Explorer of Edregon

Vin had been worried that another group of marauders would find interest in them before they could enact their escape plan, but it seemed as though witnessing Trod effortlessly snap that random dwarf's neck had gotten the message across to the others that Curash didn't want them harmed. Even so, every minute they sat there, waiting with bated breath for the sound of Blossom tearing the Artificer to shreds, was agony.

"What if he's skilled enough to bypass the 'murder operator' function?" Scule hissed after about an hour had passed, careful to keep his voice low. "Do we have a back up plan?"

"If that dwarf is smart enough to get past anything my master created, I'll eat my own braid," Shia snorted. "He probably just decided to start on your cape and hasn't gotten to my staff yet, be patient."

"If that guy so much as touches any of my stuff, he better hope Blossom finishes the job. Otherwise-"

A raspy, splintering roar bellowed out from somewhere in camp, silencing Scule. The many Red Dawn members laughing and jostling one another around camp froze at the unnatural noise, and their heads swung toward its origin as a high-pitched scream followed suit.

"That's our cue, go!" Shia hissed. Not needing any more encouragement, Vin spared a brief second to ensure everyone was focused on the screaming as he twisted his left hand at an impossible angle and grabbed his iron manacles. With a small pulse of blue light, his golem hand crushed the metal like it was made of paper, and he ripped the destroyed manacles off.

Seeing Scule was already elbow-deep in his own lock, Vin ran over to Shia as Reginald leapt from his pocket and darted beneath Scule's cage. Careful not to hurt her in the process, Vin freed Shia from her manacles just as he heard the unmistakable 'click' and laugh as Scule leapt down from his cage, landing atop Reginald.

"Time for some payback," Scule grinned, reaching under Reginald's saddle and yanking out a hidden dagger Vin hadn't even known was there. He had no idea how Curash hadn't detected the weapon with his weird ability, but he assumed it had something to do with the fact the Hunter had never actually seen Reginald with his own eyes.

"Outrunning them will be tricky if they still have those weird, fluffy mounts," Shia said, pointing off toward where they saw the creatures saddled up and secured. "Scule, go free them and scare them off while Vin and I get our stuff back, just keep your eyes peeled for magic traps. Reginald should be able to find us again via our scent."

"On it!" Scule saluted. Copying the petian with his own tail, Reginald saluted as well before darting off toward where Shia had indicated, vanishing quickly within the grass.

At this point, barely ten seconds had passed since the screaming had begun, and the dwarf was showing no sign of stopping. Knowing how much Shia's master seemed to care for the young Druid, Vin could only imagine what horrific orders he'd left in place for Blossom to do to anyone who dared steal her staff and use it without permission.

Thankfully, the Druid of the Divine's sadistic streak was their saving grace, as all the Red Dawn members were still focused on the screaming, and a large chunk of them were even walking toward the tent, looking more curious than concerned.

Vin thought it said a lot about their comradery that not a single person rushed over to check and make sure the screaming dwarf was okay.

"How are we supposed to get past everyone and get our stuff?" he asked, worried that any second now people would start shrugging and dismiss the bloody wails all together before turning to realize the three prisoners had managed to escape their bonds.

"I don't know about Scule's cape, but at the very least we don't need to worry about retrieving Blossom. She'll come to us," Shia grinned, taking a deep breath as she focused on the closest group of marauders. Two humans and an orc had been playing dice beside a small fire and were currently turned away from them, their attention still on the dying dwarf's screams. Not taking the chance of being discovered, Shia took careful aim and tossed a single seed from her pouch in their direction, channeling nature magic as she did so.

"Rapid Growth," she muttered, clutching a fist as she flooded the seed with copious amounts of nature magic. Before Vin could even ask what exactly she was planning, her spell finished.

Right as it landed between the trio, the seed literally exploded outward as dozens of needle thin spines erupted in all directions, transforming into what looked like a giant sea urchin in the blink of an eye. The three marauders barely had time to blink before they were turned into pincushions by the surprise attack, and Vin's stomach lurched as he watched his companion snuff out the life of three unsuspecting people in a split second.

