Immediately they had taken action, the being that had appeared being swiftly cut down. The men that I hadn't bothered finding the names of were wielding staves and staffs.
The mana in the air hummed in excitement as it was used for the various spells at their command.
I just watched on curiously, trying to find the reason that the spells were working. From what I had seen they differed from skills in one major way.
The mana that was being used was weaved into some sort of circle that was then used to fire off some sort of energy attack.
The attack itself was transparent in nature, something that failed to surprise me as I had felt no change in the mana.
This meant that the sort of element used in the attack was variable to the type of mana. The circles themself seemed to be used as some sort of catalyst for the mana.
Instead of manually shaping it into the form and vectors that they wanted to, which would take considerable effort, they memorized patterns and abstract symbols that acted upon the world in the way that they wanted.
I tried to copy their movements, feeling the way that mana moved. It was quite easy actually.
I was almost baffled at how hard they were concentrating to only do that. As with a wave of my hand the pattern appeared in the air and veered off course.
I chuckled to myself, of course my first attempt wouldn't be as accurate. But my statement still did stand. They seemed to be straining themselves so much just to do something that seemed so easy to me.
"HEY!" One of them yelled as they were pushed back, "Help us, you BASTARD"
I let the insult go and went to help. I knew it wasn't for me as the boy that had said that was, mid sentence, thrown into the air by the creature.
A slash of my sword and the creature was decapitated. The head lolled to the ground as the body fell into black motes of energy.
Curiously enough the creature had not dropped a rune. As if it was not dead.
I sighed and reached my hand out. The man that had called out for help reluctantly taking it.
For a moment I felt everything spinning. The world around me seeming to swirl.
I immediately let go of my grasp on the man and found myself staggering back.
The creature was back. And this time it was not alone. Hundreds of incarnations of it surrounded us.
The three people behind me were sweating in fear.
I could practically feel it from here. They would abandon me.
And just as I said they started to run. But I couldn't let them do that as the moment they turned their backs the creatures charged.
Their screams echoing through the ghost town.
I slashed up and cut the hand off of the closest creatures, their bodies dissipating with the damage.
"Oh," I said out loud. My eyes widening a bit.
This was going to be easier than I had thought.
…
I sat upon the ground. Panting as the trio behind me sat drinking some sort of alcohol.
I glared back at them.
They didn't even have the courtesy to offer me some.
Damn it I wanted some too.
While the fight was easy, it was also exhausting as all hell.
There were hundreds if not thousands of them and even if they dissipated after a couple hits they still were exhaustingly fast.
While they were drinking their drinks I was stuck sipping on water that I had brought along. Honestly I was half of the mind to just leave them to their fates.
It wasn't one action, it was all of them combined. They seemed to have this disregard, as if everything would go their way despite evidence contrary.
And this disregard lead to me doing all the work for them as they sat around singing campfire songs and drinking their woes away.
It grated on my nerves so much. But I couldn't just leave or kill them. Not only was that just not moral but I was tasked by Nia to protect them and I had given my word.
It was not something that I wanted to break easily, especially for something that was just a minor annoyance.
Though that didn't mean that I wasn't going to scold them or at least give them a bit of a scare.
A smile lit my face as the dark of the night veiled me.
…
"Puah!" I sighed the wine going down my throat smoothly and giving me a nice burn. I narrowed my eyes as I looked around at my friends.
They were all enjoying themselves and so was I. Except for one factor.
The babysitter that I had the Master order for us had disappeared. One moment ago he was sitting there recovering his stamina with water and the next he was gone.
'Eh…" I shrugged, it didn't concern me at all. What he did was what he did. And all that really mattered was the wine in front of me.
"Yo, guys." I called out, my face flushed from all the wine.
"Yep… Yeah" they both said at the same time.
"How we gonna split the runes?"
"I dunno, three ways with the extra to the babysitter"
"Hah!" I laughed out, "yeah that's great let's do that."
I laughed with them, my arms over their shoulders as I poured more and more drinks for us.
"Huh-" I called out, feeling the hold I had over my party member loosening.
I looked over and fell to the ground after loosing my grip.
He wasn't there anymore.
The shadows in the night started to get more and more oppressive as I tried to look for my missing party member.
"Yo, Han?"
I looked to my left and saw that he too was gone.
I felt something approaching em and felt it grab at my collar.
For a second I just stumbled, trying to find my staff but it was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey! Babysitter. Come on this isn't funny" I called out as I was dragged.
"Help me come on!"
…