Chapter 52

“I’m going for a flight,” he said quietly into the necklace. Then he leapt off the tree. Wind gusts kept him hurtling through the air.

“Don’t get too close to the mana storm area,” Kiyoko warned immediately.

“Acknowledged.”

“Why does he get to do all the fun stuff?” Jules asked.

“I am not doing this for fun.”

“Liar,” Jules shot back.

“I’m going scouting not bashing.”

“You’re flying. Which is what’s fun.”

“Agreed,” Felicity chimed in.

“Yeah, it’s incredible,” Adrian answered, smiling.

Soaring free through the air at what had to be three hundred kilometres per hour did not tax his mana at all. The spear did all the work. Wind at his back and feet, a lack of pressure above and in front of him sucking him up and forward. There was no limit on the height, apart from monsters. Adrian’s eyes nervously skipped around the sky above him. There were no monsters, but he dived from fifty metres and re-established himself, cruising ten metres above the top of the grass, hoping that height would not be a challenge for any flying beasts out there. As for danger from the ground, there was very little, potentially nothing below a class four that could leap this high and if there was a class four, then his domain would identify them. He was probably as safe as he could be outside of the training facility.

He double-checked his mana burn versus his regeneration. Regeneration won comfortably apart from when he was getting height or speeding up. “I can fly!” he yelled out and the wind snatched his voice away. He was travelling faster than a sports car. He was targeting a large gum tree over three kilometres away but had approached via a long loop. Despite that, the distance was eaten up too quickly for his liking and then like a butterfly he landed at the top of the tall tree.

Anything that was watching would have spotted him, but if they tracked in the direction he had arrived from, then he was fine, as it was away from where they were running. If his paranoid fears were true, he would not lead the enemies back to his friends.

Carefully, he visually inspected the path that they had travelled. Not a single branch was out of place apart from a spot where a bear had crossed their track at right angles. Satisfied, he dropped to the ground, landing right next to the track they had taken. Ambusher’s Steps killed his smell. He stood on a rock that would record no signs of his passing. His craft was good, and the trail the group of them left was barely perceptible. The only reason he could follow it was because he already knew exactly where he had stepped. That knowledge allowed him to see all the signs of their earlier passage. Showing a bent piece of grass, a rock shifted slightly, and only detectable because of the extra line of moisture visible on the part of the rock that used to be firmly on the ground. It was all there if a tracker was good enough. Adrian followed along, his eyes probing everything. He searched for any signs that something else had travelled along the same path. After a hundred metres he stopped, convinced that they were in the clear. Nothing was following them. If something had been tracking them, there was no way it would have left no signs over that distance. That might not be true, but if they were skillful enough to leave no tracks, then his team had no chance against it.

Happy with his discovery, he flew a different route back to his friends glorying in the freedom and the rush of air over his face. He landed a kilometre away from the team as a final precaution and with battle wraith crossed the distance to his group in thirty seconds.

Joanne and Praveen were both conscious when he arrived.

Adrian openly studied the tank. Same squint to the eye, a half smirk, poking the tongue out of the side of his mouth. They were all Praveen mechanisms. “You scared us.”

Praveen shrugged like a man who had already been interrogated multiple times. “The mana storm energy ran riot within me. I couldn’t control it.” The man shivered. “Then I woke up here.”

“Did they tell you?” Adrian asked.

The tank nodded. “I feel so weak.”

Adrian stepped over and grabbed him into a hug. “I’m glad you’re alive.”

“Me too.”

“If we leave now, we can get to Euroa before dark. If you’re not up for it, either I or Jules can carry you.”

Praveen shook his head. “Nope, I can walk fine.”

“Joanne?” Adrian asked.

“I’ll see,” she said honestly. “I feel strangely wrung out, but I think that’s the absence of mana making everything feel off.”

“Ambusher’s Steps,” Adrian declared, putting on the necklace.

“No,” Mike protested.

“I can’t handle it,” Beatrice chimed in.

