Ven dropped to the ground with a heavy thud. He felt the floor depress slightly under the weight of his suit. If his control was any better, he would’ve qualified for a better suit than the one he wore but his mind wasn’t dwelling on that topic. Something else held his attention.

He stared at the carnage in front of him while Shanine struggled to climb down from his shoulders. He lowered himself to let her down gently but his eyes never left the scene he was met with.

Before him there were trees with branches set ablaze. The flames were dwindling but their effects were more than glaring. Some of them were burned of all their unnatural furs until their barks were on display, blackened with soot and char. Some of their low hanging branches were missing leaves and carrying the same burn marks and Ven counted at least five trees that had suffered this fate.

But the true devastation was in the land. The ground had been scorched beyond recognition like a farmland set ablaze in order to kill pests and rodents that chemicals could not reach, scorched beyond use for the next few days. Upon it, littered carelessly were the remains of twelve Beta ranked monsters. Two of which were burned beyond recognition.

“What the hell happened here?” Ven asked Daniel through his com-link, keeping the conversation private. “We weren’t gone for up to three minutes.”

“We may have underestimated the Knight mage’s apprentice,” Daniel answered flatly.

Ven noticed the shock wasn’t isolated to only him. The mages around bore varying expressions as well. Even Jason and Oliver, members of the same team looked confused.

“You’re saying the red head did all this alone?” he asked Daniel.

“No,” Daniel answered. “But he played a significant part. He went all Sodom and Gomorrah on the whole place before they started fighting.”

“Sodom and Gomorrah? What’s that?”

“Sorry, Boss. Forgot you aren’t Christian. Sodom and Gomorrah is a story in the bible about—”

“Skip the Sunday school and get to the point, Daniel.”

Ven heard his second in command sigh through the com-link and ignored it. The man was always looking for a chance to tell a story from his religion’s holy book. Normally, he’d let him but nothing was normal about today.

“God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with a rain of fire,” Daniel explained. “Burned it to the ground and scorched the earth beneath it in the process.”

“And the monsters?” Ven pressed.

“Well, the fire took out two of them, then they worked together to take out the rest. The red head used only runes throughout.”

Ven frowned. “No magic at all?”

“Not even a cough.”

Ven watched Zed take a shirt from Chris and put it on. The white shirt turned a deep red and Oliver complained.

He studied the animals again and, while they were cut up, leaking traces of ice mana, force mana, and fire mana, they didn’t seem to have suffered so much in the way of blood loss.

“Why is he covered in so much blood?” he asked.

“I’ll take that one,” Ronda slipped in, interrupting the conversation. “You know how the girl, the grumpy one, likes calling him bloodbath?”

“Yes,” Ven answered.

“Well it’s because of the way he fights.”

“He fights like the guy with the hat that got himself killed for not listening,” Kid said. “His way of fighting is more about taking blows than giving them.”

“First,” Daniel said. “I don’t think Desolate’s dead. Something tells me it will take more than a bite to the neck from a Rukh rank monster to kill him. And second, the redhead doesn’t fight like him. He gives just as good as he takes. And judging by how he fought, something tells me he’s more accustomed to fighting with a weapon.”

“Why do you say that?” Ven asked.

“Just the way he moved, sir. He seemed more than eager to close the distance but seemed to get confused on what to do when he did.”

“So what, he just ran in and took a beaten.”

“Gave one, too.”

“With what? His hands?”

“Yes, sir.”

Ven’s head snapped to Daniel. “Wait, seriously?”

“Yes, sir. Threw in a few punches along with his runes. Bloodiest fight I’ve ever seen from a civilian, sir.”

Ven’s attention returned to Zed. He found the mage frowning as the rest of his team chatted around him. It seemed the man hadn’t liked the outcome of the battle.

“If all that blood is his, how’s he so comfortable?”

“No idea, sir,” Daniel answered. “Judging by how unbothered his team seemed each time he got wounded, I take it it’s like his thing. I estimate a healing factor, most likely an attribute.”

“What are the chances he has his hand on a runestone?” Ven asked darkly.

“Zero,” Daniel answered. “A runestone specialized in healing is based on vitality. It has to be kept as close to the heart as possible. Most people would wear its kind on a necklace and he fought without a shirt. My armor also detects zero life rune activities.”

Ven frowned. “So we have an attribute mage on our hands.”

“It would seem so, sir.”

