“Relax, everyone. She will be back soon, and we already know this section of the forest is clear,” Lenna said. She created a spider web wall between two trees, and said, “There you go. My part of the defense is done.” They were standing in the middle of five stout trees, and she motioned to the other trees.

This spurred the rest of them into action. The ritualist was almost ecstatic to show off a spell he knew for this. He drew a quick ritual circle and placed a few objects inside. A wall of dirt grew between two trees, along with benches. The rest of them cobbled together a defense that ranged in quality. Some walls were great, some barely passable. Daniela’s wall was the best, her stationary shield fit perfectly between two trees. Hugo decided not to create his own. The wards he had created earlier took a lot of mana. If he didn’t have two domains, he would already be out.

Once they were done, everyone sat down to chat. This was their plan in the first place, so they were happy to have the chance to relax. Alice took out some small snacks and passed them out. Everyone set down their bags and weapons.

Hugo was a bit worried about the other students Sage Emily had run after. He didn’t remember anyone dying on the second culling trip. He didn’t know if that call for help meant that something he did had messed things up, or if this had happened last time and everyone had been saved. He hoped it was the latter.

To distract himself, he went ahead and ranked up. Because of the dean’s recommendations, he already knew where the points were supposed to go. There was no point in waiting to think about it. He mentally selected the rank up and watched his dexterity jump up to thirty one. Then he added another one to dexterity. The plan also had him put a point in strength and intelligence. He didn’t know what benefit intelligence would grant to a barrier domain mage, but at this point, he was willing to trust the dean. He hadn’t steered him wrong yet.

A change shuddered through his body. He instantly felt a little stronger and faster. Hugo shivered in surprise. What was that? He opened up his screen to see what it was.

Cristian Fieraru [Barrier Domain]

Strength 17

Dexterity 32

Resilience 9

Regeneration 13

Intelligence (11)

Wisdom 10

Charisma 11

Perception 11

Rank 12

452/1300 Points

Health 14/14

Mana 20/98

Skills: Mana Dart 2, Mana Sight 2, Fabricate 5, Solidify 8

Frequencies: 400-700, 8-200

Elements: Mithril, Titanium

It looked like his strength and dexterity had instantly gone up. That wasn’t supposed to happen yet. Higher ranked people, over rank twenty or so, were supposed to handle rank ups faster. But Hugo was nowhere near that level. This must be another impact of that botched ritual.

Months ago, he had hated Alexandru. But the ritualist's inept fumbling was having some benefits for Hugo. Especially when he looked at his near hundred points of mana. Or rather, the mana pool. His actual amount on hand was looking rather anemic right now.

Daniela plopped herself down near Hugo and gave him a big smile. Hugo was happy for her company. They chatted about their classes, and gossiped about why Sage Laisk was such a terrible cryptozoology teacher. Hugo’s theory was that she was a drunk, and her glass of water that she always had on her desk was actually vodka. Daniela was convinced that she was a ravim addict because of how she twitched sometimes.

“Hey Hugo,” Lenna said, “Now that we have a free moment, do you want to step outside for a minute so you can tell me about that rumor? I am so curious.”

Hugo glanced outside of their makeshift shelter. It wouldn’t be too hard to get out of earshot and still stay within sight of the rest of the team. On the other hand, there were monsters out there, and this wasn’t urgent.

“I don’t think that would be safe. It isn’t urgent, I can just tell you about it after we get back. I would tell you now, but I don’t want the rumor spread even further,” Hugo said and gestured to the rest of the team.

Lenna frowned and sat by Hugo. She wasn’t letting this go. She turned to everyone, who was looking at them anyway, and said, “Alright, this rumor doesn’t go past this clearing alright?”

Her voice was as cold as ice and everyone was quick to nod. She turned back to Hugo with a serious look on her face. Hugo thought quickly. He needed to tell her something she would believe and act on. But if the rest of the group believed him too, she would be furious with him.

“Alright, so I heard this from a friend of a friend, so the message may have gotten garbled along the way,” Hugo hedged, “The rumor starts off with some ridiculous claims, like the idea that your family is working with the nox hooligans, the tiger gang. I am sure that is false, I know your family is respectable.”

Lenna motioned for him to continue with a bored look on her face. If he didn’t know for a fact that her family was working with the tiger gang, her act would have convinced him.

“The rest of the rumor might have a kernel of truth in it. They claim that your father recently bought several mana cores and is storing them in a secure warehouse. The tiger gang plans on hitting the warehouse before the month is up. They have plans and several stolen shimmer guns, everything they need to make the hit.”

Hugo saw her eyes widen at that, so he continued, “I guess it seems silly, saying it out loud. Who would store a bunch of mana cores like that? I don’t know what your father is really storing in your warehouses, but I figure that it would be worth warning you, so you can beef up security or move them or whatever.”

Lenna smiled and leaned up against the blue barrier Daniela had created. “Thanks for the warning. I doubt my father has anything valuable stored in that warehouse, honestly. We only have the one warehouse and it doesn’t have more than the standard security. Still, knowing that others are spreading rumors about my family is still valuable information. It means that there is some political maneuvering in the shadows.”

The rest of the team turned back to their own conversations, thinking that the rumor was just another boring political power play.

“Hey guys, is it getting dark?” Oliver said.

They all looked up to see that yes, it was getting rather dark. There were some clouds in the sky, but none of them were blocking the sun. It just seemed like the sun was growing dimmer. A few moments later, they saw that it wasn’t the sun growing dimmer, there was just a thick fog rolling in.

