《A HALF VAMPIRE & HALF DRAGONS REGRESSION (REMAKE)》


 The Prophesized Truth

    A gentle wind blows south and a perfectly healthy leaf falls along with its withered compatriots on the muddled soil of a rural village, a village far-far away from the affairs of the outside world, where one can wonder how they survived so and remained so, as the sweetness of power and achievements brought about by the continuous rigorous struggle to reach the top is just that delectable and enticing, so hitherto if a foreign leaf ends up here, like a firefly caught in a jar by a child, to them it''s just a passing moment, a memory-short lived, a single glance that would sometimes come back to them from time to time, but never to wander there again.


    After all, to them it was as if they were a step above the people there, compared to them, the life they led were simply of a higher dimension, hence why, if they ever got to taste the Emperor''s blessing even once, most would likely never want to return to their old and crummy boring peaceful lives, to the extent that they would abandon everything, if so, then, if nothing else is left for them in this boorish world, their only choice left would be to look forward just to satiate their lust.


    However, as much as the village is lackluster and uninspiring to some, the founders of these land imparted the most important treasure of their time that they could pass down, which is to say, to this this day it is still very much alive, to the eyes which can clearly see the carefree smiles and freedom of those who dwells in this territory.


    Kindred to the forgotten peacefulness and tranquility that this world once held, as believe it or not, for at least a single time in history, the populace who dwelled the countless corners of this world both charted and uncharted, led a simple yet arduous lifestyle without much thought of being reigned over by the other.


    T''was as if the people here regressed to the past, where their only worry is the task of working to the bone and filling their stomachs, to the point that they''ve become too tired to even contemplate the meaning of life and what else is there or out there?


    Some may call it luck, yet how ironic is it that this boorish lifestyle is the sole reason that guides them to go on living completely fulfilled lives-harmoniously with the world and everyone else that resides in it...


    Thus if there was one problem that they might face, it would be the natural disasters brought about by the ever-changing seasons of their location, especially during winter or drought, however, even that was already a bygone problem that only troubled their ancestors, because with time it was solved by the advancement of technology, something that they weren''t able to avoid totally.


    So rather than it being a problem, the ever-changing seasons was now something that the villagers celebrated, wherefore they created numerous stories stemming from the mysteries that circled those phenomenas, which was then turned into folktales, and then into myths, and now into the present where it had turned into tradition...


    ***


    [From my conception, I didn''t know how, but I was already different from everyone]


    [I aged slower than everyone else, or rather I didn''t age at all¡ªEveryone at the village bloomed and withered just like the flowers that I rarely see, they were beautiful but at the same time it was painful to see their passing]


    [Despite all that, no one hated or showed discontent towards me, and not one folk discriminated against me, because rather than me being a burden, I was more a blessing to them, a guardian that protects their place from harm if you will-]


    (All of a sudden, the deep voice which was narrating earlier broke the fourth wall and interrupted the narration of our protagonist,) E-Ehem! Of course no one would dare to oppose you, after all you''re OP as hell, with just a swipe of your hand, you can literally obliterate the entire village.


    (The Protagonist then surprised by the sudden interruption replied in a serious tone,) [Th-This is voice?! I-It can''t be? The narrator from earlier? How did you do it? and what are you doing suddenly ruining the mood of the story?]


    (The Narrator then spoke in his proud voice as if he was mocking the protagonist,) Of course I''m just here to fix the story, to make sure that nothing gets left out and that the story stays as objective as possible, so that our dear readers don''t get confused.


    (The Protagonist then flabbergasted but was able to quickly regain his cool replied in a slightly annoyed tone,) [Aren''t you confusing them more by what you''re doing right now? anyways, I''m setting the tone of the story here, so stop interrupting please.]


    (The Narrator then replied in a snarky tone of voice,) Fine, I''ll concede this one to you "The narrator narrated in a gentlemanly tone of voice." (As the narrator gloated over his own sense of self superiority.)


    (The protagonist then remarked goaded by the narrator,) [That''s not gentlemanly at all...]


    (After that farce the protagonist started narrating again,) [So, everyone shouted and praised my name, as a mark of my goodwill. Thus overtime my name became a legend.]


    [But in actuality, I just wanted to repay those whom I hold dear in my heart, they who showed me the light and paved a path for me to walk, so that I may never go astray.]


    The protagonist then looked at the village from a distance, where he then smirked with a dark shadow almost covering the entirety of his face only showing his mouth, not revealing what he looks like yet in the future, adding to the mystique of the story, lastly he then thought in a nostalgic tone ''Right now, I can be confident for them to face most of the disasters that would come their way''


    Acting like how a proper and a cool protagonist should be...


    The protagonist breathed a sigh of relief and said, "They can finally fend for themselves..."


    "Yawn! I guess it''s time to leave this place and see more of the world" As the protagonist flung himself from one sturdy and gigantic tree to another, mimicking the movements of the monkeys that he saw in the wild.


    Swish! Swish!


    Something that the protagonist learned in his early days, as the monkeys were the easiest ones to imitate, as they had the closest physiology to humans while also being able to traverse the forest very fast, while also doing it with ease.


    Then as he switched from hopping from one tree to another, to grabbing the vines in his surroundings, the protagonist started having glimpse of his memories during the past three hundred years that he had lived.


    He first recalled the memories of his childhood, playing games with the children of those humans, while holding back his unnatural strength as to not hurt anyone too seriously.


    But right now, it''s been way-way too long, their faces now faded into greyish nothingness, proving that with time no matter how significant or insignificant these memories are to him, no one can truly survive the inevitable march of time.


    However, to him it is still weird that this part of his past does pop up from time to time, maybe it was just his subconscious at work, upon seeing something similar to those memories, even so if there would be a clearer answer to this, it would probably be because the only time that he was truly ever joyous was those moments, living his life without much thought for his future.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Then with how fast he was going and how lost in thought he was, in an instant, he didn''t notice that his surroundings had already began to change, from the dense forest to the now just cliffy and steep mountains and ridges in the distance.


    At that point, the moment he came out of the lush and thick greeneries of the marvelous trees, it was like he was crossing another world, one where there were open fields, and the sunlight can hit him directly.


    Both the areas were divided almost evenly, like there was an invisible force carving them separately, but that is just the beauty of nature that he had missed reveling itself unto him, that even though there was a logical explanation for this phenomenon, it just feels too surreal to experience it first-hand.


    Brimming with excitement towards his new environment, he immediately rushed to scale the first mountain that he had encountered. He hopped and leaped at a rapid pace without pause, navigating through the most convenient path laid down before him, according to his inhuman eyesight....And so, he continued on trekking faster than any normal human could achieve.


    As he consistently moved with the same rapidity while beginning to increase his altitude, he started to feel the intensifying resistance of the atmosphere around him, and for the first time in a long time he had felt the heavy wind brush past his cheeks.


    The cool yet stingy breeze made him reminiscence of a core memory...


    On a hot and dry summer day just like any other, a purple oval shaped comet began to fall at a rapid rate, around half a day away of travelling by walking to a certain village, and although from afar it looked really slow but from the perspective of the thing inside, it has been reaching its top velocity for almost two days.


    SWOOOOOOOOOSHHHH!!!


    ''W-What the hell is this?! Why did it suddenly stop becoming so shaky?!!!'' the thing inside wondered as it panicked and screamed at the top of its lungs


    "WAAAAAHHAHAAHHHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!"


    But to understand this chain of events we must do a flashback in a flashback...


    ''It''s already been a year since I''ve gained consciousness inside this pitch-black shell, I still can''t move my body fully, though I had repositioned myself from time to time-I couldn''t help but ask-"I wonder when I can get out?" The thing inside blurted out some of its thoughts.


    Suddenly a mysterious figure appeared, bearing a noble and elegant white clothing, with its seams adorned with golden threads and various magical and precious jewelries.


    It then started walking menacingly to approach the purple scaled egg inside the ten-foot-wide incubator.


    He then removed the crest with the insignia of a four-legged dragon on his breast pocket, as he chanted some ancient word-


    "Inomini... Inomini Om mani Padme Hum Patri Spirictu-Sancti- Hadou-ken Shoryuken!"


    Suddenly something seemed to have pushed inside the machinery, and a keyhole that matched the shape of his insignia formed-


    Thump! Thump!


    Where he then inserted his insignia into supposed keyhole-


    Click! Clack!


    The entrance opened steadily, at that point the man slowly approached the egg and began to stare at it at a moment''s pause, before taking out his knife.


    The atmosphere changed instantly, for the thing inside it felt dark and heavy, like there was something weighing on his own conscience.


    But the man did not hesitate to slit his wrist and to pour his blood towards the egg.


    Uncontrollably, the thing inside quickly absorbed his blood, it had a ravenous appetite, even though it was only in its incubation period.


    Then, hours passed by, with the white clothed man slowly losing his vitality, his skin turning pale, and as his hair began to lose pigmentation, furthermore other signs that were not normally seen to a person losing blood, became more and more apparent throughout his body overtime...


    "Sigh... I guess I have no choice but to do this" As the same old man spoke with a troubled expression while looking at the egg, who was earlier just pouring pints and pints of his blood, but then just instantly recovered on the outside.


    ''Huh? who''s talking outside?'' The thing inside thought confused as it heard a coarser voice than usual.


    "I didn''t want to use this as my final resort" The old man steeled himself.


    As the old man recovered along with his voice, the thing inside then immediately realized, ''I guess that''s just my grandfather, wait... What did he just say?''


    "I''m sorry, please forgive me, my grandson for not being able to spend my remaining life with you." The old man smiled as if he was saying his final goodbyes and followed it with-


    "I hope you''ll be able to understand me that this is for your future..." Truly, a death flag has been set.


    "Huh?!! Why are you asking for forgiveness" The thing inside panicked.


    The old man then grabbed the egg on one hand and quickly began growing in size, as his clothes that can barely contain him began ripping apart,


    TEAR! TEAR! RIP!!


    Then white scales all over his body started emerging, his eyes also began developing lizard-like features. Starting from his iris which had turned red, then to his pupils which went from a round shape to a more slit-like shape.


    Lastly his skeletal and muscle structure morphed from a bipedal to a quadrupedal while his body had grown wings and tail.


    ARGH! URGH!


    But even then, his body did not stop growing, so the pillars of the building around him began to shake up until they can no longer contain him, at which point he just decided to fly and break through the building and destroy its entire roof.


    RUSTLE! RUSTLE!


    CRACK! CRACK!


    CRASH!!!...


    Upon flying outside, it had become apparent that the place where he came from was at the top of a really tall arch tower, the entire thing was even bigger relative to his draconic form.


    But what was most interesting was the ground where the tower stood. It was a small floating island, at least in comparison to the other islands around it, in which, all were bound by the colossal chains that connects them together.


    Moreover, as far as his draconic eyes can see, there were also some different formations and smaller sized islands further away from him, while the rest were of higher or lower leverage than the others.


    The dragon then made the egg levitate in front of him and started to focus on chanting a spell-


    Swirl! Swirl! Swirl!


    Several green colored letters then began appearing out of thin air, which then coagulated and started taking the form a circle, just like any normal magic circle in this world would, but it was different this time, the radius that the circle was forming were bigger than even the highest tiered spells and some of the magic circles even started to overlap-


    About a minute passed and several strong whirlwinds and gashes of air had already formed surrounding both the dragon and the egg.


    SWISH! SWOOSH!


    SWISH! SWOOSH!


    FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!


    A bright crystalline ray then emitted from the chest part of the dragon where his heart could be located. The ray of light then moved and attached itself on to the magic circles, turning them white in the process.


    This caused the dragon immense pain, where at this point it had become apparent that the spell was being forcibly cast, that it was above the ability of the caster.


    ...


    But then right as the spell was seemingly about to reach its climax, all of a sudden, the air surrounding them disappeared and the gigantic magic circle shrunk in size and slowly attached to the egg-


    Could he have failed?


    However, in that moments pause a silhouette of those similar shaped to him from under the tower began zooming towards his direction. But the dragon just gritted his teeth and moved the egg back to his hands again.


    The dragon then began exerting his strength by flexing his muscles, several veins started to surface on his right arm as he was preparing to throw the egg.


    On the other hand, the other dragons were slowly starting to become visible, they were nearing him, ones shout was even able to be heard.


    However, right as they were about to approach him it was already too late, and without hesitation he yeeted the egg with full force-


    "HEY STOP THAT YOU CRAZY FUCKER BASTARD!!!!!""AZIKIEL I SAID STOOOOO-"


    The sound that the throw made was so loud and thunderous that it cancelled out the noises surrounding Azikiel. It was like an impossibly fast bullet that was shot without a gun, and that upon throwing, it had caused the air around to create a visible circular shockwave of air-


    BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!


    "Hey, all of you run towards the egg and catch it"


    "It''s impossible Arkiel, I casted a 12th tier wind magic spell in that egg, so the moment I threw it-


    The spell activates and accelerates the egg, it is now faster than any of dragons here can fly, and it won''t fall at least for months" Azikiel said in a gloomy tone of voice.


    "YOU FUCK, IF YOU WANT TO DIE SO BADLY THEN DO IT YOURSEL-"


    "Shut it!! Arkiel, what''s done is done, nothing can be changed now, and you Azikiel I hope you''re prepared to face the consequences of your action-


    "We both know that the Laplace Prophecy had never been wrong unless we do something to alter or prevent it." The female dragon said in acondescending tone.


    Azikiel in response just stared at her in silence.


    You will be punished for a 10th degree sin! Bind him, cut off his wings and remove both his mana core and dragon heart"

 Heh! My Perfect Interruption!

    In the highest corner of this world, where one can only dream of soaring that high, a certain dragon was certainly not happy to be there...


    During the first few days that the thing inside flew in the sky, it was as if it was riding a roller coaster that has no end, furthermore some may call it a blessing or some may call it a curse, but it can''t see the beautiful sky outside, it has yet to grow its wings, though it still remains a nauseating experience even for it. But as days turned into weeks and into months, it slowly began to adapt and adjust to its new environment.


    Whish! Whish!


    Whoooooooooooosh!!


    But then the moment the egg suddenly lost the momentum and mana that was boosting its flight, it stopped midair and just dropped, the immediate shift of direction, from going forward to downward, was enough to ring the alarm bells of the thing inside and to figure out the predicament it was in.


    "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"


    CRASH!!!!!


    Meanwhile...


    "Then, dear I''ll be out to gather some firewood¡ªWe seem to be already running out of it" The man that looked to be in his middle age remarked.


    The same went for the woman of almost the same age, as she smiled right as he turned his burly back at her to move forward, exuding an aura of trust and responsibility, where she then quietly murmured to herself while bowing her head, "Okay take care, be safe out there. My Dear..."


    The man then whistled and his very own domesticated horse started rushing towards him, like a puppy that has been longing to go for a walk with its master, it clearly trusted him and was subservient towards him.


    In return, the man beamed at his partner, happy that after all these years it showed no signs of change except for its age, they can''t help it after all, he then spoke some heartfelt words, even though they probably can''t understand each other completely, but to him the most important thing is that his sincerity reaches his partner, exhibiting just how much care and affection the man gave to raising this horse.


    And without hesitation, the man and his partner started travelling inside the dense forest spanning the entirety of their village, not knowing that he would be the spark to ignite the upcoming descent of the fate of this world and twist it for the better or worst.


    ***


    "Hap! Hap! That should be the last of it" As the man wiped off the sweat off of his brows.


    But was suddenly interrupted by a faint human-like voice near him, "I guess should start heading back now-"


    "Bua! Bua!! Bua!!!"


    "Huh? Why is there a sound of a baby coming from there?" The man wondered, confused if it might just be his imagination playing tricks on him, but as the sounds grew louder, he removed all hesitation of it possibly being a trap and immediately rushed towards the sound, his conscience just couldn''t take it.


    ''Wh-Why is that thing approaching me?! Right as I just got outside A-Am I really gonna die?!'' The thing inside thought-


    ''NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!'' As it screamed internally as if it was in a life-threatening situation, as if it was the end of its world.


    As it turns out it was just the wild brown boar five times the size of the newly born dragon charging at it full speed, quite the scaredy-cat this dragon is-


    (The protagonist then interrupted the narrator with a gentlemanly voice with a provoked tone,) [STOP-RIGHT-THERE-what do you mean by scaredy-cat? any normal person would be scared if they saw something five times their size charging at them in full speed, where did your objectivity had gone to?]


    (The gentlemanly narrator just replied to the protagonist in a smug tone of voice,) Heh!


    (The narrator then went back to narrating...)


    With its shining sharp tusks and angry looking face. Even if the dragon was still an infant, it had a great sense of danger just like earlier when it was falling-it''s a good thing that earlier his grandfather didn''t forget to add the spell "Winds Grace Fall" to soften his landing.


    Anyways, the infant dragon can definitely feel that the monstrous boar definitely didn''t have good intentions for approaching him.


    ''H-Hey What did I do to irritate you?! I''m Sorry!!¡ªD-Don''t turn me into dinner!!!'' As the infant dragon tried to scream out its thoughts, however no matter how hard it tried none of the words it was trying to mutter fully came out, as its organs responsible for words aren''t developed yet, so only its cries and unintelligible words came out.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    But even if words fully came out, I''m not sure if the boar would even listen to him, heck even understand him.


    "BUA! BUA! BUAAAAAA!!!" The thing inside cried harder, hoping for a miracle.


    On the other hand, the man who went into the forest continued treading carefully but quickly to the sound of the cries, just like a plot convenience that was just coincidentally there to move the plot forward because the narrative of the storytelling is lazy.


    But how surprising for him that it was actually a baby, after all who in his neighbor would dare to leave their baby in the middle of the forest? at least from his perspective from a distance.


    "W-Why is there a baby here?" The man wondered, further wasting time instead of fulfilling his objective of saving the baby, truly a cliched character reaction.


    "Oh-Shit I''ve got no time!!" Finally, he ran towards the baby, otherwise the story would''ve just end then and there, as this might come as a shock to all of you but that baby right there is the protagonist of the story.


    [R-Really?! I-I can''t believe it?-Like hell that''s how they would react!!!] The protagonist remarked about the story of the protagonist being narrated nearly escaping death...


    The man''s instinct took over him, without hesitation he rushed to the baby and grabbed the baby from its legs that were pointing outside of its cracked shell, where he then followed it up by him lunging as the boar rammed into them-


    Oink? Swish!


    Luckily for the infant dragon, the man had managed to dodge the boar in time.


    However, not all is well yet as it may have just been the heat of the moment and the adrenaline rushing all throughout him, so the man quickly became tired, he had never moved that fast before, he clearly overexerted himself doing those continuous rapid movements.


    Thus, right after that moment his muscles became sore, he needed to recuperate first.


    Nevertheless, may it be fate or a stroke of luck, but the boar wasn''t also able to stop itself from charging and inevitably rammed its head onto a nearby tree, hence why it also needed to pause for a brief moment to recuperate and reposition itself.


    BANG!


    Huff! Huff!


    For a moment both the man and the boar had an awkward stare off...


    Inhale! Exhale!


    In the end both the man and the boar recovered at the same time, and so the chase began again, with the boar being clearly more ticked off than earlier, as its prey had been stolen from it.


    Oink! Oink!


    "Ahhhh FUCK!" The man shouted as he ran, which did not make any sense as it made him lose whatever little stamina he had recovered.


    The man then while running as fast as he could, instinctively whistled to call for his horse.


    "Phweeeeeeehhht!"


    The man expertly traversed through the way where he came from earlier, but the same could also be said to the boar whom if wasn''t caught by surprise, can easily navigate through the forest, as it had its own animalistic instinct and also had lived there for a long time.


    The winner was very obvious from the start, the man was slower than the boar and add that to the fact that the man was also carrying a baby, so it was not even a match between the two.


    Fortunately for the man, his horse wasn''t far from him so before the boar could even catch up to him-


    The man like a gallant knight or a mobility expert connected his jumping while running without pause and rode his horse.


    Weirdly enough the boar seemed to have become much more irritated the moment the man rode the horse.


    "Hiyaaah!"


    NEIGHHHHHH!!!


    OINK! OINK!! OINK!!!


    Although normally in a dense forest like this, the boar would have an advantage over the horse, because horses are much more suitable towards flat terrains, but with the man guiding the horse it was almost even, Notwithstanding the fact that the weight of the man and the infant dragon being carried slowed the horse down for a bit.


    ...


    After about half an hour of the chase the man had finally lost the boar, but there was another thing that the man had to worry about, the baby that he was holding on his hand. So, he paused for a bit-


    Him and the baby had an awkward stare at each other for a moment...


    "Hmmm?" The infant with baby doll eyes sucked on its hand and pouted at the man.


    The man with his focus now shifted at the baby started to notice something wrong with the baby, first was its red iris and its lizard-like pupils, secondly when it sucked on its fingers it seemed to have longer fangs than normal, so upon closer inspection when he opened its mouth and as it turns out he wasn''t wrong, all of its teeth was abnormally sharp and long, thirdly its unusually long and different colored nails, and lastly when everything had finally calmed down, he had finally remembered that there was a violet stone that was weirdly shaped like an egg.


    ''At first I didn''t think much of it cause of the situation back then, but could this baby had come from there?'' The man started to daze and begun to be lost in thought.


    Many questions started to come to the man''s mind, but there was one question that accidentally came out from his mouth.


    "Fuck! Should I adopt this baby?" The baby''s expression grimmed.


    But the man against all odds first decided to bring the baby home, then from there just figure out what he should do with it later.


    ...


    The man after arriving home, without pause, immediately rushed inside to look for a better clothing to wrap around the baby instead of just his shirt that he used temporarily. But his wife also became startled at the sight of him.


    Rustle! Rustle!


    "Dear! W-What are you doing?!¡ªand whose baby is that?!!" The wife panicked.


    He first ignored her to find the clothing for the baby, but after he had found it and wrapped it around the baby, he replied with, "I found the baby in the forest we''re adopting it."


    As It turns out he had already fully resolved himself into taking in the baby.


    "W-Wait this all way too sudden¡ªAre you giving up on us?!" His wife looked at him with a terrible expression.


    "No, I''m not!" The husband retorted.


    "T-Then why Simon?" The wife''s thinking ran rampant, as she asked the question why.


    "Estella, do you know how long we''ve been trying for? For twenty years we''ve tried and nothing! Clearly something is wrong between either you or me." Simon spoke in a resolute tone. Then in the heat of the moment Simon revealed his inner thoughts, "I would''ve been much more doubtful of you, if all of a sudden you''ve gotten pregnant"


    "Y-You!" Estella filled with her mixed emotions couldn''t find any words to say.


    Maybe it was because of the intense emotion that they were feeling towards each other right now, so they decided to stop calling each other with "Dear" and had actually started to address each other with their actual first names in a long time.


    But right as they were to say another word, they were suddenly stopped by the loud crying of the baby.


    "UWAAAH UWAAAAAH!! UWAAAH!"

 Happiness

    In a chaotic turn of events, with the baby''s nonstop cries, Simon somehow ended up needing to calm the baby down, quickly, he rushed into their room and then attempted to sing a lullaby-


    "Shhh Shh I''m sure she didn''t mean anything that she just said¡ªOhhhhh Gravity is worken against me???" As Simon began singing out of tune notes.


    Meanwhile, Estella overwhelmed at what just happened, walked out of their home and stayed at the Verandah with a dull expression...


