I was waiting with a feeling of breathless anticipation. During the night, Lenore and I had, more or less jokingly, made predictions and bets on the reaction the centaurs that escorted the supply-oxen would have, once they noticed a mist-bank rolling in and how they would react once they were covered by it. The ideas started with the sensible, run as fast as they could, continued with the boring, do nothing, and finally, started to become ridiculous when Lenore suggested that they would sprout wings and turn into Pegataurs, some unholy cross between Pegasus and Centaur, a race I was almost certain Lenore had made up. Almost.

At the end of the day, neither of us knew how they would react but both of us were eager to find out, I had used my scrying magic to make sure they were on route to the eastern camp and the wolves had taken position near the best spot to launch an ambush, in an area where the sleet of the past few days had turned the grassy plain into a boggy swamp, ready to drown and bury any too heavy creature that tried to run through it. If the centaurs thought they could run away from the ambush, they would get stuck and be ridiculous easy prey for the wolves that were accustomed to run on snow, their bodies, skills and even magic well-suited for the task. Sure, there was a difference between waterlogged swamp and powdery snow but in this case, I had been assured that it didn’t matter.

While the wolves had taken up position, I had made sure to keep my part of the bargain, once more creating a fog-cloud and coordinating with Lenore, who flew above, giving me information that I was able to pass on to the wolves, using Sigmir and Ylva as intermediaries. Thanks to her, I was able to see that the Centaurs had indeed made plans for the weather, instead of simply continuing on their path, moving into the mist, they simply circled, the four oxen laden down with what I could only assume were magical bags taking up the middle while the centaurs created a protective circle around them.

I internally chuckled, thinking that, if the ponies didn’t want to come into the mist, the mist would come to them, flexing my magic to create more, making it look like the increased amount was simply wafting out from the woods. That would be the moment of truth, would the centaurs flee, depriving their allies from supplies or would they press on into our ambush? Either way, it served us by keeping the centaur-camp from replenishing their supplies, making them focus on their rear instead of thinking about continuing on, further into the windswept plains.

It only took a few minutes and then I knew the answer to my musing, thanks to Lenore. She showed me that, while the centaurs and, to a lesser extent, the oxen looked supremely agitated and worried about the mist, they didn’t turn tail to flee, making me smile with grim satisfaction. No, they tried to stand their ground, despite the uncertainty, something that made me want to experiment a little. Leaving the cover of the forest, I quickly moved close enough to be able to channel spells through Lenore.

Looking through her eyes, I was able to see the shadowy shapes of the centaurs and even, thanks to her magical sight, the stealthy wolves moving around in the thick mist. With a smile, I focused on one of the Centaurs, gently and ever so slowly intruding into her mind with my mind-magic. The distance made it harder to work in that manner but she was agitated enough to make her mind quickly flitter from one thought to the next, at least that was the impression I got. My current hypothesis was that, the more a mind was focused on something, the harder it was to intrude into that mind. Getting into the Centaur’s mind was easy enough to validate the idea.

Inside, I was still unable to get anything clearly, merely an impression of incomprehensive signals passing between unknown parts of her mind, body and the to me invisible soul. Yet, I had seen what fear looked like in other minds, allowing me to make an educated guess which of the impulses were fear and that was where I focused my attention.

Gently and hopefully imperceivable, I increased those signals, both their intensity and the amount of signals sent, curious what would happen. I noticed that the rest of her mind was increasing in activity as well and, looking at the amount of signals between mind and body, I was guessing that she was getting twitchy. Lenore, looking at our target from above, agreed with me, showing me the centaur’s shape moving around frantically, stomping her hooves while her human body turned back and forth.

Seeing that I was getting the result I wanted, I increased my efforts, until Lenore told me that the Centaur had left the protective circle. For me, that meant it was time to go, I had no desire to be linked to her mind when the wolves caught the lone, frantically fleeing Centaur. I had experienced what it felt like to be linked to a dying mind and it was an experience I wanted to avoid at almost any cost.

After pulling back, I focused on the sight I was getting from Lenore, watching the shadowy form of the Centaur dart into the mist with the forms of the wolves converging on it until a shrill scream shattered the silence of the clouded mist. I could see the other centaurs shifting around even more while a few wolves tore into the one that had tried to flee, shredding it in a few moments. The rest of the wolves had avoided the centaurs, surrounding them to make sure none of them would go away, if they tried to run.

Smiling, I realised that I could make the battle go much easier, by simply repeating what I had done before, so I watched for a moment to see which centaur was looking the most agitated and repeated the mind-magic, causing another centaur to break and run into a group of wolves.

At that point, the Centaurs must have noticed that their position was untenable and would only result in getting them killed and tried to retreat, moving in an orderly fashion, creating a wall of bristling spears pointing outwards. I could watch as the wolves started to nip at the groups flank, causing them a few wounds but taking some damage in return. Lenore and I started to move the mist around, trying to disorient the centaurs even more, adding some of our magic to the mix.

After a minute or two, the centaurs seemed to have completely lost their plot, moving more like a headless herd, the oxen seemingly forgotten. Without the strict guidance, the oxen relied on their instincts and given that they smelled and heard the wolves literally snapping at their heels. The result of that feeling was that they simply ignored the movements of the centaurs, each simply putting their head down and barrelling forward. It just added to the chaos, making me smile. The centaurs tried to keep them together but the only result of it was that they were pulled apart by the massive animals, causing their carefully maintained formation to scatter.

I could watch from above how the wolves instantly started to exploit the loss of their formation, further attacking and isolating the various centaurs. After a short mental conversation with Lenore, we agreed to focus on the centaurs that looked as if they were getting away. With our Mind-Magic we could easily take out a centaur or three within moments, scattering their minds, leaving them as a husk of their existence. Their bodies didn’t die right away but without the mind, a beating heart didn’t really matter.

It took the wolves a few more minutes to bring down the scattered centaurs one by one, some of them going down with a bang, trying to make a last stand others going down with a whimper after falling and breaking a leg in the mud, turning them into sitting ducks. Personally, I struck down two of the Centaurs who had been lucky enough to hit a gap in the encirclement of the wolves and might have gotten away.

Once the centaurs were taken down, the wolves surrounded one oxen after the other, slowly wearing them down by attacking their flanks and hind-legs, the wounds and stress wearing them down over time. Finally, the last oxen bleated its last breath, foaming at the mouth and keeling over, ending the battle. I got some EXP for my part in the battle, enough to bring me to level sixty-three and my Mind-Magic to eighteen before starting to move towards the battlefield, to start my part in clearing up the battlefield.