“Don’t worry, we should be more than strong enough. Especially with our new skills.”

Clark smiled at Marth’s words, “I thought we were going to keep it as a surprise.”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” Marth scratched his head. “I was too impatient and wanted to share the news.”

By this point, Roy was more than interested, “Come on, tell us what kind of skills you got? You got me curious now.”

“Well, I can’t really show it to you now,” Clark replied. “But I get faster and more powerful, the more injuries I get.”

Robb raised an eyebrow at Clark’s skill description. “That is… a very dangerous skill. For you and your enemy.”

“Yeah, don’t rely on it too much,” Marth looked with a stern expression at Clark. “You’re better off playing it safe than flirting too much with the grim reaper.”

Clark shook his head at the two’s concerns, “I’m not stupid, don’t worry about that.” He then looked at Marth and gestured with his head. “Tell them about yours.”

Marth smiled and unsheathed his sword, “It’s better to show it.”

Green aura sprung from his core and covered his sword like a mantle. It looked similar to the one Davis and his knights used, but while the red aura created an ominous and foreboding atmosphere, Marth’s showed vitality and force of life.

Roy bobbed his head up and down in amazement, “Amazing, now we have our own aura user. What does it do?”

“I didn’t have to sacrifice three children for it like a savage though,” Marth chuckled. “For now it just increases the sharpness of my sword. But later on, I can use it on my body to heal wounds and get rid of fatigue.”

“Nice, that’s a cool power,” Robb nodded.

“Well, congratulations to both of you,” Roy smiled at Marth and Clark. “Now, let’s go to that dungeon. It’s already getting late.”

“Finally, we’ve been waiting all day!” Peter exclaimed with a burst of emotions.

“You need to learn some patience, Peter,” Godwin chuckled and patted the young kid’s head.

As such, the group walked through the streets of the village and reached the forest. On the way there, Roy noticed how Marth’s group was split into two pairs; Peter would almost always be standing next to Godwin, and Clark would be talking and joking with Gerald the whole time.

“How was the day?” Roy asked Marth. “Had any trouble?”

“No, not at all,” Marth shook his head. “Though we did have to fight many ogres today. It’s becoming a bit concerning.”

Roy nodded at Marth’s assessment, “Yeah, we need to fight that Red Bear soon.” He then thought for a bit before looking at the knight captain. “How is the patrolling going by the way? Now that you have to protect two places.”

“We do a rotation,” Marth responded. “One group keeps an eye on the two houses by going back and forth every fifteen minutes, while the other one goes out to hunt. We switch after every hour.”

“Smart system,” Robb replied. “What if a group misses the one-hour rotation.”

“We usually wait for ten minutes before sending someone to look for them. Usually, they just had a run-in with a big group of goblins or an ogre and couldn’t finish it in time. We then just wait for the scout to come back and we continue the rotation.”

“Wow, as expected of a knight captain. You have everything under control,” Roy looked at Marth with an impressed expression.

“This is nothing,” Marth shrugged. “It’s a bit different from the military since it’s less strict and there isn’t as much hierarchy. Honestly, anyone with common sense would do things this way.”

Robb let out a small chuckle, “And you’re humble too.”

Marth didn’t do well with compliments, so he immediately shifted topics, “What about you guys? How was your day?”

Roy wanted to answer him, but seeing Jaimie’s eyes that kept darting between the three men, he chuckled and said, “Jaimie, why don’t you tell him?”

Given a chance to enter the conversation, Jaimie narrated their adventures with excitement written all over his face. As the story progressed, even Clark, Gerald, Godwin, and Peter leaned in to listen. The young boy told them about the way between the monsters and John’s army, the talking blue ogres, and the giant purple one.

“Interesting, that explains so many things,” Marth commented after Jaimie finished telling the story.

Gerald nodded at Marth’s words, “Yeah, now we know why we didn’t see John’s knights the whole day.”

Robb furrowed his eyebrows in surprise and confusion, “Wait, you guys met with those knights before?”

“Yeah, yesterday. When we go hunt, we have someone scout ahead; usually Peter.” Marth then looked at the young boy. “Tell them.”

“Yesterday, I saw them when I was scouting in the marketplace. They didn’t see me since I was hiding, but they were fighting goblins close to the plaza. I also saw them a second time, though this time it was closer to the church.”

