Kaede was carefully following Nagisa as he led the way through the tunnel towards their first destination. Nagisa wanted to get back to his storage so they could both grab some wind and water crystals for their escape.
From the lessons with Kaede, Nagisa had learned that the crystals he had been mining held and were also able to store mana inside them.
Kaede had always wondered why Nagisa had sometimes asked her to fill a crystal with mana before taking it and disappearing into the mines again. It all made sense now, Nagisa had been saving up a few fully charged crystals just for their escape.
"We won't be able to take too many with us." Nagisa whispered when they finally got to his storage, "pick 4 or 5 with the most amount of mana." Nagisa told Kaede before searching his pile of water crystals. Depending on the quality, crystals were able to hold different amounts of mana. Because Nagisa wasn't able to identify them, he just charged as many crystals as possible over time and was now picking out the best ones.
After finding himself three crystals, Nagisa looked towards Kaede who returned him a nod to tell him that she was done as well. Nagisa wanted Kaede to hold onto more crystals because she might need her Fleet Footwork a lot during their escape.
Returning Kaede's nod, Nagisa silently slipped back into the tunnel they came from and followed the tunnel that led out of the prison.
They slowly crawled towards the exit in absolute silence. It was taking quite a while since Nagisa had made sure that the tunnel was long enough, so it would be far away enough from the guard towers that he had seen when he was brought to the prison.
When they have finally reached a dead end, Nagisa let out a deep breath before looking back at Kaede to give her a warning and some time to adjust. Once they were out of the tunnel, they had to improvise, Nagisa had no way to plan an escape route once they were out.
After seeing Kaede taking a few deep breaths herself and then nodding at him, Nagisa took another deep breath, held it and shoved his arms through the soil over him!
His arms easily went through the layer of soil above them and a small part of it started to fall apart revealing a rather dark and cloudy sky when he pulled his arm back. The feeling of a fresh breeze blowing into the tunnel made Nagisa close his eyes and greedily sniff for the fresh air before opening his eyes again.
He found Kaede doing the exact same behind him, it had been 5 months since they were overground and had some fresh air after all! Feeling as if parts of his body just came back to life, Nagisa carefully poked his head out of the opening and checked their surroundings.
After making sure that no one was around to see them, Nagisa swiftly climbed out of the tunnel before holding a hand back down to pull Kaede up as well.
He only realized that it was starting to rain when Kaede also managed to make it out of the tunnel and a rain droplet fell on her cheek. He silently cheered since the rain would reduce the visibly significantly while also making his job to gather water elements for his magic a lot easier.
"Which way?" Nagisa whispered after taking cover behind a tree with Kaede. Since they were planning to head towards the wind tribe, Nagisa had no idea where to go.
"My tribe is to the west, we'll just have to go deeper into the woods." Kaede answered after giving it a little thought, "this way." She said before silently moving in a crouch.
Nagisa nodded and followed her while trying his best to stay in the shadows. "Oh no…" Nagisa's eyes widened when Kaede suddenly stopped and muttered with terror showing in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Nagisa hissed nervously while quickly placing a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.
"We're spotted! Run!" Kaede shook her head and shouted when she came back to her senses and pulled Nagisa up from his crouching position before starting to run as fast as she could.
"What?! How?" Nagisa asked frustratedly while letting go of Kaede's hand and running on his own, he could see that Kaede was already using her Fleet Footwork by the tiny gusts around her body.
The only reason Nagisa was able to keep up with her, was because even though Kaede's physical state had improved significantly after Nagisa was granted a better meal, Nagisa was still a lot fitter than her due to all the work he had been doing before getting caught. Not to forget that Kaede had just recovered from a fever as well.
"They have a mage around! At least stage two maybe even stage three!" Kaede yelled back while sprinting through the woods, "he set up a sensory type barrier around this place! I felt it scan us when we passed it just now!"
"Damn it!" Nagisa cursed before he stopped to talk and focused on running, he didn't want to waste more energy and stamina on talking while running for his life.
Just as he finished talking, he heard how the alarms were starting to ring behind them and people starting to gather and rush towards the position they had been just a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, the mage was also able to sense exactly where the barrier had been breached.
"What's this smell?" Kaede suddenly frowned and asked after they've been running for quite a while.
"Something smells burnt." Nagisa sniffed a few times as well before his eyes widened, "You can't be serious!" He gritted his teeth and hissed. He had spread his mana and could feel the moisture in the air evaporating! "They've set the forest on fire!"
After running for quite a while, Nagisa realized that something was fishy. While they were running and avoiding either the fire or their pursuits, they were slowly being forced into a certain direction while the people chasing them were forming a U-form around them. But Nagisa couldn't figure out why they would leave a part of their circle open…
"Kaede?" Nagisa frowned when he suddenly realized that the rhythm of her breathing was getting out of order and she was gasping for air. With all the thinking he wasn't able to pay a lot of attention to her situation.
