Nia circled in the sloshing water. “Do you think their young are around?” she asked.

  Tab searched with her, seeing spell active. “I certainly hope not. I’m not ready for a horde.”

  A hot breeze passed through the forest, and for a moment we listened, hearing nothing but the buzz of insects. I wasn’t sure what was going on as I listened. There was two hours between the offer and me leaving, and most of it was signing paperwork for my first mission at the guild. Since then, Tab had only said, “They’re like bears; normal teams gang up on ‘em, but all of us can one-shot the things—so it’s easy,” and I believed him. Now, I was getting a completely different impression.

  “Why not?” Rassan asked. “We’re platinums.”

  “No, we’re platinums,” Nia said, whirling her finger to capture everyone but him. “And we’re not even here for a mission. We came here to hang out with Kalas—we’re not gonna threaten him.”

  “So, that’s what this was?” Rassan asked. “Seriously? You brought me out—”

  “We didn’t bring you anywhere,” Sara said. “You forced your way in. As for the horde—I agree. We should pull back and reassess the situation.”

  “Uh…” I looked between them. “If I may… if these are the things that we’re fighting—”

  “We’re fighting,” Rassan said, whirling his finger sarcastically. “If things get nasty, you’re not ruining our formation.”

  Nia almost slapped him, but Rona put up his hand and said, “It’s alright. He’s right. If things do get messy, we can’t have him crossing spells or breaking enchantments.” He turned to me. “I’m sorry, but… have you ever adventured before?”

  I suppressed my annoyance. “No.”

  “Well, there’s a lot of teamwork involved. A lot of communication. If you don’t, a stray spell will break a line or kill someone. It wouldn’t be a problem if we were fighting a few, but traskas are known to travel in herds. If you threaten their herd, they attack in hordes. It’d get messy.”

  “Yeah, it’s usually not a problem because the herds usually stay about twenty miles”—she pointed west—“that way, and only trim the stragglers. But if the mating ground’s near here, a single attack could trigger hundreds or even thousands to attack.”

  I laughed. “And you didn’t mention that?”

  “It’s never been a problem,” Nia said. “And it may not be. We’re just saying that we don’t want to tempt fate.”

  “Oh…” I calmed and stood in silence for a moment. That’s when it happened. The traska watching us in the distance suddenly let out a strange guttural cry, and Sara’s face paled. She whirled to Tab.

  “Shut it up!”

  “On it!” Tab conjured a bow and arrow out of raw mana in one motion, string already pulled back. He then released the arrow and it skimmed above the marsh, leaving a satisfying tunnel in the water as it traveled toward the beast. The arrow hit cleanly, shearing right through the beast’s lungs and killing it instantly.

  It was smooth, clean, and skilled—every bit as oiled as you’d expect from an elite archer. Unfortunately:

  A collective roar sounded in the distance—cacophony created by so many beasts it became a single sound. Birds kicked off trees; small critters bolted from tree branches, all moving south.

  “Let’s go,” Sara said.

  “Hold up,” Tab said. “We’re not going to outrun them. We need to…”

  Their voices dimmed when I cast [mana map], blanketing miles of marshland in a thin layer of mana that I could see like a three-dimensional map. The pulse must have been as intense as I feared because the entire group fell silent and stared at me.

  “We’re surrounded,” I warned. “We need to go. Now.”

  As if my words were a prophecy, another herd to the east released another cry, half a thousand strong, loud and long and distant—showcasing the sheer size of the horde. There was an entire wall of beasts to us.

  It wasn’t a laughing matter. I could handle the beasts without problem, but with a horde of this size, I’d have to pull out some serious magic—the type that I knew that I should avoid.

  “Get on!” Rona said. He lifted his hand and chimeric cats bubbled out of the earth. They were shadow summons, a form of spiritmancy that stored parts of a spirit’s mind and capabilities within the caster, allowing them to summon them like a necromancer. It was well done.

