A wave of fire brushed over Gina. She crossed her arms over her head, covering herself with a small mana field as she was showered with hot mana.

Mallory outstretched his hands, and tentacles grew out from the ground where each of the siblings was, latching on to their legs.

“Magic!” Jules yelled struggling to pull his leg out. “Gina!”

“I’m busy!” she yelled, her leg dragging her to the ground as she tried not to get scorched.

Mercy dived headfirst from the trees, activating her energy blade.

Gina, keeping on her shield up with one hand, pointed towards the center of the field.

Mana shields appeared over Jules and Dot as well, protecting them as Mercy’s energy blade swept over the entire area.

Stewart used that time to run for his sister.

“Helia!” he cried.

He didn't get far before Juniper rammed him with her shoulder from the side. Stewart was launched violently to the side, rolling over the floor. Jon decided this would be a good time to shoot Juniper, who stood menacingly where Stewart was.

Join decided that this would be a good time to start shooting. He raised his gun to his eye level, aiming at Juniper.

He hesitated when he saw that Juniper wasn’t alarmed at all. At the sight of him, she smiled.

“Go on,” she said. “I wanna see what you got.”

Jon grimaced and fired.

The wave of energy washed over, brushing her hair to the side but otherwise having no effect.

“What a nice breeze,” Juniper said, her hair still fluttering from the energy.

Jon was still trying to decide whether to shoot again when she was already charging towards him.

He dived to the side, out of the way of her wide heel. He landed on the ground afar, turning around while willing his body to slide on the floor away from her. He shot rapidly in her direction before he crashed into a tree.

Whoops. Despite being able to slide his body anywhere, Jon wasn’t braced for the impact of the tree. Upon collision, he was free of pain but incredibly disoriented.

Hector broke his stream fire and ran to Gina while drawing his sword.

“You’re kidding me!” Gina asked, finally putting down her shield. “You think ‘cause I can use magic-”

She ducked and deflected several of Hector’s swings with her sword.

“-that you’re a better fighter than me?”

Her hands crackled with lightning before reaching up and grabbing Hector’s face.

Lightning energy exploded from his head and Gina's hands, causing him to scream out in pain.

“I’ve seen you fight!” Gina said in glee. “I know how weak you are!”

Nearby, Dot and Mercy had started fighting, Dot having freed herself from the tentacle. She managed to grab on the wrist of Mercy’s sword hand and tried to twist it to disarm her.

“You’re not stronger than me!” Dot said, raising her voice.

“Don’t underestimate me!” Mercy replied in kind. Jon didn’t want to imagine the amount of mana both women were trying to put overcome one another.

“Sorry about this!” Jon just barely blocked Jules’ kick with his gun, which came at him from the side.

Even if Jon’s gun barrel had taken the brunt of the blow, he still slid across the floor until he crashed into the bottom of another tree.

“Get her!” Jules yelled, pointing elsewhere before pursuing Jon.

Jon looked to see where he was pointing. Helia was on the ground, inching herself across towards Stewart’s unconscious body.

Juniper, who was holding Mallory over her head at the moment, tossed him in Jon’s direction before running to Helia.

Jon shot the incoming Mallory, the blast catching him stymieing his descent.

The last of the momentum landed him on Jon’s lap with a mildly hard crash.

“Thanks, Jon,” Mallory groaned. “Sorry.”

Juniper was already heaving Helia with ease over her shoulder.

Mallory stretched his arms, and the ground underneath Jon began to glow.

Tentacles reached up from the ground. Jon thought that he would attempt to trap Juniper, but instead, they quickly wrapped around Helia’s upper body, tugging away at her.

Juniper seemed to be straining from pulling away Helia.

Jon tried to ready for the perfect shot.

He was already looking down the barrel of his gun when Juniper suddenly let go of Helia and dropped to the floor.

Even before the tendrils could pull Helia’s body to the ground, Juniper managed to swing her leg underneath.

The tendrils, upon contact with her foot, dispersed one by one until they were mostly gone.

Helia landed on Juniper’s shoulder, and Juniper stomped out one last tendril before hopping away into the forest.

Jon was in no position to chase or shoot, and neither was Mallory.

“Damn it! That was kinda cool!” Mallory said, the annoyance very present in his voice.

Jon wanted to chase after her, but the scene looked bad. Mercy was caught in a bear hug by Dot, who was laughing maniacally while squeezing Mercy's chest with her arms.

Hector was getting slapped around by Gina, who accentuated her punches by switching between lighting and fire mana upon contact.

