To trust, or not to trust. (3)

He looked defenseless, or so it seemed. He'd had basic self defense training in his first life, and he had strong magical abilities in his new one. Even that he was not fit, he was sure he could fight Mania. Maybe even win, if she made the mistake of underestimating him. Too bad every strategy he could think of was theoretical for the moment.

"Mania! What the hell are you doing?! He's our client?"

She was already lost to her blood lust. James heard the desperation in Talia's voice, but there was nothing that could be done. He got ready to meet his death head on.

He was not fit, and even though his body was small, it weighed a tone to his underdeveloped muscles. So he started by reducing its weight. The key would come from using just enough of his divine gift not to expose himself.

He got ready, watching the girl charge him with punching knives in hand.

'Huh! She wants to take me down in boxing. Just have to evade all her attacks, come on.'

He danced to his left. Like any standard boxing technique, she'd led with her left, which was his right. When her right fist flew, he nudged it, and it sailed a few inches past his ear.

Then she was turning with a growl, and he skipping back with a merry little laugh.

He intercepted her right hook again, this time sending it right onto the hard wood of his tiny carriage, and it impacted with a dull thud. The knife was unable to penetrate the wood, so it fell out of numb fingers, and Mania looked like she was thinking for the first time in this fight.

"You're toying with me?"

"You can't kill our client, Mani," this time it was Jonas saying.

"Can't I? He's the kind of trash we're fighting to rid the world of. And we were going to do it in a few days anyway, why not now?"

"Mania!" Talia was horrified.

"We don't kill our marks. You know this."

It was Aric who finished for her, because Talia was fuming at the moment.

"Well, now that it's out in the open, I guess we should kill him and be done with it," Talon was already palming his mace.

Talia looked from one crew member to the next, trying to read their thoughts on their faces, no doubt. Then her horrified gaze met James's, and he was smiling, a sad little thing.

Her frown of confusion turned to realisation a moment later. Yeah, she had always been a smart one.

"You tricked us into this, didn't you? You knew of our intentions from the beginning? You know who we are?"

James shrugged. "I mean, it is suspicious, isn't it? Nine out of ten caravans escorted by you people get robbed, or attacked and lose a few of their cargo. You always save the merchant's lives though, and get them out of the way in some pretence of being overwhelmed. It wasn't hard to put together really."

"Did you just use me as a tool for your plot?"

James shrugged. "Not necessarily. I don't like to do that kind of thing, as I told you earlier. And besides, I wasn't looking to rile you guys up today, specifically."

She unsheathed her short sword. "Yeah," she giggled maniacally. "'I don't play with hearts,' was it. Too bad you're going to have to fight us all on your own."

His smile only widened. "And why is that a bad thing?"

He was already picturing a spell function, and now his mouth started to move. His vision started to turn to fire.

"Shit! He's casting a spell!" Jonas warned, but it was too late.

Mania dived in first, and this time he leaned his upper body far to his right, then he used the momentum of getting back into position to punch her with a fire coated fist. She flew backwards, tumbling right into Talon, both going down with a grant.

He didn't know about Talon, but Mania was out for the count now. He surveyed the rest of his enemies. As he'd expected, Aric wasn't here anymore. He'd probably gone to pick cover somewhere from where he'd shoot James down.

Too bad James had more than one affinity then. And when his second spell activated, everyone reeled.

"What the heck are you?!"

"How should I feel when you're scared of me, Talia?" he whispered from just next to her ear.

She jumped in surprise and cut the air in the space she thought he'd been.

"He's right there! Aric, shoot five paces ahead of me."

"Ahh, the famous demon eye? I finally get to see it in action."

An arrow thunked into the ground where he'd been not a few seconds past. The guy was as sharp a shot as the novel had described. He could shoot just from his teammate's directions. And so accurately too.

"Mania? Mania?!" Talon screamed.

Everyone faced that direction then, and James saw the woman heave blood. He winced. He'd only used the technique the one time he'd hit the captain, and now he was seeing the difference between the man's level and hers.

The technique was an idea he'd gotten from Jason's use of a fourth tier spell to create small localised functions. He'd made fire gauntlets, but he hoped he could make a full body armor in a few months. Problem was, fire wasn't really material and so he'd have trouble stopping powerful enough physical attacks.

