What Lurks Under V

Something long and hard struck the back of Kies' head and he toppled over, almost planting his face into the sewage under him. Luckily, he grabbed something hooked to the wall on the right of him just before it happened and pulled himself back up. He jumped out of the tunnel and over the pool of sewage and landed on the other side on top of the grass.

Kies glanced back at the tunnel and saw that there were people on top of it staring down at him. One of them was holding a giant wooden bat and was waving it around with a puzzled look on his face. "That's strange. I hit hard enough to crack someone's skull and yet I didn't even knock him out," he said while examining the bat, trying to see if something was wrong with it.

"Maybe your age has finally caught up with you," the woman next to him snickered.

"Shut up. If I'm old then you're already in your grave."

"But I'm only one year older than you."

"Yeah. Well, that's one year closer to death than me," the man shot back.

"Oh really now? I could still live longer than you, you know. One year isn't that big of a difference. Blah, forget it. Arguing with you is impossible."

"Yeah, cause I'm always right," the man smugly replied with a grin.

"..."

The woman looked like she was about to snap at any moment, but didn't say anything. It was as she said, it was impossible to argue with him. "So, mister always right, can you tell us the right thing that we should be doing right now?"

"Hm?"

"Our target is escaping," she pointed out. While the two were bickering, Kies was sneaking away and had managed to cover a good distance before they suddenly directed their attention back at him.

Kies stopped crouching, stood back up, and sprinted across the grass.

"D*mn it! Why didn't you tell me earlier!?" the man shouted at the woman who was fed up with him.

"Are we going to continue arguing? I mean, I don't really mind, but he is going to get away if we keep this up."

"Arghhhh!" The man tightened his grip on the wooden bat and jumped down from the top of the sewer entrance and landed a couple of meters behind Kies. The woman followed, but unlike the man, she took her time to carefully climb down and get to the other side. By the time she made it to the other side where the man just was, he had already gone on ahead without her and was chasing Kies alone. A mistake.

"You idiot! We're supposed to work together, don't go after him by yourself!" she shouted, realizing the blunder they just made.

"Ha, you don't need to be so uneasy. This guy doesn't look too tough," the man shouted back at her while continuing to give chase to Kies.

"Ugh..." the woman hurried up the hill but she was way too far from the way.

Kies shot a glance behind him and saw that the man was slowly catching up to him. If only the terrain wasn't so steep then he would easily be able to get away from them. It seemed that he had no choice but to fight. After going up a few more feet, Kies turned around and planted the soles of his shoes into the dirt. He made sure that his feet were firmly dug into the ground before beginning to chant a spell.

"Ah, you've already given up, have you? Talk about weak. I really don't know how you survived my attack earlier but-" the man's yapping was stopped when a Wind Javelin almost tore his right arm off. The javelin barely missed the man and flew past behind him, almost hitting the woman as well who lost her balance and slid back down the hill and almost rolled into the pool of sewage.

"What was that?" The man looked behind him, clueless about what just happened. Something flew by him at unimaginable speeds. He was clueless as to what was going on.

"Get down you fool! He can use magic!" the woman shouted at the man while clinging onto the hill. But her warning was a second too late. Kies finished chanting Wind Javelin a second time and shot it at the man again. The man turned around and saw a blur of wind as it flew at him. Upon seeing this, he panicked and fell backward, evading the attack just in time as it roared by his face. He rolled down to the bottom of the hill and clutched the grass right before he was about to tumble into the sewage.

The two of them were now sitting ducks. If Kies wanted to, he could hit them both with a Wind Javelin and kill them. But did he want to? They had obviously been after his life so the most logical choice was to kill them. Kies raised his arm and aimed his hand at the two. "Winds, heed my call and serve my will." The winds rushed to his side and wrapped around his arms, ferociously spinning around as they tried to resist his call.

Kies took a deep breath and began chanting the second half but stopped himself. He looked down at the two who had already accepted their fates. The woman had her eyes closed and was waiting for her end while the man looked at Kies with indifferent eyes that were willing to face death with no fear. They didn't beg for their lives like he had thought they would.

Even though they tried to harm him, Kies couldn't do it. Killing them was wrong. Doing so would make him no better than them. If they continued doing what they were doing, they would eventually receive the punishment they deserve. There was no point in him interfering with that. Kies dispersed the winds, lowered his arm, and walked away.

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