After an hour of frantic preparations getting everything in order for our pursuit of the Wolfkin, I watch the last 4 armor-clad soldiers file in the flying craft. I disconnect from the network, a quick look around doesn't reveal any signs of the beast anywhere, but I had spent the last hour expanding the detecting network near its expected path in strategic places and hopefully, we would get lucky.

Closing the door, Alex nods at me and I start dumping the mana from the inner world batteries in the craft so it can climb and speed forward out of the central square.

We almost clip the town hall as we head east in the direction of the HLZ, but the craft is safe.

We accelerate faster wasting more mana than any time before, though a couple of hundred extra mana over the first minute would save me a few seconds compared to the normally slow speed ramp up and it seems a worthwhile trade. We settle at the full 170 kph cruise speed as I open and close the portals as we zip along the sky so I can keep in contact with the network.

“So everybody should know why we are here and what is to come, but I will run you through it all again so nobody has even the slightest doubt and to work the kinks out of our plan. We didn’t exactly have the time to come up with anything more comprehensive.” Says Richard, the commander.

Everyone nods and he continues addressing the 20 armored soldiers at the back, though I pay attention given how important what he is about to talk about to me and the couple of people I hand-picked.

“We are going to be near the closest line of villages to the HLZ and wait for any signs so we can pursue the beast. Given what we learned about Wolfkins, we have a small advantage in that they are one of the slowest races we studied from the HLZ. Most of the time they stand on two limbs, but they are fully capable of running on all for limbs and though they are about 15 percent slower than most other beasts, they are also stronger, so don’t count your blessings yet.”

“I thought you said you didn’t know how fast they moved, now you are giving percentages.” One of the level 90 soldiers points out.

“We don’t know how good is their stamina and how fast they move over long tracks, what we know is their maximum speed, the speed they move during short bouts of combat.”

“Where did you learn all that?” I ask. He looks at me with a small wrinkle in s head, and I explain. “I mean it sounds relevant. Especially if you learned that from poking it while it was in the HLZ.”

Shrugging he says:

“A little from a book we bought but also as you put it, from poking the beast with a stick. Though I understand that we can’t exactly completely trust this information, after all, we thought we were safe in this side of the HLZ and the rules suddenly changed, but it still should provide us some rough guidelines.”

One of the soldiers asks him: “After we catch up, how are we going to fight?”

“For starters, we hope the beast will try to engage us. If it tries to escape, given its speed we will have little recourse. The rest we are going to work out in the next couple hours.”

At the implicit invitation I start thinking out loud:

“I don’t have the whole thing work out in my head, but I know of a couple of things. First, we will need someone to pilot the flying craft and I think that you are the perfect candidate. With a little work, a few extra mana batteries and a large communication rune you will be able to keep full-time contact with all of us and the village.”

“But…”

“You are not weak and I’m not saying if things take a turn, don’t pitch in, all I’m saying is for you to hang back. Out of everyone here, you are the most vulnerable in a frontal confrontation and your strategic knowledge should come in handy.”

He takes a deep breath: “I know you are right, I just didn’t want to admit it… Fine, I will hang back while you surround it and we all hope it doesn't try to escape?”

“Sounds good to me.” Says Greg.

“What more?” Says Richard.

I spend the next fifteen minutes adding more details to the plan, though as they move into the finer points of strategy, I move away and sit a few feet away at the front before beginning my modification of the flying craft. Let them work on those aspects while I take care of the magical transportation.

Soon after Merlin joins me. The work is simple, but he still helps to analyze the runes and gives small ideas that I implement with my nature magic. A simple receptacle in the small space between the outer lower hull and the flat bottom we walk on. While I’m powering it with mana from my inner world, I keep it empty, but with the changes, I can instantly move a 1-ton copper battery, capable of storing over 8 thousand mana points. That should be enough for over 20 minutes at cruise speed if he was the only person aboard at the time. Even more, if he was just hovering.

Next, I start to work on the communication rune and I make it as large as possible because just like the repulsion rune the range was determined by its size. In this case it would allow a lower mana consumption to instead of just increasing the altitude the flying craft flew at. But in the end, the principle behind was very similar.

With everything that I could prepare in place, I start meditating in preparation for what is to come. Breath in and out, my pulse slows and I can feel the pressure of each of my heart bets as blood flows in my veins. The grim purpose for which we gathered stays on my mind and I try to balance myself so I can squeeze every iota of my power when the time comes.

I just hope that we will find the beast before it runs into anyone else.

Alex steps off of the controls and gives way to Richard who will remain even after we all leave so he can get acquainted with how this model works, though even that precaution seems mostly unnecessary, as Richard continues the piloting it flawlessly already used to the very similar controls in the other flying vehicles of the village.

