The dark elf repeated the healing spell five more times before his arcana reserves got fully depleted.

“I’m done with my share for now. Just form a line and cast your spells until you’re all spent, then meditate to recharge.”

He sat down to follow his own advice, giving space for the others to practice. Marcus sat with his good eye closed for a few minutes before the last member of the group ran out of arcana. Once done, the man looked around with a serious expression.

“Nothing changed.”

“I’ve told you it takes a boatload of effort. Even with everyone going all out, you’re not even half way there. It will take at least another two rounds for your eye to grow back to its proper state. We’ll continue when everyone’s charged and ready.”

Marcus just nodded and waited patiently, spending the next hour with the group of outlanders. When the last healing spell managed to regrow his missing eye completely, the mercenary looked around with a surprised and relieved sigh.

“Well, I’d be damned! I almost forgot what it feels like to see with two eyes.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Regis nodded. “But from the looks of it, the resting time’s up. Let’s get back to the boats.”

Everyone agreed and the different groups all headed over to the makeshift pier to get their boats ready to leave. The current was pushing against the boats, so most of them boarded and took their place with paddles ready, one staying behind to untie the ropes. As soon as the boats were free, they pushed it away from the pier and started rowing in earnest to build up momentum with the last members hopping into the large boats. Eight boats headed out one by one, the outlanders soon taking the lead once again with their heavy rhythm.

“So,” Osmond broke the quiet after a few minutes. “We’ve managed to secure some basic combat training for our road trip, but what about the rest of the spell training? We’ll only become efficient in healing this way.”

“We can practice the shield spell while rowing,” Fabien said between two breaths. “You summon a shield and the one behind you will try to punch you. The shield does its job and you farm experience, just like in a video game.”

“And if the shield can’t take the hit?” Sophie asked from the infernal youth with her eyes darting from one companion to the other.

“Then that’ll give more chance to practice healing.”

“That’s not funny,” Amanda chided as she pulled the paddle towards her. “The whole point of training is that we want to get better and not get hurt.”

“Injuries are unavoidable,” Cruz scoffed before spitting into the river. “You think you won’t get bruised while training to fight? It’s a common thing in any sport to get small injuries, especially in combat ones. At least we have the means to quickly treat it. I wish it was so simple back home. It would have made things a lot better during boxing training.”

“You’re a boxer?” Khan raised his head hearing the new information.

“Four years of kick-boxing and some other martial arts from time to time, but I stuck with boxing.”

“Yeah,” Letty quipped with a smile. “Alicia even won the state youth championship twice. She’s really good at kicking other people’s asses.”

“Hold on,” Khan’s face contorted somewhat as he tried to hold back his laughter. “You’re name is Alicia?”

“So what,” Cruz raised her voice as she stared at the young fighter with looks that could kill. “Do you have a problem with that, pal?”

“No,” Khan stuttered. “It’s just that I wasn’t expecting it. It’s a bit too… feminine.”

“And what’s wrong with that? You want to say something to me pendejo?” Cruz started to get riled up with her hands gripping the paddle firm enough to make it creak.

“Whoa,” Osmond reeled back as he looked at his friend. “Calm down Cruz; I’m sure he didn’t mean anything bad. And besides; you’ve got to admit it that your name really is a bit on the girly side.”

“Oh, so you’re taking his side…”

“I’m not taking sides,” the pale youth defended himself as he quickly summoned a shield. “I’m just trying to defuse the situation. You know Khan’s a loudmouth whom speaks faster than he thinks.”

“Hey…”

“There’s no need to take him too seriously.” Osmond tried to mediate the situation, his shield cracking apart under the weight of the punch Cruz threw at him.

“Alicia,” Regis called out to the angry wood elf woman. “As Osmond said; it’s pointless to take Khan too seriously about stuff like this. Still; I’m sure that he would be more than willing to pair up with you for the evening combat practice if needed, as a sign of good will. Isn’t that right, Khan?”

