Taking care of six lookouts took half an hour. In comparison, eradicating the rest of the Band of the Fox took ten minutes.
Turning twenty people to ash, then dropping smack in the middle of a group ready for running and not for fighting made things considerably easier.
It would’ve been even smoother if archers had remained in position, shooting arrows.
But even with this denser crowd, mopping them up while under the effect of Swiftness was simple. The lightly armored mercenaries guarding their Mage dropped dead before their reinforcements arrived.
Unlike those small fries, the heavily armored hulk leading the charge against Wolf gave off a dangerous feeling.
Better to be serious with this one, Wolf thought, charging to meet the black hound.
He exploded with speed, reinforcing his legs with Internal Energy as he dodged the giant sword bearing down on his head.
He dashed towards the giant. Leaping, he smashed his foot into the steel-plated torso. Even with a quarter of a ton smashing into him, the hound wasn’t shaken. Wolf felt a pang of pain from his foot while denting the armor, but ignored it. He slashed his silver-hilted sword to decapitate the hulk with Sundering Strike.
Solely on instinct, Bernard ducked. Or at least he tried to, but he wasn’t quick enough.
*Slash!*
Wolf slashed his head in two. Luckily, he now had enough Internal Energy not to mind wasting some on a Second Order maneuver. Considering the size of the crowd, he wouldn’t dare pull off something big.
He simply slid between men in heavy armors, who cried in outrage over their captain’s death.
After the sixth heavy dropped dead, their morale finally broke, and men started fleeing in panic. The ones who kept their wits ran towards the opening in their defensive perimeter.
Wolf killed those first. Then he cleaned up the rest of the camp.
However, Wolf immediately knew he’d failed to take care of everyone. Griff the Fox had slipped through his hands somehow.
He couldn’t have gone far, Wolf thought. Maybe he’s still hiding inside camp? I should get rid of these tents first.
Wolf collected the heads and equipment from the deceased, then systematically went from tent to tent, dismantling and storing them into his Ring of Holding.
Inside the tents, Wolf didn’t find any valuables. He did, however, find three gagged women tied to beds, and one straggler, which he promptly executed.
Bruises covered the women’s bodies. One was even riddled with old scars, cruelly inflicted by blades, her hand wrapped in a bloody bandage.
Wolf paid little attention to these women. Luckily, they were much better off and required less care than Frida and her sisters in suffering.
They either fed them and took good care of them, or they didn’t keep them enslaved for long, Wolf thought, then decided to make an offer to these women to remove their painful memories.
After practicing on dozens of bandits, Wolf’s mastery over Reforge Mind improved drastically. He’d reached the level where he could copy certain portions of his victim’s memories and replace other memories with them.
Fabricating memories was still beyond the young Mage. However, now was not the time. Instead, he engaged the prisoners he’d freed in a more typical conversation.
“Can you guys walk?” Wolf asked the women once he made sure they were the only manlings around.
The women nodded with some hesitation. Two looked at him with admiration and gratitude. The most tortured one despondently gazed at the ground, unable to meet Wolf’s gaze.
“Boots. We need boots to walk,” she whispered without lifting her gaze.
Her statement stunned Wolf for a moment. Then he realized that he really only gave the women blankets to cover up. Not having Frida around to handle things like last time was annoying.
Maybe I should start going on missions with her? he thought, while nodding absentmindedly.
“Sorry,” he mumbled sheepishly.
He took out an assortment of clothing items, as well as three pairs of boots, which he’d looted from the recently deceased mercenaries.
“Please take your pick,” he said, while turning around.
They hesitantly took the boots and picked warm, modest dresses, which covered even the ankles. They were impractical for travel and fighting, but Wolf understood their choice.
The bandaged woman fumbled with her dress enough for Wolf to turn around and check what was going on.
“Do you need any help to put your clothes on?” he asked out of consideration, but the woman backed away, shaking.
“No, no. I’m fine,” She said, her voice trembling.
Seeing her panicked eyes and how she covered her chest, Wolf realized his mistake.
