The team moved at a steady pace through the dense forest. As the spinners guided them around yet another pack of four Night creatures, Alex ground his teeth. He crouched next to Mark by a fallen tree, moving his mana through his body to calm his nerves and do something—anything—while they waited. Val rode on his shoulders, trickling small amounts of mana into the amulet around his neck. There was a lot to discuss with the spirit about, and small things had interrupted the charging process more than once.

He forced down his impatience. Recent weeks had taught him that a clear head and planning before combat were essential. “Whenever we find her, we have to assume that she’s being hunted,” he said quietly to Mark.

His best friend nodded in response and looked up from the piece of bark he was idly breaking apart. “She’s tough as nails, dude. I’m sure she’ll be fine when we find her. Probably sitting on a pile of those bastards, smiling, and waiting to ask what took us so long.”

“I really could see it going like that,” he said with a weak smile.

“Why don’t you send your mirage out to scout with the spinners? Or at least let it sprint ahead and try to catch up to her?”

Alex shook his head. “The hunter that’s scouting said it’s too noticeable. The Night creatures are more likely to track a mana signature than a blood trail. The spinners do so well up here as scouts because they can completely suppress their mana. The mirage, on the other hand, is completely made of mana…” He shrugged his shoulders in resignation. A brief pulse of mana from the web beside his hand caught his attention. The light blue webbing stood out from the dreary surroundings. The small amounts of natural mana he could see were gray or black, devoid of their green and brown that the environment used to carry.

Alex held up his hand and waved quietly to Sam and Sarah. They all stood and reformed quietly. The sound of Sarah’s wooden arrow shaft clacking against her bow stood out in the silence, but was quickly drowned out as they began hopping over the tree to follow the silk trail.

Their pace was methodical, and the spinner leading them was calculating in a way that made clear it was devoid of the same motivations to reach Olivia. But Alex knew that was part of what kept them safe.

What good would it do to use movement skills to catch up to her faster, if it also dragged several packs of monsters on my heels?

The small amounts of brush in the dark forest made it easy for them to keep formation as they moved. They wove between trees and avoided potential natural terrain formations that might lead to an ambush. The branches above were largely devoid of leaves, allowing the moon’s light to illuminate their surroundings even to his mundane vision.

Alex activated the function of his left eye to scan the surrounding area. As he had when he combined the eye’s capabilities with his [Ritual Insight] skill, he extended its function of scanning, allowing it to stay active as he looked in every direction.

With nothing there but the dim signals of the mana-sparse environment, they continued on as the web turned further east and deeper into the heart of the Night’s territory. They fell into an easy rhythm following the spinner’s guidance.

They were “ambushed” once, though the scout ahead of them had spotted it early, communicated to the team, and set two explosive rituals and binding traps. Between that and the team’s increased capabilities, they made quick work of the three low D rank creatures.

It didn’t take long to find further signs of Olivia’s passing. They entered another gory scene, similar to the first, with several maimed and dead monsters. Some were missing limbs that were scattered among the black and red blood. The difference in this instance was that the red blood was still fresh enough to still drip from nearby branches.

Alex made the call to pick up the pace.

He sent the message to the spinner through their guiding line and activated [Feather Step] without looking back. Mark stayed at his side, with Sarah and Sam behind him, only a few meters apart.

They covered ground significantly faster, and in less than ten minutes, the team reached the top of a rise and saw her. Olivia sat atop a small black mound with her back against a rock. It was difficult to recognize her slight frame, covered from head to toe, as it was in dried and cracked blood. Only some of it was hers, but the bright red that was leaking from her side, despite the hand she pressed on it, was enough to send a spike of panic through Alex’s chest.

“Fuck,” he said. “Stay alert. Sam, check her out as soon as we get down there.” He led the charge down the hill with Mark only a step behind, and as badly as he wanted to run to her, he focused on their surroundings and started to spin a lightning bolt spell circle over his hand.

