"About forty left," Kastra stated impassively. "We should move quickly. They're packing up and retreating into the cave."

Damien nodded. She had wards up around their temporary rest spot in a tree to prevent scrying from the Nivari and Hellials. While on the move, he knew they might be able to find the three, even if they didn't' have a particularly experienced Mage among them. But when hunkered down in her wards, he felt safe. If Lemshire couldn't break through Kastra's wards easily, no way in hell would a group of random criminals in the mountains.

His mind was eerily focused, considering all that had passed recently. His and Kastra's both. They currently only had two goals; get Alexa back, and collapse the cave on top of the remains of those in the way. The random complaints and moaning of Damien's most recent addition held no weight at this moment. Rai wanted to be in control while they wiped out the group, but Damien wasn't hearing any of it. He was done trying to be passive, just as he was back when he'd nearly killed Cedar. Layla had swayed him then, her and Reinal, her... assistant. They, along with his promise not to cause any more incidents lest he be exiled, had actually helped ease him, bringing him back to the more progressive state of mind he held back on Earth. One that was on the side of peace mostly, against killing, hoping he could incapacitate and dissuade would-be attackers after the fact.

Never again.

He knew how strong he was, objectively. Lemshire and likely every instructor at Eleram could shut him down in a heartbeat if they got close enough. In a fair fight, he may not even be able to make it through half of this camp without succumbing to their superior numbers and mana. But luck was on his side tonight.

Damien looked down at his hands, loosely gripped on the hilts of his weightless swords. Not a tremor in them, though he'd reaped through tens of lives already. Blood was sticking to the blades and yet, rather than mourn the loss of life or feel confliction over his actions, the only thing he thought upon seeing it was how irritating it was going to be to clean the inside of them later.

He stalked back to the first scouts he'd killed, more at the center of their group. He wished he'd have started on the far left edge, but he'd run into them first and... well, it was lucky that he'd gotten them and another group before the alarm was sounded. Five swords followed him through the stormy night, occasional lightning giving him a physical view of his surroundings. He'd been navigating solely off his ability to feel the electrical currents in his surroundings and the occasional bolt that arched through the sky, but now his eyes were open, glowing an ethereal blue that dimly lit up the tree he stood near.

He moved forward at a crawl, coming forty feet away from the clearing that lead to the cave, as close as he dared currently. He'd be in their midst soon, but not before cutting the number down by yet another half. The swords lined up alongside him as he chose his targets, creating a magnetic line for each to follow almost as fast as he sent them forwards. The Nivari he'd targetted noticed his mana finally, looking up worriedly at the last moment as each sword struck true, tearing holes in five chests.

"Get those [Barrier]s up faster you fools!" a feminine voice roared out.

Damien lifted his hand up and pulled the sky down, a bolt of lightning aiming for the top of his head. It got within a few inches of his hair before it curved hard, following his arm and shooting forward in a straight line towards the woman who'd yelled out. Her eyes went wide, sensing the intent of his attack, and her damaged wings crossed in front of her body at almost the same moment he'd raised his hand. The bolt struck, exploding on her hasty defenses and blasting her inside the cave. A second bolt followed the first, scorching another three Nivari before their [Barrier]s shimmered into existence.

Whether by intention or pure luck, the [Barrier]s weren't specialized versions of the spell and directly protected against all forms of mana, almost like a wall of pure, hardened mana itself. The following three bolts crashed against it, cracking and breaking off pieces of it that were repaired shortly after.

Credit to the defenders again, several spells of white, red, orange, green, and purple shot across the gap, aiming for where the lightning had originated in the darkness. Damien silently thanked Kastra for suggesting he move immediately after the first bolt as he looked back at the hellscape that had become of the area twenty feet to his left.

Sending a few more bolts, he probed their defenses and lept up into a tree to get a better view of their camp. They'd retreated into the cave entirely now, shooting orbs and rays of death outward at random, hoping to land a strike. Damien actually felt a cold sweat build up on his back as a green substance splashed on the tree to his right, melting its base in less than a second while the surrounding terrain that was hit sunk into itself. One burst of flame had been on target as well but never got the chance to explode, a kaleidoscope field shimmering red lightly before him.

"We need a new plan," Damien mused aloud, glancing to his left shoulder.

Kastra stood there, her face a mask of nonchalance. If he didn't know any better, he'd suspect she truly held no emotions currently, but he could feel the anger roiling off of her in truth. Her feet were literally frozen to his shoulder and her right hand was likewise frozen to his neck. She'd almost gotten blown off earlier with how quickly he'd moved and now, whenever he changed locations, she crouched and hung on so tight it hurt sometimes.