Ah, details for later. Right now he had five experienced warriors staring bloody murder at...well nothing, but they were searching for him.

"Why didn't Aric's arrow take him?"

"I don't know, he just kind of disappeared... there! He's right there Aric, by the fruitless tree, to its right."

James prepared himself for another quick flight empowered run. But nothing was happening. There was no arrow flying toward him.

"What?! Aric! Didn't you hear me?!"

Nothing. Not a single sound. James started to smile. He'd bought enough time.

"Don't start getting cocky, boy! You're not the only one who can cast magic, you know. Frozen hell."

And out of the ground where James stood, a mist of cold came out. It was colder than ice, and yet it rose like fire. Hotter than any fire he'd ever felt.

His fire magic acted of its own accord, trying to save his life. And then the dark magic quieted, and he was exposed, and Talon was staring at the place where fire magic grappled with ice magic, and he palmed the head of his mace with a smile.

"You are mine, damn noble brat!"

And he charged in. James wanted to send out a vortex of wind to protect himself, but something in the corner of his vision told him that would be a waste.

He didn't have to concern himself with Talon. Only with escaping the technique he was trapped by. He just increased the amount of power his divine treasure was granting him, and then he was flying, but he didn't fly too far, just hovered about a foot from the ground.

And watched as one punch to the temple took Talon out of the equation. They hadn't noticed Hansworth approach. Such was the gulf in level.

Jonas started casting another spell, but then the sharp point of a sword was on his neck, at his throat. Someone groaned.

Talon, already coming back to.

Talia looked conflicted for a moment, but then she was going into a stance, getting ready to take on Hansworth. And the way she'd been described in the novel, she could have too.

Too bad for the mercenaries she'd been unbalanced the whole fight. James had played on her head. He hadn't meant to though.

A small hand landed on Talia's arm, and she startled, and all she saw when she turned was a young girl shaking her head.

Aric was lying a little behind her, and a small three tailed fox had his small mouth at the jugular, ready to tear if anything so much as twitched the wrong way. Aric was awake, that much was certain. But he wasn't moving, not twitching. There was panic in his eyes though.

Talia looked lost. She stared from the girl, to the small fox, to Hansworth, and then to James who was floating downwards now. He walked to her, grabbed the hand that held her short sword, and forced the thing out of her hands.

The servants were watching the commotion wide eyed from the other side of the carriage.

"You didn't need us from the beginning, did you?"

James shrugged. "I did need guards. You see I don't like to do the dirty work on my own. I'm kind of famous for being lazy."

"So I've heard."

Was that hurt in her voice? That was rich. Besides, he hadn't done any of this on purpose. It was an accident. He had wanted to taste his current level of power against a few strong opponents without ambushing them though, and he'd performed reasonably well.

He needed more, though. A lot more power if he was going to be of help in the near future.

"I don't intend to kill any of you, and I don't have space to keep you all locked up. I would leave you to your own devices out here, but even I am not that arrogant. So how about I capture one, to ensure your cooperation?"

Talon tried to rise from his prone position.

"Take me. I'm the—"

"The leader? Come on. I just proved I know everything about your little possy. You're not going to do me the courtesy of thinking I have a brain?"

"I'm the leader!" the injured man growled.

James leveled a flat stare his way.

"How long does your paralysis effect last, Nino?"

"Depends on how often I renew it, but about six hours on first contact."

"Good. Freeze her."

"What?!" cried Talon as he launched himself forward.

Then a black shadow like mist raced forward and hit him square in the chest. The thud of two bodies hitting the ground were the only sounds for a few moments.

"Jonas, Rob, due to unforeseen circumstances, you're the only one of your friends still standing. Attend to their needs, won't you?"

And then he bent down and scooped her into his arms. She was slender, and in all likelihood very light. Still, James didn't want to strain his body, so he made sure to lighten her up with his divine gift. He'd only used one aspect of the thing so far, and he could feel it getting impatient to release its pent up energy.

Her eyes never left his as he carried her into the carriage. They were angry, accusing, but also wary. And a little resigned.

He clicked his tongue. "You look like you're going to your funeral. Don't worry about that sort of thing, I'm a gentleman."