Like a statue, the cloaked man stood still.

The hood did not allow for anything to be seen underneath, so Tercius could only guess what this intruder looked like. Narrowing his eyes, he subtly adjusted his posture to be able to spring in an instant. This man clearly came with some kind of agenda either against Lux or maybe even Seliana.

Thinking of Seliana, he glanced for a moment towards the cabin, and luckily no one was at the porch at the moment. In that instant, he heard another shattering sound, his uncle now having his sword at a lower angle, fractals of ice falling all around him.

"I thought you killed your victims in their sleep, yet it seems you do have some skill." the baritone voice said, then chuckled. "Some rumors don’t turn out to be true."

Lux merely observed the man with narrowed eyes.

Lux made a small step forward, elicited the first sharp response from the shifting cloak. Taking a step back, the voice quickly said: "Not a step more, or the next one is for the boy."

Suddenly his naked chest felt much more exposed. Goosebumps rose up his arms, and his body wanted to shiver. Tercius knew in his mind and body that this was a moment where he was the prey. He did have a protector, but now the protector had to first take care of himself. Tercius had no desire to be a chain on his uncle's arms.

Lux smirked at the mage’s words.

Making another step forward, Lux watched as the invader threw an icicle towards Tercius and the boy deflected the thing with a sideways swing of his sword. The smirk stretched into a full-blown grin.

"Lesson one: Never talk to your opponent, instead, go for the kill," Lux said.

Tercius watched his uncle spring forward with the speed of a leopard, keeping his sword forward, ready to defend. Like a viper, his uncle ran to his prey, the distance of over 30 meters eaten in a few moments.

The mage did not stand idle as Lux ran to him.

Without a word, ice sprang around him, like flowing water jumping to obey the orders of its master. The ice settled in the shape of a curved wall, giving the man some manner of protection from the charging swordsman. Wickedly sharp spikes started growing along the wall, the semi dome-like structure losing some of its volume.

The mage had made the semi-dome facing his uncle, yet from where he stood, Tercius could see a small part of the mage's right shoulder. The mage's hands were out of the cloak, raised forward defensively. Opening his Mana Sight for a mere second he saw the Mana in those arms, while from the elbows up, the rest of the man’s body was simply not there. From those hands, another kind of Mana leaked, almost the same, yet somehow changed, in a way he could not understand.

For now. he promised. I will soon.

Getting back into normal vision, he had to duck from an icicle headed his way, then with his sword deflect another that was sent to where he was headed.

He saw that his uncle was dancing around those shards, some avoided others shattered, and Tercius tried to think of how Lux meant to attack this man. What was his uncle’s strategy? Maybe to force himself through the shield? The dome had to offer some measure of protection, otherwise, the mage would not have summoned it. To make the mage spend Mana, and then end him once he was spent? Maybe.

Another, even better, question came to mind. What was the plan of this mage? The man followed them, probably stalking and waiting for an opportune time to strike. When his uncle caught on to him and called him out, he actually showed himself instead of running away. What did that imply? What does this man have or know that gives him the courage to face an "infamous mage killer", in the man's own words?

Did this man intend to kill his uncle? Maybe the mage was trying to find out how Lux fought, then he would run away and make a plan with this new knowledge?

Suddenly his back grew cold. It was not a chill from the wind that started to drift, but two thoughts that froze him in a way the elements could not. Or maybe he intends to distract uncle while someone else sneaks about and kills him or... He turned his head towards the cabin and saw that even after all the commotion, no one came out.

Activating Mana Sight Tercius saw five Mana silhouettes inside the cabin. Two of which were humans and three were animals.

One laid prone on the floor, small and human-shaped. Penelope.

Under the bed, a small cat-shaped silhouette. Amber.

One lizard shaped, where the table was. Draco, Penelope’s pet number one.

Near Draco, a small bird-shaped one. Currently unnamed, Penelope's pet number two.

And the strangest one left for last. Seemingly floating in thin air the waist of the floating figure was higher up than both feet and head. The amount of Mana in this floating silhouette was familiar to him. Seliana.

Fuck, they have her, he thought, as panic rose in his chest.

Tercius glanced back to the duel that was performed some 30 meters away from him. Lux was currently struggling to stay free as the mage started using the snow to trap his uncle's feet. Distracting Lux at a time like this could prove fatal, so instead, Tercius decided to distract the mage. The only weapon at hand was the sword, and the mage was at a range where he either had to run to him to attack or throw the sword as his uncle did with his dagger.

To go near the sharp defensive wall that the mage erected seemed like a fool's errand, while a ranged attack offered more space for evasion against any attacks the mage sent his way. But I only have one sword, he thought, that means I only have one chance.

