Wren joined the team in their fortress after they'd set it up in a glade near the edge of the elf territory. The line of stone they'd crossed as they entered the boundary of uncorrupted magic was actually a ritual circle large enough to encompass the entire village and powered by a wellspring of raw magic that filtered into the village through a magical node buried beneath the village.

  Wren was patiently bringing the humans up to speed on how the world and magic worked in the world, and an overview of the history of her people.

  “So, old mate said there were bastions? What are they? Are they like this village?”

  “Yes and no, there are five great bastions, city states that had the strength to withstand the wars that ravaged this world. They are not so different to the cities you described from your world. There are hundreds of settlements like ours that are able to subsist on the land so long as we don't attract attention we can't deal with.”

  “That attention being the shades?” Sam asked.

  “Yes, but there are also other creatures that roam the land, monsters, daemons, elementals. The shades feed on them to bolster their strength so they aren't usually a problem.”

  “What are the shades?” Judy asked.

  Wren shrugged a shoulder and tilted her head so it nearly touched her ear.

  “All we know is that as they grow stronger so does the strength of the corruption you felt outside the barrier, or perhaps it is the other way, it is not something easily studied.”

  “Did us clearing out the castle help in any way?” Gavin asked.

  “Who's to say.” Wren said as she repeated the shrugging gesture, certainly the corruption inside the castle would lessen, but killing them all doesn't heal the damage already done, it may even add to it.”

  “Well, that's pretty disheartening.” Gavin said.”

  “Do the shades manifest randomly like monsters?” Val asked.

  “Not that I am aware of. So far as I understand as they gather strength they split and multiply then spread out to cover the land. In the early years we made a concerted effort to destroy them all, but as many slipped through our defenses as we eradicated and with uncontrolled monsters and demons roaming the land unchecked it was an effort in futility.”

  “And now you lack the strength and coordination to try even that.” Sam guessed.

  “That is correct, yes.” Wren said, nodding slowly.

  “This feels like an issue we should be able to help with.” Gavin said, looking to his team.

  “I don't see how.” Sam said, frowning in contemplation. “If there was a clear path ahead I wouldn't hesitate to help heal this world.”

  “We could ask Gavins dragon lord when we find one.” Val said.

  “They aren't my dragon lords, I just think meeting a dragon sounds awesome.”

  “We already met a dragon.” Judy pointed out.

  “Yeah, and it was sweet as bro, it wasn't even a real dragon but it was easily top five fights we've had.”

  “Top ten.” Val said.

  “Let's not get into that right this second.” Sam said heading them off before Gavin could build up momentum.

  “Right yeah, what Can you tell us about the dragon lords?” Gavin asked.

  “There are twelve of them, they're all incredibly powerful and wield magic as easily as breathing.”

  “And they aren't vulnerable to the corruption?”

  “There were once twenty.” Wren said solemnly.

  “Do you know where we can find them?” Gavin asked.

  “No, they are reclusive by nature, though they do have dealings with the outside world, perhaps someone in one of the bastions could help there.”

  “Are Tintagel, Lyonesse, Glaslyn, or Sarras bastion cities?” Gavin asked, referencing his notes.

  “It's Tintagel, not Tintagel.” Wren corrected, “but yes, Tintagel, Gaslyn and Sarras are all bastion cities, Lyonesse has been lost, the same as Verantiir as you've seen.” Wren said.

  “Excellent.” Gavin said clapping his hands excitedly, “we've got some leads, not just stumbling around in a forest hoping to find an ancient tower with almost nothing to go off.”

  “That lead being track down a dragon and hope it isn't hungry?” Val asked.

  “That sounds right, yeah.” Gavin nodded.

  “Just checking.” Val said.

  “Now, something I've been wanting to ask, what's with the tattoos?” Gavin said, turning back to Wren.

