Allen and the others were waiting outside Silt Valley’s front gate. Except it wasn’t really a gate, more of a fence with only a single sleepy guard sitting nearby. That guard wasn’t too pleased to have over a dozen dangerous looking people standing around, all of whom were above his level. He was sure to stay quiet and off to the side though.

Jack was tapping his foot against the dirt path. It was very early in the morning, but he didn’t seem the least bit tired even after not sleeping at all during the night. Allen glanced between his friend and one of the mercenaries who had shuffled up to him while they were waiting.

Jack was wearing his full outfit, which included the same long leather jacket he always wore, but with the addition of a wide-brimmed “cowboy” hat and a burlap sack which he wore as a mask underneath the hat. The level three-forty mercenary on the other hand, was staring at Jack with wide-eyes and flaring nostrils. His falcon that he had perched on his shoulder seemed much more apprehensive though.

“Um, if you don’t mind,” that mercenary began. Jack turned his head in a silent motion and the mercenary was met with a smiley face, crudely drawn onto Jack’s burlap mask with tar. “I’ve heard the songs, you’re Scarecrow, am I right?”

“Who’s asking?” Jack asked in a raspy voice, like if batman was a smoker.

“Uh-um, well you’re a fuckin’ legend around the guilds, and uh…”

“I know, what’s your point?”

“It’s just, you’re the one who inspired me to become a tamer, and I’ve always wanted to meet you.” The mercenary with the falcon cracked an awkward smile, likely hoping Jack would respond somehow. He didn’t though, and the crooked smile remained impassive.

By that point, the rest of the strangers had crowded around Jack. Allen smirked to himself; for once he didn’t have to deal with any fanboying himself.

“You’re s-spades then?” another mercenary asked. “Shit, I mean, I never thought we would ever meet a spade in person.

“Only those three are,” Ty quickly pointed out, nodding at where Allen and Nora were standing next to Jack.

All seven mercenaries turned to look at Allen and Nora. Allen cringed and looked away, that was when he saw their backup approaching from the sky. “What are you thinking Shoam?” he asked himself. “Isn’t she overkill for something like this?”

It only took a few more seconds before everybody else had spotted the huge eagle-shaped frost elemental flying towards them at incredible speeds. Someone cursed as it swooped down right in front of the group and spread its wings wide to slow its decent, blasting everyone with freezing wind. However, instead of landing, the beast shattered into a small wave of snow which melted almost immediately, revealing the three women and elf who had been riding it.

“Took you a while,” Jack remarked. At the same time, a crow fluttered over from the new arrivals and landed on his shoulder, only to be swallowed up by shadows.

“Oh my, it’s a whole party.” Iana stepped through the falling snow and scanned the small crowd with her eyes narrowed in amusement. Some of the cold magic swirled around her white knee-length dress before it dispersed fully, and the temperature returned to normal. “Ah, are we supposed to be in costume?” she asked, giving Jack a playful grin.

Jack’s smiley face didn’t change, but Allen figured he was smirking. Iana didn’t bother hiding her face or her level because she was, by all accounts, crazy. In contrast, the other two women, Meredith and Clara, were both already wearing their masks. The former was wearing a thick veil and a robe similar to a nun’s outfit, only white, and the latter was dressed in light form-fitting black mithril plate armor.

“I was unable to open a gate any closer,” Shoam said, approaching Jack. “And they wouldn’t stop chatting,” he added, pointing vaguely at Iana and the other two women, who were to no surprise, chatting again.

Jack just grunted in his raspy voice.

“Wait, who are they?” the elf asked, glancing over at the mercenaries.

“Mercenaries,” Allen muttered, ignoring the lost faces of said mercenaries as he bumped Shoam on the shoulder and set his attention on the three older women. “I wasn’t expecting you three all at the same time,” he snickered. “What’s the occasion? I’m afraid we don’t have any fine wine or artisanal cheeses at hand.”

That was as far as he was willing to go to make fun of their ages and former positions as nobles or royalty.

Iana and Meredith just giggled to each other, but Clara was definitely glaring at him from behind her helmet. She was the younger of the three by far, but that didn’t necessarily mean she was young. Maybe she hadn’t come to terms with her age yet, although age hardly matters when you’re above level one-thousand and immortal.

Name: Clara Hrothgall

Fellman – Monk – Level [hidden]

“You all,” Jack said to everyone, the mercenaries in particular. They all deferred to him immediately, even the leader. “These three ladies are the Blizzard Witch, the Seamstress, and Firefly. The elf is known as Dark Star. We’re leaving now on pursuit of the Lanthinus Company convoy. We will rescue any slaves, subdue non-combatants and any who surrender, kill any who resist, and soul-kill any confirmed slavers, noble or not. It’s possible they’re only a middle-man for other organizations that have been capturing slaves from small villages, so look for whatever information you can. That’s all, leave the soul-kills to us, alright?” Jack finished, turning pointedly towards the mercenaries.

“Understood,” said the leader of the mercenary crew.

Jack nodded as his shadow expanded massively beneath him. Like Trevor, safely returned to Jack’s shadow by then, four large forms climbed out of the swirling darkness. The shadows withdrew to reveal three electric-blue wyverns, each equipped with a large saddle. The four wyverns were about the size of suburban SUVs with wings, seating four each.