Seeing no immediate threats, he took a closer look at Olivia's condition. Her head lolled to the side, and he realized the black mound she sat on was actually several large, furry beasts of the Night.

Mark split to the right and Alex to the left, while Sam headed for the slumped form of their friend. But the healer was intercepted before he could reach the base of the black mound.

Nox appeared from the shadows beneath her body. He lunged forward and landed on the ground with a thud as his inky form solidified. The bond looked so different from what Alex remembered. His sleek feline body had changed, no longer a uniform black with shifting smoke around his head and paws. The small dot of sun elf magic that had started at his left shoulder blade had spread to cover all three of his left legs and most of his side and back. It didn’t appear to have spread to the companion’s tail or head, but it had expanded rapidly during their time apart.

“Nox,” Sam said, raising his hands.

“Get out of the way, damnit,” Alex snapped. “You know he can heal her.”

There was a moment of hesitation, where it looked as if he wouldn’t move. Slowly, the snarling lips receded, and the vicious growl that had been vibrating through the air lowered and turned into a single whine.

In real time, Alex saw the line of white light and small flames pulse and spread across Nox’s back. The bond flinched, and two of its back legs buckled before it recovered and held the powerful defensive stance once more.

There was another short pause before it stepped aside and turned to the creature under Olivia. Baring his fangs, Nox bit deeply into the wolf-like monster’s neck.

Sam moved forward, and Alex saw mana draining from the dying creature and transferring into Nox.

He scanned Olivia, truly worried at what he might see.

He was overwhelmed by the amount of information the readout gave him. Most shocking of the changes to her status screen was her level.

“Alex,” Sarah called, fear in her voice. “I think there’s something over there.”

He spun around and saw her staring at a section of the tree line. There weren’t any signs of life in that direction, no movement, and no mana that he could see with his Heavenly Eye.

Mark shifted his position to stand between that section of the forest and their occupied healer.

“I don’t see anything over there,” Alex responded, and just to be sure, he pulsed the scanning function of the eye, hoping to catch a System readout if any of the monsters were suppressing their mana like the spinners did.

Sarah said nothing but kept her bow half-drawn and stared intently at the area.

“Alex, we should move. This isn’t going to be a simple heal. It’ll take some time and a lot of mana. She’s poisoned and has a lot of internal injuries… I— I’m worried.”

“Shit. Okay. Can you move her?”

“Yeah, I’ll need someone’s help.” He reached into the spatial pouch at his hip and removed something Alex hadn’t ever seen before. It looked like a folding chair, segments of metal and canvas contorted into odd angles that kept it in a neat rectangle. The entire thing was about the size of his torso.

Just as Alex was about to ask what it was, Sam put it down on the ground with some force, undid a buckle, and grabbed the top two corners of the contraption. He took a quick knee and then placed his right foot roughly on the metal between the two handles. With a swift and forceful kick, the entire piece of equipment extended and snapped into place.

Mark ran over and gently helped lift Olivia’s legs onto the stretcher while Sam guided her shoulders and head.

Alex looked at their surroundings again and noted once again how eerie the silence was. He moved to a small thread of mana and connected his own mana thread to it. It wasn’t difficult to communicate to the spinners that they’d found Olivia and that she was injured, but explaining that they needed to find a more defensible position was harder.

“Let’s wait here a sec. The spinners will find us somewhere to move so we’re not just stumbling in a random direction.”

Sam nodded and continued strapping Olivia onto the stretcher.

Letting one half of his mind focus on the back and forth with the confused hunter, Alex continued to scan the surroundings and think of how to handle a fight if it occurred. Out of caution, he laid several rituals around them. Two explosive rituals were placed further away, and a concentrated heating ritual was placed closer to the group. All the while, he kept a spell circle formed over his free hand, ready and waiting.

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From the corner of his eye, Alex saw Sarah slowly lower her bow and stand up a bit straighter. She casually relaxed her bow arm and walked toward him. “Alex,” she said calmly. “I’m sure of it now. There is something wrong with that area of the woods. Something is there. It’s hard to make out, but I’m certain that I caught glimpses of aura’s moving.”

