Mandy, The Girlish Boy

"Kota! Do something!" Amelia's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and allowed me to focus on the two large men charging at us. Judging by my view, I could easily cast Quicksand.

As quick as I could, I imagined the ground slowly sinking. The mana surged through my hand and into my staff as it hummed loudly. As the two men charged at us, the floor beneath them slowly turned to mush as they suddenly began to stumble and trip.

"Bird!" One of them groaned out as it landed face first into the quicksand. They continued to mumble incoherent words as they sank into the floor.

Ok, did not expect him to say that. Almost laughed at that.

The other man managed to only have one of his legs stuck, but he held out his right hand and began to chant. An intermediate Fire spell known as JetFire. Something I used against the Owl demon.

And just at the same time he was chanting, Amelia began to chant. "Winds become mine, allow me to use nature itself to blast those away! Wind shot!" Her spell was a beginner wind spell, and it shot a quick blow of air from her staff. The projectile hurled towards the Monstrous man as he ended his chant. The blast landed right at his chest, causing him to fall back from the impact.

"J-JetFire!" The man grunted out, his arm now aiming at the sky above us. A fiery aura encapsulated the man's hand, an orange glow hummed and burned with intense heat that seemingly burnt the man's hand. Suddenly, a blast of flames erupted from his hands and shot above the roofs of the buildings.

That is going to cause a stir.

As the flames continued to shoot upwards, I saw the man's hand continue to burn. The skin peeling off slowly as the man groaned in pain. Grayish smoke came off his hands, enveloping the sunken area he was in.

"Haha! Got him! Take th-!" Before Amelia could finish her sentence, a pole zoomed right between us. It was fast, it almost sounded like a bullet whizzing past us. I heard a loud cracking noise behind us, and turning to see showed me the pole was entrenched halfway into the stone wall behind us.

Inside of the smokiness, bright blue eyes pierced through it. Looking along the two large sunken men, they were wide open and looking at the two.

"You two idiots! Stand up!" The pink haired boy known as Mandy shouted. With that order, the other monstrous man who was face first in the sunken floor rose to his feet.

As the smoke cleared, I saw Mandy placing his feet onto the one that shot the magic spell. His feet planted neatly onto the man's head.

"With your dumbass, now everyone here is going to know!" Mandy put more pressure onto the man's head. Even from the distance we were at, I could hear a crunching noise.

"S-sorry…S-sorry!" The man groaned. It was unnerving to hear that. Seeing this smaller framed boy dominate this monstrous being. Mandy only smiled more and whispered something to him.

"Kota! The-whatever! It's coming for us!" Amelia shouted, my eyes Averted to my right. Shit, I should've focused on the one that was getting up!

This other monstrous being was fast, it was hunched over as it ran its way to me. Almost like an ape and it lunges towards me. This thing was already too close to me when I noticed it, I won't be able to cast anything in time!

"Holy shi-Ahh!" The man grabbed me, wrapping his right hand around my chest and swinging me to the walls of the building. I found myself pinned up against the wall as his hands wrapped even tighter around me.

"Kota!" Amelia pointed her staff at me, readying a chant. "Winds become mi-!"

Suddenly, a vine from the ground beneath her erupted out and wrapped itself around her arm and body. Both me and Amelia turned to who had done it.

Just across from us and underneath the feet of Mandy, the other monstrous man had his left hand planted to the ground beside him. It seems he was able to cast the Beginner earth spell "ensnare" without me or Amelia noticing.

Mandy smirked and cackled. "Haha! Nice one! Knew you two were good for something!" He stared at Amelia. "Keep her like that! Once we get her all wrapped up, we'll bail this place!"

Mandy lifted his feet off of the man he was standing on, hopping towards my direction like a child. "And this one! Oooh, this one is special!"

The monstrous man was holding me extremely tight, with one of my arms stuck beneath its hand. I watched as Mandy peered over the man and looked at me with intrigue and excitement.

"What. A. Special. Boy. You. Are! Oh, the things the both of us can do!…The things I'll do to you, hehe…" Mandy held a hand to his mouth, seemingly trying to hide a snicker. "We got ourselves a Mage! And a cute looking one!"

This boy was completely insane. I need to loosen this damn dude's hand or something!

I tried to pry the hands of the guy holding me off, but it went with no avail. In return, the man put even more pressure on me. Pain coursed through my body as he was essentially crushing me. I screamed out in pain.

"Haha! Listen to the squeal! Just adorable!" Mandy gently patted the monstrous man that held me. "Don't break him yet, we gotta bring him back with us along with the girl. Knock him out, we've caused a bit of a stir here…"

The monstrous man hesitated, but obliged moments after. His left arm readied for a punch.

Come on Travis, think! You need to get you and Amelia out of here, no one else is here to help!

In my irritation, I slammed my open hand onto the man's hand…and that's when it clicked to me. What am I dumb? I could just use my free hand to cast!

Without any hesitation, I slammed my open hand against the wall. The monstrous man and Mandy looked at me in confusion. I silently casted Erupt on the wall.

"What the hell are y-." Before Mandy or the man could respond, the stone wall behind me shot out. Protruding pillars of the building hurled outward and into the monstrous man, I could feel the wall behind me rumble as pieces of its structure shot out. Usually the spell would travel some distance before imploding into some shape. But I wanted it to shoot right at this man. Which meant I had had this imploded right next to me.

