I never knew hedgehogs had a tail. For a while, I thought bunnies didn't have one either. And today I'm proven wrong, witnessing an appendage of stone and flesh the size of Granhall's walls rise through the soil.

It turns earth into a deadly tsunami not through any witchcraft or wondrous machinations, but raw, indomitable strength. After witnessing this, I can no longer think of Sid's alias, the Hedgehog, as a simple jab but rather as a reference to this creature. The boy had a solid grasp of earth magic and fought with walls of endless stone…

But this is different.

Neither Victor's distant thunder nor Kayla's choir of beasts can do a thing in the face of a natural catastrophe. Worse yet, one caused by a single swing. They're both far and might be able to escape the whipped-up wave of earth in time… And I could fly.

"Is it already over?" I hiss, watching the tide of ripped-up forest, trees, rocks, and solid inch ever closer. "This was our one shot." Because if we back away now, scaring them again won't work, and hurting them is beyond us.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind throwing in the towel. Sure, some farmers might suffer and people might go hungry, some homes even might get leveled completely… We don't know, and it has nothing to do with me.

But, I mean, I'm already here and I've done things way, way more stupid. No heroic calling to do the right thing or save people whispers into my ear, just… Yeah, fuck it, why not push my Skills a little? That's the point of this whole Fist-style holiday.

So, amplifying my voice, I yell at the top of my lungs. "Let's have at it, guys! Go louder!"

The beauty of the formations crafted by me is that they are still my shadows. Those lines aren't the most potent, but neither are they permanent. I use Focal Mana Trance without a second thought, pushing myself a little since I already decided to stay. The world slows to a crawl and colors become sharper… I can feel the mana, taste it, hear its every whisper, and feel my mind boil at the same time.

A lovely Skill this one is.

Raising my hand and moving my finger like a puppeteer, the darkness all around rises from the ground and begins to reshape itself.

I don't need anything complex, the more powerful, the better. For that, the Flow is a choice second to none. What was once an intricate formation of Runes now stretches before me in the shape of a crack of depthless darkness.

A drip of blood runs down my face, and I sniff my nose. "Damn, new record!" I made it thick, and I made it in just eight seconds. "Now I just need to ride it…"

Since this much is unlikely to be enough, I create a backup. Wisps of fire ignite in the air, and the gem on my crown shimmers crimson. I was only supposed to saturate my surroundings with fire mana, but it's going beyond that. Once the charge is sufficient, I let it loose to rampage through the flames and pull it all together.

A big boom never hurts, and this is perhaps the largest halo of plasma I've created yet.

The wall of earth is already in my face, chunks of dirt fall below, and the ground groans even after the shock has traveled hundreds of paces. I can barely see the sky. Right on cue, my background noise resumes.

I don't know what trickery Victor has pulled off to make the discharges of electricity even more violent, or how Kayla has manged to coerce each beast to stay in the face of… that, but I value the trust.

"You can still run, Eli…" I float the option to myself. But who am I kidding? The worst thing that could happen is that I get swept away, kidnapped, and almost die, and that's my specialty. As the wave arrives, the ground rises and tilts beneath my feet. "This must be what surfing is like!"

I make sure the ground beneath my feet clamps down on my legs firmly, and off we go.

To make sure the inscription doesn't fracture, I keep a strong grip on the ground beneath my feet, reaching deep and making that earth gem in my crown pitch in generously. Trees topple beside me, and rubble falls in the size of small houses.

I burn them away, but it's getting a little too much. Keeping the plasma stable, holding the ground together, making sure I'm not crushed underneath something or that my little platform doesn't slip and fall below… Divided Attention isn't an advanced enough Skill for this, and neither am I blessed with multiple Elyssias inside my head.

I'm not even halfway up the ripple moving through the large patch of land as if it were a puddle when my control begins to slip. The inscription is about to collapse before even wreaking any havoc, and more importantly, gravity is doing its job wholeheartedly.

"Please don't crack, please don't crack, please don't crack!" Chanting like a desperate prayer, I slap my hand on the formation and mana siphons into the lines greedily.

More, and then much, much more mana. I'm squeezed dry in a few seconds, and if not for the mana gem's extra well of juice, things would look dire. But the umbral lines glow with an ominous glow in the night, and with a single deafening pulse, mana seeps deep into the ground.

