Not 15 minutes later, Jack and Mike were standing in the courtyard, their faces painted, rifles at their chests and rucksacks on their backs. In addition Jack also had the sniper rifle on his back with the muzzle covered with some string and plastic. Despite Jack's best attempts to convince Mike on the merits of corpse paint, he had still opted to just paint his whole face black and green with the masking cream.

At the other end of the courtyard a group of soldiers was approaching them on horseback. At least to Jack, those creatures looked like horses, although unlike any horse he had seen in this or the previous world. Unlike the lean and elegant creatures he was used to, those things looked incomparably stocky and cumbersome. The difference was more pronounced than just the difference between a race horse and a draft horse.

These creatures looked as if somebody had tried to turn a horse into a predator. The first thing Jack noticed were the legs of the beast. They weren't just large and powerful as on a draft horse, they were even larger, compared to the body, much like the difference in paw size compared to a cat and a tiger. Also on each foot right above the hoof there seemed to be a retractable claw, which was curved backwards. The eyes of the creature seemed to be more forward than side-oriented, and while the pupils were black, the rest of the eye was glowing in poison green.

Just above the eyes there were two dark horns growing which ran up the skull and ended between and just slightly above the ears. In this regard they looked like something in between goat horns and the horns of an Eastern dragon. The beast also had much more fur than any horse he was used to, there was long hair not only on the legs, but also hindquarters, the underside and front front of the chest, and the underside of the neck.

Finally, considering how much steam the creatures breath contained, it seemed his body interior temperature was much higher than any regular horse. Just about the only thing that resembled a normal horse was the saddle used, although the saddling location was set further back due to the massive rib cage of the creature.

"What is it?" One of the soldiers next to Fichte asked, seeing Jack frozen in place.

"What are those?" Jack asked in reply.

"These are Claw Horses." The soldier said.

"I can see that." Jack said. "But what are they?"

"Late bronze level magical creatures, stronger and more resilient than mundane horses." Fichte replied. "We brought 2 extra for you."

"This will be a problem, I have never ridden such a creature." Jack replied.

"These are not wild claw-horses. Wild claw-horses are mid-silver level magical beasts. These have been crossed with regular mundane horses and areas docile as draw horses." A soldier at Fichte's side explained.

"You are misunderstanding me." Jack replied. "I have never ridden a horse of any kind."

"Let me get this straight." Fichte stared rubbing his forehead. "You don't know how to ride a horse? How did you even grow up!?"

He sighed.

"Fine, your servant will get his own horse. Since you have so much of that strange equipment on you, we have to improvise with you."

He turned to a female soldier nearby, who was already on one of the monstrous horses.

"Tiana, can you take him?"

"Which one?" She asked. "The one that looks like a ghost or the one who looks just silly?"

"The one who looks like a ghost." Fichte replied.

"Fine." The woman grumbled.

"What are you supposed to be anyway?" She asked, climbing down from the horse.

"It is called corpse paint. And it is supposed to look scary in the dark."

"Oh." She said with a hint of sarcasm.

The young woman helped Jack up onto the back of the beast. Then climbing back in the saddle in front of him.

"So where do you want me to hold on?" Jack asked.

"I don't." She replied.

Without any further discussion, she produced a wand and gave a slight wave. It wasn't even directed towards Jack, but nevertheless a strange change came over him moments later. As it passed, he found his butt stuck to the horse-creature's back, with his legs stuck to its sides.

"You glued me in place?!" Jack asked incredulously.

"Yes. And if you don’t want your arms glued to your sides, you will keep them to yourself for the entirety of the trip. Oh and your clown-face too."

Jack really did not have anything else to say. He watched helplessly as Mike mounted his ride with ease and then all the soldiers gathered into formation and round out of the gates of the old castle.

*

To a person accustomed to horseback riding, it must have been a very comfortable mode of transport and an easy way to get across long distances. But to a person like Jack who had never been on horseback before, this was essentially torture. His body started aching from being constantly yanked by the horse monster’s body almost as soon as they left the castle. He quickly realized that the woman who sat in front of him, moved her body along with the creatures body, as to not slam her nether regions on the horses hard back, but Jack, having no harness to put his feet into nor anything to hold onto, could not do anything but endure.

During their trek towards the town of Coldwood, rain started to fall, as the briefing had explained, but there had been no discussion on how strong it would get. Instead of the slight night rain Jack was used to from his life before, this downpour just grew stronger and stronger as time went by. Soon it soaked through everything Jack was wearing, down to his underwear. Similarly, he could see that everything else was soaked as well. The cloth parts of the other soldier’s armors as well as their heavy capes were so full of water that they were faintly glistening under the starlight. As was the coat of the horse monsters.

