Jason sighs, “fair enough. Though I do have to question why they use magic for the defense. You would think that at the very least they would diversify.”

Courtney shrugs, “it’s the cheapest. While Qi formations can do just about anything that Magic’s enchantments can, the requirements are different. They can set formations up on just about anything but requires you plan it out and is more rigid. That means once you set up a formation on a castle, to expand it at all, you need to redo it. With enchantments you need the material your plan to imbue to be of a high enough quality. However once in place can be expanded as long as the new bits match the old material.”

“This is why the so-called magic swords tend to be done with formations. The sword can be crafted out of regular iron by a low level smith. To put an enchantment on it, they would need the material to be of a higher quality and a decent smith. From how I understand it, the original developers actually took this pen and paper roleplaying games. Making a magic sword requires said sword to be a masterwork already. In the source material for Qi, while formations needed a lot at the high end there are enough instances of someone drawing one in the dirt.”

“Of course the other matter is powering the setups. Formations passively draw Qi from the air and land around them. Enchantments on the other hand require an active infusion of power. Someone with a flaming sword doesn’t mind if it only sends out a burst every few seconds. A lord of a castle would rather pour mana crystals into their defenses when needed so they don’t fall at all. To them it would be like having a solar-powered flashlight.”

Jason shrugs, “fair enough. Though I notice you didn’t mention Energy at all.”

Courtney rolls her eyes, “any proper lord would give most of their wealth for an Energy shield on their castle. Problem is it needs to be set on an Energy node or source and good luck finding one of those not already taken. Now we should probably head out.”

Rosha perks up on hearing this and growls. Courtney shakes her head, “You can keep holding Lily. She needed to be in the harness because she was too weak. Now she might not be the strongest one here, but we are all at the same break.”

Rosha sticks her tongue out at Courtney but doesn’t say anything against the group moving on. Off to the side Jason sighs as he apparently doesn’t get a say in how they deal with his companion. Still, it will get them on the road and that works for him. The forest isn’t an unpleasant place to be, but they’ve been in this one for a good while now. There aren’t even any proper monsters in the area. Where are the wolf packs and goblins that media had prepared him for?

Courtney seeing both of them off in their own worlds, she takes the lead with the other two following behind. There isn’t much danger in the area to bother them. Though she would feel bad for anything that decided to interrupt Rosha’s cuddle time. Though her fingers itched to pet Lily as well. The bunny just looked ridiculously fluffy now.

More days pass for them in relative peace, the occasional skeleton not even counting as a speed bump. Rosha is eventually convinced to let Lily have some time to herself, but not much else of note happens until they have nearly passed through the slug’s territory.

Over the course of one morning the roses become less frequent. The group rightly assumed this meant the end of the slug's reach, but then a more aggressive announcement of this appeared before them.

As the group exits a thicker section of trees they spot the first instance of something eating the redeath rose slugs. Everything else avoids them as the undead mana they store would kill the usual predators. In front of them is one of those exceptions. A large and intimidating moose made entirely of stone.

There the stone moose stands with a few young slugs corned, it holds another between its teeth. The stone moose turns its head towards them as it crunches down on the slug. There is a puff of sickly black sludge that bursts out of the slug and tries to coat the moose. The ooze tries to sink in but can’t find any weakness before it evaporates into the air. In the moose’s eyes there isn’t any glint of awareness. Just a dull sheen that gives the feel of having seen the ages pass greets them.

Jason whispers to the others, “so I think this is when we back away.”

That isn’t going to fly with the moose though, which bellows at them and paws at the ground.

“Guess we don’t have a choice then”, Jason sighs and steps in front of the others.

Courtney shakes her head, “I don’t think you can block this one. Rosha, I want you to keep a couple trees between you and it. I will stick near Jason to heal, maybe try some illusions.”

Then the stone moose charges and the group scatters. Rosha’s face flickers with discontent as she retreats away, but there isn’t time for her to voice her disagreements with the plan. Courtney dashes behind a nearby tree and holds up both her hands. One glimmers with a light while the other drips with the night sky as she readies two spells. Jason does the opposite of the other two and charges towards the moose.

This move confuses it but there isn’t much going on in the moose’s head so it focuses on him for being the closest. The rock moose lowers its head and prepares to ram into the enemy. Even more confusion enters its mind when nothing can be felt. Charge over the moose raises its head and scans the surrounding.

The other two have vanished while the one it had been attacking was right back where everything started. The moose grunts with the sound of a mudslide and without even thinking charges again. This performance repeats a couple of times.

Jason dodges out of the way for like the fifth time, “so I think this isn’t an elemental but rather some kind of golem. An elemental would have realized what is happening by now. Though that might be worse off for us.”