Dumbass, he thought. You know what they’d gone through. The last thing they need is an unknown man touching their bodies.
Wolf backed away, doing his best to respect the women’s private space. As expected, all three of them were visibly relieved. Wolf turned his back to them again and examined his Ring of Holding to check the loot he’d gathered.
The Mages and the hound had the cheapest Rings of Holding. Other than that, most of the wealth he’d found was in the form of weapons and armor, which were high end goods.
Having finished, Wolf cleared his throat.
“May I turn around?” he asked.
After getting permission to face them again, Wolf popped the big question.
“I can help you forget what happened here,” he said as gently as possible.
Unexpectedly, the women answered with an awkward silence.
“No thanks,” the wounded woman hurriedly said.
The other two said nothing.
After a short period of awkward silence, Wolf led the women through the ruined camp.
When the group passed the scene of the fiercest battle, he heard the women spit on the stripped, headless bodies of their captors.
Suddenly Wolf felt someone let out murderous aura behind him. He turned around, but before he faced the person, the feeling was gone.
The three women stared at Wolf with wide eyes, but he just smiled reassuringly. The commander is still watching us. I should scry on him first thing in the morning.
When traveling alone, Wolf took half a day to get here. Returning with these three would likely take a couple of days.
Three long days, watching over wounded women, while the enemy was free to attack from the shadows.
I have to get rid of him as soon as possible, but why is he stalking me instead of running away? Wolf wondered and came up with several scenarios, settling with the likeliest one. He probably wants to kill me in my sleep.
The company of four moved for two hours. He felt like a viper was watching him the entire time. Wolf abruptly stopped and turned around, trying to catch a trace of his stalker, but Griff was good. The only thing Wolf managed to do was startle the three women to the point he felt embarrassed about checking his surroundings.
Wolf even fully awakened his senses, yet heard nothing, save for the four of them walking and breathing.
Is he really that good of a stalker? the youth wondered. Is he using a looking glass in this predawn light? It’s easier to see with the clouds gone, but still…
In the end Wolf started doubting his gut feeling.
Am I imagining things? But I can’t be wrong about something as basic as the feeling of being watched. Maybe he’s hiding under the cover of a spell? No, all invisibility spells have ridiculously short duration.
Three hours later, the sun had already risen and the tormented women finally couldn’t keep up anymore.
“Could we take a break to rest? Please?” a weak voice said behind Wolf.
He turned around and, seeing their sweaty, pained faces, he nodded.
The women sat down on the still moist ground, panting. After looking at them for a moment, Wolf dropped three folded tents onto the ground next to him.
“Sit on these,” he said, then three pieces of bread and some cured meat appeared in his hands. “Eat and sleep. You have six hours to rest. I’ll keep watch.”
Wolf was surprised to see the women eating like ravenous beasts. They finished the trail rations in no time and immediately fell asleep.
The young man sighed and shook his head before setting up an Alarm. As soon as they’d stopped moving, the malicious watcher stopped observing him. He couldn’t believe the old fox was so wily. The man had sent archers into melee, escaped in the commotion and now, as soon as Wolf had some time to focus on where the stalker was, the man didn’t dare show his face.
After wrapping up the security arrangement, Wolf sat down and started meditating. Last night’s action was costly in terms of spells, and he needed to prepare a lot of new ones.
An hour later, Wolf had a fresh selection of spells. After petting and scratching Silver’s legs for a while, he opened his eyes.
The women snored softly on the waxed cloth of the tents, which they’d used to cover up as well.
I was certain he’d attack as soon as I closed my eyes. Wolf mused, dissatisfied with his prey not biting. I’ve still got over four hours before we leave. I’ll have to use Scry to find him.
Wolf took out a large bowl and filled it with water. Then he murmured the spell’s chant. Even though he often used it, Wolf really hated Scry.
The casting took a quarter of an hour, but, more annoyingly, the idiot who invented it made a large mirror, or an equally large pool of water, the medium for projecting the image. Why the hell didn’t he just project the image into the air, or straight into the caster’s mind, like Detached Eye?
