(Writer's POV)

"IT's FACE! IT's a fucking demon!! Arghhhh," Yatish shouted.

And from Yatish's perspective who lived in a modern earth, it was indeed a demon, dark purple skin with a weird looking rough texture which resembled an avocado, the shape of head like a cross between a human and a pterodactyl, black eyes with orange rings.

The proportions were still of an average human, including a height that couldn't be bigger than 5'8, which made it all the eerier in the moonlight.

"Heyyy!! That's fucking racist, you know! How would you like if I called you a monkey? You fucking human."

"Tha....that... just...ehemm"

Yatish was speechless.

"I'd prefer if you call me an Erlik.... Haha...."

Bruno hit the Erlik. "Stop shouting, or you'll die right now. Nod if you understand."

The Erlik hesitated, but seeing Bruno's sword filled him with terror, and he nodded thou he did squeeze out a snarky comment.

"if anything, this mountain is a demon.... Since when do mountains move this fast..."

Yatish finally found something to say....

"How dare you say anything about racism when you're out to get the whole damn human species."

Yatish felt a fragile pride at having stood up to this beast after the initial shock.

"hahaha!!! We are 'out to get' the weak! Strength determines everything! Each Erlik has the potential to grow into a strong being but humans---"

Bruno hit him again.

"hehe....... Not so much."

'what are these people? Animals? Who decides everything by strength?' Yatish thought. And he would have been right in his world, but was this the same world? No! Yatish didn't know it yet, but strength in this world meant something entirely different, some might even say 'knowledge is power' was more apt here than anywhere else.

Bruno took out a rope and tied the Erlik's hands, gagged its mouth and then hit it precisely to knock it unconscious, then started speaking.

"It's great that we caught him. I'll question him later. There shouldn't be any more scouts in this area, so we can move fast now. Hurry up! We have to go now before they notice a scout was missing."

Bruno put the Erlik on one of his shoulders and suddenly grabbed Yatish by the waist!

"NOOO! What are you doing?!?!? I knew I shouldn't have trusted you! Put me the fuck down NOW!!"

"Calm down umm.... What was your name again?"

Due to all this commotion and tension, It slipped Bruno's mind to ask for Yatish's name.

'Damn this fucking mountain!' Yatish thought. He didn't want to give Bruno his real name, so he just went with his frequent game tag.

'fuck it. Everything is already very game-like anyway' "humph! Just call me Ryu"

"an unusual name.....anyway It's an honor to meet you, Ryu. I couldn't carry you in the secret path because of it's small size, but now we can travel much faster, please bear with me until we reach the next town. I estimate that these Erliks will have to spend a couple of days at least to regroup. Taking over the capital of our country isn't that easy"

"Hmmm......" Yatish seemed doubtful...

"How far is it anyway?!?!"

" It's about 25 Dutshers away.... About 3 times the distance we already traveled"

'just by a rough estimate that's about 30 more kilometers and this way did seem better than traveling by foot.'

"fineee...."

Should Yatish.... No... Ryu ever look back to this time, he will never be able to decide whether it was a good decision or not. Life is funny that way.

Bruno held Ryu beside himself as if carrying some luggage. Had anyone looked at these three in these moments, they might have died from laughter. A fully armored knight carrying an unconscious demon in a cheap ninja cosplay and an adult man in shirt, tie, and shorts underneath was running at full speed through the forest under the silver moonlight.

Ryu had forgotten entirely about what he was wearing until now, but as soon as Bruno started running, a chill penetrated Ryu's little friend. But all he could do was hang on.

(Ryu's POV)

'Damn, I'm freezing down there...'

I estimate we should be there in 40 to 45 mins judging by the speed. How is he moving as fast as a car?? Is he using magic? I have to learn to use magic as soon as possible; the least I could do is start with a theory.

Now that I finally had nothing to do except, of course, being in this extremely uncomfortable and jumpy car in the chill of the night, I started to wonder about magic and how these people are using it.

Let's forget about Bruno for a second and analyze what I can see, the demon.... No The Erlik's wind magic. What did Bruno call it? Ah.... Right wind manipulation type....

"So at least he wasn't creating the wind, just manipulating it." I unknowingly whisper.

