“Eh, I’ve wrestled with oversized toys before.” Eli flipped sideways like a falling leaf, and the greatsword’s crash rolled past like thunder.

Savage force hammered the ground into cracked riverbeds. The youth seized the hilt, dragged the blade like an iron plow, and chopped straight down like a cliff falling.

Eli snapped his hand up. Runes flared like blue fireflies, and a wall rose like a glacier. “Crystal Wall!”

“Useless!” The youth grinned like a wolf. He swept the greatsword sideways like a scythe, and the thick blue crystal burst like sleet. He didn’t pause and chained the swing at Eli’s face like a meteor.

“Ice Shackles.” Eli snapped his fingers. The scattered shards whirled back like winter birds, wove into a long frost chain like a coiled serpent, and pinned the greatsword to earth like an anchor.

“You lug a heavy weapon and still go for a cheap shot? You brain-sick or what?” Eli slid back, a frown cutting his face like a knife.

“When you fight a mage, you use tricks.” The youth slung the greatsword over his back like a mountain, then blurred forward like wind through reeds.

“Godspeed?” Eli’s eyes widened like lanterns at dusk.

A sixth-tier spell. For most mages, instant-cast is a mountain; for Eli, it’s a breath.

Shock pricked him like ice, then he swore. Crap. The kid’s a mage too.

It still wasn’t time to bare his fangs. Eli flooded his limbs with Godspeed and flowed backward like a retreating tide.

“Hey! Not bad!” The youth beamed like a kid finding a new playmate and chased like a gust.

But the sword on his back was a hill, and his mana was a stream against Eli’s sea. He fell behind like a snagged kite, watched Eli sprint ahead like a fox, and sighed. “Damn, this guy’s a remarkable mage.”

He fumbled a longbow from his spatial pack like a rabbit from a hat, and drew on Eli. “My Lord, let this arrow carry me to glorious victory!” Green light climbed the bow like fresh vines after rain.

Far ahead, Eli caught the gleam like a fish catching sunlight and grimaced. “Damn. He’s even got Elf Race insight? What kind of freak is this?” He clenched his teeth and tried to widen the gap like a stag breaking brush.

The bowstring sang, and the arrow leapt with green blessing like lightning across a black sky.

“Eye of the Wind God!” the youth cried. Enchantments slammed down like a storm of seals, and the arrow carved a glowing river through the air.

He whooped, then snapped back like a cold splash. “No! I got carried away—kill him and we’re dead men!” He flung a hand out like a man grabbing smoke, but he couldn’t catch the bolt.

Eli watched the oncoming mass of light like a tidal wave and sighed. He maxed the augments—are you kidding me?

Who dumps that much coin on a single arrow? This kid’s got a screw loose.

He didn’t dare meet it head-on. With Elf-blessing, that arrow was a hawk on a locked target. Any shield would be straw in a wildfire with that many buffs.

Sure enough, the wide world teems with hidden dragons and crouching tigers. The thought warmed him like dawn on steel.

Seeing tricks like this grows you like rain grows bamboo.

But looking at this kid’s posture, he couldn’t keep playing nice. Leave him an inch and he’d sprout mischief like weeds.

Eli lifted his hand. Calm as a moon over water, he used the art that never failed him. “Myriad Spirit Lock.”

Chains of strange power spilled from the air like starlit serpents. They whipped faster than the arrow and slapped it down like a falcon striking prey.

Layered augments thrashed like caught eels and got bound one by one like husked stalks, their bite gone.

The timers bled out. The glow faded like embers in rain. It was just an arrow.

The youth skidded to Eli, stunned, eyes blown wide like twin plates. “H-How did you do that? Th—”

“Brat.” Eli rolled his sleeves like storm clouds. “If I don’t school you, you’ll think mages are doormats.”

The youth only cared that Eli wasn’t dead; relief washed him like cool wind. Taking that arrow said enough about the man before him.

He hesitated, but Eli was already carving circles in the air like a scribe gone mad. Left and right hands drew different arrays like twin rivers.

“High-Speed Godspeech,” he murmured. His lips ran like a drumroll, and different spells bloomed around him like a garden in storm.