While Wolf focused on whispering his chant and performing the mudras, the woman with a bandaged arm got up as stealthily as possible.
The youth sat next to an over a meter wide basin of water, his back towards her. She needed to cover a few steps and, with any luck, she’d stab the boy dead and be done with this fiasco.
She slowly got up, making sure not to make a sound. She didn’t even change the pace of her breathing. Looking at the moist grass, she decided to jump. Better not to risk making noise. The bastard who destroyed her band was as jumpy as a rabbit.
She crouched like a leopard, and a long, curved dagger appeared in her bandaged hand. Griff took a deep breath and pounced.
Despite his best effort, he wasn’t really an assassin. He leaked a bit of murderous intent ahead of time, and, given Wolf’s awakened senses, that deep breath could’ve very well been a shout.
*Clang!*
Wolf spun around, parried the blow and sent the woman flying. His moves were smooth, but his eyes were wide and his mouth ajar. He didn’t understand why this victim suddenly attacked him.
Griff smashed onto the ground, yelping in pain. However, he skillfully rolled, negating most of the impact.
The sudden noise startled the other two women awake. They saw their comrade in suffering sprawled on the floor, gripping a large dagger, and immediately concluded what had happened.
A pair of terrified gazes locked onto Wolf, who saw accusation and despair in there.
“I didn’t touch her! She attacked me,” the youth shouted, uncertain why he needed to explain himself.
While he buckled under the accusing gazes, the woman agilely kipped up to her feet then ran off into the bushes.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Wolf shouted while dashing after his attacker.
Shit! He’s a Mage, Griff thought while sending Internal Energy to reinforce her legs. How can he be so strong?! And why is he so heavy? Is it magic of some sorts?
The man stuck inside in a woman’s body fled at top speed.
Unfortunately, that effort wasn’t enough. Wolf was still under the effect of Greater Fleet of Foot. Not to mention that his Internal Energy capacity was greater than Griff’s, and after the battle, Wolf drank potions to recover what little Internal Energy he used fighting Band of the Fox.
*Swish!*
Griff heard the whizzing of a blade split the air behind him. The sound came from down low. He jumped, barely missing the sword.
Thanks to his reflexes Griff kept his leg. He wanted to spin through the air and hack at Wolf, but ended up getting tangled in his own dress.
“Shit,” he cursed, wishing he had proper warrior’s clothing.
“Who are you? Why did you attack me after I saved you? Is the leader of the Band the Fox actually a woman?” Wolf asked a bunch of questions, stopping his attack.
“Just leave me alone. What did I ever do to you?” Griff said, then turned to flee, but Wolf wouldn’t let a wanted criminal run away like that.
The sound of metal clashing reverberated loudly through the forest. Despite how fierce the battle sounded, in reality Griff was on the defensive right from the start, barely parrying Wolf’s onslaught.
“Let me go. I’ll give you all the money I have,” Griff said. “What do you say? Will you let me go, or do we fight to the death?”
“How many people surrendered their belongings to you, asking to be spared? How many have you spared so far?” Wolf asked, pausing his attack for the moment.
Hearing Wolf’s question the Old Fox sighed. Wolf thought he looked like he regretted his life’s choices.
Then, with a face still full of repentance, Griff lunged forward, performing Viper’s Strike. He bet it all on the Fifth Order maneuver. Either Wolf died, or he collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
Griff’s body collapsed to the ground. A moment later, his head also landed. As soon as it left the body, the beautiful woman’s head turned into that of a man.
Curious, Wolf examined the body and found two rings on the bandaged hand. One was a Ring of Holding, while the second one was wrought from white gold, embedded with a strange gem. One side of the gem was pink, while the other was blue, a hint of blue in pink and pink in red, forming a taijitu symbol.
As soon as he took off the ring, the body on the ground grew bulkier. Its shoulders broadened and ripped the dress, clearly showing what kind of transformation the ring induced.
The sight shocked Wolf.
This is more evil than Reforge Mind, he thought. In the future, I have to pay attention to what kind of jewelry the people are wearing, and I must never turn off Detect Magic when interacting with unknown people.
