Cass had never felt more at ease than she did on Kelstor's back thousands of feet in the air. The wind whipped around her, tugging at her robes worn over her armor and pulling her braid in a dance behind her. Atmospheric Sense painted a picture of the rolling air currents as they played over the landscape below her and leapt through the air. A storm rumbled in the distance, too far for mundane ears to hear it coming and too far for mundane eyes to see, but still a delight buzzing against her skin, as comforting as the warmth of the sun on her face.

They were five days out from Velillia, and the novelty had not lessened. If anything, the initial rush had settled into a comfortable ease.

She was meant to be here.

How do I learn to fly? Cass asked Salos.

Salos shuddered, his claws clamping tighter to Cass's robes. Why in the deepest abyss would you want to do something as nonsensical as that?

Cass laughed. How could she explain this sensation to him? The feeling of absolute freedom welling in her. The certainty that nothing could hold her back?

Was that her that felt this way, or was it this slyphid body? Or the Concept of Wind singing in her chest?

Did the distinction matter? Did she want to find out?

They flew in wide circles over the caravan, Kelstor's wings spread wide to catch the updraft of the warm earth below. A magic glowed along his wings, multiplying that weak updraft's force to hold his massive body in the air. Occasionally, they'd flap, pushing them higher into the sky.

In the distance, outside the range of her natural eyes, Atmospheric Sense reported a rumbling herd.

"Do rhinos travel in herds here?" Cass yelled from behind Alyx over the wind.

"Rhinos?" Alyx repeated the word. It had come out in English, implying that whatever Cass was feeling at the edges of Atmospheric Sense probably weren't exactly rhinoceroses.

Cass pointed toward 10 o'clock. "There is a large herd of horned creatures out that way, all moving in our direction." The air rolled out of the way of their vast mass. At this distance, she didn't have any more details than there were a lot of them, they were big, and they probably had horns.

Alyx squinted into the distance, standing in her saddle.

<<I see a dust cloud coming up from the Halven plains,>> Kelstor projected mentally. <<This time of year, rhynselk herds are common. It could be a group of them.>>

Alyx frowned. "The caravan is in trouble if that's what it is. Cass, could you hop down and let the caravan master know Kelstor and I are going to investigate?"

Cass nodded and stood.

Abyss, just hop off, she says, Salos muttered, dematerializing into his pendant.

Ready? Cass asked.

As I'll ever be, he muttered.

Cass grinned and waved to Alyx before leaping from Kelstor's back. The wind whipped through her hair and past her robes. Her heart soared as she approached free fall.

Cass, please! Salos begged, his panic pulled as tightly into himself as he could hold it, yet still leaking over their bond.

Cass Wind Stepped, dissolving into the air, the skill sending a different flavor of joy through her immaterial body paired with Salos's relief.

She directed the surrounding air with Elemental Manipulation, riding it the rest of the way down to the lead wagon. She materialized on the bench beside the caravan master.

Exavier jumped, his sword materializing in his hand, its blade against her neck.

Cass leapt back, her Dexterity allowing her to dismount the moving cart without injury. She jogged beside the wagon. "Whoa! It's just me!"

He blinked. "Oh. Mage Yuan. Don't sneak up on a man."

"Sorry." She hadn't expected him to be so jumpy, but then, in a world like this, that kind of reaction probably kept him alive in the wilds. She added it as a consideration for the future. "We spotted a large herd of rhynselk ahead." Cass pointed in the direction she'd sensed them.

"Hopefully, they'll turn before they reach us." He didn't look particularly hopeful. "Hop back up." He patted the bench beside him, and she seated herself beside him.

He tapped his thigh in thought. "We'll redirect east a little. If they hold their current trajectory and speed, they'll hit us around Halden's Crown."

A wave of mana rippled out from him and down the line of wagons. Cass peered around the wagon to the one behind them. A system window appeared in front of its driver, green and flickering around the edges.

"Rest up," he said as he cracked the reins of his horses. "Be prepared to defend us all." Another wave of energy rippled out from the caravan master. His system notification window appeared before her.

