The dragon blood in Celaine’s veins roared, her Hunter’s Instinct alerting her to the danger that surrounded her. The howl of wolves filled the forest to the left of their campsite—those had to be the creatures Keeper Tessa had sensed, which meant there were three more in that direction.
“That wizard of yours really does know how to make a show,” Tessa said cheerfully, watching the spectacle of his magic.
“He’s not my wizard,” Celaine said.
Tessa smiled knowingly, then nodded toward the trees nearby. “You handle the left side. There are four on the hill to the right, one of them of the third circle. They shall be mine.”
“Yes, Keeper.”
“Remember…” Keeper Tessa hefted her spear like a javelin and drew back her arm, essence exploding from her as she infused the weapon with her blessing. “Try to handle this diplomatically.”
She launched the spear at the hillside. It streaked through the air on a brilliant ray of silver, striking the hillside where the enemy were gathered. It stuck in the ground, the spear glistening as the enemy around it cried out in alarm, and then power erupted.
The hillside was obliterated in an explosion of dust and dirt, sending the enemy flying for cover in all directions. Tessa stood amongst them a moment later.
Right, she’s got that covered, Celaine thought, turning to her own foes.
Four wolves appeared from the forest and crossed Hump’s veil. The moment they stepped inside, their excitement came to a stop at the sight of Igni glaring at them. The dragon stood over Nisha protectively. They growled, hackles raised, only for Igni to take a step forward and unleash a deep, rumbling snarl. His eyes gleamed with purple light as he unleashed the indomitable will of a dragon upon them. Between his legs, Nisha growled with newfound ferocity. The wolves let out a defeated whine and dropped to the ground. They didn’t move. They didn’t even make a sound.
Behind them, three figures appeared from the forest. A woman with an axe who shouted commands at the wolves, trying to figure out what was going on; a man with twin swords; and a second man gracefully running at his side, a spear held behind him in one hand.
Celaine grinned at the sight of them, excited to put the changes to her blessings to the test for the first time. Shadow rose around her as she released her new major blessing, Embrace of the Dark. It felt nothing like her other powers. The connection to nature and the hunt felt different, this was about darkness and the energy within. Wielding Master of Shadows, she extended the haze of shadow before her, encompassing even the campfire, until there was no light left on her side of the veil, even for her. But she didn’t need light.
As her prey stepped into the veil, she activated her enhanced variant of Predator’s Intent, Gaze of the Night Hunter. The world was clear to her once more, as were her enemies. She saw right through them, to the shining core of their being. She was the hunter, and there was nowhere they could run from her. Their life was hers if she only decided to take it.
The two men froze at her deadly intent, paralysed in fear, but the woman managed to advance, somehow locating her within the darkness. She screamed as she hefted her axe, swinging it in a slow, clumsy arc.
Celaine stepped to the side, allowing the axe to strike the ground. It was a powerful blow—the woman was almost certainly Chosen and had likely reached the second circle, but it was far from enough. Her attack left her off-balance, and right in the middle of Celaine’s shadows. It was an easy job to finish her off.
But for today, killing was not their objective.
Swiftly, Celaine drew Bloodshadow from its sheath and held the dagger to the woman’s throat. “Don’t move unless you want to die.”
Celaine released her shadows to see the woman staring at her with wide eyes, her mouth agape, her breathing rapid. The two men behind her stared in horror at Celaine, and then their eyes found Igni, lording over their four wolf companions like the apex predator he was.
They collapsed to the ground, their weapons falling from their hands.
“That goes for all of you,” Celaine said. “Sit there and be quiet, and you may just make it through the rest of the night alive.”
Glancing behind her, Celaine spotted Tessa up the hill, leaning against a tree as she watched Hump at work. Around her, two of their attackers were either unconscious or dead, while two more were on their knees.
Hump, on the other hand, was still taking care of things. He stared down the hill at the mess he’d made with an annoying smirk on his face.
He’s enjoying this way too much. Celaine sighed. And this is why we let Bud handle the talking.
***
Hump stared down at the havoc he’d caused. Five of the shield bearers were working hard to climb out of the mound of dirt he’d unleashed on them, which turned out to be rather challenging in a full coat of mail. Merek was the only man still standing, protected by an aegis that appeared before his shield and held back the earth.
“I told you this was a bad idea,” Hump said.
