It took another week and a half to reach the Nur outpost, near the border. The border was demarcated by a large flat area called the rock barren. The Nur side consisted of a large plateau that had a shallow slope down to a wide, shallow river that meandered through the rock barren.

The opposite side rose at a steeper angle to a pass dominated by a walled fortress. The walls of this imposing fort stretched across the pass, connecting to the sharp sides of the mountains that ran the entire length of the border in the north. Chuck figured the landscape was carved by a glacier pushing out of the pass millions of years ago. He looked up toward the snowy caps of the mountains. They were high enough to retain snow even though it was mid-summer.

Chuck had learned throughout the trip that there were only three passes through this mountain range large enough for more than a single wagon to pass. The other two were less defended but the area wasn't ideal for either force to engage. That left this fort as the only viable option to invade.

Chuck had also finished training multitasking during the trip. He now had the ability to train three skills at full speed. It seems slightly ridiculous to him since he only had one skill currently in training but not much he could do about that on a battlefield.

During the journey, Chuck's J.C. had learned of his ability with stealth. This led to Chuck being used in a scouting capacity. Despite the danger, Chuck didn't mind, it gave him time alone. At the moment he was past the river, scouting the paths to the fort.

He was forced to hide a few times as enemy patrols came into view. While his skill was powerful he wasn't going to rely completely on it for safety. He wasn't the only scout out here but he was the only scout mage. Chuck made sure to note the times of patrols and the number of people in each. He was required to remain out here until sunrise. Chuck looked toward the lightening sky and figured he had a few more hours.

Being without any backup made him slightly nervous. If he got into trouble out here he would have to rely on his skills and hoped it was enough to escape. Speaking of, Chuck forced himself deeper into the cleft as a group of four walked past carrying torches. They did pause a few feet away, looking around.

Chuck heard them mutter something in their language before they continued their patrol. He waited until they were well out of view before he breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to be a long night.

Chuck was forced to dodge a few more patrols as he made his way back towards the Nur side of the river. Just before he was going to step into the river he saw splashing from the other side. When he focused he could make out the outline of someone running through the water.

'Shit! Looks like an enemy scout.'

Chuck paused and waited for the person to splash toward the middle of the river. He had to take a calming breath as he waited, knowing what he was going to be forced to do. Without waiting he aimed his arm and fired out an ice arrow. There was an aborted scream as his spell impacted the target.

There was a large splash as Chuck watched the man struggle before he sunk below the waist-high water. Chuck lowered his shaking hand as he watched as the corpse float downstream past him.

Chuck knew this was only the first of many lives he would be forced to take in the coming weeks.

The orders finally came through to attack two days later. A runner had reported that the main bulk of Nur's forces were a day's march away. Chuck learned that the General did this to prevent the forces in the fortress from learning of additional troops coming this way. They knew they couldn't keep it a secret that the wagons had come to reinforce them but hoped the token force wasn't enough to arouse their suspicions.

As one of the forward scouts, Chuck hadn't seen anything to indicate that they were aware of a change. There was that one scout but he had been dealt with. It was unlikely he had been the only one. The only thing they could do was hope.

The attack was going to be a night operation, it was dangerous to scale the valley at any time. Chuck figured the General wanted to avoid the enemy's use of siege weaponry, ballista, and catapults. As if he didn't have enough to worry about with enemy mages throwing down deadly spells.

Chuck was placed with a group of scouts for the beginning of the operation. They were tasked with clearing any enemy patrols before our forces crossed the rock barren. Three similar groups were clearing out other paths.

Chuck crouched behind a scraggly bush. The others were similarly hidden while engaging their skills. Chuck could see the torches approaching, designating their target. With his improved sight, he could see there were six in this patrol. He groaned inwardly.

The enemy had upped the number from four. This would make it more difficult for the other teams to take out the soldiers. Chuck didn't detect any mana being utilized by this group as they approached. Because of his status as a cadet commander, he was in charge of this team. They would only attack after he initiated.

He waited for the patrol to reach the kill box he had set up, the other three on his team were spread out to the sides and rear. He readied his pressurized water blade spell as some of the soldiers were armored. He knew from tests that the spell could slice a person in half if they weren't armored. With the nine-meter range of the spell, he had plenty of distance to hit the two front soldiers.

