Chapter 26
First Mission
"A whole pack? You want me, on my very first mission to take on a whole pack of… 'some sort of fire wolf'? Is this the kind of information we're usually sent out with? How big of a pack? What level are they? Are there different kinds of fire wolves?" I may have been slightly nervous, I wouldn't usually talk to my guildmaster like that. It occurred to me that my very first experience with something dangerous in this new life was a lone wolf, I wondered how commonly they became monsters.
Samuel just chuckled at the incredulous look I was giving him. "I am sorry little brother, our intelligence gathering has suffered since the army took our Seer."
The bear man stopped walking, and looked thoughtful for a moment.
"There are indeed many ways wolves can react to being altered by fire mana. Generally, a pack will be mostly unified, with only one or two outliers displaying different expressions of the element among their members. The man who spotted the pack described the ones he saw as 'wolves with fire for fur.' Which could mean a number of things."
My guild leader put his hand on my shoulder.
"But one thing it absolutely means is that they will be incredibly weak to any sort of water magic. When a beast has an external expression like that, if you take actions to snuff it out, you force them to quickly expel the mana that empowers them. I have faith that you can accomplish this, little brother. But if you falter, trust that Nefen will be there to pick you up."
I sighed, and told Samuel that I needed to make a quick trip to the pond before I headed out. I had a feeling there wouldn't be much free floating water mana to communicate with around the wolves if they were actively displaying flames like that.
When I arrived at the pond, I reached behind me, where my staff had taken to floating. It moved itself into my hand promptly. I could feel its excitement and terror about the upcoming hunt. I connected a strand of energy to the abundant water mana. I asked it to enter my staff's elemental storage. The mana happily gathered around my weapon, and it greedily absorbed the element. I was very impressed by just how much it could store.
It should be enough, if not, I did have another way I had thought of to fight a fire user. I just hadn't tested it, and didn't want to. I shivered a bit just considering it.
As we walked together towards the gate of the adventurers guild compound, I went over the other things Samuel had told me about the wolves.
In the mountain range to the north, there were areas of volcanic activity where fire mana collected. Everything that lived in the area was affected by the dominance of that element in some way.
The creatures living near the volcano often fought over the territory, and the losers would be pushed out. Because the elements in the surrounding mountains were hostile to them, they would inevitably take a path through a specific canyon. They would then make their way down a long dry river towards the forest.
They could not be allowed to get out of the canyon. The result would be an immense forest fire, which had happened in the past. The fire elemental monsters would then grow in power as the flames they caused ate into the area. As it stood, our guild would have no chance of fighting them at that point.
Thankfully since there was not much to burn in the canyon, they would be weak there. They would be moving slowly until they sensed the forest ahead. Which thanks to past burns, was not very dense at all until several miles from the end of the canyon.
When Samuel and I reached the gates of the Adventurers guild, I saw Zeke and Nefen waiting. Nefen stood, holding a book, looking content to wait there as long as needed. Zeke looked like he swallowed a lemon as soon as he saw me.
"Good luck little brother, I know that you will succeed." Samuel said softly. "Nefen, Zeke, I leave Angel in your care." He bowed slightly to the two men, and "gently" pushed me towards them.
I stumbled, at the shove in their direction, my ears pinned for a moment. But I let the annoyance slide. I was excited, terrified, but I needed to hunt. I had calmed down from my earlier episode, but the desire to get out there still ate at me.
Even if I was headed towards fire.
I clutched my staff, like a protective talisman. I could feel the water mana stored in it, ready and eager to flow out as soon as I called for it. The staff itself was vibrating with the excitement and fear that it inherited from me through our link. I could feel its thorny spikes barely contained, ready to burst out at the first sign of the enemy.
"Alright, boss gave me the target, let's get moving. I'll explain how my ability works on the way to the gate. Pathfinding's a well known ability, don't know how you haven't heard of it. But the boss says you'll need to be told." The look on Zeke's face spoke volumes about his estimate of my intelligence.
"Now Zeke, Angel here has made very swift progress. He's a lot younger than he looks. One needs to remember, not everyone grows up in cities with large squadrons of adventurers." The Elementalist said to our Pathfinder, chidingly.