[Rhynselk herd spotted on the horizon. Projected intersection: 1 hour.

Prepare for defensive battle at Halden's Crown.]

***

Halden's Crown turned out to be a sharply sloping hill that was as much tough grey stone as it was shifting gravel and dry brush. Exavier circled the wagons at the top, forcing them close together into defensive walls.

Cass stood on the roof of one of the wagons. Pellen was on one side; one of the caravan archers was on her other.

The herd had not turned. Alyx had returned to confirm as much a while ago. Now the hope was that the creatures would break on the hillside, pouring around it, leaving the caravan untouched.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

From the tension in the bodies of the other travelers, Cass was led to believe this wasn't much more likely.

Already, she could see the creatures approaching.

Rhinoceros was not a bad comparison. They were heavy-set, four-legged, mammalian creatures, with thick neck muscles supporting a bricklike head. However, they sported not one but four horns apiece, one on their forehead, long and curving back; one, short but fat, jutting up from the snout; and one under each eye, short and pointed like spines. A thick and curling mane ran down the back of their necks, dark like storm clouds over dusty grey hides.

The air cooled as they approached, as if they were the coming winter. Atmospheric Sense whispered of ice crystals in the air around them, their breath condensing into clouds around their faces.

The other major difference between these rhynselks and rhinos was the sheer number of them.

Rhinos on Earth are largely solitary creatures, while these creatures herded into groups more reminiscent of wildebeest in the thousands. Their hulking forms had overtaken the horizon. They were truly uncountable, though Identify helped.

Rhynselk Vanguard (lvl 24) x 123

Rhynselk Vanguard (lvl 25) x 146

Rhynselk Vanguard (lvl 26) x 139

[Powerful herbivores native to the plains of the Jottena Peninsula. They crush even the well-prepared under their hooves as they stampede past. All four of their horns are deadly weapons.]

Rhynselk Queen (lvl 39)

[The leader of a rhynselk herd. She decides where the herd will graze and when to move to greener pastures. She is fiercely protective of her hoard, slaying any potential threat with the aid of her Vanguard. She usually holds a single Concept which spreads among her herd, further empowering them.]

Cass inhaled sharply at the description.

Identify has increased to level 16.

That was only the front line and the giant queen looming just behind them. How many more were there? Even with all the combatants guarding the caravan, they couldn't hope to kill so many of them.

Her hands tightened around her staff.

They didn't need to kill them all. Identify said the queen was highly protective. Was she also intelligent enough to retreat if enough of her herd was hurt? Or would defending themselves only enrage her more?

Relax, Salos said. He stretched at her feet, his back arching forward, then back the way cats like to.

There are a lot of them out there, Cass said.

You'll be fine.

Cass shot him an incredulous look.

Look around you and tell me we can't escape if this goes poorly. His eyes swept over the open field. The wind blew over her shoulders and over the herd ahead as if for emphasis. Worst case, you take off on the wind, and we make our own way to Belden. You can't be killed here.

I can't just leave!

Your Alyx has dragon wings; she can escape this kind of fight if need be just as easily, Salos said.

What about Marco, Telis, and Pellen?

If she doesn't have to carry you, I imagine there would be plenty of space on the dragon for the guardsman. And I'm sure the butler could slip out if forced to.

And Pellen? Cass pressed.

Is an adult who can take care of herself.

Cass shook her head. He was right. But she didn't have to like it. It also neatly ignored everyone else in the caravan. They were here as guards, which might have been so they didn't have to pay to join the group, but it still implied a certain amount of responsibility to the non-combatants in the group.

But they weren't worth dying over. She hated admitting that much, but she couldn't pretend to be so noble as to believe otherwise.

"Ranged combatants, at the ready," the caravan master's voice rang out over the afternoon air. The first of the beasts broke against the hill, spilling around it, their hooves thundering over the dry earth, throwing dust into the ice-filled air in thick clouds.

