Aqueo and his Water Spirit

Chapter 6 - Saved

On the street where Aqueo blasted his first magic with his water spirit, Aquifer, everything was in shambles-wreckage of merchant stands, wood planks, foods and other broken things littered the road, and escaped live animals and beasts flying and running around made it more difficult for the people to salvage the goods that weren't spoiled yet.

In the middle of that commotion, a young man wearing the uniform of Hyndrel Academy was looking at Aqueo as he ran through the ruins caused by his own magic. On his side, another young man wearing the same uniform was struggling to free half of his body from a heavy pile of wood and sacks of grain that fell on him while Aqueo was fighting his stalkers.

"Rinoan," he shouted through the noise. "What are you looking at there? Help me here!"

Rinoan sat beside him. "He dropped his book," he said while raising Aqueo's book in front of him.

The young man just gave him a puzzled look, "So what? He buried me alive. Let's just burn it."

"I've never seen him before. We need an extra member for the tournament. I think he's the one."

"What? Didn't you see they were trying to catch him? He's going to be caged!" he said while still trying to free himself.

"We don't know the story yet. People here will help you. I'll try to make him join us."

"What?" He was about to say more but Rinoan was already running to follow Aqueo.

. . .

Aqueo continued to run with Aquifer. The three remaining stalkers were still after him, who obviously got careful about approaching him. He was almost caught again and again, but he wasn't panicking anymore. After casting his first magic spell, he gained a newfound hope that he could defeat them and go back to Hermina.

That was until he casted another spell and it blasted one stalker a couple of yards away and ruined one unlucky merchant shop-swearing to pay them back for the damages when he was finally able. He tried to run again but realized that his body was feeling weak. The spirit was consuming his energy again. He had completely forgotten about it and didn't even consider it. Now he was just standing there, trying to think what to do.

The remaining two stalkers were both dumbfounded, again, looking more careful than ever. They looked at each other and nodded. One took out a piece of fabric from his clothes. Aqueo realized it was a pouch when the guy pulled out a few small bottles of pink colored liquid and gave some to the other stalker. Both of them were now holding one bottle of pink liquid in both hands.

Aqueo had a bad feeling about this. He had seen similar looking potions that had been used in battles in Aquifer's memories, but he wasn't exactly sure what those things were for. He had some ideas, but most of them were too terrifying to imagine that those things would be used against him.

Aqueo picked up a broken wooden pole on the ground and held it tightly with both hands. If he was going to use magic again, he had to make sure to take out both of them. He wasn't feeling as weak when he met Himi, but he also couldn't bet that he could cast more than one without completely draining himself. He had no idea what would happen to him. He might end up rendering himself unconscious or even dead.

He decided to run to another street again but before he could cross the corner, he saw two of the bottles hitting the stone road in front of him. Pink gasses immediately formed from the broken bottles and spread out in that corner of street where Aqueo stood.

He felt terrified about the possible effects on him. He looked around and saw that the bystanders around him started to act weird. It looked like they were hallucinating. Panicking, Aqueo started to feel dizzy himself as if the world around him was moving sideways back and forth. He saw that his two remaining stalkers were walking leisurely toward him. The broken wooden pole he was holding clanked loudly as it fell on the stone ground.