“Sean.” Bribis said the next morning as we were in the cart. “We’ll be coming up on Edgehall in the next few days. Since there will be more people, we should probably keep the magic practice-“

“uuuuuuooooAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Bribis was interrupted by a loud, lowing sound.

“Minotaurs!” The driver yelled, and everyone jumped into action.

“Scattered defensive line on the left side!” Bribis shouted, that red glow enveloping him again. “Carrigan, Sean, Elendria, hit them as hard and as fast as you can! No holding back on the magic. Guards, try and take them at least three to one, prioritizing attacks from polearms!”

While he was giving orders, I saw the enemy as they started a slowly building charge in our direction. Bipedal, heavily muscled, and having horns like a Texas longhorn, they looked vicious. They all had crude clubs, and a few had metal rings in their noses.

“Wind blade.” I called out, to let everyone know how I was attacking. That was the standard practice in mage groups according to Carrigan, to prevent clashing spells.

“Too weak. You have to hold nothing back.” Carrigan said, and I saw what he meant. The blade of wind smashed into the charging line, barely cutting through the skin of the monsters. “Let me show you the power of an enhanced element, and why you shouldn’t wear a nose ring when there’s a lighting mage around. Lightning blast!” The spell wasn’t as powerful nor as fast as natural lightning, but it struck the leader for devastating effect. Its muscles locked up, sending it tumbling forward and cracking its own neck when one of its horns got lodged in the ground.

“Ice javelin.” Elendria skipped a monster, opting to punch holes in their already ragged line and hopefully give the guardsmen a break. A spear of ice swiftly crossed the gap, impaling one through the shoulder.

“Mmmooooaaaaahhhhh!!!” It bellowed in pain, dropping its club, but still charging.

“Damn, there was a time where that would have travelled clean through and into the next one.” She muttered.

“Sniper bullet.” I took one to the left side of the charge, the bullet tearing into the chest of the creature. The impact was brutal, blood and muscle flying as the wind tore into the creature, but it wasn’t immediately fatal. The minotaur stumbled a bit, managed a few more steps, then fell down.

“Good god, how tough are these things?” I growled, surprised that it had taken my most powerful spell head on.

“Lightning blast.” Carrigan again locked one up with a lightning bolt, but didn’t get a lucky fall. “They are a tier two monster, nothing like those cockatrices from earlier.”

“Go for a crippling shot or a chance kill?” I asked, firing another sniper bullet at one of the beasts. Their heads were moving far too much for a shot at their noses, but ruining one of their hips was well within my abilities.

“Cripple. We have the short range backup.” He said, launching another lightning bolt. He must be nearing the bottom of his tank, as he was already panting.

“Cripple shots take priority, heard.” I said, letting him know I agreed with his plan. Elendria was calmly moving down the line, having impaled her third creature in the middle of the stomach. Three shots later, and I was out of mana. I had managed one kill and four cripples, while Carrigan had two kills and two cripples. Elendria’s six cripples had left none uninjured, and she was moving back to kill them in brutal ways.

“Sorry to kill them like this, but it is the way with least danger to us.” She explained to Carrigan, as she sent a bit of ice magic to freeze the airways of the injured monsters. They immediately started to frenzy, but we were well out of their range. Luckily she ran out of mana after four kills.

“Alright, they’re injured but don’t let your guards down.” Gareth called out, leading a slow advance on the creatures. The lead two held tower shields, while the third member had a poleaxe. Forming a triangle around the monster, they would harass it until the poleaxe could deliver a decisive blow to the back of the neck. As mindless as the beasts were, it should have been simple. The problem was their field of view. Despite their aggression, their eyes were wideset like a prey animal. This gave them an incredible field of view, and you had to be almost directly behind them to get a blind attack in.

The other tactic was to disable their legs, then deliver the death blow to the monsters as they couldn’t escape. The swordsmen’s job was to keep kicking out the arms of the beast, not letting it get moving. It was brutal work, but that was how some things had to be done.

“No choice.” Carrigan explained as I watched. “They shouldn’t be this close to the city, and they are definitely not natural creatures.”

“Indeed.” Elendria said, nudging my shoulder. “Nature rarely makes a creature that is made of all males. They can breed with any humanoid female, and aren’t picky about it.”

“Please.” I said, holding up a hand. “Say no more. I understand. I just didn’t expect to be so useless there.”

“Useless?” Carrigan chuckled. “You managed to take out five of them, I wouldn’t call that useless.”

“Yeah, but they took on my strongest spell, and it didn’t even kill them.”

“True, but there are a few factors for that.” Elendria said. “Tier two creatures gain a fairly large boost to their survivability, plus minotaurs are already a bit resistant to magic. Especially so if it is earth magic.”

“So how do you usually deal with them?” I asked.

“Gareth’s plan would have worked fine, though there would be a lot higher chance of injury. They aren’t particularly skilled with their clubs, but they don’t have to be. One hit, and you’ve got broken bones. That’s why Gareth always has his guys learn the shield parry in addition to block.”

“Shield parry? Thought you could only do that with a blade.” I said.

“Not at all. If you can pull it off, it will help tire your opponent quicker too.” Carrigan was nodding. “You just have to know what direction you are needing to parry the blow in. Anyhow, they’ll finish this up and get the proofs. Let’s head on back.”

“You sure there won’t be any more?” I asked, turning back slightly as Elendria tugged on my arm.

“They don’t plan.” She explained. “They just attack head on with everything. They either win or are killed.”

“Well done you guys.” Bribis nodded as we got into the back. “We can take a break, or you guys can recover on the way. With a raid group that large, there shouldn’t be any enemies that could threaten our group around."