"Try hitting them with a larger bolt," she suggested.

"I would if I could but the moment I make the connection, it wants to explode outward. It's already a miracle I'm able to do this without trouble anymore, and if I try gathering more into my body first... well, let's make that a last resort."

He glanced up at the sky and squinted, equally ecstatic and irritated. Above him was the unlimited potential of his chosen element, begging to be used, wasting itself as the storm continued on its course, yet he was too weak to even control a fraction of a percent of it. The bolts responded to his call, of course, but they did at their leisure and refused to really... become something larger. A strike was more than sufficient to wipe out a single [Barrier], or maybe even three. But there were tens of Mages casting inside that cave to hold it up. Nothing he did would break it down save letting Rai take over.

With that thought, Damien opened his mouth.

"Would you be able to..." he broke off, wondering if the God would even deign to respond or realize Damien was speaking to him.

"Easily," he responded instantly. "Give me control and I could vaporize their entire line in an instant, even with your paltry control of mana. Each living thing in that cave would die without so much as having the opportunity to cry out. Including your lover, though. A necessary-"

"Not a chance," Damien immediately snapped, shaking his head. "You wouldn't be able to only break the barrier?"

He felt the... presence in his mind shake its head. A weird phenomenon.

"The sky's wrath is not that easily restrained, Mortal, nor would I try to for those disgusting inbred pigeons before me. They deserve the worst death imaginable, not to mention the unknown strength of their defense. If I restricted the strike, allowing its power to diffuse into the ground, and it ended up not being enough, we would have to wait and hope the heavens continued to rage above, supplying us with more. No, I'd use it all, and I'd turn the entire cave into molten slag, ending the peasants before me. Before us."

Damien sighed. The man was dramatic, and already getting on his nerves. Basically, he claimed to not know how much power was actually needed. If he used up half of the not-infinite amount of charge in the sky and it didn't break the barrier, what then? They'd have to wait, and the storm may decide to dissipate instead of creating more for them to use.

Though Damien held the suspicion that Rai knew exactly how much energy needed to be used to get through their defenses, but just couldn't be bothered.

"And if I let you take over, but controlled you like others do when communed?" Damien decided to ask, causing the God to scoff.

"You may try, Mortal. It is only accomplished by others because of how weak our presence is inside of them. With me, us, this accident, you could practice for millennia and never grow powerful enough to restrain my will. No, when you give me the reins, I am in control, as it should be. You may take them back, but you will never have control of the power I wield."

Damien idly wondered how much of that was posturing and if he could, in a much shorter amount of time, actually gain control over himself in that state, but the way Rai had phrased it with utmost confidence... Damien chose to believe the statement for now. It certainly seemed self-serving enough for it to be mostly true.

Resting against a nearby tree, he continued to wrack his brain for anything else, a way in that would give him the element of surprise once again. He couldn't wait until morning, allow them to leave and ambush them. Hellials could fly, Damien could not. He wouldn't be able to keep up with them. No, he needed to keep them on the ground, in the mountain. He needed a new way into that mountain, a way they weren't blocking.

"Plan B then," he said aloud, a slight grin surfacing as he lept to the ground.

No one but him knew what that meant, but Kastra understood the moment he made his way to the mountainside. Turning around, he met his sylphen's stormy eyes following at a distance.

"Emra, can you... continue to shoot lightning at the opening? I need them to think I'm still attacking."

The white beast looked back at him, intelligence flickering through its beautiful stormy grey eyes as its sharp ears flicked with each new sound the night reverberated with. He remembered her eyes used to be a silvery-blue before he'd begun feeding her his mana. He missed their old color, seemingly so innocent and full of life. Now they reminded him of power and death.

All night she'd followed at a distance, contributing nothing to the effort. Whether that was intentional to spite him, simply because he hadn't asked, or she felt it unnecessary, he didn't know, but after asking, she glared at him for a few seconds before dipping her head slightly, turning, and bounding off toward where the forest met the clearing. He'd given her simple and complex commands before and didn't know how much she truly understood of him, but whether it was intent or an actual understanding of their language didn't matter. She moved fast, either intentionally or instinctually dodging the errant spell that flew in her direction with ease.

"Should I ward her?" Kastra asked, a brief expression of concern crossing her otherwise impassive features.

"I would prefer if you didn't," Damien said, shaking his head. "Let them have a target for a moment; I believe she'll stay safe. If they go out to attack, we'll need to save her, but I'll bet they stay wary."

