Athra rushed towards the largest group of monsters he had found with his earlier scrying, it did not take long for the young prince to come across his quarries standing over a deer carcass upon the open area. The group of giant scorpions was caught unaware by the hunter, before any of them could retaliate the group of five were reduced to three as Athra cast ‘burning prison’, a spell which created a cube of fire in a small area resembling a prison cell, on the area two were standing on burning both to cinders within seconds. He followed up by using ‘haste’ and ‘foresight’ as he usually did and then using ‘blink’, he appeared behind the creature furthest away and with a fluid move cut off the stinger of the monster’s metasoma.

The scorpion screeched in pain alerting the other two and causing them to turn towards Athra, their instincts telling them the fragile looking thing in front of them was equivalent to a natural predator for them. The fight or flight instincts of the creatures went into overdrive and they knew running was not an option as they had just witnessed the being disappear from their sight and appear next to one of them, so they took the only possible path to potential survival and engaged Athra as the stench of their burnt brethren joined that of the decaying deer.

Athra danced around the stingers and the claws of the three scorpions with grace and elegance that seemed unfit for someone who was smiling like a maniac as his sword cut off chunks of flesh from the creatures with every swing. It was clear to Athra that he did not need to rely on overwhelming spells against such weak creatures, pleased with his little experiment he decided he would head deeper into the forest where stronger creatures lived. It did not take longer than a couple of minutes before the last of the giant scorpions joined the deer carcass as lifeless corpses for the rest of the wildlife to feast upon, and Athra without any delay took off in search of new prey as he used his mana to scry once again, he had no desire to linger within the stench of the visceral scene he had created.

On a different part of the forest Tyrian was following the trail of what he believed to be a basilisk that he had unknowingly treaded upon the territory of when he went into the cave he was in, well at least now he knew they were around the northern end of the forest. It did not take for the redheaded hunter to find what he was looking for and confirm his suspicions. He knew he had to take out the eyes of the creature to have an easy fight, otherwise he risked death upon gazing into its eyes, quickly he came up with a way to blind the creature even if only temporarily.

Quickly he cast a sphere of darkness on the creature's head obscuring its vision and rendering its deadly gaze useless. Tyrian, wasting no time, sprung into action while the monster was still stunned and confused from losing its sight. He made quick work of the creature using ‘haste’ and his physical prowess while incorporating quick casts of firebolts towards the sphere of darkness, sheer number of bolts achieved their goal and blinded the creature which couldn’t even see them approach. The training of magic with Athra as well as the weird liquid he made Tyrian drink before their departure showing its effect, allowing him to use combinations he only knew in theory. Looking at the cave that certainly went even deeper he decided to turn around, he was not sure if he could keep up the spell that gave him the ability to see in the dark for long, so it made sense to abandon the dark cave and return to explore with his group.

Further down south within the forest a woman with silver hair was busy casting a fireball upon a part of a pack of direwolves while elegantly dodging the cleaving claws and biting mouths covered with sharp teeth aimed at her by the closer members of the pack, showcasing an amount of control over both her body and spell that would make even experienced spellswords envious. If Athra or Desta were to see her fight they surely would think they were staring at someone impersonating Diarra, which was not far from the truth as during the decade Athra trained with her he without meaning to had shaped her combat style after his own twin. Still the agility she showcased was not something even Athra could match no matter how well he knew his twin’s style, attributing all her skills to Athra would be unfair to her natural talent and centuries long training she had undergone before meeting the second prince. Wolves’ whimpers started to die down as their numbers were swiftly culled and the pack twenty was now only a measly five, which were too close for her to include in the radius of the fireball without risking herself. To take care of the melee ranged wolves she unsheathed her scimitars and danced a graceful dance of death much like Athra as she coated the blades of her twin scimitars red with the blood of the animals, a dance that only took a mere moment. Satisfied with herself Thalia L’rial also rushed towards the deeper parts of forest, following her princes’ order of “seek and destroy”.

