Kade did his best to maintain the tightness of the chain, but he knew that if the wolf kept thrashing around then he was doomed to fail. Even with all of the strength in his body, he couldn't pull the chain tight enough to strangle the beast. Its fur was too thick and its muscles too dense.

Even so, the chains made from armament still served a purpose. Right now, the chains were what allowed him to stay on top of the beast, and later they would be used to restrict its movements.

He shifted his right foot back slightly before bringing his arms together and wrapping the loose end of the chain around his left arm and putting the tail into his hand. With his now free right hand, he created a spell trace.

He held his breath and focused the best he could. Casting a spell under the current circumstances was far more difficult and took more time than doing so normally. He was utilizing all of his strength to remain on the beast while having to adapt to the rocking of the wolf's body.

Not to mention the fact that casting spells required more focus than normal due to the condition of his Altaris channels. Casting Armament earlier was a challenge only possible thanks to the ample time he had.

Casting Wind Surge was still a breeze due to his familiarity after spending weeks developing it, but casting Yisik's arrow or spirit chain's in his current condition just wasn't feasible in a solo hunt. They would take too long to cast.

There was another spell in his arsenal that he had abnormal familiarity with. Another one of his creations, Procyon.

'Damn.' He clicked his tongue as the ball of blazing white fire formed. His expression hardened and he gritted his teeth before sending the fire forth.

"AWWOOOO" The wolf howled out as his fur turned to ash, the viscous liquid adhering to its hind leg while the fire ate away at its skin.

Kade turned his head and closed his eyes in anticipation of a wave of heat but was surprised moments later to find that, while there was an intense warmth, it wasn't uncomfortable. It felt more like the sun beating down on a sunny day.

Skeptically, he turned his gaze down and realized that the fire was indeed burning less than a meter from him, and it had even torched his pant leg, but he felt no pain and was uninjured.

The same couldn't be said for the wolf. Its skin was charred like an overcooked steak.

Kade didn't have time to wonder why he didn't suffer from his spell as the wolf threw itself on its side. He pulled his legs into his chest to avoid being trapped under the flailing beast before extending them once again to keep tension on the chain.

Smirking, he formed another Procyon and sent it at the wolf head. Then, another, until the beast's head was covered in a beautiful white blaze. He watched the soles of his boots melt, causing intense pain on the bottoms of his feet until the rubber was incinerated.

He endured and kept tension on the chain while digging his free fingers into the dirt until the beast stopped struggling almost a minute later.

He rolled to his knees before drawing his knife and slamming it into the wolf's eye. Taking a deep breath to steady his throbbing heart, he turned his attention back to the kids and their battle.

Less than two minutes had passed, and due to the slowing field, the battle hadn't progressed as far as Kade had expected. The Sloth was in far worse condition though, with deep cuts covering its body and a gimp leg.

Jay, Trey, and Walter weren't in the best shape either. Each sported new wounds, mostly deep lacerations, though there were a few puncture holes too. Cal was the exception and was still yet to be injured, but the Sloth was paying him his due attention by this point.

Kade stood up unsteadily, his face scrunching in pain, before hobbling over to ben. "How's it looking?"

"They are fine for now, but Jay needs to back off soon and let me heal him." Ben replied before turning to look at Kade. His face warped into confusion and concern "Uh, are you okay?"

"Mostly." Kade smirked "But it would be great if you could heal my feet." He said as he sat down and exposed the burns on his soles.

"Woah... What the hell happened?" Ben asked as he knelt and began casting his healing spells.

"My boots melted. Turns out that they don't share my immunity to Procyon." Kade joked before sighing as he noticed the state of his clothes.

Not only were his boots gone, but his pants were now shorts without a clean edge. Even his shirt suffered, likely from the fire that had been burning on the wolf's hind leg, and he felt a soft breeze on his back.

'I should start bringing a second set of clothes...' He thought comically. The last trip he had taken had resulted in a similar state after all of his battles. He couldn't help remembering William and Polly's words as he thought about returning in his current state.

He could imagine it now. "Have you no shame?! You're our leader, for god's sake!" William would shout in a rage "Really, isn't the boss supposed to look suave in suits and stuff? you'll never find a girlfriend like this." Polly would echo.

Kade chuckled as he thought about the two chiding him about his appearance.

"Block it!"

Kade turned his gaze to the fight after hearing Jay's voice, which sounded slowed and distorted. The Sloth was retreating toward the water. They couldn't allow it to do so, as they had no hope in fighting the beast if they were hindered by the water.

Trey and Walter moved to circle around the beast while Cal charged in at an angle. The Sloth, intent on preventing the smallest of its aggressors from landing another strike, stopped its retreat to respond.

A smirk slowly formed on Cal's face as he stopped just out of the beast's range. His goal was achieved without attacking thanks to the perceived threat he posed. This gave his teammates enough time to get into position.

