The zone around the Asmuisillans supply tent was filled with violence. Unfortunately for Nate’s opponents, it was mostly martial violence, rather than magical. Teleporting away from a sword strike, he responded by using his Gravity Control rune to launch his attacker into one of his comrades with enough force to send them both tumbling to the ground.

  The seven guards of the supply tent all seemed to be sword wielders. He wanted to go through the reasons why that might be, but he was already holding three separate runic arrays in place and couldn’t spare any of his focus to do so.

  With the small reprieve from being attacked he scanned his enemies with Farsight of the Runic Artist. The response was instant— seven low sixties, all with partial Embodiments and Swordsman-type Classes. On the lower end of what he and Kiri had faced recently, and it was showing.

  His sister danced nearby, facing three opponents and keeping them all at bay. Where he had held back from hurting the guards too much so far, his sister was clearly not. Her Rare-tier daggers seemed to be of a higher quality than the guards armour, which Nate recognised as Uncommon-tier, and she was abusing that fact to leave them all bleeding. As he watched, three of her ten Soul Tethered Arms snaked out towards one of her opponents and while two of the daggers tied up his sword the third dagger slipped low and buried itself in the man's leg before being wrenched free. The entire time Kiri never stopped moving, forcing them away and giving ground in equal measure as she flowed through the battlefield like a wraith — or, he supposed, like a dancer.

  Frick seemed to be having an equally good time. Using My Will, My Way his Familiar had made himself into a three-metre tall, heavily muscled blue goblin. That alone wasn’t new, but his method of fighting was. Frick had gotten a hold of one of the guard’s legs and was using the man as a club to knock one of the other guards around the area.

  Nate finished taking in the scene of the battle and focused back on his own two opponents. Neither looked keen to re-engage him and as one turned to flee. Nate debated letting them do so. If he wasn’t being contested he could throw more of his mana into breaking the enchantment over the supply tent. On the other hand, if the retreating guards found a Champion and managed to bring them back before Nate and Kiri had made their escape, that could cause serious problems.

  With those thoughts in mind he settled on something in the middle. Wielding his Control Gravity runic array, he increased gravity’s pull towards the ground around the men as much as he could. Both men fell to their knees, struggling to crawl forward, but continuing to slowly move away. Nate left them to their glacial retreat, focusing back on the enchantment surrounding the supply tent. He was forced to tune out the screams of the guard-turned-club in the background.

  Conceptual Insight roamed over the enchantment and through his Skill he easily recognised two of the Concepts involved. Unsurprisingly Barrier was one, but the second being Reinforcement surprised him a little. Mostly because that was the same as what he had used in the barrier items he had crafted for Asmuisil. Without seeing the Sigils he couldn’t tell the tiers involved, but it did make him wonder if they were reverse-engineering his creations. Not that he could fault them if they were, since one of the main reasons he was performing this attack was so that he could do the same.

  There were at least two other Concepts in the barrier, but he didn’t really have time to spend studying them. Instead, he modified the Mana Drain runic array to include the Sigils for Barrier and Reinforcement. It meant reworking the entire runic array on the fly. Conceptual Runic Mastery let him redesign the runes involved and his Intents let him refocus the purpose while modifying the Subconcepts involved. The result was quick and dirty and the amount of mana the new runic array consumed was evidence of shoddy work, but it did work. Besides, they should have enough mana stored inside that he could regain everything he spent.

  Using his sphere of awareness he continued to monitor the battlefield while flooding mana into the Reinforced Barrier Mana Drain runic array. One of Kiri’s opponents lay bleeding out on the ground while the remaining two put up a desperate defence in the hopes of not joining their comrade. Frick continued to chase one of the guards while swinging the other. The form he had built for himself seemed to focus on strength rather than speed. As for the two Nate had pinned down using gravity, they were about to crawl beyond the edge of the area Nate was controlling and cross the Illusion Barrier hiding the area. None of that mattered though, as Nate felt the barrier before him weaken, then shatter. Conceptual Spatial Manipulation took him inside of the tent in an instant and he took the room in at a glance with both his eyes and his sphere of awareness. Twenty crates of armour and weapons, along with eight storage devices. The crates went into his Runic Gallery two at a time while he rushed around scooping up three rings, two bracers, two amulets and a diadem. Within ten seconds the tent was empty and he was rushing back out through the flap.

