Theon cursed out, his usually ever-so-calm expression twisting into a strained grimace as he channeled his limited mana into various protective spells. Immediately lights flared up, enveloping both Ina and him. Not a moment later, arrows showered down on the pair, creating a sound similar to that of a rainstorm unloading on an old roof.

“For fuck's sake, if you don’t want to, just say so!”, the mage cried out with considerable anger.

But his words seemed to fall onto deaf ears. Even though he had properly used their dialect of the old tongue, the row of weremen clan’s men who had encircled them continued to pour down salve after salve of arrows.

His expression turned even more sour as he realized that his mana supply was rapidly depleting. If they did not get out of this situation within the next few minutes, they would end up dead by the hands of these fox-eared bastards!

Ina threw him a panicked look. She was even more flustered than the mage. Only a few minutes ago, she had stood next to Theon as he peacefully conversed with the village’s elder and now these same, fox-eared ancient folks seemed hell-bent on killing them.

“C-can’t you just blow them away with a spell?”, she blurted out, her eyes darting around as she looked for a way to escape their encirclement.

“…”, the magus grimaced even more.

“….if I was in the dungeon I could incinerate them with a single word…”, he finally pressed out.

“What the fuck is keeping you from doing it now?”, she asked with visible distress. Seeing that their arrows seemed to have no impact on the invisible shields protecting the two humans, a couple of tall, armored weremen separated from their comrades and stormed towards the pair. Holding in their hands, they were swinging heavy axes, decorated with strange, blue pulsating runes.

Theon could not help but curse again as he saw the ax-wielding warriors. He turned to Ina and gripped her by the shoulders, clearly irritated by both the situation and the girl's complaints.

“Listen.”, he said in a hurried voice.

“Once I am outside of the dungeon, I only have access to a very veery small amount of mana. Compared to what I am capable of within the dungeon, it is like I turn into a cripple once I leave it. That is exactly the reason why I need subordinates that can take care of my business in the outside world for me.”, a hard-pressed smile appeared on his lips and his eyes flashed with anger and fear.

“So, now my DEAR subordinate….if It’s fine with you, please keep those warriors with their Tr’vre axes from breaking the spells that keep those arrows from turning us into VERY DEAD HEDGEHOGS!!”

Ina stirred. The emotions in the usually stoic and never-changing expression of the mage woke her up from the state of panic and confusion that had overwhelmed her. Years of traveling through the continent and adventuring went into action and her mental state stabilized.

In a single motion, she freed herself from Theon’s stiff grip and whirled around to face the oncoming warriors. A wry smile appeared on her lips.

“As you wish…”, she hesitated and her smile quivered.

“…uh…master…”, feeling awkward, she quickly dissipated her thoughts and concentrated on the four ax-bearing warriors, each of which was a good two heads taller than her.

Despite the difference in size, the girl did not falter and instead dashed towards them for a head-on attack. A confident smile appeared on her lips, as she felt the calm, pulsating stream of energy within her stir and increase in power, the three symbols on her body glowing up with white light as her speed increased.

In less than the time it took to take a breath, she had arrived in front of the first warrior, a dagger flashed and clashed against the head of an ax that was larger than her head. A metallic sound rang out and Ina grimaced a little. Using the impact, she fell back before tapping the ground with her feet and by-passing the first warrior and jumping towards the second.

Once again, her attack was blocked by a simple motion of the ax, but this time, Ina used the momentum of the strike to propel herself into the air. She performed a somersault and kicked her foot against the back of the first warrior’s head who barely had time to react after her initial attack.

The massive werebeast faltered for a moment before catching his balance. The girl’s diminutive stature was too much of a disadvantage when fighting these mountains of muscles. He let out an enraged shout and swung his ax towards the position where Ina had been, but only managed to embed his massive ax head deep into the soil.

Meanwhile, Ina had already continued to the third and fourth warrior, sneaking small attacks on them while evading the devastating ax-blows targeted on her.

She whirled around and used her small statue to the fullest extent, using the four proud warriors as if they were a playground that had been designed for her to jump around. A confident smile had appeared on her lips and she felt a rush of exhilaration with every attack that succeeded.

Of course, she knew that she was in fact no match for these three. Her attacks almost never drew blood and even when they did, it was merely a scratch to these seasoned warriors. But her goal was not to wound or kill these weremen. Theon’s orders had just been to keep their axes from reaching the invisible shields that protected him from the still ongoing barrage of arrows.

“Ok, that’s enough.”, she suddenly heard Theon say. At that exact moment, an additional pair of warriors had just separated from their peers and began rushing towards her. Seeing this, it did not take a lot of persuasion to make her retreat to Theon.

The magus seemed tired, his face pale. While Ina had been fighting and distracting the weremen, he had mustered up all the mana, he could scramble together. Now, he grabbed Ina by the collar, mumbled a spell and immediately threw her through the glimmering sheet of light that represented the forming portal. Without a moment of hesitation, he followed suit, barely avoiding a whistling arrow that passed by him and disappeared into the portal.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

As soon as the grey robe of Theon disappeared, the spell destabilized, and the portal faded away.

