AN: Yo! Sorry for the delay. The HP game came out and I was distracted for a bit. Not sure if it was the pause or just this chap, but I had a hella hard time writing it up. I knew what I wanted to write, but it fought me every step of the way and took days longer than I intended.

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Fun fact: I knew exactly HOW I wanted this little side story to go, and then I played the HP game and laughed cuz the irony was that plenty of my made up plot matched with the games storyline. I incorporated a few pieces of the game lore into the history of my world.

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Hope ya all enjoy.

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Chapter 5.13 Part 2: A Tale of a Warrior.

A near-silent tang of a bowstring rang out as an arrow shot forward, splitting the wind for nearly a hundred yards before piercing a Giant Red Stag directly through the heart.

The seven-hundred-pound magical species thrashed with a death rattle on the forest ground as the sound of hooves approached in a flash.

A centaur warrior, bow in hand with a greatsword strapped to his back, pushed through the foliage to quickly approach.

The male was larger than most of his kind, with arms like tree trunks and a back rippling with muscle from years of training.

The Centaur kneeled by the wailing beast's side and pulled out a small blade from his hip as he patted its hide. "Shhh. Forgive me, my brother. May your spirit run with the Great Mother." His blade sunk into the flesh with a clean and painless end.

The foliage stirred around him as a dozen Centaur warriors broke through the clearing.

"What a shot cap!"

"It must have been a hundred meters. And through the trees no less."

"Who cares about that? We finally got some meat! Three cheers for Daz!"

The gathered centaurs cheered, and the named Centaur wryly smiled as he held up a hand. "At ease you lot, do not cheer for the death of a forest inhabitant."

The cheers quieted at that, but the smiles did not. A female swordswoman stepped forward and patted his shoulder. "We do not cheer for its death captain; we cheer for your skill."

Daz stood and wiped his blade on the hide. "I know Liz. Nevertheless, we should not make too much noise. These woods are not what they once were."

Liz scoffed and stepped back just as another with a massive war axe on his back spoke up. "Come off it cap; we sent those abominations running! Haven't seen a peep from them in months."

The others mumbled in agreement at that as a round of laughs went around. Daz could only let them be; he knew his warriors needed to loosen up after years of tension.

"Forget it, string our catch up, we're heading back! Drak, since you have so much energy, you can carry the tail end."

He got a round of groans and laughs, but no one disobeyed as they quickly and expertly began dressing the kill to take back.

Daz was the only one to remain on guard, staring out into the dark foliage with a grave expression. 'It's not the spiders that are unsettling me. Something else is prowling these woods, I just can't tell what it is.'

00000

"Wait, if you weren't there, how do you know what happened?"

Magnie's brow twitched as Jin cut her off. "People tell stories ya brat. You think my own mate could go a day without telling me what he ate for a meal?"

Fleur rolled over in Jin's lap to hide the laugh on her lips, and Jin was too absorbed in the story to do more than idly run his hand through her hair as he still thought she was asleep.

"Right. Energetic type of guy, not who I would have thought you would partner up with."

Magnie huffed in amusement. "He was a pain in my rear, for sure. But that energy was put to good use in our tents. Took a real man to tire me out, ya hear?" She winked at the end, and Jin rolled his eyes playfully.

"I'm sure. When was this story anyway?"

"If ya let me talk for more than a bloody minute I'll tell ya."

Jin leaned back with a chuckle. "Aye, aye, ma'am."

She shook her head wryly. "Impatient brat. It was a few years after the spiders began their expansion and wiped out swaths of forest life some fifty years ago. Centaur tribes, Thestrals, Unicorns, Kneazles, Fwoopers, you name it; they lost their lives in droves to feed those abominations in the beginning. And then one day-…."

Jin raised his hand innocently to ask a question.

Magnie deadpanned at him. "What?"

"I've been wondering this for a while now, but why do you all call the Acromantula abominations? I never saw any mention of such a name being related to them in my research."

The older woman's annoyed expression faded as she heard him. "Hmph, that's a fair point. We call them that because that's what they are. Those things both are and are not Acromantula."

Jin leaned back in. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that they are not what they seem. Acromantula have been around as long as any of us. Dozens have called the forest home for centuries, although, they only existed in small groups, hiding in caves and turning alcoves of the forest into their homes. They hunted enough to eat, lived their lives like any other species, and no one had an issue. The forest is home to dozens of species, they were just one of em."

"And then?"

Her tail whipped anxiously as she looked away from him toward the open tent flap leading out into the dark night. "Then, the war came, they expanded in the hundreds, and they became something we haven't yet seen before."

00000

"Mag, be reasonable! The people need to rest."

"And I'm telling you now is the time to get answers Ty!"

The new chieftain and head nature mage squared off in the chief's tent as they argued about their course of action.

A muscled arm stuck between the two as Ragnar separated them. "Perhaps, you both need to take a step back and breathe. We need to be united now more than ever and recover our losses, not quarrel."

The chief sighed. "Ragnar's right. Magnie, we lost too much the last few years, we cannot keep pushing."

Magnie huffed and crossed her arms. "But what if something happened in the abominations nest? They have been attacking in waves for years, why stop now? It's been months with nothing more than random hunting parties. We need to strike while we can."

Tyreus sagged into his seat and rubbed a hand over the sheathe of a blade passed down to him by the recent chief, his own father. "Mag, we can't. Our peoples spirits are tired and strained. My father, your teacher, Daz's mother, hundreds of warriors, all gone. Ragnar is the oldest left among us, and he keeps the tribe running as well as being the final line of defense in case our wards fall. The tribe is weakened further than ever, and those who remain need to believe they can rest. At least for a few seasons. We must recover."

