Marching through the sweltering heat across the dry, red land quickly grew tiring.

Groaning, Earon patted his tongue against his mouth. He was meant to be conserving water, but with every step, he sweated, evidenced by his soaked tunic, his robe had long since discarded to his pack atop Dotty.

Gripping his waterskin, Earon gauged its remnants. "Just a little more couldn't do any harm."

This was hardly how he imagined the barrens. Earon had expected hordes of monsters crawling across the land, and entering a fierce battle the moment they crossed through the famed Gates of Caedstad. Instead, he got empty barrens.

It didn’t help that Fane explained that the Clain barren itself was larger than the entire kingdom, and who knows how deep the caverns beneath it expanded. And that was just the Clain, the various other barrens that it was joined to were several times the size, and stretched onto lands and kingdoms Earon had never heard of. This was a large part as to why tribesmen could live out here, and merchant caravans could cross the barrens and make a profit. The hard, flat lands meant you didn't need roads, and it would be near impossible to guard every inch of this place.

"Doing okay?" Earon whispered into Dotty's side as he patted her mane.

Dotty bowed her head and chuffed.

"Good."

"What about you, Earon?" Iliana asked beside him. "The Clain is a far cry from the Ryelands, after all."

"Fine," Earon shrugged. "I mean, I'm hot and hating every minute of it, but I'm fine."

Iliana chuckled. "Yeah, that's kind of what adventurering is like."

"Not for some," Fane added as he glared toward Dordan's back, who merrily whistled whilst he walked. "How that man does it, I'll never know."

Another painstaking hour passed before Dordan raised a hand to halt the party. “Tracks,” he said, bending low by some barely discernable markings in the thin layer of red sand that blanketed the dry, clayish earth. “Hellhounds, a pack of them. The sands of the barrens are changing constantly, they had to have traveled through here recently.”

"Finally," Iliana slumped. "I wasn't made for the desert."

Fane immediately whipped out a scroll, his finger tracing down it with vigor. “Here we go, hellhounds. Bounty, one hundred coppers per ear.” Fane looked up with a grin. “Lead the way, my friend.”

"Do it," Iliana waved her hands. "We believe in you, Dordan."

“This way,” the berserker said, pointing across the land. “But be warned, the beasts that live out here are far more vicious than the wolves and other wild beasts of Ome. The hellhound spits fire and moves faster, and with more agility than your average wolf.”

Fane turned to Earon. “You up to this? I’m no expert on how magic works, but your resistance might not work with these hounds.”

Earon shrugged; it was a little late to turn back now.

The group tracked the pack for the rest of the day, stopping twice. Eventually, they came across a narrow cave that divided the earth between a gathering of red rocks. At the mouth of the cave bones of all kinds were scattered, as well as blackened patches of dead grass – the nettled, weedy grass that dotted most of the barrens in small tufts.

“Careful,” Dordan warned. “We must confirm that the entire pack is within their nest. It wouldn’t be good if half of them came back whilst we were attacking. Iliana, can you?”

Iliana’s eyes glowed an orange sheen as she eyed the cave and her ears twitched. “The freshest tracks head inward,” she said, turning to the side and looking around. “But there are two more that recently traveled away from the cave.”

“So, we take them first?” Fane asked.

“Correct.” Dordan nodded.

It took almost an hour to track the two sets of footprints, but finally, they came across a tiny oasis. It was closer to muddy soil than an actual lake, with the tiniest of streams trickling out from beneath a red boulder, creating an ankle-deep puddle. However, the water did appear crystal clear.

Two red, hyena-like creatures with oversized underbites lapped at the water between raising their reads with pointed ears to scan their surroundings.

Dordan no longer spoke, only signaling with his hands. Not that it mattered, even at a distance where they could barely see the hounds as blurs, the almost complete lack of cover meant that the hounds spotted them well before they could reach them.

Growling and scratching at the ground, the hounds made their displeasure known.

“No point hiding it now,” Dordan shouted, springing forward, followed closely by Fane.

“Try to learn something,” Iliana said to Earon as she notched an arrow.

Remarkably agile, the hounds bounced out of the way of Iliana’s arrows, but it seemed that hitting their targets was only half of the arrow's purpose, as they distracted the hound's attention whilst Dordan and Fane made ground.

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Wordlessly breaking off from one another, Fane and Dordan picked their targets and charged in.

Dordan’s target chose to bound backward, taking a defensive stance as several arching swings narrowly missed it.

Fane was less lucky and was met by a cloud of spitting flames, forcing him to dive to safety. But there seemed to be a limit to the hound’s fire, as the attack only lasted a few seconds, after which it shook its head and pounced forward.

Preoccupied by Dordan’s relentless assault, the hellhound missed one of Iliana’s incoming arrows and yelped as the arrow took out a hindleg. That was all the hindrance Dordan required, and a second later his massive hammer-axe was cleaving through the poor creature.

Fane still dodged and rolled, but with its fire attack used, the hellhound was only a slightly bigger and faster wolf. Seconds later, Fane had landed several stabbing blows across the creature’s frame, sneaking in attacks between dodging. With every strike, it slowed further, until collapsing entirely.

Panting, Fane straightened himself. “Easy.”

“Sure, it was.” Iliana rolled her eyes as she approached.

"We outnumbered them this time,” Dordan said. “But I doubt we’ll be as lucky when attacking the cave.”

“I think we’re going to need a plan for this.” Fane agreed as he bent forward and caught his breath.

