Point-of-View: Fuo Wesroh

  During: End of Goldway Arc

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  "I'm……I'm almost out of Mana, I can't keep this up for more than another minute or so," I panted, doing my best to keep my knees from buckling.

  "If I form ice under your feet, how long can you go on?" Inquired Azyl, who looked physically drained.

  How much Mana does this guy have anyway? I was envious, but……I'd almost certainly be dead by now if it wasn't for him.

  "In that case, I can probably go on for about half an hour. But aren't you low on Mana?"

  "Yeah, but I can still do this much, it barely takes any Mana," He replied, wiping off the sweat on his forehead with a groan.

  Barely takes any……!? Grr, how was he so powerful!? I know now is not the time to get jealous, but I couldn't help it. He was frighteningly powerful, his lack of motivation or intent to show it off may be a blessing in disguise……

  After that, we continued on in silence, managing to go on for another forty-five minutes before we finally stopped. We found a small cave nearby and wearily stumbled inside. I slowly let Persia down from my back and lay her down on the ground, before slumping against the wall of the cave with a sigh of relief. Azyl lay spread out on the ground, breathing heavily and his eyes drooping shut.

  "So……are you……finally……out of Mana?" I inquired, still out of breath, with my voice hoarse.

  "Huh? No……I still……have a……little bit left. Oh, you're thirsty?" He responded, with ragged breathing, before forming a couple of cups of ice and filling them with water.

  Tch, I-I could do that too, if I wasn't out of Mana……

  Well, I was quite thirsty, so a glass of water sounded good right now. I painstakingly scooted over till it was in reach, I grabbed the cup of ice and gulped down the water with a sigh of relief. It was nice and cool thanks to the ice, I felt a lot better.

  "I guess I should thank y……," I began, before trailing off as I realized that he had fallen asleep.

  When did he……? Well, I suppose I was quite exhausted myself, I doubt I'd be able to stay conscious for much longer. He certainly was a strange person, the day after we reached Goldway, he went around to talk to everyone who had been a part of the Quest and asked us to keep his abilities a secret.

  I don't know how most of the others responded, but after Ekai and I agreed to do so, we saw him speaking to Ragiu about it. Ragiu, being the arrogant jerk that he is, brushed him off with a condescending remark, but Azyl responded by freezing his feet to prevent him from leaving and threatened him till he agreed, before finally letting him go.

  He certainly lacks motivation, but he wasn't incapable of taking the initiative when necessary. He truly was someone that I would never want for an enemy. Still……why did he have to have Water Magic? Seeing how effortlessly he conjured up water and ice made my own powers seem insignificant in comparison……the things I had spent months training on, he could likely do with no effort at all.

  I let out a long yawn and slumped lower against the wall of the cave. It was not exactly comfortable, but I was far too tired to care. I closed my eyes, and almost immediately drifted off, falling deep asleep in no time……

  I woke up to the sound of arguing, though I wasn't sure how long that I had been asleep. I groggily sat up with a groan and rubbed my eyes sleepily, before turning my attention to the noise. Persia had woken up, and she didn't look happy. Azyl was awake too, but based on how droopy his eyelids were, she had woken him up abruptly.

  "-how could you just leave him behind like that!?" She exclaimed angrily, shaking him by the collar.

  "For the last time, that was his call."

  "So, what!? That doesn't mean you had to leave him, you could have kept putting up ice walls or something and all four of us could have run away together!"

  "I didn't have enough Mana for something like that. And he was the one who knocked you out, remember?"

  "Y-yeah, but still……you know what, forget it, I'm going back!" She snapped, standing up unsteadily and stumbling a bit.

  Before she could leave, Azyl covered the entrance with a thick layer of ice.

  "You can't. We need to keep heading back to the Rustlands," He remarked.

  "No way, if Kuro's still alive-!"

  "If he's alive, he'll heal himself and make his way back. But if he's not, you'll probably die when you go back, meaning that he died for nothing. Because he begged me to make sure you stay alive and get back safely. Calm down and face reality, we can't change what happened yesterday," He interrupted her, standing up with a stifled yawn.

  "But that's……but I just……," She trailed off shakily, as she slumped onto her knees while fighting back tears.