Magnie held back tears at the mention of her teacher. The past head nature mage having given her life to cast great magic using the ancient tongue during the height of the spider waves. "What if what happened to them spreads, Ty? You saw their eyes. Those abominations are nothing more than mindless husks."

Tyreus gripped his sheathe in a white knuckle grip as he recalled the change in the creatures. He had seen firsthand how the spiders ignored all pretense of survival and emotion to charge into his father's blade and hold him down long enough for more to take him down. Acromantula were never that uncaring of their own lives.

He grabbed his smoking pipe to settle his nerves. "I know not what became of the Acromantula, but I'm aware that they are no more than empty shells now, devoid of individual thought. With that said, we have no cause to believe it can happen to others. Perhaps it was simply some ancient magic backlashing after causing their population to expand so rapidly? We simply have no answers, and their nest is far too well guarded, as you well know."

His meaningful look at the woman had her biting her lip, remembering the tribe's past head warrior, Daz's mother, rushing off into the lightless spider nest to save her fellow captured warriors. She succeeded, and two dozen warriors returned thanks to her efforts, but she never returned with them.

Magnie swallowed a lump in her throat and pushed on. "We still need to try, for their sacrifices, for our future. The forest has been dealt too far a blow; the dryad is wailing at the loss of so much life."

Tyreus blew out a cloud of smoke and shook his head. "The forest shall recover in time, just as all nature does. The cycle cannot be stopped, only delayed. We on the other hand are not endless. Our tribe has too few warriors and mages, but the young are plentiful. We need time to let them grow, and by the stars we have been given that time, don't jeopardize that for your vengeance Mag."

Ragnar grunted from the side. "I must side with the chief, Magnie. We are simply not equipped to spearhead any attack. Those outside the forest are willfully ignorant, and our allies are too few and spread apart. We shall take our vengeance in time, bring honor to the fallen, but that time is not now. Impatience will only lead to our demise."

Magnie felt herself losing to the logical arguments and couldn't help but growl. "What if we only have a window of time? What if they come back with the next season because they were hatching their eggs and begin anew?"

The chief ashed his pipe with a finger. "Then we will have to give up on that chance. We barely have enough warriors to hunt, let alone fight. Daz is the best of us with a blade or bow, but he only has two arms. You are the best of our mages, and we need you to help empower our warriors when they come of age to perform the traditional rites and be granted their rituals. If you truly want to take your pound of flesh, be patient and help us make the next generation even stronger than the last. Make your own children stronger than those who came before, so they are strong enough when we are gone."

Magnie sagged in defeat, knowing he was right. It was her duty as the head mage to perform the rituals for the tribe, and until someone else capable of speaking the ancient tongue of the dryads came about, she couldn't risk her life selfishly. "Damn you two for speaking reason. I feel it in my gut that something bad will happen if we are not prepared, like a warning from nature itself, but my young foals need me as well. Mother magic knows what my foolish mate would teach them without me around."

"Oh?" The tent flap opened as Daz himself walked in with a smile. "You telling lies about me again woman?"

Magnie's expression eased out as she huffed with a small smile. "I speak only the truth. Whose the one who tried teaching our five year old girl how to catch a Mooncalf?"

Daz scoffed. "The creatures are harmless; it was good training."

"And the time you took our eight year old boy to hunt giant Purple Toads?"

He winced. "The lad wanted something more challenging than catching a Fwooper."

"Those frogs are poisonous."

"Bah, a little poison builds character. His mother could have him healed up in a night."

"That's not the point you thickheaded idiot!"

"Of course it is you stubborn Graphorn!"

Magnie's eyes narrowed. "You did not just say that."

Daz puffed his chest out proudly. "A man never goes back on his word."

Magnie's hand traveled to her staff lying by her side, and Tyreus and Ragnar, who had been enjoying the show, wisely took a few paces away from the magically charged woman.

00000

"You wacked him."

"Aye! I did! Wrapped him up in vines too."

Jin chuckled and leaned his head on his off-hand while idly running his other hand over Fleur's back in his lap, completely missing the way it made her legs rub together. Magnie, on the other hand, was highly amused by the lass pretending to sleep and suffering from her lover's gentle actions but wasn't going to call her out on it.

"So he called you a Graphorn, man's got balls I'll give him that."

Magnie's eyes twinkled with old mirth. "Aye, he did indeed. In more ways than one." Her wink had him rolling his eyes fondly. "It was an old joke from our youth. He always loved the pride of Hippogriffs, and I always loved the strength of Graphorns. Somewhere along the way, it became ways to tease each other."

Jin smiled softly at the older woman. "Heh, that's surprisingly sweet coming from you."

Her hand twitched toward her staff. "And whats that supposed to mean lad?"

"Whatever you want it to mean. So, where did things go from there?"

"Hm, I guess it was a good whacking later that we talked about more serious topics."

00000

Tyreus hid a smile behind his smoking pipe. "You lovebirds finished?"

Magnie dusted off her hands with a nod. "I'm good. How about you darlin~?" She drawled mockingly at the wrapped-up form of her mate in a ball of constricting vines.

Daz grunted out a laugh and flexed his muscles, easily snapping the restraints now that she wasn't fueling them with mana any longer. "I still don't think I deserved that."

Ragnar's hand clapped down on the younger warrior's shoulder and gave him a look of aged wisdom. "You did. You always will be. Stop fighting it."

Tyreus couldn't contain his laugh and looked off to the side to bust a gut while Magnie nodded at the age-old wisdom. Daz reared his head back proudly. "As if I would ever stop fighting. The day I give in to Mag is the day I return to the great mother."

Few would ever say they had witnessed it before, but Magnie flushed at the man's words and walked over to give him a kiss. "Good. I like my man with a backbone. Oldie over here took the easy way out with his mate."

