While we ate, I began putting the pieces together in my mind once again about our target, trying to understand more about what he could do. We hadn’t been able to receive any new information, and any other hunters are probably too far behind us by now to wait for them. All that we could do at this point was to press on alone.

Roughly halfway through the meal, a young man wearing red silk robes entered the guild hall, and was invited to join us. Just a glance was enough to tell that he was the druid we had been waiting for. After all, on his wrist was a silvery band that absolutely radiated world energy, no doubt being his token.

“You two are heading to Chessick?” The man asked as he gathered himself a bowl of the stew.

“That’s right.” Kahli nodded, clearly used to being the voice of the group. It was nice to see that she was gradually starting to fall back into her old habits. “Why, have you heard anything?”

“I paid a visit less than a week ago.” He answered. “If possible, I’d suggest avoiding the city as much as you can. Especially people like the two of you.” He glanced up towards us.

“Why is that?” I couldn’t help but ask, looking over towards him.

“The Pinnacle Plague.” He said simply, taking a sip of his stew. Yet, those two words sent a shudder through myself and Kahli. The Pinnacle Plague was a disease that had begun to crop up only in the last few decades. But wherever it went, the strong fell powerless.

For most people, the plague was no worse than a winter’s fever, leaving them in bed for a few days. For children, it sometimes ended with little more than a sniffle. However, for those like myself and Kahli, and the Mad Monk, it was a nightmare. The stronger one was, the stronger the disease became. Warriors had their flesh rot until it fell from their bones. Wizards would collapse, their brains leaking out of their ears.

For this reason, any area that had shown signs of the plague would be uninhabitable to those who had reached the pinnacle. “D-do you have any gate locations close to the city? We really do need to head in that direction urgently, and we’ve already lost several hours of our trip.” Kahli spoke, still shuddering at the thought of the plague.

The druid chuckled lightly. “I had a feeling that might be the case. You hunters always have an urgent reason to be somewhere. I just needed to make sure that Chessick was your destination, and not a city beyond it, otherwise I could have saved you the time and sent you directly there.”

I shook my head in response. “No, our target should be on his way to Chessick now. I’d like to just think that he would die of the plague, but there is always the risk he will avoid contact with the infected, or even change directions to avoid the affected area altogether with a new destination.”

“That’s true.” The man nodded, still having a small smile on his face. “I placed a gate a short walk outside of the city when I was there. And don’t worry, I already saw an alchemist, and he confirmed that I was not infected.”

Kahli let out a sigh of relief as she heard that, her shoulders visibly relaxing. “Thank you.” She whispered, either to the druid or to Bihena, nobody knew. “Has the word of the plague spread yet?”

The druid shook his head. “No. The entire city was locked down when the leader of the guards collapsed, his bones all but dissolved within him. I only heard about it from the receptionist there, who had been lucky to have been weak. Still, I could only imagine the scene.”

“Good.” I smiled slightly, relieved that the news hadn’t spread. “If people don’t know for now, then the Mad Monk won’t change his course. You said this happened less than a week ago. That means that the local guilds should have already sent word out. If it were a few days earlier, the traffic leading to the city would have already been stopped.”

Naturally, it was regrettable what had happened to the guard captain, and the other pinnacles in the city. However, this was neither our home nor our job. They were not our people, and could easily declare war on our countries in the future. It was useless to weep for all the atrocities in the world.

Kahli nodded her head slightly, though her expression was less bright than my own. “We’ll need to leave as soon as you are able to send us out.” I turned to face the druid, who nodded his head.

“I had a feeling that someone might need to head to one of those cities without actually arriving at the guild eventually. We’ll have to head a bit outside of town first, though.” Saying that, he couldn’t help but shake his head. “The only way to set up the alternate portal was to do so between two trees. There weren’t any other close bodies of water outside of the city.”

Kahli and I both nodded at this, accepting what he offered. It was common knowledge among any who trained as a druid that a shared medium was needed in order to form a gate. That is why all of the Hunter’s Guilds used fountains, as water was the easiest medium. When using trees or other foliage, you had to use the same type for both ends of the gate.

It wasn’t long before we had finished our meals, and gathered our things to leave. On the way, I sent a silent message to Kahli, communicating through mana so as not to disturb our guide. We had to make a proper plan for how we fought, seeing as how the battle was being pushed forward. If there really was a plague in Chessick, we couldn’t afford to lose him here.

Of course, that was not all of our concern, either. When Kahli received my message, her eyes briefly opened wide. She turned to glance at me in surprise, but I simply urged her forward. “Come on, we’ve got to get going.”

