14 // Discovery

 

 

Yumi's heart raced at the words she had just heard. The capital was planning to extract her powers all along. She didn't think it was possible, but she wouldn't underestimate a nation that was home to a skilled spellcaster like Chanyeol and his comrades. Fortunately for her Baekhyun wasn't a spellcaster, so she still stood a chance against him, or at least she hoped. The other one, Lay, she had no idea about. He was still staring at her with a surprised expression.

 

"It's a shame that draining your powers will extract  your life force as well," Baekhyun began, "but the capital's orders are law." He held up his blade and mace chain weapon and grinned. "So I have no choice but to comply."

 

He began attacking her instantly, propelling his weaponry left and right in an attempt to break through Yumi's defences of water. She was finding it difficult to keep up with his speed, and the agility that the soldier had with his weapon only made him a more formidable opponent. Yumi had never had to fight anyone with a device like his and could not anticipate what kind of attacks would come at her. As soon as she blocked the end with the mace, the end with the blade would then fly at her almost immediately after, leaving her with practically no time to react.

 

She tried freezing his feet to the ground a few times, but his reflexes were faster than she was.

 

"Sorry, but those moves won't work on me," he infuriatingly smirked. "Attacking women is distasteful, but," his eyes suddenly darkened, "now it's time to end things."

 

He hurled himself at Yumi and easily broke through her diminished supply of water. She jumped back and tried recollecting the liquid but was swiftly knocked to the ground by a fist into her stomach. Yumi clutched the area in pain and glared up at the figure that was now towering above her. It looked as if he was going to say something to her, but was interrupted by a voice suddenly calling out.

 

"Baekhyun, please forgive me but I have to do this!"

 

Baekhyun turned around and stared at Lay in confusion. "What are you--"

 

He was cut off by a sudden blinding glow of light. "AGHH!" he groaned as he shielded his tormented eyes.

 

The light affected Yumi to a lesser extent, and she found that she was already able to see again after the light had subsided. She looked to her left and was shocked to see that Lay was already at her side.

 

"We have to hurry!" he whispered so that Baekhyun couldn't hear. "We need to get out of this palace before the effects of that spell wear off."

 

Yumi stared at him as she tried to comprehend what he was saying. *He's a spellcaster? Then why is he helping me?*

 

"I know it's hard but please trust me," Lay pleaded. "I'm trying to help you."

 

Yumi slowly studied his face and nodded hesitantly. It wasn't like she had much of a choice anyway.

 

She followed him as he led her through the hallways towards another exit. Stepping outside into yet another courtyard, she saw that this one was also equipped with a transportation circle. As soon as they stood within the inner circle, Lay held his hands into an inverted T symbol and chanted a spell. The circle glowed in the same way that it did the first time she experienced it and watched as the prominent red of the dragon symbol appeared and engulfed their figures.

 

The next thing she knew, she was standing in the middle of a dimly lit basement with only a single piece of furniture. That honour was reserved for a simple wooden drawer that Lay was already rummaging through. He hastily pulled out a change of clothes and handed it over to Yumi.

 

"Where are we?"

 

"My private estate outside the palace. We won't be able to stay here for long. Once the others have found out that we've teleported outside the palace, they'll be raising guards everywhere," he explained. "I'll step out so that you can change."

 

Without even waiting for her answer, he went up the stairs and left the basement. Yumi stared for a few seconds at the door that was shut behind him before she shifted her eyes to the clothing that was in her hands. The clothes were for men and comprised of a white interior layer, a long deep blue outer robe, slim white pants, and dark blue headwear. She hurriedly put it on, tucking her long hair under the hat before going up the stairs. She slid open the door to see that Lay had also changed into something similar.

 

"Follow me."

 

The two of them slipped out of the back entrance of the estate and into the alleyways. The sound of the bustling markets was getting louder and louder as they approached it. Lay stopped when they reached a stable. He quickly bought two strong horses that were brown in colour.

 

"We'll head off to a small town near the border of YoungNan for now," he said as they mounted the animals.

 

Yumi nodded and galloped away with him into the south-eastern direction. She ended up staring hard at the back of his head, which he apparently felt since he turned around to look at her.

 

"Is there something you want to ask?"

 

"Why are you doing this? Why are you going against your nation's orders and helping me instead." She narrowed her eyes at him sceptically. "What are you planning?"

 

Lay sighed. "I just don't like what the capital is doing, and I never have. It's all just so... wrong." He turned back to gaze ahead of him. "I'm just returning you back to where they took you from. I haven't got anything else planned."

