[Camp Vantage Point, Chizid Forest]

A distance away from the crowd, two members had appeared through space, they carried a fellow wizard, supporting him by the shoulders as the three limped closer to the base.

A few whimpers could be heard as the man in the middle could barely feel his leg, it had been brutally and viciously gnawed off below the knee. The pain had been far too much.

"It's fine, it's fine, you're alright now." Zagreus assured his junior, but he too could not hide his sorrow as they carried him to base.

In contrast, Dmitry stayed eerily quiet throughout the whole ordeal. It wasn't that he lacked empathy, but had long grown numb to injuries on the battlefield.

Compared to Zagreus who had been in a leading position, often times behind the curtain and been blind to these injuries, his practical experience and work had led him to different attitude concerning these events.

Regardless, the two carried the injured wizard to base, as the retreat company spotted them, they began making preparations for transport through portkey.

A magi-healer had already rushed to them with a stretcher to receive the patient, assuring no delay in transport.

An injury as fatal as a werewolf bite was possible to heal, but if the wizard had caught lycanthropy, he would be forced to make difficult choices.

Zagreus handed the man off to the healer, as the body slumped down into the stretcher.

The healer shuffled his pockets and pulled out a white dandelion. He held it above the stretcher and gently blew onto the injured, the flower disintegrated to white fuzz, promptly putting the man to sleep.

An eased smile grew on the mans face as he dozed off.

Zagreus glanced at the portkey awaiting the two.

"Portkey won't be fast enough, you should just apparate through." He suggested, not wanting to waste a single second.

"If I take him through apparition, his wounds might flare up, portkey is safer. Don't worry.....he will be alright." the magi-healer comforted Zagreus and levitated the stretcher away.

Zagreus took a deep breath, wiping his brow with his sleeves. He slightly regretted letting the attack go through, but it was a sacrifice had no choice but to make.

"What about Syed, we've not received any signals." Dmitry crept closer and whispered.

His attention was still entirely on the five werewolves that had escaped. In total, the four of them had been attacked by a pack of twelve.

Zagreus's face turned cold as he shifted back into a serious tone.

"You think it's a trap?" He scrambled his thoughts thinking of the possible solutions.

"No, Syed's not that foolish to fall for it. But my gut says something is wrong. One of those beasts, I felt it. The bloodlust, he was different. Vicious. The others, they were simply following orders. Pathetic younglings, all it took was one spell to blow them away. It doesn't make sense."

His instinct was flaring up as he recalled the small skirmish. An adult werewolf was phenomenally resistant to magic. Perhaps any amateur wizard would easily be overwhelmed.

"The three that attacked me, they were new. One push and they were already on their limits. Their ambush was far too perfect for us to walk out with only two casualties. Twelve to four, we shouldn't even be alive." He calculated the odds, and it was far too unlikely to even consider.

The only conclusion was..... they were a new pack, being led by a shrewd leader.

"We need to capture their alpha, he must have been among the five who escaped." Dmitry mumbled.

Zagreus concurred, if the enemy had considered failure and not sent their top combatants...

"The one's we captured might not know a lot. It's best to assume they were simply being controlled." He lamented, shrugging his head.

~Perhaps we should have chased...

A minute later, he felt the space slightly shuffle across the barrier and the air whipped as their remaining teams had entered back into the barrier.

Syed's team was primarily uninjured, as they lugged behind four werewolves, three that had been restrained with vines, whereas the last one had its limbs cruelly molded together through melted stone.

Andrei's party had been responsible for the corpses, there were many things that could be extracted from a corpse. As such, no evidence could be left behind.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Zagreus could spot seven bodies wrapped in a white cloth, and he instantly frowned.

"There were twelve, you've only brought back eleven. Where's the last one?" He looked towards Syed, anxiously awaiting a response.

"Unlikely, we've intercepted every single werewolf that escaped in our direction. Unless he separated from the pack early on, there was no chance that we missed him." Syed contemplated his words as he tried his best to recall the group they had caught.

Dmitry listening in had a deep frown etched on his forehead.

"It is probable that the remaining werewolf was the leader, I did feel a heavy bloodlust from one in our skirmish. If he's escaped to save his own skin, it is likely that the one's we've caught may not know much."

"Are you suggesting they are deadweight?" Syed drew his hand slowly as he focused on the hostages.

"No, we're obligated to hand it over to intelligence. They'll gather the most information possible even if they break them." Andrei chimed in immediately.

"Agreed." Zagreus nodded along, eager to know anything that would expand their intel.

"Fine. Then let's pack up immediately and leave. It does not bode well to linger in the forests at night." Syed holstered his wand and spoke calmly.

The team leaders agreed, and the camp had been dissolved immediately as the wizards retreated swiftly, apparating away, while the teams transported the corpses and hostages through portkey.

