"Another failed mission," said the man with a frown. "You're an embarrassment to my establishment!" He exclaimed.
The girl's hands fall to her sides. She was crushed and crestfallen and she knew what was coming next. She let her daggers fall from her hand and fall to her knees. "Fathe -- no, Master, please give me one more chance," she pleaded.
"Another chance?!" He exclaimed. "How many more chances could I possibly give to you, Sasha?!" He demanded. "You're an embarrassment!" The man took a large wooden stick with barbed wire around it and approached the ecru-haired woman. He kicks her in the face first, sending some of her teeth flying before spitting on her. "You're not going to defend yourself? What a waste!"
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Hunter opens his eyes with a moment of confusion. "Where am I?" He asked himself wondering where he was and when the man who was going to beat him up for failing his mission left. The dark-haired boy thought maybe he had blacked out during the beating, or he was beaten so terribly it wiped his memories. However, when the sprite turned to the side of his bed and saw Zoe lying next to him, his confusion came to an end.
[Are you okay?]
'Yeah.' He ran his hands through his dark hair. He remembered clearly the first memory of Sasha he had seen but for some reason, this one felt different, like it was trying to tell him something.
[What did you see? Another memory of mine?]
'No. This one was Sasha's, the girl I killed and took her soul at the watchtower to help Jade and her friend.'
[What happened?]
'The situation wasn't too different from the first... But something was different about the way it felt. Even your memories I experience like I am you but this one --'
"Hunter?" Zoe said, her voice had a bit of hoarseness to it. The fiend snuggled up to the sprite, grabbing his hand and slightly pulling him to herself.
"It's dark outside, don't move too far from me," she requested. Her voice had a weakness to it, one he did not recognize with the fiend until their return from Hel. The sprite looked at the dark-haired girl, staring deeply into her gray eyes and wandering: 'What would the Zoe from before do if she found that this is what she would become in the future?'
He knew that he'd forever feel indebted to the fiend for what she did for his friend but found himself asking if she would still do it all again if she knew what was the outcome: A time in Hel with nothing but torture and horror and suffering one cannot even begin to imagine.
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"Come on Hunter, you can do it!" Martin encouraged the sprite.
[Can he shut up? He's infuriating]
'Imagine how I feel.'
The sprite was back in the year 1 conjurers' class trying to summon something ... anything.
"Stop," said Sir Aragones. "You're thinking like a sprite, Hunter. I need you to think like a conjurer," said the blue-eyed man. "There are several realms that connect with our realm, Nym'Roal. Like a house with several doors, where gasses and other types of matter can move through the rooms thanks to diffusion or the likes, Nym'Roal also has doors that allow the free flow of energy between herself and other realms. One of these realms is known as Iuro, a realm filled with several kinds of creatures, and though it cannot be accessed physically, Conjurers form a connection with this realm which allows the order to conjure up creatures from the realm," Sir Aragones explained.
"You cannot conjure something up by only casting a domain," the brown-haired man continued. "You must connect your domain with Iuro and summon a creature from there," he stated.
"I don't think I have any connection with Iuro in the first place," he muttered.
"Okay, that's it for today," Sir Aragones announced to the class. "Hunter, I expect to see you next Monday," said the year one students' coordinator before he exits the class.
The sprite put on his brown hoodie, he had taken it off earlier to represent his concentration on the task at hand, a task he failed miserably at. "Hunter, wait up," said Martin as he jog up to Hunter who was a couple of meters away.
"Tough day, huh?"
"Please," Hunter scoffed. "Just spit it out already," said the sprite.
"Okay. Some of us are going out to grab a drink or two, wanna come?"
"I don't drink but I guess I don't mind the company," Hunter said. "Also, I'm sorry for the attitude earlier," he added.
"It's fine, we all have bad days," Martin said understandably.
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That night, Hunter took Martin back to his dorm room since the latter was wasted before starting to walk to the house Circe had bought for him in the Metropolitan city. The sprite would have preferred to stay in his dorm room but recent events made him frequent the house outside the school.
It was dark and the road was long and quiet yet Hunter could feel the presence of another. He was now familiar with the road as he had walked to school from his house and vice versa for the past week and he knew the road on his right led to a dead end so he took said road.
Just as the teal green-eyed boy started down the road, he felt someone hold his wrist. Hunter uses his soul magic to turn his hand into a saw and the person immediately lets go. The sprite spins, kicking the person in the back of the knee such that they fall to their knees and forming a small knife which he places on the person's neck.
"Hunter, it's me," the person said. The sprite made the blade disappear immediately recognizing the voice. "Leah."
"Hi," she said rising to her feet.
"Sorry I attacked you, I haven't had the best encounter with people following me when it's late at night," said the sprite.
"It's fine," she said dismissing the sprite's concerns. "I ... Uhm ... I didn't know you're so good at chaos magic," Leah said.
"Chaos magic?"
"You formed a knife out of nothing," said the brown-skinned woman.
"Oh, that's not chaos magic ... It's just a bit of visual manipulation. I also turned my hand to a chainsaw but you don't see it anymore, do you?"
"Wow. I didn't know you could do that." She said it so softly and the sprite once again wondered if she was the same Leah he has been seeing in Waleed's memories. "Yeah, it's honestly a game changer in fights but the problem is it requires a lot of energy so I can't do much else after," he stated.
"Oh ..."
"Anyways, it's been a while, where have you been? Circe has been looking for you," he said.
"That's actually why I'm here," said the vampire. "I --"
"Hunter!" Another voice said from behind the sprite. He turned around to see Circe walking towards him with a worried expression on her face. "Where have you been? I was waiting for you all night in front of your house," said the yellow-eyed woman.
"Sorry, I got distracted by ..." The sprite stops as he turned to see Leah was no longer there.
"You got distracted by what?" The light red-haired woman asked.
"Uh ... Nothing," he said. "You should have asked Chelsea, she knew where I was," he said.
"I ... Hunter, I was so worried," she said stepping forward and hugging the dark-haired boy. "Don't scare me like that again," she said.
'I'm not one to say no to a hug, especially from a woman like Circe but I feel this was misplaced.'
[Hm. You're not wrong]
"I wanted to ask you something. My mother would be unveiling something she said 'would shape the future of the mystic world' and I want you to accompany me as my plus one," she said.
"Like a date?"
"No, not 'like a date'. It is a date."
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