“Yes!” Cain shouted, clenching his hands into fists and pulling them close to his chest. “I got it!”

Xander fell back in amazement and sighed, swearing under his breath while Alice and a small group of people that had gathered around the camp fire began cheering.

“Suck it Xander, you owe me one hundred when we get out of here,” Alice shouted in between gasps for air. Xander buried his face in his hands and groaned.

“Fine, fine. Alright kid, let’s get the rest of these fires lit and get ready for food. It looks like the hunting party is back,” Xander said, getting up off the ground and glowering at Alice, who was still slightly laughing.

“Got it,” Cain replied, heading back towards his tent. He figured he would start on the side that Xander hadn’t and meet up somewhere in the middle. What he wasn’t expecting was Bronn to be standing near his gear by the time he got back.

“Where were you kid?” he asked, freezing Cain in place for a second in fear. He hadn’t thought that he was gone that long; learning how to make fire took less than what he estimated as half an hour.

“I was with Xander and Alice from the Assault Team, sir. They were showing how to use the Fire Generation skill.” Cain breathed a sigh of relief as his limbs regained their function, the pressure from Bronn disappearing as he considered the response.

“Learned Fire Generation, huh? That quickly? Be careful with that if you go to the Academy. They see how fast you pick up on that stuff and you’ll be in the mage classes so fast your head will spin. Anyways, down to business,” Bronn said, turning and facing Cain directly.

“One of the scouts you made contact with earlier hasn’t come back from the forest yet. We need you to see if you can reach him.”

Cain nodded and closed his eyes. His energy was depleted after trying to make fire so many times, but it would be suicidal to try and tell Bronn he couldn’t look right now. Stretching the energy being generated from the back of his right hand, he reached out, looking for the ‘strings’, as he called them, that he had attached to the scouts so that communication was possible.

‘One... two... three, four, five. Where is the sixth?’ Cain thought, frowning internally. He should have noticed if the connection suddenly was severed, so the only reason it was gone, was if the scout had intentionally blocked the connection.

Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t going to work out quite like he had planned. When he was training with Ariana, she had been very adamant he knew how to re-establish a blocked mental link. Something about rats and snakes floating around the Association. Cain hadn’t realized what that meant at the time, but now he did.

Focusing his energy towards the middle of his forehead, Cain formed an image of a web. He had done this before, when he initially set the contacts up; according to his sister, the mental image made it easier to see who was in what direction, and to also tell whether or not someone had tried to sever it themselves.

From the center of the web, Cain could distinctly see the five threads flowing over towards the side of the camp he had just been on, but the sixth one pointed off into the forest. Cain smirked slightly, pushing a small bit of energy down the link. Unless someone could go set up a mental array like he did, they would just assume the link was gone for good, and unless the person they were connected too had a higher Intelligence score, they wouldn’t be able to actually sever the link.

Cain’s smirk slowly turned into a frown though, as his energy pooled against a mental wall. Without opening his eyes, he turned to Bronn.

“I found him, kind of. He is still in the forest, but there is a wall blocking the connection. I can try and break it down, but I'm not sure what that would do for his mental state,” he said, probing the wall gently as he talked. “It doesn’t feel... normal. I didn’t think that the scout had this high of an Intelligence score.”

“He doesn’t,” Bronn replied, his voice dry and uneasy. “He put all of his points into Dexterity when we were training him up. Only a two-star, so he didn’t gain a lot, but still, he should be fast enough to outrun most of the creatures we would encounter in the gate. Unless...”

“Unless what?” Cain asked, still poking the wall with his energy. There were a few softer spots along it, which meant that he could break it down if he focused properly.

“Unless there’s another mental creature around here. But the only ones that would have the mental capacity to block a connection are the Bosses, and Plaguetooth is definitely not an Intelligence based Boss.”

Cain nodded slightly in agreement, forming the energy in front of the wall into something similar in stature to a battering ram. At least, he thought it looked like one, but since his only references were history books, his imagination was lacking slightly there. Just as he was about to begin breaking down the wall, he noticed some movement along the energy thread connected to the scout.

“Wait, he’s getting closer. The distance between the link is shrinking, so we should see him soon,” Cain said, opening his eyes and dispersing the energy he was about to use back into his body. Force cancellation of a technique almost made him slightly dizzy, but that passed quickly as Bronn turned towards the forest line, keeping a keen eye out in the shadows.

