Chapter 09: Monster

   I was west of camp, in an area of the forest that had enough space for a new one to be built. It was large enough for the placement of eight tents, plus plenty of room for exercise and close to a source of drinking water. 

   However, I should not be worrying about this at the moment. Because my main priority now is to survive.

   I only know my location thanks to a compass that Yurion gave me to prevent me from getting lost when fetching water from the reservoir or something. But another thing that helped me was the ability to see where those two and the children were. Morello told me that since I was just beginning to train my magic, it was natural that I would develop mana perception, apparently a basic Wizard skill.

   I could feel Morello and Yurion's mana becoming more agitated, which means they must be in combat. The same will probably happen now, since the noises coming from the inner part of the forest indicate that the AWA is coming in that direction. 

   My weapons were clamped. The moment when I was knocked unconscious after contact with the code core must have been the perfect opportunity for this. And I was an idiot not to realize this earlier and tell them to destroy them.

   But now I have to use them.

   The sweat dripping down my forehead drips onto my cheeks as five figures in gray AWA attire appear before me, the same attire I was wearing on the day of the first phase of the test. The symbol on the five people's chests was three circles with no triangle inscribed, indicating that they were third-class soldiers.

   If I am not mistaken, the more triangles there were in the circles, the higher the rank of the soldier. Jack had a two or three triangle outfit, which was a second class soldier outfit. The fact that his promotion was close then was real. I remembered that these were the last things I had heard him muttering before-

   -You're not human, are you?

   My thoughts about the past are interrupted by one of the soldiers who spoke to me. He and the others were standing guard, carrying two triangular bladed swords in each hand. 

   -Human or not, I ask you to leave this forest and return to the city.

   I couldn't give the slightest clue on which side the camp was, so limiting myself to this forest was enough. At least until the AWA starts doing some kind of satellite sweep or something.

   Wait... satellite scanning?

   They have that kind of technology on hand. Why not just use it?

   Unless...

   That satellite technology isn't enough to do the dirty work.

   My senses alert me to one of the soldiers who set off on me, delivering a rising blow with one of his swords. The blow was definitely not slow, but in a situation where my body had not been enhanced with magic naturally, at the very least I would have lost my ear.

   Wizards have reduced physical strength, reflexes and endurance until they use mana for the first time. Not only did I use it, but in the last five days that I spent with Morello and Yurion, I tried to learn to use lightning magic. I didn't have good results, but if you don't risk, you don't risk.

   After turning my vision back to the soldiers, three of them attack me. They were in a triangular formation, which kept me nervous, since I didn't know how to counter attack real combat formations.

   -Haaaaaa.

   I hold my swords as if I were holding daggers, keeping the blades facing my back. Red and blue rays begin to cover my arms, until they spread to the rest of my body.

   -Aaaaaargh.

It was an intense pain. I felt my muscles imploding, my vision blurred, and my legs felt heavy. Using contract magic was overwhelming. Aside from my body not feeling well, thoughts of murder were running through my mind. Thoughts about revenge, torture, and ways to kill a human. The only thing I could think of as a response was that these were the thoughts of the Mastrea of lightning that were flowing to me.

   I take advantage of the speed I gained in exchange for my body's well being to defend the onslaught of two swords that the first soldier in the triangle formation performed. After blocking his swords, I kicked him, launching him into the second soldier in the formation, allowing me to have full attention on the third.

   I stuck one of the swords into the ground, and using my free hand, I grabbed one of the pistols from my waistband, firing a shot. The shot was easily blocked by the soldier's sword, which only positioned itself so that the energy bullet hit the side of the blade. 

   I knew that my equipment was not of good quality compared to that used by soldiers. So I had to come up with some tricks. And for every ten tricks I created, eleven had to be using magic.

   I pick up the sword lying on the ground. Picking it up, I fold the dagger, and part of the blade is shifted up, so that it is now joined to the blind side of my rectangular-bladed sword.

   Using my pistol, I mount a new dagger to my sword, splicing it with a small socket into the original place of the sword dagger. The old sword dagger returns to its original place, creating a new one that is thicker than before. Now I had my trump card: a sword in which the bar was a gun. Gunblade.

   The two remaining soldiers tried to attack me from behind, but it was a failure in the surprise attack aspect, but it still caused me damage. Even though I could foresee the beginning of the attack, the second soldier managed to pierce the side of my abdomen, kicking me in the process.

