Zeph, The Spell Sword

The tall dark man stepped closer, pulling his hood down and revealing his dark tan skin and short black hair. Solid black lines outlined his eyes like tribal markers as he slowly looked around the battlefield. "Fire… Plant, earth, water… Oh? And lightning too. No human corpses, so I suppose it's safe to assume you did all this?"

"If I didn't, why would I be sitting on one with my ax buried in its skull… You still haven't told me your name… From the marks on your face I'm assuming you're with Lion's Pride, C rank… Probably B, or even higher sense you are walking around carefree without real armor."

'Still, it's surprising to see someone else with black hair. It's… Oh, no wait… It fades to purple…' I sighed after we stared at each other in silence for a while. "How about we talk like normal instead of making crazy assumptions about each other…"

With another wave of his hand he pulled out a cigar, tossing me one too. "Here, it'll help your mana come back, I can tell you how low."

I sniffed it, recognizing the scent right away. 'Drip weed? Yeah… And it will also make all my sensitive nerve endings light up with a cold burn…' "No thanks… This stuff has some serious side effects when you aren't used to it." I tossed it back, pulling some airag out of storage and having some of that instead. "So, were you sent here by your guild or is this personal?"

"The guild. Investigative mission to assess damages and mitigate threat level. The situation still isn't bad enough for any of the 10 to step in yet."

'What constitutes bad…'

"There are 13 dead here, was that really all there was? I was under the impression there would be more from the signs in the forest."

"I've got another 30 in my storage, I just ran out of room…"

We both stared at each other silently. 'This still doesn't feel like a normal conversation…'

"I see… And your name?"

"That was the first thing I asked you… Why should I answer first?"

He lowered his chin to one of his hands, thinking for a moment. "I'm Zeph. Lion's Pride, B rank, spell sword. Although you guessed most of that."

'Well… If he's really going to tell me everything like that… I guess there's no reason to be suspicious anymore… He's just a bit weird I guess…' "Chika, unaffiliated, D rank, Classless."

"Classless?" His eyes widened slightly, somehow also softening at the same time, like he was suddenly looking at a shiny jewel or a wizard looking at a priceless tome. "You could join my guild if you want?" He said, the first hints of life reaching through his voice as he took a step closer, his eyes starting to sparkle.

'Like he would have any say over that…' "Sure… I'd love to hang out with the arrogant prideful mages and the coldhearted spell swords…"

"Great, it's settled then, I will help you take these back, we can drop them off on our way to my guild hall."

He suddenly swept them all into his storage with a wave of his hand, demonstrating just how much range it had, and even managing to leave my ax behind. Although… It clanged to the ground, hitting it hard, just like me when I fell on my butt. "Hold on a moment!" I growled, slowly standing up. "I was being sarcastic."

His face fell flat as his eyes grew distant again. "I see…"

'When I told Mochi everyone was a little sick in the head… I didn't expect it to be this literall…' "I'm not planning on joining any guilds at the moment… And Lion's Pride won't let me in. It's in the regulations that you have to be either a tier 5 mage in at least one school, a C rank or higher, and possess sufficient knowledge in at least one physical style of combat… I tried to join… Last year…"

He sighed. "Special exceptions can be made… But you don't seem very interested." He looked at me again, sighing a second time. "You said your storage was full? Here, I'll help bring the corpses back for you. You did my job for me anyway so I'm heading back as well."

'This guy…' I picked up my ax and hung it from my belt. "Well it's not like I have a reason to say no…"

The whole way back was silent… He dampened his footsteps with magic, or his shawty boots were enchanted. Regardless I still couldn't quite figure him out at all. "That armor… It's just boar leather right? Not even as tough as warg hide."

He suddenly stopped, raising out an arm to make me stand still as well. With a flick of his wrist, pointing two fingers a beam of light shot from his hand and I suddenly started to smell the scorched insides of a spider. I turned just in time to see it falling from a tree in the distance before evaporating into storage.

'What… The…'

"Boar leather, yes. It is less durable than warg but it takes to enchanting well. Boars actually have fairly high innate mana, that's why they grow horns like ogres."

"Well… But still…" 'What was that spell?'

"It's not as good as yours, but I just use magic to protect myself now, so I don't need armor."

"What spell did you just use? And how can you use storage from so far away? What's the capacity? Is it…" I quickly bit my tongue.

