Chapter 87: Meeting

"How is it possible that even after we've been running non-stop, we still haven't been able to find anything...?" James said with a confused expression on his face.

It could be said that he had traveled more distance in this short time than he had done in the entire day, but even so, the result remained unchanged, with no monster in sight.

"T-the range of the technique is quite wide, boss! It may be due to that...!" Added the young pugilist beside him, who was catching his breath, tired from trying to keep up with James' breakneck pace.

With it being his martial technique, he knew quite well what its effects were, among them being the great range this technique possessed, an aspect which was only surpassed by the main effect of the technique, that is, repelling monsters.

This was only made worse if one took into account how acute the senses of the monsters were, especially those that inhabited this island, whose physical abilities had been reinforced by the night.

Hearing what he said, James' expression turned sour, a slight urge to again knock the pugilist unconscious began to rise within him, but it quickly dissipated, being replaced with a fed-up sigh.

Although it hadn't been long, this was definitely not a good start, and he had been running at high speed.

'Maybe that was a mistake too...' James thought.

Since he didn't want to waste any more time than was necessary, he didn't worry about the noise he was making or his lack of stealth, just looking to run into some monster that had been slow to react to the repellent or the noise or was already flat out slow.

However, it was also possible that in his rampant march, all he managed to do was alarm the inhabitants of this forest, something that the more he thought about it, the more it seemed possible.

'...Well, if that's the case, it's not like I have any other choice, I'll just have to increase my speed.'

While not quite up to the level of the young pugilist next to him, James was also a rather simple and straightforward person, a trait that seemed to be shared by most pugilists, though in his case, one could say that his stubbornness was quite a bit greater than that of his fellow pugilists.

"Then, let's go that way."

Without waiting a second longer, James activated another martial technique to increase his speed and agility before choosing a random direction and starting running at full speed.

"Ah, boss, wait for me!" Shouted the young man, who also activated a martial technique in order to chase after James.

In that way, although the direction had been chosen at random, the pair of pugilists began to head towards a certain part of this huge sea of trees, unknowingly getting closer and closer to a large body of water.

***

Not so far away from them, another pair of people were making their way to the lake, following a small stream of water they had found not long ago.

The distance separating them was visible, at least about 4 meters, making it evident that they did not trust each other.

"..."

Unlike James and the young man, both of whom exchanged words from time to time, these two people were completely silent, only listening to the sound of their footsteps on the ground and the stream in motion.

Of course, this silence had a reason which went beyond the fact that they had only met today, specifically, because one of the people did not dare to open her mouth.

If one paid closer attention, even though it was already dark and the abundance of shadows was a problem to see clearly, one could still see that the arms of the person behind was full of bruises.

However, those bruises were the most pleasant part, as there were several cuts adorning her legs which although they had already healed, left a painful reminder of what had happened when both of them met.

'Really, Myrin, you couldn't have picked a worse target to attack! ' Thought the person whose identity belonged to the girl who had tried to attack Sarah. 

After she had been brutally hit with the rocks, she didn't even have time to remain passed out before Sarah forcibly woke her up and tied her up, pacing her for a while while asking her various questions.

Initially she had thought of trying to break free or at least resist, but faced with the clear difference in strength and technique between the two, she didn't have a chance to do anything but answer the light blue-haired mage's questions.

Finally, when dusk came, Sarah got tired of carrying her and released her bindings, allowing her to walk but still keeping her as a "prisoner", forced to help her in the remaining time of the test.

Sarah didn't really need the help due to the fact that she alone was enough to deal with most situations, but the spears Myrin could create were an extremely good complement to her spells to simply let her go.

As for whether she could use them, she had already checked a while ago and there was no problem.

'Just where did this woman came from anyway...?' Myrin thought as she watched Sarah's back, remembering their previous confrontation, in her eyes a faint trace of admiration.

No matter how many times she replayed that scene in her head, she couldn't help but be shocked by Sarah's strength, starting from her reflexes, to her ability to make decisions instantly and finally ending in the control she possessed when attacking, all of them were aspects in which she completely surpassed her.

Due to having trained from a young age by attending a special school for espers, along with her natural talent, Myrin's combat standard was considerably high, this was still the case if compared to other rank (C-) supers.

Despite this, she had been quickly defeated by Sarah, and it was quite obvious that the latter had not been serious, making the difference in strength between the two even clearer.

While Myrin could determine from the amount of energy she could feel within the light blue-haired mage that she was at the level of the (C-) rank, just considering the amount of energy, she also surpassed her, which meant that she was pretty close to advancing in rank. 

Thanks to all these factors that pointed to Sarah not being a common super at all, the one-sided defeat Myrin had suffered earlier started to seem like an inevitable outcome rather than a fight in which she performed poorly.

What caused her more confusion however was that she really didn't remember there being such a skilled mage on her list of supers to watch out for.

While it was true that she was a somewhat reckless person, that was a product of the great confidence she had in herself, but even then, she knew very well that there were supers she definitely could not afford to have problems with.

Therefore, she had made a list of all those young supers who had some kind of power backing them, or already possessed an individual power far beyond her own.

