Ezekiel had hoped that the time that it took to get to Oxren would be both fast and uninterrupted. As the party was forced to force back a second group of Wild Spirits, he realized that he should’ve known better.
“Get lost already!” Casey screamed.
A bolt of lightning was shot at a large canine Spirit that had dashed out of the tree line. The Spirit yelped in pain and its pack quickly formed up beside it. Flames were spewing from its mouth in anger.
Casey frowned in frustration. She had originally been a couple hundred meters ahead of the group but had been called back when the party found themselves facing a pack of Spirits with two Tier threes.
Ezekiel was also frustrated, but for a different reason. Within the pack were several Tier one Spirits, and he had hoped that he would be able to fight some himself. Unfortunately, Kurt had ordered him to remain in the cart while the workers fought the Spirits off.
“Cheer up, kid, even with the delays, we’re still on track to arrive on time.” Chester said with a grin as he sat in the driver's seat of the cart.
Holding up his hand in the shape of a finger gun, Chester shot multiple beams of light into the eyes of several of the Spirits, temporarily blinding them, and allowing the guards to get a few good hits in.
Ezekiel couldn’t help but look on in envy at the fact that Chester could get involved in the fight without having to leave his seat.
“Sorry...” Shine said in a morose tone.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m certain we’ll figure something out for ranged attacks in the future.” Ezekiel said back.
Ezekiel followed up his statement by mentally sending Shine images of swords being swung and cutting things in half at range. Imitating the images, he’d seen in different cartoons and comic books from his past life. Shine immediately perked up, before their thoughts seemed to halt.
The shift was so sudden that Ezekiel was able to notice the change right away.
“Shine? Are you okay?” Ezekiel tried to gently nudge Shine with his soul, but there wasn’t any immediate reply. He wanted to nudge harder, but he recognized the feeling of deep thinking that he himself had entered a few times.
“Let me know what you figured out when you’re done.” He said with a hint of worry as Shine did not reply.
The slight poke he felt from Shine reassured him somewhat, and he turned his attention back to the fight.
Throwing himself to the bottom of the cart as an avian Spirit dive bombed him, escaping Chester and the other guard’s notice. The near miss caused his heart to race, though it quickly calmed down. That attack would’ve severely injured him if it had connected. Luckily, ever since he had started experimenting with Shine, he had figured out a couple of sensory techniques that were proving very useful.
“SHIT! Kurt! We got fliers!” Chester called out as he started firing beams at the small red bird that was flying far enough away to build up speed for another shot.
“Casey, take care of it!” Kurt called out.
He didn’t once shift his attention from the Tier three Spirit he was fighting, but even as blades of water chipped away at wooden armor, he still managed to let loose a high-pressured torrent of water that knocked the tier Three Flame Spirit to the side for a moment.
Casey used the brief reprieve to take the time to aim a shot at the bird Spirit. Three bolts of lightning shot out, branching outwards as the Spirit dodged the first bolt, but was struck by the following two in succession. It dissolved into motes of mana before it even hit the ground.
Seeing their flying companion die, the Tier three Spirits let out a low howl and a shrill screech. The lower Tier Spirits began running from the battle as fast as they could, while the Tier three Spirits took pot shots with their elemental attacks while covering the rear.
The attacks didn’t end until the Spirits were all well beyond the tree line, and mostly out of sight.
However, even though the Spirits were no longer visible, Kurt, Casey, and Tori retained their focus. Just in case the Spirits came back to continue the fight. Kurt quickly gestured to Chester, who directed the mounts to start pulling the cart once again.
As the group got further and further away, they still remained on guard, not once lowering it until nearly twenty minutes passed. By then, the landscape had somewhat changed as they entered the territory of a different pack of Spirits.
Looking around, Ezekiel still found it shocking how easily the environment was influenced by the mana of Spirits when they were left to gather in greater amounts.
The Spirits lands in Harkem were regularly maintained, so the changes in the colors and auras of the various flora and fauna weren’t significant. Similarly, the areas outside of Harkem were not settled by groups of Wild Spirits claiming territories due to the proximity to the Desolate Lands.
When he had first noticed the changes, he was annoyed to find out that these things were common knowledge for those that live in or near the less civilized areas of the world.
The Empire was actually a much more tyrannical place to live than he realized, with the areas where the Spirits were given free reign actually being strictly controlled by the military and Guilds to ensure that few to no Wild Spirits above Tier two were able to grow.
While almost the entirety of Humanity honored the Bond between Spirits and Humans, the existence of Wild Spirits meant that, if they were allowed to run rampant, humanity might have two species that they needed to contend with, not just one.
