The creature attacked immediately, and Keoran dodged while he thought it through. When a dead monster's mana is not absorbed or dispersed, it can turn into a spectre. That was something any mage who hunted monsters should know.
Which meant that whoever had killed this creature was also a mage — but for some reason had failed to deal with the body properly. To Keoran that made no sense. Even a novice knight would know better than that. He began to consider the possibility that whoever was responsible had other intentions in letting this happen.
Even so, he decided to act. He charged an electric arrow to finish the monster off, but the instant he tried to use his magic, the mana was simply dissipated, as though it had been nullified, and the creature vanished.
In the next moment it reappeared, attacking out of Keoran's own shadow and catching him off guard. He managed to defend himself, but he still took damage, and he realized immediately that this was no ordinary monster. This was certainly not something a mere knight could handle. It would require at least someone at the level of a low-ranking noble.
Still, it did not make sense, because whoever had defeated the creature before had not absorbed its mana, and had allowed it to become a spectre.
To Keoran it was absurd to think that he would face something of this level in such an isolated village. Yet it also showed how unpredictable the world could be. In front of him stood a distorted version of what had once been a leopard, reduced now to a grotesque mass of flesh and energy.
Even knowing the risk, Keoran decided that if he were going to die here, he would take the monster with him. He concentrated all of his electrical mana into his hand and waited for the right moment to strike, directly, when the creature lunged.
And so he did, trying to counter its claw with his own electrical discharge.
But before he could complete the attack, something exploded in the monster's head. Once, and then again, finishing it off.
At that moment Turan appeared, asking whether Keoran was all right.
Still recovering, Keoran remarked that a shepherd's joke was better than a mage's, recognizing who had just arrived. Then he asked him directly whether he had been a mage all along, and why he had not said anything — but he changed the question almost at once. What he wanted to know was why Turan had chosen to help him instead of simply walking away.
That made Turan recall an earlier conversation, when Keoran had come back carrying the body of a wolf, and he had asked the mage why he worked so hard for such a small village, when with his abilities he could live far more comfortably.
At the time Keoran had replied that those people lived in fear out here on the frontier, without any protection, and that a mage, wielding a power close to divine, should take pride in protecting the weak. Though he had acknowledged that every mage had their own way of living.
So now Turan answered that he had helped simply because everyone chooses their own path.
Even without a head, the spectre kept moving, and it tried to attack them again, forcing both of them to dodge.
Keoran realized this was beyond what the two of them could handle easily. He said it was the kind of monster that would normally require a noble to defeat, and suggested that someone should go and inform the village chief while he held the creature back.
Turan said that was not necessary. He believed his earlier attack had already secured the advantage.
Keoran began to suspect that Turan might be a young knight hiding out in the mountains. Then he realized it was something far greater than that. This was not just a chance encounter with someone talented, nor the recklessness of a rebellious youth. This was the beginning of something rare — a mage with the potential to change the world.
Meanwhile Turan admitted that he too was curious to understand his own limits. But Keoran did not want to let him fight alone, and insisted that they would join forces against this enemy.
However, when the creature attacked again, Turan intervened so quickly that Keoran realized he would only get in the way if he stayed there. He had not even managed to react to the last blow. At that moment he understood that his role here was a different one — to help Turan's talent develop.
Turan began attacking with intense beams of mana combined with stones pulled from the ground, causing visible damage, but still not enough to bring the spectre down.
That was when Keoran explained that spectres do not die from physical attacks, and that the only way to destroy one was with fire or lightning.
Turan tried to summon fire and could not do it properly, and Keoran explained that the problem was not just creating the magic. The problem was understanding how to apply it. To affect a living being, it was necessary to establish the proper relationship between cause and effect.
He was beginning to realize that Turan lacked this basic knowledge, which reinforced the idea that he was the one who had defeated the monster before without knowing how to handle its mana, and had allowed it to become a spectre. Even so, it was impressive that someone without that knowledge possessed such power.
Keoran instructed him not just to create fire, but to shape it and launch it, explaining that creating was easy for a mage. Control was the difficult part.
Even so, Turan immediately managed to form a sphere surrounded by a ring of fire, and fired it like a projectile, striking the creature directly. The impact ignited the spectre, which began to writhe and scream as it burned.
Keoran urged him to stay focused and keep feeding the flames with mana until the monster was completely destroyed. After some time, that was exactly what happened. The creature was reduced to charred remains and began to dissipate.
Keoran was impressed with the result, since they had just defeated an extremely powerful spectre. Even so, he warned that to prevent this from happening again, the remaining mana had to be absorbed.
Turan had never done that before and did not know how to proceed. Keoran explained that he simply had to imagine the mana being drawn into himself, and that was what Turan did, successfully absorbing the energy for the first time.
Seeing it, Keoran was surprised. He explained that a mage's mana normally grows slowly after awakening, expanding mainly by absorbing energy from monsters or from other mages. And yet, even though this was Turan's first time, he already displayed a level of power far above the norm, which indicated a rare and extraordinary talent.
After that, Keoran apologized for the way he had treated him, and asked which house he came from.
Turan simply told him to take care of his own wound first, since he was bleeding heavily.