 

Yumi remained silent. It was true that he seemed different from the other soldiers. He was passive and had shown no signs of malice from the very beginning. She stared at him from behind again, but this time she was feeling a little bit guilty for suspecting his good intentions.

 

"Just out of curiosity…" she began, eyeing him sheepishly as he looked at her, "… why don't we just teleport instead of travelling by horse? Why doesn't everyone just do that if your country is capable of creating teleportation circles?"

 

"Because only the most powerful spellcasters are capable of controlling the spell," Lay replied. "And the capital forbids the creation of these circles outside of the palace for the fear that an intruder may easily infiltrate the palace from the outside, which is possible for a capable spellcaster."

 

Her eyes widened. "But the one in the basement…"

 

Lay nodded slowly. "It's only a matter of time before I get caught." He noticed her worried expression and sent her a reassuring smile. "But it's okay. I'll be alright even if that happens."

 

Yumi didn't quite understand how he could possibly be okay even after getting caught, but she suspected that he was just trying to get her to stop worrying about him.

 

They stopped by a small village a few hours later to get themselves some food and water and to let their horses rest for a while. They didn't stay for very long and soon continued on their way, managing to reach their destination by dusk. Lay checked the two of them into a small inn by the outskirts of the town.

 

"We should stay here for the time being," he suggested. "The guard patrol is usually quite heavy around this time, so we should wait until it's completely dark outside before trying to cross the border."

 

The two of them sat in silence on the opposite sides of the small room as they waited out the time. The awkward atmosphere was eventually too much for Yumi to bear, so she blurted out the first thing that came into her head.

 

"Thank you!"

 

Lay blinked at her, feeling a little taken aback at the sudden mini outburst.

 

"I just realised that I never actually thanked you for helping me," she quickly explained.

 

He shook his head. "It's the least I could do after everything my country has done to yours."

 

Yumi hesitated for a bit before nodding with a slight smile. She wasn't sure whether she should tell him that she actually wasn't even from this world.

 

Faint sounds of horse hooves could be heard approaching the inn from both sides. When the sound got close enough, they could also hear that there were people outside yelling. Lay was straightened up in full alert as he listened carefully to the situation outside. The group of people outside had stopped right in front of the inn.

 

"Intruders, identify yourselves!" a man's voice boomed.

 

Sounds of swords being drawn filled the air.

 

"Identify yourselves now!" the same voice repeated.

 

"Let us go, we have no business with you," another voice answered. Yumi stood up from where she was sitting. She knew that voice.

 

There was a scoff. "You're not one to be giving out orders here. Drop your weapons and surrender!"

 

The sound of someone else yelping out in pain could he heard, followed by yet another familiar voice that she knew.

 

"Less talk. More action."

 

Yumi's heart thumped against her chest. It had to be them. It just had to. She hurried over to where Lay was now monitoring the situation from the small gap in the wooden window-doors. A smile appeared on her face when her eyes immediately fell on the figures of Daehyun and the Yoo siblings. There was another person with them as well.

 

She watched as the soldiers on either side of her friends converged on them and attacked. Daehyun and the others may have been powerful, but they were heavily outnumbered. And she wasn't going to just stand around and do nothing while they were fighting outside for her sake. She scanned the area outside and found a few large pails of water. She grinned.

 

*Perfect.*

 

Without wasting another second, she placed a foot on the rim of the window and burst through it while bringing the water up towards her body. She landed right in the middle of the brawl where her friends were, effectively startling everyone around them. Lay, in particular, was gaping at her from where he was still on the second floor.

 

The trio stared at her wide-eyed. "Yumi! H-How did you--"

 

"Less talk, more action," she grinned as she repeated Daehyun's words. She could swear that she saw a twinkle in his eye as he returned the grin and nodded back at her. The five of them, including the staff-wielding Jongup who Yumi had yet to be introduced to, fought alongside each other as a formidable force and began taking down soldier after soldier. There were gasps of horror as their enemies saw Daehyun's distinctive lightning and Yumi's ability to manipulate water and realised that they were up against a top-notch spellcaster and the rumoured Guardian of Water. Seriously hurting the soldiers was not within their interests, but they couldn't say the same about the KangRang soldiers.

 

"Stop them at all costs!" the leader of the group ordered. "Kill them if you must!"

 

"Well isn't that nice," AeMi muttered sarcastically to herself as she switched to using her acupuncture needles as pressure point punctures that rendered her opponents temporarily immobile. The magic transforming the needles into daggers were used to kill, so they were not ideal to use in this situation despite her enemies having no inhibitions at all.