Ragnar responded maturely with a shrug and returned to his silent vigil. Some men went with the flow, and others fought it. To each their own.

Tyreus was the first to regain his sense of self and wiped his eye. "Ah, I needed that. Daz, how was the hunt? Please tell me you brought something back?"

Daz took a seat next to where Magnie was sitting and nodded with a smile. "Aye, when have I ever let you down Ty? Caught us a Giant Red Stag a few miles to the east."

The three listeners' eyes lit up at that. Ragnar's more than the others. "Finally, we can stop rationing the meat then."

Tyreus chuckled. "Logistics is easier when we actually have meat coming in I assume?"

The older dark-skinned Centaur grunted. "Do you have any idea how much of a headache it is to run ration meals to our people? Stubborn mules, the lot of em. They keep wanting access to our liquor stores, but I keep telling em it still needs time to ferment! Bah, one of these days…." The man descended into grumbles while the three younger centaurs chuckled.

It wasn't only them that were stressed. Even a rigid, stable rock like Ragnar needed a minute to rant every now and then.

Tyreus coughed to regain focus. "Right, thank you, Ragnar. But the good news is that the wildlife is returning. Another clear sign of the forest recovering after the last few dark years." He gave a meaningful look to Magnie, who scoffed.

"I'm glad we didn't have to resort to eating a poor Puffskein but I know what my gut tells me Ty. Something bad is going to happen if we get to relaxed."

Daz's eyes widened. "You feel the same way Mag? I've been on edge every time I leave the tribe's defenses."

Tyreus sighed. "Not you too. She's been chewing my ear off about investigating the spiders for days. Please don't encourage her."

"Oi, if we had more warriors you would have nothing to complain about."

"Aye, if we did, I would charge in by your side. But the reality is cruel."

Tyreus's cold but valid words silenced both of them. The chief wanted to attack as much as the next Centaur, but he had his duty to his people to keep them alive.

Daz rubbed his chin and ignored the mood to share his thoughts. "You know, I'm not sure it's the spiders we should be watching out for."

Everyone turned to look at him, and he scratched his cheek as he went on. "I can't explain it. But the forest is giving me a feeling of danger, unlike what the abominations did. That was imminent danger that came on abruptly. But this is lingering and less prominent. It makes it hard to pinpoint what's causing it."

Tyreus shared a worried look with Ragnar. "Daz has always had the closest connection to the stars than the rest of us, although he chose the path of a thickheaded warrior instead of a seer, we can't ignore his instincts."

The chief didn't disagree and turned back to his old friend, who twitched at the comment about his life choices. "Is there anything else you can share, Daz?"

The head warrior hesitated for a bare moment but shook his head in the end. "I have no clues to its source. Only that it's presence grows with each day, like a knife in the dark rather than a blade to the front."

Tyreus's brow furrowed as he thought over things. "We have no choice then. Ragnar, how long can an adult Giant Red Stag sustain us?"

"Including what we grow ourselves, we can last years. However, without meat, our strength will gradually wane, so I give it three months before we need to resupply again."

The chief nodded and blew out a cloud of smoke. "Best to raise the defenses then. Keep the young close. I want at least three nature mages on watch for our wards."

Magnie raised a brow. "I thought you wanted to let the people rest?"

He hummed and scratched his chin. "I do. Hm, let's say there was a Lethifold seen roaming the area, it will give us a cover to keep up the watch just in case."

"Who would have seen it?"

"Who it was doesn't matter as long as we know." Tyreus stood up, and the others followed. "The tribe will survive; that's our duty." He looked toward Magnie. "Vengeance will come, meditate and connect with the great mother; nature will soothe your woes." He turned to Ragnar. "I want updates on our food supplies from now on. Outside war times, we can be more lenient with rations. Make sure our people get some liquor in them; it will help; we can always make more."

The two bowed their heads. ""Yes Chief.""

Tyreus nodded at the respect shown to him as he turned to his oldest friend and head warrior. "Daz, be ready for whatever may come."

His friend smirked at him and pounded his chest powerfully with a fist. "Aye chief."

00000

"I thought you were his oldest friend?"

Magnie chuckled at Jin's question and waved a hand lazily. "The three of us grew up together as kids, getting into trouble at every turn, but they had been friends for years before by the time we we're old enough to leave our parents sides. The day I met em, I put their faces in the dirt, been close ever since. Tyreus still swears he didn't cry that day, but he did."

Jin laughed at the mental image of a chibi Magnie standing proudly over two crying boys the same age with her chest puffed out proudly. "Heh, what kind of stuff did you get mixed up in?"

A toothy smile split her lips as she thought back to those times. "Wrestling Nifflers to see what kind of fun stuff they had stored away. Trying to sneak up on Kneazles. Sneaking a peak at Mooncalf moon dances. We we're all over the forest as if we we're untouchable."

Jin noticed her slightly strained expression. "We're you?"

She sighed. "At our time, we we're. Ran into some trouble here and there, but our parents were never far behind. But then we got older, had kids of our own, and when the forest we called home grew more dangerous than ever, the kids remained the same as they had always been."

"Whats that?"

"Mischievous, curious, and bored. A terrible mixture for any parent's sanity."

00000

"Daz! Where're the kids?!" Magnie burst into their tent with a pissed-off expression, and the strongest warrior in the tribe cursed as he cut a strand of his beard he wanted to keep while he was shaving.

"My baby! Mag! How could you!?" Daz looked up with teary eyes holding the cut-off portion of his beard, and Magnie couldn't repress the laugh on her lips at his pitiful look.

"You trying a new look ya lovable idiot?"

Tyreus cried manly tears of pain as he stood up and loomed over her. "Woman, vengeance shall be mine." His eyes glowed with an unholy look, and Magnie just smiled expectantly and patted his chest.

