Alone, covered in grime and sweat, the Mage ventures further towards his goals.
Through the burning rays of the sun and distant grassy fields he'd stumble across a traveller or merchant, two hundred years ago they would've greeted him with smiles on their faces but now they see him as a ticking time bomb that could threaten the extinction of humanity at any second.
As he travels for hours on end, he hears the echoing sound of what seems to be explosive magic.
Walking closer to the sound he sees two figures, one with a helmet with horns on it, seven foot tall and covered by an oversized coat, and by his side, a boy holding a sword matching the exact details of appearances he was told about by Hannah - it was Jacob.
As the Mage slowly approaches, the seven foot figure turns his head towards him and grabs the giant staff on his back pointing it towards the Mage.
After further inspection, the Mage discovers the man standing next to Jacob was someone known widely as Cronarch, Often referred to as the Warlock of Dreams.
"Very long time no see Mage, how has your retirement been?"
The Mage stops in his tracks and responds to him coldly.
"I never retired, I just gave up the happy life. Now I believe that boy by your side matches the description of a job I was requested to finish, so if you were so kind I wouldn't mind you handing him over."
Cronarch snarls,
"Boy, I know you want to test your training out but this one might be too much for you, I'll be the one to show you how a true warlock fights."
The Mage stands there, not bothered by the fact Cronarch is preparing to fight him,
"If I were you I'd quickly think about what I'm doing, where did you find him anyway?"
Cronarch's expression turns neutral,
"I stumbled across a battlefield where a large war broke out between two neighbouring factions, I saw this little guy half dead, I saw his potential and took him in to become stronger. Now, what's it gonna be mage, are you going to run away like the bitch you are, or are you gonna fight?"
the Mage still stood there, unfazed and coldly responds,
"If you want to start a fight, be my guest, lets see how quick you regret it."
Cronarch's expression turns angry as he is powering up his staff and aiming it at the Mage,
"Alright then, I wouldn't mind having the title of the Legendary MAGE KILLER!"
just as his finishing his sentence, he begins yelling as if he was pouring everything into his attack.
A glowing aura surrounds the end of the staff and before anyone knew it a large ball came shooting out the end of the staff aiming right for the Mage's head.
Effortlessly, despite the ball coming at him faster than a lightning strike, he tilts his head to the side and the ball goes flying right by his head, it touches the ground behind him and a large explosion causes dirt to fly everywhere behind him.
The Mage lets out a sigh and flinched his finger causing the warlock's left arm to be severed off instantly.
Still holding onto his staff with his right arm he casts another spell, this time yelling out an incantation,
"Ultimate, Mirror of Memories!",
Just then, a large circular one way portal opened underneath the Mage who still stands there.
What follows was a large beam of light coming out of the portal, looking closely, Jacob witnesses a distinct selection of colours, he discovers it's a large quantity of different spells all being used in one ultimate.
After thirty seconds, the spell stops and the portal closes, as the smoke from the spell vanishes the Mage continues to stand there in place.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Cronarch, now knowing he's done for, collapses to his knees, the Mage responding to his surrender,
"I was just out of commission for a while, I never once mentioned I got rusty."
Cronach looks towards the ground, ashamed of himself and responded,
"Hah, I hope you're not this cocky when you face off against Philip".
With that, the Mage points a finger at the Warlock and a small little light, faster than the speed of light, comes out the end going right through the warlock's head putting a tiny hole through him and killing him instantly, with the Mage's finger recoiling up.
Jacob stares at his master's corpse by his feet, his eyes wide open and not focused,
"Now, come with me, if you want power, if you want to get stronger, I will teach you".
The Mage holds his hand out but Jacob begins swinging his sword relentlessly over and over again, however the Mage dodges every attack.
After a couple combos of attacks Jacob twists his wrist making the end of the sword aimed right at the Mage ready for a finisher.
Just before it hits, the Mage grabs the tip of the sword with two fingers, no matter how hard the boy pushed it was like a stone wall refusing to budge.
