James: “So yea, we’ll just tie you guys up and that way we don’t need to hurt you” he said, smirking confidently.

  Xarus: “I’m sure there was a less sinister way you could have said that” he said dryly.

  James blinked “Uh… sorry, I swear I’m not evil or anything…” his voice trailed off as he realised what he was doing “W-Wait! Why am I explaining myself? Just let us tie you up already!” he stammered loudly.

  Xarus stabbed his sword into the ground and leant forward, folding his hands over the pommel and resting his chin on them “you got rope?” he asked curiously?

  James: “N-No? Why would we need rope?” he asked, confused by the sudden question.

  Xarus stared at him in silence, politely allowing him time to figure it out.

  Sarah was not so polite “to tie us up with obviously” she said, moving next to Xarus.

  James: “Ah, that's right! Luke has some binding magic so it's fine- hey!”

  Surprised by her sudden arrival, James turned to his team member who had cornered Sarah a moment ago “Luke! Why’d you let her move!”

  Luke: “What? She only went there, Is it that big of a deal?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

  James: “They could be planning some secret attack for all we know!” he yelled

  Selena: “We aren’t planning some secret attack” she confirmed, joining Sarah and Xarus.

  James: “Like I’d take your word for i-” he stopped mid sentence when he realised she was also there now, he facepalmed “You guys! We are meant to keep them separated! I mean come on David, I was just scolding Luke about this and then you do the same thing!” he groaned.

  David: “It’s not like they were far apart to begin with” he argued

  James: “That’s not really the point!”

  The three boys kept arguing while their own group had their own quiet conversation.

  Sarah: “They're not very well organised are they?” she whispered

  Xarus: "Definitely not” he whispered back.

  Selena: “They're worse than you” she remarked.

  Sarah: “oi”

  Xarus: “what do you guys want to do?”

  Selena: “we might need to run, I could beat any one of them but not all three at the same time” she murmured.

  Sarah: “You know we exist right?”

  Selena: “Yea? Exactly how good at fighting are you?” she asked sharply.

  Sarah pouted “I’m good with my magic, and I have this hammer for anything physical!” she said, drawing the hammer from behind her back.

  Xarus: “You just got that hammer, you shouldn’t be using it in a fight yet, you don’t even know how to use it” he quickly cut in, not wanting her to get ahead of herself.

  Sarah: “I can handle swinging it!” she retorted

  Xarus: “Oh? Really? Because before you nearly fell over a few times” he said casually.

  Sarah: “Ugh, well that was-” she stopped midsentence, trying to come up with a good excuse, but in the end she couldn’t and begrudgingly gave in “fine” she grumbled, returning the hammer to her back.

  They returned their attention to the enemy team only to find them still arguing.

  Sarah: “How long are they going to go on for?”

  Selena: “I’m surprised they didn’t notice your little conversation just now, you two weren’t exactly subtle”

  Xarus shrugged

  Sarah: “Hey! You were involved in that too”

  Selena: “For like 5 seconds”

  Sarah: “Maybe so, but it started because of you!”

  Xarus: “Do I have to be in the middle of this?” he asked, breaking up their argument “If this continues we’re gonna end up like those three” he said, indicating to the three boys.

  Selena: “Yea... don't want that, anyway like I was saying before we should run. I thought it would be hard but they’ve been arguing for so long I think we can get away with just casually leaving”

  Xarus: “Alright, if that's what you want”

  They slowly took one step back, watching the arguing trio carefully. They didn’t seem to notice them at all so they took another step back, again no reaction.

  Xarus: “I think we can just turn around” he whispered

  Sarah: “Yea, these guys aren’t that bright”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The three of them carefully turned their backs on them and started walking. Sure, they were back tracking, which wasn't Ideal but it would only be until they were out of sight.

  Xarus: “Hm?” Something on the ground caught his eye, it was hard to see since it was covered with leaves and dirt but he could make out a faint purple shine peaking through.

  Xarus: “hey wait-” he tried to say, but it was already too late “thats… great” he muttered, his eyes narrowing slightly.

  Selena: “Ack! What the hell is this?” she screamed as purple tendrils wrapped around her body. She had managed to walk straight into a binding trap, which is a simple spell that is used to, as the name suggests, bind people. Selena wriggled around as she struggled to free herself from the tendrils, she reminded Xarus of how a worm acts after being unearthed.

  Sarah: “Woah! Is that a binding trap?”

  Xarus: “Yep…”

  Selena: “Hey! Get me out of this!”

  Xarus: “You might have to wait a minute” he said, swinging his sword to the left, slicing apart a green bolt.

  Sarah: “Wow! You didn’t even look” she applauded

  James: “Damn it! When did they get over there!” he yelled furiously

  Luke: “it’s because you wouldn’t shut up, be thankful I placed a bunch of traps around” he said lazily.

  James: “you were the reason in the fi-”

  David: “Guys! Let’s not get into another fight!”

  Xarus: I know we already discussed this, but they really aren't a good team” he remarked.

  Sarah: “Yea…”

  Selena: “Stop yapping and get me out of this already!”

  Sarah: “Just wait!” she yelled, raising her palm and shooting out a burst of blue energy. The bolt travelled through the air and struck James' chest, knocking him off his feet.

  Xarus: “you just went straight for it, huh?”

  Sarah: “well this whole situation is kinda going in circles”

  Xarus: “That's true”

  The two remaining boys stared at their fallen friend in surprise, then each other, then finally at Xarus and Sarah. Noticing the pale blue light still emitting from her hand they immediately bolted in opposite directions, diving behind trees as Sarah unleashed multiple blue bolts at them.

