I teleport me, my friends, and Leon and five of his men, including Jack.

We take cover behind a long stretch of granite stones across the cave Philip is in. Because of our small group, hiding becomes easy.

The first thing we notice is the large number of rogues guarding the entrance to the cave. I slide back down behind the stone I'm taking cover at and say to Leon who is next to me, "I hope this works."

I take out from my bag a brown paper packet, while Nara starts a small fire with dry basil leaves. I empty the powdered Canibascilis that I bought from Luther, the old herb trader in my coven, into the fire.

The fire spews out light green smoke that I carefully deviate towards the army of rogues in front of the cave.

We wait for three minutes before peaking over the stones to check if it worked or not.

The rogues look same as before but their eyes have blank stares and their movements are lethargic, which means the herb has successfully subdued them.

Jenny and Nara take out and mix the ingredients swiftly for our next spell. They draw the curse lifting symbols on the dirt with the mixture. I place one of Philip's shirts over the symbols and cast the spell.

Nara keeps an eye out on the rogues, checking if the curse is getting lifted. She'll know if it does when their eyes turn from dark to normal.

As soon as I finish my spell, Nara sits back down between us and nods, and says, "It worked."

Now it's up to Leon to make the rogues leave. He signals his men and they transform to their wolf forms.

Leon's black wolf leads others out into the open, towards the rogues. The drugged animals lazily lift their heads to look at the visitors.

Leon's wolf stands at the centre, while others spread out. They all stand there facing the rogues for what seemed like eternity.

Then, one by one, the rogues start to get up and move away from the cave entrance in an orderly manner.

I don't know how Leon did it, but it looks like he and his men are herding the rogues away. Once they are far enough, Leon and the others return back to the cave's entrance where we join them.

"Well, that was easy," Nara says.

"Leave it to the professionals," I tell her.

Leon leads us stealthily into the cave, and just when I thought that we're pretty far inside, red globs of fire bombard us from ahead.

We clear the path and move towards the walls of the cave. Following the fire, a group of rogues charge at us. Leon and his men fight back while me, Nara and Jenny make our way through the chaos into the back of the cave.

Around twenty men block our way and at the furthest back, I see Philip.

"I take right, you take left," Nara says to Jenny as she conjures her whip.

Jenny nods before conjuring her own Channel: two long blades, one in both hands.

I wait for a minute while Nara and Jenny push Philips' guys to the sides, giving me a clear access to Philip.

Once I'm close enough to Philip, I conjure my white staff and he brings out his red sword.

––––

Few minutes into our fight, I can't even remember who charged first. All I can think of is that I'm losing my energy fast.

Neither of us is wasting our powers throwing spells at each other because all we need to do is touch the other with our Channel to win. But we keep missing each other, which is both a good and bad thing for me.

It's not a war of wits or powers anymore, it's a war of stamina, and I seem to be losing.

Right when his sword nearly misses touching my shoulder, I decide to change tactics. I'm not the right opponent for Philip.

"Leon," I call out into the space loudly. I don't know if he's still in the cave or if his fight had forced him to step outside, either way, I hope he heard me.

I stumble and fall to the floor and block Philip's sword in the nick of time before it touches me.

"Just give up already," Philip says.

I shake my head, out of breath.

"You're not strong enough to keep fighting," he says.

"But he is," I say, looking behind Philip.

Philip turns to see the black wolf. I raise my staff lightly and say to Leon, "Touch him with this, and the fight will end."

I leave my staff beside me on the floor and get up and leave to help my friends. I don't need my Channel to fight the others.

Running towards the entrance of the cave, I soon meet them. I help Jenny first before we both go to Nara.

Once we're done with Philip's men, we move towards outside to find and help Jack and the others.

The moment we spot them and get ready to join their fight, the rogues stop fighting and their eyes clear up.

Leon won.

Finding themselves in an unknown place and against pack wolves, the rogues get scared and run away.

I return to the back of the cave and see Philip restrained on the ground by white glowing ropes emerging out of the head of my staff that's touching his chest.

My brother is trying to get free even when he knows he can't.

I look at Leon to see if he's alright. His wolf looks unscathed and completely fine, glaring at Philip.

It's finally over.