Just my luck, Ven sighed. Now he really had to bargain to take the man from his team. There was no reward for bringing back redheads, but there was a reward for every successful attribute mage recruit brought into the VHF. The reason for that was simple, attribute mages were the rarest kind and they were all qualified for at least the lowest level of the VHF armor. And those at the top of the Vaunted Human Federation were always more than happy to get their hands on an attribute mage.

“Ronda,” Ven said.

“Yes, Boss?”

“You met the mage at the party Abed invited us to.”

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“Correct.”

“In your professional opinion, do you think the honeypot would be a successful strategy on securing him?”

“Just so I’m hearing this clearly, seeing as I’m the only girl in the group, sir,” Ronda said. “Are you asking me if I will be able to successfully seduce him into joining us, sir?”

“Do not make me explain myself, 841.”

The coms went silent for a moment and Ven almost apologized for addressing her by her cadet number. There was no armored VHF soldier who liked to be addressed by their cadet number. Regardless, he kept his silence and held himself back from an apology. He was free with his subordinates and sometimes it led them to forgetting that he was their captain.

“841, I am yet to receive a response.”

“In my professional opinion,” Ronda bit out, her barely restrained annoyance slipping into her voice, “the honeypot strategy will be a waste of time and resources, sir. My analysis on the subject shows that ladies are of no interest to him. At least not enough to sway or manipulate his decisions. If we want the subject to join us, we will have better success with the promise of runes.”

“Which will also be a waste of our time considering his apprenticed to a Knight rank rune mage,” Kid said.

“So we’ll have to find another way to draw him over to our side,” Ven noted.

“Or we could just leave him,” Daniel offered. “I know we’ll get rewarded for recruiting an attribute mage but is it really worth taking a Knight ranker’s apprentice. That would give us a Knight ranker for an enemy. Let’s just stick with the reward of successfully bringing back a piece of the mana surge.”

“And what if there isn’t any left?”

“There still is,” Kid said. “The maps still show the three monsters converged on the same location, sir. That has got to mean pieces of the surge are still there, hasn’t it?”

“It has,” Ven agreed.

He noted belatedly that Shanine still remained beside him and he looked down at her, waiting until she noticed his attention.

He was about to ask her if she wasn’t going to Zed when he saw the look on her face. Her dark skin was almost pale with terror. Terror she gained from the sight of Zed.

It seemed their friendship wasn’t designed to withstand such levels of gore. Ven held his tongue and said nothing.

With a weak gesture, Ven gathered everyone around. Francis and Tulip moved with the silence of grief and Hillary moved with the silence of a self-declared pariah. The rest gathered around, each mage glancing at Zed with a new restrained expression. Ven doubted they had seen the happenings of the actual battle. Still, the aftermath was terrifying enough as it was. It told a tale no mage would be happy to listen to about a potential opponent.

“Alright then,” he announced when they were gathered round. “Our path isn’t long any more. We have a straight walk that should last for about ten minutes where we will then take a left turn. That will lead us to what I believe is a hedge. And on the other side of that hedge is our destination. As long as we move quietly and not cause any hustle we won’t be drawing the attention of any more monsters until our fight begins.”

“Are you sure about that?” Festus asked, his voice casual despite his impatient face. “Because you told us there were eight Beta rank monsters on this side and I count twelve. That’s four more you missed. Four is a large number.”

“There were ten, actually,” Zed said, sheepish. “Two more joined because of the ruckus.”

“And how are we sure the ruckus didn’t disturb the other monsters?” Festus asked.

Ven frowned within the confines secrecy of his armor as he pulled up a mini version of the forest’s map. It appeared at the top corner of his visor and he zoomed in on it with a thought. As was expected, the monsters around were quiet, moving around undisturbed.

Apart from this part of the forest, he knew too little of the other parts. The information he had on them were estimated predictions while the one he had on this segment was in real time. The others did not know but him and his team had deployed six drones before embarking on this mission.

They’d lost three of them before they’d all met to explore this part of the forest. They’d lost two of the remaining three ever since Big Man Desolate had been snatched up by a monster. Ven wasn’t religious but he prayed it was all a coincidence, devices lost to one failure or the other or the simple misfortune of flying too close to a monster. Because if that wasn’t the case, then they had a bigger problem on their hands. A problem that supported a suspicion he’d had since seeing the stack of fallen trees built over a chasm.

The last thing he wanted to do was fight a monster strong enough to possess any significant level of intelligence.

“There are no further anomalies,” Ven assured Festus. “I have checked the scans and have confirmed that should we follow the path, we won’t have to deal with any more monsters until we are at the location of the surge.”

Festus nodded.