“Damned sun is setting. I don’t like chances, so call the rest of the scouts and tell them to get the Assault team ready at the front of the camp.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Opening up the mental web again quickly, Cain sent a thin strand of energy to each of the scouts, catching their attention immediately.

“Bronn wants the Assault Team members at the front of the camp, ASAP. Something isn’t right, so he says.”

“The message is received,” Cain said, turning towards Bronn.

“Good. Stay here, I’ll meet them and get this settled.” With that, Bronn headed towards the meeting spot, leaving Cain to sit down on the ground roughly, panting slightly as he caught his breath.

“Status Window”

Status Window Activated:

Name: Cain Darkgleam

Rating: Four-Stars

Title: None

Health: 125/125

Energy: 65/125

Strength: 15

Vitality: 17

Charisma: 13

Dexterity: 17

Intelligence: 22

Active Bonuses: Danger Sense, Heat Resistance, Axe Mastery.

Available Stat Points: 32

‘Huh, my charisma went up some? Interesting. The strength and the vitality, and even the dexterity are probably from the random jobs that I did the past couple of days. My energy is definitely low though. I should have checked that once I finished learning Fire Generation,’ Cain thought, laying down on the ground and closing his eyes for a second. It would be nice to be able to have his energy regenerate faster, but potions were expensive, and those who used attack magic needed them more.

Danger Sense Activated

Bloodlust detected

Cain opened his eyes and stared at the screen that had just popped up in front of him.

“What?”

----------

“Alright, let’s get this over with. I don’t know what happened with him, but we need to solve this as quickly and quietly as possible,” Bronn said, standing in front of the Assault Team, pacing back and forth.

“Yes, Sir!” The group shouted, before moving around him to what could be considered a defensive position. Bronn sighed and turned his sights towards the forest line, hoping this was just the ramblings of an inexperienced teen.

“Movement sighted, target coming out of the woods, and fast,” one of the members shouted. Palpable tension hung in the air as they watched the missing scout stagger out of the woods, clutching his neck and limping. Out of the corner of his eye, Bronn saw someone start to move forward.

“Stay put. He comes to us,” he said, holding the rest of the group firmly in place with his words. ‘Odd,’ he mused, watching the scout draw closer. He had obviously seen some form of combat, but there was nothing following him out of the woods. At least the more feral creatures would have been enticed by the scent of blood and stepped out, based on his history anyways.

“Team ready the med packs, I’ll go and see what’s wrong,” Bronn said, stepping forward and away from the group. As he reached the scout, he caught the fellow with one arm as he collapsed over and set him down on the ground slowly.

‘Bated breathing, loss of blood, pale complexion... Was I worried for nothing?’ Bronn mused, waving over the group with the medpacs. “Start patching him up.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Observe”

Observe Active:

Name: John McCallen

Rating: Two-Star

Title: None

Status: Poisoned, Charmed

“Fuck,” Bronn muttered under his breath, pulling the closest people away as he backed up. “He’s charmed. Get everyone out of the immediate radius, now!”

The figure that was John smiled as Bronn shouted, a creepy grin passing over his face as he slowly sat up. Blood trickled down his head, causing one of his eyes to remained shut.

“Perceptive of you Captain. Or should I call you General now?” said a gravelly voice, one that was most definitely not that Bronn knew John could use. “I don’t know why we both ended up here, but it was a most welcome present when I found out.”

“Experiment SK. I thought that you were in Cavina,” Bronn said dryly, still pushing back the members of the Assault team further into the camp.

“I was, but our glorious master brought me to... you...” John’s body said, wincing in pain as he forced those words out. Obviously something happened that he wasn’t allowed to talk about.

“Pity our time is so short though,” he continued, shaking his head as the momentary pain passed. “I have a gift for you. Do you know what it is?”

Bronn shook his head, watching the figure tear open his shirt as he talked, and paled at the pulsating, green veins that stretched and webbed across the entire torso. “Good to see you again though, I look forward to our actual meeting.”

A wave of terror emanated from the body, causing anyone in the immediate area to freeze in place, before an explosion rippled across the camp.