I observe the pale woman with dark hair standing in front of us. She won’t stop laughing like a maniac. “The fish dies by its mouth.” I reply with a single, simple phrase.

  She stops, her face turning serious. “What did you just say, kid? Just because you’re cute doesn’t mean I’ll let you live. Though if you beg, maybe I’ll adopt you like a dog.” Her killing intent spreads across the area; some of the weaker people behind me clutch their chests and begin to sweat coldly.

  I release my Imra to counteract the effect, and when everyone calms down a bit, I speak again. “Is that so? You don’t have the right to speak to me that way.” I release my killing intent without hesitation; mine is superior to hers.

  The woman’s face tightens slightly. “You’re just a Sapphire-rank brat, don’t think you’re someone important.” I feel mana stirring around her, multiple fire constructs appearing instantly, each one carrying the power of an intermediate Ruby rank.

  The speed at which she forms her spells is astonishing, and her mana control is impeccable. As soon as she finishes, all her spells are launched toward us. I can’t deny it—she’s strong and talented.

  I construct several Joyeuse at the same time, managing to repel almost all her fire spears with my ice swords. Two slip through; just as I’m about to use gravity to stop them, I feel two people move at my sides.

  The two elders destroy the spears instantly. I look at the village leader as he speaks. “We are not just spectators. If someone attacks our village, we won’t stand by doing nothing.” The will to fight shines in the eyes of both elders.

  “Thank you.” I show them a broad smile while continuing to destroy those powerful fire spears. “I don’t know if she has a companion. Can you take care of the citizens for a moment?” I see both elders make displeased faces—they clearly want to fight—but in the end, they agree.

  “Leave the rest of the people to us. Deal with the witch in front of us, but if we see you having trouble, at least one of us will help.” The village leader looks very serious.

  “Don’t worry, this witch has no idea who she’s messing with.” As soon as I finish speaking, the elders turn around and shout for the other citizens to move quickly toward the opposite end of the wall.

  “At least you have some talent, pretty boy.” The witch’s eyes have changed; she’s no longer as confident as before.

  “If that’s all you’ve got, you’d better kill yourself. I don’t have time for you.” As I finish speaking, my body forms an armor of ice, electric serpents dancing around me. Gravity rapidly increases around us, and two white twin swords appear.

  The woman in front of me furrows her brow slightly. She has reinforced her body enough not to be crushed by the gravity, and her constructs have nearly doubled. At this point, I can’t keep up with my Joyeuse alone—I need to keep moving to evade as much as possible.

  The place turns into hell. Ice spears fly everywhere, small fire spikes trying to punch holes through my body like cheese. The woman also has a powerful defensive ability: something like a super-heated curtain of fire appears at her side, making things very difficult for my ice swords.

  Not everything is bad for me. As I gradually get closer, she’s forced to retreat to keep fighting at range. I’ve slowly pushed her out of the village; now I don’t have to worry as much about turning all the houses into ashes.

  I manage to evade her constructs and get close enough. No matter how fast she is, a Ruby-rank mage can’t beat me in speed. When I approach that curtain of fire vapor, I feel it melting everything—not just my constructs; my mana and Imra struggle to materialize. I have to fight using my willpower against hers.

  I get close, and that damned woman teleports about fifty meters away. Before I can do anything, I’ve already closed much of the distance, forcing her to teleport again. Just as I’m about to track her new location within my Personal World, something stops me.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The ground in front of me explodes into a column of fire. The heat breaks through all my defenses, leaving part of my arm severely burned. I cover my body with armor again and heal myself once I’m protected—I don’t want to reveal my life affinity.

  “You’ve got a pretty good sensory ability, kid. Don’t you want to join us?” Has she already noticed my ability? That was fast. It doesn’t matter; even knowing that changes nothing.

  “The dead don’t get to invite others.” I reject her proposal immediately. I wouldn’t join them even if I were dead, and I can clearly feel the lie in her words.