Not long after, the cold set in.

"Isn't there any magic, which could shield us from rain?" Jack asked.

"There is, but we cannot use it." The female soldier quipped.

"Why not?" Jack continued.

"Not in the budget."

Not in the budget?! Jack felt his mouth fall open and he stood there several seconds on the creatures back trying to wrap his mind about the response he was given. Not in the budget? This was not a response he was expecting in a sword and sorcery world, this was a response more fit into the corporate setting of his memories, where budgets, ideas and timetables were all the rage.

"It is actually more complicated than that." One of the other soldiers said as he rode alongside Jack and the woman.

In the darkness it was hard to make out his facial features but Jack could still tell that this man had a full beard and was nearing his 50s in age.

"Casting the spell that can shield us from rain costs mana. Also, as long as the spell is active there is a faint magical light given off by the active spell. Finally, the distortion of the rain around the barrier is visible from a long distance away."

"Oh." Jack replied, finally understanding.

"Hey, you two," the woman spoke up. "talking while riding will get your tongue caught between your teeth."

After what felt like forever in the cold rain and even colder wind rushing past them, their speed finally dropped, and soon they were all standing in the darkness near some forest, which seemed to tower around them as if fit for giants.

"Gather round." Fichte commanded. "We are now half a mile from the town. This is our final staging area. From this point onward we may be entering their early warning arrays."

"One question." A burly male soldier raised his hand. "What the point of dragging along these two and their artifacts?"

"They have their role to play. Don't worry about that." Fichte replied.

"Now everybody. We will dismount and advance under cover of darkness and rain. Also after you secure the horses, everybody cast Nighteye."

"Nighteye?" Jack asked.

"A spell, it allows you to see in the dark." Some soldier said.

Everybody got off their horses and Jack was finally unglued from the horse's back. He attempted to get off the horse using the stirrups, but all he managed to do was to fall of the horse, finally getting understanding how sore his legs and how numb his butt was from the ride over. He couldn't even walk straight for the ten or so minutes it took everybody to tie their horses to poles and get all their gear.

"Have you already cast Nighteye? What are you waiting for?!" a soldier ask them.

"We haven't learned magic yet." Jack replied. "So I cannot cast it myself, I don't even have a wand!"

"What?! You don't know any magic?! Have are you expecting to prove useful to this squad.."

The tall and regal-looking soldier wanted to say something else, but a wave from Fichte shut him up.

"They have their use," Fichte said. "We can have somebody else cast the spell on them."

"But sir, this is again exceeding out planned budget!" the soldier complained.

"Then I will cast the spells." Fichte replied. "I have the largest mana pool here, so a few additional expenditures don't matter to me."

Fichte produced a spell and almost an imperceptibly faint light enveloped Jack. Then his vision slowly turned deep green, lost all color and the everything became hyper-contrasted. From his regular knowledge he knew, that human eyesight was most sensitive to green colors, thus most tritium-activated vials were of green color, likewise for electronic night vision. But it was interesting to see that in some form this knowledge was available in this world too.

"It is active, right?" Fichte asked. "I need you to recon ahead using your long range artifact."

"I'd love to but there is a small problem." Jack said. "The town is uphill. Even with night vision there are lots of trees obstructing me, never mind the town walls."

"I think I have a solution for that." Fichte replied.

Something in the young master's voice made Jack apprehensive. He looked around and saw several soldiers bring out coils of rope, with a metal triple hook attached to one end. The soldiers whipped around the metal hook, giving it vertical momentum and finally flinged it straight up. Jack's eyes followed the hook as it rose straight up, far faster and higher than the effort expended would have given a guess off. The hooks finally reached a rectangular box in the upper foliage and hooked onto something metal.

"What's that?" Jack asked.

"An observation outpost." The female soldier replied.

"These are built on the edge of the forest surrounding Coldwood and also alongside the road. They used to be manned in the past when the activity from bandits and beasts was much more frequent. This one will give you a clear sight towards the skyscape of the town, as well as the other observation shacks. Those are likely compromised too."

"And why wouldn't this one be as well?" Jack asked.

"There is an intrinsic reason why permanently manning this post is rather uneconomical. You'll see, once you climb up."

"Oh." Jack replied.