    ''Hehe! Did my acting work? Now I just gotta keep crying, but seriously dude?! Your singing is making me cry even more!'' As the infant dragon''s cries kept getting louder and louder every time Simon sang, so he did what anyone with good intentions would do-


    And that is to keep singing louder, so together Simon and the baby their back-and-forth comedy skit, creating an endless loop of loud but weirdly enough, actually harmonious noises with each other, like they were the vocalists of a rock n''roll band.


    ...


    On a melancholic afternoon, A withdrawn woman stood at fences of the Verandah, as she listened to the sound of the silent humming of the chilling breeze of the air, wherefore she then leaned on forward, so that her face may feel the forbearing slap of the wind.


    Estella looked up above and stared at the grey sky until it was replaced by the darkness of the unknown, but in exchange, one by one, even though it was pitch black, there were those glimmering shiny little lights that started to appear, it was like they were the little suns of the night sky.


    "Sigh... Maybe It''s time to give up" Estella muttered to herself with the hint of a slight hesitation.


    The scene of her raising her voice and making the baby cry, then leaving, was enough to make her heart melt. It kept replaying on her mind, like a broken spell that keeps on rearranging itself with the same pattern over and over again no matter what she does, there was no winning against it, the only choice would be to give up, accept that pattern, and build upon it.


    Maybe she had blamed herself for what happened, or maybe it was her maternal instinct that kept on bugging her, but in the end, she had finally gained the courage to go back inside their home.


    "What are you doing? That''s not how you hold a baby..." Estella muttered to her husband who had no idea what he was doing, and was clearly too focused on the baby to not even notice her coming inside the room.


    "D-Does that mean?" Simon flustered by her wife asked the obvious but still questioned her to confirm"


    "Yes-Mmmhhh-Mmmmhhh!" Simon gently placed the baby down and hugged her tightly; she felt like a teddy bear being squeezed firmly.


    "S-Stop it you''re suffocating me dear" Estella spoke in a soft tone.


    "Okay, by the way, where did you learn to do that?" Simon asked his wife.


    Estella then replied with, "I learned it from our neighbors just in case"


    "Anyways this is how you do this"


    "I see"


    "And don''t forget to do that while carrying the baby-"


    ...


    As the night grew further, right as the couple were about to sleep, the two a had a very important discussion about the baby.


    "Hmmm... Now that I think about it what should we name our baby?" Estella asked her husband but there was just silence in his deep thoughts.


    "Oh, and by the is it a him or a her?" Estella asked her husband another question, however his silence just grew deeper.


    "What?! I know that our baby is not human, but don''t tell me you didn''t bother to check?!" Estella further interrogated her husband...


    ***


    In the middle of the night a lightning struck near the window where the baby dragon resides peacefully, it woke up with its eyes wide open and felt scared and ominous as if something bad is about to happen to it, similar to what happened earlier in the morning.


    Suddenly two shadow like figure of a male and female slowly approached, like a predator not wanting to startle its prey...


    The predators with a grin on their faces, whispered, "Shhh... Don''t worry we''re just going to check; we''re not bad people with bad intentions."


    The baby dragon feeling frightened just close its eyes hoping that this nightmare would just pass, "N-No! What are you two doing?! STOOOOP!!!!"


    "Huhu, I see so you''re a boy." The shadow like figures widened their grin further that it made it seem like both of their eyes were also grinning.


    ***


    On a mellow day, when the trees began to shed, a certain kid was celebrating his first ever birthday and has been wondering about the most important question that he had encountered ever since his birth.


    [A lot of time passed by with me just eating and doing things inside my cradle that I can''t control, and would just rather not explain and narrate, I mean what can I do during that time? I can''t stand yet or barely even crawl. My parents strictly watched me during my first few months of infancy, they were like my bell boys except instead of carrying luggage, they would carry a different type of luggage, and the bell? of course, would be my crying.]Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    [Then those hellish days came to an end when I''ve been out of the egg for a year-those days huh? Sigh... as far as I can remember my father took me to the village chief and explained what happened and how I got here. It didn''t take much persuasion to convince them, in fact there were very welcoming of me, since one of the teachings that the founder of this village that emphasized on was peace and respect for all races. Lastly before we left his abode, he even promised us to give a one-year supply of cow milk for my food, and my father said along the lines of like winning one of those raffles.]


    [Oh, and if you''re wondering how the village chief looked like, there was not much to see, he was a balding old man with a slightly curved back, very typical of someone of his age, though I don''t really know how he looked like when he was younger, but a lot of people said that he was handsome and that he exuded the charms of a noble, "is that what is my fate too when I grow old? that''s really scary to think about, growing old really is scary!" Is what the younger me probably thought upon seeing him, if only I knew how wrong was I?]


    [My father, Simon, lifted me up and carried me as we rode the horse around the village, as It was part of the tradition on this village to introduce their newly born to everyone that lives there, and then to give a gift for the baby as a sign of welcoming them and wishing them good luck, but as I am very clearly adopted, my father had to explain our situation to everyone, so it took twice the amount of time than it should''ve normally been to finish doing this tradition-


    "Ahahaha what a cute boy, I''m sure he''ll fit with this cute shirt that I weaved"


    "Hello! Take this basket of fruits and make sure he stays healthy Putchu! Putchu! Putchu!" As the woman couldn''t help but pinch the baby''s cheeks.


    "Pss! Pss! Psssss! who''s a good boy" The baby dragon can''t help but express the disappointment in his face and think that-


    ''I''m not a dog you know?!!''


    [Come to think of it the very last guy that we visited was very weird, he lived on the very outskirts of the village, so it was hard getting to him. He seemed very aloof, and the conversation with him didn''t take long, and it seemed like he was in a hurry to send us out]


    [The only words that he said to my father were,] "Here, take this shovel, make sure to take good care of him and become a very good role model for him, tatakae!"


    [If I remember correctly his name was Eren, however he never mentioned to us his last name and that was the last time we''ve seen of him. Anyways on the way home we bought a pheasant before it turned dark...]


    "We''re home dear!" [My father greeted my mom with such enthusiasm]


    [My mother then matched it and showered both of us with hugs and kisses,] "Who''s a cutie patootie huh? Mwah! Mwah!"


    ...


    [A bit later, when it was turning dark, my father sat me down on the bench that he had made, because he was tasked with watching over me as my mother prepared the feast for my birthday.]


    [It was a very long and boring wait, especially since my father who was supposed to entertain me was dozing on and off, probably from the exhaustion of traveling and carrying me around town all day.]


    [My eyes wondered and as I began to look for distractions, I noticed that the horse that we rode was behind us.]


    [So, I had a thought...]


    "Sit" [but the horse did not follow me.]


    "Sit..." [For the second time the horse did not follow my order again.]


    [So, for the third time I''ve gotten really angry to the point that my once cute baby face looked like a very angry buddha statue-


    "SIT!"


    [And to my surprise the horse actually followed me, although it whimpered and looked scared for a bit.]


    [Even though the horse looked really tired, I did not care. Because it was really fun messing with him.]


    "Duck!"


    "Roll!"


    "Jump!"


    "Fly-


    "Alright that''s enough fun for today, time to head in" As his father out of the blue raised him up and carried him back inside, after all who wouldn''t wake up from all the ruckus that his baby had caused, and somehow Simon also realized that things were about to go out of hand for his partner.


    [My body and face tensed up as my father held me up all of a sudden, that was his beloved horse, so I could only think of one thing] ''S-Shit I messed up''


    [But instead of being angry at me, my father just laughed it off.]


    ...


    [Later that night, as we all sat down at our dinner table, it seemed that my parents had been anticipating this day of mine, they wanted to make it our most joyous and memorable day yet.]


    [But even though they had prepared thoroughly, they still felt like they rushed onto things way too fast, because now that they were actually in the moment that they had been anticipating for years, they felt nervous, they didn''t know what to do.]


    "T-Then why don''t we eat first?" [My mother spoke in an awkward tone.]


    [The same went with my father,] "Y-Yes dear"


    [The sound of the wooden spoon and fork clanking with the plates echoed throughout the room, and each time that they do it felt agonizing, like it was taking forever, even though it shouldn''t. But maybe all of us did it on purpose just so there was something to fill the silence of the awkward atmosphere.]


    [Then there was a brief pause, none of the utensils rang, and now only the sound of the candle stick burning permeated throughout the room...]


    Neeiighhhh!!!


    [We all simultaneously looked at where the sound was coming from, although we already who it came from.]


    [It was right outside of the window was my father''s most beloved horse, seemingly asking why he wasn''t invited, and it seemed like he was begging for food.]


    [We then all stared right back at each other, as if we all had the same interpretation...]


    "AHAHAHAHA!"


    "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"


    "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"


    [Perhaps it was the spontaneity of the situation, but it was enough to break the ice and made us connect with each other.]


    [Finally, the room''s atmosphere felt warm, and there was nothing left to describe this memory as cheery, cozy and fuzzy.]


    "By the way dear, I had finally thought of the name that we should give him" [My father exclaimed.]


    [My mother filled with anticipation asked,] "What is it dear?"


    "I think we should name him Philip, it means lover of horse, because earlier, even without proper training, he seemed to be already in command of Diego." [My father explained while gloating.]


    "R-Really Awww he seems happy with name Philip- [Of course I''m happy, it''s about damn time you guys give me a name, you both held off on it for about a year]


    "But is what you just said true?" [My mother wondered?]


    [My father then replied proudly,] "Don''t believe me? why don''t I show you?!"


    [We then finished our dinner and headed outside of the room.]


    "Now, why don''t you command the horse like you did earlier Phil?" [As my father already started calling me Phil, heck he even started giving me nickname based on the name, even though it wasn''t completely decided yet that Philip would be my name.]


    [I then began to shout the commands that I were yelling earlier, and also began experimenting with new ones-


    "Sit!"


    "Roll!"


    "Sprint!


    "Slide!"


    "See, I told you dear, not even I, "The greatest equestrian was able to tame my horse that way!" [As my father cheekily smiled.]


    "You were right dear; our son really is talented" [My mother reassured my father.]


    Meanwhile the horse felt true fear in his eyes, because the man who spoiled and took care of him, so thoroughly! was just laughing as he was being tortured by his son.


    NEEEEIIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!


    "Oh, and before we forget..."


    "HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHILIP!"


    [Both of my parents cheerfully greeted me, as they kissed me on my forehead.]

 Distorted Origins

    "Hey, Philip, do you want to hear a story?" Estella asked as she brought out one of the books that she had stashed away.


    Philip''s attention was immediately grabbed so he stared at her face with a joyful smile, gesturing that he would really like for her to read him a story, even though it might just end up with the same ending as always, with him falling asleep halfway through it...


    After reading some children''s story book, Estella then tried to slip in a story that her parents passed down to her, while still continuing her childish narration, something that she had always prepared for, in case that this moment that are happening right now ever comes, "A loooong loooooooooong time ago... when humanity were still at its age of infancy, when our ancestors used everything that they can find just to survive, surprisingly it was thought of as the time when our hometown was at its most peaceful stage, even though we were barely scraping by."


    "It was reaaaaally hard at first, but due to the intellect gifted to us we created tools, we flourished, and eventually our population grew to the point that it was impossible to contain everyone in a single group, so eventually theeeeey had to create tribes."


    "Personally, Philip I''m still not completely convinced on why our ancestors did that, but I''ll say it to you just in case, our elders believed that it was due to the clashing beliefs of our ancestors, and if there was one thing that did not change from that time, it was that our ways which some may call primitive dominated that time, which still holds true to this day...


    However, on that fateful night, when all of a sudden, their surroundings turned pitch black even though the sun was still supposed to be at its peak.


    Then as if that wasn''t bizarre enough, subsequently after it turned dark, the twenty-seven moons who were always seen as far apart as they could be from each other, aligned all together and became one, an event which had always been thought as an improbable one, after all it wouldn''t be weird to at least see three or four align, but for all them, it was surely an anomaly never seen before.


    Their planet and its atmosphere moved erratically causing their whole world to tremble. Then the torrents of winds came rushing down like a tornado without form, it was then followed by the sudden gravitational shifts turning those unlucky ones into mushed carcasses.


    It had caused a massive uproar to all the civilizations that dwelled within, but even those without sentience followed their animalistic instincts, some growled, some whimpered, while some burrowed, and the humans where no different, it was as if the world was warning them of its impending doom...


    Every single one of humanities tribes gathered, and they prepared to fight whatever what was coming. Because even though everyone felt hopeless, some warriors who were brave enough used their ancient weapons to fight back an intangible and unknown enemy.


    Together they rallied and raised their spears and bows to protect their fellows and the future generations to come.


    But right at the tensest moment, when it seemed like something was about to erupt, the ground beneath them froze.


    It turned rock solid; they tried to move to release themselves from their footing, but alas they were bound tightly. However, right as they were beginning to panic, a loud shattering voice strong enough to make their eardrums bleed spoke.


    The voice declared,


    "Listen... MORTALS KNEEL"


    Instantly, a light blinding enough to contrast the pitch darkness of their surroundings descended-


    And one by one all the races were forced to prostate themselves...


    The deities then further exclaimed and referred to themselves as gods.


    "YOU HAVE ALL BEEN GRANTED A CHANCE!" The deities deep tone resonated all throughout their week mortal bodies.


    The occurrence was just too bizarre, mystical even, to the point that their ancestors were curious to see what the deities looked like, it was ingrained in the intellectual race''s nature after all.


    However, that nature would prove to be a fatal mistake, it was a lapse on their judgement, as they didn''t even begin to consider how arrogant those powerful deities sounded like.


    One of the greatest Odysseus, what the humans called the storyteller at the time, the ones who were tasked with recording the most crucial events of the history of tribes, tried to raise his head.


    "HOW DARE YOU TAKE A GLIMPSE AT US!"


    The plants surrounding them rapidly began to wither, the domineering aura that was suppressing them became even more intense, and in a fit of rage one of the deities popped the head of the bold human who did not know his place.


    It was a torturous and cruel method where instead of just killing him in an instant because surely, they were capable of that, they played with his agony at first.


    Thus, the process began when his head''s veins surfaced on his skin-


    which then turned red-


    and then into violet-


    ...until his head finally burst like a balloon, but the only difference being was that it made a squishing sound instead of just a pop.


    "DON''T TRY OUR PATIENCE"


    The demeanor of the deities changed; the vibrations from their voices-it was enough to send shivers down their spines.


    It was clear that they were still angry, they were like insects that could be crushed at any moment-no not even insects they were beneath that.


    It seemed like that the death of one of their own wasn''t enough to quell their ever so increasing disdain for the lower beings.


    "RIGHT ABOUT NOW A TOWER SHOULD BE EMERGING FROM YOUR WORLD-CONQUER IT, AND YOU WILL BE GIVEN THE POWER TO RULE THIS WORLD"


    "WE DON''T CARE WHAT YOU DO, BUT BE WARNED THAT THE RACE THAT DOES NOT ATTEMPT WILL BE PUNISHED"


    "THE WINNER WILL BECOME ONE OF US"


    "YOU HAVE ALL BEEN GIVEN A CHANCE¡ªDO-NOT-WASTE-IT"


    Those were their final words as they vanished, and the returned the world to almost normal, as after that everyone was too stunned to even utter a single word, the sheer fear that they left was enough to last for generations...


    So, for the last months or so, the snow didn''t disappear, in fact it even became colder as the snow-like rain fell down on each and everywhere the tribes settled.


    Their territories became unhabitable, to the point where some of them even died of starvation, because almost no life could survive the harsh winter that they were facing.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Until finally they reached their breaking point...


    All of the tribes figured that they were being punished according to the gods'' words. So, they came to an agreement, that they would send their best warriors as their representatives-


    And among those who were chosen one stood out as finest of them all, Alexander.


    He was a warrior through and through, because there was a time when the twelve other representatives just wouldn''t budge on who should be their leader, none of them wanted to give in, so they decided to hold a fighting competition.


    Nonetheless, the results were not even close, Alexander never lost a single match, and he beat the shit out of every single one of them.


    Because of that no one even dared to argue against him.


    So, together they went on to travel in an attempt to conquer the tower-Their direction? It was the gigantic stick from far away that even seemed to reach highest peak of our skies, perhaps maybe even outside it...


    ***


    For the tribesmen the world kept on spinning even without those gallant warriors, their hope.


    Still, in that ten years-time, the snow melted and even reached the point where it completely disappeared, thus it would not be long when Alexander would return with five of his companions, and it seemed like according to the news that he bore, that two of those who accompanied him died, while the other five decided to settle down and protect their base near the tower.


    He came back even stronger and does not seem to have aged a single day, he then taught humanity a newfound power using his knowledge from climbing the tower, which was then later on came to be known as-Magic.


    But he had another purpose for passing down knowledge on how to wield magic on all of the tribes, that is to find those who were useful and recruit them to climb the tower together with him.


    It was an irresistible offer given to them, as there were those who''d wanted to seek for more, there were those with noble goals and ideals who wanted to fight for humanity, and there were those who were just greedy for power.


    And as the land slowly started to resemble on how the gods willed it, one by one the tribes disappeared as Alexander''s empire grew...


    However, in the end there were also those who were stubborn enough to stay, but in time they all slowly ceased to exist, as some died due to the wild evolution that the animals went through, while the others weren''t just able to hold a stable population to stop their tribe from declining.


    But there was one village that were stubborn and resilient enough...


    "Our ancestors then merged into one and cultivated this place and built it with the power of friendship, and that''s how our great village overcame the times and became one of the best places there is." Estella exclaimed proudly, even though some of parts her story may not be as accurate and had left some parts out.


    "But mommy, how did our village continued to survive to this day?" Philip wondered.


    Estella then thought of just saying that it was because of the power of friendship, but she ultimately she decided against, as it is definitely not the answer her son was looking for, and in the future her bright son will definitely be able to see through her bullshit, and if that time comes and Philip confronts her, she will surely be placed in an awkward position, "Because one of our ancestors who awoken magic left us with something"


    "W-What is it?" Philip asked and thought that-''Could it be something amazing?!''


    "Now that is a story for another day!" Philip immediately pouted at his mom''s reply.


    Estalla then went on to forcibly change the topic, "Then let''s get to the reason why I told you that story."


    Which she then followed it up with, "It''s time for you to awaken your magic powers! Aren''t you my little Philip excited?!"


    "R-Really?!" Philip now brimming with anticipation couldn''t help but forgive her mother''s past transgressions.


    "Yes, that''s right, with this "Truth Stone" that we received from the surveyor, we can tell what type of magic you''re compatible with" Estella smiled cheekily and rubbed her nose, feeling proud of herself because of the story and the knowledge she just imparted to her son.


    The stone from far away looks like as if it was just any other stone that one can find on the ground, but if one were to take a closer look at it, one would be thrilled to notice that the stone was perfectly round like a ball, and also there were multiple runes of ancient language carved into it.


    [Ahh... I how could I forget about that cheery and outgoing surveyor, who used to bring us news from the capital of the empire.]


    [His job was to survey and explore the land from the empire to the direction where our village coincides. Because of this, he would always stop by the village to rest while in the middle of his job, and in return he would give us news and items free of charge including the supply of truth stone.]


    [However, if there was one information that he wouldn''t share to us, it was anything that relates to people of royal descent, they were pretty tight lipped about whenever it was brought up.]


    [We found that out when one day a curious villager asked, if Alexander who didn''t seem to have aged a day was still alive? Given that the events of that pasts were turned into story of legends now.]


    [However, the surveyor in a serious tone just replied with, "I suggest that you stop there, don''t ask that question again, if you don''t want to be executed."]


    [Anyways, this nature of job, a surveyor, recently surfaced and became the most in demand and high paying job due to its necessity.]


    [Because, when humanity reached the 50th floor, they finally came to know of the identity of some of the other sentient races, that are also attempting to clear this tower, aside from other humans.]


    [So, they exchanged information with them and found out that our tower wasn''t the only one that emerged from the ground, there were also others that were summoned near the territory of the other sentient races. From then on, through the various exchanges of information, with the help of the smartest conquerors and the empires most trusted aids, together they deduced the possibility of other multiple sentient races that lives in this world and where their territories would most likely be, aside from the ones that they just met.]


    [Another crucial piece of information was that apparently the other races territory was so far away in the world outside of the tower, it would take about sixty years to cover even a significant amount of distance in between the countries of sentient races, even if one where to bring with him the fastest flight mage or the mage with the longest teleportation leap, which could teleport to over a thousand hectares at best, as the mages would need about a full week to recover their completely depleted mana.]


    [Covering that amount of distance is just way too long and such a huge waste of time, when that could be spent getting stronger inside the tower. Thus, it would just be better to hire someone specific to see if how far away are other countries really from the empire according to academic theories, hence leading to the creation of the job surveyors to confirm those theory.]


    [So, at that time, the only way to even possibly interact and have contact with each other was through inside the tower, where both humanity and the other sentient races grabbed the opportunity and expanded their territory in the floors where it was allowed.]


    [In the end, when humans allied with some of the races, the only way to travel from empire to empire in the outside world, was through the passages of the naturally occurring gates inside the tower.]


    ***


    Estella then instructed her son on what to do, "Now Philip, touch this stone and close your eyes to access the depths of your mind."


    Philip obeyed his mother''s words and began to enter his subconscious...


    "Right about now, you should be seeing a similar sight to the galaxies above us." Estella further explained.


    Philip thought that ''His mother was right, the sight was indeed very similar to the galaxies above us''


    His consciousness then began to slowly materialize, it felt like he was rapidly solidifying but at the same time he felt free, like he was in an immaterial state where he could go anywhere in the vast empty void of his own galaxy-


    He felt powerful...


    "Think of your body as a hole in the galaxy and absorb all of the stars that are compatible with you¡ªIt''s time to awaken your elements!" His mother said excitingly.


    One by one, different colored lights began flickering, steadily their luminosity started to increase, until finally in their last glimmer, when their radiance shone brightly the most, a weave of light connecting them to Philip appeared.


    Philip, listening to her mother''s instruction began forcefully pulling all of the mystical light that he could...


    Eight vibrant colored lights connecting to the stars slowly inched towards Philip''s ethereal body, until he had fully absorbed them.


    However, just when he thought the surreal experience was over. Without any warning, all of the remaining stars also connected to him and began traveling towards him instantaneously.


    He knew that this was dangerous, his body couldn''t handle this, as he slowly began feeling pain from both the physical world and here, his mother tried to pull him, but he couldn''t stop-


    He couldn''t help but just stare, as the stars neared him...


    The stars clashed with the energies already residing in him, until finally they collided with the stars inside him.


    ...


    Philip''s temperature raised through the roof; his agonizing expression couldn''t help but also materialize at the physical realm.


    His mother which was worried sick called for his husband, "D-Dear help us!!"


    But both of them couldn''t do anything as their son suffered-


    "W-What do we do?!!, I shouldn''t have made him awaken his magic-This is all my fault!" Estella spoke as she hugged her son, trying to comfort him.


    Her husband consoled her by saying, "This wasn''t your fault, I''ll come ask the surveyor to see if he can do something."


    However, before the surveyor could even arrive, Philip screamed in pain and had already lost consciousness...


    ***


    [After that time, I fell asleep for a whole three years, but my parents didn''t stop taking care of me, seeing that I still have a pulse.]


    [Apparently everyday they washed my entire body, and didn''t stop talking to me about their everyday life, they didn''t give up on me-I was truly loved...]

 A Mothers Love

    [The passage of time flew by me, like I was inside a chrysalis being pampered and protected, just waiting for my wings to sprout, and inside it felt like I was stuck in the realm between the physical and spiritual.]


    ...