“Hey, kid! You alright back there? That was quite the close call, wasn’t it?” Chester said with a hint of concern in his voice. He knew it would be bad if a Church affiliate harmed under his watch.
“I’m fine. I’ve suffered far worse than this.” Ezekiel said with a wave of his hand.
Chester didn’t look convinced but wasn’t going to raise a fuss about it.
“Alright. But just so you know, you don’t got to put up a brave face in front of us. No offense, but you are just a kid.” Chester said before focusing once again on the road.
Ezekiel paused for a second, running Chester’s comments through his head. He then pulled his mana back into himself, and the frustration at being treated like a kid assaulted his mind, as did the panic he felt at nearly taking a blow to the head.
“Dammit! I need to get a hold of this emotional nullification before it becomes a problem again.” Ezekiel thought to himself.
He hadn’t realized it at the time, but the moment he sensed the attack coming, he subconsciously channeled mana to his mind, causing his emotions to be suppressed, just like they were in the Ruins of Senera.
“How far out are we?” Ezekiel called out when he calmed down naturally.
“Still a couple hours.” Chester said.
By this point, the various members of the group had returned to their positions and were either riding their mounts or sitting in the cart.
“Understood.” Ezekiel said back before closing his eyes.
He couldn’t risk taking a nap at this time, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t let himself relax at least a little bit. Best to be prepared for whatever came next after all.
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The party arrived at Oxren a little bit before noon, having run into only one more pack of Wild Spirits on their way. This one was slightly smaller than the second, so it was dealt with quickly.
Seeing the relatively small and quaint village, Ezekiel and Shine took a moment to admire the view. Shine had finished figuring things out a little bit after the last battle. Apparently, he had something he wanted to show Ezekiel, but it was a bit destructive, so now wasn’t the time.
“How on earth do merchants get by on that road on a regular basis?” Ezekiel couldn’t help but ask as he disembarked from the cart as they arrived at the village.
“Oh, they don’t. That was not the trade road.” Chester said.
“Is there a different road for trade then?”
“Yeah, that first crossroad we passed leads to the trade road. It goes around the various territories with Spirit packs. But it takes about a day and a half to get here by cart. There’s a way station that makes travel somewhat safer, but if you need to move fast, that’s not the road you take.” Chester further explained.
“Then why was the road we took so well maintained?” Ezekiel asked.
“Well, not all of the Guilds like taking the long way between towns, so one of the regular jobs that they have is to maintain the fast roads every couple of weeks. It’s a good way to make coin when you got a group that needs things moved fast.”
Ezekiel nodded at Chester’s words. He could definitely see the appeal, and necessity, of having a shorter road, even if it was significantly more dangerous. A thirty-six-hour trip cut down to less than six was invaluable in an emergency after all.
“How much would a trip like this cost regularly, with the team we have right now?”
Chester took a moment to think about it, counting on his fingers as he did some mental math.
“Well, for the trade road you usually wouldn’t outsource Mages for help, so you’d only get charged for taking the fast roads. A team like ours is the minimum you’d want to have, and Mages are paid by the job, rather than the hour, since you could screw over your employer if you did things that way...”
Chester mumbled to himself as he figured out the general rates that such a trip would usually cost. His expression grew more and more weary as he did.
Ezekiel, meanwhile, was feeling incredibly guilty at having apparently tricked Chester into such an expensive venture. All without even knowing it.
With his head held in his hands, Chester managed to whisper an answer.
“It’d be roughly a hundred and fifty gold for the three Tier three Hunters, and about a hundred and twenty gold total for the dozen guards, me included. Plus, another twenty gold for the cart rental, due to dangers and such, so, this job should have been two hundred and ninety gold coins for this trip. With a similar price for the return trip.”
Ezekiel was flabbergasted at the price of this, relatively, short trip.
“Five... hundred... and eighty gold... For a one-day trip!?” Ezekiel nearly screamed as the total price for the amount of money that this venture should’ve cost was presented to him.
From what he knew, a similar trip back in Harkem would’ve cost half as much when hiring via the Guilds. But then he thought about it and realized that the number of high Tier Mages and Hunters were much lower in the Archipelago, or at least much more spread out. Thus, the demand was higher, but the supply was lower, hence the increased costs.
“That’s a lot.” Shine couldn’t help but squeak as they compared Ezekiel’s knowledge of gold and cost of most mundane items.
“Yeah. Needless to say, you’re lucky I wanted to capture Sasha just as much as you did.” Chester grumbled as he started walking over to Kurt and the other Tier threes.
