Rowan's body reacted before his mind fully processed the situation. The magic circuit for [Burning Whip] flared to life and a tendril of flame lashed out, coiling around the descending serpent.
Its scales sizzled and cracked as the whip dug deep, drawing a sharp, agonized hiss from the beast. Its body writhed in the air, but Rowan didn't flinch.
He tightened the fiery grip, aiming to kill it before it even hit the ground.
With a wet crunch, the creature's body ruptured, spraying blood and viscera across the battlefield. Followed by the familiar stench of charred flesh, thick and pungent.
He remembered the first time he'd killed with his magic—how his stomach had churned at the sight, how his eyes had watered from the smell. Now though, it felt almost comforting. There was control in it. Control Rowan craved.
Two more creatures fell. Silvia's arrow struck one with pinpoint precision, while the other was torn apart by Kai's razor-sharp talons. His familiar a black blur as he shredded the monster.
The last body slammed into the ground, but Rowan's focus was already elsewhere.
His gaze found Annie, who danced around the matriarch with deadly grace. Each strike of her spear was deliberate, thought out, each thrust and slash tearing into the serpent's flesh. It was a fluid, brutal display that reminded Rowan exactly why he trusted her—and the Crimson Grove.
For a moment, Rowan paused. The rest of the team was tearing through what remained of their opponents with ease. Nemir and Omi formed a wall at the front, while Silvia continued to rain death from range, each arrow finding its mark. Their attacks were precise, ruthless, and efficient.
His [Burning Whip] still crackled with energy, half its mana remaining. It would have been a waste to dismiss it, so instead, he spun on his heel and dashed towards Annie.
He caught her eye as she circled the matriarch. She nodded, understanding his unspoken intent.
Grinning, Rowan darted in the opposite direction, forcing the creature to divide its attention as he allowed the thrill to run through his veins once more.
His eyes narrowed, his heartbeat quickened, and in that moment, the rest of the world faded away. Taking with it all of his unnecessary thoughts. Leaving behind only the feeling of the mana burning through his channels and the desire to kill this monster threatening his team.
"Hold it down!" Annie shouted, ducking under the serpent's lashing tail. "I'll go for the kill!"
Rowan gave a sharp nod, a determined expression on his face.
Annie lunged, her spear aimed for the serpent's eye, but the creature jerked its head back just in time. The weapon grazed its armored scales, leaving a deep scratch instead of the killing blow she'd been hoping for.
A snarl escaped her as she leaped back, evading the creature's snapping jaws.
Rowan saw his chance. His fiery whip shot forward, coiling around the serpent's head and yanking its jaw shut. "Now!" he barked, feeling the mana in his spell draining rapidly.
The monster thrashed wildly as flames licked at its skull, but Rowan held firm.
Annie didn't waste any time. Her spear became a blur as she drove it through the serpent's eye, the tip piercing through its skull and deep into its brain. It convulsed once, then twice, and finally, it went limp. Dead.
Rowan let his spell dissipate, the last of its mana burning out. He turned around, glancing towards the rest of the team as they finished off what remained of the nest.
"Well," Omi muttered, putting a dying serpent out of its misery with a quick thrust of his daggers. "That was a nice warmup."
Annie pulled out her spear, surveying the battlefield littered with bodies. "More than a dozen of them, and a matriarch on top," she grinned. "Either we're the first ones to come across this nest, or we just finished another quest."
Nemir kneeled down next to a dead serpent, prying open its jaws and tearing out two of its fangs. "With a matriarch in the mix, it's bound to be a handsome bounty," he looked at the rest of them. "Well? What are you waiting for?" he said, gesturing at the snakes. "Get to it. We still have a goblin pack to hunt down."
"You do that. I'm gonna go gather my arrows," Silvia chimed in, eyeing the mass of bodies with a shudder. "Slowly. Very, very slowly."
With the battle over, the tension slowly drained from Rowan's body. His shoulders sagged as the adrenaline ebbed away.
He sighed and walked toward Annie who was struggling to pry out one of the matriarch's massive fangs.
