“Hurry up, Josh!” Austin called back to Josh. “I think we might have trouble.”

  ?

  “Got it!” Josh scrambled to throw a few more herbs and flowers into his pack before running out of the trees. As he ran, he tripped on his way out but regained his balance.

  ?

  Austin looked towards the figure walking forward and soon noticed that two others were walking alongside him. Austin was able to make out that it was a man followed by a woman and another man. The man leading the group had dark hair pulled back into a bun. He wore a tank top and gym shorts. From a distance, Austin could tell the man was large and well-muscled.

  ?

  The other man had a similar build to the leader, except he looked a little shorter and leaner. His brown hair was cut short, and he had a well-groomed beard. The woman had blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and also had an athletic build. Austin noticed that both the man and the woman wore gym clothes. The man wore a short sleeve shirt while the woman wore a crop top.

  ?

  As they approached, the leader smiled broadly. The smile came across as practiced, something that the leader used to disarm people’s suspicions. Then he spoke to Austin and Josh, “Hello, I didn’t expect to meet others out on this hill. Are you also in search of Essence material?”

  ?

  “What if we are?” Austin asked. Despite the leader’s attempts to disarm Austin’s suspicions, Austin knew this guy was bad news. Especially from the way he just blatantly absorbed the surrounding Aether.

  ?

  “Well, my friends and I would just ask that you hand them over,” the leader said.

  ?

  “Why would we do that?” Josh asked. “There are plenty still there; you can get them yourself.”

  ?

  “Oh, I plan on it,” the leader replied. “But I‘ll need more than just that.”

  ?

  “Why would you need more than that?” Josh’s hand started to hover over the hatchet attached to his hip.

  ?

  “I need to accumulate as much power as possible,” the leader said without hesitation. “That’s the whole point of this game.”

  ?

  “There is plenty over there,” Austin pointed back at the trees with his thumb. “We just need what we took, and we will be on our way.”

  ?

  “Maybe we should just let them go, Chet,” the other man spoke up. “I mean, like they said, there is plenty more material.”

  ?

  Without hesitation, the leader, Chet, smacked his subordinate across the face with the back of his fist. The man fell to the ground and started to rub his face as Chet began to speak, “We can’t just let someone else gain power, Carter. That will put us at a disadvantage.”

  ?

  “I was just making a suggestion,” Carter grunted as he stood up.

  ?

  “Well, you’re a subordinate. You follow me, don’t make stupid suggestions,” Chet growled before turning back to Austin. “Now hand the goods over.”

  ?

  Blue wisps of light started to rise off of Austin’s body as he struggled to control his emotions. Something about Chet’s treatment of Carter caused a deep anger to grow inside of Austin. As the anger grew inside of him, he pulled his pack off.

  ?

  “Ah, good, I’m glad you understand the situation,” Chet smiled. “This way, you can at least try to live another day.”

  ?

  Austin threw the pack to Josh hard. Josh almost stumbled to the ground as he caught the pack. “Get this back to camp. I’ll be there soon.”

  ?

  “You need to get back to your family,” Josh said with worry. “Are you sure?”

  ?

  “I’ll make it back to them,” Austin smiled. “And if I can’t, well then I trust you.”

  ?

  “If you’re sure,” Josh said, his voice still filled with worry.

  ?

  Josh took a full sprint down the hill to get away from Chet and his subordinates. As he did, Chet leaped towards Josh. The height and speed of his jump was incredible and quickly closed the gap between himself and Josh. Before Chet could connect with Josh, a ball of pale blue flame struck Chet.

  ?

  “Did you really think it would be that easy?” Austin smirked as another ball of flame started to form in the palm of his hand.

  ?

  The moment of distraction gave Josh enough time to get far from the group, but Chet turned to Austin and looked mostly unfazed. The attack had barely damaged the large man. Instead, Chet just looked at Austin with a grin and tightened his large fists.

  ?

  “Nice trick,” Chet said. “But tricks won’t be enough to beat me.”

  ?

  A mix of red, purple, and blue radiated from Chet’s body, mixing and swirling together in an unpredictable chaos. Unlike Austin’s wisps of pale blue, the color rising from Chet’s body was like a raging fire. Chet quickly ran towards Austin with his arm outstretched. The arm rushed towards Austin’s face, ready to hit him with a hard smack. Austin allowed Essence to flow through his body and dropped to the ground. As he dropped to the ground, he rolled to Chet’s side and jumped back to hit feet.

  ?

  Chet turned towards his companions, “Carter! Andrea! What are you doing?! Go chase that guy down!”

  ?

  Carter and the woman, Andrea, nodded their heads frantically and did not argue with Chet. The pair went for a full sprint down the hill to chase after Josh. As they did, Austin sent a burst of Essence to his legs and chased after them. Austin quickly closed the gap and grabbed the back of their shirts. He quickly dropped to his knee, throwing the two to the ground as he did. Austin realized the two must not have been aware of their Essence because they both went unconscious as they struck the ground.

