For several hours now, Asan and Laszlo had been walking on the cracked asphalt of the highway. Proudly holding his head high, Laszlo would occasionally boast to Asan about his little warm flame, which, unlike dark magic, did no harm to its owner. On the contrary, Asan cursed himself for his own choice — dark magic was beyond his control. Every time he tried to summon a similar flame, it caused him unimaginable pain and burning in his hand. The skin on the boy's palm was proof of this. But Asan didn't give up — if his dark magic hurt him, then it would surely show the enemy where the frogs winter.
"Damn it, why don't you get hurt by your fire, while I do?!" Asan complained, watching as his friend playfully waved the flame in his hand, as if even the wind couldn't bother it.
Laszlo, proudly sticking out his chest and grinning mischievously, started boasting.
"See, not everyone is blessed to control something so beautiful... But don't worry, you'll definitely manage it, maybe even better than me!" He said with a sly smile, wiggling the flame in front of Asan's eyes.
Despite everything, this really did lighten the tense atmosphere around them. On the highway, they encountered single cars where the electronics inside had simply burned out. No bodies were found inside the vehicles at all. Since this highway wasn't particularly popular among the population, it was no surprise that they didn't encounter any whole columns. But soon everything was bound to change, as they were near Janschwalde. Unlike Janschwalde, Ostr—Janschwalde could be called a city or a town. It was there that Asan should have been working today.
On both sides of the highway stood a burned forest. Through it, the guys could already see the outlines of the city after an exhausting walk. But there was little point in going there, except perhaps to scavenge for supplies, since both of them were starting to feel hungry and thirsty. After all, the guess that they wouldn't have to eat or drink at all turned out to be false. Although neither of the two guys was particularly knowledgeable about geography, they knew that what they were seeing was a different settlement called Colony. And Janschwalde is literally right next to it, you just need to walk a bit.
So, step by step, they left the highway and walked through the burned forest. The grass on the ground had turned into something like coal. For some reason, it was very hard and full of pebbles. A once beautiful, peaceful pine forest had turned into a showcase of hellish place where the temperature was elevated.
Ash was floating around them, often settling on the boys' bodies and faces, forcing them to cover their eyes with their hands. The smell of sulfur and ash did nothing to enhance the charm of this place.
They would have continued walking along the forest for some time if Laszlo hadn't suddenly sat down on the ground, causing Asan, trusting his friend without much thought, to do the same.
"What's wrong? Ronnie?" Asan asked as quietly as possible, looking at his friend's back, which was turned forward.
"I don't know, I only saw a crowd of silhouettes ahead. Maybe it's Ronnie, maybe other people... We need to be careful either way," Laszlo said and fell silent.
Asan also directed his gaze forward and understood what his friend was talking about. In the distance, among the trees, dark human silhouettes could be recognized.
Scanning through them quickly, Asan counted around 15 individuals, either human or worse – Ronnie. Both boys understood that if these were Ronnie, then they had no chance at all, not even with their new magic tricks. No matter how much Laszlo laughed, his flame was more of a warm glow than anything destructive. Asan, on the other hand, would probably hurt himself more than his enemy.
The silhouettes stood out too much in the burned-out forest, making Asan suspect they might be humans. But... Should he trust his suspicions?
"What should we do? Go around them or…" Asan asked, still looking ahead and keeping an eye on the silhouettes.
There was no immediate response. However, after a few seconds, Laszlo got up, looking extremely worried.
"They've spotted us."
"Fuck!" Said Laszlo, already starting to back away. Asan swallowed what he thought was sour saliva and also got up, quickly beginning to back away. Looking at the silhouettes, it turned out that they were indeed starting to move towards them.
"What do we do? Climb down?" The guy asked, no longer trying to muffle his voice—they needed to act fast.
"Better run, maybe this is Ronnie?" Said Laszlo, suddenly turning around and starting to run back towards the highway.
Asan didn't really believe they would be able to escape in this situation. There were just too many of them, and how could they have been spotted if they were crouched down? Could this be a new type of creature?
Without much thought, Asan also took off running after Laszlo. Flashing their heels, the guys quickly made it back to the highway and looked back.
Asan's heart trembled because he could still see silhouettes that were very close, even if not all of them, there were about three of them. Maybe the others were catching up to them. Right away, Laszlo once again summoned a spark in his hand and seemed to prepare for the worst. However, Asan couldn't do this at least right now. But he also mentally prepared himself for an attack. However, as it turned out, these weren't creatures after all.
From the depths of the forest, three people ran onto the highway. The first one was wearing glasses, his chest rising and falling heavily—it seemed like he was sick with something, as his loud breathing was the first thing Asan heard from the group of people. He had chestnut hair and was dressed in a black business shirt, with a torn tie hanging loosely around his neck.
