Artreus gaze at the sight of destruction in front of him. Trees blown to smithereens and their remains scattered all round, deep gashes in the ground as if they were intended to split the ground apart, numerous craters littered here and there as if artillery of fireballs rained down from the skies, and finally, the corpse of a 4 meter manticore which is missing half of its body while the rest was reduced to a story state, the carcass have sword wounds and countless bolts and wooden spikes marking its hide. Artreus could guess what delivered the final blow as beside the corpse was a crater 5 times larger than the rest, easily measuring at 10 meters. The beast must’ve tried to escape the area of attack and failed.

Inspecting the body, there is something about it that seems familiar. Only he couldn’t put his finger on what it is.

Pulling him away from his shock, he heard Drogo’s voice. “Hey there kiddo, you seem to be late to the party!” Drogo greeted Artreus, grinning like a child as always. “Ain’t she a beut?” He gestured at the manticore corpse. “I know she ain’t much to look now. If only you’ve seen her before, you would’ve been amazed by it. So big. So strong. So fierce!” He exclaimed. His was so excited that he seemed to forget about Porsha who was sobbing in front of the manticore corpse and Claus who was trying to console her. Drogo started with his story. “So there I was, lurking behind the trees, the air is heavy as I draw near my prey. Finally, I saw her. Standing in the middle of the clearing in all her majesty like a monarch looking down her subjects. She knew I was there, looking for an opening to strike, but she didn’t mind as if she is welcoming me to do so, pride oozing in every pore of her body as any being of power does.” He mimicked the movements as he dramatically tells his story. “Both of us are thinking the same. Not wanting to spoil my impending victory by resorting to ambush, I revealed myself. All alone, I waltzed towards her, Voracity, that’s the name of my greatsword, held tightly in my hands. My eyes locked in hers as I raised my weapon and my voice in challenge.” Then as if he remembered something, his eyes turned towards Artreus, and asked. “By the way, I don’t see little Mimi following you. Did something happen?” He looked at Artreus, his eyes were serious, as if promising violence if the answer he gives doesn’t satisfy him.

This is new. I didn’t know that he could be this serious before. Not even when I tried to cut his neck when we first met. Artreus thought. As much as he wants to tease the man, as a payback from him being insufferable in their meeting, there is no point in poking a bear who looks like it was going to pounce at any moment. “After we heard all the commotion you’ve raised, I left her behind as I rushed ahead to give you guys some aid. She is currently looking after the survivors that we rescued from a bandit camp.”

Drogo looked closely at Artreus eyes as if trying to read through his very soul. Then after a few seconds, a smile stretched in his face. “Oohh! I see you also had quite an adventure huh? But I bet my adventure is better than yours!” He exclaimed as he puffs his chest in pride.

“I don’t doubt it.” Artreus answered as he gazed once more on the battlefield.

Drogo answered by laughing boisterously. “Bahaha! You are too modest lad! Learn to boast a bit. Ladies love confidence you know.”

“Yeah right.” Claus answered sarcastically. From the looks of it, he succeeded calming down Porsha who is now busy cutting the manticore corpse to pieces and putting it inside her dimensional bag. “If only you were correct old man, then you would’ve found someone to settle down with.” He continued to tease Drogo who is now looking a bit ashamed at what Claus revealed. “But could you wait from your boasting about your feats for a while and help us with the manticore carcass? From what the Butcher has said, Mimi is in need of assistance with escorting the survivors. We need to finish quickly here and head towards her.” Not even looking at Artreus, the ranger continued. “Oh don’t pout old man. Just think about it. We are still a day or two away from town. When we set up camp tonight with the survivors, you will have more audience to listen to your tales of adventure.”

Drogo was deep in thought as he considers what Claus suggested. After careful consideration, the barbarian raised his thumb, clearly agreeing with the ranger.

Call him what you want, but Claus knows how to handle the big guy. Must be a beast tamer thing.

With that, Drogo walked towards the manticore carcass and started carving up the beast, with the instruction from Porsha of course for Artreus’ instinct tells him that left to his own devices, Drogo will just hack the carcass to little pieces, wasting the precious alchemical parts of the beast’s corpse.

“I hope you kept Micaela safe.” Claus spoke while not bothering looking at Artreus. “If she was harmed, you will answer to me. The old man might be soft on you. But I am different. If you put this party in any danger, I will not think twice and put you down.”

“Is that a threat?” Artreus answered.

“Not a threat.” He stared at Artreus for the first time today. “That’s a promise.” He huffed before walking away. Claus then summoned a hawk, from the bird’s distinct streaks of red feathers, this is a blaze hawk, named from how it looks like a streak of flame as it flies through the sky. He wrote something in a piece of paper and tied it on the bird’s leg and let it fly. He gave Artreus a final glance and continued to walk towards the others once more.

Although, even with his back turned, Artreus could tell that he is being watched. Probably those big ass birds perched somewhere in the tree tops.