“Let’s take a break.” Carrigan said. “Better safe than sorry.”

“Fair enough. How long will you guys need?”

“Twenty minutes for me.” Carrigan said.

“An hour for max mana.” I nodded.

“Half hour for me.” Elendria said.

“We’ll take a half hour then.” Bribis said. “Sean, I was going to advise against practicing magic today, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to make that an order.”

“No worries.” I answered. “Safety first, practice later.” I leaned back, letting Bribis go about getting everything back in order. Once again I tried to earn the meditation skill, but it wasn’t about to happen. Instead I went back to what Bribis had said last night.

Elements are more than just mana. Of course they are, they existed in my world that as far as I knew didn’t have any mana. What did that have to do with enchantments? Oh. OH! That’s it! So far I was only imbuing the weapon with elemental mana. What if I imbued it in a way to get the element to manifest? There were oh so many ways to do it too. Hammers that sprout stone just before they strike, massively increasing their mass. Blades that blinded their opponents with a well-timed flash, and those that refused to reflect light no matter what.

Fire wouldn’t be that useful, as you really wouldn’t find yourself in too many battles where you wanted to cauterize the wounds you inflict. Bleeding your opponent was a tried and true way to victory. But the most deadly would be air and water. Imagine, instead of thrusting forward, your blade shoots out a stream of high pressure water. Or the air blade. Could I enchant it so that it constantly released tiny air bubbles? Hoping that a slash would send a few into the enemy’s bloodstream, lodging in his heart and killing him? There would be almost no defense against that. Hell, most people in this world would even know that it was deadly!

“Bribis.” I said once we got started on the road again. “Your hint, was it about actually manifesting the element somehow?”

“Yep.” He nodded. “Make sure you choose the right element for the enchantment too.”

“Good point. Probably shouldn’t use something like earth when you are trying to hide your blade.” I nodded. “So what do we need in Edgehall?”

“It’s the first place Dramitian and I will try sending messages to the demons. We’ll also top off our stores, but that’s it. One overnight stay. If you want to do a bit of shopping, I can get you some coin, just make sure you take Elendria and Carrigan with you.”

“Thanks.” I said with a grin. “I could really use a few new sets of clothes. Not many chances to get these ones washed.” Bribis chuckled at that, and we drifted off into a vigilant silence. The rest of the day was spent on edge, but no attack came. Chris even excused me from dinner preparation so that I could see what Carrigan was doing with the wards.

“So, just how do you set up the wards?” I asked, as I was following Carrigan around.

“Well, you start with creating some anchor stones for the spell. Pick the right crystals, and they will naturally absorb ambient mana for running the spells. Then it is similar to your elemental imbue, except you are doing it with a spell. For me, I generally go with sensing hostile intent, anything actively hunting, or anything trying to go unnoticed. Set them up in the right configuration, and they can form a magic dome around your camp. If anything crosses the line, then the alarm is raised and a light flare is sent up where the breach was.”

“Sounds pretty complicated. How exact to you have to be with the location of the stones?” I asked. “And could something use a stick to push the stones out of alignment?”

“It is. You generally have about six inches of play with the stones, and there are rigs to help you set them up when you are first starting. The stones could be moved, but the sudden stopping of the field would immediately alert the person who set it up. It’s like a constant hum that suddenly stops.”

“Thanks for explaining.” I nodded. “But what happens if say a raccoon stumbles into camp? Wouldn’t they fall into the trying to go unnoticed portion?”

“True, which is why you have to do size exclusions. It’s a risk for that, but anything smaller than a gnome is generally safe and will avoid the fire anyway. Some of the more expensive kits you can get include a slight fear aura, but I don’t trust anything I haven’t made. And I’m just not skilled enough yet in the mind arts.”

Not wanting to distract him anymore, I headed back into camp. Though I know I dreamed of something that night, I couldn’t remember it the next day for the life of me. All I knew was that it wasn’t a terrifying dream, which was a good dream in my book.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was nearing midmorning when we arrived at Edgehall. It was a bit smaller than Three Rivers, but that was fine with me. Instead of a proper rock wall, they had an earth palisade topped with wood. The gate was already wide open, and two inattentive guards were idly watching traffic enter and leave. Most of the buildings inside were single story with thatched roofs, the ones on the main street had a few signs hanging. No words, just simple pictograms.

“Sean.” Bribis said, handing me a small sack. “Ten gold for you. Call it an advance on some of your pay for helping guard the caravan and helping with cooking. It should be more than enough to get some clothes for you.”

“Thanks Bribis.” I said, taking the sack and hiding it in my ring. “Do you think we need to be overly careful here?”

“Nothing too bad.” He shook his head. “Don’t answer where we are heading, but I doubt they are really looking for us. Chris has asked you help with some loading after you get your clothes. We will be camping out by the south gate.”

“Sure thing.” I said, turning to Carrigan and Elendria. “You two going to make sure that I don’t overpay too much?”

“Give me the money master.” Elendria said, sticking out her hand. “I’ll make sure you are taken care of.”

“Sure thing.” I said, chuckling as I gave her the money. Carrigan simply shook his head.

“Business in Edgehall?” One of the guards asked, walking up to Bribis.

“Simple restock and a safe overnight.” Bribis said. “Met a group of minotaurs on the road yesterday. Been a little on edge since.”

“Really? If you have some injuries, head to the church of Ariana. The priest isn’t the strongest, but he can heal most things and more importantly set them bones correct.” The guard nodded.

“Appreciate it.” Bribis said, driving us into town. Once we were through the gate, Elendria, Carrigan and I jumped out and headed toward the store with a needle and thread sign.