by Weiqi Wang
‘Don’t say that!’ Moelmos almost cried too, but he managed to hold it back. ‘With a beautifox there, I wouldn’t have, anyway!’
‘Hal… Halgon then?’ Sophie was too weak to say a complete sentence before she passed out.
Right! What about Halgon then? Moelmos suddenly raised his head to look around. Halgon’s fighting could still be heard, but there was no sound from Halgon himself. Just when Moelmos was too busy with all the worries —
‘HOLD ON, WE ARE COMING!!!’
‘SOARAME!!! WE’RE HERE!!!’ Moelmos was perfused with joy and yelped at the top of his voice. ‘COME QUICK!!!’
‘There they are!’ In the sky, the three rescuers quickly located him, lit up by the fire. A well-prepared Fioca wasted no time in spelling his best magic — a big wave of flame was crashing down from the sky, covering everywhere around Moelmos.
‘Skyfall bolides!’ Watching the trees, grass and magimals set on fire — instantaneously upon contact with the horrific flame dropping from the sky, Moelmos could no longer hold his tears back. ‘Sophie, wake up! We don’t have to die now!’
‘Emm…’ Sophie shook herself awake, but she was still giddy from the poison. Fortunately, even with her minimum consciousness, she got to enjoy the splendid skyfall bolides dropping around them. ‘Shooting stars? They are real?’
‘Yes, they are always real!’ Moelmos said in a trembling voice. As he spoke, the darkness of the night seemed to be fading, replaced by brightness all around them. Thus the black background to the “shooting stars” gradually became white, and the heavy black smoke from all around became visible. The visual impact of the two completely different colour scheme were caved deeply into the two young hearts; with the booming, sizzling and yelping noises all over, the two were totally occupied by the spectacle, and almost forgot where they were.
That said, not everyone forgot where they were — with a cry, someone jumped out of the burning forest with his bottom on fire. Following him, a fearful white fox was also forced out of the burning woods.
‘Hooo! The Expert flame is really scary.’ Halgon rolled on the ground over and over again, and finally put it out. The beautifox stayed away from the humans, looking anxious and nervous.
‘Halg!’ Moelmos hurriedly jumped up. But by doing so he let go of Sophie, and the poor girl banged her head on the ground and passed out again. Moelmos hastened forward for a bear hug with Halgon; not until he turned around did he notice what had happened to Sophie. ‘Oh no!’
‘That was really awesome!’ Meanwhile, Soarame couldn’t help marvelling at Effith’s powerful Light spell — it was the very reason why darkness had become daylight, although it was just within a specific area and could only last a few minutes. Soarame also had witnessed the skyfall bolides both in the light and in the dark — his vision was from the other side of those “shooting stars”! This reminded him of Halgon’s experience of beastides from the other side; it must be a fabulous view there too!
‘Sophie will be fine.’ The three in the air landed in front of the three on the ground. Effith quickly checked the comatose girl and performed a healing spell. ‘We’ll take her back for further healing soon, but let’s finish this chaos first.’
Hearing that, Halgon and Soarame looked at each other, both feeling pity. They had to keep their real power to themselves, so they couldn’t fight the Expert magimals with so many watching.
‘The bufflox and all the rest are yours, but leave the fox to me please.’ Effith urged Fioca. ‘It’s not easy to find a good rival for practising mind attack.’
‘As you wish.’ Fioca walked towards the trembling magimals, which were unable to flee — he had spelled a number of firerings at bloodcurdling temperature to lock the magimals within them. Soarame and everyone else watched Fioca approach the bufflox as his first target. ‘I know you can hear me. I’ll spare your life — if you yield and serve me from now on.’
‘MOOWWLLL!’ The bufflox had been trembling out of fear, but when it heard this, anger suddenly took over. The bulky bufflox shot up and roared, punching its own chest with its front feet just like an ape. Then it landed on all fours, with the front feet scrabbling on the ground — it was ready to charge at the human before it, who dared to insult it by offering slavery!
