'Promise me that you won't use this spell until you are a master magician,' went through Luz's head as he fell from a height of 50m from the sky.
He crashed on a treetop that broke his fall.
"Arg, that hurt. But at least we survived it. Didn't we Gab?" said Luz smiling as he positioned his injured body in a more comfortable position.
It took Luz a few seconds to realize that his siblings were no longer with him.
"Gab, Raph, Michael, Az. Are any of you here?" Luz called out loudly in the forest. At that moment Luz guessed what actually happened.
'Hmm, I could have sworn they teleported with me.'
"Now all I can do is pray that the four of them survive and I get a chance to see them again someday," Luz muttered to himself with a sigh as he made a quick plan on how to move forward with his life.
Filled with adrenaline, Luz didn't notice how his own mana core was full of cracks due to the excessive strain of the spell. Gritting his teeth, Luz whispered to himself as he clambered down the tree with upper body pain, "I need food, something to drink, and a place where I won't freeze to death at night." Reaching the bottom, he heard only the screeching of animals in the forest.
Luz made his way, with a simple big stick in one hand and an empty bottle in the other. Around him was nothing except green stuff, but in the bushes, he heard a rustling. By now the rustling was coming from all directions and Luz threw the bottle aside to hold the stick with both hands.
The next moment he heard a roar, and before he knew it, a cheetah-like monster jumped on him and pinned him to the ground. Luz who was on the ground pressed the stick with both hands against the throat area. The beast roared and tried to maul Luz with its huge jaws. He said gnashing his teeth, pressing his right hand against the jaw of the jaguar-like monster, the spell [Räumliche Unordnung] {spatial disorder}.
Although Luz couldn't maintain the spell for even a second, the time was enough to shatter the whole jaw due to the creation of spatial disorder. Blood and pieces of flesh fell on Luz while the jaguar cried out loudly. Luz grabbed the knife attached to his pants with his right hand and stabbed it into the opening of the missing lower jaw.
The monster struggled less and less until it toppled lifelessly on top of Luz.
"I don't even have time to think here," Luz sighed, tossing the animal corpse aside so he could close his eyes in peace for a moment.
"My mana seems to be empty. I think I'd better wait up the tree until my mana is full again," Luz huffed as he carried a corpse that was in his weight class up the tree.
Not 30 minutes later, Luz could be seen in front of a fire trying to cut the jaguar corpse into pieces with his dagger.
'Thinking about it, it would have been better if I had taken spices with me. Well, learning how to cut meat properly would have been a wiser decision. Hopefully, the meat will still taste good.'
After eating, Luz wandered aimlessly to the north hoping to reach any signs of civilization. But less than an hour later, he was running through the forest with a bunch of dog-like monsters that had a gemstone between their eyes chasing after him.
'Why am I so unlucky?' went through Luz's head before a large river came to his eyes.
Luz was losing more and more stamina and he didn't even dare to look behind. The screams and gasps of the dogs alone were enough to keep him from glancing behind.
'Either I jump in there and try to get to the other side of the river or I'm going to get mauled by those creatures.'
He threw himself into the river. Most of the dogs refused to throw themselves into the stream but two of the dogs were refusing to give up and jumped after him. Unfortunately for Luz, the current was far too strong for him to make it to the other end of the bank. Instead, he got pulled along.
'Human civilizations are usually located near large rivers to exploit them for shipping. Hopefully, I'll get lucky and the river will lead me to one…'
But before he could continue to remain engrossed in his thoughts, he was jolted out of his thoughts by a bite on his calf. A sharp pain shot through his body.
'I swear, I will exterminate every animal of your race yet! Every female and every newborn...,' Luz cursed as he placed his hand firmly against the dog's skull and muttered the same spell he had used earlier.
The animal's skull shattered but the animal did not let go of his calf, even though it was dead. "Why do I have so much bad luck?" Luz questioned himself as he grew slightly tired.
With great difficulty, Luz was able to move to the other end of the stream.
'Hopefully, soon there will be a branch I can hold on to.'
God seemed to hear his prayer because 10 minutes later he crashed into a rock in the stream. With all his strength Luz held onto it and climbed on while smiling and waving to the dog, who continued to follow the stream.
Only on the rock could Luz take care of the corpse, which did not want to let go of his leg.
"You, my dear will be my dinner tonight. I hope you're edible otherwise I have another problem besides my damn injury on my calf," Luz muttered as he followed the stream.
Blood began to flow from the bite site and his clothes were soaked with water.
By now the evening sun was shining and Luz was seen naked by a campfire, hoping his clothes would dry quickly. The fire may have kept him warm but without clothes, one would still feel vulnerable. Hoping the wound on his calf wouldn't get infected, he briefly pressed fire against it.
"I hope this is enough before I get among humans," Luz sighed.
However, he ignored an important problem, because a campfire is metaphorical, like a lighthouse that reveals its location to everyone nearby. Perhaps he was aware of this, or perhaps Luz hoped that others would find him.
The sun was slowly setting and Luz was sitting by the campfire with his clothes on, which were only slightly wet, and he heard another rustling from the bushes.
Alerted, Luz pulled out his knife, preparing for an attack. A stranger answered out of the bushes in a foreign language, "I come in peace."
"Speak Raneian you weirdo," Luz replied in a position where he could escape at any time.
"I come in peace," repeated the person in a language Luz understood.
"That's better," Luz answered with a smile hoping to have found light in this dangerous forest.
But he did not foresee how much he was wrong about his assumption.
