Prediction

The guild was buzzing with chatter and the smell of fried food. Lian, Kael, and Mira stood in front of the quest board, staring at a simple assignment.

“Capture a single demon soldier,” Kael read aloud, bouncing on her heels. “That sounds… ridiculously easy!”

Mira blinked nervously. “It… it’s just one? No traps? No huge monsters?”

Lian shrugged, trying to look casual. “Yeah… just one. We can handle that.” Inside, he was secretly excited. Finally, a chance to try out my new power in real action.

They set out toward the dark forest where the demon soldier had been spotted. Birds chirped nervously, probably sensing the upcoming silliness.

Soon enough, they spotted him: a demon soldier with shiny red armor and a ridiculously large spear, marching back and forth as if he was late for an imaginary meeting.

Kael grinned. “I’ll go first!” She loaded her Boomer with a fiery alchemic pellet and shot it at the demon. The soldier flinched—but only for a second.

“Not bad,” Lian whispered to himself. Then he focused. He could hear the demon thinking: Left… no, right… wait… maybe forward… ah, just spin in circles!

Lian quietly moved in front of the soldier and tapped him on the shoulder. The demon froze. “Uh… what?” he muttered.

Kael and Mira stared. “How did you—?” Mira whispered.

“He… he just… knew!” Kael whispered back, her jaw dropping. “It’s like he’s predicting the future!”

Lian grinned. “Not predicting… just reading thoughts.” He gently nudged the demon backward toward a nearby net trap.

Kael laughed. “This is amazing! Can you read all their thoughts?”

“Mostly,” Lian said, shrugging. “Some are… messy.”

The demon soldier tried to stab him with his spear, but Lian had already read it coming. He sidestepped, and the spear stuck comically into a tree behind him. “Oops,” Lian said innocently.

Mira raised her hand cautiously, her orb glowing slightly. “Should I… help?”

“Nope! Just watch!” Lian said. “I got this.”

The demon soldier, confused and dizzy from accidentally thinking in circles, tried to attack again. Lian anticipated his moves perfectly, dodging and guiding him like a very polite dance partner.

Kael decided to spice things up. She loaded a “confusion pellet” into her Boomer and fired it. The demon’s thoughts instantly turned into a spaghetti mess: What… what’s happening… am I a sandwich… maybe I’m a cow?

Lian quietly chuckled. “You didn’t need that, but sure…”

Mira, curious, raised her orb slightly. “Should I… just in case?”

“Nope!” Lian said again, wagging a finger. “Let’s keep it silly.”

After a few more minutes of Lian carefully reading and dodging every thought the soldier had—every little panic, every tiny strategy—the demon finally tripped over a rock and landed in the net trap Kael had shot into place earlier.

“Captured!” Lian said, puffing his chest out a little.

Kael jumped up and down. “This is insane! You just… controlled the whole fight without even touching him!”

Mira peeked out from behind Lian, her cheeks pink. “It’s… kind of amazing… and scary…”

The three of them walked back to the guild with the demon safely tied up. Lian felt a thrill—his power worked, and it was actually fun.

Kael kept giggling. “I swear, it’s like he’s reading my mind… or the demon’s mind… or the entire forest’s mind!”

Mira laughed quietly. “Next time… I want to see what happens if we both attack at once…”

Lian just shook his head, smiling. One step at a time. For now… let’s just enjoy being ridiculously overpowered in a silly way.

And as the three of them left, Lian couldn’t help thinking that maybe, just maybe, having a mind-reading power could be a lot of fun—if you keep it silly enough.