Year 2, Summer, Second Month, First Week.

Lana left them, but this time, she gave Lew a proper goodbye. Unfortunately, he was too tired and battered to care. He wouldn’t survive another strong hit, he could only pray to the Origin, Keller would find a way to help him.

“Why?”

“On the surface? The war against the Sandines has taken a bad turn and the Kingdom has been pushed back. The Royals are using this excuse and the MT beast incident to increase their control over the nobles, but the elemental Houses are pushing back, of course. In reality, something else is happening among the nobles and Royals, it might even be something related to your last job… Anyway, the four regions are increasing security at their borders, giving Merchants a hard time and all. My niece was lucky to get here before they starting taking more extreme measures. I can’t smuggle a wanted criminal outside the Kingdom right now…”

“Keller, I know you have contacts… I’m sure you could…”

“I do, and I could, but you’re a hot potato right now… I’m also to blame because I got you the job, but somehow you got involved in too many things related to the nobles. If I try to smuggle you out, I would probably get you caught and even burn some bridges with you… I’ll try to help you in any way I can, but I think you should leave the city while you still can… Once they connect you to both incidents they might try to track you, so it’s better to get away from any city…”

“That’s… How can I escape, if they really try to track me down? Where can I go?”

“I don’t know… You could try going back to the Tribal Lands and find a Port, the Democracy’s ships exchange goods there a few times a year…”

“Ah… I don’t know if I can cross the wind region again and the Tribal Lands alone… They could have contacts there, who could I trust? Don’t you have another way out?”

“Before the war, we could make a deal with a Sandine War Captain and smuggle you through their lands, but now… The only way I can think is to lay low until things calm down then we could use the regular channels…”

“I can wait, but where? Should I go to a post village?”

“You could, but I have a different option for you… You might even gain something unexpected from it… Look at this.”

Keller passed his dagger to the confused Lew, who couldn’t understand the man’s intention until he cut his thinger analyzing the blade.

“Wow, that’s really sharp… How did you make it? Not even the Royal Army has a blacksmith this good…”

“It’s from my usual blacksmith, but the sharpness comes from the drawings in the metal… It’s called Alchemy.”

“I never saw anything like it… Is it something from the Democracy?”

“No… It’s from a village… What I’m about to tell you is a secret, I’m trusting you to never discuss it again… Somehow, these villagers discovered how to make these enhancements. It goes even beyond that, they discovered how to use magic energy to craft tools that can do all sorts of things… From lightening a cart to moving water inside a tube, they can even make things tougher and stronger…”

“That’s… How? Do you have other enhancements? Is that… Is that how your niece was able to use only one mount to pull a full cart?”

“I have to talk to Lana about hiding our secrets better… But, yes. I don’t know the specifics, but you could look into it… I have to send my men to pick up an order there soon, you could go with them… The villagers might even pay for your services, they’re building a local force…”

“Keller, you wouldn’t be helping them rebel, would you? That would get you killed…”

Keller's answer was a strange smile.

***

Samia moved carefully behind the thick bushes, only stopping from time to time to check if her team was following. Fortunately, she didn’t have to stop to teach them how to move quietly anymore.

When Diana asked her to lead a team, she was very reluctant, unlike her sister who took it naturally. Samia wasn’t communicative and didn’t have leadership skills, she only wanted to do a good job. If that meant she had to lead a team, so she would do it, but in her own way.

For the past three months, she had trained her team in the best techniques she knew, stalking and ambushing beasts. In the beginning, they were a little confused, but they soon started to see the benefits of launching surprise attacks and observing before engaging. Each day that passed, the team was becoming more like Samia.

This unusual profile gave them an edge over wind beasts, that would usually run when threatened by the other teams. This was why Katlyn and Diana, asked Samia to try to hunt the wind horses.

Grandma Marlen explained that wind horses are less aggressive wind beasts, often used as mounts after being tamed. The problem with hunting this beast was that it would run at any sign of danger. To complicate matters, the horses have more sensitive hearing and could run faster than other beasts. So, they could only ask Samia’s team to give it a try.

They would need to be extremely silent to approach the beasts without being heard, and even so, Samia wouldn’t dare to get too close. First, the team was divided into three, Samia and another two archers would get as close as possible before trying to hit them with arrows. Another team, mostly formed by defenders and attackers, would be waiting at the opposite side to scare the horses into a valley, where the rest of the archers waited to shoot when they passed. The plan was simple but could go wrong in many ways, the horses could flee in the opposite directions, the archers could miss all the shots and they could be disturbed by other beasts, but Samia decided to try it anyway.

The wind horses look calm eating grass and flowers, but their ears’ constant movement showed they were actually on alert for dangers. The team was already in place, so Samia decided to put the plan in action. The archers drew the metal arrows, a faint glow could be seen in the enhanced bow. If someone looked carefully, they would be able to see small wind currents forming around the arrowhead. On Samia’s signal, the two archers let the arrows fly.

Milliseconds apart, the two arrows drew an arc in the sky before descending over the group of five wind horses. The first arrow dove into the ground beside a horse, but the second went through another horse’s leg earning a grave cry from the beast. Samia jumped from the bushes while the archers try to uselessly shoot more arrows. Before they finished drawing the arrow, the horses were already fleeing from the fast-running Samia. In less than five seconds, the horses travel the marked distance and Samia had to whistle to remind the stunned team members to act.

Fortunately, their late response didn’t prevent the beasts to turn towards the planned direction. The wounded horse was getting behind, yet it still wasn’t slow enough to be caught by Samia. But she didn’t give up and continue to chase after the wind horses. In a matter of seconds, they were already on the ambush mark. Samia made a silent prayer, hoping the archers would adjust their shoots to horses’ fast speed.

Another volley of arrows flew, this time with five wind enhance arrows. The painting Samia increased her speed when she heard the beasts’ cry, thankfully she was using enhanced boots with the Lightness Rune, otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to run this much.

The scene was confusing but she couldn’t stop to think about it. Two wounded horses tried to stand up but looked tangled to a third fallen one. One finally got away, trampling his brethren, but Samia was already on it. She jumped holding her dagger and thrust it into the beast’s side. The attack could have killed the beast but she couldn’t care about it at the moment. It neighed and tried to kick her, but she rolled away before it could. The beast tried to ran away but Samia barred its way. It turned to flee in the opposite direction but it crashed with several metal-wooden shields.

The defenders spread and pinned the beast down, while Sami was already checking other horses. One horse looked too wounded to stand with two arrows carved into its legs while the other had fainted, probably trampled by the others. She breathed a sigh of relief before starting to organize their return.