Closer to the outskirts of the forest Thalon L’rial was busy taking care of a gryphon, he had already forced the creature to remain on the ground by increasing the gravity experienced by it, which certainly made things a lot easier. He was thankful to Athra for helping him learn the spell and execute it properly. He wouldn’t admit this infront of his sister though,as in his opinion she had enough admiration for the prince as it was. He certainly did not plan on making her quick glances increase in frequency, indeed her so called sneaky wanderings of eyes were not unnoticed by the brother who was at her side since birth. Even though his mind was occupied, the monster under the increased gravity it was experiencing simply lacked the speed to harm him especially when he himself was under the effects of ‘haste’. Once he was done thinking about his sister's potential crush on the prince he did not waste any more time with his current prey and with precise and efficient movements of his greatsword cleaved the eagle head off the lion body of the creature.

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The hunt went on with the group annihilating anything in their paths that they believed was worth points. As the night drew closer Athra, by casting ‘Eldrinath’s sanctuary’ created a safe campsite, the spell provided a bubble of protection around it and within its radius created a campsite with supplies such as bedrolls for up to eight people. Athra then quickly drew a teleportation array to make sure he could enter the sanctuary with a portal quickly teleported to his teammates and brought them back so that they all could rest. Seeing the effects of their own headmaster’s original spell the trio and the senior student were astonished as while the simple spell sanctuary was public knowledge this more advanced version was not, which meant Athra either learned it from the headmaster himself or had enough theoretical knowledge to employ it.

“We’ll rest up for the night within the protective bubble and head out together the following morning. We are quite deep within the forest now so it is better to stick together.” Athra spoke with the authoritative tone of a member of the royal family, his teammates did not refuse as they were no fools. They did not know how deep in they were but if Athra was being cautious he must have had his reasons, after all he was the only one with the knowledge of where they were. The reason for Athra’s caution was precisely because he knew they were treading around an area that had the potential to be very dangerous. Even if the reason had been unseen by the eyes of the humanoid races that populated Erandar that did not mean it had ceased existing.

The young Ira huddled around the campfire to cook the supplies the spell provided and have a meal before calling it a night, this was also an opportunity for Ledros to give the group an earful for splitting up and the headache he would’ve gotten if things did not go well for them. Thalia thought maybe this would be a one of the very few chances she had to talk to the prince outside the bounds of training but unfortunately for her, her brother was one step ahead and dragged her away from the prince in the first possible opportunity under the guise of talking about important matters regarding their house.

“You are eyeing a dangerous trophy, sister.” Thalon whispered to Thalia when they were in one of the four tents provided by the spell. The number of tents meant that one of them had to be occupied by a pair. Obviously, Thalia was excluded from the pool of potential tent partners for the young men, so she had her own tent, and the twins were currently isolated inside her tent.

“I don’t understand what you mean, Thalon.” Thalia responded, feigning ignorance of her own glances.

She knew what he was talking about all too well but she did not want to admit it infront of her brother, not until she was sure he would not tease her about it.

“Just don’t be distracted, at least not while we are out here in the wild.” Thalon’s tone carried a sense of underlying resignation as he spoke. “I’ll leave you alone now with a reminder of the traditions of the royal family” As the words left his mouth he took his leave, as he had promised to his sister.

Thalia’s face turned grim, as she was reminded of the tradition she had forgotten. “It’s okay, when the time comes he won’t lose.” she spoke inwardly with an uncertain voice. Her brother’s words would make it very hard for her to fall asleep as she struggled to control her inner turmoil.

The men on the other hand had no real difficulty sleeping except Tyrian having slight issues with the sounds Athra made while he drew arcane symbols on the ground with a stick. He could not tell what the young prince was doing in the dark nor did he particularly care, he just wanted to sleep after a long day of physical activity. He would later be woken up by Athra as the dawn broke, the young prince while having a pleased look on his face seemed to not have slept the entire night.

Athra indeed had sacrificed his night of sleep for working on a spell he had been devising for the past decade, a spell he now had at least partially completed in theory which gave him a feeling of accomplishment he hadn’t felt since he resolved his mana problem, but had no real way to see if it actually worked which was bothersome to say the least. Unbeknownst to him this opportunity would present itself in the very near future in the shape of an encounter that would pose a challenge even for Desta, forcing the young prince to cause turmoil on an unprecedented scale and paving the way for future trials his kind would face further into the future