Name: Thunder Wyvern

Draconoid – Monster – Level 500

Allen hopped up on the nearest one while Iana reformed her elemental ice bird. “Okay, get on losers,” he said. Jack, Nora, and Shoam joined him, along with Phantom of course. The spider was still invisible, weightless, and soundless even though he was probably just sitting on Allen’s head.

The others warily climbed onto Jack’s wyverns’ backs and then everyone was off, flying West above the highways in formation. Allen spent the time going through his inventory and getting his weapons and armor equipped and in order. He probably wouldn’t be doing much in any of the fights, but if he could get even five or ten percent of the experience for a high-level kill, and a sapient enemy no less, maybe even a sou-kill, then the XP gains would be amazing.

The convoy proved to be a little harder to find than expected, despite the fact that it could only travel by road. Still, with the help of Jack’s animal connections, they caught up to it in less than an hour. What they found, speeding West on the intercity highway far below them, was a convoy of five large semi-truck magicarriages, preceded by a pair of rich-looking speeders. The vehicles were flanked on either side by a few dozen more speeders and smaller trucks. The road they were on was long and straight with open fields on either side for many kilometers. Not the most ideal spot for an ambush… which was exactly why it was the ideal spot for an ambush.

Jack’s voice suddenly came to Allen’s ear as if the Ranger were speaking right into it. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking,” he began, his raspy voice reaching everyone else through wind magic. “Obviously, don’t harm the vehicles, we don’t know which have slaves in them. Iana, get us a perimeter and stop that convoy if you would.”

“Whatever you say, cutie pie,” the woman replied with a faint giggle. Her voice also carried to everyone in the party.

Jack sighed. “Begin the attack, and hold on tightly.”

Allen quickly did as he was told before the wyvern gave a powerful beat its wings beneath him. Ahead of them in the spearpoint formation, the elemental eagle shot off ahead of and arced downward. It left behind two figures who each sprouted a pair of wings, one made of ribbons of light, and the other from plumes of black smoke.

An instant later Allen’s wyvern rolled upside down and pulled itself into an aggressive inverted dive. The other three followed after at Jack’s behest, and the ground rushed closer at incredible speeds.

“Stealth is optional for this mission,” Allen mused to himself, wind ripping at the straps of his armor. “Watch our backs, Phantom, and help out Shoam if he needs it.”

The spider sent the feeling of agreement in response, though Allen couldn’t really tell where he was.

While the wyverns and the two winged women were closing in on the convoy from behind, the elemental flew ahead. Then there was a flash of pale blue light, followed by a powerful gust of freezing wind. Like a natural disaster, a massive glacier rose hundreds of meters into the air ahead of the convoy. The small mountain of ice then started growing further, wrapping around the sides of the line of vehicles, leaving only the rear open for the wyverns to land.

The carriages slammed on the breaks, but more than a few at the head of the convoy ended up slamming into the wall of ice or each other.

Allen winced, but they seemed fine.

Two huge fireballs immediately flew out from one of the leading magicarriages as it slid to a stop, but they both sputtered out and turned to snow before landing on the huge glacier.

Jack and Shoam were both already gone by the time their wyvern touched the ground. Allen looked over to where the rest of his group was landing. The mercenaries landed in two groups on the other side of the line of semi-trucks and quickly flew into action. Shouts and spells going off could already be heard throughout the area. Allen kept his head down and quickly pulled a stunned Nora off the wyvern. The beast snorted, sparks of lighting arcing from its nostrils before it leapt back into the air.

“We’re going to go through the speeders on the left side first,” Allen said, his voice heard by every ally.

A thread of light connecting itself to his chest before fading out of sight told Allen that Meredith’s spell formula had taken effect. With it, they would all be very difficult for anybody under level five hundred to kill.

Fire lit up the sky above Allen with a vicious roar and he dove behind the nearest speeder with Nora. Camila and Ty showed up a moment later, followed by Christopher and Amelia while dozens of lightning bolts and explosions shook the air around them. Allen didn’t even bother looking up, he wouldn’t be able to see anything but fire and ice.

“Holy fucking shit,” Camila half whispered, running up to Allen and crouching. “They’re getting pasted. This is awesome!”

The Berserker was grinning ear to ear as a half-frozen man fell from the sky a few dozen meters behind her, three of his limbs breaking off like chunks of ice. Allen would have thought he was already dead if it weren’t for all the screaming he was doing. Then the man’s eyes bulged, and he tried in vain to push himself to cover with force magic right before a wyvern pounced on him from above. The beast closed its jaws around the screaming mage before launching itself away with him again, all in less than a second. Allen vaguely recognized the mage as that psychokinetic who had chased them away from Hillford earlier last week.

“Right, just don’t get caught in the crossfire,” Allen said, summoning knives in each hand and wrapping them in miasma. Nora did the same, just as three people jumped out of the speeder.

The first drew a sword that lit itself on fire, the second prepared a set of water blades, and the third just fell back on his ass, his eyes wide as he looked up. They were all around level two-hundred, but the one on the ground was just a Smith.

“Well, here we go,” Allen thought, jumping out from behind the speeder and launching into a sprint.