An hour after the second sun had set for the night, the party resumed their search; however, there were no wolf tracks to be found. The group began their search, covering the same area southeast of the dock that they had the previous night. They found no fresh wolf tracks, but they did hear a howl to the east. They set out towards the noise, abandoning their grid-style search at least temporarily. They eventually came across a set of tracks that Taloc confirmed was one of the four wolves that they had already seen. He scanned the area for a short time before he found the end of the tracks, and he ran in the direction that the tracks were heading when they terminated. He quickly found the next set of tracks and began investigating the area until he found the next end spot.
They followed the tracks in this fashion until a dark form leaped out from behind a shrubbery. It tackled a surprised Taloc, who fell underneath its weight. The globe of light that he had been carrying was knocked away, and the Ranger tried to push the beast off of him. There was still enough light to see the wolf try to bite at Taloc’s neck, but he was able to guard his vital areas with an arm. The animal took the offered arm, and Taloc screamed as the wolf bit down hard. Taloc wore leather armor, but it clearly didn’t protect as well as those padded suits that were used to train attack dogs.
Taloc was away from the rest of the group, and Maroftis and Ewtain ran towards the downed Ranger. Vultressant saw the others unshouldering bows, but he made a snap decision to resummon Elida. Even though it had gotten quicker with practice, the spell took longer to cast than any of his other ones, so he would be out of the fight at least for a moment or two. He wanted the Fire Sprite present to track the beast if it attempted to flee. There was only one of the wolves now, at least that he could see, so the other five members could hopefully handle it while he cast his spell. He had a thin hope that whatever ability the wolf had to move 50 feet without making any tracks could not be used while the animal was in combat, or maybe the ability could be interrupted, but he doubted that either restriction was likely.
He checked his mana, and he was only at 295 MP of his 490 max. He had been following Taloc’s instructions, summoning Elida when his mana was full and then releasing her when it dropped under a quarter of the maximum where he would wait for it to replenish. Now he would have just 175 MP when Elida appeared. He would have to be judicious with his magic to avoid having to use his enhanced mana regen ability to replenish it, as that ability had a huge cooldown of two hours.
The diminutive Sprite appeared before him, glowing brightly. “That was fast,” she said after she fully materialized. The comment made him think of what Elida was doing in her reality when he summoned her; was she just sitting around with friends and family? He briefly felt a bit bad at the prospect of repeatedly summoning her, and he chided himself for dwelling on it in the middle of an encounter.
“We found one,” he said hastily and pointed at the wolf that was trying to bite through Taloc’s arm.
Elida looked over at the Ranger struggling with the beast on top of him. “A Hound Stalker,” she said in her melodic voice. “There will be more nearby,” she warned.
He had little doubt about that. “Go fly above it, and when it teleports, follow it. Just stay above it and don’t get hurt.” The Sprite tilted her head quizzically but nodded and flew off towards the Hound Stalker. Vultressant watched as she flew above Taloc; when she arrived, she stationed herself well above the action. The melee fighters had started attacking the hound, and now he could see a few more arrows sticking out of the creature’s flank. Suddenly, it released Taloc’s arm and jumped towards Maroftis. It seemed an odd tactical choice to release a prone opponent in favor of the hulking Korak, who was now protected by his new armor, but the creature latched onto his leg anyway. Maroftis paused mid-strike to cry out and grab his head.
That was when Vultressant noticed that Taloc was no longer moving and was only at about 5% of his total HP. Maroftis was now steadily losing HP—so much for the new armor. The creature had nearly killed Taloc by just biting his arm, so something else had to be doing additional damage unless you could die by arm bite here. Since Maroftis was grabbing his head, it was clearly a mental attack of some sort.
Regardless of what was actually happening to Maroftis, Vultressant decided to charge up a bolt of fire to send at the hound. With the creature’s health just above half, they needed to bring it down quickly to spare Maroftis from the Ranger’s fate. Two more arrows struck the hound before his spell had charged sufficiently, and he finally let the bolt fly. It struck the creature in the face, and the fire splashed onto Maroftis’s attached leg. The residual blast actually restored some of his HP. The hound, which had no such protections, immediately let go and went on the defensive. A check of its status bars revealed that it was now well under half of its max HP.