Roy stared blankly at the ground before nodding his head. “Good job keeping your distance from them. It’s better not to cause too much trouble while we still have to deal with the Red Bear.”

“Good thing it was you that met up with them,” Robb commented. “I would have gone on a rampage if I saw those knights.”

Roy raised an eyebrow at Robb’s claim, “Really? What about Davis?”

“That was a bit different,” Robb shrugged his shoulders. “That guy saw his whole squad crushed in front of him, and he fought with his life to save them. It wouldn’t have felt right to kill him there.”

There was an uncomfortable silence after Robb’s words. The depiction of a whole squad being eliminated put a sour mood on Marth’s group. Roy couldn’t blame them; this was surely a fear buried inside all of their hearts.

Marth also didn’t look the best. His eyes were blank and his mind filled with thoughts. Roy understood the dilemma that the captain was facing. One day, soon, he will have to face his former comrades.

“Anyways, we’re getting close,” Roy changed the subject and looked deeper into the forest. Even though it was dark now, he has spent enough time in this forest to know it like the back of his hand. He could guide the group to the dungeon even with his eyes closed.

Suddenly, Roy thought of an idea. He looked at his palm before pushing a little bit of mana into it. A small ball of fire hovered on top of his hand illuminating the area around them. Rather than launching it toward an enemy as he usually did, he just let it hover and act as a torch.

“Huh, so you can use it like that too. Interesting,” Robb commented.

“Wouldn’t that make us easy targets for predators?” Gerald looked with worrying eyes at Roy’s fireball.

“No, if it’s a predator strong enough to kill us, I would rather see it,” Marth responded with a serious expression. “They can see well in the dark; we can’t. At least this way we even out our odds.”

“Yeah, I agree with that,” Clark affirmed. He then looked at Gerald with a joking expression, “Plus, isn’t it silly to worry about predators when we’re going to a dungeon filled with monsters.”

“Fair enough,” Gerald smiled. “I guess it’s my age talking.”

“We’re there,” Roy cut the discussion short. He added some more mana into his mini fireball to illuminate the whole cave.

Seeing the fang-like rock protrusion from the top of the entrance, Peter couldn’t help but gasp, “It looks like a wolf’s face.”

Robb looked at the young man and laughed, “Yeah, goes well with the name: Wolf’s Den.”

“So, we’ll be fighting monstrous wolves,” Godwin walked toward the cave with a stern expression. “How big did you say the big baddy is?”

“It reached around this high when it used its silver aura.” Robb pointed at his shoulder.

“Okay,” Marth walked to the front and faced his group. “It’s like we’ve been doing this whole time. We just keep going in a circle. If someone gets injured or is tired, go back and leave your place to someone else. Just keep moving at all times.”

He then looked at Clark specifically, “Also, you especially, don’t push it. There is no need to be a hero in our team. We’re all brothers, we should trust and rely on each other. No one has to overwork themselves, understood?”

“Yes, understood captain.” The group’s response was uniform. Once Marth had switched modes from buddy to squad captain, they all became respectful and disciplined. Looking at this sudden shift in the atmosphere, Roy was beyond impressed.

Good thing I left him the group to do his thing. This is amazing.

Roy gestured at Marth with his head, “Like I told you yesterday, careful of the invisible wall. When you wanna go in, just keep holding hands, and choose the easy difficulty when they show it to you.”

Marth nodded at Roy’s words before looking at his group. “Well, enough said. Let’s go now.”

The group held hands with each other and walked toward the cave. With a small flash, all of them disappeared just as Jack’s group did.

“I will never get used to it no matter how many times I see it,” Robb commented.

Roy nodded his head, “Truly. I’m getting dizzy keeping all of this new information in my head.”

“I think it’s cool!” Jaimie who stayed silent after telling his story finally joined back in on the conversation. Roy smiled at the young boy before looking back at the entrance of the cave. Jack’s group should come back at any minute.

* * *

While Roy’s group was waiting for Jack’s, they didn’t notice a being watching them from atop a nearby cliff. A massive wolf, bigger than even the boss of the Wolf’s Den dungeon stood majestically with the moon as its background. Riding this mysterious creature was an even more mysterious woman. Her hair was royal purple and reached her waist, while her eyes were as white as the beautiful moon behind her.