Why is she acting so calm? Does she think we’re being watched?

He kept his face neutral and nodded. “All right, move back a bit and tell Mark.” Without looking in the direction of the tree line, he set up another trapped explosive ritual and contemplated using the larger lightning ritual when chaos erupted.

Where there had been empty wood line, devoid of mana and life, there was a flash of mana bright enough to cause Alex to flinch. He activated his barrier spell and threw it in front of himself to ward off any attacks.

To add to the confusion, Sarah screamed, and there was a pang of metal on metal. Dropping to a crouch, Alex quickly glanced over his shoulder to see Mark holding her in a hug with his shield over her back after deflecting a large arrow.

After seeing they were safe, he looked back at the source of the attack and let loose the lightning bolt at the first attacker. It connected with the humanoid figure that was holding a large bow. The wooden weapon splintered and fell to the ground with the twitching man, whose jaw was clenched so tightly against the coursing electricity that he couldn’t even scream.

Dropping his mental connection with the spinners, Alex scanned the group of men at the edge of the clearing. He’d almost completely forgotten about the Shadow Serpent Sect members after only seeing creatures of the Night since they’d returned.

Now, as four middle-aged men in black robes stepped from the woods with sneers on their faces, he couldn’t help but feel a spike of fear. The scar across his face began to itch as his face flushed red, but he quickly squashed the emotions. The standing sect members carried weapons and were over level 40. The one on the ground had passed out, and without receiving a kill notification, he knew that he’d need to be finished before he could rejoin the fight.

Val, get ready.

“Ho, ho, Senior Brother, did you see that? These dogs dare to retaliate,” the man who was furthest to the left said. He carried a rapier and had a horribly grown mustache.

Alex groaned internally, forgetting just how much he’d hated the way these people spoke. One of the others began to speak again, but Alex ignored him and called over his shoulder. “Mark, Sarah, are you guys ready? Sam, we’re ‘cashing out the market.’”

Everyone nodded in response, and Alex gave the enemy group a smile. “Sorry, I’ve tried talking to people like you before. It doesn’t really work. Let’s just fight, yeah?”

The group seemed taken aback, and the man in the middle stepped forward with a dark look on his face. “Do you know who we are? I am the—”

Alex didn’t say anything or let his face show the joy he got from letting a bolt of lightning rip through the space between them. A miniature clap of thunder echoed around them, but despite the speed of the attack, the man seemed ready and raised his arm. The armband he wore absorbed or dispersed the energy of the attack. The sheer force behind it was enough to cause him to grunt and take a step back, though.

With annoying banter out of the way, one of the trio drew his rapier and lunged toward Alex with a yell. At the same time, Mark used his charge skill to intercept the man, leading with his shield. Even though the tank was lower in levels, his Constitution and heavy frame equipped in heavy armor sent the sect warrior sprawling on the ground. There wasn’t a moment's hesitation as Mark’s hammer came down on the man’s chest. As it descended, however, the hammer was pulled out of line at the last moment.

The man-in-the-middle’s weapon of choice was revealed, showing something that none of them had dealt with before. A whip had snapped out, wrapped around the shaft of the hammer, and, even though Mark had a strong enough grip on it to prevent himself from being disarmed, it was pulled off course and thumped into the ground.

The prone sword user rolled to his side and then used a movement technique to create space again.

Alex fired another lightning bolt at the incapacitated archer, which caused the whip-wielding leader to move to intercept.

Mark raised his shield to the ready and repositioned himself. Just like he was supposed to, Sam had begun to move, hefting the stretcher himself and pulling Olivia in the opposite direction from the fight. Nox stood slowly and struggled after the two.

