18 Zephyr

"Come on, I know you can do it Aura!"

Moving in close to her, I moved my sheathed sword as slow as I could as we repeated our usual training. The current objective wasn't to hit Aura with my sword but to get her more used to fighting a close threat, something she had to get used to as I couldn't cover for her entirely.

"Th-that's easy for you to say!"

Although Aura struggled to keep up with my movements her usual stubborn dedication made up for her physical shortcomings. Keeping up my speed I kept advancing while giving Aura plenty of opportunities to strike back and finally it seemed like she was starting to get used to it. Creating a spell, Aura's eyes seemed to regain a bit of her usual vigour, but I wasn't going to just lay down and admit defeat that easily. Releasing a bit of bloodlust as we had talked about including in the training yesterday, I immediately realized that Aura had forgotten about that conversation.

Aura panicked as her spell misfired, but when her eyes went wide I realized something had gone wrong.

"Watch out!"

Turning around my blood went cold, Aura's misfired spell was headed straight towards a spectator.

(This is bad!)

Not only had I once again failed to pay attention to my surroundings as my teacher had constantly told me, but I let Aura hurt someone again!

Or so I believed anyway, but the very next second, the spectator created some sort of spell of his own and slashed Aura's spell apart.

"Sorry to interrupt your training, but I recently registered with the adventurers guild here in town and am looking for a team. Would you two happen to be looking for a close-range caster?"

Wearing a grey cloak over simple leather armour, the blue-eyed, white-haired youth near my own age hardly looked the part, but after blocking Aura's misfired spell with such ease I was hardly going to say otherwise.

-

After interrupting the mage and swordsman's training, Tom lowered his head as he introduced himself and apologized.

""...""

But after defeating the misfired spell with such ease, the swordsman and mage were understandably at a momentary loss for words.

"Is this a bad time, should I come back later?"

"Ah, no, now it's fine. More importantly, are you alright? Aura's spells are pretty hard to see."

Finally snapping out of their collective daze, the swordsman looked slightly apologetic as he went on to introduce himself.

"The name is Dan, this is Aura behind me. We have indeed been looking for a short-range caster for a while now."

Putting on a bright smile Dan introduced himself with a slight bow, striking Tom as a straight-laced swordsman. Standing about a head taller than Tom, Dan had bright red hair and eyes. Waring light armour that seemed to prioritize mobility above all else Dan was unlike any other swordsman Tom had seen so far. At Dan's hip was the still sheathed sword he had used to train, but as far as Tom could tell, it was as unusual as Dan's armour.

Aura was half hiding behind Dan, considerably shorter than him she hid her face under her large red, mage style hat, although Tom managed to spot a pair of blonde cat ears that stuck out through cutouts in the hat.

(They sure are an odd pair, but what is this feeling?...)

Ever since Tom first put his eyes on Dan and Aura, he had felt some kind of strange sensation, it was almost like there was a thin kind of haze surrounding the pair.

(... This is the first time [sense potential] has activated, and here I couldn't use that [skill].)

"This is around the time we take a break anyways, why don't we find somewhere to talk?"

"Sure."

Finding a pub with barely any activity, Dan went to order a round of beer from the bar as Aura spoke up.

"Hey, you."

Addressing Tom without a hint of courtesy or manners, Aura put both her elbows on the bar table as her amber eyes started burning holes into the party applicant.

"I've never seen that kind of spell before, what kind of affinity do you have?"

Coming right out and asking Tom an extremely personal question, Aura looked like she wasn't about to take no for an answer.

"My name is Tom."

"So? What's your affinity?"

Appearing not in the least interested in learning about his name, Aura further pressed Tom with an annoyed look on her face.

"It's a unique affinity, you wouldn't have heard of it."

"And why is that?"

Right as Tom was about to get up and leave, Dan returned with beer in hand and reigned her in.

"Aura please stop the interrogation, we're looking to make a friend here."

"Hmph!"

Turning away with a dissatisfied grunt, Aura's tail started swaying from side to side rapidly as a sign of her displeasure. Seeing such a reaction from Aura, Dan breathed a deep sigh as he put down the pints of beer before apologizing to Tom.

"Sorry about Aura, she means well."

(I have a hard time believing that…)

Straightening his posture, Dan turned serious.

"Tom, I'll be frank and get straight to the point. I really want you to join us, from what little I've seen we could really use your strength."

Listening seriously to what Dan said, Tom took a swig of beer before answering.

"To cover for Aura, right? I believe I can do that, but the fastest way to find out for sure would be actual combat."

"Are you insane? If you slow us down we will be the ones in unnecessary danger from your stunt!"

Not taking kindly to the fact that she and Dan would be brought into unnecessary danger just so Tom could prove his worth, Aura's anger once again flared.

"Aura, that's out of-"

Only this time Dan couldn't calm her down.

"Shut up Dan! If he runs away or blocks me like all the others we won't end up with just minor injuries!"