   As I was thrown backwards with the kick, I stuck my swords into the ground to cancel the movement. The wound was being enveloped by the blue and red rays, causing enormous pain, greater than if my magic wasn't trying to heal my body.

   -I didn't speak...

   The soldiers, after returning to the formation of the beginning of the attack, look doubtfully at me.

   -TO LEAVE THE FOREST?!

   I let my mana leave my body. The pain in my body increases by about... Actually, it was so much pain that I couldn't imagine. Only that a great burning in the wound was tormenting me.

   My body and my gunblades lying on the ground are enveloped by these rays. I take them back, and stand guard. The gunblade in my right hand stays armed like a dagger, while the one in my left hand stays up, so that the left elbow is over the right, with the gunblade being held normally, but with my finger on the trigger.

   I move forward with a single step towards them. It felt as if my leg was being torn from my body, but I held on. As I approached them, I began to strike all five soldiers at the same time.

   Although I had never been in a real battle, I was trained by a captain who had a reputation for being a very good swordsman. And although Marino liked me a lot, she didn't take it easy, least of all on the days she couldn't annoy Naila at work.

   It was as if I had four weapons, being able to fight four people. While the two blades were being used to restrain the swords of one soldier, while I worked my moves so that the two pistols that were now also my swords, would take care of the swords of two others. The first blow of my onslaught was an attack using the dagger of a gunblade, with a kick following to get one of the soldiers away.

Although I was keeping them busy, it was clear that they were trying to kill me. However, I was beginning to give in to fatigue and inexperience with magic.

   My wound opens. I guess using mana to attack compromises the mana that was being used to heal my body. My reactions end up leaving me with a blind spot, allowing a soldier to dig his two swords into the spot where my wound was.

   -Aaaargh!

   -What the hell?

   The electricity in my body was generating repulsion from the soldier's blade that attacked me. Two others attacked me from the front, and I used my gunblades to stop them. However, the other three attacked me from my sides.

   Realizing that I would have no way to block, I fire a shot imbued with mana at the two in front of me, which throws us backwards. 

   -But what the...

   The last shot was the only attack so far that was not one in which I did not hold back in order not to hurt the soldiers. My only objective was to buy time for Yurion and Morello to get the children out of the camp. I didn't even have plans what to do after that battle.

   But this last attack made me feel something strange in my body. Something that gave me motivation to keep attacking.

   I use mana to advance on the nearest soldier. He attacks with a side strike aimed at my neck, but I duck and take a shot at his chest. The shot was imbued with mana, which explained the blood, heart and bone pieces that came out. 

   The other four soldiers were perplexed. Two of them position themselves forward, and each put the tips of their triangular swords in contact. The swords of each begin to glow in a pixelated fashion, until the swords are completely covered with this glow. When the glow was extinguished, what were once two triangular swords were now one triangular-bladed sword, but large enough to require both hands to use.

   The soldiers with their new swords move forward. Or so I thought, because in the blink of an eye, I lost sight of them.

   Suddenly I am attacked by the two from behind. I have enough reaction time to block one of the attacks, but the other hits me full in the chest, which causes me to be thrown towards the other soldiers.

   Still trying to pull myself together, one of the soldiers plunges his two swords into my back. If it were not for the repulsion caused by the lightning magic, I would have lost a piece of my body and my spine would probably have been broken. I point the gunblade back, and fire a shot at the soldier who stabbed me.

   The shot was intercepted, but destroyed one of the soldier's swords. With my body that was not healing properly, I fire shots at the soldier's leg, which leaves him immobilized. When he tries to move, I shoot his forearm, which separates him from the rest of his body.

   -Wait, what the hell is that?

   I couldn't stop wondering about this. Moments ago, I was holding myself in the hope that, at most, the soldiers would end up unconscious so that could get back to the camp. 

   But now one of them was killed. No, he was killed by me, there is this small detail that made a big difference in the situation. 

   What made things more inexplicable was the ecstasy my body felt at having ripped off the soldier's arm and

   ...the smile on my face that I carried for the situation, even with my injuries.

   The rays in my body suddenly change, along with my body's control. They were escaping for about two meters from where I was standing, as my body grew heavier, with my injuries imploding. My vision was blurrier than before, but there was something I could see clearly.

What were once red and blue were now yellow and purple. The rays in my body now had this new coloration. When I finished contemplating this mana formation, my body was in a condition to return to combat, even with the risk of bleeding from my first wound.