Not minding the grumpy ranger, for if he is in the beast tamer’s shoes, he will also be suspicious of a stranger. Artreus eyes wandered, studying the battlefield as he tried to catch a gleam of clue on what the strange sensation he could feel in the area.

Following his instincts, he began to wander towards the north side of the forest. But before he could exit the clearing, Claus called his name, warned him from wandering away, probably to keep an eye on him. Artreus doesn’t want any more friction with the group so he decided to stay put.

He has a strong feeling that the ranger will not think twice to put a bolt or two on his back and is currently looking for a reason to do so.

Sitting atop a fallen tree, he watched the trio work in dismantling the manticore corpse, with Porsha directing them on where and how to cut the dead beast. While they were doing that, Artreus willed his mana to stretch outward of his body in order to Sense their surroundings. The area that his Sense encompass was currently 5-meter radius with him at the center. He sighed as he remembered that back then, his Sense covered about 30-meter radius and was also able to detect anyone who entered his zone even if they were concealed. If he also put his mind to, he could focus on a single direction and stretch his Sense for about 120 meters.

But now, he could barely stretch it to 20 meters in a single direction without making anything his Sense touch barely recognizable.

He kept Sensing north, scouring every nook and cranny that his Sense could reach, but to no avail. Finally, Artreus gave up. He could no longer feel the strange atmosphere around, making him question if he really did feel something strange.

After 10 more minutes, the trio stood up, hands and clothes stained with blood and guts.

“Hey now Porsha, don’t be sad. At least we got some free ingredients eh? Manticore ingredients especially one this ancient is hard to come by.” Drogo said in a cheerful manner in an effort to lift the wizard’s spirit.

“Hmph! That is why I am sulking! We have such a rare specimen and it was mostly blown into bits because I was careless.” Porsha lamented, the usually cheery woman had a tear falling from her eye not covered with her eye-patch.

“Just think about it this way. If you didn’t kill the Manticore back then, then the old man would’ve bitten the dust.” Claus consoled her.

With an indignant gasp, Drogo replied. “How absurd! I was in no danger! I was just resting a bit so that you will feel that you contributed in the fight.”

“The hell you are, old man. I saved your hide at least 3 times in that fight.” Claus retorted.

“That is because I let you.” Drogo grinned as he answered. “See? Aren’t I good in letting people think that they contributed? See here, I wasn’t going to say anything so that your feelings won’t get hurt, but I will not tolerate such slander.”

“Bah! There is no winning with you.” Claus sighed and raised his hand in frustration.

“Of course!” Drogo laughed heartily.

Artreus smiled as he watched the two banter. It kind of remind him of how his friends argue with each other, with Bran trying to outshine Devin in combat while the latter tries to surpass the Captain.

Claus led the three of them as they trek along the forest. They continued to march along until the blaze hawk he released earlier returned.

“Micaela and the others are just an hour ahead. It seems they made camp along the river.” Claus reported as he patted the head of the bird.

“Hmmm. Any threats in their vicinity?” Drogo inquired.

Claus made some weird sounds as he spoke with the bird and after a few seconds, he replied. “There are twin horned rhinos stampede near the area but is not a threat to the camp at the moment.”

“Twin horned rhinos eh?” Drogo murmurs as he scratch his chin.

Before he could say anything, Claus spoke. “No need for needless bloodshed. You already fought and bested a great foe today. Let me deal with the rhinos.”

“Their meat is tough but really tasty when roasted over the fire. Should be able to feed the survivors for the night.” Porsha chimed in.

“Damn you, woman. You just want their horns.” Claus snarled at Porsha. Just an hour ago he was consoling her, now he is angry at the smiling wizard.

At the anger of the ranger, the eye-patch wizard smiled innocently. “Well, I wasn’t able to gather much ingredients from the manticore. Also, it was also by chance that I need a couple of rhino horns for my experiment. What a great coincidence right?”

“That settles it! We will go and hunt some twin horned rhinos!” Drogo declared at the chagrin of Porsha and the dismay of Claus. Drogo then turned towards Artreus. “I also noticed that you have a new weapon. How about you lead the hunt so that we can see you in action.”

Is he testing me? Artreus thought, but he relented in the end. He wanted to test his new blade and lost the chance to test it against a tough opponent like the manticore. Still, twin horned rhinos are tough in their own right and might be enough to test his strength and the sharpness of his new sword.

Claus looked like he was going to argue, but with a sharp look from Drogo, the ranger shuts his mouth and obediently led the group towards the rhino herd.

They dashed through the forest and to Artreus’ surprise, Porsha was able to match their pace just fine. Artreus stretched his Sense towards her and found out that she is expertly controlling the mana on the soles of her feet to Amplify each of her steps, increasing her speed multiple times while wasting little to no energy doing such a feat.

