Zelta immediately ran out of the house, heading towards the village's streets. The head of the village followed him, but when the mage saw him he said: "You better leave this place! They're coming at a fast pace, I'll deal with this!" Neitar decided to trust this person as well as he could, so he ran towards the other side of the village. Before continuing to run, though, he decided to stop by and hide behind a wall, just so that he'd be able to aid Zelta if needed. "I'm overreacting." He said to himself. "He said he'll do it and I should trust him. Still, there's no harm watching." He justified his behavior like this, thinking he'd be safe watching from a distance, as Zelta didn't waver at all as he felt the presence getting closer and closer.
Rather, the mage prepared his battle stance and started casting. "Spear of Light!" He said, evoking a spear of light that could defend him and be used as a spiritual weapon. This was one of the easiest ways for mages to defeat weak opponents and he knew it. There was no way a normal sword could compare to a spiritual weapon, after all. His smirk was clear into the night sky as his white teeth shone thanks to the moon. 'This guy's confidence is unmatched.' The head of the village thought to himself, seeing how he wasn't even thinking of retreating.
"Duel me, I'm not afraid!" Zelta screamed into the night as his smirk was met by another, who was exiting the darkness beside the house of the head of the village, which had its lights still turned on and vividly showed the face of the opponent the mage had to fight. When he saw the face of such an enemy, Zelta was astounded. Not because he looked particularly ugly, quite the opposite, but mainly because it didn't look human. The creature the mage had in front of his eyes was, rather than being human, trying to be human in a way which was almost believable, but something clearly looked off in the way he acted, the way he looked at nothing rather than looking at something in particular, until it set its sights on Zelta.
The mage could look at its face and body for a bit more as both were completely enlightened when he walked in front of the dim lights coming from the house. His eyes were blood red and, while in bandits they still held humanity, here they looked like gems, decorations to a body that seemed like a statue, but not alive. His white hair seemed soft and was long, but at the same time felt innatural, while his body seemed pale and similar to Zey's. Still, the main thing the mage noticed was the way he moved feet and hands. It felt like the monster was still getting used to having a human body as it twisted those around for no reason while moving, as if it was trying to understand how they worked. Despite such a description, Zelta was still confident and actually rather curious, because he found this "thing" intriguing. He wondered if it could talk.
"So, you must be the 'C' we have been talking about." The mage declared to the creature that was getting closer and closer, which looked like it had no intention to talk. "What are you smiling about... wait, is that mine?" Zelta couldn't understand why the creature kept smirking while getting closer, which was unlike the emotionless behavior it had, but realized soon enough it was only copying his own smirk. "I see. Then, I guess this is your end." Zelta said without any fear as he immediately tried to pierce through the pale, white skin of the monster in front of him, but that creature used his hand to block the spear.
Not even holding it, the spear had been completely neutralized, held in the palm of the beast. It was not a high level spell, so that was to be expected if this thing was strong. "I see. What's your name?" Zelta asked as he didn't have any particular complaint, it was his own mistake he underestimated this creature so much but he wouldn't fail again. But the beast stayed silent. It was just as if it was trying to talk, mirroring Zelta's movements, but still wasn't able to. Neitar, who was watching, remembered a question that had been asked previously during the meeting: 'what if I'm frozen in fear and I can't say anything?' That was probably the reason why it knew how to walk but not how to talk -- nobody so far was able to talk in front of impending doom, their death. "It's learning. I hope it's not a fast learner." Neitar concluded, but soon enough it'd be surprised about how fast of a learner this creature was.
"Spear of Light!" Muttered a voice, as if copying Zelta's, looking perfectly similar. Suddenly, in Zelta's opponent's hand appeared the same spear the mage held. At that point, the mage started realizing how this battle could've concluded. "So, if I use high level spells here, he can learn them and use them against me... or maybe he can only learn low level spells, for all I know. I must end this quick, because I don't really want to know." Still, his confidence was not broken at all as he decided to go for an all-in spell and try to destroy the creature as fast as possible.
