008 | Dark Elf

My name is Asher.

Currently, I'm in a predicament at the moment. I'm fighting a brown hooded pursuer in the middle of the forest. I have been shot once by the arrow but luckily it just trimmed off some flesh on my thigh. It was a good thing I had physical enhancement magic.

The pursuer is absolutely someone sent to eliminate Rudif. I can expect that the higher-ups who sent this person didn't want any runaway slaves to mature and come back to wreak havoc on their business.

I'm currently hiding behind a tree, how did this all happen you may ask? Let's go back a bit earlier.

I told Rudif that the pursuer was going to kill him and he took the news pretty badly. I had to calm him down and tell him that he was an important individual to me in order to persuade him to run.

It went more successfully than I thought. Rudif ran on my signal, taking the rabbit with him.

I saw the tree leaves rustle and the pursuer was chasing after Rudif. Just as I had expected. They took my bait. The pursuer was hooded at the time but they ran past the cave without even checking to see if anyone was still in there.

"Stupid."

I dashed out of the cave and jumped onto the hooded pursuer. He was a grown middle-aged man for sure. His forearm was practically half the size of my entire body. Nonetheless, I made an attempt to snap his neck and instantly kill him. Unfortunately, I seemed to have heavily underestimated his strength while overestimating my own.

Physical enhancement magic has some versatility in its usage. You could have an extremely "heavy" spell, though sacrificing speed for power or you could have an extremely "light" spell where it has the opposite effect. I usually use the enhancement spell somewhere in the middle of light and heavy, granting me an overall boost.

I only used a heavy spell in this case because of the sheer strength difference between me and my opponent. Even though it wasn't enough, it had him fighting against me. His deep voice was startled.

"Who?!"

As I had my hands ready to break his neck, he spun around quickly which managed to fling me off. I was about to crash headfirst into a tree trunk but I did some evasive maneuvers and rolled.

The hooded pursuer took his crossbow out that was hung behind his back. From what I saw, it looked like it was a lightweight and compact crossbow. The crossbow had a metal frame as well as a scope. To me, this pursuer was an individual who liked to hunt. Perhaps he was even a hunter himself.

Multiple factors pointed toward that conclusion. His fine arrows, his crossbow, his hood which can easily be used as camouflage, the way he runs, and every other minor detail that suggested he was a hunter.

When I hid behind the tree, the pursuer shot an arrow which managed to pierce the tree and take off some of my flesh from my thigh.

An experienced marksman would know if their shot had been hit or not. Seems like this was another factor that would be added to my conclusion. The pursuer spoke with a creepy tone.

"I got you~"

I dashed behind multiple trees until I found a tree with a really sturdy trunk. This was now back in modern time.

The pursuer barely made any sound when he stepped closer. As a matter of fact, the sound that I detected was done with a passive spell that enhanced my senses. He was coming into my right side right about...now!

I leaped towards him and slapped the crossbow to the side. The arrow that launched out pierced into the ground. This caught the pursuer by surprise, I mean, even I would be astonished that a four-year-old came leaping at me. I made sure to expel my bloodlust. My silver eyes locked with the pursuer's brown eyes. A drop of sweat came down from his forehead to his chin.

He panicked and pulled out a machete and did a low swing. I flipped and landed on the blade of his machete and used it as my launchpad. I jumped from the machete towards him, whilst also kicking his wrist which knocked the machete out of his hands, with my fist enveloped in fire, I punched at his face.

In my old world, fire is one of the most common magic types, simply because of how easy it is to use as well as how effective it is in damaging the living.

As my fist connected with the pursuer's face, I turned my waist quickly to do a side whip kick to his head while I was still suspended close to him. Before my foot connected, I used another fire spell on my foot to blast the pursuer's face with an explosion of fire.

This left him crying and yelling from the pain of having his own flesh burnt from intense heat. I wanted to give him mercy with my whip kick as I had intended to snap his neck so he would pass away without any pain. Though, he can only blame himself for being so tough.

To my surprise, he still revolted against me. He grabbed his crossbow and slammed it in my direction like a bat. I weaved back a bit, easily avoiding a blind swing. Though I wish he didn't do that. The crossbow broke into many pieces as it hit a nearby tree trunk. All that was left in his hands was a sharp piece of wood.

