Much to Cass’s surprise there was not an attack that night. She slept straight through the entire night, making her the only person in the camp to get a full night's sleep. The soldiers, even those not on watch, had trouble falling asleep given what they knew could be prowling about in the forest and the five peasants were too terrified to sleep at all.

Breakfast was light, and the group was moving again before an hour had passed. Their first stop would be the village and they would see where the tracks led them after that. If Baron Rence was to be believed, the beasts had come from the northeast. However, Cass did not remotely trust the Baron at this point. Anything the man said was suspect, which in turn raised questions that Cass would have to consider before she talked to the man again.

In theory, the Baron was beholden to a lord above him, a Viscount in this case, in a long chain of lords that reached up to the Imperial Family. However, this was rarely a very rigid structure. It was rare for a higher rank lord to order one of their feudatories to do anything, and considered to be a sign of an incompetent lord who had chosen their underlings poorly.

Cass didn't particularly think much of this system, thinking a tradition of absolute obedience between liege and vassal would be much preferable. Regardless, she had to wonder if the Viscount above Baron Rence knew what was going on in this section of his territory. But she did not want to consider that now.

The village was much the same as it had been yesterday. Manticores did not leave bodies to rot and clear skies ensured the tracks would remain. However, Cass was soon frustrated. The tracks were there, but they were too confusing for either her or any of the people with her to make sense of.

“Shit,” Cass swore. “Sir Rammusson, do you have any suggestions? I have to admit that I have no real experience in tactics or how to use your soldiers, but my instinct is to split our forces into teams and search the woods.”

“It would be dangerous,” Rammusson grunted, alert with his eyes scanning the woods around them. “The edges of our line would be weak to being picked off, but thankfully manticores are not that intelligent. However, I don't think we could have groups less than four soldiers apiece, and that does not give us a large net.”

“I am worried that our quarry might be more directed than not,” Cass admitted her suspicions. “This entire event is strange, and I am not sure what game Baron Rence is playing- or what level he is playing on.”

“Still, if you want to push forward it is our only real choice, but do we need to?” Rammusson asked, “We are not far from Tyine- or we could even push north into the Hall family territory, although I would not like to give any ammunition to our young lord’s father. Their feud is legendary in some part of their territory.”

That was a fair point actually, one that Cass had not considered, she could just leave. She could go back and have the soldiers drag the manticore she had killed back to the Baron and tell him the rest had escaped- but she doubted that would be enough to fulfill their agreement. Though if her suspicions were correct the Baron might be involved in this whole thing.

If he was though, why had he directed Cass to come out here? Either Baron Rence figured the beasts would kill them all or that Cass and Rammusson would exterminate them. Could he be working with the Amall Family or Viscount Hall? Not only were both territories close, only maybe ten or twenty miles away in the later case, but it would explain the resistance to implementing glyphs. But that would presume that they would die here, but that was unlikely- Cass, at least, could probably escape most situations and the whole group of them could handle more than a few of the beasts.

“Split the men, we will search towards the northeast,” Cass commanded. “Four groups, but keep relatively close and take one of the villagers to navigate. Even if it is suspect, we cannot turn back on such a flimsy set of circumstances.”

Her Master did not have a huge amount of political capital to spend, and all of it was dependent on the success and spread of Glyphs. If it spread that a group of Glyphed soldiers had failed a request and the Baron Rence continued to refuse to use them… Well, it would have long term consequences to say the least, possibly fatal ones- perhaps literally fatal to Cass given Clare’s dislike of her.

“By your order, Lady Cass.” Sir Darius Rammusson saluted and began to organize the soldiers.

“Split into your Sections, turns out none of us city boys know how to track even a big ass magical beast, so we are going to be going for a hike and combing the woods! Now I’d rather not have to explain your deaths to your widows, so each group needs to keep line of sight with the group next to them. Take care, our quarry is not acting like how it is supposed to, so be on the watch for anything suspicious, understand?”

A Section was the smallest unit of soldiers organized in Haj, consisting of four soldiers and one Section Leader for a total of five. Even if it took longer to find where the beasts had run off to, there was far less of a risk to the soldiers themselves. Despite her temptation to thin the lines further, she resisted and took a place between the two central groups. True, it was only her and Rammusson walking together, but they had a Section close by on either side and Cass herself had taken the measure of the manticore she had killed. So long as she was paying attention, she did not think they were much of a threat to her.