    On a midsummer solstice, where the villagers celebrate their upcoming bountiful harvest by giving out flowers to each other, a mother decided to again, bestow upon her wreath to her son who was asleep, for a hope that her wish may come true.


    The mother with both of her hands gently laid down the wreath on her son''s head, she then gently caressed her son''s hair and told him a story about how her life went, her husband''s day, and the neighbor''s day, every day for the past three years, without ever missing a single day-


    "Hey, did you know? this solstice it seems that we will be harvesting the most pineapples I''ve ever seen in years! I bet you would like to eat until your mouth feels raspy." but then again similar to yesterday, to the weeks before, to the months before, and to the year before, there was still no response...


    Estella just smiled back at her son, still laying there feebly, with a peaceful look on his face-


    "It''s okay, I''ll wait for you, no matter how long it takes..."


    "B-By the way I heard our neighbor Alicia apparently have gotten pregnant, and all of her family came home to celebrate, but when the baby came out, it had the same green eyes as her brother, but that trait only appears when both of the parents have green eyes, isn''t that kind of funny?" Estella then went on and on, changing from topics to topics until she fell asleep while holding her son''s hand-


    On her dreams, she was always inside a room that would be flooded with water, however every time she would try to run, her body and the objects around would completely remain in stasis, until she became asphyxiated.


    There was no going forward or backward, only guilt that she can''t seem to wash away, as every time she woke up, she would completely forget everything that just happened-


    However, this time it was different, she felt a single touch on her head, and that was enough to pull her out of that nightmare...


    With her head lying beside her son''s stomach, as she opened her eyes, the lights reflecting through the windows began to reappear in her sight.


    A familiar silhouette then started patting her while she was half asleep, she couldn''t help but feel comforted by its little and soft hands.


    She then leaned on forward, but when she came to be fully awake, she could not contain herself-


    "P-Philip! Is it really you? I-I''m not dreaming, am I?" Estella asked in disbelief.


    "Waaah!" Tears began to fall from her eyes, uncontrollably, while she hugged her son as tightly as she could.


    Sniffle! Sniffle!


    Estella couldn''t contain herself; she had been longing for this day to come, even with just a tiny fraction of hope, then all of a sudden just like that-


    In return, Philip seeing the sight of his mother, also hugged her tightly, it''s just that-that was what he wanted to do for the past three years that he had not been able to move, to comfort her, because even though it hasn''t been that long since this family took him in, and that at first Estella was reluctant, what followed after was what can only be called a mother''s love.


    Philip fully accepted her, Estella was his mother now, and as a gesture of that, he wholly embraced her...


    Several mixed emotions surged throughout her, it was like time had slowed down for her, because she wanted to savor every last bit of this moment.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Because even remembering those painful memories, starting from day one-


    <i>"Hmmm? interesting..." The surveyor reacted in fascination because he had never seen such a thing before, as he hid his expression in front of the adoptive parents. But whether that fascination and hiding his expression was done with pure concern or with intentions were unclear.</i>


    <i>"S-So can you tell me what''s wrong with my son?" As Estella held the surveyor''s hand tightly with both of her hands.</i>


    <i>"I''m sorry ma''am as I don''t have any knowledge of what your son''s race is, I can''t help you." The surveyor replied in a compassionate tone of voice.</i>


    <i>The answer left Estella helpless and heartbroken-</i>


    <i>"N-No..." Estella said meekly as her knees turned weak-</i>


    <i>But still she quickly recovered and regained her enthusiasm for the first few days.</i>


    <i>So, Estella and Simon did what they could by ailing his symptoms with the little medicinal knowledge that they held...</i>


    <i>***</i>


    <i>On the first day, they noticed that Philip''s fever was still rampant, so together, they each grabbed damp cloths and cleaned his body all over, before resting him to bed and leaving one of the damp cloths in his forehead.</i>


    <i>They then went to bed, thinking that their son would wake up the next day...</i>


    <i>On the second day, noticing that Philip''s fewer is down, but his face still had that agonizing expression, her husband went on to gather herbs for numbing the pain meanwhile Estella stayed beside her son to guard him.</i>


    <i>Where she then started self-reflecting on to things, but whether she was actually the one at fault or not on the thoughts that ran rampant all through her, she had already started to doubt and blame herself, thus, to keep those depressing thoughts away, she began telling him stories as if she could still hear him-hoping that she could still hear him-</i>


    <i>"Hey, have I already talked about that time your father and I met-or maybe about that time when your father had a duel-or maybe that time when...</i>


    <i>Anyways, your dad went on to gather herbs for you, hopefully you''ll wake up soon."</i>


    <i>But as days turned into weeks-</i>


    <i>"He''ll wake up soon, right? Dear?" Estella spoke in a tired voice as she leaned her head and fell asleep on her husband''s arm. Both of them sat on the chairs next to their son''s bed and took turns watching him. </i>


    <i>And as weeks turned into months-</i>


    <i>"Hey, I miss you¡ªI love you..." As Estella kept on convincing herself that if showered her son with affection, eventually she''ll get through to him.</i>


    <i>Until finally, the months had turned into a year-</i>


    <i>...</i>


    <i>The clouds were unusually thick and heavy, turning the morning into an afternoon like state, it was as if the clouds weren''t letting any of the sun''s brightest light to slip through, they were covering whatever remains of the sun.</i>


    <i>That day the rain wouldn''t stop pouring-</i>


    <i>Estella, unlike her usual self, for the whole day didn''t tell any story or speak to her son for the whole day, she couldn''t bring herself to approach him and talk to him.</i>


    <i>She just stared at him...</i>


    <i>That night Estella slowly approached her son, each step creaking through the crevices of their roof brought upon by the rain.</i>


    <i>Without any change to her expression, silent tears came crashing down from her eyes, and she was brought to her knees again.</i>


    <i>"I-I''m sorry, please forgive me! That''s right! It''s all my fault for not appreciating you enough, I must be being punished! I didn''t mean any of those things I did the first time we met! I deserve it!" Her voice was filled with rage but at the same time there was a hint of sadness at her every words.</i>


    <i>The tears kept on flowing while her voice cracked and turned soft, almost like a whisper she said,</i>


    <i>"S-So please just wake up..."</i>


    <i>"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"</i>


    <i>Simon on the other room, pretending to be asleep, heard everything that she just said.</i>


    <i>He knew that something would happen with how suspiciously his wife was acting since the dawn, but he didn''t expect this.</i>


    <i>Simon then thought ''If I knew that this would happen-that it would cause this much pain to Estella, I should have just not brought the kid''</i>


    <i>But he quickly shaken off the thought, he wasn''t that kind of man, this is not how his father raised him to be, those thoughts just aligned with the words and feelings of Simon during that time.</i>


    <i>So, he gained the courage to face his wife at that time, even if she didn''t want him to see her in that state.</i>


    <i>He became a shoulder that she can lean on, even though he himself is on the verge of breaking down too...</i>


    <i>And thus, with someone to depend on, Estella picked herself up, piece by piece, she didn''t give up on her son.</i>


    ***


    But now those painful memories were slowly being washed away, like the tears that were rooted from sorrow to happiness.


    Then as Estella was continuing on hugging her son, not willing to let him go, Philip uttered his first words after a while, "Hey mom, what about the pineapple-and what were you talking about when you mentioned Alicia''s baby?"


    ...


    [It''s been a few days since I''ve awoken and quite frankly, I''ve been having a hard time adjusting to my new body.]


    [I feel light like there were restrictions that have been lifted off of my body, like some part of me had been corrected. But most importantly of all, after I awoken, I can now finally use magic...]

 A Unique Constitution

    ''It''s been a few days since I''ve awoken and quite frankly, I''ve been having a hard time adjusting to my new body.'' Philip thought, as he tried to move his entire body as gently as possible.


    ''Not only because I had a growth spurt during the three years that my body was basically in a comatose like state, thus when I fully recovered it was foreign to me that I''ve grown taller and broader, causing me to have a hard time adjusting to my new build, but also because lately every time that I try to open our wooden door, it''s either I destroy the doorknob, or I just completely rip the entire thing off, which was definitely not normal for a five-year-old kid.'' Philip thought deeply, as he again subconsciously ripped off another wooden door.


    C-Crack!!


    Philip dumbfounded said, "N-Not again how many times does this-


    Yawn!


    ''M-Mom?'' Philip thought, as he looked back behind him to where the voice came from, afraid that he might''ve been caught in the act, thereby exposing his little secret.


    [Sigh... the sound of the door''s delayed breaking while I just stood there, frozen, and looked behind me as my mother slowly woke up from her afternoon nap, made that memory much more fun to look back at.]


    [Anyway, at that time huh? Come to think of it during that time my father was actually out hunting for food and gathering firewood, but when he heard that cracking sound, he dropped everything that he was doing, unsheathed his sword and came rushing towards us.]


    [Hahaha! He was really worried that someone dared to attack us, even my mother who didn''t know what was happening, as she just woke up, was ready to unleash a magic spell, because even before I could explain, she saw my father ready to fight, and thus she panicked too.]


    [Sigh... It was really hard getting them both to calm down, I was bewildered the first time that it happened, I couldn''t believe what was happening. But as much as I was surprised, both my mother and father were even more shocked than me so I had a difficult time trying to explain everything to them, that there was nothing to worry about and that it was all false alarm, that I had already broken the doorknob a few times but just reshaped it back to normal through brute strength alone.]


    [But to my surprise, they were actually proud of me, hence why, when it happened again and again for the tenth time, no one was even surprised in my family and we just looked back at it as a fun memory...]


    [By the way, at that time another change that happened to me, which was what I first noticed when I woke up, was the nauseating effects of my senses being abnormally sharp, for example, I could hear or eavesdrop on our neighbor''s conversation for about five to six houses away-


    "How much for the potatoes?"


    "I can give it to you for one bag of your salt"


    "What? is that true?"


    "Yes really! no kidding apparently, they''ve recently discovered a new magic element, I''ve heard that one of the noblemen son''s awakened it, the whole territory was in shock, that even the capital''s top mages visited them out of curiosity."


    "Wow, that''s amazing! For the kid to awaken such a rare element, that kid''s future sure is going to be bright, so what was the element?"


    "Nothing''s been confirmed yet, I only got that information for letting the kind Surveyor stay the night at our barn for free, He said he''ll tell me on his next visits, once he confirmed the rumors."


    "Anyways, earlier this morning when we were having another conversation, the surveyor told me another rumor that the kid already received an invitation to study from all the top five conquerors academy."


    "I-I see, I hope that my kids awaken something similar to that kid too, so that they don''t rot in this damned place!"


    "Hey! Shh... tone yourself down for a bit, do you want the whole village to hate you"The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "So what? I''m just telling the truth; It doesn''t matter whether they hate me or not"


    "Sheesh, honestly? Why am I still friends with you?"


    "Oh, shut up! we all know that I''m your only friend, that''s why you''re stuck with me HAHAHAHA!"


    "Hahaha..."


    As the two ruffian like villagers stopped their conversation for a moment, but then just immediately continued on.


    [What a lively conversation of the village folks, just thinking about it makes me want to go back there hahaha! Anyhow, back to what I was doing; I then tried covering my ears and at the same time tried to lessen my focus, I thought that I would stop hearing those loud overlapping loud voices, but my brain just shifted its focus on the background noises of the people working, like the sound of the metals clanking, the blacksmiths hammering with their tools, and even to the faint sound of a seamstress weaving-


    Clang! Clang! Clang!


    BANG!... BANG!


    Snip! Snip!


    "BURP!!!!!"


    [And that even made it much worse and even more annoying rather than just hearing the sounds of the humans chattering, honestly, I can only describe that experience as like that one rumor that I heard when I entered the empire, in the instance of what happens if a deaf man all of a sudden were able to hear, this was probably be similar to that.]


    [So, eventually I just gave up and stopped covering my ears.]


    [It would''ve been great if my sense of hearing was the only one that improved, but even my sense of sight, sense of smell, and sense of touch to name a few, were all heightened to a degree that at the time I felt something that only humans would describe as being drunk.]


    [First, my heightened sense of sight wasn''t noticeable at the beginning, but when I sat down at our dinner table, I managed to zoom in and see how all of the flies moved around us, it was like they were moving only as fast as humans, so I did what a great dragon son would do and got rid of them all.]


    ''I''ve decided Death to all of you!'' Was probably what Philip was thinking while he massacred those flies.


    Pwwwwk! Pwwk! Pwwwk!


    [The sound of my hands decapitating and slicing the body in half of all the flies, left my parents in awe. I was like a certain comic book character that was accidentally bitten by a spider and gained the super-fast reflexes of spiders.]


    [Then the worst of all, as I tried to eat the supper prepared in front of me, that is when I noticed how my sense of smell increased, I could smell the lack of sanitation of the people at the village, especially those who recently just got out of the lavatory. So, I immediately lost a little bit of my appetite.]


    "What''s the matter, do you not like the food?" [My mother worriedly asked me at the time, not even questioning my hands that were covered in blood from the mosquitoes that I was committing genocide against.]


    "N-No that''s not it, mom" [As I tried to force myself to eat the food in front of me even with that staggering smell, I didn''t even notice the blood in my hands back then, truly the sanitation back then was at its worst.]


    [Also, the increased sensitivity of my sense of touch in combination with my sense of sight was something that I noticed last; it was tricky detecting it since I was able to adapt to it unconsciously. But I was able to detect the temperatures and heat signatures of both objects and people from a limited distance.]


    ***


    [It took me a couple of weeks to completely adjust to my new senses, and during that time period I became a klutz, who can barely even get out of bed and walk straight, just thinking about it embarrasses me to this day.]


    [But what made me broke out of that embarrassing phase was, when I realized that every time, I would focus on something like at that time when I killed the flies at the dinner table, my brain would adopt to my other senses and recognize them as something necessary to complete the task at hand.]


    [So, that was when I realized that, in the moment, the answer to what I needed the most to adjust, was harmony. I needed to maintain an equilibrium between my body, mind and senses, ergo I practiced by shutting off my senses one by one through meditating, to maintain better control of the three.]


    ...


    [And finally, when I managed to regain full coordination of my body, when I reached the harmony that I was trying to achieve-I thought to myself] ''I feel light like there were restrictions that have been lifted off of my body, like some part of me had been corrected.''


    [And I couldn''t help but just say] "Throughout the heavens and earths, I alone am the honored one."


    [As I then ran like the wind and beaten the other kids at the simple game of race, at that time, I felt like I was truly king, no one could beat no matter what they did.]


    [However, most importantly of all, the thing that I left out for last part, was the fact that-


    I was finally able to use magic...]


    [In a basic sense, I can use every basic magical element known to humans, ranging from fire-water-wind-and earth-Even those rare ones like lightning-nature-enhancement-and healing magic etc...]


    [There are even those that are not even known by humans that I could use-But the only drawback is the amount of magic that I can even manifest during this time was so miniscule that I can only control a drop of water or a spark of lightning and fire.]


    However, at that time the younger Philip were definitely not on the same wavelength as the future Philip, so when the younger version of Philip came to a realization, when he had already tried using every element that he could currently muster, he thought that ''B-But I am only just five-years-old, my mana will increase in time-


    Right?!!!''


    ...

 First Duel

    Time flowed, like a waterfall that keeps on streaming, it is endless, where at times a single lifetime is not enough to see even one cycle of it...


    However, an exception to that was beginning to sprout, as besides the river of time was a sapling with stakes carefully placed all around it, with the hope that it may grow into a beautiful and upright tree.


    It was childhood filled with innocence, where at the time all those kids who were born in the same generation as Philip would only be fussing about magic, after all, among them, who wouldn''t be fascinated? to the kids this was a time of discovery, a measurement and at the same time a competition of their magical affinities and talents, to see what their future holds and to establish the hierarchy from the get-go.


    As it happens, it is also around this time when the other kids teased Philip about his unusual looks, and the fact that he had an almost endless magical affinity but with so miniscule mana to the point that it was just plain and utterly useless, there was literally no point in having that much affinity.


    But of course, Philip is not one to just take their insults lying down, he was a bold and calculative kid that only feared his parent''s wrath, plus with the strength and intellect to back his personality.


    Still, even with that, Philip had to put them back in their place where they belonged multiple times just for them to learn their lesson-


    "Oyy, Philip you red-eyed freak, we''ve come here to duel with you" As the three little brats approached Philip with a smug look on their faces.


    ''Hehehe, you''ve always beaten as at racing and wrestling, but this time it''ll be different, there''s three of us now.'' The first brat thought.


    ''Kukuku I''ve heard that he hasn''t been able to develop his magic talent, and he''s been struggling to even cough up not even an ounce of mana, there''s no way we''ll lose.'' The second brat thought.


    And finally, the last brat who seemed to be their leader thought, ''Hmph! It''s finally time to put him in his place, though he beat us up mercilessly when we were younger and just thinking about it still gives me shivers-We''re different now! he had already fell behind and with my magic talent I can surely beat him!''


    Philip then closed the book that he was reading, stood up, looked at them with serious eyes, and nonchalantly asked, "Alright, but what do I gain from accepting?"


    The brats felt scared by his intimidating aura and took a step back for a second, probably thinking something along the lines of "Impossible! Does he still have something up his sleeve?"


    The trauma from losing horribly to Philip without him even trying resurfaced, that''s just how horribly he beat them.


    But at this point they had already resolved themselves-


    So, they swallowed their own saliva and replied to Philip with, "T-Then let''s make a bet, whoever loses has to follow what the winner says for a week."


    But then Philip had a thought and involuntarily smirked because of it, he then quickly wiped off the smirk off of his face and then resumed to speaking in an arrogant tone, as if he was still very much full of himself and that had no idea what he was getting himself into, "Hoh? What an interesting proposition, then why don''t we make it inviolable? let''s end this rivalry once and for all, how about it?"


    Although with a bit of hesitation the brats agreed-


    "A-Alright, y-you''re on!"


    Not knowing of the future that awaits them under Philip''s commands...


    Now, to begin the story on how Philip''s first duel went, well firstly, because they were still inexperienced, there was only one thing that came to mind when holding an official magic duel, it was the rules of the magic duel that they saw the adults perform, that was that they had to at least put a distance of twenty meters between them before duking it out.


    So, as if they''ve come to an unspoken agreement, imitating the actions of the adults, they''ve all turned their backs on each other and walked like gallant sportsmen''s-


    Tap! Tap! Tap!


    With the brats thinking that they''ve finally become like the adults and that they were so cool...


    "I''ll be the one starting the countdown, I''ll count from one to three¡ªLet''s begin!" The leader of the brats said, trying to gain a competitive advantage over Philip.


    "Wait! Before we start, why don''t you all just come together at me" Philip said, continuing his provocation, just as he had planned.


    "Y-You!" The leader of the brat felt infuriated, seeing as Philip was still looking down at them.


    However, after calming down the leader of the brats agreed because he thought that ''Hehehe, your arrogance will be your undoing"


    "F-Fine..." The leader of the brats said, pretending to be hesitant and thinking that he was the first one to put on an act, and that he had come up with a brilliant plan.


    The leader of the brats completely full of himself, started the countdown without hesitation-


    "1!"


    "2!!"


    "3!!!"


    Immediately the three brats picked the elemental affinity that they are most comfortable with and started chanting the strongest magical spell they are capable of.


    But this was already within Philip''s expectation, before they could even utter a single word, Philip punched their leader directly on his face and bitched slapped the remaining two.


    Pow! Pow! Kapow!Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    The force of Philip''s attack was enough to send all three of them flying-


    "W-What are you doing?! Purely physical attacks are against the rules! Yo-You''ve lost!!!" The leader of the brats claimed while still bleeding from his nose.


    Philip with a stone-cold expression, trying to act innocent replied with, "No, I used lightning magic combined with my physical attack, weren''t you guys able to catch it?"


    The other two brats then started to recall their memories-


    As if time had frozen down, they returned to the moment right as they got hit. Their blinks moved ever so slowly, but right as they were about to close their eyes as an instinctive reaction, there was indeed a tiny yellow magic circle that emitted a miniscule lightning spark, which hit their faces right alongside with the slap.


    "C-Come to think of it? I did saw something like a spark before I got hit"


    "Now that I think about it, you''re right"


    "See? even your friends confirmed i-" Philip retorted smugly.


    But before Philip could even finish his sentence, the leader of the brats in an angry tone said, "Shut up! are you two idiots?!!"


    The leader of the brats then further exclaimed that, "T-Then what about your attack on mine, can you prove that your attack wasn''t purely physical?"


    "Well, I punched you so you might have just missed it since I closed my hands." Philip smiled as if the argument was going to the direction that he wanted, as if everything was going according to his plan.


    "..." The leader of the brats overwhelmed by Philip''s tone of voice and logic wasn''t able to think of any rebuttal at the moment.


    Then for the final nail in the coffin, Philip further supported his logic with, "Well, if you want to argue technicalities, none of you even stated that this duel was a magic duel, you''ve all just assumed that this was a magic duel.


    "Still! I can''t accept it! I can''t accept the results of this duel!!" The leader of the brats exclaimed.


    "let''s fight another round, I don''t care whether it''s a duel a magic duel or whatever type of duel!! As long as there are no more tricks, and you fight fair!" The leader of the brats complained, as there was just too much on the line.


    Philip to not give away that he orchestrated everything leading up to this very moment, that this was all part of his plan, spoke in a friendly but competitive manner, as if he had gained a newfound respect for the other bratty kids, "Fine, but no matter what the result of this duel is, you''re gonna have to accept it."


    ...


    "Then, to give you guys more handicap, I''m gonna double the distance between us" As Philip hid his dubious smile, knowing that he had already won.


    "Since you''ve been so kind to us by giving us a handicap, I''m gonna let you start the countdown." The leader of the brats smiled at him, feeling proud of himself, for what he had just done, for putting down all of the trickery and now only fighting fair and square from this point forward.


    Philip who could almost read the leader of the brats line of thoughts by looking at his expressions, couldn''t help himself but to think that, ''Honestly, what a simple-minded fool''


    "1!"


    The leader of the brats started instructing his subordinates, "Both of you! stop him from coming near us!"


    "H-How!?"


    "H-How!?"


    Both of the subordinates said synchronously, because that feat was impossible to begin with, seeing the results of the previous round.


    "I don''t care! Just use lower tiered spells, like those first-tier spells to distract him-Just stop him at any costs!!" The leader of the brats said instantly, explaining his commands further-


    "2..."


    "I''ll be the one casting the strongest spell" The leader of the brats said his final instruction, confident that he could win this-


    "3!!"


    Brown and light blue magic circles with letters started to manifest in the right hand of both of the subordinate brats, meanwhile their leader at the back also started to gather dark blue letters forming a bigger magic circle relative to the other two, albeit slower.


    On the other hand, Philip almost in no time covered half of the distance between them, but the two brats were already ready to cast-


    "Icicle Spear!" The kid with the light blue magic circle shouted and a single spear made of ice appeared to precisely hit Philip.


    Swoosh!


    It looked like the icicle spear was fast enough to pose a threat to Philip, so he jumped over it.


    However, the other brat with the brown colored magic circle saved his spell for this very moment-


    "Earth wall!" and with that a sturdy wall made of clay in front of Philip emerged from the ground before he could even land from his jump.


    But Philip moved smoothly like an acrobat and used his arms to propel himself upwards on the earth wall in front of him to get over it.


    Hap!


    Swooosh!


    The wall, which was supposed to stop Philip''s momentum, instead became a helpful obstacle that served to help lunge himself forward and even close the distance on the two brats that already casted their spells.


