It all seemed too easy. It was too simple a thing. About forty kilometers south of Amistad the Heroes had laid camp and simply waited there. About as obvious a trap as one could set, but Tiber supposed that was the point. They were waiting for someone, that someone likely being Tyr, still in the process of inexplicably cutting through space and up to whatever mischief he was bound to get into. Probably something foul, knowing him, but sometimes people deserved foul, to have a standard set and to know they'd find no mercy for misdeeds.

Amistad wasn't a large state, but the technical borders of it were larger than one might expect. The DMZ of sorts that no nation could lay claim to was nearly 220 kilos wide and 150 kilos tall. Everything outside of the crater was mostly empty land, and Tiber could see the children, as well as a handful of other figures in the distance. Caspian, Aurelius, what must've been the 'fox Hero' Ryker, the auramancer Shine, Bergen the dream mage, and Morden. The last being the dual wielding scimitar clown of a mage with his unique projection magic.

Hmm... A suicide mission, then. Tiber had attempted to dissuade the princesses from coming here, but they refused to see reason as was their character. As for the rest... It still wasn't looking good, even with all of them together. Nala was powerful, but while she'd dominate any inherently lesser opponent she'd have trouble with a Hero, being unused to fighting a skilled combatant. Ayla was an unknown, but not a warrior in the first place. Harkon was even more enigmatic seeing as he hadn't fought at all just yet, but he didn't seem worried. They hadn't opted to bring anyone else, whether foolish or not, for lack of trust. Though Kael had insisted he follow them, Tyr had truly broken that man and now he was dead set on 'redemption', something he often repeated to himself.

Tiber did not know what Tyr was truly capable of, but his powers, such as they were, were extensive beyond reason. As expected of a primus.

In total, that left them with, and including Tiber:

Samson – The second most blooded member of those assembled. Both he and Tiber had taken eleven doses and it had risen them up to new heights. Unlike Tiber, he had developed no outward potential as an adept but he was still quite powerful. Mostly in terms of durability, however. Tiber had never seen him get hurt in the first place, impossibly, and now he was a walking tank, titanic in the crushing sweeps of that crescent axe he still carried.

Huron – He didn't use mana or spira as Tiber understood them, but Tyr's explanation hadn't been very articulate to say the least. At least at an archmage tier but only in terms of whatever transmutation he used. He was a master of physical enhancements and force multipliers, but he didn't have much in the way of offensive capability against an able opponent.

Zell – Nobody knew, but he'd clearly failed to stand up against Aurelius. He didn't talk, just grunted and followed what commands he was given. Obedient, but broken of mind and an obvious wildcard. Like Ayla in that regard. No standard existed just yet, considering her inexperience with humans, but she was a fair hand at monster slaying.

Fennic and Mikhail who were still both well within the range of trained human combatants. Both too old and weak to drink enough of the blood to properly advance. If it were knights they were fighting, both of them would effortlessly cut them down. But these weren't knights. Ajax and the other beastkin had been sent away, and Tiber didn't trust the rest of the blackguard to have his back in the way that he'd want. They were still mostly strangers. Blooded, but not anything more than Alexandros' cronies or random adventurers, good for a scrap but not anything with real stakes.

Sigi and Alex were obvious, among them all Tiber would put his money on them, the blood had not made them magical titans but it had gifted them with obscene survivability.

Raphael – The Winter Knight and master ice mage who'd only recently achieved the fifth level standard through the blood, a junior archmage. Brenn, an able bodied paladin with above average physical capabilities. Tythas, a darkness mage and necromancer who didn't possess much in the way of kit to benefit them much. Jura, who could be considered an artificio similar to Tiber with limited capabilities for magic. Eve Aram had disappeared shortly after their return to the city and nobody knew where she was. Something that simplified their situation in Tiber's mind, since he still didn't trust these 'elves' that had shown up to exploit Tyr for motivations he could not understand.

Okami – Strong, very much so – but limited in his human form and missing an arm now, one they apparently could not heal because of his different biology. But he was more than equal to any fourth level mage in wind or fire magic. There was also the problem of a soul bond which went both ways when one was contracted. Tiber didn't know much about guardian beasts, but he knew enough to know that they were less capable the farther away they were from their partners in the event that they did swear the oath.