Porsha must’ve felt his Sense probing her as her eyes narrowed in a mischievous grin. “Naughty boy peeking on me like that. How about I peek on you also?” as soon as she finished saying those words, Artreus felt her energy wash over him, her mana inspecting his body inside and out. Artreus was shocked that she was able to do it easily even though he raised his Aura for defense. This is just a proof that she is a top tier magic caster. “Good defense. Could’ve held off against lesser magic casters, but clearly not enough to defend against me.” It felt like the woman was whispering directly to his ears, clearly a mana skill that is used so that no one would hear what she is saying except for the one she want to talk with. “Hmmm… Your body.” She murmurs. “How curious.” With those words, she quickly pulled back her mana and shoots him a hungry look. Like a predator eying her prey.

Artreus wonders why she is looking at him that way. Is she curious about his mana channels? Shouldn’t be, for even if he has adequate control of his energy, it was nothing against her top notch control.

Don’t dig further on what she’s thinking Artreus. You might not like what you’ll find out. Artreus thougth to himself as her gaze reminded him of how Grisha looked at him back in the Void Plane. With that thought in his mind, he urged his body to move faster, he wanted to be near front as far from Porsha as possible, but whenever he tries to chase after Claus, the ranger speeds up. He continued to try and match his speed, but the ranger continued to increase the gap between them.

“Dunno what you did lad. But you seem to have piqued the interest of those two. Although for different reasons.” Drogo chuckled as he ran beside him. “Don’t worry about Claus. Grumpy is his normal response. But I would advise you to be careful of Porsha.” His eyes gazed at the woman chasing them from behind. “Just be careful.” He repeated his warning with a smile before speeding up also.

At the speed they were travelling, they reached the herd of rhinos in no time. As soon as the beasts realized their presence, they went wild and charged at them.

“Go on lad. Give us a good show.” Drogo gave him a push on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I will kill them swiftly and cleanly. No suffering.” Artreus says, not to boast, but in an effort to pacify the ranger who is staring holes in his back. Unsheathing the sword from its sheathe, the runes etched upon the blade started to glow in a soft light. The blade pulls the mana from his body and coats itself with it, increasing its already formidable sharpness. Artreus faced the charging beasts who threatens to crush him beneath the hooves head on, and with a single slash, he cut down the rhino who was leading the charge.

The hide of a twin horn rhino is so tough that steel swords have almost no chance on cutting it, spears couldn’t pierce though it, without enchantments or use of Aura. Which only highlighted the sharpness of the blade. The sight seemed surreal as the rune sword cut through the tough hide of the twin horn rhino like hot knife through butter, beheading the beast in one smooth motion.

Upon seeing one of them fall dead, the other rhinos went into a frenzy, swing their head from side to side in hopes that their horns gore Artreus. Expecting this to happen, Artreus covered his body in Aura, his reinforced body dodging each hit while beheading another rhino as he side-stepped its charge. To avoid getting overwhelmed by their numbers, Artreus raised a barrier, splitting the herd in two as started to slaughter the beasts on his side the barrier. Swiftly cutting down the beasts in front of him, he was able to slay another five of the beasts before he heard a piercing sound which sent the rhinos running away. Turning his head towards the origin of the sound, he saw Claus blowing on a whistle made from what looks like a bamboo.

After the beasts are nowhere in sight, Claus turned towards Drogo and Porsha who was standing watch. “That should be enough right? No need to kill them all.” His gaze then fell towards Artreus. “You!” He yelled, his expression is angry and his first shaking in anger, then suddenly he calmed down. “Good kill.” He said it in a low voice, almost a whisper. Artreus wouldn’t have been able to hear it if not for his Aura boosting his senses as he readied himself for an attack from the ranger.

Watching Claus march towards the direction where the camp is supposed to be located, Artreus let out a sigh of relief and he released his Aura before he exhausts himself.

“That was quite the show!” Drogo claps his shoulder as he grinned. “Fine display. Good footwork and splendid swordsmanship. Makes me wonder. Have you really been trained by a barbarian?” He asked.

The jolly barbarian seems to be sharp lately. But Artreus thought it was not if he was trying to hide his skill. “I trained with a barbarian before. That is how I learned how to use Aura. But I also trained with other swordsmen and women. Incorporating their styles to make my own.” He admitted.

“I see. I see…” Drogo murmured before grinning once more. “You have one hell of a blade in your hand lad. Looks mightily expensive too. Where’d you get your hands on it?”

Artreus was kind of intrigued at how the man was full of question. He doesn’t look like an inquisitive man. “It was a gift from Estella, a woman that we saved from the bandits. Micaela said that she is a daughter of a guild master of some sort.”

“A guild master? Hmmm… Hmmm…” He pondered. Then after a few seconds he was back to his usual self and clasps Artreus’ shoulder. “It looks like good stories will be told tonight! But I bet my story is a lot better than yours and Mimi’s. Leagues lot better!” He laughed boisterously. “Tonight the drinks will flow. Porsha! Give me our last barrel of beer later. We are going to drink until morning!”

Artreus chuckled at the sight of Drogo happily marching off after Claus. Artreus quickly followed them, afraid of being alone with Porsha who is still looking at him hungrily.

This is a good party, Artreus thought as he basked himself in nostalgia.