Kastra nodded and he set to his task after confirming Emra truly was ok for now. She'd stopped and shot a bolt of electricity into the barrier, surprising yet not surprising him. They'd never really utilized her in a battle or in training before, and she had always been content to sleepily watch them bound about in the backyard, but he could always see the energy she stored inside her, even more clearly now than before. Before long, she'd moved too far away to see clearly, and the enemy forces were focusing their attacks on a different part of the forest.

Damien moved his arms above his head, gathering the rain falling around them to create a barrier of water nearly thirty feet in diameter that would prevent any more from striking the ground around him. Finally quiet enough to send a pulse into the ground, he moved closer to the mountainside and began to slowly move the stone around, every step he took and rock he moved showing him the layout nearby. The rain still muddled what he could see further from where he started, but the solid pulses his actions caused out were clear enough to disregard the other feedback. Thirty seconds later, a grin plastered his face as his hand rested on a piece of stone before him.

"One foot... they really must think I'm a wild animal," Damien mused aloud, albeit quietly, as he stamped his foot hard one last time and felt the pulse shoot through the rock surrounding him.

No wild animal would have bored through the mountainside itself to get around the barrier, at least, none that utilized lightning to attack in the manner he had. Like any competent Mage setting up defenses, their Mages had claimed the entirety of the cave with their mana a foot in thickness to let them know if something tried to attack from the sides, but a beast that attacked with Lightning wouldn't strike through the mountainside, surely.

His tremor struck what it would and returned, traveling almost instantaneously through the thicc stone. The interior of the cavern returned in detail, eyebrows lifting as he recognized the... feel of a person besides Alexa inside. Both were moving, thankfully, though both were also injured and set at the back of the cave. He didn't understand what worth the Dresmyr had for this band of murderers, but he'd help her out if he had the opportunity to.

With effort, Damien tore his mind from Alexa, Krissa, and the oddity behind the back wall of the cave to focus on the placement of enemies throughout it. A group of ten Nivari was almost perfectly lined up a few feet to his right, perpendicular to the cave's entrance. They all had their hands held out in front of them and it seemed they were the ones keeping the [Barrier] spell in place. Behind them, nine others were loosing spells into the night with abandon, though it seemed like they had found their target finally. Further into the cave, a final three were holding the cavern walls, providing light, and likely searching inside and out for other attacking forces. A few seconds later, they seemed to relax when a few muffled shouts rang out from the forward group. Their hold of the cavern walls reduced to less than six inches and Damien shook his head.

They'd been baited by Emra. This would be too easy.

Finally, fourteen Hellials were left inside. He'd thought more had lived from the attack, and more Nivari to be honest, but their numbers were reduced considerably and he liked his chances.

'The Grask did well,' Kastra sent after he relayed their numbers to her.

'You?' he sent back awkwardly as she nodded in reply.

'I noticed its presence slumbering underground when I went ahead to see if I could retrieve her alone. A light prod was all it took to send it into a frenzied state.'

Damien shook his head with a grin. She'd returned alone, the longshot attempt having clearly failed, but she had never mentioned her parting gift. Hell, he thought he might have been able to take them even without communing because of these numbers, especially if they'd still been in the forest. Still, it was the right call, just in case. Kastra's words continued to echo through his mind even now, telling him not to regret his decision. He felt like such a fool, allowing the situation to come to this. He'd had multiple opportunities to-

'Not right now,' he mentally chided himself, shaking his head back and forth.

Alexa was in there and he had more than a chance to end this. She was surrounded by five Hellials unfortunately, the one with broken and burnt wings being one of them, but the other nine were scattered throughout the cavern clutching various forms of weaponry. He sidled to his left through the mountain and cleared a nice, easy, and wide path a good sixty feet back to the outside world. Wide enough that he could walk three abreast through it, though the path was circular. He wanted to use a natural bolt guided by his mana for the first strike, rather than the charge fluctuating throughout his body currently. When he went in, he wanted as much offensive capability as possible. If he used up what he had stored, he'd have to create it all back once inside, which would waste too much of the precious mana he'd need to utilize once inside. He'd barely used any so far, thanks to the storm and his swords. But underground he'd have to create everything.

Finished with the tunnel, he turned to head back in, setting a trail of energy floating in the air behind him to serve as a pathway for the bolt.

'Boy, this is dangerous. We had a deal, you should allow me to handle this,' Rai said, more than a little on edge. 'You'll just get us killed.'

Damien scoffed.

'Worried I'll die? Or worried I'll succeed and leave you nothing?' he asked back.

Rai said nothing for a few moments as Damien finished setting up, returning to the wall separating him from the cave. He stomped the ground hard with his last step, sending a final pulse through the ground and confirming the ten before him hadn't moved. Damien almost laughed as he watched the nine Hellials behind them group up and begin to stalk toward the mouth of the cavern.