By now several soldiers had hooked their ropes up on some metal fixtures and were now climbing up the rope. Most of them had no trouble ascending, climbing up purely with upper body strength. Even the women. Whether it was down to muscle strength or some lightening magic, Jack could not tell.

"Up you go," Fichte said.

"There might be a complication with that." Jack replied. "I cannot climb a rope."

"What do you mean, you cannot?" A soldier asked.

"I have never done it. And even if I had, I do not have the strength to do it with two rifles, a pistol and a rucksack full of ammo." Jack complained.

"What about you?" Fichte looked at Mike.

"I think I can do it, even with the equipment." Mike said.

"Okay." Fichte had a faint smile.

He raised his head towards the shack in the tree and yelled "Crane!"

Somebody up in the shack answered with an affirmative and soon two ends of the rope were lowered down. With delft movements, a soldier tied the rope around Jack's body, and before he could say anything, he was being lifted towards the shack in the sky with quite the speed.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

This shack was high. Not ten, twenty or even hundred feet high, this felt more like 200 feet minimum. The shack was nestled on a lower branch of the huge black tree, looking like a matchbox compared to the tree. This meant that the top of the tree was at least another 150 to 200 feet into the sky. Also, this meant that the soldiers being able to throw the grappling hoop this high up was really weird.

Soon, Jack was at the edge of some platform in front of the shack. He exerted all his strength and just barely managed to climb up onto the platform while still being tethered with the rope.

"Oh, you made in on your own?"

The female soldier named Tiana was already up and was actually being the one tasked with receiving him. Shock on her face was evident.

"I thought I'd have to haul you in like a sack of potatoes."

"You're welcome." Jack replied.

"You're still an idiot though. Stay here and don't go exploring on your own. We still haven't secured this place and there's a reason we can be up here."

"What's the reason?" Jack asked.

"This place is infested." A male soldier replied. "With Tightrope."

"What's that?"

"A semi-sentient magical plant." Fichte replied, now standing right beside Jack.

Right beside Fichte, Mike had also made it up the rope.

"Tightrope is a liana plant. With fleshy dexterous vines capable of sensing body heat and movement. It lives in a symbiotic relationships with the smaller carrion animals of the forest, by capturing and immobilizing larger creatures and letting the smaller creatures devour it over time. In turn, the smaller creatures defecate in the area, which acts as a fertilizer for the plant." Tiana explained.

"Interesting." Jack replied.

"Yes. We carry special magical salts, which dry up the vines at a rapid pace thus immobilizing the plant and rendering it harmless. Of course, if there are too many vines, we may have to use blades or magic to burn it all, since the plant is also susceptible to fire, due to the oil content of the vines." Tiana continued.

"So this place is secure, because if one does not know about the Tightrope infestation, one will almost certainly be caught by it and dragged off without any possibility of alarm."

"That's right." Fichte replied.

"So I am to be stationed here?" Jack asked.

"Nope. This is just a lookout platform. Your place is somewhere else."

“Where?”

“Tiana will show you. And protect you from behind.”

"Me?! Why?! Why do I have to pull shit duty!?" She asked in a displeased tone.

"Shit duty?" Fichte asked. "Is this what you think of this? Under the right conditions, this boy can kill a person at 1300 yards. This is equal to the distance an advanced mage can fire spells. Would you still whine about protecting an advanced mage?"

"No, but..!"

"And remember, he is not a mage, he is doing it with an artifact. A tool anybody could use after some training."

Now that she was talking to Fichte, Jack had an actual chance to look at this person. She was about a head and a half shorter than Fichte and Jack who were slightly under 6 feet. And by her looks was no more than 30 years old. Under the thin face mask, which covered her mouth and nose, she had quite pleasing features, which definitely would not leave any man unaffected. Well, maybe Jack from this point forward, as all the allure was lost when she started complaining. But the strangest thing was that her looks were somewhat familiar.

"So, again, where am I to set up?" Jack asked.

"There is a vantage point which overlooks the whole forest, the other lookouts and even the town walls." Fichte explained. "It is located another 200 feet above us. And this time nobody's gonna help you up there."

"200 feet, 3 feet per meter, roughly 3 meters per floor.." Jack calculated. "25 floors up?!"

"Is that a lot for a mundane?" Fichte asked with a strange tone.

Jack could not tell whether he was mocking him or asking a serious question.

"I will get them there, even if I have to drag them!" Tiana promised.

"Fine, I will give you this last help." Fichte sighed.

With some additional movements from Fichte's wand, which looked almost comical in their deliberateness, a strange feeling came over both Jack and Mike.

