“Ouch, ouchy…. My feet... they hurt sooooo much!” The girl squirmed on top her mount, dirtying the velvet fur with herself. She looked towards the starry night sky with yearning; as if waiting for something to help her with these forsaken cramps.

               Coveting a helper that would bring deserved vengeance unto the green haired half elf. Her red scarf wrapped around one of her legs this time instead of her neck to ensure that the chewed herbs made direct contact with her sore muscles.

Her mouth was half full with some of the minor healing herbs she had, this time swallowing.

Her other exposed leg revealed a completely red skin, her blood vessels were bloodshot from the hours after hours of running with full speed. Her mana was still recovering from using her stance for the entire day.

“Agh, I think my legs are busted”

‘Thou must toughen up, thou can still walk and hath no need to bother me like this.’

“Aw come oonnnn… Just till my legs get better!”

‘Thou shall pay for this.’

Still, even as he complained he followed his master’s orders. The troupe was taking a rest till the sun rises once more, however this time they were not the only group.

               The bustle of merchants trading with other travelers or adventurers could be heard and seen, lighting up the supposed to be dark night with magical lamps and fire alike. Hundreds of people yelled over each other, bidding on a beautiful magical bow and other such items.

               Actual stalls were standing with beautiful signs that attracted customers beside the path; this was ‘The busiest road in Elygria’, a fitting title for a path situated in between one of the most famous herb producers and the largest ore importer in all of Elygria.

               Merchants would often frequent the two places to buy their items. The most successful ones do.

He weaved through the crowd with the little girl on his back. The fox scared some away off his path but also attracted a few with his fluffy fur. She sat atop him, searching for a needed treasure; a heavy snack, or more specifically a meat filled one.

This was a mission they both deemed important.

The nostrils flared, searching for a strong and delicious meaty smell among the dozens of scents. But mostly they smelled the musty smell of sweaty people.

‘These humans smell disgusting….. Ugh, does they not remember basic water magic?’

‘Haha, they do smell nasty.’

Thankfully they could have a silent conversation with their mental link.

They walked for a quite a while, passing by almost a hundred stalls. But none of them attracted the two, they either fell into the categories of too expensive or too bland. They felt like going home after walking for what possibly could be a few hours, but they couldn't not before gaining a full stomach.

'Come on.... All these stall, one must be good. Oh wait I have an idea!'

‘Alright… This worked last time. Help me mana!’ She pleaded with all of her emotions to her half-conscious helpers. Her strong will and emotions to complete a single important task influenced them, they began to move to complete the mission.

Her eyes lit up with mana special mana vision, her blue pupils glowed with rainbow. She saw a trail of rainbow mana forming, leading miles far away.

“That way Apita!” She screamed, startling a few passersby.  Quickly they rushed forward following the almost-endless trail. As they got closer the smell got stronger; a spicy herb filled musk filled the air. The crowd got thinner as people stayed away from the sneeze inducing scene.

They continued onwards, pushing through the sea of sweaty humanoid. They received a slur of 'Hey!'s and 'Watch where you're going!'s, which were deserved.

“Wow, my nose is getting itchy *sniffle*, how much spice did they put in the food? Does it actually even taste good?”

‘Trust in mana, they do not lie. Hopefully we shall find a wonderful sight beyond this crowd.’

               With another push, they passed through the crowd and stepped into a small space of no man’s land.

Past the crowd was a bigger than normal cart stall, no other food stands stood nearby. It was themed like a reptilian-cow with mainly warm colors; a paper mache of a demonic cow’s head was proudly placed atop the roof, a mane of paper flames around it.

               No more than a dozen seats were present, and only one other burly customer was present eating his spicy noodles… that was on fire. Nonetheless the iron clad man ate it with vigor.

Trusting her instincts she sat on one of the empty chairs.

“Uh.. Hello. Have any recommendations for what I should buy? The cheaper ones please.” She said to the somehow muscular very old man. He was busy mixing herbs flower and meat together to fry later.

“Ah? A new customer, welcome to the Bull’s Ire! I never would have thought to see a child coming here, more so a girl. All tha food here are cheap! Just look at the menu up there for them.”

“Wait aren’t spices like reeeaaally expensive. Hey, it’s actually really cheap” She looked in wonder at the prices, none of the food ever went above eight coppers, even the gigantic bowl of flaming noodles the man besides her was eating. A giant red pepper poking out of it.