Tercius knew that he had to act quickly. Seliana was probably bound and unconscious slung over the shoulder of an accomplice of this mage. Penelope was down, but still alive, but for how long? What if she was injured and bleeding out while they were occupied here with this mage?

He was the only one who could do anything about it. His uncle could hack and slash with a sword until tomorrow and the mage would merely repair the damage. Sure, the mage would run out of Mana eventually, but how long until that happens? 10? 20 minutes?

His mind was racing at a speed he never knew before, thoughts racing plans being made and remade. One, in particular, appealed to him, mainly for its simplicity. Ice, by its very nature, was brittle. A blunt type of attack would be much more useful in these situations. Lux could not get very close to the mage, as, besides the wall, the forest of sharp shards that grew on it offered additional protection. Any time Lux got near the porcupine wall, he risked getting stabbed by those gleaming points.

Tercius also observed that the mage had reached a limit of a sort with his control over the ice wall. Any time the mage made a ranged attack with those icicles or tried to use the snow to trap Lux, a very small section of the wall around the mage would collapse.

That implied that while Lux attacked from the front, the back was wide open. To protect himself from both sides, the mage would have to spread the wall thin, giving rise to more structural weaknesses.

Let’s say that a stone ball, a bit larger than those used for playing tennis, crashed into one such thin brittle ice wall. What would happen?

I hope this magical ice will be similar to its natural cousin, Tercius prayed.

Throwing the sword near his feet, Tercius crouched down, digging his fingers into the stone platform he made just a few days prior. His eyes were glued to the mage and he saw when the noise of the sword’s fall caught the mage's attention. As the mage’s hooded head turned Tercius’ way, his uncle made use of the opportunity and threw something over the wall. The mage cursed, while a grin split Tercius’s lips.

His hands made tennis balls of stone by the handful, each around seven centimeters in diameter. Tercius just smoothed them out roughly, just like he would a snowball. The stone balls were a bit heavy, but nothing his developed muscles couldn't handle. The work with his grandfather helped develop his physique to a level where at the age of 11 he looked the part of a 14-year-old. He even had a doubt that all the Energy he kept inside of him helped in some way. Tercius eyes focused, and then searched for an opening to strike.

A moment of opportunity.

A distance of some 30 meters separated his position and the one that the mage currently occupied. He saw a part of the right shoulder of the mage behind the protective wall, and the man was careful never to expose much. Taking one ball in his hand, he stood, inhaled, raising it above his head, suddenly lamenting that he never played baseball. The techniques would have come in handy right about now.

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Bringing the hand down, the stone ball flew straight and crashed into the spikes, shattering them. It rammed the wall, a few small cracks spreading in all directions, then fell and lodged itself at the base of the growing spikes. Tercius saw that the cracks were mending, and the spikes were growing back, so while there still was an opportunity, he threw another ball. This time the stone ball crashed into the ice wall and stayed lodged inside of it, half of its volume buried. The cracks of this attempt were much wider, but even they were mending. The mage sent three spikes his way, but the distance was enough for him to move out of their path. Aided by Precision, Tercius sent a third ball hurling to the same spot where the second one cracked the wall.

The ball hit straight into the previous one, forcing it through, yet the wall stayed intact. Only a hole, the size of the ball he threw, remained and even it was mending itself in mere moments.

Tercius took two balls and ran left right into the snow, his speed the only thing pushing him through the meter tall obstacle. The mage saw that now he had another threat, and the wall expanded to cover his exposed side. The thickness of the wall decreased once more. Let’s try now, Tercius thought as he threw one more ball. The fourth one managed to shatter the regrown spikes and slam into the wall, piercing all the way through.

"Fuck!" the mage shouted. "Laem, help me!"

The shout rang across the snow-covered surroundings, and Lux’s whole demeanor suddenly changed. The eyes, a moment prior that of a playful cat, now sharpened, turning vicious. If the words this mage said were not a bluff, then there was someone out there helping him.

Tercius’s involvement did have the desired effect of expediting the fight, but it was still a slow affair. Too slow, he thought as he ruminated over some other way to speed this thing up. His Mana Sight observed the way this mage mixed Mana with the ice, and the surrounding snow and an idea came to mind.

He had one more stone ball, and once it was thrown then he would have to find more ammo. Let’s try this, he thought as he sent Mana into the small spherical object. Transferring Mana into objects was something he scarcely did, as the inanimate objects did not hold Mana for long. Even Mana sent into other living beings was promptly ejected into the surroundings and dissipated.

Yet this mage somehow managed to do it and controlled ice with it.

Satisfied with the amount of Mana transferred, and seeing that sending more only led to it dissipating at a faster rate, he hurried and threw the ball with as much force as his body could manage.

The fifth stone ball flew true and shattered a hole two times its size. As the ice rained inwards like shrapnel, Tercius heard a scream from behind that wall.

