Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Low mana
Few hours have passed since Karl's first kill. Currently, they are surrounded by 7 white manned desert wolfs. When they first heard the sound of howling Zena immediately called to run. But Karl was already exhausted and he even used magic which made his condition worst. As a result, they were caught and surrounded in just few hours.
Karl looks dead pale; his cheeks became hollow and eyes slightly red. Zena is standing in front of Karl, shielding him. She glances back at Karl who is on the ground.
"Listen, Leo. I distract those wolves and you run towards south. After few hours you will see a forest. I will meet-"
"I haven't died yet." Karl cuts in. He somehow stands up. "I got a plan. I make the distraction. You blast them away." Karl takes the first step.
"Wait-" Karl disappears.
A purple light flashes, he is now standing in front of a wolf. Zena curses and summons her circle. Karl smashes a rock the wolf in the head, staggering it. Two wolf jumps at Karl. He disappears. Confused, the wolves look for Karl only to be greeted by a small sun.
BOOM!
Small explosion occurs which forms a cloud of dust.
'What was that? It was small yet so destructive.' Karl looks at Zena with respect.
"Three down. Four to go." Zena puts her left hand in the air, casting the same spell. In response, one wolf summons his magic circle.
'A chance.'
Karl uses levitating steps, appearing in front of the wolf. He hits the upper jaw of the wolf, disrupting the spell. A small bloody sickle is stuck in that wolf's mouth, but it didn't kill him. Two wolves run at Karl; he takes the step. But fails.
'Fuck! Low mana.'
Suddenly everything moves in slow motion. Wolves are just in front of Karl, a rock in his hand. 'This is going to hurt.' Karl pushes mana into his legs. But there is no time. One wolf jump at Karl to bite his head off. A bright light flashes by. An explosion occurs, too close to Karl. He is on ground, his ears ringing, smoke everywhere and his chest hurts. He coughs intensely. Slowly he starts to hear the sound of growling.
BOOM!
Another explosion takes place. This one bigger than others. Strong wind blows by clearing the smoke. Karl looks around to see two burned corpses of wolves. He sees Zena in distance, waving at him.
'Wait. The injured one is missing.'
Suddenly the bloody wolf appears behind Zena and pins her down.
"NO!"
A blast of fire appears from Zena's hand.
"GET OFF ME!" She screams. Blasting the chest of wolf. But wolf stands with a hole in his chest. With a few seconds of life remaining, the wolf tries to take Zena's life. It tries bite Zena's head.
Just then, Karl with all of his might takes the step. He files. His chest burning.
'I won't make it in time.' Karl realizes mid-air. He extends his leg more than usual and lands straight on the wolf's head.
CRACK!
Karl trips and falls few meters away.
The dead wolf falls on Zena. Zena pushes the corpse aside and runs towards Karl. She sees blood coming from Karl's nose and eyes. Zena puts her head on Karl's chest and hears a clear heartbeat. She grabs a potion from her pocket and pours it in Karl's mouth. Suddenly Karl chokes on the potion and coughs.
Zena hugs Karl.
"Don't ever do that. You hear me?" Karl opens his eyes and feels the sensation of being held by a beautiful maiden. Just as he is enjoying the feeling, he feels intense pain his legs. Karl pats Zena's back.
"Could you give me some breathing space?"
"Huh? Yes. Of course." Zena backs away few meters in an instant. Her face all red.
Karl ignores her and looks at his leg. There is blood on his left, as if it was pierced by something. Karl tries to move it but it hurts like hell. He slowly folds his leg and touches the wound. He feels a hole, he inserts his finger in it.
'Something is there.' He inserts his second finger too. 'Shit.' Blood spurts. He pinches something and pulls it. He grits his teeth. Some veins and blood come out. He again inserts it, this time deeper.
He pinches something and pulls it. This time a finger sized nail comes out. 'A tooth? No, this the sickle which was stuck in jaw.' He throws it away. He notices Zena looking him.
"Aren't you supposed to a teacher? Help me."
Zena walks towards Karl. "I may be a teacher but I am a botany teacher. I make potions and study plants. Do you think I am useful in this desert?" Karl stays silent as Zena grabs his foot. She pulls some bottle from her pocket. Then, she rips a piece leather from her clothing and pours some liquid on it. As she is tying that piece of leather around Karl's leg. He asks "Still, a fire element user is a botany teacher is weird."
