“Explain,” Verdan demanded, his worries crystallising inside him to make him feel nauseous and outraged at the same time.

“One of the new Sorcerers, Malk, killed Dan, the other new recruit, while they were alone and stole the device. It had been left with them to help Dan with his Essence manipulation, but we never expected anything like this.” Delia explained with clear regret.

“That would explain why the device showed his Essence so strongly,” Verdan said, closing his eyes and rubbing his face wearily.

“All the guards are wounded but not dead. They seem to have been hit with something,” Kai said as he joined them, taking in the situation before quirking a brow in Verdan’s direction.

“Bring Kai up to speed. I’m going to clear the way,” Verdan said, heading toward Zhalia as he assessed the poisonous roadblock.

His disrupting spell had broken the rudimentary construct keeping the Aether in place, but the density of it meant that it was slow to disperse, though Zhalia’s continuing prayers were now having more of an effect.

“Gward glanae nercreth,” Verdan was reluctant to use a three-word spell without need, but he could not allow the tester to fall into the hands of the Weeping Death. If that meant burning Aether to catch them, then he’d do it.

An aura of cleansing Aether flowed out from Verdan, reinforced and strengthened with additional power to allow it to directly combat the poisonous residue in their path.

“I could maybe track him, but could you do the same as when we chased down those Sorcerers?” Verdan asked Delia as he tried to keep his cool.

This was quite literally his worst nightmare for anything he built, and he would not rest until the tester was back in their hands.

“The Pack is yours to lead,” Delia said, looking over at Sylvie respectfully. “Kel vanata lurre, frakti.”

“You are recovered enough now, Sora,” Blane said, a broad grin spreading over his face.

“Yes, we can do it,” Sylvie said to Verdan, turning to face him as the Airta moved to group up behind her. Blane, Delia and Zhalia were the closest, with Cristian and Davin standing at the rear. “Once we start the Vanata, though, it becomes…..difficult to stop. The longer it goes, the more effect we will have as we pass through.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Verdan said before impatiently waving aside her concern. “It doesn’t matter. We need to catch him before he goes too far. How much of a lead does he have on us?”

“Maybe an hour total, we discovered the murder quickly, but the block here delayed us,” Delia answered, gesturing to the poison-laden path ahead.

“Alright, then, we’re hunting this bastard down, and he already has too much of a headstart, so let’s go!” Verdan called out, motioning for them to follow as he walked down the path, burning away the poison as he went.

Directly fighting the poisonous Essence was hardly efficient, but it took only a few moments for Verdan to destroy the impediment, allowing him to drop the ward once more.

“We’ll follow your lead!” Verdan called out to Sylvie, muttering a simple spell under his breath to boost his endurance as he did. Of everyone here, there was no doubt he had the least physical abilities, but thankfully, Aether could level the playing field.

“Hast,” Verdan infused Aether into himself with a traditional haste spell next. Between the speed boost and the increased endurance, he didn’t expect to have a problem.

“Lord of Hunts, bless us with speed and guide our hunt that we may repay this treachery,” Zhalia said, her bow glinting in the light for a moment as Verdan felt the feather-light touch of Exeon sweep over them.

“Frakti!” Sylvie called out once Zhalia was done, her voice piercing the air with a clarity that made Verdan’s hackles stand up. “Nos vanatull!”

A veritable explosion of Parada was released as the six Airta all shifted into their wolf forms in response, their clothing and equipment merging with them.

Verdan had found little time to learn more about the Airta with everything else going on, but from what he’d been told, they could merge things they were carrying into their other form when they shifted, but at the cost of extra Parada.

Verdan was confident there was some sort of mass or weight limit as well, but it was an incredibly useful ability nonetheless.

As one, the six oversized wolves set off, starting at a trot at first before steadily building their pace as they swept down the path to the city.

Kai, Tom and Verdan had no trouble keeping up with the Airta, Verdan due to his spells and the two Sorcerers due to the strengthening effect of Essence on their bodies.

