Cerion was pacing the cave nervously.

"Calm down, man. Emer is not going to wake up for another few days at least, and even if it does come down to another fight, we'll have the advantage. Two tier 4s and us against a single tier 4 and two tier 3s. We have a numerical advantage." I said to him from where I was sitting.

"That's not the issue, Arthur. I know we'll most likely win, but at what cost? You said you nearly died multiple times in your fight against that lieutenant. If it wasn't for you miraculously possessing a tier 5 skill, you would almost certainly have died, in fact. Now you're trying to tell me we've got nothing to worry about? One mistake and either of us could die here."

I gave him a calculating look.

"Cerion, that's what we signed up for when we headed out into the wider world. You could've stayed home like most nobles and focussed on politics, I could've stayed home and taken over my parent's bakery. But we didn't. We set out for adventure, and fights to the death simply come with the territory." I told him.

"If I didn't know better, I would've had you pegged for an adventurer, rather than a witch hunter.", he shot back.

I frowned. Calming him down wasn't going as well as I had hoped. I changed topics.

"Listen, in moments like this it's not a bad thing to rely on your affinity. Even if I don't often want to admit it, affinities can help us through our struggles. Just turn your mind off and rely on your first instincts. I do it all the time. If you just relied on your water-aligned affinity's ability to adapt, you wouldn't get stressed out like this."

Cerion sighed.

"You're... you're right. I know you're right. It's just difficult. My father and I aren't really close. Growing up, I always blamed his passivity for that. I don't want to become like him, y'know? I want to be there for my kids, not just physically, but emotionally too. I'm scared that if I fall too deep, I'll never be able to crawl back out again.", he replied.

I could tell that this was clearly something Cerion had some difficulty dealing with. I hadn't really expected other people to have their own troubles as far as affinity went. Evidently, I had been too absorbed in my own world.

"And if I lose myself to my affinity I turn into a monster. I can understand how you feel, is what I'm trying to say. That said, even I can see some of the positives that affinity can bring. Don't just shut out a part of yourself out of fear, try to get a skill that helps you deal with your mental wounds and focus on progress. It's that simple."

He sat down on a rock near me.

"Maybe there's some truth to that."

We shared a comfortable moment of silence, before my 'Cerion rant' alarm went off. He turned to me with big eyes like a rabbit.

"Wait a minute, your parents own a bakery?"

I scratched the back of my head.

"They do, yeah. Have I not told you about this?"

"Nuh-uh. So how does that work? How do you make bread?"

I rubbed my temples, deliberating if I wanted to entertain his line of questioning. Once he got started, he didn't stop until he ran out of things to ask, which could take a very long time. In the end, I gave in.

"Well... you make dough out of flour and some other stuff and then bake it. I never really helped out much with the baking process, so I'm pretty vague on the details."

"What did you do then?"

"I did some deliveries, but mostly focussed on training."

"Then who did the other deliveries?"

"My dad, I think."

Like that, Cerion asked me a barrage of benign questions, keeping us awake for the rest of the night. It served to lift both our spirits, though. I supposed there were things apart from affinity that could calm oneself, as well.

"How is it looking, Cara?", I asked as she inspected Emer's health, feeding him another potion in the process."

"His physical body is all healed, but he's still gradually recovering from his mana overload. That skill of his puts a serious amount of strain on his core and mana passages. If it weren't for that elemental's nigh immortality, he wouldn't have had to go so far."

"So not all tier 4 fights end like that?" Cerion asked.

"Oh Helios, no. Usually, either of us could beat any average tier 4 on our own, not even having to rely on our teamwork. Only if that isn't enough would he risk using that skill. Even then, there are issues involved. If his ultimate skill isn't enough to kill whatever we're facing, then all of a sudden I'm left on my own with a powerful monster and an unconscious partner. In other words, that tactic is very situational. Very effective too, as you saw."

I chimed in.

"Ultimate skill? Is that another category of skills, like mutant and unique skills?"

Cara laughed, for some reason.

"Yes and no. Ultimate skills do exist, but only tier 5s and beyond can get them. Emer just calls his [Scorched Earth] skill his ultimate skill, because he intends to make it one when he reaches tier 5 himself. He's always been optimistic like that."

"How do you 'make' a skill an ultimate one?" I continued.

"That, is something you'll have to find out for yourself.", she replied with a mysterious smile.

Typically, I hated unanswered questions, but this wasn't something that would affect me until I reached tier 5 anyway, so I let the matter drop.

Before I could change the topic, however, we all heard a small groan, coming from Emer.

"Looks like he's finally waking up. Good morning, Emer. Some stuff has happened while you've been gone." Cara greeted.

"I say we fight." Emer declared confidently.