"Whatever. Let's get moving. Those puppies aren't going to wait for you." Zeke said, annoyance clearly displayed in his voice.
"Pathfinders like me are all about finding the best way to get to targets. You know like. Finding the path." Zeke started. He spoke in a way that I could tell was very intentionally condescending.
My hackles raised, my inner beast wanting to put the little man in his place. I found myself fighting not to growl.
"That will be quite enough of that attitude, young man. It does nothing to show your superiority if you intentionally anger a beastkin. It only shows the control they have if they hold back from physically lashing out. No one wins if you force them to lose that control." Nefen's stern voice helped me steady my hold on myself.
"Yeah, yeah, fine." The half elf grumbled.
He paused for a moment, then spoke again. This time without making it sound like he was explaining things to a toddler.
"So the skill I'm gonna use to get us there is just called pathfinding. It's the core skill of my class. I can pick a target, and I'll get instant knowledge of the best path to take to get to it, and everything I'll encounter along the way." He paused for a moment, scanning the area ahead.
"I have an ability that drastically increases my movement speed when I'm on a path, and one that allows me to be unseen and…" he looked at me, his face screwing up into a bit of a scowl. "Almost always… out of the realm of… most… senses."
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He grumbled something about never having been detected before the fight with me, that I pretended I didn't hear.
"I have an ability called Share the Path, that lets me bring others along on my path. I can extend it to share my abilities for speed and unseen movement as well. That's the plan, but I have to warn you of the drawbacks. First, you have to let my ability take hold of you. It will only work if you don't resist. Some folks can't do that, even humans have an instinct to resist that kind of thing." He looked at me pointedly. It was clear he thought I would be one of the people who wouldn't be able to let him work. He thought I was wasting his time. I shrugged, and gestured for him to continue.
"The second thing to know is that once I bring you in, you won't be able to see anything but the path for about five feet around you. Everything else will seem to be covered in darkness. Most folks find that to be pretty terrifying. You'll also feel a pull to follow me." He shrugged.
"That's it, don't resist, don't freak out. Stay on the path, and follow me. I'll be setting a path to a ledge I already scouted out with a very good view of the path the wolves will be taking, ahead of the wolves' current position. If you can do that, we'll get there fast." Some condescension slipped back into his voice as he finished.
I didn't have problems controlling my anger at his tone this time. I thought he was probably in for a surprise. Letting foreign things influence me was pretty old hat at this point. I thought, perhaps my class had reversed the instincts most people had to resist that kind of thing.
I shivered as I really considered the implications. If it was instinctive to allow things to influence me… well, I suppose that meant a few things about my susceptibility to certain theoretical abilities.
Misinterpreting my shiver, Zeke said, "It's okay, if you can't handle it, It just means I wasted a trip through the gates." He looked a little smug.
We traveled out of the town gates without incident. Almost all of the guards stared at me as I left. Some had reverence in their eyes, a few had scorn. No one bothered us.
We walked a short distance from town, and Zeke gestured for us to stop.
"I'm going to try to start us on the path now. I have to have complete focus to keep the abilities running. So no talking once I start. If this works, when we get there, I'm going to be damn tired. I'll have just enough left in the tank to get myself back home. So you two will have to figure things out from there, it ain't my problem."
Zeke closed his eyes and I felt something reach out for me. Like I expected, the ability flowed into me easily. I think I may have even instinctively helped it along.
The world around me shrank to the path under my feet. I realized I couldn't see, feel, hear, or smell anything at all. The path I "saw" was more of an impression, a knowledge of what was there. I could still feel the mana around me though. It comforted me.
Zeke opened his eyes looking momentarily surprised. I felt the ability falter, my instincts reached out and did something to actually help him steady it.
His eyebrows raised. But he calmed quickly, and started running. I felt the pull to follow, so I did.
We sped along, our steps eating far more ground than they should. We soon arrived at a section where we had to climb. The ability showed the best handholds. We flew up the incline. Nothing on the path could trip us or slow us down.
When we came to a stop, I felt like I'd taken an invigorating stroll in the park.
Zeke was panting. Gulping air like he was starving for it. I saw, and briefly instinctively connected to the air mana to ask it to help him.