The man roared as he heaved aside the weight of earth and stone and tried to step forward again. He was battered and beaten from where his shield had failed to block the initial barrage of rocks, but his eyes were defiant. If they were to end this without further bloodshed, Hump would need to change that.
“That’s enough.” Hump levelled his staff at the man. He summoned his soul, releasing just enough of his aura to give the man a taste of his strength. “That spell was a warning. If you do not surrender, I will stop holding back.”
Merek looked at him—at his aura—his face draining of colour. “Who—Who are you?”
“I told you who I am. I’m Wizard Humphrey Woodrow.”
“I have money,” Merek said. “Spare me and my men, and I can pay you well.”
Hump let out a long breath and frowned. “For now, just gather your men and come up here. We need to have a conversation. And have one of them check on the Chosen of Lady Light down there—I didn’t expect my spell to take her down so easily. I’m worried I hit her too hard.”
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It didn’t take long for the Bearskins to collect themselves. While Hump hadn’t intended to cause serious injuries, one man had broken his leg and two more were struggling to walk. The Chosen of Lady Light was unconscious with a bleeding head injury. She didn’t look much older than him.
Stepping into the veil, all eyes lingered on Igni and Nisha, a mixture of surprise, confusion, and fear written across their faces. Hump ordered the group to drop to their knees. Without their weapons, and seeing Hump’s company, all signs of fight had left the group. There were thirteen men and women in total, and four wolves that now cowered behind their owner.
“I told you that you were mistaken,” Hump said. “We travel with dragons, not wyverns.”
“Dragons…” Merek whispered. “How? There hasn’t been a dragon in these parts for centuries.”
“Then it’s your lucky day,” Celaine said.
Tessa knelt by the Chosen of Lady Light’s side, inspecting her wound.
“What are you doing?” Merek snapped, trying to get to his feet.
“Don’t move,” Celaine said, manifesting a spear of shadow and pointing it at the man’s throat.
“There’s no need for that, Cela,” Tessa said. “I’m inspecting her wound. I suspect she may have a cracked skull. We need to tend her immediately. Does anyone have a healing potion?”
Celaine gave Hump the side eye. “Nice one,” she whispered.
Hump grimaced, feeling guilty. She may have been part of a group that was attacking them, but he didn’t want the death of a young woman on his conscience.
“Ursal, give them access to our supplies,” Merek ordered.
A woman straightened her back. “May I move, or will I too have a spear pointed at my throat?” She glared at Celaine.
Celaine’s face twitched in annoyance. “If you didn’t want a spear pointed at you, perhaps you should have stuck to your own campfire instead of trying to sneak up on ours.”
“Just give her the damned potion,” Merek said. “Quickly, Ursal, for the sake of the gods.”
The woman took a small pouch from her belt and opened it. Inside was a small storage space, neatly packed with potions.
They must have some wealth to have a storage artifact like that, Hump thought.
The woman took out a red vial and handed it to Celaine, who passed it to Tessa. Tessa gave it to the woman and massaged the base of her chin to make her drink it.
After a few seconds, Tessa frowned. “What was that potion?”
“A minor healing tonic,” Ursal said. “Like you asked.”
Tessa looked at her as if she were an idiot. “That’s the best you have for healing. Do you not care about your companion?”
“There’s a war against monsters and we were assigned to some ghastly town,” Merek said with a scowl. “Healing potions are in short supply.”
“Let me do it,” Hump said.
Merek looked at him in confusion. “You?”
Tessa stepped back, and Hump approached the woman on the ground, holding his staff over her head so that the Silver Sprig gifted to him by Owalyn dangled over her bloody wound.
It had seen a little use before he’d left Drakalyn. Mostly to figure out how it worked, but also to help lessen the burden on the healers tending to all those wounded in the battle against the undead. The Silver Sprig was a simple artifact to use—it absorbed the essence of nature over the day, each leaf turning silver once it reached capacity. At full capacity, like it was now, he could at the very least mend a broken bone. He’d yet to test it further.
He closed his eyes and focused his intent on the sprig, willing its power to come out and heal the injury. The silver leaves started to shine, essence sprinkling from them in a rain of glittering dust, pouring over her head.
“That’s an artifact of healing,” Merek said, stunned.
Hump could understand his shock. Healing artifacts were about as valuable as they came, even single use ones. An artifact like the Silver Sprig… Hump couldn’t guess at how much it would be worth.