    Now that move surprised them-


    ''W-What the hell'' The two subordinates both thought at the same time.


    However, amidst of it all, the two of them didn''t panic and immediately abandoned casting their spells on their right hand, but instead, just ran towards Philip to stop him by using their bodies in any way possible, just to gain a bit of time-


    "You''re not getting close on our boss!"


    "Stop!"


    Meanwhile, in the perspective of the leader of the brats, as he saw that both of his subordinates abandoned casting spells and as a desperate attempt they just used their bodies to catch Philip, he hurriedly finished his spell, because he thought that he was surely never getting another chance like this and that this would be the perfect timing to cast it while Philip was distracted and busy dealing with the two-


    "Waterball¡ªBarrage!" The leader of the brat screamed, and a flurry of water balls in different directions came out of his magic circle aiming to hit Philip.


    However, right as they were about to grab hold of Philip using their left hand, he vanished-


    "Huh? Where did he go?" All of the brats thought.


    He then instantly reappeared behind the leader of the brats like he had always been a part of his shadow all along, and maybe it was just a part of the brats imagination, but Philip at that time looked as if he had somehow gained eyes and a mouth of a devil, almost as if he was actually threatening to kill all of them-


    "Nothing personal kids" Philip whispered to all of the brats.


    ''I-I messed up'' the leader of the brats thought, before absolutely being pummeled to the ground by Philip-


    "Guh!"


    "Guh!"


    "Guh!"


    ...


    In the end, the only explanation on how such a thing could happen was that Philip was probably holding back since earlier and still wasn''t at his top speed, it only looked like as if Philip teleported in the eyes of the brats, but it was just him closing the gap between them-


    "From now on, your names will be Underling Number One, Underling Number Two, and Underling Number Three, keep in mind that your rankings may change depending on your usefulness." Philip said, declaring his victory while he was stepping on the back of the leader of the brats.


    "Y-Yes Sir!"


    "Y-Yes Sir!"


    "I''ve got a name you know, Tony!" The leader of the brats complained.


    "Oh! Should I step harder? or Should I just call you Brat Number One!" Philip said in an irritated tone.


    "Y-Yes Sir! I''ve understood sir!" The leader of the brats hurriedly said, just so everything would be over.


    But even after saying all that, the leader of the brats still thought that ''This is bad, I''m sure the surveyor wouldn''t pick to recommend me now if he ever hears of my lose.''


    From then on, the brats respected Philip as their leader since their feud ended in a somewhat acceptable conclusion, they''ve all thought that the battle was close and that they still had a slight hope of winning in the near future.


    But maybe this was also all part of Philip''s plan from the start, holding back his strength to completely crush their hope and gain something more from them.


    If so, what a smart and cunning kid Philip is...


    [Honestly, even if the kids sinned, I can''t blame those kids for acting that way at the time, but someone needed to straighten them out, but I also can''t say that it wasn''t due to my pride at the time, that I chose to do such things.]


    [However, this is the part of their life is where the ember of their youth begins to ignite, where they can still be hopeful to achieve great things, but whether that flame serves to ignite the passion of the next generations that will come after them, or serves to burn them and those around them, will all be up to what choice they will make moving forward.]

 Its Actually a Standoff (1)

    [After my duel with the three brats, what followed were uneventful years, only that as our generation grew older, we started to assuming the roles of adults, but if there was one thing that was worth mentioning was the fact that two rival factions among our peers formed and somehow, I became the leader of one.]


    [But I wasn''t interested none the least, even to the leader of the other faction at the time, I didn''t even know who she was at the time, if I only I was able to see the future-No what am I even talking about, even if I was able to go back I probably would not be able to approach her, anyways the sole reason why I accepted the role of the leader was because I only cared about the upside of having someone whom I can boss around at my beck and call, however that would prove to be a shortsighted mistake as it actually came to bite me in the back later-


    "B-Boss! Please help us." [The trio cried while kneeling in front of me.]


    "What trouble did you guys cause now? Huh?!" [I replied tired of their usual bullshits.]


    "Shut up Tony! You know what you did!" [The bratty girl shouted as she slowly walked towards our territory-now that I''m remembering it, we were pretty lame, aren''t we? talking about territories and stuff and declaring it as if it really was our own...]


    "You guys can''t even handle cleaning your own mess? Why should I help you troublemakers?" [I asked clearly, confused with the situation at hand.]


    "I knew you would get in the way Philip! That''s why I called our leader Ada!" [That bratty girl reaffirmed herself, thinking that it was wise for her to do so.]


    ''H-Hey don''t just instantly include me in this, I didn''t even remotely say anything that could make you think that. Seriously?! just how did you come to that conclusion that I would help them?!!'' [Was what I probably thought to myself at the time, bewildered by that woman''s way of formulating thoughts.]


    "Hey, so you were the one they call Philip! Nice to meet you, I''m the leader of the other faction HAHAHA!" [As the rowdy red-haired girl greeted me.]


    ''Finally, someone I can easily communicate with'' [I thought to myself happily as we shook hands.]


    "Honestly I don''t care whatever you did, or your lackeys did or who''s at fault. I just wanted to fight you to see who''s stronger!" [The girl said to me in a cheery tone while still shaking my hand with both of hers and even tilting her head slightly, to show how polite she is.]


    "L-Leader?!" [Heh! that one bratty girl said in a shocked tone, probably feeling betrayed by her leader''s words.]


    ''Another troublemaker!!'' [I thought to myself, as that was honestly my first impression of the rowdy girl.]


    "Then why didn''t you just challenge me back then? Why now?" [I asked curiously.]


    "Well, I needed justification to challenge you, because I just felt bad just challenging you out of nowhere." [The rowdy girl said proudly.]


    "W-What?!! You seriously don''t see anything wrong with that line of thinking?!!!"


    [HAHAHA! I was bewildered, perplexed, befuddled even, by how the rowdy girl''s brain worked.]


    ***


    On a few hours before it reached midday, where the wind blows from east to west, right in the edge of the town, where the land transitions from habituated to the territory devoid of any humans, all of the pre-teens who were members of both the factions gathered to hold a bout.


    The news of this standoff had already spread and reached the ears of everyone around town. However, although most of the adults were curious on who will win, it was just too much of a hassle for them to watch as they were in the middle of their jobs, so they just went about their days. But there were also some adults who decided to bet, so they had to attend to confirm the results of this little charade.


    Which coincidentally, this was also around the time when the surveyor was staying at their village, so of course he was curious too, and he decided to attend to gather information on the kids.


    ...


    The rules of this bout were simple,


    Number one, there must be an equal amount of representatives/fighter on both sides,


    Number two, each round both of the teams must send a representative, and whoever wins in their duel will receive the right to decide whether they want to continue fighting or to concede the right to enter the next match to their succeeding representative,


    Lastly, number three and also the final rule, whichever team has the one last representative standing wins the bout.


    ...


    Fifteen members of each faction stepped forward, like they were heroes that have assembled to fight the villains, which from their perspectives were the other faction, and although the remaining kids would''ve liked to participate, but sadly they can''t even conjure a first-tier magic spell, or if they could, they would only be able to use one spell at best, so instead, to avoid the potential embarrassment from joining and even being bullied, they just opted not to join.


    Philip then gave his instructions to the trio-


    "Then, go ahead and let loose underling number one, number two, and number three. I''m a bit irritated since you guys dragged me into this mess and cost me my reading time, so, I''ll just stay at the tree branch over there, make sure that you guys make it interesting so that I don''t fall asleep." As Philip looked around the canopy of trees which all similarly had a slightly red color, and with the fibers of their barks being indistinguishable to an oversized veiny root, identical to the coast redwood trees.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Then without moments pause, Philip chose the smallest tree around which stood at about a hundred meters tall, and jumped once to be able reach one of its top branches, thus gaining a better view of the whole field-


    "I''ve got a name you know!! TONY- It''s T.O.N.Y." As the leader of the brats exclaimed, trying to squeeze himself for at least the side character position in the novel.


    Underling number three was the first to enter the round, he has a generic black hairstyle and face, similar to the side characters you would often see drawn on action comic books.


    In fact, if you would try to draw and depict him, it would be much better if you would only draw his hair and his body, but without his facial structures, that''s just how bland his looks are.


    However, it might also be possible that he is secretly the main character and was actually just disguising himself as a side character, since those types of stories have been trending as of late¡ªBut, sadly he is just not up to the task, as there is a reason why he is called underling number three from their rankings, because he is just a tiny bit weaker compared to underling number two.


    [Damn! narrator what kind of beef do you have with underling number three?!] (Philip commented on the narrator''s savage narration.)


    What are you talking about? I only speak the truth. (The original narrator retorted the protagonist''s words)


    Underling number three then pretended to walk with a determined gait, because somehow, he felt like he was being insulted somewhere, which also kind of affected his confidence.


    ''Is someone from the other faction making fun of me? Just so they wait! I''ll show them!!'' Underling number three thought to himself, as sweat started pouring from his forehead.


    They then stopped walking after they reached a certain distance, to where both of them are comfortable with fighting on.


    Then to make sure that the duel was fair one of the adults started the countdown for them-


    "3!"


    "2!"


    "1!


    "Go!!!"


    ''He Hehe! I''ll win this and win the heart of our leader; it''s time for me to show my brilliance and prove that I''m worthy her'' The opponent of underling number three thought.


    The ambitious opponent of Underling Number Three then began chanting his strongest spell just like how the inexperienced trio brats did back then, revealing their trump card along with it their level of strength, a common mistake that amateur mages make.


    However, since underling number three had sparred with Philip so many times to the point that he was sick of it, he was already past that. In fact, he might''ve already gone and beyond that phase-


    So, in the eyes of underling number three, this guy was just too predictable.


    Whoosh!


    Without even an ounce of hesitation, Underling Number Three rushed towards his opponent, still casting his magic spell, which seemed to be a second-tier water spell. Furthermore, he didn''t even hesitate to use his magical element ice, not to form a magic spell but to help increase his mobility while running.


    Crackle! Crackle!


    This definitely surprised underling number three''s opponent and even the audience around, because this was such an unorthodox way of fighting from such a distance, thus both his opponent and the audience all thought that if he wanted to battle like this, he should''ve just stopped from walking and shouldn''t have increased their distance by this much.


    Because now, he will pay the price since it seems that his opponent was almost done casting his spell-


    "Waterball Barrage-x2" Sixteen rotating water balls then instantly appeared and promptly moved towards underling number three in a fixed direction.


    Swirl! Swirl! Swirl!


    Swirl! Swirl!


    Swirl...


    However, right as Underling Number Three''s opponent successfully casted his spell and smiled as if he had already won, at the point where even the audience thought that the round was already over-


    Gracefully, Underling Number Three dodged the water balls by the breadth of his hair, while those he couldn''t dodge as he wasn''t fast enough, was parried by freezing them using his cold mana.


    Woosh! Woosh!


    Swoosh! Swoosh!


    Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!


    Swoosh! Swoosh!


    Crackle! Crackle!


    Because what they didn''t think about was that all of Underling Number Three''s actions could''ve been done on purpose, the deliberate increasing of his distance from his opponent to bait them into casting their strongest magic attack, because they might hesitate if the distance is shorter, and even faking how fast he could actually go by not even covering half the distance to conserve his energy and so that his opponent wouldn''t cancel their spell midway.


    Thus, leading to the position they are in now, where Underling number three was at the distance where he exactly wanted to be, he then revealed the first-tier magic spell that he had conjured right before he ran, to use either defensively or just in case, offensively-


    "Icicle Spears!" as he chanted those words, one normal sized and one small sized pointy spear made of ice appeared-


    Swish! Swish!


    Then, his opponent who couldn''t move as he was in the middle of controlling his spell, cancelled it, and in a last-ditch effort jumped sidewards, thus barely managing to dodge the bigger icicle spear.


    Swoosh!


    But wasn''t able to dodge the smaller one.


    "Kugh!" Underling Number Three''s opponent involuntary gargled as he got hit.


    "I did it! I''ve won!!" Underling Number Three shouted, showing just how proud he was at the fruits of his labor.


    "How?"


    "He can already cast a spell while moving?!"


    As all of the audience wondered in amazement and shock.


    "Interesting... But no, they were all wrong, he had already casted that before he ran, he just maintained it very well, while hiding it." The surveyor muttered to himself.


    "Will you still fight in the next round? Baltazar?" The guy in the audience who now clothed himself as a referee asked.


    "Yes" Underling Number Three answered, feeling confident that he can still go for one more round.


    ...


    ''Fufufu! I''ll use a lower-tier spell first to tire him out, then once he''s exhausted, I''ll use my strongest spell to guarantee a hit. The guy that came before me was just caught by surprise by his attack that''s why he lost, but the same trick won''t work twice, now I that I know what level he''s at and that he probably hasn''t fully recovered from the last fight, I''ll definitely win this round'' Underling Number Three''s next opponent thought.


    "2!"


    "1!"


    "Go!!!"


    "Earth Mud!" "Earth Mud!"


    "Earth Mud!"


    As Underling Number Three''s opponent spammed offensive first-tier spells without rest, like there was no tomorrow-


    However, Underling Number Three used the stamina that he has been conserving and instantly zoomed in on his opponent.


    Swooooooshh!!


    So, before his opponent could''ve even cast his fifth spell, he was dealt with an uppercut right in the face and was sent flying in the air.


    "Pow!"


    "Kwoooh!" his opponent made this weird sound as his mouth was open before getting uppercut.


    "Huff! Huff!" Underling Number Three panted.


    Everyone cheered for Underling Number Three, he definitely surpassed the expectations of the crowd.


    "BAL-TA-ZAR!" "BAL-TA-ZAR!"


    "BAL-TA-ZAR!"


    ...


    "Do you still wish to continue?" The referee who was decided in the heat of the moment asked.


    "No" Underling Number Three answered, as he knew that he had reached his limit and that there was no point going for the next round where he is sure to lose.


    "Now, why don''t we cheer it up for the next guy on their team-


    This guy''s twin brother!!" As another guy from the crowd now dressed as the announcer popped up and exclaimed.


    Then all of a sudden, a new guy again from the audience appeared as a commentator, who now became partner with announcer from earlier shouted "Looks like we''re gonna be seeing both of the Baltazar''s today!"


    "Will he be able to match his brother''s performance?" The adults who had assumed the role of an announcer and commentator declared with enthusiasm.


    As Underling Number Two, started walking menacingly into his position...

 Its Actually a Standoff (2)

    "BAL-TA-ZAR! BAL-TA-ZAR!! BAL-TA-ZAR!!!"


    As Underling Number Two, started walking menacingly into his position, inside the makeshift arena created by the crowd near them, where he then started striking his signature pose to lift up the audience mood and to make an impression.


    The crowd instantly went silent...


    They were not impressed, they looked at Underling Number Two with absolute disgust and disdain, they were about to die from second-hand embarrassment for this child, they''ve just pretended that they were not cringing from the inside out.


    In the end, they''ve all retained their stoic expressions as to not sink further down the rabbit hole that this kid dug for himself, but that reaction only proved to make the moment more embarrassing for everyone.


    Anyhow, it''s a good thing that the adult who acted as a referee was quick witted and broke the awkward silence by just starting the round-


    "3!"


    "2!"


    "1!"


    However, in spite of what just happened, as soon as the round started, everyone''s expectation towards Underling Number Two was still high, all of them anticipated on what he will do now that their opponent knows their strategy-


    What kind of tricks will he show this time around? Will he be able to match his twin brother''s performance? and most importantly of all, will he be able to redeem himself from what he just did earlier Those were the thoughts that ran rampant on everyone''s mind.


    "GO!!!"


    "Fire Ball! Fire Ball-Fire Blast!!" Underling Number Two''s opponent chanted-


    Yet, despite his opponent''s quick reaction, it was not even a question of whether he or his opponent will be the first to be able to land a successful magic spell, because even though his opponent''s long ranged attacks connected really well as it had the intention of anticipating his next moves, he dodged everything fluidly, It didn''t even matter how precise his opponent is, as compared to fighting with Philip, this was nothing but child''s play.


    Then after closing the gap, as Underling Number Two was about to sucker punch the guy-


    "N-Nani?!" As his opponent said his final words in shock before pathetically losing, because his opponent took pride in his precision and was a hundred percent sure that his attacks wouldn''t miss even if the wicks of flame covered his vision-


    "Pow!"


    ...


    After Underling Number Two''s first round was over and he was declared the victor, he then acted just like every childish sibling did and of course without hesitation continued on, as to not get outdone by his inferior twin brother in front of the eyes of many-


    "2!"


    "1!"


    "GO!!!"


    Underling Number Two''s next round wasn''t even a question, he only used his stamina in the first round, so in the second round he let loose and used his magical element earth.


    "Lightning Spark! Lightning Spark! Lightning Spark!!" As Underling Number Two''s second opponent instantly chanted, doing the same strategy as his first opponent of throwing easy to cast first tier spells as much as possible.


    But of course, the second opponent that he faced was not a fool who would just repeat the same strategy aimlessly until it somehow works, what his second opponent was doing by copying the strategy of his first opponent wasn''t without purpose, because as it turns out his opponent this time around awakened the strongest attacking element, lightning, it is an element made purely for offense evidenced by the fact that it is much faster and lot more devastating if it lands compared to the fire spell earlier, even though they are of the same tier. Furthermore, it can only be used a little bit for defense later on when one advances its mastery towards it or swaps the way they gather mana.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    However, even with that information in mind, Underling Number Two''s element is mostly much more suitable for defense, so if there would be any element that is a better match up than his opponent''s lightning element, it would be his element, earth.


    Now to resume the battle-


    Tiny bolts of lightning appeared and instantly flashed into Underling Number Two''s three different vital points, it was faster and much more lethal than any of the other attacking elements that have been mentioned, still, the attack wasn''t with the intention to kill or to permanently damage Underling Number two, because it is an unwritten rule that needn''t be said since this duel is just a friendly match.


    "Earth Wall X2!! " Underling Number Two chanted, as a doubled layer brown wall appeared in front of him.


    Crackle! Crackle!! Crackle!


    The collision between the two spells, created a loud thundering sound that left everyone in awe, not just by how strong the spell Underling Number Two''s opponent casted, but also by how his spell Earth Wall was able to block it.


    Pang! Pang! Pang!


    The lightning spell then left dark spots on the wall as it then immediately collapsed.


    Crash! Crash!!


    In that blink opportune moment, both fighters were left open to any attacks, thus the fight could go in either direction-


    Promptly, both casted their spells-


    "Lightning Strike! Lightning Strike!!"


    "Earth Wall!"


    "Earth Mud!"


    However, it seemed that none of the two was willing to budge, so the fight then went into a battle of attrition-


    "Earth Wall! Earth Wall!"


    "Lightning Strike! Lighting Strike!"


    "Earth Wall...


    The battle was close, they''ve both seemed to have run out of mana, as the round was coming to an end, but when it comes to determination, Underling Number Two was definitely not lacking, couple that with the fact that he had recovered some of his stamina during this battle.


    Still, both panted, but one side was breathing harder than the other-


    Huff! Huff! Huff!


    Huff! Huff!


    "Lightning strike!"


    "Earth Wall!"


    "Light-" As his second opponent passed out in exhaustion before he could even fully cast his lightning spell.


    But there was silence, and then...


    "WOOOOAH!!!" "NICE FIGHT!!!!!"


    "WOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"


    Everyone was cheering for the two fighters, both did their best, it was a well fought battle were either side could''ve won.


    However, in the end the must still be a victor, and it was Underling Number Two, hence securing his second victory...


    All of them was now hyped up, maybe their shouting was a little bit much since there wasn''t a lot at stake, but this is what happens when such an event rarely ever happens in a remote village.


    "And now for the question, that everyone has been wondering and anticipating for-Will you continue on to the next round?" The announcer asked.In which Underling Number Two briefly answered with, "Yes."


    The crowd smiled at his response; it seemed like they''ve somewhat changed their opinion of him, they''ve gained a newfound respect for the kid.


    ..."3!"


    "2!"


    "1!"


    "GO!!!"


    During this round, Underling Number Two was exhausted both in mana and stamina, so, everyone was already expecting him to lose, and that the best that he could do was just to tire out his enemy, thus leading them to the conclusion that the strategy of Philip''s team this round was just to tire out their opponent this round so that the next representative that they would send out wouldn''t have much trouble fighting, thereby giving them an edge.


    Was what just they all thought on what Underling Number Two was actually planning on doing and why he continued on to the next round, after all by observing his past actions, it was the most easy and reasonable conclusion to come up with-


    "Wind Slash! Wind Slash!" As the third opponent finished chanting, a gust of wind then appeared that started forming like blades and then pushed forward as it sliced through the falling leaves on its way to Underling Number Two.


    However, Underling Number Two''s plot armor kicked in and was lucky enough to face the worst member of the other faction as of yet, his aim was the worst, so it didn''t even require much for him to dodge the magic spell of his third opponent.


    "Earth Pillar Take this!" As Underling Number Two pulled the last ounce of his mana and casted a slightly thinner but longer version of earth wall, which due to its instability fell right on top of his opponent-


    Crash!


    And at that moment, Underling Number Two won, and the only words that could describe what the crowd was thinking "What a Hero!"


    This was the main difference between Underling Number Two and his twin brother, because even though their talents and looks were marginally close to each other, if you would compare them, he was definitely better than him in both spirit and in will, that''s why he is "The Underling Number Two"


    Nonetheless, he still forfeited his right to fight in the next round to maintain the heroic impression that he left, because that was what he cared about the most, showing off.


    "Do you wish to continue on to the next round?"


    "No."


    ***


    Finally, it was time for Underling Number One to come out, the trio''s leader or their vice leader right now, at least.


    The crowd was still filled with excitement from the last round, so the fighters needed not to disappoint them.


    "3!"


    "2!"


    "1!"


    ...

 Its Actually a Standoff (3)

    "GO!!"


    The leader of the brats also now nicknamed as Underling Number One entered, and just from seeing him emit such a dangerous aura like that of a main character, his opponent''s nerves started getting to her, and as consequence she then ceased and calmed herself by thinking that ''Those twins fought earlier should be their strongest members, right?! There''s no way, there is someone stronger than them aside from their leader, I''ll definitely have an easy round.''


    Why''d you have to jinx it?! (The narrator narrated.)


    ''Water! in your most natural and shapeless form, begotten and come forth" Tony began chanting in an about moderately long incantation.


    ''Wait? has he thrown away his team''s strategy knowing that it''ll be ineffective?! But why does it seem like the magic circle that he''s invoking seems to be getting bigger and bigger than a second-tier spell?'' She thought as Tony looked at her with a cold and uninterested face, and before she could even finish casting her second-tier spell-


    All of a sudden, the naturally occurring elements of water in the atmosphere gathered on a single focal point and whirled all around to imitate a miniature of a rarely ever seen occurring disaster, albeit it was only one eight of its original size, a tornado appeared as Tony said the words "Water Tornado!"


    ''A tier three spell?!'' Everyone thought, they were in awe of such a spectacle, even his opponent, who couldn''t believe that such a thing is happening right now, after all the tier three spells are the highest stage in magic one can reach without climbing the tower.


    The tornado made of water moved slower than they had expected, however at this, point, it was not even a question of whether he will win or not, it was already guaranteed, because the centripetal force caused by the spell was enough to paralyze her movements as she was being sucked in, and although the tornado was a miniature, it was big enough to cover all of her escape routes, and she didn''t even thought of blocking his attack through another magic spell.