"I'll be fully healed in a few 'ours, and these bandits have shown us that they're too big of a problem to be left alone. One of them nearly killed Arthur, for Helios' sake!"

"Calm down, Emer. We need to think about this carefully. Arthur and Cerion will be left alone for a few minutes with the other bandits while we deal with Kazach. If something happened to them then, would you be able to forgive yourself?" Cara asked.

At this, Emer calmed down and turned pensive.

Neither Cerion nor I was about to let go of this opportunity, however. Both of us wanted to fight these bandits. If we didn't take care of them, then who would? A noble was backing them and they had bought off whatever public official was responsible for taking care of internal threats. Now that we were on this mission, we had the best opportunity to wipe them out without stepping on anybody's toes.

If we let them be, then Helios knows if they would still be here another five years later. We made sure Cara knew our thoughts on the matter.

"Cara, both of us are in agreement that we can't leave them be. With a sneak attack, I'm confident I can at least take care of Bor, and Ueron might still be wounded from our previous fight, since I left a curse mark on his arm. Even if it's not a (bleed) curse, those are still hard to heal by definition.", I said as I tried to convince her.

"I, too, am confident in our chances. Let's finish this matter cleanly."

Cara sighed. Against our united assault, she couldn't keep protesting.

"Fine, but you better be as cautious as possible. I want these bandits cleaned up with efficiency. Let me show you the map and an outline of the inside of their base. If we're going to do this, we need to do this right."

A few hours later, we had created a solid, basic plan that would lead us to victory. Emer had fully healed and was ready to go, while Cerion and I were both ready for our fights.

We would all get in position around their compound, which was a large cave system dug into a cliff. It had several entrances, and at least one of the lieutenants stood on guard at any given moment.

I would start the battle by apparating behind Bor, during one of his guard shifts, at which point I would attempt to kill him or at the very least put a curse mark on him.

From there, the battle would most likely devolve into chaos. Because of that, we had kept the details of our strategy pretty vague. No plan survives first contact with the enemy, as they say. Emer and Cara would focus on defeating and killing Kazach, while Cerion and I would collectively hold off Ueron and Bor for a while. Considering Kazach was severely outmatched, we wouldn't have to stall for too long. At least, that was the intent.

A few hours later, we were positioned near their base. Cara used a stealth skill to get up close, so that she could notify me if Bor took up guard duty, while the rest of us hid nearby.

After a few hours of nervous waiting, Cara finally gave me the go-ahead.

I snuck through the shadows of the nearby boulders and approached the front of their base. A large compound had been carved into the red sandstone cliff, with multiple entrances and balconies. The bandits hadn't spent much time making it look nice, because it looked about as basic as I could imagine, with no decorations or even doors.

On top of one of the balconies, I could see a heavy-set man. He didn't look dissimilar in build to Nareo, though he looked a lot older because of his grey hair and beard.

The ball of muscle wasn't even wearing any armour, just some furs to cover his legs, and a sword hanging from his waist.

Evidently, this was Bor, the man I had heard about from Cara and Emer. I had no time to waste, and put my core to work. I overloaded a little mana just to top up my core and dark form, before apparating right behind my target, into his shadow.

I had apparated while jumping, which allowed me to maintain my jump after the apparation, with the intent of not making any sound as I did so.

Within the half second it took for my sword to rematerialise, I was already swinging at his exposed neck, intent on ending the barbarian's life in one fell swoop.

I was shocked when he didn't even react. My sword pierced his neck and cut through it cleanly, with no issue, almost causing me to laugh in surprise.

Instead, I realised that something was up a moment later. There was no way a tier 3 frontline combatant would have such a low constitution that my sword would cut through his neck like butter. Something was wrong. Very wrong. I moved to apparate a fair distance away, but right before I completed my skill use, something hit my back, launching me into the air and mangling my body.

As I flew, I could make out a rumbling voice originating from the cave entrance.

"Looks like the rat fell for the trap!"

A golden, shining object flew right at me, so fast I could hardly react. Luckily, my apparation finally activated and took me out of the air, behind a nearby rock.

As I rematerialized, I coughed out a large amount of blood and collapsed. The bones in my arms and legs had been broken so badly they couldn't support my weight. In fact, from the look of my body, it looked like that single initial hit had broken and torn everything it could. My arms stood at crooked angles, and my legs bent backwards instead of forward. A large part of my chest was caved inward. I knew that if it wasn't for [Dark Form] and my affinity, I would have passed out in shock and died.

From behind my cover, I finally saw who had taken me out of the fight in one blow. The large golden object returned to the cave and lost its bright outline, revealing a massive hammer.

It seemed Kazach had expected our arrival.