   The soldier who had his arm torn off was dragging himself to his group. I follow in the same direction as him, but stepping on the wound on his leg.

   He shouts. Surely, what I have just done has caused him tremendous pain. 

   But I . 

   ... just contemplated. 

   I was feeling like I was in the middle of a conquest. Just knowing that the soldier who had just wounded me was dying on the ground in front of my feet was comforting.

   I was loving it.

   And it was no small thing.

   Pointing my gunblade at the three other soldiers standing guard, I decided to test something I had been practicing for the past few days. It was a total failure the last few times, but the overconfidence I felt didn't make me think about the risks, but only...

   ...that it might be pleasurable to use on soldiers.

   My gunblades became energized, each with rays of a different color. My spine was struggling to support the weight of my body, or at least that's what I was feeling as he released more and more mana. I felt my hands burning, as if they were holding a bar of metal that had just been forged and not dipped in water. My vision was blurred, I couldn't see anything but small glowing pulses in front of me. Four to be exact.

   -Fragmented Thunder.

   I fired the two gunblades in the direction of the four soldiers. They one the tips of their swords, which begin to accumulate energy. The energy condenses, forming an energy wall. However, the two shots were not to hit the body of a soldier, but rather...

   ...so that each bullet would collide in the middle of its path.

   When the bullets collide, they explode. The explosion generates a wave of purple and yellow lightning, hitting the armless soldier and partially hitting those who were properly protected by the energy barrier. The armless soldier agonizes in pain, until his lamentations cease when death finally overtakes him. 

   The other soldiers were speechless, unable to believe the death their colleague had just met. I, on the other hand...

   ... was loving it!

   The last three soldiers attacked me, two from the sides and one from the front. I used my gunblades to block the side attacks, while just moving my head to prevent it from being opened by the onslaught of the soldier who attacked from the front, opening my old shoulder wound.

   I shoot at the soldiers that were on my side, throwing them into trees that were behind them. The soldier in front of me starts exchanging sword leaves with me with an angry look on his face.

   -DAMN WIZARD! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!

   Unconsciously, my swords are energized, and break the soldier's swords.

   -But... the first to attack were you. I asked you to leave the forest.

   I point my pistol at the soldier's chest, I am one shot. Since his heart was destroyed on the spot, he didn't even make a sound of agony, which made me feel bored. 

   The soldiers who were thrown began to shoot energy beams from the tips of their triangular swords. I kept intercepting their shots until they got tired, while I approached them.

   They had a look of dread on their faces, sweat was pouring from their foreheads, and they were almost crying. They feared that this would be their last mission. 

   They close their eyes as I aim my gunblades at their heads. 

   - ...out from here...

   The soldiers open their eyes, and quickly stand guard.

   -I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! OR DO YOU WANT ME TO SHOOT YOUR HEADS OFF?

They leave in terror. I watch them to make sure they were not heading towards the camp by any chance. 

   When I make sure that I am no longer in their field of vision, I fall to my knees on the ground, using one of the gunblades for support. My body was exhausted. My vision began to take shape, as it was blurred and I could only see pulses of energy. I suppose they were the electrical pulses from the soldiers' nervous system. 

   My body felt heavy. I could easily settle on a wall and sleep for hours. I guess I ended up using too much mana.

   But something I needed to understand was what I had just done.

   I brutally killed four soldiers. The worst of it all...

   ... was the pleasure that my body felt, along with the smile that was visibly on my face.

   I felt pleasure and calm when I killed the soldiers. No, it wasn't only that.

   I felt pleasure for having killed humans.

   "Killing humans is something that becomes routine. You don't go around counting how many fruits you've eaten your whole life, just as we don't count how many lives we've taken."

   Morello said something like this. But something that was definitely on my mind was something about wizards benefiting from killing humans.

   And about it not being a lie, wizards being a calamity to them.

   -Damn it, what had I done?

   I was frustrated. Whether or not Techmetriun is sure I'm alive, they now have more than a right to consider me their enemy.

   -I'd better not use the magic from the pact with Mastrea anymore.

   When the color of my rays changed, I could see flashes of my memory. Flashes about Jack's death, about my fight with Naila, and about the dead bodies of the two idiots who used me that I called parents.

   This was enough fuel for me to explain and kill the soldiers.

