The Runesmith

There they were, looking at each other without saying much. Armand looked to have been having quite a blast. Two women were clinging to his arms while pushing their squishy assets into him.

They had heavy makeup on and looked to be working ladies that he had picked up somewhere. Each one of them sported a set of animal ears and a bushy tail was wiggling around from above their plush rear ends. The two women also noticed Roland in his flashy red armor and started smiling at him.

“Please help me, this guy is crazy, he started attacking us for now reason!”

Garlen was down on the ground not far away from where Roland was standing. He was still weakened and somewhat paralyzed. Without being able to fully crawl away he fell to Roland’s swift kick. This kick had enough power to send Garlen tumbling to the side. The hit connected with his stomach which then caused an abrupt release of the man’s previous calorie intake.

“Armand I’m scared, we should leave.”

One of the girls said while moving behind the large man. The other lady also flinched as she saw Roland kick one of Bernir’s assailants to the side without any mercy.

“What do you think you are doing?”

Armand on the other hand didn’t seem like he wanted to leave just yet. He puffed out his chest while strutting forward.

‘Do I really need to fight this idiot? Is there a way to defuse this situation?’

Roland looked at the large man moving forward. In contrast to his fight during the guild test, this time around Armand was wearing some higher level gear. He had large black gauntlets made from deep steel.

They were of a different design than what a knight would wear in the sense that there were blades sticking out from the sides. They were at a slight angle and probably used to receive hits from bladed weapons. The sharpness also made Roland believe that they could cut into flesh rather easily.

His legs also had fitted boots and the rest was light armor with chest protection. It looked like the man was back from a dungeon run and was just hanging out here right after. He wasn’t sure but the two ladies by his side made this theory probable. While Armand moved forward the two girls decided to move to the side, it looked like they would be cheering him on.

“This doesn’t concern you.”

After going through with the fight Roland wasn’t in the mood to explain himself. He already didn’t see Armand in a favorable light after he complained in the test about his armor.

“It doesn’t concern me? You think you can attack guild members whenever you like?”

“They stole something from me, my reasons were justified.”

Armand looked at the large backpack that Roland was holding with one hand. Before asking he looked to Garlen for some confirmation. After the kick and release, the man was now able to talk.

“He lies, he just attacked us out of the blue.”

“So you are a thief and a liar.”

Armand smacked his fist into his palm while approaching Roland in a menacing way. It didn’t look like he would take his word over the man called Garlen. From Roland’s perspective, he was probably only trying to look for an excuse for this fight.

“Shouldn’t you investigate before you make an assumption? We can all go to the guild.”

Roland was still mad but his common sense prevailed. The whole situation could be resolved without bloodshed if they went to the guild. He had some proof that this backpack belonged to him and not to these men. Bernir would probably recover for an official hearing and some things like this could be confirmed with spells.

“Investigate? There is no need! Now stop spouting nonsense, you’re just trying to stall.”

“Stall for what? How did an idiot like you become an instructor at the guild?”

Roland replied with scorn as he had enough of this guy. It didn’t look like there was a way to reason with him in any way shape or form.

“Who are you calling an idiot, you idiot!”

Roland wanted to scratch his head at this response. The man before him was clearly not very intelligent as he continued moving towards him. There was not real beef that Roland had with Armand but he wouldn’t back down if a fight was that he wanted.

Surrendering was also not an option, he had no way of knowing what this man would do. Would he actually take him to the guild and go through the proper procedures. It didn’t seem like this person was very fond of paperwork so that option was not probable.

“Back off, I won’t warn you again.”

Roland moved his hand towards his enemy, his palms were outstretched similar to the way when he produced the wind blast. He didn’t want to hurt this idiot as he was related to the guild. If the other guild members would see him in a bad light or if he would be excluded from it for attacking an active instructor was unknown to him.

He didn’t have any proper backing in this city and the guild master was probably someone that he wouldn’t be able to take down with strength alone.

“Shaking in your boots already? I’m going to pry you out of that armor.”

“Honey, hurry up, we don’t have all day~”

The two ladies that Armand was with started cheering from the side while he got in a fighting stance. He placed his left foot forward while his right foot was back and pointed at a ninety-degree angle. He had one fist to the right side of his hip while the left one was stretching out.

Roland wasn’t an expert but this stance made him think about karate. It looked like the diplomatic talks had broken down and now the battle remained. He looked around for a moment and from the corner of his eye, he spotted Agni peeking out from another alleyway. His wolf was waiting for an order as for the time being he was still on standby.