“Wha… you’ve got to be kidding me! She’s going to kill…”

“Of course he will,’ Quentin patted Khan in the back with a positively evil grin on his face. “Khan’s an outstanding fighter as well, and you know that common interests are an excellent way to bond with people. I’m sure you’ll be able to solve any misunderstanding then.”

“Not you too…” The perturbed youth stared at his friend aghast, before finally relenting to his inevitable fate. “Fine; I’ll pair up with her, but if she snaps my neck or something…”

“Your physique attribute should be high enough to make you survive long enough for us to heal you up in case she gets a bot rowdy.” Valerie joined into the teasing with an unbridled joy as she laughed, making even Cruz crack a smile as the wood elf already began to imagine her evening entertainment.

“Alright,” Quentin let out a deep sigh, shaking off the strain of the past few minutes. “We have a few hours of rowing ahead of us, so we best make the most out of it.”

They did make the most of their time by rowing like mad men, summoning and shattering arcana shields every now and then. The sun was already near the crown of the forest on its way down when Jakub finally spoke up once again, saying the words everyone desperately wanted to hear.

“There’s the second stop. Keep up and we’ll get to finally rest.”

“He’s talking as if he rowed along instead of holding on to that stupid rudder thingy.” Sophie harrumphed as she pulled on her paddle, trying to keep the group’s rhythm.

The boat neared the old jetty that spread along the riverbed on their left side. Once they’d managed to dock, it became obvious that this one was made from a slightly better assortment of planks and beams, a dark oily coating covering the wood to protect it from the elements. Quentin immediately drew his sword and raised his shield in front of himself to provide cover against any attacks, but the small clearing behind the jetty was silent as a grave. There were no sounds from birds or crickets; nothing that would give a sign of life from the woods. Khan followed his friend’s example and took up his battle stance while Sophie knocked an arrow on her bowstring. The tense silence lasted for another good minute or so before the second boat reached the pier and its passengers got off.

“Is something wrong?” The iron clad guard captain asked as he noticed how everyone stood still with weapons at the ready.

“It’s too quiet.” Regis answered as he kept staring towards the edge of the clearing where a thick line of bushes and trees formed a wall.

“Alright everyone,” the captain turned around to face his own men. “Get into formation! We’ll be staying here for the night, so let’s make sure it’s safe to do so. We’ll have to secure this place for us before it gets dark. Check that shack and I want at least a good fifty meters deep search into the tree line.”

“I’ll get started then as well.” The young dark elf said to his confused companions as he walked to the edge of the clearing at the riverside.

Regis raised his left hand forward and a familiar faint earthy yellow outline appeared on the ground in his vision. He stretched the outline to its limits before channelling arcana into his thoughts. His only innate spell activated and a 2 meter long, 0,75 meter thick and 1 meter high wall made from condensed earth rose from the humid soil. Regis took a few steps to the left and repeated the process, raising another similar earth wall which seamlessly connected with the first one.

“What are you doing?” The guard captain asked from afar, watching the strange events unfold.

“I’m building a simple defence line. It’s not much, but it should be better than nothing. Why? Do you want me to stop?”

“Not at all,” the soldier shook his head. “By all means; go ahead. We could use all the help we can get.”

“Hey Regis,” Osmond stepped beside the dark elf. “Do you want us to help? I’m sure we could learn this one fast too.”

“It would be nice, but it’s an innate spell.”

“Oh,” the pale youth’s shoulders dropped for a moment. “I see. In that case, I’ll leave you to it. We’ll be over there, making a campsite for our group.”

“Sure.” the young spell weaver nodded before continuing with his work.

A good hour of spell casting and meditation later a simple earth wall got erected along the edge of the small clearing, making it a tad bit safer.

He walked over to his companions, watching them heal another mercenary while waiting for him to finish his wall building project. Their current patient was a woman with quite a few scars on her face and upper body. She was missing a finger on each of her hands, although they were more than half way through their regrowth process.

“Are you done with the wall?” Quentin asked, earning a slight nod. “We’ve been busy keeping up our end of the bargain with Marcus. We’ll start combat training in an hour or so.”

“Good.” Regis said as he plopped down at the edge of the group, right next to the meditating Amanda.

