"Don't worry about her Elva, Angela is a tough woman, I've been around her long enough to know."

Elva didn't answer, but she did her best to smoothen her facial features. They walked along the quiet, dirty streets, tracking the horned people by their smell, which as Solembum put it, was akin to that of rain and burning incense. They eventually realized they turned around, and were back tracking back to the tavern. Instead of attempting to enter the location again, Solembum suggested he sneak in, as a cat.

"Too dangerous," Elva muttered, "The second you suggested that…"

"I see… that means I can continually shoot out ideas, and as long as I fully intend to complete those tasks, your power will warn you if I'm in danger. Allright. What if I went down there and attacked them?"

Elva's face caused Solembum to release coughing purring chuckles. "This isn't funny Solembum. The fact you seriously thought you'd win a fight, I don't know if it's arrogance or…"

"Point taken, what if I summoned the cats in the area, and had them attack?"

"..." Despite herself Elva let out an exasperated sigh to Solembum's amusement and her greater frustration.

Perhaps… Solembum trailed off, turning his head to a glinting light, cat instincts taking over, he pounced towards it, and found light reflected off his paws, turning to the angle, he saw a mirror at the end of a tube, connected to a long pipe, as he peered into it, he saw the crowd, and the hooded figures. Oooh… I found something interesting human.

"Hmm?" Elva crawled down next to him, and peered into the pipe, eyes widening as she took in the site. "This… this is like… a Periscope."

Hmm?

"One of the devices Faris spoke about from his world, a simple mechanism that utilized pipes and mirrors to view things from a different position. But… who put this there?"

It doesn't matter. Just listen to the enemies, if we are in danger you will detect it.

Elva took his advice, and began to pay attention.

"...crimes against the people, we ask you the verdict." The gold eyed horned man raised his hands to the crowd, one of the green daggers in hand.

"DEATH!" Was the crowd's resounding yell. Nodding he plunged the blade into Lord Tasseton's son's chest. While the crowd rose in fever pitch Elva kept her eyes peeled on the young man, who did not bleed, instead he grew pale, the green dagger glowing a deep red for an instant, but only an instant. The young man's body simply slumped forward as the blade changed to its natural color. The golden eyed man pulled out the dagger, which had no blood on it, and sheathed it.

"That's enough." Elva stood up.

Hmm? Solembum turned.

"The leader, his four guards, and a few in the crowd, they've witnessed those weapons, those were the only things that truly instilled fear in them, and from their fear and discomfort, every fear for the past year flooded into me, I know what must be done, we have to get to Angela!"

...

"Fight me directly cowards!" The masked man laughed as barrage after barrage flames and lightning flew from his hands. He was a short man. He could be mistaken for a dwarf if not for how thin and wispy he was, below 5ft tall, with wild, unruly black hair that swept to his waist. His body was covered in a black robe and covering his face was a deer skull with the antlers still on. He held an ashen staff with a carnivorous beast's skull adorning the top, two black onyx gems encrusted the eye sockets of the carnivore's skull. Two his sides where 5 tall and beautiful men and women, their visages pleasant to the eyes of any who saw them. At least, they would be pleasant if not for their deep red hair and even redder eyes. The shades had cruel smirks on their faces as they combined magics with the man in the middle, launching barrage after barrage of deadly magics as they sent flames, lightning, rocks, dust, and even concentrated light at their opponents.

"Then don't endanger innocent people bastard!" Venka screamed in retort. She and the rest of her allies faced down the shades whilst defending themselves and the citizens of the village from the magical and mental onslaught. They had come across the village by accident, as they passed by they had been attacked by three creatures that seemed to resemble shades, but weren't. They were powerful indeed, stronger than most if not all but a few humans, but still a level below that of elves in all aspects, be them speed, power, and magical prowess, but the fact that such creatures were in the area was a cause for alarm. They traced their steps back to the village, where they witnessed the man in the skull mask generate three more of those shade-but-not shades. Without much warning Venka and Nya charged forward. Followed behind by only a hair's breadth by Katya and Seya. Bartholomew and Morgan could only look at each other in pity as they sighed and charged forward. The three shades-but-not-shades they slew proved as simple to defeat as earlier. But the masked man and his entourage of true shades proved a much greater challenge. Shades are difficult to fight even in the best of conditions. The more spirits within a shade the more difficult it was to face them in mental duels, the different spirits attacked in sporadic ways, making it difficult to hold down and dominate their minds, as such the use of magic whilst still inlocked in a mental struggle was imperative. The second issue came from their immense strength. As far as individual power amongst the magical beings of Alagaesia, shades can be counted on to be the beings with the most magic and strength per pound of flesh that wrapped around their bones. Of course becoming a shade, especially by choice was the highest folly, as virtually no human, dwarf, elf, or animal has ever survived the ordeal unchanged. Shades were such forces of pain, hatred, and psychotic bloodlust that the only reason they didn't take over and destroy Alagaesia was because few magic users were confident enough to practice sorcery, fewer humans amongst the sorcerers would dare summon spirits powerful enough to normally take them over. And even fewer shades survived the transformation, the few that did normally caused a ruckus large enough to catch the attention of the elves and riders, who often sent large forces out to exterminate them. If more than one shade existed in an area, it could spell catastrophe if a sufficient force wasn't sent to suppress the outbreak. All this to say that 5 shades of close to equal strength working in tandem, under the orders of a human of all beings was a truly scary situation.