  There were only three, so Nia jumped onto Rona’s, Tab pulled Rassan onto his, and Sara jumped onto the third, offering her hand. “Take my hand!”

  It wasn’t necessary, but I accepted it. Then, the shadow summons blasted on, splashing through three-foot pools of water like street puddles—keeping full sprint—never tiring.

  It was only then that I finally felt like I was on an adventure, striking onward in dangerous territory.

  I enjoyed it—but the rest didn’t.

  Sara was trembling, eyes fixed ahead, head moving back and forth. Only then did I realize the nature of the situation. To me, this was nothing more than an inconvenience, a crossroads that could force me to show off more than I wanted to. But to her, this was a life or death moment, an event that could actually kill us.

  I gripped her waist, trying to comfort her, but it didn’t help. It couldn’t help. The roaring traska were in their home domain, charging through the water as if it was lightly padded snow.

  We could see more of them to the east, small white dots that created a line of mist and spray as they kicked up water like sand in a dust cloud. There were close to a thousand of them, and to her and everyone else, being surrounded by them was a death sentence. There was no one way to attack them—no easing up. The noose had been tied around our necks, and the chair was tipping underneath our feet.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Make them go faster!” Rassan screamed.

  “This water’s too thick!” Rona yelled. “Mikas weren’t meant for this terrain!”

  “You’re useless!”

  “No, you’re useless!” Tab yelled. “Enchant Rona, you idiot!”

  Rassan’s eyes lit up, and he started chanting a long, complicated incantation. It was extremely inefficient, but it was surprisingly powerful. Rona and the mikas lit yellow with an aetherial boost spell, and our speed picked up. We were substantially faster—but the traskas were faster still, releasing stomping cries as they attracted beasts from all sides.

  It was official: running wasn’t an option.

  “Don’t worry,” I said calmly. “I’ll take care of—”

  “No!” Sara screamed, almost panicking. “Don’t you dare start talking like that. You’re surviving this. I’ll make sure of it.”

  To my immediate and aggressive horror, Sara jumped off our cat, plunging into the water.

  “Sara!” I jumped off, landing in the marsh as Rona and the others circled around.

  The horde was closing in, antlers visible through the spray and pungent mist. Sara ignored them, standing tall and chanting aloud at full volume. The trees rustled from heavy winds, ripping leaves off the branches as whipping water sprayed her armor. I could already imagine what type of devastation her custom [razor wind] spell would leave in its wake. It was powerful—designed for erratic outward obliteration—but:

  (It won’t be enough.)

  “Enchant her!” Tab yelled.

  Rassan sloppily chanted, and she glowed orange, making the wind kick up speed.

  (Still not enough.)

  I shut my eyes, thought through the situation. I was about to humiliate the hell out of Rassan if I took over his spell, but… this wasn’t the time to worry about someone’s fragile ego. Between letting Sara use her spell and Rassan use his, I’d choose Sara every time. So I thrust out my hand and started the sequence.

  Break!

  Rassan’s enchantment shattered into pixie dust. His eyes widened, processing the sight just before I cast a mid-ranged enchantment of my own.

  [Mana Torrent]!

  Sara’s body flared with blood orange light, a living sun meets a hurricane. The wind became aggressive, ripping massive branches off nearby trees and flinging them at her body. Nia flew forward, erecting a barrier to prevent Sara from being hit. It was just in time, too. One second later, and Nia wouldn’t have even seen it. The marsh water had all been sucked up by the wind, creating a vicious torrent of water so thick that we couldn’t even see the beasts.

  It was an incredible sight—breathtaking even.

  Sara looked like a young Sleya right then, standing strong in the face of terror and adversity, hair wet and whipping but face calm as she prepared her attack.

  All went silent.

