William didn’t believe in fate. He hadn’t seen any evidence of it. However, though he didn’t think there was a cosmic force guiding everything, or anything, he did think that there were times and situations where somebody would inevitably act a certain way. He found himself in such a situation. Upon seeing what was happening, he didn’t think about what he was going to do- he just acted. William couldn’t exactly explain it, but it was by instinct. Maybe there was some reason he’d find.

William was dashing forward. There was a fireball flying from the direction of a mounted wizard toward two people who were almost cowering. That in itself might have been a good enough reason to act, but William felt there was something more. Regardless of reasons, he found himself in front of the fireball. Not that he was unprepared for such a situation. All it took was a quick movement… involving a reasonably large amount of ki. He merely deflected the momentum of the fireball with a gentle breeze of wind, though he also pulled air away from where he wanted the fireball to go, creating lower pressure. There was a bit more to it than that, but that was the simple explanation. Then, the fireball went off track. If it had been controlled, perhaps it wouldn’t have, but it was just given an initial direction.

In front of William, he had his staff held out. This wasn’t for any practical purpose with the fireball, but just a stance to be ready, and let his intentions be known. William waited for something to happen, but the fireball just exploded off to the side, then it was quiet. Finally, he decided to be the one to break the silence. “Is there a war I don’t know about, or are the two of you rogue wizards?” William glared at the wizards on their horses.

“Us? Rogue wizards? No, those are the ones behind you.”

“Is that so?” William shrugged. “In that case, it would be your job to capture them instead of trying to kill them, since it’s obvious they couldn’t escape anyway. Besides, they wouldn’t run toward the city.”

The slightly older of the two looked down at him. William felt like punching him in the face, but he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t anything he had said or done, yet, or at least not just that. “Get out of the way, brat. We have criminals to catch.”

“Their crimes?”

“They are rogue wizards.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“They are traitors to the country.”

William tilted his head, then briefly looked back at the pair behind him. “Is that so?”

The younger female spoke up, “No! They just want to suppress our family, and found an opportunity to try to kill us outside the city!”

William felt that sounded familiar. Not because of the Yu Clan rivalry with the Song clan, but because of something else. William looked at the two on horses and raised an eyebrow. “Anything to say?”

“Absolutely… a brat like you shouldn’t have interfered with our business.” Then, they glanced at each other, starting new chants. One was casting a fireball, and one was a lightning bolt. It seems there weren’t sure if the fireball missing was a freak accident, or something he had actually done, so they were trying out different things.

William could have reached either of them in a very short amount of time. Instead, he bent down and picked up a rock. It was a nice rock, with a good weight to it but not too heavy, and rather smooth and round. William hefted it, and nodded.

“Run kid! Save yourself! Maybe you can make it to the city… if you do, tell everyone that the Lockridges have ambushed and killed Daniel and Ivy Cyril.”

William turned to him and grinned. “I thought there was a reason I liked you instantly. Now, I realize why.” There was only a second or so until the chants would be finished. The two riders- members of the Lockridge family, presumably, were more than a few paces away. However, William wasn’t worried. He had fought wizards before… and he had been slower. After really learning how to control ki, his speed had increased… and he had thought of many new methods for fighting wizards. Not because he thought he would have to, but because that was what he had been most familiar with.

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Daniel was panicking, and so was his sister Ivy. He didn’t want to die, but he also didn’t want to wrap up a kid in dying with him. The kid in front of him hadn’t even started chanting, if the staff implied he was a wizard. Instead, he was standing there like an idiot. Daniel didn’t like thinking of someone who had come to save him that way, but he couldn’t help it. Now, there were going to be three dead people. Even if the boy ran as fast as he could, he probably wouldn’t have been able to escape, but Daniel thought he should have tried.

Then, the boy disappeared. Daniel thought he’d seen some kind of movement, but it was blurry, and the boy wasn’t where he was looking anymore. However, Daniel looked up toward the two members of the Lockridge family, and his death. Then, he saw it. It was only a single instant before there was a bright flash, but Daniel clearly saw a single image. Somehow, the boy was next to one of the riders, staff extended. Then, there were two explosions, including bright flashes of light.

Daniel could hear the horses crying out. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. After a few moments he could see what had happened. One horse and rider was a charred mass of flesh, while the other was relatively whole, from what he could see of the limp body. The boy was holding the reigns of the horse next to him to keep it from running off.

It took a few moments, but Daniel pieced together the situation. Somehow, the boy had thrown the rock at one of the riders, with great success, interrupting his almost completed spell. That meant a large fireball went off there. That was somewhat reasonable, though Daniel thought he should have been able to see the motion of it being thrown. However, the boy had also managed to arrive next to the other at the same time, hitting him with a staff for similar results, though the lightning hadn’t spread to the horse as much as the fireball had.