"There, I've reduced your body weight by 70%, this should allow you to get up there with ease. Tiana, you're responsible from now on."

"Yes, master Fichte."

After Fichte and the soldiers left, she glared at Jack and Mike what felt like at least half a minute before turning around and marching towards a large horizontal branch on this massive tree.

"You coming? We don't have much time, we have to get in position before Commander makes it to the city gates."

"You look familiar." Jack said. "I know a student who looks like you. Do you know Diavella Morgenstern?"

The woman froze for a moment.

"No. I do not know her. Now get moving you two!"

Jack and Mike followed her her onto the branch, and they walked together for a few minutes passing remains of many different kinds of dried up plants until they reached the end of the limb, where a massive rope ladder was tied down. This reminded Jack of something he had seen on pictures of sailing ships from the 17th and 18th centuries. But this ladder of rope held no tension, it hanged almost freely and rose nearly vertically up, becoming indistinguishable from the dark foliage and even darker sky.

"We have to climb up here?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Tiana replied. "But first.."

She produced a wooden stick with a rope hanging off of it, which looked like a sort of modern signal flare Jack was familiar with. Tiana aimed it towards the top of the ladder and pulled the rope. With a loud bang, a burning ball of fire rushed out of the flare and sped towards the sky, all the while spewing out a cloud of sparkling dust so fine that even though Jack could see it slowly floating and falling, none seemed to make it onto their clothes or skin. But something else did.

After the ball of fire disappeared, a strange sound of thing cracking, bending and breaking was emitted from the darkness above them. The dust started raining. At least at the beginning, Jack thought it was dust. Then he thought it was ash, but it was neither. What it really was, was a rain of dried up and disintegrated plant matter. Pieces of leaves, twigs, bark, even some splinters of wood which looked like they had been rotting away from exposure to water and then quickly dried.

"Now it is safe to climb." Tiana stated.

"You have rocketry?" Jack asked.

"Rocketry?" The woman asked. "What does that word mean?"

"The tool you just employed." Jack replied.

"A seeding wand?" Tiana asked. "With this you pull the rope, this crushes some magical crystals on the body which then propel a charge of pre-selected material."

"Oh. So that's why it is not a rocket, strictly speaking." Jack said. "But thanks for explaining."

"You're welcome?" she said with a hesitation while Jack started to climb the rope ladder.

With the magical enhancement Fichte had bestowed to him, climbing the rope was as easy as in a dream. Nothing he carried, nor his own body had any significant weight. Also, none of his muscles did tire. Other than touching the ropes to propel himself forward, he did not need them, essentially flying upwards, unbound by gravity.

Soon, he cleared most of the plumage of the tree and reached a small platform only a dozen or so feet from the top of the tallest branch. Because the platform was essentially resting on some bent branches, instead of being rigidly attached to it, this felt a rather unsecure, especially with it swaying independent of the tree. Still, the platform was well-constructed, made of of logs and featuring railings on all sides, as well as being secured relatively well using wooden logs and ropes. It seemed the only movement was due to being attached to the thin branches it was resting on.

Jack laid down on the platform and brought about his Kar98 analog. He also dug out his binoculars from the rucksack he was carrying.

"Hey, Mike," He said, as soon as Mike's face appeared at the edge of the small platform. "Get the binoculars and help me spot stuff."

Jack himself also produced binoculars to see around. The little platform they were perched on, was literally standing above the rest of the forest. There were little to no branches in their way and seeing the towers on the town wall as well as the other watch posts was quite easy, even with the heavy rain shrouding everything.

"I am seeing something!" Mike said out loud. The other shacks in the trees all have some sort of weird faintly glowing blue crystals in them.

"Blue crystals?" Tiana asked. "How big are they?!" She asked with a slightly flustered voice.

"Big. I think about the same height as a man and at least twice as wide."

"Oh, shit!" Tiana cursed. "We have to go! Now! Commander Fichte and the others are in danger!"

She reached up and tugged at something. Moments later, a zip line appeared out of nothingness. In fact, a whole network of zip lines appeared criss-crossing above the treeline.

"An invisible zip line?" Jack asked.

"Yes! We have to get to the crystal as fast as possible and take out the mage monitoring the crystal or destroy the crystal. It has to happen before they notice our soldiers. Those crystals can monitor all movement and magic emission within a 300 yard range! Anything on the ground, anything in the trees, anything in the sky, all is visible! From magical beasts to spells and even natural ebbings of mana!"