Then it cracks… The whole thing with an echoing rumble.

I pumped enough mana that would allow me to burn down about half a city – weird standard, I know, but it's pretty reliable – and all I got was a crack. It's quite wide and stretches across the entire thing, and yet it isn't enough.

"As expected." I sigh at the ungodly amount of dirt and stone still reaching above my head. "It was never gonna be enough."

Now I'm without any footing, falling freely along with boulders and trees. The only difference is that I have a ring of incandescent blue ring of flames hovering above my head. It was partially meant to protect me, although its real time to shine has only just arrived.

Pumping even more of my feeble mana reserves into a single spot, squeezing and twisting it beyond what the mortal mind can comprehend, and I'm left with the last piece of this reckless spectacle.

Soon, the ring uncoils and the trail of plasma leaves my side, disappearing into the crack. I don't even try to slow my fall just yet. It's best to put as much distance between me and what's about to occur here as possible.

I need to save as much mana as possible to

"Four, three, two…" I count silently and cover my ears. My hair whips my face as I fall through the sky, and the groan of the earth goes silent for a split second.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The explosion lights up the night, not like a sun born down on the face of Aelion, but rather a streak of radiance cutting through the dark. It's power decimates everything the flames touch, and the shockwave spreads through the forest as far as the eye can see.

I'm also sent flying. With a touch of wind magic, I manage to grab myself and decelerate before catching the first branches with my face. A few scratches are all I suffer before whipping my gaze towards the firework.

And yet, its power still falls short of bringing down the entire froth of earth. The comparison in scale isn't even close, however, I never hoped to stop it all in the first place.

"Hehe, I cut it." I grin like a madwoman and crawl back down to the ground. Then I raise my voice and shout. "You called my bluff, and now I call yours! Come at me again if you dare!"

Pointing my finger towards the sky, I unleash a thick bolt of lightning instead of a beastly battle cry. Right after that, I get to dodging around like a maniac and fighting tooth and nail to keep my footing. I might've destroyed part of the dirt wave, but now the blown-up parts are coming down like meteors, and the rest is still moving through the forest like a force of nature.

And it sucks. This isn't exactly how it all looked inside my head. The explosion and inscriptions were on point, but I didn't have time to take into consideration what comes after. No mana, no backup, nowhere to hide, and I'm not really in the mood to be doing this. It's night, I want my dinner and a soft bed.

At least I'm quick on my feet. And more importantly, it worked. The hills in the distance abandon their straightforward pilgrimage, visible by the forests on their backs tilting and their heads pocking above the foliage in fear.

The mini meteor shower lasts just a few seconds, and quite a distance behind me, the devastating ripple of earth also folds back down where it belongs. This area was once sparsely forested, and now it looks like giants had plowed the field before sowing… Whatever giants eat.

Anyway, it's a win, and I didn't even almost die. I always had the option to just run away, and I had it all under control, from start to finish.

"Yeah, that's what I'm gonna tell mom." I gather my courage. But before that, I need to make sure of something else. "Now, where could those two have run off to?"

Could they be injured? I doubt it, especially Kayla, while Victor knows his odds better than to get swept up in that mess that passed by me. Let's just assume they're fine and head back.

It's not laziness or irresponsibility leading my thoughts, but simply the fact that I know both buggers pretty well by now. And I also don't want to look for them.

"But how come Mom and Dad haven't come dashing for me yet?" I question the greatest anomaly of tonight.

To make sure I'm found in case anyone is searching, I create a brilliant wisp of light to float above my position while jogging back where we left the adults. While doing my daily exercise, I check if there's any progress made on my Status.

A few Skill levels here and there, not much, but still decent for a day's work. The summer break is still plenty long, so who knows what I'll end up with.

I jog it back to the ledge where we set up camp earlier, overlooking the land from a comfortable distance. From afar, I already saw the campfire and smelled something roasting over the flames, which is partially responsible for my swift arrival.

However, when I arrive, it isn't a hearty camping environment that welcomes me. My parents are held down tightly by the claws of stone, struggling in their earthen shackles, shimmering with a hollow light grip, and watching my arrival with horror. Their bodies, limbs, weapons, and even mouths are sealed tightly.