  Sarah: “Damn! Guess I still need to work on my aim” she said, gritting her teeth in frustration.

  Xarus noticed James begin to stir, then he sat up, rubbing his chest where Sarah's spell had slammed into him.

  He mercilessly pointed James out to Sarah “That guys still available”

  Sarah: “ooh” her eyes lit up as she raised her hand, a blue bolt shooting from her palm. This time the bolt struck the unfortunate boy directly in the center of his forehead.

  James: “Ugah!” he elegantly blurted out as his head snapped back and he flopped back onto the ground.

  Xarus: “oof” he winced. “Good thing those leaves are there to soften the impact” he muttered nervously.

  “Come on! Was that necessary!” one of the boys called out from behind their cover.

  Sarah: “Yea It was! Two people is easier than 3!” she yelled back.

  Hearing movement to his left he looked over to see the other boy, David, charging straight for Sarah with his axe drawn.

  Xarus: “Ehg” he grimaced “yea it would be an axe” he said distastefully, grabbing Sarah's arm and lightly pulling her towards him, smoothly swapping places with her.

  Sarah: “Huh?”

  David: “I was trying so hard to be quiet too!” he yelled, distraught that he’d been noticed. His axe drew an arc as it swung downwards towards Xarus.

  Xarus swung his sword in from the side, tapping the side of the axe and pushing it outward.

  “Wuh?” David blurted in surprise, eyes widening as Xarus swiftly stepped in close and drove his knee into his stomach “Guh!” he involuntarily exclaimed as the air was forced from his lungs, the impact causing him to drop his weapon.

  David: “ah… ow” he groaned, clutching his stomach he began to topple backward. Xarus quickly dropped to his knees and slid around the boy's side, catching him and gently lowering him to the ground. He had held back considerably since he didn’t want to seriously injure him but a blow to the stomach typically sucks regardless so he still felt bad.

  Sarah: “Nice work!” she exclaimed, giving him a thumbs up “you dealt with him instantly!”

  Xarus shrugged and turned away, a faint blush rising from the praise “I-it wasn’t much”

  “David! You better not have wasted my amazing distraction!” the remaining boy yelled.

  Xarus thought ignoring the yelling boy and collecting the axe that David had dropped. He stared at it in disgust before tossing it over his shoulder, an action that didn't go unnoticed by Sarah.

  Sarah: "Why'd you do that?” curious about his unusual reaction.

  Xarus: “Hm? Oh” he said, cracking his neck with his hand “I just don’t like axes”

  Sarah: “Oh? Weird thing to hate” she stated

  Xarus shrugged in response.

  Luke: “David?” he called again.

  Sarah: “one guy left now”

  Xarus: “yea, I’ll do it quick” he said, jabbing his sword into the ground.

  Sarah: “it will be easier if we do it to-” she started to say, but when she turned to face him he was no longer next to her. “What the…?”

  “Hey! How th-! Agh!” She heard yelling followed by a loud thunk over where Luke had dived for cover and soon after Xarus walked out from behind the tree, casually carrying a body over his shoulder. He walked over to James' unconscious body and picked him up as well, tossing him over his other shoulder, then he walked back over to Sarah.

  Xarus: “Done” he shrugged, individually removing the two boys from his shoulder and gently placing them on the ground next to David.

  Sarah: “Uh…pft” she laughed

  Xarus: “What?” he asked, confused by her reaction.

  Sarah: “Nothing, nothing, you did that so fast it seemed a bit absurd is all”

  Xarus: “Oh… sorry…”

  Sarah: “No no, it's not bad, just unexpected”

  Xarus: “oh?”

  Selena: “Hey!”

  Sarah: “Oh yea…”

  They turned to look at Selena, who was still struggling in the binding trap.

  Sarah: “Uh… shouldn’t that have disappeared by now?” she asked, indicating towards the pile of unconscious bodies “one of them was the caster right?”

  Xarus: “Yea, but it won’t necessarily disappear just from being knocked unconscious, killing would work though”

  She stared at Luke in silence for a few moments, pondering their next step.

  Xarus cleared his throat “We aren’t going to kill him” he said

  Sarah: “I wasn’t thinking that!” she yelled “I was thinking about what we’re gonna do about her” she indicated towards Selena.

  Selena: “how about freeing me!” she screamed

  Sarah: “Would If I could! I’d feel bad for Xarus if he had to carry you!”

  Xarus: “Oh so it’s just automatically me?”

  Sarah: “I wouldn’t be able to do it…”

  Xarus sighed “Well it doesn't look that strong, I think I can just tear it off”

  Sarah: “Oh sure- wait what?”

  He crouched down besides Selena and ran his fingers along the purple tendrils.

  Selena: “H-hey!” she yelped, her face turning red “J-just where are you touching me?!”

  Xarus: “I’m not. I’m touching the binding trap” he stated flatly, finally finding a suitable place to grip. He clenched the magic strands tightly and tore them apart, freeing Selena.

  She burst out in a panic and shot to her feet, backing away a few steps, her face still beet red. Sarah was trying her best not to laugh at her flustered reaction.

  Xarus: “What's wrong?” he asked, concerned.

  Selena: “Y-you can’t just touch a girl like that!” she yelled “I’ll overlook it this time since it was to get me out of that stupid cocoon… but” she blushed a deeper red “be more careful next time” she said quietly.

  Xarus: “I… don’t get it?” he admitted, genuinely confused.

  Sarah leaned down and whispered to him what it looked like from hers and Selena's perspective. Upon hearing her explanation he also flushed a deep shade of red.

  Xarus: “I-I’m really sorry” He stammered, embarrassed. He continued to apologise the entire time they were tying up the enemy team.