Making the list was not so difficult since normally, people who were outstanding managed to attract attention in one way or another, this was especially true for the geniuses. 

At the top of this list were undoubtedly the geniuses of all three classes, led by Valerie Adler, the acknowledged most talented and stronger super of the current generation. As for the bottom of this list, there were those supers who had only a little fame.

She had felt somewhat confident because of this, however, only now did she realize that there were actually people who were not known at all but whose power could far surpass those who were.

"!"

At that moment, Sarah suddenly turned her head in a certain direction at the same time as one of the runes on her arm began to glow, activating a detection spell, the same one she used to detect Myrin.

"Get up a tree, quick!" She shouted, not even a second having passed since she activated the spell.

Myrin quickly stopped being lost in thought and did as Sarah told her out of pure reflex, jumping into a tree and climbing with a great naturalness.

"Make 10 spears!" Shouted Sarah again, giving Myrin a command which she obeyed without another word.

Several spears formed of energy then fell from the tree where the esper stood and stuck into the ground near the mage.

Immediately after, all the runes on Sarah's body began to light up, strengthening her body and improving her control over mana, simultaneously, the spears around her began to float in the air.

In the whole process, Sarah had not turned her attention away from the direction she was facing for a single moment, almost as if she was afraid of something unexpected happening.

Slowly, she shifted her stance, bringing her right arm in front of her, her thumb sticking out slightly so that it functioned as a kind of sight. 

As for her other arm, she raised it to the height of her head and retracted it, clenching her fist tightly, all the spears gathering on top of this arm and gathering together as far as they could go, looking like just one big spear which trembled from time to time due to the force with which they were being held by Sarah's spell.

"...Hooo..." 

Said mage then let out a large breath replete with mana, her senses sharpening to the maximum and entering a state of deep concentration.

Silence then again began to reign in the surroundings for several seconds, but although nothing was happening, Myrin did not dare to make any noise or question the actions of the light blue-haired mage.

Soon after, she began to hear why Sarah was doing all this.

The ground began to shake slightly, accompanied by the sound of something heavy approaching rapidly towards where they both were, coming from the direction Sarah had been looking from the start.

However, she did not attack, but continued to wait until the sound came closer and closer, to the point where she could make out the figure responsible for this sound.

*SWOOSH!

Without waiting for anything else, Sarah then launched the large energy spear towards this figure, cutting through the air due to the power and speed contained in it.

The spear continued on its way without being interrupted by anything, this thanks to the fact that Sarah had calculated well the trajectory it should follow.

When it reached a certain point, the figure also noticed this dangerous projectile heading towards him, but it was too late to dodge it, only being able to grit his teeth and defend himself as best he could.

*BOOM!*

A small explosion followed the crash, sending the silhouette flying away until it crashed heavily into a tree.

'It didn't pierce him?' thought Sarah, who had seen the impact better than anyone else.

The spear had made contact, what should have happened next was for it to manage to pierce the figure, but that the person had been sent flying meant that it had failed.

"BOOOOSSS!!!"

But before she could think any further, a young man's shout reached her ears, forcing her attention elsewhere.

"YOU!" Shouted the young man who witnessed how his "boss" had been sent flying.

Thereupon, this person, who until now had been hidden by the shadows of the forest, making it somewhat difficult to see him, suddenly began to emanate pugilistic flames from all parts of his body before launching himself towards Sarah.

"Make more spears!" Sarah ordered again to Myrin, who immediately started to work.

In any case, Sarah didn't hang around to wait for the unknown man to approach either, but began to part a large chunk of land in front of her with her control spell, preparing to intercept the attacker.

In a matter of seconds, the young man reached where Sarah stood thanks to his great speed, taking a great leap to increase the power of his blow, aiming for instant victory.

"THIS IS FOR THE BOSS-!"

*CRASH!

Before he could connect his fist with Sarah, the ground the latter had prepared rose up right underneath him, landing a heavy blow to this young man's lower body and causing him to stop momentarily, a pained expression on his face.

However, the mage did not continue attacking him but grabbed one of the spears that Myrin had just prepared and threw it towards her back.

*BAM!*

The spear hit something... or rather, it was caught, by none other than the first figure she had sent flying, which had moved stealthily to position itself behind her in order to attack, although with what had just happened, it was clear that it had not succeeded.

*CRACK!*

Several cracks then appeared on the ground, a product of the blue-haired mage activating her control spell at maximum power, erecting a wall of earth that separated her from the person at her back.

However, that was only the prelude to chaos, as a great pressure began to sweep everything in the vicinity, further aggravating the cracks in the ground and forcing the young man engulfed in flames to stay glued to the ground.

As for the source of it all, Sarah, all the runes on her body were glowing, which were only dulled by the glow of her aura.

"This power... Sarah?" Suddenly said the figure that had caused this reaction from the mage.

Hearing her name, the light blue-haired mage stopped momentarily to get a better look at the mysterious figure.

"...James?"

After saying that, all the fluctuation of mana in the surroundings ceased its movement.

'So they know each other...?' thought Myrin, who was about to thrust one of her energy spears into the unprotected body of the young pugilist.