Day Seven. Morning.

Saya’s eyes rounded in shock at my sudden appearance. “It’s done?” she gasped.

“It’s done,” I confirmed. “Or it’s begun,” I amended. Through my mindsight, I still watched the wyvern in the tunnel below. She rushed past my position without pause, none the wiser about my escape.

I couldn’t sense the mages themselves. They were either too well-shielded or out of range. But right now, I expected they were fleeing or preparing to meet the enraged beast.

Rising to my feet, I headed south, walking in the direction I had sensed the wyvern mother go. As fast as she had been moving, she had not stayed long within range of my ability.

Saya followed in my wake. “Where are they?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I replied absently while I searched for the beast again. “Besina was traveling this way.”

Nearly twenty yards later, almost at the limit of my mindsight range, I found the wyvern and blew out a relieved breath. One of my biggest concerns was that the cave sheltering the mages would be too deep for me to sense the combatants from the clifftop. If that was the case, I would’ve had to alter my plans. Fortunately, that was not necessary. The wyvern mother was beneath me, just under nine yards away. I inspected her, querying her health status.

The target is Besina. She is barely injured.

The wyvern was no longer moving. Trapped in Lutra’s paralysis field? I wondered. I couldn’t sense the mages themselves. Though they had to be around.

“Why have we stopped?” Saya asked. “Is the—”

I raised a hand, silencing her. “Ssh, I’m listening.”

Were those voices I heard at the edges of my ear hearing? I couldn’t be sure. But the wyvern mother was still not moving, and I recast analyze upon her.

The target is Besina. She is lightly injured.

“Ah,” I breathed, observing the drop in the wyvern’s health. “The battle has started,” I murmured to Saya.

“Who will win?” she asked in fascination.

“It’s too early to tell,” I replied. “But I expect whoever does will be gravely weakened.” I smiled. “Then, it will be my—”

In my mindsight, I sensed the wyvern mother dart forward, and in the wake of her abrupt movement, the faint noises emanating from below increased in volume.

Stretching out flat down on the ground, I placed my ear against the rock and listened intently.

“... kill her...!”

“... damnit, Lutra...”

“Idiot!”

With a satisfied grin, I rose back to my feet and tracked the wyvern to her new position. She had not moved far off, and I guessed she was within the cave holding Ishita’s four sworn.

I studied the surrounding area. The ground underfoot was more solid here, and there were no cracks or crevices leading downwards.

My lips turned down in disappointment. That made what I needed to do next harder, but not impossible. I still had a way down. Drawing another smoke bomb from my pocket, I readied myself.

Saya walked up to me. “What do I do next?”

I smiled at her eager expression. “Nothing. Your work is done. All that remains is for me to finish matters below.”

“Oh,” she said, shoulders sagging in disappointment.

With another grin, I turned my attention downwards and reinspected the wyvern.

The target is Besina. She is moderately injured.

It was almost time. Bouncing lightly on the balls of my feet, I readied myself and, second by second, checked on the wyvern mother.

The target is Besina. She is moderately injured.

…

…

The target is Besina. She is severely injured.

…

The target is Besina. She is near death.

That’s it. The moment I’d been waiting for had arrived.

