The light that Chelsea brought upon them threw them into chaos as they have figured out that they have been found out. As they started to look for the one who cast the spell, Vesper was already at their leader's tent, waiting for the right moment to slit his throat. When it was time for me to do my part, I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my blood as I immediately rushed toward their camps. I counted 17 cultists, with two right in the range of my ax. They started murmuring with their lips, but before the spell could be cast, I took a big swing, and the blood spilled from their necks onto the ground. But right after that, I felt a ray of fire hitting my back. As I noticed the remaining 15 doing the same thing, I immediately looked for cover behind a rock. I was a bit late to that rock, so I got hit a few more times, and they burned my arm, causing a really deep sense of pain.

“CHELSEA, SOME COVER PLEASE” I yelled out, desperate for some magical support.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the cult leader walking out of his tent. As soon as he steps foot outside of that tent, Vesper aims for his throat with a dagger. The cultist was caught by surprise, however, he successfully dodged that strike and used his staff to hit Vesper instead. Vesper did not anticipate that, as he got knocked back into the tent. The cult leader then proceeded to go inside while chanting a spell under his lips. The next thing I heard was thunder inside that tent.

Fire erupted from the place where Chelsea was at to the cultists. About half of the cultists were killed from that move alone. I looked at Chelsea, she seems to be losing her balance. Magic deficiency, it must have been from casting that big spell. As the remaining cultists were dropped off guard, I hurried out of the rock and rushed towards them. I came for the ones that were chanting spells first. Mages are usually very fragile, so my ax easily sank into their skins as their defenses failed them. Only 5 cultists are left, some of them are making a run for it. As I prepared to chase them, I heard a voice behind my back.

“YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR, MY FELLOW BELIEVERS”

The cult leader walks slowly towards me, behind him is Vesper, levitating on air, unconscious. There was a lump in my throat as I knew what was going to happen. The cult leader had a grim look on his face.

“We wanted peace, we wanted to spread our prosperity to others. Instead of open arms with gifts and flowers, you chose to point your blades and your wands at us? Take another step and I will freeze his heart” He said to me, angrily.

“CAPTURE THEM,” He said to his followers

The remaining cultists proceeded to capture us. As most of them came closer to me, Chelsea murmured a spell, the cultists noticed this, and the one that was capturing her sank a knife down her abdomen. Despite the pain, Chelsea kept on casting that spell, unleashing the same hail of fire down on the area surrounding the cult leader, Vesper, and I. However, the cult leader warped away just in time with Vesper. All the cultists and I were hit with the spell, and the fire burned so much that all of the cultists died and a piece of my armor melted. It was painful, but I managed to stay alive, as I saw Chelsea collapsing.

I crawled to Chelsea with whatever strength I still had. When I got to her body, I searched for something a mage always carries with them, a potion. She had 3 healing potions for each of us, so I took one and drank it. I felt some of the burns on my body heal up, and some strength was coming back to me. I drank another potion, and most of the pain is now gone, and I fed her the last one. The wound in her abdomen slowly closed on itself, but she was still passed out from the magic deficiency.

I could not believe it. Vesper was gone, taken away to Gods know where, we were defeated horribly, and the cult leader escaped. We did not expect this many cultists to escape, we certainly did not expect the leader to be strong enough to take out Vesper in a fight. Vesper was a genius at what he does, and the leader defeated him in a matter of seconds. The word “how” kept on repeating itself in my head, as I was lying there, next to Chelsea, on the battlefield.

After a while, I decided to get up. I went inside the leader’s tent as I wanted to know where they might have taken Vesper to. I looked for any hint, any word that might have information about any location that Vesper might be taken to. There were some writings about the city of Cevine, in the country of Magicae, where the religion that the cult follows is gaining power there. That must be where Vesper is being taken to. As I was about to finish reading, the pages mentioned some frightening facts. The night the cult was raided by my mercenary group, they anticipated that, and that is how most of them managed to escape. The writings had too much information on my mercenary group, about where we live, how many of us there are, our abilities, among other information that should have been kept secret... Another thing I found that was strange, was that there were more than 70 cultists that escaped, but we only fought 17. It was then I realized it, as I rushed out of the tent as fast as possible, picked Chelsea up and carried her on my shoulders, and rushed back to the mercenary hideout.

I ran and ran, with Chelsea on my shoulder, and prayed and prayed that it was not what I thought it would be, that the other mercenaries would still be there, drinking their lives off. I prayed and prayed that I would still see Issak and Goodwin laughing at each other and that everything was safe while we were gone.

As I was running, I found some horses by the farmers’ houses. I didn’t want to be a thief, but I could only go so fast on foot, and with Chelsea on my shoulders, I would be too late. So I took the only option and bolted towards the hideout. I felt sorry for the farmers that saved up their money to buy those horses, but I had more important matters.

My greatest fear became true, the hideout was raided by the cult. I saw Issak and Goodwin and other mercenaries killing cult members with greatswords, as I left Chelsea on the horse and ran into battle with the others. The first two cult members that I saw both missed their spells, and I was able to slice their throats because of that. Then, a big Warrior brought his sword down on me. I was barely able to block that with my ax. Then he kicked me with his leg and I was sent flying to the wall. The shock stunned me for a bit, but I was able to come to it and dodged before he brought the sword down on me again. Realizing I could not win against him in this open terrain, I decided to run into my room. He chased me with blood lust and true killing intent in his eyes. I came into my room, and so did he. He brought that sword down on me again, but this time, it hit the ceiling and got stuck. Taking advantage of that, I cut his knees, bringing him down to his legs, and slit his throat. After that, I tried to run out of the room, but one of the cultists shot me with a Blast spell, knocking me back into the walls of my room, stunning me for a while. As I was stunned, he immediately chanted a Fireball, hitting the ceiling in front of my room, and trapping me in.