The enemy this time around was quite dangerous. Agni would have to sit this one out as his master didn’t intend to utilize his help during this fight. His hand was also outstretched and he would use this to his advantage.

Armand had only witnessed him fighting during the guild test and he wasn’t aware of this armor’s full capabilities. Roland had no reason to hide this anymore as he had already used a plethora of runic spells against the band of thug-like adventurers.

The space they were occupying was spread out. They were standing on a plot of land that was surrounded by buildings from each side. The people from those buildings were looking at the two men that were going to fight. Some of them were whistling while others were cheering, everyone here wanted to see a good show.

Fights between drunks weren’t anything new but this looked to be one between two higher level adventurers. There were even people betting already, mostly in Armand’s favor as he had gotten popular in this city. They couldn’t ignore Roland’s fashion choice either, the armor made them think that he was an established adventurer or knight.

“Not gonna use that fancy sword of yours?”

Armand asked while Roland didn’t reply, he just stood there with his hand outstretched towards his opponent. He snorted at Roland that didn’t reply and just charged toward him with increased speed.

Roland was a bit surprised at the charge as it was much faster than what he remembered the man being able to output during the guild test. He was now also wearing enchanted clothes so that could have been the issue here.

Armand continued his charge as he tried to close the distance in an instant. He knew that there was something off with that hand so he was wary of it. This was something that Roland was counting on, the hand was used as a feint to mask his true purpose which was the earth pillar spell that he used before.

Without even stepping forward his metallic boot started glowing. The moment Armand got close a large spire of hard rock erupted from the ground towards him. This clearly took the tanned man by surprise but it was only good to stop his charge while not causing much damage.

Roland expected a clean hit on the stomach or at least to make his opponent stagger a bit so that he could release another spell. Instead the rock pillar got smashed into rubble by Armand’s large fist. He recovered quite quickly and continued, this time around Roland had to step back while activating the cone of cold spell.

A wide burst of frost energy erupted from his opened palm. The crowd gasped as they saw the quick casting proficiency that Roland was displaying. Normally a person needed a lot more time between spells and even longer for magic armor. Roland could do this thanks to programing the spell language himself. It was tailored to him and he also possessed a specialized class that was good at using runes.

“I knew you had more tricks up your sleeve!”

Armand shouted while dodging to the side. Even though Roland was fast on the uptake with his spell casting he was fighting a close range expert. His opponent's reaction time was about the time he needed to activate his runic spell structure.

He moved his hand to follow his opponent while spraying the cold air in a wide area. The ground below became covered in ice and the people in the crowd even felt the shift in temperature. Some of them realized that it was probably a bad idea to stand so close to a magic caster like Roland. One stray spell could kill or maim anyone involved.

Roland wasn’t a madman, he could see people getting affected by his cone of cold while he was trying to hit his target. This place wasn’t suited for someone like him for fighting. He couldn’t use some of his more powerful spells like a flame blast. If he missed he would probably hit someone from the crowd that continued to gather.

“This calls for…”

After stopping his spell he jumped back, Armand wasn’t far behind as he continued his approach. Roland on the other hand moved his hand to his waist to take out a little ball of paper. He threw it towards Armand that was quick to move out of the way and protect his head. Yet instead of an explosion that he expected a burst of thick smoke was released by this ball of paper.

“A tactical retreat….”

His armor’s green mana stones lit up as he started running. He was sure to go for the alleyway where his little puppy was in. Agni was quick to jump into his arms and both of them took off. The backpack was also grabbed from the side as he escaped.

“W-what is this… get back here you coward!”

Armand was momentarily stunned by the smokescreen but after activating one of his skills he spotted some green light. The muscular man took off running after Roland while also leaving his two escorts. He had long forgotten why he had come to this place, not yet taking revenge on Roland was the only thing on his mind.

A little chase commenced as Roland’s more speedy form was hard to catch. Armand wasn’t slow either and was able to somehow keep up with his pace. The people were left with an empty field with no fighters present as they had run off to god knows where. The two working girls started stomping their feet in rage after their date had run off without even tipping them once.

“Stop coward, you can’t run from me!”

“Who’s running?”

The two fighters came out at a deserted spot in the city. The only thing here were old buildings and rats. Roland’s main goal was to get away from the populated area. If he didn’t manage to find such a spot he would just continue with his escape but now that wasn’t needed. He threw the backpack to the side while getting ready.

“Go hide behind those rocks Agni.”

“Woof!”