His breathing almost immediately returned to normal. He looked at me with wide eyes.
"Alright Angel, you surprised me. Good run. Good luck with the doggies." He said, before disappearing. I could feel him taking a path quickly away, because of the air mana that was with him.
I shrugged, and took in my surroundings. He had chosen to end the path on a large shelf some distance from the edge overlooking the canyon.
I could hear the sounds of the wolves snarling and scuffling with each other echoing down the canyon.
I asked the air to prevent my scent from reaching the wolves for the moment. I knew as soon as they caught on to me, they would be drawn to me.
I thought about extending that to Nefen as well. But the man was nowhere to be found. I knew he had kept up with us on the path. He arrived with us, that much was certain. Maybe I felt some magic at work, but it was a fleeting thing. Barely perceptible when I looked for it, and it gave no clues about where the half goblin had gone.
I shrugged. It was his job to observe, and he was over three times my level. It shouldn't surprise me that I couldn't find him if he didn't want to be found. I didn't worry about it.
I crept toward the edge, moving low to the ground, on all fours.
When I peered down, I could see them in the distance. They moved in a tight group, roughly thirty strong. They resembled a huge clump of moving flames. As advertised, they all had fire radiating out of their bodies. The ones on the outside were shaking, and constantly fighting with the ones closer to the center for their place.
I understood why, when I had lost myself to the fire mana, it had made my body so hot that everything around me felt freezing cold. It was like having a fever, only instead of blankets and chicken noodle soup, it came with the instinctive knowledge that comfort would come from spreading as much fire and heat around you as possible. You would burn anything to get that comfort. Even your own energy, and resources. It filled you with hunger. Once you found something to burn, you knew you would be able to fuel yourself with the energy it released.
I shivered uncontrollably at the memory.
Those poor animals were in hell. I would free them.
I took in the area, there was evidence of past fights in the canyon. The stone was covered in scorch marks, and patches of thick black ash littered the ground.
There were places where the walls and canyon floor were marred with tremendous gashes. I could see craters from past impacts in the walls. In one place, not far from me, the wall had collapsed completely. The collapsed area formed a ramp of loose rubble that led to the top. A plan formed in my head.
The shelf I was on was very wide, there was still plenty of space between the start of the collapse, and the wall leading higher into the mountains.
I took the time to quickly send a request to the earth mana to reinforce the area I would be standing. Then I waited.
I heard the pack getting closer as I stood at the top of the fallen section of the wall. I connected lightly with the air mana that had been keeping my scent contained, ready to ask it to change its objective.
The wolves made their way past me, not having noticed my existence yet. I could feel the intense heat that the pack was releasing, it was like standing in front of a furnace. I asked the air to carry my scent to them, and let out a yell.
After yelling, I finally began to let the water mana in my staff flow into me. My goal was simple: unleash a torrent of water at them after they started climbing the ramp. Extinguish their flames, break their bodies against the walls.
The mana built up as I watched their attention become locked on me. When the frontrunners of the pack were just feet away from me, I unleashed the water I had readied. It flowed down, the wolves couldn't stand against the pressure. I moved with the water, at the end of the flow, ready to bash any who survived. I had planned to stay up top, but that no longer mattered. My goal was to smash the wolves, I had to be sure.
A few did indeed survive the initial blow with the crushing waters. They were weak and easy to dispatch with the water mana that remained in my staff.
I stood over the corpses of the fire wolves, they had not put up much of a fight.
The mana and I released our hold on each other. The waters I had conjured dispersed, becoming pure mana, the water element having been spent.
I smiled, my tail was held high. I felt so happy with myself! The wolves were no longer suffering, and I wasn't hurt, or personally exhausted. I could head back to the guild triumphant, a happy kitty.
Then I heard a deep ominous growl from above.
There was a coal black wolf standing where I had been when I started my attack. He was the size of a truck, and very very angry. His fur wasn't on fire, but he smelled like ash, and small licks of flame escaped from between his bared fangs.
I had used all my water mana attacking the pack of normal sized wolves and my suspicions about how little of the element I would have access to near the wolves had proven correct. In retrospect, I made one hell of a mistake. But water mana wasn't the only plan I had concocted to fight fire, it was just the only one I wanted to use.