Magnus – A magus, someone who relied on infusing elemental mana of a sort either into their body or an artifact. They were a vocation that fought at close range, typically with their hands, the particular brand of mages who had made infusions so popular even when proper enchantments were arguably more efficient. Fast, brutal, effective – using many small spells and quick changes to their approach to drown an enemy in a flurry of attacks. Grappling, taking them off their feet, a magus was the master of close quarters control and sustainability. Of all mage specific vocations they were arguably the best at fighting human opponents, trained to do so since the beginning, close range magical duelists in a way a battlemage might not be.

Lina – A fourth level mage skilled in water magic, proficient with both saber and spear. A good mind for strategy, but she was unremarkable in terms of her combat potential when a Hero was in context.

Goroshi – The soft spoken westerner with the skills of a blademaster and modest elemental magic. He fought as a warrior and carried impressive artifacts on his person, but otherwise he was of a reasonable skillset and had refused the blood. Right now Tiber felt like an equal to the man, both of them hovering around the gold standard of adventurers. If one considered Tiber's implants that now more wholly existed as his skeletal structure, that is, very similar to Tyr's metallic skeleton. In any event, it was saying quite a bit about the man's power to consider Tiber 'equal' to him despite the blood, especially considering that Tiberius Scarr, once upon a time, had been one of the greatest killers on the continent.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Or so he had thought.

Nala – Chimeras had unique weaknesses and while it would be difficult to properly kill her, she fought with very little in the way of actual skill. Nor was she particularly brave, not someone you counted on to stay and fight to the death.

Harkon – Another wildcard... He had a metal arm and magic eye, with unknown capabilities, as mentioned he had not moved much at all beyond studying bits and bobs of enchanted kit.

Kul – He was an orc. Quite the hulking fellow, and he could hit things very hard... Tiber wasn't even sure why he'd insisted on coming, but the creature disliked humans for obvious reasons. Likely wanting to test himself against their greatest, and all orcs were resistant to mana emission, so he might come in handy.

Daelin – The title of 'Hero' was polarizing, it meant a lot – and it meant very little. All it communicated was that someone could summon an arcanum, that was the one and only criteria. It was by no means consistent and those who were sworn to gods as paladins first and had later managed to transcend were very inconsistent in ability. In his time, Tiber had fought Heroes. Though he'd never defeated any, when he was a blessed of the god Awl it hadn't been so out of reach as one might think. They were not Saints, and Daelin was old. Likely to be one of the weaker heroes in the selection. None were weak, one must note, but Aurelius in particular was near the peak and would thrash Daelin in combat.

“We have no choice but to attack now,” Daelin commented, dragging Tiber from his situational observation. “Aurelius will get stronger in the light of day, courtesy of the sun.”

“I am inclined to agree,” Tiber nodded, even if the Hero was the obvious choice for leader they all deferred to him. Those who knew, knew. Men of great talent but unable to push beyond the thresholds of humanity themselves were common. Tiberius Scarr – the Raven of Milano was a well famed man who had lived a life of many faces. If the Sicario had done anything well, it was plan. But there wasn't enough time for that considering that the auramancer Shine was staring at them through a monocular, offering them some very uncouth and arcane signs with her free hand. Baiting them, and Tiber could appreciate someone who yearned for a good fight.

They'd get one, but all he saw in those who baited in such a fashion whilst unable to die were a pack of mewling cowards.

“I will engage Caspian. Alexis and Sigi will eliminate Morden as quickly as possible, you both have been briefed on him, yes?”

They nodded, naturally.

“Samson will tie up the auramancer alongside Rafael, shouldn't late long. Fennic and Mikhail will provide ranged support via their bows while Huron and Zell chase the dream mage, both of them should be immune to their magic considering their less than active imaginations. I'd also like Goroshi to engage Aurelius initially and try to provide an opening for Nala and Ayla. We will ignore Ryker at the start, based on my intelligence he is a not a direct threat to anyone, but I'd like Harkon to try his hand against the man. Understood?”