Sarah raised her bow and fired three arrows in quick succession at the leader. It forced him to dodge behind a tree, allowing Alex to score two solid hits on the enemy archer and receive a kill notification. The loss didn’t seem to bother any of the warriors, but the leader seemed annoyed at Sarah’s constant peppering of arrows.

He stepped swiftly from behind the tree, drew his arm back, and flung it forward and to the side. Alex didn’t bother to block, as she was clearly out of range of the whip, though the mana projectile fired from the whip caused his heart to stutter. As if wrapped up in a rope, Sarah’s arms were stuck to her side, and she struggled against the technique's binding for a moment before using her own skill.

[Flare Break] activated, and an orange ball of light also flew into the air.

The warm glow seemed so out of place in the black and gray environment, but what it revealed caused Sarah and Alex to scream a warning to Sam. At the last moment, Sam ducked as a blade passed through the space he’d been standing in.

A split second later, Nox roared back to life and pounced on the sect assassin. The look of pure shock and incredulity on the man’s face spoke volumes to their typical relation with the creatures of the Night. Nox bit down hard on the area between his neck and shoulder before placing four of his limbs on the man’s chest and yanking his head away, making it clear how the monsters in the battle sites had become so torn.

Sarah’s skill had revealed two stealth attackers. The closer of the two attacked immediately when he was shown, but now that the flare had fallen, the second was invisible once again.

Trusting in his traps and Mark, Alex turned and used his movement skill to close in on the space near Sam where the second assassin had been revealed. He couldn’t see any mana and felt frustration build as his mind worked rapidly. He activated mirage and pushed his consciousness into it before sending the illusion back to bait attacks away from them, or perhaps lure the second rapier wielder into one of the traps.

From his position, he looked around and felt an urge to begin firing his wand in random directions in an attempt to find the assassin. Instead, he took a deep breath and held out his right hand while activating [Mana Thread] again. He pushed as many threads as possible from his fingers and allowed them to spread around him. When they’d covered a large area, he began to move them in a clockwise motion, noting how they struggled to pass through the space of each of his nearby teammates.

It also became quickly apparent where the threads of mana were disrupted in a location where no one was standing. He instantly pulsed his mana through the spell circle that hung in the air over his hand. It burst out and slammed into the invisible figure as they snuck closer to Sam and Olivia, causing the illusion to shatter and the man to fall to the ground, convulsing. Nox was upon him in an instant, and he received another kill notification.

“Don’t stop! Keep going! Sarah, cover him. We need to get out of here,” He yelled before turning back to Mark.

His heart lurched as he saw the rapier-wielding sect member dash toward Mark with his blade poised to strike. Mark easily braced against and blocked the strike, then lashed out with his hammer. The nimble swordsman danced back and prepared for another lunge.

The mirage ran toward the whip user, who rotated his position to keep distance. At the same time, Alex used [Feather Step] to reach his friend and aid in their retreat.

On the enemy’s second lunge, the whip wrapped around Mark’s wrist and pulled the shield out of line. Despite his lower levels, Mark’s strength matched the Agility-focused sect disciple. He struggled against the whip, his shield shaking back and forth twice before pulling it in line with the incoming straight-blade.

Scraping metal rang out just before Mark’s cry of pain. The large shield had pulled into position to protect vital organs, but it sent the blade sliding at an angle and into his upper leg and hip. Mark fell to the ground, just as Alex arrived, seeing the sword pulled from his body, covered in two different colors. The sword was covered in unmistakable crimson to his right eye and in a sickly dark green covering of mana to his left eye.

Lashing out, Alex infused his fist with mana while canceling his mirage. His fist connected with the grinning man’s jaw, and he immediately let one half of his consciousness begin building a spell circle. The empowered punch sent the man flying through the air, landing on the ground in a crumpled mess. Before he’d even come to a complete stop, Alex sent the spell flying at his prone form.

Not even bothering to watch the result of his combination, he bent down and touched Mark’s fallen shield, pulling it into his bracer. At the same time, he gripped the back of his friend’s collar and armor. Alex pulled him back quickly, keeping an eye on the remaining enemies, with only the leader now standing and watching them retreat calmly. Alex held up his left hand, prepared to create a barrier immediately, if needed.

