The main camp of a wilderness would normally be occupied by a platoon of guards from the nearest city or large town, which in this case was Ellaris. These platoons would usually be bored to death watching over the surrounding areas, providing reports on the wildlife and observing any citizens who came to hunt to hunt the abundant wildlife.
But now, this camp was filled with the nauseous smell of blood and ash. It's temporary structures were broken and riddled with acidic burns as the remnants of the Ellaris Guards mixed together with the corpses of massive vipers attracted small swarms of flies.
The thick mixed smell spread across a wide area of the forest, alerting animals to both danger and the opportunity for food.
A small contingent of courageous rodents and opportunistic scavengers had already arrived at the amp, scurrying about as they picked at their new food. The only reason the larger more intelligent animals hadn't arrived already, was because the powerful Giant Shadow Wolf had passed by the area causing these beasts to retreat and defend their own territories.
It was only a matter of time before the larger beasts began to investigate their surroundings once more, potentially crossing paths with the remaining Giant Black Viper's that were scattered about the region.
Yet as the forest started to awaken and react to the invasion of the Shadow wolf and the battle between the cultivators and the Giant Black Viper's, a small 'den' remained hidden from sight, quietly waiting for the night to pass.
This den was hidden in the thick shrubbery at the base of a large tree not 100m from the clearing where the main camp resided, it was composed of thick foliage that covered its exterior hiding a small tent barely large enough to fit three people.
In the darkness of the night this tent was all but invisible to prying eyes, the dense odour given off by the main camp disguising any odd scents it may be giving off.
Inside of the camouflaged tent, Casmir was repeatedly feeding a thick liquid with a strong medicinal smell to the still unconscious Zaya. He used a flat bowl that he had scavenged from the main camp to slowly feed her, however the medicinal liquid inside of it seemed to glow and sparkle in the dark tent, illumining Zaya's face that was now flush with a healthy reddish colour.
The light given off by the medicinal liquid was a reaction caused by the Qi energy infused into the medicine being released. Normally such an effect would only occur inside a persons body to allow the Qi energy to defuse into their body and not waste the medicinal effects, however this wasteful use was a natural consequence of Casmir's method of treatment.
He had crushed a Grade 4 healing pill that he had luckily found in the main camps rubble and diluted it in water to diminish its overpowering effects. Normally such pills would be administered by a competent cultivator that could control the medicinal strength as it diffused into the patients body, unfortunately Casmir was only vaguely aware of such skills and had not even tried to learn them at his level.
Over the last half an hour Casmir had repeatedly fed Zaya small amounts of this medicinal liquid he had created, allowing her breathing to stabilise and her body to purify her venom filled blood.
However only half of Casmir's attention was focused on Zaya's treatment.
The other half was focused on a dark figure that slouched powerlessly against the thick tree trunk behind it.
While Casmir used his good arm to carefully feed Zaya, his other broken arm rested on the spear by his side, ready to raise it without a second thought for the painful consequences of worsening his injuries.
The spear itself laid pointed towards the dark figure that looked like a hulking mass of dark green vines, in a oddly humanoid shape. Its body was covered with various incisions and burns scattered across the many vines composing its body, strangely there were also various pieces of torn clothing attached to its body, hanging from it like the rags of a destitute individual...
Earlier tonight when Casmir was grabbed by this 'Vine-man', Casmir almost struck it down with his spear without a second thought. It was only the Vine-man's pleading look that stopped him, unfortunately for Casmir the Vine-man collapsed moments later leaving Casmir unsure of how to treat this man.
The only reason Casmir had brought it with him to the safety of this tent was because the scattered shreds of clothing on the Vine-man's body resembled the other, fallen Ellaris Guards, uniforms. The arrangement of the rags also led Casmir to believe this Vine-man had burst out of its own clothing, perhaps during the fight, rather than its clothes being shredded in combat.
"Ugh.. Uck.."
Suddenly the Vine-man coughed in a strange manner, a yellow sap like liquid flowing out of a parting of vines on its head, presumably its mouth.
The thick vines that composed its face then shifted, parting to reveal two beady yellow eyes that slowly scanned the tent, resting on Casmir whom had quickly grasped his spear with his good arm, pointing it straight at the Vine-man's head.
"Who.. are you..?" The Vine-man asked is a weak groaning voice.
