When we are in the cave, I immediately head to the dismantling room after grabbing the magic bag. Astra and Ana are also following me down there. Astra is probably following me to help me dismantle, while Ana is probably going to get ingredients for lunch. Just as I thought, Astra followed to the dismantling room, while Ana went further into the storage.
"Okay, we'll do the same thing as before," I tell Astra. "You watch me dismantle one body, then we'll split the remaining bodies. Once I finish my portion, I'll watch over you and tell you where you went wrong."
"Okay," Astra says. While we were talking, Ana seemed to have already gathered everything she needed to make lunch, and had already gone to the kitchen. I hope whatever she is cooking will take a little bit of time. Otherwise we will have to stop dismantling when the food is done. It's not like this is a big deal, but I just don't want to stop unless I have finished. Pushing these thoughts from my mind, I chant my modified spell sword.
"O spell of wind, form from my hands a sharp dagger that follows my movements to destroy my enemies."
With this, the dismantling dagger appears in my hand. I really need to set aside some time to fully modify this spell. Once the dagger finished forming, I began to dismantle the demonic beast in front of me. After some time has passed, the demonic beast has been dismantled. I had once again slowed down my speed so Astra could actually see my movements.
"Any questions?" I ask.
"None," I hear in reply.
I look back, and see that she has already begun to work on a demonic beast. Seeing this, I quickly began to dismantle the remaining demonic beasts in my pile. Once I am done, I begin to observe Astra. She is progressing fast, and I can see some of my techniques being used by her claws. I say by a month she should be able to cleanly dismantle a body. Even if she could do this, she probably won't be able to do it as fast as me though. At the pace she is learning though, she'll probably be as fast as me within a year. It makes me regret the amount of time I spent on this. Trusting her to continue her work, I begin to store what has already been dismantled.
When I came back, she had finished half of the pile. I wanted to stop her at some points, but realized she already knew she made a mistake. As such, I didn't feel the need to tell her since she had already realized. A little while later, I began to smell a delectable aroma coming from the kitchen. I realized that lunch was ready, but didn't go up.
Soon enough Ana came down and said, "lunch is ready."
In response to her I say, "Astra is almost done here. We'll come up once she is done. I'm sure it won't take too long."
"Okay, I'll try to keep it warm for you guys then," Ana replies as she heads back to the kitchen.
A little while later, Astra had finished dismantling.
Once she was done she asked, "is there anything I need to worry about?"
"Other than what I have already said before, no," I reply. "Besides, you were able to catch some of your mistakes this time right? That means I don't need to tell you about them. You are progressing really fast though. I'd say that in a month you'll be able to cleanly dismantle bodies."
"I'll do my best then," she replies.
"Okay, do that," I say." Anyways, let's go up. Ana has already created lunch, and is keeping it warm for us."
With my words, we headed up to the kitchen. There, Ana was beside the stove, keeping the food warm. Once she saw us, she immediately blew out the fire. After the fire was blown out, she then proceeded to serve us lunch on plates. The plates were separated with one side being demonic beast meat and the other being edible plants.I could tell the meat was marinated beforehand, and the smell seems to indicate it was marinated in oranges. The edible plants seemed to mainly be green in color. There were other colors as well, but the most prominent was green.
I didn't really care though, and began to eat the food. The meat was really good. I'm not sure if that was due to the orange taste, or the use of salt. Either way, I couldn't stop eating. The edible plants were a great addition too. It helped to absorb the marinade that spilled onto the plate. It was a simple combination, but a good one.
Once we were all done eating I asked, "so what do you guys want to do for the rest of the day?"
"Play some games inside," Ana replies. "I don't know what else we could do."
"We have already hunted enough for today, but we really don't have much leisure activities," Astra gives her impression, pausing for a second, before continuing. "Why don't we create some magic. Then afterwards we can see which magic is most useful."
"Oh so like a competition on magic?" I ask and upon receiving a nod from Ana I continue. "That sounds like an interesting idea. Why don't we make it so the loser has to obey a command from the winner."
Astra and Ana both agree to this. When they look at each other, I can see determination in their eyes. It seems they really want me to do something for them. As long as I don't get last, then I won't have to follow their order. I'm pretty confident I can create a spell that will be useful, so I don't really have to worry about losing.
However before we continue a loud voice from outside says, "Sylvain, Astra, and Ana, I know you are here. Come out and fight."
I recognize this voice to be Diego's, and the first thing that comes to my mind is we have been compromised. I banish this thought from my mind though. After all, if our base was compromised, then Diego wouldn't need to call us out. This means that they know the general location, but probably can't get past the barrier. I relay my thoughts to Ana and Astra, and they agree with my conjecture.
"How are we going to get out of this though?" Ana asks.
"This is going to be tough," Astra mumbles out loud. "They know our general location, and will probably guard it. We have to throw them off the trail, and figure out how they managed to find us."
