Exiting the carriage, Logan felt a brush of wind against his face, his hair flowing towards the west. The wind brought it a faint sweet scent, possibly from some herbs in the eastern forest or possibly even beehives full to the brim with honey. However, this wind led into the small village known as Moella, the place where the silversteines were harassing, and so the wind was most likely their doing.

Checking over his gear, he noticed his allies doing the same out of ritual. Since they were all above level 8 they would have had several months of work under their belt at this point, so he didn’t think he would need to worry about any of them. Though now that they were out of the city limits, to a far degree, he didn’t think it’d cause much harm to finally use Identification to fully understand his companions.

“Kreya Ioi: Knight 10, 184/184 HP, 0/0 MP. Renowned ----. Signed up with the G-Hall ----.

Skills: Wall of Iron***, Hard Skin**, ----. Wields: ----. Wears: ----.”

“Iimi: Fighter 9, 142/142 HP, 0/0 MP. A Helm native, Iimi moved southwards when her family needed to get away from the harsh attitudes of those that hated her kin. Works at the G-Hall to amass enough coin to make a stable life for her family within Gauntlet and forget the times at Helm.

Skills: Berserk**, Multi-Berserk**, Come Forth, Combo Pierce, Combo Slash, Combo Straight, Power Strike***. Wields: ----. Wears: ----.”

“Tenn: Rogue 8, 104/104 HP, 0/0 MP. An avid scout who is able to find many a foe before they find him or his allies. Set up at the G-Hall of Gauntlet, Tenn has been working as an adventurer for just over 1 year, often sending a portion of his income to his family.

Skills: Backstab**, Dastardly Backstabs, Dash**, Multi-Backstab**, Multi-Dash, Ten-Point Barrage. Wields: Ashin Dagger x2 9-12 dmg. Wears: Cretin’s Garb.”

“There are a few new skills I haven’t seen yet. Iimi must be wearing or using something similar to hide her equipment like Kreya. Both Iimi and Tenn had honourable reasons for being adventurers, is Kreya like them?” Logan pondered in his head.

“Logan, begin summoning your elemental. Tenn go ahead and scout the treeline till you see the village and report back what we have in our way”, Kreya began to instruct.

Nodding, Tenn did a running jump to a nearby tree where he was able to land his foot on its trunk, sprinting up for a fair few feet before he had to start pulling on branches to get higher up. The Rogue was out of sight so quickly that his Climb skill must have been quite high, or had something else aiding him.

Giving a thumbs-up, Logan began his resummoning ritual, as his slot had already been auto-used in the morning to sustain Celsius. During such time, Kreya, Iimi, and Marcus did a few rounds of searching the immediate vicinity, hitching up and hiding the carriage, as well as making some basic battle plans.

With exaggerated stretches and yawning maw, Celsius was reformed in front of Logan. “Ah, nap time is over. Let’s get to booting and looting”, he spoke as he removed a pointless nightcap.

“Welcome back, Celsius. We’re going to be facing some enemies resistant to fire, so you may be used as a distraction again. You up for annoying some beasts?”

“It’s what I do best!”

“So that’s your elemental? Seems a bit short, I take it they are rather young then, not going to be doing much damage to the silversteines”, Kreya inspected.

Celsius’s only reply was a saddened look to the floor.

Rustling in the leaves of the nearby trees caused the party to get into a defensive position, retaliating against the sight of their Rogue ally returning. Breathing sighs of relief, the party awaited Tenn’s decline to the floor.

“The approach is clear, seems a few runners died on the path though. This forest breaks out into the fields nicely, so we can move from cover to cover. Counted a trio of silversteines above the fields, we’d probably need to take those down ahead of time”, Tenn explained as he moved closer to the party.

“Alright, three for three, not a terrible beginning encounter. We’ll be at our best right now, I’ll take the closest foe, Iimi takes the next, Tenn get the furthest since you’re the fastest amongst our team. The field will make it difficult to get healing spells out, so Marcus, try and stay close to my back and fire at what you can with your crossbow when they hit the floor. This’ll all start with a Cascade from you, Logan, at my signal”, Kreya instructed as a true leader.

