Anthony recalled the moment he fell into a deep sleep in the room at the Inn. It was as if his soul was being pulled out of his body while every fiber of his life force was trying to keep him grounded to the floor. In the end, he couldn’t fight the sudden rush of energy that pulled him out of his body and made him float through the air like an arrow shooting in the distance. He was merely a humble passenger riding to the next destination when his astral form landed in the middle of forest across the boundaries of Iasera.

He could feel his spirit floating lifting above the trees, a humble observer to four figures that stepped out from the thicket of the woods. Three figures were obscured in shadows, unrecognizable and covered by black cloaks, but he recognized the silver haired woman who had taken off the hood of her cloak. It was the same woman he had seen at the Bank earlier, Ms. Febronia, Tychon’s assistant that had interrupted their meeting. With the light of the stars and moon above she kneeled down examining every blade of grass and snapped twigs on the ground like a trained tracker.

“It seems our quarry has not made it this far to the edge of the border which means it’ll leave us time to set up an ambush before it reaches our destination.” She got up from her feet and turned to her colleagues.

“I don’t get why it would head into town in the first place?” A hooded man said. “Even a wounded animal would know better than to head toward civilization?”

“You’re new to this group, so you’ve never tangled with this type of prey before, they’re born to crave destruction.” A second hood man said. “They’re especially drawn to high elemental forces, like light stones, wind regulators, water coolants, and practically every elemental force in nature.”

“Doesn’t that mean it’ll be compelled to seek out mages as well?”

“That’s what we want.” Febronia commanded. “Four high class mages this far from the city will be the perfect lure to practically corner it on the spot.”

“I can sense the target's moving presence already.” The third hooded man held his hand to the earth. “About ten leagues from here coming in at about twenty leagues per hour. Approximately half an hour until arrival.”

“That doesn’t leave us much time to set up an ambush.” She turned to each figure from the and called them each by name. “Ly, Ar, El, you know what to do, I’ll be the bait this time but watch my back, I don’t plan on cashing out tonight.”

“Affirmative.” The one man answered.

“Yes, ma’am.” The second man said.

The third man simply placed his hand on her shoulder and took his hood off to look her in the eyes. His salt and pepper hair, along with his gruff face gave the impression of a war veteran who had known her for long. He looked her in the eyes not only as a coworker but a concerned friend whom they had shared many missions together.

“Watch you back Zee, you know the company can’t afford to replace you.”

“They will if they have to, but I rather risk myself than you, Ar.” Febronia smiled and nodded to her friend.

As he left into the woods, she took a deep breath and raised her hands into the sky as she planted her feet firmly on the ground. With each breath sparks began to rise from feet to her heads as lightning began to generate from her body like a rod. Dark clouds began to rise above her head blocking out all light in the area. Sparks of thunder filled the area around the woods conjuring a Storm. She focused on holding the storm steady, an easy task for a first step in Fire Mage Mastery. As she did, a sound was heard as loud as drums rapidly beating.

Anthony’s dream took a turn for the worst as his body felt pulled to the source of the sound, far off and traveling leagues away. He raced through the forest at spirit speed and arrived just as a strange creature was swiftly approaching. The ground began to rumble and turn, the trees began to part as something big swarmed through the ground greater than any greater beast he had seen before. He saw a mound of dirt erupt as a large coil of creature shot up from the dirt like a giant snake erupted from its burrow. He saw the mouth of the beast lined like a tunnel of mashing teeth working together like a giant lamprey reaching down toward his astral form. All this was before he had woken up and told Master Zoe about his experience.

“That’s when I woke up.” Anthony had managed to finish describing his encounter as he rode with Master Zoe on a borrowed horse to the place he had recently dreamt up. “I don’t know if it was really a dream or a premonition but what I saw can’t be ignored.”

“Most folks might call you crazy, but I was there and examined every inch of you while you were sleeping and if it was a premonition, it was so vivid it broke all four elemental gems.” Master Zoe confirmed. “Also, if it was a dream, then why would there be storm clouds up ahead?”

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She pointed her long bony finger across his shoulder to an isolated storm cloud in a nearby forest indicating they were in the right place. After getting off their horse to walk to the area on foot, Anthony led the way to a familiar section of woods just outside the area of the storm’s radius. He stopped suddenly pulling back Master Zoe as he felt a presence in the area.