“That doesn’t matter! Good food is good food! Its ma passion!”

She cruised the hanged menu, her eyes searched for something meaty. Finally, she landed on something called ‘Hell in a wrap’ with the description of a thick meaty soup contained in a bread wrap called a ‘tortilla’.

“Two ‘Hell in a wrap’ please.”

“Coming right up! Just leave tha money on ma table.”

The man went through a door leading to a back room. ‘Wait the stall from the outside didn’t have a backroom, how’s he doing that?’

She placed twelve copper coins on the table, both her and her companion’s stomach grumbled when they smelled a delicious spicy smell heading their way. Soon, their food arrived. She placed one of them in the fox mouth and then they both began to eat; steam came out of the wraps when they bit in.

“Delicious!” Her tongue was overwhelmed with a spicy flavor, enough spiciness to make a dozen men pass out. But to her and her beast; who were both fire specialists, it was the most appetizing flavor of all.

“Haha! Of course, spicy food is ma specialty! None can and ever will compete with ma.”

It was delicious, it could be said to be on par with a mother’s cooking. For a measly price six coppers, this was something you would pay 30 coppers for, well for people that could stand the extreme heat.

Tears poked out of the corner of her eyes, memories of her happy days with her late family. Her heart still ached, this was a weak spot in her emotions. All those years, taken away in a single day. She had repressed it by being busy doing many other things, but when a catalyst appears, the sadness does too.

‘Calm down Etta, mom, dad, and sister won’t be happy if you cry like this. Let’s smile and be happy, that’s what they would want.’ She stretched her face into a smile. Calming herself down. She noticed that mana had begun singing a lullaby for her.

‘Calm down thou, thy mustn’t linger on the past. It’s what our family would want.’ Her fox consoled her.

“Hey kid, ya want to do a job for ma?”

“A job?”

“Ya a job, ya going to go to Sinclair am I right? Send this letter for ma. Here I’ll give ya another wrap for tha job.”

‘Well after that memory trip I need a distraction to get my mind off all that sadness, oh and thanks mana.’ She slapped her face twice, getting out all the leftover sadness. Giving her mana friends a nod.

“Add five coppers and it’s a deal!” “Haha, Ya know how ta make a bargain kid, deal!”

“All ya gotta do is take this envelope, and bring it to ma wife. She owns a magical items shop named ‘Scrap Tree’, she will be happy to see this letter! Its been a while see she’s seen any of ma writ—"

“*BOOM!* Dust were thrown into the air, it swirled in a vortex being pulled by an unnatural wind. “*CLAP!*” A thunderous clap-boom quenched the vortex with an explosion of flames.

“Ah? Are those Demitrus monks? Must be a ritual battle.”

“A ritual battle? Why now!?”

“Ya never seen one? Demitrus monks always do friendly ritual battles like this, those beastfolk fight against each other to sharpen their skills. They also always pilgrimage to other countries.”

When the dust settled she saw two beastmen wearing combat monk robes, it showed their full bestial features.

There was two people in battle, the first was a werebear, and the second person was a bird man; his wings were of the attached to his arms variety.

               The werebear roared as he renewed his mana defenses, a soft glow covering his brown fur. His fist lit afire with blazing flames as he punched forward; one hand in high guard to protect his face.

The birdman leaped backwards, using his wings to gain speed. When the punch stopped, he pushed forward again and grappled the bear’s arm. He then used it to grapple onto the man’s body; wind mana flowed under his wings propelling him to help with his fight.

Responding to the grapple, the humanoid grounded his legs then spun his upper body. The bird person was thrown away; but not before using his claws to scatch his opponent’s body.

The werebear formed a blade of fire on both of his forearms, then dashing forward using them as a sweeper; then both blades turned into a wave of flame blades.

The Aves jumped upwards again dodging the attack, his scruffled feathers billowing in the air. With a single bust of wind he move downward in a front flipping motion.

“Wind wheel!” The man roared. All the gathered momentum boosted further by the wind spell, funneled into one axe kick.

Narrowly, the bearman blocked it with both his forearms, his mana shielding broke with a loud crack.

Etta’s mind went into flow mode once more, her instincts kicking into high gear. She absorbed the fight in front of her like a sponge, each move they made were practiced. Hundreds even thousands of times. They moved with practiced consistency.

 Her enhanced eyes could see things normal people could see, she saw how mana moved inside them. How when they mixed their mana with the surrounding mana it infected them with their will and made them move to form spells.