"Hey," Rowan said, kneeling beside her and taking out his dagger to help. "Sorry about that," he winced, the words feeling awkward in his mouth. "You were right. There was no need for me to get involved. I should have held back and let you deal with them."
Annie chuckled, patting his back, trying to not so subtly clean her bloody hands. "Don't worry about it. I get it. You're used to having the biggest stick and you like waving it around," she smirked. "You're not the first mage I've met."
Grunting, she finally tore the fang free and grinned at the trophy. "Like mining for gold," she muttered before standing and tossing the fang into her pack.
She turned to Rowan, her expression softening. "Look, I'm not going to pry into what's got you so jumpy today. If you wanted to talk about it, you would've told us. But out here, we're a team. We trust each other. Don't forget that."
She was right, and Rowan knew it. His desire to exert control was dangerous out here. They had an established pecking order, with Nemir leading the team and Annie calling the shots during fights. If he didn't want to get any of them killed with his recklessness, he needed to calm down.
"I know, I know," he admitted, running a hand through his hair. "Just got a bit excited, is all. Can't promise it won't happen again, but I'll try to keep it in check."
Annie rolled her eyes. "Be as excited as you want, just don't be stupid," she gestured at the decimated Vinesnakes. "Most of these were high Bronze and low Iron. We all know that you'd be able to smite them out of existence with a wave of your hand, you don't need to prove anything to us," she said with a small smile.
I'm not proving myself to you, Rowan wanted to say, but the words got stuck in his throat. So instead, he just nodded.
"Alright, glad we sorted that out." She smirked, nudging him with the butt of her spear. "Now get to prying. These teeth aren't going to pull themselves."
That managed to get a small chuckle out of him, and he complied. She was right. There were teeth to pull and goblins to kill. And he wouldn't do either by standing around.
.
.
.
Adventuring was often glamorized, but in reality, it was mostly just walking. The Wilds spanned a massive area, with the human settlements occupying a very small portion of it. Navigating them was not a skill that was often talked about, but that didn't make it any less important.
"Where to next?" Silvia asked, smoothing out the fletchings of her arrows.
Nemir pulled out his adventurers' medallion, glancing at the small arrow at its center that pointed at the city's lodestone. After a moment of studying the makeshift compass, he pointed in a direction.
"That way. But we've got at least another hour before we get there." He tucked the medallion back into his shirt. "Let's take a short break. Eat, drink, and then we head out."
The team nodded, taking out their rations and settling in.
Summoning another beast pellet, Rowan fed it to Kai, scratching under his chin. "Keep a watch out, okay?"
With a happy trill, his familiar swallowed the treat and flew up, circling them from above.
Nemir sat down on a fallen log, uncorking his waterskin. "You know," he began casually, wiping his mouth, "the goblin pack might be bigger than we initially thought. It's been on the board for more than a week."
Omi looked up, snacking on a piece of tough looking meat. "What does that mean? The pay's good. It seems weird that no one took it before us."
Nemir shrugged, taking another swig. "Someone did. A Silver-rank by the name of Killian, the leader of the Steel Fist. A nasty group of adventurers if there ever was one," he shook his head. "They just didn't complete it."
Rowan furrowed his brows. "A Silver-rank? Why would they leave it unfinished?"
Silvia, who was sharpening one of her arrows, glanced over. "Probably too lazy."
Nemir chuckled, shaking his head. "I doubt that. Killian and his crew are capable, but word is they like to leave quests unfinished and then swoop in once someone else turns them in. Try and get a few extra coins for the trouble."
Annie groaned. "Great. I'm sure stealing a quest from a Silver-rank isn't going to bite us in the ass."
"It's not stealing," Nemir said calmly. "The Adventurer's Guild has authority on quest giving, not individual teams."
While that was true, that authority didn't extend out into the Wilds. It wouldn't have been the first time that two teams had a dispute and one mysteriously vanished the next time they left the protection of the city's walls.