"You should surrender you know, children as strong as you, you'd make perfect shades." The man laughed coldly, the gems on the staff glowing a harsh violet light as he redoubled his efforts.

Seya snorted. "Very funny." But she was worried, their crystals that they stored energy in had a magical lock, by order of the current head of the mage academy magic users had to send messages requesting permission to access the reserves they stored in the crystal, all as a means of limiting their ability, whilst this restriction was put on all royal mages, the rules seemed to be strictest on their young team, as even Bartholomew was limited to two golems he could use without having to request the locks removed on the others, Mud snake and Stone Pawn, both of which were versatile in where they could be summoned but very inefficient in their mechanics and application. The villagers were cowered in various locations, hiding in the ruins of buildings, locked under cellars, or even cowered, sitting, kneeling, or standing before the magic duel. Venka had extended her wards to cover each and every one of them, as creating a large bubble would have been both impossible and impractical. Katya worked to helpe lessen her burden, analyzing the magic being used to attack and finding counters for her and Seya to dispel, which allowed Nya and Morgan enough time to counter with an attack back at the enemy. Bartholomew for the most part sent mud snake out, to rescue villagers to take them out of the effective range of the shade's deadly were about half way through the operation, when one shade screamed something unintelligible and rushed forward, wreathed in an ominous black aura. He crashed into Venka's wards, causing her to scream in pain as he blew up, revealing a warped and cracked skeletal frame that was empty of organs save his lungs, eyes, brain, and beating heart. To their horror they watched, even as his black blood flowed out, as his organs began to regenerate, followed by his sinewy muscles knitting back together, followed by skin. Nya mentally shouted in a panicked tone. "No! Everyone keep concentrating!" But her words fell on deaf minds as they one by one split off their mental strength and began being overtaken, until it was her, Katya, and Morgan holding off against the mental strength of the Shades, eventually, Morgan succumbed and fell to his knees, followed by Katya. Seya began to bleed from every orifice as the shades and masked man attempted to dominate her will. In a scream of desperation she conjured all the magical energy she could muster. "Huildr du vindr un du istalrí. Thringa!" (Gather the air and the flame! Blast!) Air began to swirl in front of the shade's faces causing those not already light headed to begin to lose consciousness completely. Venka, who had disciplined herself to keep her wards up even if her mental walls were broken down looked on in shock as Seya's magic seemed to almost drain away. Seya's face was in a determined snarl as she sparked the flame and forced it towards the shades. The explosion rocked the village. Destroying houses, leveling trees, and leaving a huge crater at the epicenter.

The masked man coughed the smoke from his lungs, his wards didn't protect him from that, he angrily began clearing away the smoke. Sending forward a shade. He cleared the smoke just in time to see the blond tall teen hand a knife over to a girl with short black hair, who threw it with surprising force at the shade he sent forward, who stumbled back in shock, before screaming as the knife seemed to ignite in an electrical explosion, driving itself into the shade's heart. He screamed in rage as the children began to bid a retreat, and turned to his shades.

"What are you doing! Give chase goddammit! Now!" The shades seemed to bristle at his words, but they turned and began to chase down the kids.

"Dammit, damnit…." Venka cursed to herself, she ran , her friends trailing behind her, lifted by magic. The last thing happening just before that was Morgan passing over a dagger he quickly enchanted to Nya, who threw the blade with all her force, adding her own ward piercing enchantment along the way, normally the shade wouldn't have been hit by such a blow but the shock of the flame explosion both weakened their wards and dulled the being's movements enough that he was caught off guard, the blade pierced his chest and he exploded. Venka bit her lip until it bled, she abandoned the few villagers left. They had saved most of them, but almost a dozen remained. Bartholomer road his stone pawn as his mud snake carried the last 4 villagers they were able to bring with them.