"Well, here goes," he whispered to Kastra.

She nodded and crouched down, shrinking even more until she was less than three inches tall and huddled in the crook of his neck, still frozen to his skin. It hurt but he understood the need. Especially now.

'Fine!' Rai sent hastily. Fine. I'll keep your woman alive. Good enough, right? Just give-'

'Next time,' Damien interrupted as two more Mages lined up with his ten. 'Frankly, I don't trust you enough to put you in charge of this. Especially not after earlier.'

'I'll swear on Verita!'

'Oh? What would you swear?' Damien asked, intrigued.

If he remembered correctly, that was the name of the God of Truth.

'I'll attempt to ensure her life and no harm will befall her due to my direct action-'

'Err, wrong,' Damien interrupted. 'What about indirect? Outside influence? Their actions?'

'Well, I can't account for every possible-'

"It would be easier on you if she didn't exist for this contract of ours, I'm not an idiot," Damien snapped in a whisper, two Mages leaving the line as another entered. "Next time."

'You're going to die,' the God stated, grumbling a few other choice words after that that Damien ignored.

He felt back toward the entrance of his cave, checking on each of his relay points and bolstering them, making them thick enough that it would carry a positive strike through without it grounding into the mountain it would be surrounded by. He'd keep the connection open as long as possible, stripping the skies of as much of its pent up energy as possible.

Left hand reaching back, right aimed forward, Damien clad himself in a protective field and built up a ball of negativity in his right hand and another at the far entrance of his cave. That one would need to shoot straight upward to call the energy, while the one in his right hand would be a guide for the deadly bolt.

One left the line as another entered.

'Two, three, two... four-'

Time slowed for Damien as he charged his mind, causing a searing headache as electricity flashed across it. Rai, not slowed in the slightest, unhelpfully threw in that he could achieve the state without pain, but Damien ignored him again. Now, the Nivari appeared to be moving at a fraction of their speed, their steps looking as if they were fighting through a solid substance. He closed his right hand into a fist and sent it toward the wall, charged his skin with a positive charge of its own, and released the ball of energy outside the cave upward.

The ladder of energy arched into the sky, shooting upwards at a pace he couldn't track despite his augmentation. His mind was screaming at him, but that was alright. He felt the line reach ever upward, watching as searing white lines congregated on it from all across the thundercloud, arching to it from countless locations. His right fist continued forward, yet despite the head start it had, it would clearly not make it in time, if only barely, scarce inches away from the wall already. Still, he'd thrown his punch much too late. It was a race he'd never win on an ordinary day, regardless of the mile or two long-distance the lightning had to travel. Like it was a snail and the electricity coming from the sky was a jet flying at Mach ten, it was a lost cause. He'd strike the wall well after the deadly lightning hit his body, and it would have nowhere to go.

So, he did to his arm what he was doing to his mind, and his muscles nearly tore themselves to pieces as his hand shot into the cavern wall, obliterating the eight inches he'd left in between him and his prey. He felt some of the Nivari had twitched, trying to look to their right the moment he'd touched the wall, but it was far too late for them. His right hand tore through the wall and sent a new line of negative charges forward, creating a continuing pathway that traced itself through the fourteen unlucky souls before him. The lightning barreled down its highway through the mountain with abandon and touched his fingertips, an indescribable warmth passing over his body as it flew through his right arm to his hand. It continued chasing the new road, ignoring the mountainside around it, hunting for its polar opposite. Searching for balance.

And it found it unerringly.

Minerva was growling to herself, beyond furious with the world at large. The fucking mountains themselves were attacking her at the worst possible moment, right when she'd succeeded. A Grask, the sky, and now this! A dammed Sylphen, of all things. She didn't know what one was doing this far north or this low in the mountains, but when the Nivari had shouted out what it was, she'd wanted nothing more than to tear the fool's head off and deny it.

She'd stopped herself, of course. No doubt it was indeed a Sylphen. The Nivari in her unit wouldn't lie to her, not anymore. Not after the demonstration she'd given their leadership of what happened to those who crossed her.

"Elves? How large?" she inquired.

"Juvenile still, about halfway to an adult," one of the attackers responded. "The attacks have reduced in intensity, and the Mages holding the walls have redirected some of their attention to pinpointing its location as well. No Elves spotted alongside it."

Minerva nodded and waved the man away. A pup grew until it was the size of a regular farm dog, at which point it became classified as a juvenile Sylphen. The pups were simple to kill, or capture. Weak, unable to cast most of their magic, and slow. It took anywhere from three to five years for them to grow large enough to become a threat, but even then, a group of three competent Mages should be able to handle it without fear.