"I can only hope so." Her smile dripped a bit as she looked around. "But now's not the time. Where's the kids? I thought you were up to something stupid again."

Daz huffed and calmed down. "Why do you always immediately assume it was my fault?" At her silent look, he threw his hands up in annoyance. "Bah, I don't know Mag. Havn't seen Agni or Rak since this morning."

Magnie hummed and rolled her shoulder. "Huh, where did those two run off to then?" She wondered out loud and then blinked. "Wait, I passed Liz on the way here, and she said she hadn't seen her son since the morning as well."

The two parents stared at each other. ""You don't think…..""

The pair of them took off running and left a dust trail in their wake as they burst into another tent.

"Drak! Where's your daughter?!" Daz bellowed as he entered and froze along with Magnie at the sight of the extremely buff vice-captain having his spirit leave his body and grow three sizes while holding a bloody war axe.

"WHO BE ASKIN ABOUT MY BABY GIRL!?...Oh, cap." The image faded in a blink as Drak laughed foolishly. "Sorry cap, ya need somethin?"

Daz shook his head to shake off whatever he had just seen. "Gah, Drak, how many times do I have to tell you to stop threating to castrate any male who comes to visit?"

"They should stop asking about my princess then!"

"They we're congratulating you on her birth when you started this shit!"

"Not a day too soon!"

Magnie rolled her eyes fondly and pushed Daz back before the two idiots got into their flow. "Drak, focus. Where's your girl?"

Drak stood up straight under Magnie's gaze, having long learned the pain of fucking with the woman who can put him two feet under with magic or fist. "Ah, milady, I didn't see ya there." He scratched the side of his head while looking around. "Er… I think she said she was going out to play with friends a few hours ago."

Daz and Magnie looked at each other and sighed in unison. "You're the fifth person we asked, and we already checked the training fields, meaning…." Daz left off, and Magnie finished for him. "The kids got out again."

Drak blinked for a moment before it hit him, and his spirit roared. "MY BABY GIRL AINT IN THE TRIBE?!" He grabbed his war axe and charged for the door, only to get restrained in a headlock by Daz.

"Calm down! We snuck out when we were kids all the time!"

Drak thrashed in his grip. "Who cares?! That was thirty years ago! The forest been having you of all people on edge for weeks! I don't care when it's me out there with ya cuz I trust ya, but that's my lass were talking about here!" Daz struggled to restrain him as Drak grew red-eyed like a bull.

Daz was reaching for some rope when Magnie smacked the worked-up man over the head. "Calm the fuck down Drak and use your head, will ya? You aint the only one whose kids went exploring. Let's gather the parents and go corral them." Her words got through to the man, who calmed, but his grip on his axe didn't lessen.

"Aye ma'am. I'll grab Liz and the others." He saluted with a fist over his heart, and Magnie laughed and slapped his shoulder.

"Good. And for the record Drak, you're a good father. Pireen can rest easy from the other side."

The buff man looked away with a flush. "I try." He shook it off and vanished while Daz sighed.

"Why does everyone listen to you so easily?"

Magnie barked a laugh and sauntered out of the tent. "They listen to you in the field, but off duty they all know whose more likely to give em a black eye between us."

Daz raised a finger to argue, paused, and dropped it. "Bah."

"That's what I thought."

The verbal battle was lost, but Daz hadn't given up the war just yet.

Sadly, their humor was short-lived as the next hour passed in a blur.

Daz, Drak, Liz, Magnie, and a few others met a distance away from the tribe. The search had gone from a casual walk to follow their kids probably having fun, to faster paced when they hadn't found a trail to track, to outright panicked as the hours passed without a sign.

"Anyone find anything?" Daz's serious voice boomed over the group.

"Me and mine haven't seen a track cap." Drak's anxious voice responded as he paced.

"I could only track whispers of them through the tree's to this area." Magnie grunted while biting her fingernail.

Liz opened her mouth to speak when a shout of pain rang out from nearby. Everyone snapped to attention and rushed over, only to find one of their members being held down as another tried to rip off the metal snare piercing his limb.

Daz's eyes froze on the trap, and a sensation that had been building for months spiked. "Poachers."

The others blinked, and then as one, the anger flowed.

"Poachers dare come back here?!"

"Our parents slaughtered them over sixty years ago!"

Magnie's face paled at the sight as she looked at Daz. No one more than her knew how accurate her mate's divination-fueled hunches were. "Daz…we need to hurry."

The head warrior's face didn't even twitch as he grunted and barked out orders. "Sig! Nag! Get that man free! Magnie! Heal him! I want you four to head back to the tribe and assemble every warrior we have left! Liz! Drak! With me! No poacher shall settle in this forest! Never again!"

The gathered group roared their approval and got to work, but only Magnie grabbed Daz by the arm as he turned to rush off with a severe look. "I'm coming."

Daz stared her in the eyes, knowing instinctively she wouldn't take no for an answer. "Heal that man and then follow us, leave a trail for the others to follow."

Magnie grunted but accepted it as she rushed off, knowing she was the only mage with the small group made of parents capable of healing the centaurs leg.

Daz smiled internally at her behavior before it froze over as he nodded to his waiting vice-captains. "Let's go." Drak and Liz followed him into the brush without a word.

00000

Jin was on the edge of his seat as he listened. "Is the history with poachers that bad?"

Magnie spat to the side. "You could say that. A bit over a century ago, poaching was bad. Wizards and goblins teamed up in droves to catch everything that moved and sell em into fighting rings. The poacher rings were nothing to sneeze at once, but our sense of times are different, and we ignored them too long."

Jin blinked at that. "Huh, what happened to them?"

