When Valar went to sleep, the idea of a nightly ambush didn’t even cross his mind. He just went to his bedroll, closed his eyes and fell asleep. That’s why waking up to an explosion in the middle of the night was that much more rattling than he would’ve expected.

  The Crimson Talon weren’t idiots. They could see that they were going to be attacked soon, so the most tactically sound choice was to attack first. And that they did…

  Multiple explosions made the black of night seem more like a sunrise, bright orange hues coloring the otherwise lightless sky. The campsite, previously mostly silent, was filled with noise as the people on nightwatch did their darndest to buy the others some time.

  Fortunately, Pieter hadn’t been an idiot either. When they had made camp the previous evening, he had ordered the couple of earth mages traveling with the expedition to set up walls around the site. Those walls made it so that anything that the bandits threw—in this case alchemical fire and some fire spells—would have to come from above.

  A member of one of the silver ranked teams with them, a female wind mage with white hair and a missing arm named Joanna, chanted a spell. “Kilras School Variant 21: Forceful Gust.”

  The bombs full of alchemical fire and fireballs flying through the air toward the expedition camping grounds abruptly changed direction, flying straight back at the attacking bandits. Only a few made it to ground, however, as a screech comparable to the canary Valar’s team had fought rang out in the clearing. That screech was accompanied by a blur of motion with a spear in hand.

  “It’s Koras, the spear wielding silver ranker we were warned of!” Troy’s shout echoed out. “Silver rankers, try to box him in! Bronze rankers, try to fucking survive!”

  The peaceful campsite turned to total pandemonium in a matter of seconds.

  “Valar!” Rodrick shouted. “Come here to cover!”

  Teams Cookie Sandwich, Perfect Strike and a few others were building a defensive formation from all the frontline fighters available so that the mages and other ranged fighters could rain down damage on the enemy. Okay, that’s the place for me!

  Valar got up from his bedroll, fortunately already dressed in his mage’s robe. Thank all the gods I forgot to disrobe before falling asleep! He started running, but at Rodrick’s insistent hand movements, he jumped back down to the ground.

  Just a second or two later, an explosion filled the air above Valar’s head. He grit his teeth as his hair was buffeted by the wind and felt a familiar burning sensation at his back. At least the robe will be okay… Good quality stuff. Wait, I’m in danger, aren’t I?

  Fuckfuckfuckfuck… Valar repeated that single word in his head as he got up and started sprinting toward relative safety. He cringed as a bronze rank bandit spotted him moving through the messy campsite and took pursuit.

  He’ll catch me… He’ll catch me! Should I use the fire? What if-? Valar’s panicked thoughts were cut to a halt as Ciel materialized from the darkness of the night between him and the bandit. “Just keep running!” the rogue yelled. “I’ll hold them off!”

  Yes ma’am… Valar sped back up to his top speed, the seconds ticking by as he got nearer and nearer to the fortification. To be frank, he wasn’t even sure how he had managed to pick the worst possible sleeping spot considering where his allies had rallied. I couldn’t have been further away if I tried!

  If the path had been a straight line with good terrain, Valar’s run to safety would have probably only taken well under ten seconds. Unfortunately, the terrain wasn’t so simple. Bedrolls in flames, enemies and fireball craters made Valar stumble around slowly instead of running at top speed, and that cost him.

  Just when he was nearing the congregation of adventurers, he felt a sensation of searing pain on his left thigh. “Shit…”

  The arrow lodged in his thigh was not a large one, most likely fired from a smaller bow, but it still hurt like the abyss. Another problem was that… Well, there really wasn’t supposed to be an object inside your leg, and that made moving that leg pretty hard. Valar found that fact out the hard way.

  “Umph!” Valar’s surprised curse was muffled when he collapsed face first against the hard dirt. This is bad… Really bad! I need to get up now!

  Valar struggled on the ground for a brief moment due to the pain in his leg, but eventually, he got his hands on the ground and pushed himself back to a limping crouch.

  The rest of the way to safety could be in no way described as a pleasurable journey… When Valar was finally let through the wall of shields and met with Carla, he was already exhausted, injured and hurting.

  “I’m going to have to pull that out,” Carla said without preamble. “It’ll hurt.”

  “I know…” Valar grunted. “Just do it fast so I can heal myself.”

  “Alrighty,” the young woman grabbed the arrow by its haft. “In three…”

  Valar let out a pained grunt as Carla ripped the arrow free. The young ice mage looked on in surprised horror as he started casting Lesser Restoration immediately, and went to warn him. “You’re still in pain! The spell could-”

  “I can handle it,” Valar harrumphed. “It’s no worse than getting gored by the canary.”

  He turned back to his wound and chanted his spell. “Lesser Restoration.”

  As always, the process was arduous and slow. That didn’t matter, however, as he was already within the circle of protection built by the expedition. Enemies attacked from all sides, arrows and spells raining down upon the adventurers as bronze rank bandits clashed with the frontline, but they didn’t get through.

