Desmond sat down, leaning his back against a large tree. He didn’t really have anything to do until Riki came back. He would keep his ears open in case it turned into a fight, but other than that, he was just counting the falling leaves.

It was at times like this that he missed having a smartphone, or really just any form of portable entertainment at all. This world of magic could be incredibly boring at times, and he found himself longing for the amenities of his past life.

Desmond stared up through the colored leaves at the bright blue sky. It was a nice fall day, with a warm breeze coming through the forest. He could hear the rustling leaves and the chirping of birds in the forest canopy. The forest smelt fresh, and almost like the burning wood of a campfire?

Desmond sat up. That smell was out of place here. He focused more acutely on his surroundings. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but through the sounds of the forest, he could just barely make out swords clashing. It was coming from the opposite direction Riki went in.

Desmond rose to his feet. He was doing nothing here, so he might as well check it out. Fighting this close to the Lodge was always a bad idea. There was a reason he and Riki tailed Lucel’s party so deep into the forest before striking.

That was because you never knew if someone was nearby who might decide to get involved. Desmond smiled as he started heading towards the sounds of fighting. It would seem his entertainment had found him.

After a short jog through the forest, Desmond came upon a clearing. It was evident that the fighting was coming from this area, as the sound of combat was intense. The area wasn’t a natural clearing but just a space where the trees had been knocked down in mass.

Desmond moved behind the foliage of a downed tree to get a look at what was happening. Two groups of two were engaged in intense combat. It was a mirror match-up with a mage and warrior in each party. The closer two were rell, and they were fighting two humans. The two humans seemed to be at a disadvantage as the human mage was badly wounded and hardly even in the fight anymore. This put the human warrior under significant pressure. Wait, was that Deacon?

Deacon was a fellow hunter that Desmond recognized from the Lodge. He didn’t know that man very well, but he had shared a few drinks and talked with him in the lobby. Deacon had always stuck him as a man to kind and caring for his own good. Desmond always got real protagonist vibes from the man, and when he was drunk he would not shut up about his beautiful wife. Desmond looked over at the mage summoning and hurling massive shards of ice with one arm limp at her side. Desmond had never met her but she fit the description of the wife.

Looking to the other side of the fight, Desmond didn’t recognize either of the rell. Rell were not common around here, but he had been seeing more of them recently, and he was sure he had never seen either of these two in the Lodge. Well, he might as well help out his old friend.

Desmond pushed through the foliage and started running at the rell mage. He was coming from the side of the fight and had a few hundred meters to cross before he reached his target, who looked to be an earth mage around mid or upper disaster class. Desmond was able to close more than half the distance before the mage even took note of him.

“There is another one coming from the right,” said the rell mage quickly.

The mage turned towards Desmond and cast a spell. A huge wall of hardened earth rose a good 7 meters from the ground, essentially cutting Desmond off from the entire fight.

Desmond smirked. He was being underestimated. The wall would be easy enough to go over, but why go over when you could go through?

Desmond pushed off the ground hard, putting his whole force behind his fist as it collided with the earthen wall right near where he had last seen the mage. He used Force Dispersion as he hit the wall causing a good ten-meter section of the wall to literally explode under the force of his blow, then shoot back like a massive earthen shotgun blast.

Desmond stepped through the falling earth and rubble which was all that was left of this section of the large earthen wall. He found his target sprawled out on the ground a little over a hundred meters away, wounded but very much still conscious. Unfortunately, it looked like the mage had put some distance between himself and the wall after it had been made.

Desmond took off sprinting again as his smirk got just a little bit bigger. The mage was laid out on his back, frantically casting spells. An earthen spike rose from the ground, aiming right for Desmond’s chest. Desmond met the spike with his fist, shattering it and pushing forward unimpeded. Another spike rose, which met the same fate as the first.

The rell mage changed tactics. He summoned another wall of earth between himself and Desmond. This time the wall was made of loose earth and soil, and the rell mage pushed it forward like a large soft earthen wave traveling across the ground. It was clearly meant to push Desmond back.

The rell mage was learning, but it was too late. Desmond used Force Dispersion and jumped off the ground with a staggering force. He jumped a good ten meters into the air and easily cleared the earth wave, coming down hard just a few feet from the mage.

The rell mage laid flat on the ground and cast another spell. His body quickly sank beneath the earth.

“Oh no you don’t,” Desmond said as he crossed the last few steps. Desmond sunk his hand elbow deep into the earth and felt his fist close around the man’s throat. With a strong tug, Desmond pulled the mage clear from the ground like an old root, holding him aloft.

“If you try and cast another spell,” Desmond spoke in a deep menacing tone. “I’ll kill ya.”

The mage stopped struggling, clearly resigning himself to his fate. Desmond turned around just in time to see Deacon remove his sword from the rell warrior’s chest.

“Fuck,” Desmond cursed. The mage he was holding had clearly just seen the same thing as he did. He could feel the mage start to move his mana again, preparing to cast another spell.

