Caeden ran his good hand across the baby dragon's scales. He could hear the fighting going on outside. More than that, he had his aura firmly trained on the battle. So far, it had been a bit touch-and-go for Cat's new troops. Hekate's new troops. Caeden wasn't sure how to feel about that reveal. He was still processing. He had to shunt it aside, considering their absolutely garbage situation, but he wasn't as unaffected by the news as he tried to project to Cat. Hekate. Whatever.

But her new shroud was doing the work. The massive spears wielded by the walking dead people Cat had pulled from an endless abyss were unreasonably effective against the charging monster hoard. They had set up in ranks, and the length of the spears meant that the spear tip from a soldier several rows back was still out in front of the first row. Caeden could tell they weren't ether infused, but the black metal cut through monster scales like his own Forged Infinity. It was impressive to see and made him more than a little curious about the material and where it had come from.

The foot soldiers had briefly fallen into disarray at the beginning of the battle as multiple Sand Dragons slipped beneath the desert surface to bypass the spear wall. That tactic had been thoroughly countered when the soldiers, in unison, drew swords and plunged them into the sand. They were so closely packed that the Sand Dragons had nowhere to emerge that wouldn't automatically impale them on a blade.

With that threat countered, the only other problem they ran into was the flying monsters. Well, Caeden thought it would be a problem, but it turned out not to be one. Caeden thought the wave of flyers would swoop down and pluck soldiers out of their ranks with ease. That was, until the twang of bowstrings started to ring out in rapid succession. The monsters fell from the air bristling with black shafts that sprouted from them like some macabre magic trick. Cat had only summoned ten archers, but they fired so fast and with such precision that it might as well have been a hundred.

Cat had come into the cave before that and given him a casual wave, pet the baby dragon when it ran up to her, and promptly sat down and closed her eyes. Occasionally, surges of black pulsed a few inches out of her body before they were consumed in wisps of grey smoke and green flame. Caeden could only guess what she was doing.

Less than ten minutes passed, and the battle raged on when Cat jumped up, her pitch-black cloak swirling around her and obscuring her school robes. The second she was outside the cave, three more of those abyss portals opened and three black steeds formed from some sort of oily, tar-like substance that dripped and burned with mains of emerald fire emerged.

Caeden had noted the hulking, massive warriors in plate mail that Cat had summoned. But they had mostly moved at the back of the army, taking care of the formation's flanks and ensuring the foot soldiers weren't blindsided. Their efforts had been effective and crucial, as far as Caeden could tell, but they hadn't played a major role yet.

Now, all three mounted on the newly summoned magic horses and charged into the fray. It was absolute mayhem. The axe wielder swung in great arcs, green fireballs the size of a watermelon following in the wake of his every attack. They exploded into five-foot wide blasts of sticky green fire that never died. Caeden watched as monster flesh sloughed off their bodies while they ran. The fire didn't seem to burn but rather decay.

The spear wielder fired lances of flame with every thrust, and the arc of the sword wielder's swings produced waves of fire. The three moved in concert, each operating in the depths of the monster hoard far from the rest of the soldiers. Each stayed far enough from each other that the radius of their flame attacks never overlapped. It was a skillful display of coordination and raw violence with a horrifying edge as the ageless monsters experienced the ravages of decay for the first time.

Caeden grew more curious about these new creations that Cat had made, but he would have to wait. He had tried to use investigative sense on them to determine what they were. But to his surprise, he found that they were formed from some energy that was not Ki. His shroud couldn't understand it, so Caeden was left in the dark.

So here he sat, running his hand over his bonded's scales endlessly, waiting for Cat's new unknown forces to finish up. Suddenly, he found it much easier to sympathize with Cat's frustration over acting as a fighting support. It was both frustrating and shameful for him to be sitting here doing nothing while his friend dealt with the mass of monsters.

But there was nothing he could do. His shrouds were weak, especially Sharp. He could use his aura just fine, but actual manifestations were beyond him. Physical Enhancement was close to recovering what damage it could after his dragon fight with Jawrule, but his left arm and leg were both missing chunks that he couldn't recover. Physical Enhancement only enhanced his body's natural regeneration to superhuman levels, but his body couldn't grow back giant chunks of muscle no matter how much assistance it got.