  ?

  Austin quickly turned around to face Chet, but was not quick enough. Chet’s fist smashed into Austin’s face as he turned around and sent him straight to the ground. Before Austin could recover, Chet tried to stomp on him. Luckily, Austin’s enhanced senses allowed him to roll out of the way of the attack.

  ?

  As Austin stood up, he cracked his neck and allowed Essence to flow to his face. A red mark on Austin’s face started to heal, and he swore that he could feel the bone in his jaw move as if it were realigning itself. There was an initial shock to the feeling, but after it was done, he felt relief as the pain faded.

  ?

  Austin grinned as he could feel confidence grow inside him. Chet seemed to have gathered a lot of Aether into his Essence. He even seemed to have a lot more raw power than Austin, but his reckless accumulation of Aether gave him far less control of it.

  ?

  “What are you grinning about?” Chet growled. “You’re just a weakling!”

  ?

  “If I’m such a weakling, then beat me,” Austin smiled.

  ?

  Chet let out an intense yell of anger and swung his arm in a large arch at Austin. Austin was able to duck underneath the attack and counter with a punch towards Chet’s chest. The punch made a resounding thud sound, but Chet did not seem fazed. Instead, he continued his assault and brought his fist down like a hammer on Austin’s shoulder. Austin heard a cracking sound as the attack hit, and his body smacked into the ground.

  ?

  Before Austin could even get up, he was already channeling Essence throughout his body to heal the damage. Then he used the lingering effects of the channeled Essence to force himself back up at high speed, sending his head straight into the jaw of Chet as he got back to his feet. This time, the attack did some damage and forced Chet to stagger backwards.

  ?

  Chet did not let the attack deter him and swung his fist at Austin. Austin was unable to dodge the blow but knew that if he did not do something that he would take serious damage. So he raised his arm to defend himself and concentrated his Essence into it. Austin winced as he anticipated the strike’s delivery, but then shock came across his face as he realized he did not feel any pain. He looked down at his arm to see that attached to it was a round shield that was pale blue in color. The shield was barely wider than his arm, but it was able to block the punch effectively.

  ?

  Chet reeled back and grabbed his fist in pain as the force of his attack reverberated against him. Austin knew that this was his chance, and he quickly came in for an attack of his own. The back of Austin’s arm came straight for Chet’s face and slammed the shield into it. Chet fell backwards as the strike hit, and immediately after, Austin felt the shield fade away from his arm.

  ?

  Before Chet stood up, Austin focused on his Essence. He could feel himself growing exhausted, and the shield fading so quickly also made him worried. When he focused on his Essence, a new image came to him. The pale blue flame image that resided inside of him was much smaller, but it seemed to reside in a sort of greater shadow. The image reminded him of a mana bar in a video game. The smaller flame represented how much he had left, while the greater shadow was like his total amount. This definitely clued him in, though, and he knew that he only had a little bit of Essence left to work with.

  ?

  Since Austin knew he had only a little bit of Essence to work with, and Chet had hit the ground. He used that moment to run away from him. He knew that if he fought any longer that he would be in trouble, so he bolted as fast as he could without using Essence.

  ?

  Austin was almost halfway down the hill when he started to hear loud stomps moving towards him. Austin did not slow, but he did look behind himself to see Chet running at full speed towards him. Chet looked like a rampaging beast as he charged down the hill. His Essence blazed around his body like a roaring bonfire.

  ?

  As Chet neared Austin, Austin knew that he had to use the last bit of his own Essence to get away. Otherwise, he definitely would be caught by the larger man. Just as Chet closed the gap and tried to grab Austin’s shirt, he sent a burst of Essence into his legs. Austin kicked off the ground towards the forest below as Chet’s hand grabbed at air. A slight smile formed across Austin’s face as wind rushed around him from his leap.

  ?

  As Austin entered the forest, he bent over and grabbed his knees. He took several deep breaths as the adrenaline of the situation faded. He forced himself to walk forward to gain further distance from Chet. He could not be sure if Chet still had Essence leftover, and knew that if he slowed that Chet could catch up to him. So he tried his best to regain his breath and push through the exhaustion as he walked forward.

  ?

  Chet looked at his empty hand in disgust as he failed to grab Austin. As the bonfire of Essence around his body faded, he punched into the ground and cracked it. He could not believe that someone so much weaker than him was able to get the upper hand and run away from him. Chet’s Essence was so much stronger, but somehow that man was able to keep up with him and escape.

  ?

  Chet had only skimmed the books he found, mostly to see how he could make his Essence stronger after he became aware of it. But he now realized that he should have read the books in more detail. He groaned at the thought of studying the books, but that was the only thing that made sense to him. That man had more knowledge and control of his Essence than Chet.

  ?

  Once Chet studied the books, he knew he would be much stronger than Austin. Then that weakling would not get away from him again, and he would crush him in front of his family.