The camp we had found was surprisingly normal. In my mind, there was this image of dryads and nymphs, dwelling in the forest, one with nature and its creatures, frolicking around naked, all that jazz. The idea was slightly influenced by the images presented under the banner of a certain mouse, but the reality on Mundus was more Darwin, than Disney. Nature was survival of the fittest and here on Mundus, a single powerful being had the ability to change the fate of a tribe, maybe even a race. Of course, intellectually, I was aware that the Disney-inspired image was a false one - Tegi had shown that - but the image was still there.

What we found could easily be a group of humans, elves or beastmen, just judging from the organisation and action we were seeing. There were all in all six beings, I believed five were nymphs, one a dryad. The difference, according to Adra, was that dryads were longer-lived and could instinctively bond with a tree to form a grove, prolonging the life of both of them to an insane degree. A bonded dryad would live as long as her tree was alive and the tree could live forever, thanks to the symbiosis-effect. Nymphs could not bond with a tree, however they could get bound by a dryad, sharing some of her tree’s life-force, giving them more power and longevity. Most dryads were quite adept at nature-magic, especially once they were bound to a tree, whereas nymphs were more of a martial mind-set, using their limited power to create armaments out of the strongest wood they could find. The best they could get was a freely given piece of their bonded dryad’s tree, allowing for a synergy-effect.

The one I believed to be a dryad was sitting in a meditative pose, letting the world flow around her, while two nymphs were taking care of the deer-carcass, butchering it and cutting it into portions. Another nymph was stoking a small fire and preparing some things in a small pot, probably for some sort of stew. The last nymphs were already down, maybe sleeping, maybe relaxing, getting as much rest as possible for a night-watch. At least, that’s what I would do in a group like that.

The group before us looked like a great target for us, there was just one problem. We had not the slightest idea how strong they actually were. Once again, I tried the concealed observation I had used with Rai, trying to find out their level without them knowing about it. Feeling the gloomy dusk around us, I decided to use the shadows as a medium, combining concealment and shadows into a small formation, set directly in front of my right eye and tried to add the observe-skill into the formation. I kept the formation supplied with Astral Power, feeling the flow, hoping that I would get an inclination if I was successful by the expenditure.

First, I observed the two nymphs that were laying down, hoping that their state would allow me some free information. They didn’t even twitch and I learned that they were indeed nymphs, Bound Nymphs of Tegi, to be precise, and level 44 and 46. Next, I observed the cooking one and she was level 48. The two butchering ones were 43 and 49, allowing me to breathe easy. Unless the dryad was insanely more powerful, we could take them. None of them gave me the impression of having passed the first divide, I had experimented a little with Sigmir, learning to conceal my power and feeling if someone else was concealing their power.

At that point, I was torn inside. I wanted to know the power-level of the dryad but I was a little apprehensive, fearing that she might detect the observation. She was meditating, which could mean that she was focusing on some complex concept and ignorant to the world - or it could mean that she was focusing on her body, feeling the smallest change and pushing her senses to the max. I could do, and had done, both during meditation. Sure, I was convinced that we could take them, but I wanted to wait with our attack until later, until they were deep asleep and I could take their guards down with my magic, letting them fall into a cold-induced slumber, like I did with the guards in Tegi. My personal goal today was not simple killing, I wanted as many of them alive as I could get, either to increase my supply of their blood-like resin, brimming with power, or as guinea-pigs for my new idea.

Oh, well, somewhere out there was certainly an inspiring poster, proclaiming something that the bold will go forth and conquer or something in that vein. So, I would be bold in my caution, or something stupid like that, and focused my senses on the dryad. It was a dryad, an unbound dryad at that, and level 59.

Sadly, my bold courage was not rewarded that night and the dryad suddenly stood, proclaiming in a loud voice, “We’ve got company!”

