The Mage of Primordial Chaos

Mei Gui was just about to finish her own fight as I watched on in amusement.

Kun and his four teammates rushed her all at the same time - it was a pretty sad sight from an outsider\'s perspective, honestly, if you didn\'t know the context. Five burly dudes rushing a little girl? Kind of overkill, don\'t you think?

Not. In. The. Least.

Mei Gui looked at the approaching challengers with condescension in her eyes as she readied her Spear of Chaos. Kun was first - he swung his hammer at Mei Gui, who nimbly dodged out of the way this time around instead of taking it head-on like last time. Then, landing behind Kun who was busy trying to figure out where she went, Mei Gui parried the Ice Magic a boy had tried shooting at her. But perhaps \'parried\' wasn\'t the right word.

In reality, what she did was absorb the attack. She had the same mana suction power as me, and she was determined to use that to its fullest.

"Weak," she muttered quietly as she drove the spear into the abdomen of the boy\'s who had tried attacking her with Ice Magic.

"Agh!" the boy groaned, before collapsing to the ground in pain. Mei Gui had purposely missed his vitals as to not kill him - probably because she was unsure if I still had a need for them or not. Always considerate of my intentions, eh?

The boy\'s moan caused the other members to finally react to what happened, and they all rushed Mei Gui collectively. However, my Elemental was far too agile for them - she leapt up into the air as the four\'s weapons of steel cut the empty air she had just been in.

From there, she dematerialized her Spear of Chaos and pulled out the sword on her back - the projectile sword, more specifically, given to her by Old Man Leng when we first arrived in The Fortress.

"Die."

She swung the sword once, sending a crescent-shaped ripple of destruction towards the ground below, where the four guys were standing still in puzzlement. Then, they looked up, and their eyes widened in fear.

"AHH!"

The powerful energy projectile exploded upon hitting the ground, sending the group scattering in different directions. Out of the four, only Kun was fortunate enough to survive the blast and still remain conscious. The other three… all lay unmoving in the snow. I doubted they were dead, but they probably fainted from the shock.

Kun slowly got up from the ground, dusting the snow off of him. "Damn it… this is shameful."

Mei Gui pointed her projectile energy sword at the topless man and spoke quietly yet menacingly.

"Admit defeat, weakling."

Kun shot her a glare, then charged at her once more in fury, hammer ready to strike.

Mei Gui sighed. "Some people never learn."

With these brisk words, she stood perfectly still as she waited for Kun to come. And when he did at last, swinging the hammer at her, she performed a graceful frontflip in mid-air over Kun\'s body, as if flexing on him. By the time she landed, Kun was still trying to regain control of his hammer.

But it was too late, of course.

With a short slice of her energy sword, a crescent-shaped blast of concentrated plasma shot out of it and struck Kun directly in the back. The man croaked in pain, and fell into the slow, limp. 

Mei Gui had controlled the power level of the sword so that it wouldn\'t kill, but undoubtedly, it still hurt a lot. From where I was standing, I could make out burn marks on Kun\'s back.

Having defeated all of her opponents, Mei Gui sheathed the sword once more and walked back towards me, dragging Kun\'s unconscious body with her. Once she was directly in front of me, she bowed and looked up into my eyes.

"All targets eliminated, Master."

I smiled. "Good work. I\'ve finished up over here as well."

Glancing at Ning Yi, I chuckled.

"Looks like we\'re done here," I said, then turned to Ning Yi\'s lackeys, who were still waiting a distance away. "Hey, I\'m going to take your leader here with me. If you want to follow, by all means. But if you make a move to attack… well, you saw Mei Gui massacre those guys just now."

Hearing this, the men looked at one another, nervous. Not bothering to hear their answer, Mei Gui and I left, each dragging a living spoil of war.

*****

Once we flew over the chasm once more, Leena was still unconscious. I turned to Mei Gui.

"Wake her up."

"Understood, Master."

She raised a hand out, and chanted in her mind:

Level Three Water Magic - Flood.

Dropping a whole waterfall\'s worth of water on Leena\'s face, she instantly woke up, and Mei Gui canceled her spell.

"F-Fwah! W-What happened?"

"That… was overkill, Mei Gui," I muttered, looking at Leena\'s drenched figure in pity.

"Apologies, Master."

I shook her apology off and turned back to Leena. "Not much happened. You just fainted from the cold."

"Oh no! I\'m so sorry to troubl- wait, who are these two?"

Finally noticing the two limp bodies we were dragging with us, Leena covered her mouth. "Wait… aren\'t these the guys who were fighting earlier?!"

So… you remembered the fight, but not how I knocked you out? Okay then. Selective memory I see.