Desmond moved his own mana and tightened his grip until he felt the mage’s neck snap and the man go limp. It looked like they weren’t taking prisoners today. What did he just get himself into? He had just spent a week to cover up a murder, just to come back and be forced to kill someone right in front of the Lodge.

Desmond released his grip and the rell mage fell lifelessly to the ground. This wasn’t like Deacon, there had to be a reason for it. Desmond looked over to see Deacon had run over to help the wounded human mage. Well, if you try and kill someone's wife, even a kind man would lose it.

Desmond looked down at the dead rell mage and noted that no legacy orbs had appeared. Desmond grabbed his skinning knife and stabbed the body in the heart. He was definitely dead and wasn’t a fake of some kind. So this poor bastard had no soul orbs at all? Maybe it was a race thing?

Desmond looked over to see 5 orbs hovering over the rell warrior's corpse, two of which were purple.

Nope, it wasn’t a race thing. Desmond was slightly impressed the mage had gotten so far in life with no legacy orbs.

Desmond tossed the mage’s body to the side and walked over to the dead warrior. He bent down as if to check for a pulse while he covertly moved all 5 orbs into his spatial storage making sure to touch the 2 purple orbs on the way by.

[Immense Strength](Epic): +178 Strength.

[True Sight](Epic): Allows the holder to see the unseen.

Now both of those orbs seemed useful to him. Once again Desmond was reminded of his broken soul and his need to find a more permanent solution to fix it. Hopefully, this would let him make use of some of these legacy orbs in the future. He had been looking forward to spending some time doing just this when he got back to the Lodge.

Desmond walked over to Deacon and the wounded mage. He noticed that the mage had used a healing spell to close the wound on her shoulder, one of the benefits of having a water affinity. So, she was no longer in a life-threatening condition.

All affinities could heal in some way or another, but there were four that were considered natural healers. They were Nature, Water, Fire, and Light in that order of effectiveness. Light wasn’t even that good a healing, but there was another reason it was considered one of the big four healing affinities. Most people who were blessed with one of these affinities would learn at least a basic healing spell for emergencies.

“Hey Deacon,” Desmond said as he approached the two. Deacon was fussing over the woman, who seemed to be trying to say she was fine. “How are her wounds?”

“Oh, hey Dez,” Deacon said as he stood up to face Desmond. “I can’t thank you enough for the help. I really thought we were goners there. Yeah, she should be fine. A little healing goes a long way. Her low mana is more of an issue, she can’t heal anymore right now. Oh, where are my manners? Desmond this is Chloe. Chloe, Desmond.”

Wife confirmed. Desmond nodded to Chloe before turning back to Deacon. “So, do you mind telling me what this,” Desmond said while indicating to the scene of absolute destruction behind him. “Is all about?”

Deacon seemed to come to some kind of realization. “Ummm, well, to put it simply. The Lodge is gone.” Deacon said while sounding like he didn’t quite believe it himself.

“What do you mean by gone?” Desmond asked with a newfound seriousness.

“The whole compound was burned down,” Deacon continued. “There was no one left. We weren’t able to get very close before these two showed up and tried to kill us. We were just coming back from a simple gathering request.”

Well, this sucked. Who is dumb enough to
attack the Lodge? There is no way the rell Theocracy is behind this, they wouldn’t be able to handle the pushback.

Was this attack on the Lodge isolated or a part of something larger? No, he shouldn’t be making conjectures off just some foot soldiers. Desmond needed more information.

“What are you two going to do now?” Desmond asked.

“We are going to make our way to Gateway City,” Deacon replied.

“Good, stay off the main road,” Desmond said. “If they had people watching the outpost then they will likely be watching the road as well.”

“Yeah, that’s what we were thinking,” Deacon said as he helped Chloe to her feet. “What are you going to do? You should come with us.”

“I want to have a look at the outpost first,” Desmond replied. “See if I can find out what happened here when Riki gets back.”

“I’m back!” Riki said from directly beside him. This got a startle out of both Deacon and Chloe, but Desmond had been prepared, if not expecting this. “Booo, you’re no fun.”

Desmond smiled at Riki.

“We will be parting here then,” Desmond said to Deacon with authority in his voice. He was the highest-ranked hunter here so that more or less put him in charge. “Stick to the forest until you reach the tier 4 zone. Hopefully, we will meet up with you before you get to Gateway City.”

“Right, thank you,” Chloe said softly.

“Yeah, thanks again for the help Dez,” Deacon said as he and Chloe started moving off toward the forest.

As Desmond waited patiently for the two to get out of earshot, Riki looked around the battlefield.

“Yup, you got less grace than a tornado, Dez!” Riki stated.

Desmond looked over at what had been the battlefield. The earth wave spell had smashed into the rock wall causing the whole area to look like it was devastated by a rock tsunami. It made Riki’s point hard to argue.

“To be fair,” Desmond said. “Most of this wasn’t me.”

“I'd believe you, if you didn't say that every single time,” Riki replied.