Clenching his teeth shut, Dan realized Aura was partly correct. If Tom became a hindrance in the middle of combat, or suddenly ran away it could end badly for Dan and Aura.

The last time that happened, the two of them barely escaped unharmed.

"Is that all? If you're worried I'll get in the way just kill me off."

"Wha!-"

Not believing what they were hearing, both Aura and Dan were surprised by Tom's straightforward solution.

"I need combat experience, if I don't get that I might as well be dead."

"... Why go to such lengths?"

"My instructor sent me off to gain experience on my own, if I don't I might as well be dead. Besides, it'll be no skin off your back if a random adventurer dies, just report to the guild that I panicked and got myself killed."

""...""

With that matter done and settled, Dan, Aura and Tom headed out to hunt some monsters. Heading north from Melby a few hours, the impromptu party reached the nearby 'dungeon. Although named that way, the dungeon wasn't a gigantic hole in the ground with multiple floors and treasures, but a massive forest that endlessly spawned monsters from its centre.

The reason for those monsters appearing still remained a mystery to this day, for no one had ever reached the core and returned alive to tell of it.

"Are you really sure you want to do this Tom?"

Still quite unsure with the entire deal he and Aura had struck with Tom, Dan asked Tom for the nth time about their agreement.

"Yeah, feel free to kill me if I get in your way. But make sure to make that attack count, because I won't take kindly to getting attacked."

Glancing behind him with a shit-eating grin not entirely unlike his teacher, Tom eyed Aura behind as he brought up the front of their 3 man formation.

"I-I know that already! Keep an eye on the surroundings instead of just being annoying like that!"

In a little under two hours Tom had really gotten under Aura's skin, from what he had learned so far she didn't have much combat experience, nor was it likely that she had ever killed someone before.

Dan on the other hand was a different matter entirely. Keeping a single hand on his sword at all times he looked relaxed, but for some reason, Tom got the same feeling from him as he did from Lizzy when they had been hunting for monsters together. Dan was constantly ready to fight, moreover, he kept constant taps on his surroundings with razor-sharp focus.

(That's why he suddenly knew my name… Dan really has sharp senses, not to mention a great set of ears.)

Even turning a tiny bit of attention towards Dan didn't go unnoticed, since the person in question was very bad at concealing his own intentions… Compared to Lizzy anyways.

"We have guests."

"Eh, where?"

Needless to say, Aura didn't share her companions' level of alertness; it seemed that the pair of fluffy ears on top of her head were mere decorations.

"Hey, you just thought something incredibly rude just now didn't you?"

"They're coming from the front."

(Seems like she is needlessly sharp in odd places…)

Taking about 5 meters in front of Aura and slightly to the left, Tom killed all unnecessary thoughts and clutter as he focused his mind for combat.

"Is it fine if I stay around here Aura?"

"Ah, y-yeah that's fine… I'll warn you when I'm casting spells."

Taking slightly off guard at how serious Tom suddenly acted, Aura became surprisingly meek as she took out her staff. The one and a half meter long wooden staff appeared highly irregular to Tom, from one end to the other it was covered in intricate carvings and animalistic patterns, even the blood-red [catalyst] at the tip of Aura's staff was covered in carvings.

"It's a group of orcs, 7 in total."

Drawing his sword as he once more revealed his ridiculously sharp senses, Dan's expression went cold. Dan's sword was as irregular as its scabbard, about a meter in length the single-sided blade had no guard for catching monsters' fangs and enemy swords and the thin blade appeared far too flimsy to block any attacks, prioritizing speed and evasion above all else.

"I'll slow them down when they charge, be ready to strike then."

Loading mana into his [catalyst], Tom elected not to explain any further as the first orc broke into the clearing. Standing about 2 meters tall, the thick-skinned, filthy, mostly humanoid creature had a large pig-like snout, small eyes and ears along with a mouth filled with teeth that seemed to have been specifically made to crush bones. Letting loose an anger-filled sequel as it bared its teeth, the orc was soon joined by its flock as they started sizing up their opposition.

"Ew, why did it have to be orcs…"

Shrinking back in outright disgust, Aura unintentionally taunted the orcs with her behaviour. Even if they couldn't understand her words, Aura's outright disdain transcended the boundary between language and species.

"Here they come!"

Baited in by Aura's disdain, the group of orcs charged with their wooden clubs and rusty swords in hand.

It would quickly turn out that moving in a single, clustered group was a mistake. Timing his attack, Tom expended about a tenth of his mana to create a wide-area attack. Although the spell wasn't visible, the effect was as instant as it was outright ruthless. Along with the sounds of bones snapping like toothpicks, the orcs squealed in pain as their legs snapped, with the broken bones piercing through their skin as a few of the particularly unlucky orcs fell over and smashed their own heads in before dying outright.

(Knowing my own affinity really does make it easier to form spell's like that, although this was properly a bit too much...)