Still, Minerva knew the Sylphen wasn't the real threat. It had been able to shield itself from all of their eyes until recently. Not only that, but somehow it could call actual lightning from the sky to strike her troops. Any other element would have been a walk in the park, yet it had to be fucking lightning. And the sky, the damn sky just had to give it all the help it could offer. Yes, caution was overly required at this current moment. She could not afford any more deaths.

"It likely still has a master controlling it that we simply haven't detected yet. It wouldn't do to become complacent," Uhren stated from beside her. "There was a man that used the element in their defenses, somehow. I'm not sure what he did, but still-"

"I know that," Minerva snapped. "And I already explained this! Water allows lightning to travel. It's also how he got those dammed swords to rip through our men without a trace of mana on them. Lightning magic can do those things once a Mage has mastered it. Emerson has fought women and men like that it times past, when we purged our home of them. It is somehow able to interact with metal. You shouldn't use your sword if this comes to a fight," she cautioned.

Minerva herself wasn't sure if it was the Mage Uhren and his group had run across, Elves, or an extremely old Sylphen training its new offspring. If it was the former, they'd live. The boy was yet young and ironically, also the one that traveled with the N'moran. It was believable that he'd attack now, if foolish to act alone. But a young boy with no ties getting his hands on a Sylphen seemed impossible. Elves could be managed depending on the Squad; anything short of what the Caravan had been would be easy, and that had been a respectably large force.

However, if it were the latter, likely no one on this continent could save them alone. Ancient Slyphens were classified as natural disasters, impossible to take down unless you had vastly superior numbers and more than a few in the group over two hundred, with at least fifty years of battle experience specialized around hunting the beasts. Otherwise, she'd only feel safe with a few of her superior officers. They were easily as, if not more, deadly than Ripplers, for all they were mostly passive. The moment they felt threatened they bared their fangs, showing their prowess in combat; not to mention they sometimes even traveled in packs. She might live if she focused on escaping, actually, but none others, not even Uhren for all he was almost her age, would get away. She and he were the only ones in the group over the age of one hundred, but she still knew she'd be the only one to escape. Her reasoning was simple: she could wield their race's blood arts, whereas he could not. That would get her past the old one and high enough into the sky to escape. The rest would die.

Shaking her head, Minerva focused back on the present. If it really were a Sylphen pack, her men were dead regardless of any plan she concocted. It was also the least likely possiblity, but most beneficial. She wouldn't be faulted for losing her entire retinue to a Sylphen.

So, better to think this was Elves or the boy. Even then, however, caution. She had an uneasy feeling, a prickling in the back of her mind that had started a few seconds ago, though she couldn't figure out why.

"Have all nine stalk to the outer edge of their [Barrier]," she demanded, receiving odd looks from those around her, obviously thinking it was overkill for a juvenile Sylphen. "Once there, have the defensive Mages advance and push it outward. Confirm how many need to hold the spell from the attacks, take seven Hellials, and end whatever is out there. For whatever reason, we can see it now. I want it dead. And get a damn slave collar on my other trophy."

Uhren didn't give her questioning glances like those around her, simply nodding and barking out orders. Her troops began to move, but the nervousness continued gripping Minerva's chest, even more intensely. She was missing something and she knew it, but she didn't know what. It shouldn't matter, but her mind continued pouring through Uhren's report of their strike. The spikes, the lances, the wall of deadly water, the boy with the N'moran that had tried to slow them with mud, his barrier, the lightning he'd shot somehow... All of that was surprising, but none of it explained why she-

Her eyes widened in alarm.

"Mud," she mumbled, causing Uhren to halt his orders and look at her askance this time.

It wasn't a hunch anymore, it was a blinding, searing, knowing, an alarm of the highest degree going off in her mind. He could terraform and use lightning magic. The strikes had reduced in intensity. The Sylphen had suddenly become visible. They'd placed their best Mages on the [Barrier] instead of the walls. All the pieces clicked into place as panic and anger gripped Minerva's chest.

"THE WALLS, SEARCH THEM!" she bellowed.

None of the Nivari moved for a second, but Uhren did the moment she'd yelled. His eyes honed into the same location her eyes were, the same part of the cavern where likely a dozen other eyes were turning to. She could tell they felt something at the same time she'd finished yelling. It had come too late, though.

She watched as the right wall of the cavern exploded in a blinding, roaring flash, and half of her men disappeared from sight to a serpentine monster born of the deadliest force of nature.