Later, when they were all full and fed, Kieran found herself staring at the young stranger who called himself Lucius, now resting on a tree a little farther off. They had shared their meal with him, and in profuse thanks, he had generously paid in several coins of silver. To be honest, their meal was worth less than what he paid for, but the strange kid insisted they receive it, seeing as they had also agreed to share their fire with him. Looking around, she found Morg's eyes still fixated on him. It really made her wonder what kind of thoughts were passing through his head. Muffling her sigh so as to wake him, she turned towards her comrades and then signaled for them to congregate a little further from the fire.

When they had finally put themselves aside, Morg was the first to get a word in.

"Did you see all those coins?" He harshly whispered, his eyes shining with barely hidden greed. "That kid is foolishly walking around with a small fortune in his hands."

Kieran scowled. "Curb your greed, Morg. We already gave him our word, seeing as he had paid more than enough for a meal we would have shared regardless."

The spark in his eyes refused to fade. "Do not try to pull that on me, princess. You, out of all of us, know just how strapped for money we are. The quest we took already has us wandering through the forest, wasting time trying to find a creature whom we have not caught even a trace of. Who knows how long it would take or if the damned chitterer has already been killed by other beasts or wandering hunters?"

He paused as he gazed at her.

"We need his money, Kieran, but most of all, you need it. I have seen the way you looked when the kid told you about the recruitment drive. You might be unable to learn from the stupid academy, but you still need to afford other resources to master your gift, and that's not even counting our needs." He took a deep breath, his dark eyes glinting in moonlight. "You have been our leader for a while Kieran but you can't deny we largely depend on you. Your strength might be the only thing that would allow the both of us to live long enough to advance to the next stage. This kid is an opportunity we should not pass up."

At first, Kieran found the whole idea distasteful, and she was just about to vehemently deny it when his words tore right through her heart. She could pretend that the resentment that washed through her was really not directed at the kid or that she hadn't had the same thoughts Morg had. But from the moment she became a hunter, she was no stranger to the dark side of the trade. She had heard stories of how people backstabbed each other over precious herbs, rare treasures, or just the fact that one was in possession of something another wanted. The guild had tried to put measures in place but recently, their hold over their members had strangely weakened. It has made it easier for a lot of crimes to go unnoticed but... that was something she had always known existed but never participated in. When her gaze settled on the kid again, she was torn. On one hand, she was proud of what she had achieved on her own, but on the other, she couldn't deny that this was really something that could change her life, albeit quicken her progress by a whole lot.

The rogue was not done yet.

"You already have an idea of how hard it is for people like us who live on the fringes of the academies to advance our strength. The versatility of your affinity might have made it easier but our progress is ultimately tied up to the little bits and pieces we scrounge up on the way. All of what we do—traversing forgotten crypts and tombs, hunting for terrible beasts and creatures—all of that requires strength if we ever want to make something of ourselves."

He hatefully pointed at the kid, who now seemed deeply asleep.

"We have a rare opportunity in our hands. That kid has what we need. His wealth could be enough to shave off years of our struggle."

Kieran's heart swayed between her desperate need and her conscience. "I'm... not sure about this, Morg." She tried to find the strength to say what she was thinking. "I'm not a fool to refute what you have said, but... attacking him now when he is vulnerable feels like we are willingly taking back our word. And he is just a kid, Morg. Are we truly willing to take his life for something we are not even sure he is in possession of?"

Morg let out a frustrated breath, but his eyes gleamed. "He might be a child in your eyes, Kieran, but let's not forget he had walked through the outskirts of the endless glades alone." His face got somber as his voice lowered even further. "I know what we are suggesting we do is despicable, but I'm prepared to do anything to get stronger. Even if what we might find might not be enough, that's the risk I'm willing to take. Perhaps after we are done, we can leave him alive, but that's something to decide later. An opportunity like this one would not come as easy as it just did."

Kieran stared at the kid for a while until she turned towards the only one who was the strongest amongst them.

"What do you think, Barlow?"

The lumbering man took only a second to think before he shrugged.