As expected, the group of orcs could hardly fight back after all of them had broken their legs, so from there, it was just a matter of cleaning up and digging out the monster cores from the corpses.

-

"I'm sorry."

"Honestly! What was that!? Didn't you say that you were a close-range mage? What kind of spell was that!?"

Having dug out the last monster core from the fallen orcs, Aura immediately turned her attention to Tom, a blond mass moving swiftly in a displeased manner behind her back as she pestered him for answers.

"I've had problems controlling my spells until recently, so after that, I wanted to see how far I could go by using about a tenth of my mana on a single spell."

"Huh!? A tenth of your mana, are you insane!?"

Unlike a swordsman or a martial artist, mana was mages' lifeblood. If a mage ran out of mana they couldn't fight or even defend themselves anymore, so using a tenth of the oh so precious resource which was only restored slowly with rest was understandably insane.

"... I might be insane, but we can put that aside for now, I'll protect you with close-range spells for the next encounter."

"I'm not sure that's something you can just put aside… But fine, I'll be sure to amaze you with my magic powers!"

Switching moods incredibly quick, Aura went from angry to disgust and haughty confidence in a matter of seconds. Watching Aura act like that, Dan wore a thin, knowing smile on his face as he watched the mages in silence. Continuing on deeper into the surrounding forest and plant life gradually started turning twisted. The usual lush green leaves and straight trees turned twisted and different shades of corrupted purple.

"Here they come!"

As the trio closed in on the centre of the dungeon, the frequency of encounters with monsters increased, further fueling the belief held among adventurers that 'something' spawned/created/bred monsters somewhere in the centre of the dungeon.

"I leave Aura to you, Tom!"

Dashing forward into the centre of monsters, Dan drew his single-edged sword before entering an evasive stance, moving quickly on the tips of his feet as he avoided the swarming monsters with a razor-thin margin for error. Not to say that Dan wasn't looking for his chance to strike, far from it. As one of the monsters close to Dan made the mistake of turning its attention away from him for a split second, Dan attacked. In one fluid motion, he continued to avoid the attacks from the other monsters, he sliced up the unaware monster's neck with minimal force, parting its windpipe and multiple pulse veins at the same time. Taking advantage of the sudden panic that spread throughout the monsters, Dan struck down a couple more monsters before the group started fleeing from him, as they did, some of the monsters came Tom and Aura's way.

"I'll hold them off!"

Moving forward to meet the threat head-on, Tom clenched his [catalyst] as he formed a lance extending out from it. Speeding up the circulation of mana going in and out of his [catalyst], Tom easily reached the level of intensity he used to kill the ground dragon, making the spell itself somewhat visible as the gravitational waves became powerful enough to bend and distort the light hitting the mass of rapidly moving mana. Although visible to the naked eye, the monsters rushing towards Tom had never seen any kind of spell like that before, so they didn't yet know to fear it.

That all changed when Tom swung his lance at the first monster, a particularly unlucky orc.

Making contact with the orcs torso, the mass of mana passed through the monster without resistance, but as the mana in Tom's spell circulated it twisted, crunched and dragged part of the orc's flesh, guts, bones and tissue apart like it had suddenly been struck with some nightmarish mix between a jackhammer and a chainsaw. As the orc died screaming, guts and gore added yet more stains to Tom's large cloak he wore over the rest of his clothes, even after washing some of those stains would remain, eventually transforming Tom's cloak into something close to that of his teachers.

"Tom! Dan! Get down!"

Sensing immediate danger following Aura's shout, Tom immediately collapsed his own stance, falling over backwards as his [Combat awareness] skill marked the entire area in front of him bright red. A second later, the area was flooded with a mass of blades made out of compressed air surged through the area, leaving deep cuts in the surrounding trees as anything more fragile than the sturdy trees getting chopped up and torn to pieces.

"... How exactly are we supposed to find the monster cores in this fucking mess?"

Although Tom couldn't exactly criticise Aura's spell as his own also made quite a mess, this was on another level.

"How was that for a spell! Witness the might of the Zephyr clan!"

Looking mighty proud of herself, Aura ignored both the mess she had just made and Tom's criticism as she put both hands on her hips and started laughing in a delighted tone.

"Are you alright Tom? That one was worse than usual, I guess she was fired up after seeing what you could do..."

Brushing some of the parts of monsters off which had landed on him, Dan appeared out of nowhere entirely unscathed from Aura's spell.

"Yeah I'm fine, let's see if we can find the monster cores… If any of them survived all that."

Glancing over to see Aura having absolutely no intention of taking responsibility for the mess she just made and helping Tom and Dan with finding monster cores, Tom resigned himself as he picked up a stick and started picking through the mess together with Dan in hopes of finding at least a single intact monster core to sell.

(So a swordsman that relies on evasion and agility instead of strength and a mage with incredible power but little control over her spells?... I see why they had trouble finding other adventurers.)

After searching fruitlessly for about 20 minutes for monster cores, the group decided to head back to town, ending their first outing as a party.