Felan knew she had no chance of victory as soon as she saw the tails. She was strong for her level and might be able to fight someone at sixth rank. Maybe not win but at least fight without embarrassing herself. Someone at eight rank though? Not a chance. Her trouble only deepened as she saw flashes of light surrounding the other woman. Those were clearly signs of holy spells she was casting on herself to buff her performance. And not just one or two either.

‘Strength increase. Fortitude increase. Stamina recovery. Regeneration. Protection from…something? Was that Fateguard?’ Felan listed in her mind. The last two seemed like really high ranking buff spells already. All of them cast with a snap of the woman’s fingers and without a chant. Not only the spells themselves, just the fact that the woman was casting them indicated that she was taking this seriously and not leaving anything to luck.

In truth Dee was just doing a little bit of theatrics again. She wanted to make a point and then hammer it home. She didn’t want to be forced into fighting this fight again in a few months. Felan’s friends had showed intent to butt in, but as they saw the buff spells and her tails, they had decided against that course of action. Dee actually hoped they would interject so that she could make an example of all three of them, but it seemed that portion of her plan wasn’t going to come true. Oh well, fear worked too.

Felan felt that she had to make a stand even if she would lose. To show some resistance and not just give in so easily. No one would judge her for losing a fight against someone so much stronger than her. However, they might look down on her for not finishing the fight that she herself asked for. This in mind she gathered all the ki she could muster into her claws and slashed at the air in front of her, sending four blades of energy flying towards Dee.

Dee in turn smiled a little and lifted her hand towards the incoming projectiles. A large shield of golden energy materialized in front of the hand, stopping the incoming projectiles easily. The shield didn’t even have a scratch on it. With a wave of her hand Dee sent the golden shield towards the equally golden wolf, ramming her with it and sending her flying. This was about the time for someone else to intervene, and Dee wasn’t disappointed.

“I think that’s about enough Dee.” Razark interjected as if reading Dee’s mind. “The point has been made. Anything more would be excessive. She isn’t an enemy, just someone misguided.”

Shunkaha also felt that he had to make an appearance as well. Even if Felan was his fiancée in name only, it would reflect badly on him to let her get beat up too badly without standing up for her. He moved between the dazed and possibly unconscious Felan and Dee. He wasn’t looking threatening, but his stance made it clear he would intercede if Dee were to continue. “This time was her fault so I won’t say anything about it. However, I must insist you don’t go any further. Otherwise you will be fighting me instead of her.”

Unknown to Shunkaha, his words almost tempted Dee to continue. “That sounds rather fun. You aren’t really in a position to insist anything unfortunately. Luckily for you, I’m not unreasonable. Have her apologize later on when she wakes up, and I won’t even hold a grudge. Oh, and you’ll be in charge of the repairs to the wall in exchange for my benevolent nature, right?”

The dwarf bartender was already rubbing his hands while tallying the damages in his mind. He knew the two wolf clans were wealthy, and he planned to take advantage. Shunkaha only sighed in resignation. He knew he’d have to take care of the bill, as refusing to cover for his fiancée would only add insult to injury, and Felan’s day had been bad enough as it is.

Razark only gave a chuckle as he led Dee back inside the bar. The other gathered scouts gave small whoops in cheer. They had been a little disappointed that the show was over so soon, but it had been good while it lasted. Small fights between the scouts were normal and highly entertaining for others. Those fights were rarely taken to the extent where anyone got seriously injured. Especially considering more than half of them were capable of at least basic healing spells.

As they sat down Razark brought back the topic of performing a mission or two while he dealt with some of the more serious matters requiring his immediate attention. “I have something interesting for your first mission. It requires your presence right away and I just got the word while you were tossing the wolf girl around. The presence of some scouts is required in the twelfth circle to help with an evacuation.”

Dee’s eyebrow shot up. “I assume there’s more to this than just glorified baby-sitting?”

“Of course. The important point is why they need help. You told me that you wanted information on elemental rifts. Well, the place you’re going is away from the normal gate network so there’s a need to evacuate a lot of people over large pieces of land. It’ll take at least a week and a half. They are being evacuated because there’s a new elemental rift forming and the local creatures are going on a rampage. I assume you’ll have plenty of chances to slip away to do your thing. The remoteness of the place should keep the prying eyes of high ranked communities away for a few days at least. Only reason we know already is because we had a group of paladins stationed in a nearby city.” Razark explained.

Dee immediately got up and ready to go. She knew time was of the essence. “Just give me the exact location. I’ll use my own way to get there myself.”

Razark quickly wrote the coordinates on a piece of paper. “Remember, there are other groups of the order moving in as well. You are ordered to cooperate but you are not under their command. You only answer to me and the grandmaster and not really to the grandmaster either. You don’t need to advertise that fact. It might cause unnecessary trouble.”