The whole team nodded in agreement, turning to one another to explain their skills a bit further to better work against the enemies. Logan learned a bit more about the new skills, the combo moves of Iimi being a form of a fighting-game combo system where she did several attacks in a row to end with a finishing move. Taking the time to do so, Logan looked over one of his new spells.

Aside from the information displayed on the spell window, Logan was able to find it was yet another spell that could not take an alteration and used a Shot alteration as a basis. Since it lacked a proper description of how much damage it would deal, Logan could only assume it was on par with Lightning but could hurt several targets, making it marginally better than a Lightning Wall. Its main use was attacking sky-bound foes, as a wall had to start from the floor.

It was lucky the party would be facing a team of three foes, as it seemed this new spell would only hit a maximum of three per cast. “Would it hit more foes with a higher tier of mastery?” Logan pondered in his head.

With their plan set, the party began the slow stalk through the woods. Even though Tenn assured it was safe, there was no telling what could appear in his absence. Thankfully it seemed the team were all too used to silently approaching their quest locations from previous attempts.

A few more minutes passed by, the team moving through the forest at a slow but careful pace. Corpses were found every so often, revealing the work of the silversteines through claw and bite marks across the bodies’ shoulders and backs. As if trying to find something other than wounds, Kreya made the party stop at each new corpse to look it over. Shaking her head at all of them.

If they had counted, 20 minutes had gone by when they breached the treeline to the outskirts of the village. Smoke billowed from destroyed huts in the distance, the smell of blood and rotting bodies filling the air, with the wind dying down a bit as they got closer to the village proper. Jet bursts could be heard above as well as deeper in, the silversteines creating soundwaves as they soared through the area.

Even though it had taken them time to get to the fields, the three aforementioned silversteines were patrolling the fields. Getting a better look at the creatures, Logan had no real comparison to make. 7’ long fox or wolf-like creatures that resembled a Japanese dragon slightly. Four front paws ended in 4 long claws, and a pair of paws towards their tail end, bloodied from their attacks on the villagers, though many were carrying meat pulled from said corpses as they feasted in the space above the fields.

Long floppy ears soared along their long frames, their fur a pristine silvery-white if not for patches of blood all across them. Tails also soared at their rears, their whole body moving in a wave as they floated through the air in slower patterns. Logan could just make out whirling spheres of air around the creatures’ limbs as well as circles around their bodies. One of the beasts turned around, showing piercing white eyes and large fangs devouring the meat, yet again painting their flawless colours with dashes of crimson.

“Identify”, Logan commanded in his head.

“Silversteine - Spirit Beast. Level 7: 68/68 HP, 0/0 MP. The most common of spirit beasts, the silversteine boasts amazing speed due to its control over the winds of the world. With an average length of around 7', these creatures run through the air with 6 paws that they use the front 4 of to attack their foes.

Due to their speed, many adventurers find it difficult to attack these airborne foes, though it is almost common knowledge amongst avid adventurers that their speed can be halted by lightning-based attacks, as the surge of electricity makes it hard to control the winds.

Skills: Element Phase, Hyper-Speed, Spirit Blast. Reduction: Damage 2, Force ?. Resistance: Wind ?, Fire ?”

“Identification cannot find the proper numbers for their reductions or resistances, but my party’s intel revealed they were immune to wind damage, so I can guess that is 100%. Seems that their status window also separates out those two into their own sections if they have more than one. I need the skill to get higher to find the proper numbers”, Logan calculated in his head.

Another new morsel of information was that enemies could have varying levels outside of types, since there was a single silversteine of level 7 but the other two were level 9 and lacked any other class or typing like the goblins had. The level 9s each had 92 HP, the level 7 having a smaller 68 HP.

Holding up her arm, Kreya motioned the party to stop in their tracks. Moving her hand into a small pack on her lower back she pulled out a small orb that fit within the palm of her hand. Stabbing it with a small knife, it let out a jet of red mist that apparently stunk to hell as she recoiled from it. Rearing back her arm, Kreya let it loose across the field, landing it deep within the farmlands.

“Logan, hit them with a Cascade when they surround the bait”, Kreya instructed as she waved the Spellthief closer.

