Nate enjoyed the feeling of the wind blowing through his blond hair as they raced across the plains. His hair hung down to his shoulders these days and Kiri had convinced him that upon their return to the Capital that they should go out and get some proper grooming for the both of them. He acknowledged the idea had some merit. A haircut was probably due, though he had always kept his hair a little longer than normal. A big factor had been the lack of money back on Earth to regularly get haircuts. Now, it was just what he was used to and comfortable with.

  The Dungeon had been a resounding success with no injuries to speak of and before they had left, he had distributed the processed mana, handing off a single gem to everyone. He’d tucked his own away, saving it for some experiments once he got back to the University. The other three had used theirs right away, returning the empty gems to him. Kiri knew about the additional enhancement that came from using processed mana to power Skills, but at the same time most of her Skills primarily used soul energy. Instead, she had elected to spend some time seeing if she could figure out a way to refine soul energy the way a Class Core somehow refined mana into processed mana. It was early days but he thought the idea had merit and to be honest, his endless curiosity made him want to get involved in figuring it out. But he had to draw the line somewhere and he was already spread thin with his myriad of other focuses, so for the time being, he was leaving it purely with Kiri.

  Evindal had continued Nate’s mentoring in the evenings on the expedition. The trip was three days from the Capital to the Dungeon they had challenged, and as this was late afternoon of the second day of their return, they had one more night before they would arrive at the city the following day. The plains stretched before them in every direction, leaving little to no cover. The swaying yellow-green grass made the landscape look like an ocean. A barren ocean, since they were the only other sight, but an ocean nonetheless.

  Nate glanced around at the party present. Evindal rode in front, flanked by Kiri and Null. Nate himself was behind them, with Britt to his right. Finally, two Gold-ranked Adventurers brought up the rear, escorts provided for Null by his Father. Much like Prefect Allais did for Coralie, Prefect Raoult did not allow his son to leave the Capital without additional protection. Nate had found the two didn’t use any veiling items and a quick scan had revealed they were both in the low seventies with Partial Embodiments. The extra protection was a factor in Nate and Kiri’s decision to continue to pair up with other Guildies for Dungeon runs. Though that might need to change soon if Nate and Kiri intended to look into challenging Epic-tier Dungeons in the near future.

  The Dungeon rewards had been simple enough and given a choice between Knowledge, Wealth or Equipment he had gone with Wealth. The planks of Rare stone he had received held an affinity for space, which would be useful for his portal development project, but would likely require a little bit of attention from Conceptual Material first. His mind began to wander down the path of his portal development experiment when Conceptual Insight screamed at him. His eyes flicked back up, looking for the threat while a part of his mind listened to the Skill. Both his eyes and his Conceptual Insight Skill figured out the cause at the same moment. Time had paused around them. Within a sphere that encompassed the party, time continued to flow but beyond that barrier everything was frozen, not a single blade of grass moving.

  The wave of time magic was coming from Evindal, who seemed to be focusing intently on the land in front of them. Nate tried to move his Farsight Sphere of Awareness but found that like him, it was locked in time. He was fairly certain this was the Legendary Skill that he had traded to Evindal: The Time Between, which was apparently an ability that froze time in an area, affecting everyone caught in the range. Nate wasn’t sure he could see the full utility of the Skill, but he didn’t have time to as the Skill vanished, Evindal instantly pulled on the reins of his alliram mount, mirrored by the rest of the party.

  One of the Gold-ranks moved towards the front of the party, “What is it, Lord Evindal?”

  “An ambush,” muttered Evindal quietly, the elf looking more focused than Nate had ever seen him.

  Nate swept his own Farsight Sphere of Awareness out in front of them, finding what Evindal had found after a moment. He might have missed it if not for Conceptual Insight, but there was an area that emitted the Concept of Concealment. He’d worked with the Sigil enough in the past to recognise its unique flavour, like smoke in a glass.

  He was about to ask what they should do when he felt a rumbling below their feet. As one, the party scattered, avoiding a plume of lava that exploded, coating the plains in an acrid smell and setting fire to some of the grass. The smoke began to billow up into the sky as their ambushers finally revealed themselves, appearing out of nowhere less than a hundred metres distant and quickly closing the distance at a jog.