"Secret Fire!" Screamed Zelta while casting one of the hardest spells he could perform. It was mana-costly but useful, as it created a fireball spell which could not be seen. It was the perfect ambush attack, because it could only be noticed when you were very close to it. "You can't dodge or block this one." The mage thought to himself. Just as the attack was arriving, though, the monster saw it. Unable to answer with any spell because all it had learned so far was not good enough, he decided to throw his spear at the fireball, but it quickly burnt in the flames which were still heading towards the monster.
So, it decided to dodge away, but the fireball still followed it, because the spell wouldn't stop unless something blocked it or the user ran out of mana. Getting too far away, the monster couldn't see the spell anymore as it became invisible once again, but it was now looking angrier than previously. "Come at me!" Said Zelta, wanting to end this fast to avoid having to be on the receiving end of Secret Fire. As such, he waited for the beast to use a spell as counter-attack, but what it did next surprised him.
Making a high-pitched noise, the creature went on all fours, immediately saw the fireball crashing into him and jumped up, letting it crash into the ground where it stopped its destructive charge, then jumped towards Zelta on the spot with killing intent. The mage was stunned by how fast the creature was and could only teleport away, losing even more of his mana. Twenty meters away, Zelta arrived safely, but realized that this battle would only go downhill from then on. "If Secret Fire hasn't hit him, then I don't think I can make anything more accurate. I'd have to stop him in place..." He thought to himself, then tried one last time to make the counter attack work.
Meanwhile, the beast wasn't wasting any time and, just as it saw the new position of Zelta, it tried to attack him. Its speed at all fours was much more than the precision of a normal mage could be, so the noble mage decided to wait for him to strike; just as C got close, Zelta dodged away from the jump of the creature as a storm of arrows came raining down on it. The creature immediately tried to hit them with its hands, creating a lot of dust which led to it not being seen anymore.
"Have I done it? I think so. That was way harder than I thought." Zelta thought to himself, extremely displeased about how he had maneuvered the situation. But that wasn't quite the case, and the 'it' holding a male body was still alive, which the mage realized after the dust was no longer there. It was holding more than thirty arrows with his hands, as they were no longer two but four, as two more stretched innaturally out of its body to grab the arrows that would otherwise hit him. "You can adapt this much..." Zelta said in awe. "Then, I don't think I stand a chance." He thought to himself as the unfamiliar feeling of fear started creeping in his body.
"Secret Fire!" Said the voice which wasn't Zelta's. "D-Do I die here?" The mage thought to himself as he tried his best to cast a barrier but failed miserably because of the lack of mana. Meanwhile Neitar was running in full speed towards Zelta, trying to save him from the monster which was getting closer and closer, but the first to arrive was the fireball itself, which was just about to burn the mage's body to a crisp...
when it missed.
"W-what? B-but it-t's targeted?" Zelta asked himself when he saw the fireball hit the house he was cornered to, but not him. "H-how did it miss?" He thought to himself, before he saw Neitar arrive to save him. 'I underestimated him as well. I'm a failure.' He thought to himself, but Neitar wasn't having such thoughts, mainly because he was not the one who deviated the spell, as he didn't know how to use magic and had been a strategist and warrior in the war he had fought in. But the head of the village also didn't know what 'Secret Fire' was, so he thought it was normal for it to miss.
"Are you fine?" The old man asked, to which the blue-haired sorcerer weakly said: "No, not really." But Neitar's gaze was fixated on the monster whose arms had come back into its body, leaving two holes on the shirt it was wearing. "It's coming towards us." The mage pointed out. "I'm dead, please run without me. I'm weak..." The mage said, starting to cry, but the creature didn't seem at all like it was heading towards them, it seemed satisfied instead.
"You're next."
That's what the beast muttered steadily in a voice that sounded inhuman, before heading towards the opposite direction on all fours, leaving the village. And just like that it disappeared, leaving an emotional scar in Zelta's broken pride, just as half of the night had passed and the moon was shining brightly above the confused heads of the two.
