The first thing after we left so dramatically, was to circle around to the back of the army and sneak into a small thicket of trees. I raised a hand to signal the rest of the party and the stopped. I stared in front of us at the back of the United Army. There were only a few soldiers here but their job was crucial. They were to look after the supplies being carried by monsters. This was also where they would receive new supplies from the supply lines that the army was periodically deploying behind it. A new contingent of soldiers would man each supply outpost, preparing for beastmen raids and ensuring supplies could reach the main army without too much trouble.

Our party was invisible thanks to my magic and the United Army was stationary. The leaders of the army would be waiting here for us for a while, as per my directions, and would only start moving ahead once their inflamed paranoia made them think our party had been attacked by beastmen or something. I predicted it wouldn’t take more than a couple of days for them to start thinking that way, which was why I would send a letter back to them telling them we were fine and that we had decided to go deeper into enemy territory. I would order them to stay put but I wasn’t expecting them to listen and stay for long. Still, it would buy us some time. For now though, the army was on alert but wouldn’t be too worried about the tail end of their forces back here because their scouts hadn’t noticed any raiding parties.

I stepped forward onto the empty plains and cast another spell. One of the monsters looked up. It moved its head from side to side as if it had heard something but that wasn’t enough to attract the attention of the soldiers. I cast another spell. Many other monsters raised their heads and they looked from side to side. Then, one of the monsters let out a cry, followed by another, then another, and soon, a group of monsters was growing loud and restless. The soldiers looked over and most of them began trying to calm those monsters down. The rest of them had fixed posts so they only glanced over from time to time but didn’t move. That would have to do.

I jumped forward off the ground and passed over the heads of the soldiers who were standing guard. I landed on top of the first monster I had called on to, and the monster began to move around from the sudden weight on its back. I reached out with a hand and rubbed the monster’s neck. The monster froze and then it began to slowly move its head from side to side. I patted the top of the monster’s head and whispered something quietly. This made the monster excited again so I calmed it down. Then, with another wave of my hand, all hell broke loose on the other side where the monsters had lost their calm. The few soldiers who had been looking on from their posts couldn’t stand aside any longer, as the various monsters threatened to overwhelm the other soldiers and ruin the supplies that were stored on carts and on the monsters’ backs. I figured some of the Simurgh’s magic probably intensified their panic, since it was strange for all of these soldiers to abandon their posts like this. Thinking about how easy it was to get these soldiers to do something like that, made me realize how terrible a battle it would be if these guys went up against the Horde.

“Come on Paris,” I said to the familiar Fil Tusker as I put invisibility magic on her large body, “let’s go on an adventure!”

Paris lifted her tusks and let out a loud cry that I had to muffle with air magic. Then, she rushed ahead and we joined the others waiting in the trees.

---

“Won’t Paris slow us down?” asked Kelser.

“My magic has gotten a lot better,” I said, “making the three of you go faster with my magic doesn’t take any effort at all anymore. The only way I can keep improving my speed and endurance while we cross the steppes is by bringing along something of Paris’ size.”

“You’re bringing her along to do some magic training?” asked Kol.

“No, I’m bringing her along because she’s a powerful monster who can break down barriers and carry our supplies,” I said.

“Couldn’t you break the barriers and carry the supplies with your magic?” asked Taoc.

“Are you saying you want me to be your beast of burden?” I said.

“No, great-Cas, that isn’t, I wasn’t,” said Taoc quickly.

“It’s okay,” I said with a chuckle. Making fun of Taoc was one of the few bits of fun I could have these days. “But to answer your question, yes I could do those things for you, but you have to think about when I’m not around.”

“When you’re not around?” said Kol. “Are you going to leave us behind or something?”

“No,” I said, “but you never know. This mission is going to get messy. We might have to split up, take different approaches, maybe even retreat a couple of times. Kelser can hold his own, but you and Taoc are still learning magic. Even if you learn everything I want to teach you over the next few days, you won’t be powerful enough to stand against the Ikons. It will be helpful having a large Fil Tusker like Paris around to have your back. Besides, with how tough this training is going to be, there is no way the two of you will be able to keep up even with my magic. You’re probably going to have to ride Paris around until we get there.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” said Taoc. Kol agreed with her. The two of them had learned how to resist the Simurgh’s mind control. Now, I had to start teaching them magic.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “you guys won’t have to learn the sort of stuff Kelser had to learn. We don’t have much time, so you’ll be learning a few attack and defense spells, and most of them will be based on my new magic.”

“I thought your new magic wasn’t ready yet?” asked Kelser.

“It isn’t,” I said, “these spells will be based on the old magic that we use, but with a few important insights from my new magic. You can learn them too, if you want, or you can try to help me figure out my new magic.”

“Can’t I do both?” he asked.

I shook my head. “There won’t be enough time. We will be reaching our destination in a few days, and the United Army won’t be far behind. We have to finish everything before there is too much bloodshed.”

Kelser frowned and thought for a moment. “Then I’ll learn the spells.”

“You don’t want to learn my new magic instead?” I asked, a little surprised.

“I do,” he said, “but like you said, we don’t have enough time. I’d rather be a little stronger for sure than risk learning a bunch of theoretical magic that may or may not be useful in a fight.”

I frowned. “Fair enough. There is no guarantee my new magic will be good in a fight, at least not until I start making some more aggressive spells. I’ll teach you a few movement spells though, like flight.”

“Can we learn that too!” asked Taoc.

“Depends on how quickly you learn the other stuff,” I said. “The two of you might need to specialize in defense and speed, too. I don’t think you’ll be able to gain a lot of fire power in such a short amount of time. But learning enough to protect yourselves, draw away enemy fire, and maybe support us from the back, should be good enough.”

“I would rather learn how to do a lot of damage,” said Kol.

“You guys aren’t here to fight the Ikons directly,” I said, “but I learned from my last fight against those two that their special magic, the spells that were given to them by the Immortals, are too tough to deal with on my own. Even having you guys chucking projectiles at them from a safe distance would make all the difference in a fight. Especially against Noel’s bubbles and Alek’s mind control.”

“What are we going to do about his mind control, anyway?” asked Kelser.

“You’ll learn how to resist mind control too. It shouldn’t be too difficult now that you know how to control your emotions,” I said.

We rushed over the empty fields, Paris lumbering after us at a surprising pace. The sounds of her footsteps thundered in my ears, but I stopped them from carrying too far with a little air magic. Casting so many spells all the time along our journey was going to be tough. I was already feeling winded and would be taking a break soon. Taking breaks would definitely slow us down but I had learned from my last fight that endurance and stamina were essential in battles against Ikons. The overwhelming fatigue I had felt in that fight still haunted me, and I could swear just thinking back to the fight made my muscles ache. I would be prepared this time. Even if I had to fight those two for days on end, I would do it. This time, I would win.