Chapter 14

“Ahhhhhh!” Silvia yawned, stretching her pale arms and dropping to the ground. She sat against the wall of a cottage, brought her knees to her chest, and rested her left arm on them which also held her face. Whilst she squished her cheek with her palm she watched Ban struggle with a water spell, firing the odd ball of water out of his wand and then on the next try drenching himself. She yawned again before languidly saying, “Baaan, I told you that you need to focus and not to try and skip steps. Just focus on the feeling and chant before you try to get stronger and cast faster.”

“I AM!” Ban shook the water from his hair and lifted his wand back in the air with water beginning to seep out. “O great divine beings allow the blessing of water…” He chanted with a scowl at his teacher as a bullet formed in front of his wand. “…to cast where…!”

“Are you?” Silvia raised an eyebrow as the water bullet that formed splattered, drenching Ban’s face yet again.

“Sh-shutup!” He screamed at her with the stamp of his foot.

He sulked for a few minutes before regaining his determination and readying his wands.

“O great…”

However, as Ban began chanting again, a faint horn grazed Silvia’s ears that poked out of her silver hair. She scooted to the edge of the cottage wall and looked towards the forest, where it came from.

“Hmm,” she let out as nothing caught her attention. She shrugged it off and looked back towards Ban. “…?” she sighed, forcing herself to her feet. “Where has he ran off to now? I swear he’s more bratty than usual today…”

She walked over to where Ban was practising magic, the grass soaked and the wooden pole only tinged by water. Silvia shook her head as she cast her gaze over the area but she wasn’t allowed to lament over her student’s slow progress as a horn blared in the distance. It was much louder than before. Silvia looked back to the forest and gulped. The forest still seemed as still as it could be but she had heard the horn that came from within before.

As she scurried around her mind, trying to calm herself as well as brace herself for what was to come, she caught Ban peeking around another cottage wall.

“Ban what are you doing?” She asked as she hurried over.

She was answered by a finger pressed to his lips and a hushed voice. “Shh, they're talking about the rangers scouting the forest. Maybe it’s to do with that horn?”

Silvia joined Ban and peeked around the wall. A few women were hurrying their sons and daughters inside as a few middle-aged men were hurrying back and forth between each house with a multitude of objects, notably tools like axes and pick-axes. A few more of the men were huddled around with an elderly woman, an intense expression on their faces.

“It’s not the beasts is i-?”

“No.” Silvia shut Ban down instantly. “They didn’t use a horn last time, right? Just go practise some magic in the cottage for a bit whilst I find out what’s happening.”

“EH? But-”

“No buts.” She stated firmly, pointing a finger at an annoyed Ban. “I’d let you be a grown man if you could cast water ball consistently but you can’t so you’ll have to be a good boy.”

“I…” Ban cast his head to the floor. “ I guess you’re right.”

“Yep!” Silvia smiled brightly before bringing Ban’s face up and crouching down to his height. “But I can use but, I know you’ll get there one day. You’ll get that strength you seek.”

Ban didn’t smile but he strained his mouth, scrunching his lips together and nodding his head as Silvia patted his head.

Silvia said goodbye and started to walk off when-

“She never lets me practice inside, even when there was a monster attack… and I’m not stu-”

“What was that?” Silvia stopped and turned around, not properly hearing what Ban had said.

“N-nothing…”

“Ah, well, I’ll try to see if everything’s all good because although that definitely isn’t the beast’s horn it could be dangerous or some weird noble and his entourage. I’ll get back as soon as I can.

Silvia put on a fake smile once more and finally parted ways with Ban for the time being. She walked down the slight hill and looped around a couple of shacks and cottages so Ban didn’t see her, and walked up to a young woman outside the church, rushing one last girl into its ‘safety’.

“Um, Melissa?”

“Ah, Silvia…” The blonde woman in a brown dress and a green shawl turned around to face Silvia, her lips trembling ever so slightly as she tried to put on a brave face. “W-What is it?”

“I was just giving a lesson to Ban so I’m wondering what’s going on. Was…” Silvia too showed signs of struggling. “Was that horn…”

“Mm, I think s-so…” Melissa muttered, shaking her head as her voices croaked slightly.

“…” Silvia threw her head down, digging her fingers into her palm and clenching them into fists with a gulp.

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh?!” Silvia shook her hands open and head back up, looking straight into a pair of watery green eyes. "Wh-what for?"

"Uh, you just look-"

"-Ah!" Silvia quickly shook her head, getting rid of the slight scowl her expression bored and then forced her lips to curl slightly upwards.

"Melissaaaaaa!" a bawling, high-pitched voice suddenly burst out from the church, getting closer and closer.

"What is it, Roxy, I thought I told you it's crucial you stay inside with the others? Melissa forced her own despair away and crouched down as a tiny girl in a white dress ran out of the church and into her arms.

She sobbed into her arms as she said, "B-but I don't wanna! Not when Daddy could disappear as well!"

"I-I understand..." Melissa's stoney veil cracked, and her eyes watered again, as she patted the girl's orange hair. "But your Daddy is busy making sure the village is safe, including you and him. If you don't stay inside not only will it be more dangerous for you but... your daddy will be in danger as well as he wouldn't be able to focus himself."