“It’s not needed,” Omala joined in, a big smile on her face.

Adrian started walking, and he felt each of the others accept his control, even the ones who had protested vocally against it. They all knew it was a sensible precaution even if it was uncomfortable for them. Adrian deliberately went slower than normal. They reached Eurora and Kiyoko was waiting as expected, outside the gates.

“I found us an inn.”

“Another innkeeper.” Kiyoko nodded and looked pleased with herself.

“Yep.”

“That class two monster?” Adrian asked curiously.

There was a hiss of breath behind him and he realised he had not told the others the extent of what had come through in the mana storm.

Kiyoko shrugged. “I don’t know. No one saw it. Your monster detector was all the detail that we’ve got.”

“What, Eurora and Violet Town might be doomed despite what we achieved?”

“Not my rules,” Kiyoko counted defensively. “I just get extra information via my class. But an Alpha event is not a picnic.”

“That’s cold,” Omala said.

Kiyoko looked at her. “You call a spade a spade.” Then she turned and escorted them to the big gates. “We’re welcome. I told everyone that we’re going to thin out the spitters. Which they’re super happy about.”

Most of Eurora’s wall was standard piled up junk and nothing like what had been constructed in Benalla, which had almost uniquely had polished stone walls. Clearly, they had multiple earth mages who had worked together to create that defensive bulwark, not that it had helped against the flying imps.

As he studied the wall, Adrian nodded. Eurora was also upgrading. Sections had been replaced with more traditional wooden palisades to make it more impermeable to smaller Alpha monsters. The gate was an example of this. It was open currently with guards lined up to defend it, but the actual gates were solid wood and once closed they could take a beating. The guards were all mid-teens and thankfully none of them said anything.

They only watched them as they went through.

“Not very friendly,” Jules said loudly after they passed.

“They’re scared,” Adrian said. “Suspicious of strangers, I assume they’ve a good reason?” The second part was phrased as a question directed at Kiyoko, but if she heard, she kept walking, ignoring them.

Kiyoko showed them to a supermarket that had been converted into a makeshift bar and sleeping quarters. Unlike the guards, everyone was cheery. Adrian finally put a finger on what had been troubling him. Everyone was skinny. “Guys, do we have any swooper carcasses or did they get processed in Benalla?”

“There was no time to organise anything there,” Omala admitted.

“Plus, Kiyoko told us to hold off,” Praveen stated confidently. “We have about fifty thousand.”

Adrian looked at Kiyoko suspiciously, but the oracle ignored him suspiciously. “Another quest?”

“What? That’s very personal,” Kiyoko answered with a smile, but no denial.

The innkeeper was next to him. “Sir, how can I help you?”

“We have fifty thousand swooper carcasses. If you can get together a group to harvest them for us, your town can have all the meat for free.” He pulled a dead swooper out of his bag. “If the lips have red liquid in them,” he cut the lips in front of him and green pus came out, “then I want the liquid collected. Then we have cores, feathers, talons, that you can sell on my behalf to the trader.” He looked the innkeeper straight in the eye. “We’re leaving first thing in the morning. Can you get it done tonight?”

“Yes, sir. I will arrange for it personally.” He sped off.

He took a table and food and drinks were delivered. The locals looked enviously at the plates of food that were delivered.

“Relax,” Praveen advised. “Fifty thousand swoopers will feed the entire town for weeks.”

“Bad time to be hungry. We’re not even in winter.”

“It will help,” Praveen told him, “to keep us fed.”

Adrian studied his friend more carefully, after picking up on the second part of his sentence. “You’re staying here? You’re not coming?”

“I’m too weak.”

Adrian knew he should have expected this. That penalty was brutal. “Thank you for coming this far.”

“I still want to get to Melbourne. But.” Praveen shrugged.

“Going further now is suicide?” Adrian guessed.

“Pretty much.”

“Cheers,” Adrian declared, then clashed his glass with the other man. They could enjoy their last night together.

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