The other scouts had a weird look when Dee’s portal suddenly appeared out of thin air. They weren’t strangers to portals, but opening one looked so effortless to Dee that it was strange. There was no preparation or drawing of magical symbols. Just a sudden portal in the middle of the bar, that disappeared as soon as Dee had stepped through. Razark only grinned at their faces, and was not surprised to see several of his old friends approaching him with questions.

Another person to approach him after a short while was the beastman who had been the cause of the previous fight. The boy’s eyes gave away the fact that he was looking for Dee. As he didn’t find what he was looking for he approached the person who might know something, namely Razark. Shunkaha had seen the two come in together and could infer some things from the bits of conversation he overheard.

“She already disappeared?” Shunkaha asked, stating the obvious more as a way to open the conversation.

“I gave her a mission. It should take her at least a week to accomplish everything.” Razark replied simply.

“And I guess the fact that I overheard the word portal explains how she vanished so quickly. Would you mind sharing the details? I might be able to help.” Shunkaha suggested, not entirely sure of the relations between the obviously powerful man in front of him and Dee.

“I don’t particularly feel the need to keep it a secret as they could probably use the help of another scout. However, I think it would be pointless for you to go there with your current motivation.” Razark replied, idly scratching at his antlers in a show of indifference.

Shunkaha gave a small smile thinking that the man in front of him might be a rival. “What makes you think that?”

Razark gave a small hum as the conversation was going exactly as he had assumed it would go. Shunkaha would try to reject his advice. “You will not have a place in her future. You pursue her because you think of yourself as her equal. I find it admirable to try and seek a mate of equal strength instead of being satisfied with the little pup that just got carried away by her friends. It shows character. However, you are misjudging both your worth and hers.“ Razark’s warning was genuine, even if he suspected it would not be followed.

“I think I might surprise you.” Shunkaha replied confidently.

“I think you hold much less in the way of surprise than you assume. The Authority you possess has sped up your development and given you power. Don’t think I didn’t notice it. You might be able to hide it from most but I noticed, and so did she. The problem is that your power is hollow because it’s built on a crutch. It is not truly your own strength. Besides, even with the Authority you overestimate yourself and underestimate her.” Razark’s words seemed unkind, but they came from legitimate concern for the young man. He had potential. Not as much as Dee, but enough to be worth nurturing.

Shunkaha was quiet for a moment. “Explain.” He said simply after a moment of thought, coming to the conclusion that hearing Razark’s words was worth it.

Razark had a small smile. Perhaps there was hope for this boy yet. “You show great promise even if it’s based on external power. Our master would laugh about such reliance because he thinks one should always rely on their own power, but I think you should utilize what you have. If you have monstrous luck and can survive long enough, you might be able to become almost as strong as the other Blades. This is the difference. She will become stronger than me guaranteed. And unlike you, she won’t need a hundred years to do that. She will do it in ten, or less if she gets lucky. You might become a power able to match the others standing on the arena that is the order. Her? She will eventually become a power with the ablility to match the greatest of the entire Pantheon.”

“You’re saying I will eventually become a burden?” Shunkaha asked, not willing to accept what the man was saying. He was after all the most promising wolf tribe beastman in centuries, maybe even millennia.

“At the very least you will no longer be equals. You already aren’t. That little crutch of yours might give you strength, but that’s not enough against her. She’s been fighting foes much stronger than you for the last three years. She’d make a rug out of you.” Razark knew that the boy would reject his words for now, but perhaps they would sink in and sprout later on.

-----

Dee on the other hand spent several hours moving through the Astral Plane to reach her destination. This wasn’t a short hop anymore, so it would take time for her to reach her destination. It might have been faster to run back to the gateway that had brought her and Razark to this place and take the portal back to the closest city in the twelfth circle, but this was a test of sorts for her as well.

As her method of travel was not precise over long distances, she missed her target by thousands of kilomels, but she considered this good progress. A year ago she might have ended up in a different circle. Now she only needed to reorient herself and make another smaller jump, which in turn would be much more precise. Fortune favored her further, as she arrived at the gathering place just as another group of paladins and templar was setting out for another remote village.

The dwarven sergeant in charge of the group didn’t recognize Dee, and she didn’t advertise her level of power, but he was glad to have a scout join their group anyway. They only had ten people and the village they were heading for had several hundred inhabitants. It was only a few hours away from their current location but ten relatively low ranked paladins guarding a group of hundreds of refuges was a recipe for disaster, so it would be highly beneficial to have advance warning of any dangers.

If the village had been further away Dee might have opened a portal for them to go through, but the village was within her minimum distance. Also she wasn’t sure what would happen if she suddenly dumped a large number of people into the Astral Plane. So far any jumps she had done had been safe, but she knew the Astral Plane had its dangers. Dangers that might not be any less than those from the elemental gate opening up.

