William's face was soaked with tears, so Cale gently brushed them away. The last bite wound was on the side of his face and spread a little to his neck. So far, they only had to cauterize one spot and William prayed it would stay that way. But Cale's face told him otherwise.

"What have we been fighting?"

William started shaking all over his body, he didn't know the answer to that. But it was clear to him that Cale and the rest of the group knew it very well.

"Why did I order you guys to stay behind and only let Phillipa attack? Why did I deliberately not let Aletta use her magic near the creatures before you just had to interfere? How could the arrow Phillipa shot burn all the creatures but leave you untouched? Why did Aletta faint afterwards? Tell me."

"You said 'last question', why are you asking so many."

"So you don't know?", Cale said, which is why William's eyes filled with water again. Cale had shifted and bent one of his legs, which William leaned against.The mage held his face with one hand and looked at the bite wound while questioning him. With his thumb, he again made circular motions around the red bite. "Why do I always draw these circles around your bite wounds?"

"I don't know."

William's statement was more of a plea at this point and barely heard between his sobs. Cale, however, did not let up and made the movements more forcefully. Anxiously, he held onto Cale with one hand, as if to prevent him from using the metal again.

"Why did I forbid you to use mana and why do I only use mana at a distance in your presence?"

"I don't know."

William began to cry again. The pain in his leg had subsided, but his psyche had suffered greatly. The memory of it was so fresh that he couldn't tell if his leg hurt because of the burn or because his mind thought the bite wound had just been cauterized.

Cale sighed. For a moment, he closed his golden eyes before exhaling in relief and then holding William's face with both hands.

"Stop crying, the bite wound is also fine", Cale explained with a gentle smile on his face, but William instantly started crying like a little kid. He had been so afraid all along of being overwhelmed by this pain again, but Cale spoke his wish aloud.

There was only one place that needed to be burned out.

Tears streamed down his face and inevitably slid down Cale's hand. William tried to say something, but his words were buried by his sobs. Cale took William in his arms, who rested his face on his shoulder and began to scream and cry loudly.

"Sh... Sh... calm down. It's all right."

But William couldn't help himself. All at once, he let out everything that had accumulated in the last hour. Water poured off his face in streams and he didn't manage to calm down at all. Cale, on the other hand, held William tightly in his arms and let him do as he pleased while tenderly stroking his back. The mage himself had probably been as nervous as William, even if he hadn't shown it openly. As long as Aletta wasn't awake, there was always a small chance that the eggs would hatch and start eating William from the inside. Compared to that future, burning them out the old-fashioned way was a minor evil.

Under no circumstances did he like to see his friends suffer, but he had no choice. If he wanted to make sure they survived, they had to learn to be more careful. And those who do not want to listen must feel.

It took William a few minutes before he ran out of strength and his tear ducts gave out. Ashamed, he buried his face in Cale's shoulder. He had completely forgotten that he was sitting almost naked in front of him and it slowly began to dawn on him. Cale was doing his best to rescue him from the danger of these parasites, distracting him with the questions, but he had acted like a heap of misery. He felt pathetically powerless.

"I'll explain it. Listen carefully, so that you know it for the future."

William nodded, but stayed in place.

"Those were Calyfaren. I strongly suspect they killed the Morvosio, too. They are parasites that take over the bodies of their victims, killing them from the inside and mimicking their sounds. The screams you heard were the voices of Calyfaren. The woman and the man had been dead for a while."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

William was shocked. He had actually read about Calyfaren before, in the Chronicles of Creature Lore by Zod Adenia. His teacher, Julius Venlan, however, said that it was so unlikely to encounter these creatures that he had simply skimmed over them. Only the name had faintly remained in his memory. How could he have forgotten that?

"Calyfaren are blind and sensitive to mana. When we came, I immediately pulled everyone away from the Calyfaren so they couldn't locate us. Philippa is the only one of us who can handle them without mana, so I tasked her with killing them. I built the wall to protect everyone, because if one of them notices us, ten more will follow right after. That's why they went after one target like that and that was fine until you became their target."

In the last few minutes, Cale had calmed down, seeing some good in what was happening. But until they reached Exarion, he would stop letting his exhaustion get the better of him and stay awake to maintain control. In retrospect, that was the point Cale regretted the most.