Taking care of six lookouts took half an hour. In comparison, eradicating the rest of the Band of the Fox took ten minutes.
Turning twenty people to ash, then dropping smack in the middle of a group ready for running and not for fighting made things considerably easier.
It would’ve been even smoother if archers had remained in position, shooting arrows.
But even with this denser crowd, mopping them up while under the effect of Swiftness was simple. The lightly armored mercenaries guarding their Mage dropped dead before their reinforcements arrived.
Unlike those small fries, the heavily armored hulk leading the charge against Wolf gave off a dangerous feeling.
Better to be serious with this one, Wolf thought, charging to meet the black hound.
He exploded with speed, reinforcing his legs with Internal Energy as he dodged the giant sword bearing down on his head.
He dashed towards the giant. Leaping, he smashed his foot into the steel-plated torso. Even with a quarter of a ton smashing into him, the hound wasn’t shaken. Wolf felt a pang of pain from his foot while denting the armor, but ignored it. He slashed his silver-hilted sword to decapitate the hulk with Sundering Strike.
Solely on instinct, Bernard ducked. Or at least he tried to, but he wasn’t quick enough.
*Slash!*
Wolf slashed his head in two. Luckily, he now had enough Internal Energy not to mind wasting some on a Second Order maneuver. Considering the size of the crowd, he wouldn’t dare pull off something big.
He simply slid between men in heavy armors, who cried in outrage over their captain’s death.
After the sixth heavy dropped dead, their morale finally broke, and men started fleeing in panic. The ones who kept their wits ran towards the opening in their defensive perimeter.
Wolf killed those first. Then he cleaned up the rest of the camp.
However, Wolf immediately knew he’d failed to take care of everyone. Griff the Fox had slipped through his hands somehow.
He couldn’t have gone far, Wolf thought. Maybe he’s still hiding inside camp? I should get rid of these tents first.
Wolf collected the heads and equipment from the deceased, then systematically went from tent to tent, dismantling and storing them into his Ring of Holding.
Inside the tents, Wolf didn’t find any valuables. He did, however, find three gagged women tied to beds, and one straggler, which he promptly executed.
Bruises covered the women’s bodies. One was even riddled with old scars, cruelly inflicted by blades, her hand wrapped in a bloody bandage.
Wolf paid little attention to these women. Luckily, they were much better off and required less care than Frida and her sisters in suffering.
They either fed them and took good care of them, or they didn’t keep them enslaved for long, Wolf thought, then decided to make an offer to these women to remove their painful memories.
After practicing on dozens of bandits, Wolf’s mastery over Reforge Mind improved drastically. He’d reached the level where he could copy certain portions of his victim’s memories and replace other memories with them.
Fabricating memories was still beyond the young Mage. However, now was not the time. Instead, he engaged the prisoners he’d freed in a more typical conversation.
“Can you guys walk?” Wolf asked the women once he made sure they were the only manlings around.
The women nodded with some hesitation. Two looked at him with admiration and gratitude. The most tortured one despondently gazed at the ground, unable to meet Wolf’s gaze.
“Boots. We need boots to walk,” she whispered without lifting her gaze.
Her statement stunned Wolf for a moment. Then he realized that he really only gave the women blankets to cover up. Not having Frida around to handle things like last time was annoying.
Maybe I should start going on missions with her? he thought, while nodding absentmindedly.
“Sorry,” he mumbled sheepishly.
He took out an assortment of clothing items, as well as three pairs of boots, which he’d looted from the recently deceased mercenaries.
“Please take your pick,” he said, while turning around.
They hesitantly took the boots and picked warm, modest dresses, which covered even the ankles. They were impractical for travel and fighting, but Wolf understood their choice.
The bandaged woman fumbled with her dress enough for Wolf to turn around and check what was going on.
“Do you need any help to put your clothes on?” he asked out of consideration, but the woman backed away, shaking.
“No, no. I’m fine,” She said, her voice trembling.
Seeing her panicked eyes and how she covered her chest, Wolf realized his mistake.