"I feel like throwing them off our trail will be easy," I say. "Well just have to lead them away from here. However, we do need to figure out how they found us out. Otherwise they may be able to find this place again. I guess the only way to do that would be to talk to them. I'll use my hiding spell to get you behind them. You guys can act like you just got back from hunting, or something similar. I'll keep hiding and wait for the opportune moment."
"Yes, this is what we have to do," Astra immediately agrees. "Otherwise, even if we do figure out how they found us, we won't be able to do anything with the information. As long as you are hiding, you'll be able to do something."
"Okay, then grab my hand, and then I'll lead you behind them," I tell the both of them. Then, I wait for them to nod before chanting my hiding and detection spell. "O spell flow around our bodies to hide ourselves. O spell of wind spread with me as the center to detect my enemies."
With my detection spell, I was able to find 4 people seemingly circling the perimeter around the warding barrier. 3 of them seem to be moving while one of them seems to be standing still. Also the three that are moving seem to be converging on the one standing still. From this, I can assume that the one standing still is Diego. Realizing this, I quickly move Ana and Astra a little ways behind Diego. Then I point out his general direction to them using a stick, since I didn't want to rechant my hiding spell.
The both of them nod their heads, so I'm pretty sure they understand what I meant. With this confirmation, I head back to where the 4 of them would converge. When I get there, the 4 of them are already there talking about something. I don't listen to them, and instead climb a tree as silently as possible. This way, I could limit my influence on the ground, while observing them from above. With all that done, I begin to listen in on their conversation.
"I've already told you guys so many times," Diego seems to be talking. "We'll find them here, so don't worry. They should appear at any moment now."
From this I can tell that the other 3 foxes aren't confident in Diego. Diego though, seems really confident that we are here. This only confirms the fact that he has some way to find this area. I can only hope that they haven't memorized the path they took to get here. I'm not willing to move bases, and haven't really found any place better than this cave, so even if I was willing to move, I wouldn't be able to.
"If you are so confident, then we can wait here for a couple of days," one of the foxes says I don't know their name, but it sounds like a female.
"I guess I'll go look around for food then," a male fox voice says this time. "We are probably going to be staying here for a while right?"
"Definitely," Diego responds. "They might choose to stay inside for as long as they can, meaning the only thing we can do is wait them out. They will eventually run out of food though."
"Yeah yeah, but we won't be able to kill them if we ourselves are starving," the same voice says. "As such, I'll go out to get some food."
With that, he leaves. It doesn't take long before he leaves the area of my detection spell. The last male seems to want to say something, but doesn't get the chance as Ana and Astra emerge from the foliage.
"How did you get here?" Astra asks in a faked, shocked tone. I myself can tell that this is faked, but if one doesn't know her, they would believe it to be genuine shock. Ana also seems to show a shocked expression, but I can tell she is barely holding in her laughter at Astra's actions and tone.
"Didn't think we could find your home base right?" Diego asks smugly and mockingly. "I'm not going to lie, it was hard. It seemed like you made no tracks, but you guys slipped up in the end." While talking, he takes out a large leaf. I immediately recognize it as the one that Ana and Astra used to write me a message before. I could still faintly see the ash that was used to write.
This means that I had lost the note, and it had flown out of the cave before somehow ending up in Diego's hands. I'm guessing he scoured every nook and cranny before finding that leaf. I'm not sure how he was able to come here only using that though. I don't think I'll be able to understand either, but that doesn't really matter. All that matters is I get that leaf, and lead them away from the cave. Otherwise, we might have to move bases just to hide from them. While these thoughts were flowing through my mind, the talk between them had already progressed.
"We don't know where sylvi is, and we definitely won't let you into our home," Ana says. I'm guessing Diego asked about me while I was thinking, since he wishes to kill me.
"Well I'm sure this sylvi will show up once I beat the both of you," Diego then says. "He definitely won't be able to stand it. Come on everyone, let's attack them together."
I wanted to go in and help them, but realized the most important thing was to wait for an opportunity. I would just have to trust that they are able to deal with the 3 of them. I'm glad that one person went off to go get food, otherwise it would have been a 4 vs 2. I began to watch the battle up in the trees, waiting for the chance to steal back the note made from the large leaf.
The 3 foxes began to surround Ana and Astra, however there were only 3 foxes so the formation wasn't as tight. Also it seems like this is the only method of fighting they have. Surround one person in a group of people, and then barrage and overwhelm them with spells. While I was thinking this, a barrage of spells was already heading to Astra and Ana.
Ana and Astra countered by forming water and fire shields respectively. Sometimes a spell would go through their shields, but they were always able to dodge it, before recovering their shields. Soon enough, the foxes began to lose their momentum. At this time both Ana and Astra transformed a part of their shields into arrows, before firing them at the three foxes. They put up their own shields, but the arrows are able to penetrate those shields. This forced the foxes to move out of the way.
