Tension

Silence settled over the mages as Turavar arrived with the now recovered mages and knights in tow. Everyone regarded each other with tense looks as they realized it was time to attempt leaving the canyons.

"Is everyone ready to move Lord Turavar?" Asked High Mage Zeritel, breaking the tense silence.

"I've done the best I could. With the added help of Sir Fulgrith's Life magic they will be able to function well enough to not be deadweight." The elderly mage responded.

"Very well then, I suppose it will have to suffice. Everyone, as you all know, though we have driven off the hounds earlier, they continue to amass more numbers as we speak. And though the hounds will surely attack us if we try, we have no choice but to move back to the main camp and regroup." The High Mage announced.

The rest of the mages erupted in arguing once again the instant their leader finished talking. It seemed some were unsatisfied with the decision to move out and argued against it while others argued against them in turn. This continued to intensify until a middle-aged noblewoman with auburn hair and bright green eyes sent waves of flowing gray-white ether that washed over everyone and calmed them down.

Rethys, feeling the soothing effect of the noble lady's magic, identified it as that of the Mind element.

She then addressed the mages with a calm but stern voice.

"Whatever or whoever controls the hounds seem content with simply biding their time for now, but it is only a matter of time before they attack again with greater force. I've already detected the powerful presence of what I presume to be a second Hellmaw joining their numbers, we simply cannot afford to stay here when the threat intensifies with each passing moment." The middle-aged noblewoman said.

"Also, I'm sure you've all noticed our unexpected guest hovering above us even now. It is safe to assume until proven otherwise that this creature is the one responsible for the blisterhounds' frenzy as well as their strange behavior. And though these creatures are known to avoid all others, everyone must be prepared in case the worst comes to pass." The High Mage added.

At the mention of the Origin elemental lingering near them, the mages tensed up and began murmuring among one another until they all voiced their agreement with the High Mage's decision. They truly could not afford to wait while a mysterious creature rallied scores of magical beasts at them.

"It is decided then, we will organize ourselves and move post-haste."

*****

Despite being a mage's assistant, Rethys was still a magicless commoner and thus never really saw great displays of magic, all he ever saw were applications of a few elements involved in crafting, brewing or researching, and those were always measured and controlled.

Though he never bore witness to a magic battle before in his life, he always liked to imagine them to be grand and wonderful spectacles with flurries of colorful but epic elemental effects flying about and wreaking havoc. His logical side then always liked to temper his expectations using what little he did know to picture magic battles instead as normal fights but with the occasional spell or two added to them, courtesy of the few mages that would participate in whatever that battle would be. He always imagined so since every mage he ever met, including his master, was loath to part with their precious energy, and thus their magic would always be reserved.

Nothing could prepare Rethys however to the truth of what a whole regiment of mages would put on display. As he stood in the backline of the exploration group as one of the non-combatants, he couldn't help but gawk at the display of magic unfolding before him.

Spikes of earth reminiscent of those Mage Elkieth used would rise from the stone ground in dozens, as they flew towards any hound in sight. One of the Earth mages even controlled tendrils of earth that snaked around the battlefield as if they had a mind of their own, killing smaller hounds with minimal effort by running through their skulls and trapping bigger hounds and crushing them in their mighty grasp.

A group of Fire mages including Turavar worked together and took control of any flames emitted by the blisterhounds, focusing them into powerful explosions that the hounds' fire resistance did nothing against.

Another mage would engage hounds in close range, emitting brown ether of an element unknown to Rethys that reduced anything coming into contact with it to dust.

Two more mages stood in the backline and sent many sharp blades of wind towards the smallest beasts, cutting them apart entirely in a brutal, red spectacle.

The most impressive display, however, came from the High Mage himself who controlled massive waves of water against the attacking hounds. These waves fluctuated between their liquid and solid forms repeatedly, flowing over attackers and freezing them or crushing them in the sheer force of the moving water. Some waves even expertly drove sharp icicles in them towards hounds while others forcibly flowed into the bodies of the hounds before exploding outwards in the form of icy spikes. The High Mage's extreme mastery of his element left Rethys in awe as he saw him dispatching wave after wave of the fiery beasts with seeming ease.

Soon there were no attacking beasts left in this attacking horde and the group gathered to rest and assess the damage, from there it didn't take long for them to start moving again. And though they didn't have any casualties yet, and seemed to handle all threats well, the mood was anything but good.

As Rethys took his place at the back of the group as one of the assistants, he looked around the group. All around were tense faces, while he and the other assistants and apprentices didn't need to fight and had only the one job of remaining safe, the mages had to constantly keep switching in and out of fighting to regain their energy. They still had a ways to go to get back to the main camp and were already attacked multiple times by large waves of small hounds with only the occasional larger variant, while the truly dangerous variants hung back and never attacked.

The mages were not fools and knew they were being worn down slowly before an attempt to finish them off, the ominous elemental still following them now seeming like an executioner ready to bring its axe down upon them.

And with the hounds displaying this level of coordination there was also the threat of them freeing the trapped hellmaw left frozen deep into the canyons, and the possibility of being pincered between two creatures of that caliber did not bode well for the expedition members.

Rethys also learned by listening in on conversations that hellmaws were the only reason the Kingdom focused on controlling blisterhound populations. For while regular blisterhounds were merely a nuisance for a mage, a hellmaw was a nigh unkillable natural disaster on legs. He also learned that due to the sheer number of the fiery hounds that the expedition had slain, they'd all receive quite generous compensation from both the Kingdom and the Mage Order.

'Something to look forward to once we're out of here I guess.' He thought.

Time passed in this simmering stress and tension until the time came for another hound attack, however this one was not announced by the howl of a large blisterhound but by the blood-curdling shriek of a hellmaw that was so loud that Rethys struggled to cover his ears in time.

"Prepare yourselves!" Commanded the High Mage, it was time for the final battle.

As the procession of mages assembled into battle formations, Rethys saw the tide of beasts of all sizes pour out from around a corner until eventually the dreaded monster showed itself. The creature was a bit larger than the other hellmaw previously faced by the mages and was wreathed in thick flames. The living inferno moved slowly and ominously, even trampling some of the lesser hounds in the process before breaking into a sprint that shook the whole canyon.

"Stop their charge! I'll handle the hellmaw!" Ordered the High Mage with a grim face as he made a motion with his hand that made extreme amounts water from the canyon rivers around them rush to him.

As he wielded the rivers themselves against the hellish beast, the rest of the mages were busy stopping the rest of the hounds, employing similar strategies as the last few times in tandem with each other. Rethys even noticed his mentor taking to the front of the line with the knights and the few melee-oriented mages, keeping the charge of the beasts away from the ranged mages.

Shortly after, the rumbling march of another massive beast could be heard in the distance.