   I knew I was not being controlled. This was just me taking my anger out on innocent people. Maybe not so innocent, because they were probably after not only the person who took my guns, but also the children. 

   -Truth. The camp.

   Before going back to the camp, I needed to make sure that I was not being watched or tapped. I climbed the tallest tree I had to make sure that no other states were in the vicinity.

   Not that this was going to prevent them from reaching the camp, the AWA certainly has some way of watching the forest via satellite. But the "clearing" was still being done by soldiers.

   -I wonder how those two are doing.

   As if in response to what I had just asked, I feel two great pressures on my body. But not because someone was with me, but thanks to Morello and Yurion, who were letting mana escape, letting me know that they were alive. And given the amount of mana I felt and the murderous intent that came from it, I could imagine that they were quite busy and angry, but well.

   -I need to go there. 

   The moment I get up, I need to swing my gunblade in response to an attack I receive from behind. Defending the attack, I am thrown backwards. The force of the attack now was totally different from before. I almost feel my arm being twisted by the impact of my gunblade on the soldier's sword.

   The soldier was wearing the black suit of the AWA. Given the symbol on his chest, which was made up of four circles, with each circle having an inverted triangle inscribed on it, I concluded that I was facing an AWA captain.

   However, I didn't need to look at the position of the star in the octagon present on the right breast of the uniform to know which unit the captain was from.

   The triangular face, beautiful blue eyes, and long caramel-colored hair with black tips. These characteristics were unique to the captain of the sixth unit of the AWA: Marino Sasaki.

I stand guard as Marino watched what was left of the dead bodies of the three soldiers slaughtered by me. She was holding two swords, both with two blades together. One that was made up of cobalt and purple colored blades; the other, gold and emerald colored.

   -These men were from my unit. Or did you kill them without even realizing it?

   -...

   -But I'm surprised that a weakling like you, who had no interest in fighting, survived. If I'm not mistaken, two are missing. Did you spray their bodies or something?

   She spoke while turning a cold stare at me. It was a look similar to Naila's. She wanted to kill me, not because I killed her men, but most likely because I am a wizard.

   -I let them get away. 

   -I hope you don't think I will do the same. It's not enough that you managed to wake up even with the painkillers I gave you when you blacked out.

   -Wait. What??

   -Even though I was sure you were a wizard, there was no way to be sure that your parents were too, since you could have been adopted, and the AWA is a military organization, not a bank of birth records.

   -What are you getting at?

   I was impatient with what she was saying. Did she drug me so that I would take longer to get home? Would that give me a chance to save my parents or what?

   -I already knew about your parents and you. All I did was hand the game over to Naila. Not only about you, but also about the two wizards who are in the camp west of here.

   But what is she saying? There is no way she can know that.

   Or does she? I remember that she and my parents talked from time to time, and she was closer to them than Jack, Naila, or Caius.

   I hear footsteps, and five more soldiers appear in the field where we were. Apparently the rest of Marino's third class platoon.

   -Captain Sasaki! We've come to provide support!

   -This Wizard is my target. We're north of their camp. Go there. You would have a different fate than the other three who didn't return.

   She coolly passes the order, and the platoon is left to follow orders.

   -How the hell did you know that my parents were the undercover wizards even before the AWA? And how do you also know about Yurion and Morello?

   -I don't have to answer any of your questions. But I will do it. Consider it your last request before you go to hell.

   She holds up her swords, one with the tip of the blade facing up, while the other faces down. A pressure was on my body when she entered this guard position. Although she had seen it before during my training with her, this was the first time I felt fear.

   After all, it was no longer a simulated combat between master and student, but a deadly fight between human and Wizard.

   -Arcana:...

   Here they come!

   -...

   She opens the eyes she had closed when she pronounced "Arcana". Her beautiful blue eyes cast a look of killing determination that I have never seen before.

   -...Blade Forger!

   His swords give off a glow. They, which were once made up of two blades, separated into four beautiful swords with blades that seemed to be made up of the precious stones that represented the blades of his swords.

   The swords floated before Marino, as she stood with her right hand extended forward, while with her left, she made a sign with her middle and index fingers.

   However, something inexplicable so far haunted my mind.

   The pressure I felt... It wasn't just her murderous gaze.

   It was mana.

   I could only stare at Marino and his swords and swallow dryly. As the sweat beaded on my forehead, I finally managed to say something:

   -Marino... Are you a Wizard??

   A malicious laugh came from his lips at my question.