The purple haired witch grinned showing both rows of her pearly whites. From her perch several levels above, it looked as if Chuu and I were at the bottom of a pit preparing to stave off wave after wave of opponents in some sort of gladiator style brawl. While the witch watched, looking down at us, at me. She was going to regret that.

“Oi, it’s the baker.”

“Oh no. Not this guy again.”

Familiar voices drew my attention, I recognized some of these bandits from somewhere…wait, seriously?

“Are you guys the only bandits in the region or something? My voice was a bit louder than it needed to be which startled the handful of familiar men.

They looked amongst themselves choosing the person closest to me to speak on their behalf.

“NO, uh…erm. We were just passing through. When…”

“I don’t recall telling you guys to chat. Hurry up and attack him or else.”

*Snap*

A moment later I could hear something crumble as it fell down from one of the upper levels of the inner mine chamber. Something round rolled down stopping within my field of vision it looked like a ball. Or. Oh, it was a head. A stone head. That’s odd.

Some of the men around me seemed suddenly nervous. I wasn’t too concerned.

“We’re sorry Ma we’ll take care of him right now.”

Ma? Well this just went in a rather strange direction.

“You’re their mother now are you? You look like you’re twelve. Let me guess since you’re a witch you’re something like three hundred years old.”

Ma, as she was called covered her mouth with the back of her hand as she laughed.

“Hehehehe, you flatter me if you think I’m that young. I have no intention of revealing my true age.”

“Ugh. Whatever you creepy old loli.”

Ma’s temples twitched. “What did you call me? I happen to be a very…”

“Stop. I don’t wanna hear it. I can tell the next words out of your mouth are gonna make me wanna hurl.”

Ma began stopping her foot against the ground fuming from rage. One of the men around me took the opportunity to throw a punch at me. Without looking I caught his punch then began squeezing his hand until he dropped to his knees. With a kick I knocked him into a row of men standing at the ready behind him.

“Attack him all at once. It’s the only way. Attack!”

Chuu floated around avoiding the charging men while I got ready for battle. A large brute of a man stomped my way taking the lead. He swung wide missing by a wide margin as I jumped back. The second the heels of my feet touched the ground I swayed to the right avoided a faster follow up attack.

The brute left himself open so I took full advantage sinking my fist into the man’s gut. His face contorted in pain as he grabbed at his stomach. It looked like he wanted to say something, what I couldn’t be sure because only unintelligible grunts came out.

Not even a second passed before the rest of the men charged at me. They were armed with knives, daggers, clubs, chains, etc. None of those weapons gave them anything that looked like an advantage over me. My movements were faster than theirs were, my strikes much strong than theirs. Besides even if I didn’t have superior abilities. I still had something they didn’t. Magic.

With a wave of my left hand a blast of fire crashed into my opponents scattering them about like ants.

“All of you small fries should prepare yourself to die by my hands. I will burn terror into your souls before you leave this mortal coil. Muhahahahaa. Take this. And this. And. THIS!!!”

Booom! Booom! BOOOOOOM!!!

Explosions of fire and smoke knocked all the bandits about. The numbers surrounding me didn’t appear to be changing all that much despite the amount of havoc I was wrecking.

“Keep at him. He can’t keep this up forever.”

“True. But most of you’ll be too dead to worry about that.”

My right hand was raised skyward with my palm facing up. A few feet above my hand a brilliant orange ball of fire appeared quickly expanding to a splendidly destructive size. The bandits that surrounded me paused in their tracks. I could see the fear rising in them. Their hearts racing, the rise of their throats as they swallowed reflectively from sheer terror. Yes. Yes. Witness my destructive power.

“Uh, Mao don’t chuu think that’s a little…”

“You think it’s too little. Alright! How about this?”

The already impressively large ball of fire doubled in size. Its orange glow cast itself across the inner chamber of the mine. Shadows danced across the wall, that’s when I noticed there were more shadows than people in the mine. With a quick surveying of the area I found my answer.

Tsk.

“How disappointing.”

My fireball dissipated with the sound of a flame being extinguished. While some of the bandits appeared relieved some of them kept looking at me then subtly looking at Ma. This situation was getting more and more infuriating.

“Tell me. Are you bandits fighting me because your bandits? Or is because you’re afraid of ending up like them.”

My finger pointed at a strange stone statue I happened up because of my large fireball. The sudden change in the bandit’s expression was all I needed to answer my question.

“Well this does make things a bit more complicated. Coerced or not slaughtering you all does have its allure. But I did come for the witch. Decisions, decisions.”

The bandits held their breaths as if they sensed an opportunity for a reprieve.

“No one told you idiots to stop fighting. I warned you what would happen if you disobeyed me.”

Ma opened her eyes wide, a bright purple light shined and then there was a collective series of screams. One by one some of the bandits started turning into stone, from their screams I could the process was excruciating.

Once the screaming finally stopped there were ten new stone statues. The remaining bandits were sweating profusely scared to disappoint Ma at the same time they weren’t too eager to engage in battle with me.

“Mao was it? If you don’t keep fight my friends then I’ll hurt your friend.”

Friend? Does she mean Chuu, go ahead you’d be doing me a favor…

Stare.

Despite the fact that I was silent it was almost as if Chuu knew what I was thinking.

*Snap*

The space around Ma wobbled and folded revealing another stone statue this one was of a small boy with petrified tears. Mir.

Ma grinned widely while putting a hand around Mir’s neck. The heroic choice here seemed obvious save an innocent child over some low class bandits. The thing was I did not like the idea of Ma dictating a choose for me. Heroic or otherwise. I didn’t like it one bit.

With a thumb pointed at myself I grinned sinisterly. “Clearly witch, you have no idea who I am. That boy isn’t my friend. I, Mao have no friends. And I don’t take threats. I make them. This isn’t a matter of saving some boy. Or taking pity on this gang of imbeciles.”

“Hey….”

“This is about the pecking order. The boy is beneath you. These bandits are beneath you. And you think I am beneath you. So, let me educate you on the proper pecking order. For you see. NO ONE IS ABOVE MAO!!!”