  Nate could sense through his Farsight Sphere of Awareness that they were all veiled, and for the moment, held off on attempting to shatter them. With a glance around as the party gathered back up, he waited to see what Evindal wanted them to do. His mentor in pursuing the Lord of Life Class gave nothing away, but he could sense concern in the body language of everyone else present, including the Gold-ranked bodyguards.

  Their enemies finally stopped around twenty metres from the party and Nate got a good look at them with his eyes. There were eleven in total, a mixture of men and women with a variety of weapons. A few looked like they might be mages but without shattering their veils he couldn’t be certain. The remainder held a variety of weapons, with two carrying shields and one even held a bow. Nate kept a special focus on that one. If this devolved into the battle he was expecting it to, then leaving an archer to their own devices seemed like a great way to get shot.

  It was Evindal who broke the tense silence, his eyes focused on a tall and skinny man at the centre of their ambushers' formation.

  “It’s Gordon, of House Desmarais, is it not?”

  “The Eternal Grove recognises me on sight. I’m honoured,” replied Gordon laconically.

  “No point in bargaining then, I suppose?” asked Evindal quietly.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far, Eternal Grove. You could submit to us. We might leave one or two of you alive as a warning to the Guild. The Prefect’s whelp, for example. But the rest of your lives are forfeit. My Lady Duchess has spoken. So, how about it? Your life for a couple of the kids?”

  Nate felt a coldness seeping into him, despite the heat from the magma and flames nearby. A memory of the smell of his skin burning and the look of pleasure in Fabien’s eyes as Nate had screamed in pain. Never again would he let himself be put at the mercy of others. Better to die fighting. He glanced at Kiri who gave her agreement with a tiny flick of a finger. Her body language spoke of excitement rather than fear. With that he turned to Evindal, who gave him a questioning look. Nate gave his own nod to the Elf. There was no way around this that he could see that didn’t involve abandoning some of the Guildies. He would never do that. It was time to fight.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “We decline,” Evindal answered calmly, opening his hand as what looked like small rocks fell from his hand towards the ground.

  “Follow the plan!” roared Gordon as a sphere of rock and flame spun up around the man just in time to protect him as he was launched across the plains by a tree sprouting from nowhere in an instant.

  Nate teleported off his Alliram as he prepared for battle.

  *************

  Evindal activated A Time to Flourish, growing the seeds he had dropped into trees in an instant by accelerating time. That was his path. He was the Eternal Grove, because wherever he was, there was the potential for a Grove. Healing was only a part of his path. Everything else focused on growing and modifying life, specifically trees. That was what he needed to rely on now as he clashed with the Platinum Lava Mage. The servant of the Ducal House Desmarais should be a step below him: an Epic Classer. But that didn’t mean Evindal would be able to kill him quickly. His Skills took longer to set up. Time was something he had, but not with the children so close. A stray blast of magma from the man might have killed them, ending his wife's hopes and dreams. He needed to keep Gordon separated from the rest of them and kill him as quickly as possible.

  Riding a tree branch into battle, he began altering seeds in his hands with A Seed for Every Occasion. He just hoped the children could handle themselves.

  *************

  Nate flooded Farsight of the Runic Artist with mana, destroying the veils of the ten remaining enemies. As the results came back, he felt his stomach sink. They were all between level sixty-eight and seventy-four with an Epic Primary Class. Six of the ten even had Perfect Embodiments. Simple ones, from what he could see, like Durable and Swift, but perfect.

  Four were already moving, making a beeline for Null, Britt and the two Gold-bodyguards. The other six split into two groups of three. One group went for Kiri while the other focused on him. That was enough to tell who the real targets were. If that wasn’t the case, they would have likely tried to take out the Gold-ranked bodyguards first.

  “Suppress him!” called a swordsman as he ran at Nate and his ability to monitor the rest of the fight vanished as he was forced to defend himself. He saw the two enchanted items they produced and Conceptual Insight let him know exactly what they would do: suppress mana and lock down space, his two weaknesses. They had come prepared. Not prepared enough, though.