Unfortunately, Shia's display of power didn't go unnoticed. A sharp eyed archer spotted what Shia had done and shouted a warning to those around him. Whipping out his bow, he grabbed an arrow from his quiver in one smooth motion and went to fire it directly into Shia's chest.

Only to be stopped by a supercharged granite rock smashing into his temple, causing him to crumple to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Shia blinked, glancing at Vin as if to make sure he was okay. Vin's outstretched hand shook slightly as he stared at the man he almost certainly had just killed. But the sudden cries of anger and outrage erupting all around them forced him to focus.

"What do you mean Blossom will come to us?" Vin shouted, quickly casting a Stone Wall and using it to block a javelin hurled at them by a roaring orc woman. He was glad he hadn't tried doing something as stupid as catching it with his new arm, because based on the thunderous clap and cracks that radiated out from the point of impact, the woman had clearly empowered the weapon with some sort of skill.

"We're close enough that if I use enough nature mana, Blossom will be able to detect it and should come to my aid!" Shia answered, casting Entangling Thorns to slow down four screaming marauders, forcing them to halt and start hacking their way through the razor sharp brush trying to tie up their limbs. Vin thought that would hold them for a while, but his stomach dropped as one of their swords seemed to spontaneously catch fire. The grinning marauder used the flaming blade to cleave a path through the magical brush, barely slowed down at all.

"These guys all have high level skills!" Vin said, beginning to sweat as he realized they may be in over their heads. Even as the thought occurred to him, he saw another orc let out a ground-shaking cry, his skin turning a gleaming bronze as he ran through the razor thorns unimpeded. Shia's plants didn't so much as scratch his skill-enhanced skin, and the orc roared as he reached them, swinging down a stone warhammer at Shia's head.

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"Light!" Vin cried, quickly blinding the warrior as Shia dove to the side. The warrior's hammer slammed into the ground, knocking up clods of dirt and sending a small rumble through the earth. Not knowing what else to do, Vin darted forward, barely dodging a blind backhand from the warrior as he pulled back and threw a left hook as hard as he could.

Electric blue light flashed from his arm as the marble fist shot forward, slamming into the orc's metallic chest. Mana-empowered prosthetic met defensive skill, and the skill didn't stand a chance. Vin heard what sounded like every rib in the warrior's chest shatter as his bronze skin cracked and the orc went flying backwards like he had been launched from a cannon.

Vin barely even noticed his good fortune as the living projectile took out two more marauders sprinting at them, instead blinking down at his own arm in awe. He knew his grip strength was insane, but the sheer power and speed of the arm was ridiculous.

However, it wasn't something he could keep up forever.

After using the empowered prosthetic three times in quick succession, first to free himself and Shia from the iron manacles and then to send the orc flying into next week, Vin could finally tell the arm had its limits. Already he could feel the arm growing a bit sluggish and becoming slower to respond than normal, and it didn't take a genius to figure out the more mana he burned with crazy feats of strength, the weaker it would get. Thankfully, Deorer had explained that like Alka's body, Vin's arm should naturally replenish the mana within the stone over time. But who knew how long that would take.

All that to say, while the arm was an amazing trump card, Vin couldn't rely on it too much or it would fail when he needed it most.

Of course, Shia didn't know any of this.

"Broken branches, what the hell was that?!" She exclaimed, staring at him with wide eyes. "You practically sent that guy flying back to his own world!"

"I can't do it too often," Vin said, turning and taking advantage of the dwarf that was now staring at him in shock, having completely forgotten the fact she had a sword raised over her head and had been charging at them mere moments ago. Knocking her out with a well placed Stone Shot, Vin shook his head. "Stay focused!"

Nodding, Shia turned toward the flaming sword holder quickly making his way through her spell. With a gesture, she cast her next spell. "Grass Spikes!"

The Druid's mana swept into the grass surrounding the swordsman, and dozens of blades of grass suddenly turned rigid as steel, shooting up in an attempt to impale themselves into the man's calves.

But before they could connect, the swordsman backflipped out of the target zone, slashing down while in midair and severing the mana-infused grass. Landing gracefully, he laughed before pointing the tip of his flaming sword at Shia like a challenge.

And then immediately got pounced on from behind by Blossom.

