4 Departure & Examen

Fidgeting, he did not know what to do, Umbrum looked at a mirror in his room and tried to... smile. Unexpectedly, it was not that hard, what was strenuous was just keeping the smile for minutes, otherwise, there was nothing really hard about it. His facial muscles will just lightly ache, nothing much significant.

His arms extended and he began to prepare his tools, his backpack, what he will need. Beforehand, he took a bow which simply had a rough ability, infusing mana in it will create a magic arrow, in others words, his ammunition, his arrows were his magic reserve. After, there was two mana crystal, magic battery in others words, very rare and costly, something that a countryside mage like Umbrum should not own or even use like a common item. A simple dagger, nothing special about it, and finally, his most peculiar item, the grimoire which has no use but can not leave it alone.

"Mm, I am ready." Drake gave him a location, behind the building by the backdoor, there would be a carriage for the both of them which will lead them to a bandit's lair where lay one of the potential staff. A bandit as for staff. It was indeed peculiar and against all ethics. The person in question is the information broker of the clan, as far as they know, he apparently manipulated hundreds of bandits to slaughter each other and then give advantage to the he was favoring. Having him on your side was usually a sign of good luck. Adjusting his hood, Umbrum descended and went forwards the carriage as quickly as he can, he did not even bother closing the door as they already had a few guards there, people the chairman could not trust, but ones that had clear boundaries, boundaries they can't cross except by risking their lives, and of course, they would not take a bet staking their existence. Who would except a madman ? Nobody, that is exactly it.

Entering into the carriage, he noticed that Drake was in his usual clothes, he yawned and drove the carriage, strangely enough, he did not talk, he stayed mostly silent with having not much to say. Perhaps he did not know what to say. As for now, Drake advised him to smile, so he will try.

"Oh yes, there will be some savage animals like starving wolves, pushed to their last entrenchment, they will attack us as they need to eat. I would like you to take care of them once you are surrounded by five of them. And before you protest, it should be fine to kill them, wolves in these regions are currently overpopulated with wolves, so people are going frenzy about exterminating these so-called viles creatures. Foolish is it not ? " Casually, as they slowly left the village that will become a city, he announced to Umbrum who sighed and rubbed his temples, he never has been good at fighting after all. Or to be exact, he never has been good at magic and fighting as well. Hunting, why not ? But it is not a hunt. He is not going to be attacked by preys but by predators going crazy and probably not caring about dying.

Stubborn they will be. Bloodthirsty ? No. They are just clinging on life, they do not want to spill blood. But to live, so they need meat. And where do you find meat ? That is the point.

A little one hour later, the carriage settled in a green glade, seemingly peaceful, of course, it was not. The carriage seemed to be covered by a magical barrier, a light green color. And Umbrum was outside it. Holding his bow tightly and the dagger was at his hand's reach in his right sleeve. Behind the carriage was three wolves while in front him, there was four of them. Wasn't it supposed to be five ? He sighed.

It might be... troublesome.

"Aren't you supposed to be a mage ?" would be Drake's question if he could talk to him at the moment. Perhaps the wolves were triggering the hunter's instincts he had. His hand quickly drew the string, a purplish magic arrow appeared, ready to be launched. Before the wolves could move, one of them blacked out, his eye gouged out, blood flew out of the hole, an arrow passed through its eye to reach its brain. To kill it on the spot.

While noticing the end of their comrade, the wolves immediately sprinted from both sides.

Three behind, and three in front.

Jumping, a wolf somersaulted backward due to the arrow piercing his forehead. The wolves were now too close for him to keep using the bow. He threw it on wolf, stunning it for a while as his left hand took the knife in his right sleeve. His left hand waved and the the blade plunged into another wolf's eye.

'Four left, and one among them is stunned.' He reminded himself. Two were attacking his back, one was attacking his front. If he gets rid of the lone one, also the youngest, he will be able to avoid any harms. Without weapons, his fingers caressed the wolf's throat, his mana burst inside him as words left out this cage of bones.

"Disappear, Edax Umbra." As he said... the wolf disappeared, no, its head disappeared as if it never existed. The headless body fell onto the ground. It was... wriggling on the ground. As he was a spectator to this, Drake shivered and observed the scene while biting on the top of his thumbs.

'What is this... the wolf... is still alive ? Mmmm... yes... there is no blood flowing... instead of flesh, we only see a sort of... black smoke. What is it... I need explanations.' he did not understand how it works, he never heard of anything of the sort, as for sure, it was not an illusion as... it really disappeared. Rolling on the ground, the two wolves behind him missed him, and the stunned wolf beside the mage woke up from his slumber. He got back his bow, which was lying on the ground where he rolled.

There was three wolves left to kill.

His foot stroke the wolf beside him, knocking it out unconscious this time, as his hands were preparing another arrow toward the wolves who were coming back to him once again.