Jon saw Jules coming from the side, turning and shooting at him.

Jules quickly ducked behind a tree.

Jon nearly cursed himself in his head.

Useless…

Jon was focusing on his own negativity when Tallow made her appearance, descending from a tree foot first toward Gina.

Gina leaped back in time to avoid the hit, but Tallow thrusted her shoulder forward.

Wind mana gust forward, catching Gina and using her momentum to carry her into a tree some distance away.

Tallow drew her sword and turned to Dot and Mercy, still struggling in their grapple.

“Human shish Kebab in 3, 2…”

Dot kicked Mercy away, a slight grin on her face before leaping away into the trees as well.

“Let’s go!” Tallow said, readying herself for the chase.

She relaxed her running stance when she saw the state of the others.

Stewart was still unconscious on the ground.

Hector was on his knees, catching his breath while also looking incredibly frustrated with himself.

Jon and Mallory were still on the floor at the base of the tree.

Mercy was the only one still standing, but even she was out of breath.

“...Shit,” Hector finally said when he caught his breath, punching the floor. “Mallory, what happened with the spell? I thought you had every one.”

“I did,” Mallory said, brushing his robe off as he and Jon stood back to their feet. “But Juniper, I think? That one, She can disperse mana super quickly. Like, not, like just punch it, but like-”

Jon looked over to where Juniper had been sitting. Her book had been dropped on the ground.

He walked over to it and picked it up.

“Is that a book?” Mallory jogged over and snatched it from Jon.

“Mana and Me? A Guide to…”

Despite having a tanned skin tone, Jon saw what he thought was a shade of blush pass over his cheeks.

He handed the book back to Jon.

“Okay… uh…” Mallory coughed uncomfortably. “I think we’re screwed in the mana department,

Jon handed the book back to Mallory, who absent-mindedly took it and put it in his bag.

“What happened to you guys?” Tallow asked. “I step out one moment, and it all goes to hell!”

“They were gonna hurt Helia,” Hector said. “So, I had to step in, and-”

“And get hurt instead?” Tallow responded. “Great plan!”

“They were gonna hurt her,” Mercy said. “I agree with Hector there. But they also had reason not to hurt her. They were arguing over-”

“They weren’t arguing enough,” Hector cut in. “But…”

He took a breath a lost a bit of his indignation. “What happened to you?”

It took Tallow a moment before she understood that Hector was asking her.

A glance of annoyance quickly covered her face.

“Oh yeah!” she said. “I couldn’t find Stewart’s damn letter! I went through that whole cart ten times over, and-”

She looked around. “Where is he?

Her question was answered when she found him on the ground.

“Aw, shit!” she jogged over to his side.

“...Maybe it’s safer if we leave him like this…” Mallory said. “Keep him out of danger.”

“Don’t leave me!” Stewart pushed himself partway up. “I’m here! I’m here!”

“...You were faking!” Tallow brought her leg back to kick him.

“No! No!” Stewart held his hands out in fear. “I was hit so hard, I was in between a state of existence and inexistence. It was like my soul left my body, ascended to another plane, and then I heard my sister saying that she was gonna leave me, and…”

He looked up at Tallow before pointing at her with glee.

“I have it!” He said. He reached inside of his shirt and pulled out a scroll. “I have-”

He rolled clumsily out of the way before Tallow’s foot could catch him.

He crawled backward before Tallow made a third attempt.

“I forgot!” Stewart added, putting his hand out in protest. “I got scared. I don’t… I don’t trust that guy, but… I just feel so… so tired… so very tired…”

He put his hand on his forehead. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Mercy reassured him. “This is stressful. Especially without experience.”

She looked up at Tallow with a hopeful look.

Tallow huffed. “Fine. But how do we get this girly back? We’re gonna get exhausted chasing after them. I mean, I won’t, but-”

“You won’t be able to take them on yourself,” Mercy said for her.

“You said it, not me,” Tallow said shrugging.

“And that seems to be their game plan,” Mercy said. “Keep us chasing after them until we get exhausted. I know I won’t. But…”

She frowned at the others.

“I think I understand it,” Hector said. “Remember back at the house? When Jack came? What if he wasn’t alone?”

“You mean what if someone was hiding in the forest?” Mercy asked. “Someone… undetectable?”

Hector nodded. “They grabbed Helia afterward, right? We were exhausted, but they didn’t fight us.”

“Probably cause it was only one of them,” Mercy responded. “Too many, and I might have noticed.”

“Jack must have trained them to use the forest to their advantage,” Hector said. “That’s why he just let us enter in here.”

