Magi

The next day, thick fog covered the valley making their journey hard but still they continued moving forward slowly. 

"Woah, the road here is very rocky", Sam said when the carriage was rocked by stone. 

"Be careful or you might fall of", Alden said. Alden was the name of the carriage driver and Sam was surprised to know that he was a knight in service of the Hardlett family.

"Bisca, tell Alden to drive the carriage more carefully", asked Elena who was feeling discomfort from all the shaking.

'...what was that?', Sam who was on the lookout saw some shadow move in the fog but it disappeared the next moment.

"Is something wrong?", Alden asked on hearing Sam.

"I might be mistaken. Still this is quite a fog", Sam said.

"Hmm, the valley has unusually harsh environment and people often get lost here if come unprepared", Alden continued driving carefully while talking to Sam.

"Wait", Freid who was walking forward signaled to halt. 

"What happened", Bisca asked through the window on noticing the carriage stop. Alden and Sam got off the carriage and met Freid.

"The bridge is broken and we can't cross while the river has such strong currents, Freid on pointing to the broken bridge told them.

"This is a problem", Alden scratched his head and went back to report he problem.

"Is there no other way?", Sam asked while trying to look around for another route. The fog was proving to be a problem as they were unable to see very far.

They decided to check for other route or a place where river was narrow and for that Sam and Freid went left while Goth and Alden went right. 

"Nothing we could find to solve the problem", on returning back Alden and Freid reported to Elena.

"What are you implying", Elena asked with a frown on her face. 

Sam who was watching the bridge noticed that it was destroyed by someone rather than it being broken naturally. With the shadow he saw earlier, he found all these signs quite odd. 

'Looks like we have trouble on our hands', Sam told Sei.

[It would be better if we can escape this place fast. All the energy in this fog is affecting me so I can't tell much], Sei was trying his best look out for trouble.

Sam went to the carriage and saw Elena scolding Alden and Freid. 'Poor fellows', he stayed away from the carriage for the time being.

Wind started blowing and the horses started acting strange. Before anyone can understand what was going on the horses break free from the carriage and ran away.

"Hold the horses", Alden cried while chasing them. Fried and Goth soon followed while Sam didn't move.

Something felt off starting from the bridge and Sam could hear the bells of danger ringing in his ears.

*Clip Clop Clip

A black figure slowly approached the carriage seeing which Sam ordered Bisca to close get inside.

He was wearing a white robe with blue embroidery and holded a folded fan in his hands. His wooden sandle had a high base and created loud sound with each footsteps.

On right side of face a tattoo of a dragon was present and his red shiny eyes instilled fear to whomever it met.

'This man is bad news', Sam felt every hair on his body rising just from the presence of the man. His hands were shaking and sweat formed on his forehead like crazy.

"... something smells delicious", he took a long whiff of the air and said while looking at Sam.

He unfolded his fan and swept the air, a strong wind blowed and the fog in their vicinity blew away. In a moment everything became clear again. Seeing his power Sam immediately marked him dangerous.

"Who are you", Sam asked while calming himself.

"I am Magi", he raised his fan towards the sky and brought it down. Sam saw the tree behind him split into two clean pieces and fell down.

'What power', Sam didn't noticed the strike and was left stupified.

"Fufu, I like your reaction. Now hand over the goods and I will kill you painlessly", said Magi while pointing the fan towards Sam.

"Don't know what you are talking about. I am not going to hand over the young lady".

"What young lady", Magi was confused for a moment.

Sam saw Bisca and Elena looking through the window and decided to put the blame on Elena. If they knew that Sam has a bounty on his head, he can kiss this job goodbye and won't be able to take refuge under the Hardletts.

Sam signalled Bisca to activate the carriage security protection and hide so that he can fight easily.

"No need to hurry now", Sam started running away and a nerve popped up on Magi's forehead.

"..so you want to play the game of cat and mouse game", Magi decided not to ask any further as he hated the cat and mouse game and decided to kill Sam in one move.

He accelerated using magic and attacked Sam with a wind blade. Sam jumped to the sideways to avoid the attack and rolled on the ground, thrice.

"Not going to catch me when you are this slowly", he continued taunting Magi and made sure they were quite a distance away from the carriage.

Looking around so that nobody noticed, Sam stopped in his tracks.

"Are you tired, my little mouse", Magi also stopped seeing Sam stop.

"Heh, I accomplished what I wanted to", Sam drew his sword out and covered the blade with his aura. Magi furrowed his eyebrows in surprise seeing Sam could use sword aura.

"Showing that you are tough. I like breaking bastards like you. Take this, Wind cutter", Magi waived the fan and blades of air came out.

*Clang

Sam managed to block two out of them while the third one cut him in the army.

"Ho, quite the skills you have got", Magi complimented Sam, after all not everyone can parry his wind cutter attack.

"You haven't seen my 100 percent", Sam also smiled.

"Then show me, Wind Storm", Magi moved his fan and a strong wind swept Sam back, quite a distance.

"..khh, what force", Sam stopped himself flying away by holding a tree.

"Like you I haven't even shown you my 100 percent", Magi smiled.

"You must be quite a monster. And luckily my job is hunting monsters", Sam started attacking Magi. Sam's attack were powerful but they were easily blocked by Magic.

Sam had already understood that his opponent was quite powerful but he still didn't summoned his sword because he wanted him to spend some energy and tire Magi out.

Magi and Sam continued fighting with Sam sustaining many injuries.

"You made yourself look very strong but in reality you are quite weak", Magi laughed seeing Sam's condition.

Sam was out of energy and panting for air.

"Time to end this" , saying this Magi unfolded his fan and started chanting spell.

"Now", Sam ordered Sei to use his ability to cancel the spell.

[Okay, Cancel], the magic Circle broke and Magi immediately felt dizzy and sat on the ground.

Sam was waiting for this chance and immediately summoned the sword and dashed towards him. "Take this.."

Sam's attack was blocked by a weaken Magi who saw his fan being cut into two and saved himself by jumping back.

He was the sword and the black flame surrounding it and felt unknown energy emmiting from it.

"What in the world is that", but before he could say anything Sam attacked him again and this time Magi saw the earth shattering from the attack.

"This sword is dangerous", Magi now wanted the sword and for that he has to kill Sam.

But whatever Magi tried, the sword cut through everything and it's flames continued eating away those.

"Does something like this exists.. Of course not. This is my cheat", Sam read Magi's face and told him. "Now stop resisting and die", this time Sam donned the complete armour which gave him a boost in his physical stats and in the blink of eye cut Magi down.

"Impossible..", Magi's head slowly rolled down on the ground and disappeared like ashes in the air.

"That was a nice workout, let's go and meet them", Sam put the sword away and went to the carriage.

Unknown to him a bird in the sky was watching Sam and flew away when the battle ended.

"The kid killed Magi. Brilliant", a man who was seeing the battle through the birds eye said.