Bartholomew turned behind him to see the shades rapidly gaining on them. "...Venka!" He screamed as he grabbed three crystals. Venka turned to look behind her, and activated a barrier to slow them down, only to wince was it was shattered. But it bought Bartholomew enough time to launch his crystals. A deep red ruby, shiny sapphire, and almost luminescent emerald flew out. The ruby seemed to rise in temperature, the air around it first warping in the heat then igniting into the form of a big cat. The sapphire seemed to fog up as condensation began to gather, the condensation began to frost up, more and more gathering until it formed the likeness of a medium sized humanoid woman in armor, all made of ice, two large spokes at its back. The emerald sunk into the grass and embedded itself into it.

"Blazing Cat! Ice Queen!" Bartholomew yelled. The flaming tiger charged towards a shade, who took out his sword and sliced it cleanly in half, the two halves split with no resistance, but came together, the shade within the conflagration. His screams cut short by the lack of oxygen as another shade rushed to aid him. The two other shades struck the ice woman, wincing whenever shards of ice shrapnel and cut into their skin. As they continued to cut they began to slow down, ever so slightly as the ice continued to spread into them. The shades grit their teeth, slicing and hacking away at the living ice. Then one cast flames to melt it, but something shocking happened. When the flames approached the golem it's body began to melt at first. Suddenly, the spikes in it's back began to glow red and flame was ejected from it.

The shade covered in flames struggled to reach for the ruby inside the golem that engulfed it, it knew that if it took the magic within the creature would be gone, its ally continued applying spells to counter the flames, adding ice, water, energy, yet nothing seemed to work. Eventually the burning shade began to concentrate and summon a deafening gust of wind, suppressing the flame and forcing the ruby to the floor. The shade, in pain but slowly regenerating form his wounds angrily reached down to crush and absorb the crystal's magic, only to be pushed back as the normally unmoving grass flooded with magic and movement and leapt towards him, the ruby disappeared from his view, and seemed to fly in the air, hurtling towards the crumbling ice golem, it absorbed the flames, and as it did, the ice golem seemed to reconstitute itself, just as the ruby wreathed itself with the flames it just absorbed. They ice golem picked up a dead branch, icicle forming at the tip and creating a spear, it stabbed into a shade, whose body began to turn slightly blue as its body temperature rapidly lowered, absorbed by the ice golem, who then had its heat absorbed by the fire golem. The shades entangled by the grass began casting fire to burn it, and it worked, to a point until the fire golem approached and took command of the flames it touched. The grass seemed to surge forward, coming allive as it doubled the strangle hold around the two shades, a form began to rise from the grass, the lithe form of an androgynous humanoid with a graceful, supple musculature, the faximile of a head bore the emerald, which then buried itself within the grass body, the head formed finally looked strikingly pretty.

Bartholomew began to laugh as he called out. "Verdant Dancer! Take them down!" He turned to Venka and they ran into the forest...

...

Faris turned his head in shock as he heard an explosion. "What the hell?!" He turned to Ventus, who flew towards the village. He began to rush forward, gripping his sword hilt in one hand and his gun in the other.

What the hell was that?! Tartarus cried out.

Magic likely, if it was a coal mine incident due to a natural gas and flame lantern explosion, it would be as loud, but being that loud would require a much closer proximity and the ground would tremor. An explosion outside is what it comes from, alongside with the billowing smoke cloud, it had to have been a clash in magic, maybe… a mage's suicide attack? He ran a bit faster, worried now. Hey Tartarus, how much energy do I have at the moment?

Well… you ate one of the high sugar high fat rations, disgusting stuff really, and you took one of those pills… the fact you're still up from all those beatings is a miracle already, I had to burn a lot of energy just to quicken your digestive ability to process the energy you consumed. You have a decent reserve saved now, maybe, 40%?

40%, of my weak ass? Faris took out some of his rations, bacon, dried fruit, and high sugar high fat pastry doughs, he stuffed his face with them, activating his ability and feeling his body lighten as if energy filled it, which it did. He began to sprint forward under enhanced speed, stopping only to relieve himself. Even then he made better time than if he simply ran like normal. Eventually he reached the edge of the forest, and overlooked the village. Whilst he hadn't assimilated Samara's memories into his own, he still felt a twinge of pain as he looked over the village, he remembered his hometown, and Venka's parent's home, burning. Shaking his head he turned to see Ventus swooping down towards him, opening his mind he saw the battle between Venka and the rest of the former first-year-pearls vs the masked man and five true shades. He saw one of the shades die to the knife, and saw the remaining four give chase.

Interesting… Tartarus began, I assume then you'll be saving-

The villagers here come first. Faris interrupted, taking out his pistol.

What? How could you abandon your friends?! Don't you care about them!? What's wrong wi-

Quiet... Faris sprinted into the Village...