Chapter 4

Rainer groaned in both pain and embarrassment. He cautiously stood back up on his feet, trying not to slip again. His face flushed red like an apple, from the incident.

“Would you like some help?” Bahamut asked while trying to hold back his laughter.

Rainer stared at the ground with his teeth clenched as a small amount of blood ran down from his nose. “I’m a feared mercenary on my planet!” He yelled at the clown, trying to save face.

The clown gasped for air and ceased his laughter. “On your planet you may be anything you like, but on this planet, you’re nothing more than a toddler who just learned to crawl. I don’t see anything emanating from you. No Mana, nor any Prana. It’s quite pathetic that anyone claiming to be a mercenary would be so weak.”

Rainer wasn’t able to answer back, not just because he had nothing to come back with, but also because it was true in his case. Him being a mercenary did not guarantee his survival in a world where magic existed.

Silence fell on the battlefield, only the sound of the wind whistled around the mountain side. It was short lived until the clown began to juggle multiple coins.

“Well I should end this quickly and move on. So much to do, such little time.”

Bahamut realized this was not the time to dawdle. “Your feet. Generate Mana to your feet. It will stick to the ice as if it were a regular floor.”

Rainer was annoyed by the clown and his remarks. He looked at his feet and concentrated whatever Mana he could to his feet. The remainder of his Mana, he instilled into his sword as he drew it from his sheath. A red aura wrapped around both his shoes and the sword like a thin film.

“This isn’t easy. I have to keep up this layer on my feet and the sword, while fighting!”

The clown looked slightly impressed by the ingenuity Rainer had shown. “So you do have a little something. It won’t be enough!” He yelled, as he flicked three coins in succession towards Rainer.

Rainer dodged the incoming coins, and swung his sword at his opponent. He narrowly missed, but followed up with another strike aimed for its body. The clown dodged, and kicked Rainer across the face, bashing him against the mountain. Rainer bled out from his nose, and quickly wiped it away with his sleeve.

“Slow. I’m too slow. If I wasn’t concentrating on keeping up these fortifications, I could run circles around this thing.”

Rainer looked at the clown, who was now readying his next attack. Moving from his cornered position was top priority, so he ran to his left and charged at his opponent again. This time he did not see the coins until they were almost an arm's length away. Frightened by the coins he lost concentration and slipped on the ice. He slid under the coins then fortified his shoes once more to regain control.

Rainer spun on the ground attempting to land a kick on the clown’s body, but that was only bait to distract him from the sword. He kicked off from the ground and attempted to stab the opponent, only for it to be easily dodged and countered with a kick to his hip. The blow knocked the air out of Rainer as he fell to his knees, clutching his stomach.

The clown looked at Rainer with a snarky smile. “My oh my, have my skills taken your breath away? I am simply honored that a mercenary of your talents has acknowledged me” he sarcastically remarked.

Rainer stood back up, and in a desperate attempt to catch his breath he decided to make conversation with his enemy. “I thought clowns were supposed to be funny, that last joke was lacking. Got anything better?”

The clown looked surprised and insulted. “Lacking!? Do you know how difficult it is to come up with these? I work day and night to write these and then unappreciative idiots like yourself can’t see the genius behind it!” He was infuriated that Rainer had called his jokes lacking, and ranted on for a good while.

“I bought myself a minute of relief, but now what? This thing has sharp senses and even better control over his weapons. I have to catch him off guard somehow.” Rainer ran a list of distractions through his head while the clown went on and on about his brilliance.

“It’s no use, he’ll counter anything I throw at him with those coins. I would need multiple weapons just to keep up.” It then struck him “what about Materialization?”

Bahamut interfered with his thought to warn him “Remember, materialization uses too much of your energy. It would be too risky to use in this situation.”

“Right, a gamble would only end badly for me.” Rainer smiled as he recalled something. “Maybe a small gamble might be what I need.”

The clown was still in the middle of his rant about how writing comedy was a complex work of art, until Rainer interrupted. “Alright, I get it! You can stop talking now.”

The clown looked at him with a dull face. “Human’s certainly are an impolite nuisance of a race. No wonder you were the butt of everyone’s jokes for centuries.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” Rainer laughed back.

The clown looked at his wrist pretending there was a watch there, “Oh, well would you look at the time? It was fun chatting with you, but it’s time to die.” He said with a menacingly evil look on his face.

A few coins flew past Rainer as the blizzard began to pick up once more. The howling wind muffled the sound of footsteps and the snow cloaked the surroundings in white. Rainer took his chance at spending the remaining amount of his energy without collapsing. His sword burst with a red aura, and with it he swung heavily in a full circle. Clearing the snow around him to reveal the clown right in front of him.

In a moment of panic, Rainer quickly stabbed his sword through the clown’s neck. As Rainer looked at the clown’s hand, he noticed the coin was only one small flick away from blowing away his head. He jumped backwards after seeing it, and removed the sword from the neck simultaneously. The dead clown fell to the ground, and Rainer felt a small vibration from the device on his wrist. It signaled he had achieved his first kill.

The body of his dead foe became enveloped in a blue light, and then in a flash it disappeared from the ground. When it was gone, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s finally over.” He stretched out his arms and body, as the storm began to die out.

“You lured him in by standing still, caught him off-guard by swinging your sword, and then took the chance to kill him. You adapt quickly, I am impressed. I just figured you for a fool.”

“I’m a trained mercenary. Adapting to situations is what I do best,” he snickered. “Well, I learned a few new tricks from this fight. I guess you were right, I did need real battle experience.” Rainer looked at the winding path leading to the top of the mountain.

A soft voice, like that of the wind, blew past him “Come to me.” It said. Rainer felt as if the mountain itself whispered in his ears.

“Did you hear that?” Rainer asked, spooked by the voice.

“I didn’t hear anything.” Bahamut replied.

The longer he stared at the path before him, the more he felt the urge to climb it. “No rest for the wicked.” He stated as he began his journey towards the peak. Traversing the path was an easy feat, which seemed odd. The first half of the mountain was rough terrain, but this path seemed like it was carved simply to reach the top. Rainer noticed the ease of the climb and was cautious in case it was a trap.

To ease his nerves, Rainer attempted to spark a conversation with his familiar. “Hey Bahamut, where exactly do familiars exist before being summoned?”

“Familiars are almost god-like creatures. Creatures created from the hopes of millions of people. Once they are brought into being, they tend to drift in an endless void until the day comes when they are called upon. “

“What about you? Who hoped for you to appear?”

“Primordials… We are different from familiars. Though we now exhibit the same functions as a familiar, we were not created from the hopes of people. Primordials were born when the universe was young. We have always existed as guardians; however we have lost that right and are now bound by the rules of familiars as our punishment for the crime committed."

“Crimes? What kind of crime did you commit?” Before Rainer was able to receive an answer to his question, a heavy wind blew past him. The wind was so strong it almost knocked him off his feet.