Cairfray touched the plain gold ring around her finger once more. It was an heirloom of her once great family, but it wasn’t until after she became a Wizard and the defeat of the that she realized that this ring was unique. The day the last of her family was killed, she had been sent away with the ring.

Her mother told her that day, ‘Keep this ring with you always and if you ever have a descendant that is a Wizard, give it to them. When they become of age, they will know what to do with it.’

At the time, she didn’t understand what her mother was telling her, but now she was beginning to. This ring was a secret device that stored the ancient and forbidden knowledge of her family. Through it, she had unlocked a special magic called . It wasn’t part of the spells for Wizards, it was a spell outside the range of any magical class. And magic outside the classes shouldn't exist.

She wasn’t sure how her family had developed magical skills outside the realm of the , but she did know that the practice of such skills was dangerous and the reason her family had been wiped out. At least that is what she believed after she learned the new skill.

So after learning this new magic, she never used it. She even feared it, not wanting to become a pariah. Not wanting to leave Jude or put him into trouble because of this forbidden magic.

But when Jude had disappeared underground, and Krinn continued to argue with Ellie, she finally tried it out. But as a precaution, she left the group. If there was going to be some divine punishment for using the spell she didn't want to drag in the rest with her. When she finally used the spell, the result was somewhat unexpected.

She assumed that was an invisibility spell. But that was only part of it. Not only did it make one invisible, but it also made people forget about you for a period of time. It was a strange sensation; somehow she knew that the others had forgotten about her even though they continued to argue like nothing happened.

Once she activated , she then followed Wen and Jude down below. By this time they were already under attack by the treants, if she revealed herself, she would only get herself killed. After Jude and Wen had been captured, she followed them back to the Village hoping to lead the others here for a rescue. But to her dismay, they too had been captured before she could do anything about it.

She tried to talk to Jude and the others while they were imprisoned while she maintained the , but none of them could remember anything she said and would quickly forget that she was even there!

However, she did know that Jude was trying to implement one of his brilliant plans, so she waited for the moment that she could help.

She didn’t stay idle either, during the three days Jude was working on his plan she carefully searched the village to find the equipment of her friends. She couldn’t carry everything, so she brought with her only the things that could quickly be used. Every item she picked up vanished along with her by the magic . Even the memories of the were wiped of ever having these items. The only memories to stay intact were the owners of the weapons. Even if they were not in their possession and imprisoned, the items remained in the ownership of each individual. This was why Ellies had not been opened and searched through.

After doing all of this, Cairfray waited for the moment Jude would make his grand escape.

***

“So according to the plan,” Krinn said, “In the next phase we are going to break out tonight during the tower guard shift.”

Jude gave a non-committal grunt, which surprised Krinn. Both he and Jude had come up with this plan, so he was unsure why Jude’s attitude seemed to be changing.

“Jude, what is wrong?” Krinn asked.

“It feels like we are missing something,” Jude answered, “Like we’ve forgotten something important.”

“Yeah, I have this odd feeling of missing a friend,” Nellie joined in, “but it doesn’t make sense.”

It had already been the 4th day of Cairfray using her magic, and over time the effects diminished. Only now were Jude and Nellie starting to remember her as they were the closest to Cairfray.

“A friend? Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m feeling too,” Jude said. Then he asked, “Has our group always been this small? I thought we would have had a Wizard.”

“I do remember a cute wizard being around all the time,” Krinn joined in, “But I can’t exactly remember her either. This is very strange. I never forget a cute girl!”

“You don’t think that the ate her and somehow messed with our memories?” Nellie asked.

“It’s hard to say,” Jude was confused, and the thought of a friend being eaten really ticked him off, especially if their memories were removed to keep them docile.

Now that he thought about it, the were also very docile. And plenty of them had already been eaten by the . The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Not only were they going to be eaten, but they were also going to forget about their friends!

Memories were the most precious thing anyone could have. They should never be manipulated. Even if someone wanted to eat him, the memories shouldn’t be touched… unless they ate the memories as well!

Things were now becoming clear to Jude. These eaters of humans didn’t just eat flesh and blood, but also the memories of people! A people like this should not be allowed to exist. People like this should be destroyed!

“Change of plans,” Jude said with a serious tone. “We aren’t going to escape. We are going to kill every last one of these .”

***

It was late that night when the guards were switching the watch on the tower when Jude finally made his move. The first scroll he pulled out of his robe was an unlock scroll. Before he left Longdale, he realized that the one thing his group severely lacked was a Rogue. Nellie had once been a Rogue, but she had never practiced her pick lock skill to the point where she could use it practically, she had to rely on the automated part of the skill for her to use it in a situation like this.

The real reason why Jude had prepared a picklock scroll was in case they ran into a chest along their adventures. When he cleared out the bandit den, he had to take the locked chests with him. If they had been fastened to the floor, they would have been left behind. Plus the added weight of carrying them made the return trip miserable.

Never had he thought he would use it in this situation. But now he was thankful that he had it.