  Wren immediately went rigid, her posture turning defensive.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Well, some people on Celestria have them, but they're super secretive about how they work. I know they use soul gems when they make them, I just don't know how. I figure if I can learn how it works I can learn how the soul crystals themselves imprint their powers onto a soul and use that to craft my own soul crystals or unlock effects-”

  “You're not experimenting on your soul.” Sam said reflexively, sounding almost bored.

  “Calm down, I'm not going to experiment on my soul.”

  “No, you're not.” Sam agreed.

  They were interrupted by urgent knocking on the front door that grew increasingly more insistent until the team wrenched it open in their full battle attire to find a wiry elf looking flustered and out of breath.

  “What is it Emmry?” Wren asked, pushing her way through.

  “Monster attack.” He said between breaths, “south east side of town.”

  “Sounds like us.” Gavin said.

  “We cannot offer to pay for your services.” Wren said, hurriedly while she edged out the door.

  “We are wardens of the wardens guild, it is our job to kill monsters wherever we find them.” Sam argued.

  “For pay yes?” Wren asked, as if that settled the matter.”

  “-Yes.” Sam said reluctantly.

  “What Sam means to say is that we protect the people that need protecting without expectation of reward, back on Celestria we got paid, yes, but we very likely would have gone out killing monsters anyway because its a job that needs doing and we're pretty bloody good at it.” Gavin said

  “Right. On Celestria we're wardens, out here we're adventurers.” Judy added.

  “What does that mean?” Wren asked.

  “It means we find jobs that need doing and get them done.” Val said, standing next to Judy and putting a supporting hand on her shoulder.

  “Regardless of the consequences and with as little oversight as possible.” Gavin said proudly.

  “Do what you must then.” Wren said dashing off with Emmry before quickly outpacing them.

  “We shouldn't try to bolster their lines.” Sam said thinking out loud. “We’ll just get in the way and they won't appreciate our usual brand of chaos.”

  “Sweep around behind and tie them up?” Judy asked.

  “Sounds like a plan.” Gavin agreed, opening a portal back towards the city.

  They emerged half way back along the path and immediately dashed off into the densely packed trees. They didn't need to bother finding bearings or guessing where they needed to go, they could all feel it. The thrum of roiling magic assaulted their senses blasting out over the countryside like a lighthouse in a storm.

  Sam set the pace, transforming into her awakened body and crashing through the undergrowth with singular purpose. Gavin flew along behind feeding the team mana through the sword as each of them used their movement powers to race to the fight as quickly as they could.

  They barrelled into the stampede hitting them like a bomb, each slamming their powers without regard for the cost or cooldown. Gavin was the oil that made their machine run, keeping their mana topped up and resetting their cooldowns as fast as he was able. As he grew in strength his ability to channel energy out to the team had improved in leaps and bounds, especially with the unlimited mana battery he could draw from.

  Their foe was something unlike anything they'd fought before. Usually monsters and demons appeared as distinct groups and were easily managed with a small team, this one looked like half the contracts they'd completed in the unclaimed lands all rolled into one. A thousand tiny creatures of all shapes and sizes swarmed under and around an endless horde of hulking beasts that rolled inexorably back towards the elvish enclave.

  Sam swept into their ranks, darting from monster to demon, her sword and gattling gun cleaving a path of destruction as she attacked indiscriminately at anything in her way.

  Val thundered into the thick of the fighting, targeting the largest and most dangerous creatures, hacking two apart in seconds before she was stopped dead by a wall of muscle and sinew that seemed impervious to her attacks. Gritting her teeth she swapped out two of her swords and resumed her relentless attacks.

  Judy delegated herself to crowd control, her new rifle splitting its ammunition to kill several smaller creatures with each rapid shot. Her task was to keep the team from being overwhelmed, targeting anything she felt would harry or distract Sam or Val while they made grizzly work of the heavy creatures.

  Gavin had his sword in hand and followed along behind mopping up anything the others left behind. He might have unquestionably the most powerful weapon on the battlefield but he was also half the swordsman his companions were, even Judy could outright him with pure swordplay. He was also focused on keeping the team up and running at peak efficiency.