She shook aside her thoughts. They hadn't been overrun yet. She should focus on—

If you are really worried about the little mage, Salos said slowly, each word spoken like a man testing the ice and expecting to fall through, you could leave instructions for your thrall.

Cass shuddered. I'm not ordering Kohen to protect Pellen.

Cass had been avoiding Kohen around camp since their altercation. Presumably, Kohen was avoiding her as well.

Why not? Salos asked. A genuine question.

Cass pinched the bridge of her nose. Do you hear yourself?

This wasn't the time for this discussion, but she couldn't help herself. You realize I hold this power over you too, right?

Discomfort rolled over their bond. Did it start from her or him? It sloshed back and forth, impossible to say.

How can you advocate I use it on someone else?

Salos looked away. It's your right. If it keeps you alive, you should use it.

"Fire loud skills ahead of the approaching beasts," the caravan master's voice carried over the rumble of the monsters. "Do NOT hit any of them yet."

That's you, Salos said, cutting off any response Cass might have had.

She wanted to glare at him. To argue further. To tell him all the ways he was stupid. But now wasn't the moment.

Cass called Tempest Blade to her staff, willing lightning to form along the blade. Lightning was flashy and dangerous, but it wasn't 'loud'. Was it the best she could do?

Tempest Blade (lvl 18)

[Gather the tempest itself to be your blade and lay low all who dare to stand before the coming storm.

Condense elements of the raging storm into blades…]

Technically, it let her call up the elements of storms, not just wind and lightning. Could she create a blade of riotous thunder? Once again, the question was 'what was an "element"?' Her experience with Elemental Manipulation suggested it was a broad category. Perhaps broad enough to include the sound of lightning?

She pulled her mind back to that last day in Uvana, focusing not on the light and power of the lightning but on the resounding booms in the air. The way each shockwave reverberated down her spine.

She pulled at nights on Earth, a child again, in the dark of her bedroom and the boom shaking the entire world over the rush of wind.

Tempest Blade grabbed up the images, her blade dimming as the lightning faded, yet it thrummed invisibly with power she could feel.

"Lease!" the caravan master shouted.

Cass swung her staff, throwing the new blade down the hill's slope with all her might. It fell amid arrows, magic bolts, and aura blades, all glowing in her Mana Sight. They struck the ground, erupting in flames and flashes of color, cracking stone and splitting the ground.

And then her thunder blade hit the hillside with a deafening BOOM.

The shockwave rippled out, blasting loose gravel back and dislodging small stones. The nearest rhynselks reared back, their squeals of fear echoing through the herd. They bolted away from the hill, merging with the crowds wrapping to either side.

Pellen shrieked from Cass's side, her hands white knuckling around her tome. Her eyes flicked to Cass. "Did-did you do that?"

The archer on Cass's other side scooted away from her, his knees shaking.

"Yes?" Power rumbled through Cass's chest, fortifying her Resolve. That had worked even better than she'd hoped.

"If you had a Terror Effect, why wouldn't you have used it in the Trial?" Pellen asked.

"Terror Effect?" Cass repeated.

Was that Tempest Blade? Salos asked from her ankles. His fur stood on end, just about doubling his size.

I channeled Thunder through it, Cass explained.

"It's what it sounds like: a skill or spell that fills the affected with a bone-deep terror. Like what the Soulbound Wolf could do with its roar."

Oh, she hadn't expected it to have that effect. The skill description didn't say anything about that. "Is that a property of thunder?"

"Maybe?" Pellen said. "There is a lot of research on lightning at the Academy, but that wasn't my field."

"Ranged combatants, ready next wave!"

Pellen's attention snapped back to her tome, her lips mouthing the words of her chant.

Cass prepared another Tempest Blade, drawing on thunder again.

Ahead, the gap was filling again, the next waves of rhynselks running at the hilltop, pressed forward by their peers around them. The stampede only grew denser the further out she looked. There had been plenty of space for the first group to split at the first thing to scare them. But too soon, there wouldn't.

Was that when the fighting would start? When there wasn't room for the rhynselks to avoid them even if they wanted to?

"Lease!"

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