Spinning psi, I shadow blinked into the battle.

~~~

I landed on my feet, behind Besina.

Through a split-second glimpse, I took in the tableau in the cavern.

The wyvern was still and unmoving, held in place by some sort of magical leash. Her head bent, Besina gnawed at the spelled tether around her neck. Arrayed in a circle around the beast were Ishita’s sworn—unhappily, all four were still alive. The mages had their staffs and wands pointed in Besina’s direction while they unleashed a storm of magic down upon her.

At my arrival, the wyvern’s head jerked up. She’d sensed me.

Quicker than thought, she whipped her tail at me. But I was already moving. Backflipping, I dodged the appendage’s deadly arc and dropped my bomb.

You have evaded Besina’s attack. You have ignited a smoke bomb. You are hidden.

Smoke billowed out to wrap the entirety of the cavern in dense, gray clouds, blinding all the combatants. Predictably, bedlam ensued.

“Did you see that?” Ishan yelled.

“He’s here!” Worca gasped.

“Forget him, god damnit! I’ve lost sight of the wyvern,” Lutra shrieked. “She’s broken my spells hold!”

“Quick! Kill her!” Xrex ordered.

Eyes shut and moving blindly, I backpedaled quickly through the smoke, opening the distance between me and the battle.

Five hostile entities have failed to detect you!

Through my mindsight, I watched Besina whip about and search for me, but as wrapped in smoke as I was, there was little chance of her finding me.

Almost as if she came to the same realization herself, the wyvern spun around and charged at something—one of the mages.

Ishan has been critically injured.

A piercing shriek split the chamber. “Aargh! She’s got me!” Ishan cried.

The back of my shoe hit something. Reaching backward, I blindly felt out my surroundings and found solid rock behind me.

I’d reached one of the cave’s walls. Perfect.

Drawing my twin swords, I crouched down and waited. It was still too early for me to intervene more directly in the battle.

Lightning ripped through the cave, burning away everything in its path—including the smoke. I wasn’t sure if the bolt had been aimed at Besina or me, but it harmed nothing except the smoke cloud and only temporarily at that. The hole left by the lightning was quickly filled in as more dense clouds rolled back in.

“Don’t cast blindly, you fools,” Xrex hissed. “Dispel the smoke cloud first!”

My head turned Xrex’s way, and I fixed the lizardman’s position in my mind by sound alone. I still couldn’t see the mages in my mindsight, so I had to depend on other means to locate them.

I heard someone mutter to my right. Lutra, by the sounds of it. He was incanting the words of a spell. Realizing what he was about, I wrapped myself in shadow. A moment later, the gray clouds were swept away.

A smoke cloud has been dispelled. Five hostile entities have failed to detect you! You remain hidden.

Unfortunately, Lutra’s spell worked as much against Ishita’s sworn as it did for them.

The smoke dissipated to reveal Besina hovering over Ishan. She was still trying to get to him. Much to the beast’s annoyance, her jaws kept bouncing away each time she tried to snap at the downed mage. Ishan, I suspected, had triggered his dark repulsion spell, if a moment too late to save him from the wyvern’s initial attack.

But the moment Besina regained her sight, things changed.

Abandoning her injured prey, the wyvern spun about, her malevolent gaze searching for another victim.

“Quick, Lutra, hold—” Xrex began.

He was too late. Besina had found a target. Hurtling across the cavern, the wyvern charged straight into Worca’s stygian shield and, with a speed that left me breathless, cracked it open.

The elven mage’s mouth opened in wordless shock, but before she could give voice to her fear, Besina trampled her underfoot.

Worca has died.

I gulped. Three seconds or less. That’s how long it had taken—from start to finish—for Besina to kill the mage. “Damnation,” I mumbled in awe, doubly glad I’d chosen not to entangle with the beast myself.

“Freeze her in place again!” Xrex ordered.

“I’m working on it,” Lutra yelled, sounding harried.

The lizardman lowered his own staff and sent a bar of liquid flames racing to the wyvern, striking her on the back of the head.

It was a brave, if somewhat foolish move, attracting as it did, the wyvern’s attention.

Hissing in fury and pain, Besina lifted her head to bare jagged teeth, reddened with blood, at Xrex.

Xrex flung another flame bolt, but before the projectile could land, Besina dove with catlike reflexes, slipping under the attack.

Then she flew forward.

The lizardman retreated a step backward, raising his staff in a warding gesture but halfway to Xrex, the wyvern made an abrupt half-turn and launched herself at the still-chanting Lutra instead.

The human mage’s defenses were made of sterner stuff than his dead companion’s, though. Where Worca’s shield had cracked, Lutra’s didn’t. The violence of Besina’s charge flung the mage backward. Despite this, Lutra kept chanting, his concentration uninterrupted. The wyvern darted forward, intent on following up with a second attack.

Lutra didn’t afford her the opportunity.

Before his foe could close on him, icy blue lines of frost shot from the mage’s hands to engulf the wyvern.

Besina has been frozen.

“Excellent,” Xrex cackled. Lowering his staff, the Ishita sworn hurled a trio of flaming bolts at the wyvern.

The magical projectiles proved enough, and with a forlorn hiss, the wyvern mother slumped to the ground.

Besina has died.

Cloaked in shadows, I barely had time to notice the beast’s passing, though, as her death triggered an unexpected cascade of Game alerts.

You have completed the task: An Alchemist’s Bounty! As a result of your efforts, the wyvern mother, Besina, has been slain. Return to Gelar to claim your bounty.

The Marks on your spirit signature have changed. You have removed another significant threat to House Wolf’s adherents, and this time you accomplished the deed without introducing further threats into the valley. Wolf is pleased, and your Mark has deepened.

Congratulations, Michael! Your Wolf Mark has advanced. You now bear the Mark: Pack-brother. As an anointed scion of House, your new Wolf Mark gives you the option to evolve your mindstalker Class.

Do you wish to change your Class to that of a mindslayer? Doing so will cause your Class traits and abilities to advance. Note, the mindslayer Class is only available to scions of House Wolf.