Long Night

As Tom drew closer and closer to Marcus, he couldn't help but start to fantasize about the future gold he'd get to spend.

For a man like him, he'd be lucky to see even one gold coin in his lifetime, let alone ten.

Of course he hadn't forgotten about Jerry's portion of the gold, but if he could kill the wretch here and now before Jerry did anything, he'd be able to claim a larger portion and there wasn't a thing his partner could do about it.

He knew exactly what he'd spend it on too. Back at the town they were from, there was this woman Tom had been eyeing for several months now, and he thought she was a beauty.

The woman's name was Martha, and she was on the heavier side, but it didn't matter to Tom because that's how he liked em'. The way he saw it, big girls needed love too and he'd be the perfect guy to come and sweep the woman off her feet; it wasn't like any other man could complete such a task anyway.

'With my muscles, I'm already a step above any competition I have, and with a few gold coins in my pocket, how could she refuse?'

While Tom was in his own little world and not paying attention to Marcus as much as he should have been, he failed to notice the boy hadn't moved a single inch since he and Jerry had started charging at him. He found it a little strange that the blindfolded buffoon hadn't opted to run from them, but he didn't care. If the fool was just going to stand there and let himself be taken out, then he'd happily oblige.

When Tom finally reached Marcus, he lifted him by the scruff of his robe and punched him down to the ground with as much force as he could muster. Tom felt ecstatic that he'd finally landed a punch on the thing that had caused him such a headache after trekking through the forest for over 50 miles.

After the omen's body hit the ground, Tom leaped on top of him and continued to lay into him with his Ki infused punches over and over again.

It should be noted that Tom and Jerry weren't mages. After all mages possessed mana, not ki.

In Terra, there existed not only mages, but martial artist as well. Just like how mages had mana, martial artist possessed Ki. Neither was stronger than the other, and both had their own advantages as well as disadvantages. but for now this topic was irrelevant, as Tom was now sitting above Marcus unleashing a world of pain upon the poor fool.

He started pelting the omen in front of him with his Ki infused punches and had no regard for the fact he was a grown man beating the living hell out of a child not anywhere near his weight class, but he didn't care.

The way he saw it, the thing in front of him wasn't human. It was just another monster that needed to be put down, and said monster was going to be hist ticket to a good night with the woman of his dreams.

As his fist continued to rain down on the omen's poorly disfigured and bloody face, Tom noticed his punches felt more hollow than they normally should. It almost felt like he was only punching nothing but air and dirt.

Suddenly, he heard a shout that made him look up from his one sided beat down he'd been inflicting on the omen.

"Tom you idiot! What are you doing," Jerry exclaimed as he was ran past the bewildered Tom.

Tom looked at Jerry confusedly trying to figure out why his friend was running past him. Wasn't he already on top of the-

'Huh?!'

Tom looked down and noticed there was nothing below him. All he saw were his fist full of dust and small bruises from punching the earth below him. He sat there on his knees for a moment trying to understand just what happened, but he didn't get much time to think about it as he heard his partner calling out to him.

"Hurry up ya' idiot before the others catch him before we do," Jerry shouted.

"Also I heard ya' mumbling that slut's name again earlier when you started punching the ground like a madman. If you don't hurry up, you're not gonna have any gold to spend on that slut when we get back, cuz' the others'll' already have caught the bastard!"

That was all that needed to be said as Tom hurriedly stood up to retrieve his spear from the tree and run after his partner, even though his face was flushed with a combination of embarrassment and rage.

"Shutup ya' idiot! Ya bet not say a word of this ta anyone or I'll ring yer neck!"

To this, Jerry ignored his companions empty threat and continued to chase after the omen before he lost sight of him.

While the two men behind him were scrambling to catch up, Marcus was running ahead as fast as he could. He was also confused about what occurred with Tom, and why he'd suddenly started to punch the ground as if he was trying to kill the earth itself. However, Marcus wasn't able to think about such matters at the moment with the too men chasing him from behind.

He guessed the two men were at most of the intermediate rank, otherwise the punch from earlier should have probably hurt far worse than it did. Also, the two were slightly faster and stronger than Marcus. Not just because they were grown men, but because they're stats, whatever they may be, had to be clearly higher than Marcus's, otherwise it shouldn't have been so difficult to dodge that knee to the chin earlier.

'So there are others nearby as well huh? Well guess I should've expected that,' Marcus thought while making a sharp turn left.

Marcus was steadily outpacing his pursuers due to the forest being densely populated with so many trees. The men may have been faster than he was, but Marcus possessed more agility and was easily able to maneuver around said obstacles without being slowed down much.

Tom and Jerry, on the other hand, weren't so lucky.

"Argh! Damn trees! He's gettin away"

"Shutup! I heard you the first fifty times! Just keep chasing him, he'll get tired eventually."

The two assumed Marcus was slower and weaker than them, and so they thought they'd catch him easily. And truthfully, they were partially correct in that assumption; however, Marcus may not have had the upper hand compared to them when it came to speed and strength, but stamina was something his father made sure he had plenty of. With all the beatings and maltreatment he'd experienced in his years as a slave, Marcus wasn't going to get tired just because he had to run a little.

Unfortunately though, Marcus would learn very soon that the two men behind him were the least of his problems.

Just as he'd escaped Tom and Jerry's line of sight, to the two's utter dismay, he heard a shout from his right.

"Fireball!"

Almost immediately after Marcus heard the incantation, a fireball three times the size of his head flew directly at him. The spell was aimed directly at where Marcus would appear next if he kept running forward, but he slowed down just enough to lower himself down and slide. He slid right underneath the fireball that would have hit him had he continued to run forward.

It was moving so fast and was so big that it tore through every small and medium sized-tree it came across and only stopped after running into a teen foot wide tree. The only reason the tree still stood up was because the fireball had already crossed over 100 meters and was slowed down by the other trees it passed through; however, the tree was already beginning to fall apart due to it being lit on fire.

Marcus didn't even look at the trail of destruction that lay only 50 meters away from him and instead chose to continue running ahead.

"Dammit can't believe I missed the little rat," the mage that shot the fireball cursed.

"Don't worry about it, he can run but he can't hide."

The mage who spoke last, started to speak out an incantation. He pushed his hands together as if he was about to pray and spoke out an incantation.

"Mana Pulse!"

As soon as the mage spoke, the surrounding mana in the area all coagulated in between the mage's palm. Whilst this was happening, he opened his hands slightly and after about 5 seconds, he closed them back together and a loud clap occurred.

Originating from where the mage who casted the spell was, a wave of pure blue mana spread out in every direction. The action was similar to a ripple in a pond after a rock was thrown into it.

Once said mana wave reached Marcus, he felt an extreme sense of urgency. He didn't know why but when that wave of mana passed through him, it felt like someone had put a humongous target on his back.

Marcus, who was now standing behind a tree with the back of his head pressed to it, looked up into the beautiful night sky. As he did so, he closed his eyes beneath the blindfold and exhaled a deep breath of air.

"This is going to be a long night."