Light gathered around the lady’s chest and abdomen. Before anything else could happen, Ike blasted off. Lighting flashed after him, booming against the air. In a split second, he reached the lady. Rather than try anything fancy, he simply introduced his knee to her forehead at top speed. Her eyes rolled back, and she slumped to the floor, unconscious.

“Ow, ow, ow,” Ike muttered, hopping on one leg. His other knee ached something fierce. Salamander Healing quickly cleared it up, but he grimaced at his leg nonetheless. I need to work on my physical defenses. Ice Armor is nice, but a skill that strengthens my body’s defenses would be even better. Like a defensive version of Lightning Clad.

His mind instantly went to the wind skill in his reserves. Lightning, ice, wind. The three went hand-in-hand. With the three of those, he had the ingredients for a Storm Clad. If he could develop a Storm Clad that preserved Ice Armor’s physical defense and Lightning Clad’s body strengthening, he’d have it all. And with the wind… with the wind…

Well, Ice Armor is already more of—well, armor. Maybe I could transmute the wind into some kind of body-strengthening wind skill? He twisted his lips, a little lost. Yeah… I’m not sure how that would work. I’ll think on it.

Wisp crept down from above and swiftly bound the woman in spider thread. As a bonus, she attached a rope around the lady and hoisted her up into a nearby tree. The lady dangled there, unconscious. Wisp hopped to the ground and surveyed the lady, tilting her head back and forth. When she was done, she turned to Ike. “The hell is this?”

“I don’t know. She just showed up and tried to explode on me for having dinner,” Ike said. He checked the deer. He’d been subtly stoking the flames with aether, and it had paid off. He hauled the deer off the fire and set its stick into the ground, leaning the top against a tree. “Deer’s cooked, by the way.”

A small form plummeted out of the sky and landed with a thump and an ‘oof.’ Shawn laid on the ground for a second, stunned, then shook his head and climbed to his feet. His hands were a little skinned, revealing not blood but mud beneath his skin. In mere moments, they sealed over.

Ike raised his eyebrows. Mont did say they were made of earth, but I didn’t expect it to be so literal.

“The hell were you thinking, leaving me up there? I could have fallen and died!” Shawn snapped, rounding on Wisp.

Wisp spread her hands. “You fell and didn’t die. Seems fine to me.”

Ike barely suppressed a snort of laughter.

“But I could have. Honestly, you people. Savages, all of you.” Shawn shook his head disapprovingly. He reached for the deer.

“Hey. That’s savage food, for savage people,” Ike warned him.

Wisp chuckled.

Shawn shot him a middle finger and tore off a chunk.

Ike wandered over and sliced off some meat with his razor, then turned to consider the woman. From her injuries, she’d recently fled from some brutal and intense battle. And yet, he saw no sign of an inter-mage conflict. No fireballs raged over the forest, nor did giant mana constructs slam into each other to earth-shaking effect. There wasn’t even the boom and echo of overpowered bodies striking one another. Had she been alone, then? Ambushed? But then why ‘another one?’ And what did the deer have to do with anything?

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He took another bite of the meat. “So many questions.”

“Well, at least we’re on the winning side, probably. She looks pretty bad off. Other guy probably beat her, and now we’ve got her tied up. Winning side,” Wisp said, putting her hands on her hips.

“The winning side of this battle. That’s not the same as the winning side of the war,” Ike reprimanded her. He paused, considering. “If there is a war.”

“Right. We killing her and taking her loot, or…?” Wisp looked the woman up and down, appraising her gear. “Those clothes she’s wearing are high-rank fabric. She’s definitely from a sect. Looks like… maybe a low rank disciple? They let her come out this far on her own, and she got ambushed, and she didn’t have guards, so she wasn’t anyone important.”

“Unless she was running from the sect,” Ike pointed out.

“Yeah, but then how the hell would she mistake you for one of her pursuers? You don’t look like you belong to a sect.”

Ike looked down at himself. He still wore the somewhat ragged remains of Ket’s loaned leather armor. He’d stitched up the center where it had been pierced through during his fight with ice-wielding Garrus, and patched the places where it had burned away. The end result was a somewhat ragtag patchwork of shaky stitches and various different hides.

The lady dangled before him. Her clothes were stained and bloodied, sure, but the fabric was fine, and dyed a beautiful pale blue. It had tears, but the tears were fresh. Unlike Ket’s armor, which was still a little too big for him, her robes fit her perfectly. And not only that, but there was a uniformity to her entire outfit, with matching robes, leggings, shoes, and even headdress, that Ike simply couldn’t compare to.

He gave Wisp a haughty look. “What do you mean? I look like the leader of a sect, let alone a random member. I’m clearly a highly valuable personage.”

Wisp squinted at him for a second before he started laughing. She laughed along, shaking her head.

Caught between them, Shawn squinted at them both. “Was that a dig at me? Is that some sort of joke on this garbage I’m wearing?”

Mana appeared at the limits of Ike’s perception, approaching them at speed. Ike and Wisp exchanged a glance. Without a word, she stole Shawn up again. Ike threw the wolf’s pelt over the woman and stood alone, tending the deer.

The mana slowed. It circled Ike and his camp, taking a better look at him. Ike pretended not to notice. He reined in his mana, lowering his pressure to the absolute minimum to look as unthreatening as possible.

A twig snapped. Heavy footsteps sounded where no footsteps had sounded before. From out of the woods, a raggedly-dressed hunter lifted a hand in greeting. Ike nodded back, eyeing him warily.

“Hello! I see you’ve been fruitful in your hunts,” the man greeted Ike.

Ike nodded. “I’ve enough to share, if you’re a friendly sort.”

“I can be a very friendly sort indeed, with venison that juicy on the line.”

Ike cut off a chunk of meat and tossed it at the man. The man took a bite, then recoiled, yanking his teeth out without stealing a hunk of meat with them. He stared at the meat in shock.

Right. Because venison isn’t juicy. It’s an extremely tough meat. Moreso for a beast with some amount of Rank, like this one had. Shawn, Wisp, and I are all used to this kind of meat, but we’re actual hunters, who have been living off the land. You, on the other hand… He eyed the man’s gear. The glistening buckles. The shining sword handles. His perfectly clean hair. His clothes were surface-level dirty, but had none of the wear and tear that came with living in the same gear for weeks.

Ike smiled. “Delicious, isn’t it?” He took a big bite and ate with visible relish.

“R-right.” The man bit the meat again. This time, he successfully took a piece. Grimacing, he chewed it down.

Still smiling, Ike narrowed his eyes subtly.

You, my friend, are no hunter. So tell me. What business do you have here?

At last, the man swallowed. He cleared his throat and nodded at Ike. “Have you seen a woman in blue?”