"Take his money; keep him alive."

Seeing the final verdict was against her, Kieran exhaled to the skies. "Then let it be so." She turned towards the rogue. "If we are going to do this, then we leave him with his life. See if you can disarm him first, but if it ends up being a battle, then we attack to disarm him only. I don't know about you but I have not reached the level where I am willing to spill innocent blood to fuel my growth. Let the glades decide whether he lives or dies. Do we understand each other?"

She crossed eyes with the rogue until he gave in.

"Sure, boss, but I would definitely not be holding back. Even fledgling mages are dangerous when given the chance."

He pulled his hood up and then practically melded into the shadows. Trained in the ways of subterfuge, Kieran knew Morg could dim his presence to practically nothing as he stalked through the lightless night. In a straight-up battle between them, she might come on top, but when he got to fully prepare, the odds became very uncertain. All these thoughts weren't enough to distract her from the wrenching guts inside. Guilt took hold of a huge part of her, her fledgling morals clashing with what they were about to do. But the remaining part was very pragmatic. She needed those resources, and from what little she had heard—from the silent rebellions to the strange rise of beasts strength or even the increased surge of attacks from the warmongering marauders—she would need strength to protect herself in the times ahead. No one else would do it for her.

She unsheathed her bow and pulled one of her well-prepared arrows from her quiver. She could always form one from mana, but it was common sense to preserve her strength as much as possible. Barlow already had his large door-like shield along with his mace and they both stood waiting, watching Morg slowly make his way towards the stranger. A lot of thoughts and emotions passed underneath her calm demeanor, but the moment he arrived, her heart had already hardened. While they all knew the kid was a fledgling mage, none of them had thought to ask which affinity he was attuned to. Such a question was considered rude, especially amongst strangers, but a nature affinity like her in a forest like this could prove to be their advantage even if he turned out to be a fire mage, the most he could do was lob fireballs at them until they overpowered him. A mage of the first order could only do so much against two trained warriors of the same strength, along with one who stood a whole order above him, except what happened next was something she could have never prepared for.

When Morg reached the kid, he pulled his knife in an attack and then froze. Kieran thought he was just making sure his assault would be as non-lethal as possible, except when he was stuck in the same pose for more than a few seconds, her instincts finally let her know something was not right. They might not have been together for so long, but she knew Morg. She understood his sadistic tendencies, which he quite often let through, and she was also aware of his greed and wariness, no doubt birthed from his hard life. So when she saw him immobile, his knife held in the highest strike, its metal surface glinting under the moonlight, she immediately knew they might have underestimated the stranger. When she smoothly pulled back her arrow, fortifying it with her mana and pointing it directly at the stranger seemingly sleeping, doing it all in a single heartbeat, a melodious voice reached her ears.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Kieran."

Her heart chilled when she heard her own name.

"And yes, I know all your names; you practically shouted them. Here is Morg, the rogue, about to ambush me. There is Barlow the warrior, or more specifically, the shieldbearer, a great cook if I say so, and finally you, Kieran the archer... or should I say the magick archer, their improvised leader guiding this little circus."

Turning her heads towards Barlow, she could tell they were both unnerved. When she tried to creep across the ground, trying to find an angle, the stranger, who was once resting on the tree, stood from the ground and turned to face them.

"Huh, this is so much easier on you than the beast I was practicing on," he muttered to himself as he regarded the frozen Morg beside him. "Maybe it's because your strength is surprisingly weak."

Kieran couldn't make any sense of the words the stranger was mumbling to himself, but even from where she stood, she could see Morg visibly straining against whatever spell the mage seemed to trap him with. She again tried to take another step when his attention snapped back to her.

"Please stand where you are. Any closer and I would see that as a threat."

With her arrow still pointed at him, she spoke for the first time.

"I don't know how you learned our names, kid, but you are surrounded. Let him go and leave all your valuables behind, and you might just keep yourself alive."

She felt his eyes intensely focus on her before a harsh laugh escaped his throat.

