Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

[Please read the endnote at the bottom of the chapter.]

Byul surged the mana in her system and heard the shout from Wrik. 

"Take covers, immediately."

She ran immediately to a side, taking cover against the snipers in behind them. A few bullets came, though most were in the direction of Wrik. One hit her badly on the back. A throbbing pain assaulted her body and mind and she gritted her teeth. She had to move inside a building to hide. Apparently, there were few people here, but they were frightened like a kitten hiding even in further corner 

Wrik did not hide like that and she was relieved to know he was not injured by much after the first unexpected shot. His eyes were glowing with a cold white light, gazing all over.

A dozen men had encircled them, and were now advancing towards them with various types of weapons. All of them were masked, and there was not much dress code among them, and wore whatever they had. 

Byul surged a wave of wind towards the ones in behind, coming a little outside of the wall. Even before she could complete the spell and throw at the enemies a bullet shot towards her. There was over one sniper, and they were in both directions. She took cover again, and the spell missed by a far margin. 

She gritted her teeth and found Wrik was bracing with his sword. The men seemed to ignore her and went for the man to finish first. Byul was not offended. After all, she knew her capability was not even half compared to the man with the sword.

The men advanced at Wrik, who also bolt towards them, not giving a blink of an eye. A few shots were fired from higher ground than them and all of them were towards Wrik. He meticulously dodged. Even with his higher level of perception, he was finding it hard to dodge the bullet with all the men before him. 

He hacked the long sword in a full sweep towards the enemies, though they have blocked with their weapons. Within a second of the battle, Wrik found out a few of them could use mana, while the others could only attack with mana current blazed within the weapon. 

Exactly three of them had skill at mana manipulation, and only one of them was as meticulous as him in the art. Or maybe more. The man with the most skill held a lance and came at him. Even though his skill at spearmanship could not be compared to Arjamith—the Borgeman, it was still on par with him. And the other men assisting him made the situation a whole lot worse.

The [Eye of Insights] ran at its full ability and Wrik became sharper than before. There were many men attacking him. It was best to deal with them before more could come at him. Mana surged at his circuit, and he made a faint towards the leader with the lance. His legs moved like a fine dancer and he dealt a blow almost deadly to the man in the side.

The lance came at him from behind like a bolt, he ducked and worked his leg to assault the lancer. The man dodged easily, as if he expected that. Bullets shot again, and Wrik rolled on the ground to dodge. A couple hit him and broke the armament in his hips, and gut. It was not heavily injured, only touched the muscle, but it felt like hell.

"Who are you men?" he shouted. He had expected no answer from them, he just felt courtesy to ask. The men rushed at him again, and he put his body in the highest level of armament defence. He did not care for the bullet for a while, surged the mana into the sword with his full capability.

His sword swept in a full circle, and a sharp force released form in a white glow. The lancer blocked it easily, while the other two mana wielders were not so profound, but they did escape safely. The others were not so lucky. A couple of them jerked back a few metres away while most of them were wounded even if it was not heavily.

Even though his sword made a full arc, the released force did not reach at all. The bullets fired again. 

Byul's mind rang. Just a couple of hours ago, Wrik had convinced her she was not useless, but now she found she was truly useless. Her armament was not capable enough to put enough defence against the bullets blazed with mana current. Now the only thing she could do was give her share of mana to Wrik—at least she would come of some use. 

A golden light shot from her, and hit Wrik in the chest. And at that very moment, impaling pain assaulted her mind. Even though her ability was like a cheat and helpful, it came with a price. Whenever she linked with a person, whatever emotion that person was feeling—she would feel it as well to some degree. 

Gritting her teeth, she released mana through the link. Wrik did not even look at her. He actually did not have the opportunity to glance at her. Half a dozen men were surrounding him. Only he was fighting properly with posture while the others were dogfighting. 

They did not seem to want to kill him, but their attack was not so restricting. Within a couple minutes of the battle, he was injured quite severely, counting the bullet wounds. 

Byul put her mind to work to find a way to help with something more, but she did not have the luxury to think with a rational mind. Two of the men came at her, baring their lances. Her face darkened and heart raced. 

She pulled the wind blade—the elementary spell she was most adept on and waited for them to come in close distance. Fortunately, the ones that came at her were not mana wielder, her spell hit them right where she wanted though it was not enough to bring them down. The carapace-like armour they wore blocked most of it. 

She ground her teeth and saw a lance came at her head. She had thought they were not trying to kill them, but this incoming attack proved her wrong. If it was connected, she was as good as dead. 

Suddenly, her mind calmed down, and the world turned slow. Lights appeared in her eyes and wielding the mana became second nature to her. It was magical. 

A weave of wind formed before her instantly and shot towards the two of them. The gale was far sharper than she was normally capable of; it blew the men away as well as the lance half a dozen metres away.

The world turned normal for her and the light disappeared from her eyes. She found the world to be a little dark. She did not have the mind to wonder about that for long and gazed at Wrik. The scene before her bewildered her even further.

Wrik was now wielding a wind attribute with his sword and thrashed the enemies far easier than before. 

"Byul, what did you do?" he asked, as flabbergasted as her. It was not an awakening of his element, as his element was Light. The only conclusion his busy mind could come up with was that Byul did something with her [Link]. 

Byul had no answer, and she had to take cover again as the bullets shot at her again. 

"I don't know what you did, but keep doing it," Wrik said again, finding the foreign element weakening with each use.

[I don't know, but I'll try], Byul said telepathically through the link. She calmed her mind and cared to find the magical feeling again. But unfortunately for her, she could not find the magical feeling again. 

Worse, the leading man with a lance seemed to have understood something, and gestured at his men to come at her. 

[I can't.] She said cryingly. 

Wrik's facial muscle tensed. "Try to buy a few seconds, I'll come to help soon," he said.  The pressure on him has dropped by almost half, other than the fact that he had accidentally killed a fellow when the wind element came to him unexpectedly. While the other ones that got hit by it, were only a little better shape than being dead. He was in close quarter with them and any successful blow would give him advance over them. 

He sucked in a cold breath and calculated the wind attribute mana inside his system. He could only use one or two slashes more, and he had to capitalize on them. 

Without wasting a moment, he went to the leader with the lance. His agility only rose as the battle progressed. He ignored the pain from the bullet and slashed his sword at the enemy. But before he could deal with them, his mind rang again as he heard the cry from Byul.

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I'm considering to EDIT and REWRITE the first few chapters without changing much of the plot, but I need the readers to help there. 

I'll really appreciate it if you guys could tell me what you LIKED, DISLIKED and most importantly, found BORING in the first 20 or so chapters.

Thank you.