章 5: Dustup in the Desert pt.1

The young mage was covered in gore. She whipped the blood off of her blade before pulling out a cloth and giving it a wipe. She turned towards the ninja and walked over to him, he was half buried in the ground from the impact. "Tch. I guess I can't question him like this"

She bound him again with her magic before healing him. She had herself a snack while waiting for him to wake up. 'This is taking too long,' she thought to herself. She finished with her food at the same time as her patience. Pulling her hand back she gave him a big smack on the face and yelled at him "WAKE UP, YOU DUMMY!" He was startled awake yelping in pain as he nearly lost a tooth from the blow. "Now, who sent you? And no more funny business."

He wanted to struggle but he couldn't move his body an inch and found that he was also unable to turn his head away from her. His head was pouring with sweat as tears started running down his eyes. "I-I…She put me up to it!" he screeched,

"And who is 'she'?" she interjected

"HAH! You think I'm just gonna give you everything so easily!" His false courage was instantly shattered when she gave him a sharp punch to the ribs.

"You can't even move, and you think you're in a position to bargain with me?! You're even dumber than I thought." Zahna was now glowing with a dark and oppressive aura which made Murasaki tremble even more.

"I'm s-sorry! Baba the witch, she made me do it! I swear!" She pulled him closer to eye level with her binding spell.

"Tell me where to find her!" her hand moved towards her sword.

"EEK! I-if you continue the way you chased me, y-you'll find her palace!" he cried out in fear.

Zahna relaxed a little bit, and a small smirk appeared on her face. "That's real helpful, I guess you can be good for something. Haha!"

Through sniffles the captured ninja asked "will you let me go then?"

she grinned at him as she cracked her knuckles. "I have some questions for you and you're gonna answer each one of them, pal." He gulped in response.

She discovered that she was in the southwest forest before following him into the desert, and that a witch by the moniker Fortune Teller Baba pulled him and the pink creature back from death to battle her in exchange for them getting some perks in the afterlife. She thought that this witch was possibly stronger than Rades, with such an ability, since those under his direct control couldn't speak and lost their personalities.

From her interrogation it seemed that Murasaki had never heard of the magic knights, the clover kingdom or any of the others. No matter how hard she pressed him, it seemed like he must have been telling the truth about that. 'Well… what should I do with him, he's about useless to me now. He doesn't seem to know much about what's happened since he… died'

She looked at him with curiosity. "So, you say you learned how to manipulate ki after you died, and that's what that was that you were trying to hit me with?" He nodded along, as she had loosed the bonds around his head.

'And anybody can learn how to do it if they know how to sense it huh?' She punched her fist into her other hand, 'Alright… Then I'm gonna learn how to do that too!' looking back down at him with a quizzical expression, "what to do with you now…" she opened up a portal and he looked at it with fear. "In you go!" she slung him speedily into the portal. He screamed as he disappeared into the purple spacetime distortion. "Let's see how those lizards like you, heh"

Being moored in the middle of the wilderness, days away from her camp or current location left her feeling confident that she would be rid of that nuisance ninja for at least a long while. "Ugh, I need a bath. That monster was disgusting."

After taking a short break to clean herself up a bit, she continued onward. 'Alright, Baba. You might have some creepy magic ability but you're gonna answer to me, even if I have to push past my limits.' With this reassurance she resolved to get an answer to her most pressing question: what is this world, and why was she brought here? Surely someone who would send warriors after her would know something she didn't.

The desert was hot and grueling to cross on foot, luckily for her she could take breaks back at the locations that she had previously visited. 'Keeping up mana skin for this whole trek is pretty tiring but at least it makes this desert sun more bearable.'

"I guess I can consider it special training, heh." Though the sun threatened to bake her alive, she never slowed her advance. Soon, she saw it. The oasis that Murasaki had told her about was here along with the palace. However, it seemed that he neglected to tell her about a third fighter. The very one that was standing before her now.

It had green skin, wings and an inhuman nose-less face. In place of hair It had a frill, the creature looked like a cross between a reptile and a man. 'It's wearing pants?' Zahna had never seen something like this before, "What are you supposed to be? A devil?" She kept her distance, sizing up the one who she would likely be fighting next. "Let me guess, you're with Fortuneteller Baba too?"

The green man smirked at her before he spit at the ground and said "Humans are pathetic. The only thing your kind is good for is being crushed by me!" He took on a combat pose.

"You're about as talkative as your pink friend, eh." She remarked as she drew her sword. The two of them stared each other down for a moment, neither of them was fully certain what the other was capable of. 'This weirdo probably has some strange attack like the others'

The green demon dashed forward only to encounter a sudden bright purple light in front of them like a door. After passing through, the monster found that it was still in the desert and not far from where it was aiming. The sudden realization came with a hard blow to the back, sending the demon tumbling forward. "You sneaky vermin!" it did a handspring and was back on its feet in a brief moment.

'Just as I thought… this one has never seen spatial magic either. This place is really weird.' she focused her gaze on her opponent at that thought.

"You're a bit tougher than I thought, I'll just have to hit you harder next time!" Adjusting her stance she leaped at her opponent. He reeled back and jumped into the air just in time to avoid being slashed.

"You deserve to know who's going to kill you, worm. I, Tambourine, will slay you!" He descended on her swiftly, and was met with another portal. This time he wasn't caught off guard and quickly switched to a defensive posture as he traversed the trap. "That won't work!" He twisted his body in midair and fired off a mouth blast towards Zahna.

She deflected his attack with her sword, sending it high in the air before it exploded in a blaze. She then countered with her own attack, sending a black wave from her sword. Tambourine nearly had his wings clipped as he dodged out of the way but Zahna pressed her attack. She ejected streams of light from her hand that crashed into his body and exploded as he was hurled across the ground. "You're too slow!" she wasn't giving him an inch to breathe, much to his despair.

The demon felt like he was going to lose, it was as if his fate was sealed. 'Damn that witch! She must have known how strong this human would be!' he thought to himself as he was being beaten left and right.