We head to the closest village to the HLZ and set down to wait on top of one of the tendrils connecting me to the network. At the back, a couple of the soldiers huddle together as I connect the single screen to the network, through the comm rune. They watch closely as dozens of people do back in the village, waiting for another point of data to tell us where the Wolfkin is located.

But with huge swathes of territory without a single detector, we don’t get any news from the village… yet.

Plans and strategies for handling the beast are formulated between the others, which I file away in the back of my mind as I keep my concentration intermittently on my meditation or extending my perception field far away.

It’s not quick, but as I move my perception field… wait, it could it be Aspen using his own perception field? Or maybe even another mechanism altogether that allows me to feel things at distance?

I stop those questions for now. Why and how the perception field I extend through the network doesn’t matter right this instant and I move my ‘vision’ at over a hundred meters per second concentrating on the space a couple of meters above the ground where the wolfkin should be.

Even if I can’t find it right now, the exercise is not wasted. It will probably be useful to be able to search greater distances and faster for anything on my network and I take the opportunity to practice with gusto. That is what I do over the next hour.

A small throbbing of my temples starts to make its appearance as I’m about to stop to rest, but I notice a change in the network information. A new contact. Before saying anything, I hear something from the village.

“We found it.” Says the operator in the village.

Without waiting I power the repulsion runes that levitate us from the ground as Richard takes control of the craft and tries to orient himself.

Behind me, someone says pointing to our left. “Fifty kilometers south.”

I let Richard resume full control and go back to the roots to tap into the direct feed from the detectors of the region finding something moving in a straight line. Not in the direction of concentration of people like the mines or villages, but the beasts probably just lack the knowledge of where they are located.

Moving at some 100 kilometers an hour it probably is not a human, but I concentrate my perception field in the area to confirm knowing exactly where to send my perception to given the feed from the detectors.

“Found and confirmed, it’s a wolfkin.”

“What?” One of the high-level fighters asks.

Not explaining more closely I say: “ I have a brief visual on it.”

Though as I say that, the Wolfkin leaves the narrow strip that I can reach with the perception field, though still in range of the detector for another 10 seconds or so.

With a very heavy foot or rather a hand pushing on the thrust lever all the way forward and a steady hand on the steering joystick, we zip along to the south slightly angled west. Straight for the region of the beast should be if it continues in a straight line and at a constant speed for the entire time.

Mana consumption shoots through the roof and as we hit 170 kilometers an hour in the wasteful maneuver but instead of pulling it back, he keeps his hand all the way forward, as we continue accelerating. 180, 190, 200, and when I think he is really mad, he pulls it back to about halfway, enough to fly just shy of 210 kilometers an hour.

Not quite maximum speed, but we were spending a good 60 mana every second, instead of the 120 mana from a fully opened throttle. Even after he didn't tell me he was about to use this much mana, I don’t say anything agreeing with his decision.

At least we got lucky and it is relatively close by, we have a good chance to find it still. I open a few port-holes and grow transparent shield so the soldiers can use their spyglasses, though I’m not sure if they will be an actual help, especially with the disturbance on the air from our movement, at least the little telescopes should help spot movement after we stop.

Breath in, breath out.

We are only a few minutes from the place as I fully focus on centering myself for what is come and soon we are there, right above the place. A quick glace to the runic compass and Richard says:

“The line it was following is right about here. If it keeps up it should be just another minute.”

We free-fall as I directly pull the mana from the repulsing matrix only reactivating it as we are a couple of meters from the ground in the fastest maneuver I can think of. All the others keep their stoic appearance outwardly, but I can see the twitching and sweet underneath their armor.

Moments later everyone files out, including me before Richard starts to go up again. I place one of the few copper batteries in my inner world in the hold and start growing a counterpart of the comm runes on the ground to facilitate contact with everyone even if I lose consciousness or something.

From the inner world, I pull a dozen disks made of wood, something that doesn't surprise anyone with everyone having been briefed on my inner world and the implications it has on combat.

With roots disks some ten meters in diameter unfurling on the ground, each filled with intricate and carefully engraved runic patterns we wait.

With the comm rune finished everyone’s root undersuit hidden behind their armor activates placing us all on the same comm channel hearing Richard’s voice.

The shimmering metallic silver in most of the fighter’s bodies contrasts with their careful movements in trying to spot the Wolfkin with their spyglasses.

Richard calls out:

“I see it, 600 meters out. It will miss you by a good margin. Run left.”

I look back at the ground and regretfully leave all the work behind. It was too much to hope that I could have made use of it, but at least they are not the only preparations in place. I rush along behind everyone with Merlin to my side, the only caster with enough survivability that we could trust to survive.

“The beast doesn't stand chance.” I lie to myself.