Like a toddler learning to walk

Those red burning eyes made Sen sweat as soon as he perceived them. Not just because of his initial fear and the goosebumps he felt as a result of that. No in fact, it felt like a searing heat was just cooking up his entire body.

It was as though whoever or whatever those eyes belonged to , could actually burn him up with nothing but a gaze. It was easy for Sen to feel smaller, weaker, than many things in life. However he hadn't, even once in his life, experienced something like this.

This wasn't like feeling small, this wasn't like being a mice in the paw of a tiger. This was beyond it. Perhaps this sensation he felt could be explained by how weak he was, perhaps the other hunters wouldn't be feeling the same.

He couldn't tell until he actually warned them of that threat. For this was surely a threat. Walls didn't have eyes as far as Sen knew. Furthermore this being emitted such animosity towards him that Sen knew it wanted nothing more than to kill him, squash him under it's immense foot.

"What is it Mister Porter ? Why the hell are you sweating like that ?" The shadow mage asked worriedly as she glanced at Sen.

"I....I am just having a little breathing problem, nothing bad." Sen answered, his eyes widened to the limit as he took in deep breaths.

'What ? That's not what I was going to say !' Sen thought as he suddenly felt a searing heat in his throat.

He started to cough uncontrollably and the shadow mage couldn't help but place a hand on his back.

Another voice interjected, a much more aggressive one compared to that of the motherly mage. It was Hojosa, but he wasn't yelling this time.

" Did the green monstrosity affect you that much ? Or was it us ? Weak hunters are known to have those kind of symptoms in response to high amounts of magic being thrown at their face. We literally went overkill on that Orc, so I guess that's the reason he is coughing like he just ate some spicy ass chicken. " The fire mage asked as he crouched between Sen and his colleague who was bit surprised by his more tame behavior.

" I never heard of that honestly." The previously worried mage simply blushed and turned her head so her fiery colleague wouldn't get the chance to mock her. He did so anyways.

"If the prim and proper lady is the dumbass and I am the only one who paid attention in classes, people might start to think the sky is gonna fall on their heads. " He said as he clapped his hand on his face. He shook his head left and right as a long sigh left his mouth.

"Don't you worry about a thing, porter. Our dear shadow mage being an uneducated monkey isn't a problem you need to think about. This sensation you have should stop after a few minutes. And if you are still feeling sick after say...A dozen of minutes...." The fire mage once again stopped for dramatic purposes and put his arm around Sen's shoulders as though they were old friends. He whispered in Sen's ear.

"Well you better not puke on me, or I'mma roast you so hard you will start to wonder if one of my parents didn't ride a freaking dragon. And you know which type of riding I am talking about !" The arrogant man flashed Sen a toothy grin. The fact that his canines were actually insanely sharp didn't exactly help to ease the feeling that, in fact, he wasn't joking in the slightest about his threat. Right after that, the fiery mage took his teammate with him and went back to the corpse of the massive green orc.

The problem lied elsewhere though.

"Ahh....Damn it..." Sen continued to force on his voice, trying and failing to speak full sentences. This wasn't natural in the slightest and he knew it.

'The symptoms for high mana exposition are headaches, breathing problems, nausea and loss of vision or hearing. This isn't what's happening....I feel like there is something I am missing .' He thought as he got up with great difficulty. At that point his legs could have very well been noodles, his arms too now that he focused on how they felt. He couldn't even move them properly.

He took a vacillating step, his throat suddenly feeling a bit different in the sense that he now wanted to puke his stomach out.

'Way to jinx it, freaking mage.' He complained in his mind.

Sen was suddenly hit with the feeling that he was being watched, like the eyes of an ill-intentioned being were fixated on him. This was in more ways than one, what people called a hunter's sixth sense.

He turned to his left. Nothing. He turned to his right and the result was the same. There was nothing suspiscious facing him or in his back. Nonetheless he checked again many times.

His curious behavior attracted the eyes of the male healer who looked at him like he was some sort of random drunkard in the street.

"Am I the only one who feels like this guy is actually in trouble and we need to take care of him ? " The male healer muttered as he pointed at Sen with his heavy black wooden staff. Only the tank responded to him.

"Nah no need for that. Hunters are warriors through and through. If a little too much mana gets you acting like you made a dozen of go-backs between earth and the moon in the same fucking day, then you ain't cut for the job !" The tank of the team bellowed. He wasn't even looking in the direction of his much smaller teammate, he was too focused on his spoils. But so was the tall and lanky leader of the team.

"Morons, did the boss drop anything special ?" The leader of the team asked his subordinates who frowned at the sound of his voice. Especially Hojosa who grinded his teeth and let out plumes of smoke through them.

"Firstly, don't show up in my back like that you fucking sack of shit ! Secondly...No, nothing dropped. I mean we can get some cash for his teeth and maybe we could sell his body to a school or something like that. " Hojosa explained as he poked the corpse. He squinted his eyes when his teammates looked at him as though he had just proposed to murder a child.

"The hell ? A school ? What do you want them to do with an orc's corpse ?!" The tank asked, the hair on his arms standing up.

The other members of the team couldn't help but agree, well most of them at least. The male healer was too busy looking at Sen from the corner of his eyes every two seconds. Sen looked like a toddler taking it's first steps and the healer couldn't help but want to run to him.

It got even worse when Sen looked at the wall for some reason, blanched and nearly fell, before shaking his head and resuming his walk like nothing happened. This was all too bizarre for the healer's liking.

'It's like...Something is forcing this state onto him...That can't be though, right ?' The healer couldn't help but wonder as he also looked at the walls. He saw nothing out of the ordinary, but he quickly returned to his teammates.

This was just a wall, but weirdly enough he wanted to avoid even so much as glancing at it.