The battle might have ended quickly and without injury, but it was clear that had there been a couple more of the beasts, it might have ended entirely differently.

Sulking away as a starry night descended upon the land, the group decided to regroup away from the cave.

Setting up a camp of bedrolls surrounding a small fire, the group took a rest and discussed their plan.

The mouth of the cave was the obvious choice for the ambush since it was likely the only place they could gain any kind of advantage on the hellhounds within.

They had considered blocking the entrance and making their presence known, forcing the hounds into a close-quarters battle. But they would still need to strike them all down in this method, an act that could exhaust them depending on the number. Instead, they decided that Fane and Dordan would stand a little back from the entrance, whilst Iliana rained down arrows from above. This strategy relied on Iliana doing most of the killing, while Dordan and Fane mostly just prevented the hounds from escaping the cave.

The only caveat was the fire breath and the possibility that the hellhounds wouldn't attack or fall back once they found themselves stuck.

Early the next morning, with the sun at their backs, the group returned to the cave.

Everyone got into position, and Earon crouched near the side of the cave, figuring he might be able to stab at the wolves from a distance – although the others had essentially made the plan with him more or less excluded. And the only words of advice had been to keep himself alive.

Once everyone was ready, Dordan let out an ear-shuttering war cry. Which clearly got the hellhounds’s attention as a cacophony of yelping that sounded almost like laughter followed soon after.

Dozens of beady red eyes appeared in the darkness of the cave a moment later. The sight was terrifying, but soon it confirmed that their plan worked, as they fought against one another to crawl out from the cave.

Earon saw far more than just the red eyes. For him, their entire frames were glowing red. Confirmation that the beasts were in fact magical.

Leaping forward, the first came but was immediately forced into retreat as Dordan's huge hammer-axe swung through the air.

Unfortunately for it, arrows followed.

The howling yelps grew louder and higher as one hellhound after another tried to brave the storm of arrows and approach the wildly swinging Dordan.

Earon leaped back as a snapping jaw swung around the rockface, with the beast trying to claw its way up the rock and toward him. Instinctively stabbed back with his spear, Earon felt his weapon cutting into flesh as a whimpered yelp echoed out.

"They're climbing the ledges!" Iliana warned between spamming arrows.

She wasn't usually this fast, but within the confined space she needed little time to prepare or aim her shots.

Flames followed a moment later, littering their surroundings in motes of fire and forcing Iliana to jump back several feet, breaking her rain of death.

At that moment, they pushed, a half dozen squeezing through in a frantic attack aimed at Fane and Dordan.

Spitting flames accompanied the beasts and only two fell as they forced the two warriors into retreat, diving behind the cover of rocks a moment later as fire enveloped their defensive positions.

"Don't let them through," Iliana screamed as she bounced forward, shooting down two hellhounds within seconds. But a second later, a ball of fire was spat back in response and she was forced to dart backward, her leathers and hair smoldering with a burnt scent.

Bounding atop the rocky ledge, a hellhound broke free from the kill corridor. At the same time, several others broke free from the cave's mouth.

Iliana loosened another arrow as she ran in retreat, hitting one of the hounds that circled Fane and Dordan.

Earon was alone, he realized. And there was a growling and salivating hellhound only a few feet from him. It looked down from the top of the ledge with a glimmer in its eyes and pounced.

Shit.

Fire spewed forth a second later.

Earon was nowhere near fast enough to avoid the attack and instinctively raised an arm against it as he looked away.

Fire enveloped him a moment later. It was hot, very hot. But it was only hot, Earon quickly realized. In fact, it wasn't even as bad as the fireball from the wand had been.

Two arrows flew over Earon, smacking into the hellhound and ending its life.

He might have provided little more assistance than being a punching bag, but it had been enough for Iliana to create distance and get back to killing.

The situation had become dire, and whilst the fire didn't cause him too much damage, Earon knew, without doubt, the hellhounds would have little difficulty killing him if the others fell.

Bounding down from his ledge, Earon landed at the center of the unfolding battle, causing several hounds to turn toward him.

Fane and Dordan had survived the bombardment so far, but they likely wouldn't have lasted long had things continued.

Angered, several hellhounds turned and doused Earon in flames all at once. A smoldering furnace of flames was created at the center, with the hounds circling around it.

“Oh, damn the gods! Why!” Earon cried as he rolled in pain. He realized a little too late that his magic resistance spell had limits.

Bouncing back from their shelter, Dordan and Fane charged into the fray, arrows flying overhead as they swung wildly and slaughtered their way through the distracted hellhounds.

Puttering out, the flames subsided, leaving Earon at the center of a blackened spot, clutching at his burnt and naked body.

The last few whimpered yelped echoed out as arrows, daggers, and Dordan's axe put down the last surviving hellhounds.

Iliana rushed to Earon's side, pouring a potion down his throat immediately. "Damn it. Hang in there, Earon."

Dordan was beside her in seconds, applying a healing salve to Earon's burns.

Shakily, and covered in burns, Earon's right hand rose and gave them a thumbs up.

Fane chuckled as he strolled up behind them. "The boy actually did it. Maybe I was wrong about him."

"Is now really the time for this?" Iliana sneered.

Earon smiled, immediately groaning as it caused another spike of pain to run through his body.

Skill upgraded – Mana sense (Passive) 1 - 2.

Spell upgraded – Magic resistance (Spell) 5-7.

Warlock – Level 6 achieved.

Despite the pain, Earon couldn't help but smile. Almost dying sucked. But it did have its benefits, or so it seemed.