—☽—
Kiur ran. He sprinted down the trail to a safe place he wasn’t sure even existed.
His head throbbed, and a sharp pain radiated from the back of his left chest, but he kept running. The ziggurat was the safest place he could think to go now, but so might everyone else.
The attackers included.
It was too far away anyway, but where else would they be safe? Where did Kiur need to escape? Why did this all have to happen?
“I don’t want to; my parents are still home!” Hazir flailed in Kiur’s arms but stopped quickly, his fever preventing him from struggling further or doing anything except sobbing.
“There, there; we will go to the temple, and you’ll soon see your parents again.” Kiur tried to soothe the child and then looked at the second one holding his hand.
Ninda’s face was frozen in shock, eyes wide and wet from tears.
How should he protect either of them if he could not hold himself together? “Why do I have to be so pathetic?” rumbled Kiur about himself and gritted his teeth.
“Stop med at löpa, gulddräng.”
Kiur’s skin shuddered. He dropped to the ground before the axe swung above his head, lodging itself deeply into the wall.
“One of them caught up to us!”
A kick almost hit the boy in his arms. Kiur turned and let himself be kicked against his back instead, hurling him down the path.
Pebbles and loose stones pierced Kiur’s skin, but he shrugged it off.
“Who are you?” asked Kiur in their language. “What do you want?”
The wild man cocked his head. He was dangerously lean but had a trained body underneath his shabby rags for clothes.
It was an odd combination, but it was the first thing striking Kiur’s mind because it didn’t feel right.
“Someone here speaks our language? Quite a positive surprise. I didn’t expect that.” The Reiszer had caught Ninda and forced the girl to her knees. She yelped in pain. “If you want to know, it’s Hessian.”
“What do you want from the children? Why are you here?” exclaimed Kiur, hiding Hazir near the trail. His fever was getting worse; the stress had got to him.
“You expect an answer? I give you one,” Hessian, flexing with his arm, dislodged the axe and let it rest against his shoulder. “I don’t know the reason, nor do I care either.”
His voice was full of anger but directed at what? The more he talked, the more Kiur could deduce the dialect.
It was a variation from the Western tongue. He really was a Reiszer.
“Why are you not trying to get that girl back? Are you a coward?”
Was he a coward? Most likely, Kiur had run away just now and didn’t stay to help fight.
Holding his palm at Hessian, the Reiszer stepped back cautiously, expecting something to happen, but nothing came. No matter how much Kiur tried to will his magic, nothing happened.
He really was useless.
“Coward.” Hessian shortened the distance between them and lunged with his axe.
Kiur barely dodged the rusty blade.
And hitting Hessian back did little more than harm his own hand.
“Was that a punch?” growled Hessian in disappointment and swung his fist at Kiur. The Reiszer winced from the pain as Kiur blocked it, his veins glowing faintly in shades of orange. “You didn’t do it consciously. How did you protect yourself?”
“I don’t know!” Wanted Kiur to respond, but before he could, a next hit sent him backwards, flying.
Being an earth mage allowed Kiur to reinforce his body with earth magic to toughen himself, but this was merely luck. Of course, it wouldn’t work again.
With Hessian’s swings of his axe and his fist becoming fiercer, faster and increasingly more dangerous, Kiur could only try dodging them.
One of them cuts with the axe scrapped Kiur’s thigh shallowly, but it was enough to make Kiur cry as the pain travelled through all his body.
“Reiszer,” Kiur remembered what was so dangerous about them.
They could directly get in touch with the flow of magic and inflict damage that way.
They could not produce elemental magic, but their damage control with mana was abnormal. When Hessian injured Kiur’s thigh, he had also hit the magic channels underneath the skin.
Being the only individuals to inflict so much damage and pain on magic users, some referred to Reiszer as mage killers. No one in their right mind would willingly want to face one.
They were too dangerous.
“What is it? Getting tired?”
It couldn’t go on. Hessian was outclassing Kiur in every aspect, physically and magically.
Kiur’s only chance of changing the tides didn’t work. He was still self-sabotaging himself from using his magic to protect himself and others.
“Stop dodging and start fighting properly—” Dodging Hessian’s swing by going underneath him, Kiur grabbed Hessian’s arm and hip. With his feet planted firmly on the ground, Kiur felt a boost of confidence and threw Hessian over his shoulder.
Hessian heaved himself up, his knees shaking as he hit the ground hard. “What was that?” He could see how Kiur was emitting a strange energy pattern, although not consciously. “Magic? No, don’t tell me you are— Ha, you’re an amateur, aren’t you?”
Picking himself up, Hessian's muscles tensed. His calves shook as he closed the distance to Kiur again. His frenzy movements and swings became even faster and fiercer for Kiur to handle, who could barely move from his place.
Hessian’s axe was so close to cutting Kiur’s throat.
“Stop it!” Ninda’s cry whipped over them, followed by a gust of wind that pushed Hessian off the edge.
Hessian was in disbelief as he fell down the slope, shouting and disappearing below the dark clouds and sight.
“We need to get to the temple… my parents are waiting there.” Ninda cried. Her hands were trembling, unable to process what she just did. “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”
Looking over the edge where Hessian just fell from. Kiur exhaled a troubled but relieved sigh. He tried for a comforting smile.
“N-no, you didn’t.” Kiur removed himself from the edge and tried to console the girl by taking her hand. He didn’t know what to say and didn’t want to think about it. They needed to move on. “Thank you for your help,” he mastered weakly, trying to make her feel better.
While Kiur left alongside the children, a single man was holding on to the deep side of the cliff he had fallen from.
The splintered wood of his axe cut into his abused hand, but a smile glazed his face.
“I deserved this,” laughed Hessian, digging his nails into the cliff to climb back up. “But I will get you for this, coward.”
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