The First Mage

Berla ran towards our invulnerable-seeming opponent at an alarming speed, but I was unable to comprehend what her plan was. She had taken Arax by surprise this time, but that was almost certainly not going to happen again. And if this monster got ahold of her just once, she would get ripped to shreds. Panicked, I got to my feet, jumped off the stage, and ran after her.

Fortunately, she seemed to understand just as well as I what kind of situation she was getting herself into here though, because she didn’t run straight up to Arax. As she was starting to get back up and see what had hit her, Berla changed directions and rounded Arax, seemingly getting faster in the process. Instead of Berla, Arax’s eyes fell on me, who had been running after her.

Arax seemed confused, unclear about what had happened, or maybe how I had managed to attack her. Frustratingly enough, I was able to think of a range of options I could have had before, had I just scripted them. To replicate Berla’s attack on Arax for example, all I would’ve needed was a ball of water coming from the right, which I could have bound to a specific hand motion to use in such an emergency.

Damn it...

I stopped in my tracks as Arax fixed her gaze on me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Berla approach her from behind, but I did my best not to alert Arax to this fact.

“Figure something out,” she says...

A hint of frustration welled up inside me. She knew what we had, and after the new script failed, she also knew that none of it was going to work against this particular beast. Yet she was throwing herself into danger, when they could have fled the moment Arax survived my attack.

I didn’t have a single idea for how to beat her now. Not even the approach I had taken with the Kobold King would’ve worked, because her entire physique was different and didn’t lend itself to snapping her neck the same way. I really would have to come up with something new on the spot, but with Berla going for her, I didn’t have much time to think either. For the moment, I just wanted to help her not get killed.

The obvious choice was to use another water stream script, to kick Arax around while I kept brainstorming, but all the people behind her made that too much of a risk. If she didn’t take the hit, I would kill dozens of people in an instant. The only other and somewhat safe choice was to use water balls.

Resuming my sprint towards her, I started a barrage on her with both hands, as Tomar had once done on Grym. With much less force than a stream, I didn’t expect them to knock Arax back, but they had to at least have an effect. Two of them hit, then four, eight, twelve... and then I realized I was doing absolutely nothing to her, coming to a stop mere meters away. As if I had just thrown water balloons at her, she stood up, unamused. I wanted to do something, but I was quickly losing all hope, seeing her tower over me.

Suddenly, Arax spun around, throwing a punch, and a body flew across the main square.

“Berla!” I yelled.

Defying physics, she spun around in mid-air and landed on her feet, sliding over the ground in the distance. With a grimace, she immediately looked up at Arax once more, while holding her left arm.

“A Fighter?” Arax asked in bewilderment.

***

Not letting their opponent out of her sight, Berla monitored Arax carefully while checking the arm she had used to defend against the punch.

Broken, she thought with a grimace.

Berla was attacking from a blind spot, Arax was distracted, and yet she had seen the attack coming. At least the second one. Berla didn’t know what it would take to get another hit in, or whether she would even survive the attempt, but she had to keep going. Whatever it took. If Miles was on his own, he would just get himself killed again. Overflowing with determination, Berla kicked off the ground and ran in Arax’s direction.

While the wolf’s eyes wandered down to the leg made of mana, her bewildered expression changing to one of fascination, Berla stuck her broken arm into her clothes to hold it in place and pulled a dagger from her back. She knew it was unlikely that she would do any damage with it, but it just felt more natural and sensible than attempting to accomplish anything with her bare hands.

Within seconds, Berla covered the distance to Arax and prepared to strike again. She ran circles around her, trying to find any vantage points, but Arax’s eyes were always on her. With no other choice, Berla went for it and tried to stab her in the back, but the moment the attack should’ve connected, Arax stepped aside. Berla got down, trying to kick her legs away next, but again, the wolf dodged with ease. She kept going, however. A barrage of hits rained down on Arax from all directions. Not a single one actually landed, but at least Berla was keeping her busy.

That was until the beast decided it had enough and stopped her. A hard slap on the wrist made her drop her dagger, then came a punch to the gut and she doubled over, falling to all fours. She had trouble breathing, but was still about to get back up, when Arax placed a foot on her back.

“Stay,” Arax instructed coldly. “Or I will end this right now.”

Berla froze, feeling the beast’s menacing aura bore down on her.

“Miles...” Arax whispered. “What have you done to this woman? You can create limbs from mana?”

Berla’s eyes went wide as she realized that it wasn't her attacks that distracted Arax, but only her leg. Glancing to the side carefully, she saw her boyfriend rooted to the spot a few meters from them. His face was a mix of disbelief, sadness, and capitulation, but he still refused to give Arax any information.

“Miles!” Arax shouted and stepped down, pushing Berla to the ground.

“Ah!”

“Stop!” Miles exclaimed.

Her upper body pressed down onto the ground, Berla could just barely peer up enough to see Arax look down at her with a sneer.

“You know what to do, Miles. Your girlfriend is counting on you. Just answer my questions,” Arax said. “How is it possible that you have scripts I’ve never seen before? This is magnificent!”

“I... don’t know how to answer that. I just came up with it,” Miles said.

“Just like that?”

“Well... yea.”

Unable to move, Berla kept listening to Miles and Arax, while looking into the frightened eyes of the citizens in the distance.

“I was so wrong about you. We all were. You’re no ordinary anomaly,” Arax concluded. “This is not normal.” She raised her foot briefly, just to lightly step down on Berla again right away.

“Take your foot off her,” Miles suddenly said in a commanding voice.

“Very well, I believe I’ve made my point.”

Arax stepped back, lifting the pressure from Berla. She immediately sat up and shuffled back as well, until she found herself hitting Miles’ legs. He crouched down at her side and looked her up and down.

“Are you okay?”

She knew what he meant by it, and under normal circumstances the answer would’ve been “Yes,” but at that moment she was anything but okay.

“I’m not...” she said with a frown.

Berla had fought a category seven before, and even though these things were complete monsters, who could kill you in a heartbeat, she had at least been able to evade its attacks and distract it. As an agent, that was usually her job in tough fights—keeping the enemy occupied while others got heavy attacks in. She realized the degree by which Arax differed from the beasts she knew, the gap between them, and how little the rating “category ten” meant. It truly was more of an open-ended suggestion. Arax practically lived in a different world.

“The gods will want your head,” the beast said. “The mods who came here last time were just the beginning.”

“I know...” Miles replied through gritted teeth.

“Quite the predicament you’re finding yourself in,” she snickered. “So much potential, yet still so far away from actually being a worthy opponent to anyone. I have fought them before, you know? And I’m still here...”

Berla’s ears perked up. She had a bad feeling about where Arax was going with this, and an even worse feeling about what was going on in Miles’ head. Arax wanted his knowledge, and she was known for making deals for whatever reason. With seemingly no way out of this situation, Miles would almost certainly accept whatever proposal she had, provided that it meant they’d get to live even a little while longer. It would be the logical decision: Survive to fight another day. However, everything they knew pointed towards one thing. If Arax got any stronger, the world would be in even more danger. In fact, it was so bad that the gods were scared of that happening. The more she thought about it though, the more she believed that Miles would come to this conclusion as well. He had to.

“What’s your point?” he asked.

“You know what it is,” Arax said, smiling. “We can work together. If you’re with me, they will be wary to even approach you. You will be able to mature further, make more discoveries, and raise yourself to their level. In turn, you will share your discoveries with me.”

I knew it... Berla thought. Don’t say yes...