Once again, the Sloth was assailed from multiple directions as Jay reentered the fight.

The slowing field was a cheat-like ability, capable of leveling the playing field for everyone inside. In a One on One fight, the Sloth would be nigh unbeatable. Unfortunately, regardless of the ability's effectiveness, it couldn't make up for the disadvantage that accompanied multiple enemies. After all, the Sloth could only defend with three limbs at most.

Jay, Trey, Walter, and Cal repeatedly attacked. Slowly but surely, they wore the beast down until Walter landed the final strike to take the Sloth's life.

Surprisingly, the slowing field didn't disappear immediately, and instead slowly lost effectiveness resulting in a gradual return to normal speed for the four.

"Cal, harvest the beast gem and anything that looks valuable while Ben heals us." Jay said before limping away.

Now that the battle was over, the exhaustion and pain that they had been suppressing bubbled up all at once.

Ben jogged over and immediately began healing the worst injuries. "Look at this man..." He said with a sigh "Don't push yourself so far next time. You might trip up due to pain or blood loss and get yourself killed."

Jay shrugged "It's not as bad as it looks."

"Yeah, yeah, so heal me first." Walter cried out indignantly as he pointed to the large lacerations on his chest. "I can't handle having scars!"

"Then you chose the wrong profession, princess." Kade said with a chuckle "But Ben is right. The pace of your battle was slow, so you had plenty of time to retreat for a moment and get healed. The risk you too would at best result in a slightly faster kill, but the minimum cost is a longer recovery."

The kids didn't understand this right now, but they would soon. Healing spells were miraculous and could heal wounds in seconds, but Ben's low-level spells couldn't replenish blood loss. This meant that they would suffer fatigue, and potentially anemia, from their reckless decision.

"Alright, I get it." Jay replied with a nod.

Ben finished healing the worst of his wounds before moving on to the next person. The lighter wounds would be bandaged and healed at the end of the day so that Ben could conserve his Altaris for emergencies.

Ten minutes later, everyone was healed up and Cal joined the group and tossed a beast core to Ben and Kade respectively.

"Oh, thanks." Kade replied, having forgotten to retrieve the core from the beast he killed earlier. "We've been here for too long as is, so let's get a move on. We will rest later."

Jay, Trey, and Walter wore pained expressions as the six of them set out following the creek.

As they set out, Obruo returned from his adventure looking haggard. His leathery skin had quite a few lacerations and puncture holes.

Kade narrowed his eyes as a thought dawned on him. This punk was probably hunting alone in an attempt to get beast cores rather than hunting with him and splitting the spoils.

He wasn't sure if he should be upset or relieved. He didn't enjoy being so stingy with beast cores, but this was the way it had to be for the time being. It wasn't like he was being unfair either as he was still willing to split the beast cores 50/50 as long as Obruo put in the work and he even gave Obruo all of the cores he gained from helping the kids.

Though, this development wasn't disadvantageous to him for the moment. Obruo could rely on himself for his desires and Kade could keep more of the beast cores for the faction. Still, it was unfortunate that he lost his hunting partner.

They walked for more than an hour before Kade called for a break. He cast Earth mold to make a round dirt couch embedded into the dirt and set out to collect firewood while the others rested.

Five minutes later he returned with enough wood and started a fire before retrieving meat from Jay's bag and jabbing a stick through a chunk to roast over the fire.

"Ugh." Ben's face scrunched in disgust "I never thought that I could get tired of meat until now."

Cal nodded "For me, it's the lack of flavor. All of the food we can cook out here is so bland."

"You guys are just a bunch of wussies." Walter replied haughtily "Real men don't complain about something like bland meat."

"Real men don't care about scars either..." Cal replied scornfully

"Pfft, hahaha!"

"Heh, he's got you there."

Everyone laughed at Walter's expense, while the youth in question tried to hide his embarrassment.

"That was good." Jay wiped faux tears "Anyway, you guys know that I'm not super picky, but even I'm beginning to find the meat a bit repulsive..."

Kade sighed before shaking his head. "Part of the issue is the meat you guys keep harvesting. First off, meat from muscular beasts is going to have a 'gamey' taste that you guys aren't accustomed to yet. Second, you keep harvesting the worst parts of the beast."

Trey raised a brow in confusion "Why does it matter which part we harvest, it's all meat, right?"

Kade shook his head "Do you know the difference between a chuck steak and a fillet steak?"

"Not really." Trey replied.

"Fillet steak is more tender and costs a lot more than Chuck." Jay chimed while scratching his cheek.

"Right. Do you know why?" Kade asked.

"No. I just know that a Chuck is considered a poor mans steak." Jay said.