“Understood,” Those mentioned agreed, it was simple but better than nothing. Both Sigi and Alex were very versatile mages with access to area denial abilities – ensuring that taking them in the back with a clone would be difficult. Samson was inexplicably resistant to being cut, Huron and Zell were practically mindless. Illusion magic didn't tend to work so well on people with brain damage, so on and so forth, so he'd let them run wild for.

“Also understand that we are about to engage with not one...” Tiber sighed, wishing he was strong enough to ensure the women especially wouldn't have to fight. Not because they were women, but because they were literal princesses and came from incredibly powerful families. “But two heroes. You could all die, know that we likely will.”

“...What about us?” Tythas asked.

“Find a way to be useful,” Tiber growled, already in motion. “You're a mage, aren't you? Use your brain.”

“Don't die.” Brenn said to the others, following in the wake of the man and keeping his eyes locked on the small forms of the children, huddled up and crouched together. It didn't take them long to dash down the escarpment, charging forth into that battle of theirs.

–

There was nothing more beautiful than killing a living thing. Whether it was man, a boar, a stag – but especially the wide variety of predators in the wilds. Aurelius hated the wilds, the dirty, dark and wet places, but he could never get over the rush of killing, the... electric tang of watching the light fade from intelligent eyes. Predators, among animals, simply tended to be more intelligent, but he'd enjoyed killing for as long as he could remember, no matter what it was. Peeling them apart, seeing how they worked, leaving them as a skinned little shrine to all he could do, proof he was greater.

Once upon a time, Aurelius had been beaten terribly for doing such things.

The churches just let him do better, and Lady Indura had made him greater than any single predator in the world. Back in his adventurer days they'd called him 'Sun's End'. Aptly named for the same city he hailed from, on the free island at the triangular border between Haran, Asmongold, and the cursed lands. And he had been an end to many...

But this...

“They are children,” Aurelius spat, agitated. All some plan by their 'glorious leader' to bait out the Wolf and keep him away from the city while they went about their business. There was great beauty in killing things. Things that possessed the capability to struggle for their own lives. Aurelius hated humans, they disgusted him, especially women. In his era, in his homeland, women were not afforded the right to speak, let alone to him of all people. He liked the challenge, thus he'd never bothered much with them besides ensuring they knew their place. But children? They were weak and worthless to him, he didn't care about them in the way a relative might, but he saw no need to this cowardly act. “And you simply knelt to your god, like the wretched servant you are.”

He was speaking to Ryker. Laki's chosen and one of the handful of heroes that had signed up with the Crusade, here to do whatever it was the Fox wanted of him. Something only Ryker knew, and even then, probably not. Laki was a trickster god, a liar like Lady Indura but with none of the penchant for murder. The Lady of Lies, that was Indura, her greatest lie being that she'd managed to convince the faithful that she was good and pure. Even much of her own church didn't know it, only the chosen.

“My god does not care what I do, only why,” Ryker replied. He liked his dreamleaf, that Ryker, even though it shouldn't effect their kind overmuch. Always puffing on some blue chalk and playing with that instrument of his. A bizarre kind of lute with only three strings, as if that made sense. “Thing about a trickster like me is that I just might be tricking you.”

“You'd lose no matter what challenge you were making and by whatever medium,” Aurelius scowled, ensuring the children stayed well enough off, feeling a bit awkward in their presence all told. Every single one of them had been completely calm, just staring at him. He'd expected whimpering, people screamed and begged, but children just bawled and said inane things. Filthy creatures, but these ones were sanguine, from his perspective some looked fairly happy to be here – very docile, and that unnerved him a great deal. They just... stared.

“Maybe so...” Ryker chuckled. “But I'm afraid that company has arrived and I've done absolutely nothing to prepare.”

“Don't worry, I've done all that we needed to,” Aurelius smiled. After all, that's what She did, prepared. Schemed. It was almost laughable that such weak individuals would think themselves the equal of not one, but two heroes. For all his obvious faults, Ryker was able. The Fingers, while utterly worthless, weren't so bad when compared to a typical human either.

There was nothing more beautiful than killing a living thing, red and gold made for such a nice pairing.