    Swish! Swish!! Whirl!


    With tears rolling on her eyes, she just accepted her defeat as she looked at what was in front of her and said, "Fuck this"


    The next two rounds went smoothly, Tony made his opponent eat tier three spells for breakfast, it became almost like a one shot and one kill scenario, were only a single magic spell casted was enough to end the entire round.


    "3!"


    "2!"


    "1!"


    "GO!"


    "Water Tornado!"


    ...


    "2!"


    "1!"


    "GO!"


    "Water Tornado!"


    ...


    Meanwhile, in the eyes of the surveyor, he was almost sure that this kid was the one he wanted to recommend to the royalties, however moments later he will soon come to realize that he judged way too early...


    In the next few rounds, Tony had gotten bored, so instead of just using only his tier three spell, so he decided to fight using fists and the secondary element that he had developed, in which they mistook his actions as him just running out of mana.


    "Go!"


    Right as the round started, Tony immediately pounced on his opponent, not giving them time to react, so right in that slip moment where his opponent casted his first-tier spells as he dodged it, he took advantage of that tiny window of opening and counterattacked using a tier-two lightning spell-


    "Water ball!"


    Swoosh!


    "Lightning Strike!" As Tony casted the spell, a thicker and longer version of lightning spark manifested to strike his opponent right on the chest.


    ...


    In the next round Tony didn''t even need to use any of his elemental magic, all he had to do was to bitch slap his opponent, just like how Philip bitch slaps him every time he acts out of line.


    It was clear that Tony was the one who benefited the most from the trio by going under Philip, because he did not just see him as his boss, he saw him as his rival and tried to overtake him, and during those times is where he exponentially grew and learned the most, and as he quickly grew, it was becoming more and more apparent that he was the type to grow in rivalry and competitiveness...


    Then as his sixth round came, both the teams became silent, the atmosphere all of a sudden became heavy, because this time one of the factions'' leaders came out, Ada, she wasn''t just about to let this lose streak of her team continue-


    Tap! Tap! Tap!


    However, her action was met with a bit of critizism on everyone''s eyes, both her team and the opposing team knew this was a bold but risky move, as she was their team''s strongest fighter, she was their ace, and if anything, this would be playing right into their opponent''s strategy, because they don''t have a good answer to anyone on their team against the other team''s leader, Philip.


    Furthermore, even if she somehow manages to make it into the final round when they have yet to pull off a win, the chances of her winning are very slim, because she''ll not be at her hundred percent.


    But from the perspective of her team members, the reason they were being quiet was because they knew how strong and talented as a mage she was, probably even stronger than she lets on, so if anyone could actually pull it off, it would be her, even so they still couldn''t help but be worried.


    They were feeling a mixture of both absolute trust in her and at the same time frightened by her decision, so they just kept quiet as to not give away anything...


    Tony, on the other hand, while keeping a stoic reaction on the outside, was smiling cheekily and were grinning ear to ear from the inside. He thought that-


    ''I''m exuding that aura, that aura of a MAIN CHARACTER! BWAHAHAHA!'' Tony internal monologuing while drunk on his own hubris.


    And finally, when the tony had finished laughing inside his own mind, he declared to himself in his own mind again that, ''I am TONY! and this is the start of my greatness! I finally took a step in the right direction. Just so you wait Philip! after I defeat Ada, you''ll be next!''


    Meanwhile, Philip who was just chilling besides the sturdy branch on top of the tree while reading a book, said in a silent but irritated voice, "Idiot." as if he already knew how this battle would go.


    Philip was able to make a good guess on what Tony is thinking just by reading his body language, because even though Philip might always look bored and disinterested with other humans, besides his adoptive parents, he actually quite like observing their behavior, especially Tony who among the humans that he encountered as of yet is the definitely the most unique, plus he is not that hard to spar with because most of the time he''ll be the one asking for it.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    This is a habit that he developed naturally, alongside with his personality, because just as how much he likes to observe himself and the changes that it accompanies as he grows, since he didn''t have anyone to teach him about his body. so he also liked to observe how others change through time and compare himself, due to how different he is among his peers, which is why at times he seems prideful and arrogant, but that''s just his curiousity speaking.


    So, in other words, Philip acting that way is just one of his methods in provoking the other person to get through to them and get to the bottom of their through nature or motives, something that he had already done to Tony multiple times including the other various methods that he had thought of and experimented on, thus, that is how he started developing great information gathering skills and a keen intuition when it comes to humans or other similar beings.


    Hence why, like an open book, Philip was able to easily read Tony and deduct what he was thinking, thereby predicting that Tony''s arrogance would become his undoing-


    "3!"


    ''2!"


    "1!"


    "GOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!"


    Without an ounce of hesitation Tony immediately lunged at his opponent-


    Whoosh!


    "Lightning Strike! Lightning Strike!" And used the magic spells that he had casted beforehand.


    But as if to show her superiority, Ada didn''t even conjure any magic spells to parry his attacks, instead she just dodged both lightning strikes by pure instinct and reflexes, but what she did after that was what left everyone dumbfounded-


    Bzzzzt! Bzzzzt!


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    After dodging both spells she immediately leaped towards Tony and casted a tier two ice spell-


    "Icicle Spears Barrage!" And a hail of ice spike angling from above, followed Tony.


    Everyone was astonished, ''just how talented is this generation of kids? How could they cast spells while moving?'' they all thought, this time, they even saw a full-blown magic spell manifesting right in front of their eyes while she was leaping, it was as clear as the skies and she even did it while jumping, which in of itself is another feat-


    "Icicle Spears Icicle Spears! Icicle Spears!"


    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!


    "Icicle Spears! Icicle Spears! Icicle Spea-


    ...


    From the the beginning of the fight up to now it seemed like the two were fighting on even ground, however, after a series of exchanges and blows, it had become clear that something weird was going on, tony was now forced to be on the defensive, because after those two lightning strikes since earlier, he had not casted anything, all he was doing was barely scraping by dodging, while Ada was the only one casting spells while moving-


    ''Is this all just a ruse, is he just tiring her out? But why does it seem like he''s the one losing his stamina first.'' One of the crowd''s bystanders thought-


    "Huff Huff" As Tony panted while moving, a clear indication that he was beginning to catch his breath...


    Then after more time had passed, it seemed like everyone''s intuition was right, that something wrong really was going on in the fight, no matter how even it looked on the surface, because in reality Tony was never given the chance to cast any of his spells, she kept on pressing him because she had already figured out his ineptitude, this is the clear difference between the two fighters, Tony can only maintain the magic spell that he casted beforehand, whereas Ada can actually cast a full-blown magic spell while moving.


    However Tony has one final card to play, but it isn''t without a downside as he can only use it if he''s able to increase the gap between him and Ada, but to understand how that one final card would be played we must first go back to the moment when Tony rushed in-


    "Lightning Charge! Lightning Strike!" Tony Casted without hesitation.


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Earlier, when Tony rushed in with a premature plan at mind as he had only manifested a few spells beforehand, turned out to be worse decision than it ought to be even though it was already a bad decision to begin with, because he did not expect that Ada to be able to cast spells while moving, thereby removing the delay from her attacks, but while he was forced to just dodge he thought of a great way to improvise and recover from this-


    "Lightning Charge! Lightning Strike!" Ada Casted pushing forward.


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    The pattern of Tony barely dodging as Ada kept on attacking continued on, Ada was getting used to it, she did not realize that she was getting accustomed on taking the initiative, so she crossed out the thought of her taking a step back, she justified by believing that she had him all figured out down to his weakness and that all she needed to do was to take advantage of it-


    "Lightning Charge! Lightning Strike!" Ada casted pressing Tony more and more.


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    As Tony twisted his ankles to dodge, he accidentally slid his foot on a stone in the ground, or at least that''s what it seemed like from Ada''s perspective, and in an unexpected manner she managed to get one of her lightning spells to hit him.


    "Lightning Charge!" As Ada casted hitting Tony and giving her peace of mind, thus causing her to relax for a moment-


    Bzzzt!


    Crackle!


    ''Finally got you'' Ada thought-


    However, right as she was about to cast her next spell to deliver her final blow, tony stopped on moving and started casting his own magic spell-


    "Lightning strike" Ada casted again without hesitation-


    "Water Ba-" Tony said, as he turned his body and placed both his hands right in front of the lightning spell that was just about to hit him-


    Because of this, right before Tony''s spell fully manifested, her lightning spell broke and cancelled the magic circle in Tony''s hands, which caused the mana surrounding it to react violently and reverse its paths, so instead of the water ball forming and firing forward, it propelled him backwards along with some of its water components-


    BOOOOM!


    The impact from the explosion was strong enough to send Tony flying with some major injuries, both from the moment of explosion and from the impact of his fall. But that didn''t stop him from getting up and smiling to pretend that he was unfazed, so that the adults who were supervising this charade let him keep on going.


    Meanwhile Ada who was able to react just in time to jump away from the explosion, only suffered some minor injuries, and despite how dangerous what Tony just did, she just ignored it and smiled back at him, so in a delighted tone she said, "What a crazy bastard HAHAHA!"


    Tony, however, was still full of himself, because this wasn''t the end of his plan and in a very cocky tone he retorted with, "YOu fOOL! YOu hAvE fALlen RIGht INto mY tRaP! MWAHAHAHA!!!" As he started casting his tier three water spell, truly a Nah I''d win moment.


    However, Ada, still unfazed with him, just answered him with, "Fine if that''s how you want to play it, I''ll play along." as she then started casting a what seems to be an ice magic spell-


    Both had a fierce look that can only be seen to those who were determined to bring their opponents down with any means necessary, the pristine letters that they were conjuring by their chanting was nothing compared to the expression that they were making right now, even though it could''ve been easily went unnoticed.


    "...Water, in your most natural and shapeless form, begotten and come forth..."


    "...Oh, ice who freezes life and anything on your tracks..."


    Now. It became a battle on who would finish first-


    "Water Tornado!"


    But of course, Tony was the first to finish casting his spell, and furthermore, as part of his plan he had casted another spell right behind it while Ada''s vision was covered- "Lightning Strike!" His idea was to allow the lightning spell to mix with the water spell and make it pack more punch.


    However, what Tony didn''t realize was while that tornado of his covered Ada''s vision from the little trick that he did, it also made him unaware of the tier of the spell that Ada was about to counter him with-


    "ICE HAMMER!" Ada shouted while Tony''s spell was in the midst of its track.


    A hammer made of ice and twice the size of Tony''s tornado spell slowly formed, its body was made of pure crystalline light blue ice, while its head was made of an ice that is similar in color to a lapis lazuli ore, but both were so refined that they can be seen through and can reflect the surrounding lights.


    CRACKLE! As it turned the entire water tornado into ice and as it fell down-


    BAAAANG! WHOOOOOOOSH! As its impact created a shockwave that froze everything around twenty meters.


    The hammer then disintegrated into nothingness and left a dent on to middle of the ground where its head had struck. Meanwhile Tony who was outside of that striking range was still completely frozen from head to toe, he was like one of those victims that were spoken in the legends when they incurred the wrath of the gods-


    "A-An overwhelming VICTORY!!!"


    "A-A fourth tier spell?!! Impossible!!"


    "WHOOOOOAAAAHHHHH" WHOAAAAAHHHH"


    "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoOOOHHHHHH"


    As the crowd became even more hyped up, meanwhile the Surveyor on the other hand started inner monologuing in his own head-


    ''There are standards that were created by using the average human as a reference, but there are those who breaks such standards even when it''s nigh impossible, and those people are leaps beyond geniuses, they are called monsters, and Ada you are definitely a monster, for you to be able to gather mana to cast fourth tier spells, when there are only so little of it in this world, Tony you were a genius but sadly you just had to face Ada, an absolute monster'' As the surveyor shaked his head concluding the duel between the two.


    "That girl, I always knew something was up with her, she is undoubtedly destined for greatness" As the guy in the audience crossed his arms smirked at her.


    There just has to be that one mysterious guy in the crowd who would say cryptid things that always seems to come true in every fantasy story-


    Meanwhile, while everyone was focused on what Ada just did, they did not notice that she slightly glanced up somewhere in the trees and looked at him intensely


    She was definitely taunting him...

 Its Actually a Standoff (4)

    As Ada absolutely wrecked Tony at the end of their battle, the following series of events could only be described as a declaration-a declaration on Philip''s team and everyone around them that this time it was now her show, because after that what seemed to be a hard fought against Tony, no one among them even came close to damaging her, while she displayed her overwhelming talent in magic-


    "Icicle barrage x2!"


    "Lightning Charge!"


    And each time her magic spells would clash with her opponents, none of them would get parried or miss, she was just that much more precise than her peers, granted that she could move while attacking-


    "Lightning Spark!"


    "Ice Wall!"


    ...


    But what made her wins even more exciting, was that every time she would fight her opponents, she would deliberately find creative ways to use her magic spells to take down her enemies, one of which was her using her physicality similar to the strategy of the trio earlier, but this time she was even more fluid and efficient with her body and mana usage, she didn''t hold nothing back when fighting them, it was as if she was making a statement, that whatever they can do, she can do better-


    "For what reason is she going this far just to prove herself? When it was very clear from the start that she was the best among their generation?" the crowd thought-


    While some of them even assumed that "Maybe she was just getting bored?"


    But that assumption couldn''t have been more far from the truth, because there was only one reason why she was doing this, and that is, she was in fact provoking Philip, because each step that she took in battle was a clear indication of a challenge, a message that can only be understood by Philip, as it was meant for him and him alone.


    After all, Ada knew that she needed to do this at least this much provocation to make him go all out, as she may or may not have gathered information about him-


    "Icicle Spears!


    "Lightning Spark!"


    ...


    Thus, the seventh round came, and a very interesting challenger entered the fight, at least for Ada.


    It was a very average looking guy with a very average talent, but behind him was both of his parents that he brought along with him, which was cheering for him for his most awaited match-


    "Go Jamie! You can do it!!"


    "We believe in you!!!"


    As both of his parents yelled as he waved back at them with a proud smile on his face.


    "Hahaha! Thank you mom! Thank you, my old man..." The average looking guy with similar looks to Underling Number Three muttered to himself.


    It was such a light-hearted moment that it uplifted the mood of everyone and made the heart of the audience flutter, however for Ada instead of it causing a positive reaction this soured her mood, which caused her face to wrinkle and show an irritated expression.


    But as if that wasn''t enough, another person from the crowd cheered for the average looking guy-


    "I-If I you win I''ll give you a kiss on the cheeks!! Go for it Jamie!!!" A girl the same age as him yelled out those words embarrassedly while she closed her eyes.


    Several veins popped out on Ada''s forehead, it was clear that she was really infuriated at what just happened, her thoughts could be summed up with ''A-A perfectly normal and loving parents?! Even his soulmate at his age?!! H-How could he?!!!''


    Just from seeing him alone It was as plain as day that the boy may not have been gifted anywhere else, but he was definitely lucky, and also my condolence.


    ''Alright, now that my mom and old man is here to support me, even Marie''s dignity is at stake, I feel like I can do anything!!!'' Jamie thought to himself with his eyes burning full of fervor, unaware of the looming danger that he was about to face-


    "3!"


    "2!"


    "1!"


    "let''s have a good match Ada" Jamie greeted her with a smile before the announcer said go.


    However, Ada didn''t even utter a single word and was just staring at him with a murderous gaze-


    "GO!!!"


    "Fireball! Fire Blast!" Jamie casted his magic spell with such passion and vigor as soon as the round started.


    Meanwhile, pitch-black aura emanated from Ada, as she blocked all of Jamie''s magic spells without any effort even though his element counters her, there was just that much difference in the quantity and quality of mana-


    "Ice Wall!" Ada casted, and a gigantic wall made of light-blue ice spawned and extinguished both the fire spells the moment it collided with it-


    Whish! Whish!


    Sizzle! Sizzle!


    For a moment this left Jamie dumbfounded, but he quickly picked himself back up and continued on attacking-


    "W-What?¡ªFireball! Fireball!" Jamie chanted, while still being flustered.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    However, Ada didn''t even bother attacking, she just kept on blocking him, as if to show him the level he is at, that he can never hope to surpass her, she wanted to crush his hopes and dreams...


    But naturally that wasn''t enough to crush the spirit of this innocent boy, he just kept on trying even when nothing worked-


    "Fireball! Fireball!! Fireball barrage!!!"


    Even when he was hit with a third-tier magical spell from Ada which ultimately led to his defeat, he just took it smiling, happy with how the fight concluded, and hoped to improve himself so that he may be able to be her match in the future-


    "Lightning Charge Barrage!"


    Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!


    Bzzzt! Bzzzt!


    Bzzzt!


    "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Jamie screamed in anguish while getting electrocuted and passing out for a brief moment.


    ...


    "I-I lost huh..." Jamie muttered to himself while laying down on the ground, sadly the power of love just wasn''t enough.


    But right before the next match started, a girl rushed towards where Jamie is-


    "mwah..."


    "B-But I lost?" Jamie said, as his eyes widened by what Marie just did but couldn''t express his genuine happiness and shock (Pun intended) as his body was deep fried, literally shocked to its bones.


    "It doesn''t matter I was planning on kissing you anyways-Silly me!" Marie replied with a cheeky smile on her face.


    Suddenly all of the crowd cheered for the couple even when her dear prince lost, this reminded the adults of their youths that they always looked back fondly at and had wished to return to, it was the moment when their love was beginning to blossom and when they had to make that one decision that led them to where they are now.


    But in the end they all just smiled as to not ruin the canon event of the two love birds; it was just such a wholesome moment...


    On the other hand, this only irritated Ada further and made the anger in her heart burn stronger, because she somehow felt like she was the one who actually lost, Jamie figuratively ignited the hidden beast inside her, so in the next rounds she no longer show any mercy and just bulldozed through them, up until she reached the fifteenth round.


    ...


    At this point everybody was already filled with anticipation on what the results of this bout will be, after all there is still some money on the line here-


    "Will she really be able to pull it off? Will she be able to win this all by herself?!" The crowd all thought to themselves.


    Meanwhile on the other side, Philip started going down from the tree that he rested on, and as he came down and walked into the crowd that the villagers had formed, he weighed the consequences of the actions that he will soon be taking-


    Firstly, if he just forfeited this match, he would surely receive a lot of backlashes from the villagers who betted on their faction, which will destroy his reputation, because he didn''t even try fighting and they might even call him a coward, this option only seems to avoid the first hurdle of exerting himself, but what follows is actually more troublesome, so he crossed out the thought in his mind-


    Secondly, would be to lose this match on purpose and to just show the bare minimum of his capabilities, which at the time seemed like the best option if he didn''t want to be involved any longer in this charade-


    But after deliberating between his options, he chose the last option, and that is to actually try and win the match, because while it may actually be more of a hassle to win, his pride wouldn''t allow him to lose, she had already provoked him enough, and he was already itching for a fight.


    A mark that at the end of the day no matter how mature Philip may act, with the irrational decision that he just made, he is still a child.


    ...


    The moment they both faced off, the sun had already reached its peak, like the skies was signifying that this is it, the deciding moment on who will come out of this duel alive, in other words "It was high noon."


    They walked like two warriors, gunning at each other''s throat, ready to have a standoff-


    "3!"


    Then as if there was a musician playing somewhere, in the far-off distance the beats of a drum could be heard-


    "2!"


    It was then followed by the echoes of a person whistling, and to fit the occasion much better, one of them just needed to drop the line, "This town ain''t big enough for the two of us."


    "1!"


    Then there were the banjoes strumming- ?????


    And when the beat dropped, as if the crows nearby could sense that death was coming, they immediately all flew-


    Flap! Flap!


    "GO!!!"


    "Hap!" WHOOOOSH! Philip jumped upwards in a speed that most eyes probably wont be able to keep up before lunging in forward, as to confuse his opponent on which direction he is going to attack, because if he just rushed in forward, his opponent would most likely be able to predict the trajectory from where he is going to attack by looking at his preemptive body movements.


    However, as if Ada instinctively knew what Philip was going to do, she instantly casted a defensive spell to block Philip''s attack-


    "Earth Wall x4"


    CRASH!!!


    ''W-What she can use the element, earth?'' Philip thought while he punched the wall midair, destroying it in the process.


    On the other hand, Ada''s prediction was right, Philip indeed attacked her head on instead of attacking her from behind, but that wasn''t the end of Philip''s attack as he promptly dissapeared again, like he was able to perform the magic spell blink-


    WHOOOOSH! And right after, he reappeared behind Ada in a flying kick stance.


    But as his foot were only a leap away from her back, she counterattacked by using the lightning spell that she had prepared right after she casted the earth spell-


    "Lightning Strike!"


    Bzzzzt!


    So, Philip who was about to get hit by the spell in his abdomen, was forced to manuever his body by rotating it in a 90 degrees angle sidewards, afterwards in that split second, seeing as though Ada can keep up with his movements, Philip became cautious with continuing his flying kick attack as she might''ve prepared another spell, so with the momentum of rotating his upper body he immediately decided to cancel his attack by twisting the joints in his foot like a spring to bounce away from her without touching any surface, only the air.


    Something that Philip had learned to do while he was playing with the trio-


    ''I-Impossible could she actually follow my movements; this was the second time already that she managed to defend against my attacks'' Philip thought, dumbfounded by what just happened.


    Philip, again altered his direction while in mid-air to bounce back at her, this time attacking her flank-


    Swoooosh!


    But the same thing happened again, right as he was about to punch her, she had already casted a defensive ice spell.


    "Ice Wall! x4" However this time, she wasn''t just about to let Philip go, because as soon as his fist punched the ice wall, she resupplied it with her own mana to make it regrow, for the purpose of getting his arm stuck right where she wanted it to be, where she then conjured another lightning spell that is more advanced-


    "Lightning Charge Barrage! x2!" It consisted of coagulated balls of lightning that exploded lightning sparks upon impact to completely paralyze the receiver''s entire body, temporarily.


    However, what she didn''t expect was that Philip was actually strong enough to destroy the entire ice wall, by just pulling his arm that was stuck-


    Crackle! Crackle! As the entire wall started to show some cracks, until finally, it wholly crashed in a span of not even a split second-


    Crack! CRASH!!


    Then as Philip got away from Ada''s creative usage of attacking spells as a combo, he was caught off guard at how good she is at first and that she was still holding back, but it matters not, as he was able to confirm the thing he needed to-


    ''That girl, she was following me with her eyes, I saw it as soon as I was about to throw a jab, although she may not be able to move as fast me, her eyes were definitely good enough to catch up with my movements, I guess it''s time to test her limits.'' Philip thought of all that in a span of milliseconds...


    So, Philip then continued relentlessly attacking her, going faster and faster each time he would strike, while Ada was forced to be on the defense to look for ways to counterattack.


    But both of them are still not going all out, they were still feeling each other out-


    ''Heh! What a fun guy!'' Ada thought to herself.


    ...

 Its Actually a Standoff (5)

    From the beginning their battle was already a baffling sight to behold, the way those youngsters fought was unlike any other, it was a kind of duel that the villagers had never witnessed before, they were really on another realm, and the spectators could only describe those youngsters as the ones who will lead the next generation, although the two were already doing it.


    Now to tell the story of how their duel went on, None of the villagers was able to follow Philip, it was as if Ada was only battling against herself, but what was more amazing is the fact that she can actually keep up with Philip''s speed, hence why the only guide that the villagers could use to even follow the fight was through Ada''s magic spells and eye movements-


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!


    "Earth Wall! Earth Wall!"


    ...