Scooting to a closer tree trunk, Logan looked over the fields a bit more. The three soaring silversteines all reared their heads upwards as the red mist seeped out of the orb, filling the air with the scent of freshly carved raw meats. Disgusting inhales of their snouts were followed by their heads darting to the floor. With jet bursts one after another, the spirit beasts shot through the air at amazing speeds, so much so it sent a wave of wind towards the party.

Stopping above the bait, the monsters began to circle it as if they were vultures checking over the area before descending for a feast. A hushed “now” from Kreya alerted Logan to begin his attack. Getting to one knee, he rested his right arm with his left hand to aim clearly at the above foes. As he began to chant, he could feel a surging power move from his heart to his shoulder, igniting his limb with a ballroom of dancing lightning strands.

Pricking his sleeve here and there, the lightning was so much more alive than it had ever been, praising Logan’s progress to this point. “Lightning Cascade”, Logan chanted, the spell jolting about his arm in joyful destruction as it shot outwards as fluttering birds of annihilation. Electrical chirps and strikes filled the air with a destructive soundtrack, alongside lighting the late-morning field with bursts of azure light.

The silversteines all heard and saw the barrage of lightning approaching them, but as with any lightning spell, it was too fast in the skies to dodge when unawares. Hitting into the closest silversteine, the spell exploded and wrapped around the foe in a display of harrowing stabs of blue. Jumping from the creature’s back, the lightning storm found two more homes in the bodies of the nearby silversteines.

Three shocking foes were jittering in the air, the spheres of air around their bodies exploding into small static shockwaves as if they were EMPs. Logan could see he had dealt 26 lightning damage to the initial foe and then 13 to the secondaries, their bodies crashing to the floor as their air control was zapped away from them. The level 9s were at 66 and 79 HP, whereas the level 7 was lower at 55 HP.

With the loud thuds into the mud, the party charged forwards through the fields, it was a good hundred feet or more to reach the silversteines but the lightning magic had done its work beautifully as the spirit beasts writhed on the floor in pain, trying to establish flight again. Logan felt yet another rush of wind by his side as Tenn used his Dash skill to reach the furthest back foe before any other.

In a fit of rage and emergency, Kreya, Iimi, and Tenn let loose their blades and mace on the fallen foes. Retaliation with their own maws and claws, the silversteines made sure the party would not come away unharmed. Blows were exchanged over and over, Celsius shooting out some Ember Shards where he could though Logan could see they dealt only 1 damage each.

Marcus used Healer’s Caress where needed, as he was told to use that before his spells to save his MP for dire situations. Everyone was getting a hand in this encounter, all contributing even if it wasn’t all equal. Seeing his party at play, it was clear to see that the Knight negated damage with their shield, the Rogue avoided or deflected blows where they could, whereas the Fighter had to parry and riposte or be left to the attacks of their foes.

Getting closer, Logan continued to assist with Force attacks here or there, and since he no longer had to roleplay anything he was free to shoot at his maximum speed. Just as he was told, the silversteines were resistant to Logan’s most common mick, dealing a mere 7 damage instead of the normal 14.

The level 7 and lowest health level 9 were dealt with quickly, however, the final level 9 was able to regain the use of their air control and was able to shoot back into the air above the fields. Limping, if you could call it that while flying, the silversteine returned the onslaught with its own attack, but instead of using the wind to do so it pulled up a wave of translucent-white energy from its tail to its mouth.

Forming a large mass of white flame-like energy, the silversteine shot it towards the party members below. Just like it flew, the blast was shot at incredible speeds, hitting into Tenn for 19 damage, following up as if the attack was a rapid-firing gun, several blasts were sent barreling towards the other members, hitting Iimi and Marcus for 19 each, but was blocked just in time before it was able to hit Kreya.

A final blast was shot towards Logan, who was lucky enough to be the furthest and final target, allowing him time to just barely dodge the last blast as it created a small hole in the floor behind him.

With its own attack finished, it looked as if the silversteine was turning tail to find allies to aid it. No order was needed for this attack, Logan threw up his arm yet again as he chanted aloud, “Lightning Shot!” to form a smaller mass of parading lightning strikes through his arm to soar through the air in its own design of erratic energy. Hitting the tail end of the silversteine, the spell dug deep all over its frame, creating a multitude of pinpricks that smoked harshly as the body of the final silversteine started to fall to the floor.

