The Beast-kin, or rather, the Lion-kin, took a few steps when he saw the scroll in Aedan’s hand. “A scroll? What can a scroll do?” he scoffed. “You’ll be sorry if you—”

  “You know full well what a scroll can do,” Aedan retorted. “You backed away. Your words lie, but your body is honest. You have some experience with scrolls, don’t you?”

  The Lion-kin’s expression curled. “This will not end well for you, boy.”

  “Perhaps, but we shall see, won’t we?” Aedan said and unfolded the scroll.

  The Lion-kin’s eyes widened. He knew not what the scroll was, but his instincts told him not to let the power of the scroll be unleashed. He roared and lunged at Aedan with his fangs and cws bared.

  Aedan snorted and tossed the glowing scroll at the Lion-kin before turning tail and running after the frail girl.

  The Lion-kin narrowed his eyes. He stopped and staggered away. He was confounded. To his knowledge, tossing a spell scroll away mid-use was like tossing away a magic wand that was spilling fire. It was foolish and votile. Before he could make sense of Aedan’s action, a magic circle appeared on the ground, and a person appeared along with it, an individual who stood as tall as he. She had a pair of horns jutting out from her forehead, and a rge sword, nearly as rge as he was, strapped to her back.

  “Damn you, Your Grace,” the person cursed. It was a woman with dark skin and waist-length, unkempt hair in the shade of a setting sun. “I hate it when he uses this spell,” Amyra continued to grumble.

  “Who are you?” asked the Lion-kin. Unlike the meek-looking boy from before, this woman exuded an aptitude for strength and turbulence.

  “Me, a humble servant of His Eminence, I suppose?” Amyra answered frivolously. “Say, do you see a young man around this height anywhere?” She gave a dispy with her hand hovering around at the height of her chest.

  “You’re with that accursed boy?” the Lion-kin growled.

  “Accursed, eh? So, you have seen him. Hmm, I guess I can see what he summoned me here for. He found the girl, and I’m being tasked to stop you from… stopping him. Sounds about right, no?”

  “Enough!” he barked and threw himself at Amyra.

  The Augur drew her sword, bursting into fmes as it was freed from its binds. She swung at the Lion-kin, throwing the fmes at him.

  The Lion-kin felt the beckoning of death, but he was too te to stop his hasty approach. The fmes crashed into him before he could do anything to stop or dodge it. The fmes were not ordinary. The fmes were the result of a seasoned caster with an abundance of experience in honing their strength and spells. The Lion-kin stood no chance. His level was in the fifties, but his experience was tremendously cking against an individual who had danced with death more than she had slumbered.

  The Lion-kin was sent spiralling in the air as the fmes engulfed him. He howled in agony. The fire seeped and cwed its way into him as quickly as a fsh flood would drown a vilge. His skin was charred and turned into cinders. When he hit the ground, he thrashed about, trying to rid himself of the fmes, but to no avail. He kicked and hit, in hopes of curbing the pain, but all was in vain. Eventually, the fmes consumed him, shuffling him off the mortal coil.

  “Disappointing,” Amyra scoffed. “I expected more since I was summoned without a warning. Now, where did you run off to, Your Grace?” Amyra ran out of the alley and into the streets. It wasn’t as busy as the square, but there was still a handful of people coming and going. She sheathed her sword before anyone could think of calling the city guards on her.

  Even though Amyra had withdrawn her weapon, she was still attracting a lot of gazes. Even for an Augur, she was still quite peculiar, given her height and her sword. Some gazes were wary, while some were of fascination. Still, no one dared to look her way for long for fear of incurring her wrath or annoyance.

  “Where are you, Your Grace?” Amyra muttered. She looked high and low for her master, but nothing seemed to stand out in her sight. They couldn’t have gone far. Which meant they might have entered a building. But which building? That was the question.

  Out of nowhere, there was an explosive noise coming from one of the buildings nearby. The passers-by were startled. They jumped away from the said building, but they did not run away. They stayed and stared at the building, where the noise came from. From the signboard tacked on the building, it appeared to be a general goods store.

  “That’s the one.” Amyra shrugged and headed towards the building that was making such noises. She had to wade through a growing crowd to get to the door. As her hand approached the door handle, someone flew out of the window. Or rather, someone was thrown out of the window. The crowd parted quickly to avoid becoming colteral.

  The thrown person was none other than Aedan.

  “Your Grace!” Amyra shouted and ran to Aedan. “Are you alright? What happened?”

  “Amyra,” Aedan grunted as he struggled to get to his feet. “This is going to be a huge mess if these people don’t clear away immediately.”

  Amyra didn’t question her master. She turned to the crowd and brandished her sword. “Listened!” she shouted at the top of her lungs as fmes engulfed her bde.

  The crowd’s gazes were pulled to her voice.

  “Get out of here now! For your own sake!”

  The crowd stared at her, confounded. They exchanged gnces with one another. They murmured to each other. No one moved a muscle.

  Aedan rolled his eyes. “Well, they were warned.”

  Then, the store exploded as a gigantic figure burst out of the building.

  The crowd screamed and immediately scattered, running for their lives. They were a tad too te. The sudden emergence of the gigantic figure was not without its victims. The force and the broken pieces of the building struck quite a few onlookers.

