A flame on Theo's palm flickered in and out of existence. He would need to learn to keep his focus and directly keep the fire alive. He immediately attacked with the small flame, but the flame didn't even go ten centimeters before it directly extinguished.
"Whatever, I'll take a lesson or two from Colleen later." He stepped into space and directly attacked the other three city guards. The three of them together didn't last a minute.
A minute later, five bodies strewn around were stripped of all their possessions. Five people walked under a tree to meet someone sitting there in a lotus position, with his eyes closed. "These are the loot." Gain stood in front of the group, with a disgusted look on his face as he stared begrudgingly at Theo. If not for the fact that he had seen how easily Theo disposed of those three city guards, he would have long tried to escape from here.
"Let's eat first." Theo smiled at the five of them before snapping his fingers. A random boar dropped from the sky in between the both of them without its head. In a way, this was Theo asserting his dominance, telling them that they could go with just a snap of his fingers.
"Show off." Clearly, not everyone was appreciative of this fact, and some would even protest without fear for their lives. The girl assassin directly walked to an adjacent tree and sat under it. Theo ignored her.
They all sat around a fire Colleen made while roasting the boar meat. Theo walked over to Colleen and sat next to her.
"Hey, Colleen, how do you throw your fireballs without it getting extinguished?"
"Hmm?" Colleen had a look of surprise on her face. "You don't know?"
"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking."
"Right, silly me," she facepalmed.
"We have spells we chant as a mage; almost everyone knows this. Honestly, it's odd that you don't. When you chant a spell, it's like giving life to mana, creating meaning or a purpose behind whatever energy you are using. So when I throw a fireball, that fireball already has a reason to continue to exist, so it doesn't go out."
"Hmm. So, what's with the images exactly? Can't anyone just chant the spells then?"
"Not exactly." Colleen put down her staff as she began to lecture Theo, excited to have someone to talk to about magic after a while. "Everyone can chant spells, but that doesn't mean it will work for everyone. Some people have a very high affinity with mana and are somewhat... gifted. Mana tends to listen to them more, and so they get the mage talent or something very close. That's why only images can use spells. Because of their high affinity with mana."
"Well, that's enlightening. I would ask for the spell, but those are probably trade secrets, right?"
"Not particularly, though. The most basic spells aren't really hidden because people need to at least know them to see how much affinity they have with mana, though with a high enough affinity, you can directly control the mana around you. If you want, I could teach you a spell... It wouldn't work though, because I don't know any space element spells, just fire."
"That's understandable. Please, do tell."
"Spells are relatively simple, but the stronger the spell, the more time you need to cast, not because the chant is longer but because you have to mobilize a larger amount of mana. If the mana accumulated is not enough, the spell will fail."
"Here... Infernia." She opened her hand, and a small fireball appeared, the result of a simple spell casting. "This is a simple fireball, so the mana required is naturally miniscule."
"Infernia." Theo tried saying the same spell, and a fireball twice the size of Coleen's appeared above his palm.
"Wha- How did you do that? A-Are you a dual element? And one of them is space?" Colleen shrieked, attracting the attention of everyone. They noticed the fireball hovering above Theo's palm, and it made Gain's already silken expression sink even more. It seemed like there was no way to escape this little devil's clutches; he was just too strong, always dropping one surprise after another.
He silently returned his eyes to the fire, where a huge boar was slowly being roasted, before suddenly thinking of something.
"You said you wanted our help, but you never mentioned with what?" He said to Theo.
"I did actually..."
"Well, you weren't clear enough. I don't understand what you want from us. It's not like you can't take care of anyone you meet yourself."
"Okay, let me make it clearer." Theo directly turned to face Gain, the fire disappearing from between his fingers. "I'm going to the capital city, and you guys are going to be my escorts, sort of like a deterrent for smaller fries. I don't want to have to dirty my hands without the need." Gain's face turned an even darker shade; he was clearly someone who couldn't hide his emotions, but this... this was just plain humiliation.
Without waiting for them to get accustomed to his bullying, he continued, "I'll give you guys a day to go say your goodbyes to whoever you want; just tell them you landed a big job as an escort party or something."
He stood up, walking deeper into the forest. He hadn't gone ten meters away from the group when he turned around and added, "Remember this: anyone who tries to out me dies." When I get to the capital, you all are free to live your lives however you want."
The group ate in silence under the watch of their new employer before setting off back to the city to gather supplies and inform whoever they felt needed to know about their departure.
Theo stayed behind looking at a compass that was pointing at an old, worn-out skin map. This was what was used to track him, and now that it was in his hands, he could be said to have escaped the grasp of the city lord. However, this map... it gave him a very strange feeling.