The woman smirked cruelly. "The majority got mixed up in that last goblin rebellion, but the stragglers tried poaching a tribes children. They didn't survive the outcome." The cruel smile upturned as she went on. "That leads into the next part and it's a bit rough of a tale."

"What do you mean?"

Magnie's hand tightened into a white knuckle grip. "It took longer than I thought to heal that warrior's leg, and by the time I arrived, half the battle was underway. The next part is from another's lips."

Jin noticed her somber look and asked gently. "Drak or Liz I assume?"

"Aye, Liz was the only one left to tell it."

00000

The three centaurs ran like the wind as the forest blurred around them, following the tracks of more and more poacher traps in the area. Each of them far too simple for the experienced eyes of the three best warriors of their tribe.

They came upon the poacher's camp not a dozen minutes away from where they took off, and the sight before them ignited their wrath like nothing else.

Metal cages in the dozens holding all manner of magically induced sleeping creatures were lined up, and among them were their kids.

Drak didn't even pronounce his words as he roared like a Chimera at the sight of his little girl in shackles and bisected a surprised poacher in two down the middle.

The alarm blared as over a dozen wide-eyed wizard poachers in red jaw masks rushed over. It only took a moment for them to get over their shock, but in that moment, Drak had already torn through three of them in his wrathful charge, and the battle was underway with spellfire flying.

Daz and Liz weren't far behind, and they expertly dodged and sliced through everything in their way using their extremely accurate swordplay.

Drak, on the other hand, was tanking or smashing through everything they threw his way as he went wild.

For a minute, the camp was utter chaos as spells flew, elements flashed, and voices shouted, but it died down when Liz's blade sliced through the neck of the final poacher in sight.

Daz's gaze landed on a cage toward the end of the line holding his son, and he was just opening his mouth to instruct them over to the cages when the sound of clapping rang out.

A man in a blood-red cloak stood leering at them from the edge of a tree branch. "Well, well, I'm just too talented; the prey comes to me now!"

Drak raised his axe, but Daz held up a fist as he looked up. "Wizard! Has your kind forgotten the price of poaching our kind?!"

The man stopped laughing and sneered at the centaurs. With a slight twist, he flashed down to get closer. "Rumors and superstitions! Ole ghost stories about the savage warriors of the forest making off with the souls of the wicked to those who harmed the wildlife." He kicked over a crate. "Bullshit! Bunch of a pussy bastards the lot of em. We go where the beasts are, that's what poachers do!"

Daz raised his greatsword and pointed the tip at the man. "Then you will die like all other poachers have in our lands."

The wizard's answer was to smirk and raise his arms. "You want my life, prey? Come and get it!" A dozen pops resounded in the clearing as wizards and witches surrounded the trio of centaurs in bursts of smoke, only to be met with the fierce war cry of Drak charging into the fray. Liz took the distraction he caused to slip into their ranks and dodge spell fire.

Meanwhile, Daz went for the head and met the leader in combat.

Spellfire flared. Drak took heavy hits and got trapped in conjured ropes. Liz chopped off the arm of the witch holding the ropes and set him free, only to be besieged by exploding charms throwing her a distance away.

"Liz!" Drak roared and dove even further into a berserk state at his comrade's shout of pain.

The minutes passed, and things were looking up for the centaurs as they gradually cut down the poachers from a dozen to seven or eight.

And then, from out of the night came the abominations. Attracted to the sounds of combat, a hunting party appeared to find fresh food.

The fighting stopped for a moment as the spiders hissed and charged with emotionless empty gazes in their numerous black eyes.

The poacher leader cursed and launched a fire charm ahead. "Damn it! Why are the fucking spiders here?! They haven't been seen in weeks! Team 1, take as much as you can and go! Team 2 and 3 with me! Cover them! I don't want any of our cargo left behind!"

Poachers were good at three things, and those things were hunting, running, and pissing off everyone around them.

Of the eight remaining wizards and witches, three broke off to grab a connected set of four cages and vanished in a portkey under the widening gaze of Daz. "NO!" His son was in one of them. "MY BOY!" Daz roared and charged like a madman, but the poacher leader was waiting with five others. Three of which were throwing up tongues of fire to push back the spiders on their side.

Liz cursed as she looked around at the encroaching creatures. "Drak! Handle the abominations; I'll cover the cap!"

Drak only took a moment to stare with bloodshot eyes at the cage holding his little girl before his lungs bellowed, and he swung his axe. "COME ON YOU FUCKERS!" He slashed into the giant arachnids and pushed them back.

Liz's foes were the two magicals helping the leader while Daz fought him. The two were slippery, apparating around the clearing and picking her apart with pocketed spell fire and changing the terrain with all she could do being stall them.

Thankfully, the tide turned with the arrival of their fourth member. Magnie was loud and brash in the tribe, but she was the exact opposite in combat, and the woman was silently furious as she beheld the cages.

Vines tore through the earth in the dozens as they skewered spiders to one side and chased down the wizards on the other. Two of the three holding back the spiders were torn apart in seconds. And one of the two fighting Liz got her leg caught as she was thrown screaming into the spider horde.

"Mag! Get the kids!" Daz didn't take his eyes off his opponent as he pointed his arm off the side, and she didn't verbally respond as her vines wrapped around the cages, bringing them to her as the metal was snapped in half by the strength of her mana-infused plant life.

The poacher leader took offense to that. "You bitch! Those are mine!" The man twisted in an apparation to appear behind her with a glowing green light at the tip of his wand. "Cruci-" The sickly green torture curse was a moment away from launching when an arrow pierced his forearm. "AH!" The arrowhead snapped a band on the man's wrist as a bracelet fell to the ground.