I have no intention of keeping this Monstrous thing alive. I watched as the pillars of jagged stone collided with his face, his whole head jerked back at the impact. The second impact from the pillars further pushed him back, smashing into his neck and shoulders. I felt him loosen his grip on me, and then the last pillar of stone collided with him.

With its neck already stretched all the way back, the last pillar seemingly pushed it and tore his head from his neck. Something that caught me and everyone else by surprise. Perhaps I put way too much mana into the earth spell?

The headless body of the man spasmed and fell backwards. His grip completely slipped and allowed me to collapse onto the floor. As he fell to the floor, blood sputtered out and pooled close to amelia.

Amelia's eyes lit up with panic and fear. Maybe this was her first time seeing someone die. She froze up, completely still within the vines that entrapped her as her eyes slowly gazed up to me.

But my real focus was on Mandy, who slowly turned to me in disbelief. His blue eyes pierced into me. The smile he had slowly turned sour and formed into a frown.

"So she was right…A silent caster." He mumbled. Quickly, Mandy grabbed something from his back.

She? Who was he talking about? His leader? Doesn't matter right now as he's probably grabbing a weapon. I need to make some distance between us!

Using my left hand, I imagined a blast of air. A Beginner wind spell that I've used before. Before Mandy could pull out whatever was from his back, I raised my left arm and aimed it at his chest.

"Get back!l I yelled, the Beginner Wind spell I casted immediately shot out and blasted Mandy back. The force of the air sending the pink haired boy backwards and landing just a few feet behind the other monstrous man.

Jesus, this whole day has been a fucking mess. First, I get told about some kidnapping problem in the city and suddenly I'm a part of solving it. Second, I'm told to escort a girl who doesn't even enjoy my presence. And third, I end up getting caught by the fucking people who were kidnapping!

I'm starting to question whether or not I'm truly not being followed by Arael.

"Kota!" I heard Amelia call out to me. But I clumsily waved at her direction as I tried to stand up. My hand and wrist were being drenched in this dude's blood and I didn't want to wash that out.

"H-hold on! Let me get up!" I said, panting. As I stood up, I finally looked at Amelia. "Yes?"

"Y-you killed Someone! You got my shoes all dirty!" Amelia looked at me with shock. I looked down and saw her shoes now drenched in a red color.

"Haah….Not like it's my first. Unfortunately…" I remember killing that one guy during the trip on the way to this kingdom. "But…It was either us or them. And I chose us.."

"I don't really care about You killing! I care about my shoes!" She wiggled her shoes, droplets of blood dripping out. "Good riddance to that guy, now get me out of these vines!"

Oh ok, I guess she doesn't mind someone dying in front of her. But she minds the fact that her shoes are wet? Well, I shouldn't be surprised killing is a norm here. Still…makes me uneasy.

Something else that was uneasy was Mandy. Who slowly stood up, a grin smeared on his face as he glared at me.

Beside him was the other monstrous man, who still held his hand up to hold the spell he was casting. Most of his body was still inside of my quicksand, his upper body only visible. However, Mandy had other plans. There was a sick twisted look in the pink hairs face that frightened me.

"Hey…Seems like your brother failed us." Mandy looked down at the man. "Tsk Tsk…shame. You know what that means, right?" He then rummaged for something behind himself and flicked out another long pole.

"N-no…" I heard the monstrous man groan. His head cranked up towards Mandy. "Be g-good. I-I'll be g-good. P-please." His arm shaking and hands twitched in fear as Mandy simply grasped his pole and raised it.

"No can do. I'm going to need to…Take you." And with no hesitation, Mandy struck his pole right into the man's head and pierced it.

"Urk!" The man spasmed and twitched as Mandy dug his pole deeper, his head pinned to the ground and slowly sinking into the quicksand spell.

"Hehe…hahaha! I love it when they squirm like this! It makes it so much better when it happens…" Mandy giggled to himself as suddenly his pole hummed a light tone. A rainbow color slowly pulled up from the mana body, drifting upwards towards Mandy's hand.

"H-he's siphoning mana?" I heard Amelia whisper in fear.

As the mana drained from the man, the vines that ensnared Amelia slowly withered away. I saw the man also slowly becoming Wrinkled and pale.

"Oohoo…Do I love doing this. I love it when I'm filled up!" Mandy licked his lips. "And it'll be lovely doing it to you, kid!" His eyes glanced up at me. He twirled the pole upwards, removing it from the man's skull. Majestically spinning it over his head to remove the blood off before putting it to his right side.

The monstrous man that was once large and huge was now shriveled and small, no signs of breathing. His skin looked like it was stretched to ungodly lengths and some pieces of his stitches broke. What a horrific sight.

Mandy noticed some blood on his left hand and grinned, glancing up at me and Amelia as he horrifically went on and licked it off. I heard Amelia give off a disgusted noise as he did that. I slowly started to realize that the boy's eyes were glowing as well, a shimmer of rainbow colored enveloped him. He was mana Cloaking.

"Mmhmm…I'm all juiced up. I don't need these men anymore, quite frankly they were in the way." His left hand brushed up against his face. "I have a task to do and I'm not letting it slip away. The girl is coming with me."

And with that, Mandy began to crouch. He was preparing to finally fight.