"Isle, oh no…"
Somehow Star managed to speak even more impassively than usual.
He unsheathed a wooden katana with no hand guard from his hip.
Val looked at Star for a second before laughing.
"That's just mean…"
He continued laughing hard.
Kalpana held out her hand like a gun, a bullet of flames shot at Mori. The bullet was blocked with a root, it burned away in an instant.
Mori looked at Val with a slight frown, some roots in the ground smacked him into a tree.
She held her hand out, a scepter with overwhelming mana appeared in her hand.
Star had never seen this much mana condensed in one spot before, it almost dwarved Val's mana without his quantum activated.
Star rushed towards her, slashing at any roots she conjured. Before he could reach her, the wind intensified by manyfold and knocked him away.
Just before Star was sent too far away, he slammed the blade of his katana into the ground and yankedit out once the wind returned to normal.
She was clearly proficient in magic. Though she wasn't even close to being the strongest mage he'd ever fought, at least for now she wasn't.
He didn't waste any time running towards her once again.
She wrote runes in the air with the tip of her staff, all the roots she'd conjured gained leaves, they started to float and glide around the air.
Star was upon her when the leaves he'd grazed cut him, he quickly jumped back before anymore of them touched him, his arms were cut open and bleeding from just a few touching him.
He looked annoyed for a moment before his pupils shined slightly, the leaves spun in a perfect spiral before hitting the ground.
He continued running again, once she saw him she raised her staff again then slammed it into the floor.
The floor began to shake, as if all the roots were threatening to shoot out.
Star didn't stop, he glanced back at Kalpana and Val, she looked at Mori.
Star's eyes lightly glowed like before, this time wisteria grew on his sword. Mori had her own tricks too, so she didn't bat an eye.
With a wave of the scepter, several trees shot towards him at terrible speeds.
There was no way that he'd get hit by them, but he was sure that Mori wasn't betting on them hitting him anyways.
He was certain that she was using the time he'd spend dealing with them, to cast another spell.
He slashed horizontally before they hit him and the trees split cleanly.
By the time he cut them. As he'd expected, Mori already started to cast another spell.
Star glanced behind him again to see Kalpana there, but Val was nowhere to be seen.
'Hm.'
Star kicked the remains of the trees at her. They flew through the air with equal speed as they had before, but they disappeared way before they hit her, vanishing in the air before they reappeared behind her.
She casted the spell she'd prepared but stopped preparing for another one as she looked around and didn't see Star anywhere.
A wisteria petal softly drifted from one of the trees. Star appeared from it, slashing at her.
She was a bit surprised but not shocked at all.
With a wave of her hand he was blown away. That was okay though, as Star wasn't meant to succeed with that attack.
Val threw a large black great axe at her from behind a few trees. It cleaved through the trees like butter, losing no momentum, and continuing to fly towards her.
Before the axe hit her, it was knocked away by seemingly nothing.
Val was confused as to how his attack didn't work, while Star was very aware of why it hadn't. The axe flew back into his hands shortly after it bounced.
'A magic shield. So she's a level 1. Doesn't change anything.'
Star shot towards her as Val stalked in the shadows again.
*
"What's in this damn book…?"
Isle raised the book up over his face and examined it. The book had no title the only thing on it were some odd patterns that generated a disturbing feeling.
He shivered and the book slipped out of his hands. He instinctively flinched and the book hit his face.
'Jeez…'
He picked up the book from the floor. Just as he was about to open it, a voice behind him spoke from the shadows.
"Put that down, human."
A man emerged from the darkness, he waited a few seconds with an uninterested look.
Short black hair and 2 sets of dark horns rested on his head. He was a demon.
Those were the only features Isle could observe before his view of the world was flipped.
'Huh?!'
His view of the world had flipped to the side, it was so sudden that he hadn't even noticed until he hit the floor. Some how the demon had tripped Isle from across the room.
