“What the hell is going on out here?” The voice belonged to a short, grey-haired woman in a sleeping gown, the palm of her left hand glowing white with mage light.

“Assassin!” Edwin shouted. “Watch out, he’s a mage!”

“What?” Master Ulyssa was clearly confused, but she quickly regained her composure. “Nobody move! We’ll figure out what—”

She was cut off by a flash of silver zipping up at her, but the downed man’s sword came to a screeching halt three hands’ widths from her face, the outlines of her shield barely visible in the stark light. The assassin mage huffed and raised his hands. In the backlight, Edwin could see the waves of nigh-invisible disruptive mana pouring out towards the woman and making her shield crackle. Edwin expected her to panic, but the only change was her eyes narrowing dangerously and her lips curling back, revealing her teeth as she growled wordlessly.

The wagon next to the attacker suddenly shot onto the path, slamming into yet another shield just before it could run the man over. It all happened so fast, Edwin could barely keep up. The assailant blocked the wagon with a shield, so Master Ulyssa blasted him with disruptive mana, forcing him to drop it. At the same time, the sword he’d tried to impale her with came shooting out of the darkness. He barely managed to react in time, blocking it with yet another shield, only to be hosed by a second blast of disruptive mana that dissolved both the shield and the telekinetic grasp. He picked it up again, only for the wooden plank next to Edwin to zip toward the man’s back.

It continued like that for several seconds, the fight happening barely slower than the speed of thought. Realizing that the time for stealth was over, the assassin converted fire only for Ulyssa to answer in kind, turning the space between them into a miniature sun, the falling rain turning to steam even before reaching the white-hot flame that connected the two. Arguably the most important part of a fire conversion was that it shunted any and all heat away from the caster. Two mages converting fire at each other were at a stalemate, at least until one of them ran out of mana – which, being a master mage not too far past her prime, Ulyssa had a lot of.

“Curse you, traitorous hag!” the assassin hissed, pointing his free hand at her. A fireball sprang into existence right in front of him, the large, glowing, orange ball… immediately getting shredded by a wave of disruptive mana and exploding with an ear-shattering bang. Edwin threw himself on the ground, expecting the fire to sear his skin at any moment, but the pain didn’t come. Looking up, he realized why. The explosion had been contained between two shields, one that separated the two duelists and one between him and Edwin. The limits of the conversion hadn’t allowed the woman to simply contain it in a bubble, but she’d found a way.

“What is the meaning of this ruckus?” an angry voice bellowed into the sudden silence, and Edwin turned to see Master Gregory step onto the path, a coat hastily thrown over his pajamas and an amulet on his chest emanating yellow light. The magic duel unfolding right in front of his eyes had distracted Edwin, but Gregory’s appearance reminded him of the danger they were in. In the distance, a horn sounded out, calling the camp to arms.

“Enemy assassins have infiltrated the camp,” Edwin shouted, scrambling to his feet. “This group was targeting you! Masters, you must secure the area and make sure everyone is accounted for and safe! I’ll go warn the general!”

“Edwin?” Gregory asked, squinting to see through the rain. “Wait just a minute…”

But Edwin didn’t feel like waiting. Even if there were more assassins around, two masters should easily be able to take care of them. He was already a good distance away when a worrying thought came to him.

Wait, what if the other group also has a mage?

Edwin cursed, debating whether he should turn around and ask one of the masters to come with him, but he decided against it when he saw the paths filling with confused, half-naked soldiers clutching weapons. He reached the central road and put on speed, the wide thoroughfare with wood and magestone reinforcements allowing him to finally go all out. He arrived at the entrance to the command area and breathed a sigh of relief to see four grim-faced soldiers blocking the way. As he approached, they leveled their spears at him.

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“Halt! This area is locked down! Nobody gets in!”

“There is a group of assassins coming to kill the general, did you find them already?”

The leader squinted. “How do you know that?”

Edwin stopped in front of them, poking the tip of his spear with a finger.

“There was another one coming after our mages. I need to report to the general.”

The soldier looked up at him suspiciously, then sighed and lowered his spear when a flash of recognition lit up his face “Oh, it’s you, Edwin! Sure, go on in.”

