Fallen Mage Regressor

Mal ripped open the robe with a sharp tug of his hands. With the clothes out of the way, he could see how deep the wound had gone. Although it had missed any vital organs, and had avoided major arteries, it was deep. Very deep, and very dangerous if left unattended.

"You could—" Savaly groaned. "You could be executed for laying your hands on me."

"I think the king will forgive me when he realizes why I had to do it." He shook his head. "We need to get you off this mountain right now."

"Absolutely not!"

Her voice cracked through the small cave and echoed back to them. Blood poured from the wound and seeped further into her robes.

"Princess, consider your condition. You are putting your life in danger the longer you stay up here."

"If people—" she groaned, and pressed her hand and pulled Mal's hand harder down against her wound to apply more pressure. "If I come off this mountain without being in the top three, I'll be in huge trouble."

"With who?"

"With myself. With my followers—" she leaned her head back and it banged against the stone. "There are expectations, Mal. They'd use this against me. The nobles would have ammunition and it would do damage to the authority of the king. I don't—I don't want to risk my life, I'm not insane. But leaving this mountain should be the absolute last option."

"Then what exactly is your plan? Because you're in no condition to keep on moving."

"Patch me up. You're Cassandra's best student."

Mal tilted his head. "I was average in herbalism. A perfect 50."

"Yes, that's why she gives you private lessons in the evenings and why you're carrying around a bunch of Fireglove from the school garden."

Mal's heart stopped. "You know about the private lessons?"

"I know about everything that happens in this school," she said. "Now can you knock it off and help me?"

Mal clicked his tongue, then reached into his satchel and brought out his remaining salve. He stared at the small amount of liquid left, sighed, then rolled up Savaly's robes.

"What are you doing?!" She shifted back, face red. "How dare you, I—"

"I need complete access to the wounded area," he said. "Don't make it strange."

She quieted down and looked away from him. Thankfully, she had been wearing loose leather pants under her robes, preventing things from being too painful for Mal, but there was definitely an awkward air to the whole situation. Once he had her robes rolled all the way up, he applied his healing salve to the wound, then wrapped it as best he could.

"You're not completely healed," Mal said. "And you'll need to see a doctor once we're out of here. All this is doing is just stopping the damage from getting any worse."

She nodded, then pulled down her robes and stood back to her feet. She took a few clumsy steps forward before some strength seemed to resurge back into her limbs and her body straightened.

Of course, there was a reason Mal had done this beyond the obvious fact that ignoring a princess's request would get him in trouble.

If the cult truly was watching what was happening, then a princess being entirely alone—even one with an S-grade core, even with the teachers surrounding the mountain—might be worth the risk to obtain. Mal didn't want to see the kingdom destabilized, even if it hurt his chances of reaching the top of the mountain.

"Let's try to get some more rest before we continue up the slope," Nathan said.

Savaly nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lusia walk over to the campfire and begin tending to it once more.

The rest of the night had been quiet. There'd been no sudden attacks, nor any changes in Savaly's condition. Mal and Lusia had taken turns being on watch. She'd acted strange each time she'd woken him up—a flicker between him and Savaly before her face reset to its neutral state.

By the time the sun rose, Mal thought that he felt worse than if he'd just stayed up the entire night. He yawned into his hand as he watched the light of day creep over the horizon.

"Lusia." He brought his hand back down. "Wake Savaly up, please."

Lusia nodded and walked over to Savaly. "Miss Savaly. Please wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open. They were half-lidded, dark circles drawn under them like a great big splotch. She pushed herself up and blinked hard.

"Why did you wake me up so early?" she said.

Mal pointed outside. "It's day. We need to get moving."

She looked at the sun, almost in disbelief before a low growl came out of her throat and she forced herself to stand. Her legs buckled and Mal stepped out to catch her before she managed to stop herself from falling. She stood there for a bit, took a few steps, then nodded.

"I'm ready."

"Are you sure? You don't look—"

"I look fine. Let's go."

She marched out, and Mal pretended that he didn't see the hitch in her step.

"Would you be able to catch her without risking your life?" Mal said.

Lusia nodded. "Yes, master."

"Stay behind her when we're climbing up."

Another strange expression crossed her face for a half second before she nodded. "Understood, master."

Strange. Mal would have to recommend her to seek Cassandra. Perhaps she might be able to figure out what's going on with Lusia?

...Mal also needed to see Cassandra, not just for healing, but because he hadn't had any of those private lessons in a while, not since he came back from his trip to the elves. Even before that, their lessons had been more staggered due to other responsibilities taking precedence. Cassandra had been busy preparing for the new term, and Mal had been teaching Lusia and catching her up with the rest of the group.

He would talk to her and get things settled at a later date.

For now, they had a mountain to climb.

Despite Mal's doubts, Savaly proved to be made of pure steel.

After that initial shudder, she'd begun climbing as if nothing had happened. Her limbs were solid, every motion continually smooth and graceful. There were tells, though. How long it took between each action. A quick, somewhat alted breath.

Not to mention, the amount of progress they'd made up the mountain had gone down slower.

They were only about halfway up—which sounded impressive, until you realize they'd covered about 90% of that distance the day before.

They had significantly slowed down.

"Let's take a break here," Mal said.

He wiped his sweat off and stepped deeper onto the relatively flat incline that they'd found themselves on. Savaly glanced at him with vague annoyance. "Why? Nobody looks tired."

"Nobody might look tired, but I am tired, and I want a break."

She crossed her arms and scoffed. "Fine, if you insist."

This woman's pride is going to get her killed one day, Mal thought.

Mal took a seat and shut his eyes.