“Let’s get them. Remember, I want as many of them alive, as I can get.” I told my two companions. Two on one-odds, not really good, but it could be worse. Sigmir and I had crossed the first divide, evening the odds. In addition, Ylva was with us as well, even if she was a little weaker than someone with a class. I was not sure if the nymphs had them, but I assumed that they had, erring on the side of caution.

Sigmir, Adra and Ylva quickly moved forward, Sigmir with her shield and axe in the lead, flanked by Adra and Ylva. The Nymphs moved to meet them and I sent three of my shuttles to answer. Over the last few days, I had gotten used to the strengthening my body had experienced after crossing the first divide, letting me use my power to its full extent.

I sent out three of my shuttles, starting to harass the nymphs and forcing them to be cautious and keep an eye on the flying threats. But the true threat were not my shuttles, it was my magic. I stood back and wove curses together, sapping their strength and their will, confusing them and hampering them. The moon helped me, she was almost fully hidden, only a sliver of silver in the sky, giving me almost the full bonus of my Lunar Cycle-trait.

Sigmir and the others fought mostly defensive, giving me time to work my magic and watching our enemies start to stumble.

But the curses were not as effective as I hoped they would be, and I quickly realised why. Just like I stood back and worked my magic, the dryad was doing the same, trying to undo my work and keep her fighters strong. Now, we could not have that, could we?

When the curse I was weaving was done, I triggered my Overflow and fully focused on my Ice-Magic. No more half-assed usage of it to harass, no, now I went for the kill. I would lose some of the power I could gain, but I wanted to take out the uncertainty. They might have reinforcements on the way, we certainly had none. The three shuttles already out and about shifted and went after the dryad, forcing her to dodge in a hurry and still giving her a bleeding cut on her shoulder. But those three were only the distraction, a way to force her to dodge. The three shuttles I had held back to focus on curses were out now, and they had quite a lot of space to accelerate, each aiming at one of the areas the dryad could dodge into.

The dryad had dodged to the right, and one of the shuttles went right into her gut, not fully penetrating but causing a deep wound. The shuttle I had sent in case she dropped to the floor struck her leg, adding another cut and disrupting her balance, sending her sprawling on the ground. I called back all my shuttles and sheathed three of them. The other three shuttles that had cut her and were stained by her blood, I left out, floating in front of me. I was re-thinking my decision to just kill her. With her blood, I could strengthen my magic against her and take her out without too much trouble.

With the three shuttles before me, I created a larger magic formation in front of me, similar to the formation I had in mind for my collars, three curse-runes, three disorientation-runes and a blood-rune in the centre. Using my finger, I was wiping the blood off the shuttle and touched the centre-rune, letting the blood flow into the rune to complete the magic.

Astral Power was flowing out and the dryad on the floor was enveloped in an inky blackness. It clung to her like a film and she sunk to her knees, trying to make the world stop spinning, no doubt. I had an evil grin on my face, as I created another formation, this one with curse and torpor-runes, using another shuttle to supply the blood.

Again, magic flashed and the weakened dryad was down for the count. I was not sure how long it would last, but I had quite a bit of hope.

Checking my Astral Power, the stunt had taken quite a bit, bringing me lower than I hoped, but the only thing left was clean-up. I flung more curses, focusing on one nymph at a time and when two had fallen to my curses, the other three could see the writing on the wall and started to run. I used my rune-projection to overwhelm one of those three and called to my companions to take care of the other two, something they easily did, just with lethal wounds.

I quickly moved to the dying nymphs - not to help, but to make sure that their life would not go to waste. Adding my athame to the wounds they already had, I used my blood-magic to take as much of their power as I could before death took it. Sadly, both together only condensed two small amber pebbles, less than what I had gotten before from a single nymph.

Oh, well, it was better than nothing. Wiping the smile off my face, so I would not seem like a complete lunatic, I stood back up and looked at the spoils. Three nymphs, one dryad, all down and ready to collar.

It was experimentation-time. For Science!