Silvia watched as the little kid, Roxy, continued bawling into Mellisa's chest. She couldn't help but look away as her eyes shed a tear as well. She knew all too well what it was like to be alone, even if the reasoning behind it was different.

As Melissa finally got through the little girl and began walking her back in, their hands clutching each other's tightly, she said, "Just, be safe, despite what others say."

"Hah, thanks, I will," Silvia said turning her head back to Melissa and nodding before walking off.

She walked down the winding dirt path that branched off to many shacks and cottages which had a few men and women rushing between. Most were too busy making sure preparations were being carried out but Siliva could feel the odd pair of eyes digging into the back of her skull. She clenched her fists in annoyance for a few seconds before shaking it off with a sigh. Do they not know from that first attack that with no rangers they are helpless? Running around like headless chickens-!

The deafening horn coursed out of the forest and rattled the air.

Siliva stopped. She wasn't that far off from the forest entrance now. What was she doing? I can't help... She cast her mind through everything that could be happening, what was to come, what had already come, and what she could do. She clenched her hands yet again and scrunched her face. She stared at the floor when- ah! Sagil won't have a clue what's going on, I better make sure he's safe... With a goal in mind, she shook off the oncoming despair and stared at the forest for a few seconds before setting off.

She squinted her eyes.

It had gotten quite dark since she had met with the rangers, healed a few of them, and started training Sagil; with the duel taking up a bit of time with the set-up despite ending in a flash. However, within the darkness of the forest, a faint orange light flickered. It was hard to see as it was blotted by trees but it was visible within the slight gap in the forest carved by a dirt path.

The air was frighteningly silent for a few seconds when the orange light suddenly disappeared from that dirt path. Silvia's ears twitched. Then, as if the light was used as a signal, the clashing of steel on steel clattered through the air.

Silvia's lip trembled as her lips quivered before they were squashed to a stop with her hands forced into balls. She followed the edge of the forest with her eyes as she clashed with herself on the inside.

"Huh?" She let out. Just as she was about to push past her entangled emotions a shade of red amongst green caught her eye. It was Sagil, sprinting towards the forest with every ranger that was present.

Silvia stepped towards the forest and then stepped back towards the village. She didn't know what to do. It wasn't a case of whether she was willing to risk her life for some village she was barely welcome in or a guy she had just met. I... can't help.

She turned around as the cloud of light green burst into the dark forest, the red haggling behind.

But... Silvia's leg dangled in the air, hesitant to make the next step. She didn't really want to risk her life, and even if she did she knew she couldn't. However, she couldn't just hide away somewhere like what she did when the last attack happened. She didn't want her reputation to be soured any further.

'Heartless demon,' some said, 'coward' another had muttered. She had heard it all since she went missing. She didn't understand though, she was just an outsider. It wasn't her place to intervene. Well, that's what she had been told back home, or, back where she had come from.

"Ahhh." She sighed and turned back to the forest. She pushed all the unnecessary thoughts out of her mind. She had convinced herself she was doing it for her own good, and that was all she needed. She wasn't going to help but merely watch. Maybe I'll learn something.

She ran off of the dirt path heading straight into the forest and decided to curl around to the right of the forest entrance, hoping she was less likely to be seen.

Her heartbeat grew faster with each step with her stamina bar already close to zero being much smaller than her mana bar. She huffed and puffed with each step, not accustomed to physical activities apart from waving her hands around, lifting a staff, and twirling a wand around.

"Hm?"

However, as her face began to sweat her eyebrows were raised.

The orange-like had danced back into the shadowy forest, ebbing away at the darkness. However, it was growing larger and larger with each step she took. It was eating away at more and more shadows, using them to grow larger and larger as it illuminated more and more of the forest.

Silvia finally crashed into the forest after a couple of minutes of running. She took a moment to catch her breath before she tried regaining her composure.

She passed by a couple of trees before her hand was forced to her eyes. The orange light was seeping through countless trees, even illuminating the very edge of the forest.

She shielded her eyes from the bright light as sweat began dripping from her face again. The forest was hot and the air was stuffy. She hadn't even realised the noise of battle had vanished until she finally stumbled past another set of trees, her eyes passing through shattered trees and onto the dirt path.

"...!"

A great wall of fire was coated around the forest trees. The flames spiralled to the grass floor and danced around the bodies, showing sliced flesh, battered muscles, and broken bones. Whether it be bloody green cloaks or bloody fur, it flickered through those and shone brightly on the last man standing.

Two grey wolf-like ears pointed atop his silver mane which fell down to his tail, swaying in the air as it glistened red in the flames' light. It was sprayed with blood, much like his tanned bare arms and furry silver chest.

His silver eyes cast down to his legs, his boot sinking into the cheeks of a ginger-haired ranger. His lips curled up as his maw opened, revealing racks of knives as teeth as he turned his head to the side.

Schwing

It stared at a beautiful black blade, shaking in the air, not in his hands, but another's.

Sagil stood, no, wobbled to his feet a few metres away, his black katana held by his shaking hands. It wasn't marred by blood like his hands, face, or tunic. It hadn't been used once.

The wolf-like man cracked his knuckles as it stepped off the ranger towards Sagil when something grabbed its attention.

He swivelled his head around and stared into a white and blue light seeping from the trees.

"O majestic spirit of water, O majestic spirit of wind, hear my call as you rise to heaven..."