  He'd long known he was best used in a supporting role and excelled at it. He mopped up everything Val and Sam missed, hacking monsters apart with abandon as he jumped from enemy to enemy. He cycled through his wands, blasting waves of fire, wind and lightning through the flanks of their enemy, sewing chaos and destruction where he could.

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  The team felled monsters like cordwood in the initial few seconds of their fight. They'd spent months honing their skills and teamwork and knew instinctively what everyone else would do and where they'd be long before they acted. Even so, they used their telepathic bond to press their intentions on their companions, building a consensus on how they should conduct the battle as it unfolded.

  They quickly found that the throng of monsters weren't just low level trash, they were well acquainted with fighting enemies up to and above their own rank, and while most of the horde were level one or two, the larger monsters were often of the third or fourth level, with occasional fives that weathered even the most dedicated firepower from the team.

  They were pushed back and surrounded, fighting in earnest as the stronger creatures piled up around them. Val and Sam fought through heavy damage, recovering through a combination of their own defensive powers, healing potions and fighting a retreating barle to give themselves moments of respite as they drew a large part of the throng away from the main war band.

  Gavin felt the tell-tale signs that he was coming to the end of how much energy he could filter out to the team before he started doing himself harm. He signalled the team to move into the next phase, something they'd practiced and executed to great effect in the past.

  He summoned his fortress to crush a swathe of creatures where it appeared and the team fell in to put it at their backs. Four rotary cannons and a battery of machine guns roared to life as the remaining bullets in his store dumped out into the wall of fur and flesh.

  He retreated inside, sliding the sword into its custom plinth to radiate out its energy through the fortress. He took a seat in his workshop and poured out a constant supply of unenchanted ammunition into the fortresses stores. It wouldn't be enough to keep up with the expenditure, but it would be enough to justify his absence from the battlefield.

  The three women stood side by side against the tide of onrushing enemies, preparing their next trick. Each held out two wands, one wind, one fire and activated them simultaneously. A tsunami of fire washed out in front of them, enveloping the densely packed monsters with white hot death.

  The weaker monsters vapourised under the sheer heat and force while the stronger ones pushed through burned to within an inch of their lives.

  As the wands ran dry Sam activated her radiance of the dawn power followed by Judy who copied it a moment to later. The double layer of scalding light was even more devastating than the wands had been, flaying everything that came near and scouring the earth of life in a wide circle around them.

  All three women were able to operate comfortably inside the blinding wall of power, and resumed their grissly work hacking apart any of the monsters that resisted the effects. Val with her six swords rending and tearing through hardened flesh and magical resistances, Sam cleaving through anything that came at her and Judy picking off anything the radiant light couldn't quite put down.

  For all their efficiency the knights of the round table were wearing themselves thin, they could only push their bodies so far with the sheer amount of power they were channelling, and soon the team had to cut off their powers and fight sword to claw.

  Gavin emerged from the fortress and joined the fight, becoming part of the rolling fight as they punched through the mass of roiling monsters that only increased in volume as the team's progress slowed. Gavin worked to keep Judy's portal power off cooldown and throw bubble shields up where he could so the team could fight a series of retreating skirmishes, carving up chunks of the enemy before they were overwhelmed.

  Sam and Val took the brunt of the damage, healing through what injuries they took with stoic determination. Gavin and Judy were able to avoid the worst of the damage, only suffering through the occasional area of effect power or waves of spines shot from the backs of bear sized echidna’s. Their armour held through the constant assault, it had been painstakingly crafted to keep the team safe and did its job as best as could be expected as they relied on it more and more to keep out of harm's way.

  “Guys, we might have an issue.” Judy said as she fired her rifle with pinpoint accuracy I to the crowd.

  “Not the time for twenty questions Jude.” Sam grunted.

  “I'm noticing a concerning amount of soul damage on the powers I've been using most.”