  We go back to playing cat and mouse. She keeps escaping my pursuit constantly, both of us burning incredible amounts of mana as we move around the area. When she manages to get far enough away, it’s my turn to dodge her attacks. This witch can form all kinds of fire attacks instantly.

  Several minutes later, I notice something interesting. My gravity isn’t affecting her as much as it should. No—that’s not all. My constructs are weaker than usual. Something is distorting my mana or altering everything around me.

  I recall all the times I’ve been near her and the strange sensation I felt, as if her fire had different properties. White flames? I can’t think of another explanation. I don’t sense her Imra as the sole cause, and she hasn’t activated any device this whole time.

  I focus on the mana of this fire mage. At first, I can’t sense anything. When her next spear nearly shatters my shoulder, I feel it. As I twist my body to barely evade the spell, I sense the air around her construct consuming part of my mana and Imra.

  Does her fire have the ability to consume everything? After several readings of her constructs, I notice something—her Imra is also fundamental somehow. I even let some of her spikes pierce my shoulder on purpose to understand the ability better.

  “Are you tired already?” The mage starts laughing like a lunatic again. All these minutes, I’ve been purely defensive, even letting myself get injured deliberately to study her more closely.

  Her fire mana does have the property of burning my mana and Imra, but it can only do so when her own Imra fuels the flames. In several of her attacks, I used my own Imra to break through hers, and I noticed a huge change: her attacks no longer consumed my mana or Imra.

  The combination of both causes that destructive effect—quite interesting to study. It’s a shame I have to kill this woman. I’d like to capture her alive, but she’s too strong; if I don’t kill her, this will get far too complicated. Still, if I get the chance, I’ll try.

  “Tired? I almost fell asleep dodging your attacks.” She doesn’t like my joke; her brow furrows deeply, and I can see her biting her lips in rage.

  I stop playing around and resume my earlier momentum, breaking most of her constructs as I advance little by little. Each step closes a good number of meters between us. Pillars of fire and smaller attacks have become more frequent—she’s trying to wear me down.

  I get close enough to feel that vapor engulf my body again. She teleports away, but before she finishes appearing at her new position, I’m already less than twenty meters from her. The vapor intensifies again; at first it was consuming my mana and Imra, but now my Imra fights back, leaving only the heat as a nuisance.

  A pillar of flames appears. She takes advantage of my blocked vision to launch spikes at me from within the pillar, then teleports several dozen meters away. “This is your end, little boy. I’ll keep your head as a souvenir.” She’s laughing like a madwoman, clearly confident after seeing me injured in several places.

  When everything is ready, I take advantage of her distraction. I teleport to her side, my body low to the ground; all my injuries had healed a second earlier. I use my gravity prison along with my Imra, Laws, and Banner to restrain her for at least half a second.

  My plan works. Her attempt to teleport fails, and I see her struggling to break free from my prison. She uses her flames to burn everything around her, but when she finally breaks free, it’s already too late.

  My sword swings, and I feel both her legs sever from her body. She manages to teleport a few meters away at the last moment.

  The mage starts screaming. I reinforce my ears with mana and Imra because her screams nearly rupture them. Her eyes are filled with tears, her face reflecting pure fear. Blood keeps pouring from her legs; she’s cauterizing the wounds with her fire mana, and I see her pull something from her dimensional bracelet.

  I teleport to her side and sever her arm. Her limb falls with a dull thud, and the potion in her hand shatters as it hits the ground. That damned witch was trying to heal herself.

  My hand grips her by the neck, lifting her up, my prison holding her in place—this time, it’s much easier. “A mere Sapphire rank just defeated you.” The fear in her eyes intensifies, tears and mucus flowing freely, but at that moment I get a bad feeling.

  Flames erupt, burning through the entire prison and scorching almost my entire right arm. I’m forced to release her as the flames continue to spread. Her body is also incinerated, reduced to ash. That damned witch planned to take me down with her.

  “Damn it.” That’s all I can curse. I thought I had her, and she chose to kill herself without hesitation.