When I exited the portal, instead of my room, I found myself in the middle of a dark, damp forest.

“What the―” I started, but an arrow flew from the trees and missed me by a hair length. My instincts kicked in. I unslung Astrapi and attempted to fire an arrow, then realized one of my hands was missing. Instead, I summoned a fireball and threw it at the tree.

“You cannot hit us, human,” a hissing scraping voice that I was all too familiar with came from the trees.

I groaned “More shades?!”

“I see that you are familiar with our kind, human,” the voice hissed, “But that will do nothing to save you!”

I growled and used Elementalism to send out a wave of flame.

“You will have to do better than that human!” The voice rasped.

“Wasn’t aiming at you,” I grunted and the wave of fire separated into hundreds of spears and flew back towards me. I heard a few screams and the howls of dying shades traveled to me in the wind.

“You may have killed 6 of us, but there are still 19 of us remaining!” the voice growled.

“Thanks for telling me how many of you there are,” I commented. Then I used Hurricane and Firestorm together. The shades were sucked in by the hurricane and then burned by the fire, killing them. Unfortunately, some managed to grab onto trees and the hurricane only managed to reveal their locations.

“Got you now!” I cried and started sending off white flames, lancing through shades.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, warning me of danger. I whirled around, only for a ball of blackness to slam into my chest and throw me into a tree, knocking me unconscious.

When I regained my consciousness, I was in a cage of some sort. I tried to gather my bearings, but the shades probably injected a substance into me that prevented me from thinking clearly. I felt around, feeling that there was some sort of cloth covering the cage. My hands and feet were bound and there was a gag on my mouth. Wait, hands? My hand grew back! Yay!

I tried to use Firestorm, but I felt some sort of resistance and the spell failed. I tried Lightning Discharge, but the spell failed as well. I wracked my mind to try and find a solution, but the toxin that the shades might have injected into me was probably in my mind since I also felt moderately groggy and nauseous. I tried to call for Iris but failed. I thought for a while, then used Healing Discharge on myself. This time, the spell worked. My head instantly cleared and my grogginess was swept away. I then tried Dragon’s Blessing, which also failed. After that, Camouflage failed.

Why did Healing Discharge work when my other spells failed? I thought to myself. I ran through the possibilities, but right now I couldn’t find a reason for why this would happen. I then tried Elementalism. A bright golden flame in my palm shot up, warming me and giving me vision, but when I attempted to burn the cloth, nothing happened. I checked myself over for Revanis and Kosmar but couldn’t find them. I growled, trying to think of a way to get out of my problem.

Then, I thought of an idea that I hadn’t thought of before and decided that I was officially the champion of stupidity. I wiggled my feet over to the bars of the cage and tried to push the cloth with my toes. It revealed my surroundings for a moment. I saw that the cage was moving fast and the ocean was blurring by before the cloth flapped back down and covered the cage again. I pushed the cloth again and it flapped open for a moment. I saw a human strategizing with a shade. The human was dressed in a distinct black outfit. I could barely hear the human speak. All I could make out was, “Mages - here - attack - win - please - king - Thazzamos - Kaige!”

Then, a shade walked over and held open the cloth. He glared at me with a look of hatred in his eyes. “I do not know why The Mastermind wants you alive. But let it be known that I, Irutt, the Shade of Shadows, do not approve of your continued existence!”

“Wow, your title is so creative!” I sniped back.

“Silence, stupid human! Do not make me regret my decision to let you live and instead strike you down at this very moment!” Irutt glared at me as if I was a puny ant far below him, and if looks could kill, I would be a pile of smoking ash on the ground.

“Fine, fine,” I held up my arms as a sarcastic means of surrender.

Irutt glared at me one last time, then released the cloth, which covered the cage once more. I was enveloped in darkness once more. I was afraid to summon more flames, for fear that the shades would discover it and put me in a far more secure cage that I would have no chance of escaping.

The minutes passed by, minutes turning into hours and hours turning into days. Each second I felt that I was going more insane than the previous. Then, I had another sudden realization, which furthermore affirmed my position as the champion of stupidity.

Why didn’t I communicate with Iris? I’m such an idiot! I tried to open a mental communication channel with Iris, but just as I was about to reach Iris, the thread snapped like a pair of scissors cutting string, leaving me once again stranded in my own mind. Welp, I guess that was an idiotic idea as well!

The days passed by like they were seconds until I felt my cage moving. It felt like I was being moved down a ramp. I lifted the cloth just for a second. Apparently, I had been on a ship and was being loaded onto a strange-looking thing that looked similar to a truck.

“Why do we have to deliver this stupid human?!” A voice that sounded like Irutt growled, “Why don’t we just kill him and keep killing humans?”

“Irutt, the Mastermind ordered us to do this! We cannot disobey direct orders! He would have our heads!” A serpentine voice sighed, “Irutt, how about this: after we deliver this idiotic human, we go on a killing spree!”

“Fine, Captain Fovos!” Irutt sighed, and I heard the sound of footsteps fading in the background.

Wait… Captain Fovos? Amartia talked about him! For Amartia to mention him, he must be very powerful! Especially with Irutt also in the picture; he seems very aggressive towards me. Escape will be difficult, if not impossible... I sighed.

Then, the ground below me started moving. I looked below me, then realized that the truck-like vehicle was pulling my cage along.

I sighed, a million useless thoughts running through my head. I yawned and fell asleep in blissful darkness.