She tried to answer but the lack of air prevented her from speaking. She was running out of stamina really quickly, and the suffocating air caused by the fire wasn't helping her situation at all! They could consider themselves lucky that is was raining so the fire wasn't spreading as fast or they'd be in even more trouble!
"Get on my back!" Nagisa yelled at her before grabbing her wrist and stopping her, "Don't talk back! We don't have time for this! Just focus on your Fleet Footwork to make it easier for me!" Nagisa said undeniably before forcefully throwing her on his back and continued to run while Kaede was heavily panting on his back.
With Kaede focusing all her mind on her Fleet Footwork, Nagisa could barely feel her weight since she was also making her body float on top of reducing her own weight.
"Sorry, Nagisa." Kaede apologized quietly after catching her breath again. "Did you notice that they're trying to force us into a direction?"
"Yeah… I have a bad feeling about this." Nagisa answered grudgingly, "and they're catching up to us."
No matter how fast they were, the fact that they weren't fully grown and still had shorter limps limited their speed by a lot. "The mage is catching up as well!" Kaede closed her eyes to focus on something and earned Nagisa.
"How do you know?" Nagisa wondered with a frown while jumping over a root.
"You're not there yet, I can't really explain without you being able to feel it." Kaede shook her head and answered. "Just keep runn…", her words were stuck in her throat when Nagisa dashed out of the forest and was forced to stop.
There was a cliff right in front of them, or rather a 10 m gap between the two mountains. The bridge that was supposed to connect both sides was broken. Nagisa took a quick glance down the cliff and saw a tiny river running at the bottom about 600 meters deeper.
"W-what now?" Kaede almost whined as she swallowed her fear. Their pursuers were closing in fast! They didn't have much time left, "S-should we jump and try to land in the river?" Kaede gulped as she suggested.
"No… we don't know how deep the river is… hey, can u make an air ball that can contain water?" Nagisa worked his brain rapidly and came up with an absolutely absurd plan, but he had no choice since he didn't have time to think of another one.
"Yeah… why?" Kaede raised an eyebrow and asked, "that's rather easy actually."
"Can you do that while maintaining your Fleet Footwork?" Nagisa asked again.
"I think so." Kaede answered a little bit unsure, "what do you want to do?"
"I don't have time to explain, trust me, please! No matter what happens, don't drop the airball or your Fleet Footwork until I say so! And try to suppress the size of your airball as much as possible!" Nagisa grit his teeth as he started to collect water from the air and rain to make a water ball.
"Kaede!" Nagisa yelled when his water ball was almost as big as him and Kaede quickly started to form an air ball to contain and suppress the water Nagisa had collected. "Keep your Fleet Footwork at your absolute maximum! And place the airball at the edge of the cliff!" Nagisa talked really quickly since he would hear their pursuers coming closer!
"Close your eyes and when I say now let your airball go alright?" Nagisa asked Kaede and got a nod from her while she closed her eyes a bit hesitantly but decided to concentrate on keeping both the airball and her Unique Skill going.
Nagisa took a deep breath and a few steps back before the scale on his hand started glowing and Kaede's airball was starting to shake trying to expand, "Keep the pressure Kaede! Don't let it expand!" Nagisa yelled while he started to sprint towards the airball.
"NOW!" Nagisa screamed when he took a huge step and jumped over the shaking airball Kaede was suppressing. With a loud hissing sound, an immense amount of boiling hot steam exploded out of the airball that Kaede had dissolved and blasted both of them into the air on Nagisa's command.
"WHAT DID YOU DO NAGISA!?" Kaede screamed out of terror when she opened her eyes from the sudden unexpected movement and realized that they were flying over the cliff!
"MAKE YOURSELF FLOAT KAEDE! USE ALL YOUR CRYSTALS!" Nagisa didn't answer and screamed out of panic since Kaede's concentration was slightly fading due to her fear.
Quickly putting her mind back into her Unique Skill and draining all the mana from her crystals to support it, Kaede's body started to float while lifting Nagisa's body slightly with her as if she was a parachute!
"IT'S WORKING!" Nagisa cheered loudly in disbelieve and relieve at the same time. While he did bet everything onto his plan, he was never too confident that it would work.
Kaede only nodded excitedly while wearing a big smile on her face, she wasn't talking so she could concentrate to maintain the mana supply for her Unique Skill, the amount of mana she had to manage to keep both of them floating was way beyond her usual capacity!
Nagisa's heart was pounding like crazy when they were nearing the other side of the mountain! They were only about two meters away from landing and breaking free! There was no way their pursuers would be able to come after them on the spot!
A sudden heatwave approaching from behind them made Nagisa's heart go cold. His eyes widened in despair when a huge fireball flew past them and crashed right in front of them while Kaede was still focusing on her Unique Skill!
The shockwave and hot air caused by the spell blew both Nagisa and Kaede back to the center of the gap in almost an instance when they started to fall!
Kaede was slightly shaking out of excitement before a sudden red light and shockwave sent both Nagisa and her tumbling back and confusing the hell out of her.