She nodded her head, and the three of us walked along, being led by the druid. “It’s not much further.” He said as I pulled a pair of gloves out of my pockets, slipping them on my hands. “Thankfully, the starn trees grow quite abundantly in this area, so it was easy to find a pair.”

As he spoke, he led us towards a tall tree, one which would require three full men in order to wrap their arms around it. He turned to face us, a full smile on his face. “Go ahead and step forward, and I’ll form the gate.”

Kahli was about to move to follow his instructions when I spoke a simple command. “Now, Kahli.” At that moment, her foot froze, and her face darkened, her previous smile completely removed. I had to hand it to her, her acting had been great. Gradually, a soft humming began to fill the air as the druid looked at us in surprise.

“What is going on?” He asked, his tone cautious. He glanced between myself and Kahli as if he didn’t know what was happening.

Thankfully, I knew better. “You can stop now, Martin.” I told him, stepping forward to block Kahli from his view as her eyes began to glow a faint gold. I could already feel the effects of her melody kicking in. “Did you kill him, too?”

The druid… no, the Mad Monk let out a long sigh. “What gave it away?” As he asked that, his face began to distort, his skin rippling and bones seeming to crackle as they shifted. If I didn’t need time to cast my spells, I would have taken advantage of this moment to kill him, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish the job like that.

Soon, he had abandoned the disguise of the druid, and appeared in his original form. I could practically feel the anger in Kahli’s music reaching a new peak as he stood in front of us, still looking at me calmly. “No, really, what gave it away?”

While I spoke, I began gathering my mana, forming the picture for the spell in my mind, using the conversation to stall until I could build up power. “The token, it didn’t resonate with you.” I told him, motioning towards the bracelet he was wearing, no doubt taken from the real druid. “You just wanted to lure us out here alone, using the pretext of a plague to have us drop our guard around you.”

He nodded his head slightly. “Yes, that’s right.” His voice was still incredibly calm, and I could feel him rousing his ki, returning it from the slumbering state he had put it in for his disguise. “I thought I did quite well this time. I suppose there are still things I need to study, after all.” As he said that, he reached down with one hand, ripping the token off of his wrist. Once the bracelet had been damaged, it exploded into a small burst of light. “No matter, I got you out here either way. Once I take care of the two of you, I won’t have to worry about any hunters for a while.”

I gave a light chuckle as he said that. “You make it sound like killing us will be easy.”

“Isn’t it?” He asked, and immediately seemed to vanish from in front of us. Even though I had my eyes locked onto him, there was no trace of movement, aside from a slight shift in one foot.

However, I soon heard a small clash from behind me, and once I turned around I saw Kahli thrown back after exchanging blows with him. Her eyes were still glowing, her melody unbroken. When she landed back on the ground, she skid along it for a moment before stopping, while the Mad Monk looked at her in surprise.

“You were able to catch that, and not break the song? Quite impressive. You should just be a normal bard, correct? I’ll need to study you thoroughly later.” He said, still staring at her.

“Knight of storms, lend me your lance.” I called out, a spell diagram forming around my wrist. From it, lightning shot out in all directions, before arcing into my palm. It extended forward, forming a long blade of lightning that crackled violently.

“Oh? An elementalist, then.” He said with a nod. “Another interesting test material. I’ll have to incapacitate you both for study.”

After speaking, he disappeared again, but this time I was watching for it. That small movement of his foot, the only indicator before he vanished, was enough to give away the direction. Although it wouldn’t tell me the distance, it was all I had to go on. And, from what I could read, he was stepping in my direction.

Without hesitating, I jumped forward, spinning around in midair and stretching my lance out in a slashing motion. Martin had appeared behind me as I expected, but seeing the attack coming he simply vanished again. At this point, even though I saw the direction he stepped in, I was unable to correct my posture in midair. Thankfully, he had only moved back in order to dodge my strike.

“Good reflexes. A sustained lightning spell, modified into a melee weapon. That means you should also be a warrior to use it properly.” He calmly spoke as Kahli ran past me, her daggers already in her hands. Her physical abilities were too far from being a match for him, but she was at least good enough to be a distraction.

It was then I noticed that the golden aura around Kahli became stronger. I could no longer feel the benefit of her song, so she had likely focused all of its effects on herself for a moment, or was doing something altogether new. Either way, it was enough for me to land, using my ki to shoot forward. I matched Kahli’s speed, appearing beside her as the two of us attacked together, her lunging forward with her daggers while I swept at him with my lance.