He hit the floor abruptly, landing roughly on his hip. The book slipped out of his hand again, sliding across the floor to the mysterious man.
He was about to crouch down and grab it before Isle shot at his hand with a crimson pistol. The man easily swatted the bullet away.
Isle grabbed the book back with a red rake.
Everything Isle made with his quantum was naturally red, it'd led to a few misunderstandings in the past.
"That book, give it here and I won't kill you."
The demon's actions already made that very hard to believe, he still held his hand out patiently though.
Isle put a grenade into the demon's hand then ran into another room in the house. It blew up shortly after, shredding the fragile walls of the old cabin.
Dust was in the air, the remains of the wall laid on the ground. Isle was nowhere in sight, he bolted out the cabin through a window.
The demon clicked his tongue in annoyance as he walked through the destroyed wall and into the room. He kicked down the wall then walked out of the cabin.
Isle ran through the forest, hitting branches, and brushing by bushes as he did.
He screamed like a girl when he saw a dark figure in front of him, it was way too dark for him tell who it was.
"Isle?"
A familiar voice asked.
"Neiva?"
He answered hesitantly.
"Yeah it's me, where were you? I know you got hit and all, but was it really that bad?"
She shook her head with a sigh and walked up to him.
"It was that bad. Look at my poor shirt…"
He mumbled, completely forgetting about the reason he was running. She glanced at his shirt and laughed.
"So… why were you running?"
Her smile slowly faded away and was replaced by a curious look, Isle's eyes widened as he remembered the events in the cabin.
"We need to get everyone else and leave right now."
He started to run in the direction Neiva came from, she followed him at the same pace while destroying branches and plants in the way.
"Isle, what are we running from?"
She asked curiously while looking behind them cautiously.
"Some dude was back there. He said he would kill me if I didn't give him this book. Here, be careful not to rip it to shreds, you brute."
He held out the book to her while still running, she glared at him for a second then lightly grabbed the book, making sure not to damage it with her claws.
She inspected the book looking for any familiar patterns, then passed it back to him.
"Isle, I have no clue what that is."
She chuckled and slapped his back in amusement, the fact he'd found such a weird book then thought she'd know what it was cracked her up for some reason.
He yelped then rubbed his back.
"You brute…"
She laughed even more then picked him up like a princess, his eyes widened.
"What are you doing?! Put me down!"
He tried to break out of her arms but it was no use. Neiva was easily the strongest in the group and that's without her quantum. She continued to hold him just as tightly as before.
"Nope. You're running way too slow for someone who's scared for his life."
She started to run atleast 3 times faster than before, she wasn't faster than Star but she was definitely close.
The two made it back to the others. They were still working on capturing the bounty.
Star was about to slash Mori when Isle said,
"Star! We need to leave right now!"
He yelled to him while still in Neiva's arms, it was quite the silly sight. Star sheathed his sword then glanced at Mori.
"You should come with us, I'm not sure you'll be safe here."
His tone was as monotone as ever, he didn't make much of an effort to convince her.
"Why would I go with the bounty hunters that tried to catch me!?"
She was livid, she held onto her staff tightly like she'd cast a spell at any moment.
"Look I know you're mad, and for good reason, but there's a dude much stronger than us, and who knows what he'll do if he know's you're connected to us."
Isle responded, trying to reason with her.
She squinted at him, he looked pretty stupid to her, after all he said all of this trying to convince her while still in Neiva's arms.
"I'll go with all of you, but if you try anything I won't hesitate to kill all of you."
She dismissed her staff, it disappeared into the air. She walked towards Valekis, he had a surprised look and smiled before she slapped him then stood by him.
"Yeah I deserve that…"
He grumbled as he rubbed his cheek.
"Well let's go then. I really don't want to fight that dude."
Isle attempted to wriggle out of Neiva's grip once again but she showed no signs of letting him go.
'Jeez…'
Star passed petals to everyone and warped them out of the forest.