Casmir watched the Vine-man closely for any sudden movements without answering before he asked his own question.
"Are you from the Ellaris Guardship? You should have proof of your identity, show me!" Casmir said roughly.
Casmir wasn't willing to take any chances after what he had been through, even if he believed this Vine-man to be a victim of this massacre, Casmir had to be sure. Thankfully he knew that members of the Ellaris Guardship needed to carry an identification badges on them at all times, these badges contained Qi chips that could confirm their identity and were very difficult to counterfeit.
Casmir could only hope said ID badge wasn't destroyed or lost in the fighting.
The Vine-man didn't immediately respond to Casmir, he looked around the dimly lit tent and saw Zaya's condition, recognising the acidic burns still visible on some of her clothing and face.
'They're very young.. and weak.. They should be young hunters caught up in this mess. From her burns, they must have encountered some of those Shadow Viper's..' The Vine-man thought to himself as he examined their appearances.
'In my condition all I can do is hope they'll bring me back to base.. I'll never make it on my own.. and I have no idea if base received our distress signal..' He confessed to himself reluctantly.
He then slowly shifted his body to sit up straight under the watchful eyes of Casmir, before he spoke.
"My name is Vin, Ellaris Guard, Grade 3 Qi scholar.. or at least I was.." He said as one of his vines, near his chest wiggled strangely for a moment before it drew out a small leather pouch from the mass of vines that made up his body.
"Inside this pouch is my identification badge and a recording of this incident, if I don't make it you must turn this in to the Ellaris Guardship." Vin said seriously as he dropped the pouch in front of Casmir.
Casmir watched Vin closely before using his broken arm to slowly retrieve the pouch and open it, keeping his spear trained on Vin's head, not giving him any chance to attack.
As he opened the pouch Casmir found a small badge, a Qi Chip and some small crystals. Casmir recognised the crystals as Qi crystals although they appeared mostly depleted, barely giving off feeble waves of Grade 3 Qi energy.
Ignoring the crystals and the Qi chip for now, Casmir picked up the badge and sent his Qi energy into it, causing it to project a light onto the tent wall, displaying a variety of information. Casmir paid special attention to an image of Vin it displayed and the small insignia of the Ellaris Guardship that proved the Qi Chips authenticity.
After confirming Vin's identity through the badge, Casmir finally started to relax, lowering his spear as he stopped the flow of Qi energy going into the badge, cutting off the brightest light in this dark tent.
There was always the possibility that everything Vin was saying was a lie and his Qi chip was indeed counterfeit, but Casmir saw no reason for such a situation to occur.
It was clear that the battle in the main camp was one-sided and that the battlefield had been cleared of any intelligent race bodies from the victors side, if anyone from their side even fell.
Why would the enemy leave a barely alive member of their group to trick people? Such a trick would only work on low level people like Casmir, with little connection to the Ellaris Guardship, after all the Ellaris Guardship had methods to identify counterfeit ID badges if they needed to.
Casmir leaned back as he looked at Vin, reluctantly deciding to trust him for the moment.
"My name is Casmir.. I'm a student from Heldan Academy. Me and some of my friends were separated from our Instructor, we were on our way to a small cave protected by an array when we were attacked by a massive Black Viper." Casmir explained.
"Zay.. my friend here, needed higher grade medicine than we had on hand, and we couldn't know for sure how long we needed to wait to be rescued. So I carried her here, hoping to find some better medicine..."
Casmir was quite open about their situation, only holding back his personal secrets such as the Soul Flame as he explained himself, hoping that Vin would be able to give him some answers.
However upon hearing Casmir mention that he was a student, Vin remembered that Heldan Academy had asked to use their camp as a base for training a group of students, his little brother happened to be part of that group.
"You're a student?! What about the rest of the students? Were you all attacked by them and the Shadow vipers as well? Was anyone else hurt or ..*Cough* Ughk.." Vin said frantically, aggravating his wounds as he started coughing heavily.
Casmir was surprised for a moment before he remembered Vin's condition, passing a bowl of medicinal liquid over to Vin as he tried to calm him down.
"Hey! Hey, calm down.. I don't know what happened to the main group, we were part of a separate smaller scouting group that moved ahead of the main group. Our instructor left us when he heard a very powerful roar, my guess is that it was a powerful ferocious beast." Casmir explained.