It was at this moment, that I saw the note had fallen out of Diego's hands. It also seemed to be moving along with the wind. I knew that if I didn't catch it now, then Diego might get his hands on it again. As such, I left the battlefield, still keeping my hiding spell active. I then began to follow the note. It took a while to get it since it would always be out of reach. Even if I climbed a tree, the note would only climb higher into the sky. Once it was in reach though, I was immediately able to grab the note.
I quickly stored the note inside my clothes. This way, I wouldn't have to worry about it accidentally falling out. I then headed back to the fighting. This time the fourth person had come back, and began to fight with the other 3. This forced back Ana and Astra, and while they weren't being pushed back by much, they were still being pushed back. I decided to intervene at this time, but I first chanted my spell sword while canceling my detection spell.
"O spell of wind, form from my hands a mighty blade that follows my movements to destroy my enemies."
With this spell chanted, I immediately threw myself into the fight. My intervention caused everyone to look at me.
"So you've finally shown yourself half elf," Diego says contemptuously.
"This will be the third time we've fought," I say, trying to not get sucked into his pace. "And you'll be forced to retreat again."
"Don't be so cocky, for I know your weakness," he says confidently.
I was waiting for him to expand on that, but he doesn't. It seems like he believes he knows my weakness, but doesn't want to say it. He probably just doesn't want me to fix it in the middle of the battle. If I had to guess, he thinks that I'm weak at ranged combat. After all, when we have fought before, my ranged attacks weren't strong. As such, he will try to keep me away while launching a ranged attack. I really should create a shield spell for situations like this. I also really do need more ranged spells, but I'll create them later, along with completing the modification of my spell sword.
"Astra Ana, let's do this," I say.
After those words, spells began to fly out at us. Astra and Ana responded by sending out their own spells, namely fire and ice arrows since those don't take long to create. Meanwhile, I'm using my spell sword to knock down all the spells that are coming at us. Some of them went past me since I didn't have my reinforcement spell active. However, they didn't really cause much damage to us, so it was fine.
Meanwhile on the other side, they raised earthen walls to block the ice and fire arrows. Once the walls were made, Ana stopped firing arrows, while Astra kept firing them, but aimed them to go over the wall. Ana was gathering mana for a stronger spell, which should destroy the wall. I guess they sensed the powerful mana surge because they immediately began to flee.
"You could only win because of Ana and Astra," Diego says as he is running away.
Once they were out of eyesight, I gave the note to them while saying, "take this back to the base and burn it. This is how they were able to find us. I'll make sure they leave the area, and cover up my tracks so they won't be able to find this place again."
"Astra you go with sylvi," Ana says quickly. "I'll head back to make our dinner. It's getting pretty late."
I look up into the sky, and begin to see the sun fade away. It seems like it is getting pretty late. That could be the main reason they left so soon. Hopefully, they'll leave the area quickly, and we can cover their tracks just as fast.
"Okay, you do that," I say after looking at the sky. "Just make sure to burn the note. We don't want it to once again fall into their hands."
Ana then nods her head before grabbing the note, and heading back to the base. On her way to the base, I grab Astra's hand, who has already turned back into human form, before chanting the hiding spell.
"O spell of wind flow around our bodies to hide ourselves."
At this time my detection and spell sword have already been canceled. As such, I recharged the detection spell to see if I can find Diego.
"O spell of wind spread with me as the center to detect my enemies."
With this spell chanted, I was able to find 4 reactions moving. These were the only four reactions in the area, so it had to be Diego and his group. With this done, I began pulling Astra in their direction. While we were walking, I would clean up their tracks to the best of my abilities. Hopefully, with this they wouldn't be able to find us again. Even though we had to clean up their tracks, we were able to catch up to them pretty quickly. I guess they were moving slower for fear of encountering a demonic beast.
With them in our view, I didn't really need the detection spell. However, I kept it up to see if I could find any demonic beasts through this. After all, I wouldn't want to bump into them, and get discovered that way. In the end we followed them back to their base. It wasn't really a base, and more of a clearing. There seemed to be some remnants of a fire in the middle of the clearing. Other than that, it just looked like an ordinary clearing. It seemed like they got their food from hunting mainly. It was honestly a pretty far walk to get here as the sun had already set long ago.
"I feel like it's time to go," I whisper to Astra.
"Agreed," Astra whispers back to me.
With that little conversation done, we begin to head back to the cave. At first, we were slow since we had to cover our tracks. However, after a bit of travel time, we sped up to get back quicker. I let Astra set the pace, and surprisingly I was able to keep up with her, without needing my reinforcement spell. I can't be complacent with this though, and should strive to keep training. These thoughts filled my mind as we arrived at the cave.