“Especially with these trees,” Mercy said. “Maybe he knows someone in the clans. Someone who has training in this stuff. It’s not likely, but…”

She sighed. “What do we do?”

“...We give them what they want,” Tallow said. “We split up.”

“What?” Hector stood up finally. “Why would we do that? I thought we were supposed to stick together.

“Work together. Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” she said. “I don’t think they’re gonna stick together, cause any of them can carry her anywhere.”

“...If we decide to split up, then they’ll decide to attack us,” Mercy said. “I see…”

“...no, I don’t see,” Hector said.

“They want us to split up so that they can pick us off,” Mercy said. “That’s why they’re making us chase them. People tend to fall apart and lose formation in a chase. And they have the advantage with Helia.”

“Then they’ll probably come and pilfer out bodies when they’re done,” Tallow muttered. “The freggin’ lowlifes.”

“And we have to chase them,” Hector said. “Cause if we takes too long, they’ll cut their loses and leave.”

“So, we split up,” Tallow repeated. “Make them come to us.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Hector said. “Fighting alone…”

“Who cares,” Tallow said. “We just need to get them to think they have a chance.”

“And we’ll split up in teams,” Mercy said. “That way, we’ll always have our back covered.”

Hector groaned, but he added his piece.

“And one of them will have to keep an eye on Helia… so they can’t be at full power if they do attack.”

“And if they do, we’ll save Helia, then we'll fight them together,” Mercy said, “right?”

“Right,” Hector responded with his own nod. “So, how do we split?”

“Assuming they’re using squad-based tactics,” Mercy said, “I think they’re gonna go after us based on roles. They’ll probably assume that Mallory and Jon are backline spellcasters.”

“We are,” Mallory said, “I mean, Jon’s not.”

“But they don’t have to know that,” Mercy said. “He has a gun, so they don’t expect him to be physically strong.”

“I think Jon’s still gonna get his butt whooped by whoever gets close enough to him,” Tallow said. “But sure.”

Jon agreed. He wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight.

“Doesn’t matter,” Mercy said. “Jon does a lot more n close quarters than you think, and they won’t expect his maneuverability, so, they’ll get exhausted chasing after him.

She looked at Hector. “They already know your fighting ability, and they probably think you’re weak, so they’ll try to go after you next.”

“Right…” Hector looked away in shame.

“It’s not just a game of numbers,” Mercy said. “They won’t go after me because they don’t know what I’m capable of. They’ll want to push their advantage…”

“While we want to even up the playing field.” Hector nodded in understanding. “Okay.”

Mercy looked at Tallow. “You’re injured, so they’ll probably assume you’re at a disadvantage as well, making you a target.”

“Let them,” Tallow said. “Even at a disadvantage, I’ll kick their asses.”

“I know,” Mercy said.” In that case, I think it’s safer for me and Tallow to stick together.

“That would mean that me, Jon, and Mallory would be together,” Hector said. “Don’t they consider us all weak?”

“Exactly,” Mercy said. “But you’ll be together. So, it’s not like they can just pick off one person. They’ll have to attack in the group. Same with me and Tallow.”

“So, they’ll be less likely to attack us on weakness and attack us based on confidence of victory,”

Hector summated, his head bobbing up and down slowly.

“Who died and made you team leader?” Tallow asked her, clearly in jest.

“I think I’m just so close to home, and…”

“It doesn’t matter where good ideas come from,” Hector said. “If everyone’s aboard.”

“What about me?” Stewart asked.

“...Stay with us,” Tallow said. “That way, if they try to take you as a hostage, I can kill you and lessen the burden.”

Stewart's curious expression melted off of his face. “Oh…”

“Your job…” Mercy said, walking up to him, “is to free your sister.”

She reached in a small bag tied to his hip and pulled out Helia’s orange dagger.

She handed it to him.

“You have one for each of you, right?” she asked.

“...Right,” Stewarts said, softly.

“...Let’s go.” Mercy began walking away, Tallow following after her.

“Wait!” Hector tossed a small green gem at Mercy.

She caught it over her shoulder before turning around.

“There’s very little mana left in it,” Hector said. “You have maybe a few seconds before staying in contact, but-”

“Thanks,” Mercy said. “If it gets too dark, we’ll meet back up at the wagon.”

“Agreed,” Hector said, nodding.

“Try not to die, any of you!” Tallow said, pointing at them. “You three have a knack for that sort of thing.”

She turned after Mercy. Stewart, after breaking his trance, followed after them.