“This fog looks like momma ankheg’s fog,” Mark said, “We read about it during the first week in monster class. Should we leave or hide here?”

Hugo knew from experience that this wasn’t the same as a mother ankheg’s fog. He jumped to his feet and created a buckler shield. Daniela joined him. As soon as the both of them were standing, the fog increased.

Seconds after they stood up, the fog increased. Soon, the only thing he could see was his own buckler and Daniela’s buckler and barrier. The other students cried out, but he couldn’t see them. Then Daniela’s barrier cracked. Moments later, it winked out.

Everyone turned to the missing barrier, something was trying to get in. Hugo was starting to suspect that it was a someone. He took his crossbow out and reached into his bag on the ground to load a quarrel. Slowly, he crept forward, peering into the inky darkness. He wanted to just shoot blindly, but he couldn’t risk hitting another student.

“Hey everyone. If you can see mine and Daniela’s shields, get behind me. I am going to shoot,” Hugo said.

No response came. Hugo realized that he hadn’t heard anything from them for a few moments. Their team had a light mage, he should be pushing back the darkness and burning away the fog. Something was wrong.

He whipped around, just in time to accidentally catch a dart on his buckler. The dart spun away, but it had left a crack in his shield. Hugo yelled, “Watch out!” as he created a larger shield and faced it the direction the dart had come from. Another dart struck his larger shield, sending a spiderweb of cracks across its surface. He spent a point of mana to restore the shield and jumped to the side.

It was tough to hear over the frantic pounding in his ears, but it didn’t sound like anyone else was with him in the clearing. Everyone else must have been shot with the dart, either asleep or dead. Hugo decided they were just asleep, because the alternative was unthinkable.

Jumping erratically, Hugo tried to think. It was clear that humans were attacking, probably wanting to kidnap someone. Likely him, unless someone else had recently gained enemies. Another dart hit his shield and cracked it again.

That told him something as well. Whoever this was, they weren’t confident in a face to face fight. The attacker must know that they had to destroy his shield, but they hadn’t come closer or switched tactics. Unfortunately he didn’t have the mana to stay here and protect his friends. If they even needed protection. This was probably hedge mages out to kill him.

Either way, Hugo knew he had to run. He had to remove the attacker’s advantage of the fog and draw them away from his friends.

He created another shield to cover his other side and started running through the forest. Ten feet later, he tripped and fell to the ground. He got back up and continued at a jog. The attacker was following him, as evidenced by the continued attacks.

At first, he wondered if the attacker had unlimited darts, but then he realized that he was throwing small rocks. The rocks were effective though, thrown by someone strong enough to crack and eventually break one of his shields. Shortly after that, the fog quickly faded. He had run out of the artificial fog bank.

Now that he was out of the fog, he put every bit of concentration into running. He turned his remaining shield so it was more aerodynamic and ran all out. Trees whipped by him as he ran and jumped over roots. His increased strength and dexterity made him fast.

His attacker was faster.

Ahead and to his left, a man appeared from behind a tree. He was clad in all black and held a knife and shortsword. The surprise distracted Hugo and he tripped over an unseen tree root. He tucked and rolled, but the impact still destroyed his last shield and shaved off a few more health points.

Hugo jumped to his feet, wielding his crossbow. He tried to fire it, but the string had broken in the fall. Hugo let it fall to the ground, the crossbow quarrel had fallen out anyway. Hugo spotted it on the forest floor, close to the black clad man.

“I was actually trying to be nice about this,” the man said as he stalked forward. “I was going to dart you and carry you to them. You would have just fallen asleep and woken up there. Not now. Now you are going to make the journey in agony.” The way he held his sword and dagger in front of him made Hugo think they were made of lead. The color was right, and lead would protect him against any magic Hugo could throw at him.

“Wait? You aren’t with the hedge mages? Are you just doing a job?” Hugo said.

The man didn’t say anything as he got closer.

“I can pay you more than they would. I am good for it, the dean...” Hugo stopped when he saw the man wasn’t listening. He just kept stalking closer, careful of every motion Hugo made.

Desperate, Hugo tried something he had promised himself he wouldn’t. He solidified a small sphere of mana as he fabricated a cloud of dust inside. Luckily, the mithril/titanium dust didn’t explode right away, as he feared.

He had anchored the sphere of mana to the cloud of metal dust, so it was movable. The sphere dropped into his hand, and he immediately threw it at the man in black.

The mercenary smiled and swiped his sword towards the construct. The lead sword dispelled the blue sphere with a touch, but did nothing to the dust inside. That metal dust spread out in a cloud. It started to fall to the ground, but then the metal alloy hit the right mixture of air and metal and exploded in a wave of force.

Hugo didn’t wait to see how injured the man was, he bolted away immediately. As he ran, he kept his ears open for the sounds of pursuit. He didn’t hear anything, but didn’t dare slow down.

Moments later, the ravine from earlier came into view. He stopped a few hundred feet from the edge. He needed to find the bridge and go get help, but it wasn’t in sight from here. He was fairly certain he needed to turn right from here and follow the edge to the bridge.

A small sound made him check back the way he had come. It was the mercenary. He looked like shit, torn clothes and burn marks. But unfortunately for Hugo, he still looked combat capable. Hugo was pinned between the ravine and a very angry man.