Dumbass, he thought. You know what they’d gone through. The last thing they need is an unknown man touching their bodies.
Wolf backed away, doing his best to respect the women’s private space. As expected, all three of them were visibly relieved. Wolf turned his back to them again and examined his Ring of Holding to check the loot he’d gathered.
The Mages and the hound had the cheapest Rings of Holding. Other than that, most of the wealth he’d found was in the form of weapons and armor, which were high end goods.
Having finished, Wolf cleared his throat.
“May I turn around?” he asked.
After getting permission to face them again, Wolf popped the big question.
“I can help you forget what happened here,” he said as gently as possible.
Unexpectedly, the women answered with an awkward silence.
“No thanks,” the wounded woman hurriedly said.
The other two said nothing.
After a short period of awkward silence, Wolf led the women through the ruined camp.
When the group passed the scene of the fiercest battle, he heard the women spit on the stripped, headless bodies of their captors.
Suddenly Wolf felt someone let out murderous aura behind him. He turned around, but before he faced the person, the feeling was gone.
The three women stared at Wolf with wide eyes, but he just smiled reassuringly. The commander is still watching us. I should scry on him first thing in the morning.
When traveling alone, Wolf took half a day to get here. Returning with these three would likely take a couple of days.
Three long days, watching over wounded women, while the enemy was free to attack from the shadows.
I have to get rid of him as soon as possible, but why is he stalking me instead of running away? Wolf wondered and came up with several scenarios, settling with the likeliest one. He probably wants to kill me in my sleep.
The company of four moved for two hours. He felt like a viper was watching him the entire time. Wolf abruptly stopped and turned around, trying to catch a trace of his stalker, but Griff was good. The only thing Wolf managed to do was startle the three women to the point he felt embarrassed about checking his surroundings.
Wolf even fully awakened his senses, yet heard nothing, save for the four of them walking and breathing.
Is he really that good of a stalker? the youth wondered. Is he using a looking glass in this predawn light? It’s easier to see with the clouds gone, but still…
In the end Wolf started doubting his gut feeling.
Am I imagining things? But I can’t be wrong about something as basic as the feeling of being watched. Maybe he’s hiding under the cover of a spell? No, all invisibility spells have ridiculously short duration.
Three hours later, the sun had already risen and the tormented women finally couldn’t keep up anymore.
“Could we take a break to rest? Please?” a weak voice said behind Wolf.
He turned around and, seeing their sweaty, pained faces, he nodded.
The women sat down on the still moist ground, panting. After looking at them for a moment, Wolf dropped three folded tents onto the ground next to him.
“Sit on these,” he said, then three pieces of bread and some cured meat appeared in his hands. “Eat and sleep. You have six hours to rest. I’ll keep watch.”
Wolf was surprised to see the women eating like ravenous beasts. They finished the trail rations in no time and immediately fell asleep.
The young man sighed and shook his head before setting up an Alarm. As soon as they’d stopped moving, the malicious watcher stopped observing him. He couldn’t believe the old fox was so wily. The man had sent archers into melee, escaped in the commotion and now, as soon as Wolf had some time to focus on where the stalker was, the man didn’t dare show his face.
After wrapping up the security arrangement, Wolf sat down and started meditating. Last night’s action was costly in terms of spells, and he needed to prepare a lot of new ones.
An hour later, Wolf had a fresh selection of spells. After petting and scratching Silver’s legs for a while, he opened his eyes.
The women snored softly on the waxed cloth of the tents, which they’d used to cover up as well.
I was certain he’d attack as soon as I closed my eyes. Wolf mused, dissatisfied with his prey not biting. I’ve still got over four hours before we leave. I’ll have to use Scry to find him.
Wolf took out a large bowl and filled it with water. Then he murmured the spell’s chant. Even though he often used it, Wolf really hated Scry.
The casting took a quarter of an hour, but, more annoyingly, the idiot who invented it made a large mirror, or an equally large pool of water, the medium for projecting the image. Why the hell didn’t he just project the image into the air, or straight into the caster’s mind, like Detached Eye?