At the fire sits Alvaro, staring into the dancing orange tongues of warmth. He doesn't even look over or reacts to my arrival and just pokes the ash, acting like the atmosphere was serene instead of murderous.

I debate how to strike first. My mana is all but dried up, but if I could just free my parents, then-

"You know…" The man speaks up before I can act. "I was offered a little over two thousand pieces of gold to take care of you. And I'm not talking about acting as your chaperone."

My blood runs cold as I realise just how much I've underestimated my opponents. Sure, they can't openly send Shadows after me, but there are other ways. There's no one else around, and my leave had been planned for at least a month.

Then Alvaro answers the only question that I'm hanging onto in hope. "Of course, I took it. Who wouldn't? It's a hefty sum?" He chuckles and finally turns his head my way. "You might think that the Fist is some sort of band of brothers and sisters, holding together like family… But for some, it's just a job, and they're only wearing the red and gray for the coin."

Is there even a point in attacking? Running, even? But he could've killed them…

So I test my hypothesis. "So why are they bound?" I ask, nodding towards my parents.

Alvaro sighs tiredly and pats a log beside him, inviting me closer. "They were about to rush down there the moment that Elder Thornhulk acted up. I told them to have patience, but alas… parental insects are beyond reason."

"But you took the money." I clarify, still on the edge and beyond, but now with some doubts about his words.

The man nods. "They paid in advance, and I'm too old to go on long campaigns. I can already see my granddaughter's face when I gift her a mansion for her wedding…" He grinned with a face I would've called warm if not for the mood. "But I don't intend to keep fleeing for the rest of my life, you see. The Fist value's two things above all… Coin and reputation."

So he's saying… he scammed them. He took the pay and now has no intention of actually accomplishing the job. It goes against the code of the Fist completely, but that's not the important thing here.

"You're painting a target on your back. And maybe not just yours." I warn him, not because I care, but because I'm not convinced.

"True, but let that be my problem and take this warning as my first real lesson." He waves, and my parents are released. "We are mercenaries, and our job is to make enemies, so never forget to doubt."

Mom and Dad jump to their feet and flank me in the blink of an eye. They draw their weapons and try to act threateningly, however, we all know they're merely kitten hissing at a lion. If Alvaro wanted to, they'd be dead, and if he wanted to take me, there's nothing I could do.

"Come, sit!" He keeps watching the fire nonchalantly. "Your second lesson is about to begin. My cooking skills are celebrated, you know…"

***

The night was like a horror story.

Victor and Kayla returned a while after our first 'lesson' went down and reacted quite normally to Alvaro's actions. Then we ate and called it a day. Or at least that was the original plan, but tensions were sky high, and I contemplated just throwing a fit and returning to Granhall in protest.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink because the old man's lesson turned out to be too effective.

He's a threat, and at the same time, not exactly a threat. Martha would probably kill him if I went missing, and the Fist had already proven their vengeful tendencies by burning down three estates from back when our carriage got attacked, if I recall correctly.

This means I should be okay… But it's not that simple.

So we stay. The mood is dead and decaying, and now we're constantly on guard against anything. Only under Solaire's light does it become apparent how much destruction last night' performance caused, along with the trails of the fleeing Thornhog-hulk-things.

Coincidentally, our next destination is exactly in the direction they were originally headed. It takes less than a twenty-minute walk to arrive at the first village along the road. It's slightly in shambles as the people had already evacuated in advance, but now, thank the heavens for finding their homes intact.

And of course, they thank us.

It's not just a quick 'thanks' either. Heartfelt, relieved, and sometimes tearful gratitude… I'm not used to it. Worse, if not for the job, I wouldn't have even considered doing anything, even if someone had simply asked me to jump in.

This… warmth is what drives knights and many with hearts large enough to go out of their way and act selflessly. And while I do think it's nice, I also find it overwhelming. They owe me nothing, and I don't owe them anything.

Still, we accepted a few gifts, none of which were of great value. Mostly food, really, since people in Turan tend to be quite be teetering on abject poverty. And this repeated in the next two villages as well. Word spread far and fast, and after three more days of walking and sleeping under the sky, we finally arrived at our next destination.

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