  "I'm sorry, but it is what it is……we can't wallow in disbelief, because if Kuro is dead……I'll make sure that he didn't die for nothing."

  I wasn't sure if I should speak up here, it felt too awkward……and honestly, I was still having trouble processing the entirety of yesterday.

  "Um……so, what should we do from now?" I awkwardly interjected.

  As soon as the words left my mouth, it felt like the wrong thing to say in this situation……

  "Hm? I suppose we should plan it……we need to keep going, but we also need to find food somehow. Water won't be a problem," Azyl replied after considering it carefully.

  I hadn't seen many animals on the way here, save for some lizards, snakes and bats……that's right, bats are edible. I had never eaten them myself, but apparently they did not taste bad……I was hesitant to suggest that though. While mulling it over, another idea popped into my head.

  "Hey, you said you can't levitate ice if you're in contact with it right……do you think you could create a boat out of ice and move it using water underneath it?" I suggested.

  "I……think I should be able to do that. But our main worry right now is food."

  Guess I don't have a choice……

  "We can hunt bats in the caves, I can probably shoot them down using my arrows pretty easily," I replied with a sigh.

  Persia wasn't paying attention to what we were talking about at all, she was huddled in the corner of the cave with a miserable expression. Azyl doesn't speak much, but his words certainly have an impact when he does. Despite her hysterical state when she woke up, he was able to calm her down and see reason by using logically convincing arguments.

  "Bats, huh……now that you mention it, I think I've heard that they're edible……I don't suppose you know how to start a fire?"

  "Well, uh……no, I don't."

  "Hm, then our only option is steam," He sighed, letting out a small streak of steam from his finger.

  After we discussed the matter a bit more, I went out and looked for a cave that went deep in, the cave we had rested in was no bigger than a small room and had no animals residing in it at all. My legs were sore and a bit unstable, but I could still walk around.

  Besides bats, the only other animals I'd seen on the way here were snakes, lizards and rats, and I don't think any of those are edible. And even if they were, they weren't very appealing options……not that bats are particularly appealing, but if I had to pick between bats and the other options, bats seemed marginally more appealing.

  I soon found a large cave and walked in, using a small blade of ice to mark the ground so that I won't get lost. It smelt musty in here. It didn't take long for me to find some bats, they were all over the ceiling of this cave……it was a little terrifying, seeing the sheer number of them. As it turned out, hunting them was really easy. They were all asleep, perched upside down.

  I need to take down a few of them without waking the entire flock. I took a deep breath to ease myself and took my bow into my hands, pulling back the string as I formed an arrow of ice. Easy now, I don't need to fire this at full force, just enough to pierce the animal's skin. I wasn't too far in from where the entrance was, so this spot was dimly lit by the sunlight streaming in. As it was, it was just about bright enough for me to see.

  I took aim and fired, the arrow flying free and piercing through the head of one of the bats. It plummeted down, I quickly caught it before it could crash down and wake the others. I think I can still use a bit less force. I fired the next arrow, once again nailing a bat on the head. It began to fall down but was struggling violently, I quickly grabbed it and took hold of the arrow, pushing it deeper into its head. That time, I hadn't put enough force behind my shot, that was close……

  I ended up taking down ten bats before I decided it was enough and headed back. I returned to the cave, to find Persia still sulking in the corner while Azyl had gone back to sleep. I was absolutely starving, so I had no choice but to wake him up. He wasn't happy about being abruptly woken up for the second time today, but reluctant agreed to cook the bats.

  "I don't like being woken up, but……I'm really hungry too," He sighed, as I skinned the bats using a small dagger I made using ice.

  I had frozen them a bit so that they wouldn't bleed everywhere while I was doing this, but it still felt really disgusting.

  "There, done. You're up," I remarked with a sigh of relief, giving him the skinned meat.

  "Fine, here goes, I guess," He yawned, firing out a blast of steam at them.

  "Stop, stop, stop! Perhaps you should do this outside the cave, we'll suffocate otherwise," I quickly stopped him, as the steam drastically increased the temperature in the cave.

  He reluctantly got up and went outside to finish steaming the meat. That left me alone in the cave with Persia, who had barely moved from the corner she had huddled in.