She saw the difference of the way people flowed their mana in their bodies, and how it affected them.

 She saw the bearman’s mana billowing inside him like a flame allowing him to make sudden moves by releasing flames to cancel out his old momentum in half second intervals.

She saw the birdman’s mana flowing inside him like a vortex allowing him to use the wind to conserve his momentum to enhance his attacks.

She saw them gathering mana while they used it.

               How the bearman mimicked a net when pulling the energy like fish to eat. How it then swam and merged with the burning flames.

               How the birdman used his mana like a spear and hook to snatch the mana from outside. As the vortex devoured them.

The way they move, how similar yet so different they were.

With her eyes, gifted with the befriendment of mana. She saw, and she learned.

The fight went on, more people congregating to see the fight. Noise started to fill up. The man besides her finished his meal and began to watch them in wonder.

Fatigue were clear in their breath, but the still were both standing strong.

Then from the birdman’s hands came out a stream of teal light gathering, he was activating his story. Soon it took form, a handle begun to shape, then it elongated to the length of his entire wing, after that a shape of a bludgeon and blade formed. A warscythe had been summoned.

               On one side was a scythe blade in the shape of a bird beak, the other side was a sort of hammer shape with hooks running along it to shred the flesh it touched. A green glow surrounded it.

Then following his lead, the humanoid bear followed suit. Without hesitation he also manifested his story. His fur lit afire with a crimson energy, shortly the fire then solidified itself into plates that covered the bear’s entire body;

It was a great armor, similar to the yoroi of the Utia people, it was modeled after a lion instead of a bear, the armor covered his entire body making him look exactly like a moving lion warrior statue. The red plating of the armor contrasted with the green of the scythe.

The bear clapped his hands an it burst on fire again, this time with a red-golden hue. He braced his lower body and moved forward in a quick dash, with his feet never coming of the ground.

               “Passion Fists!” His spell boosted by his chant, it activated instantly (with a small gap only Etta could notice) a bust of flame propelled his right forward; parried by a wind shielded wing of the bird.

               Then as his left also propelled forward, his extended right was pushed back into position by another thruster. This time the bird dodged by moving backwards.

The birdman continued to narrowly dodge the practiced move set, but he grimaced in pain from the flames touching him.

The punching forward and rapidly readying again using flame thrusters repeated till a total of ten strikes were delivered, in a total of three seconds. The birdman was pushed back over a meter backwards, recoiling from the punches he did not manage to block or dodge.

“Wind blades!” The man using his left wing threw blades of rending air at his opponent; scratching the pristine armor. The blades’ trail left a dust cloud behind them.

               Emerging from the dirt powder, he swung his warscyhte down, its bright green glow left a trail of green that stayed suspended and incorporeal, almost like ghostly ribbon.

The man spun his scythe and flourished a series of a fast attacks, each getting stronger from the accrued momentum. Occasionally, his blade would briefly flash a bright green that would leave another trail of translucent green ribbon in the air.

Right, left, right, left. Run to another side, repeat. The bird of prey constantly moved and attacked in a repeating motion; switching his placement periodically, ensuring that the bearman would be herded back to his original position.

The werebear’s armor was cracked and scratched with a glowing orange that filled in the marks. His surrounding was filled with the ghostly trails, hundreds of them waited, floating suspended midair. Caution could be seen in his eyes through the eye holes, he had no idea what purpose those insidious looking green things had.

The bird’s beak was showing a clear grin despite the lack of facial muscles.

“Activate! Kcaw!” The bearman’s body tensed at the caw.

Suddenly hundreds of ghostly replicas of the feathered one’s warscythe manifested. They all followed the path set by their respective green ribbons, all at one the began the simultaneous attack.

               The bear curled up into a defensive stance to protect himself, but with little to no avail. He was overwhelmed by the sheer number of slashes.

               Marks of orange light appeared on his armor, showing just how much of it was truly damaged. It looked like it was about to shatter any minute now, there was even blood leaking out of the orange light.

His body swayed left and right fatigued from the barrage of unending attacks, his breath labored and his flames were getting milder.

               He rushed forward, throwing a punch with the last of his breath. He over extended.

The bird’s beak turned into a bigger smile, sensing an opportunity. He slashed forward with his scythe aiming to take him down in a last attack. His weapon touched the man’s armor.

“Payback.” The bear said coarsely.

“BOOM!”