'Just a few more steps,' he thought, watching the nervous expressions on the guards. He mimed a silent apology as he let the deadly spell fly.

There was a wet splat sound that drew the remaining guards' attention but in the dark, it was hard to tell what had happened. Chuck knew though, both guards had been instantly killed. Chuck had pumped extra mana into the spell with mana manipulation to ensure a quick painless death. Chuck heard some muffled grunts and an aborted cry as the guards were attacked from behind.

The final guard turned and was about to yell an alert when Chuck's ice arrow pierced his lung. The man staggered from the impact and coughed up blood before falling to his knees. One of the scouts rushed over and ended his suffering.

Chuck heaved a sigh of relief. Not for the fact that the mission was successful but for the fact that the man didn't have to suffer long. He would have aimed for the head or heart but he wasn't sure about his aim in the dark and with his adrenaline making him jittery. He was lucky he had even hit the man, he had been aiming for the spine.

That was one group down, two to go. Chuck motioned for the others to drag the bodies into the sparse vegetation. The task was completed quickly and they moved on to the next target.

The night was not without trouble. The next encounter left one of Chuck's men with a gaping wound. If it wasn't for Chuck's ability to heal the man would have died on that cold baren slope, in the dark of night. Even after healing Chuck had to assign another man to help him back down the slope. The healing had left the man looking slightly gaunt.

He learned something important that night about his hallowed body spell. While powerful it drained the resources necessary for the repairs from the injured person's body.

Despite the multiple groups of scouts' best efforts, the attack had not gone unnoticed. Chuck's group was preparing to attack their last target when bells started to ring from the fortress. The group that his team was going to attack turned and ran back toward the fort. Chuck hissed in annoyance, knowing this was only going to make the attack that much more difficult.

He waited until the fleeing patrol was out of sight before he stepped out from the bush.

"Time to head back, we can't do any more here. Rejoin your normal squads," Chuck stated as the rest of his team appeared from the shadows.

Without the need to be stealthy, his team made quick progress down the slope. They ran into the forward elements of the army less than twenty minutes later. Not long after that magic started flying from both sides, lighting up the night in bursts of color and sound.

Chuck rushed past a line of soldiers as a catapult let loose its rocky payload. Chuck heard the boom in the distance as the rocks struck the wall of the fortress. The enemy had shields similar to what Nur had for mage duels. The only problem was the shields were not very effective against physical objects, he learned about this limitation in more than one of his classes. They could reduce the impact a little but they were designed mainly to combat mages.

Speaking of mages, the Vitor mages were shooting bright light spells into the air to illuminate the field of battle. Vitor, being the "Holy" kingdom specialized in light magic. They still had other types of mages but they weren't as numerous. Chuck just hoped the light mages hadn't figured out how to weaponize a concentrated beam of light.

Chuck stumbled as the ground shook from a boulder landing nearby. He heard screams from injured men but he had his orders. His team was on the opposite side of the slope and he needed to get there as fast as possible.

As the minutes ticked by more and more siege weapons joined the attack, from both forces. Mages close to the walls were attempting to disrupt the attacks and breach the fortress. So far the shield was holding against the magic. It would only take one lucky boulder damaging a shield pylon to cause the whole thing to fail. That was why their force was using multiple small rocks instead of massive boulders. Not that there was a shortage of either on the rock-strewn slope.

Chuck finally located his team, they were positioned below a rock ledge, out of view from the wall. J.C. Velin was pointing to a section on a small map as Chuck jogged up.

Chuck saluted as the J.C. looked up.

"About time you get here. As I was telling your squadmates, our goal is the eastern section of the wall that butts up to the mountainside. The General believes that we can cause a landslide, exposing an opening for our troops to enter. The six of us are going to bombard that area with our spells until that occurs or we are forced to retreat. Any questions?"

"No Sir," Chuck answered.

"Good, let's get moving."

Chuck followed toward the rear, as was his designated position. Forward movement was slow as our team had to dodge incoming rocks, arrows, and spells. Still, the Vitorians had been surprised and not all of their forces were yet on the wall.