The creature bolted, moving as fast as a swift dog, but Elida was able to easily match its speed. Vultressant had seen the Sprite fly at nearly twice that speed, so she would be able to keep pace with the target below, at least until it teleported away. Then it happened: The hound disappeared, and the arrows that had been sticking out of it fell to the ground. Elida continued in the same direction, moving at about the same speed.
Vultressant hurled his globe of light towards the spot where the hound was poised to teleport to. He conjured another globe to replace the one he had just thrown. Maroftis, still reeling from the leg attack, struggled to regain his bearings as Ewtain dashed past him towards the newly illuminated area. Vanya ran to take care of Taloc and Maroftis, and Isla had an arrow nocked and aimed towards the area.
Elida moved at a fraction of her usual speed as she approached the light but abruptly veered off course, taking an unexpected trajectory. Confused by her actions, Vultressant yelled a command, “Go towards the light!”
“I thought that you wanted me to follow the Hound Stalker,” she replied, and he was pretty sure that there was a hint of annoyance in the Sprite’s voice.
Elida continued on her current heading, and Vultressant tried to quickly wrap his brain around what the Sprite was doing. She was getting further and further away from the rest of the party, and she was acting as if he was the one being foolish. He had to assume that he was missing something. She had implied that she was still following the Hound Stalker, so it was possible that she was able to sense it, and either it was slowly teleporting, which went against what he believed teleportation was, or it was moving invisibly. Regardless of how she could sense it, it was apparent to him that she could.
“Elida is flying over it,” he called to the rest of the group. “Follow her.”
Ewtain, who had nearly reached the globe that Vultressant had thrown, asked no questions and simply turned and ran towards the glowing Sprite. Isla turned and aimed her bow in the direction of the Sprite, waiting for the hound to reappear. Vultressant decided that charging another bolt of fire spell was probably his best course of action; they needed to drop the beast before it had a chance to run again.
It appeared directly beneath Elida and continued running away from the group. Howling as it ran, the effects of the earlier arrow shots were evident, even if the arrows themselves were no longer lodged in the animal.
Vultressant thought quickly. He could launch his currently charging spell, but he wanted to be able to hinder the hound’s movement, so he decided to continue charging to maximize the damage that it could do. He might just get one shot at this.
An arrow struck the creature’s hindquarter, causing it to slow somewhat. The hound was outpacing Ewtain, but the arrow slowed it enough that he was able to start making some gains. Vultressant waited another few seconds before releasing the bolt. The bolt was larger than his previous shot, and it glowed white hot as it flew towards his foe. The spell connected, and it luckily struck the hound in the leg just next to Isla’s arrow shot. The bolt exploded, and the impact staggered the beast. Its black coat erupted in flame, and it let out a keening howl. The howl was not like its previous calls; it was far more panicked.
Ewtain was cutting off the hound’s escape, running towards its path rather than its current position, reminding Vultressant of a defensive back in football chasing down a receiver. There were no sidelines for the beast to avoid, but it showed no intention of deviating from its trajectory as it made a desperate bid for freedom. It was ironic that Ewtain had been a receiver in high school but was now the one doing the chasing. The damage that the hound had taken made it slow enough to allow Ewtain to close in on his target. When he was in range, Ewtain threw a dagger that embedded hilt-deep into its front leg. The hound tumbled, its momentum carrying it several feet before it finally came to rest beside a large tree. Before it could rise again, Ewtain was there, stabbing it repeatedly until it whimpered one last time and disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
Ewtain heaved a sigh of relief and then picked something off the ground. Everyone then went to see how Taloc and Maroftis were doing; the former was sitting up and looking more like his old self, and the latter was grinning fiercely.
“Once again, I have saved your bacon,” Ewtain stated upon his arrival. He then held out a hand, revealing a small, faintly glowing green sphere. “It dropped a core when it died; hopefully it’s as powerful as the one that was put into Taloc’s sword.” He then looked down at the Ranger. “Why didn’t you use that sword to get away from the hound?”