  Valar looked on as he channeled his spell. Carla was already hard at work next to him, casting spells that restricted the bandits’ movement. She couldn’t very well start shooting ice lances through her own allies, could she?

  That’s certainly one strength of fire magic. The fire mages in both groups can essentially build bombs from thin air, while most of Carla’s spells rely on piercing her opponents instead. Still, if the situation had been more dire, Carla could have utilized spells like Winter’s Bloom. This time she didn’t need to go so far. The woman’s job was clear, and she aimed to do it well.

  “Thorn School Variant 48: Creeping Frost,” Carla’s incantation was followed by a large area outside of their defensive lines icing over with extreme haste—the bandits suffering the same fate. To be clear, only their feet were frozen, as the spell’s goal wasn’t to kill but to inconvenience. In that regard, it worked perfectly.

  Jeremiah grinned as he shot one arrow after another, the bandits frozen to the ground forced to either block or take the arrows head on. Considering the size of his bow and arrows, they were in quite the pickle.

  To be fair to the bandits, they still didn’t fall easily. Some of course did, going down after only a single arrow or so, but there were quite a few exceptions. One bandit, a blonde man with a bulky build, even broke out of the ice and managed to run away. Valar cringed with shared pain as the bulky fighter stabbed an adventurer on his way out, the tall woman collapsing on the ground like a puppet with its string cut. Her life was over, that was sure.

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  A human, especially an iron or bronze ranked one, could not live with their spine being broken like that. The bandit had aimed well, the result being an instant kill. Somewhat similar scenes played out everywhere where sleeping adventurers hadn’t been able to reach their allies in time. The adventurers were by no means helpless against the bandits—people like Ciel or Pixie killing bandits left and right—but Valar spotted several more good people fall in the hands of the Crimson Talon during the infuriatingly long process of healing.

  When the boy finally got his feet back under him, Valar immediately looked around for wounded adventurers. Luckily, there were two other healers, both bronze rank, already hard at work, so he headed in their direction.

  “How can I help?” he asked as soon as he neared the two women, both seemingly in their late 20s or early 30s. “I’m a healer, although only an iron rank one.”

  The nearer of the two, a dark skinned light mage with no hair on her head, looked up from her patient. “There’s plenty of injured people to go around. Just pick someone who looks worse than the others and try to stabilize them.”

  “No need to heal them fully,” the other woman, a life mage just like him, added. “Saving lives is more important, so focus on that.”

  “I’ll do that then,” Valar nodded and started walking in the direction of an adventurer that looked to be in particularly bad shape.

  “If your healing isn’t enough, call for us!” the bald lady yelled at his back. “My name is Dialla, and my colleague's name is Anne!”

  Valar gave them a thumbs up and got to work.

  Dialla must be a priestess of the church of light, right? She seemed nice but strict, kind of like the priests that visited the orphanage… All kinds of random thoughts bounced around in Valar’s head as he channeled Lesser Restoration on his 3rd target of the morning. The battle around him was still raging on, albeit not quite as ferociously as before, but he was pretty sure they would get a small break soon.

  The first sign that the battle was nearing its end was him spotting an uninjured Ciel within the ring of protection. That lunatic of a woman would never be spotted lazing around while there was fighting to be done. Still, he heard sounds of battle, so he assumed that their enemies had not yet made a full retreat.

  That time came when he finally heard Troy’s joyous roar. “Their silver ranker is dead!”

  If the bandits’ silver ranker was dead and theirs were not, the expedition’s silver rankers were free to join the fray. The one-armed wind mage, previously forced to fend away the attacks of Koras, the spearwielding maniac of the Crimson Talon, whizzed around, the heads of over a dozen bandits falling off their shoulders in only a few seconds. Troy and the silver ranked teams’ warriors could do just the same, and the slaughter was immediate.

  After only a half a minute or so, the fight was over and silence fell over the clearing once more.

  There were no cries of victory, nor were there wails of sorrow. Teams gathered back together for a headcount, and while a couple of teams had to face the harsh truth of adventuring firsthand, most were spared of that fate. This had not been the main fighting force of the bandits, but they had managed to attack the adventurers at a good moment. Tens of bandit lives had been traded for only five adventurer ones, but that didn’t matter right now.

  Some of their own had died, and many were still injured. It was time to recuperate, gather back together and then… It was their time to do some attacking of their own.

  “I’m telling you, he didn’t even cry out in pain,” Carla said to Rodrick for the umpteenth time. “I pulled an arrow out of his thigh and he just fucking grunted!”

  “Language, Carla,” Rodrick muttered offhandedly. “But seriously, what’s the issue? Our healer has a high pain tolerance, what about it?”

  “You don’t get it!” Carla rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. “I’m worried for him, Rodrick! I’m not sure what he’s been through, but getting seriously injured once or twice just isn’t enough. He’s gone through something and I think he’s not dealing with his trauma…”

  “I… I’ll think of something, alright?”

  “Thank you.”