…

Blood splattered and a pained cry rang out. A small green creature fell to its knees and gripped the black-feathered arrow that had pierced its stomach. Seconds later, the poor goblin was dead, its life taken by a single stray arrow that had made it through the portal.

Ina jumped up to her feet, her face a mixture of relief to have made it out of the weremen village and irritation over having been handled by Theon like a bag of potatoes. She saw the dead goblin and grimaced, pity shimmering in her eyes but it only lasted for a second. She saw Theon step through the portal and almost collapse. The young man wobbled backward until he reached the wall and leaned against it. His face pale and his breath ragged and painful.

“This…”, he panted and grimaced.

“Is exactly the reason why I stayed in my dungeon until now…”, his grey eyes glittered with anger.

Ina ran over to him and propped him up.

“Are you alright?”, she asked with a concerned expression.

“…Sure.”, he replied, his expression wavering for a moment before returning to his signature stoic nonchalance.

“I…will be fine in a couple of moments. Creating this portal almost depleted all the mana in this body and lead to a mana deficiency that almost killed it.”, he explained in a calm manner.

“Now that I am in the dungeon, I can just refill it.”, as he finished talking, his skin had once again returned to its normal color and he gently removed the girl’s hands. A cocky smile appeared on his lips.

“So... don't worry about your master.”, Ina’s cheeks immediately flushed, and he chuckled in amusement.

“Anyway.”, his tone became serious again.

“Let’s get to fucking those bastards over.”, a cold shine overtook his eyes and Ina could feel the anger that was still burning within him.

“…what exactly did…you say to those weremen?”, she asked with a little hesitation.

“…”

Theon suddenly became embarrassed and averted his eyes. Scratching his head, he stayed silent for a bit.

“Well…I asked them to become my subordinates. In exchange, I said I would be their protector… That… usually how we magi acquire our subordinates.”

“And…what did they say?”

“…”

“Their elder laughed and asked how I planned on protecting them with the little mana I had.”

She could see that Theon felt quite embarrassed about this fact. It’s been two weeks since she had come to know him and she was very certain that he was a very powerful and most likely old mage. Despite that, their fight just now had shown that he could not really do anything outside of the dungeon.

Why that was, she did not know. But judging from Theon’s reaction it seemed like it had something to do with the reason why he had come to this desolate forest and created a dungeon only to let it gather dust for the gods knew how long.

For a while both of them were silent. The young woman wasn’t sure what she should respond, while the mysterious mage was too embarrassed to continue. In the end, Ina had to break the silence.

“Well...so how do you plan on getting back on them? After all, we can’t really expect the goblins to be much help against them right?”, she looked over to the dead goblin who was being carried away by a few of his brethren.

Theon showed a wry smile and shook his head.

“We won’t be able to fight them head-on. But didn’t you notice a strange thing?”

She blinked a few times.

“What...do you mean?”, trying to think back to their fight, she couldn’t really remember anything out of the ordinary.

Theon smiled.

“Why the fuck, did they continue to shower us with arrows, when all they had to do, was drop the bows and swarm us with their enchanted axes?”

Ina fell silent again, trying to think back to her fight against the weremen. Theon was right, if they had just attacked them with more men from the get-go, they would not have been able to fight back at all. So why had they hesitated and just attacked from afar, wasting countless arrows when they could have just smashed them in a single charge?

“Maybe…they don’t have enough of these axes? I don’t know a lot about this weremen clan, but it could be that they are bow experts?”, she argued. Sure, it seemed like there was something fishy about the way they had held back, but it could have just as well been coincident.

The mage shook his head.

“If that were the case, they would have used enchanted arrows. Weremen are famous for their skill in creating spell-breaking weapons. It’s the reason why they have managed to hang on this subcontinent for so long despite being outnumbered by us humans.

But they did not have any enchanted arrows, with means that their clan usually doesn’t depend on bows.”

He looked at the girl, waiting for her to draw her own conclusion.

“So…”, she began, her expression turning thoughtful.

“They aren’t usually bow-users but instead fight with those huge axes…”, her expression lit up and she looked up to Theon.

“But they did not attack us with those axes because…they are wounded!”, a proud smile blossomed on her lips.

“Correct.”, the mage replied with a slight smile.

“Fighting in close quarters with those huge-ass metal clumps isn’t easy and instantly shows any weaknesses or injuries they might have. My guess is, that they have been in some sort of conflict with another group that has left their warriors largely injured.

That would explain why they tried to take us out from afar and only sent in a few, uninjured fighters.”

“So…”, she scratched her neck and mustered him.

“What is your plan?”

An evil smile spread across the young man’s face.

“Simple.”, he summoned a few of the goblins with a wink.

“Go out and scout the forest for any signs of recent battles. Find out who has been fighting the weremen and keep both them and the weremen under surveillance.”

Receiving his orders, the goblins around them scurried along the hallways. Despite their relatively low intelligence, they were well-versed in spying on the other creatures of the forest. It was one of the few things weaklings like them could do in order to avoid destruction by the hands of the strong.

The human girl watched all this with interest, her big eyes glittering with interest.

“So…you will help the weremen fight against their enemies and in exchange, they will become your subordinates?”, she asked thoughtfully.

“…something like this.”, the mage answered mysteriously, a satisfied expression spreading across his pale face as a plan began to take shape in his mind.