"Hey! Don't turn the body into a mess—if they can't recognize it, it's worthless!"

"Right, right. Fuck, this smell..."

"Oh ho, I love that smell! It's the smell of money! We're gonna be rich after this!"

"Let's check it first."

Three figures approached through the forest undergrowth, their boots crunching on fallen leaves. The horse that had been Agni's companion was... well, it wasn't recognizable anymore. What remained was just scattered pieces of flesh and bone, painting the forest floor in dark crimson.

"Alright, you think he was carrying anything valuable?" The bald man's voice carried a greedy edge as he kicked at some debris.

"He's a prince, right? Surely he must be packed with gold!"

The speaker was surprisingly young—maybe early twenties with brown hair and chocolate-colored eyes. Beside him stood a woman who looked almost identical, clearly his sister. Same brown hair, same sharp features, same cruel glint in their eyes.

The woman crouched down next to Agni's still form, her fingers reaching for his head. She turned his face toward the dim forest light filtering through the canopy.

"See? Face is still good! I told you I didn't hit it too hard!"

Her brother groaned, rolling his eyes. "Fine! Hey, check if he's actually dead."

She snickered. "Worried?"

"I told you I hit his heart perfectly—"

Agni's body moved.

His hand shot up and slapped the woman across the face. But it wasn't just a slap—flames erupted from his palm in a violent burst that engulfed her head completely.

Pop.

Her head simply... disappeared. Gone. Just like that.

Her headless body crumpled to the ground, blood fountaining from her neck as both men stared in shocked silence.

"What the fuck, man! I told you to kill him properly!"

The bald man—Philip—was already pulling out his mana gun, its crystal core glowing an ominous blue. The young man beside him did the same, his hands shaking with rage.

"Fuck! He got Sasha! I'm going to kill you, bastard!"

Agni groaned, pushing himself up on one elbow. His vision was blurry, his head pounding like someone was hammering nails into his skull. The taste of blood filled his mouth.

What... what just happened?

The memory hit him like a sledgehammer. The woman. Her head. The flames.

I killed someone.

"GO AWAY!" he screamed, throwing his hands forward desperately.

The air around him rippled.

Something invisible exploded outward from his body—a shockwave of pure force that cracked the ground beneath him and sent spider-web fractures racing through nearby trees. The mana bullets fired at him simply disintegrated mid-flight, turning to sparkling dust.

Both Philip and the young man were thrown backward like ragdolls, crashing into trees with bone-crunching impacts.

"Philip! Get up, you moron!" The young man—Walton—was already scrambling to his feet, apparently unaffected by whatever force had hit him. "He's a mage! What kind of magic was that?"

Philip rubbed his bald head as he stood, his expression grim. "It wasn't in the intel! They said he was just second circle at best!"

"Walton! I'll make an opening!" Philip drew twin swords from his back, their edges gleaming with enchanted steel as he charged toward Agni.

Walton grabbed his head, wincing. "Damn it...!"

But then they both stopped.

Agni was running.

Actually running away, dragging his right leg behind him. It looked badly damaged, twisted at an unnatural angle as he limped frantically toward the forest's deeper shadows.

"Hey! He's leaving! The fucker's running away!"

"After him!" Philip screamed.

Agni's mind was a whirlwind of confusion as he stumbled through the underbrush.

What was that? People? Assassination? Some kind of prank from father?

No. That bald guy had looked like serious business.

Damn it, I killed a person!

The memory of the woman's head simply... popping... made his stomach churn. It wasn't that it felt particularly bad or anything—more like stepping on a disgusting bug. But still. A person was dead because of him.

He wiped the blood from his hands on his torn clothes, trying to focus on more immediate concerns.

Behind him, he could hear them crashing through the forest. He was leaving a trail of broken branches and blood droplets—not exactly subtle.

Closing his eyes, Agni focused on the wound in his right leg. The bone was definitely broken, maybe in multiple places.

"Heal, heal," he muttered, not exactly using a proper spell but something close to it.

He wasn't sure what he was doing, but the desperate situation had awakened something in him. The wound began to close, bone grinding back into place with sickening cracks. It was one of the few types of magic he'd ever been any good at.

The moment his leg was functional again, Agni took off running.

But where? He had no map, no idea where he was supposed to go.

He needed a horse. Immediately.

CRACK!

Fire erupted from a tree beside his head, taking off his entire left ear in a spray of blood and burning flesh.

Agni dove behind a large boulder, his heart hammering against his ribs.

I have to do something. If I keep running around aimlessly...

Wait. Where's the bald guy? I don't see him.

Damn it, what should I do? They're going to kill me. I'm going to die.

Die. Die. Die.

Think! What was that thing I did back there? I screamed and they got pushed back...

He remembered something from his tutoring sessions. Magic with vocal components was generally more powerful than silent casting.

I need to use my vision to its maximum.

Agni looked around, letting his sight shift into that strange mode he'd discovered during desperate moments.

Void Scan.

The world transformed. He could see Walton standing motionless about thirty meters away, his mana gun trained on the boulder. But there was something else—a fast-moving figure blurring around the edges of his vision, circling his position.

A pincer attack.

Agni gulped, his throat dry as sand.

No choice. I have to do something.

Kill them.

Yes. I have to kill them.

His left ear was already regenerating, flesh crawling back into place with an itchy, burning sensation. His heartbeat thundered in his ears as something hot and primal began building in his chest.

His eyes flared with power, the Void Scan reaching its maximum intensity.

Survive.

For the first time in his life, Agni felt something he'd never experienced before. Not the lazy contentment of palace life or the mild irritation of being forced to study.

This was different. Raw. Burning.

This was the heat of truly fighting for his life.