Magnie grabbed a mace at her belt and swung it around without hesitation, but even in pain, the wizard managed to apparate back with a look of pure hate. "Why don't you beasts just learn your place already!"

Daz put down his bow and raised his blade once more. "Our place has always been here. It is you who has forgotten yours." He charged, and the poacher leader was on the back foot, having to use his bad hand to cast.

Meanwhile, the single poacher holding back the spiders was quickly overrun as the emotionless machines surged forth, uncaring of how many fell, only to be blocked by the single stalwart wall of Drak swinging his war axe like a man possessed.

Blood poured from holes in his chest, but he attacked undaunted, having coated his blade in the burning oil of a lantern. "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT!?"

Liz just managed to cut down her foe when the three poachers who left with the first shipment returned. She cursed and turned to Magnie. "You have to get the young out of here."

Magnie had been wrapping the drugged and sleeping children in vines for transport and gritting her teeth. "My son isn't here…."

Liz grabbed her bow and shot at the approaching poachers. "We'll deal with it! You're the only one who can get the kids out safe. Get them out and come back with the reinforcements, the tribes warriors shouldn't be far behind now."

Magnie knew she was right and fought a battle between her maternal priorities and her responsibilities, with the latter pushing through in the situation. The vines holding the sleeping children lifted as one as Magnie turned to leave, but not without a final word to her mate.

"DAZ! BRING ME BACK OUR SON!"

Daz sliced through a trio of earthen spikes. "I got it." He turned his head to match his eyes with hers and smiled. "Leave it to me."

The sight of that smile burned itself into her mind as she put her faith in the man she loved and ran. The moment of inattention cost him, however, as the poacher leader aimed an exploding charm not at Daz, who was confident in sensing direct danger even with his gaze turned, but at a flammable barrel to his side.

The exploding shrapnel pierced his side and turned his sword arm into a bloody mess as he fell to a knee with a shout of pain.

"Cap!" Liz charged in to cover him but got bogged down by the return fire from the approaching poachers.

Drak paused for a bare moment at Liz's shout, and a spider limb shot forth to pierce the side of his neck as a second one clamped jaws on his hind leg, injecting venom into his bloodstream.

The berserk warrior only used the pain to fuel him, and his blade sliced through both limb and head to free his limbs. Bleeding, blurry-eyed, and growing numb from the venom, the Centaur huffed like a wrathful dragon and brought down his war axe once more. "Ya gonna have to work harder for ya meal, ya eight eyed fuckers!"

Daz's head rung from a concussion as he tried to raise himself back to his feet. Liz did her best to cover him, but with the poacher leader supporting them, the four wizards finally managed to pin her down long enough to snap three of her legs with bone-breaker curses.

She went down with a scream of pain as Daz pushed through his pain to move. Using his off-hand, he raised his blade and threw it with all the force he could as it speared through the air and nailed a witch through the chest.

With the fighters down, the poacher leader apparated to a higher tree branch and sneered as he surveyed his camp. Seeing the rest of his cargo gone, with the spiders closing in, he knew it was time to go. "Head back to base." His last two followers nodded and port keyed out as he looked down at the recovering Daz.

His lips pulled back in a cruel smirk as he motioned toward the oncoming spiders. "You have some fun with em, ey?" The man called out something in Latin, but his eyes widened a moment later as he didn't go anywhere.

With the poachers attention diverted, he missed Daz's following action. In the blink of an eye, he raised his bow and pulled back the string with his teeth, launching an arrow with pinpoint accuracy to hit the man square in the jugular. The sheer force of the blow enough to launch the man backward, off the branch, and into the spider horde.

Daz roared as he stood. "NO!" He wobbled forward and cursed as the man's body was dragged off to the spider nest, along with everything he was wearing, including the port key likely somewhere on him leading to wherever his son was taken.

Liz coughed in pain from the side, having dragged herself up using her arms. "Cap, we have to go. Drak is….DRAK!"

Drak had a dozen broken limbs sticking through his torso as the beast of a centaur finally went down. Spider corpses piled around him like a burning wall as his ignited war axe fell to the cold earth below.

His final words bellowed from his lungs as he was swallowed by the horde. "IT WAS AN HONOR CAP! LIZ! TAKE CARE OF MY GIRL!" A final snap of bone rang audibly as he went silent, and Liz wailed, dropping herself to the earth as she grabbed her bow and launched every arrow she had at the spiders who took her best friend.

Daz blinked away some wetness as he retrieved his sword and stood tall. "Liz, I don't think we're getting out of here." Half his body was singed black, and the blood loss was becoming severe. And while her life wasn't in danger, Liz's broken legs weren't taking her anywhere.

Liz grunted through her tears. "Like Drak said. It was an honor."

Daz stepped forward with his blade. "It sure was, let me at least buy you a few more moments." He met the horde face-on and acted as a final wall for the friend behind him. "Take care of Mag, Liz."

His blade sang through the air, and blood flew.

Only a bare couple minutes later, the centaur reinforcements burst forth into the clearing with Tyreus and Magnie at the head, but only a wailing Liz was left with breath in her lungs. The warriors formed up around her and pushed the spiders back as she was dragged away by her allies.

Blade, arrow, and nature magic worked in unison as the experienced warriors broke the hunting party, but by then, it was too late.

The poachers were gone.

Drak was gone.

And Daz was gone.

The corpses had been taken by the spiders back to their nest. All that remained was a smoldering axe, and a bloody greatsword impaling a spider through the skull, shining in the torchlight.

The head warrior was gone, but he bought enough time for Liz to survive.

00000

The tent was silent as Magnie finished her tale. "That night, I lost a friend, my partner, and my son." She grit her teeth hard enough for Jin to hear them grind themselves down. "And I swore to return the favor tenfold one day."