"...." Bruno looked at me but didn't say anything, I guess he doesn't want to be distracted going this fast, should something happen he will survive but I definitely won't.

But how would you give direction and sharpness to the wind? For direction we use a fan, how does it work?

'hmmm....'

Doesn't it work by forcing the air to move in a specific direction, making the particles move parallel to the axis of the fan? Almost like when water hits a curved rock, it will smoothly go up.

If there's magic, there's definitely something like magical energy, mana, or something.

Does he use mana to push air and force it through an invisible tunnel that sharpens it like a water jet, I know these can be sharp enough to cut diamonds.

Hmm.... Yeah, this could definitely work, but would it really work that easily?

Maybe they somehow increase the energy of particles going in their desired direction changing from Brownian motion to a high-speed laminar flow, yeah this would definitely have a better effect as well as be sharper, but do these medieval-looking people really understand these concepts?

I was incredibly lost in thought when I was brought back to reality when Bruno almost ran into a tree and barely dodged it.

Even though it was frigid, the wind did feel pleasant on my face, and it kept me awake. It was a familiar feeling of riding a bike at dawn, Except.... It was also different for some reason....

The wind ruffling my overgrown hair. I could feel connected to it almost. I started to really feel the wind, not just the wind which hit my body, but even further....

The more I try to think about the movement of particles, the more aware of it I was becoming, I felt like the wind was dyed blue all of a sudden. The turbulent microflows, the disturbances, I could feel everything.

It's tough to describe it, but it's similar to heat from the sun, we humans never really see it but are instinctually aware of its energy.

For a moment, I can feel every tiny movement of air in my immediate surroundings. From how it's getting hit by Bruno's armor, I can barely even make out the detailed shape of it.

It's a bizarre feeling like taking a deep dive and almost drowning.

I try to stop the wind from hitting my face. I don't know how, but if I was really summoned into this world to save it, I must be able to use mana, right?

I try to sense if there was such an energy inside me, I close my eyes and refocus myself from outside to inside myself. After a few moments of trying to find something I couldn't find anything, but I started to feel warm.

'Damn, am I getting a fever now? It really wasn't a smart choice being out in just shorts.'

Then the warmth started to collect as if it had a mind of its own, It collects

itself into various spots, and for a minute I could no longer feel them at all.

Then---

"Aghhhhhh......"I shouted.

I was feeling a burning sensation in my chest right above my heart. It was like the warmth from before was concentrated in one place.

Bruno suddenly stopped and put both the Erlik and me down.

I again screamed with pain "UGHHhhhg..... Aghhh.... Wha... ts...... Happ..... ening???"

"It'll be alright Ryu... thou I don't know how you did it, you are somehow already forming a magic core when just minutes ago I couldn't feel anything from you."

"I.... DON'T Care just make it STOP!!" I felt like tearing my chest with my own hands.

"you're doing in minutes what people usually take months to do, your body isn't used to such concentrated soul essence, but it'll soon change the right way. Just try to hang on and bear it."

"Something....... Something to lessen it...... Please....." I begged. The pain was unbearable like someone was searing a hole in my heart.

"There might be a way if you could use magic, but I don't think you have a high enough understanding of this world to do it. Even a simple spell would have worked..... Just focus on the core and try to spread it through your body as much as you can for now."

I didn't quite get him but I was willing to try anything at this moment, I try to bear with the pain and imagine the core spreading through my body like through non-existent capillaries.

But none of the capillaries could contain it, and it didn't spread much and just kept hurting.

Suddenly I felt one of the capillaries becoming real and spreading to my right hand. The core heat followed it. I didn't know what to do, it felt like my hand would burst, but just as it was about to reach my palm I see the Damn Erlik was somehow free and was about to throw a dagger at Bruno.

I knew I had to do something and suddenly it felt like instincts took over, everything felt connected, the feeling of air particles returned, and the soul essence felt like it transferred from my hand to the air.

I just knew I had to stop the Erlik, and I stretched my hand to stop him somehow, the air around me followed me as if my own limbs and hit the Erlik.

Swishh......

I saw It's hand being cut, and Bruno was completely fine....

I fell and tasted the mud salty with my own sweat and was losing consciousness as I saw a worried Bruno running towards me. I knew it would be fine.... somehow.....