The puppy replied while running behind some rubble. His master on the other hand turned around to look at a very pissed-off Armand. He was in his enlarged form that made him look like a very muscular tomato. This was the same skill that he had used before, with it Roland knew that his opponent was more formidable.

A red glow covered his vambraces from both sides but it was focused on metallic parts that were sticking out. This was the weapon he had worked on before and now would be the time to test it.

The red glow expanded from Roland’s wrist and fire elemental energy slowly shot out. This energy slithered forward like a molten snake and singed the ground. It looked like two whips made from molten lava were attached to Roland’s hands. He was even able to grasp them while flailing them around.

Armand charged forward but he was stopped in his tracks by one of those fire whips colliding with the ground right in front of his foot. The snake-like torrent of fire energy expanded in length and started to dance. The guild instructor found himself on the defense, evading what he could while blocking the magic with his deep steel gauntlets when it wasn’t possible.

This was a little spell that Roland came up with recently. He was actually working on something that could retain the fire elements in place. It would look more like a sword made from plasma but he was unable to condense it in place without suffering a large loss of mana. This runic flame whip spell was a byproduct of that research, the added random movement was quite hard to dodge which made this weapon quite deadly.

‘It’s powerful by the mana usage leaves much to be desired…’

He thought to himself while the whips tried to coil themselves around his opponent. Armand wasn’t able to close the distance but he also wasn’t able to deliver a decisive blow besides some minor burns. Armand had successfully managed to defend himself with his own enchanted gear that was looking slightly melted but it was still keeping its defensive properties.

The whips of fiery energy extended in length while wiggling about like two long tentacles. There was an inclusion of a self-guiding spell structure that he added from another spell that he knew. With its help, he only needed to point these ‘whips’ in the general direction of his enemy and they would try to dismantle it.

The approach he was taking was a bit excessive but his opponent wasn’t that easily defeated. Even with this weapon going after him he was able to bat away most of the attacks while getting some residual damage in the process. Soon both fighters backed away from each other. Roland had used quite a bit of his mana while Armand’s skill was also running its toll on him. If this battle continued the person with more reserves would probably be victorious.

“Damn coward, using underhanded tricks, fight me like a man!”

“You tell that to every magic user that you start a fight with?”

Roland scoffed back after hearing Armand speak. He was more of a magic caster than a close-range combatant even though he did a lot of training. There was no reason for him to duke it out at close range with someone that specialized in it. Keeping him at a distance was exactly what his aim was and it looked like it would be paying off soon.

“Running out of steam?”

“Shut up!”

Armand replied while the red coloring from his body started to fade. His body shrunk down back to normal and he looked to be in pain. It was clear that this was some kind of doping ability that ate away at the user's stamina. The man wasn’t that smart in using it as he activated it during the chase till this point onwards.

“Isn’t this enough?”

Roland would probably be able to finish off his opponent but this wasn’t really what he was aiming for. He didn’t know what sort of backing this person had so trashing him without mercy could backfire. Thus he moved over to the spot that he dropped the backpack while talking.

“What are you…”

“Look, I’ll make a report to the guild, if you have any grievances with me we can officially settle it there. Though I fear that if questioned you would just lose your job as an instructor.”Agni ran out from the side while barking, the sight of the puppy made Armand take a step back.

“What do you mean?”

“Aiding thieves and thugs is probably frowned upon, don’t you think?”

“Thieves and thugs?”

“The man you helped, they stole from me and hurt my friend, I was just returning the favor.”

The two chatted for a while, Armand looked to be more receptive to dialogue after gassing himself out. Before this event could end though some trouble appeared from behind.

“There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you.”

An elven woman appeared out of the alley that they both came from. She was wearing some stylish green armor and had a longbow draped over her back. The moment Armand saw this woman he started grinning.

“Great timing Lobelia! Back me up.”

During their conversation, he had seemed to recover some of his stamina. Now with a possible party member of a similar level, it didn’t look good for Roland. Agni started barking menacingly as he was placed back on the ground. It looked like the fight would continue past this point and now it was two against one.

The woman walked forward and stood next to the grinning Armand. It looked that with her addition he was confident in winning. Before he could charge forward again the elven woman named Lobelia did something unexpected. She grasped Armand’s ear and yanked on it very hard.

“Stop causing trouble for everyone you big idiot!”

Along with the ear pull, Armand received a quick kick to the shin.

“I apologize for my party member’s attitude towards you.”

She looked to Roland and performed a small bow before yanking an unwilling Armand back towards the alleyway that she came from. Roland was left scratching his head but it seemed that it was finally over.

“... Let’s go home Agni ...”

“Woof!”