    Then as they continued exchanging blows, they reached a certain point where it favored Philip, because there more information to be gathered about Ada than him, as her abilities are much more diverse, there were more of her that can be analyzed, whereas Philip''s defensive and attacking moves are much more straightforward, he was like an open book that uses both his strength and speed to perform combos of attacks and counterattacks-


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!


    "Lightning Strike! Earth Wall!"


    But as much as Philip was getting a rough idea on what the limits of Ada are, she was also getting used to Philip''s attacking pattern, because although it may seem like Philip has no weaknesses to show, she noticed that every time Philip would alter his direction mid-air, there was that slight incontinuous movement and a loss of a bit of momentum in order to change his course direction, meaning there is a delay in the midst of transferring from one attack to another that she can take advantage of-


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    "Lightning Strike! x3"


    However, Philip was already aware of that gap within his movements, so before she could even take fully advantage of it, he started altering his direction in the midst of him following the trajectory that he altered himself to follow, so it looked like he was doing two short bursts of dashes in a rapid succession-


    Whoosh-Whoosh!


    Swoosh-Swoosh!


    Originally, he didn''t plan on pushing himself this much, but the situation called for it, so he needed to do what had to be done in order to win-


    "HUH?!!" Ada was surprised at what he just did, she thought that she was catching up to him, but now she wasn''t, so in a moment''s desperation she used her final trump cards-


    "Fire Blast! Wind Cutter!"


    "Water Wall! Lightning Strike!"


    It was double casting or conjuring two elements at the same time, and she had also revealed that she had awakened all six of the elements-


    "S-Since when have we ever heard news of someone who awakened all six elements?!"


    "What the heck? How is that girl so lucky?!"


    The crowd shouted as they were stupefied at the sudden reveal, they felt like they were side characters just living off in her world, which isn''t actually far from the truth.


    ...


    Now, as the two had revealed their trump cards, the fight was actually getting into a more serious territory, since Philip can''t actually fully control himself while pulling such a stunt, as the momentum that he keeps on gathering was steadily becoming too much, even for him-


    Whoosh-Whoosh!The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Swoosh-Swoosh!


    Meanwhile, Ada was also becoming desperate, she was using her spare mana without any reserve, and the complexity of casting two elements continuously was taking a toll in her brain.


    So, both of them have decided that for this battle to not escalate any further and become dangerous, they needed to end this fast-


    Thus, Philip with the momentum that he had gathered, opened his attack with a double kick to her upper torso, in which Ada promptly blocked with an earth spell-


    Swish! Swish!


    "Earth Wall x4"


    CRASH! CRASH!


    Crumble!


    Although she managed to block the brunt of the impact, some fragments of the earth wall that was destroyed ricocheted towards her, causing some minor bruising, but she did not stop there and did an unexpected move, which was throwing back those stones that hit her right back at Philip. Revealing that she was actually physically strong enough to throw such huge and heavy rocks fast enough to become a threat, but of course, she was sure that it wasn''t enough to distract Philip, so right after she throwed it, she quickly casted a wind spell which was then followed by a fire spell-


    "Wind Tornado! Fire Tornado!" And since both of the spells were compatible elements with each other, together they had combined to make an even stronger spell-


    Whish! Whish!


    Sizzle! Sizzle!


    The wind tornado formed first to enclose Philip, and then right after the wind tornado then sucked in the flames of the fire tornado that was casted afterwards. However, even though both the tornadoes had already combined, because both had different mana the two tornadoes retained their properties of the fire and wind, but still at the same time, on the outside it was as if the tornado spells combining fused them together completely, like matches being set ablaze.


    Whish! Whish! Whish!


    Sizzle! Sizzle!


    It was a tricky spell for Philip, he can''t jump upwards since this tornado that is made of fire was shaped weirdly, and there was no opening above it, instead it was like the bottom of the tornado was also at its top. Another thing was, the wind properties of the spell forced the air around him to rotate in a single direction, meaning he cannot dash in any other way but only in the direction where the tornado was going, because him twisting his joints wasn''t enough, as he still needed something to step on, which in this case was the air.


    But that wasn''t all, the fire properties of the tornado also worked against Philip, because the more that he runs into the same direction, the more gusts of air he gathers that only serves to add more fuel to the fire, thus further strengthening the blazing tornado.


    This had made Philip stuck in the eye of the tornado, and he was sure that he needed to get out fast, because he knew that Ada will be firing another spell that is even more fatal than this-


    Whoosh-Whoosh!


    Swoosh-Swoosh!


    On the other hand, Philip''s intuition was right, because after using those two spells as a diversion, Ada was indeed casting her strongest spell, which was from the ice element-


    "...Oh, ice who freezes life and anything on your tracks..."


    Meanwhile, Philip who was in a bit of a pickle, had decided that there was only one path forward, and that is to keep moving to gain enough speed to breakthrough the walls of the tornado.


    So, he braced himself-


    Whoosh-Whoosh!


    Swoosh-Swoosh!


    And for a moment Ada was gloating towards her nearing victory, because upon realizing that she had Philip backed in a corner and that she was just seconds away from casting her spell, she thought that there was no way that he could escape this situation that she had foresaw, it was already a surefire win for her.


    But right as Ada was just about to finish the last words of her incantation-


    "Ice Ham-No you don''t"


    Philip grabbed her from both of her wrists and pushed her down to the ground, thereby cancelling her ice spell for good-


    CRASH!!!


    Ada wasn''t even able to catch a glimpse of his body or how he even managed to come out of her spells, the only time that she was able to see him was when he already grabbed her wrist, which was at that point it was too let for her already, hence the position they were in now-


    Where Philip was in a dominant position ready to give a strike that could knock her out, while she was at the bottom, completely at his mercy.


    And with that, it was clear that Philip had won...


    Philip then changed his manner of speaking and action to insinuate that this was all just a big waste of time and to not bother him again with anything of the like, in the hopes of fooling Ada that he thoroughly crushed her and that this was his complete victory, so that she never tries to do anything funny against him in the future-


    "Are you satisfied with the conclusion of this bout?" Philip asked Ada sarcastically to insult her as he was pinning her to the ground.


    However, Ada just ignored what Philip''s words insinuated and grinned back at him-


    "Although it is faint you can''t hide that smile on your face, that means you''ve actually enjoyed our fight, didn''t you?" Ada said enthusiastically.


    Philip then blanked out and came to a sudden realization, ''She''s right, I''ve actually enjoyed going all out and fighting against her to my limits." As he then touched his mouth with his left hand, feeling whatever unconscious reaction, his face was having right now, but also to cover it up.


    However, in the end Philip just opted to remove the hand covering his mouth, as he felt like he really didn''t have any need to hide it in front of her, "So, how exactly did you manage to trick me into doing your bidding?"


    Ada then looked away from Philip while she was still pinned to ground, and hesitantly replied "Well about that..."

 Our First Meeting

    Ada then looked away from Philip while she was still pinned to ground, and hesitantly replied "Well about that..."


    But before Ada could get another word out, she and Philip locked eyes, and for a fleeting moment, everything around them seemed to slow down to a standstill, all of a sudden the atmosphere adapted to match whatever horseshit they were trying pull, the leads changed their genre from a tense action & adventure series to a cheesy romance drama, it was as if they had stepped straight into a K-drama scene¡ªthe kind where, after an awkward encounter, some sort of accident happens between the two lead, usually tumbling down a staircase together, and thus from then on forth their destinies are forever entwined, except in their case they were trying beat each other up earlier.


    And now that the stage was set for Ada to start her flashback, she began inner monologuing-


    <i>[It all started just like any other day, when one of the little sisters of the girl who likes to hang out around me was playing hide and seek with the neighbors'' kids around her age, at that time her big sister who was my self-proclaimed follower had been asked by their parents to watch over her little sister.]</i>


    ["Yeah, nope you''re not starting a backstory while we''re frozen in this position."] Philip said, before their surrounding completely turned to black, desperately trying to break out of the awkward position that he was stuck in together with Ada.


    ["I mean aren''t you the one who caused us to be stuck in this position in the first place? and don''t you enjoy pinning down such a beauty?"] As Ada spoke in a flirty tone and winked at Philip to playfully tease him, also breaking the fourth wall.


    Philip could not retort to what Ada just said, after all her logic is perfectly sound, because it really is him who caused them to be in stuck in such a position by trying to intimidate her.


    But Philip wasn''t just about to give up as he continued on trying to break free, however no matter what he did the force keeping him in place was just too much for him to handle, it was too strong ["Aaaaargh!"]


    So, Philip''s face remained frozen, smirking, which made it look like he was actually flirting with Ada, and with that he felt defeated, it was like he had stumbled upon an unskippable cutscene in a game.


    <i>[Anyways, when the kids were taking a break from all the running around, both the little sister and big sister sat down at the tree stumps right next to each other, I don''t really recall how one thing went from the other, and regardless it''s not really important, but all of a sudden they found themselves arguing on who''s stronger, the big sister, obviously, was vying for me, since she looks up to me and she wants her little sister to idolize me too in order to show her my greatness.] Ada narrated with her nose turning very pointy almost reaching the skies</i>


    <i>[But her little sister was adamant, she was a big admirer of you, Philip, she was not willing to budge no matter what. She says that she likes how brutal and merciless you are, how you only use pure strength and muscles to subdue your opponent, and she even stated that, you''re obviously a strong mage that''s just hiding his magic powers to conceal a secret identity.]</i>


    <i>"Big brother Philip is obviously stronger; he''s not even using magic but he''s already on par with big sister Ada, just imagine how much stronger he could be if he uses his magic" The little girl stated in a serious and convincing tone with her facial expression matching the way she spoke.</i>


    <i>"What?! don''t you mean his magic is just too weak that he can''t use it in an actual combat? For what reason would he have to hide his magical powers?" Her big sister retorted.</i>


    <i>"Of course-He is hiding his true identity! Haven''t you seen his red eyes, there''s got to be something behind it, I''m sure of it! He''s got to be secretly one of those monsters that roams around the village at night!!" As the little girl''s eyes twinkled with stars with her imagination running rampant.</i>


    <i>["H-How could she have known?! T-That I''ve been hiding a secret identity all this time? This little girl could she actually be a spy that was sent by the empire to keep tabs of my movements? It''s a good thing that I''ve been hiding my magic capabilities all this time, and that she misunderstood that I''m a monster, because I definitely am not, that I can assure you."] Philip said, as he nodded in agreement to what the little girl just said, riding on whatever what her imagination is spewing.</i>


    <i>[Enough of that... now to resume to my storytelling-during the conversation between the two sisters, I wasn''t actually together with them, I was by the roadside helping my grandmother set up her fruit stall, but my ears were as sharp as a knight''s sword when people talk about me so I accidentally eavesdropped.]</i>


    <i>[At the time I was already curious about you, but their conversation about who''s stronger was what drove me to the edge to find out more about you-</i>


    <i>S-So, anyways I started following you...]</i>Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    <i>["You meant, you just started stalking me?"] Philip commentated in a sarcastic tone of voice.</i>


    <i>["I-I guess? if that''s how you want to word it ahahaha..."] Ada hesitantly answered, embarrassed as she has been caught red-handed</i>


    Ada then paused and stopped explaining to Philip her story, as she began imagining about what happened next, the part of the story that she deliberately not mentioned-


    <i>[Although I have heard about Philip for a long time, because our peers had always compared both of us and they also see us as equals, but I haven''t actually seen his face during that time.]</i>


    <i>[The only thing that I know is the fact that he was not a human, but apparently from the rumors that I heard, his entire body was similar to a human, although there are some distinct features that clearly shows the difference between him and us.]</i>


    <i>[So, I sneaked into the part of the village near where he lived, with the thinking, that if he was the only resident of our village who is not of the human race, it would probably be really easy to find him, as he apparently just brazenly walks out without any disguise, because for the most part, the adults had already accepted him as one of their own, it''s just that some of the kids are the problem.]</i>


    <i>...</i>


    <i>Tap! Tap! Tap!</i>


    <i>Chatter! Chatter! #*$)(#*!)*@%&*$*$($()*)9##@#$()*%^%?A¡ü...</i>


    <i>[From there, in front of the townsfolks, I saw him, after all, who wouldn''t notice, he sticked out like a sore thumb, but despite that no one paid any mind.]</i>


    <i>''How could they?'' [I thought to myself.]</i>


    <i>[Even from afar, I could tell, if there was someone that truly deserves to be called the knight in shining armor from those fairy tales, it would be him, he had all of the noble features that were depicted in those story books that I read as a kid.]</i>


    <i>[Then as he walked by me, my heart wouldn''t calm down, it had beaten faster than any of the times I exerted myself when I fought someone-</i>


    <i>Pitter-patter! Pitter-patter!</i>


    <i>''How can someone so good looking exist? S-So handsome!'' [I thought to myself as my whole body froze...]</i>


    <i>[He didn''t even take a glance at me, but the way those ruby eyes of his captivated me was a mystery, and along with it, was that pale skin of his which contrasted that cold yet expressionless handsome face he held were all stuck in my mind.]</i>


    <i>[Even the first time that we crossed paths, it kept replaying throughout the night, it was as if it was destined to happen, I couldn''t sleep, I was infatuated to him.]</i>


    <i>[I was stuck in a daydream but after a couple more hours I snapped out of it, and as the reality started setting in, I came to a shocking realization. I realized that I never really knew how to socialize, how to start a conversation, after all everyone that followed me, everyone that looked up to me, are all either those who tried to look down on me whom I taught a lesson to, or those who naturally followed me after I built up my reputation as a leader, as a queen-</i>


    <i>Alright maybe being a queen is pushing it.]</i>


    <i>[Then there I was lying in bed thinking] ''I know I liked him, but the question is how do I get him?''</i>


    <i>[So, I followed the only way that I knew and did what I would normally do, it felt comfortable, it was how things always went.]</i>


    <i>[Step one: Challenge him to a fight]</i>


    <i>[Step two: Win and Subdue him]</i>


    <i>[Step three: Turn him into my lackey so that he will follow everything that I say]</i>


    <i>[Step four: ???]</i>


    <i>But of course, she left out and changed some parts when telling this story to Philip, she just thought up of the most logical reason on why she challenged him. She probably said something along the lines of how she caught him doing those superhuman feats even without the help of mana, and that she too became curious on who is stronger, so she couldn''t help but want to go in a full-on war with him.</i>


    <i>***</i>


    <i>["So, in the next morning I followed you to gather more information, but the first time that I did so, I was almost caught, because your senses were unusually sharp-]</i>


    <i>["You mean, you stalked me even more..."] Philip again commentated but this time in a monotonous voice.</i>


    <i>''Huh? I thought there was someone tailing me, must''ve just been the wind'' [As Philip delivered this line that even he couldn''t believe that he said that, like there was an invisible force that compelled him to do so.]</i>


    <i>[So, in the following days, I changed up my way of observing you-]</i>


    <i>[On the first day, I was just a passerby that needed to buy something in that part of town.]</i>


    <i>...</i>


    <i>[On the second day, I was helping some peddlers set up their stalls in exchange for some coins.]</i>


    <i>...</i>


    <i>[On the third day, I was now the assistant of those peddlers that I helped set up shop, and so on...]</i>


    <i>[As you can probably guess, I just blended in naturally that''s why you weren''t able to catch me.]</i>


    <i>[But the more I observed you, the more I realized how bored you were at life, you were cold, distant and aloof. You didn''t seem to actually enjoy the company of those around you, or those who were under you.]</i>


    <i>"So, in a sense I related to you..." Ada said shyly, hesitant that it might''ve been just her who felt that way.</i>


    <i>["And that is when I decided to become acquainted because I too was bored and had nothing to do, so I decided to challenge you because I wanted us to become rivals, and maybe you might see the world in a different light, if you had that someone on the same level as you, someone who can be your match."] Ada said those words proudly, and yep, she definitely did not have any other ulterior motives.</i>


    <i>[But I knew that if I challenged you outright, you would just reject me, so together I cooked up a plan with the big sister and little sister.]</i>


    <i>***</i>


    Philip started gritting his teeth, "hehehe I see, so you were all in on it..."


    "There was no fight to begin with! That girl that you said you had trouble with was the big sister. Isn''t that, right? TONY!!!" Philip said in a furious tone, but as much as he was mad at them, he was also infuriated at himself for falling for such obvious tricks.


    So, he reminded himself of this day, the day he suffered his first ever loss and to remind himself when his arrogance was getting the best of him, so that he may not repeat the same mistake.


    With tears falling in his eyes Tony screamed, "I''m SORRRRYYYYY!!!" as he ran away from Philip.


    Meanwhile. Ada was just lying there on the ground, thinking that things may not have gone according to plan, but in some way, she felt like she had gained something more important from Philip.


    ...

 Connection (1)

    [Well, after that fated, meeting happened, I did not notice it at the time, but Ada slowly entered the group of humans that I cherished...]


    [Every day, she made an effort to meet up and spar with me, and thereafter she shared food that her grandmother had prepared, with which she convinced me that the reason that she was doing this was because it''s least that she could do for troubling me, and that filling our bellies and eating nutritious food is important for our growth.]


    [Hence, that''s how we became friends, I''ve just thought of it as her goodwill, and spending time with her is not bad at all-after all, if there is someone who could be my match, it would be her. Which then changed the dynamics on how I improved, because instead of just me doing the teaching most of the time, when we duel, we were both the learner and teacher in our own right, plus the meat and the fruit that she brings along were really fresh.]


    "Hey Ada, tell your grandmother that I''m always grateful for the food" Philip said informally, as the two have gotten close enough to talk to each other that way, due to the amount of time that they''ve spent together.


    "I-I haven''t really told her anything about me sharing meals together with you! A-And I haven''t really told her about you yet." Ada replied with a troubled expression, as she gulped down the soup that she was holding.


    Philip was shocked about the news, he had assumed that her grandmother or her parents had already heard about him or had at least gained some form of knowledge about him, because they even bothered to cook his portion of the meal, but he quickly regained his composure since he genuinely enjoyed the food, and had thought that the least he could do was to thank them for it.


    "Really? that''s a shame, I''ve loved her cooking ever since day one, especially the seasonings that she adds to the meat, it''s just as if was done right to suit my taste!" As Philip smiled while chewing the chicken meat.


    Ada blushed at what Philip just said, and replied in an embarrassed tone, "A-Alright, I''ll tell my grandma when I have the time..."


    Philip felt weird about her reaction and had thought that ''Did I say something weird?''


    Honestly, what a dense lad (The narrator commentated)


    ...


    [Ada started to greet me every day, and it would''ve been fine if those greetings were normal, although there have been times when she would actually just approach me normally, but most of the time she enjoyed playing tricks on me.]


    [Because Ada loved playing this game, where she would intentionally hide her presence to catch be my surprise-hahaha... but I''d never let her pull a one over me, I''ve always been able to detect her presence before she could even approach me. Because once I''ve already gotten a hold of a scent, it would be registered in my mind forever, although now that I''m thinking about it, that sounds really weird, however I can''t really help it, my heightened sense of smell is always almost constantly active.]


    [Anyways, I can''t say that I did not enjoy it too, I''ve enjoyed teasing her, it was just really fun to see her wrack her brain, trying to figure out how I could always detect her.]


    [Sigh! I''ve never told her that I was just using my sense of smell, so she kept trying to better her disguise, not realizing that she was going about it in the wrong direction...]


    ***


    "PEEK-A-BOO!" Ada shouted, as she popped out covered in leaves while hanging from one of the tree branches.


    However, it did not cause any change in Philip''s "As always everything bores me" face, or even any slight hint of his body being surprised by her sudden appearance.


    "You know, I have already known that you were there from the beginning, right?" Philip replied in a monotonous voice, as he kept on walking to find a better spot to take his afternoon nap.


    Ada then jumped out the tree and began walking besides him, she then replied to him in a childish tone, "Bleeegh! You''re no fun!"


    Then as they were walking besides each other, Ada came up with a very interesting topic-


    "Anyways listen to this Philip! when I was on my way here, I overheard one of the adults talking about a lucky charm-apparently it was an amulet that the previous village chief left behind, it was supposed to be the thing that wards off the beasts outside of our village, but was even more amazing was that I heard that the village chief who created that amulet, was the same guy on the stone statue that was in the middle of our plaza!"


    "Alright, keep on going" Philip replied in a somewhat interested tone.


    Ada then asked Philip in an astonished tone of voice, confounded by his lack of expression on the sudden bomb of plot twist and revelations that she just said, "Don''t tell me you don''t know that guy?!"


    Philip just looked at her with the expression that can be summarized in one word, "HUH?!"


    "You know! that guy, the one our village worships and celebrates the most, the one considered to be the very hero of our town, because without him this village wouldn''t have existed, the very first and last guy to awaken barrier magic, Lord Byron!" As Ada spoke in a suspenseful tone to make her story sound more compelling to Philip.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "I-I see" Philip spoke in hesitance, as he was flabbergasted at how passionate Ada is at her storytelling.


    "Since the adults rarely talks about this and all they tell us and the outsiders was the fact that Lord Byron awakened barrier magic, so we would all assume that the reason for our village being protected to this day was also his barrier magic. We were only supposed to hear this story once we turned eighteen and only once when we decided to stay in this village for good, but even then, the village chief has got to trust you enough." As Ada suddenly turned into one of those important NPC''s so that she can reveal such a crucial piece of information that will probably be integral to the story later on.


    Ada then asked Philip in an inviting tone and as always, with a smile on her face, every time they do something dubious "So, wanna confirm the rumors with me?"


    Philip was in, but he wanted to get more details about her plan, "Then first, have you found out where the amulet is located?"


    Ada then replied in a proud voice, "Yes! I thought you would ask about this, I heard the amulet is located in the village chief''s home, right inside his secret basement..."


    After discussing her plans with Philip for about half an hour, as the two of them did not notice the time, Ada left in a hurry, still, she never forgets to wave back at Philip-


    "let''s meet up back here later at midnight!" Ada ran as fast as she could, while the sun was almost setting.


    ''Is that really true? Such an item that provides luck could not actually exist-Right?'' Philip thought to himself as Ada ran into the sunset.


    Later that night...


    Right before Philip was about to jump out from the window of his home, his conscience began surfacing as he pushed it aside earlier, he was feeling really guilty about this, because this would be the very first action that he would take, that went up against his parents'' words, and he''s even doing it secretly at that.


    But nevertheless, after walking back and forth, in consideration for Ada''s feelings whom he already agreed to go with, and as his curiosity got to the best of him-


    he still went out...


    Philip then moved about sneakily through the roofs of the houses of his neighbors to avoid those villagers who had been tasked to patrol this time. although normally if one were to plan on sneaking out, the alleyways would be a better choice, while the roofs would be a bad choice since those patrolling in different areas will all be able to see you from different angles, plus the jumping around will also make a lot of noises, instead of in the alleyways where you could only just run into them one by one.


    But it wasn''t much of a trouble for Philip, considering his physicality, because one, he was fast enough to not be caught by naked eye, and two, the fast yet silent tap of his feet on the brick surface didn''t even resonate the slightest hint of sound, even though it was one of the worst footings to travel silently on, as his feet almost never touched the ground, his airtime was just that high every time he runs.


    Tap-Tap-Tap


    In fact, Philip probably could arrive at their meeting place faster if he had tried harder, but he just ran at the pace that he was most comfortable with.


    Tap-Tap-Tap


    ...