"We still need to name you," Caeden commented kindly, talking to the dragon currently wrapping itself around his hand and nipping his fingers as he rubbed his scales. "I don't know why you're being so picky about it."

Really, his focus stayed on the battle, even as it wound down. What worried Caeden the most was that he had no idea what caused the random stampede. All the attacks led back to this rock and this cave, but he couldn't guess why. Maybe Jawrule's presence had been holding them back?

He dismissed that thought immediately. These monsters were designed for hunting and killing dragons. Really, the old sapphire dragon's death should have made monsters less likely to come here. It bugged him to no end. He couldn't imagine a single good reason why they had come here.

A wild, random thought occurred to him. The cruiser had come down because of sabotage. That fact had fallen by the wayside with all the dragons and monster hunting and trying to cross the continent on foot that he had been doing. If he was honest, he had almost forgotten, even though it was a crucial, disturbing fact. On some level, he hadn't thought it would matter until they could somehow manage to get to the Turtle Fortress since the saboteur must be on board.

At least, that was what he had assumed. But what if they weren't? What if they had followed Caeden's team onto the dragon continent? What if they caused the stampede? It was ludicrous. Caeden and his friends had barely survived the cruiser explosion. Any reasonable person would have rightfully assumed they died. Why would they follow dead people?

More than that, their continued presence meant that they had been following Caeden this whole time while evading his aura senses. Caeden was quite proud of his investigative sense. He could even pierce Lily's concealment on occasion. Their would-be killer would have had to maintain a level of concealment beyond that for weeks. While Caeden was sure such people existed, why would someone so proficient be sent to kill a few kids that hadn't even left the Academy?

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Sure, they had caused waves at school, but surely not enough to warrant a highly-skilled, no-doubt valuable assassin. One thorough enough to follow a doomed ship onto a forbidden continent full of powerful, hostile dragons.

But Caeden had no other explanation for why the monsters were here. It made no sense. For them to come from miles and miles around would require some kind of signal, one that Caeden's significant senses had failed to find despite numerous searches.

It was absurd, but the more Caeden thought about it, the more his mind latched on to the idea. But that begged the question, why would they stage an attack now? The dragons were the obvious answer. No shrouded would risk discovery on this continent unless they could guarantee their escape, as a lone shrouded would be killed in short order. A half-dead crippled dragon without the use of his breath weapon had pushed Caeden to multiple fatal injuries, including soul damage. It would take a shrouded of immense power to confidently attack a dragon nest with dozens of healthy, angry dragons.

So now that he and Cat were far from any nests and he was heavily injured, it was a perfect chance to finish the job. The fact that they were under attack was also telling. He and Cat had split from Lily and Erik during the crash, so the fact that they were the ones being followed meant that one of them was the likely target.

Caeden would have originally assumed it was him, based on the previous assumption that this had something to do with the Forged and how their organization was messing with the four Seats. But now that he knew Cat, or Hekate, was related to the Headmaster, it was just as likely she was being targeted for that family connection.

Of course, all of this was predicated on the idea that they were under attack from some mysterious, highly capable assassin. It was just as likely he was wrong and had missed a more obvious, less convoluted explanation for the monster hoard. But he couldn't think of one, so this was what he had left.

Ultimately, it was a fact that their cruiser had been deliberately sabotaged. That was true, no matter what else he might think. Someone wanted at least one of them dead. Possibly all of them. Caeden decided to continue forward under the assumption that they were being watched and hunted. It was better to hedge his bets than dismiss a theory that had some proof to it, no matter how thin.

So when Cat came back to the cave, having overseen the massacre of nearly a thousand monsters over the course of almost an hour, he needed to talk to her.

"Hey, Cae. Did you see all that? I'm assuming you were watching with your aura, right?" Cat beamed at him, obviously pleased with the results.

