Kai woke me by landing on my chest. I am normally more sensitive to them than that, but I must have been deeply asleep. One sniff, and I knew why. There was Black magic in the air.

Of course, they came to investigate the magic source. It confirms to me they are tracking magic. My suspicions now lie with the Mage as the source.

Did all three come, or did they just send Black to investigate?

Do I stay hidden and wait for him to leave? That is my best bet, and it worked in the Smelly A’s, but it depends on how good his senses are.

My aura control has improved by leaps and bounds because of the Smelly A’s, but they are not the only senses, and he is silver-rank to my bronze.

I slowly and lightly extend my aura senses while keeping my aura locked tight. As far as I know, this skill is very uncommon below gold rank. Thank you, Smelly A’s. The biggest and loudest aura in the area is the monsters. My senses then picked up a flash of shadow, which disappeared as soon as it appeared. That will be Black shadow jumping around. I could not detect any other aura, but that doesn’t mean they can't hide from me. If they hunt people, they will be practised in hiding their aura.

Please just go away. There is nothing here—nothing except a huge lava monster.

Black is taking his job seriously, shadow-jumping around and checking thoroughly. The monster is getting agitated. I think it can feel the shadow jumping.

He is getting closer. How am I going to get out of this? I shouldn’t have stopped. I should have kept on the move.

What on earth is wrong with these people? They don’t ask, they abuse, they won’t let me go and live my life. Why? Why me? If they have some pending disaster, then they have at least one Diamond Ranker to deal with it. If they are doing this because of the prophecy of a new iron-rank prince, they need their heads read. Or chopped.

I reach down for my new bronze-rank axe. Then I pull my hand back. These are two silver-rank enemies, and bronze-rank weapons are going to do very little. The only weapon I have to jump ranks is my Kai-enhanced claws. If I have to fight, it will be up close and personal. I don’t expect to live, but I won’t be captured.

I repeated that. I don’t expect to live, but I won’t be captured. That opens up a lot of options that I would otherwise have avoided. High risk of death options. Suicidal options.

I had a split-second warning and propelled myself out of the hollow at the sudden change in magic. Black appeared above where I used to be, and two knives descended. I cast Hunter Tether and threw two sticky Fires. Black flickered as he tried to shadow jump, but the Inescapable of the bronze-tier skill stopped him. I doubt it would stop him more than once, as his skill is silver.

It paused him long enough for the Sticky Fires to land, and Kai lit him up. A string of swearing came from him, and he flicked his wrist, and Liquid Fire Kai was skewered with one of the knives. He spent a couple of seconds trying to put out the fire, allowing me to put some distance between us.

When he couldn’t put out the fire but was spreading it, he turned and looked at me. He decided to tank the damage with his silver-rank recovery, and he disappeared. The fire played havoc with his stealth and I had more warning. I dove in a different direction and cast Hunter Tether twice.

Black appeared near where I would have been, and the first Hunters tether exploded when it appeared on the edge of the lava. The second one caught him and stopped the immediate Shadow Jump. He threw his remaining knife at me and then pulled two more out of his sheaths.

I had time to engage the active part of my Resistant fur and the Heart of the Oak, and still, the silver-ranked knife penetrated into the flesh of my shoulder. I cast Hunter Tether again through the pain.

While he was throwing knives at me, the lava lake exploded over him as the monster responded to the explosion of my first tether. The third Hunter Tether stopped his immediate response, which was to shadow jump away.

The tether rods exploded as the lava came down on them. The monster looked like an octopus the size of a small cottage, with a mouth full of stone teeth and made of lava. Tentacles wrapped around Black and tried to drag him to the mouth.

Black was not so easily defeated and engaged a skill that caused the tentacle to wither and shrivel, and he sliced it with his knife. I was throwing bronze-cutting discs at him, but he ignored them, only bothering to deflect the one heading for his neck. He was counting on his silver rank resistances and dealing with getting away from the monster.

I was also stuffing fruit in my mouth to get Feast working. This was jerky from the Bird Boar, and I didn’t have a clue what bonuses it might give me. I need to get in the habit of stuffing my face before a fight. I doubted I would get any bonuses from this small amount.

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Black disappeared from the tentacles. Tracking him was easy as he was even more on fire, but his swearing really gave him away.

I called the monster to me with the Hunter Tether explosion and turned and stabbed my claws with full Pierce and Mighty Oak at my own shadow, and he appeared just in time. Then, I used Rend for all I could. I got him in the centre of mass and ripped him open. He got me the centre of mass and left both blades embedded in my stomach as the lava thing wrapped tentacles around us both. I got a Hunter's Tether to explode in his face, but I was fading fast.

The tentacles around him started to wither again, and then Ardisia appeared on his face and every thorn she had penetrated into him. Then, her vines also started to wither. I spiked him with my Aura for all I was worth to distract him, and I did get a surprised look from him. Like everything, his aura was silver-ranked.