  “Clear!” he yelled to Kiri and Frick.

  Frick threw the beaten guard-turned-club over his shoulder like he was tossing a chicken-bone, then rushed back to Nate’s side with thudding footsteps. Kiri had just finished dropping her third opponent and with a cursory check through his sphere of awareness he noted that two out of three weren’t in danger of dying. As for the third, Nate dropped his Gravity Control runic array, and spun up his Life and Soul runic array, sending a rush of mana at the man through the quickly formed rune. The effect was instant, stabilising the guards' worst wounds.

  His eyes flicked upwards as he felt his Illusion Barrier shatter and felt the wind start whistling with fury as it built itself into a cage around them. A familiar Concept was present in the flows of air and as Nate recognised it he felt another small thrum of something pass through his body. The Concept of Suppression tried to resist his activation of Conceptual Spatial Manipulation, but with a flare from his Spatial Release Bracer, he felt the suppression snap. Frick flowed like blue-light into the Familiar Contract in Nate’s chest and without waiting a second longer he teleported, vanishing into thin air at the same time as Kiri.

  *************

  Theora, Wind of the East, landed on the ground without disturbing a blade of grass and looked over the mess that was supply tent number three. The two guards that had managed to escape and raise the alarm were running back towards her. They were, however, the only two guards still standing. Three lay bleeding on the grass, multiple stab wounds covering them, though she did note that they didn’t appear to be dying. Was that intentional, she wondered? A message? Or just luck? In some ways, the ones bleeding seemed in better shape than the next two. The first was a Captain in the Third Army of the Asmuisil Empire, and she had been hammered into the ground like she was a common fence post. The last lay on the ground unmoving, and Theora was experienced enough on the battlefield to recognise multiple broken bones when she saw them.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  The two guards who had escaped finally managed to run up to her. Both were covered in sweat and looked like they had spent the entire day undertaking physical training, rather than standing guard over supply tent number three.

  “Report,” she demanded, as was her right as a Sub-Commander of the Third Army of the Asmuisil Empire and one of only four Platinums within their forces.

  “We were attacked by three individuals, Ma’am. A female Dagger Dancer, a Mage who wielded Gravity and a monster. A gigantic blue ogre!” exclaimed one, still puffing as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Estimated rank?” she asked without looking inside the tent. At this range her Wind Observes the World could tell her the entire supply stash had been emptied.

  “They had to be High-Golds or newly minted Platinums, Ma’am. They each handled multiple guards and we were unable to even fight back.”

  Theora frowned. They had no intelligence reports on any of the Noble Houses of Etrua raising a Dagger Dancer or a Gravity Mage. Or Space Mage, she supposed, which that man had clearly been. Her Epic Spell, Winds of Suppression, should have restricted or at least limited the use of any Spells or Skills that did not utilise Wind. Instead, the Winds of Suppression had held for barely a moment before a wave of mana that she suspected contained an affinity for Space had washed through her spell and disrupted it.

  Looking at the tent she ground her teeth. The Commander had been right to use their advanced concealing enchantments to hide three of the army's supply caches. Theora had opposed the suggestion, thinking the cost in mana was not worth it and that her teams would detect an attempt like the one she had made on the Etruan encampment. She had been wrong. She hated being wrong. The Etruans were so divisive, she had expected that it would take more than an hour or two for them to mount a response. Even if they did, she had the names of the Noble Houses present within the Etruan forces. They were unlikely to work together, as splitting the glory and the spoils was not the way in that den of vipers. They’d as soon bite each other as they would an enemy. Yet this response had been fast, containing forces she had not accounted for, and had succeeded beyond any of her expectations. A sixth of their supplies were lost. The Council of War would not be happy, even if they would send replacements.

  “Get the Captain out of the ground. See yourself and your fellows to the infirmary for check-ups. Then have the Captain report to the Command tent,” she growled out, ignoring the salute to her orders as she walked back towards the Command tent herself to inform the Commander of the attack and her failure. Flying would’ve been faster, but she wasn’t some Etruan Noble who wasted mana on frivolous things. It was exactly that kind of waste that Asmuisil fought against, and she would fight for her country till her ashes decorated the eastern winds of her home.