While Wolf focused on whispering his chant and performing the mudras, the woman with a bandaged arm got up as stealthily as possible.
The youth sat next to an over a meter wide basin of water, his back towards her. She needed to cover a few steps and, with any luck, she’d stab the boy dead and be done with this fiasco.
She slowly got up, making sure not to make a sound. She didn’t even change the pace of her breathing. Looking at the moist grass, she decided to jump. Better not to risk making noise. The bastard who destroyed her band was as jumpy as a rabbit.
She crouched like a leopard, and a long, curved dagger appeared in her bandaged hand. Griff took a deep breath and pounced.
Despite his best effort, he wasn’t really an assassin. He leaked a bit of murderous intent ahead of time, and, given Wolf’s awakened senses, that deep breath could’ve very well been a shout.
*Clang!*
Wolf spun around, parried the blow and sent the woman flying. His moves were smooth, but his eyes were wide and his mouth ajar. He didn’t understand why this victim suddenly attacked him.
Griff smashed onto the ground, yelping in pain. However, he skillfully rolled, negating most of the impact.
The sudden noise startled the other two women awake. They saw their comrade in suffering sprawled on the floor, gripping a large dagger, and immediately concluded what had happened.
A pair of terrified gazes locked onto Wolf, who saw accusation and despair in there.
“I didn’t touch her! She attacked me,” the youth shouted, uncertain why he needed to explain himself.
While he buckled under the accusing gazes, the woman agilely kipped up to her feet then ran off into the bushes.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Wolf shouted while dashing after his attacker.
Shit! He’s a Mage, Griff thought while sending Internal Energy to reinforce her legs. How can he be so strong?! And why is he so heavy? Is it magic of some sorts?
The man stuck inside in a woman’s body fled at top speed.
Unfortunately, that effort wasn’t enough. Wolf was still under the effect of Greater Fleet of Foot. Not to mention that his Internal Energy capacity was greater than Griff’s, and after the battle, Wolf drank potions to recover what little Internal Energy he used fighting Band of the Fox.
*Swish!*
Griff heard the whizzing of a blade split the air behind him. The sound came from down low. He jumped, barely missing the sword.
Thanks to his reflexes Griff kept his leg. He wanted to spin through the air and hack at Wolf, but ended up getting tangled in his own dress.
“Shit,” he cursed, wishing he had proper warrior’s clothing.
“Who are you? Why did you attack me after I saved you? Is the leader of the Band the Fox actually a woman?” Wolf asked a bunch of questions, stopping his attack.
“Just leave me alone. What did I ever do to you?” Griff said, then turned to flee, but Wolf wouldn’t let a wanted criminal run away like that.
The sound of metal clashing reverberated loudly through the forest. Despite how fierce the battle sounded, in reality Griff was on the defensive right from the start, barely parrying Wolf’s onslaught.
“Let me go. I’ll give you all the money I have,” Griff said. “What do you say? Will you let me go, or do we fight to the death?”
“How many people surrendered their belongings to you, asking to be spared? How many have you spared so far?” Wolf asked, pausing his attack for the moment.
Hearing Wolf’s question the Old Fox sighed. Wolf thought he looked like he regretted his life’s choices.
Then, with a face still full of repentance, Griff lunged forward, performing Viper’s Strike. He bet it all on the Fifth Order maneuver. Either Wolf died, or he collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
Griff’s body collapsed to the ground. A moment later, his head also landed. As soon as it left the body, the beautiful woman’s head turned into that of a man.
Curious, Wolf examined the body and found two rings on the bandaged hand. One was a Ring of Holding, while the second one was wrought from white gold, embedded with a strange gem. One side of the gem was pink, while the other was blue, a hint of blue in pink and pink in red, forming a taijitu symbol.
As soon as he took off the ring, the body on the ground grew bulkier. Its shoulders broadened and ripped the dress, clearly showing what kind of transformation the ring induced.
The sight shocked Wolf.
This is more evil than Reforge Mind, he thought. In the future, I have to pay attention to what kind of jewelry the people are wearing, and I must never turn off Detect Magic when interacting with unknown people.