  “Huh?” Valar turned his head from another patient. It really was much easier to heal people when he didn’t need to mend them to top shape, and he was pretty sure he could heal way more people before his mana ‘ran out’. Oh, right. Carla asked something from me. “Sorry, what did you say? I was lost in my thoughts.”

  “I asked if your leg is alright,” the young woman asked, a worried frown coloring her face.

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  Carla just looked at him, an exasperated expression coloring her face. “You got shot. With an arrow… Is. Your. Leg. okay?”

  “Oh, right,” Valar looked at his healed leg, but the only sign of damage was a small hole in his robe. “That repair is going to cost a lot…”

  “I’m not worried about the robe, you bonehead!” Carla snapped. “You got injured! People don’t usually recover from that so easily!”

  “They don’t? But the pain is already over, isn’t it?”

  Carla looked over her shoulder and motioned Rodrick over. “Valar, can you just repeat what you said to Rodrick?”

  “Yeah, sure,” he muttered. What is she trying to get at? “I just forgot that I got shot in the leg. It didn’t hurt that much, honestly. I’m more worried about the damage to the robe… Can we pay for the repairs from the team funds?”

  “Yeah, yeah, we can do that,” Rodrick mumbled with a worried expression. “Valar… When we get to Rhondell, can I take you to meet someone?”

  “Sure, who is it?”

  “She’s someone I think you should meet. Actually, she’s a healer just like you. It’s just that she specializes in a different field…”

  “What field? I’ve got nothing to heal, you know.” Valar said with confusion clear in his voice. Except my soul, but I doubt this woman can do anything about that when even someone like Elaine has no clue…

  “She works as a normal healer from time to time, but her main job is… how do i say this? She works with people whose minds are… unwell.”

  “I’m not crazy!” Valar snapped. In the boy’s young mind, Rodrick had just insinuated that there was something wrong with his mind… It felt wrong

  “I know you’re not,” the warrior sighed. “It’s just that even though you’re not telling us, you clearly have gone through some really bad experiences… If you can’t talk with us, your teammates, it’s better that you talk with at least someone. We can just go there once and check if it’s good for you, alright?

  Valar felt like snapping again, he felt like he needed to fight back against the perceived insult, but… Not right now. I don’t need to agree to anything right now, and we’re on a mission. I can argue when we get to Rhondell…

  “I won’t promise to go, but I won’t say no either,” Valar muttered. “We’re on an expedition. Let’s handle my… ‘mind health’ after that.”

  Rodrick nodded. “Good work, by the way. However, if you can, you should rest for an hour or two. After that, we set out, and I want you to be at full combat capability.”

  “Yeah, I’ll go inform the other healers,” the boy nodded. “I’m only at iron rank, so I should be getting more rest time anyway.”

  Dialla and Anne agreed to let him rest easily enough. Those who had been in critical condition had either been healed already or were in the hands of the two competent healers, and Valar’s work wasn’t necessary anymore. Unfortunately, one more person had died, his wounds simply too much for even a bronze rank mage like Dialla to heal. Burned lungs often resulted in death, even if they were healed in minutes… In that case, it was a game of seconds.

  They hadn’t even entered the forest yet, but six people were dead. Needless to say, Pieter was not happy. Valar looked on from a patch of relatively clean ground as the bald man scolded the adventurers on watch.

  “How in the abyss did they get so close without a single one of you noticing?” he half-screamed. “We’re in open flatlands, and the only direction they could have come from was the forest!”

  “I really don’t know,” one of the silver ranked adventurers, a female ranger wielding a crossbow said. “I was one of the people on watch, and they just kind of… appeared?”

  “Out of thin air?” Pieter grabbed his chin thoughtfully. “Is magic a possibility?”

  “It was not dark magic, that I can be sure of,” Ciel said. She had been one of the people on watch, so she would have seen it for sure. “But there was a weird mist hanging around the air before they appeared. Not sure what that could mean, but it was there.”

  “Mist, you say?” Pieter paced around the clearing, muttering to himself. “Mist mage? Could they have one?”

  “You mean a water mage specializing in mist?” Troy asked. “They’re rare. That discipline isn’t usually taught in any of the academies…”

  “Do you think a bandit organization’s secret mage would have been trained within the royal academy?” the expedition leader laughed. “The bandits having a mist mage would explain so much. The sudden strikes without warning, people getting lost in the forest… But how can we combat it?”

  “I can push the mist away,” Joanna, the silver ranked wind mage, suggested. “Provided that they’re a lower rank than me, I can do it indefinitely too.”

  “And what if they’re a silver ranker too?” Pieter asked.

  “Short bursts of clear visibility, no more. I can’t keep up a windwall indefinitely, but they’d have to use mana to shroud us in mist every time. If it’s really a mage, they can run out of mana too…”

  “Then we have a plan. No more splitting up!” the bronze rank leader of the expedition shouted. “We’ll work under the assumption that the mist in the forest is unnatural, so we’ll keep together! We strike in one hour. Rest up and get ready to fight!”

  Into the forest we go….