He paused again, looking back at me and staring deeply into my eyes through my helmet. 

'What's with him now…'

"You aren't mad that I stopped you like that?"

"Uh… Why would I be…"

"The girls I know… Well, it's not important. I'll give you that spider too as an apology for suddenly ordering you around."

'I guess the mages in that guild really are snobs if they would get mad over something like that… He's even giving me the corpse? Well… To be fair it holds no relative value for him…'

"That was Light beam, although I'm told it's also called Lazer. It's the tier 3 light spell, you can use tier two can't you? As for storage, it simply expands in use the higher one advances in arcane magic. I used insight to locate the spider, that's tier 5 arcane magic. Oh… But you didn't ask about that sorry."

"N-no it's totally fine." 'Tier five arcane magic? And light magic? What kind of nut job do you have to be to learn both, they're basically dead schools.' "Uh…" 'Oh right… I'm that kind of nut job too…'

"Is something wrong?"

"Not exactly… Although I am curious… Your storage magic makes things vanish into gold dust like they are evaporating. I have to open a portal, and my portal is this kind of crazy black hole thing."

"So I was right, you also know arcane magic. Don't worry, your magic is just too weak still, once it gets stronger it will take shape like mine, maybe it will be flower petals, a dark void, or something else altogether."

'That… Doesn't explain much honestly…' "Why are you helping me anyway? Are you still hoping I'll join your guild?"

He looked back for a moment. "Have you reconsidered?"

"No…" 'I actually want to join even less now…'

He sighed as we walked into the clearing and approached the encampment. "It takes a special kind of person to know the magics that you do… Not to mention combine them like that. I guess you just reminded me of… Myself… And an old friend… Besides, I'm hardly going out of my way. Like I said, I was going back here anyway since you did my job for me…" He looked to the side. "I hope I still get paid…"

'Well now I feel bad…' "Hey, before we part ways can I see your sword one more time?"

He pulled it out without hesitation and handed it to me. 'Is he that trusting? Or… Does he just not care…' "Is it ok if I run my magic through this? While I was making this armor I learned something pretty interesting. My metal magic increases significantly faster every time I learn what a new metal feels like."

"You made that armor… Like forged…"

"Oh uh… Well yeah, and the leather is from a minotaur I killed and tanned, it was a bit rough though because it wasn't exactly a perfect hide." 'Wait, what was I saying?' "I uh… I enchanted it too… But it's not nearly as good as what you have on this thing…"

"I knew that, the mana is the same as yours."

'He can read other people mana? Is that also arcane magic?' I looked back at the sword. 'I'm having trouble focusing…' "Hold on a second." I handed it back to him and took off my gloves and helmet, before taking it back. 'The metal feels hot… Even in the cold… It's not enchanted with heat, it's just holding that much power…' I felt chills run down my back. 'This is incredible…' When I sent my mana through the blade it was like my own circuits were trying to fuse with the metal and my hands went numb until my mana slowly made it back, although even then there was a faint tingling in my palms.

"This is amazing!" I couldn't stop myself from grinning ear to ear as I looked up at him again. 'It's like it all clicked somehow, even without trying in my mind I can feel that my magics improved. And this sword… Did he seriously enchant this sword? Oh… I wish I could figure out how to read his mana signature, is that also a part of insight? I should work on improving my arcane magic.'

"I'm… Glad you liked it…" He said, slowly taking it back and vanishing it into storage. "It draws quite a bit of attention though…"

I sighed, putting my helmet and gauntlets back on. "Yeah well… I tend to do that on my own…"

He let out a small laugh, but by the time I turned it had already passed, making me feel like I missed something. 'Seriously… What's with him?'

We turned in the spider corpses and the Beekeeper slowly tallied them out, calculating damages due to things like fire magic.

"I'll be off then. It was nice to meet you."

"Yeah you too." 'I guess just like that he's gone. I wonder if he'll be around… Probably not, if the guild needs to send someone it would probably be someone else, maybe even higher ranked to just solve the problem now that he assessed it. "OH! Hey wait a second!"

He stopped and turned just before exiting through the doorway and I flicked him a silver coin. "You killed one of these things, I'm sure even you have use for some pocket change."

His face softened again, if only for a moment as I carved a rune into the ocean with magic and left without a word. 'What the… You can't use it if it's defaced… Wait, I should have given him two silver, the price would be…' I sighed, looking at the empty door frame. 'Dangit…'