Rowan frowned, processing the information. He hadn't heard of Killian before, or his team. Silver-ranks weren't common in Litwick, but that only meant there were dozens of them, not the hundreds or even thousands like in some of the bigger cities. Yet the thought of someone of that rank resorting to something so… low, gnawed at him.
Omi snorted, absentmindedly twirling his daggers. "And we're just planning to let him take our hard earned gold?"
Annie smirked. "They can certainly try."
"If things go sideways, we can just have Jamis blow him up," Silvia piped in.
"You're awfully quick to throw me into a fight against a Silver-rank," Rowan snorted. "But I appreciate the vote of confidence."
"What? I'm just looking out for you," she shrugged. "Besides, it might do you some good. Let you blow off some steam."
Rowan tried to suppress a wince. It seemed Annie wasn't the only one who noticed he'd been acting off.
"Nobody is blowing anyone up," Nemir said, his expression serious. "We all know something ugly is brewing. The city needs all the manpower it can get. Crooked adventures included," he stood up, running a hand through his hair. "This is the eighth goblin pack sighted in the last month. And if there's really a tribe nearby…" He trailed off, not needing to state the obvious.
Goblins might seem like pests, and in small numbers, that was exactly what they were. But they were still among the few enlightened races. No one really compared them to humans or elves, and if a dwarf heard you suggesting anything similar, you'd get an axe through the head. Yet underestimating them was never a good idea.
"It's still just rumors. But with the way the wind is blowing…" Annie sighed. "Let's just focus on completing our mission and getting home alive," she stood up. "So enough sitting around, time to get moving."
The rest of the team followed suit, checking over their weapons one final time before continuing deeper into the Wilds.
.
.
.
Over the next hour, they sidestepped three Stalker burrows, a Razowing Hawk's nest, and a sleeping Moss Giant. The team was silent for the most part, with only the occasional comment pointing out potential threats.
Kai proved useful on more than one occasion. But as the canopy grew thicker, it became dangerous to have him far away from the rest of them. So his familiar spent the rest of the walk on Silvia's shoulder.
The landscape grew rougher as they pressed deeper into the forests—jagged rocks jutting out of the ground, wild underbrush snagging at their clothes. Each step taking them further from civilization.
Rowan forced himself to focus. His eyes roamed their surroundings, searching for any signs of danger, the air around them thick with anticipation.
Nemir suddenly raised a hand, signaling for them to stop. They were just about to enter a clearing, a distant cave nestled between two rocky outcroppings.
"There," he whispered, crouching behind a boulder.
The rest of the team joined him, ducking behind cover as they observed the goblin den from a distance.
The cave entrance was wide, with jagged rocks framing the opening like the jaws of some terrible beast. Four goblins were standing outside, the crude weapons and makeshift clothes a sharp contrast to their own gear.
"Anyone have a count?" Annie whispered, her eyes narrowing as she observed their goal.
"It's too dark," Silvia replied, her [Eagle Sight] skill active.
Omi unsheathed his daggers, his eyes glinting with anticipation. "We'll need to take out the sentries before moving in."
"Think you can manage it?" Rowan asked.
They needed to move quickly and quietly if they wanted to avoid alerting the entire pack. Strike them before they realized what was going on. His fingers twitched, more than ready to start.
Omi nodded. "I can easily take two without making any noise. But they're spread out. Sil's going to need to help out."
Annie glanced at the group, unslinging her spear. "Then that's what we'll do. We take out the sentries. No noise, no fuss. Once we're in, we stick together. Jamis and Sil at the back, the rest of us up front."
The team nodded, but Rowan hesitated.
There was something wrong here. Something that made the hairs on his neck stand up.
He focused on the cave entrance, taking it in, letting his mind soak in the details.
The walls were too uniform. Too straight. Almost as if someone had…
Just as Omi was about to head out, Rowan's hand shot out, gripping his wrist. A smile tugged at his lips. One that was equal parts excited, and nervous.
There was no way this cave formed naturally. But if that was true, that could mean only one thing.
"What?" Omi frowned, pulling his hand away.
Rowan looked around at the rest of the team, his eagerness almost palpable as he whispered. "There's a shaman in there."