“We’re not alone.” He looked toward the tree line, to see two hood figures emerge from the forest.

They no longer wore hoods, but he recognized these men dressed in their formal steel hybrids formal suits, the same worn by Febronia when he saw him in Tychon’s office. This time he saw the face of the gruff, salt and pepper haired man named Ar, accompanied by a younger brown hair, brown eyes man with dark skin whom he assumed was either Ly or El. They approached the two calmly and peacefully showing no signs of malice, but Master Zoe and Anthony were suspicious from the start.

“This is closed area citizens, official city business.” Ar showed off his peace officer’s badge.

“Yeah, we’re going to need you both to turn around and leave this to the professionals.” The younger man added.

“I’m curious what peace officers are doing so far away from the city, especially considering this late hour.”

“I’m afraid that it's classified.” Ar stepped forward with aggressive authority. “Please kindly back away and return to your home.” Anthony chuckled as he looked toward his master with a nod.

“I’m sorry, I just thought of something funny about your shoes.” Anthony pointed out. “I saw a similar pair made of Carnelian Strix leather, very expensive considering it’s a Grade A beast. I was unaware you could afford a pair of peace officer’s salaries.”

Ar was calm, but his companion was shaking in his fancy suit. Anthony knew was coming and was able to quickly react with his hand on his knife, as soon as the first shot was fired. A small ball metal bearing came whizzing to his head, but Anthony managed to quickly deflect it with his dagger. While he managed to knock the proceeding barrage of ball bearings, Master Zoe set her signs on the other man.

One pull of his fist and Ar called forth water and heat from grass and plants, a technique called Absorption obtainable by a High Master Water Mage. With this, he had all the water he needed to create a storm of blunt icicles that shot at Master Zoe like a vertical hail storm. Master Zoe was no stranger to such a fight and quickly clapped her hands together to create a loud clap of Thunder that broke up the icicles before they made contact.

“Regroup!” Ar commanded his comrade as they gathered together, and began backing away from their opponents.

Master Zoe and Anthony were still on guard waiting to see what move their opponents would make.

“Why’d you have to do that, Lycurgus?!” Ar angrily whispered. “We’re not supposed to escalate situations, we’re supposed to keep the barrier while El and Zee handle the prey!”

“I panicked Argus!” Ly pleaded. “I mean look at this guy, he doesn’t seem like the authorities and he’s got a fire mage on his side. He could be a competing company.”

“Whatever business your company has here tonight, I’m here to tell you don’t know what you’re up against.” Anthony spoke and they listened.

“Whatever business we have is ours and if you know what’s best you’ll stay out of it!” Ar commanded with authority.

“Believe me I’d love to, but I’ve dealt with things like this before.” Master Zoe grabbed her wooden leg. “It’ll take more than two hunters to deal with the likes of a demon!”

“They know too much!” Ar turned to Ly.

Ly nodded as he tore up the earth with his fist and molded it into small sharp earth shards of compressed rock and metal tips.

At the same time, Ar absorbed a large amount of water from the trees and ground turning it into a blackened field before turning the water into a large collection of sharp ice spears. It was clear that they had switched from non-lethal to deadly forces meaning that they had to switch tacts. An Ice Collapse was on the way, a deadly technique of Water Magic.

Anthony got behind Master Zoe as they released the sharpened array of objects forward like rapid fire. While Master Zoe’s thunder broke up the majority of shards of dirt and ice, Anthony held tight to try and keep her stable as the sheer force of impact would have knocked her back.

At that point, even Anthony could feel the invisible bruising from the high kinetic impact that Master Zoe could barely absorb. All the while Anthony felt something build up inside him, the same feeling he got that day at the farm. A feeling that something was moving alive inside him and was trying to break out of him like a powder keg ready to blow. The kinetic force of earth and water started to make the amulet around his neck crack. It was like a seed ready to sprout as bits of earthen matter started to break off the amulet revealing a blueish vine starting to leach out from within.

Anthony could sense an unknown presence creeping up behind them, an unseen force that couldn’t be seen. It was a trap and they were already standing in it. Their rear was unguarded and there was heavy coldness in the air. He had felt this feeling before the night at the farm, it was the feeling of incoming Avalanche, an assault on all sides. This time Anthony did not have his power, but his instincts told him to face the shards head on, just as he did with the lightning. He turned around bearing his chest ready to be ripped to shreds from the fast approaching second row of ice spears.