Why we must get stronger.

The impact was earth shattering, and the shattered concrete flew everywhere. But Jason wasn't broken. He wasn't angry. He was merely confused. Something had happened, but he hadn't known what it was.

"Hmm? They didn't say anything about him using such a unique spell that looks like lightning? And your physique doesn't quite match—"

But then steel clanged, and sparks flew. Hansworth didn't let his failure to pierce through what was obviously a very high-tier defense spell stop him from attacking again and again.

But Jason was paralyzed. A spell fashioned to defend against someone else. This mage had underestimated him, and he'd been right. He'd basically survived against him without much effort.

He didn't bother trying to get his sword. He just went in fists blazing, firing off spell after spell.

"Hey!" the blonde man said with a smirk. "That's cheating. You can't be using all those elements. And your mana seems so incomprehensibly unending. You're some type of monster?"

Then why was he just standing in mid air and tanking all the hits?! Jason growled.

He might have looked deranged on the outside, but his brain was on the wildest of gallops. The blonde mage wasn't tanking the hits. The hits weren't even landing. Whatever Hansworth's slashes were catching below the barrier was a second physical barrier.

But there was another one on top, layered like an invisible guardian, that tanked hits and reduced their momentum. It felt like flying against gravity, or swimming downwards in a deep lake.

And then it hit him. Force. Compressed air. Air pressure. He'd used his knowledge of science to improve his use of magic in this one. How could he have been fooled by this?

He withdrew, left Hansworth to duel the man alone. The swordsman had only spared him a glance before his sword had leaped right back into action. And then Jason was chanting. He didn't know why he had to shout his chants for all to hear.

If he'd only been as quiet as usual, he would have caught him by surprise and perhaps killed him. But maybe he'd wanted to give him a chance. Maybe he'd wanted to fight this guy one more time under ideal circumstances.

The man had the chant, started to ignore Hansworth in favour of trying to cast a multiple layered barrier. Big mistake. His second protective spell was actively falling to Hansworth's slashes.

"...imperial prince of lightning, your servant beseeches you!" Jason finished.

And out of the smog covered sky came the clearest bolt of lightning, zipping straight for its target who was howling from a wound, a wound delivered by Hansworth, Hansworth who was now retreating with speed no human should have.

The bolt broke through one, then two, then three force barriers before dispersing the compressed air and aiming for its now wildly swirving victim. The impact sent him flying and crushing through metres long of concrete road, stones flying everywhere, his screams almost sickening to hear.

Had he been too weak anyway. Jason shrugged. It didn't matter in the end. He moved, Hansworth at his side, to finish what they'd started. No doubt that flashy show of magic would be the talk of the kingdom for the foreseeable future.

The man was saying something from where he lay in a long crater of his own making. Jason thought he was cursing him and Hansworth perhaps, but then he felt the pull of mana. Was this crazy guy pulling mana from the atmosphere? Unrefined mana? That was dangerous. And that spell?

"All hells! He can use teleport!"

But they started running just a tad too late. They stared at that ruined road for a long time, neither saying anything. They might have gotten just the least bit too cocky. But then Rayne was there, and the operation had been a sucess. It was time to rest. At least for a little while.

Jason now had a reason to get stronger, and not just physically too. He had almost lost his motivation early, but now he had to be ready. How the hell a human could cast a sixth-tier magic spell like teleport though, he'd never know.

***************

"It doesn't make sense," prince Mikhail was saying in a calm voice. "All my spies reported seeing James Halden go to a restaurant with two guards tonight. He is the only one who could have known."

"I mean, I did tell him about one of the locations. But I made sure it was one of those with human children. There is the possibility he sold the information to someone else."

"Don't be foolhardy, madam Vi! You forget that without my patronage, this shadow government would be nothing but rubble!"

"Watch yourself prince," Rebel Kaiser, head of the assassin's guild stepped in. "We can support ourselves fine without you. That being said, we would all like to know what you were thinking, Vi?"

Ariane stood and watched, just like Vi had bid her before they came to this meeting. It was a legendary line up. All masked, except the prince.

The shadow government of Mareth city. They ruled the underworld the kingdom over. Madam Vi had one seat. The head of the assassin's guild had another, as did the thief's guild, and the true king of merchants. All kept their identities secret even from each other. But James Halden had seen madam Vi's face, or at least his representative had.

Vi only shrugged at the warning tone of the assassin's voice.

"He had some very precious information for me. You know how I can't avoid a good few words. Its like poetry, good information."

"I notice that you have a different ward this time around?" the merchant king spoke.

Ariane didn't let her body so much as quiver, but she hoped her mask was still intact. Her identity needed to remain as secret as possible at this stage, or so Vi had told her.

Vi thought she was a spy or some such, and the man that night had let her believe the notion. He had placed her here purposefully. She was like the living sign of their agreement, their collaboration.

"Yeah, I have lots of girls, you see. Anyway, I believe the young noble himself came to my establishment that night. His hair was different, but his eyes were still that famous deep blue."

"Blue eyes are common," growled the third prince.

Ariane still couldn't believe that this hooded man walking around and consorting with these sorts of people was who hoped to rule the kingdom.

"Yes, I know that. But the man was too careless. He gave information away recklessly. I can't imagine he'd let such a feckless servant carry such vital information."

"What is it exactly, that he has told you?" the assassin asked.

"Very expensive information. I'm a trader, so I can't give it to you until you give me something equally precious."

The prince glared at madam Vi. They couldn't make out the assassin's countenance beneath his boar mask. The king of merchants laughed, and the thief just shrugged in indifference.

Vi waited for almost a full minute, then she stood, her voluminous clothes swishing as she made to step around her chair.

"If that was all, I guess I best get back to collecting whispers on the wind."

"And I best get to signing papers and stacking coins." The merchant king got to his feet.

He walked just behind Ariane. She thought she heard the thief excuse himself as well, but he didn't show up.

"It's as you suspected then," the merchant king spoke low to Vi. "The little prince is colluding with the assassin to have us all destroyed."

"I found a horse for us to ride just in the nick of time too."

"You think the Halden boy is any good?"

"I have good instincts."

"I got the kind of girl you wanted in my carriage. I find it odd that her height and general build together with her brown hair all match those of your ward."

"Shut up now! Do you think the thief is involved?"

"Hard to say for sure." He gestured to a nondescript carriage packed down the way. "Why do you think the guild is too quick to accept a job to kill the boy?"

She didn't respond. He helped madame Vi in, then Ariane. There was a girl in there indeed, and her general body shape did look like Ariane's.

She was still confused when madam Vi took the mask off her face. She'd made her wear a rubber mask under the first, but now she thought she was starting to understand.

Madam Vi put the mask on the other girl. The carriage stopped at the entrance to the red light district, where Vi disembarked with her new ward. She hadn't said anything to Ariane. No words had needed saying. She handed her a small note though, one Ariane couldn't read no matter how she tried.

But then she'd spent the night lying in a coffin.

She'd been shocked out of sleep by the continual jolting back and forth of her wooden home. She thought maybe she was being carried at some point.

She had voices, but she couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

In the end, when the box was opened, she'd seen a familiar face framed with white hair this time. So madam Vi had been right. James Halden himself had visited her establishment.