While her brain was still trying to understand what had just happened, she felt how Nagisa suddenly grabbed her left ankle really tightly while removing her from the piggyback position, "Don't look back, just run!" She heard Nagisa tell her before she was flung through the air again!
- Don't look where? Run where? –
Kaede mind went blank when her body suddenly hit solid ground and started to tumble forward before being stopped by a tree. The impact knocked the air out of her lungs and her field of vision turned black for a split second before she greedily grasped for air and blinked her eyes a few times rapidly.
Her vision recovered just in time to see Nagisa's body disappearing behind the edge of the cliff and everything finally clicked in her mind!
Just when they were about the reach the other side of the cliff, the fire mage that had spotted them earlier arrived at the scene and barely managed to shoot his rank 2 spell Fireball after them! Due to the hastily casted spell, he had missed them, but the shockwave of his spell hitting the cliff still knocked them away from it.
They had both been heading towards the bottom of the cliff when Nagisa had instantly grabbed her ankle and tossed her towards the other side with all his might. Because she had subconsciously held on to her Fleet Footwork, Nagisa's final attempt had successfully made her glide all the way to the other side before she had crashed into the ground and rolled into the tree she was laying at right now.
"NAGISA!" Kaede screamed before clumsily but desperately trying to get back on her feet with her sense of orientation still being messy from all the spinning.
Before she could reach the cliff, half running and half crawling, another Fireball exploded in front of her causing her to roll away from the cliff once again!
Don't look back, just run!
Nagisa's last words echoed through her mind while she stared at the cliff behind the forest with a dead look in her eyes. The forest was ignited by of the Fireball and the fire was slowly spreading to the other trees.
With her lips slightly quivering, Kaede took one last look at the cliff before getting back on her feet, turned around and started to sprint away from the cliff with her eyes tightly closed.
"Sir! Shall we continue our pursuit?" A man in a standard bandit guard uniform approached a man in a fancy looking dark red cape with golden linings and asked.
"… no, there's no point in that." The man shook his head slowly, "Sent a team down the cliff to search for any remains of that other dragon. Dragon parts are still rather valuable." The man commanded before turning around to leave.
"YES, SIR!" A bunch of bandits standing at the cliff chorused before trying to figure out a way to get to the bottom of the cliff.
Kaede had already forgotten how often she had fallen, gotten back up just to trip again while running with her eyes tightly shut to prevent her tears from falling.
She had no idea how far she had gotten, but she had managed to get out of the woods before being caught in the fire thanks to the heavy rain that was falling.
Kaede was now laying on a tiny grass field not being able to get back up again because her entire body was aching and hurting due to her exhaustion and her wounds from falling so often.
She had fallen unconscious the last time she had tripped. And during that time, her mana level that she had been suppressing since before even getting caught, had broken through with all the excessive mana that she had absorbed from the wind crystals.
She had broken through the third stage while she was unconscious and with all the pressure the excessive mana and her suppressing her level for so long had caused, she was now a stage 3 level 3 wind mage! But she couldn't care less at the moment. Tears were running down her cheeks while she blankly stared at the sky without her even blinking.
She just laid there for a few minutes before the information of her newly acquired Unique Skill echoed in her mind.
Soaring Wings: Grants a pair of air wings and the power of flight for 5 minutes, flight speed and duration increase with each rank.
"Ah… wah… urgh…" Tears started to well up in Kaede's widened eyes while broken sounds were coming out of her throat before turning into a heartbreaking cry, "WAAAAAHHHHHHrgh… …WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
She cried while digging her nails into the ground and wailing her head as hard as she could! The sense of regret filled every corner of her currently fragile mind.
Her third Unique Skill had turned out to grant the ability of flight, a power that could've easily gotten them over the cliff even with the interference of the fire mage. She had been able to attempt her breakthrough ever since being caught and locked up in the slave prison! But her past trauma had made her suppress her mana level, resulting in her actively denying her breakthrough all this time!
If she hadn't been so stubborn… if she had just allowed herself to break through the third stage, she wouldn't have been laying here on her own now.
She would've been laying here and laughing with the older brother she had met in a prison. That older brother who took care of her that entire time and she loved oh so much. He would have been petting her on her head and offering her a piggyback while wearing a warm and gentle smile on his face…
But she had been stubborn… she didn't allow herself to break through the third stage. And now all there was, was a little girl laying on the ground all alone while crying her heart out and drowning in her deep regret.
Shit… my heart was super heavy when I was writing the last part… that turned out a lot better (or worse) than I had imagined if that makes any sense.
Well, welcome to the official start of the story! I guess you can call all the chapters till this point the prologue of this story. Hope you've enjoyed it and are ready to finally enter the main story!
And before you even ask, of course Nagisa is NOT DEAD! I just told you that this is the actual start of the story! How am I supposed to start the story with the main protagonist dead?
So how do you guys like this chapter? And how do you like the end of the prologue? From a scale from 1-10, how excited are you for this story now :P? Please tell me in the reviews!
And as always, thank you so much for your support and I'll see you in the next chapter ;)!