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“That, and the fact that you wouldn’t know where to look if it wasn’t for my information.” Ezekiel muttered under his breath. “I need to figure out how to pay these guys back, asap.”
Ezekiel still barely believed that a job like this would be so expensive. How could Chester have just given him a free voucher for transportation if it was this costly.
Too curious to let things lie, he voiced his thoughts on the matter.
“The simple answer is that the Glacial Spirits in the waters around Sanafalls Island have made deals with the Church. We get peaceful trade lanes in the water, they get a certain amount of tribute, as well as help in fending off the Cruor who manage to get too close.” Chester told him.
As he thought about it, Ezekiel realized that that made quite a bit of sense. Similarly, if Ezekiel had asked for transportation via the trade road, the trip might cost less than a hundred gold, due to the lack of danger and the only real cost being the rental fee for the cart.
As well, he would need maybe half a dozen guards, rather than the more than a dozen he had now, and the cost for them would likely be half as much due to the significantly lower chance of danger occurring.
“Alright, kid, where to next?” Chester asked. Kurt, Casey, and Tori also turned to him to hear his answer.
Recalling the information Murry had given him, Ezekiel told them about the cabin being made near the small lake close to Oxren, one that was fed by a waterfall. As well as the information regarding the maze of caves and the approximate location of the exit.
“The Hull Breakers shouldn’t be aware of the cabin, so long as Milicent or the guards told them.” Ezekiel said.
Chester and the three Tier three Hunters took a minute to think things over.
“Our best bet is probably to set up a trap at the cabin. That way we can get Sasha when she’s too far away from the caves to run to. Looking for a Cavern Mage in a cavern and tunnel system wouldn’t be easy after all.” Tori suggested.
“Well, that sounds good to me. Unless anyone has any better ideas.” Casey said.
No one had any, so the group set out to the location of the small lake with the waterfall. After finding more specific information from the proprietor of the inn they had left the cart and horses at.
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Arriving at the cabin was quick and easy when compared to the trip to get to this point, but it seemed like Ezekiel’s fears were well founded, because they weren’t more than a couple kilometers away when Casey came back after scouting the easiest path there.
“There’s a group of Hull Breakers waiting in the cabin. It seems like the kid’s worries were spot on. Someone leaked the information. Luckily, it seems like there’s only a handful of them. A group of five Hunters, that’s it.” Casey reported when the group came to a stop.
“Do you know how many Adepts they have?” Kurt asked.
“At least two, a Death and Glacial Mage, but since Kiri couldn’t get close enough to sense them without being sensed in return, I don’t know if a couple of them were Tier three. At least not from just their hair color.” Casey explained. The other three were a Tempest, Cavern, and Radiant Mage.
“Then it looks like we’ll need to take a risk. Hopefully they aren’t all Tier three. If it’s only two or three, then we can take them easily enough, but four will be difficult, and if there’s five, we’ll retreat.” Kurt declared. “Any good sensory elements?”
Casey confirmed that there was a Cavern Mage and Tempest Mage, both of whom were likely able to sense them coming, if they hadn’t already figured it out, since Kiri, Casey’s Spirit, had seen a flying Tempest Spirit nearby. She had confirmed that said Spirit had been sitting on one of the Hull Breaker’s shoulders.
“Maybe I’ll get to show you what I figured out!” Shine chimed in after hearing that there would be a fight.
“Can you tell me anything more about it?” Ezekiel asked.
“I want it to be a surprise.” Shine said.
Ezekiel continued to try and get Shine to explain, but they refused. Wanting to show off during the fight. He really felt that Shine needed to tell him what their new trick was but gave up before it could turn into an argument. But there was one thing he needed to know.
“Will it be helpful against Tier threes?”
“... Maybe?” Shine didn’t sound too sure of themself.
Ezekiel didn’t say anything else as he and Shine followed behind the party to get closer to the cabin.
“Casey.” Kurt said.
Casey flashed forwards as she and Kiri shot lighting at the cabin, forcing each of the five Hunters to jump outside. As they flew out of the now destroyed building, Kurt and Tori cursed as they sensed the power of the Hull Breakers.
“Well, well, well. Looks like the boss was right. The little brat didn’t let things lie as he should’ve.” One of the Hull Breakers, the Death Mages Casey had mentioned earlier, said as he looked over Ezekiel and his group.
“There’s more than we expected. Do you think we’ll have a problem with this?” The Adept Hunter of the Glacial element asked.
