Allen found his way back to the group’s position in less than a minute. The partially masked sound of leaves crunching alerted them of his return. They each looked over expectantly, though in Camila’s case it was more of a passive aggressive demand to get on with it.

Get on with it he did; quickly and concisely, just as he had been trained. “I could see thirty-four enemies and fourteen large but fragile looking tents,” Allen began. “Average level around seventeen with the highest at twenty. Minimal armor and equipped mostly with clubs. Only one had a rusty claymore, and six are unarmed brawlers. I suspect there are more in the tents, along with the chief or something like that.”

Christopher nodded firmly, though he failed to completely hide his mild astonishment at the fluidity of Allen’s report.

“I always get the warm fuzzies inside when people underestimate my skills.”

Amelia looked out at the camp of ogers. Her expression was firm and determined, like Christopher’s, yet it was still noticeably… absent. It was the face that one has when they read about a foreign war in the news, knowing the numbers, but not really understanding them.

Christopher cleared his throat, keeping his voice low. “I can sense the miasma of fifty-seven entities in there. Thirteen of them seem like children, but my skill isn’t that effective yet. Then there are two that are more powerful than the others and likely capable of using magic.”

“You sure?” Ty asked.

“Fairly certain,” replied the professor. “I can use Mana Sense to tell when someone has some level of control over the mana around them. That, and there’s a magical fire near the center of the camp.”

“Oh?” Allen started, already seeing where this was going. He had seen the bonfire in the middle of the camp, the source of the rising smoke, but it hadn’t stood out as magical.

“Do we have a plan?” Camila asked.

“Yes,” Christopher began. “You and Ty will move in after I create a distraction. Try to throw the camp into chaos while Allen moves in separately and stealthily to deal damage from behind. I’ll guide you two around the camp, so you don’t get cornered, that way you’ll be able to set up ambushes for Allen.”

Allen considered the plan for a few moments. The others were also muted in contemplation for a few moments. He turned back to the camp just outside the trees. It could work, that is, in a perfect fantasy world were nothing ever went wrong. The likelihood that they would be able to kill fifty ogres that were all four to five times their level without any “setbacks” was very low.

“What am I known for but optimism?” Allen mused cynically.

Amelia was the first to break the silence. “But… How will you guide them?” she asked.

“I’ll use Mana Manipulation to tug on their miasma, like this.” The professor raised his hand, a faintly glowing, pale white aura forming around it.

Allen was suddenly aware of a light yet still quite noticeable force pulling him upwards. He didn’t actually move at all, of course. It actually felt like a toddler was trying in vain to lift him, yet the sensation was entirely felt on the inside, rather than on his body.

“What the fuck?” Camila whisper-shouted. The woman suddenly jumped away from the wheelchaired man with a look of surprise that quickly faded into annoyance.

“That’s whack, bro,” agreed Ty, snickering to himself.

“As for the distraction,” Christopher continued, a faint grin coming to his lips, “I’ll cause the fire to spread across the camp. Because it’s a spell, probably the Burn skill, I can use Arcane Manipulation on it for as long as it takes the caster to regain control.”

Allen pursed his lips doubtfully. He had experienced another mage with a high tiered Arcane Manipulation skill, but she had never been able to affect magical flames like that, not even ones burning on their own. “Will that actually work?” he asked.

Christopher rumbled affirmatively as he looked back out at the camp. His normally piercing blue eyes were blank though, as if he were seeing through the trees and the green of the leaves without them.

He, of course, was doing exactly that.

“If it is the Burn skill, then it will have to be below tier four for me to be able to do anything,” the professor said, “I would need better Mana Sense to be able to tell.”

Allen shrugged to himself. If they couldn’t spread the fire around, then they would just have to face more ogres at a time. That would definitely overwhelm them.

“Can we just go already?” Camila groaned.

“Sure, sure,” Christopher said, sighing, “I’ll pull your mana in the direction you should move in. Then down will be for danger, and up for retreat.”

“Bruh, I need a new shield though,” Ty complained, waving the half-destroyed trashcan lid around.

The others smirked sympathetically at their Defender. Amelia seemed the most distraught, yet there was still a slight curl to her lips. Everyone knew Ty’s role was absolutely vital, but that only made it funnier.

“Just pick something up,” Camila said twirling her new club around as if it were no heavier than the baseball bat from before. Simple strength could do that. Allen hoped she hadn’t forgotten about endurance though.

Thus, without further deliberation or probably important planning, the group made their move.

Allen saluted them before he dashed off through the trees with Silent Step. With Christopher guiding him, he didn’t have to think about keeping his sense of direction, he only needed to be fast and quiet.

As soon as Allen made it to the edge of the camp the pull on his mana sopped and he sunk to a crouch. Then he heard Camila shout at the top of her lungs, the volume doubled by her War Cry skill.

An instant later, the camp was filled with the startled grunts and the garbled language of the ogres. The few within Allen’s line of sight jumped up and looked around dimly before bounding off in the direction of Camila’s voice.

They had just made it out of sight when the fire swelled in the middle of the camp. The top of the flame was actually visible over the tents for a moment. Allen guessed that it was somewhere around fifty meters away, but it was hard to tell. Either way, he marked that spot as the rough center of the camp in his mind.

As the sound of burning tents and panicking ogres grew, the pull on Allen started again. He followed it without hesitation, moving swiftly through camp.

The ground was pounded flat in most of the heavily travelled paths. That, coupled with the sound of fighting, meant there was no need for Allen to keep up Silent Step. He was easily able to circle around the edge of the camp completely undetected.

Christopher’s pull changed directions every now and then, guiding him between the tents. He had seen many ogres running around and flailing about, all of them between level sixteen and twenty, but he hadn’t attacked them.

He hadn’t been instructed to engage yet.

After only a few seconds, the entire place was on fire, the flames spreading out from the center to section parts off. By that time, Allen had made it to the opposite side of the camp. That was when he was pulled strongly towards the middle; specifically, at a lone ogre a few meters away that had gotten cornered between two waist-high walls of fire.

Name: Ogre Brawler

Ogre – Monster – Level 17

Immediately, he turned and sprinted towards it while its back was turned. Allen did activate Silent Step a few paces before reaching the doomed monster, but it probably wouldn’t have heard him anyway. He gripped his two tusks as tightly as he could before he leapt at its exposed head. With improved focus and dexterity, he was able to smoothly bury both tusks in either side of the monster’s neck. With Assassinate activated, the improvised daggers sunk fully up to his fists, allowing Allen to use Surge of Pain right after.

The ogre spasmed before falling over backwards. “Insta-kill. Too bad there’s no XP bonus for that,” Allen thought.

He was then pulled in a different direction a moment later. Rather than wasting time trying to get his tusks out, he searched the ogre’s corpse for anything useful.

The monster had seemed unarmed, but it did have a twenty-centimeter-long piece of scrap metal filed into a shank. Allen pulled the new weapon off the ogre’s belt and darted away in the direction the pull on his mana demanded.