“I’m at your every command!” Stewart exclaimed as he came to their sides.

“...Don’t do that,” Tallow muttered.

Jon, Hector, and Mallory turned to each other.

“So, how about us,” Hector asked. “Mallory, can you track them?”

“Not unless one of them makes a mana spell large enough to do that,” Mallory responded. “And they seem to enjoy slapping people around more than doing that. Even their spellcaster’s very reserved.”

Hector grumbled.

“You never fought another fighter like yourself, right?” Mallory asked. “Is that what’s bugging you?”

“I’ll deal with it,” Hector said. “Like I always do. Or like we… you know what I mean.”

“What if you try casting magic?” Mallory asked. “Maybe you’ll surprise her.”

“What, no,” Hector said. “She obviously has more experience than me.”

Mallory’s grin sprinted across his face.

“I mean, of course, she has more experience than me,” Hector said, trying to quickly amend his statement. He coughed uncomfortably. “Why would I risk something like-”

There was some beeping, from Mallory’s side bag. Mallory quickly reached in and handed the gem to Hector.

The tree boys gathered around the gem.

“Hector!” Mercy’s voice spoke separately through the gem. “We found her! They have her here! She-”

“Heads!” Mallory yelled suddenly, ducking.

Jon hadn’t completely processed Mallory’s warning but was scared enough to duck as well.

Hector didn’t mimic their movements but moved his chest out of the way in time for a lightning bolt to just fly past his chest.

“She’s in the trees!” Mallory called, raising a large wall to protect the three of them from the direction of the blast.

“Put the shield down so that I can see!” Hector said, looking up at the trees. “I think I bring her down with my fire maybe!”

Jon noticed a figure heading in their direction from the other end of the field.

Even if it was see-through, the fuzziness along with the shadowing of the trees made it hard to see what the object was.

When his brain put together it was a person running at them, he finally opened his mouth to shout.

Look out, he wanted to say.

He didn't get to scream before the black-clothed person broke through the shield with a lowered shoulder charge, the resulting blowback enough to knock all three of the men onto their backs.

Juniper towered over them, brushing her off residual mana off of her shoulder.

“I didn’t even know if that would work,” she said. “Now, which one of you wants the crud knocked out of you first?”

Jon was still on his back when he fired at her.

This one was a bit more effective, but Juniper was still on her feet.

“When are you gonna give up with that!” she called.

Jon kept shooting, but Juniper punched away everything that came.

“You got any more?” she asked.

“Here’s more!” Hector screamed as he punched forward, fire-spewing over the woman.

Jon kept shooting as well.

“You couldn’t beat my sister, dingus!” She yelled over all of the incoming mana. Defending herself with her forearms. “You think you can beat me?”

“You speak like a child!” Hector yelled. He pushed his second fist forward.

The flames increased in size, nearly consuming Juniper’s entire body.

Despite the massive amount of spells coming her way, Juniper braced herself for another charge.

Both Jon and Hector rolled away from each other as she ran past them, nearly trampling over the boys. Jon could hear her heavy footsteps as she went by.

Hector leaped to his feet finally and chased after her.

She skidded to a stop before turning and fending off Hector’s attacks.

“Come on, come on!” she said.

She seemed to be having way more fun than either of her sisters had, which Jon didn’t think was possible.

She was much more of a dodger as well, moving her body out of the way of all of Hector’s incoming swings.

Her large movements landed her at the trunk of a tree.

Hector slashed downward, and she rolled around the side of the trunk.

“Jon. tree!” Hector yelled.

Jon pointed at the tree and fired.

As Juniper twired around the other side of the tree back towards Hector, the blast caught her and slammed her against back against the trunk.

“Oi!” she ducked as Hector swung towards her head, his sword getting stuck in the tree.

She grabbed his shirt and headbutted him before letting go and shifting out of the way of Jon’s next mana attack.

“Mallory!” Hector yelled, holding onto his forehead with both hands. “Where are you!”

“Busy!” Mallory was running away from the magic being tossed at him from the trees.

“Helia’s not here!” Hector ducked under Juniper’s kick. He began fending off her attacks with just his hands.

“Go, Hector!” Mallory yelled. “Go get-”

“No!” Hector said. “Jon!”

Hector made eye contact with him in between blows.

They nodded to each other.

“We got this, right?” Hector asked to the air.”

“Yeah!” Mallory replied. The two boys quickly ran to each other’s sides before facing back towards their enemies.

Jon wanted to see them work together again. It was something he hadn’t witnessed in a while, but he knew what his job was.

He sprinted off into the forest.