—————–———————————————
Airi's POV
—————–———————————————

I knock over my chair as I stand up and start chasing him.

I dash through the open hole and hold my breath as the smoke envelops me, only breathing once I'm free from it on the street.

Looking up, I see Albrio running into the inn he came from.

Without wasting a second, I run after him, throwing the inn door open and dashing up the stairs.

I hear scuffling at the room at the far end, so I barge in, nearly knocking the door off its hinges.

Looking around the room, I can see 5 people, along with Albrio.

I realise my situation instantly and mutter a curse under my breath as I slam the door closed and run down the hall.

Only seconds later, the door gets blown away, its back charred from a fireball.

I duck to the ground to avoid it, feeling the heat from the back of the door wash over me.

Once it passes, I jump up and dash into the room again, only seeing a hint of black at the window, indicating their escape.

Wasting no time, I plant my foot on the windowsill and swing around onto the roof of the inn, where I see 4 people from the room jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

Without thinking, I race after them, jumping over the gaps between the buildings, seeing the townspeople below.

I unsheathe my sword as I see an icy blue mist radiate from the hand of one of their hands.

A second later, I feel an icicle pass by my shoulder, grazing me only slightly.

I continue on, dodging and parrying any spell shot at me.

After several minutes of rooftop jumping, we finally reach a main street, where the gap between the buildings is much too large to jump across.

At once, they all turn to me and unsheathe their weapons, indicating their desire to fight.

I click my tongue, realising my inability to win this fight.

As I look for ways to escape, I see an arrow lodge itself into the shoulder of the spear wielder.

"Airi! Get away from them!" (Kana)

Hearing Kana's voice from the street below, I jump down to meet them.

"They're all with Albrio!" (Airi)

"I thought as much. Did any escape?" (Kana)

I look back over at the group on the roof and only now realise that one had, recalling the 5 people in the room.

"One's gone! There were 5 in the room!" (Airi)

Kana's eyes never waver from the rooftop as she issues orders.

"Astrid, put a barrier up around us, make sure I can shoot through. Airi, keep a watch on our surroundings, I don't want any surprise attacks." (Kana)

Replying with a simple nod, Astrid and I follow Kana's orders, my eyes darting in all directions around us.

We stand in a deadlock for several minutes. Any movement from the rooftop would result in an arrow dangerously close to them.

It was a deathly silence. No one wanted to even mutter under their breath, as if it would cause their death.

However, the deadlock ceased when clouds formed above the town, and unnatural purple lightning struck down, almost like a retribution from the Heavens.

Taking our attention, the lightning acted as a distraction for the group on the rooftop, allowing them to escape.

"Kana!" (Airi)

I take Kana's gaze away from the clouds and have her notice the groups escape.

"Damn it... Go to the strike zone! People might be injured!" (Kana)

Hearing these words, Astrid tore down the barrier around us and we went into a sprint, our destination being the rising smoke in the distance.

We arrive 15 minutes later and slow down to see an unnaturally small crowd gathered around the area.

"This seems too small a crowd for a phenomenon." (Astrid)

"The spell, maybe?" (Airi)

As if to confirm my suspicions, I see a resident of the town lose sight of the commotion and turn away with dead eyes.

"In any case, let's hurry up." (Kana)

We start off again, pushing through the crowd.

As we reach the edge of the shield of people, I spot Ryu examining the remains of a house, his hand on his sword.

"Hey, Ryu!" (Airi)

Ryu turns at the sound of his name being called.

"What happened?" (Kana)

"Don't know. All the witness said was that purple lightning hit. Completely clear skies beforehand." (Ryu)

Astrid looks at a similar spot to me, staring intently at the charred wood and ash that is scattered across the ground. 

"Magic." (Astrid)

"You sure?" (Airi)

"Certain. There's large residue of lightning magic." (Astrid)

We stand in silence for a few minutes, my mind whirring about the amount of mana it would cost to cause a lightning strike during clear skies.

"Wait, this seems too coincidental." (Kana)

"How so?" (Astrid)

"We were just chasing some people, and when we were close to catching them, this happened. " (Kana)

"Are you saying...?" (Airi)

"I think they used it as an escape." (Kana)

"So the one who escaped was a mage then?" (Airi)

"Highly likely. That spell would have cost a lot of mana." (Astrid)

I look towards Astrid as she starts speaking and see her crouching down next to the rubble.

"Its not a rare spell, I think it's [Violet Strike]. Its a medium to high tier spell." (Astrid)

"Tier spell?" (Ryu)

Astrid sighs before continuing.

"Spells are ranked based on their difficulty to conjure, and, naturally, the harder a spell is to conjure, the more powerful it is. The simple ones, like [Rise], [Burn] and [Douse] are all low tiered spells because basically everyone and their baby can conjure them. It does get a little more complicated as you learn more, but that's the basics." (Astrid)

"I see." (Ryu)

"But considering that the mage used [Violet Strike], they might be near {Zero}. We might be able to find them if we search around here." (Astrid)

I see a look of conflict on Ryu's face, before he agrees with Astrid and starts searching for the mage.

—————–———————————————
Author Notes
—————–———————————————

I feel like I'm repeating myself but writing action scenes is very fun.

Also, new discovery, making a plan is super useful, and I have now got most of the elements present in the world written down, and I have a list of the tiers with spells next to them.

I'm not sure how I'll show this, whether it be through these notes or through dialogue. Just know you'll find out soon.

Also, sorry for a late upload, I've been a little bit ill for the past few days.