Neidr looked over at Arrieta, who was still shaking and staring at the gem on her wrist.

"Do you regret it?"[Neidr] Arrieta looked up to him and said,

"Only that I killed the wrong people." [Arrieta] She looked down at the bodies of the young initiates and said,

"Some people ought to die." [Arrieta] Despite her strong words, her body was shaking. She nervously picked at her nails and stared at the ground. Neidr gave a small smile, he walked over to Arrieta and sat beside her. He embraced her and stroked her head. At first, she was frozen stiff, but then she returned the embrace. As minutes passed, the shaking slowly subsided. No matter what, Arrieta had caused the deaths of several people today. Saying some of these people deserved it may have only been her defense mechanism, killing with a blade in your hand felt very personal. Regardless of that, though, Neidr knew the self-blame she put on herself for what she did to those young women. Neidr wasn't much a man of words, so all he could do was comfort her with his actions. He had started to like her afterall, and it would be no good to have her break down.

They sat there together, in peace, listening to the sounds of the forest. After a long time, Neidr spoke softly,

"There will be guards coming soon... Do you think you can kill again?"[Neidr] Arrieta looked up at him and said,

"I will, I don't want to, but there are some lines that I won't let anyone cross ever again."[Arrieta] As she said this, her eyes were filled with a burning rage and determination. Neidr smiled and pat her head twice, she should be able to make it. Neidr stood up and said,

"We should get going soon."[Neidr] After picking up the bracelets of the others, he reached down and touched Arrieta's shoulder, only saying,
"Tag." before running away. Arrieta's eyes shot wide open as she scolded,

"Dammit, you rascal! See if I don't catch ya!" [Arrieta] Neidr laughed boisterously as Arrieta chased after him at full speed. The duo dodged and weaved through the trees, Arrieta kept good pace with Neidr as she was a farmgirl and had a good constitution. Neidr laughed boisterously and said,

"You're so slow, have you been eating too many sweets recently?" [Neidr] Arrieta's face turned red as she yelled,

"Says the coward who got a head start!" [Arrieta]
"That's called strategy!"[Neidr]

"That's called shameless!" [Arrieta] The duo bickered while rushing through the forest. Although it was a little less empty than they thought.

***

Liam and Lizzy were in serene meditation, discovering the truths of life and magic. They sat three meters away from one another and took in all of the meaning in the area. Palersa forest was conducive to both of them. The living animals gave Lizzy a better concept of puppetry, and it turned out that Liam had a once-in-a-generation constitution that made all elements positive influences on his mana. Liam gave a small smile as he thought about how Lizzy had complimented him about his constitution. He could practically see the stars in her eyes. It made him feel as though he was floating. On that day, Liam decided that he would not only get stronger for his own sake. With that thought in mind, he tried to slowly enter a meditative state. Glancing over at Lizzy, she had already done so. Liam smiled again, he might have a once-in-a-lifetime constitution, but she truly had the state of mind. Liam was filled with praises for her, but then he shook his head.

meditation!

meditation!

meditation!

Liam couldn't help, but let out a sigh, why was this so difficult? He turned his back to Lizzy, afraid that he would just end up staring at her. He found it really difficult to do this meditation thing, but he didn't want to move and disturb Lizzy. Liam started to play around with his mana out of boredom. Ever since he was young, he could feel it, his mana.

As he had been sitting there for hours, his mind started to get focused on this, then he discovered something cool. If he held in all his mana for a time and then released it, his mana shield would increase in size. Just holding the mana wouldn't make it bigger though, upon release, the stored mana all shoved outwards, forcefully expanding the shell. Liam's expression grew determined, meditation might be difficult, but this? Liam did the process over and over again.

Holding more and more mana within his shell everytime. What was really surprising to Liam was how fast his shell expanded. It kept expanding at an incredible pace. As the duo had been sitting there all day and night since they got there, only stopping to eat, drink, or sleep. His mana shell expanded from just around his body to around six feet in diameter. He forced his mana outwards as far as it could go into a diameter of one mile. This was not the size of his shell, but rather the greatest extent to which his mana could be pushed outwards.

He saw all the movements of the animals and all of the trees surrounding them. With this, he could provide Lizzy with unprecedented safety. Just as he was thinking that... Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a couple of people rushing violently past the area in which he was camped. This nearly scared Liam witless, he hadn't seen either one on his mana scan! On further inspection, Neidr was barely visible. He could see Arrieta pretty clearly but had assumed she was some of animal. Liam swore to himself he would pay more attention next time. Then he heard Arrieta's voice scream out and say,

"Dammit!" [Arrieta] She tripped a feel into the forest floor. Then she screamed out with pain in her voice,

"Neidr I think I've broken my leg!"[Arrieta] Although Liam didn't much like this woman, he should get up and help her. Then he saw Neidr stop and look back at her. Liam's heart calmed down. He didn't know much about this man, nor did he like him at all, but it looked like he was going to help out his companion. This made Liam give Neidr some points in his heart. Liam nodded proudly and settled back down. Then Neidr spoke a solitary word,

"Bullshit."[Neidr] Neidr turned around and ran away.
'What the fuck?' Liam was absolutely speechless.
'Give back my good impression!' Liam started to get up to help the poor girl. She was a bad person, but she seemed to have made the wrong choice of friends, maybe he could help her turn her life around. Then,
She actually stood up and chased after Neidr as if nothing at all had happened.

"Dammit what if I were hurt ya bastard!?"[Arrieta]
"You weren't!"[Neidr]

"How could you know!? I bet you abandoned me out of pure heartlessness!"[Arrieta]

"You're a thousand years too early to trick me with that kind of acting! If you want to tag me, you have to do it the hard way!"[Neidr] As Liam watched them disappear from his vision, he was rooted to the ground.

What kind of degeneracy was this?