Chapter 98 - The Fire Mage (Part 2)

  I sped up even more. It wasn't ideal, but it was fast enough. The problem was that this speed ed mana at an absurd rate, but in that situation, it didn’t matter.

  “Damn mages!” he shouted, gng bad seeing me closing in.

  I was just about to catch him when an excruciating pain, like a hot knife being driven into my eyes, hit me.

  No! This ’t be happening!

  My vision blurred, and my entire body was overtaken by the agony of my mana els being fed. Before I k, I collided with something.

  ‘Bam!’

  I smmed into the soldier at high speed, and we were both sent tumbling down the hill. We rolled and crashed into rocks and branches, but the pain in my eyes was so intehat these injuries felt insignifit in parison.

  I felt a hot liquid c through my head, spreading ay brain, and then another impact came. I hit a tree a rolling.

  ‘Spsh!’ I ended up ier.

  Fuck! I screamed in my thoughts, struggling to swim back to the surface.

  The current was strong, and I saw the soldier struggling to stay afloat. We were being swept away at high speed, crashing into rocks along the way.

  You’ve got to be kidding me!

  We kept going down the river, which seemed more like a raging torrent, and I desperately tried to swim. The soldier was irouble because of the weight of his armor.

  We plunged over several waterfalls, getting pummeled by the force of the current, while the pain in my head made it impossible to think straight. My vision alternated between total darkness and brief moments of crity. I was going blind.

  Damn it! I screamed in my thoughts as the water ti me.

  I saw the soldier being carried away by the current, trying to swim. I used my wind element to propel myself towards him, my vision flickeriween darkness and brief moments of crity.

  I mao grab him and punched him in the face.

  The man tried to hold on to me, but before we could tihe fight, I saw a huge ro our path, and we were about to crash into it. He tried to use me as a shield against the rock, but I geed a wind kick that bsted me away from him.

  “Shit!” I cursed, now pletely blind as the water carried me away. I was swept along by the current, trying to focus my hearing on the soldier. I couldn’t let him escape.

  My visiourned, still blurry, but enough to see the soldier desperately trying to reach the shore. I charged a wind bomb in my foot and bsted myself into the air. While airborne, I created another wind explosion that propelled me directly at him just as he reached the shore. I tackled him, aarted rolling again, locked in a desperate struggle.

  He got up and ran away.

  “Damn it!” the soldier cursed, his voice full of desperation.

  I quickly got to my feet, drawing my sword, but there roblem. The soldier was doubled in my vision, and the world arouwisted into spirals.

  This ’t be happening!

  “You little shit! You hurt me, you damn brat!” the soldier yelled, charging at me.

  I tried to dodge backward, but it was just an attempt. My sense of distance was pletely distorted. The soldier sometimes seemed close, but somehow the distaween us kept stretg as if the world itself was elongating. My visio shifting, and I k would be useless to try trading blows in that state. To make matters worse, my hearing was also promised, making it impossible to rely on sound alone.

  “I’m going to kill you, you damned little mage!” the soldier screamed, closing in.

  Fuck it!

  I pointed my hand forward and geed a strong gust of wind, but nothing happeo the soldier.

  “What are y to do?” he asked, and I realized my vision was in 360 degrees. I ointing in the pletely wrong dire.

  Shit... Now what? Maybe I should just gee lightning in every dire and fry this guy.

  I tried to turn my body, but I kept seeing the soldier in the same spot, as if the world inning along with me.

  “Are you crazy?” he said, advang with his sword.

  He’s seeing his enemy spinning in front of him...

  I raised my sword, letting sparks crackle along its bde.

  “Thunder user!” he shouted and started running away.

  I tried to chase after him, but I couldn’t tell which dire he had gone.

  You’ve got to be kidding me!

  My vision started to adjust, but my hearing disappeared.

  It’s just like the day I saw the king, but at least I see a little now.

  I began running, hoping I was heading in the right dire. At least the weird 360-degree vision was gone, and I could see the soldier running away again.

  I knew he robably shouting a bunch of nonsense, but I couldn’t hear a thing.

  As I ran to catch up, the soldier suddenly stopped.

  As soon as he stopped, my heariurned, and I could finally hear the world around me again.

  Finally!

  What I heard was the loud roar of water. We were standing before a waterfall, an abyss with a casg drop.

  I almost ran off this cliff... fuck...

  “Surrender or die!” I shouted, getting closer to the soldier, raising my hand and making sure he saw the sparks crag along my arm.

  “That’s impossible! How you have both wind and lightning elements?”

  I noticed he was standing right on the edge of the cliff, with the waterfall beside him.

  “I’m part high elf, long story...”

  “High elf? I don’t believe that crap,” he said, drawing his sword.

  At least I know no one would believe that if it got out.

  I ran a little test with the soldier. If he saw me using both elements and didn’t buy the high elf story, then I felt more at ease. It’s unlikely anyone would take that seriously if it leaked.

  This guy’s going to die after the maids extract every bit of information from him, so there’s no risk of him spreading it.

  He stopped right at the edge of the cliff.

  “Surrender or die,” I repeated, intensifying the sparks and their crag sound.

  “Alright! Don’t kill me!”

  “Drop your on, and even the knife in your left boot,” I said, and he looked surprised.

  The man slowly started to pull the sword from its sheath, but suddenly, something e flew and hit him.

  ‘Whoosh!’

  “Ah!” The man was struck by a fireball and fell off the cliff.

  “What!?”

  I turned around and saw a beautiful red-haired woman, dressed in armor, with her hands poi me.

  “Stay still or you’ll die!” she ordered.

  The fire mage!

  “You’re the one who killed those soldiers!?” I pointed my hand at her, sparks still crag.

  “Is that how it’s going to be, Nathan? Attag a woman?”

  My name? How does she know my name?

  “Wait! You’re the red-haired knight!” I said, reizing her.

  It’s the red-haired woman from that day, the one from the kidnapping and the prince’s party.

  “I’m sorry about this,” the redhead said, and suddenly, she moved with incredible speed, sprinting toward me.

  What kind of speed is that!?

  I tried to aim at her, but her speed was terrifying, and before I k, she had me in a tight grip.

  “Let’s go for a little ride,” she said.

  “Let me go!” I tried to shout, but I was being crushed in her embrace.

  “No.”

  “I’ll shock you!” I threatened, fog my energy, but the woman did something I never could have imagined.

  She jumped off the cliff, takih her, and we plunged into the abyss.