'That girl isn't right in the head...'
Ryunosuke faces off against four figures dressed in the same attire.
They wear a long dark blue robe with a silver insignia stitched into their right breast pocket, emblazoned on it the number five. All four have dark hair, on the left are two female mages, one has a short bob cut, the other lengthy drooping hair with bangs.
The long haired mage's wand is a striking hot rod red whilst the short haired mage holds a stark white wand.
The long haired on the far left whispers to the one beside them, "hey, leader said only the princess was here, who is that?"
With a snarky tone the short haired mage speaks loudly, "how would I know? Just restrain him and find her."
"Guh... Let me try talking to him first, if it's just a passing civilian we'll be in trouble." The long haired mage takes three steps forward.
Cupping her hands together on her mouth, she yells, "hey! We don't want any trouble with you, if you're just passing by then I suggest you go home for now!"
Lyrielle hides under the canopy as she watches from a distance, 'what's going on over there?'
Ryunosuke raises his arms up high in the air, showing he's unarmed, 'for some reason I don't think I want them finding Lyrielle... I'll avoid starting a fight.'
One of the male mages on the right walks beside the long haired mage, they speak with an authoritative tone, "tell me if you've seen a short girl around here!"
"Oh you're right." The long haired mage quickly turns back to Ryunosuke. "Hey! Have you seen a girl around here? She should be slightly shorter than you and is wearing a suuuperr expensive looking red dress!"
Ryunosuke's eyes dart around the area, he shifts around his feet. "No! I don't think so...! I'm just here with my companion, we were out gathering herbs... And stuff!"
'Oh god I hope this works. Hopefully they won't recognize Lyrielle so I can bring her someplace els-'
"What herbs?" The male mage's posture shifts, he crosses his arms. "You're not holding any!"
Ryunosuke begins to sweat nervously, "m-my companion has them! She's over there!" He points to the canopy with his right hand, his other arm still raised in the air.
'What's he doing! Why's he pointing at me??' Unsure of whether she should leave the canopy, she decides to do nothing and remain still.
"A-ha-ha..." Ryunosuke raises back his right arm, "she's shy but feisty at times you know, I doubt that kind of person is a princess, right?" He awkwardly attempts to smile at the mages.
"Call her over please. And what's your name?" The long haired mage speaks with a sweet, friendly tone. "Kobayashi Ryunosuke," he says as he gestures for Lyrielle to come over.
'I can't see them clearly from here! Is he asking me to go towards them?'
"Ryunosuke...?" The male mage takes a step closer to him, "no one puts "Ryu" in their name! Who are you really!" They now point a gray metal wand at him.
'What's with the people here? That's literally my name.' Ryunosuke takes a step forward as well, "that's my name, really!"
The male mage thinks to himself, 'I already suspected something was up, but he has the dragon's name in his own... And that white hair, it's too suspicious to put off now.'
"I'm gonna need both of you to come with us!" He keeps his stick pointed at Ryunosuke, who clicks his tongue. "But we need to bring the herbs to our sick mother!" He yells back.
"I don't care! Come with us!" Suddenly the long haired mage behind him lays her hand on his outstretched forearm. "Ikari."
Ikari lowers his wand, "what is it now Niko?" Niko lightly kicks Ikari on the knee, causing him to buckle over in pain.
"Y-you...! You know I have a bad knee!" Niko giggles for a moment before squatting down whilst tucking her robe below her legs, "let them bring their herbs to their mother first, then we can bring them with us, that sound alright?" Niko herself spoke as if she were a caring mother.
Meanwhile Lyrielle now stands beside Ryunosuke, however she continue to glare daggers at him. "Did you sell me out?" She asks angrily, to which he quickly replies, "what? Of course not."
The sincerity in his voice makes her face the other way, "well... Thank you, I guess. But what's the situation now?"
Ryunosuke lowers his mouth to her ear and whispers, "they think we have herbs to bring to our sick mother, I'm hoping we can use this chance to slip away."
"There should be a village nearb-" Lyrielle gets interrupted by Ikari, "quit mumbling. You! What are those?" He points at Lyrielle in the face before lowering his finger to her feet.
She wears a pair of fine leather shoes with a thin gold chain running across its front.
"I found it over in those bushes!" Lyrielle flicks her head to the left, where a large patch of bushes are growing. Lyrielle squints her eyes at Ikari's silver insignia, '6?!'
"Ryunosuke, we could be in real trouble right now." She tugs on his robe, "yea... I think they caught on to us."
"It's not that. The one in front, his name is Sato Ikari. I know him from the magic institution we went to, his magic is troublesome and impossible to counter. Those three behind him might as well be a rank higher than what they are currently."
Sounding nonchalant Ryunosuke asks, "is it really that bad?" Lyrielle immediately answers him, "it is. Even I'm only at rank five and my mana has barely recovered as of now."
"Those ranks don't really mean much to me though..." The uncertainty of the situation makes him reflexively step back. 'Shit.'
Whilst they were talking, Ikari had sent one of the other mages to check the bushes. Ryunosuke watched as they raised a green wand over the bushes, a green glow emanated from it.
"I found nothing Ikari!"
'If she was speaking the truth then there'd be footsteps, but nothing?' Ikari turns back to Ryunosuke and Lyrielle who still had their hands up.
"Niko, get that bright spell of yours ready, I'll prepare to cast my boost and all three of you will wait for my signal." Niko gulps as she covers her wand behind her back.