  “An Ogre?” Amyra couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It was an Ogre, standing over nine feet tall, in the middle of a street in a city. It was unfathomable for a gigantic wild monster to be in a city. Moreover, the Ogre had a club in his hand. “Where did this thing come from?‘

  “Underground. There was some kind of artificial dungeon below that building.”

  “And the girl?”

  Aedan sighed. “I’m afraid we lost her.”

  The Ogre growled. Having just emerged from a pce of darkness, the sunlight was blinding. It shielded itself from the light, but it was quick to adapt to its new environment. It looked around. It found Aedan, its prey. It bellowed in rage and charged at him with its club, swinging.

  Amyra didn’t hesitate in her actions. She took and threw Aedan over her shoulders before leaping away from the Ogre.

  The club turned the ground into a crater with devastating effect. The ground even shook a little.

  “Kill that thing already.”

  “As you say, Your Grace. Just don’t bme me if you get burned,” Amyra said and raised her sword. The fmes intensified.

  The intense glow of the fmes caught the Ogre’s attention, not that the Ogre would have looked any other way. It clutched the club tighter and rushed at the two.

  Amyra swung her sword, fmes hurled towards the Augur from the bde.

  The fmes struck the Ogre in the face, stopping its movement. The Ogre clutched its burning face in pain and swung the club wildly as if it were to fend the pain away.

  “Sloppy,” Aedan remarked. “Get its weapon first before anything. I told you that many times.”

  “Alright, alright,” Amyra muttered. She put Aedan down and lunged at the Ogre. The club was still being swung wildly, but it was of little danger to Amyra. With a single thrust into the trajectory of the club, she shattered the weapon into pieces.

  The Ogre felt the force and shockwave just as it was able to put the fmes on its face. It threw him off its bance and it staggered backwards. It regained its bearings without much difficulty, but the same could be said for the condition of its face. Most of its face had melted, save for one of its eyes, which was burning in rage and anger. It searched for the Augur that inflicted it so much pain. It found Amyra immediately, standing right in front of it with a fearless gaze and a confident stance.

  “Let’s hope you’re not an aberration,” Amyra mused.

  The Ogre roared and brought its hands together, forming a fist and raising it above its head. As it swung its gathered fists down on Amyra, it felt a sudden loss of weight and mass as if a huge part of its body was missing. And it was. It took the Ogre a short while, but it eventually realised both of its arms were gone, sliced off. Before it could howl in another bout of agony, its suffering was cut short. The Ogre became still and silent. Blood oozed out and trickled from a clean line that circled its neck, before its head slid off its neck, rolling down its body and to the ground.

  Amyra cleaned the blood on her bde with the fmes just as the headless corpse of the Ogre colpsed to the ground with a slight tremor. She sheathed her sword and returned to Aedan.

  “Well done,” Aedan congratuted.

  “What of the girl, Your Grace?”

  Aedan sighed. “We lost her.”

  “You lost her, you mean?”

  Aedan blinked. “Since when do you start being so snarky?”

  “Her Grace is a very good influence.”

  Aedan smiled wryly. “Too good, I suppose.” Aedan reached out his hand. “A little help?”

  Amyra took it and pulled him up to his feet. “What’s next?”

  “We re-group with the rest and—” Aedan stopped his words and turned around. He felt the ground quaking underneath him. It was a result of horses galloping in his direction. He stared into the distance. There was a group of soldiers approaching them down the street.

  “That’s not good,” Amyra muttered.

  “It isn’t. Let us be off quickly before we—” Aedan stopped his words once more as he looked to the top of the building across the street.

  A man in full armour emerged onto the rooftop. The insignias engraved on his armour pte revealed his faction. A member of the city guards, but not just any guard. The silver badge on his chest made his high position evident. “Stop right there, you two. You are under arrest,” said the soldier.

  “On what charges?”

  “On the charges of severe public disturbance and the destruction of city properties and assets.”

  “Bollocks!” Amyra retorted. “That small crater is the result of that Ogre right there, which I took care of it. I should be thanked here.”

  “Thanked?” the soldier snorted. “Tell me, how did such a monster appear in the city?”

  “How should I know? I wondered the same thing. Maybe I should be asking you that question.”

  “Your false words would not sway me. Surrender and don’t try to run.”

  Amyra gritted her teeth. Her hands were reaching for her sword, but Aedan grabbed her. “Your Grace?”

  “Don’t.”

  “I can take him, Your Grace.”

  “I know you can, but it won’t change anything. We are already encircled”

  Amyra tutted, but she relented and stayed her hands.

  “Wise decision,” the soldier said and dropped down from the rooftop. “Your friend has more sense than you, Augur.”

  “His Grace has more clemency that I can ever afford.”

  “I don’t expect a beast like you to understand,” the soldier scoffed.

  “So much grace and pride for someone who’s elevated to his position because of his powerful patron.”

  The soldier’s visor hid his face, but Aedan knew he was scowling. “Anyone can tell a tale.”

  “And anyone can see that you’re young and new, given how clean and fitting your armour is. Tell me, how much does William Marsh pay you?”

  Suddenly, the soldier drew his sword and trained it on Aedan. “Careful now. One more snark out of you and I’ll cut you down right here and now.”

  Aedan raised his hands and shrugged with a smirk. “I surrendered, already, Captain. Now, cut me down or arrest me.”

  The soldier narrowed his eyes. “What tricks are you pulling now?”

  Aedan kept his silence and his smirk as the Ogre corpse beside the soldier began to twitch.