    Till finally, under the darkness where the moonlight basks, in revel of the stars above, there she was waiting for him-


    But how could she have arrived there first? When he was absolutely certain that she was slower than him? It was something that Philip wondered upon landing from the sky-


    "Hi! Philip" Ada waved at him with a smile on her face.


    Philip then greeted her back with a stiff "Yo."


    Thus. after their rendezvous, they headed east, the direction of where the humble abode of their current village chief is, this time Philip had to go a little bit slower, as to not leave Ada behind-


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Then as they arrived at their destination, the two decided to land outside of the gate or more specifically the fences of the farmlands that the Village Chief owns, where they then easily jumped over it with ease, not even breaking a sweat-


    "Hap!"


    "Hap!"


    Whoosh!


    Swoosh!


    After sneaking through, what they saw Inside was just too grand for their measly eyes who have yet to experience the true luxuries of this world, no matter how much they''ve look at it, they couldn''t hide their amazement of the three-story mansion that the village chief owned, as every house in the village except this one are all either two story tall or just one story tall.


    But they couldn''t get distracted by just this, they needed to accomplish their goal of seeing the amulet, so both their face went from astonished to as what the new generation would call it, E-Ehem! don''t cringe from this "Locked in!" (The boomer narrator narrated.)


    ...


    As they approached the mansion, the wet muds and fertilizers surrounded them, so they had to tread very carefully as to not leave any footprints behind, because even though there was a stone path leading to the door of the mansion, it was obvious that it would be locked, which only meant one thing, they needed to get behind the house and enter through the windows, similar to how they both sneaked out their homes-


    "Then let''s open the windows" Ada said in a very quiet tone of voice.


    Ada then began using her wind mana to manipulate the air around them and to open the lock that was inside the window-


    Swish! Swish!


    Which Ada did not have much trouble with, as all the mechanism of the lock was just a metal hook and a hole in the wall, to put it simply it was an outdated design not meant to protect from magic casters-


    Flick!


    Upon unlocking the window ever so slightly, just enough so that their body could fit, the two then began crawling into the gaps to enter the house, after which they heard the loud snoring of the village chief, and from that point they were lucky that he had a normal sleep schedule and that he is not the type who likes to remain awake at night-


    "Zzzzzzz!"


    But here, came the real problem; after thoroughly searching and inspecting the entire mansion for about an hour and a half, they were not able to find anything, not even a clue, so as they were both almost at the same level of intellect, their hunch ever since they entered became more and more certain that the secret basement has got to be inside the Village Chief''s room where he was sleeping, which meant that they had to sneak inside, all the while not disturbing his sleep.


    But this is a lot harder than it looks, first, there was the fact that were no windows or even any slight gaps to pass through, only the wooden door in front of them was the way in, plus there was the fact that should they try risking it, by opening the door, there might be a trap, or worse the door might creek causing the Village Chief to wake up, and confront them, exposing their real identities in the process-


    "Zzzzzzz!"


    But they were already there, so Philip being the fastest to be able to run while he opens the door, grabbed the knob and very slowly inched it open-


    Creeeeek!


    However, even if he did open it really carefully, the wooden door still shrieked in a short and high pitch manner, and for a moment the village chiefs snoring stopped, which left both of them frozen with a shocked expression on their faces.

 Connection (2)

    <i>''S-Shit'' They both thought at the same time.</i>


    But as they were ready to skedaddle away out of there at full speed, seeing that the old man lying there peacefully was about to wake up, as he unconsciously touched his face with his right hand, and then all of sudden he opened his mouth once again and started snoring-


    "Zzzzzzzz!"


    The two then immediately proceeded to enter the room and quickly inspected it, and not even a minute had passed, both of them had found the key hidden inside one of the secret compartments of the drawers in the room.


    How were they able to find it easily? It''s simple, it''s because when Philip was rustling through one of the drawers, he was able to detect an unusual faint clanging of metals, and that''s how he was able to conclude that there was in fact a hidden compartment, which probably contained more other secrets-


    But they were in a hurry, so to even bother to check those other secrets out is just out of the question, thus no words need be spoken between Philip and Ada as they both made the rational decision of just trying to finish what they came here for-


    Swish! Swish!


    Now that the key was in the hands of Philip, that just leaves the task of finding where the entrance of the basement is located-


    In a single glance as the two looked around the room, there was nothing unusual about the floor, so they searched around more thoroughly, however they were able to find nothing. But that was until when they checked under the bed and felt the differences in the surface of the floor, which turned from a rough surface to then instantly a smooth surface, furthermore Philip sensed that this part of the floor was more humid than the other.


    So, with that information in mind, Philip quietly and carefully tapped every inch of where he felt that raspy sensation until he was able to make out a square, and in the process finding out where the hole is, after which he very smoothly inserted the key-


    Click! Clack!


    But then all of sudden the wooden trapdoor moved ever so slightly downwards-


    Swoo-


    However, this was obviously to be expected, so Ada''s hands were already prepared to stop trapdoors movement thereby preventing it from making a lot of noise, on the other hand, Philip immediately hid the key in his pocket to free his preoccupied hands which allowed him to help Ada in stabilizing entrance...


    And after they paused to gather themselves, Philip held it first to let Ada enter since he was the stronger of the two, and then Ada, from the inside, held it to then let Philip pass through without a noise. Also, I would like to remind our dear readers that this was all happening the Village Chief were sleeping in the bed above them.


    ...


    Inside, upon seeing that the mechanism also had a keyhole from there, they two tactfully closed up the trapdoor, so that in case the village chief wakes up, it will not be directly obvious to him that something was wrong.


    Then as the darkness enveloped them; to fight back against it, Ada conjured and maintained a fire spell to light up at least the radius around them to see where they were going-


    Whoosh-Sizzle! Sizzle!The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    As the two then walked forward, they were surprised to see that the interior was actually cleaner than they originally assumed, the books and certain classified documents were neatly sorted through, without a speck of dust in them, which could most likely mean that the chief have been maintaining them well over the years.


    But they didn''t have time to look through them, so instead their attention was focused on the pristine glass jar that was a bit moisty on the outside,


    "Philip-that must be it" As Ada looked to Philip with excitement, while being as tact as possible.


    Philip then smiled back at her and said with enthusiasm while also retaining his tact "You''re right that must be it."


    And without confirming it, they approached it closer to inspect it further, and just from a glance, they could already figure out and make the assumption that the jar had a mechanism that seemed to function to preserve something inside it.


    Then as they grabbed the jar carefully with both their hands, they saw that there were freshly marked creases on the side of its lid, meaning that it has been recently opened and that it was meant to be opened, because they also saw a similar bottle right next to it. But they weren''t able to read the warning that was supposed to be beside it as the old village chief, which was probably already senile or if not, probably about to reach that point forgot to place it there, which for those who are curious says: "Don''t forget to apply three times a day"


    So, based off of the information available the two assumed that they could touch whatever was inside, as they then quickly wiped off the moist outside-


    Wipe-Wipe!


    Wipe-Wipe!


    Then upon removing all the moist, what the jar revealed was a blood red six leafed clover, which was wrapped around with intricate webs of thin sheets of silver ropes to make it wearable as a necklace. The combination of the two, made it look like an ominous mystical artifact that held dark secrets, as if it was cursed by a powerful entity.


    However, the two were fearlessly curious, so Ada who was holding the jar opened it and was the first one to touch it-


    Rustle!


    But the moment her skin came into contact with the leaf, it rapidly withered-


    "H-Hey what do we do now?" Ada looked at Philip with fear in her eyes, as if she knew that it was that moment that she knew she fucked up-


    "D-Don''t ask me that, I don''t know!" Philip also panicked along with her, but inside him there was this lingering feeling, an instinct as if there was something he could do.


    So, Philip asked Ada if he could hold it too "Hey give it to me"


    "W-What are you planning to do with it?" As Ada with her hands shaking handed over the amulet to Philip.


    "Shhh! Just don''t ask questions" As Philip took it from her hands.


    Philip then gently pressed around the withered clover, and he felt a connection between it and his mana, so he poured his mana into it...


    But the plant wasn''t just satisfied with his mana, so after him pouring in more, the clover squeezed out tiny red liquids from its body.


    The red liquids then became tentacle like hands, it gave Philip a weird feeling because it was scary but at the same time cute because of its size. But that cute thought was quickly eradicated when it sliced a tiny flab of Philip''s skin and absorbed a single drop of blood from the wound it made-


    Drip!


    The plant then reacted to Philip''s blood, it was like a paper that was crumpled and was being put back to its original form, it slowly rejuvenated and was brought back from verge of death-


    Crumple! Crackle!


    ...


    Afterwards, after some time had passed, the leaf finished its resurrection and looked like as if it was good as new.


    Both of them then quickly put back everything that they touched back to where it was placed, and just sneakily went outside of the house to run as fast as they could, the adrenaline was still circling through their veins, as they burst out laughing at what they both just did-


    "HAHAHAHAHAHA"


    "HAHAHAHAHAHA"


    However, even if they revived the six leafed clover, it was still a question on whether they actually restored the clover back to its original form, as they detected the loud stomping rushing towards them from the south side forest of the village, at least from their honed senses-


    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!


    Both of them stopped laughing as they immediately went quiet, they then had an expression that could be summed up with two words "OH SHIT!"


    ...

 The Beasts Beyond the Village

    It wasn''t even a question as to how Philip managed to sense the stampede from far away, after all, from his lineage, awoken an unprecedented constitution, superior to none. On the other hand, the reason Ada was able to hear it too, was because she had already gotten to the point where she can cast fourth tier spells, in other words, the amount of mana that she can grasp has already gotten to a point where it had significantly tempered her constitution, which far surpassed the average humans in this world,


    Thus, that is how the two of them were able to detect the faint stampede of beasts even from miles away-


    THUD! THUD! THUD!


    There was no need for further deliberation, by instinct they both knew that they were the cause of this, after all how much of a coincidence could it be, that the moment they almost destroyed the amulet that was protecting their village, was the moment the beasts that never even approached their village started rushing into them, they were definitely the most likely culprits.


    However, instead of just telling the select few adults who knew about the secret of the amulet, as they were both still immature, they both first weighed down the consequences of doing so, and as if the two of them had already decided from the start, they both concluded that it was definitely not happening-


    Ada in a mournful tone of voice said "HUh? We messed up, didn''t we?" As she looked at Philip with her face looking like as if its life had been sucked out of it,


    "Yeah" Philip replied in a defeated tone of voice, as he revealed his face that had also been drained of color to Ada.


    "We definitely can''t let the adults find out" Ada said without any hint of liveliness in her voice, there was no need to be desperate anymore, that things can still be fixed, after all they don''t even have time to despair, or rather they can''t even.


    Whereas Philip just replied with another "yeah" further exclaiming the gravity of the situation that they were in.


    Because being scolded is just the beginning of it, as dragging their own families into the mess they made is another matter, and they probably wouldn''t hear the end of it from their village chief. So, it was now up to them to fix the consequences of their actions, and with that in mind they quickly headed to the direction of where the sound was coming from-


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Swoosh! Swoosh!


    At first, Ada had a lot of trouble traversing through the forest, because she never really had any experience doing so, she had only ever wandered around and fought inside the territory of their village, where the surroundings are mostly flat terrains, as her grandmother would always warn her to never cross the border of their village, which she diligently followed until now.


    Meanwhile, Philip had been climbing trees ever since he managed to regain full control of his senses again, as it was just that fun to test the limits of his body, because at the time he was just like a child that discovered new toys to play with. Because of that, he was able to fulfill one of his dreams, and that is to be able to climb the tall trees around to see the view of the world from up above, not knowing he''ll experience so much of that view that he''ll get sick of it, once he discovers that he had wings...


    Well, if there is any silver lining to it, at the start, climbing the trees for Philip was just supposed to be a way to allow him to see the view from high up, but he discovered that the weather up there was actually pretty nice, so soon it became a hobby of his. He relished the cool and at the same time warm breeze that both the air and sun produced together, it was just such a perfect environment for taking a nap-


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Swoosh! Swoosh


    Now back to Ada, who was showing great adaptability and resilience, because not even an hour had passed, and she was already able to imitate and follow Philip''s movements, and thus she didn''t to this she didn''t become much of a burden to Philip.


    Meanwhile, Philp who was at the lead couldn''t help but notice and enjoy seeing this new side of Ada, these admirable characteristics of her that shone through, amidst the trouble that they were in, as they kept on following the sounds of the footsteps that only they can hear-


    THUD! THUD! THUD!


    ...


    A couple of meters away from where the sound was coming from, the two decided to stop from going further in and just hid in the tree branches around, so that they could first focus on scouting their surroundings first using their senses.


    Their strategy was simple really, get a feel of their surroundings, let the beasts approach them first, by letting them continue on heading to the direction that they were normally going to go to anyways, for the main purpose of gaining vision of the beasts first before the beasts see them and if possible, ambush them. Because at the end of the day, they both still don''t know what type of beasts they are dealing with, and it''s better for them to not expose themselves first, as this will give away the only advantage that they could possibly have against the beasts-


    THUD! THUD! THUD!


    And without even uttering a single word to each other, they both seemed to have already agreed that this was the best course of action, so they divided and went to hide at their respective trees to cover a larger amount of area. But they didn''t go too far away from each other, so that they could easily come to aid should they ever need each other immediately.


    ...


    From a distance, Philip and Ada could already tell that the beasts were ginormous, because aside from the loud thuds that is getting stronger by the minute, they could also see the ravaged trees on the path of the unidentified beasts-


    Crash! Crash! Crash!


    The two gulped at their own saliva, steeling their nerves, knowing that whatever they were facing was just countdowns away-


    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!


    Then when the beasts decimated the final trees that stood between them-This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    THUD! THUD!


    CRASH!


    Three monstrosities similar in appearance to the domesticated bulls in their village was revealed, however they were twice as big than the already gigantic size of a normal bull, and even their facial structures seemed to have been modified, because they had four-eyes and four horns that all overlapped with each other, as if it had been forcefully placed there.


    So, after they had confirmed that the beast that they were confronting were multiple beings, instead of just one single twelve-legged colossal entity or the worst-case scenario that they thought of from hearing the stampede of multiple legs. Because it would just be stupid of them to presume the number of the beasts that they were going facing by just the sound of their footsteps rather than seeing the beast or beasts firsthand, if they had the choice.


    They instantly ambushed the beasts, after all they couldn''t miss their timing, this tiny window of opportunity to perform a preemptive attack-


    Whoosh!


    Philip who only had one mode of fighting, which is in close quarters, as he relied on both his speed and strength, leaped out of the tree and prepared to perform straight punches at the foreheads of the two bulls, meanwhile Ada had casted the strongest spell that she could conjure-


    BANG! BANG!


    "Ice Hammer!"


    Philip''s fists and the bulls'' foreheads were so tough, that the moment they collided it resonated like two heavy metals banging each other-


    CLANG! CLANG@!


    However, after the impact between the two, it sent the two bulls sliding back by certain meters and caused them to suffer from minor injuries in their heads-


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    After which, that predictable trajectory that the bulls took from sliding backwards as Philip punched them, guaranteed that the spell Ada casted would hit-


    CRASH!


    WHOOSH!


    Instantly, the moment the hammer hit the three bulls it broke and froze their entire body; however, it wouldn''t even take them seconds to break through the ice enveloping them-


    Crack! Crack!


    Then as they got out of the ice, they immediately went and try to ram Philip-


    THUD! THUD! THUD!


    THUD! THUD!


    Although Philip normally would''ve just dodged their attack, but because it was still a question if he actually took the aggro of the three bulls or if they were still heading for the village, he ultimately decided not to. So, with both hands he grabbed one of the gigantic horns of the bull that he did not punch earlier, which was also the one who was least affected from the ice hammer spell, hence why it was further at the front and took priority over the two.


    Philip then used all of his strength to push back the beast that he was holding and swung it at the two bulls that were about to ram him-


    "AAArgh!" Philip grunted as he had never exerted his muscles this much in his entire life.


    BANG! BANG!


    Philip succeeded on his plan, because although swinging the bull that he was holding on to the other two bulls that was charging at him is still too much for him, all he needed to do was to suppress the movements of the bull in front of him in order for it to shield him, causing the bull to get pierced and to take the entire ramming force of the other two bulls that were still raring to go-


    CRASH! CRASH!


    Squelch! Squelch!


    It was a friendly fire, enough to kill the trapped bull, especially since one of the horns stabbed directly at its heart.


    Then the bull screamed its final words, not even being allowed to lie down and rest as its body was caught in the horns of its own kind, "MOOOOOO!"


    ...


    With one down, the battle had become much easier, since it was now a two-on-two battle, as they both could now just focus on one beast.


    On the other hand, Ada was not just dilly dallying around, she had only delayed the firing of her spell, because she did not want to interfere with Philip''s plan of immobilizing the other two bulls, which could most likely cause the bulls to slow down and lessen the impact of their ram.


    So, immediately after the two bulls got their horns caught on the carcass of their fellow comrade, Ada casted a flurry of spells that mixed well with each other, giving time for Philip to create some distance and catch his breath.


    One bull got hit by a combination of lightning and water spell, while the other got hit with a combination wind and fire spell-


    "Water Tornado! Lightning Charge Barrage! "


    "Wind Tornado! Fire Tornado!"


    There could have not been a more opportune moment as the flurry of spells hit just as exactly where Ada wanted to, and was enough to cause some major damage to the body parts of the two bulls-


    Splash! Splash! Bzzzt! Bzzzzt!


    Swish! Swish! Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Then at the same time that the spells hit, that is also when Philip had an epiphany, he realized the mistake of his first attack by recalling what had just happened and the way the first bull that died had gotten impaled by its own. It was then when he realized the fact that the bull''s skulls, specifically their foreheads are slightly harder than the rest of their bodies.


    So, after Philip recovered some of his stamina, just as the moment Ada''s spells ended, he immediately dashed to their flanks and launched rapid kicks and punches to their guts and necks-


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Pow! Pow! Kapow!


    Interestingly enough, their horns seemed to be much more suited for swiping instead of just a frontal attack, so Philip had to be a little careful when attacking their necks, but with Ada supporting him, it was smooth cruising from there-


    Swish! Swish!


    Ada focused her magic spells on their necks, while Philip just focused his physical attacks on the more middle parts and other vital parts of their bodies, aside from the head-


    "Lightning Strike Barrage! Ice Spikes Barrage!"


    BANG! BANG! THRASH!


    ...


    It took the two of them hours, but eventually they were able to drain the bulls'' stamina and kill them, because while they knew their weakness, the bulls seemed to have a much tougher and higher durability than they had initially thought-


    THRASH!


    "Fire Spears!"


    Philip was the one to deliver the final blows, because after making a mess of their insides, two of his punches somehow was able to pierce through their guts-


    Gush! Gush


    CRASH! CRASH! As the bulls fell down and lost their lives.


    ...


    It was about dawn when they had finished, and the sun was already rising, they were lucky that no further beasts came to invade their village around this time, so they both assumed that the amulet''s effect seemed to have returned the moment that it turned daytime. Because It was the only conclusion that they were able to draw after several minutes of pondering of could''ve happened.


    With that in mind Philip and Ada immediately rushed to their respective homes to pretend that they were there from the beginning, that they had never left. They also came to an agreement, that they would meet on the afternoon to discuss their future actions-


    Philip yawned as he spoke in a drowsy tone, "ahhhh-hhaaaaaa let''s meet in the afternoon, I''m tired"


    Which then Ada replied too in a drowsy voice, "Yeah..."


    Fwhoosh! Fwhoosh!


    However, right before they went out of the forest, Ada felt an ominous presence behind her-


    ''Come to think of it, why am I going first? and why is Philip not taking the lead now? He is definitely faster than me'' As Ada took a quick glance behind her because Philip just suddenly came to her mind.


    Coincidentally as Ada looked back, Philip was also just about to grab her shoulders from behind-


    Ada was flabbergasted, she blushed not knowing how she should feel about this, "HUH?!"


    ...


    Before Philip returned back home, he first washed the blood in his hands at the nearby lake nervously, because every time that he would rinse his hands, he would look in all sorts of directions to survey his surroundings, he felt like he was a murderer trying to hide the evidence of his crimes.


    Well, I guess you could say it was actually not that far off, he really was a murderer, just not humans, but bovines.


    Then when Philip had returned home no one in his family suspected a thing that he had left, after all he had always been a sleepy head, so it wasn''t unusual for his parents to see him sleep for almost the entire day.


    However, the same thing could not be said for Ada, who was always energetic in the morning, in fact before doing her own shenanigans, she routinely helps her grandmother with her work. So, her grandmother felt that something was off about her this time-


    ''That girl, she seemed more tired than usual, but she seems happier than she was in the past, she''s even smiling in her sleep, so it''s probably nothing bad, I just hope she finds something that she genuinely enjoys before I-'' Her grandmother thought while looking at her sleep while she was snoring-


    "KHOooooN-N-K OH-HoH-n-k" Yes this how Ada snores...

 When The Night Falls

    Near the northeast outskirts of the village, where the citizens rarely roam about, as there are rarely any vital resources that could be gathered there that the humans need or if there was, there are better parts of the forests where it could be easily obtained.


    It is said that at that place the trees are the tallest, and as well as the sturdiest, even to the point where no tools or apparatus that the humans had invented so far can cut down the trees, not even the tier of magic spells that most humans had achieved in this place. Aside from that none of the trees here can bear fruits, as they had been theorized to be the one absorbing all the nutrients of the soil at that part of the forest, to the extent that only their own species can live there, no flowers, no plants, and especially no other species of trees, heck even weeds can''t survive here-


    That is why that part of the forest had been called by the natives here "The Land of the Avarice Tree"


    ...


    ''What''s taking her so long?'' Philip wondered as he walked around in circles, because this time he was the one to arrive first.


    But just as Philip was about to search for her, because he was beginning to worry about her, as it had been one hour since the time that they agreed upon-


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    "Phiiiiiiiiiiiilip! HAHAHA" There it was, that loud red-haired woman running at him with a smile that reaches from ear to ear, as she waved at him with her right hand, full of energy as usual-


    ''Sheesh that woman, where does she get all that energy from? It''s like she has infinite of it'' Philip thought with his eyes closed and a -mile on his face, not knowing that letting his guard down would prove to be fatal for him-


    As Ada then speeded up towards him without halt-


    Fwhoosh! Fwhoosh!


    But just as the worst disaster is about to happen to Philip, he opened his eyes, sensing that something was wrong-


    "Huh?"


    "HUh?!"


    "HUH?!" Philip panicked and in an instinctual reaction dodged the incoming Ada in front of him-


    And bam! with no one to catch her, Ada dove headfirst into the ground-


    CRASH!


    "W-Why didn''t you catch me?!" Ada spoke as she winced in pain.


    But Philip just replied in a cold-hearted tone, "I''m sorry I felt danger"


    "S-Seriously who do you think I am?! W-What do you think I''ll do to you?!!" Ada questioned him furiously-


    "..." Philip could not answer, so he just remained quiet-


    "See! You can''t even think of an answer!!" As Ada pointed her fingers at him.


    "T-That''s just my revenge for you being late" Philip retorted hesitantly-


    "Don''t change the topic!!!" Ada screamed.


    ...


    After a few minutes had passed, with the clashing and butting words here and there, the two eventually made up.


    They had to, they had no other option, because they both agreed that they had more important things to discuss, but who knows, that too may have just been a facade, because somehow, it as if though they had began to grow on each other.


    They then continued on with their conversation, planning strategically on what they were going to do next, which unsurprisingly enough, both of them are really good at-


    "So, what do you think Philip?" Ada asked Philip to confirm the things that they had discussed prior and to gain further insight.


