William looked up to gander at a huge peculiar rock formation. It was easy to distinguish and thus it functioned as a milestone for those who traveled these roads. Other servants also looked up, only to sink their heads to resume the never-ending walk homeward. They had now covered half of the distance they needed to walk. It was freezing because of the season, therefore most servants preferred to walk until they were too exhausted to do otherwise.

Brice was inside a well-insulated carriage along with Avian and his brother. Laughing up a storm at who knows what?

William glared at their cozy means of transportation when a mass of water suddenly came crashing down from above. He barely managed to catch a glimpse of the people who stood on top of the rock formation before the chaos spread. This abrupt flush of water was their doing. William got swept away by the crashing mass. It was chilling to the bone, but apparently not cold enough for those who had let it loose!

For when the water had the entourage knees-deep in it, it was rapidly turned into solid ice.

William who was on the outskirts of the group was lucky enough not to get fully encased in it. Being so would lead to nothing but one’s demise! Instead, he was part of the group that screamed in shock and horror as their feet and knees slowly froze to death. Brice hardly got to open the carriage door, before the attackers from above jumped down to complete their mission.

William watched as this horror unfolded. Unfortunately, he had not brought his sword as it would be too big of a risk, alas, he could really use it right now! The only thing he could do at the moment was to ignore the pain, and rummage through the bag he was forced to carry. Of course, it didn’t contain any weapons but it did contain a hoof pick!

William took it up and began to madly stab at the ice encapsulating his knees. Hoping that if he stabbed at it long enough, it would crack the encasement.

William could continue to do this undisturbed as the raiders were not interested in small-fry, but the big fish that warmed the fancy carriage. Their group consisted of 10 people. One of them remained above as the others sprung down the ‘cliff’. It was the one who had the ability to freeze liquids into ice that remained on standby. William found this fact peculiar. Questioning, why exactly this person wouldn’t come down... Thinking that perchance they had used up all their energy on the current areal effect... If that was the case, the clock was ticking for Brice and his men.

Said noble and his brother quickly reacted the moment they heard screams. While Yordan held back the enemy, as he was currently the strongest of the two, Brice used his power to thaw the deadly ice. Although his flame wasn’t strong enough to completely melt the thick mass, it was enough to make it possible for some of his people to break loose. One of them being William.

“Hand over Avian Talcan or pay with your miserable lives!”, the enemy’s leader declared. Yordan mercilessly killed one of their men, as he shouted back with great resentment, “Who are you filthy barbarians!?”.

Their leader smirked and caressed his bald head, that was decorated by a massive tattoo, “… How rude of me. We come on behalf of the ‘Ravaging Shades’, as you northern folk so kindly named us…”, hearing this, Yordan raised his sword in his direction, which made the bandit playfully ask, “Resisting, are we?... Why that won’t do… Just hand that brat over, we promise that we won’t feed him to our dinosaurs when we’re done with him… He’ll get a proper funeral among allies. Now isn’t that nice?...”.

From that point on, no more words were exchanged. Yordan used his powers to the best of his ability to fend off their leader, while the guards that accompanied him sought out the weakest of the bunch. Slowly but surely minimizing the threat.

While all of this was happening William hacked himself free. Afterward, he threw the pick to Rex who had been longingly staring at it.

It was clear from their demands that these hateful bandits had come to kill Avian. Someone William considered a friend after all those practice sessions they had shared together. So of course, his mission in this battle was to help Avian keep his life!

Fortunately, the youngster stayed inside the carriage. He was the Blaises guest and so they would naturally shield him from any harm. Making his role that of a passive brick... Brice was still occupied with unfreezing people as his brother tried to hold back and minimize the threat. All this fighting went on between the rock formation and the left side of the carriage, while its right side was left desolate of any action. William thought this asymmetry was kinda strange, or rather it didn’t make any sense! Because if these people were truly part of the Ravaging Shades, wasn’t it then odd that they came charging with brute force and a bonded ice user? For wasn’t their specialty the ability to camouflage themselves within the environment?

While William pondered on this fact as he searched around for a suitable weapon, Avian began to stir. At first, the young lord was surprised by the attack but these things tend to happen, so he let his hosts handle the matter. At least that was the case until he heard these bandits identify themselves as the Ravaging Shades. And not only that! They had even come down this far south just to take his meager little life!