In a moment filled with pure adrenaline as he continues pushing the sword he finally begins talking to the Mage,
"You've proven how much stronger you are than me so why don't you just kill me already, I've lost everything, my title, my squad, the next potential future I had just then, the only thing I have left is my sister and she's probably too busy thinking about me!"
The Mage, continuing to grip Jacob's sword begins responding to him,
"Your sister was Hannah correct?",
Jacob's eyes widen in shock,
"How do you know that?",
the Mage puts his head down,
"She's dead, she's the reason I'm here now, her final wish was for me to bring you back safe, so will you accompany me?",
Jacob's sword drops onto the dry grass with his arms as if he's lost all the strength in them, his breathing gets heavier and begins looking down,
"If she truly is dead, please let me say my goodbyes",
the Mage shakes his head in agreement,
"On one condition, you join my party",
Jacob puts his head up revealing a single tear running down his face, he gets an annoyed expression on his face,
"Fine".
From there, Jacob picks up his sword, the Mage pats him on the shoulder and Jacob begins following the Mage back to his home village.
Some time goes by during the trip when Jacob calmed down a bit more he begins asking the Mage some questions,
"So 'Mage' what should I call you?",
the Mage continues walking like he isn't concentrated on Jacob,
"Just Mage, that's what you call me",
"Ok then, that warlock guy, he was pretty powerful, I couldn't even beat him, do you know him and what was that spell he used?",
the Mage let out a sigh and begins explaining the fundamentals of his questions,
"That warlock is called Cronarch, the Warlock of Dreams, he's powerful because he comes from a different race of people, they usually call them 'Momals', they are like humans but I'll tell you more about them another time. I haven't exactly met this warlock, he's just crazy, his known throughout the world though. Now your final question, the spell he used, Mirror of Memories, you heard him say ultimate before saying that yes? Well that's because that's his ultimate move, I'll tell you more about that in your lessons.".
With the Mage finishing up his story the two continue to walk through the dry and warm fields of grass before a hooded figure walks past them.
They ran into multiple people so far already, however something about this person felt off, the Mage ignored him knowing he wasn't worth the trouble while Jacob stopped in his tracks and began staring him down.
Just as Jacob begins to interact with him the Mage grabs the back of his shirt and forces him to keep walking,
"Who was that guy?",
"I think he tried robbing me at your village, I don't know how he isn't dead though",
Jacob's eyes widen again,
"How do you know that?",
the Mage still continues walking as if ignoring him,
"He was hiding his wrist, as if he had hurt it, the same wrist I broke on the guy that tried robbing me, don't make a scene just continue walking".
The sky turned black as an overcast was visible, the Mage and Jacob stands still at the end of Hannah's grave, right next to each other, both frozen with dread.
The Mage bends over putting his hand on the ground where he buried Hannah and using his magic, instantly dug the grave up again.
"I have some bad news for you boss",
a voice could be heard as someone opened the large wooden doors.
The hooded figure that passed the Mage and Jacob had entered a dimly lit building, the air was humid and the ground was greasy and filled with rats in every corner of the room.
"The squads been wiped out but the mission was a success, that village has no chance of recovering if someone does try to save it".
A deep voice could be heard from the other side of the room,
"What's this bad news you've got for me?",
the silhouette of a man in a large chair could be seen, lifting the handle of his sword to one of his arm rests and using magic at the end of the handle ignited a candle sitting on the arm rest revealing the man.
"The legendary Mage, you recognise that name boss?",
the man raises an eyebrow in shock,
"So I'm assuming the reason you were the only one to come back was because he killed everyone else?",
by this point the robber had taken his hoodie off and walked halfway between the door and the man he calls boss, bowing down to him,
"Yes boss, and he's just as powerful as the legend says he is",
"You're very lucky to be alive Perry, he doesn't usually spare killers",
Perry closes his eyes,
"So what do we do now boss?",
the boss stands up with the support of his sword,
"Don't worry about the Mage for a now, we have bigger upcoming plans to worry about, we will kill the Mage after we have taken the land of Cecilum after the war, until then, we stay in the shadows.".
