"It's been eleven years huh" I said to the wind as I stood atop the church. This spot has been my go to place when I want to be alone and to enjoy the peace and harmony this village has fought for.
The wind ruffled my curly hair, prompting me to look up and see the vast expanse of the sky.
'This world is beautiful' I thought to myself.
The sky was blue and white and filled with depth of color and allure striking a tapestry of satisfaction and contentment but I wasn't content enough.
"I want to see more" the wind carried my words away.
In eleven years, I've learnt stuff that would blow one's mind away. History, lore, myths, legends and most intriguingly magic.
Unlike earth which relied on the pursuit of science to unearth the mysteries of the universe, the field of magic offer more explanation and in depth insight into the makings of the universe.
Magic in it's basic form, causes phenomenon to occur. That is to say that it warps/bends reality to the will of the caster.
But modern magic is guided by principles of mechanisms simplified for the modern wizard. This modern tradition of magic relies on the processes of incantation and the formation of magic circles among other processes unique or adopted by the wizard to cause phenomena. However with a more disciplined mind and an in-depth understanding of events and phenomena one can perform magic without these crutches.
Yes, that's right. The processes and formation of magic circles are crutches to help the modern wizard grasp and lay the foundation to the basics of magic. But the laziness or for whatever reason, has influenced and structured a system for magic.
I opened up my palm to the sky, conjuring flames to dance to the wind. Then with a bit of imagination, changed the shape of the flames from a flower to a tree to a crimson ball.
Such conjuring are very easy to perform.
I activated [reading], and boosted my perception allowing me a marvelous view beyond the reaches of the village and into the forest. There I perceived all manner of on going activities. But my playtime was interrupted by signals of lifeforms speedily heading towards the main road where two carriages were on their way to this village.
I homed in on the lifeforms and detected that they were human. Twelve of them, armed with weapons and exuding crude auras. Bandits.
Recently, banditry activities has increased in this side of our settlement and while the details were lost to me, mom and her squad has encountered some troubles with them.
I took a breath and calmed my nerves, enhancing my senses.
I could simply fly and intercept the bandits before they reached the carriages but that would mean being seen by the villagers since it's still the middle of the day.
Hm! The audacity of these bandits. Attacking in broad daylight. Talk about brazen attitude.
I jumped from the top of the church and landed heavily on the ground.
Thud!
Then while I speedily but stealthily sneaked out of the village, Lael appeared in front of me like he was expecting me.
"Whoa" I said as I brought my momentum to a halt.
"And where might you be off to so hurriedly?" he asked without a care that I could have hurt him if I'd run into him with the speed I was going.
"Nowhere" I answered suspiciously.
"nowhere huh. Then you won't mind if I SHOUT ALBEOM is on his way to NOWHERE right" he said to my face.
'this manipulative, scheming little runt'
"fine, you can come along but make sure to keep up okay."
"you make sure to keep up with me" he smirked "so where are we going?"
"to vanguish evil" I said while flashing him a smile.
"fun" said Lael as he sped past me.
Talk about impatient. I bet he was just itching for something to do. A boy with strength like his can't sit idle for long. I thought to myself and followed behind him.
We sped through the forest, leaving gusts of wind in our wake as we came to a halt at my signal.
"why are we stopping. I can sense that the fight has started" asked Lael as he sensed the conflict ahead.
I only smiled and offered him a blue scarf to cover his face while I hid mine with a red scarf.
"huh. Why do I have to hide my face. Isn't this just wasting time" he said impatiently.
"Hero 101. Secret identity."
"What?"
"Just put it on already and address me as red scarf. You are blue scarf" I added making sure he wouldn't blunder and call me by my actual name, revealing my identity after going to such inconvenience to hide my identity.
He quietly put on the blue scarf, which actually looked nice coupled with his snow white hair and ocean blue eyes. Following his lead, I also wore mine and signaled with my hand for us to proceed.
Past the tree and brushes that hid us from the skirmish on the road, we emerged upon the scene of the twelve bandits having easily knocked out the mercenaries who were hired to guard the carriages. While the civilians cowered in the background.