“You look tired. Are you alright?” The giantess blacksmith asked as she opened her eyes to look at the dark elf with a discerning gaze.

“I’m fine. It just took longer to get that wall up than I expected.”

“Chin up,” Khan said as he took his turn, healing the mercenary woman. “At least the sky is clear tonight. That’s got to count for something, right?”

“Yeah,” Regis agreed. “It could be worse than sleeping in a spooky ass forest under the night sky with a bunch of grizzled mercenaries.”

“If you lot are done with Betty,” the gruff voice of Marcus resounded from behind them. “Then get your arses over here. It’s time for you to start your evening training.”

“I thought you’ve said that we’ll start in an hour.” The dark elf looked at the wannabe paladin.

“That was the plan, but it seems they want to get it done sooner.”

The warband of outlanders quickly spent whatever arcana they had on spamming lesser healing on the mercenary woman, finishing the treatment that regrew her fingers. When the healing session was done, they walked over to Markus and his mercenaries who were already waiting with weapons drawn.

“Alright,” the mercenary leader waved them closer. “Most of you seem to use common weapons, so it’s easy to find people to train you. We don’t have anyone that uses a whip though. None of the folks here do.”

“It’s alright,” Valerie said as her whip folded up and shifted into a two-handed sword. “I’ll just practice with my sword then.”

“Show-off.” Fabien whispered between two fake coughs.

“It seems like you’ve made my work a bit easier. Everyone go and meet up with the one holding a weapon like your own. The two of you seem to favour a staff and a spear, so you’ll learn from Dana.” Marcus pointed at a red haired woman standing at the far right of the camp with a wide bladed spear.

“It’s a bladestaff, but sure.” Regis threw it over to the mercenary as he and Cruz headed to the direction of their new teacher while the rest of the group did the same.

Dana was a tall and athletic young woman who looked to be around twenty or so. Her green eyes gazed into the quiet forest until the sound of the two outlanders made her snap out of her silence.

“So you two are mine, huh?” She eyed them up with a smirk as she gripped her iron spear.

“Only for an hour or two, so you should try to make the most of it.” Cruz answered with a smirk of her own as she stood in front of the mercenary.

“You have a sharp tongue,” Dana laughed as she began to move forward. “I think we’ll get along well. As for you, handsome…”

“You’re not my type.” Regis said with a deadpan face, earning a muffled laughter from the other mercenaries in the near distance.

“You say that now honey, but we’ll see how that changes in a few days. Now get into fighting stance. I need to know what I’m working with.”

Cruz and Regis both held their weapons and took up a basic fighting stance while Dana did the same.

“Attack!” The red haired woman said, two weapons answering her call at the same time.

Regis didn’t know for sure at first if Dana was a shardwaker or not, but the woman swept Cruz’s staff and his bladestaff aside with a speed far surpassing his expectations. The mercenary then stabbed forward, but her movements changed half-way towards them, turning into a sweeping attack. It took all of Regis’ strength to block the sweep and when he did, the spear immediately pushed forward, almost skewering him while Cruz got stomped in the guts, sending her rolling on the ground. The spell weaver jumped to the right, his bladestaff’s tip glowing as he stabbed forward with his piercing strike skill, hitting only air. Cruz got back up onto her feet and attacked with a renewed vigour between curses, barely matching the dark elf as the two tried and failed to land a single hit on their opponent. After a good minute of back and forth steps and stabs, Dana jumped back and held her left hand up to motion them to stop.

“Not bad,” the woman nodded. “But not good either. You’re too easy to read and you’re too impulsive.” She said while pointing at the dark elf and the wood elf respectively.

“I get that spell weavers aren’t supposed to be the best fighters out there, but you’re stiffer than a border guard in a whorehouse. Loosen your knees and your shoulders a bit. As for you; keep your mind focused and don’t let your opponent goad you into moving ahead of what you feel necessary. Let me show you some simple moves that could help both of you in the future.”

Dana was true to her word and spent the next hour teaching the two how to best utilize their own weight and dexterity in combat.