Fin wasted no time. He immediately activated Violent Healing and drained the life of the surrounding foliage where each injured dwarf fell. Miniature wastelands expanded outward as the color of death slowly bled into the surrounding tufts of grass. One healed dwarf after another lay in a brittle patch as Fin moved through the battlegrounds. Brando helped by moving the injured dwarves to more nature-dense areas, and soon, there were no more injured to move.

Fin was healing the last injury when he noticed Void pop out from hiding and hover curiously around his hands. Despite his efforts to tell the little ball of destruction to go away, it refused. The dwarf he was healing noticed, scrambled to his feet, and ran away with a shriek, still bleeding from a shallow cut. Void took the opportunity to put itself in the center of the healing energy in Fin's hand. It seemed happy, so he kept the ability active at the cost of more of the surrounding wilderness. Brando cleared his throat, and when Fin looked up, he cut off his ability.

Surrounding him were faces painted with fear, curiosity, and blood. He stood and tried to make up an excuse for everything when a gruff voice cut him off.

"You don't need to explain yourself," Rasengold spoke to the benefit of the people around him. "We all knew you had to have made a pact with one evil or another to be able to spot gold through a mountain of rock. A dirt eater isn't as bad as it could be, but it makes sense."

A murmur of agreement moved through the crowd, and some of their postures relaxed. At once, conversations broke out, sorting the crowd into multiple discussion groups. One of the Kel brothers bellowed with excitement, causing everyone's attention to shift thankfully away from Fin.

"Not only are my wounds healed, but my lungs feel amazing!" He demonstrated by inhaling a full lung of pipe smoke and breathing it up into the air.

Rogard, the de facto leader of the mercenaries, motioned his group forward from the crowd and isolated Fin.

"There's something we need to discuss while the battle is still fresh on our minds," He said solemnly. "Do you know what you did wrong back there?"

After Fin clarified he was talking about the battle, he said he didn't know.

"You deviated from our training and broke formation mid-battle," Rogard said matter-of-factly. "We call that the good idea fairy."

The surrounding mercenaries muttered in agreement.

"The more we train together, the more we fight with cohesion. I can fight more confidently, knowing exactly what to expect from the person beside me. The problem is that we sometimes get a good idea in the heat of the battle. That's the good idea fairy sprinkling her magic dust all over everything. You have to ignore her; otherwise, you'll start doing unexpected things and making the battlegrounds chaotic," Rogard explained, pausing for his words to sink in. "When you had the idea to step out of formation you confused people you were standing next to. They froze up and didn't know what to do. Then the good idea fairy visited Adleweed, who broke formation to go to their aid."

One of the mercenaries, presumably Adleweed, blushed and shrugged.

Rogard looked at him disapprovingly and continued, "When Adleweed broke formation, we all had to break formation. Fortunately, it worked out, and for once, the good idea fairy didn't get everyone killed.

"Starting tomorrow, I want us to train in this new formation. We'll think of a name for it later. We will stand forward of the line, and Fin will stand forward of us. That way, he can step back for a rest when he needs it, and we all can step back when we need it. It will look kind of like a triangle. The Triangle Formation, if you will

"So, from now on, we don't change what we've trained unless we change how we train and train on the changes we made?" Fin tried reiterating and then added, "To our training plan?"

"Yes," Rogard said, perhaps too quickly, and then it looked like he had changed his mind. "Uh, what?"

Before Fin could devise another ridiculous tongue twister, he noticed a billow of smoke rising behind the mercenaries' heads. It was darker than campfire smoke and had an unnatural smell. He pointed at it and asked if it was normal. Rogard and the other mercenaries turned to look at it. Before long, the whole group moved to the source of the smoke out of novel curiosity.

Approaching, they could see something small and black burning on the ground. A dwarf, Fin recognized as Grimwald, had a guilty look and immediately began explaining himself as he approached.

"The kobolds had these candles. Well, we thought they were candles," he stammered. After the command to "Just get on with it," he said, "So I lit one, and now it's smoking."

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"It smells like old boots," Brando's voice came from among the crowd.

"What made you think lighting it would be a good idea?" Rogard scolded, waving insects out of his eyes. "For all we know, it could be poisonous."

"If it was poisonous, I would probably be dead by now," Grimwald admitted, slapping something on the side of his neck. "I was trying to figure out what it smelled like, and I breathed in a lot of it. The closest thing I can think of is corn after it starts decomposing."

"It's attracting flies!" One of the onlookers yelled and pointed.

As smoke bellowed from the black candle, a swarm of flies congregated around the smoke. The more the air became dense with flies, the more insults Grimwald had to endure from the group for lighting such an accursed candle. Finally, they decided to leave and put as much road between them and smelly, fly-attracting candle smoke as possible.