"What? I like plants. Do you have some problem?" She tightens the knot. Karl flinches "No-no."
Zena stands up and extends her hand towards Karl. He takes it. With this, they continue their journey. After walking for 6 more hours everything completely dark. Zena and Karl set up a camp where moon shines the brightest. Karl asked Zena to starts a fire with her magic which she refused saying "Fire will protect us from beasts but it will attract unwanted attention."
'Humans.'
Therefore, they are sleeping in the open. Zena brought two sleeping bags. They decided to take turns to sleep. Zena tried to convince Karl to sleep. But he refused. Now, Karl is keeping a watch while Zena is sleeping. Karl is staring at moon, thinking about his last fight. Where did he go wrong? What should have happened? After sometime, Karl feels Zena's back touching his own.
"Can't sleep?" He asks.
"No."
"Is something troubling you?"
Zena goes silent for few seconds but continues "I am your instructor, your senior. I should have protected you. I should have killed them. I should have been better. I let my guard down thinking that they some beasts."
Karl breaths out and sees smoke.
"First, you were my instructor. You were fired. Second, its fine. Stop shouldering everything yourself. It was my fault that they caught up with us anyway." Karl stands up. Zena looks back. Behind Karl is a beautiful moon with many stars around it. Zena's heart flutters at this scene. "You think about others too much." Karl stretches his body. He turns back.
"Anyways, where are we going?"
"Ah-Uh." Zena fumbles. Karl waits for her to answer.
"We are going a Laykoen forest. It is a fully explored area. Apparently, it has a huge lake in the center. Few years back, the federation constructed few tunnels all the way to the K-Block to replenish its water supply. We will stay in that forest for few days and wait for your reward to show up. Then, you will come back to the city and take the reward, of course I will take only the debt rest will be transferred back to you. After that come back here, hand me this reward and I will escape to K-Block through the water tunnels. There shouldn't be any beasts as the tunnel is man-made. Beasts dislikes such places."
"Wait. What will I answer the guild?"
"Don't worry, we already have more than half of what was asked for and we are bound to run into a few more until we reach the forest. Well, in the worst case just tell them that we failed the mission. We will lose a few photons at most."
Karl yawns "Okay. Take my place, I need to sleep." Zena nods.
Karl lays down in the sleeping bag and immediately falls asleep. In the morning Zena wakes Karl up just as the sun comes up.
"Why didn't you wake me after 3 hours?"
"Shut it. I am an adult."
They cook some meat which they got from the wolf. Karl hesitantly eats the meat as he knows that there is no other food source. 'Tastes like chicken.'
On the other hand, Zena eats the meat very casually.
Again, they continue their journey. They encounter 3 wolves which they take care of pretty easily with their teamwork. This time they have zero causalities. After walking for 7 hours in the heat of the desert, they finally reach the forest. Karl sees the forest in a distance.
"Is forest supposed to be purple here?"
"Well, there is a reason for this and not every forest is purple. You see if we come across it." Karl nods and they continue their journey not knowing that this journey will change their lives forever.
Back in the academy, Chief is standing on the rumble of the remaining infirmary. An agent comes near him and hands him a file which has the photo of Zena and Martin. Just as the Chief is reading the file he notices that the agent is making a rather troubled expression.
"Is something wrong?" the chief asks.
"Nothing, Chief."
"Come on, I am your senior. If something is troubling you, you can share it with me." The chief says it with a smile.
"What are we doing here? This whole thing is just a lover's quarrel. Between these arrogant fools." He glances at the students passing by. "I thought being in the federation meant that I will get a chance to protect our loved ones. I did not expect that I had to solve some cheating scandal."
The Chief closes his file and looks at the agent. "Patience. Not every big incident starts from the frontlines, some start at the very unpredictable place." The agent looks not convinced at all. "Honestly, Sian pressured me to look into this case. But now that I am here, I sense that this case is deeper than it may look."
Chief looks at the passing by students "That kid, Leonard. He is also in this academy. Where is he?"
"I knew you would ask this. He left the school with an unknown girl yesterday. He is not found since then."
"I got a gut feeling that he got something to do with this case, try to find him. He got any friends or family?"
"Yes."
"Let's pay them a visit."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Dantehatesmetoo
Dantehatesmetoo Well, my exams are over and I return to my suicidal schedule. Wish me luck.
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