The blinding light cleared and Lawrence lowered his hand. The failed mage found himself on a heavily forested hilltop overlooking a small basin with a flat center. There was a small, muddy pond at its center with intermittent small trees and other undergrowth spread about.

From where he stood he could see Hans and the hurg. Knight Captain Commander Liandra Arduani was chest deep in the pond, apparently unable to move, blood dripping down her chin. He made his way down the hill.

“Surrender, hurg,” he ordered. “You’re outmatched.”

Hans backed away from his opponent toward Lawrence. Breathing hard and evidentially harried, he said. “There’s another. He has an ally slinking in the trees. Watch out.” Hans eyes were wide, almost wild.

Lawrence glanced about. He saw no one. “Are you and Arduani all right?”

Hans let out a long breath. “Up until now,” he said quietly, “but we wouldn’t have been for much longer had you not arrived, mage. Do not under estimate our foe.”

Lawrence eyed the hurg. “Where’s the Princess?”

The hurg said nothing, only tilted his head to indicate that the princess was somewhere behind him. After a moment he said, “Take your allies and go.”

“Will you throw the Princess in with that bargain?”

The hurg sniffed. “Hardly.”

“Then we’re at an impasse.”

“Very well. Then I’ll kill you. I grow tired of this.”

He started forward, heavy and lumbering and yet somehow graceful. It was odd to see. Lawrence called on his newly acquired stores of magical energy. He didn’t want to waste them if he could help it.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a spare blade, would you?”

“None,” Hans said, raising his weapon in a defensive posture.

Liandra snarled, but Lawrence didn’t turn his head until he heard her blade land into the soft mud at the water’s edge, the metal humming. He wasted no time and went straight for the blade.

The hurg changed his course, attempting to cut him off. To keep him from doing so, Lawrence hurled a small fireball in his opponent’s direction.

His foe rolled out of the way, giving Lawrence just enough time to make it to the Knight Commander’s sword. He grasped it by the hilt, the mud and grit uncomfortable between the cold steel and his skin, but he ignored that and ran toward the hurg who was now defending against Han’s deft sword strokes.

Lawrence came in from the hurg’s left when something cracked and struck him in the face. He took pause, raising a forearm in defense.

“Look out, mage! There’s a witch hiding nearby!” Liandra barked.

The failed mage wasn’t fond of sudden strikes from hidden places. He turned his attention to the direction he was hit from and made his way forward, looking for his enemy.

He saw nothing among the trees and the small shrubs. “I don’t see anything.”

“Then keep looking!”