Within a few seconds, the forest was seamlessly abandoned, as if it had never been intruded upon to begin with.

=============================================================

[Underground Base]

*tick*

*tock*

.....

*tick* *tock*

The silence permeated the room, I could hear every single movement, the intricate gears in the clocks as they spun, the hands as they aligned. It was all so.... boring.

Don't get me wrong, I've been sitting here for hours. It's quite impossible to keep myself occupied when there's nothing to do.

I've simply sat in the lobby, waiting for something to happen. The most exciting part of the evening was when the security alert had gone haywire and everyone had rushed to their posts.

I won't lie, I almost dozed off multiple times, simply because the people here are too efficient. I don't know if its just me, but everyone seemed to be on their nerves. Not one guy had come up to talk to me, perhaps they were just far too busy to even care.

It would be distasteful to say I was an attention whore, but sitting in silence for hours on end almost made me believe I was invisible. I caught myself wanting to disrupt their work a few times, but I chose not to.... It was tempting, but I could see the looks in their eyes, overworked and underpaid was it?

Yeah I guess they were currently on crunch time, no one was idle enough to inquire about me. I felt slightly dizzy as another bout of sleep dawned over me. I tried to fight through it but my eyelids grew heavier by the second....

- Yeah just...just for a second

Closing my eyes, I felt at peace.

Suddenly I heard a loud air whip through the room startling me awake.

-What the...

Numerous figures marched through as they appeared in the main hall. Of course, I could also spot a few white stretchers behind them.... Someone got injured? The hall was immediately crowded as everyone else tried to help those that needed it.

But strangely I also saw a few interesting corpses...If I could call them that. Intricately wrapped in what I could only guess were green vines. They seemed more like mummies. I swore I almost saw one of those mummies jerk slightly...

Perhaps it was only a misconception.

Through the crowds I could also spot the three gentlemen that had escorted me this morning. Though I felt they looked slightly anxious.... and perhaps annoyed. Well it was none of my business so I stayed put on the couch.

The crowd slowly dispersed as most of the wizards returned to their departments and continued to discuss what had happened today. Coincidentally, I saw the mummies being levitated towards a corridor with stairs that spiraled further downwards.

Naturally, I knew it led to Ivan's workplace. It's not that had learned the layout, but that bastard was simply too obsessed with hard to find basements....Therefore, I wasn't really in the mood to go see him.

Just as I had said so, I could see Dalton sauntering through the halls towards me, almost the whole workplace had stopped seeing him, but a second later, they returned back to work.

"Ready to leave?" Dalton asked nonchalantly as he put his hands in his coat pockets....

The audacity to pretend I am the one we're waiting for.....whatever.

"Yeah let's leave before you get any other ideas." I retorted and swiftly got up to walk towards him.

He did shoot me a glance that said "Watch your tongue"....but I pretended not to see it.

He shoved his arm in front of me and I grabbed it as we briskly shifted through space to arrive outside a secular room within a floor somewhere within the underground complex.....

I thought I had seen most of this place, but apparently it had floors you couldn't even access without some form of apparition... which obviously required authority to bypass the wards in this place.

It almost felt like I was being pricked in every pore of my skin as I had reached inside, but this sensation was only temporary as the wards recognized me.

"This will be your room. It's secure and isolated. The walls have been reinforced with spells that can withstand a great amount of magic, so you may treat this as target practice if you wish." he began tracing his hands across the obsidian black walls.

I could see what he meant, the walls seemed peculiar to me.

I stumbled over to the bed and took a deep yawn. Who would've thought traveling a few times would be taxing on my body....I guess I've gotta start working out.

Even if I am amazing at magic... If my body fails at withstanding my own power, then I might as well be the biggest joke in the world.

"Tired?" He asked, leaning on the wall across the bed.

"Somewhat, I didn't expect teleportation magic to be this terrible. Does it always feel nauseous?" I asked, laying dog tired on my bed.

"I suppose not, it gets quite bearable as you use it regularly."

Taking a deep breath in, I exhaled an exhausted sigh.

Seeing me about to fall asleep, Dalton took it as his cue to leave as he began walking away.

"Wait, you said you'd make it up to me right? Well, then I want to learn apparition." I blurted out.

He looked back at me, slightly inquisitive.

"That's not a problem, but I suggest you focus on your basics. Using the magic you currently posses is far better than rushing to learn new things. After all, a wizard is only as strong as his weakest shield"

"Besides, tomorrow you can look for Ivan. I am sure he has a few new things to teach you. You do know where to find him?"

Dalton deftly left the room before I could get another word in...

tsk. To think he would throw me to Ivan so fast. I guess promises are meant to be broken.

It's not like I could be sour the whole time, at least I was still learning.

With that said, I dozed off to sleep to prepare for a new day.

================================================