Hearing about these awful things made Avian take a peek outside. What he saw was ice strewn everywhere. This scene made him feel deeply disturbed as the ability of ice was the Talcan’s specialty! Putting two and two together, Avian couldn’t help but wonder if one of his family members had come to personally pluck his life!... Which was a very appalling idea! He didn’t dare settle on it just yet without any proof, thus he sprang out of his safety.

The moment he went out, he heard shouts come from a frantic servant girl. She ran over to him and warned, “Go back inside, now!”.  But it was too late. The enemy’s hidden assassin was ready to pounce! Patiently, they had waited for their target to stumble out of that carriage, oblivious and vulnerable to their attack, which was all according to plan!...

Before things got messy, Avian was taken aback by the distorted reality that appeared before his eyes. What he saw, was the pattern of the surrounding landscape strangely getting bent into the shape of a human. He clearly sensed and saw this strange creator, and yet, he was too engrossed in thoughts about betrayal to react in time to this sudden aggressor’s attack. But the girl who came hurtling towards him was of a different mindset…

At this point, William didn’t care to hide his identity anymore. If it slipped, it slipped. Right now, Avian’s life was more important to him. So after he had forced the youth to become out of reach, he went up without hesitation and swung his bag into the enemy’s face!... Fortunately, it was filled with more iron tools than the hoof pick, which gave it a much-needed edge.

The unexpected attacker was in a short time frame, misled from his path. This opening gave Avian enough time to recollect himself. His hand grabbed on to the assassin’s outstretched arm and once it connected, the arm was transformed into a piece of sculpted ice.

This unnatural transformation made the hidden bandit scream and convulse as his ability malfunctioned. Avian continued to freeze his attacker, till the spell reached the man’s heart. It froze in place, completely seizing its job of pumping hot blood around inside of its host’s body. Not long after the outer shell died and found its rightful place on the ground. Now before them, laid only a dead body, sizzling with the aftereffects of instant freezing.

Seeing this brutal kill up close had William take a step back. Surely this bandit deserved an early death, and yet it felt inhumane to passively watch someone greet the eternal realms of darkness. Avian, on the other hand, wasn’t fazed by this at all. Instead, he was rather pleased with the result, for now, he could set his sights on more important matters.

As he removed his attention from the scene, the servant girl shouted at him again, “Don’t avert your attention! I’ve seen motions that indicate that there might be more of them!”.

Avian held William’s plea in mind as he took in the enemy. A quick glance upward was enough for him to confirm that this ice user wasn’t someone he shared blood with… However, this fact didn’t bring him relief but rather further dread…

Avian muttered to himself, “Someone actually dared to pilfer one of our dinosaurs and bond with it... How can that be?... Unless?...”. His otherwise wheat-colored face turned stark white. But he didn’t get to ruminate further on this topic before additional invisible enemies shot out from the woods.

The young lord took care of them swiftly. There was, after all, a logical reason as to why the Blaises revered the Talcans. They were rumored for wiping out the enemy in the most efficient way. But even if Avian had a good grasp on the situation, William kept his mind ready for any slip-ups on his part. This boy was after all still a human being. But luckily, there weren’t any. Just a lot of glittering crystal corpses littered all over the place.

When the forest attackers had been cleaned up, William swirled his bag around in a circle, feeling its weight. He was happy to have helped while he was granted the opportunity to get a piece of the action as well, but still… He didn’t really get to do that much. But then again… He wasn’t disguised or surrounded by people who would appreciate his efforts… Therefore, it would be for the best not to stand out. At least, not in this crowd...

The Blaises young lord Brice was also very active in this raid. Because as soon as his people were ‘rescued’, he went up and killed the newbie ice user. As he did, Brice clearly felt how the other’s despairing lack of experience, had been the factor that led him to his quick downfall. The crisp body tumbled off from the rocks and down amongst the other group of fighters. It was an easy win, nevertheless, Brice felt troubled. For way up high, he had seen something that would need his judgment...

When the bandit’s leader finally realized that their numbers had been thinned out, he reluctantly retreated his remaining forces. In the end, their own lives out-weighted Avian’s.

The traveling group of nobles and peasants ended up victories but they didn’t come out of this scuffle unscathed. As a price, half of their entourage had died or received wounds so severe they would probably die off the following days, and the fancy carriage the nobles had ridden, was now half burnt to a crisp, accessorized with distorted wheels.

All of these current factors made their journey homewards a living nightmare… Something they would all curse as they trudged towards their final destination.