Waldo continues to wander the plains of Texas, now with Mara in tow. Her squirming seems to have stopped. That is something that Waldo heavily appreciated. However, he needs her to wake up soon. He has a vague grasp of the situation from yesterday. After careful inspection and deduction, Waldo figured out that Mara was indeed the one who dealt with the last cursed spirits attacking her group. Considering the facts, this girl seems to have great potential as a sorcerer. She will become an excellent partner for Waldo’s goals and endeavors if she learns to control her cursed technique. But she hasn’t woken up for a second since he arrived at the massacre.

  (Screw it. I’m waking this child up. I do not have the leisure time to wait for her to get rest. I will not stand by and let human weaknesses interfere with my strength.)

  As Waldo continues walking with Mara, he spots a decently sized stone up ahead. The smooth yet rigid spherical surface was the perfect object he needed. And so, using a shockwave, he turns it into a lasso and reels in the stone, the stone landing with a heavy thud. He sets Mara down on the ground on her back. As Waldo begins to put his hands on the stone, Mara’s eyes twitch and she begins to awaken. However, the first thing she sees as she wakes is someone holding a stone up in the air. When she realizes what’s about to happen, she quickly yelps in horror and rolls out of the way, dodging the stone from falling on her.

  “You’re finally awake. Good grief, you humans are annoying creatures, forcing me to wait until you recuperate.”

  “W-what? Huh? Uh…”

  Mara takes a look at her surroundings, seeing that she is nowhere near the outskirts of Fort Worth. That means that she has officially moved away from her father. Such a realization causes her to stop for a second and start to sob. The only family that she had left was stripped away from her in front of her eyes, and there was nothing she could do about it. She doesn’t even know if he’s dead or alive. Suddenly, Mara is slapped across the face, and she falls on her butt. The stinging pain felt like a bullet, and she looks up at Waldo, the one who slapped her. Waldo’s eye glares into her soul.

  “You are never to do that in my presence again. Your incessant whining is irritating. If you’re so frustrated with your troubles and losses, then quit acting so damn pathetic. Crying like an immature coward will never help you.”

  Waldo wasn’t aware of this at the time, and he wouldn’t ever be aware of this, but what he said to Mara will become a great pushing force for her. Hearing this, she knows what she must do. She tries her best to hold in her tears from the pain and stands up. Waldo scoffs and continues to walk.

  “If you’re awake now, you better tag along. I won’t slow down for you.”

  Mara gasps just a bit and jogs after Waldo. She turns her head, looking at the gloomy surroundings. In such a short time, the beautiful world she once knew was changed into a desolate wasteland. So many people, so many animals, so many plants, all of that was gone in a few days. She wished it were a dream, but she knew that wasn’t true.

  .

  .

  Mara couldn’t believe what she was witnessing. Despite having a first-class representation of Waldo’s power from his aura and presence alone, actually seeing him fight in person was a whole other story. The monsters that Waldo is fighting, which she soon figured out to be curses, were around the same level as that strong curse she fought before at Fort Worth. If not the same level, they were at least somewhat on par. However, Waldo was ripping them apart with ease, almost as if it was a simple chore in the morning. He has this expression of extreme boredom and solemness on his face. It’s clear that he doesn’t see this as anything more than annoying. So when he sees even curses beginning to sprout up, he quickly turns towards Mara.

  “Don’t just idle about, you brat! If you are to gather experience, you must make it yourself! Get your ass over here!”

  He suddenly pulls on Mara’s hair and throws her full force towards the curses. Mara crashes into one of the curses, somehow making it explode upon contact by the sheer power of Waldo’s throw and shockwaves. The other cursed spirits back off at the sight of the human cannonball. When Mara gets up from the ground and sees the cursed spirits, she gasps in shock and then the cursed spirits begin to laugh. They see that it is just a child, and they start ganging up together.

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  “Girl, you will have to finish them off! If you do not comply with my order, I will make sure you do not receive sustenance!”

  That was something that frightened Mara. In the 5 days that she has traveled with Waldo, not once has he ever gone back on his work. If he says that he’ll destroy a city, he’ll do it. If he says that he’ll kill Mara, he’ll definitely do it. So, if he says she won’t receive any food or water, he meant it. That was enough of a motivator for Mara to get started. However, being a small 5-year-old girl and having no experience with the world, she wasn’t sure what to do at this point. She knows she should fight, but how will she do that? The last time was a fluke, and she wasn’t even aware it happened.

