We slowly crept upon the largest grouping of the bunch. One side six of them were standing near to each other. The other four were standing apart and slowly nibbling on some berry bushes. “Tania start creating that ice mist, Norena, get ready with your heavy slash, I will start firing arrows, the moment I lose the first one that’s your que to capture them in ice, and your que to start beheading them.” Gilnair slowing whispered orders for the girls.

  I slowly crept forward, as well as activated my invisibility spell and other stealth spells. He let lose the first arrow, as it struck the one at the front, the other’s legs were frozen and three of the six heads got lobbed of in one strike by Norena.

  The first one that got struck by arrows, including the consecutive shots from the elf, also died. I stepped out and became visible once more, and sliced the throat open, and the second I burned the spine of, effectively killing it.

  We didn’t have time to admire our kills however, the other four had noticed the attack and was now advancing, and gaining strength. The first one was taken care of by Tania, who used her fire spell and hit it square in the stomach, the second was taken care of by Norena, who stabbed it. The third was taken care of by the elf after it almost gored Norena.

  That just left the last one for me, it had gained sufficient strength from the others, and as such it would not be a piece of cake, or so it would have seemed. I lightly jumped into the air, forcing it to lunge upwards as well. And as it did, I created a stone spike to come out of the ground to impale it, I aimed for it head and it struck.

  Its body, too heavy for its already damaged neck to carry, tore of and landed back on the ground, bleeding out.

  Gilnair whistled “impressive, nice trick you pulled.” “Thanks, I got the idea from a time when I fought a lion, they usually lunge at you in mid-air, so the best way to kill it is if you have a spear or a pike have to impale himself.” I replied.

  Afterwards, we started cleaning up and butchering the meat, the boars were massive so it had a lot of meat, and supposedly it was incredibly tasty. And as such it sold for a lot, but they were now discussing leaving some of it behind, seeing as they could not carry that much with them.

  “No, don’t worry, I’ll just use my alternate storage spell” I said. I did not want any of it to go to waste. “Your what.” All three said at once. I decided it would just be easier to show them. And then they saw the magic take effect and the cut off meat got sucked into my storage spell.

  “Incredible, I have heard of some people who are able to cause small pockets to put stuff in, but I have never seen it before in person.” Tania said. “Yes, that was truly extraordinary, but the level of magic one needs must be is mind-blowing.” said Gilnair looking thoroughly shocked.

  Although so did all three of them, I gave a nervous chuckle, “Yeah, I once came across and old mage who explained the concept to me, but it’s not an easy one to grasp, you really need an open mind to understand it.” I spoke. Hoping they would not see through the lie.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Why didn’t you use that from the beginning of our journey, it would have saved you a lot of trouble back then.”

  Sherbet, I think they may be on to me, adviser you got any way out of this?’ ‘Hmm let’s see, how about this.’ “Well, it’s not really something that takes a small amount of mana, and it would have been a hassle to open and close it each time, but the meat won’t spoil in there, and besides, I kind of promised the old mage that I would not over use the skill.”

  ‘Hope that sold them, thanks adviser.’ ‘Ha, see, I am more than just a glorified calculator.’ ‘Yeah, yeah, I know, without you, I wouldn’t have gotten this far. I get it, now quit acting so smug.’ “I can see how that could have been a problem, oh well. At least that means we can have fresh boar on our way back.” Tania said, seeming to suddenly start drool.

  We made good head way the next day, sure I could have just straight up teleported us back, but I was having fun running and talking with them. it seemed the elf wanted to be an adventurer ever since one came as an emissary to his village when he was young. I mentally thought that to be at least 60 years ago but I made no comment.

  We travelled at a higher speed than I had anticipated without the extra weight of my baggage. Including the meat, we made it about half way back when we decided to make camp again.

  The next few days were filled with mostly walking and talking as we travelled, and when we were able to see a break in the trees, we rushed into a beautiful meadow adorned with spectacular wild flowers of varying species and colour. The site was a spectacle and we decided to stop and rest there for a while.

  We were walking along the road we had found after breaking through yet more tree cover, when tania, who had cast detection magic stopped in her tracks.

  “What’s wro…” Gilnair was busy saying when we were attacked and rush from the sides, “ambush!” I exclaimed as I unsheathed my sword, luckily, I was not the only one to react, Norena was already moving and I was close behind her. When the elf realised what was happening, he drew his bow and arrows and started firing. Tania also cast a bolt spell.

  There were about 17 enemies, by the looks of it experienced bandits, Norena blocked a blow and slashed one of them across the chest. Gilnair fell three with his bow and tania was able to maim four, as Norena dealt with four more I used a silent spell to boil the liquid in one’s heart, a vicious way to kill someone but incredibly effective.

  As one swung at me with a mace, I ducked and sprung up slashing his throat, the last few realising what was happening turned and fled. Unfortunately for them I was faster, and I cut them down.

  We looked around us to see if there were any more in the shadows, a little shaken up, after we determined that there was not any one coming, we examined the bodies.

  First thing we noted about the ones we were able to capture alive thanks to Tania, was that they all seemed insane and not in control of their thoughts. Just muttering the same thing repeatedly. “For the dark ruler.” again like some sort of mantra

  Then we noticed the marks on their wrists, which looked like a rune of branches crossing or a triangle on a hill.

  “This one seems to have just dropped to the ground while we were fighting. ” Gilnair said in a quizzical tone. I blanched as I realized which one he was pointing at. “Yeah, his heart stopped,” I said looking away knowing that it did not just stop, but was almost blown up. The pain causing his brain to cut out.

  “How can you tell.” Tania asked. “Because I stopped it using a boiling spell.” I said sheathing my katana. The three of them looked astonished and slightly disgusted, but we cleaned up the area cutting out the tattoos of each bandit for evidence when we report it to the adventurer’s guild.

  We continued back in more contemplative silence. Tania sparing quick glances to me every few minutes.