When the bugs were behind them, conversations gradually returned to Fin despite his efforts to change the subject. Fin answered questions and endured compliments, and eventually, everyone left him alone. Void kept asking for healing energy again, but he explained that he was low on energy. So, Void changed their contract and allowed him to use Absorb Ambient Energy, or rather, insisted he use it.

A short time later, for Fin anyway, he felt ready to slip off into the surrounding foliage. He decided he would conduct Void's little experiment away from prying eyes. The group was moving slowly enough that he could always catch up later. When he told Brando what he was going to do, he got a questioning look in return.

"I didn't think Void could get injured," Brando said with a frown. "Why does it want healing?"

"I don't know," Fin replied, walking at a leisurely pace. "I'm hoping the healing power feeds it so it won't eat my gold anymore."

"I'll come with you," Brando said, unmounting the horse. "I'm bored anyway."

The two left the trail and the convoy traveling it and waded into the brush. When they were out of sight, Fin activated Violent Healing and directed the energy towards Void.

"How long do you think it will take for all of this to grow back?" Brando asked, looking at the spreading desolation. "Oh, sorry. Does that take concentration?"

"Not really," Fin replied casually. "And I'm not sure. I hope it will all grow back. We could do some experiments. Drain the life out of a big area and check on it periodically."

"You could also charge people to clear their land. I'm sure there are a lot of people who—" Brando cut off mid-sentence.

Under the current of healing energy, Void started pulsing with green shards of light. The pulsing got faster and faster until a green orb separated from it.

"It's duplicating!" Brando exclaimed, then amended his statement, "It broke into two pieces!"

"I think it just had a baby," Fin said, keeping the ability going.

"A baby?" Brando considered what that meant. "Does that mean it's a she? Huh. Void's a girl."

Fin laughed and agreed. "I guess so."

For a while the two watched the orbs floating and nuzzling each other. Despite not really knowing what was happening, they both smiled at the curiosity of it. Then Brando's smile dropped into a solemn look of comprehension.

"You know what this means, right?" Brando asked, building up to break the news. "It means you're a father now."

Fin's smile remained glued to his face. "That's absolute rubbish. If anything, this tree is its father."

"Don't call your daughter an it," Brando reprimanded. "Imagine that. If you had told me last year that I would be an uncle to a green floating orb, I would have called you crazy. She really is beautiful, though. What are you going to name her?"

"She's not my daughter! All I did was suck the life out of these plants and direct the life energy toward…" Fin trailed off, realizing that he really might be the father. "Oh no. I really am the father."

He checked his notifications and was surprised there wasn't any. Apparently, this situation was too strange for his dragon quests to trigger. He identified the green orb and found it was called a Nature Sprite, or rather, she was a Nature Sprite. He told Brando, whose loving smile wasn't helping to ease the tension.

After a while, the two orbs seemed to finish cuddling or whatever they were doing and broke off from each other. The green one explored the area and, upon reaching the border between Fin's lifeless circle and the outside forest, acted curiously. She floated in and out of the dead zone, observing the dichotomy of life and death, and then spun in a circle over the dead ground. A sprout reached up from the ground and started growing at a rapid pace.

"She made a sprout," Brando smiled. "That's what we should call her."

As soon as the plant grew large enough to be recognized as one of the many flowering bushes in its surroundings, it began to wither and die. The green sprite reversed the growth enchantment and drained the plant of its life. As soon as the sprout matched the plants in Fin's circle of death, the sprite hovered around to drain the life out of other plants.

"More like sprout killer," Fin said, watching the plants wither away one by one.

Brando took slow steps back. "I think we should leave our little sprout killer here; I would hate to find out what would happen if it landed on one of us."

Fin nodded slowly and returned his gaze to the sprite's mother. "Void, can you ask that little ball of joy not to suck the life out of anyone?"

Void did not bob, weave, or otherwise move in acknowledgment, but Fin knew she understood. She flew to her green offspring, who was sucking the life out of a tree, and appeared to start communicating with her. The two sat motionless and conveyed as much emotion as two balls of glowing energy could. Finally, Fin got an image in his head and realized what Void wanted him to do, so he picked a stick off the ground.

The Nature Sprite hovered near the stick and shot colorless energy into it. When she was finished, Fin identified the stick. It was labeled an Oath Twig, which he knew exactly what to do with.

"I name you Sprout. Is that okay?" Fin began, holding the Oath Twig like he would the royal scepter, and tried to convey the idea that she wouldn't suck the energy out of anyone.

Sprout seemed to agree, but there wasn't anything that indicated the Oath Twig worked. Then he got an image of him giving Void a literal mountain of gold in exchange for the deal. Void was using her offspring as a bargaining chip. He frowned and countered with a single gold coin and no more. It wasn't until he agreed to three gold coins that he felt the oath go into effect. He unstowed the gold to solidify the deal, and Void shamelessly devoured the treasure.