Somnus held out a hand, manifesting his teacher’s sword with a glimmer of ether, making Letum stare at him hard as they ran forward.

“What the hell?” Letum managed to blurt out in surprise.

“Hey, mind your language.” Somnus chided him.

“Who taught you that?”

Somnus smirked at him as the guards behind them yelled for them to stop and come back, no doubt chasing them down.

“No one. It’s an  experiment with what I could do with my tiny ether pool. Also, don’t you think looking harmless at first then whipping this out of the blue is more impressive than pulling out a normal sword?”

Letum’s demeanor changed to an icy one when he heard that lame excuse. Somnus didn’t notice this as he pulled out the sword and made the scabbard dissipate into the ether again.

“I broke a lot of weapons back then when I was practicing and I was actually afraid of breaking this one because it belonged to Sir Urien…” Somnus continued as he increased his pace to get close to the nearest boar.

"I didn't know you were this smart." Letum admitted, still a little dumbfounded.

"Wow, thanks for noticing. Get that boar." Somnus said as he gestured with his chin towards the large boar that was about to bite off a mercenary's arm.

Letum slid to a halt, drew up his spell and aimed his fire towards it to get its attention while Somnus continued to charge on ahead to face the largest of the corrupted boars, who happens to be advancing towards the red haired mercenary.

Somnus sliced through its rather thick hide, making the boar howl in pain and redirect its attention to the newly arrived prince. Letum split his spell into two, aiming his hands in two different directions to provide cover fire for his brother who had retreated a couple of spaces away from the boar, all the while continuing his bombardment on his own prey.

Somnus danced around the boar, striking whenever he could and dodging as fast as he could when it tried to attack him. Glancing at his younger brother, he smiled in relief to confirm with his own eyes that his brother is still safe and actually standing his ground well against an opponent that acts purely on its survival instinct.

Due to Letum’s fire attack on the boar’s hind, the area had the scent of burning meat, and the scent of the poisonous ether coming from the black ooze he surmised to be blood was starting to annoy him. Even though it’s not making him gag or have an asthma-like attack, his nose was starting to itch uncomfortably.

Letum moved out of the way, exhaling sharply in an attempt to relieve his nose, when his own boar had enough of him and charged towards his direction, only for him to go wide-eyed in surprise when Somnus landed in its path.

"Brother!" Letum screamed, panicked.

He tried to cast his spell faster but due to his panic, could not muster up the proper circles. They keep ending up a jumbled mess when he tries to put them together, canceling one another like as if he’s a person in the wild that had forgotten how to use a flint t o light a fire for his survival.

His world seemed to slow down when the boar's snout got to Somnus, sending the older prince flying off some distance and roughly landing onto the uneven ground, rolling for several feet like some doll thrown out; at one point, he lost his grip on his sword.

Letum's surroundings became cold as he stared at his brother, before turning his gaze at the boars who now have turned their attention to him.

The mercenaries they were helping out were no longer visible in the field and that elicited a chuckle full of disbelief from the young prince.

Something snapped within Letum when he saw his brother struggle to get up.

"Those ungrateful bastards." Letum muttered as he fixed his gaze on the boars. "And you overgrown pigs…"

They dared to do that to Somnus, his beloved older brother, who went out of his way to help them?

Cold wind rushed past Letum, ruffling his hair and clothes; the boars lowered their heads against the strong wind and the unbelievable pressure that came with it.

A crackle of fire and lightning resounded, followed by a loud bang and the ground shaking tremendously. Numerous spears made of solidified fire and lightning mixed together had pierced the boars in place like nails through a board. Their black blood oozed down the spears, their eyes rolled back when they got struck by such a powerful force.

The poisonous ether was fanned outward, saving Letum from being affected by it too much.

He didn’t care if the direction of that poison was going towards the town or the fields that the citizens rely on for their living.

He turned this gaze to look for the mercenaries, and once he found them retreating at some distance with their injured, he poured ether and formed a magic circle that wrapped around his ankles.

Floating off the ground for a few feet, he made his way towards them. He stretched out a hand to bind them and screams of panic filled the air.

He hovered above their head, his cold gaze bearing down on them along with the same pressure that made the boars unable to move.

"You should have at least shown your gratitude by helping my brother up." Letum told them. "Yet you lowlifes dare leave a prince in that situation…"

He stretched out his right hand to create a falchion-like sword with his condensed ether, grabbing it and pointing the tip towards the mercenaries.

"Death is too light of a punishment for all of you."