Ike wove through the trees, moving silently. Mont’s help went with him, the branches clearing out of his way only to fall back into place behind him. He lost track of Wisp after a few steps, as she crawled through the trees and out of earshot. Ike alone walked through the trees, silent, invisible.
He kept his eyes on the ground, looking out for the black stakes that marked the edge of the barrier. Before long, he came upon them once more. He nearly missed the first one, hidden, as it was, in a hollow at the base of a tree. From there, he walked the line, quietly skirting just outside the line of the barrier. No black-robed mages walked near him. They stuck to the camp, with its wooden buildings and tents well inside the barrier, hidden away in its heart. He continued along quietly, searching for the entrance. If the barrier worked the way other human-created barriers did, he’d be able to enter. It would make sense if they blocked the barrier to only their members, but he had no idea if that was even possible.
Guess I’m about to find out.
A mage abruptly stepped out in front of him. Ike drew to a short halt. The mage frowned. They turned, looking directly at Ike.
Instinctively, Ike punched the man. He activated Lightning Clad as he punched. Shockwaves smashed into the man’s nose. The man fell backward. Blood spewed from his nose and ran down his face. He hit the ground like a sack of bricks, unconscious.
Ike turned toward the barrier. He took a step forward, only to bounce backward, tossed by a wall of invisible force. But the guy left the camp here, so there must be a way to exit. Maybe only exit, and not enter… or maybe, the guy has something that I don’t, that lets him enter and exit. He turned back to the man and crouched, patting his body down. A small tab of the same black metal the stakes were made from dangled from the man’s belt. He raised his eyebrows. Of all the stuff on the man’s body, that one looked the most like a barrier key. He yanked it off the man’s belt and tied it to his own.
Okay. Here goes nothing. Straightening his clothes, Ike let out a short huff. He stepped into the barrier again.
His foot swept past with no resistance. He stepped to the other side of the barrier.
Ike chuckled quietly to himself. He snuck toward the mages’ main camp. On this side of the barrier, Mont’s help no longer applied. He once again had to pick his way through the leaves and branches underfoot. His body was so much easier to control at Rank 2 that he had no trouble finding a route, but he did have to put up some effort. Silently, Ike added Mont’s path-clearing skill to the list of useless-in-combat-but-super-useful-skills he wanted to have. It sat neatly on the list after Ket’s house-cleaning skill and Silver’s drying-off skill.
“Who goes there?”
Ike froze. He held his breath. Ducking his head further into the wolf skin, he slowly peered around, searching for the source of the voice.
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“What is it, Jan?” a woman asked.
The first man sniffed. He stepped out from around a nearby tree and looked around, surveying the forest. “I heard something.”
Ike lowered his head, hiding his eyes completely. It hid his eyes, but it also limited his frame of view to a small circle around his feet. Moving slowly, he dropped to a crouch, then backstepped. If the man had heard him, he needed to get away from the place he’d been last heard.
“Sure it wasn’t a bird or something?” the woman asked.
“Pretty sure.” Footsteps crunched over fallen leaves. They drew closer to Ike.
Ike crept sideways, dodging the man’s route.
The man followed his motions, frowning as he drew closer. “I keep hearing something. Right… here!”
He jabbed his hand out toward Ike.
Ike leaped backward. He landed on the hard roots of the tree behind him, his feet tapping quietly on the wood versus crunching on the leaves.
The man’s hand closed on thin air. He froze, then harrumphed.
“What was it? A bird?” the woman asked mockingly.
“Shut up,” Jan grumbled. He stomped back to his guard post.
Ike let out a quiet sigh of relief. He peeked up from his wolf pelt, checking that the coast was clear, then scurried off, taking one careful step after another away from the pair of guards. He left them behind and crept toward the main camp again, this time choosing a pair of trees unattended by guards.
Mana swirled around him. Thick and rich, it swirled chaotically, unlike anything he’d ever felt before. His heart whirled as the aether inside him stirred to match the external mana. Ike huffed out a short breath, forcibly clamping down on his aether and quieting it. He took a moment to let the chaotic mana wash over him and grow used to its flow before pressing on, deeper into the camp. If I had any doubts about where that mana vein ended up, they’re gone now. It’s definitely here somewhere.
Ike passed through the trees. In another few paces, he approached the black mages’ black tents. The large, boxy things formed a loose circle around the edge of a clearing. Each tent swirled with power. A silver spike through the center of the tent drew the chaotic mana toward it. Roiling streams of multicolored light swirled around the spikes, vanishing into the tents. The lights were somewhere between lightning and auroras. Multicolored, smooth streams burst into jagged jabs and sharp spikes. The light materialized around the spikes. Until it touched the silver, it remained immaterial.
Ike breathed it in, careful to only take a little bit of mana with each breath. If he took in too much, even his aether-tempered mana passages would struggle to contain such chaotic energy. He eyed the spikes. Those things clearly draw the energy. Are they meant to hide it? Course the energy back into the ground, so that no one notices the mana vein here?
He crept closer, past the tents. Black-robed men wandered the clearing, going in and out of the tents. None of them were particularly alert. They were relaxing, eating, chatting, clearly on break. For all their lack of alertness, if any one of them saw him, he’d be in trouble anyways.
A tent stood in the center of the circle. This one had no spike, but instead, great gouts of mana gushed out of it. A permanent aurora whirled over the top of this tent where the mana escaped. Its flap flickered in the wind. The walls weren’t quite locked in. They were looser than the other tents.
That’s the mana vein, then. But why put it in a tent? Ike leaned to the side to get a better look. He didn’t want to risk picking his way through all the mages. If he could get a good look from here, it was better than taking his shot to sneak all the way through.
The tent flap fluttered. It lifted away from the tent. For a moment, Ike could see straight to the heart of the tent.
His eyes widened. Ike clapped a hand over his mouth, choking back a shout.
What the fuck?