The green light of healing blossomed from the wound, and in moments flesh knitted itself back together and the woman’s breathing became more relaxed. She pressed her eyes together, then opened them in a squint, appearing startled as she saw Hump standing over her. Her eyes went wide with fear.
Hump pulled back his staff. “You’re alright. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You’re the wizard,” she stammered. She sat up, looking around. Seeing her companions on their knees nearby was enough to put some of her previous fear back in her. “What’s going on?”
“We were defeated, Kerri,” Merek said. “You took a nasty blow to the head and the wizard healed you. Do what they say.”
Hump nodded his head toward the rest of her group. “Join the others.” He waited for her to kneel with everyone else, and then it was time to ask his questions. There was one in particular on his mind. “How did you find us?”
The axe woman with the wolves raised a hand. “I have a blessing that allows me to mark my prey and track them.”
“Should we expect more of you?” Celaine asked.
The woman shook her head. “Only us. We followed it from Gumbree after you passed over the town around midday.”
“You must have been on the move for a while then,” Celaine said.
“Without stop,” she said. “I thought it was a wyvern.” Her eyes turned to Igni. “Clearly not. He is magnificent. And so is the little one.”
“Indeed they are,” Tessa said.
“What are they doing in Alveron?” Merek asked. “You must know that foreigners riding dragons over our lands is an act of aggression. Wyvern or not, we have every right to be here.”
“I told you before, we are on our way to meet with Countess Daston,” Hump said. “Upon her invitation. We are on our way to Sheercliff City now.”
There was a long silence as the Bearskins considered that. They’d laughed when he’d made the claim before, but it seemed reality was finally setting in.
“What will you do with us?” Merek asked.
Hump glanced at Celaine and Tessa. “What do you think?”
Hump smiled at her.
“Set them loose,” Tessa said. “We will be gone from here before they can speak of us to anyone, and we travel far faster than word of mouth.”
“It does seem a shame to kill them after going to the trouble of healing one of them.”
A few sucked in a breath.
“Not funny, Hump,” Celaine said.
“Hump?” a woman said. She appeared to be in her thirties and had a quiver on her back. She must have been one of the archers that Tessa had dealt with on the hill. “You’re Wizard Hump?”
Hump frowned, confused that she knew him but not recognising her in the slightest. “That’s what I told you?”
“Gods above,” she whispered. “That’s him. He’s the White Flame Wizard.”
“That’s just a rumour,” Merek said hesitantly. “It couldn’t be—”
She shook her head and stared at Hump in awe. “I was in Sheercliff during the attack. Even from the Lower City, I saw the main Tree of Damnation set ablaze, bathed in a stream of white fire. They say he had the aura of a dragon.”
All eyes glanced at Igni and Nisha. Merek swallowed.
Hump didn’t know how to respond. He was stunned to hear word of his deeds would have reached even a group of Bearskins guild members, and even more so that one recognised him.
“Please spare us, Lord,” Merek said, bowing his head.
“I… we told you we had no intention of killing you,” Hump said, trying to maintain an assertive voice. He walked over to Merek, who lifted his head. Hump extended a hand. “But that doesn’t mean I will do nothing. Hand me your Adventurers’ Guild medallion?”
“What?”
“You heard me. We’ll let you go, but I want your medallion.”
Merek glared at him.
“Just hand it over,” one of the others said.
“Yeah. Come on, Merek. They’re letting us live. Who cares about the medallion.”
Merek removed the chain from his neck and slapped it into Hump’s hand.
“The rest of you too,” Hump said, making his way through the group. In the end, he had thirteen of them.
“Is this really necessary?” Merek asked.
“You may get to live, but I declared myself before you attacked us,” Hump said. “You knew what you were doing, and there are consequences for that. I’ll be reporting you all to the guild.” Hump nodded toward the hill. “Now go.”
The group stood collectively, making their way toward the edge of the veil. There were no more words after that. The group slowly made their way down the hill, supporting their wounded and disappearing into the early morning shadows. The thought of how far they’d have to travel to find another town made Hump smile.
“Why did you do that?” Celaine asked, looking at his collection of medallions.
“I hate adventurers like them,” Hump said. “They have a little strength, and they take advantage of it to push people around. They were prepared to kill us today for the sake of a prize. While I’m not ready to dish out death and judgement so easily, I’ll make sure at least some justice finds them. Neither the guild nor the Pantheon take kindly to Chosen and adventurers like them.”