Vin quickly suppressed his cough before extending his arm made of vines to take the medicine from Casmir.
"Ok..*cough*.. hopefully it was only your group that was attacked.." Vin said hopefully, until he realised his mistake.
"No offense intended.. my younger brother was part of the field trip. Perhaps you know him? Second year Qi Studies, looks like me, his name's Drake?" Vin explained.
Casmir shook his head.
"Sorry, no. I'm a first year.."
Vin looked at Casmir strangely as he heard this.
"First year? You must be pretty talented if they let you out on a field trip during your first year.." Vin said as he re-examined Casmir, an appreciative look in his eyes.
Casmir however was in no mood to accept his praise, fully aware of his weakness regardless of any talent he held, thanks to todays events. He looked at the Qi chip that Vin had earlier explained to be a recording of the main camp being attacked, asking if he could see what was on it.
"Can I look at the recording?"
Vin's face scrunched up for a moment at the suggestion, clearly worried about something but after a moment he reluctantly nodded, sipping some of his medicinal liquid.
"Ok, you're already caught up in this mess so it shouldn't matter much. Just.. swear not to tell anyone about what you see before we get back, there might be sensitive information on it."
"Ok, I wont." Casmir agreed.
"By the way.. where'd you get this medicine?" Vin suddenly asked.
"I ground up a Grade 4 healing pill and mixed it with water to dilute it for Zaya, why?" Casmir said plainly.
Vin's eyes opened wide as he heard this, almost spitting out the medicinal liquid he was swallowing before he forcefully swallowed it, unwilling to waste a drop.
'No wonder my bodies healing so fast!.. What a waste of pills.. a Grade 3 healing pills would have been plenty.... Oh god.. Not only is he reducing the pills effects by diluting them with water, he's letting the medicinal energy out to light up the tent!' Vin thought emotionally.
He would never admit it, but Vin was a penny pincher and he knew exactly how many pennies he would need to pinch just to touch a Grade 4 healing pill normally. Even in this situation his natural instincts shined through the darkness.
"D-do you even know how expensive Grade 4 pills are?" Vin asked in a slightly more high pitched voice.
Casmir looked at Vin and shrugged without care.
"I don't care, Zaya needed them." He said seriously.
Vin wanted to scold Casmir for his wasteful attitude as he heard him but when he saw Casmir carefully feeding Zaya some more of the medicinal liquid, an almost fiercely attentive look on his face, Vin shut his mouth.
He opted to reason with Casmir, carefully asking him about the pills he had collected from the main camp and -being an alchemist himself, fairly familiar with treatment using pills- he told Casmir the best pills to use to treat the venom in Zaya's body and her burn wounds.
This stopped Casmir from wasting anymore highly valuable pills, instead using the more appropriate pills, although Vin reluctantly admitted that Casmir's method of diluting the pills in water was the best thing he could have done in with his knowledge of pills.
Vin also asked Casmir about where they were now and a few other questions about the state of the main camp.
As Casmir described the mains camps condition and confirmed that there were no other survivors, he saw Vin's face squirm oddly as if in pain. Clearly Vin had some friends in the camp, but this also raised the question of how exactly Vin survived in the first place.
Prompted by Casmir's question, Vin explained that it was thanks to his races biology that allowed him to enter a lifeless state where his body appeared dead to most conventional detection methods. However this state didn't disguise the inherent Qi energy he had cultivated in his body and Vin had no access to a skill that hid this Qi energy like Casmir's Soul Flame.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Vin's cultivation was destroyed during the battle when a Shadow Viper slammed into him, shattering his races equivalent of his Dantian and knocking him unconscious.
After that, Vin's body fell into a lifeless state defensively which luckily preserved him from detection until Casmir arrived and woke him up.
Having listened to each others explanations, Casmir checked that Zaya was breathing steadily once more before he turned his attention to Vin's Qi Chip.
He picked up Vin's Qi Chip and pointed it at the tents cover before he filled it with Qi energy. This type of Qi Chip was of a much higher quality than normal, able to store images in sequence to record events however it was only limited to light based imagery, unable to record Qi energy.
As Casmir's Qi energy filled the Qi Chip, a multi-coloured projection of the past appeared on the tent wall...