Dee scouted ahead as the group traveled, discovering several low leveled beasts on the way. Getting rid of them was simple enough that she didn’t even bother informing the rest of the group. They did find some of the bodies she had left behind, which made them wonder a bit about their new helper. That said, the scouts were supposed to be strong and the beasts in the twelfth circle were decidedly not so.

Luckily the village had received the warning issued to the whole area and the inhabitants had moved to evacuate on their own. While the inhabitants of the lower circles were not famed for their strength, every community had at least some battle capable people among their number. Not having any would be an open invitation for disaster. Even if wars and rival communities didn’t get them, hostile creatures such as the ones Dee had slain would do too much damage.

Dee had noticed their approach and led the group of paladins straight to them. The villagers had been attacked and had some wounded, but the paladins could luckily deal with that as the wounds were not too serious. The paladins then joined the defensive perimeter around those completely unable to fight. The villagers had naturally taken along as much stuff as they possibly could. They knew they would most likely be unable to return for a long time even if the elemental rift wound up being closed, so they had grabbed anything and everything of value they could. As such the return trip was much slower and took several hours. The group would have been attacked several times, but Dee took care of those without drawing attention.

Once the group of civilians was safe, Dee made the determination that the paladins could most likely deal with the evacuation of the nearby cities and villages. The problem came from the outlying communities, some of which even resided on the other side of the forming rift. They would either have to take a massive detour around the rift, or go through the elemental infested area surrounding the rift. The first one would take time and would not guarantee safety, while the latter one would guarantee danger.

It was better if she went off on her own to see what she could do for those groups instead of babysitting the easy evacuations. She explained her reasoning to the dwarven sergeant who agreed, though wasn’t sure what Dee alone could do out there. He didn’t stop her from trying though.

----------

Shunkaha stepped through the gate to the twelfth circle. The words he had heard from the person he now knew to be one of the Blades bothered him, but he was unwilling to give up so easily. If the current him was inadequate, then he’d just have to become even stronger. Who knew what would happen in the future? Besides, the man might be wrong entirely. Who could say what lay in the future?

His musings were rudely interrupted as he noticed the others that had just come through the gate before him. ‘Crimson Witches! And a lot of them at that.’ Shunkaha thought to himself, as he looked at the almost fifty women dressed in crimson armor. His clan had a fairly decent relationship with the Crimson Path, as they and the other wolf clans had sent a few of their members to join the community of female warriors. Their presence here made things complicated. It was not unusual for the high ranked communities to vie for the control of the rifts, but why were there so many Crimson Witches here? There was more to this elemental rift than the order had assumed.

Shunkaha sidled close to one of the mages overseeing the teleportation gates and surreptitiously handed him a coin made of white gold, quite valuable in these parts of the Pantheon. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to have you betray your position and reveal information on notable people having come through the gates lately. However, I’ll be standing right here, and you might feel the urge to talk to yourself or to rather loudly gossip with the other mages here.”

The mages took the rather blatant hint and were not above making a bit of profit for such innocuous reasons. No one actually paid them to keep things quiet, so why not? “Francis, did you see the large group of Revenant that came through this morning.”

“I sure did Michael. What do you imagine could bring almost six dozen of the weird beings here?” The other mage replied in a voice loud enough to be heard by Shunkaha, but not so loud as to be overheard by the crimson clad women that were about to leave the platform.

“I have no idea, but it might have something to do with the members of the Radiant Sun that came yesterday. There must have been almost a hundred of them.” ‘Michael’ replied. That wasn’t his real name, and the other man’s name wasn’t Francis. The two didn’t realize Shunkaha was a scout of the order and he didn’t give anything away to hint that he was. The paladins were here to help with the evacuations. A clearly lacking reaction compared to the other two much stronger groups despite the difference in numbers. The paladins would most likely be low ranked forces gathered from nearby garrisons.

‘Francis’ continued. “I don’t know if this is true, but I heard a rumor from the mages looking after the teleportation gates of Inglewood that there were some really strong looking characters coming though their gate as well.” Inglewood was a portal city that was the second closest to the rift.

“Surely they can’t match the Revenant and Crimson Witches?” ‘Michael’ replied with a disbelieving tone.

“I don’t know Michael, the mages said that some of the people carried the symbol of the spider cult. I’m not sure we want to be here if those three communities start picking a fight with each other.” ‘Francis’ shot back, actually genuinely worried. As they were watching over the gates they would also be able to evacuate pretty quick, but those three communities could kill mages like them so fast that they would not be able to react.

‘Shit. This seems really serious. I have to warn Dee.’ Shunkaha thought with a grunt, and threw another coin to the mages. Their information had been worth it, especially the bit about the spider cult.