‘BONG!’ The mad bufflox was determined to charge at Fioca, thus died from a horrible explosion to the head. A bufflox was known to possess a tough body, which is usually a big advantage, but not this time — other magimals would have died instantly from that head-shot, but this one squealed for a while first.
‘Sigh…’ Witnessing that, the boys inhaled deeply, but both Effith and Fioca seemed to be used to it. Fioca didn’t even look at the bufflox; he went to another magimal and commanded coldly. ‘Serve me, or die like that.’
‘YAAAWWWW!’ The magimal, although trembling even more badly than the bufflox, still burst into anger on hearing this. So Fioca didn’t even wait a second before he finished it and moved on. It was unbearable to watch, but the boys had to steel themselves and watch it anyway. After all, they were wizards and they must protect their people in the future — if that required ruthless actions like these, they would not have an option!
‘That’s the cost of being a proud wizard. And it’s just a part of it.’ Effith could feel the boys. ‘Years ago, I was just like you. So it will all be fine, trust me.’
Soarame listened in silence. There was one moment when he seriously began to doubt if he really wanted to be a wizard anymore. The internal disturbance took a while; fortunately, before Fioca finished all his targets, Soarame had opened his eyes and looked at the burnt-black body of the bufflox once again. This time, the boy forced his heart to be as cold as Effith’s and Fioca’s — there was a voice in his mind, laughing at him for trying to escape the cruel reality. The sooner he got used to the merciless truth, the safer the civilians behind him would be in the future.
‘Okay, it’s all yours.’ Soon enough, Fioca finished all his targets and gestured Effith to go for the beautifox. The beautifox was obviously nervous; its white fur was all standing up, and it started to yelp sharply towards the approaching wizard!
‘GEE!!!’
The incisive screaking sound forced everyone to cover their ears. At the same time, Soarame felt a pulse of dizziness that blurred his eyesight, and the beautifox just disappeared in the next blink.
‘What?’ Soarame was surprised. ‘It’s gone?’
‘Find it!’ Fioca instantly dashed towards the deeper woods. ‘Effith, see you back here in an hour if we can’t get it!’
‘Damn it!’ Effith dashed in another direction. ‘You guys must leave now! Go and join the team and be safe!’
‘Moelmos, could you take Sophie to the team?’ Watching the two disappear soon enough, Halgon hurriedly asked. ‘Soarame and I will cover your backs.’
‘No, let me cover your backs.’ Moelmos didn’t want the younger boys to risk their lives again.
‘Don’t worry, we are used to watching each other’s backs.’ Halgon urged. ‘Plus you are a better protector for Sophie, so please!’
‘Fine. Be careful!’ After a brief hesitation, Moelmos put Sophie on his back. ‘Thanks, guys. I’ll see you down there!’
‘Halg, what is it?’ After Moelmos was gone, Soarame asked in a low voice. ‘You sent him away on purpose, right?’
‘Yes, because I wanna show you something scary.’ Halgon suddenly pounced towards Soarame, with a ferocious punch aiming at his throat!
‘What!’ Soarame was frightened and tried to lean back to dodge.
‘GEEYY!!!’
A yelp sounded at once, and Soarame felt another round of dizziness that blurred his vision. Halgon’s fist swung by in front of his neck, and got something in the air — in virtually the same moment, a beautifox emerged in front of Soarame’s face, with its sharp teeth biting towards his throat — but didn’t reach it due to Halgon’s punch!
Plonk! The beautifox was punched down hard to the ground. Al
though Halgon could cast all kinds of different spells, he seemed to be passionate about punching. One of the fox’s front legs had broken, thus it was struggling and yelping in pain.
‘What the freak?!’ Soarame had fallen on to his back, with gooseflesh all over his body. ‘You saved me again? What happened?’
‘It was an illusion attack. The fox made us all think it had disappeared, but it was actually an illusion in our minds.’ Halgon stood shoulder by shoulder with Soarame, facing the trepid beautifox. ‘That desperate try was really good! It was actually an Area-of-Effect attack that affected all of us — don’t forget we are all Experts, especially Fioca and Effith!’
‘An AoE illusion attack?’ Soarame nodded with his fine hair still standing on end. ‘Damn… that was impressive!’