Two Chitin Kais were chewing through the tentacle that had me, but I think it was too late. I dropped to the ground as the monster added more tentacles to the fight, and Ardisia burned to charcoal. What she did was stop Black from teleporting away until the monster got more tentacles there.

The Mana Drain Kais were hard at work, reducing Blacks' mana supply. Silver rankers have a lot of Mana and regeneration.

However, Black's fight was not with me anymore; he was fully in the clutches of the lava octopus, and it was a bad match-up for him. He cut and withered the tentacles as fast as he could, but the monster was regenerating them as fast as he could cut them. It seemed to have bonus regeneration when in the lava pool.

He couldn’t Shadow jump away while in the tentacles' grasp, and he had an explosive skill that couldn’t free him enough to get away. He was chugging mana potions and health potions when he could, so his health was being worn down, and the Kais were draining Mana as fast as they could, hidden in the shadows.

I dragged myself behind a rock to protect myself from the lava splashes and covered myself in a shield wall. I pulled out the two knives and tried to stop the bleeding and eat as much as I could, even though I didn’t want to. I was out of this fight. If the monster won, I hoped it would forget about me. If Black won, I would need to be ready for a final stand. Not that I could stand.

Silver rankers are tenacious and have a lot of regeneration. All the monster needs to do to win is keep hold of Black. Black will survive if he gets away. I kept tabs on the fight between my aura senses and Kai while I focused on my own regeneration. I drank a bronze-rank health potion I got from Obsidian Wood.

I had a deep, seething anger at the death of Ardisia. She sacrificed herself for me. A wave of lava washed over my shield, and I angled the shield so it slid off. I felt one of the Mana Drain Kais die in the surge, along with an ordinary Kai who was watching. The two chitin Kais were wearing the heat and fire better and had congregated on the last Mana Kai as a little bit of protection.

I told them to move away. The fight was not something we could now affect.

I was very pleased when I sensed Black’s aura disappear, and the monster sank back into the lake. I am sure he died and didn’t escape, but I kept watch anyway. Some people had some pretty strong last-ditch escape and recovery skills. Not that I could move yet, anyway.

What surprised me was when my Reaping Magic started reaping from Black. I didn’t realise that the bodies of silver rankers were sufficiently magic that they essentially turned into rainbow smoke. I guess I was over halfway there.

There was a lot of magic from a silver ranker and silver rank equipment and materials. I was offered meat, which I turned down. He was a Leonid, so it would have been cannibalism, and even if he had been human or elf, eating meat from sapients turned me off.

I think I was being offered things he had on him as well as the materials, as I was offered a silver rank health potion, which I took. I could and would drink it. The silver rank magic would meant I couldn’t take any other potions until it dissipated out of my system, but it would get me moving. I would have to wait a little before drinking it to ensure the bronze rank potion didn’t clash.

I was also offered some knives and some poison. The poison was silver rank. He probably had a poison skill or two from the way he killed Ardisia. I was offered knives, but I already had three that I had removed from my body, and silver-rank knives were no good to me yet. I didn’t want clothes or boots. I did get some Dark, Knife, and Hand quintessence. I assume those were three of his essences. Then, I settled for lots of silver-rank coins. There were more coins than I expected after getting the quintessence, so I suspect he was carrying a lot of coins.

Ardisia also went up in smoke, and I reaped plant and blood quintessence. There was about half the amount required to resummon her. I had the materials to resummon both my familiars several times, and I had the ritual circle carved into a shield in my pack. I just needed a safe place to do it. Here was not that place.

The dead Kais gave me quintessence. The Mana Drain Kai gave me Magic Quintessence, so that was interesting. I only had three specialised Kais left, One mana Drain and two chitin, and three Kais to be reborn.

I checked my skills. I would need to meditate to consolidate the magic, but my heat resistance has moved up to Moderate. My fire Resistance had not changed despite the burned fur. I felt the raises would get exponentially harder to get. The fur was moderately fire resistant, so less fur burned, reducing resistance growth. The same was true for heat.

I felt it was time, and so I took the silver-rank healing potion. A wave of healing power moved through me. My stomach closed as I watched. This was the power of the over-ranked potion. If I got injured in the next few hours, I would not be able to even take a bronze-rank potion, or I would get mana poisoning. But it meant I could move and get out of here.

I am sure Black’s death would be investigated. I am almost sure Black was not the one with the tracking skill, so they would still be after me.

I pushed at my Shield wall, but it was stuck. I put more effort into it, and I heard stone grind. The lava that flowed over had hardened. I used Mighty Oak and broke myself out. I stored the three knives and found a fourth where Fire Kai had died.

I was still a little unsteady on my feet as I moved away from the lava lake. I looked down at my stomach and knew what I had forgotten. I had forgotten to buy any more of Jory’s Hair Cream.