The pursuer continued to scream. Honestly, I think I'm too merciful sometimes.

I aimed at his head with my index finger and I absorbed all the fire in the area, condensing it into the tip of my finger. I released it and it pierced the pursuer's forehead like a spoon going into a nice cup of pudding.

I watched as the pursuer dropped to his knees and fell face-first right in front of me.

I turned him around to see his facial features unidentifiable. Almost. He was a man with a sharp jawline and a well-trimmed mustache. Well, whatever is left of that mustache anyways. His eyes were still open yet devoid of life. I closed his eyes and spent the next hour giving him a burial.

I patted the dirt and left the remains of his crossbow above his burial.

"Rest in peace I guess, I'm gonna borrow your machete though."

When I went to pick it up, I had realized it snapped.

"My luck is going downhill today..."

I threw the remains of his machete next to the broken crossbow. I dashed out in search of Rudif.

My god, how far did this guy run? I told him to run as fast and as far as he could, but to think he really took this seriously. Well, I suppose I should be glad he took this seriously. His life was on the line. Even with my light enhancement magic, I was running for about an hour and still couldn't find Rudif. At first, I saw obvious signs that Rudif ran in one direction. The broken bushes, the snapped twigs on the ground, and the way the plants faced as if a gust of wind blew past them. Slowly, I lost any sort of clue that would lead me to Rudif.

"I swear if there was more than one pursuer..."

Realistically speaking, it's not improbable. Given that their target was a mere kid, it's likely they could have spread out a few people to look for Rudif. Though, given that I didn't find any sort of communication device on that pursuer I killed, there shouldn't be any more people chasing after Rudif.

Long-distance telepathy is hard to sustain, I don't care about the difference between magic and mana in this world, but just having to send a message mentally to someone else tens or hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away is something that I don't expect a low-level hunter to have. However, he did have a suspicious amount of strength in his arrows. My instincts are leaning towards Raw Energy.

I suddenly felt the need to breathe. Something terrifying was coming my way. An intense pressure. Similar to that of bloodlust. No. It was not anything like that. I have mistaken it for bloodlust because of the sheer magical power this individual emitted. This fiery aura that was coming my way at the speed of sound was undeniably strong.

Stopping right in front of me before I even noticed was an extremely tall dark gray-skinned individual wearing some sort of dark, gloomy, and black magical robe with royal purple linings. Nearly two meters tall, I would estimate about 190 centimeters from what I see. I met his red eyes which seemed to have looked into my very soul, those eyes radiate so much intelligence. He has long ears and lengthy white hair that went slightly past his shoulders.

I disregarded the terrifying strength this person had and spoke first.

"You. Dark Elf?"

The person chuckled and it slowly turned into him laughing while looking up at the sky. When he spoke, he had a hoarse voice and he sounded like a prophet that was telling me my future.

"Human child, what are you doing here?"

"Looking for my companion. What is a monster like you doing here?"

"Heh, are YOU relating ME to a disgusting and vile creature?"

"No, it's in relation to your terrifying power."

The Dark Elf stared at me with his head tilted. He displayed signs of curiosity in me. I don't know whether that's a good or bad sign but I will have to hope for the best. He can very well kill me at any given moment. There's nothing I can do against him yet.

"Human, you are only a few years young. What are you doing in the forest? You seem like a child born from nobility, are you not educated that you are currently standing at the edge of a border between two nations?"

"I do not know of my background. I was abandoned, flowing down a river until I reached the conclusion that I wanted to live. We, as humans, only begin to speak proper sentences at the age of four."

"Abandoned? That is quite common nowadays, human nobles tend to raise the highest quality successors. Intriguing, you say you are four? Is there some sort of concealing spell that I don't know?"

"Why do you say that?"

The Dark Elf bent his knees to lower himself to be a bit more equal to my height. I guess it gave my neck a break. His red eyes looked at me up and down.

"You have quite a large amount of mana-"

The Dark Elf paused and his eyes widened. He grinned.

"And it seems you already awakened your ability to use magic! Extraordinary! Human, come with me, I MUST make you into my disciple, then you can work with me as my assistant!"