The person who Verdan expected to struggle the most was Tim, but impressively, he was able to keep up, in the short term at least.

Verdan’s haste spell only boosted his baseline physicality, which wasn’t that high considering how little time he had to exercise. Verdan doubted Tim could have kept up when they first met. It seemed that Kai’s training was paying dividends.

The group sped up once they hit flat ground, the wolves spreading out to encompass them and creating a mixed group of humans and Airta.

Verdan could feel the flow of magic around him as Parada started to gather. He couldn’t directly influence it as he could with Aether, and it was almost ethereal in nature to his senses, but Verdan could tell enough to see that Sylvie was releasing a steady stream of Parada, which was being matched by each of the others.

All the Parada produced was feeding into the ground and spreading out around them, while a steady stream returned the same way, reinvigorating the Airta and seeming to grant them all a slight boost to their speed and endurance. Oddly, more seemed to flow to Tim than to the other humans.

The amount the Airta expended was greater than what they received, but the steady stream going out was forming something akin to an aura around them as they moved. An aura that was steadily growing.

The group steadily picked up speed, soon moving at such a speed that Verdan was the one limiting them. He considered casting a further haste spell, but with the effect of the Parada and the existing spell, he was already moving faster than expected.

Sylvie was leading the way in her wolf form, her white fur almost shining in the sun as they swept down the road.

Verdan was momentarily lost in the thrill of the hunt, but he regained his clarity as they slowed, coming to a stop where a body was sprawled across the road.

A casual glance was enough for Verdan to see the telltale signs of their quarry. The unfortunate victim had been hit by a condensed bolt of energy, which had proceeded to necrotise the flesh around the impact, leaving a withered and black-veined corpse.

Sylvie swept around the area once before barking and following a set of hoof prints that carried on to the east.

The Parada aura the Airta were giving out had weakened momentarily as they paused, but it soon built up once more as the hunt resumed.

Verdan was ready for it this time and was careful to keep himself from slipping into the mentality that seemed to come with it. While he appreciated its aid, he preferred to keep his faculties his own.

A heavy impact knocked Verdan slightly off stride as one of the wolves barged into him and growled slightly. Verdan was fairly sure it was Delia, but it was hard to tell when they were in this form.

Verdan wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell him, but he could see the other wolves casting glances at him as well, all apart from Sylvie, who was focused on the path ahead.

Delia seemed to understand that he didn’t know what she wanted as she growled to get his attention before returning to her spot and doing something.

Verdan frowned, he was certain she’d done something, but she hadn’t physically moved. Instinctively falling back on his Aether senses, Verdan watched as she repeated the change.

One moment she was part of the Pack and adding to the Parada aura. The next, it was sweeping around her, creating eddies in the magical currents and stifling its effect.

Understanding dawned as Verdan realised what she wanted. It seemed that he was disrupting the aura by resisting the mentality it brought.

Verdan cringed at the idea of letting the effect overtake him deliberately, but then, perhaps he didn’t have to. Wizards were taught from an early age to split their minds. It was necessary for their gathering spirals, and even apprentice Wizards could do it.

Partitioning his mind into three rather than two was an interesting experience, and Verdan’s control over his spiral faltered for a moment, but not enough to cause a lasting issue.

Letting the Parada in while still restricting it to just one portion of his mind was difficult, and Verdan was sweating a little once he was done, but he could immediately sense the difference in the way the Parada flowed around them.

They raced onward, minutes stretching into an hour and more as the magic built around them.

Mostly removed from the Pack and the group mentality the Parada encouraged, Verdan watched with fascination as the group turned from the road and the true power of the aura was revealed.

Despite rushing through a dense section of woodland, Verdan felt his body move and shift as his subconscious guided him around roots, uneven terrain and natural obstacles of all kinds.

The woods were dark and shadowed, filled with pine trees old enough to create a dense canopy and give the place an alluring smell that resonated with the part of him that was within the Pack.

Movement amid the boughs caught Verdan’s eye as dark shapes moved with them, skirting along at the edges of the aura as though they were outriders to the central group.