The next time a group of worldstrider soldiers exited the base, we followed them. The worldstriders seemed a bit more wary of their surroundings today. A few of them detached from the main group to scout the area, and the group jumped at shadows. To make sure they didn't see us, Anise and I stayed very far behind them. If it weren't for the range of my soul-sight, we would have lost track of them.

The first few worldstriders died to extinguishes. Then, as usual, the worldstriders started to thin their bodies out - only for Anise to get started.

Within seconds, six worldstriders fell. Afterwards, they finally found my illusion. She gave them a cheery wave as worldstriders continued to drop. I heard one of them curse, and the group started firing dark essence balls at my illusion.

And then the Worldstriders brought me our first surprise. A worldstrider reached inside its body, and pulled out an unexpected weapon.

A Vernese rifle.

I saw a tendril of black essence worm its way into the rifle. Then, the creature pointed the gun at my illusion and pulled the trigger.

Luckily, my reflexes were on point. Even though the soldier's weapon caught me off guard, I still teleported the bullet away. Out of habit, I returned the bullet to the shooter...

Only for the bullet to whiz right through the creature’s body, as if it weren’t even there.

The worldstrider had countered my ‘return projectiles’ ability perfectly. I couldn't kill the worldstriders with their own attacks anymore.

I killed it with an extinguish instead.

Right afterwards, six more cracks of gunpowder sounded through the air.

The shooter wasn't the only one who had stolen a gun from the Vernese.

This time, I was prepared. My illusion teleported to a different location, and then launched a few spells at the worldstriders. I used a few extinguishes to kill the worldstriders who were 'hit.' The number of shooters dropped from six to three.

The remaining worldstriders with guns were much more cautious. They wove left and right as they peppered my illusion with shots. However, I kept having my illusion 'teleport' around. I wanted it to be as hard as possible for the worldstriders to keep track of her.

It took me three rounds of exchanges to finish off the ones with rifles. From there, the fight got much easier. Within half a minute, thirteen worldstriders had died, and none of them had hit my illusion yet.

That was when the worldstriders gave us our second surprise of the battle.

One of the creatures threw a match at our surroundings, causing the grass to catch on fire.

I immediately teleported a huge clump of water out of my dress and onto the flaming grass. As I did, a part of me shivered.

Why were the worldstriders trying to light the grass on fire?

Had the worldstriders buried gunpowder under the grass, or something? How could they have prepared an ambush for us? This group hadn’t even left the base since our attack yesterday!

My thoughts grew more paranoid as the fight wore on. I kept a careful eye on the remaining twenty-seven worldstriders for any new tricks. However, it seemed like they were out of ideas. By the time the twenty-fifth worldstrider died, the worldstriders started to look desperate. Finally, they broke and started to flee.

Anise and I kept attacking the fleeing worldstriders. After all, the worldstriders didn't let fleeing Vernese troops live. I felt it was fair to adopt the same war code against them.

Within a minute, the last worldstrider died.

After that, I walked over to the patch of grass that the worldstrider had tried to light on fire, and frowned. I couldn’t find any hidden barrels of gunpowder or other traps in the grass. What had the worldstrider been trying to do?

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Anise leaned down next to me, and started touching the grass, before she frowned. said Anise.

I blinked. Had Anise caught something I missed?

I asked.

said Anise.

It finally clicked for me.

The crazy bastards had just meant to start a fire for us.

If the fire got big enough, that could be a problem for even our main bodies. I wasn't sure how fast fires spread... but I didn't want to test it out either. I could heal burns, but I had no idea if I could outheal being burned alive. It would definitely be painful and distracting, even if I could.

I grimaced. The Vernese rifle and the attempted prairie fire reminded me that we weren’t fighting unintelligent monsters.

The worldstriders weren’t stupid. If we kept ambushing squads of worldstriders, they would keep trying new ways to fight us until they found one that worked. We had survived this fight, but they would find a useful tactic sooner or later. We weren't invincible. We needed to be careful, or we might still die.

said Anise, after a moment.

I said.

said Anise.

I paused.

I… did not have a good way to handle bombs, if the Worldstriders blew it up before I noticed it. It was possible teleport it away before it exploded... but if I missed it, I couldn't teleport away a shockwave. At that point we might join Sallia until Felix died.

I asked.

said Anise.

I paused, and then nodded.

Anise nodded.

I said.

It wasn’t something that we had run into yet, but it was a good reminder.

We had an advantage now, but ultimately, our plan was to help delay the Worldstriders for a bit. We were buying time for the continent - not fighting an army alone. And every time we fought, the worldstriders would learn and improve. Just like the continent, they wouldn't remain stagnant forever.

I just hoped the continent adapted to them faster than they adapted to the continent.

* * *

After that fight, Anise and I spent some time regenerating our essence. Then, we returned to the worldstrider camp again. And to my surprise, we saw something else. Like Anise had theorized, the worldstriders hadn't just sat around and waited for death.

Instead, I caught several squads of worldstriders burying bombs beneath their camp. I hesitated for a moment. Anise frowned, and put up a force shield around us. Then, after some hesitation, I decided to finish what we had come here for.

It was time for the first round of ‘Zelyrian Mages’ to die.

First, I summoned the illusion that hadn't 'died' yet. It was the same female illusion I had been using for the past few days Then, I added in another illusion. This time, the illusion looked somewhat similar to Anise - it had pink hair, short height, and eyes that crinkled from smiling a lot.

It didn't look exactly like Anise. After all, I didn't want the worldstriders to recognize the real Anise if they saw her. But it still looked sort of similar. Besides, pink hair was a very uncommon trait here. The worldstriders also hadn't seen Anise in a decade. It was good enough for our purposes.

My two illusions crept towards the camp, remaining out of sight. It wouldn't make sense for them to just charge to their death, after all. Still, it wasn't long before a worldstrider spotted them. I immediately extinguished the scout that found them - but it was too late. The other worldstriders turned towards our illusions, and grinned. None of them said a word.

Instead, a few of them immediately lit the bombs up. The peace remained for a single, tenuous moment as my illusion's eyes widened.

Then, the valley erupted into gouts of flame and sound.