  “Shit.” Val said as she took a moment of contemplation.

  “Get back to the fortress.” Sam said, we need to figure this out before it does something permanent.

  “Roger roger.” Gavin said, opening his own portal back to where he'd set the fortress down.

  The four piled back inside, feeling worn and wary, Gavin replaced the sword in its plinth before collapsing to the couch beside the others.

  “Not good.” Sam said through closed eyes as she turned her gaze inwards.

  “I mean, the fortress went up about a quarter of a level through that, so it's pretty good.”

  “Gavin, you idiot, we can't risk permanently injuring ourselves like this. We should go back to earth until we can figure this out.”

  “It's soul damage, it's not that hard to figure out. Something in the magic here is eating at our souls.” Val said.

  “We need to work on stopping our mana from leaking out like on earth, except this time we can't let any in.” Judy said.

  “Last time I got this bad Sam's aura helped a lot, if Judy and I copy it we should be able to mitigate a lot of the damage.”

  “Do it, but we're not using it to mitigate the damage, we're using it to heal what has already been done then getting to safety until we can be sure we won't repeat this again. Gavin, your casual attitude is rubbing off on the others, this is serious, we shouldn't be damaging our souls even a little, let alone talking about how to ride the line between permanent damage and healing as fast as we injure ourselves.”

  “Fine.” Gavin agreed, though reluctantly.

  “Let's heal up here a bit then see what we can do about what's left over out there.” Sam said, relaxing as a soothing wave of power washed over her.

  They took the time to have a quick snack of orange slices and juice while they recovered. Monsters beat down on the walls, the level one and two creatures having no effect while the three and fours slowly whittled their way through the thick stone. When he felt the damage was risking total collapse he dismissed the building, the team appearing in the centre of the remaining horde.

  Sam resumed her radiance of the dawn power to quickly deal with the lower ranked monsters before they resumed their quick bursts of attack and retreat around the now ruined clearing.

  As the enemy thinned their work became easier, soon they were standing and fighting, killing everything that came at them.

  When nothing else was left they took a few minutes to monitor the damage they'd sustained, finding it only mildly worse than when they'd last left the fortress.

  As they rested in the middle of the pile of death, a shield wall of elf soldiers marched through the forest into the killing field. They stopped and stared at the destruction around them before locking on to the four adventurers in the middle of it all.

  “Hail and well met.” One of the elves said, stepping forward, his forty soldiers fall in behind him as they picked their way across the battlefield.

  “Yo.” Gavin said, offering a hand to shake.

  “I am Thwane, Grizzled, twice lucky.”

  “Gavin, friend in need, forged in battle, defender of the weak, Imperturbable.” Gavin said, rushing through the list of titles he'd collected, “This is Sam, Val and Judy, they're all forged in battle and some other thing.”

  “Dauntless.” Val corrected.

  “This was all your doing?” Thwane asked, gesturing around.

  “It sure was.” Gavin said proudly.

  “Well, I thank you for your assistance. We were worried about what we'd find out here, it felt like something terrifying.”

  “Oh, it was.” Gavin smiled, ignoring Judy pinching the bridge of her nose.

  “Pay no attention to him.” Val said behind a hand, “He's in his talking nonsense mood, you're not likely to hear anything useful pass through his lips until he's had something to eat.”

  “Hey.” Gavin protested as the others laughed.

  “I’ll delay no longer with idle talk, the fighting is nearly done and we need to clear the dead before we bring the shades down on us.”

  “We can clear up this lot.” Gavin said indicating their pile of corpses.

  “Very well, just be sure to be thorough.”

  “Mate, we’re nothing is not thorough.” Gavin beamed.

  “I see that, yes.” Thwane said before he gestured to his soldiers and jogged back from where they'd come from.

  “Okay team, time to get looting.”

  “That really sounds like a you and Judy problem.” Val said.

  “I agree.” Sam said.

  “Well, you guys are on dinner duty then.”

  “And dessert.” Judy added.