“Once it had a hold of me, I couldn’t think straight. Most of the damage it dealt was mental—my arm hurt, but I barely noticed it compared to the onslaught to my brain.” Taloc rubbed his temples, either for emphasis or to soothe the lingering effects of the hound’s attack.
“Same here,” Maroftis agreed. “My leg took some damage, although I’m not sure how it bit through my new armor,” he mused. “Anyway, I took a bunch of psychic damage, and I felt like puking.”
“Note to self: don’t get bit,” Isla said, patting the Berserker’s back.
Jaro, who had been inspecting the site of the hound’s death, rejoined the group. “You could have made yourself useful,” Taloc said to Jaro, his tone sharp with annoyance.
Jaro held up his hands defensively. “My job is simply to report your success,” he replied, then paused before adding, “or failure, to Hufalon. If you want me to risk my life unnecessarily, then give me a share of your pay.” Taloc scowled but didn’t respond.
“There will be more coming,” Elida said in her trilling voice, and they all paused to look at her.
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Vultressant had suspected as much, but he was still puzzled by how she could follow the hound so effectively. He nodded and asked, “Are you able to see invisible things?” When Elida shook her head, he followed up his question. “How were you able to see and follow the Hound Stalker then?”
“It shifted into the world of the Fae. These creatures are common there, but they lack the ability to fly, so they do not pose much threat to my people. I can see into my world when I am here, as I am only partially in your world, but the reverse is not true. That stalker stepped across the worlds, but it looked as if it was tethered here. As it ran, it began to shimmer and fade from my world until it was fully back in this one, and then you all could see it again as well.”
They had found at least four distinct tracks the previous night, and there could be more they hadn’t come across, indicating at least three adversaries. “We need to keep together, and Ewt, you need to stay close to the fighters,” Vultressant said. “I think that your mental wall ability will prevent some, or hopefully all, of the mental damage from the bites.”
Ewtain turned his attention to Vultressant. “I suppose that I could let one grab my arm like the Ranger tried earlier, and you guys could bash away.”
Isla laughed and said, “I don’t think that he meant to do that.”
“What do you mean?” Taloc asked in mock irritation. “I believe that I got us some valuable information. In all seriousness, though, I don’t like the idea of anyone getting bit again. We should stay close so that we can attack anything that gets near us, and if they come in force, we single one out until it either flees and we give chase or it falls to our blades.” He looked around and added, “Or spells and arrows—or possibly claws.”
Isla nodded approvingly, then smiled and said, “I kind of like the idea of making Ewt bait. Unfortunately, he will have to agree to it because I doubt that the hounds will be able to grab him if he tries to dodge them.” She patted him on the shoulder. “You look like you would make a nice snack.”
“Oh, I’m definitely a snack,” Ewtain said, suggestively.
Isla wore a mischievous smile. She did love mocking the Night Stalker. To Vultressant, this seemed an inappropriate time for this sort of thing, and he let his annoyance show. “What’s the plan?” he asked, his voice sharper than intended.
The others turned to him, their levity now departed. Vanya spoke first. “I don’t like the idea of anyone acting as ‘bait’. Why don’t we just keep together, and if someone gets bit, everyone focuses on the hound that’s attacking them?”
“I like it, but that limits our ability to make effective ranged attacks,” Taloc said. “I think Isla should protect Vanya. I know one got through Maroftis’ armor, but hopefully Isla’s new shield will be enough to keep them from biting her. This takes away one of our archers, but keeping the healer out of harm’s way should be our top priority. Vult, maybe use your wind spell if we get overwhelmed, and then hit them with fire as they come back from being pushed.”
Vultressant appreciated the idea of Vanya having a dedicated guard, but he saw a problem with Taloc’s plan for him. “Keeping them away with the wind should work, but I won’t have enough time to properly charge my bolt of fire spell after that. I might be able to send a small one immediately after, but it won’t pack much of a punch.”
“That’s fine,” Taloc replied. “It’ll buy us some time, and even a small bolt might make them cautious about returning quickly. We’re charged with killing them all, but it’s better to run them off than suffer a casualty.” He turned to Ewtain. “If the one we faced is typical of the group, they’ll likely try to latch on and subdue us with their mental attack. The bite itself didn’t do much damage, so letting one grab your arm could be a good way to keep it still. If you’re only affected by the teeth, you should be able to stab it with your free hand.”