"What became of Liz?"

Magnie sighed sadly. "She stuck around long enough to train her teenage son Orios into a proper warrior that could fill Daz's shoes, as well as see Drak's daughter become a mage under me, before she went off on a journey to find my son. Said she couldn't rest until her captains final wish was fulfilled. I wish I could have gone with her, but my responsibility kept me here. Haven't heard from her since."

"No wonder Orios is so skilled."

"Bah, maybe if that brat stuck to a single weapon he could get somewhere. He wants to be more skilled than his mother and Daz were, and those are large shoes to fill."

Jin thought back to every combat lesson with the man and how despite all the dislike, Orios never cut corners with his teachings. Every time he picked up a weapon and explained something, he never messed around or tried to sabotage him. "Huh, gives a new perspective on how I see him."

"Aye, everyone's got layers."

"He's still an ass."

"Ha, like I said, layers."

The two shared a chuckle, but as it died out, Jin reached forward to take the woman's hand. "Do you want help, Magnie?"

Her eyes traveled from his hand to his eyes as a soft laugh left her lips. "You already are lad. You wanted to know why I gave so much to help ya? It's cuz I want those abominations dead. I wanted em dead fifty years ago, and I'm tired of waiting. Now you know why."

Jin nodded thoughtfully at that and squeezed her hand before letting go. "Leave it to me."

Despite having listened raptly to her tale, Jin's own empathy for the woman and his newly heightened emotions from his change set his heart aflame, taking his mind elsewhere as he unconsciously repeated the exact last words that Daz did.

Magnie's eyes widened slightly as she watched him gently place a kiss on Fleur's head and stand up. "I'm gonna go speak to Tyreus for a sec." He left the tent without another word under Magnie's complicated gaze.

"That boy….no, that young man…." His smile hit her the same way Daz's did, and she shook her head. "Hardheaded fools, the lot of 'em."

Her gaze dropped to the laying Fleur. "And you lass, got something you want to say?"

Fleur rolled over and pushed herself up with a chuckle. "Didn't fool you at all did I?"

She snorted in amusement. "I was a mother lass, you ain't getting by me. Now why we're you doing that?"

Fleur's sheepish smile went down as she brought her knees to her chest. "I woke up when he was talking to Tyreus and started listening in, and I guess I lost the chance to say it."

Magnie raised a brow at the younger woman and smirked. "And it had nothing to do with the way he was running his hands over you like his most treasured thing in the world?"

Fleur flushed and buried her face in her knees. "Yeah….that too."

The older woman laughed loudly at Fleur's adorable reaction. "Loves a wonderful thing, ain't it?"

Fleur's eyes widened slightly before they settled as a flame of passion and affection deep inside her finally found a spark to dye itself a new color. "Mn, it really is."

Magnie smiled gently at the look on the younger woman's face before she coughed. "Now whats the real reason lass?"

Fleur's eyes tracked to Magnie's knowing one, and she sighed. "Jin is leaving in a few months."

"Aye, he has said as much. I know not where he plans to go, but its one of the reasons I was motivated to rush along the rituals."

Fleur nodded and looked down. "I'm not sure if I want to go with him."

Magnie gave her a questioning look. "Why not?"

Fleur grumbled, trying to think of an answer. "He's going very far away."

The older woman hummed. "And whats holding you back?"

Fleur flicked off fingers. "My family, my Veela coven, my chances to learn more about my dream careers. I'd be giving them all up to follow him."

"And what do you want to do?"

"I don't know! I struggled for years deciding between two career choices, and now a bigger choice is coming up, and I don't know what path to take. I…I love him Magnie, I love every second we spend together, I love the way he looks at me, I love waking up to his voice and touch. But can I give up everything I have to stay by his side?"

The tent was silent for a moment as Magnie reached over to pat the girl on the knee. "Lass." Fleur looked up with frustrated eyes and met Magnie's patient ones. "There ain't no such thing as a right choice. When the time comes, you will have to choose, whether you want to or not. Responsibility and desire will always be in conflict." Her hand squeezed Fleur's leg gently as she thought back to her own choice. "But take it from me, when the time comes to choose, don't let your idiotic man go. Find a third option."

Having heard her story, Magnie's words were much more weighty to Fleur's ears as she nodded. "Mn."

Magnie smiled and patted her knee a final time before leaning back into her furs. "Good. Now if you don't mind, I could use some rest. Damn brats making me tell old stories when I'm supposed to be recovering."

Fleur chuckled and sat back before something occurred to her. "Magnie."

"Hm?"

"Those poachers, did you ever find a symbol or a name?"

Magnie rolled over to look at the girl. "We found nothing in the debris. And if anything was on the bodies, it was carried off."

Fleur cursed at that, but Magnie wasn't finished. She lifted her arm and pointed to a box off to the side. "But we did find that."

Fleur asked for permission to open it and quickly did so, finding a dark red leather bracelet inside. "Is this…."

Magnie nodded. "Aye. The bracelet Daz's arrow snapped off from the poacher leaders wrist. It was found in the aftermath and I saved it here."

Fleur felt the mana inside the bracelet and looked up. "Magnie, this is a port key."

The older woman grunted. "I know lass. Little help that does us though without the password. I've been staring at that thing for decades, trying every word I could think of to take me to wherever my boy had gone. Nothing ever worked."

Fleur lifted the bracelet and turned it over, seeing only a single mark of a bat with a noose around its neck embroidered in the center.

"And the symbol?"

Magnie sighed. "Who knows? I put it away years ago and stopped looking. It only ever made me angry."

Fleur turned it over as an idea grew in her heart. "Magnie, I think I can help."

The older woman's brow raised as she listened to the younger one explain her idea and slowly pushed herself up. "You know what you're saying lass?"

