Watching from afar, the people of the town Joren and Tessa were staying in saw the massive lightning bolt strike the forest. The light it emitted was so bright, that nocturnal creatures would stop their hunt early to fall asleep. Their windows and other glass objects in their possession shattered once the chaotic sound of thunder passed over their houses.
"What's going on over there." One man asked holding his family in his arms. Everyone heard the commotion around the town, and some even spotted Joren and Tessa running away from figures in black clothing.
"Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't come back to harm us." The man's wife spoke.
...
The ground was scorched beyond recognition. Where there was once a grassy field was now bubbling with molten rocks that were superheated from the lightning strike. The once green field riddled with trees was now a black barren wasteland with red-orange streaks of lava flowing in all directions.
"Puwah!" A hand reached out of the ground, clawing its way back to the surface. An assassin who survived this 'divine punishment' looked at his surroundings and saw nothing but destruction. "What kind of power does he possess?" His hands were still shaking in fear as he remembered what happened a few moments prior.
"H-Help. Help me." A weak, soft voice was heard off in the distance accompanied by a hand slightly waving.
"I'm coming!" The assassin arrived and pulled out his companion from the rubble He then looked around and saw a few more survivors that crawling out of rocks and rubble. Most who survived had major injuries while the lucky ones only had minor ones. When they did a head count, they noticed that only 13 of them survived.
"That's insane!" one of the assassins spoke. "We had 20 of us on the building he was in, and another 60 who were stationed around the city. You mean to tell me that out of 80 of us, only 13 survived? How much power do they possess to pull off such a spell?!"
"Now's not the time to worry about that. We have to go back to headquarters and report what went down here. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to continue our job." The leader of this group, who fortunately survived spoke up.
"The Solights are not going to like this."
"We'll worry about that when the time comes. Let's head out." They all vanished into the shadows as if they were never there in the first place.
...
"I don't think they're following us anymore," Tessa said, holding onto Joren's back as he carried her.
"G-Good, 'cause that t-took a lot out of me." He breathed heavily as he traversed through the trees. Joren had never used his power to such a degree before. 'Now I understand why higher-level spells require a specific number of circles to cast. I didn't even use a spell yet the mana consumption was insane, even for someone like me who possesses a ton of mana.'
Just to be safe, Joren kept traveling without stopping to make sure no one was on their tail. The lightning strike was exactly what he wanted to do. It was super destructive and completely vaporized anything in its path, but it was also very bright and the shadows were temporarily vanquished by the light it emitted allowing for their escape.
Although he felt weaker than normal, he thought it was understandable since he had burned a shit ton of his mana. Tessa on the other hand kept observing Joren. She could see how he was getting tired, how sweat kept running down his face, but more importantly, she saw how rugged his breathing was.
"Are you sure you're okay? If you need to, we can rest." She assured worryingly.
"I-Im..f-fine." He said, huffing and puffing between words.
"You don't look okay. Joren stop now, you need to rest."
"I can keep...I can...I can't...I can't breathe." Already in a weakened state, he could feel the lack of oxygen affecting his brain, then, a sharp pain appeared in his chest prompting him to clutch it tightly.
"What's going on?!" Lacking in strength, Joren fell towards the ground at high speeds. His mind was foggy and he felt lightheaded. He tried to activate his mana, but because of his mental state, he failed to do so.
"Joren? Joren! What's wrong?! Answer me!" She got no answer. They kept falling to the ground, getting closer and closer to their demise. "Shit, hang on! {Fire Whip}" Using her magic, a rope of mana wrapped around Joren and extended to the top of the trees. Before hitting the ground, they suddenly stopped and bounced slightly as the fire whip was elastic.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Tessa undid her spell and landed on the ground safely. Immediately, she went to Joren and tried to assess the problem.
"Joren, what's wrong? Talk to me!" She kept shaking him but she got no response. The only thing he was doing was clutching his chest, so she moved his arm away and examined his chest, and what she saw shocked her.
When Joren was slightly distracted, he barely managed to dodge one of the assassins when Tessa alerted him. In the process, he was cut on the chest slightly, and unfortunately, the dagger that cut him was laced with poison and it was now taking action.
"You've been poisoned! Oh God! What do I do?" She didn't know how to combat poison. She did know that in some cases, you could burn poison out of a person's body, but she didn't know how that would affect him. She was scouring her brain to find a solution when she felt a hand touch her.
"Healing...herbs...in...ring" Joren spoke softly. He willed himself to use mana, just enough to expel all the contents from his ring, and when he did so successfully, he passed out.
"Okay, okay, okay, healing herbs, healing herbs, where are the healing herbs!" She scratched her brain viciously trying to find the herbs that could heal him.
"Found them!" She grinned so hard her mouth reached her ears, but then just as quickly as she smiled, she grinned. "Which ones do I use?" There were many healing herbs in glass bottles that contained special herbs for special injuries. "Fuck it!" She didn't know which ones to use, so she used all instead.
"First, a healing potion." Healing potions don't treat poison, only wounds. She fed him one so that his body could regain some of its strength. After that, she took some of the herbs and put them all on the slash wound on his chest where he was poisoned. She then mashed up some of the herbs, put them in a water container she found, and made Joren drink some of it and put the rest on his chest wound. Lastly, she combined the herbs with a healing potion and repeated the process again.
"I hope this works. If not, we're both dead." She covered him up and started cleaning up the area they were in. She organized all the contents that were expelled from his storage ring but kept the important things like sleeping mats, some food, water, and things like that. After an hour, she was exhausted so she went to sleep next to Joren.
...
[One month ago after Joren ran with Tessa]
Overbearing mana was felt all around them. Sir Carter could handle it since he was on the same circle level as them, but the mercenaries and knights had a harder time adjusting to the immense pressure the three people gave off.
"Eunno, you handle those mercs, Furl, handle the knights. I'll hander dear Carter over here." The lady spoke
"Have fun Bia," Eunno spoke
"Try not to kill him, we need him alive after all" Furl said as he walked over to the knights.
"Don't worry, I'll just mess him up a bit." She licked her lips and extended a whip from her back. "Do you like being dominated? 'Cause once I'm done with you, you will." She charged at Sir Carter.
"Listen mercs" Eunno, spoke. "Leave now, and I'll let you live. You have no part in this conflict. You'll only be wasting your lives."
"That may be true, but the scorching flame mercenaries always completes a job." All of them got in battle-ready positions. "So you're going to have to either stop us or fuck off." Flames burst from Glenn's sword as he prepared to take on Eunno.
"You guys are knights of the Solight house and you protect Tessa Solight which makes you traitors as she's wanted by the house head." With an overbearing presence, Furl confronted the knights. Every step he took shook the ground and his voice sent shivers down the knights spines.
"It's you guys who are traitors!" One of the knights spoke, gulping down his saliva.
"Heh, only the strong can decide such a thing while the weak have to accept their fate." Furl's aura exploded from his body with such force, it burned the air around him. His body was surrounded by a large, dancing flame that scorched the ground with every step he took.
"For betraying the Solight family, I will sentence you all to death," Furl spoke as he charged at the knights.