She chose the northeast for a few reasons. First, Baron Rence had said that the beasts had come from that direction- though whether or not he was being truthful was another matter. Second, they had come to the hamlet from the west and had chased the survivors to the south. While they had hardly searched exhaustively, the west and the south had been explored to some degree and she could save those for last. The final reason was that the Amall territory was in that direction, and even if it was paranoia, she could not help but worry about their hand in this affair.

Twenty seven people set out not long later, each Section had one of the villagers with them and the original guide joined Rammusson and Cass in the center. Before they left, Rammusson reminded Cass that regardless of what occurred they only had so much supplies- even with the minimum rations they only had enough for two days. Morning on the third day would see the troops go hungry and force their return to the Baron.

Though still a failure, it would be a far more acceptable result than a retreat. It would be painted as a failure due to incompetence instead of cowardice, but that could be spun as a failure on the Baron’s side because he had failed to send anything more than a single guide with them.

The scenery could be described as idyllic, the Baron’s territory was beautiful in the way only an open forrest could. Bright, even if there was lots of shade against the glare, and a sea of green undergrowth of various shades.

It was interesting, Cass reflected, how something that would be enjoyable to just sit and look at, or to walk through and explore, became a nerve wracking experience when you knew there was danger inside. It was hard not to jump at every small noise, whether it be the wind rustling a fern or Rammusson stepping on a twig. Cass found herself looking for the source of such noises even though she knew the large and heavy manticore would have been far louder.

A few hours of walking with no result had Cass wondering if they should backtrack and try a different direction, when a call from the northernmost group caused her to order the Sections to join up with them. It was not a large find, only a bit of reddish-gold fur caught on a branch and some paw prints in soil beneath a fern, but it gave them a direction. Cass reoriented and redeployed the soldiers with the line of the paw prints in the center and they continued forward.

By late afternoon, they had clearly entered the manticore’s territory. Multiple trees had been rent and scratched by large claws and beneath them the earth had been tore up by a clearly large creature.

Cass had them backtrack out of the area before they set camp for the night, but even doing so did not help her this time. She was woken in the night by men shouting and discordant roars. Cass was on her feet in a flash, trying to adjust her eyes to the night and the chaos surrounding her.

“Get your shields and get them up!” Rammusson’s roar was good competition for the manticores in volume and ferocity. “Even if you can’t see them, the dumb shits make noise! Keep steel between you and them or be turned into a godsdamn pincushion!”

Most of the soldiers did so in time for a rain of spines flying in, but one was too slow and died instantly with one through his face. Cass realised that the manticore’s ranged advantage in the darkness would be deadly, perhaps enough to wipe her soldiers out. She used her magic to create light systems that, while not very bright, would illuminate the bulky creatures and reduce their advantage.

“Rammusson, I’ll provide a distraction!” Cass shouted, although she had no idea where the knight was right now. “Use it to close the distance and butcher these shits!”

She let her mana flow into her legs and leapt forward, shoving a large amount of mana into her anklet so that when she touched down between the soldiers and the manticores the sound was less like a whip and more like a thunderclap. The wind around her was violent. Cass had twisted the air with magic to deflect any incoming spines, though she was only partly successful. The spines did divert, but she still had to dodge a few as her noise and charge drew the beasts ire.

Picking a beast at random, Cass sprinted forward and the beast came at her to meet the challenge. Despite its mass, the manticore had the muscle to spring into the air and attempt to pounce down on her. A sudden acceleration on Cass’s part had her sliding beneath the creature with one hand sheathed in magic claws dragging across its underside from chest to belly. It died where it landed as its guts spilled on the ground, but Cass had already dismissed it and activated her new glyphs to fade from view.

Even though it was far more efficient than her ad hoc system version, it still drained Cass’s mana at an atrocious rate. However, even if a few soldiers died for it, she had to confirm whether or not there were any hidden handlers. She moved quickly in a large arc around the area the beasts had struck from, and was rewarded when she almost tripped over a trio of black clothed men. Needless to say, she only needed one to drag back to the camp and she was not gentle about robbing his consciousness.

Back at the camp, her soldiers were giving a good account of themselves. Flesh and claw was a poor match against magic and steel without the advantage of darkness and range and they closed the distance quickly. Sir Rammusson once again showed off how devastating his strength was when combined with his massive greatsword. No matter where it struck, the first cut would either kill the target outright or maim it so badly that it could not defend itself from the second.

Manticores were too stupid to run, and so they were butchered not long after. The final count had six manticores dead- two to Rammusson, one to Cass, and three to the regular soldiers- and two enemy humans dead as well, with a third captured. Cass’s forces had only suffered a single death, that single unlucky soldier who had gotten a spine through the face.

