasn't all. Upon further staring at the corpses, Luz got even more confused. Some of these carcasses' chests were filled with millions of tiny holes through which insects flew in and out, while the bodies of others were left undamaged.