"Ah, how the world turns. Once upon a time, the same words were spoken to me, but I had been too weak to do anything about it then." His voice was wistful before it changed into something else. "But this time I can do something about it."

Without hesitation, she let her arrow fly, and somehow it found its mark on Morg's body. Morg let out a pained gasp as he crumbled to the ground, and before she could make sense of how that had happened, she felt an insidious force invading her body, curdling her blood, and then forcefully wretching her to the side, where she was put in the direct path of the roaring shieldbearer. Barlow had his shield in front of him, and he was no doubt about to charge when she somehow happened to collide with him into a heap of stumbling bodies until their momentum bled out. Luckily, he had a decent command over his strength, as she had no doubt she would have died if he hadn't pulled back at the last second. They were both lying on the ground, trying to collect themselves, when she heard footsteps slowly getting closer.

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"That was very amusing to watch, but why don't we end this little scuffle right here?"

She would be the first to admit that she used to find the kid's voice very attractive, but now it was grating her ears, and it wasn't helped by the fact she was helpless and unarmed, her bow somehow lost in the tumble. This has been the quickest she has ever been defeated in battle. The kid had somehow disarmed three combatants in a couple of moves, and during the few seconds of it, she hadn't heard even one incantation. A chill spread through her when she finally comprehended it. A kid whom they all thought was just a fledgling mage had somehow defeated all of them without a single spell. Before she could even wrap her head around it, she felt a sudden breeze and a grunt. When she finally turned, she could see Morg once again frozen in midair, his right hand dangling useless beside him from where her arrow had landed, while his left was once again held in the air.

"It had not been on my plans for my first foray out of the endless glades to take the lives of the very first people that I met. But I do understand that most times when you are weak, most people will not give you the time of the day to listen, even when you have shown no desire to fight."

He was about to wave towards the rogue when a sudden movement caught both of their attention. When Barlow saw the kid was distracted by the rogue, he abruptly lunged for his shield, which was sprawled a few feet from them. In the midst of their collision, he had no choice but to let go of it in order to not harm her, but when he made the beeline for it, a tendril of blood, quicker than his feet could move, whipped him across the torso with enough force to send him crashing into her, both of them tumbling across the ground for the second time.

"While I'm sure I cannot hold you in place largely due to your strength, I still have a lot of means to basically achieve the same thing." His glimmering eyes stared at Barlow even as several tendrils of flowing blood unfurled behind him like a poisonous flower. Her face, along with Barlow's and even Morg's, paled at the manifestation, and it chased away any doubts she once had.

The kid they had once thought of as easy prey was actually a full-blown blood mage.

When his gaze shifted to the shield that was now even further from their reach than before, he smirked. "Truly, did you think you could have safely gathered your shield while I still held your comrades' lives in my hands? What could you have possibly hoped to achieve? You might be the strongest amongst them, but your strength is barely in the second order." Another tendril stretched from him like a crimson limb and flicked the humongous shield into the trees as if it weighted nothing. That, more than anything, cemented the undeniable truth. They never really stood a chance against him.

Looking at the situation, Barlow had no choice but to back down. A huge part of her became very regretful, especially when she considered it was her last vote that saw them in this situation. But in all honesty, would she have been able to stop Morg from pursuing his greed if she were against it? The answer would have been most assuredly no, but at least only one of them would have been at fault. Who was she really kidding? She had allowed herself to be tempted by an opportunity and cast her die on the course of action. On the scale of the victors who get to keep their lives and spoils and losers who get to meet their untimely end at the sharpened edge of the Reaper's scythe, she could only hope the blood mage was not as murderous as they were famed to be. They only ranked a little lower than vengeful witches in her book.

"That's better." He said this when none of them made any moves. "You have no idea how tiring it is to restrain my strength from accidentally taking your lives."

Morg, who was still straining against his control, tried to spit in his face.

"Do your worst, parasite. It won't be long before the blood hunters get ahold of your scent. We will see who has the last laugh then."

While Kieran was inwardly impressed by Morg's guts, she also sighed at his foolishness. No one in their right mind would have thought it wise to agitate the only person who held their lives in his hands.

