lose

It was actually way easier than anyone would expect it to be and yet at the same time, superbly complicated. With her abilities she commanded earth particles that were small as dust and had them stacked up, little by little snaking their way around Tess's leg and moving upwards towards the bow that had never left her hand.

If anyone understood how particles at that sized worker, they realize how fragile it was and how easily it could've been blown away by a single shift of the body. Even Grendolyn with her abilities was hard pressed to complete her plans while making sure the others did not sense what she was doing. The amount of mana she could use was minuscule compared to the monumental task she had.

It was all worth it however, the moment she was able to latch her mana onto Tess's bow. Then all she needed to do was wait for the moment of provocation, and the second Tess had pulled an arrow out of her quiver Grendolyn could only pray that the connection of her spell did not break from Tess's movements.

From the fact that she was alive right now, it was pretty easy to conclude that her gamble had paid off, the moment the arrow head had even the slightest contact with the bow, the iron arrow head had been put under her control, molded into anything she wanted. In this case, that was simply for it to be melded to the bow so that it did not get melded to her face.

The expression Tess gave off was in Grendolyn's opinion 'extremely satisfactory'. "I think you guys don't have any complaints about them taking up the position anymore." Travis jumped in wanting to end the meeting. Grnedolyn did not mind Travis speaking on her behalf this time as she had a victorious smirk plastered onto her face as she looked at Tess gloatingly. The latter had no retort but to slam her now useless bow onto the meeting table and stomp her feet.

This time Alos stood out, "We have seen her abilities and indeed it does more than just qualify her to lead one of the squads..." He raised his great sword and held it perpendicularly, with the swords length it straightened so far that it was just two palms breadth from it's tip to Ode's nose. "But what about him?"

"He's uh... creaak.." Again Travis tried to be the mediator for the conversation but this time Ode was the one who interrupted him. The man had already stood up from his chair push it back in and walk out the door. While the other's were pretty confused, Alos more than understood the meaning of the gesture.

"Let's take this outside."

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Back in Odes home, his whole mercenary crew were waiting for some word from their boss. Their families were resting soundly in the house, but for them who were the ones who needed to protect them, they could only feel restless after not hearing anything about the war with their new neighbors. Not being able to sleep anyway, they filled the time with conversation and some cards to lighten the mood.

Out of all of them, the only one who didn't seem to want to give it a shot was Jacob. Unlike the rest, Jacob did not seek to lighten the weight on his mind. And even if he did want to, he could not talk to the rest of the men since the problems they were considering were vastly different.

Hence, he simply stood by the doorway taking the shift to watch their surroundings so the others could play in relative safety. Faris having never seen Jacob act this way, took it upon herself to ask, "What's wrong? is everything okay?" She asked meekly as her head peeked out the doorway.

His head turned to look at her, the face that usually greeted her with such warmth now stared at her tiredly. It was especially shocking to her as the moment his eyes landed on her face, he seemed to grow even more weary. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"Huh? what... no.. it's nothing." He seemed to have for a moment snapped out of his thoughts before succumbing back into them seconds later. Turning back to face the night, he suddenly felt a slender hand hold his arm "Jacob if there's a problem, you can tell me."

"I said! it's nothing..." His voice had snapped for some reason, scaring Faris back. Seeng her react in such a way made his eyes go wide. "Sorry.. I just.. have some thing that's weighing on me, but it's fine now.... I'm going to walk a little." Faris wanted to stop him but she wasn't sure about the words she was supposed to use to achieve that, so... she could only silently watch him go.

Jacob walked on briskly towards some unknown destination. Through it several words kept ringing in his head. The words of that man he had saved earlier today. "You're Ode's new Protege... watch her... or you'll lose her too..."