The storm had more or less stopped, but there was still a strong breeze.

His hands had started aching again, and once again, Mal desperately wished he had taken more equipment for a climb.

Massively stupid, Mal thought.

What was I thinking?

The sound of stone cracking. He snapped his eyes open and glanced around. Savaly had perked up, probably from the same noise. Lusia had hopped to her feet, daggers already in hand. Mal quickly rushed over to where he'd heard the noise and saw two individuals.

"Oh, Mal. Philo is surprised to see you ahead of him."

"Honored leader!"

Mal extended out his hand. Philo reached up and grabbed it, and Mal pulled him back onto the flat part of the incline. Mal stepped back over and reached out for Rolam, who also took his hand and was a much easier pull.

Rolam reached up and rubbed the sweat off his forehead, his red hair matted and stuck to his skin.

"How did you get ahead of us?" he asked.

"Yes, Philo saw you three over toward the back."

"No idea."

Philo hummed and brought his hands up toward his mouth and breathed into them. A small jet of flame came out of his nose, the heat refracting off his hand and visibly warming his body with a glow.

Rolam, on the other hand—Rolam was glowing.

Mal blinked hard. Based off the way nobody else had reacted to the glow, he could pretty safely assume that it was something only Mal could see.

He's using mana circulation—and he's probably overdoing it, Mal thought.

Mal was almost going to lecture him before he thought better of it. This wasn't the time.

"We should catch up," Rolam said. "Trade tips. I'm curious to see how far ahead of the pack we are."

Rolam ended up sharing his snacks, preserved fish, sealed in a jar. He passed out several to each person. Mal stared down at the unblinking eyes of the tiny fish.

He looked back up at Rolam. "Do you just carry this around at all times?"

"Emergency sardines," Rolam said. "You never know when you might need them."

"Of course, such a good point." He turned his gaze over toward Philo. "How did you two get together?"

"It was more by coincidence than anything else," Philo said. "He ran into Philo and we decided that traveling together made more sense than traveling apart."

"He agreed to give me first place in exchange for my help," Rolam said.

Mal raised an eyebrow. "That feels a little bit unreasonable."

Philo shrugged. "Philo doesn't consider first place very important. Not for the first event. He'll be able to catch up at a later date. Besides, Rolam's reason is—"

Rolam coughed into his hand. Philo slammed his jaws shut.

"What about you two?" Rolam barreled forward. "Or I should say you three. You and Lusia I can understand, but how did the princess end up traveling with you?"

"I consider myself very good at spotting talent," Savaly said. "I decided that someone like him would give me the best odds of reaching the top first."

"That's not going to happen, because I'm going to reach the top first, so you'd better be prepared for loss."

Savaly snorted. She waved him off as if he was a bug or some other insect. "Give it your best shot, elfling."

"You're on." He stood up and looked back over toward the edge of the cliffside. "And with that, we should probably get moving. We'll see you at the top."

Philo stood up behind him and nodded. "It was a pleasure to see you again, Ape. You as well, maid."

"Good luck on the climb," Mal said.

With that, both Philo and Rolam headed off and up. Savaly watched the two as their bodies disappeared into small pinpricks in the distance.

"Neither of them are particularly powerful, but they've grown by leaps and bounds," she said.

"They have. They've worked hard, and they deserve it."

"So they manage to become competent students solely through their own efforts?" A knowing smirk crossed her face. "That's an interesting way to put it."

Mal suppressed a twitch in his face. "How many spies do you actually have?"

"Many. I have many spies, dear rival."

With that, the climb resumed. Mal had already resigned himself to losing top position. It had already been a long shot, but with an injured Princess of Chama slowing them down, there was no way they were going to reach the top ahead of the others.

But that was fine. Mal suspected they'd still crack the top fifty. In fact, he was near certain of it.

His blistered and pained fingers dug into the ice-cold stone. He could feel each pump of mana as it circulated through his body, like a loud drum beat with every loop.

On the plus side, he'd more or less confirmed that mana circulation did not require a core. Scholars in the future would appreciate his sacrifice for science. On the negative side, that didn't change the fact that every part of his body was in immense pain, and he was also freezing cold.

"Almost there," Savaly murmured.

Her magical platforms had decreased in size, barely reaching her tiptoes. Her hands were bloodied and red. Even Lusia was visibly straining with each motion.

Mal pulled himself up onto an overhang and stared at it in surprise. There were a few scattered figures on a snowy slope. The incline was gentle, a reprieve from the harsh vertical movements of earlier.

It would still be a brutal movement up, but nothing compared to what they'd been going through. Savaly hauled herself over the top and looked up at it. "Damn it, they're ahead of us."

"I think we should just count our blessings," Mal said.

The peak was in the distance. Far, but it would likely be significantly easier to get to if they were just walking instead of climbing.

Mal took a step forward, then stopped. It was hard to tell which one of his senses was on alert. There was a funny smell in the air. Although he couldn't quite pin it down, it was different than the others. There was an energy to the air that hadn't been there before.

"Stop."

Savaly glanced at him. "What? I'm fine, you don't need to slow down."

"It's not you," Mal said. "Don't you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

Lusia shook her head. "I don't sense anything unusual, master."

Something hit his robe.

Inch by inch, his gaze traveled down. A tiny piece of snow had rolled off at some point and splattered against his clothing.

There was a faint noise in the distance. A long, continuous growl. No, a roar. It didn't stop, not for a breath, not for anything. The mountain itself shook and Mal barely managed to keep on his feet.

Mal's heart dropped in his chest. He turned back to face the other two.

"Avalanche."

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