Noticing the sudden change in Niko's posture, the other male and female mage act as if nothing was wrong. The man who checked the bushes walks over to Ikari, "what do we do now?"
Ikari bluntly responds, "wait."
Ryunosuke and Lyrielle anxiously watch the four, their raised arms make them completely vulnerable and open to attack.
The atmosphere becomes tense as silence fills the air...
Lyrielle's cloth begins to slip down her shoulders, she calmly lowers her arms to lift it.
'Now!' Ikari raises his wand high and three rays consisting of the colors; white, green and red shoot out towards the rest of his group. The white ray pierces Niko whilst the red ray goes towards the short haired female mage, the green ray instantly pierces the male mage standing beside Ikari.
Niko swipes her wand forwards, Ikari along with the other two close their eyes as she points it into the sky.
Her wand emits a blinding white light as Ikari yells with his eyes still closed, "Daichi! Akane! Do it!"
Daichi sticks his wand into the ground, the earth around Ryunosuke and Lyrielle begins to vibrate and faintly glow green.
At the same time, Akane points her wand downwards behind her before swiping it upwards in an arc, three glowing orange circles form in the wand's wake as it moves through the air.
"Akane?!" Lyrielle's skin goes pale.
The ground begins to break apart around them.
He turns around and sees Lyrielle struggling to maintain her balance.
Loud cracks in the earth, particles of dirt flying up into the air, searing balls of fire flying towards them and as adrenaline pumps through his veins, he hears a woman's voice in his head.
It cries out for help, 'Ryunosuke...!'
As Lyrielle reaches her arms out to Ryunosuke, he feels a strange sensation.
Time slows down nearly to a halt, his eyes fill with hatred, the same feeling he'd have whenever the school bullies tried to push him around.
The colors of his eyes begin to alter, his pupil turns pure white, the iris becoming green and emitting a soft flowing emerald glow. The skin on the back of his hands harden, resembling scales. The tips of his white hair drip down like droplets from a faucet.
'Level One.'
A green and white gradient streaks past his right eye, 'lightning?' He reaches out and grabs the odd colored lightning, 'no, it isn't.'
It is an ink-like substance, 'then... Mana? MY mana?'
Like the monotonous strokes of ink on a Chinese painting, his mana swishes and splashes around him.
'What is this? I feel... Elated.' He turns his body towards the mages, they move in slow motion, 'my body feels light, like when I killed...' Ryunosuke shakes his head side to side, 'I'd rather not think about that.'
Ryunosuke stomps on a large flat piece of rock, it turns ninety degrees and rises into the air. Ryunosuke looks up from the hole which he and Lyrielle are now falling into, only the blue sky is visible.
Grabbing Lyrielle by the waist, he walks back to his prior spot. He places a foot on the surface of the rock he'd stomped and like a raindrop, each step he takes splashes mana around his feet.
He turns Lyrielle around, carrying her in his arms.
His brown robe flows slowly as he walks up ninety degrees, midway he notices three fireballs whisk past his face, flying downwards into the pit.
Upon making out of the pit, it explodes into a pillar of flames which incinerates the segments of earth within.
Time returns to normal and Lyrielle now sees herself being carried like a princess. The mages turn to him in shock whilst Ikari promptly gives out new orders. "Akane and Niko, prepare another volley! Daichi, make a wall in front after they've fired!"
"R-Ryunosuke...? What happened to you?" Lyrielle stares at his green luminescent eyes. "I don't know either, let's talk about it after this is over."
"I think I can win."
He lays Lyrielle on the floor with more care than he had given anyone before, she feels his fingers lightly brushing against her as he does so but remains quiet.
Ikari yells in response to Ryunosuke revving himself up for a rush, "here he comes! Now!"
The green and white mana coming out from Ryunosuke's eyes grows larger in volume, its now a stream that flows behind him. 'They're far away, I hope I'm fast enough.'
Ryunosuke builds up as much force as he can in his legs, the ground beneath him starts to rumble and he hears little cracks coming up from it.
'He's gathering mana in his legs... How did he just learn to do that?' Lyrielle watches beside him in awe.
As ink-like mana explodes around Ryunosuke, it creates a shockwave that blows away the air, Lyrielle covers her face with her arms, 'that's impossible...!'
Streaks of green and white fly out from behind his legs, Ryunosuke's stance is reminiscent of a track runner before the race has started.
Niko speaks to Ikari as she prepares her wand, "w-what is that Ikari...? Have you seen that happen before-?" Her voice shakes uncontrollably. "That's not normal." Her voice fills with fear, "how is he not dead with that level of power?!" Ikari sweats nervously, "and that mana- what the hell even is that?!"
"He's making the ground shake harder than my spell with just his mana...!" Daichi scrapes his feet against the ground as he struggles to stand upright, he tries to maintain eye contact with Ryunosuke in the distance.
The four mages start to feel lightheaded, "it feels like that mana is compressing the air!" Akane notices her flames shrinking, until soon they completely extinguish.
Ikari yells as loudly as he can, "brace yourselves everyone!"
'Grit your teeth Kobayashi Ryunosuke...!' Veins all over his body bulge violently, his mouth is wide open as his teeth grind against each other.
When one's mana reaches its peak, an explosion happens which would normally kill that person.
Ryunosuke dashes forwards with all his might, the earth splitting apart where he once stood.
'This fight's only getting started!!'