Kade nodded "It's because the Chuck comes from the part of a cow that is most used and therefore, most muscular. It also has a lot of connective tissue that. As opposed to Tenderloin which is cut from an area near the kidneys and does very little work resulting in a much more tender cut of meat."

"See." He continued "An enjoyable meal is mainly composed of four things. Texture, flavor, aroma, and atmosphere. The toughness of a cut of meat contributes to the texture, and fat content contributes to the flavor. Both of which can be decided by the part that you harvest from the beast."

"What about aroma and atmosphere?" Cal asked.

"We can't do much about those right now." Kade explained "Aroma is usually incorporated with various spices like rosemary, basil, and parsley. As for the atmosphere, think of what it's like to eat in a nice restaurant. The dim lighting, soft voices drown out by enjoyable music."

"I can't. I've never been to a restaurant." Cal replied sheepishly.

"Wait, seriously?" Kade asked as his face scrunched up.

Cal was fifteen. it was hard to believe that no one had bothered to take him to dinner at a decent restaurant at least once. It wasn't like it was a tall order.

Jay chimed in upon seeing Cal shrink back "Our mom's husband didn't want us to ruin the mood, so they never took us with them when they went out to eat."

Kade frowned "Your mom's husband? He isn't your father?"

Jay shook his head "Our dad died when I was seven. Mom remarried two years later, and her new husband isn't our biggest fan."

Kade's expression darkened slightly as he began to piece things together. "I'm guessing he is one of the reasons you all came to Detrius?"

Jay nodded with a forlorn expression "Being treated as pests sucked, but we could handle that. It didn't get bad until we got older and he started to get violent. If we ever called him out on how he treated us, then we were 'popping off' or 'talking back' and he would hit us."

Kade could hear the hesitation in his voice and understood that it was difficult for him to continue, but that was okay. He had heard enough.

"It must have been hard... I probably would have run off to Detrius too." Kade replied with an empathetic tone "No kid should ever have to go through something like that. Thankfully, you've escaped that life. Now, everything is in your own hands."

His expression grew solemn "This new world that you've stepped into won't necessarily be any easier. You'll still suffer, but that's life. The important thing is that you hold the reins. No one can exert control over you anymore. Any success is your own, as is your failures. It's all up to you."

He cracked a smile "Of course, you will have me and the others too. We will help out however we can. That's part of what it means to be a family."

Jay nodded while Cal wiped his eyes. "Thanks." Jay said with a slightly hoarse voice.

"Don't mention it." Kade rotated the meat over the fire "I'll take you all out to eat when we return home to celebrate your first trip."

"Hell yeah!" Walter shouted "I want me a rich man's steak!"

Kade chuckled "You might not have the chance this time. We will probably end up going to an Italian restaurant. We'll buy some nice steaks and cook them ourselves some other time." He said while poking the coals.

They all looked at him with confused expressions, curious as to why he sounded defeated.

Kade ignored them and leaned back before rousing his Altaris. While it would be nice to relax and chat with the kids, he didn't have the time right now. He had to acclimate to his condition as soon as possible.

As it stood, he could only cast three spells quickly and reliably. Procyon, Wind surge, and shape earth. This was only possible due to his familiarity with the spells, as he created two of them and used the third daily.

Some of his other spells could be cast at a 60% success rate, but his casting time would be increased drastically. The upside was that he was adjusting quickly and would regain 80 to 90% of his proficiency in a few day's time. What benefits would follow were unknown, but being able to mobilize a larger amount of Altaris couldn't be a bad thing in the end.

...

"Damn dude, how far away is this tree?!" Walter complained loudly.

They had walked for the majority of the day and night would fall soon, yet they still hadn't found any hint of their target. Originally, they had assumed that the tree would be relatively close since it didn't make sense for the small stick to float very far, but reality proved different.

"Could we have missed it?" Ben asked, finding it odd as well "The branch is special and this is Detrius, after all. Maybe the tree won't be obvious or it could even be underwater."

Kade nodded with a pensive expression. They couldn't treat anything on Detrius as they would on Earth. This was an unknown land teeming with energy that Earth was only recently exposed to. It made sense for things to be vastly different and unexpected.

That being said, he hadn't felt any energy signatures while traveling. The branch that Ben had found gave off a very strong, unique energy and it stood to reason that the tree it came from would release far more energy. Surely he would have felt something.

Glancing at the sky, he made a call "We will set up camp for the night and continue for half a day tomorrow before backtracking."

He didn't want to give up on this but he had to remember that this trip concerned his people's future. Besides, he could make time to return later when he wasn't so pressed for time.

Now that the decision was made, everyone spread out to complete their responsibilities. The camp was set up quickly and efficiently before everyone gathered at the lounging pit Kade created and prepared their dinner.

Kade spent the night making notes and practicing spell casting while the others chatted.