Mark cried out in pain at the urgent jostling, but still had the wherewithal to push a shaking hand into his spatial pouch and chug down a healing potion.

Alex’s hamstrings felt like they were on fire as he continued in the direction Sam and Sarah had been moving. Doing his best to avoid looking at the large skid mark of red blood that followed them as he pulled Mark across the ground.

The last sect member turned and inspected the dead body of the disciple on the ground next to him, reaching into his robes and completely ignoring Alex and Mark’s retreat.

“Come on,” Alex said, as he bent down and used his increased strength to put Mark over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry.

Val, watch our backs! Don’t attack him unless he looks like he’ll come after us. When we get over the hill, move back to me.

Feelings of affirmation came through their bond, and Val gained height before circling back and keeping an eye on the sect team leader.

“The potion isn’t working,” Mark said, with rising panic.

“Try another one.” Alex turned and pumped his legs as quickly as he could, huffing with the added weight of his friend. He felt a warmth begin to spread down his right shoulder and chest as blood continued to leak from the wound.

Mark groaned, causing Alex’s pulse to continue to spike as he crested the hill and didn’t see his friends anywhere. The dead forest, largely absent of vegetation and foliage, should have made it easy to find them, but there weren’t any signs of their retreat.

Fuck.

He pushed further down the hill and into the woods, scanning the ground and the trees as frequently as he could without slowing down. It wasn’t until he’d made it another dozen meters past the base of the hill that he found a sign of their passage. The only sign was a single thread of mana which he’d come to recognize as the trail left by the mana spinners.

His heart lifted, realizing that they’d helped the others create space and obscure their passing.

“Come on, hang in there,” Alex said, glancing to his left and seeing Mark’s face turn pale, and his cries of pain slowly turned into sluggish groans of pain. He continued to run, following the thread, while reaching out with his own mana to call out to the spinners.

Pushing through feelings of pain, fear, and urgency, it didn’t take long for a spinner to meet him and guide him through the woods, angling up a slope and toward a large rock face. He glanced up and noticed for the first time that they’d traveled so far north that the landscape began to change to a craggy, rocky area at the base of a mountain.

The spinner continued to move and skittered around a corner in a rock face that he hadn’t even seen. There was no mana involved, only a clever angle of shadows that hid the entry to the shallow cave. Entering, he found Sam with his back to the entrance, leaning over Olivia’s prone form.

“Sam, Mark needs healing,” he said, Valtherion swooping into the cave from over his head. The sudden command drew the young man’s attention.

He shook his head. “I’m out of mana, I can’t even finish healing Olivia. I— I’m sorry. I tried, I really tried.” Water built in his eyes as he looked up at Alex.

“That’s okay. I can give you mana. Work on stabilizing Mark before he loses more blood, then we can keep working on them both.” He gently set down his friend, guiding his head to the ground, before putting a palm on Sam’s back.

Using [Mana Infusion], he sent mana to the healer. After seeing his status screen a few days before, Alex knew that even with his mind split, he had almost as much mana as Sam, thanks to Valtherion. He pushed a hundred mana points into Sam before reaching out to Valtherion.

Give Sam some of your mana, buddy.

He looked toward the entrance and moved to it, straining his hearing to find any signs of pursuit.

“Oh, god. Oh, god— Mark!” Sarah said as she passed Alex, her earlier composure cracking. “What happened?”

He ignored her, along with his thundering heart, while closing his eyes to steady himself. At the same time, he removed a mana stone and began to siphon back from it, refilling his reserves.

“Alex,” Sam called as quietly as he could. “It’s not working.” His voice shook.

“What do you mean?”

“The healing… It’s not working. There’s poison in his body, but his body isn’t handling it well. I— I can’t heal him.” Sam looked between Alex and Sarah with wide eyes.