1 Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Keep running dumbass," Dusk shouted as he turned his head to look behind him. The crunching of branches underneath his companion's footsteps had stopped, leaving only the sound of her panting in the area.

"I- I can't," Joan huffed. Her hands were resting against her knees and her back lay against a thick blackened tree. Joan's cheeks were visibly reddened and particles of sweat could be seen dotted all over her white skin. After what seemed like a moment of deliberation, the girl bit her lip and began to rummage through a pouch on her waist.

Dusk's eyes widened upon seeing her movement. You've got to be kidding me. Dusk scrambled to the nearest loose branch he could find on the floor, picked it up and threw it across the ten odd meter distance between himself and the girl.

THUMP

"OUCH," Joan yelped. "What was that for?" she asked as she rubbed at her forehead.

"Don't play stupid with me, I know you were just about to use your escape scroll to the academy," Dusk replied. He squinted his eyes as he stared at the girl, observing her every reaction. Slowly he walked over to her. The yellow robe that he wore fluttered around due to the wind in the area. His dark skin was complimented almost perfectly by the light of his robe.

"Ahh stop being such a pain in the ass already. We don't HAVE to push ourselves so far, the task was just to survive as long as possible," Joan replied through gritted teeth. "I'm done, you're going to have to finish this alone," she said. "See ya later."

Dusk opened his mouth but before the words could leave his lips Joan disappeared from his sight. Blue wisps of energy remained at the spot where she'd previously been, along with a metallic smell distinct to teleportation magic.

"This girl," Dusk mumbled. He was now all alone in the middle of the inner beast range that surrounded the magical academy where he studied. His long curly hair swayed around as a powerful breeze rushed into the area. The averagely built boy put his hand into a pouch on his waist and pulled out a black hair tie which he then used to pack his light brown hair into a bun.

Well this is just great, I should probably call it a day as well. Not like I can achieve much on my own here. Dusk took one last look at the forest surrounding him before nodding to himself in approval. I won't miss this disgusting forest anytime soon. Why does it always have to be filled with smelly trolls and disgusting looking ogres. Can't I for once get the chance to see a cute fox-lady already?

Just as the boy pushed his hand into the brown pouch on his waist, a cold sensation filled him from head to toe. It was almost as if his insides had been dropped into a frozen lake, causing him to shiver on the spot. "Shit," Dusk said as he flung himself onto the ground, narrowly escaping a gale of wind aimed at his head.

Dusk's eyes darted across the area as he tried to find his assailant. Wind magic, there aren't many monsters in this beast range that use wind magic, especially not so far into the range. That must mean… Dusk's eyes immediately looked up into the sky. A monstrosity of a creature flew above him. The harpy had feet like that of a chicken, but they were many times larger and looked disfigured. The claws it had for feet were dripping with a red liquid. It's black wings beat slowly yet were effortlessly able to keep the harpy propelled almost twenty meters in the sky.

"Just my luck, I bet you were waiting for me to be all alone, weren't you," Dusk said as he glared at the creature. If only the rest of its body wasn't so abhorrent, she'd be a pretty good catch. I mean she's got a cute face and a pair of big… Before he could finish his thought another gale of wind that came in the shape of a half moon crescent was released by the harpy.

Dusk glared at the green energy that was sprinting toward him. With a flick of his wrist a blue barrier sprung forth from his palms, surrounding him from attacks from any direction. A loud crashing was emitted in the area as the green gale of wind smashed into the barrier.

Dusk grinned widely as he looked up at the harpy. "Didn't expect that now, did ya?" he asked. "Hmph, and you seriously thought you could defeat me, the ace of my school for arcanists," he continued.

The harpy tilted its head with a confused expression before letting out a bestial noise which could only be described to be a mixture of a cow moo and a bird cawing. It's previously female looking face began to contort, and the sound of bones creaking out of place reverberated the area.

"Ugh, that's just wrong," Dusk said. He covered his nose with his hand as a foul stench filled with vinegary undertones reached him. Alright, it's time for me to get the hell out of here. With the amount of noise that abomination is making more monsters will reach this clearing soon.

What the fuck? Where is my pouch? Sweat trickled down the boy's face as he frantically turned around in a full circle in search of his pouch. Within the pouch was the only method for him to escape from the area, the same way Joan had done. After taking a deep breath, Dusk composed himself and puffed his chest out, straightening his back.

"CAW."

"CAW."

"Shit, more are coming," Dusk said and quickly abandoned his idea to search for his pouch. He dug his legs hard into the ground and allowed the mana in his body to flow down to his calves and thighs. "Haste," he shouted, engulfing himself in a red light. Dusk's legs began to feel almost weightless.

"CAW," a harpy screamed, seeming to be getting much closer to where Dusk was.

"Here goes nothing," the boy said with a grimace. He pushed himself off the ground and into the distance, his speed many times quicker than before when he'd been running away with Joan.

That useless girl seriously put me in such a tough spot. I swear to the gods of magic that I'll haunt you Joan if I die today. Dozens of trees went past Dusk's vision as he sped through the forest. With how fast he was going, he was unable to process everything that came into his sight, the only drawback to using the spell haste.

How much longer are they going to follow me? It's already been five minutes and those three harpies aren't letting up. Dusk could feel a headache was about to burst into existence for him. It doesn't help that I'm just going further into the beast range, who in their right mind would even want to do that, the more powerful monsters are further in-… Wait a second, further into the beast range, that is a perfect idea. If I can't shake those three off me, I just need to find something that will do it for me.

Dusk's demeanor quickly changed from that of a prey being hunted to that of the hunter. He no longer ran aimlessly, without any objective or sense of what to do. He gritted his teeth as he thought about the task ahead of him. Out of the corner of his eyes Dusk spotted what looked like the tail of a snake. If I'm not mistaken that has to be some sort of gorgon, or at least from its size that is one deadly monster. The green tail was covered in large scales, each the size of Dusk's fist. From his estimates, it was sitting up almost seven feet off the ground.

Dusk sprinted closer to the tail of the snake and then looped around the beast until he was face to face with it. Instead of a gorgon, which would have had the upper body and face of a human, what lay in front of Dusk was simply a sleeping anaconda. Unlike the regular anaconda's that could be met in forests, here in the beast range all manner of creatures were imbued with the arcana from the surrounding area. This meant that they were fortified to be much stronger and sometimes even capable of using magic.

"Alright you stupid harpies, watch my master plan come into effect," Dusk said. He smiled as he looked behind him and up into the air. The harpies were flapping their wings slowly as they observed him from above. Dusk pointed his middle finger at the flying creatures, after which he closed his eyes and focused the mana from the center of his body into his palms. From his palms a bright yellow light was starting to form, slowly but surely increasing from the size of a pebble to that of a ball.

"Torchlight!" he shouted and flung his spell at the sleeping snake.

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