"Don't you have magic that can do something like that?" Jack asked.

"Do you know how powerful a spell it needs to be to reach 300 yards?! Even if the crystal doesn't pick up us creating it, it will pick up the change in mana flows. Also I cannot cast anything like that, that's why we need to get close and fast. Better than they notice us, than the others!"

"Why do we have to get noticed at all?" Jack asked with a calm tone.

"Were you just now not listening to me?! At all!?"

Jack shouldered the rifle, chambering a round.

"What do you think, Mike, about 400 yards?"

"Yeah, something like that." Mike replied.

"Okay, the wind is quite severe, the rain will also try to beat the bullet off the path, but the distance is so short that, it shouldn't matter much." Suddenly an idea occurred to Jack.

"How hard is the crystal?" he asked.

"What?" Tiana asked with confusion.

"How hard is the crystal?" Jack asked once more. "Will it shatter like glass or chip like a stone?"

"The blue ones shatter, the green, yellow and red ones chip. It also depends how hard you hit them."

"Okay then."

Jack put in his ear earplugs, took aim, and pulled the trigger. The shot was loud, But less than a second later the blue crystal in the shack exploded into shards and some fine mist. The shards tore through the roof and the walls of the shack, so he was quite confident that any person monitoring the crystal was also shredded.

"There are probably more of those crystals." Jack said. "Mike, find me the next one."

Soon after, a series of loud explosions could be seen from the vantage point, as Jack confidently destroyed one crystal after another. With some targets he missed once, but never twice. Of course no target was further away than about 800 yards.

"So, What's next?" Jack asked.

Tiana could not even think, never mind utter a word. Her best plan was to zip from tree to tree, pulling all the attention and then taking out the mages in question. And maybe trying to push the crystals from the trees to drop and shatter on the ground. But now, the same work was done in a few minutes, to distances she could not even see with her most powerful spells of far sight.

"Next?" She asked, still dazed.

"We should advance," Jack said. "Get closer to the city walls, from a closer vantage point I could take out all the guards on or near the wall."

"Do we climb down or.." Mike asked.

"Zip line." Jack replied. "That’s why you have those on your hips, right?" Jack asked, pointing at some curved pieces of metal with handlebars on her belt.

"Hands off my body!" Tiana instantly regained her wits.

She gave a cough. "Yes, we should advance, via the zip line, as you said."

Soon, three dark figures zipped across the network of lines above the trees. In some places Tiana had to reluctantly employ some magic to keep the tightrope away. The other stops, Jack used as vantage points to clear a way some more monitoring crystals in their shacks. Some not even near the gates.

Not long after, the three of them were perched on the roof of one of the nearer observation posts. The wind and the rain were still raging on. From here, Jack could see the city walls, as well as several other tall structures beyond the walls. He could not see behind the tall walls, to the streets of Coldwood down below.

Jack produced his binoculars and looked over the town wall of about 30 feet in height, noting the massive main gate structure a few hundred feet to the right of them, as well as a large guard tower ahead and slightly to the left.

"What's next?" he asked.

"We are to take that tower over there," Tiana replied. "It gives us perfect coverage over the main assault."

"So what is the main assault?" Jack asked. "Obviously this is no longer a scouting mission."

"I guess I can tell you at this point. The mission is to secure the entrance and then the old church, which is to be used as a base for further operations."

"Okay."

Tiana looked on as Jack produced a black metal object, which had a small hole on each end. He then proceeded to remove a small item from the end of the artifact weapon.

"Can you fill this with water, please?" Jack asked, handing the strange tube towards her. "It doesn't need much."

"Is this a joke?" Tiana asked, "we don't have time for your silly jokes. It has holes in both ends, how can it hold water?"

"True, most of it will fall out from the bottom. But whatever is captured by it, will be enough."

The young woman sighed, took the tube from Jack and with a regretful face poured water from her canteen into the opening of the tube. Of course, most of the water fell out from the bottom.

"Thanks." Jack grabbed the tube, moving it as if swirling the water within it, and then screwed the tube onto his weapon.

"Why was all that necessary?" Tiana asked.

"Because air is loud." Jack replied, "especially when compressed."

He shouldered the rifle and started picking off the guards on the nearest tower, by the time any of the enemy mages notice him, they were all dead. Beside Jack, Tiana watched in abject horror what .308 and/or 7.62x51 rounds could do to human heads from 150 yards. It took Jack less than 5 seconds to dispatch the 3 people standing around the top of the guard tower, and it took a few dozens of seconds for the remaining people to emerge, who also lost their heads. Or parts of them.

