31 Pride

Tessa's eyes quivered as hot sweat gathered on her sickly tired face. She laid on the floor, covered neck down in a thick blanket. Her entire body trembled with weakness as she forced herself not to lay still and not favor her arm, or chest, or thigh, or any part of her battered, aching body. She kept her eyes closed and waited for his snide voice to announce his departure like he always did.

"Well, I am off to make more beasts and mages." Another bear thigh clattered on the pile in the corner as he spoke. She hadn't laid eyes on him since their fight- she didn't dare to, not yet- but she could tell he was confident and bored. Bored enough to believe she'd been asleep all this time. So confident, he hadn't even bothered to bind her. 'Power and age will make even the strongest mages careless,' Bastion said once. And she planned to exploit that weakness.

His footfalls faded from her ears, and she waited five minutes, like she always did, before opening her eyes. A large mana crystal sat in the center of the camp instead of the fire. They cast a light on her mummied shape, bandaged waist up in two shades of clothes with runes thrumming.

The light from the crystal reached farther than fire. It illuminated mossy corners of the cave, a tight fissure to narrow for her to slip through, and a vast network of sharp runes at the back wall, which was nearly too worn to clearly read. Only the darkness at the only exit of the cave room resisted the light.

Tessa drew a long breath and let out a distorted yelp as he pulled herself to her feet. She clutched her midsection reflexively as pain shot spread through her torso. With her breath labored, she hobbled towards the base of the mountain of bones.

She pulled a four-foot femur at the edge of the pile and cringed as the bones clattered. Though she knew he was gone, she still tried to be careful. She leaned on the femur. Satisfied that it could completely hold her weight, she picked a thin rib that laid to the side and started towards the wall of darkness at the edge of the cave.

She knew it was no way natural, but she already thought of a way through it. After she'd awoken the day after losing her jaw, she'd planned and discretely gathered mana. From the mage's idle pandering, she'd learned a great deal about him and of the plans he had for her and her brother.

He refused to acknowledge the death of his comrade, insisting he was somehow dormant in her brother and granted him some of his powers and abilities. He had in no way explicitly mentioned any of this, but she'd easily deduced it.

She struggled to wrap her head around it at first, but when he mentioned his brother figuring how to strengthen himself with blood, it clicked. She needed to escape and put a stop to whatever he had planned. If not for her brother, then for herself. 'Father will sort all this out. He always knows what to do.'

She mentally recited a spell a few dozen times, and eventually, her rib in her hand lit up. It wasn't as quick or as stable as verbal chants, but it had to do.

Words helped knights laid the foundation for spells by connecting the mana in their cores with the ones in the atmosphere. Hand gestures and physical movement built on said foundation. But both were shallow imitations of visualization, which materialized spells through concrete, and unwavering thought.

Tessa was using spells through exercises that were supposed to help aspiring intermediate knights better visualize. Tessa had been the only junior knight under Bastion that managed to cast tier-one spells wordlessly after months of study and practice. Her understanding of the basic spell inscriptions was still spotty and her mental recreation lacking, but she could manage most tier-one spells and maintain them without too many stutters.

Her eyes looked downwards past her nose and focused on her mouth- or what was left of it. It was tightly wrapped in a dark inscribed scarf with angular runes running up and down it. She couldn't feel its pressure or anything really, below the bridge of her nose. 'I wouldn't be conscious right now if it wasn't for this scarf. To treat me with such an inscribed item, he must need me alive.'

Tess feared a great many things- the Emperor Tanu, her father's wrath, failure, her brother's death- but the blood mage wasn't one of them. He'd treated her like a companion rather than a prisoner and went so far as to treat her wounds.

The light poured into the darkness and cut through it. It carved out a dome of grey writhing mana. She took a step forward and pushed through the hall of void. She felt a slight resistance but hobbled forward unabated.

'Damn it,' she cursed as a strand of the grey turned black and lunged at her. She weaved, nearly stumbling. She balanced her improvised cane just in time to feel the tip of the errant tentacle nick the edge of her ear and claim a lump of hair. Her spell faltered only for a moment, and she had paid dearly for it.

'If that sickly mage only stayed down, I would have won,' she listlessly thought. 'It would have been a close battle, but I would have won.

Her eye glittered, 'I would have been the junior knight, who defeated two legendary blood mage. Seth would have been placed in a good squad where he could grow. I would have received enough merit points to vastly improve our wealth and standing before the Emperor. But I didn't win…' Her mood soured as she recalled her fight with the mage, 'He had so much mana…' Even with the heart of Malum and the aid of the academy dampening field, she barely managed to match his strength.

'Whatever plans he has for me, I can't stick around to find out. I need to stop Seth before he gets himself captured or killed.' Her brows crumpled in concern. While her mind wandered, another tentacle lashed at her. This time it blurred as it whipped. Sera swung the cane tucked under her armpit. Fragments of white bones scattered in every direction as the dome rung out. She felt her cold feet tighten around the cold stone floor she stood as pain spread through her body. The tentacle of darkness faded after she reestablished control over the dome.

'Fool me twice?' she mentally scoffed. Did the mage think that little of her? She almost felt insulted at his level of negligence. 'Wounded or not, something an underwhelming as a whip of darkness cannot suppress me.' She slightly puffed her chest as she thought. He might have been proud, but he never expected he would be this negligent. "I can't believe someone this careless and hot-headed defeated me,' she thought, bitter. 'I will kill him like I killed his partner. It's only a matter of time. She tested the bone with a long lean once more and continued her journey with a renewed focus.

Five minutes into the void, she felt a subtle shift in the depth of the void. It was almost so faint, it would have slipped the notice of a lesser knight, but she wasn't just any ordinary junior knight. She was the daughter of the Udin Ryall, the Evertorch. Her eyes steeled as a crimson wave pulsed and carried through her shield of light and out to the cave behind her.