“What if he is affected?” Isla asked, no longer joking about the prospect of Ewtain getting mauled.
“Then we chop it up very fast,” Maroftis replied bluntly.
“And if we get outnumbered?” Isla pressed.
“Then we focus on one and fend off the rest,” Taloc answered, speaking for Maroftis. Then he turned to Vultressant and the Sprite. “Why don’t you top off your mana and summon Elida again when we make contact? We need her to track any that try to flee, and you’ll need mana for blasting.”
“More come,” Elida said before Taloc could give further instructions. She was pointing to the east. Vultressant turned and looked in the direction she indicated, but he saw very little in the darkness. He cast and hurled a globe of light as far as he could throw it, and he could see shapes moving as the illuminated area around the sphere moved with the hurled light source. He spotted two hounds, with a hint of movement suggesting a possible third. He began to charge his fire spell, aiming to strike the lead hound unless it reached them before the spell was fully prepared.
The rest of the party began to prepare themselves for combat, and even Vanya had pulled out a melee weapon: a small dagger. Vultressant was a bit concerned about how effective she could be with it: while it could be thrown, he had never seen her practice throwing the weapon. Technically, he’d never seen her practice using it at all, but she was gripping it as if she were a slasher in a horror flick, so she was unlikely to throw it.
Vultressant checked his mana, and he had just enough to send out a moderately charged bolt of fire spell before needing to replenish his power with his mana regen ability. He decided to prioritize having more time to charge the spell, taking aim at the Hound Stalker further away. The rest of the group could deal with the closer one, and he would try to limit their exposure to multiple opponents at the same time.
As the spell took form in front of him, the hounds closed the distance rapidly, and a third emerged from the area where he had spotted movement a moment before. He released the spell just before the lead hound leapt at the melee fighters. He had aimed at the head of the following hound, and while his aim had been true, the beast veered the instant before impact to avoid the head shot. Instead, the bolt caught it just behind the shoulder, causing it to stumble and roll to a stop.
The hound regained its feet and continued towards the party, but it did so with far more caution than it had shown in its initial charge. This gave Vultressant time to activate his mana replenishment ability and cast another spell. The third hound had nearly caught up to its downed pack member, and Vultressant walked past Isla, who was ready to intercept the incoming attackers. Vanya called his name in protest, and Isla gave an audible gasp as he passed her, but he ignored both of them; walking while casting was difficult, so all of his focus was on the incantation. It was clear that the two hounds wouldn’t arrive simultaneously, forcing him to wait until the lead beast was nearly upon him before releasing the spell. It leapt into the air an instant before the wind wave spell crashed against it, throwing it back several feet. It spun in the air and crashed to the ground, yelping the same way a dog did when you stepped on its paw. The rear hound caught the tail end of the wind spell, firmly planted on the ground but sliding backward. Though the spell didn’t arrest its movement entirely, it still caused damage.
Now that he had slowed the hound enough to delay it from reaching with the others, he turned and ran behind Isla for protection. He glanced over to see Ewtain stab the surrounded hound, which howled in pain and frustration before vanishing.
Elida began moving away from the group, likely following the fleeing hound. It looked like Ewtain and Taloc were about to give chase, but they had to focus on the other two hounds, which were attacking Isla. “Leave it for now!” Vultressant yelled. “Elida will keep track of it.” The men turned back to help Isla.
The hounds had coordinated their attack, coming at Isla from opposite sides and leaving her no choice but to defend against one with her shield while vulnerable to the other. Before the others could engage, one of the hounds was able to bite her leg, and as she cried out, the other then jumped at her. Isla raised her shield in time, either a remarkable display of willpower under the mental assault of the bite or a sheer instinctive reaction. Whatever the reason, she avoided a head or neck attack. As she stumbled backward, she landed heavily on the ground, with one of the hounds standing on the shield she was using to protect her head.