Jack then turned his attention to the gate towers. Here, the distance was more than twice as much and so it took Jack longer to take out all the people he could see.

"Clear!" He said after finishing.

"You're done?" Tiana asked.

"As much as I can see, yes." Jack replied.

"Then we move."

She again produced her wand and seemingly pointed randomly in the air. And again a pale zip line appeared, running from the tree branch behind them to the watchtower on the wall.

"What are they?" Jack asked. "Are they just invisible, or does magic bring them out from some sub-dimension?"

Tiana did not answer him, just looked at him smugly.

"Fine then." Jack put the rifles back on his shoulder and produced a suppressed pistol.

"What is that for?" the girl asked.

"In case I did not see correctly." Jack replied.

With Jack in the lead, they ziplined down to the empty watch tower. All was quiet and dead. The balcony around the circular tower was littered with corpses and human body parts. The walls were splattered with blood and brain matter while half an inch deep pool of blood was covering the floor. This sight made Mike and Tiana gag as soon as they arrived and saw and smelled the carnage. While Jack himself was strangely calm and collected.

"Ugh! God! How does this not affect you!" she asked.

"I don't know?" Jack replied. "It could be possible, that I kind of expected to see that. I know what happens to melons and pumpkins when hit by a 7.62 NATO. Human heads have similar size and water content. Also an approximate material thickness so.."

"Ugh!" Tiana gagged again, listening to Jack's calm explanation.

Without much reaction, Jack knelt down in blood besides the still warm bodies, and produced his binoculars. Thus far, Jack and the rest had managed to stay ahead of Fichte and the main group, allowing them to advance silently and without alarming the enemy.

He watched through the binoculars as the magic soldiers dispatched the enemies around the gate and then slowly moved forward. Jack scanned ahead. Right through the gate was a large plaza, which doubled both as a smaller town square, as well as a stopping point for most mounted traffic and carriages. On the sides of the plaza were the most visited establishments of the town: taverns, inns, what looked like a teahouse, also alchemy and weapons shops. Across the main gate however at the other end of the plaza stood a massive gothic church. It seemed to have simple features, yet it was still strangely elongated, reaching towards the sky.

"That is the temple for the All-Goddess Amarita!" Tiana suddenly whispered. "it is purposefully built so massive, with long and winding catacombs, as to offer shelter for most of the town should an enemy attack. Don't let the simple stone structure fool you. This building has divine protection. No evil shall pass its doorstep!"

The 50 or so soldiers Fichte had brought along advanced through the gate and towards the temple.

"There's somebody in the steeple!" Mike said. "Should I try to shoot him?"

"Don't!" Jack replied. "We don't know the situation. We may alert the enemy to our presence here. Let Fichte take the lead."

Just as the magic soldiers had made it half way across the plaza, the doors to the temple slowly creeped open and a string of hooded people rushed out.

"Oh, good it's the.. " Tiana started to say, but then suddenly stopped. "This is not the Amarita sect!"

"You were saying something about no evil passing?" Jack said.

They watched as Fichte and the people in dark robes stood about 50 feet from each other. Fichte commanded them to identify themselves, but it seemed nobody said nothing. He then commanded that every person was to be arrested. The soldiers pulled their wands and started to move in. The cultists offered no resistance, and started to lay down as soon as the soldiers reached them, but then something happened.

Suddenly, a blinding pink light emerged from the doorway of the temple. It intensified, finding its way out of not only the doorway, but every other opening of the building from small basement level windows to the steeple and the spire. In fact the light was so powerful that the steeple simply exploded and a powerful almost solid column of pink reach the sky striking something. The pink light started to fill up a gigantic magic circle which hung over the town.

"Oh no!" Tiana shouted. "It's a massive sleeping spell! That's how all the soldiers were lost!"

"A sleeping spell?" Jack mused. "That is better than I feared."

He nudged Mike and started to empty out his rucksack, finally finding what he was looking for. An NBC face mask along with some spare filter elements. Mike followed his suit, finding the face mask, putting it on and tightening the straps behind his head, just as glowing pink mist started to fall from the sky.

"What the hell are you doing.." Tiana managed to get out before succumbing to the spell.

Jack and Mike awaited with bated breaths. Was the effect truly caused by a spell, which directly interacted with the living beings, without any physical medium? Or was the spell itself simply a creation and dispersion device for a sleeping agent? Only the next few minutes would tell.