Elizabeth vont Whitby was beautiful and seeing her under the moonlight only magnified her charm. However, Elizabeth was also blunt, awkward, and Will also felt he was being investigated when he was around her. Even now The water tower guard returned after informing Chloe and the instructors of a possible night raid.

"As light mages, we heal people by sharing our mana. We imbue our mana in their skin, bones, or mana pool to return people to full health. But when I tried filling your mana pool, your mana pool didn't want a little bit of mana, it wanted to devour all my mana, it scared me," she said staring out into the night sky.

Will stumbled, "I'm sorry for scaring you. It was not my intent to suck so much mana from you." Honestly, Will felt ashamed for hurting someone who came to help him.

"No Will, you don't understand!" Elizabeth shouted, tears streaming down her face. "I was scared that I couldn't heal you! Seeing you out there, risk your life, encouraging others, you save lives, Will. You brought the fractured first years back together. You don't know how bad it was in the prairie. The five of us, the first-year light mages were terrified of going into the prairie. But today, today was the first time, we felt protected, and it was because of you. I feared what would happen if I weren't able to heal you and that worried me." Elizabeth wiped her tears.

"…"

Will failed to come up with a comforting immediate response. Thankfully, Elizabeth's determined face slowly crept into a soft smile.

"Remind me to never upset you," Will said, which caused Elizabeth's smile to widen.

Elizabeth followed Will, as he continued to fortify the walls. Elizabeth returned to asking Will difficult invasive questions about his business, mana pool, Elder Thaddeus' lessons, family, and his time at the Knight and Mage Academies. As Will walked the circuit casting [rock wall], he grew tired of evading Elizabeth's inspective questions. On Earth, Will hated being interviewed. He attended enough Public Relations meetings to know what and what not to say. People don't want honesty; they want to be uplifted or entertained. 'People call me a cynic,' Will thought, but based on his experiences people wanted to be inspired, wowed, comforted. Will answered Elizabeth's questions with platitudes, small stories, or maxims.

After the last spell, Will felt a little drained, but the fort had a meter thick, four-meter-high rock wall exterior. Will interrupted Elizabeth, tired of her incessant questioning, "Elizabeth how come you're always glaring at me, asking questions, and giving me a hard time?" Will asked.

She answered in earnest, "I grew up observing my father's interaction with others, and most people try to curry favor with him and have dubious ulterior motives. Most of the people families meet are cruel, bigots, out for power, stepping over others to gain more power. But, you treat everyone fairly, beastmen, commoners, nobles, the church, all these groups respect you, you also don't seem to have any hidden motives, you just want to be a merchant. I want to learn why you like coins so much?"

Will finally understood, why Elizabeth looked at him so intently, it was because he acted differently from the people of Terra. Will's behaviors, mannerisms, speech, were all customs of his life back on Earth. The ploys of medieval noblemen were of no use to him. On Earth and Terra, the medieval period was characterized by nobles fighting each other to gain more political power. More political power equaled more wealth. Merchants were minor nobles, and owning a store was less significant than owning a fief. This world had not experienced the Industrial Revolution, where merchants replaced aristocrats in the hierarchy. When Will realized how his pursuit was considered strange, even for a third son, he realized he needed to work on blending in better.

"Actions don't lie. People say a lot of things, but until spending their coin, it's meaningless. The value of gold beats the value of their words," Will responded truthfully for the first time in the conversation.

Elizabeth's eyes grew wide like she had a breakthrough finally understood Will. "Good evening Will," Elizabeth said walking away.

As she left another head popped through the watchtower latch, it was Anne.

"Will," Anne said blushing, realizing the intimacy of the moment, with only Will and the guard present.

"I wanted to let you know that Grace and I finished the inventory list for the wagons. We are all set to go," she said looking a Will with lust-filled eyes. After she and Grace finished, she came over here to report the fact to Will, only to see Elizabeth speaking with him on the watchtower. Her heart filled with sadness and rage. She did not like the little duchess, who always hovered around Will. She came up here to run that woman off, thankfully Will convinced her to leave before Anne got there.

When Elizabeth passed Anne on the watchtower, spiral steps, there's eyes locked and both frowned simultaneously, yet they refused to greet one another.

Besides reporting on the inventory list, Anne wanted to congratulate Will on his performance during the beast wave. Anne watched Will cull the beast wave, and Anne's heart leaped with joy watching Will's impressive display of strength. She thought about going for a kiss, but then her body flushed with a deep shade of red. She lowered her eyes, Will and she was just friends, and she worried that pursuing Will would hurt their friendship. She resolved herself to be Will's most supportive friend and help him accomplish his goals whatever they might be. She wanted Will to know she was dependable, that is how Will would realize she was the only one for him, and propose.

Anne and Will talked for several minutes. Anne was astonished that Will fortified the walls. She sometimes wondered that if Will did not pursue the Infantry Command Post, he would have won easily. With his power and respect, who would go against his orders.