"Blood Hunters?" He seemed genuinely confused when he all of a sudden got quiet.

"Ahh" He nodded as if he were talking to someone. He turned towards the rogue with a gleam in his eyes. "Well, I would have liked to know more about these blood hunters, but we still have an unfinished business between us."

Still frozen in midair, Morg found himself abruptly smashed to the ground. The kid only had to flick his hand before a sharp crack echoed in the air, followed by a guttural bellow of pain from Morg's throat.

"You see, I have met people like you before—ones who only care after themselves and will do anything in their grasps to attain their goals. But this is where you made a terrible mistake. You did not even bother to check for my strength before you convinced others to go through with your hare-brained plan of yours. I can only imagine what someone else would have gone through if I wasn't here, but instead of easily taking your life, why don't I leave you with a lesson you will soon never forget?"

Another sharp pop echoed, and the last harsh yowl soon petered off into gut-wrenching sobs. Kieran could admit she had no love for the rogue, but even she felt her heart trembling, trying to imagine what kind of pain could have a grown man screaming his voice dry.

When he was done and their sight was no longer obstructed by his body, Kieran felt her stomach drop to the abyss. While there were no outward signs of blood on the ground, she could see there was something wrong with Morg's body. It didn't take long to register the fact that every single limb on the rogue's body was horrendously disjointed, almost as if the blood mage had somehow popped every single joint, from the shoulders to his legs and even his ankles, out of the sockets. Morg had long since fainted, his cowl askew on his snot-ridden face, but the visible parts of his body were already starting to swell, his pallid skin turning bright red.

"You do not need to worry, I only dislocated the major joints in his body. I was about to start on the minor ones, but he fainted on me. You would think a rogue would have a higher threshold for pain."

Like a curtain coming to a close, his tendrils of mana soon faded in a trembling haze, leaving none of their presence in the clearing.

"The funny thing is, I was really genuine about my intentions for some food and warmth, but I guess your hospitality has worn me out enough." Turning towards them, his gaze settled on both of them. "All I need from you right now is the location of the nearest village from here." He pointed at the fainted rogue. "As a gesture of my goodwill despite your actions, I have left him with his life. His legs and hands might be displaced, but you can still save him with a decent potion at hand. The longer this drags on, the longer it will take him to heal properly. The choice is in your hands."

A few tense seconds passed between them as they exchanged glances, until Kieran felt Barlow's body tense underneath the armor.

"Why?" he growled.

"Why?" The kid sounded perplexed at the question. "Are you asking me why I would want to know?" His hand gestured at them and then at himself. They both couldn't help but flinch at the movement. "Isn't it obvious? I need a place where I can find some comfort after living so long in the forest. I also miss some good food. I have been living on dried rations for a while now, and I am afraid I will go insane if my stomach does not taste some real meat. In case you have forgotten, I'm on a pilgrimage to the Dawn Academy. It's the only place that would accept people like me."

He then sniffed his robes before recoiling.

"Even after all this time, I can still smell the chitterer's insides on me. I would have to burn this robe once I get a new one."

Perhaps she should have been more wary, but seeing the kid being so nonchalant made her slightly drop her guard. Besides, it was clear he was more powerful than all of them combined, and anyone who possessed such strength had no need to go through all of that to deceive them. But it was the last part of his ranting that caught her attention.

"D-did you cross paths with such a beast?"

The stranger nodded almost absently as he prepared his robes and bag. "Umm, yes, I fought and killed one only a few days ago. Infact…" he looked up and shifted his gaze into the forest. "We fought not far from here. There is a clearing, a much smaller one, in that direction. It was a very cunning beast that sought to ambush me, but once I claimed its life, I earthed its remains on the same spot."

Both Kieran and Barlow shared a glance. She could tell they were both shocked by the simple declaration, but then, if he had single-handedly fought the beast and won, they truly wouldn't have proved too much of a challenge. She had to wonder what kind of master had trained such a monster. When the kid finally focused on them, Kieran realized they had gone silent for a little too long.

"Why do you ask? Were you hunting it?"