More screams of pain echoed and then both uncle and nephew heard the mage rasping to take in some air. Bullseye, he celebrated. The mage’s magics falling, the ice wall started crumbling away. Both Tercius and Lux saw him there on the snow, holding his chest, as he tried to take a mouthful of air.

From the moment where Tercius observed what happened in the cabin, only a minute passed. Yet that minute might prove to be too long a time.

Play smarter, not harder. But sometimes do both. he thought as he watched the whole scene.

His uncle ran to the downed mage, but Tercius knew that there was a much more important situation to deal with. He ran back to the platform to grab his sword and maybe even make another stone ball, as the ranged weapon proved very useful. While he ran he shouted, "There is another one in the cabin. Hurry."

With a curse, Lux turned for the cabin, then went into full sprint forward. Tercius followed with a glance thrown back to rasping mage. Every breath seemed to take colossal effort from the man.

He is going nowhere. he thought. That blow may have even ruptured something.

Observing the surroundings with Mana Sight he saw Seliana's shape further into the woods, the second attacker likely deciding to tail it, once he saw where the winds blew. "Uncle, over there," Tercius shouted, and pointed to the direction in question when he saw that Lux turned his way.

One stone ball in one hand, a sword in the other, with only his pants and boots on, even to himself the sight seemed ridiculous. His uncle did not say anything as they ran after the cloaked man, into the woods, and it was easily observed who had the speed advantage.

The man had a minute of head-start, but he was also encumbered by one unconscious woman.

"Stop!" the other cloaked figure screamed, in his hand a fire manifesting, hovering over his palm. The mage placed his hand near Seliana's head and screamed, "Don't move or she’s done for."

The second mage was panicked, his voice betraying him. Clearly, nothing was going the way these men planned for.

"Put her down gently, and I will give you a head start," Lux said.

The man under the cloak was already winded, yet he thought about the offer. "No, no, no if I let her go, I will be dead meat. No, no, no." Shaking his hooded head fervently the man declined fervently.

"I can kill you even before a single hair on her head is fried." Lux calmly said. "But I do not want her to fall and risk injury. You will gently lower her, and you will have ten minutes, and no more. I swear this by all the Gods. I will not chase after you for ten minutes. Think of this as Gods given opportunity that it is. I will not offer a third time."

The mage thought it over and reached his decision was reached. "Deal." the man yelled and slowly lowered the unconscious woman into the snow near his feet. "Remember what you swore. Ten minutes."

The cloaked fire mage ran deeper into the woods, while Tercius and Lux ran to Seliana's side. She was breathing, but it was not her he was worried about. They came here to kidnap Seliana, but what about others who stood in the way?

"Go check on Penelope," Lux commanded. "I will bring Seliana there."

Tercius nodded and ran for the cabin, finally crashing into the wall to stop himself. The door was open, the room cold, and Penelope was face-up on the floor. Her face had a little blood on it, a large bruise on her cheek, the hand imprint clear. A fury consumed him, but he suppressed that fire, for now, other things mattered more. Tercius nudged her a bit, saying her name, but she did not respond in any way. He saw that her breath was steady and a weight fell off his shoulders.

Releasing a deep breath that he carried in him from the first moment, Tercius searched for Seliana’s bag of healing brews. While Tercius was rummaging about the bag, one more wave of relief washed over him when he saw Amber come out from under the bed.

***

The ice mage was still trying to find his breath when Lux knocked him out with a single blow to the head, his boot dyeing the man’s face crimson.

"Five more minutes." Tercius heard Lux murmur to himself. His uncle seemed even more brooding than usual.

"Uncle, I don't think it's wise to leave now, there could be others waiting in ambush. We should all stay together," Tercius shared his opinion.

"They would have attacked when we were occupied." Lux dismissed. "Or they are playing some other game. In any case, I will have to hunt down that one. I swore it."

Tercius tried to convince Lux to give up his hunt for the fire mage but found no success. When they finally had the ice mage bound to a chair tighter than a dweta-pinchers purse, and out of his cloak, Lux forced a potion down his throat. "He won't be cast any spells, any time soon." his uncle said.

Lux dressed himself into his winter gear and was over the doorstep of their little cabin as soon as the self-imposed ten minutes were up, leaving him to take care of an unconscious Penelope and Seliana. Tercius tried to make the two sleeping women comfortable and warm, restarting the put out fire and placing all of the blankets he found over them. Little Amber knew that something happened, and she didn't want to leave his side, so he took her in his arms and started soothing her worries.

Then he focused his gaze on the face of the attacker.

A young man, probably in his mid to late twenties, of a dark complexion, with black hair. With the help of Visualization, he tried to find this man's face in the memories he had of the ship that took them to Lissea, but that proved futile with or without the cloak. "I spent most of the journey in the cabin," he said to no one in particular. "I did not even notice him."