Fleur's eyes hardened. "I do."

Magnie studied her for a moment and nodded. "Alright then. It ain't in my nature to dissuade you. If that's the case, there's a few things I should teach you."

The women talked as plans were made, but a ways away from Magnie's tent, Jin stared into the chieftain's eyes as he ground down the last of the calming herb in his mouth.

"It's time chief."

Tyreus ran a hand through his beard. "You heard the tale of Daz I assume. I must caution you not to let emotion blind you young Jin. As long as progress is being made, there is no need to rush things and bring further danger upon your shoulders. We have waited many years, we can wait a few more."

Jin suppressed a rising growl as his irritation began to grow without the herb's suppression. "I don't need years. My preparations will be done in a week."

Tyreus's gaze sharpened. "Are you confident in this?"

"I am."

The two met squared off for a long minute, and Tyreus was the first to nod. "Very well. You have brought us the queen's corpse, so you have earned the trust of my tribe and me." He rose and stood tall. "If you say it is time, then we will follow."

"Just like that? I thought you wanted to be cautious."

The smoking pipe between the chief's fingers snapped like a twig. "I have been cautious for many, many years young Jin. I was cautious when I became chief, replacing my fallen father. I was cautious when the spiders retreated, and chose to nurture the next generation to keep my people alive. I was cautious when my oldest friend and his son were taken from us." For the first time since Jin had met him, the chief's calm façade broke as a look of pure wrath covered his features and veins popped out all over his frame like cords of iron. "I have been patient as long as I could. If you say it is time, it is time." He looked Jin in the eyes. "We are strong now. My people are strong, and my responsibility has been fulfilled. We will ride with you, and we will cut out the heart of our foes once and for all."

Jin nodded. "Understood. How much time do you need?"

Tyreus reigned in his boiling wrath with decades of experience and calmly put down his broken pipe. "To convince the surrounding tribes, two weeks at the most. But they must see a change in the nest before they will be willing to charge forward. You have earned my tribes respect, but we are not the only ones."

Jin grunted and turned to leave. "Just get them to the edge of the nest, and I'll give them a show that will convince them."

The chief nodded, and Jin thought that was the end of things, but a hand clamped down on his shoulder before he could leave. "Jin."

"Yeah?"

"Come, I believe you need to learn how to smoke properly." Tyreus tilted his head toward Jin's hands, and he looked down and winced, seeing his claws piercing his palms. "The changes are still fresh; you will need to learn to adjust."

Jin grunted and removed his claws as his flesh quivered and began slowly knitting itself back together. "Yeah, and you need a new pipe."

The chief chuckled and patted the younger man's shoulder. "Aye, I do."

For better or worse, the invasion on the spider nest would kick off in two weeks, and Jin had just the right place to visit in that window. It was time to take up Sirius on his offer to visit the Black family library.

End.

AN: Thoughts? Next up is some chaos in the Black library. Because centuries of Black family wizards making a hobby out of cursing every inch of the library sounds like great crack potential.

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Also, for those not as well versed in the reader community, there are typically a few sites people go to for web reading.

There are the oldies like wuxiaworld is you wanted to read Wuxia, but after all the nonsense with webnovel's emergence, the site kinda got shafted.

Webnovel is more for newbie/foreign speaker writers these days. It used to be better. I won't say more cuz all I got is insults for it now.

Fanfiction has the best search engine for finding stories, but with the lack of any care from mods, its dying a slow death as it malfunctions.

QQ = Questionablequesting. A site that's mainly NSFW. Takes a bit to learn how to navigate but its HEAVILY monitored by mods and admins. You harass anyone, and you can be banned for life. It's awesome. Its way easier on writers and allows for easy edits, adding images or links, etc.

SB = Spacebattles. The brother/sister site to QQ. Has the same servers and attention from mods and admins. It's mainly SFW. Same stuff applies.

RR = Royalroad. Mainly for new creative writers making OG stories instead of fanfics.

Not really a fan of wattpad or scribblehub myself. Or ao3, that place confuses the living shit out of me.

There are plenty of other sites if your looking for litrpg or fantasy novels. Really great stuff out there. Toika will always be my personal god of writing, ICDS and EER are forever top 10's for me.

Hope all these website names don't get censored. Fanfiction is notorious for not allowing the names/links of other sites to be posted.

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Response to Reviews:

/:Heirx – Thanks! I saw both your reviews and I really appreciate it. Reviews like yours inspire me to write more.

/:4Alucard – Thank you! I'm glad your enjoying so far. QQ stands for QuestionableQuesting lol.

/:Carlmike94 – I'm glad you enjoyed. Trying to do the centaur plot points justice.

/:Guest, Mr. Brown Optometrist – thanks guys!

/:PercyPendragon3 – Lol thanks! I had a lot of fun writing it. Next chap should hopefully return to that humor.

/:wolfsrun – exactly! The support spells are where HP charms really shine.

/:Noahbadoah – Close is close lol. The soul stuff is gonna be fun with how Jin figures out a path forward. I like keeping things simple but still have challenges. And he will simplify everything.

/:Winter Metor – I say no to Elsa because…Elsa fanart is basically how I imagine Fleur most of the time lol. Some of Elsa's art is just….my boy needs a wheelchair.

/:LB97 – The elf bro's are all the way. Ride or die buddies.

/:HughJasz – hope you enjoyed the expansion to Maggie's backstory here. I can re-ask about the jewelry piece later. It's important, but what form it has isn't that big a deal. One ear earing on a guy can be hella manly, just check out google images for 'Male earing fantasy art' and see what I mean. But I chose that one cuz it's out of the way. Jin's form changes sizes and he uses his hands a lot, so I figure an earing is the most out of the way item.