    Philip started speaking in a serious tone as he expressed his opinion on the matter, "I think that even if the loss of effectiveness of the amulet is just a one-time thing, we still should not ignore the possibility of it reoccurring once in a while or just like what you said, every night, and even worse we still can''t rule out the possibility of its effectiveness wearing overtime instead of it just fixing itself overtime."


    Ada then shared her own insights on what could happen going forward, "So, basically these are the things that we had confirmed thus far based on what happened yesterday. So, if we assume the worst-case scenario, we''re gonna have to prepare thoroughly, after all the window when the village is safe might get shorter and shorter, and if we take into consideration the strength of the beasts that we just fought, we also can''t disregard the possibility of the beasts that we''ll be facing from then on forward to become more powerful, looks like we''ll need to get even stronger then."


    "Yeah, and as we have discussed we are going to be starting the "Hundred Year Plan of Breaking Traditions." Philip nodded in agreement to Ada.


    In which Ada also nodded on what Philip just said as a sign that she too also agrees, "Yeah, let''s meet later tonight, we''ll see if there are any beasts that appears then"


    ...


    Philip and Ada then placed a dummy made of similar materials to the scarecrows in their village on their respective beds before sneaking out, which looked nowhere near like them, however, it was enough to fool the eyes of the adults in their home should they ever check up on them, thus they were prepared this time, unlike the other night-


    "AHHHHHHHHH!!! I swear! I''m going to make those whoever dared to steal my scarecrows pay dearly!!" The farmer who was quiet suddenly screamed in anguish as he was having dinner with his wife.


    "Yes-Yes! make sure to finish your meal and be healthy enough to make them pay!" As the wife joined in with her husband happily, as earlier she was really worried why her husband had suddenly gone quiet, but as it turns out it was just this, so she finally had gotten peace of mind, and just thought that this whole ordeal was silly.Stolen story; please report.


    Meanwhile, on the other side of the village...


    Swoosh! Swoosh!


    Rustle! Rustle!


    Crack! Crack!


    Ada and Philip traversed the forest once again, but this time they were a bit earlier around the time when the beasts started appearing.


    So, they lied in waiting, for any traces that they could detect, for footsteps, for anything out of the ordinary-


    Tap! Tap! Tap!


    And there it was, the slight sound of footsteps at the northeast outskirts of their village, even fainter than the last beasts that they have encountered, so this time almost only Philip was able to detect it.


    The two then, without hesitation, immediately headed over the place where sound was coming from, so that they could guarantee that they can complete their jobs this time without leaving any sloppy mess-


    Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    The closer they both got, the more detailed the sounds of the footsteps became, and at the same time they could most certainly hear that when compared to the bull-esque beasts that they fought yesterday, the beasts this time is unquestionably faster and a division down in the weight class-


    Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Luckily for them, it was a smooth journey from the southern part of the forest to the northeastern part of the forest, as there were no obstacles, nor did they encounter anyone that hindered them.


    ...


    After arriving at their destined location, they immediately hid on the tree branches, with the intent to repeat the same strategy that they did before-


    Crackle! Crackle!


    This time due to the difference in the environment, the beasts could not trample on the Avarice Tress that were on their paths, so instead they just slid past on the tiny slips and cracks in between them, and from beasts'' point of view, underneath the trees, there were only darkness with slight rays of sunlight. Because the Avarice Trees dense dark green leaves overlap with each other, they were spread out in a manner that they occupied almost all part of the skies above them, in addition to that, their brown trunks were also so much thicker than the average trees to the point where they grab the very little space between them. It is like they were all just a single tree, it is most nearly impossible to differentiate them from the own-


    TAP! TAP! TAP!


    As Philip hid in the darkness, where his eyesight is unaffected, he saw two monsters that he could not describe as he had never seen anything like it.


    It was smaller in build but had horns that are very similar to the monstrous bulls that they had encountered yesterday, they were dark skinned in color and looked a bit more savage, they were very similar to a wildebeest that had adapted to make their bodies suitable for this environment.


    So, Philip with the same strategy in mind, without hesitation leaped out of the tree and ambushed the beasts using his fists-


    Whoosh!


    However, he had only managed to hit one, the other one dodged him midair using its pure reflexes-


    CLANG!


    On the other hand, the one that got hit in its back with Philip''s fist smashing downwards, suffered little to no damage at all. It was the first time after waking up in that long coma where Philip felt that something was rock solid, because as an example, he could easily smash the boulders around the mines in their village. So, it left his right fist stinging for a bit-


    ''How fast could that one be to dodge my attack?'' Philip thought as he crashed into the ground-


    CRASH!


    Meanwhile Ada casted the fastest element of magic spells, because even though Philip could see in the dark, she could not. So, she only relied on her other senses to hit her spell, like the sound that was made when Philip smashed the wildebeest on its back-


    "Lightning Strike!"


    Crackle!


    It hit her target and shocked it for a bit, on the other hand she did not bother attacking the other one with her spell, because although she could hear the slight traces that the wildebeest make when they run, they were too fast for her to catch on, only when there is a definite sound that pinpoints their location could she ever hope to hit them with her spells. Thus, she held on to the magic spells that she prepared, as to save mana and not waste them-


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Philip who now fell down on the ground took the aggro of both the Wildebeest-Esque creatures, so in response to that he ran while conserving his stamina and started bouncing off  of the sides of the tress-


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    However, it seemed like the beasts could also do the same and keep up with his speed, in fact that was how the beasts traversed this weird forest-


    Fwoosh! Fwoosh!


    Swoosh! Swoosh!


    So, in response, Philip began expending his stamina and tried to trick the beasts that was tailing him by speeding towards one of the trees, where he then bounced off the air and changed his trajectory, so that the beasts would be unable to stop themselves and hit the sturdy tree in front of them-


    Whoosh-Whoosh!


    Swoosh! Swoosh!


    But with the beasts'' agile bodies, they were easily able to turn their bodies around and also bounce off of the tree to disperse the momentum that they had built up-


    Swoosh-Swoosh!


    Swoosh-Swoosh!


    It''s a good thing that Philip outmatched them with his speed, however that wouldn''t be for long, as whether it be on purpose or not, the beasts acted as if they had some semblance of intelligence.


    Firstly, every time that Philip would slow down, the beasts would try to go into the direction of the village, as if they knew his intent of protecting it. Secondly, they also paid attention to Ada because their actions showed that they were wary of whoever attacked them from trees.


    So, this put Philip in a deadlock where he had no choice but to continue using his stamina, as the beasts alternated between the threat of attacking him or the threat of attacking the village-


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    But Philip was smart, and he used the time when he still had a lot of reserved stamina to come up with a plan, he was not just running away from them-


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    He kept on running, leading on the beasts to somewhere with a tighter space, even tighter than the one where they were at, while Ada followed them closely-


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    He then performed the same trick that he did as before, but this time the moment that the one of the beasts bounced off of the tree, he used his second dash to bounce back into the beast to grab it by the neck, where he then used his own strength and momentum to increase their speed to the point where they were unstoppable now. He basically wrestled with the Wildebeest-


    Tap! Tap! Whoosh-Whoosh!


    SWOOOOSH!


    Now, the purpose of why Philip lured them into a tighter space began showing its purpose and started coming into light, as when they had already reached their maximum speed, seconds later after Philip grabbed the beast, all he needed was to guarantee that the two of them would hit something, because the beast would surely be the first one to absorb the impact.


    With that in mind, even though Philip was hesitant at first to perform this maneuver, as the beasts was similar to him in terms of strength, because what his plan did not take into account for was, what he would do when the space gets tighter and tighter as the wildebeest continued to struggle more forcefully to shake him off while their momentum keeps on increasing-


    BANG!!!!


    WHOOOOOOOSH!!!


    Crack!


    Luckily, Philip need not to increase the strength of their collision, as it caused numerous shockwaves forceful enough to blow some of the ginormous leaves from the trees around them, which coincidentally enough, was also at the same time the neck of the beast snapped...


    The battle from then on forward was a simple game of cat and mouse, because the remaining beast fled and tried to run away from them. Of course, Philip was faster than it, so he quickly caught up and restrained it, while Ada just casted her spells.


    ...


    With the ordeal settled, the two had had confirmed two things, firstly only a certain area of the radius where the amulet is effective at night disappears, as confirmed by their two encounters.


    Secondly, going forward they will most likely be facing beasts every night, as for the strength of the beasts, it is hard to confirm yet because the bull-Esque had a much higher endurance and the wildebeest-Esque creatures was faster and tougher.


    They both seemed to be closer in strength.


    ...

 Secrets

    The worst of Ada''s and Philip''s predictions came true, thus fighting the beasts at night and sleeping throughout the morning had become a daily routine for the two, after all they had no other choice if they wanted to maintain the secrecy of the current situation without the risk endangering the populace of their village.


    In the following nights, they had encountered different types of beasts, from gigantic earthworms, a savage tiger, to a mountainous bear, and many more, that all came from all sorts of direction with the intent of breaking through them and ravaging their village.


    However, it is not even a question, that every time they fought the beasts, the duo would always come out on top, because together they were unbeatable, as they were both prodigies that symbolized the unstoppable and the immovable or the unbreakable shield and the spear that always pierces. Combined, they both created a force that were beyond logic for this world, it was as if a single person wielded both the spear and the shield.


    ***


    Few more uneventful years passed by them, and village''s new generations childhood phase ended, most of them were sixteen years old now to be exact.


    Throughout this time, both Ada and Philip had become even stronger, they''ve accumulated immeasurable experience by fighting those ferocious beasts, to the point that their past selves can''t even hold a candle to what they''ve turned into. They''ve become monsters that were nearly similar in strength, if not stronger than those considered the up-and-coming geniuses from the various intellectual species that roams about in this world.


    However, because of what Ada and Philip had been busy with doing together at night, they were also seen a lot together at day,


    ["Really? Couldn''t you have phrased it better?] (Philip commentated)


    Oh-Shut up! you two are gonna do it in the future anyways (The narrator narrated in retort to Phillip)


    E-Ehem! Ehem! As such, the rumors that there is something going on between the two of them are bound to spread, especially to the children around their age, because they both basically neglected the factions that formed around them.


    Then as that gossip spread, it eventually reached the ears of Ada''s grandmother, because of that Ada had no choice but to introduce Philip to her, as Ada is the type of child who can never go up against her grandma''s words. Although it might seem hypocritical of Ada, as she had already did just the opposite of that by sneaking out every night, but to her the situation called for it, after all nothing is absolute in this world, and again the value that she puts on her grandmother''s words never changed, as she still treats it like her own and its essence remained the same. At least that''s how she rationalized it-


    "It is very nice to finally meet you, ma''am Priscilla" Philip spoke in the most respectful tone that he could utter and kowtowed in front of the old lady.


    "It is very nice to meet you too boy, come on-stand up, there is no need for you to go that far to greet me" Ada''s grandmother smiled and accepted his greeting with open arms.


    "No, the pleasure''s all mine ma''am" Philip again spoke in a very respectful tone while still lowering his head as he stood up.


    Meanwhile Ada who was just watching the event unfold in the corner couldn''t help but think ''W-Who are you?! Are you really the Philip that I know?!!''


    Ada was dumbfounded, inwardly she was expressing a face of all of a sudden just seeing the grossest thing she could possibly imagine, she was cringing, as she was feeling creeped out by Philip''s considerate traits that just magically appeared out nowhere.


    However, as if that wasn''t all Ada''s grandmother remarked that "I''m glad that the friend of my granddaughter is such a kind boy, honestly why can''t she be more like you?"


    ''Is he a magician? or is the sun going to fall today?? OR??? is this my last day on earth?!!'' It was like Ada has been put in the situation when you first introduce your friends to your family who does the most devious and diabolical things, but all of a sudden, they do a complete a hundred and eighty degrees and start showing you sides that you have never ever seen before-This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Also, ma''am is a bit much, I''m feeling uncomfortable from it, it sounds really stiff" As Ada''s grandmother wrapped her arm around Philip''s shoulder, already acting close with him.


    "T-Then how should I address you?" Philip smiled awkwardly and replied in a surprised tone while still retaining that serious but respectful demeanor.


    Ada''s grandmother thought for a while till she replied with, "Hmmm, Grandma should be fine, how about you? what should I call you?"


    "Then Grandma, please just call me Philip" Philip spoke in a joyous tone, happy that he managed to immediately connect with the old lady.


    "I see-I see, come Philip, let''s talk things over the dining table, I know we have a lot to talk about, especially about my granddaughter." As Grandma Priscilla winked at Ada with a cheeky smile.


    The three of them then shared a lively meal together, with Ada''s anger meter reaching an all-time high because of all the teasing from her grandmother, and as if her own grandmother wasn''t enough, Philip betrayed her too to poke fun at her.


    Philip then noticed something that people wouldn''t normally notice, because he had a better sense of taste, he noticed that the meal prepared here tasted a little different than the ones that Ada brought when they were sparring. So, as it hit his senses, it also immediately hit his brain-


    Thus, in turn Philip remembered something that he forgot to do "Come to think of it, grandma I haven''t thanked you yet for the meals that you cooked for Ada and me, so as a formal sign of sincerity-Thank you very much! It was really good!"


    However, for Philip, Grandma Priscilla''s reaction couldn''t have been more surprising, at first, she smiled deviously, which she then covered her it with her hand, and then tried and brush it off by pretending that her smile was just her being genuinely happy at the compliment that she received-


    "Ohohoho! I see but that wasn''t just all me, Ada also helped me prepare that, so you can say that her cooking was just as good as mine too hahaha!" Grandma Priscilla knew exactly what was going on, as she had no memory of doing any cooking for them, and of course she didn''t want to expose her granddaughter, so she mixed the truth with a lie to redirect the credit to her granddaughter.


    Grandma Priscilla felt like a wingman or in this case a wingwoman, she hasn''t felt this way in a long time since her youth, so she felt like she was back in time, she was rejuvenated.


    Philip then responded in an uplifted tone of voice, "I-I see HAHAHA"


    Meanwhile, Ada on the corner remained quiet, this time not out of anger but of embarrassment, as her cheeks started turning red.


    Cough! Cough!


    All of a sudden Grandma Priscilla started coughing, "My bad, I think I must''ve choked down on the potatoes and meat"


    "How many times do I have to tell you Grandma? hold back on the hard foods for a little, especially the meat" Ada scolded her grandma like she was scolding a child who was being stubborn, as such, one can only think how many times such instances already happened in the past for Ada to act that way.


    ''But she never touched any of the meat and potatoes though?'' Philip thought while finishing the meal in front of him.


    ...


    Life continued on as usual, everyday Philip would come and visit Ada''s house and help her Grandma Priscilla in doing tedious tasks, like carrying the water buckets from the well, picking the fruits for her stall, and farming, especially during the times when Ada was tired from all the beasts that they subjugated, Philip would be there when she was sleeping. With this simple gesture of kindness Philip became even closer with Ada''s grandmother.


    Philip particularly liked the farming part; he found a new sense of appreciation while doing it. He liked the hard work put into cultivating it, and the bliss that he would get from the fruits of his labor when it was time to harvest them, he considered himself thoroughly rewarded.


    On the other hand, Grandma Priscilla would reciprocate this gesture of his by cooking meals for him. Oh! and she also knew how to deal with Philip, because he resembled the personality of his late husband, so she knew the type of man that he was becoming. In addition to that, Philip really enjoyed this as he can have two lunches every time he would come, one from his home and one from this very kind grandmother, and that''s how they both got along really well.


    ...


    Then as the days went by as usual, Philip became curious about something, it was something that he had always wondered about every time he would visit. And as he felt like he had become close enough to the two, it was probably the best time to ask them...


    So, one day when Ada was sleeping, and Philip was helping her grandmother tend to their garden, he gathered the courage to ask her-


    "I know that this might be insensitive of me, but may I ask you something grandma?" Philip asked as he was holding a shovel.


    "What''s the problem, why the sudden formal tone? Ask ahead Philp" Grandma Priscilla felt a bit uncomfortable with the sudden change in the atmosphere.


    "Where are Ada''s parents? A-Are they already dead?" Philip asked hesitantly.


    "Her parents sigh... To put it simply they left her" As Grandma Priscilla let out her sigh, her facial expression didn''t change much but somehow it still looked very sad.


    "I-I''m sorry for souring the mood, there''s no need to continue" Philip felt it, so he just wanted it to stop there.


    "Forget it, I guess it is time for you to know"


    ...

 A Standstill

    [It was during Ada''s birthday when that incident occurred, If I remember correctly she was turning two during that time.]


    [That day her parents or-rather my daughter Anna and her husband brought Ada to my home, they without even any slight hint of guilt, boldly announced to me that they will be preparing a surprise for Ada''s birthday, and that they don''t want their daughter finding out, so they came asking for my help.]


    "Listen, so this is what we were planning to do for her birthday this time..." Anna said quietly while whispering to grandma Priscilla, which smiled after listening to her idea.


    Meanwhile Anna''s husband gently patted their daughter''s head as a show of affection, before handing her over.


    Anna then held her mother''s hand with both of hers as a sign of respect and to flatter her, "Mama you''re the only one we can trust with this, sorry for the trouble"


    "I don''t mind it, hohoho" grandma Priscilla remarked.


    [Of course, who am I to refuse, Ada was such an adorable kid, delighted I quickly agreed with them.]


    "Bye mama! Take good care of her!" As Anna and her husband walked off into the distance while saying their goodbyes.


    [The moment I held her up high, I was happy, and throughout the day I made sure that my granddaughter was ready for her very special day.]


    [I bathed her, I combed her hair, and put on very nice clothes for her, which was the present that I was planning on gifting her anyway.]


    ''Ahh whatever, she''ll just be receiving it earlier than planned, I''ll just prepare a new gift for my cute granddaughter'' Grandma Priscilla thought while watching the miniature Ada play with the fidget spinner and the Rubik''s cube toy by her bed.


    [I then spent the rest of the day feeding Ada the biscuits that I had stored and then proceeded to the squishing of her chubby cheeks.]


    "S-Shtop it Grashma..." Mini-Ada spoke an annoyed but sweet tone of voice.


    "I''m sorry, you were just too cute to resist, I could not help myself." Grandma Priscilla was tempted to keep on going even if the mini-Ada might get furious at her for a few days.


    Because Grandma Priscilla was already imagining that Ada''s angry and pouting face might be something to look forward to seeing too, she just thought of how she wished that this moment would go on forever.


    ...


    [When it turned afternoon, I decided to check up on Ada''s parents, I was getting worried sick, because they didn''t come even when it already was already way past the time that we agreed on.]


    [So, I''ve decided, I left the house and brought Ada along with me, I didn''t want to leave her unattended.]


    [Together we traveled to the opposite side of the village where my Anna''s home was located, they just had to settle down there.]


    "Sheesh those two! who do they think they are to make an old lady like me walk this far?! Once I arrive there, I''ll be sure to give them an earful! I''ll make them pay by eating all the meals-"As Grandma Priscilla stomped on the ground and then shouted into the air of nothingness around her, but she was immediately interrupted by the feeling of a small thing poking her legs.


    "Grandma, please carry me, I''m tired" Ada spoke in a dreary tone of voice, whom she could not hear because she was being really loud.


    Grandma Priscilla could not resist the charms of her granddaughter and quickly gave her a piggyback ride.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ***


    A bubbly atmosphere enveloped the two, anticipating the surprise of a festive celebration awaiting them, but when they arrived there-


    "What?!" The tired old lady unknowingly muttered out in shock, as she frowned in disbelief.


    Ada then grabbed onto her grandmother''s shirt and worriedly said, "Gra-Grandma?"


    There was nothing, no candles, no promised birthday cake, no food, no visitors, no nothing. There was only disappointment left for both of them.


    The horse that the couple painstakingly took care of was gone, and when they hurriedly opened the door, worried for them, they were both faced with a grim reality.


    It was obvious what her daughter and her husband had done, the whole house had been ransacked clean of utensils and supplies.


    Food, water, clothing and anything that is needed to camp outside while traveling, especially all the valuables that they inherited from her, it was all gone, but there were no signs of struggle.


    Did someone from their neighbors stole from them? Impossible, no one among them was that capable of hoarding all that, while erasing their traces.


    Too early to jump to conclusions? but when they came in only two distinct footsteps can be traced outside, aside from the ones that they had left and the horse''s one leading into the forest.


    Rustle! Rustle!


    However, even if what seems to be the most likely scenario was staring them down, Grandma Priscilla still couldn''t believe it, she knew her daughter had a bit of a greedy side to her even when she was a kid, but not like this, so she rushed inside to find any evidence, anything that might say otherwise.


    Rustle! Rustle!


    Meanwhile as her grandma checked the entire house, Ada was stuck at the front door, unable to enter-


    She, with her eyes wide open stared into nothingness, frozen, Ada started remembering the unintelligible words her parents had spoken to her in the past, maybe it was just that hurtful that she unconsciously blocked it or maybe it was just her age at the time.


    Thus right then and there Ada completely understood what was going on, what her parents did to her.


    They say that the eyes are the key to the one''s heart, but with Ada''s eyes it was completely obvious what she was feeling right now.


    Rustle! Rustle! Rustle!


    Till finally it turned dark, and Grandma Priscilla gave up on searching...


    ...


    "Hey-hey let''s just go inside..." As Grandma Priscilla knelt and gently touched Ada''s face while smiling at her.


    But even if the mosquitoes bit Ada, she was still listless, unresponsive to anything that her grandmother says.


    So, Grandma Priscilla just grabbed Ada forcefully inside while hugging her, making sure that she feels her warmth, that she knows that she is still loved.


    And as it was already nighttime, they had to stay there without eating anything, there was not even a single lamp left to light, and Grandma Priscilla''s worsening eyes did not help.


    They had to move around the darkness without any glimmer of light guiding them, it would''ve been convenient if Grandma Priscilla had an affinity for fire, sadly she did not.


    ...


    When they reached the bed where the couple used to sleep, Grandma Priscilla hugged her granddaughter, whose eyes kept on staring into the distance no matter what she did.


    After a few moments later, she then gently caressed her granddaughter''s hair, making sure that she guides her to sleep before she does.


    They had no choice, even if they don''t want to, they had to stay in that damned remorseful house."That eyes of her, when we opened that door were still ingrained into my memory, every time that I would see her face, it would crush my heart.


    ...


    "I''ve always blamed myself for what happened, where was I lacking? what did I do wrong while raising her? did I not love her enough? how could she just leave behind her daughter just like that?


    Anyways Philip, it took Ada awhile to break out of that shell, the once bright and cheerful granddaughter that I once knew was gone.


    She stayed inside our home most of the time just staring out of the window, she was gloomy even when she received probably the greatest news she could ever hear.


    When all of a sudden, she was able to use magic that she did not awaken when she was a year old.


    We asked the village chief on why this happened, as he was probably the only trustworthy and knowledgeable person that I know in matters like this at the time, second to the surveyor that was not there when it happened.


    Later, I found out that Ada was just a late bloomer, I learned that kids who do not awaken their magic affinity at one year old are either very untalented or very talented.


    I heard from the village chief that these cases happens every once in a while, and the reason for Ada''s delayed awakening, was just her own body protecting her from the immense potential that she holds, that''s why she awakened at four years old instead of one.


    However, I also heard that the being very untalented is a common event than actually being a late bloomer, that''s why the knowledge about events like this is rarely known.


    Thinking back, it was probably the reason why Ada was abandoned."