“No. Their Tier twos are strong enough to be a concern if we focus on whittling them away first. The girl likely won’t be here for a little bit longer as well, so we have time to finish this if they chose to fight.” The Death Mage said.
For their part, Kurt, Tori, and Casey were deliberating their chances in a fight.
“Four Adepts, and it looks like the fifth is a porter if the number of bags he’s holding are any indication.” Kurt said under his breath.
“Should we risk it?” Tori asked.
“Ezekiel, now!” Shine exclaimed as they sent a large amount of information into Ezekiel’s mind.
Surprised by the sudden influx of information and instincts that were innately a part of Shine’s existence, it took Ezekiel everything he had to not be knocked on his ass as his vision briefly spun.
But, as quickly as he was struck by dizziness, his vision focused as he and Shine channeled their mana in unison, dashing forward to the front of the group, Ezekiel drew Shine from their sheath and made a diagonal slash at Adept Death Mage and his Spirit, a snake coiling around his torso, hoping that something would happen.
“Kid! Get back here!” Kurt yelled as he grabbed Ezekiel by the scruff of his neck and threw him backwards. Having used up nearly all his and Shine’s mana, they weren’t able to do anything as he was thrown and caught by one of the other guards.
Seeing Ezekiel’s actions, and the lack of anything happening, four of the Hull Breakers, including their porter started laughing. But the Death Mage didn’t say anything back as he stared down at his Spirit and chest.
“Hah! I don’t know why we were told to watch out for that brat, but it seems like all the warnings we received were pointless, weren’t they, boss?” The Cavern Mage, a stout man with a mustache, called out to the Death Mage.
The Death Mage was silent, and the lack of reply made everyone's attention focus on him.
Holding a hand up to his chest, he pulled it away, seeing that there was blood on his hand from an inch deep cut that was slowly opening up.
“Reek?” The Death Mage whispered, lightly touching his Spirit with a listless tone of voice.
The moment that his hand made contact with his Spirit’s body, it fell into several pieces, splitting apart due to cuts forming along the same line as the cut that had appeared on his chest. The small size of his Spirit being thin enough to have been cut nearly all the way through due to Ezekiel’s slash.
Everyone stared in shock at the sudden development. A Tier one Mage had single handedly slain a Tier three Spirit. Never mind the fact that the Spirit was in its shrunken form, and therefore had a much weaker defensive ability. The fact that none of them were aware of how Ezekiel had even done it was the most terrifying part.
“Shine... What was that?” Ezekiel asked, his thoughts reflecting his exhaustion.
“A ranged cut! You cut the space between here and there, but it could only go so deep. We didn’t have enough mana to go much further. Luckily, they weren’t channeling mana to defend themselves, or it wouldn’t have worked.” Shine explained, having received enlightenment from the images that Ezekiel had shown them earlier in the day.
Ezekiel thought about the information Shine had given him before they made that attack. He realized that doing so again wouldn’t be easy to do in the future, as it was easily blocked by other people’s mana, and the only reason they managed to kill the Spirit was because it was so small. Most other Spirits that shrank down like that weren’t so thin as to be cut in half from an inch deep cut.
Nonetheless, however, it was also an untraceable attack that was also impossible to sense. So, Ezekiel knew that he and Shine would be working on using it as much as possible when they returned to the Cathedral.
“YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!” The Death Mage screamed as he blindly ran forward, intent on killing Ezekiel in the most horrifying manner he could.
“Boss, don’t!” The Glacial Mage screamed as she dashed forward to try and support her boss.
Everyone snapped out of their stupor, the Hunters in Ezekiel’s group immediately attacked the tunnel visioned Death Mage. He was so focused on killing Ezekiel, that he barely paid attention to the lightning, icicles, and thorny tree branch lethally attacking him.
The Death Mage’s body was thrown to the side as the attacks pierced his body. Killing him well before he got close enough to harm Ezekiel. From there, a free-for-all battle broke out between Ezekiel’s group and the Hull Breakers that were there. The only exception to this was the porter, who immediately ran away as the fighting broke out, leaving his companions outnumbered.
Kurt fought the other Glacial Mage, Casey fought the Tempest Mage, and Tori fought the Cavern Mage. Each of them was supported by a group of Tier twos that took shots from a distance.
Casey quickly overcame the challenge that the Tempest Mage presented due to the help from a couple of the Tier two Tempest Mages interfering with some of the Adept’s spells. It was ultimately a burst of flame that managed to get past his defenses, distracting him in the process, that provided an opening for Casey to strike him down with a bolt of lightning to the head.
The sudden shock of losing their partner shocked the Tempest Mage’s Spirit enough for Kiri to land a lethal hit to the Tempest Spirit’s back.