Caeden did his best to return that enthusiasm. "Yeah, great job! Hey, can you somehow create a barrier so no one can see or hear us?"

Cat gave him a weird look. "Okaaaaay. Not sure why you would want that, but sure." It took Cat about five minutes to put something together. "Wall of Living Shadow."

The darkness of the cave leaped off the ground, forming a shell around them and plunging the three into absolute darkness. "Necrofire." Another mnemonic from Cat's new shroud lit up the space with bright green fire.

"Well, that's convenient," Caeden noted.

"You have no idea!" Cat gushed. "Oh, the things I can do with Necromancy! It's different from a normal shroud, and I can't do some things others can, but there are way less limits on what I can create. So, why the silence bubble?" She turned serious, though Caeden could tell she was still elated about her new domain.

"First of all, seriously, kick ass out there." Caeden couldn't help but compliment her. It was so nice to see her go from an attitude bordering on depression to this level of unrestrained happiness. He couldn't help but want to encourage it. Cat deserved to be happy.

"Thanks!" Cat chirped, clasping her hands together and grilling widely in a very unCatlike way. "You wouldn't believe how worried I was that I wouldn't be able to get an army put together quickly enough, but it turns out I can transfer some of my mnemonics over from Soul!"

The next ten minutes were filled with Cat recapping her discoveries over the differences her new shroud held. It was fascinating to Caeden. Access to other realities or dimensions, wherever those summoning portals pulled from, was interesting to contemplate. Though Caeden only really had one question.

"Say," He started.

"Yeah?" Cat focused on him, returning from her introspection about Necromancy. Caeden almost thought she forgot he was there as she went on and on.

"Do you think I could get a hold of one of those weapons? The material is very interesting, and I kinda want to try some ethersmithing with it." He asked.

"Oh, that would be cool!" Cat nodded, immediately on board. "I bet you could make something really special with whatever that stuff is, But that's not why I had to make a sensory isolation chamber. What's up?" She focused back on the topic at hand.

"Right; I think we might have an assassin after us," Caeden explained his reasoning, walking her through his own logic. "Does that sound like it makes sense, or am I missing something?"

Cat cupped her chin, staring into space. "Man, I really wish Lily was here. She's much better at this complex planning crap than I am. I dunno, what you said made sense to me, though I couldn't even guess how they drew a bunch of monsters here."

Caeden slapped his face. "Right, duh." He hadn't stopped to think about how the assassin would have pulled the monsters over. The underlying problem was still unresolved. "I just don't get it. To get the monsters here, there has to be some trail for them to follow. It can't be something we did because they're coming from places we never went to. But if it's something the monsters can sense, it should be something I can. What can monsters sense that my shroud couldn't?"

He contemplated the problem. A sense unique to monsters. Maybe not uniquely theirs, but something they were especially sensitive to… "Oh shit!" Caeden snapped his fingers as the thought clicked. "Shrouds!"

"Damn, Cat, this wall is amazing. It blocks auras coming in but lets mine out. That's damn cool." He cast out again, searching for even the smallest, faintest hint of a shroud. Immediately, he found it in droves. Faint, infinitesimally tiny trails of shroud were laid out all across the desert, leading back to this cave. It was so small that Caeden's initial search had missed it. But to the hypersensitive monsters, it would have been a dinner bell they couldn't ignore. It must have taken an immense amount of skill to pull off such fine work right under his nose.

"Well, shit. I'd say I just found proof that we're being tailed by an assassin." Caeden explained what he had found.

"Fuck, what do we do now?" Cat asked.

"The fact that they're using such an indirect attack has to mean they aren't entirely confident in facing us in a straight fight. I'd bet that their shroud aids in stealth but doesn't have much direct combat potential." Caeden guessed.

"So?"

"So we just have to turn the tables on them. Catch the assassin. Then we might be able to get some information on who sent them and why." It seemed like the most obvious solution to Caeden. Plus, it was the best method to ensure their future safety.

"Hells, sounds like a plan to me." A truly evil smile split Cat's face. "What do you have in mind?"

They started to plan.