The second person was a girl holding a kitchen knife; she had completely black hair, but judging by her stance, she somehow looked like a fighter. Asan didn't know how to explain it, but she seemed stronger than him. She was wearing a light T-shirt and shorts. Her sneakers were several shades dirty from coal dust.
But what caught both Asan's and Laszlo's attention the most was the third person. He was about two meters tall and seemed just as wide. His muscles were practically bursting out of his T-shirt. He had leather gloves on his hands and boots on his feet. The first thing that came to mind when seeing him was that he looked like a soldier. Or maybe just some kind of brawler.
For a minute, everyone examined each other, apparently assessing who was stronger.
Naturally, Asan along with Laszlo were the losers in this situation, so they quickly gave up and stopped being on guard as much as possible.
"Who are you?" A low voice, typical of a Laszlo, came from the left. To Asan's surprise, it was the guy wearing glasses.
Taking on the role of negotiator, Asan answered him.
"We're just people, so let's calm down," said Asan, looking at the girl with the knife who seemed ready to attack at any moment.
"Then why were you following us?" Another voice came from the right—it was a military man. Breaking the stereotype of stern soldiers, his voice was somewhat high-pitched.
"We… weren't following. We saw you from afar and thought you might be monsters, you know, one has to be careful," Asan honestly replied, trying to choose his words carefully.
It seems it worked, as the atmosphere between them immediately cooled down a bit. Asan still didn't want to stare closely at each of them, didn't want to piss anyone off.
"My name is Paul. I am the leader of our strike team. Next to me are Alice and Crane. We are part of the group of people you saw near us," said the bespectacled guy stepping forward. It seemed like the girl tensed up a little at this, but she still looked calm. For some reason, Asan thought her gaze was fixed on Laszlo, which wasn't particularly surprising since he always had a high demand among girls, especially now that he was standing there with his torso exposed and showing off his abs.
Asan, with his slender build, had nothing to boast about.
"I'm Asan, and this is Laszlo. We're from Janschwalde-Island."
"We managed to get out of this hell somehow," said Asan and stepped forward, extending his hand for a handshake.
"Yeah, guys, you scared us. We could barely kill one of those things, and we thought there was a whole crowd!" Finally spoke Laszlo, becoming much calmer.
But the others suddenly became tense, staring at him with wide eyes before exchanging glances.
"How did you manage to kill one of... these?" Pol asked abruptly, not shaking Asan's hand.
"Well... It's hard to explain the whole fight in one word, but we pushed it off a high floor, and that was it," Laszlo replied casually, scratching his head.
Pol fell silent, seemingly lost in thought. The girl and the soldier were still standing aside, but one could hear them whispering to each other. Asan also tensed up a bit. Why were they so surprised?
After some time, Paul finally spoke.
"About you, I have no doubts... Laszlo, right? You got the first level? Fire magic?"
Paul was looking at Laszlo while saying this.
In response, Laszlo nodded. Paul turned out to be very observant, noticing Asan's personality. But why was he asking such questions?
"Asan, you also have magic, don't you?" He suddenly addressed Asan, who looked at him somewhat bewildered. The attention shifted from Laszlo to Sasun, making him feel a bit uncomfortable, but he still answered.
"Yes, I do. What's the point of these questions?"
"I'm curious too, Paul, why are you asking these questions?" Alice suddenly chimed in. She looked irritated, which left Sasun stunned.
"Didn't want to join our…" — Paul began to say when the girl suddenly approached him and started expressing her dissatisfaction.
"Paul, PAUL! I already told you, we don't need more people! There's not enough food! Not enough! I disagree with us gathering such a large group! They have magic, so they can definitely protect themselves! Let's go back while there's still time!" — The girl suddenly blurted out.
Asan didn't particularly like the idea of joining some camp, but unlike him, Laszlo would definitely want to do it. Asan knew this and also knew he couldn't talk him out of it, so Asan would have to go with him. He couldn't imagine surviving alone… At least not now.
Paul sternly looked at the girl.
"Stop whining, even if you disagree, I am sure that Geographer will agree, especially since we need strong people for such a long hike. They managed as well as we did, so they are not worse than us, so... Hold your tongue, Alice" Pol replied in quite a harsh manner.
The girl seemed completely displeased with everything, but it was clear that she lowered her hands and cooled down. Asan's ears caught the name "Geography" as well as the word "Hike." At least this part interested him.
"Listen, I understand that you may have found this harsh, but in our times, there is no other way. I have an offer for you that, I am sure, will interest you, so would you like to join us and talk to our leader?" The guy said and extended his hand Laszlo.
"Hm... Asan?" Laszlo formally asked, looking at the skinny boy.
"Well... Let's at least hear them out, we need to do something anyway."
So they set out toward the other people in the burned forest.