Just then the bandits alarmed, turned in our direction.
"Who are you?" a brawny man in goat skull mask that barely covered his face asked. A great sword in his hand.
"…"
Lael and I exchanged an obvious look and then I answered.
"well, since we need a name, what about the scarf boys huh. I'm red, the obvious leader and he is blue. My lieutenant" I said nonchalant to the intense situation.
"Huh. If red makes you the leader then I want the red one. Obviously I'm the leader and you're my lieutenant " ignoring the bandits and the tense situation Lael responded looking me in the eyes.
"C'mon, c'mon, no need to argue, I am the leader and you're the lieutenant. There's nothing more to it. Besides, I'm more mature, smarter and stronger than you. It only natural that I am the leader" I replied.
"stronger? Who decided that. We can go right now, right here, you and me. Once and for all who is stronger" he said absent minded of the reason why we were out here in the first place.
"See, there you go being childish. The more mature way to handle this situation is to compete, don't you think"
"compete?" he asked confused.
"Yeah, let's see who can take down more bandits faster. There are twelve of them so it's a fair competition don't you agree" I said and raised my head in the direction of the bandits causing Lael to remember them.
"ohh-" he suddenly exclaimed and then a deep but uneven voiced boomed out.
"ENOUGH" you could hear the blood rushing to his brain from his agitated look.
"What is this. The circus, some comedy show. Who are these boys" he threw the question at his men and the civilians who looked back at him dumbfounded.
"Tsk. Just restrain them and bring them over here" he clicked his tongue and ordered.
Three men turned and headed in our direction, a sneering look on their faces without a hint of caution.
"Hehehe, these kids look good. How much do you think they'll fetch" one asked as he squeezed tight the hilt of his sword.
"quite a bit. See how clean and nice they look" another replied and licked his lips.
"hehehehe, today's a good day, hehe" the third with his yellowish teeth bare added and drew near Lael. "little lad-puffff" he never got to finish his sentence as he was sent flying backwards by Lael's heavy punch.
"huh, w-what-" the second bandit asked in confusion and made to collect himself when Lael instantly appeared before him. "-t the devil" he quickly swung his sword in panic but Lael just dodged and punched him in the gut, causing the bandit to keel over with spit pouring out of his mouth.
"That makes two." Lael flashed me his index and middle finger as he turned to face me
"who's stronger now" then asked.
'you're still immature' I sighed and instantly threw a ball of water to intercept the fireball aimed at Lael. The bandits have a wizard among them.
"Don't let down your guard in battle" I chided to the unconcerned Lael and instantly appeared before the third bandit closest to us and struck him on the neck, knocking him unconscious.
"tsk. I could have handled that" Lael complained.
"No doubt but what about the fireball?"
"that's what I meant" then he turned and faced the rest of the bandits.
"What is this? They're just a bunch of kids" the leader grind his teeth and looked to his men.
"don't bother with restraining them, just kill them" he ordered sending the bandits running in our direction.
"Jarks, that one can use magic. You deal with him" the leader ordered the wizard in a shabby gray robe.
"L-leave it to me" he stuttered and continued charging himself with magic as he was already doing. I could feel he was quite skilled for a wizard in bed with bandits.
Suddenly the air tightened around him and
Vhoom
He zoomed in at me.
I stayed rooted in place and in slow motion, having enhanced my speed and agility, analyzed him while dodging his magic powered punch.
A physical enhancement on his strength and speed with a low tier barrier for defense.
Good. I couldn't help but praise his strategy but it was too flimsy. His preparation was on the premise that he was fighting someone weaker than him in magic combat. Which is evident in the way he choice to make it physical combat instead of hurling spells at me from a distance. I observed that he doesn't fit the norm of wizard society which might explain why he's tangled with this bunch of bandits.
Anyways, while I was lost in thought, he flew past me in a rush of wind and brought himself to a stop to which he instantly shot out an air blast.
Bapt.
The sound echoed in my ears but otherwise I was okay.
