"What do you mean by that, my lady?" Lena asked, coldness in her gaze.
"Exactly what it sounds like, that you have no talent whatsoever. Your bodies are poor for magic, your minds are inadequate, and your personalities are terrible."
Lyna sighed.
"You should have understood this already. Didn't you see humans among you who were able to cast spells without any training at all?"
Lena kept staring.
Nelliel bit her lower lip, trying to make sense of the conversation, while Nyla simply trembled.
"Yes, we saw… so what exactly sets them apart from us?" Lena continued questioning. "Family? Status? History?"
"No…" Lyna said, looking up. "Mindset."
She cleared her throat and looked at the starry sky for a few moments before turning her gaze back to Lena.
"One who wishes to be a mage does not desire magic, he commands it. Mages are arrogant and overbearing by nature…"
"Not only that, but you need a kind of coldness to see not only everything around you but even yourself as a tool."
Lena listened carefully to every word she said.
"You ordinary girls do not impose your will on the world, you do not toy with it as you please. You lack the coldness and the pride of a mage."
Finally, she sighed again and ground her teeth.
"Not that saying this will change anything, but it's an opportunity for you to understand how ordinary you are."
Her face twisted as she stared at Lena; Lyna continued to watch her cold expression with frustration.
Azriel came to her mind again…
"If…" Lena spoke suddenly. "If a true mage found you, a hostile spirit, what would he do?"
Lyna clenched her teeth tightly.
"First he would try to subdue me with goodwill; if that failed he would force my submission while trying to make me see him favorably. If he failed entirely, he would use me as a cheap tool until I was destroyed."
'Hahaha' Lyna heard a laugh, and in the mental plane she saw Azriel sitting beside her. 'Is that what you think of me?'
She pursed her lips and looked Lena up and down.
Azriel would not want to see her dead… she could act quickly and then…
'If you want, you can do that; I won't stop you. She's not part of my family anyway. Just an acquaintance' Azriel observed the changes crossing Lyna's face.
Lyna looked back at him; his face wore the same gentle smile as always.
She kept staring.
Her murderous intent slowly rose like a wave at the water's edge…
Azriel kept smiling.
Lyna's eyes widened as her murderous intent surged like a tsunami, swallowing them both and manifesting in the physical world.
The girls suddenly trembled as Lyna's eyes underwent a transformation.
"I've changed my mind. I'm going to kill you three." She proclaimed as she stood, flames being summoned in her right hand.
The girls' eyes widened and they immediately bolted for the distance while the huntress smiled.
"Are you really okay?" she asked aloud to him, and he nodded.
"Of course." Azriel replied, seated inside the tent, his companions sleeping soundly beside him.
He soon saw the world through Lyna's eyes.
He felt her murderous intent deeply.
He felt the energy flowing toward the flames as she prepared for the hunt.
He saw, with enormous clarity, his friends running desperately into the forest.
"You see very well in the dark, don't you?" he commented in passing as he felt her smile grow even wider.
"Humans don't see so well in the dark, right?" She watched the girls running awkwardly through the forest.
"No," Azriel replied, drawing a genuine laugh from Lyna.
"Then they're worse than crippled animals." She waited for them to run off desperately into the distance.
Then she looked down at the footprints left behind.
"Which one do you want to hunt first?" Lyna pondered the question deeply. The overlapping tracks made it hard to choose a specific target.
"Nyla… she's the easiest, but it wouldn't bring me any pleasure. I think I'll start with Lena, then Nelliel."
She gazed intently at the footprints; she could have used magic to see each one's individual energy trail…
But then, where would the fun be in that?
She finally decided which tracks seemed to be Lena's and began walking slowly into the forest.
One step at a time, unhurried.
Lyna whistled calmly, flames flickering in her hand as she strolled through the woods.
Meanwhile, Lena was running frantically, the whistling sounding like death itself, and the glow of the flames behind her felt like the scythe of the reaper closing in.
She tried to think as quickly as she could, her heart pounding faster and faster.
To her surprise, she soon heard the sound of running water.
"A river?" she murmured before immediately dashing toward it. The sound might help mask her movements, but more importantly…
A river was an anomaly.
When she arrived, Lena observed closely, water flowing from a waterfall with a cave right behind it.
Hot water streamed over the rocks, forming a natural pool and a warm river that heated the surrounding stones, melting the snow nearby.
Lyna, walking with steady steps, approached the area and also heard the sound of water, surprised.
"Liquid water in a glacial zone… something's very wrong here. Don't you think?" Lyna said to Azriel, who simply nodded.
"There must be fire crystals around here." Lyna nodded in agreement.
Soon she reached the lake's edge and admired the view of the waterfall and the cave just behind it.
Then she looked again at the footprints; they ended there but led straight toward the cave, so Lyna approached it.
"Will she try to attack me?" she murmured to herself.
"Probably. Fire crystals could be her chance to strike back." Lyna chuckled.
"That would be foolish. The chance of blowing herself up with them is too high. She wouldn't do that." She stared deeply into the cave, trying to figure out what Lena was planning.
Finally, she shrugged.
"She just wants to hide. She probably doesn't even know what fire crystals are." Lyna sighed, stepping toward the cave.
"Let's hope it's not too big…" she said as she walked firmly forward.
Lena's heart nearly stopped at the sight of her approaching.