  "Um, hey……aren't you hungry, we're going to eat in a bit-," I began, trying to break the awkward silence.

  "No, I'm not hungry," She mumbled in reply.

  "Oh, uh……okay," I replied, unsure how to respond.

  Give me a break, I do not know how to handle a girl who's heartbroken……I couldn't blame her for being miserable, but I had no clue how I should deal with her. She looked like she wanted to be left alone, but that wasn't really an option.

  I let out a sigh of relief after Azyl returned with the steamed meat. It didn't taste that good, but I was too hungry to care about that, ravenously wolfing it down. Persia stubbornly insisted that she wasn't hungry for a while, but eventually gave in when her stomach rumbled. And once she took a bite, she couldn't stop herself from wolfing it down. I felt a lot better after I finished eating, taking a drink of water gratefully.

  After we finished eating, we went over everything we had on us……which wasn't much. A few empty Mana Orbs, our Identification Cards, money, and nothing else of any value. Granted, we had left Goldway in a hurry and weren't able to take all our belongings, but in hindsight, we should have made sure to take a few important items like healing Spell Scrolls and food.

  "We should keep moving. Let's try the boat thing you suggested," Said Azyl, standing up with a sigh.

  He was looking a lot less worn out himself, I suppose we all must have been hungrier than we thought. We left the cave and he created a small boat out of ice, before forming a large mass of water underneath it, about the size of a large pond. We got into the boat, as he began moving the water under it……and the boat moved along with it. It was a bit unsteady at first, but before long, we were moving at a decent pace, maybe even faster than a horse-drawn carriage. After traveling smoothly for about half an hour, we ran into a Giant.

  "I suppose we couldn't avoid running into monsters……I shall take care of-," I began, standing up and readying my bow, before I was cut off by Azyl rapidly firing a large and sharp icicle at the Giant, piercing through its head and killing it.

  "Huh, did you say something?" He asked, turning back as I sat back down.

  "……no, it was nothing."

  Persia was still quiet, sitting at the back of the boat. The boat was cold, but it was late-afternoon and the weather was rather hot, so it felt pleasant. We continued on for a couple of hours, Azyl brushing away any Giants we ran into with the utmost of ease. And then, he suddenly stopped. The water beneath us all disappeared and the boat was on the ground.

  "Hey, what are you-?" I started to ask.

  "Screw this……I don't know why, but it's really tiring," He groaned, getting out of the boat, "Walking is less tiring."

  "Are you low on Mana?"

  "No, I've barely used any. It's just, moving the water while making sure the ice boat stays afloat and doesn't melt, all at the same time, is really exhausting……let's just walk."

  "Whatever," Persia muttered, as we stepped off the boat and began walking.

  It was starting to get dark now, it was mid-evening and the sun was beginning to set. It had been nearly a day since we got away from the Zombies, it was still hard to believe that all that had happened. But I wasn't going to talk about it, I expect doing so would only worsen Persia's already-miserable mood……

  A couple of hours later, after the sun had set, we encountered a group of five Giants. Azyl had been taking care of all the monsters we ran into, but I had to admit……I was bored.

  "Let me take one of them," I volunteered before he could take them all out.

  "Yeah, me too," Remarked Persia, speaking for the first time in hours.

  "Sure," He replied with indifference.

  I shot towards one of them and fired a barrage of arrows at its face, one of my shots piercing its left eye. It let out a roar and stomped down at me, I swiftly rolled across to my right to avoid it and formed an arrow with a longer and wider tip than I usually do, before firing it across at the Giant's right heel, the arrow slashing through it.

  Its right leg buckled and collapsed down, I swiftly sprang up onto its knee and formed two more arrows with extra long tips, firing them both simultaneously, one going through the monster's chest and the other going through its throat. It let out another roar, but didn't die……looks like my arrows were still too shallow. I sprang off its knee as it slammed its fists towards me, managing to evade it. As a result, it ended up shattering its own knee.

  Looks like it's immobilized. Now's my chance. I sprang back and fired another ice arrow at the one already-embedded in its neck, in an attempt to drive it in deeper. I managed to graze the embedded arrow but couldn't push it in. Tch, the margin of error is far too narrow, how am I supposed to……an idea then hit me, and a formed another arrow, this one with a wide and flat blunt tip, like a small saucer at the end of the arrow.