  He activated his own two Legendary Runecrafted items in response. Mana Release and Spatial Release bloomed around him, fighting back against the suppression items. It was enough to let him use True Teleportation to avoid the swordsman.

  Frick used the moment to vanish into the soil. “I’ll ambush the archer, Boss!”

  The second of freedom was all Nate needed as he extracted a piece of blackened wood from his spatial storage. He had a few items prepared for his Conceptual Automated Existence Skill. This one was a throwback to one he had used in the Fourth Hell. The Epic piece of wood with an affinity for shadow bloomed into a living darkness as he fed it processed mana, emptying one of his two gems. With Conceptual Intent, he added the subconcept of Devouring and marked their enemies as the targets using another intent to flag the order he wanted them attacked. The archer had to come first. Like he had thought, he couldn’t leave the man free to do whatever he wanted, as the archer had already tried to shoot him twice, the missiles blowing by him as he teleported out of the way, the wind whipping against his barrier with each arrow’s passing.

  The swordsman was closing with him again and he was forced to use True Teleportation, only for a blast of lightning to send him flying across the grasslands as the explosion impacted his barrier. He didn’t bother physically trying to right himself, instead using True Teleportation again to change his vector as he impacted the ground causing a small crater. The blast had rattled his teeth, but with his slightly better Endurance and Constitution Stats it wasn’t enough to do any damage to him. The mana in his Barrier bracer had dipped a bit though. He couldn’t take too many of those strikes.

  The lightning mage that had blasted him was forced to call off her follow-up attack as Frick swapped targets. Rising out of the ground, his Familiar’s gigantic blue fist impacted a cage of lightning as his Familiar used My Will, My Way to grow in size.

  The archer attempting to target Nate was on the run, his speed a match for Kiri’s Father, as the man did his best to stay a step ahead of the living shadow that kept appearing to try and ensnare him. Nate was about to take advantage of the fact that the swordsman pursuing him was now alone, when he heard a scream to his right. Without turning, he sensed Britt land, digging a furrow in the ground with her mana-protected armour as a woman wielding a two-handed hammer gave pursuit.

  “Frick, help Britt!” he sent frantically, his worry turning to anger as he stared at the swordsman and lightning mage. “I’ll deal with these two myself.”

  His Familiar vanished, using True Teleportation to interpose himself between Britt and the Hammer-wielder.

  Nate ground his teeth, seething with anger as he prepared to kill his attackers. He was done hiding his Skills.

  *************

  Kiri was laughing. The three arrayed against her had tried to use some sort of soul suppressing enchanted item. It had failed miserably against the bracer she wore. Nate did good work. That was the simple truth. With her Skills completely uninhibited, she had taken the fight to her opponents. They were wearing her down slowly and if the fight dragged on too long she knew she would lose. She just had to make sure that didn’t happen. The spear-wielder facing her was suffering the worst. The woman might usually be able to keep her opponents at range, but Kiri’s tethered arms could stretch up to two metres and she wasn’t holding back.

  Her eight soul-powered arms flickered in and out, weaving attack patterns that would’ve seen the spear-wielder dead already if it wasn’t for the other two assisting her.

  A female Barrier Mage and a male Water Mage were the Spear-wielders' backup and Kiri was getting a front row experience of how annoying a good Barrier Mage was. Her attacks with her daggers against the Spear-wielder were constantly being deflected by tiny shields of mana forming and every time Kiri tried to close on the Barrier Mage the Water Mage would create multiple slices of thin water that moved so fast they even sheared off Kiri’s tethered arms. But whenever she backed off the Spear-wielder would give Water Mage angles to shoot tiny bullets of water. It was an excellent formation and while Kiri could likely match their base Stats, the added effects of their Embodiments were slowly whittling away at her soul energy reserves and superior Skills. She just needed to find a way through. Preparing to activate To Slay A Soul, she considered a second option if this failed. It was risky, but if she couldn’t end this fight quickly others would suffer. She knew what she had to do. Her team needed her. Nate needed her. She wouldn’t let him down. Not now. Not ever!

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