Quill dropped to his knees.

  He spat out vomit, heaving and gagging to the ground below as it turned upside down, the walls twisting like slime and taking his balance with him. Everything was a blur next to the ringing in his ears, and he could only wait until the symptoms of Mana Fatigue subsided.

  There was only so little of his Black Mana left. It would take a while before his Core could replenish the mana, and that meant Black Application and Reversal were down for the count from his arsenal of spells.

  Quill cursed. If he’d learned White Reversal earlier, then this could’ve been avoided entirely. In breaking down the wall, White Reversal would’ve been better suited for the job. After all, he had a much larger White manapool to work with. He could've never guessed he would need it now.

  “You okay?” Yereth walked back from her watch before dropping beside Quill.

  “Yes. I’m fine.” Quill swallowed the nausea down his throat before he pushed off the ground. He then propped himself up, crawling before pushing his head through the wall and scouting out the area behind.

  He turned left and right, finding maple and oaks lining the other side. There were hedges set around the stone paths, and it was perfect to act as cover. Through the rain and darkness of the night, he couldn't see much else, but he was certain that there was no one else close by.

  Quill started first.

  He pushed himself into the tight hole, squeezing past the broken crevice before he landed flat on the other side with a rustle of wet leaves.

  Yereth had it much easier, though. Her small and slight figure allowed her more movement within the tight confines, the one thing she had an edge over Quill. Once they reached the other side, they immediately went into cover, hiding behind the shadows of trees.

  There were lanterns lining the edges of the shrubs. A stone road followed the line, and on the other side were the buildings of the inner city. Quill turned, noting the hole they just gone through before he pulled branches and leaves in an attempt to cover it up. It wasn't the best work, but he couldn't spare any more time.

  “Let's go.” Quill and Yereth followed the shadows along the road, waiting for any passerbys before quickly dashing to the other side, blending into the darkness of the buildings. Most of the establishments in this district had long fallen asleep, and that was working to their advantage.

  They started towards the heart of the inner city. Haref's library stood out from the rest of the buildings in the city square, but Quill didn't pay it any mind. After all, the old man wasn't staying in the library.

  For the past week, Quill had been locking up the library for Haref. That was owed to the fact that he’d stay for much longer than the regular working hours, drowning in books and scrolls and studying up on magic. Haref would leave early to pass him the keys, and he would deliver them back to Haref at his townhouse.

  That was where they were going.

  Haref's townhouse was on the west side of Fen, close to the magic district near the academy grounds. It was still a few ways off from where they were at.

  Quill and Yereth made strides towards that direction. It was slow, but they were better off than hurrying only to get caught. The buildings of the inner city were more spacious, with the roads less tangled compared to Gren, resulting in tidy blocks that actively hindered their progress.

  Quill peeked over a building before he gestured, crossing the open path lit up with lanterns before hiding again on scant cover. It was a lot more open, and they had to take their time crossing vulnerable paths, though the abundance of trees and trimmed vegetation made up for the lack of alleys.

  “Fenith,” Yereth whispered.

  “Quiet.” He said. “We’re almost there.”

  “Are you sure Haref will help us?” There was a hint of doubt in Yereth's voice. Quill had asked for her trust, but even he couldn't answer the question.

  “I don't know.” He could only say the truth. Haref had high expectations for him, even regarding him as a prodigy, but there was no proof that he would help him. He could only hope that the old man’s heart was as big as his head, and if that wasn't the case, at least he should be smart enough to consider a compromise.

  Quill peeked again over the next street. So far, they hadn’t encountered a single guard patrolling the inner city. That was almost a given if you were to take into account the circumstances they were currently in.

  The City Watch should already be searching the woods outside the city by now. No one would think of Gren criminals willfully pushing themselves deeper into a corner by trespassing into the inner city.

  That was why there were no guards anywhere, ironically twisting the odds in their favor.

  But it failed him in the end.

  “You.”

  A voice lingered a little too long in the cold air. When Quill turned, he stared at a figure right behind them. It was the woman with the golden hair, wrapped in a white robe, the same one who had threatened him on the bridge a week ago.

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  Quill couldn't think. The woman came from out of nowhere, not even a single clue on how she arrived behind them. Quill couldn't afford to compromise their plan now, not when they were already so close.

  There was nothing to think about.

  He had to take care of the problem right this very moment, and this woman was the very definition of a problem he had to take care of.

  Quill surrendered to pure instinct, picking up the knife by his waist before sending it flying towards her. Where the knife should’ve hit, a red speck of fire then appeared, floating right in front of the woman before it crashed with the blade and exploded, sending it flying with a .

  She was a mage. Quill didn't let it surprise him. He had already written the Scripts for White Ball before he sent it flying, whizzing through the air like an arrow, only to crash into another one of the pesky specks of fire, resulting in another explosion.

  The woman said, followed by a Red Aspect symbol appearing right in front of her lips, an echo shaking the air. She had cast a spell through conjuring three Fire Wisps around her. “So you’re a mage?”