The party began to stand up from the forceful blasts, Kreya surveying the area alongside Logan using Echo Radar to double-check that they were safe. Though, to Logan, the floating experience numbers would confirm their immediate safety, with the usual reduction of 50% due to having five allies.

As the first time seeing Celsius gain combat experience, the windows were telling the truth that he gained XP as if he were a PC. From this small encounter, Logan gained 1,276 XP, Celsius gained 1,590 XP, the NPCs all gained 250 XP each. There was a good chance that Logan, Marcus, and Celsius would all level up from this quest.

Kreya did a quick headcount before asking Logan to go carve up the corpses while the others healed up from the encounter. With all uses of Healer’s Caress spent, and a Heal for everyone but Celsius and Logan, the party were looking pretty good in the health department. Kreya was at 184/184, Iimi 118/142, Tenn 90/104, Marcus 46/46 HP.

At an estimated 12 enemies in the area, the party had already cleared out a quarter of the forces. Logan still had another Cascade for the day alongside plenty of Lightning casts, Kreya called for a 20-minute break before pressing into the village proper.

While Harvesting what he could from the corpses, Logan saw that the spirit beast bodies did not last for long after death. Fading away into spellforce and spirits, Logan was only able to gather up 3 fur tufts, 3 essences, and 6 teeth from the creatures. All of the materials would go to Kreya and the two others though.

Five more uses of Healer’s Caress brought Iimi to full health, three bringing Tenn to the same position. Whilst waiting for skill cooldowns to finish or healing to be done, Logan was using his monocular to scout out the village with better sight. Through the extended vision, he was able to use Identification to spot quite a number of level 9 silversteines moving about the village, a few level 8s within huts feasting on what he assumed to be bodies.

Relaying the information to his team, Kreya took it all in without question as it wasn’t uncommon for Wizards to use scanning magic such as Score or otherwise to find enemy strengths. Adjusting plans, as the party had plenty of daily resources at hand, Kreya ordered the party to Stealth through the fields to one of the closer huts in the village, investigate its interior and then readjust once more when inside.

With everyone prepared, a round of Clean to remove their scent, the party moved onwards. Kreya had gathered the bait orb back up, it had a solid single-use remaining in it so was best to use what was left. Sealing it up with some rope so it didn’t seep any more of its thick-scented mist.

Logan could easily tell that their sound wasn’t being damped, the rustling of the tall wheat easy to hear if not for the bursts of air sounding off every so often from the moving silversteines. Aside from sound, their movements were hidden immensely well alongside little to no scent escaping them as they reached the closest hut. It wasn’t in the best repair, half of its thatch roofing having collapsed inside.

The design reminded Logan of the lower-class buildings of Tinte, if a bit smaller, as it was mostly made up of dirt and clay with wooden panel windows that would no longer open due to damage. Kreya opened the door and let the party enter, Iimi at the front and Logan at the back, followed by Kreya who closed the door behind them.

Inside, they found it to be rather shaded by rubble and remaining roof, but bright enough to make out its more distinguishing features. Another couple of corpses were found, Kreya checking them just as she had checked all others. A shaking of her head revealed them to not be what she was looking for.

“The village elder hut should be 3 buildings down from here, if any survivors are present they’d most likely go there. It has sturdier walls than the rest of the houses, plus the elder was a Sorcerer so he could have possibly fended off a foe or two”, Kreya informed the party.

“We making a break for it? Or clearing out more of those flying devils?” Tenn inquired.

“Doubtful we’d make it there unseen with how many of us there are”, Iimi added.

“Logan, can you get your elemental to burn this house while we move to the opposite one?” Kreya asked.

Celsius’s reply was that of an affirmative salute, all too ready to do as commanded.

“Looks like that is a yes from him. Sure. Want to try and gather more silversteines here so we can thin the numbers? What about collateral?” Logan followed up.

“They will most likely have to rebuild the village anyways, burnt thatch won’t make a big difference. Better to kill these things so that they have a chance at rebuilding.”

“Got it.”

Doing a safety check of their gear, the party prepared to make another stealthy movement from one hut to another, Kreya opening the door to begin the manoeuvre.

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