Roland asks me about my magic training

The road is bumpy and there is little to do but enjoy the view. If only the road didn’t go through a forest. All the trees here make me think back of the times I was training with Darx.

“So, Mia. Did you master any new spells?” Roland asks.

“Kinda.” I say. “I’ve got this new one named [Fire Cone]. It’s more of an actual spell then my [Fire Glyph], so I’m quite fond of it.”

“Cool. Can you show us?” Roland asks.

I smirk and say, “Firstly, my new spell is hot, not cool. Secondly, it eats a lot of mana very quickly. I may have to work on improving my mana supply before I can really try it out.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure Mimizu here can give you one of her mana potions.”

Mimizu quickly places both hands on the pouch where she keeps her potions and says, “These potions may be necessary to save your life. We should not treat them frivolously.”

It was obvious that Roland just joked about it. But Mimizu taking it so seriously made both of us laugh.

“Don’t worry, Mimizu. If Roland really needs to see a magic trick so bad, I’ve got one for him.”

I then hold up my right hand, all fingers extended and I light a small flame on each of my fingertips.

“Hey, you can do some late-night reading with that.” Roland remarques. “Do be careful to turn them off before flipping the page.”

“Or light a fire under someone’s butt when she’s being lazy.” I reply while glancing at Mimizu.

We crack a few more jokes until we hear music coming from the front of the caravan. Leonora must be playing again. We stop chatting to try and hear her music. It’s a bit difficult because there’s a couple carts between us and her. As I listen, I feel my eyelids become heavy. No surprise, I slept light. I rest my elbow against the cart and use my hand to support my head. Before I know it, I have already dozed off.

After a while I get woken up by somebody shaking me awake.

“Mia, wake up. Something is happening at the front.” Roland says.

As I look around, I can see the merchants trying to hide in their carts. Some of them are even crawling underneath their cart instead. Sounds of combat can be heard from the first cart, where Merlara, Craig and Leonora are. Mimizu is already running in that direction. I quickly jump off the cart and follow Roland to where the fighting is happening. Time for us to kill some monsters!

But when we get there, we see it aren’t monsters that are attacking us. The attackers are human.

Merlara is standing in front of the first cart, keeping the attackers at bay. I am just in time to see her use deflect an attack with her shield, kick the attacker away and defend with her sword from a second attacked. When a third one comes close for an attack, she casts a spell on him and all of a sudden, the guy drops his weapon to cover his ears. Must be the [Screams from Within] spell. It is a dark spell which causes the target to hear loud screams that aren’t really there.

But why is she fighting alone? Where are Craig and Leonora?

“Mimizu! Get in the cart!” Merlara yells at our cleric. “Craig and Leonora are wounded!”

Mimizu does as Merlara says and immediately crawls into the cart. Roland and I run towards Merlara to help take the heat off of her, but Merlara has other plans.

“There’s an archer in the trees to the left!” She yells at us. “He got Craig and Leonora! Go get him, I can take these!”

Merlara then casts a [Fear] spell on another opponent to make him run away from her in fear. Then she charges another two guys, probably while having [Thrill for Combat] already active.

Roland and I rush towards the tree line and even take out a few bandits on our way there. The first couple seem to be fighters, as they come to me with swords and maces, but they are easy. I learned how to fight opponents that use swords by sparring with Darx and he is far better than they are. And that was before I had my [Dual Slash] and [Riposte] skills. It feels like I am fighting E ranks. This seems too easy.

From the corner of my eye, I see an arrow bounce off or Roland’s armor. That must have come from the archer. I quickly get into the forest and then towards the direction the arrow came from, going past Roland. The trees will make it more difficult for the archer to hit me. When I get there, I notice he’s got other 2 guys with him. One with an axe and another with two daggers.

The two with axe and daggers are heading to me first. This is where I do my thing. I walk backward and pretend to lose my footing. When I fall, I place my left hand on the ground and push myself back up. When my hand is on the ground, I place a [Fire Glyph]. As I continue walking back, I place my left hand on a few trees and place more [Fire Glyph]’s.

Soon enough the guy with the axe steps on the first [Fire Glyph] I placed. Suddenly a gout of fire bursts from the Glyph, all the way up to his groin. Sometimes it’s enough to get their clothes on fire. This time it merely surprised him. More than enough time for me to lunge forward and cut him down. Bandits are so easy when they drop their defense.

The guy with the daggers tries to circle around. I maneuver as well and get him to approach me from a tree where I placed another [Fire Glyph]. Once he is in range, I attack with the flat of my sword. He thinks the attack was meant for him and defends with his daggers. In actuality, my attack was meant for the glyph. As soon as my sword hits the glyph on the tree, it activates and another burst of flame appears. This one engulfing my opponent’s head. As my opponent screams, I come in with the real attack and kill him too.

Just then an arrow flies past my eyes and embeds itself into a tree next to me. It is so deep in the wood, it had to have been fired by a C rank. Good goddess, that could have taken my head off. I turn back to the archer and hurry towards him. I can’t let him fire another shot. But rather than fire another arrow, he waits until I get close. Then he throws a potion at me.

I again use the flat of my sword, this time to swat the potion away. But when my sword hits the bottle, it explodes. I squeal in surprise and the resulting shockwave sends me backwards. I first lose the grip I have on my sword and then my back hits a tree. I get the wind knocked out of my lungs and fall to the ground. Since when do archers carry explosive potions with them? I try to get up, but then I feel someone’s boot press against my chest. I look up and see the archer. He’s got an arrow on his bow and is aiming it at my head. I see him pull the string back. If he lets it go, that arrow is going to go straight into my head.

As I am staring at the arrowhead, I start to realize this is it. I am going to die. Right here, in this forest. Not in a blaze of glory, but while lying on the ground. A simple arrow, poof, and that’s it for me. If my party members don’t survive this, then I’m sure these bandits will not tell anyone about my ****. I will not even have a grave. Darx will never know of my ****. He will just stop receiving letters. My sister will wonder why I left Riledo and never came back. When she gives birth to her baby, I will never meet him or her. My little niece or nephew will never get to know his aunt. I will just be left here. To slowly rot away like I am nothing.

No. I don’t want this. I don’t want to die. Not like this.

Suddenly a grey mass pushes against the archer. He fires his arrow and it misses me.

“Mia! Get up!” I hear Roland’s voice.

The archer pulls a short sword and starts fighting back against Roland. Thank the goddess, I am still alive.

While Roland is keeping the archer busy, I get up and grab my sword. I run behind the archer and slash at his calves. He screams and falls on his back. I quickly turn around and stab my sword in his chest. Then I take a step back and with my left hand I cast the new spell I’ve learned, [Fire Cone]. It’s a spell that drains a lot of my mana, but it causes a stream of fire to appear from my hand. I aim it at the archer’s face and cook his face with as much fire as I can cast. How dare he try and ruin my future with Darx. I am so angry at him, I even scream as I spend all of my mana on this one spell for this one asshole.

He doesn’t scream though. I guess I had already killed him with my sword.

“Let’s go back to Merlara. See if she still needs help.” Roland says.

“Yeah.” I reply.

I reach with my right hand for my sword and notice my hand is shaking. Must be because of the cold. I ignore the shaking and pull my sword out of the fallen bandit. Then I follow Roland back to the caravan.