He followed up with an incantation which caused the wind to pick up and send leaves flying above my head.
'okay, so you have some tricks' just as I wondered what he aimed to do with that it formed a fist and punch down.
Boom.
I judged that I wouldn't be hurt by the punch and stood in place while it descended but afterwards, the leaves spread everywhere and obscured my vision which was just what the wizard aimed at.
In that moment, while I pondered whether to activate [reading] and deal with the situation, the ground became soft and suck my feet in.
I instantly realized what he was doing and before I could react, I was stuck in the ground which had harden.
Slowly the leaves lifted and the wizard stood before me. A smile on his face as if he was enjoying himself.
"w-wowee, t-that s-sure was fun but now it's over"
I looked him up and down and realized that while his combat style was impressive and could take down a lot other people in my situation he wasn't that impressive to me.
Just then I noticed a wand in his hand.
'huh' I exclaimed in thought. 'When did he equip a wand' he clearly surprised me with that one. In magic studies, a magic wand and staffs is termed as a "focus". In short, it helps the wizard, in this case the caster, focus their spells and magic without needing an incantation or magic circle. Which basically meant, instant casting.
"[Azagris]" he said and pointed the wand at me. Manifesting an ethereal blue chain that swirled around him giving him an icy cold aura.
I instantly activated [reading] and saw the magic of the chains.
"So you weren't unimpressive after all" I said to his face.
"Huh" his brow twitched. "hehe is that an attempt to b-beg for y-your life" he asked after collecting himself. "o-obviously it's im-impressive that you could follow my speed at a-all which tells me that you s-started magic training very early. As impressive for the n-nobility as always. B-but you're still too young. Too y-young. If only you'd grown a bit more. Oh, what a m-monster you'd have been" he added with obvious glee. "w-what a m-monster. Hehe. B-but it's over n-now"
As if listened to him, a wave of magic pulled My attention to the civilians standing by the carriage. One of them was giving off an unusual wave of magic power. It felt ancient and strong. And that made me wonder why they hadn't defended themselves or could it have been that we appeared before they had a chance to do so. But just as I pondered on it I also perceived something else about it.
"N-nothing, to say hehe. How wicked I am" the bandit wizard laughed. "Bind" and the chains came wrapping around me.
My focus moved unto him again and I sighed.
"a corrosive ability to temporarily seal a person magic power output while destroying their magic pathways. Clearly a dangerous ability to a magic born like me" I observed as the chains were heavily hanging over my body.
"Huh. H-how" his eyes hidden behind his bangs seems to widened in shock.
"perhaps I was too hasty in saying you are not unimpressive. You are just a bore. No wonder you're with this bunch." His ability is not impressive. It on the unique side sure, which made me realize that this skill of his was a unique magical ability. But his failure to even grasp my magic power was a let down. He wasn't perceptive enough. That these chains [Azagris] couldn't affect me.
[Reading] was still activated so it was simple for me to thoroughly analyze the chains.
I infused my magic power in the chain, exceeding it's limit which brought it breaking into pieces and shimmering away before our eyes.
"Huh. Huh" he reacted and moved back.
"down here" I called to him in his confusion and made contact with him as I stood before him. I had broken out of the ground and closed the distance before he could even blink.
"I suppose I should thank you. Aside from the flaw which is the corruptive nature of your ability, magic sealing is pretty useful so…"
"w-what"
"I seal your magic" I said and hit him in the chest with my palm sending magic energy coursing through him.
His body shimmered blue as a shadow of ethereal blue like an astral projection seem to echo behind him as if to eject from his body then it receded back into him causing him to plop down.
Thud.
"a…ar…arh…" his face went pale and blank, his words incoherent as if his soul left him as he sat there.
'now then' I looked in the direction of Lael and saw him knock unconscious the last bandit with the exception of the leader.
"No matter how you look at it. I'm the stronger one so I should have the red scarf" he said to me earnestly to which I replied.
"yeah, maybe next time. We are already in the middle of this" and smiled.
"huuuh"