  Then the spell hit. Distant trees turned into popping confetti, chunks flying as wind blades ripped through them. The blades hit the horde, turning the hurricane crimson, pink, and rosy in one second—fading to white the next. The few traskas that survived were hit by flying tree trunks. It was a brutal display that took care of one direction—

  There were two more to go.

  Rona summoned more animal spirits, and they fanned out, delaying the charging traskas on our flanks. Tab unloaded his quiver—using arrows that showed no concern for quietness. One arrow hit a tree, and the massive trunk erupted, sending the canopy crashing onto half a dozen beasts.

  Once he was out of arrows, he summoned a bow of raw mana and shot even more.

  Those arrows were much weaker, so I cast [aura augmentation] on him, and his arrows suddenly pierced through the creatures’ skulls with ease.

  Nia was the tank—which meant that she attracted the beasts and kept them at bay. From what I had learned in conversations, that role typically fell on a large man in armor, but she made up for it by becoming a barrier master. I cast [reinforcement] on her barrier, ensuring no beast would break through it.

  Rassan enchanted the team, since individuals could obtain many enchantments of differing types.

  As for Sara, she had swayed while I was enchanting others and collapsed into the water.

  I panicked and pulled her into my arms, watching her chest rise and fall. Her forehead was red-hot, and her breathing was rapid.

  What’s going on? I cast [astral gaze] and looked at her core. That’s right… It’s not fully unlocked! Goddamn it!

  Her core’s main gate hadn’t fully opened, a feature with consequences I didn’t understand. After all, my core evolved when I was two, and everyone I met was an archmage. I had clearly underestimated my own strength—and overestimated hers. It was lucky that things weren’t worse.

  This is bad… I thought. I need an elixir. While there was often overlap in various forms of magic, core and channel-related healing was the exclusive domain of alchemy. I had a core healing elixir, but it was in my storage crystal.

  Sara wasn’t in immediate danger, so I would wait until no one was looking to retrieve it. If purification magic was spectacular, dimension magic could trigger a riot. Every merchant would fight to obtain my storage crystal. Governments, too, if they knew what was inside.

  I surveyed the battlefield. Eighty percent of the traskas were dead, and the rest would die shortly.

  Let’s hurry this up, I thought.

  Nia used [gravity well] to suck the two-ton beasts to the barrier—prepared to launch them with [repulsion]. I knew what she was doing, so I cast [force augmentation] on her, and when she cast [repulsion], the beasts shot backward like meteorites, plowing through other beasts.

  I then drew an [aetherial condensation] sigil underneath the water, and aether sucked into the area in a torrent. Aether was a form of mana used for ethereal bodies, shadow summons, and transfiguration. It was relatively rare, so when I condensed the aether, it fueled Rona’s shadow summons. The mikas pounced on traskas and ripped their throats out with single attacks.

  The team kept looking at me, but I pretended not to notice, focusing instead on using cooling sigils on Sara’s body. She was in her current state because of me, so it was my job to heal and protect her.

  Twenty minutes later, once the last of the traskas died or fled, the team climbed onto the nearest dry land and collapsed, panting like dogs in the summer heat. Each retrieved a waterskin from their pack, saying nothing, listening listlessly to the birds that had returned at some point.

  “Damn, it’s hot,” Nia said.

  “Yeah,” Tab agreed. “The gods gave us miraculous power and brutal weather on the same day. Mixed messages doesn’t cut it.”

  I painted a cooling sigil on Sara. I should get the elixir, I thought, patting my pocket to ensure my storage crystal was still there.

  I turned to the others. “I’ll be back. Just gotta take a leak.”

  I disappeared behind a tree, spread my wings, and launched into the air, putting a significant distance between us. I then opened my storage crystal and retrieved a tiny blue elixir. My Codex read:

  Name: Kagan Core Recovery Elixir

  Type: Alchemical Elixir

  Description: Heals major core cracks, stress fractures, overheating, and leakages.

  Grade: Garnet

  Purity: 98.27%

  I stared at it and laughed.

  (That’ll do it.)