Lunar Calendar, year 522 post Eclipse (P.E.)
West of Aestania, Great Forest of Bowa
"Kuma! Stop dawdling and finish your work so we can get out of here—I'm freezing!"
"Hahaha, okay, okay. Sorry, Shyla," Kuma replied with a broad, warm smile.
There was a pleasant atmosphere between the two, in stark contrast to the grim setting of their 'work': a monster extermination request from the villagers of Casier.
A week earlier, undead had begun to appear, wandering freely through the area at night, frightening the residents and slaughtering their livestock.
Desperate, the villagers reached out to their local branch of the Magical Association. Two third-class magicians accepted the task, which led them to this very moment…
"Look, Kuma! We've finally found the source of the undead. I just hope there isn't a Lich inside that rift..."
"Don't worry. The undead we've seen so far were just skeletons and a few ghosts—the lowest tier. If there were a first-grade monster like a Lich in there, getting this close wouldn't have been so easy."
But the moment the words left his mouth, Kuma regretted them. From the rift emerged a second-grade undead: a Wraith.
"Shit!"
As Kuma hurriedly began to cast a Concealment spell to flee, the Wraith locked its lifeless, irisless eyes on Shyla. Frozen in fear, she couldn't dodge the monster's bolt of lightning, which struck cleanly—severing her neck.
Kuma watched in horror, his hands trembling. The fear shattered his focus and the diagram forming in front of his staff dissolved.
The Wraith didn't hesitate. With one swift motion, it sliced off Kuma's arms.
Under a crimson rain, in his final moments, Kuma saw his own headless body collapse to the ground.
Meanwhile
Capital of Aestania, Moder
"Run, Silver! Run!"
*Woof!*
"You little bastard, come here!"
the two small figures passed quickly through the crowd, followed by a robust middle-aged man, one attributable to a medium-sized dog with a peculiar silver-white fur, while the other to a fairly thin child with hair as dark as the moonless night, adorned with white shades reminiscent of stars.
The child was trying to escape after winning the card game called "Witch Out", counting cards illegally.
And he had won quite a bit too, 10 gold coins! They were worth about a year's wages of an ordinary employee at the Magical Association.
Adamas and his little dog Silver continued to run, they knew where to pass and where the streets led, so that the man wouldn't reach them.
Suddenly, however, while running, Adamas didn't see a woman at the corner of the street, which made him stumble in the alley he was going to, managing to make the pursuer reach him.
"Ouch! What the hell are you doing?!"
The man approached, making the difference in size between the two clear, also because the fight was about to take place between a middle-aged man and a 13-year-old child.
"Listen! It's not my fault you lost the last hand, you bet badly~" Adams said with a calmness that questioned both his age and his intelligence.
But he said that because he knew that behind him there was a wooden fence with a cut board used as an emergency passage.
Unfortunately he was unable to take enough time to get close to his escape route.
Without giving him an answer, the man grabbed the child by the throat, first bringing him to his height, and then threw him to the ground, causing the poor boy to spit saliva.
Seeing the scene, Silver began to bark at the man, producing no result other than pissing him off even more.
The man began walking towards Silver, who, frightened, began to tremble on the spot.
"What's wrong dog? Not barking anymore? Fucking beast", in the meantime he was aiming a kick towards the poor creature, but to his great surprise, the kick missed, causing him to fall to the ground on his butt.
The dog Silver had magically disappeared from there and reappeared next to Adamas, who meanwhile continued to cough from the blow from before.
*clap clap*
A slow, sarcastic clap echoed through the alley.
"Is it fun to pick on a child? Do you think I should try it too?"
"And who the fuck are you?", the man said angrily, only to immediately realize that the person in front of him was too peculiar: a crimson red robe cut out the figure in space, in his left hand he had a stick with a diagram on the end with in the center a white light
"Shit, he's a magician" he thought
"I apologize for the mess created, Sir. Magician, but the 'child' behind me is a thief"
"Mhm, I see", but immediately afterwards, the diagram above the stick changed, becoming an intense red color, and, without realizing it, the man found himself without a leg, falling horribly into his own blood
"FUUUUCK, MY LEEEG!" he cried out in pain, but froze when he realized that his leg was there, intact, as if nothing had happened.
"Look, I'm not even interested in your motives, you shouldn't take justice into your own hands."
"You are absolutely right, I apologize to you, Sir. Magician", a drop of sweat slowly ran down the man's back.
"Today I am very happy because I found the objects I needed, disappear from my sight"
"Thank you very much, Sir. Magician, I will remember your mercy for the rest of my life.", in the meantime he bowed and went towards the magician, to exit the alley.
But as soon as the man passed him, he suddenly turned and stabbed the magician in the back.
"He's an idiot! Ahahahaha"
The blow hit home, plunging the dagger into the magician's back and, feeling the hot liquid dripping onto his hands, the man laughed out loud, and then spit blood immediately afterwards.
*cough cough*
"What the fuck?!?!"
Without saying a word, the magician imprisoned the man on his knees in a cage of fire, blocking his movements.
"You are under arrest for making an attempt on the life of Red Tower Commander Alexander Rubino."