A second later, one of them felt something terrifying pass just next to it. A cold breeze. Something chilling. Its eyes darted around him and saw that its comrade was... dead. Another one, the last one beside him also got his head pierced by one of this mage's weapon.

The last one ran away.

Out of seven wolves, one ran away, one was knocked, four were killed and the last one was in an unknown situation. Seeing this, Drake canceled the barrier and saw Umbrum finishing off the knocked out wolf.

There was now only one left.

"Umbrum, what is this spell ?" Inquiring about this thing he never saw, a inhumane curiosity shined into Drake's eyes, he was... interested, he thought that it might be related to fact that Umbrum has no magical affinity.

"Edax Umbra, or you could call it Shadow Devouring. It is a spell I learn on my own, a mystic and innate one to be exact. I just partly mastered it." It still did not mean anything to Drake as it was only names, what were the effects ? How is the wolf still alive despite 'losing' its head ? Since it is alive, what kind of sensations do you get when a part of your body disappear ?

Before he could ask any of this, Umbrum continued on an indifferent one, explaining something he already explained many times.

"It feels as if it doesn't exist. The head is generally the most dangerous place. As, he will not see anything, he will not hear anything, he will not smell anything. Silence. Complete silence, it is as if his head was erased from existence. However it has a lot of weakness." He did not really bother hiding anything about his spell.

"If you succeed to keep your calm and use a bit of mana, the spell will naturally be dispelled. That's all. And even if you panick, if you use mana, the spell will be canceled." That is considering Umbrum's capacity of mana as he needs to keep sustaining the spell over time while the one affected by the spell just need one burst and it can break the spell.

Nevertheless, there was lot of potential in this spell. All non-magical creatures like undead are then a simple prey to him. Nothing more.

"I also need to touch the target." There is not much flaws to his spell. That was Drake's conclusion. Unexpectedly, his curiosity was... quickly satisfied. It made him feel... conflicted about what to feel in true. Should he be pleased or vexed that it was fulfilled casually ?

"Mmmm..." However, he still did not get the logic of the spell, even innate and mystic spells have a sort of logic behind it, but as for this one... he just did not get it. How can you temporary erase something from existence ?

Mystic spells often rely on flawed logic. So, what is the flawed logic behind it. Drake could not get it, and he will never get it. He just knew that it was... unique and that this spell would never be seen again.

"Anyway. You... didn't fight like a mage. That was... unexpected. You mostly fought physically, or actually, you completely fought physically. What are the spells you mostly use ? No need to explain, just tell me the names and let's see if I know them." Perhaps there was not only 'Shadow Devouring' that he did not know.

"Physical Enhancement, Mirror, Transportation, Mare's Illusion and Edax Umbra." All of them were... known or hard to learn at the very least. In resume, Physical Enhancement need a high-leveled physical training which asks for too much for people like Mages who are supposed to be on the back-lines. Mirror generally has too much of a backlash. Transportation is a space related magic, albeit a low-leveled one, it is still hard to grasp this kind of magic. And Mare's Illusion... is a sophisticated spell, needing the study of creatures' anatomies.

All of them had specific requirements that were far from basic spells. Compared to their effects, the requirements could be considered as too high and learning these was not worth it. Often, those people are disdained for wasting their times. And Drake did feel it this way, he wanted to mock him, his smirk could not help but slowly appear on his face... but then, he thought about it.

As he has no affinity, perhaps he has... unique circumstances.

While he was overthinking, Umbrum tried to smile and asked on an awkward tone.

"Uhm... could we get going ?" Slowly resurfacing to reality, he sighed and simply nodded, the carriage took the road and continued towards the bandits' lair.

He had many questions, however when he saw Umbrum's face, he could not ask them, it did not feel like he could, something was wrong, his eyes to be exact, they seemed to be... dead. Nevertheless, nothing is gained without a little bit of rish, his lips separated, and he was going to ask something, but at the moment his questions were going to be heard, Umbrum suddenly tripped and fell on Drake, interrupting him.

Catching him, Drake sighed and smacked his forehead.

"Ah ! Be… more attentive… Anyway... it was an impressive fight. Magically-talking, it was... unique, I didn't see any kind of spell like these, so I can't really judge. As for the physical aspect of it... well, as you didn't use physical enhancement, that is... well as I said, impressive !"

Umbrum seemed to be embarrassed, he did not say a word, however he adjusted his hood so nobody could see he was blushing. It was... rare, really rare for him to be complimented. It flustered him. Noticing that, Drake smiled and thought on how he could exploit this aspect of Umbrum to get more information about him... the traditional solution would be alcohol, the second one would be making him emotionally panicked.

"Hahaha !", he was already laughing when it did not even started. He still did not see the troubles this child will be bringing to him.