  I jumped up and rolled away as the monster swung its arm at me, before taking aim and firing. The blunt arrow hit the back of the embedded arrow and hammered it in further, killing the monster and turning it into ash.

  Azyl had already defeated three of the Giants, effortlessly impaling them with large spikes of ice.

  Persia shot up using Propulsion, dodging the Giant's fists before swinging her hands across towards its facr, sending slashes of wind blades at its eyes, blinding it. She then shot across towards its hand, blasting past it with another slash, severing across halfway down its forearm.

  She was rapidly blasting herself all around the monster, unleashing windy slash after slash at it, cutting it down bit by bit. Was she taking out her frustrations on it? It certainly seemed to be the case. She then blasted herself above the right side of the monster's head, angled her right foot towards it while wrapping swirling wind around her leg and raised her arms.

  She then fired a rapid burst of Propulsion from her hands to shoot herself down at it, her wind-enhanced foot slamming against the side of the Giant's head, and in the blink of an eye, tore its head off, the sheer force sending the decapitated head crashing onto the ground and kicking up a massive dust cloud, before both the head and body vanished into ash.

  The tension in her expression seemed to have eased significantly with that attack, as she dropped back down, falling into a pool of water created by Azyl.

  "Hey, be a bit more careful, we don't have any healing scrolls on us, remember?" He said with a sigh.

  "Yeah, yeah, I know," She replied quietly, as he snapped his fingers to make all the water and ice he formed disappear, instantly drying her.

  Not long after that, we decided to call it a night, finding another cave to spend the night in. It was a much bigger cave than the one we rested in last night, so we stayed by the entrance, where a pleasantly cool breeze blew in. I let out a yawn and closed my eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep before long……

  We continued on at a steady pace for the next few days, without too much in the way of trouble. I lost count at some point, but I believe it was somewhere between two to three weeks before we reached the Rustlands. In that time, we spend a lot of time moving, often using Skate and Propulsion to speed along and cover a large amount of distance in a short amount of time.

  The journey felt endless at times, especially as I watched Azyl and Persia during our monster encounters……it didn't take long for me to realize that both of them were stronger than me. Azyl was the more obviously stronger one, but watching Persia, I doubted that I could beat her. It was a frustrating realization, and only served to make the journey feel all the more neverending to me.

  The only real indicator that we were actually making progress were the types of monsters we were running into……the weaker the monsters, the closer we were to the Rustlands. After we stopped running into Giants, it was Cyclops', followed by Lizardmen, Devilbats, Ogres, Hobgoblins and then, finally……Goblins.

  I felt a huge sense of relief when we finally encountered Goblins, because it meant that we were only a day or two away from home. Persia had remained in the same downcast mood right throughout the journey, not even perking up when the walls of the Rustlands came into view. As for Azyl, he had grown a bit irritable towards the last few days, as the frustration of the long journey began building up on him, along with fatigue and exhaustion, considering that he didn't seem to have a high level of stamina.

  Of the three of us, he was easily the most visibly relieved when the walls of the Rustlands finally came into view. Once we got back, the guards looked quite apprehensive, and I felt rather self-conscious as I realized that the three of us smelt strongly of sweat and grime.

  They let us in after we showed them our Identification Cards, after which we all headed home. Things got hectic for a couple of days after that, as the Academy questioned us quite thoroughly over what had happened. The one thing we kept quiet about was Azyl's abilities, I certainly had no intention of incurring his wrath. Eventually though, the questions ended, and we were finally able to get home and rest.

  "That was awful……I'm going to go sleep forever now," Sighed Azyl, as we walked out the Academy afterwards.

  "That sounds good, I think I'll go do that too," Muttered Persia half-heartedly, before heading off.

  Uh……'sleep forever' could be synonymous with suicide……no, I'm probably just overthinking it, and if not, I'm sure they're just being dramatic. Personally, some rest sounded quite appealing to me, as well, but……more than that, there was one thought in my mind that was especially loud, a strong desire inside me……I wanted to get stronger……much, much stronger than I am now……

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  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

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