‘Yes. Effith seemed to be good at mind attacks, but he was fooled right in the first round.’ Halgon shook his head. ‘But thank god for that, otherwise we wouldn’t have the chance we have right now.’
‘I don’t thank god for this… it almost killed me!’ Soarame stared at the cruel magimal with beautiful fur all over its body. ‘Can’t believe it’s such an insidious one! Wait… why were you not affected, anyway?’
‘Dad gave me a magigear to protect against mind attacks.’ Halgon patted his own chest — there was a necklace inside his gown. ‘Remember Max’s hypnosis tricks? If I’d had this magigear back then, I wouldn’t have been worried that much and I probably wouldn’t have had to show my secrets… Sigh.’
‘Okay…’ Soarame puzzled a bit and tried to imagine what would have happened if that had been the case — would Halgon and he still be as close as they were now? What would have happened to them and Snower? What would their fates have been afterwards?
‘GEE!!!’ Seeing the boys seemingly distracted, the beautifox made another illusion attack and tried to make itself “disappear” again. Due to heightened alertness this time, Soarame still managed to see the beautifox after another round of vision blurring — it was already fleeing.
‘You! Stay right there!’ Halgon commanded the fox. Of course, the fox wouldn’t listen, but it had lost a leg; so Halgon easily jumped on it and stood on its neck. ‘You have two choices — yield to be my magimal, or die!’
‘Jeewwoo, woowoo!’ The beautifox struggled hard to turn its head out of the mud and stare at Halgon, with overwhelming hatred in its reddened eyes. Soarame could tell that it was cursing Halgon instead of begging for life. Sighing inside, Soarame now more and more appreciated it when the professors claimed “it’s hard to tame a wild magimal”. So far, he had not witnessed anyone succeed at all.
By the time Soarame had woken up from his thoughts, Halgon had already finished off the fox. Soarame watched him cut out its soulcore with his dagger; so proficiently, without even a blink.
‘What? Your sympathy is welling up again?’ Halgon teased. ‘Don’t forget about your own throat!’
‘I know, thanks.’ Looking at the beautiful fur of the magimal, Soarame took a deep breath. ‘They are wild beasts, after all.’
‘Hey, do me a favour. Put it all into your ring.’ Halgon had carefully checked the surroundings. ‘Let’s leave quickly, before they come back!’
****
Time passed and the sun rose; it was a new day. The students’ adventure was over and it was time for the professors’ to perform a thorough check for everything. The students were all exhausted after a tense night, but they were excited for the experience. Right then, everyone was observing the professors executing their search.
Strangely, the professors didn’t go around hitting every bush, as the students had been imagining. Instead, they spread far out to cover a different area each, then sat down on the ground.
‘What are they doing?’ The students couldn’t help whispering when they saw the professors actually close their eyes.
The professors seemed to be meditating, with full concentration. Soon enough, different things began happening around each of them — the air around Tifonal was flowing outwards with him in the centre; the ground around Vracho was shaking slightly as if there was a ripple in the earth spreading out. What happened around Sandoray was the most obvious — a large cloud emerged around her body and diffused outwards, pervading her targeted area in the forest. In sharp comparison, there was almost nothing happening around the last one, a professor in Darkness from Sunrise Alliance — he just sat there with his eyes closed.
The students marvelled and spoke in low voices. After a while, they seemed to guess out what was going on here — the professors were sending out Magic Elements of their best lineages, so that the elements could go everywhere and touch everything, then, if there were any magimals in their particular area, they could locate them.
‘Wow… That’s convenient.’ Soarame whispered to Halgon. ‘When will we be able to do that?’
‘It’s hard. That’s why they are professors.’ Halgon whispered back. ‘This is similar to a Master’s mind-scan, but a Master can do it in a much easier way —just send out his mind power to search for things.’
Soarame recalled their conversation hours earlier and nodded in silence. Right now the professors were actually mimicking the mind-scan, so it actually served as a good demonstration for his understanding. Meanwhile, Soarame noticed that the Experts in Fire, Lightning and Light didn’t make such attempts. ‘What about them?’