Maroftis was the first to reach Isla, delivering a powerful backhand that sent the hound atop her sprawling away. He then plunged his weapon into the hound latched onto her leg, causing it to release her and vanish. Vanya ran up and began to heal Isla, and the other three converged on the only visible hound. The creature appeared to be barely moving, and Vultressant noticed a new icon beneath its health bar indicating a stun debuff that would persist for another ten seconds.
The fighters took full advantage, and the hound was dead before the debuff had worn off. Ewtain grabbed the creature core that was left behind after its death—or perhaps its banishment—back to the world of the Fae.
The fighters ran off towards Elida and the hound that she was flying above, but Vultressant stayed with Isla and Vanya, who continued to heal her. He summoned and threw light globes in a circle around them. By the time he was done, Isla was well enough to stand. The others did their best to keep up with Elida, and a few moments later, they attacked and dispatched another of the hounds.
Elida then flew back to Vultressant, and the others followed at a walk. He was puzzled until Ewtain handed him three creature cores. He must have missed them killing the second hound while he was illuminating the area, assuming they were following one that had phased out of this world. Instead, they dispatched the second, and Elida had located the third a short distance away. A check of his notifications confirmed the three kills. He was delighted to see that he had also made it to level 11 and had gained another point in his wind magic skill, which put it to level five. He thanked Elida for her valuable help before dismissing her back to do whatever it was she did in her world.
He then went about allocating the stat points that he had received for leveling. He had noticed that his spells were doing more damage as he advanced in level, but he was still steadily increasing his Intellect as it was his primary stat. The stat not only increased his mana pool, but it also improved the damage that he dealt with his spell attacks. As a Gnome, one of his five points went to Intellect by default, so he added the other four to Intellect as well. Well, a Wizard is supposed to be a glass cannon, he thought, referring to the common term for a character that did a great deal of damage but lacked the defense and health to stay up for very long if attacked. He did not have any languages that he could practice on, except Fae, which Elida had asked him not to use, so there was currently no pipeline of free Intellect points. The quicker mana regen of the Psyche attribute was good, but more burst damage trumped that right now. Also, the higher Intellect seemed to be allowing him to mentally process things more quickly, so that was a nice added bonus.
“We should head back to the inn and rest up for a while,” Taloc said after scouting around for any sign of other hounds in the area.
“You have more work to do,” Jaro countered, “and Hufalon wants this done quickly.”
Taloc rounded on Jaro. “Unless you plan on joining in the fighting, you don’t get a say,” he said and paused for a response. Jaro just stared back at him, and Taloc continued. “I thought not. Now, as I recall, Hufalon wants it done, and we have been at this for a few nights. We are tired and in need of a break. Us dying helps no one.” The others voiced their agreement.
“We’re done with the Hound Stalkers anyway,” Isla interjected.
“How do you know that?” Vanya asked.
“The quest from the council has two parts,” she explained. “Part one was to rid the area of the beasts that have plagued it. That one is fulfilled; I got a quest update. The other part is now visible, and according to it, we have to eliminate a group of small humanoids that have been raiding the area at night.”
“Why do we need this asshole to report back for us if your quest will update automatically?” Ewtain said, hooking a thumb in Jaro’s direction.
“Did you already report back?” Taloc asked, directing his question to Jaro, who appeared a bit puzzled but nodded in confirmation.
“Did it update immediately after we killed the last one in the group?” he asked Isla.
Isla quickly scanned her notifications. “The timestamp is almost eight minutes after the last one was killed,” she reported. Turning to Jaro, she asked, “Does that line up with when you informed the council?”
“That is pretty close to the time, yes,” he confirmed.
“Maybe it’s best if he doesn’t fight,” Vanya said. “It seems that we need him alive to report our success, or we won’t get credit for it.”
Vultressant weighed this information. He believed that there might still be more Hound Stalkers, but he was smart enough to not mention that in front of the dockman, because then they would have to look for more of the beasts. Instead, he said, “I would prefer that he helped, but he’s getting paid to do a different job. Why don’t we head back to the inn and get some R and R. I’ll talk with Elida when we get there to see if she knows what the next opponents might be. Then we can plan what to do next.”