She began to gather whatever mana she had left and began to mentally chant. The long femur under her arm pulsed with light by the time the pulse settled.

A savage roar accompanied by a second, more sinister wave of crimson mana shook the mossy damp cave to its stony foundations. Loose rocks fell as bone clattered. The mountain of bones that sat in the corner of the cave chattered and creaked as they gathered into a singular mass of mismatched bones.

The beast had five heads, a dozen arms, and two thick legs. It's body pulsed bobbed with red mana. Tessa's heart pressed against her bruised ribcage as a second vicious roar rattled the entire cave room, and dispelled the field of darkness, and shattered her dome of light.

Tess instantly recognized the aura pressing down on her, and her heart quickened with excitement. Though she was wounded and had only half her mana, after losing the heart of Malum, she was confident she could kill the beast before her.

She slunk the alight femur on her shoulder and groaned as mana spread through her aching body. Sweat pooled out of her face as she exhaled. She had a little over five minutes before she burned through all her magic.

'Come at me already.' she mentally yelled as she eyed the towering beast in front of her. Her loss and capture was a wound on her pride; she could not stand. Falling the abomination before her would provide some much-needed relief and encouragement.

She'd inherited her father's pride and sense of duty. She would accept nothing less than the utter decimation of the beast before her, a swift escape, and return to Brightmont with her brother. The bones of her undead foe cracked as mana flowed through it. Its dead eyes glowed crimson, and it galloped towards her and attacked with a swipe.

***

Two wolves sat by the road, eyes fixed on a green valley that stretched to the base of a canopy of trees. With low ears and whispers, they conversed behind a larger wolf ahead of them. His mane was a nearly perfectly majestic grey, with its only blemish, a scar that stretched across his meaty chest. "We've camped here for days. And we've lost the scent of the human cub. I think it wise if we returned to the Alpha…" a young white-maned wolf said.

"Hold your tongue, Kayla. Grey mane was alpha before Long fang for a reason. He's the most accomplished human hunter in the pack. Show some respect," A larger wolf hushed. His mane was of crimson and snow and was a head taller than the white wolf.

" Terry, But…" The larger wolf shut him up with a stern glare.

Greymane listened with his eyes closed. He inhaled and stood motionless as air whisked through his hair. He shut his senses to the noise of the other trackers Long Fang had sent to watch him like he was something that could be managed, watched, bound, suppressed!

A short pulse flowed from him as his paw slammed into the valley. It spread in all directions and forced his warden on their bellies. It traveled as a lone wave through the grassland unimpeded, as just as it was about to merge with the copse of trees at the edge of the valley, It hit a barrier.

Grey mane smirked in triumph. His anger had won again, but it served him well this time. It was as he suspected. He regally walked through the valley, past the grass blackened by his release of mana, to the edge of the hidden dome that repelled his pulse. He closely starred at the distorted space and waited for his wardens to catch up.

Both arrived moments later, thoroughly shaken with tufts of hair missing. The white-maned wolf seemed to the worse of the two.

"Good, you are here," he said without looking to the two wolves trailing behind him.

"You should have warned us. We almost died," the younger wolf cried. The Older wolf said nothing but looked just as upset. "I will inform Long Fang of this. He will…"

Grey mane's aura flared. "He will do nothing. You should have known better than to stand so close."

The young wolf ground his teeth but lowered his head in respect, so did the wolf beside him. They knew he was right. The pack respected strength above all. That was why Greymane wasn't cast out when he lost to Long fang. That was why Kayla would be punished if she went against him.

"Both of you step forward," he commanded. Both wolves lifted their heads, and their eyes traveled from Greymane to the grassland in front of them, and then back to Greymane. Kayla was hesitant to speak after her blunder, but her curiosity won over her in the end.

"If I may ask…"

"You may not," Grey mane cut her off with a growl. "Step forward, child, or I will move you."

Kayla looked to her companion for support, but he, too, was just as confused and scared. Without further delay, both moved their paws and edged forward. It was small at first, but later, they broke into a full strut.

Grey mane watched, calm, waiting for the reaction he knew would come. His muscles tensed in anticipation.

Both wolves tried their best not to look back with the heat of the elder on them. They dared not speak for fear that they might be punished upon their return. A thousand fears passed through their mind as they walked - banishment, confinement to stockades for months, Patrolling ghoul infected territories, but not death.

With the size of the pack so small, death was never a real threat. It seemed inconceivable to them, which was why it dazed them even more as their bodies spontaneously combusted as a ruined town appeared before them. They couldn't even howl in pain before their mind faded.

Greymane sprung forth the moment saw the wolves he sent ahead combusted. Before his very eyes, a ruined came into view as a wall of seemingly invisible fire fluttered as it burned the other trackers.

He cleared the distance between them and passed beside the charred wolves just as the wall of invisible fire repaired itself. He'd gambled the field couldn't maintain its illusion and repel intruders at the same time. It was only open for a second, but that was all the time he needed.

"This will teach him to show me the respect I deserve," he said, looking at the ashes of his former wardens. Greymane had known both of them when they were cubs. Kayla's mother was the village healer, and terry's mother was his lieutenant when he faced his old Alpha and killed him. She was the first to die when Long Fang attacked, yet he didn't regret sacrificing her cub. She would understand. He had to do everything he could to reclaim his seat as Alpha no matter the cost.

"I'm loyal to the pack above all else. The blessed one is important to all of us. Of course, I will hunt whoever steals from him." He turned the ashen ruin before him and drew a deep breath. "The scent of the human cub is strong here. Finding him is a simple matter." With those words, he slowly walked into the ruined town.