“Erm, thanks.” The guards waved him through, and Edwin shoved the perpetual awkwardness he felt at being recognized by people he didn’t know aside to concentrate on the situation at hand. The command area was in turmoil, armed guards and aides clutching swords running to and fro. The entrance to the main tent was held down by two of Asher’s personal guards who waved him in without comment. Inside, tables had been pushed aside to make room for a dozen wounded lying side by side, with people in their night clothes performing first aid. For a few seconds, Edwin worried the general might be among the wounded, then Asher addressed him from a corner of the tent where he was cordoned off by four more of his bodyguards.

“Edwin? You got here quickly.”

“General!” Edwin said, relieved. “I was worried they’d gotten to you. Are the assassins neutralized?”

“Yes, we seem to have gotten them all…” Asher narrowed his eyes. “How did you know that it was assassins?”

“I just ran here from the Mages’ area,” Edwin explained. “There was another group there, trying to break into the wagons and kill them while they were sleeping. We think we got all of those as well, Gregory should be securing the area. They had a mage, General.”

“A mage?” While Asher seemed flabbergasted, the guards surrounding him became even more twitchy, visibly restraining themselves from shouldering their charge and making a run for it. “With the assassins? Are you sure?”

“It’s hard to fake that,” Edwin chuckled. “If he wasn’t a mage, he had some serious tricks up his sleeve. Thankfully Master Ulyssa woke up in time, or I would’ve been in serious trouble.”

“Two groups, and even a mage…” Asher sighed, shaking his head. “How did they manage to smuggle this many people inside?”

“Three groups,” Edwin said, slapping his forehead. “I totally forgot. I came across the first one near the northeast corner of the camp. Judging by their direction of travel they were coming from the wall there, so I assume that’s where they got in.”

“Another one?” Asher hissed, more angry than scared this time. “What happened to them?”

“They figured trying to kill me was safer than letting me walk away and potentially raise the alarm, so they attacked me. Their bodies should still be there, somewhere around the edge of the northern supply area.”

“The bodies?” Asher asked, confused. “You killed them?”

Edwin shrugged. “Seemed like a better idea than letting them kill me.”

“It probably was…” Asher trailed off, his eyes scanning Edwin up and down. Edwin sighed internally as he remembered that he was still wearing nothing but his completely drenched and muddy pants, with neither a weapon in sight nor a scratch on his overly muscular body.

Well, nothing to be done about that now.

Thankfully, their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the healers, Master Morten swooping into the tent ahead of his Journeymen before they descended on the wounded like a flock of seagulls on a child with a snack.

“Right, anything you need me to do?” Edwin asked, turning back to the general.

“Take a few soldiers and lead them to that group you fought, I will send someone else to secure the mage camp. After that, maybe find a shirt. There is no telling if we have discovered every aspect of their plan.”

“Sure thing.” Edwin headed outside, where a number of soldiers were milling around, waiting for orders. Nobody even questioned him when he asked for a squad to accompany him, and a few minutes later he arrived back at the place where the night had turned from relaxing to exciting. The rain was slowly starting to subside, and in the light of the soldiers’ lanterns, the intersection was looking much different from earlier.

“Is this, erm, everyone?” the squad leader asked, bending over to examine one of the dead.

Edwin replayed the fight in his head, comparing the scene with his memory. “Yes. Wait, no, there should be one more by that wagon over there.”

“Yep, there he is. Definitely dead, too.”

“Alright, I’ll leave you guys to it. At some point I need to stop running around half-naked, eh?”

Edwin laughed, slapping the soldier on the shoulder as he walked past.

“Riiight…” The bannerman looked from the dead bodies to Edwin’s retreating figure, then he shook his head. “Alright, Fulden, you head back to command and report the situation. Everyone else, spread out and make sure nobody messes with the bodies...”

Turning a corner, Edwin fell into a light jog.

The night could’ve gone much worse, he decided. It wasn’t great, but it could’ve been worse. Didn’t get my face melted off, that’s a big plus. I need to come up with something smart in case I have to face a mage again…