  Those same winds whispered a final sentence as she heard one of the bleeding guards being helped to his feet by his comrades.

  “...I think…he saved me…”

  *************

  Nate appeared in his tent, joined a second later by Kiri. Frick flew out of the Familiar contract laughing.

  “That was so fucking goblin!!!” hooted the Spirit.

  Kiri’s face lit up with a grin and Nate was about to join in the banter of a successful raid when the hairs on his arms started standing up. Three seconds later he felt his Guardian enter his sphere of awareness. Kiri must have as well, as she matched him in turning to face the entrance of his tent.

  Aisling stormed in a moment later and the hairs on Nate’s arms went from standing up to sending small shocks through him. A small modification of his barrier locked out the ambient mana and stopped the effects of his mentor's displeasure. He did, however, note that flaw in his barrier for future reference.

  “You attacked the Asmuisil encampment. Why?” demanded the amazonian-woman, chocolate-brown eyes boring into them.

  Kiri looked to Nate and he once more accepted that the burden of leadership, both the successes and failures, was settling more and more upon his shoulders.

  “I agreed to assist Princess Morgane. She asked me to attempt to recover some of the supplies stolen in the raid tonight by Asmuisil.”

  Aisling’s face remained intense, but not angry, “And, did you?”

  “We did not recover any supplies stolen. Instead, we struck one of their supply caches and emptied it out.”

  Aisling nodded slowly before asking the question at the crux of the issue, “Why help the Princess?”

  Nate took a second to formulate his thoughts and activate his anti-scrying ward. He ignored the fact that three sets of eyes were all focused on him as he began his explanation.

  “Kiri and my growth and capability have not gone unnoticed: The attack against me by Fabien and Caroline, the attempted murder of us both by House Desmarais forces; the options we had were growing thinner and thinner. Running was…is an option…but none of us seem willing to do so. Kiri doesn’t want to leave Coralie or force her parents to leave their home. I am not willing to leave Kiri, or you, Aisling.”

  Aisling went to speak, but he kept going before she could.

  “I know you think you haven’t done a lot for me. And I know you have a vested interest in my development, for the sake of the Guild. But having you on my side, no matter what, even when you thought I was being foolish, has meant the world to me. You want the Guild to flourish. To be the place where heroes can be raised to protect the people. And Etrua won’t allow that. Not as it is. It doesn’t want heroes, it wants Lords and Ladies, ruling over people who are barely scraping by. In a world filled with magic, where it would be easy to set aside enough mana to comfortably feed and house everyone, they still choose to hoard that wealth for just a little bit more power. And what do they do with that power? They squabble with each other. It’s a waste. An ugly, selfish, waste.”

  He paused for a moment to make sure he had the words right for what he said next.

  “I don’t know if I am the best judge of character. I’m probably not. But I believe Princess Morgane when she said she wants to make Etrua a better place for the people, not just the Nobility. If we’re going to stay, and it seems none of us are willing to leave, then I think it’s time we chose a side in the political struggles of Etrua. Tonight, I chose the Princess.”

  Kiri smiled at him in the way she did when he was being a bleeding-heart, before turning to Aisling.

  “I choose the Princess as well, then.”

  “Me too!” piped up Frick from behind them where he had apparently been hiding from Aisling.

  “As if you had a choice,” muttered Kiri.

  Aisling stared at Nate intently for a few seconds, the silence dragging on.

  “This may put us at odds with the Prefects of the Guild, Nate,” whispered Aisling, and he could sense her discomfort in her posture. “But, you are right. The Guild is meant to produce heroes that protect humanity. You have chosen a side for us. I don’t know if it is the right decision, the right path forward, but it is better than doing nothing. A caged storm only builds in fury. I will start preparing for what is to come.”

  Turning to leave the tent, his mentor glanced back, “Next time, please, keep me informed.”

  He smiled and nodded, “I will.”

  As soon as Aisling had left Kiri spun to face him, eyes bright with excitement, “Let’s see what we stole!”

  Discord Channel

  Patreon with up to 20 chapters ahead of RoyalRoad.