"Yeah, after they were done fighting, Mei Gui and I swooped in to clean them both up. It was pretty effortless, honestly," I said with a shrug. "It was all about the timing."

Of course, this was a lie, but I didn\'t want to show Leena my true abilities, so I just kept it as that. 

"Wow…" Leena murmured.

"Yeah, got pretty lucky, huh, Mei Gui?"

"Indeed, Master."

Perfect teamwork, without even having to communicate in secret. Truly a flawless duo, Mei Gui and I.

After that, we dragged the two back to the rendezvous point, following the marks Leena had made for us. It was almost time for the predetermined time to meet back up, after all.

*****

When we got back to the rendezvous point, all the other teams were there already. 

Of the eight teams that were sent out, two, excluding mine, found something noteworthy - in other words, map pieces. We now had 4 pieces in total, on the night of the first day. I\'d say we\'re doing pretty good, ahead of the other teams. And with any luck, we were about to obtain some more…

"Wake them up," I told Mei Gui.

She nodded and used Flood on the two men. I didn\'t reprimand her for doing so this time.

"H-Huh…" the two men sat up, drenched in cold water. "W-What the hell?"

"Bastard…" Ning Yi spat, glaring at me.

"Hey, nice armor you got there," I chuckled. "Even after getting drenched, the flames on your shoulder plates are still burning."

"Tch… what do you want?"

"Map pieces," I immediately replied. "Or, that armor of yours. It\'s not bad."

"… What if I refuse to give neither?"

I laughed. "What\'s more important? A couple of jigsaw pieces or your life?"

Ning Yi clenched his fists. "I refuse to give in."

I glanced at him, and his eyes contracted in fear as he glanced into my bloody red iris, filled with hatred and horror.

"I have ways to make you talk."

On the other hand, Kun couldn\'t take it anymore. He jumped up and attempted to hit me with a surprise attack, but with his wide figure and bulky body, it was hardly successful. I stopped his right hook without even looking, grabbing his forearm and tightening my grip.

"G-Gah…!"

Then, I slowly turned to look at him in the eyes, and our gazes met.

"Are you overly brave, or just stupid?"

"I… gah!"

I threw him onto the snow, then stepped on his chest. "Since you\'re so eager… why don\'t I play with you first? Hand over your map pieces, then you can go."

"N-Never!"

I sighed and pulled out Ace from its holster before pointing it at the man\'s forehead. "Well?"

"I…"

"3…2…"

"I\'ll do it!" Kun cried, not wanting to lose his life.

I chuckled and put the gun away. Kun took off his necklace and \'opened it\'. Apparently, it was a Space Locket of some sort.

He pulled out a map piece and handed it to me.

I accepted I and grinned. "If only you cooperated since the beginning…"

"C-Can I go now?"

I looked at him, back at the map piece, then at him again. "Hmm… can I see that necklace of yours?"

"What?! Why?!"

"To make sure you haven\'t been lying to me, of course."

"That…"

"You\'re not exactly in a position to refuse. Remember that."

He gritted his teeth, then slowly handed over his necklace. I opened up the pendant and looked inside.

Indeed, there were two other map pieces in there.

I took them out then threw the necklace back at Kun.

"You\'re lucky I\'m feeling happy today," I laughed. "Otherwise, I would\'ve killed you for lying."

His eyes widened, before he immediately ran away, necklace in hand.

"Er… Xuan Kai?" Feng Mian called out. "Is it really okay to just let him go like that? He probably had more treasures inside the necklace, right?"

I shrugged. "He\'s a warrior. I respect that. I don\'t see a point in robbing him of everything he has."

"Huh…" Yu An Yan murmured. "What about this guy?"

She looked down at Ning Yi, who had an uncomfortable look on his face.

"Do you still insist on not giving us your map pieces?" I asked.

He grunted. "I\'m not as weak as that bastard. Even if you kill me, I won\'t do it."

"… I see."

With that, I pulled out Ace and pressed it against his temple. He made no move to resist.

"Last chance," I said. "3… 2…"

"…" he still remained quiet.

"… 1."

But I did not shoot. No, the gun did not malfunction. I mean I didn\'t pull the trigger on purpose.

He glanced up at me in confusion. "What… you can\'t count or something?"

I chuckled. "Nah. You can go."

My allies all around looked at me in shock. "H-Huh? But-"

"You can go," I repeated again.

Ning Yi was just as surprised. He slowly got off from the ground and began walking away.

"Don\'t regret this decision," he muttered as he passed by me.

I smiled. "Just remember - you owe your life to me."

"…Tch."

With that, he vanished into the blazing snowstorm beneath the night sky.