Raking her claws along his back, Blossom leapt off the man like a springboard, soaring over Shia's magical thorns and landing beside her. The artifact must have finally detected Shia's mana and ran straight here, because her jaws were still clamped around the poor dwarf's neck.

Spitting his lacerated and battered corpse to the ground, Blossom looked up expectantly at Shia, as if awaiting new orders.

"Good girl, Blossom!" Shia grinned, quickly patting the construct on the head before bending down and plucking Scule's cape from the man's corpse. Like Shia had guessed, the Artificer must have started with Scule's cape before getting to her staff, because the magic bag was currently attached to his belt. Securing it to her own waist, she nodded. "Let's get out of here!"

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Vin said, tripping up a lunging brute with a short Stone Wall. "Lead the way!"

Leaping on top of Blossom, Shia took off away from the rallying marauders, and he followed closely behind as they sprinted out of the camp. He was forced to dodge a few more arrows and javelins with Threat Detection, but the two of them managed to get away from the screaming Red Dawn members without even triggering his divine boon.

He was so focused on dodging ranged attacks and just putting distance between them and the warriors that decided to try chasing after them on foot, that Vin didn't even realize until they'd been running for a few minutes that Shia was leading them deeper into the prisoners' fragment.

"Shia, we're going the wrong direction!" He shouted over the wind. For once, they were actually sprinting across the land at nearly top speed, meaning the strange fruit trees and surrounding hills were practically blurring past them as they beat a hasty getaway. "The Sacred Forest is in the opposite direction!"

"I know!" She called back, glancing over her shoulder and spotting the few determined marauders still chasing after them. "But so are they!"

Many members of the Red Dawn had proven to have higher dexterity attributes than Vin and had gotten dangerously close to catching them, but they didn't have the endurance to maintain their top speed for very long. The two of them had worked together to slow their pursuers down with varying casts of Entangle and Stone Wall, which had delayed the faster members of the Red Dawn just long enough for them to get away. Even now, one distant warrior after another gave up the chase, doubling over and panting as they realized they'd never catch them.

"Once we lose the last of them, we'll wait for Scule to catch up and take a wide arc back to the Sacred Forest," she decided, motioning for Blossom to keep going. Nodding, Vin ran beside her, his own breathing starting to come a bit heavily after so much running.

His Distance Runner passive was fantastic for sustained running, but it was unfortunate that it didn't do anything for him when he needed to sprint.

Finally, after nearly ten more minutes of running, Shia decided they'd gone far enough. Wheezing, Vin pulled up beside her, too tired to even think about the danger as he leaned against Blossom and desperately sucked down air.

"Thank God… my endurance… is in the fifties…" he managed in between breaths, pulling out his waterskin and taking a deep drink. "I didn't even know I could run so fast for so long."

"That was way closer than I would have liked," Shia admitted, her lips pursed. "If we hadn't caught them by surprise, I think that would have ended very differently. In fact, I can't shake the feeling that they weren't actually trying to kill us. That was way too easy for all the high level skills those people should have had."

"Curash did order them not to touch us," Vin pointed out, wondering just what plans the Hunter had been keeping in store for them. "He must be absolutely horrifying if the marauders kept trying to follow his orders even while we attacked them."

"Trod seems to be his right hand man, and you saw what the orc did to that dwarf," Shia shrugged. "Not to mention that weird 'fate' thing with the arrow he fired at the beastkin. I'm just happy we got out of there in one piece."

"Seriously. Once Scule finds us-"

"Freeze!" A voice shouted from ahead of them, cutting him off. Vin's eyes widened as he finally spotted the speaker, and he slowly raised his arms up placatingly for the second time that day.

Not thirty feet ahead of them stood a male beastkin with two loaded crossbows, each one pointed directly at their faces. His dark green fur had allowed him to blend in near perfectly with the surrounding grass, and Vin swore the edges of his body seemed to blur slightly, indicating some stealth ability was in play as well.

Seeing that the two of them weren't going to attack, the man finally nodded, taking a few steps closer and squinting at them. Taking a deep breath in through his nose, his face scrunched up, and he even hissed slightly like an actual cat.

"Who are you, and why do you reek of the Red Dawn?"