The problem was most spells had a short-range, Chuck's team needed to get within twenty meters of the wall to be effective.

Chuck dropped into a depression that Vigo had created as an arrow sliced across his arm. He hissed, clamping his hand across the wound. Blood gushed from the deep cut as he used mend to seal the wound.

"Everyone ok?" J.C. Velin asked, looking at Chuck.

Chuck nodded, the bleeding had already stopped and the skin was sealing back up to form a scar.

"Alright, we should be close enough to start our attack. Barriers up, let's get this done."

Chuck popped up as Vigo's stone wall appeared. The wall covered them from most attacks. Chuck added his kinetic barrier on top of that, which turned out to be a good plan. Arrows and Ballista impacted the barriers. The ones hitting the top of flying over lost all momentum, crashing to the ground. The rampart was composed of the trough rock of the slope so it could endure a lot of abuse but it wouldn't hold up forever.

With that in mind, the group started focusing spells at the unprotected valley wall, just above the wall of the fortress. Chuck could hear men yelling in the distance and more attacks started coming their way. A bubble of water appeared as a fireball passed through his barrier, exploding. The water prevented anyone from getting burned.

They pelted the wall with spells for fifteen minutes before they were forced to retreat. Even Chuck's scatter bolt spell hadn't done much damage to the hard stone. There was a small gap forming near the top of the wall but that was forty feet above the valley floor.

Retreating in the face of that much fire had been a nightmare. Chuck plopped down behind a large boulder to rest. Like the others in his group, he was spent and suffering from mana exhaustion.

The forces of Bur had yet to breach the shield, still, large sections of the wall were damaged from the constant bombardment. A few minutes later Chuck heard the distinctive whistle, calling for a retreat. The attack had failed.

"Alright, everyone off your lazy asses, we have to move before a counter-attack comes from the fortress."

Chuck learched to his feet, his tired mind hadn't even considered this possibility. Now that all of Nur's mages were exhausted and Vitor's were fresh it could turn into a slaughter.

Despite Chuck's concern his team had to act as a rearguard. It didn't take long to find out why.

A horn blew from the fort as dozens of mages and soldiers rushed out.

It was hell. Chuck's team fought off the first wave of soldiers with ease, cutting them down with spells. Then the mages came. J.C. Velin was a sneaky fuck, catching two enemy mages in a simple trap and dropping a fireball above their heads, roasting them alive. The rest of us were not so skilled.

Chuck got separated and was in a one on one battle with a highly skilled mage. A flash of light blinded Chuck as he ducked behind a boulder he remembered. He misjudged the distance, slamming his shoulder hard into the rock. He blinked rapidly trying to clear his vision before the mage attacked again.

Chuck heard the distinctive whistle of a fireball. He whipped a pressurized water blade at the incoming spell. His aim had been accurate as the spell exploded. Chuck still felt the heat scorch him as he scrambled away from his hiding spot. His hiding skill wouldn't do him any good, he had already tried to use it once. The magical lights illuminating the sky were revealing his location.

Chuck formed a scatter bolt in his mind and waited. He spotted the mage a moment later and fired the spell, not at him but the ground near him. The mage had a powerful defensive shield that direct attacks had failed to penetrate and Chuck didn't have the time to mold spells from the natural elements.

The spell struck a rock just behind the man, exploding into shrapnel. Chuck heard the man curse as a few sharp shards, blown off the rock, managed to cut him.

Chuck took advantage of the man's moment of distraction to fire a pressurized water blade at the ground in front of the mage.

Small rocks and debris were flung up, pelting the mage and forcing him to cover his face.

Chuck took the opportunity to flee.

The enemy didn't pursue the forces of Nur across the river, not that they didn't want to but they couldn't. Ballista and catapult from the camp started pelting the area, forcing the enemy to retreat. Chuck barely had the energy left to cross the river and had to be helped the last few feet by Raina. All of his team had survived and Vigo and Jala had worked together to take down another enemy mage. Everyone sported minor wounds except J.C. Velin. He was uninjured. Chuck went about healing the others with the little mana he had recovered since he fled the mage.

With the battle over, Chuck's team headed towards their tent.

'There wouldn't be any easy fights going forward,' Chuck thought bitterly.