She decided to go with the honest route.

"We were here to hunt it. For a while, it had proven to be a nuisance, so the guild had issued a quest for its life, and we picked it up."

He clicked his tongue. "That's the reason why. When I saw you all, I found it so odd that you camped near its hunting grounds. Infact…" He pulled open his backpack and pulled out a small sack that soon opened to reveal the creature's core.

"Why don't I make it worth your while? You tell me where the nearest village is, and I will leave you with this core. I haven't officially joined the Hunters Guild, but I do know you will need proof of the beast's demise. I have already told you where you can find its remains, but otherwise, this core would be enough as proof."

He turned towards Kieran with eager eyes.

"So what do you say? Do we have a deal?"

If Kieran had been told that morning that she would be bargaining with a blood mage, she would have thought anyone who bothered come up with such lies had lost their mind. But as she observed the mage, who was no doubt younger than her, she could only thank her lucky stars that he seemed cordial at best. Their fate would have been very different if he were anything like what some of his ilk were known for.

When she took a brief look at Barlow, he seemed entirely unconvinced, which forced Kieran to interfere before he uttered something that would raise the ire of their seemingly genial captor.

"Yes, we have, even though it wouldn't even count as a deal. The nearest village from here is the one called Milren, a couple of days away from here due north-east. Its a small place; rarely do hunters bother to stop by, but it might fulfill your needs. With enough wealth, you can even convince one of the local beastkeepers to give you a ride to the academy. The journey would take at least a few weeks, if you were lucky. The only thing you have to watch out for are the blood hunters."

The kid quickly brushed away her warning.

"If they ever become a problem for me, I will deal with them then." He unhesitantly threw the sack on her feet. "Take this as promised. You might also want to administer the potion to your friend. When he eventually wakes up, let him know precisely who has let him live. But then I doubt he would forget any time soon," he chuckled as he simply sauntered towards the forest.

By the time she reached down for the core, he had already disappeared, his robe barely leaving behind any traces. They both stood at the clearing for several minutes, almost unable to believe they had survived, when Kieran simply slumped to the ground, her chest heaving once her senses felt the kid's presence dissapear off into the forest.

"Is he truly gone?" Barlow asked.

Kieran strained her senses just to make sure.

"He is not here," she replied.

They both took a moment to stare at the trees until a groan pulled them from their thoughts.

"Right, there is that to take care of."

Kieran rushed to administer a healing potion to Morg, along with some of her strongest healing arts. Her nature affinity might be regarded as weak in combat and common in places like the academy, but out here, where she had to hunt and fight for a living, everything goes. Looking at his wounds, a part of her was surprised by his impeccable control. None of the bones were shattered, with the only swelling at the joints where they were somehow dislocated from their positions. All she had to do was pop them back in place with the help of Barlow and then tie several cords throughout his body to make sure he didn't jostle too much in his sleep. The potion would do the rest.

After she was done, she dropped herself to the ground, taking a long breath.

"What do we do now?" Barlow asked after a moment of silence where only birds and insects chirruped in the cold night.

Kieran stared at the stars spread above her until she ultimately responded.

"There is nothing else we can do. Tomorrow morning, we would begin our journey back to the guild and offer the core. Perhaps we can salvage this and hope the guild won't ask us too many questions."

"What about him?"

Kieran replied after she thought for a second.

"We will tell them he fell afoul during the battle with the beast. That's the only way we can cover our asses after this debacle." She sighed until her gaze settled on the rogue before turning into a smirk. "We would say nothing of what happened here, and I'm sure he would do the same when he finally wakes up. Hopefully, this curbs him a little. Heaven knows he has always been a bastard."

Barlow did nothing but snort, but it was clear they both agreed with the sentiment.

Her only remaining desire was that she would never cross paths with that monster ever again, no matter how mesmerizing his eyes were. She lightly wondered if the villiage would be safe from him, but she quickly pushed such concerns out of her mind. By this point, it was already out of her hands. Her only concern was for them to get out of the forest as fast as they could now that they were a man short in their group.