‘Lightning and Fire Elements are not good at non-destructive missions.’ Halgon shrugged his shoulders. ‘As for Light Elements, they have a strong tendency to only move along straight lines and therefore it’s hard for them to go around obstacles and spot things behind them.’
‘I see…’ Soarame nodded in thought. If what Halgon claimed was true, it was almost impossible for a Light wizard to find things in a deep cave via element-mediated search.
The thorough search didn’t finish until several hours later. After the professors gathered for a summing-up, they were happy that none of them had spotted any living beasts. However, they found that strange — the beautifox was supposed to be alive, but it was nowhere to be found. The professors had an urgent discussion, but no good solution was reached in the end. Of course, when they summoned Moelmos’ group for questioning, none claimed to know anything about it.
Therefore, the professors had to issue an order of martial law around Cylone City, because an illusion attacker could be extremely dangerous. Watching this happening, Soarame had to live with his inner guilt about this unnecessary measure. Fortunately, the fox was dead after all, so no damage would be caused.
Another problem was the comatose students who still had not woken up. Although the beastide was terminated, the cost to the school had not been small. Vracho had been sent on his way already, to take those students back, hoping to save their lives — they were all still breathing, which was a good sign.
Of course, no one had forgotten the two boys who had contributed the most to the mission, from the luring in of the magimals at the very beginning to the rescue at the very end —
‘Soarame, Halgon. What you did was amazing and we are truly impressed.’ Tifonal handed a small black arrow-like plate to each of the two. ‘When you visit any branch of Sunrise Alliance in any country, this badge will provide you with many conveniences. So keep it well.’
Tifonal’s words certainly caught everyone’s attention. Watching the two receiving the badges, everyone marvelled and gasped, even though they didn’t really know what exactly the badge was about. In comparison, the Experts and professors certainly knew it much better —
‘Many congratulations!’ Even Kastico had to widen his eyes when he saw the badges. ‘You will be amazed when you use it one day… but since Tifonal didn’t tell the details, I certainly won’t be the spoiler.’
‘What is it made of?’ Soarame couldn’t help asking. ‘It’s so heavy for such a small object!’
‘Of course, because it’s jankide.’ Moelmos had been staring at the badge ever since they were exhibited. ‘You know what i
t is, right?’
‘Jankide!’ Soarame smacked his own head; no wonder it looked familiar. He checked the badge again, and this time he realized something more. ‘An Epic magigear?’
‘Nice catch.’ Tifonal was happy to see Soarame’s incisive discernment. ‘Feel free to bond with it whenever you wish.’
‘That’s the reward from Sunrise Alliance. Now here’s the reward from the school.’ Seeing Soarame dripping a drop of his blood on to the badge — the simple process for bonding with an Epic magigear, Sandoray walked over to the two. ‘We clearly warned you not to show off during the luring in of the magimals, but you just wouldn’t listen. Then we clearly warned you not to challenge the magimals on the hill, but again you just wouldn’t listen. Now that you enjoy challenges so much, I’m offering you another chance — to challenge me.’
‘Wait… our luring was very successful, wasn’t it?’ Soarame quickly argued. ‘And about the hill…’
‘When we get back to school tomorrow, I want to see both of you at the Water arena.’ Sandoray ignored him and set the battle time. ‘As I said, it’s the prize from the school.’
Seeing this, everyone tittered. Kastico actually tried to persuade Sandoray to give the boys a break, but she was unshaken.
‘Okay then, good luck to you two.’ Kastico looked at the two with a teasing smile, then wrapped up the summary talk in a joyful voice. ‘We are going to celebrate our victory today before we head back to school. Everyone meditate for 3 hours and gather your strength, then we will set up our picnic!’
‘Yeah!’ After a brief cheer, the students got ready for their meditation. The Alliance team, on the other hand, had to get ready for their return trip. For them, the mission had not been a hard one, so they didn’t need to celebrate — quite the opposite, they needed to self-criticize over the missing beautifox.
‘Soar, Halg. Thanks again for the rescue!’ Moelmos came for a word before his departure, handing over two soulcores. ‘Take these. It’s our tradition.’