Watching the eerie glow, the youth finally understood. This guy was a grand mage.

“Supergravity Field!”

“Shit!”

“Eye of Holy Flame! Thunder Hex!”

Three grand-mage killers fell like hammer, fire, and thunder. The field crushed him like a mountain, and he couldn’t dodge a step.

Then—

After a little lesson, Eli let the forces drain like water from a basin.

The youth’s once-sleek red hair now burst like a dandelion, his skin charred like toast, his lips swollen like plums. He puffed black smoke like a chimney and toppled.

“Sir, please—go easy.” A man hurried up, sweat shining like dew, and dabbed his brow with a kerchief. “This… this was a misunderstanding. We only wanted to see if you meant us harm. The kid went overboard, haha…”

He kept wiping sweat like rain, face tight with shame. That arrow hadn’t looked like a probe; it looked like a guillotine.

“Forget it. Travel’s rough on everyone.” Eli waved him off like shooing sparrows. “He’s fine. Get a priest or a wood- or water-element healer. He’ll be up quick.”

He didn’t have time to loiter. He’d hunted clues all day; his mind felt like wilted grass. He wanted a hot bath and a bed like a harbor.

“Uh… sir, would you travel with us?” The man weighed his words like stones, then let them fall.

“Haha, you’re an adventurer, right? With someone like you, our safety’s covered like a fortress.”

“Mm. Not interested. Bye.” Eli flicked his hand like dusting off snow and turned.

“Wait, wait! Sir, hear me out.” The man caught his shoulder like grabbing a drifting lantern and grinned, awkward. “I, uh, heard you’ve been asking about Miter. Need help?”

Eli shook his hand free like shaking off rain. “I just want to know what to prep for Miter. Any anomalies, that kind of thing.”

“Haha. Then you’ve asked the right man.”

“I didn’t ask you.”

“…Hahaha! I know everything happening in the Miter Empire, inside and out!”

“I said I didn’t ask. You’ve got skin like a rhino.” Eli sighed and started away like a man leaving a noisy market.

“Wait!” The man snagged him again like a hook on cloth.

Eli turned, patience thin as ice. “You’ve got one minute to make me care. Or I walk.”

“Right, right.” The words tumbled like beans. “We Miter folks sent a large team here to explore a newly awakened Hero’s Ruin.” He rushed on like a stream. “It holds plenty of treasures left by the Hero. Our royal family has deep ties with the Hero, even counts as Lord Birand’s bloodline.”

“…” Eli’s heart lurched like a drum.

What? The Miter royals are his past life’s descendants?

“In short, several royals dreamed of this place and saw that ruin. Our scouts found it. We’re ready to go in. But the Hero—call it mischief or taste—his ruins are full of traps.”

He rubbed his temple like kneading a knot.

Eli whistled, the sound thin as reed-flute. Looked like past and present him shared one crooked streak.

Well… sorry about that. (Edlyn: A scoundrel stays a scoundrel. Some habits never die.)

“So we recruit more than usual for a ruin run.” The man managed a smile like a patch of sun.

Eli looked him up and down like measuring a spear. “You’re royal Miter?”

“Uh, I’m captain of the rear support unit. The youth’s a regular army squad leader, here to protect us.” He snapped a salute like a flag in wind.

“Mm. Not bad.” Eli nodded like tapping a cup. “Fine. I’m in. When do we leave?”

The man blinked, plans scattering like startled birds. He’d expected to haggle over pay.

“Uh… the day after tomorrow, noon, central plaza. We’ll hold a large recruitment. The Miter Empire plans to develop this barren stretch, so manpower’s not a problem.”

“Alright. That’s that. I’ll find you then.” Eli smiled like a lazy cat and drifted away.

“Whew. Close one.” The man exhaled like a bellows and eyed the youth. “You’re still too rash. Adventurers aren’t always weaker than the regulars. Use your head like a blade.”

“But most won’t be as strong as him.” The youth tried to grin; pain pinched him like a crab, and he yelped.

“Enough, enough. Go let the healers see you.” The man steadied him like a tree stake.

“Okay, okay… ow. That guy… hits like a thunder god…”