Chapter 1

'Upon the dawn of the first age magic had been introduced into the world for unknown reasons. Those who did possess magic could only ever do simple things with it. Creating a small breeze from the flick of a finger, shooting off the smallest and faintest of sparks from their fingertips or simply filling up a glass of water. Yet despite only being able to perform such mundane tasks they were regarded as miracle workers or saints by those around them.

When the first age ended and the second began those who could use magic increased in number and the limitations of their abilities lessened. Soon rising kingdoms went to war with each other with mages as their foremost fighters. Frontlines were covered in ashes as plumes of flame burst forth scorching the earth and the people around them, maps had to be changed on a regular basis as mountains crumbled to dust and forests sprouted even in the most barren of lands.

After the wars and skirmishes had ended and a central governing body took charge of the Magis society came the third and current age and upon its dawn a great discovery took place. Deep within the uncharted lands of Magis territory, seated at the lowest point of a valley and surrounded by thick forests lies an ancient city of shining metal, the Steel City. This soon became the greatest enigma of Magis society....'

Charles continued reading the book, it's old leathery cover ever so slightly slipping from his hands as he struggled to read its contents. He loved books and research yet he had read the same book over and over again for the past few days. He tried to fight off the urge to fall asleep as his deep red eyes began to wander off from the book and look towards the canopy of trees that lay above him. He was moments away from falling asleep for the third time today until a voice called for him.

"Charles get up, I need light."

The voice came from his friend Vendrik who was far away from him. He seemed to gesture towards something he had found. Charles then turned to the pile of bags in front of him packed into a small hole in the ground and right beside the hole was a wooden plank that had leaves growing on it to better blend in with the forest floor seemingly being one with the thick vegetation covering the dirt. He threw his book into the hole and covered it up.

"Oh brilliant Lucia cast upon me a sliver of your radiance." Charles muttered under his breath as little orbs of light began to form around. As he walked the orbs followed. It took a while but he finally reached his friend and turned to him.

"What's going on? I thought I was supposed to be guarding our stuff?"

Vendrik chuckled and gave him a warm smile.

"Don't be acting so stressed so early in the day, come on fix your hair, it's covering your eyes, then I'll show you what I found."

"My hair's a mess? look at yours, it seems like a storm swept past it."

"It's always like that." Vendrik replied then chuckled

Charles looked at the mess that is Vendrik's hair and rolled his eyes. It was a mixture of deep black with streaks of green, he always thought it was odd yet his friend thought it normal.

"Don't give me that look, you also stand out with that pure white wig of yours."

"It's not a wig."

"Oh really?"

Vendrik then showed a mischevious smirk as his eyes locked onto Charles. He knew what was coming yet every time he was never truly ready when it did happen. Much like a hunter pouncing on its prey Vendrik tackled Charles and began messing with his white hair. Charles did his best to fight back as his friend had fun at his expense laughing constantly as he teased him. As soon as he stopped Charles let out a sight of relief. 'I'm gonna kill that damn green haired freak' he thought to himself.

"Feeling any better?"

"Quite the opposite."

Vendrik knew that what his friend was saying wasn't true. Whenever Charles wasn't focusing it usually meant he was deep in thought and needed something to bring him back to his senses. When he iniatially turned towards Vendrik when they first met up he saw that something was on his mind, what that something is was always beyond him but he knew that he could at least get him to focus on the task at hand.

"Alright with that out of the way, come here."

Vendrik motioned for Charles to follow. He followed. Walking through the thick of the woods the two arrived at the foot of a giant cave.

"Let's move here for the next few days, get those orbs in there and explore while I get our stuff."

"Finally something to do, fine I'll get to it and look for a good place to make camp."

Charles entered the cave as the white orbs floating around him illuminated the dark cave as he went in deeper. Vendrik on the other hand went the way Charles came from to retrieve their stuff. 'He seemed bored, I guess sending him on that cave trip was the right move' Vendrik thought to himself, patting himself on the back. Any branches or roots that he would bump into moved out of the way as a soft green glow emanated from his palms.

Vendrik specialized in biological magic, specifically the manipulation of plants and vegetation. Lush forests or areas heavily surrounded by vegetation is where he felt the safest as he has the environmental advantage. Naturally being in such a dense forest such as this one he was at ease most of the time. He was so carefree that he did not notice the sound of the crunching of leaves and the snapping of branches and twigs that seemed to get closer to him. In doing so he was caught off guard and ambushed by something. It emerged from the bushes and attacked his side knocking him off balance and leaving him with an aching pain. The creature landed perfectly on the ground and snarled at him. It stood on all fours and had reptilian features with turquoise scales and a long snout adorned with many a sharp teeth that could easily puncture flesh. It was decently sized being around half as tall as Vendrik and had confidence in its stance. It's deep orange eyes had a fierce look as they fixed themselves upon Vendrik. 'It's a dragoon'

Dragoons, similar to mages, were a product of magic being introduced into the world. If people could learn magic, there was no reason to deny that animals and beasts could as well. Overtime beasts who had possessed magical attributes evolved into many different forms, dragoons included. They also had the unique trait of being born with a different elemental magic, unlike harpies who evolved to only wield wind magic or sirens that only know water magic dragoons could be born with fire, wind, ice or earth magic. Primitive magics yet still very dangerous.

Vendrik had trouble determining the magic the dragoon before him possessed. It didn't take long though as the creature opened up it's mouth which still had the remains of small animal carcasses and reeked of an awful stench. In an instant the air around its mouth began to swirl forming a vortex within it. The vortex grew until it became a swirling mass of high pressure air that then launched itself towards Vendrik. He luckily dodged the blast of deadly air instead having the trees behind him get obliterated as trunks were blasted off from their stumps and wood splinters flew everywhere.

Vendrik just started to recover from the close call when the dragoon was readying another blast. It was then that Vendrik knew he was in danger.