Under Mana Sight the Mana in the mage’s body behaved normally, yet he saw that when the man conjured and manipulated ice, his Mana was different. Still the same color, but there was something there that he could… feel, but not… see. Something was added to the Mana or maybe something was removed. he thought as he filed the information for a later time.

Then, almost an hour after his uncle left, Seliana woke up groggy and furious, just itching to hit someone. She checked on her daughter and gave her a small sip of some healing potion, just in case. Tercius wanted to give a sip to the bound man, in case he was bleeding internally, but Seliana would have none of that.

Like a sound of a whip, Seliana struck the unconscious man across his face as soon as she was able to stand.

"The fucker can bleed out, new information or not, one of my potions is not saving his life," Seliana said with steel and fire. "And where is Lux? Is he… all right?"

"He is fine, he just went after the one that had you bound," Tercius answered.

She looked surprised to hear that. "Someone actually managed to escape his grasp?"

"That’s not the case, no. Uncle made an oath of giving the mage a head start if he returned you," Tercius explained.

"I see," she murmured and fell silent.

Penelope woke up soon after and she was in a worse state than Seliana. Her memory was a bit foggy, and she did not even remember the few minutes before the attack. And once she saw the bound man, she panicked.

They had to explain to her what happened, but Tercius saw that she did not believe them entirely. She wanted to, he knew that, but it was difficult to do it.

Instead, she resumed her efforts to tame her wild pets, as they waited for Lux to return. At one point the mage they had bound woke up, but with a swipe of some foul-smelling brew, Seliana knocked him back out and ordered them to hold their breath for at least ten seconds. The animals inside did not get the memo, so they all promptly fell asleep.

They had a cold lunch, just some bread, and dried meat, the mood sour as they worried for Lux. A portion had been made for him, yet he did not show up.

It was almost evening when his uncle returned, carrying a dead body on his back. Like a hunter that brought home a great stag, his uncle shook his shoulder as he tossed off the cold corpse on the front porch. Some of that simmering fire Lux had when he left had been snuffed out.

"Anything left of lunch? I am starving."

***

"He nearly got to the walls," Lux said. "Only two to three kilometers left, when my sword slit his throat."

Tercius shivered. "What took you so long?"

"There was a pack of wolves that attacked me on my way back. Probably smelling all the blood the dead mage kept leaking." his uncle explained. "Had to kill three of them, before the rest fled."

"And why did you bring the corpse?" Tercius asked, intrigued and a bit queasy.

Lux shrugged. "I thought that there might be some clues on it and that it might help when we interrogate the other one. A damned shame I could not get him alive."

"So are we going to do the interrogation tonight or knock him out one more time and do it in the morning?" Seliana asked, tapping her finger on her lip.

Lux answered as a large yawn escaped him, "Let him wait for the morning, his hunger should kick in by then. He'll be easier to interogate then. I'm going to bed, I need to rest."

"It will be my pleasure to volunteer for the knocking out part," Seliana said with steel in her eyes, a mysterious smile on her face. Tercius felt a small dose of pity for the man.

***

Once the interrogation started and the man saw that he had no other way out, coupled with seeing the mangled corpse of the other mage, who was apparently his cousin, the man sang like a little bird. Not even the fact that they killed his kin stopped the man once he saw what the corpse looked like.

While his uncle dealt with wolves he tossed the, then fresh, corpse on the ground but when he came back a few pieces were missing. Mostly from the torso, but also one bite from the neck and one from the face. Now that Tercius’s system was not in a fight-or-flight mode, all of it looked rather grisly.

Haem, the ice mage, and Leam, the fire mage, were mages in the employment of the Governor of Tripatis, sent ahead to monitor Seliana, and if an opportune time presents itself, take her. A backup was supposed to come at a later date, but both of them knew that if they took the woman all by themselves, they would get a lot more money.

What kept them at bay during the voyage was the fact that the Haem had recognized Lux. While he insisted they give up, his cousin held him back. There was a lot of money involved. So with the new information, they knocked the man out once more and had a small talk.

Seliana whistled and said, "Even I would turn myself in for that much money."

"The Governor of Tripatis is a hoarder, he would not offer that much money for a potion maker. No offense Seliana, but even a dozen of your potions are not worth that much. If this contract is still standing, we will need either to get rid of it or get rid of you." Lux said, then scrambled to rephrase once everyone’s head swiveled his way. "Change your name, and such."

"I should have done so immediately," Seliana said. "And as you said, this is too much money for going after my potion for its healing properties."

His uncle brooded a bit then a spark of realization bloomed in his eyes, "I think that they think that the potion might have given you a skill. And now…" Lux said as he glanced up to find Seliana’s troubled face.

"Seliana? Do you have something to share?"