The guard tower was a simple wood construct and to Jude looked more like a deer stand than anything he had seen in Longdale. It could only fit one person at a time, so the first guard would have to climb down and the other climb back up. The other advantage that Jude and the rest had was that the tower wasn’t meant for watching their prisoners. But for predators outside of the village. The cage was partially blocked by a nearby hut. The door to the cage was the most visible part.

Jude could hear the guard climbing down, so he pointed the rolled up scroll at the lock. This scroll couldn’t unlock highly advanced locks or locks magically protected, but Jude wasn’t worried. The lock on the cage looked very basic. Leaving the scroll rolled up would reduce its power, but again, the lock was very basic. If he unrolled the scroll, the light generated by it might alert the guards, so Jude had no choice but to keep it closed.

Infusing mana into the scroll, the script activated and a light poof could be heard along with the smell of smoke. Then the locked clicked and the large bottom part fell. But Jude was already prepared and caught it so that it this process wouldn’t make more noise than necessary.

Taking the top hoop out, he carefully opened the gate.

Seeing it was successful, Nellie pulled out Jude’s staff hidden in the hay that was spread across the floor and handed it to Jude. They quickly exited the enclosure and hid next to a hut outside the view of the guard tower.

Jude promptly tested to see if he had gotten his skills back or if he was still under the effects of the prison. Opening and closing his Jude let out a satisfied smile. This was a moment that the had been quite kind to them. Jude had been worried that the aroma produced by the cell would affect their skills even after they left, but apparently, the only applied the skill lock while they were incarcerated.

Next Jude pulled out three more scrolls. These were the last of his fire scrolls until he managed to make a new hand sized brush. His staff size brush had been taken by the when they had been captured along with the other weapons of his comrades. But to defeat the , there were going to be some sacrifices. Gear just might be one of them.

He activated his and the three scrolls unraveled and hung in the air. He activated the first two. One was the fire wave scroll, and the other was a long range multi-fireball scroll.

A wave of flames burst out from around Jude and his friends, quickly catching fire to the huts. Then fireballs flew through the sky landing on more distant huts setting them ablaze as well. One fireball soared through the air and blasted into the watch tower. It slammed into the guard knocking him off the tower.

While all this was happening, Krinn with Jude’s sword rushed into the hut they were hiding behind and killed the inside before he could mount a defense. The would use their scorpion stingers in close combat, but they still had a humanoid figure and could utilize weapons quite well. Since their best weapon in close range was their stinger, they most often used halberds. They had watched this hut and already knew that it had a halberd. Wen had followed Krinn in and quickly locked the halberd inside.

The halberd wasn’t a spear that Wen was skilled in, but in this situation, it was the best option. Even though the halberd was crudely fashioned, the strange environment in the Arkess Aquifers had imbued the materials surprisingly well. Wen noticed that its damage was better than her spear, increased her strength and even had a water attribute! If she had to have a halberd, then this was the one.

The began to rush out of their huts, some were on fire and others just confused. The village was incredibly small and calling it a village was a stretch. At most, it was fifty huts, but Jude guessed it to be closer to thirty. How many occupied each hut, Jude did not know but guessed that the total number was less than a hundred.

That number was quickly diminishing as the fire rampaged uncontrollably throughout the village. Jude and his friends were unharmed by the flames thanks to the effect of the third scroll. It was a test scroll Jude thought he would never use, but it worked out well in this situation.

The third scroll created a circular flame barrier made out of a firewall and increased the resistance to fire effects to all who were inside of it. Originally, he wanted the firewall also to shoot out fireballs as well, but could never get it to work right. The fireball component was still there, but Jude was smart enough not to use it.

At this point the was rushing through the settlement, looking for the source of the flames. He caught sight of Jude’s encirclement of flames and roared in rage, but before he could launch an attack something unexpected happened.

Eight spectral swords materialized behind him slashing down onto his back and stinger tail. The tail was hard and armored, so the swords did little damage to it, but the back of the was just like any human, soft and fleshy. The swords that struck his back gouged deep wounds.

At the same time the swords attacked, a figured also appeared. Along with the figure came the memories of Cairfray and instantly Jude and the rest knew exactly what had happened.

Their friend and memories hadn’t actually been eaten, but some skill had prevented them from remembering her. At this point, however, the fate of the was all but sealed. There was no going back now. They would have to finish the job. Not that this bothered Jude at all. After all the ate humans and wanted to use Jude and his friends as breeders.

It was absolutely disgusting.

Jude quickly sent a group invite to Cairfray so that she would be back in the party structure, allowing her to freely bypass the script magic barrier that Jude had set up.

“I found a few of your toys,” Cairfray said as she entered, “but I couldn’t carry everything.”

She handed Ellie her , Nellie her medical bag, and Krinn his axe and shield. With this, they were in pretty good fighting shape, even if they were a little less armored than normal.

“Sorry I’m late,” Cairfray continued, “but after you set the town ablaze, I had to go back to the hut with all your stuff and make sure it wouldn’t burn down. Oh, and to spread the fire a little farther.”

The others welcomed her back warmly, and Jude said, “We are glad to have you back. Later you will need to explain why we couldn’t remember you, but for now, let’s kill these human eating cosh’ers!”