  “I was going to ask the same thing.” Quill grit his teeth. This woman was a level higher than he currently was, already using Quickscripts for her spell. He couldn't think of any way he was going to beat her now, but then a simple fact came to light.

  She was casting her Fire Wisp spell with nothing but Quickscripts.

  Quill entertained the thought. She either had too much mana for her own good, or she wasn't managing the limited manapool she had. Quickscripting took twice the amount of mana as normal Scripting, and that was why most beginning mages used it sparingly.

  If it were the latter, then Quill still had a chance.

  The woman’s eyes lingered on Yereth before turning back to Quill. “Word spreads fast in this city. Two gray elves are on the run, and I just so happen to find you two.”

  Quill dropped the bags and immediately started working on a spoken Script. It was going to be slower than writing it, but the key here was to act as if he were using Quickscript. There was no way he was winning this fight cleanly, so the next thing to do was at least win dirty.

  “Give me everything you've got, then.”

  “Of course.” The woman set her Fire Wisps loose, arcing through the air before zipping their way straight for Quill.

  He immediately activated White Sphere from the spoken Script, a layer of White mana enveloping him right before the Fire Wisps landed with a . It cracked the surface of the White Sphere, sending ripples through the air as clouds of black smoke emanated where it landed.

  Quill took the opportunity of cover, hiding his figure under the cover of smoke before he waited for the clouds to settle. Just before it did, he finally found the woman's outline through the smoke, the lanterns on the road casting her shadow just enough to guide a White Ball straight for her chest.

  Another explosion followed Quill's attack. The broken Mana Link from his White Ball told him all he needed to know; the attack hadn't hit its mark, parried again by a Fire Wisp.

  But Quill didn't let up.

  This was his chance to apply more pressure, especially when the smoke was still covering him.

  He sent another White Ball, rearing straight for the woman through the air, but again, another Fire Wisp collided in its path before exploding. Another White Ball followed right after, but again and again, another explosion stopped it entirely.

  “What are you doing?” The woman continued to burn through the White Balls coming her way, and only when the smoke had settled did she finally send a Fire Wisp straight for Quill. Quill hadn't readied a White Sphere, opting instead to rely on his reflexes and rolled to the side. He barely missed the explosion before it landed on the building behind him.

  Quill didn't stop. He continued sending White Balls her way, and the woman only parried them in turn before sending Fire Wisps to counter. Through the exchange of spells, Quill could only dodge through it all, gasping and enduring until it finally happened–the woman had burned through her manapool.

  “What–” A White Ball managed to dig into her shoulder, the output explosions of her Fire Wisps not enough to break the White Ball.

  And that was when Quill finally started.

  He dashed into melee, taking advantage of his Novice Martial Artist Trait to rain a flurry of strikes. He wound left, the woman barely dodging the strike before a knee hit her torso. Despite the wound on Quill's back, he didn't let up, winding another fist that landed directly on her face.

  The woman retreated before conjuring a smaller Fire Wisp, but the Mana Fatigue was obviously eating at her. Quill dodged the Fire Wisp before continuing to apply pressure, dashing in whenever she retreated before a fist landed again, but instead of retreating, the woman then conjured a Fire Wisp directly in front of him.

  Quill was careless. He didn't think the woman still had any mana left. The Fire Wisp was small, barely the size of a pebble now, but the energy inside it was still true. He couldn't even blink before it exploded right in front of his face, but before it set off, a weight then landed over his side.

  The explosion rattled his bones, heating up the chilling air around. When the smoke then settled, all he could see was Yereth coughing on the ground. She saved him from the worst of it.

  “Why did you do that?” Quill stared at her foot, melting from severe burns resulting from the explosion.

  “I couldn't just stand there, could I?” Yereth frowned and grunted, seething from the pain in her leg.

  Quill grit his teeth. He was burning with an odd fever. He pushed Yereth away, turning to stand before starting towards the woman. Blood oozed from her wounds. Her face was blackened with soot. She had passed out from Mana Fatigue, but Quill didn't care.

  He pushed her down. He pinned his weight over her body, arms grabbing her neck before he scraped the last of his Black mana to his fingers. Black Application. She was going to suffer right this instant, the same way she had harmed Yereth.

  “You could've just let us get away.” The miasma oozed from his fingers, drawn to the skin of her neck, and once her skin started to melt, only then did Quill feel a little bit of satisfaction.

  “Hey!” Yereth grabbed his shoulder, shaking him out of his trance. She pointed to the group of guards in the distance. They were coming fast. “We should go now. I’m okay–trust me.”

  Quill shook his head. He stared one last time at the woman on the ground before he then grabbed Yereth and disappeared into the maze of buildings.

  One day, he was going to settle it.

  I was always on the lookout for the tension to rise following the events of the first five chapters, and I ended up turning a full circle back to the guards and the golden elf. They were the perfect shoehorn for conflict, and as Confucius once said, a shoehorn will serve its purpose if used well (don't quote me on that).

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