Suddenly, alarm bells rang, torches were lit, guards were shouting orders. The marshals shouted for the cadets to stay in the barracks. Anne turned ghostly white when she heard the soldier next to her say, "a grandmaster beast is attacking!"

Will helped Anne walk down the spiral staircase and to her run. When the cadets saw Will escorting Anne to her barrack-room, gossip spread of their upcoming engagement announcement. Will closed her door before he ran back to the top of the fort's wall.

"What are you doing here brat," yelled the third-year Marshall, Marshall Brown. "You think your little stunt was impressive this afternoon. Do you like showing off?" he asked, before shouting more orders to the guards. "Why don't you watch how a real hero leads," he said proudly before storming off.

"Where did these stone walls come from?" shouted the lieutenant commander. The soldiers pointed at Will, and the lieutenant shook his hands thanking him, before yelling at the soldiers to fall in line.

This time Will stood in the back, behind the soldiers. The marshals stood in front of the soldiers, swords in their hands ready to parry and then attack.

The 24th bell echoed, as Will saw streaks of black moving against the night sky. Even with the moonlight, it was difficult to see the panther approach. The panther camouflage in the shadows, making it hard to see. If the panther wasn't running no one would have spotted it.

The panther was two meters long, with red leopard prints, the retractable claws gripped the ground as it sped further and further towards the fort's walls.

"Loose," yelled the lieutenant as over 20 arrows flew toward the intruder. "Reload…aim…loose," commanded the lieutenant, repeating the order, again and again, over a hundred arrows flew at the panther, dodging each one before it made it to the wall.

The night, was when the panther was the strongest, its eyes could see as well in the night as it could in the day. The panther was angry, angry about the intruders, angry about the destruction of the prairie, angry the beast tide did not kill the soldiers. The panther roared its disappointment and desire to taste human flesh once again.

As the panther began to climb the rock wall, its claws dug deep into the rock. The panther slowly climbed up the wall roaring and licking its mouth in anticipation of a good meal.

The marshals rained down slashes, cuts, swings, and strikes. The three marshals were with their muscular arms, and torsos looked like demi-gods. The marshals were all master knights and were strong cultivators. In Fermion, becoming a marshal was a grueling process, similar to special forces back on Earth. On Earth, each country had its special forces, that trained in difficult environments to weed out the weak and test the strength. Only the strongest of knights could become marshals after a distinguished army career. These men were no exception, their speed, strength, teamwork was all trained in hellish exercises. They were trained to kill and how to kill. They coordinated their blows, like the rhythmic beating of a drum.

The panther clawed the marshals, ripe their holes in their metal armor, and bit a steel sword in half. The panther fought and was able to push the marshals back, as the cat slowly climbed higher up the walls, eventually making it to the top of the walls. The dire beast cast [roar], a deafening noise erupted, rupturing the soldiers' eardrums. Several soldiers dropped their swords and shields to cover their ears and wipe the blood dripping down their cheeks. The panther took the chaos to bite through a defenseless soldier.

Will stared at the visceral image of the soldiers' internal organs spilling out his body. The panther ate the soldier's liver, before moving on to its next immobilized prey. The panther cut through the line of ten soldiers eating their livers, heart, kidney, spleen, and other vital organs. As the soldiers recovered and the archers moved to support the collapsed deaf soldiers, the panther cast [rage] and it seemed to temporarily grow in size, increase its speed and dexterity. Arrow and swords missed, as the panther dodged the soldiers' strikes. Dodging and attacking, then panther's claws decapitated soldiers, amputated the arms or legs, and stabbed through their iron armor.

All of a sudden, a loud war cry reverberated in the fort, lifting the spirits of the soldiers. Rocky, who stood beside Will charged out, full of fury. Rocky thrust out his lance, hitting the unsuspecting panther in the ribs. The lance crumbled into a ball of iron. But the blow still sent the panther flying back over the wall, back down to the earth. Rocky jumped off the wall as well. The beast and rocky traded blows. Will channeled his Gaia's blessing to boost Rocky's mana while lowering the mana drain.

The grandmaster panther easily ripped off Rocky's head, only for Rocky to bear hug the giant cat, like a small child lovingly hugging her pet cat. The panther struggled, using its hind legs and claws to rip boulder size rocks off Rocky's body. Yet, Rocky regenerated each time.

The marshals seeing Rocky restrain the dire beast also jumped down from the walls onto the ground and begin to slice the panther's soft underbelly open. The panther roared, and raged, as the marshals cut the panther open. The panther struggled but was unable to open Rocky's vice grip. Even with Gaia's blessing activated, Will felt the mana drain stream out his body. Rocky's constant regeneration against a grandmaster dire beast, was more than against the entire beast horde.

Finally, after 30 minutes of constant strikes, the panther stopped moving. Its entrails spilled onto the dirt. The dead soldiers' organs were visible in the panther's open body. More than one soldier vomited at the sight. Rocky threw the dead cat down, and Marshall Brown handed Rocky the panther's purple mana core. Rocky nodded to the marshals before handing Will the purple core.