"Do you see now why that was so incredibly stupid of you? We had the situation under control. Killing the creatures one by one wasn't a bad plan, but when you didn't listen to me and jumped into the commotion, Philippa suddenly had to watch over and protect you in addition to killing them. But the worst part was that you used your mana permanently, attracting all the creatures to you. Killing a swarm of black, writhing worms is a daunting task, especially when you are not allowed to use mana. I did protect you with my Igrikum and briefly toyed with the idea of taking care of the creatures myself, but taking out many small targets at once is not so easy even for me", Cale explained, even if he could actually work that accurately. "That's why I asked Aletta to give me her Holy Mana, which she sealed in that cristall on the arrow that Philippa shot at you. Holy Mana is not like normal mana, it is poison to the creatures. And Aletta gave it to me, probably much more than necessary, but your life was on the line and that made her go to her limits. The reason she passed out is because of sudden mana deprivation. It may take a good day to regenerate, then everything will be fine again, but until then we don't have a healer."

William remained quiet. He had his eyes closed and was leaning his full weight against Cale, who in turn was gently stroking him. He wasn't usually the kind of person who liked to make physical contact with other people, but with Cale there was something eerily soothing about it. William processed Cale's statement slowly, but thoughtfully. He understood by now what the problem was and hated himself for it. He had acted rashly, put himself and his friends in mortal danger and failed to analyze the situation properly. He had failed.

"Damn."

That's all he needed to come out. Clutching Cale's arm with one hand, he tried to control his emotions. He felt ashamed, but what was worse was the guilt. The feeling was worse than the day of the storm. If Cale had not reacted, what might have happened? He had probably saved his life then as well as now.

The two of them sat like that for quite a while. William had his face buried in Cale's shoulder and could see their legs with his eyes half open. He was wearing long, soft pants that didn't seem to have gotten any dirt on them, but his feet were pitch black. Cale, on the other hand, sat up straight, propping himself off the ground with one hand and running the other tenderly through William's short hair. They were still sitting in the sonic barrier and the crystal had heated up that area nicely by now.

"I really messed it up, didn't I?", William admitted softly. He didn't dare look up, yet he could sense the brief pause in Cale's hand movement. It was almost as if the mage was considering how to phrase his next statement nicely, but found no suitable alternative.

"Yes, very much so", he therefore gruffly admitted. William accepted the comment without ifs and buts. He could understand why the others had suddenly become so dismissive of him and couldn't blame them. Not even Ben, whose manner had inevitably hurt him the most. William closed his eyes, the pain had subsided and fatigue was slowly catching up with him. It was probably Cale's rhythmic movement, however, that calmed his heartbeat so much that he became completely exhausted.

"Your swordsmanship itself is not bad, but in a real, pure swordfight, even I am vastly superior to you, let alone in a fight to the death. You have no overview, use your mana too little or incorrectly, don't work with the environment and disregard your allies. You're not used to team fights and the lacking experience is one of your biggest problems."

Silently, William nodded. The mage was absolutely right, he was no good in real fights and that even though he had spent years learning swordsmanship just like Ben. However, the two had only worked on their form and strength and had never really learned what to look for in a real fight. It was different from the soldiers of Sylve, who approached the training with a lot of practical experience. Probably that was one of the reasons William wanted the time off to gain new experience as an Anuxer. He wanted to spend the year expanding his knowledge, but ultimately his ignorance had cost them their lives.

"If you want...", Cale slowly spoke up after some time. "... we could work a little on the problem. Mana-usage, cooperation, ways to approach different creatures and also fighting with the sword in general."

Surprised, William straightened up and looked into the bright eyes of his counterpart. He didn't know why, but ever since Cale stopped using his mana, his eyes had a different, striking eye color that he had never seen before in his life. It was as if he was gazing in a mixture of pure gold and amber, almost, like the eyes of a reptile.

"Do you know how to use a sword?", William gave voice - his question sounded absurd. Usually, people focused either on becoming mages or on fighting with weapons. Except for sword masters, he didn't know anyone who focused on both, and yet he was obviously asking a mage if he had mastered the other option as well. But Cale's smile only grew, and William could almost sense that Cale was amused by the statement. The mage didn't need to put his answer into words, William could guess what the answer would be. But when he did, the swordsman couldn't hold back his surprised expression.

"Of course."