“Good work,” Cass congratulated the knight as she dragged her black clothed prize behind her. “I got you a present to congratulate you.”

“Aww, you shouldn’t have.” The sight of the blood soaked man smiling was absolutely terrifying to most people, however the girl he spoke too was not much better. Gutting a manticore and butchering those two men had left Cass with her fair share of blood on her as well, and the two together looked like something out of a nightmare.

“Still, while I suppose it is a good thing, this is far less than I was expecting,” Cass’s tone turned serious again as she tossed the masked man on to the ground ahead of her. “It would be closer without the glyphs, but even then I think we would have prevailed, which makes me wonder what the point of it all is.”

“I am not so certain, my Lady,” Rammusson began to wipe the blood from his blade on a nearby manticore. “Without your light, distraction, and the glyphs it would have been difficult to approach them, especially if those men were truly controlling them. All they would have to do is keep backing up as we approach and shower us with spines, there would not be much we could do.”

“Perhaps, but it would not take many more men to take that uncertainty away,” Cass shrugged. “Controlling magical beasts is supposed to be nearly impossible, and if an easy way to control them was found they would still have a huge upkeep cost. Seems quite costly for something so ineffective.”

“Well we have a new friend who may have the answers we want,” Rammusson’s grin grew wider. “So how about we just ask him?”

The man was tied to a nearby tree and then slapped awake, groaning in pain and disoriented.

“Evening,” Cass said cheerily. “My friends and I were just going for a nice, relaxing, walk around these parts and came across some pretty interesting things. Being a naturally curious group we thought we would invite you over to our camp to ask some questions. That won’t be a bother, will it?”

The only response was a snarl and a glob of spit, which fell short of reaching Cass. For her part, Cass heaved an overacted disappointed sigh and reach her hand out. She considered, offhand, that her master would probably teach her his magic properly if she asked- however she did not want to use that magic on the likes of people like this, they didn’t deserve that and Cass had to admit wanting it to herself.

Still, a replica of the system was enough to have the man writhing and screaming. Cass just watched and held the magic as she counted to ten, idly noticing that the man was scraping the skin off his arms as he thrashed against the ropes that bound him to the tree.

At ten, Cass stopped, leaving the man sagging and panting. Again, she put on a smiling, fake cheerful, demeanor- more for her own amusement than anything else- and asked the man.

“Won’t you answer some questions for me?” She asked sweetly, “I get so terribly frustrated when there is a mystery I can’t solve and I will have to keep you as a playmate for a while to relax.”

“Fuck off, bitch.” The man croaked, “I’ll tell you nothing.”

Cass just smiled and extended her hand, counting to ten again as she watched the man scream. She did not worry, or even really care that the man had decided to resist. She might not have her Master’s magic, but even a pale imitation was enough for most people- especially when applied without any concern for damaging the subject. As she had noted before, Cass even enjoyed this kind of thing. Her fake smile had become more and more real as the seconds passed, and as she spoke again there was nothing about her tone or smile that as faked.

“I’ll just be honest with you here for a moment, I do not really mind your resistance.” Cass said with a laugh. “I mean, it's pretty amusing to crush insects under heel, you know? That said, there is not much of a point to dragging this on- besides my amusement that is- and you do not have any good options, just less bad ones.”

“First option, you drop the tough guy routine and tell me everything I want to know.” Cass did not think he would do that, but she made the offer anyway. “I probably kill you, depending on what I hear, but I do kill you painlessly, which is a plus.”

She was pacing around the tree as she spoke, and now was behind the tree and out of his sight as she explained the second option.

“Your second choice, we keep this up for a time until you get tired of screaming your lungs out and you still tell me everything you want to know and then die in a level of pain depending on my mood.”

Back in his view now, stopping in front of him and looking in his eyes, Cass listed the third option- one that she doubted he had the fortitude to choose, but the threat alone would help to break him down.

“Number three is a real bad one,” Cass’s teeth glinted in the firelight as she smiled. “You heroically resist and I end up dragging you back with me. You spend days screaming until you are coughing blood and then you meet my Master, who will show you what real pain feels like. If it makes you feel better, you might live through the third choice- my Master might just break your mind and enslave you.”

“You don’t scare me,” the man snarled at Cass. “You have no idea what you are dealing with.”

“Well of course I don’t you idiot,” Cass sighed in exasperation. “The whole point of me asking is that I don’t know and the whole reason I am about to break your finger is that you won’t tell me!”

That last part did not register with the man until Cass had already crushed the man’s index finger on his right hand. It was only the start of a very long night for the man.