Now that he’d assuaged the strongest member of the party, Ven moved on to the next topic of conversation. Which of the Rukh mages were going to play lookout with the Beta rankers while the rest of them fought for their lives.

“We need two rankers that will stay on the lookout once we’re in,” he announced without preamble. “All the members of my team will be going in so they have to be from you guys.”

Hillary’s hand shot up at the same time as Tulip’s. Eitri’s hand was raised and so was Abed’s.

Ven had been unable to gauge the measure of Hillary and Kid and Daniel had no real opinion on the mage except for the fact that he was just that: a mage.

With less unplanned variables, the chances of errors were lower.

“Hillary,” he picked and was about to add another when Abed interrupted him.

“No,” Abed said. “I will stay behind along with one of theirs. Hillary does not qualify to protect our vested interest. He is a mercenary mage that cannot be trusted to a single task.”

A scowl lit up Hillary’s face but Abed silenced any protest with a glare of his own.

“Alright,” Ven agreed.

Besides, he had no opposition to keeping Abed out. Ever since the arrival of Shanine, his mind had been on nothing but the girl. He didn’t need a mage in such a high risk fight if that mage’s mind was going to be elsewhere throughout.

It was better if Abed stayed outside with the non-mage. That way his priority of her would ensure whatever monster drew close would be dealt with. As for him absconding with the girl for her safety, it was going to be a difficult endeavor as long as the mage she had come with was on her side and had his team with him.

All the factors made his decision easier to make.

He raised a hand and pointed at the redhead and his team.

“You, whatever your name really is,” he said.

“It’s Ned,” Zed interrupted him. “Sorry I lied about being called Samuel. It’s just that I’ve always wanted to be called Samuel growing up.”

Ven studied the mage’s face, uncertain. The same frown he’d been sporting since the conclusion of whatever carnage had transpired here was still on his face and the seriousness of his tone was difficult to contest.

He sighed. “I accept your apol—”

Ash lightly cuffed the back of Zed’s head with a frown.

“If you’re going to lie,” she scolded him, “at least do it with a smile or something. You can’t be looking so gloomy and serious while you tell a terrible lie. It’s in poor taste.” She turned to Ven with an apologetic face. “My apologies for his childish behavior. His name is Red.”

Ven’s frown deepened. He wasn’t sure about a lot of things concerning the red haired mage but he was certain that Red wasn’t his name.

“Just call him Bloodbath and you’ll be fine,” Chris said.

Oliver and Jason sighed.

“His name is Zed,” Oliver said, cutting through the confusion of names. “It’s short for something but he’s refused to tell us. At this point I think only one person knows the complete name and she’s a young child in a simple town.”

“Cindy doesn’t know it,” Zed said. “She simply has an idea of a way to find it.”

“Your name is not important,” Ven said, tired. “What is important is that you choose which of your teammates will remain with you and Ash while we fight.”

“Why does he get to choose?” Abed asked, displeased.

“Because you have intentions for his friends that I don’t trust you to keep on a leash. So if I’m going to leave you with them, then I’m going to leave them with backup.”

“Just so I’m sure I get this,” Zed said. “You need all the able hands you can find to fight those things, right?”

Ven nodded. “Right.”

“And the stronger the better.”

“Yes.”

“But no Beta rankers.”

“No Beta rankers.”

“Alright then,” Zed said, placing a bloody arm around Chris’ shoulder. “I choose mean girl.”

Chris shoved him with an unwarranted amount of force the moment his hand touched her, a scowl on her face. “You’re getting your rotten blood all over me,” she complained.

Zed staggered away from her but didn’t fall, much to Ven’s surprise.

“So I guess it’s settled,” Zed announced. “It’s me, Ash, big asshole over there—because I’m not a fan—mean girl, and Shanine playing look out.” He shivered in his shirt, pulling a part that was plastered to his stomach free with a look of disgust. “This should be fun.”

“Let’s hope so,” Ven said. “Till then, let’s move out. Take the opportunity to get your strengths up and prepare for what is to come. You’ll need it.”

He walked down the path and the others followed after him, Abed’s great cleaver crumbling to earth and stone around his feet.

“Just gimme a moment with Oliver,” Zed said, bending to rub his feet. “We’ll catch up. Just need to catch my breath. And in case you’re wondering why Olive, he’s playing bodyguard.”

Ven said nothing as he marched on.

He wasn’t certain what exactly Zed wanted to do but he knew it wasn’t about catching his breath. There was a look in the man’s eyes, a look that he had while looking at the corpses of the dead monsters.