 

With a grunt of effort, Yumi used a wave of water to knock down a line of soldiers and pinned them to the ground. "This way!" she called, signalling towards the path that she had cleared. She stopped in her tracks when a pair of legs stood in her way. She flinched when she realised who it was. Daehyun's expression darkened.

 

"You."

 

Chanyeol calmly drew his sword. There were a few cheers coming from the soldiers who recognised their nation's powerful spellcaster. He took slow, meaningful steps towards Yumi while holding his sword in front of him. But Lay suddenly appeared between the two and blocked him from moving any further.

 

"Chanyeol, don't do this."

 

The stony expression that the spellcaster had on was difficult to decipher. His eyes looked past the people in front of him towards somewhere back and finally showed some signs of emotion when they widened slightly in alarm. Sensing that something was wrong, everything else turned around and looked to see something foreign approaching them from afar.

 

The dark of the night prevented them from seeing anything but the outline of whatever was coming towards them. But the size of the thing and the thunderous sounds of every step it took could only amount to one thing in particular.

 

 

A demon.

 

 

The towering, twin-tailed figure of the feline-shaped demon closed in on the small, impending town as it left behind its steps of ice. 

 

"But how…?" Chanyeol whispered.

 

Youngjae shook his head in response. The demons had never ventured outside of the land of YoungNan, and it was believed that it was simply impossible. But here it was, a gigantic, frightening demon that was capable of generating its own water supply.

 

Screams from both soldiers and townspeople alike could be heard as the demon started demolishing everything in its path. Yumi and the rest of the group were still frozen on their feet as masses of people were running past them in a craze. From afar, it looked as if there was only the one demon. But now that it was closer, they could see that it was accompanied by a group of low-grades and a water-manipulating level-3.

 

"Now is no time for us to stand around!" Lay shouted, breaking everyone out of their trance. "We have to protect the townspeople!"

 

He immediately pulled his concealed twin blades from his clothing and started slicing down the first of the low-grades. From where it was at a fair distance away from Lay, the level-4 demon conjured up a large wave of water and sent it down towards where he was standing. The water knocked him over and carried him away for a few metres before it froze him to the ground.

 

"Lay!" Chanyeol called out in anxiety.

 

Forgetting for a moment that Yumi was also able to control the element, he sighed in relief when he saw that she had turned the ice into water and had used it to cut down an entire mass of low-grades. He went over to help his comrade to his feet. Lay had never had any experience with fighting demons before, and a lack of experience on a battlefield of this scale could turn out to be lethal.

 

"Be careful. That level-4 can control both water and ice and is capable of generating its own water."

 

Lay's frown deepened as he eyed the demons. "And the people of YoungNan have to deal with things like these every day?" He wasn't so sure that sending Yumi back to that nation was a good idea after all.

 

 Daehyun and the siblings had already engaged the level-3 as it manipulated water that was supplied by the level-4 that was still lagging behind. A usual fight between the two sides would've ended in an easy victory for the trio, but the level-4 in the background was making the job difficult by interfering with their attacks. Daehyun sent it a death glare that was immediately cut short by the sight of an oncoming rain of ice-blades. He chanted a spell as fast as he could and quickly blew the blades apart with his bolts of lightning.

 

But there was nothing that he could conjure in such a short amount that was capable of deflecting the next attack that came -- a colossal spiked ball of ice that was capable of skewering him a hundred times over. Everyone watched with dread in their eyes as the death weapon capable of finishing them all off at once came closer and closer towards them.

 

Yumi screamed in frustration when she found that she was unable to transform the ball of ice back into water. If she couldn't do anything about it, then what else could they do? They couldn't exactly dodge something of that size.

 

The stranger that was accompanying Daehyun and the Yoo siblings suddenly caught her eye as he ran past her in a flash and stood in front of the group.

 

Every single soul that was still within viewing distance watched as Jongup stomped his right foot into the ground with great force and hoisted his arms up into the air -- bringing an entire piece of earth up from the ground and curving it up into the air to effectively act as a barrier against the attack. The ball of ice came down heavily upon the sturdy upper-section of the earth barrier and slowly rolled down the curve onto the flat ground beyond it.

 

When that was all well and taken care of, Jongup returned the earth back to its original state and turned around to face the goggling bunch of spectators. He sent them all a bright, innocent smile as the Chinese character for earth '土' shone on his forehead in an illuminating shade of green.

 

 

 

---

 

Just thought that it had been while since the last appearance of a demon :P

And a green character for earth? Jongup? What would that suggest...?

Thanks for reading!

:D

--- Mistlea