The moment that Casey’s battle ended was the moment that the other Hunters fully dedicated themselves to retreating, but Casey was too fast, and was able to quickly double team the Cavern Mage with Tori. Casey struck from above with a dual lightning strike from her and her familiar, and Tori struck from below, causing branches to break the ground beneath the Cavern Mage and his Spirit. They were quickly skewered by the branches coming from below.
As this was having, the Glacial Mage that Kurt was fighting was fully panicking at this point. But he she had managed to break away from Kurt and the Tier twos attacking her and was making her way across the lake not too far away, with Kurt hot on her heels.
They were nearly halfway across the lake when Casey and Tori finished up. Casey, seeing where they were going, and being able to move much faster than Tori, flashed across the sky with Kiri, and shot a bolt of lightning directly at the fleeing Hull Breaker. A viscous smirk stretched across her face as she did so. Kurt paused in his chase, knowing what was about to happen.
The Glacial Mage threw up a shield to block the attack but was shocked when the lightning arced to the side, striking the water of the lake instead. Her eyes widened, as the water she was hoping to use to escape instead channeled the lightning directly into her and her Spirit’s body.
The two figures violently convulsed as they were filled with electricity. As Casey’s attack lessened, Kurt dashed forward, a hammer of ice forming in his hand. He slammed it into the Hull Breaker’s head, knocking her unconscious, and covered in the electrical scars Casey had given her. Her Spirit, however, wasn’t spared, and Kurt’s Spirit quickly tore it apart.
On the shore of the lake, Ezekiel watched this happen in amazement, excited at having witnessed an actual battle between Adept Hunters. Rather than the back-alley brawls that he had been in, and the one life threatening fight he’d been in with Aldor.
As Kurt and Casey made their way back to the shore, they used some branches grown and shaped by Tori to bind and secure their prisoner. Tori also fed a concoction that was supposed to keep her asleep for at least eight hours. Then they started directing the rest of the group. They didn’t think that they had too much time left before Sasha was likely to show up.
Tori took some time to fix up the cabin to as close to what it originally looked like, before Casey attacked it, as she could. The rest of the group spread out, just in case Sasha had good sensing capabilities, and Kurt and Chester decided to remain inside the cabin, with Tori and Casey spreading out to encircle Sasha just in case.
Ezekiel, having little to no mana left, was also left inside the cabin, where Kurt and Chester could watch him, just in case. As it was, the two were filled with mixed feelings about him right now. On the one hand, he had killed one of their enemies, and created an opening to take down another almost immediately. On the other hand, if things went poorly, they could’ve died had the battle been less even.
Luckily for Ezekiel, other than a short berating, and some orders not to cause more trouble, he didn’t suffer too much at the hands of his watchers.
“Aren’t you curious as to how I did that?” Ezekiel did ask when no one asked him anything.
Chester and Kurt exchanged wary glances before replying.
“Would the Church allow you to tell us?” Kurt asked quietly.
“... They’d probably rather I didn’t. I’m likely to get in trouble when I return. Or at least admonished more than I already have been.” Ezekiel said.
“Then I consider it to be Church business, and we don’t need to know more than that.” Kurt said with a final nod before falling silent to wait.
The group ended up waiting for several hours, and the sun was nearly setting when a sharp cry pierced the sky. Just as they were thinking that Sasha wasn’t going to show up, Kiri had spotted her, and she was headed straight to the cabin.
She got within a few dozen meters of the cabin, trudging along heavily, when the cracking of countless branches and trees echoed through the foliage. Sasha had noticed something and was moving to run away. Tori had obviously seen this, and threw up a wall of thick thorny branches to box her in.
A loud crack soon followed as Casey landed in a flash of lightning. Kurt moved outside, seeing Sasha standing a fair distance from the cabin, facing away from it. A groundhog was held in her hands as she frantically looked around, backing away from the Tier threes slowly, but towards the wall of branches.
Tori waved her hand, causing the branches to reach out and wrap around Sasha’s body and limbs, pulling her hands apart. The groundhog in her arms fell to the ground, and was also wrapped up in branches, hysterically squeaking and snorting as it was.
Seeing that their target was caught and secured, Chester strode out with a confident swagger. Ezekiel followed out behind him, much less confident, and somewhat concerned.
“Well, look at what we have here!” Chester exclaimed with a clap of his hands. “Hello, Sasha. I suppose you’re surprised to see me?”
Sasha just looked on in fear. Her mouth shut and eyes watering as she was finally forced to face the consequences of her actions.