  Her thoughts are suddenly cut short as the cursed spirits begin lunging at her. Mara dodges one of the cursed spirits, the cursed spirit hitting the ground instead. Mara takes a deep breath as she stares at the cursed spirit and throws a punch at it. As expected, the punch does little damage to the cursed spirit since there is hardly any cursed energy. Before the next cursed spirit goes to attack Mara, Waldo clocks her in the head himself.

  “That was the most pathetic attack I have ever witnessed! Are you purposely trying to rile me up, child? If you are to destroy your opponent, you have to attack them like this.”

  Waldo proceeds to glare at one of the cursed spirits. The cursed spirit suddenly jumps in fear and reluctantly comes closer to Waldo. Waldo then gets into his punching stance and blasts the curse to kingdom come. Now there was definitely cursed energy behind that strike.

  “Now, show me a true fight, or I’ll kill you next, brat!”

  Waldo glares at the cursed spirits again, causing them to back off with fear. He scoffs at their cowardice and jumps back about 50 meters. He crosses his arms, allowing his cape to fly freely in the wind. Now that he has set the stage for the fight, he has no further reason to intervene and will instead spectate. Mara looks back at the cursed spirits, who are still trembling from Waldo’s presence. After seeing Waldo’s “teaching” method, she takes a deep breath and tries to do it herself. When Waldo sees that she is ready, he gives a death stare to the cursed spirits. Out of fear of what may happen, the cursed spirits yell out and charge towards Mara.

  Mara exhales deeply and focuses. Even if she doesn’t have so much power at the moment, she’ll continue to grow and gather more and more power. Even if she is just a child, she would prefer to go along this path than to die.

  (This is ok… I have to do this. If I don’t, I won’t be strong. I don’t want to die. I really don’t want to die. But I’m scared. I’m very scared.)

  Mara assumes a stance again, albeit trembling. One of the cursed spirits at the front of the group jumps up and opens its jaws. Mara imbues her fists with cursed energy and waits for the right moment to strike. The jaws of the cursed spirit nearly chomp down on Mara, until she throws the punch at the cursed spirit square in the face. This time, the punch is far more refined, causing the attack to be that much more effective towards the cursed spirit. The cursed spirit backs away in pain as other cursed spirits begin to surround Mara. She then begins using her technique, causing her hands to glow and control the thermal energy around her.

  (This is progressing smoothly. It was the right choice to pick up this child. Although the power of her technique is pitiful at best. She won’t ever amount to anything at this level.)

  Using some of the air to propel her attacks, Mara continues to attack the cursed spirits with her fists. Eventually, after much trial and error, Mara sits down on the ground, panting heavily. She has managed to defeat the cursed spirits on her own. Waldo watches as she gags and goes to a corner. He walks over to the corner and looms over the child.

  “You did an adequate job, I suppose. However, you took far too much time taking care of such riff raff. It seems I shall have to start personally getting you into shape. You’d best prepare for that.”

  Mara watches as Waldo seems to disappear from her sight. She frowns at being left alone again. She walks over in the direction of the fight to the wagon that Waldo has been making her pull for the past 5 days. She was surprised at how quickly he disassembled the nearby trees and turned the wood into a great wagon. Can’t say that she expected a violent person to be an outstanding carpenter. But her excitement was quickly extinguished when Waldo forced her to carry the heavy wagon herself. She still remembers that moment.

  “I have no need for sustenance or any sort of assistance. If you wish to gather such things, you’ll have to do it yourself. Do not expect me to ever help you move them around. They are solely for you, and you’d best keep up if you know what’s good for you.”

  Mara looks into the wares of the wagon and pulls out a leather bag. She has no idea how Waldo got any of this equipment, and she would rather not find out. Inside of the bag are some fruits and nuts. Mara pulls out 2 bananas and 1 apple from the bag. She sits down on the wagon and begins peeling the banana. This is her life now, wandering around with a monster. A monster that forces her to fight and do meaningless tasks. She hates it. If she could, she would run away but she knows that it wouldn’t do anything. Waldo will find a way of finding her no matter where she could be.

  After peeling the banana, Mara takes a bite into it. The soft texture and taste of the banana helps calm her down. After the bombs went off around the world and transformed the land, she wasn’t so sure that food would continue to exist out here. She’s witnessed many trees in her old home decay and die anyway. She’s just happy that she was lucky enough to find any food at all.

  (That man is a mystery. He’s scary when he’s fighting the curses. He’s more of a curse than the other ones. I just hope he doesn’t kill me one day.)

  Waldo suddenly lands on the ground, creating a small crater and making the wagon tremble. Mara looks up and wonders what he’s going to do now. Is he mad at her for something?

  “Off of your ass. Your training session with me begins immediately.”