After the battle in front of the High Wall, the air still smelled of burnt.
The monster’s corpse lay on the inner side of the Gate Area, and people from the Adventurer’s Guild had already arrived. Several workers in leather armor were measuring the Demon Bear’s size, while others gathered around the corpse, carefully cutting open the charred black fur to retrieve the Magic Core.
Qiu Meng stood not far away, watching the dead monster.
‘Sigh… staying here, I don’t feel like I’m helping Father at all.’
‘I’d better go home first…’
Her gaze swept over the battle marks on the ground, the pits torn by claws, the charred remains of the Stable, and the path leading to the Hunting Forest in the distance.
Footsteps approached from beside her.
“Miss.”
Telaika had walked up beside her without her noticing.
“Ah…!”
She looked up and saw Telaika watching her with some concern.
“Sorry, Mr. Telaika.”
“I was just… a little distracted.”
She paused and looked toward the road leading to the Town.
“Could I trouble you… to escort me home?”
‘If I go through there alone… it’s too dangerous.’
Normally, Qiu Meng wouldn’t worry about any problems.
But now she really didn’t dare take that risk and go home alone.
Telaika glanced at her and quickly nodded.
“Mm… no problem.”
He picked up the Lantern that had been set against the wall; the firelight flickered slowly inside.
The two walked along the Stone Road toward the Town.
Telaika suddenly spoke.
“You shouted at the captain earlier, saying that wolf was strange. What exactly was strange about it?”
Qiu Meng thought carefully.
“Hmm… its eyes, maybe?”
“Eyes?”
“Yes. The way it looked at people… it wasn’t like a wolf.”
She struggled to find the words.
“Normal wild beasts would be wary or observe from a distance when they see a person, right…? But that wolf wasn’t like that. It was like it was sizing me up…”
“Sizing up?”
“Maybe… it saw through things too clearly?”
As soon as she said it, Qiu Meng herself felt it was a bit subtle.
Telaika obviously held back for a moment but finally turned his head and let out a snicker from his throat.
Qiu Meng glared at him.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Sorry.” Telaika cleared his throat. “It’s just that way of putting it is a bit…”
“I’m not joking!”
“I know.” Telaika raised his hand in surrender. “But Miss, you’ve never actually hunted a wolf before. The first time you encounter a dangerous beast like this, your brain instinctively magnifies the fear.”
“It’s not an illusion!”
Qiu Meng puffed out her cheeks, a little angry.
“There’s definitely something wrong with that wolf.”
Telaika didn’t argue further.
His hand returned to his scabbard, and his steps became much more cautious than before.
The sky gradually shifted from orange-gold to purple-red, and then… the purple-red was swallowed by the night.
Before they knew it, the road had become eerily quiet.
Qiu Meng stopped.
“Mr. Telaika.”
“Hm?”
“Normally… is it this quiet around here?”
Telaika also stopped.
He raised the Lantern; the firelight illuminated a short stretch of road ahead, but couldn’t penetrate the White Mist rising further away.
“Fog?”
A thin mist slowly seeped out from deep within the forest, then gradually thickened. Before long… everything around became blurry, and a scent of the sea could be smelled.
‘Why is there fog… This is supposed to be plain land…’
There were no large lakes nearby, no sea, nor any terrain that could form such cold, damp fog.
“Miss.” Telaika lowered his voice. “Where did you encounter the wolf earlier?”
Qiu Meng looked around.
Because of the thin mist, the outlines of trees blurred into dark shadows.
She could only rely on memory to recognize the road’s bends, the stones by the roadside, and the elm tree with a cracked trunk.
“It seems… it’s around here.”
Telaika’s posture stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment.
“This area?”
He held up the Lantern and slowly scanned the surroundings.
When the firelight reached the bushes, Qiu Meng saw dew condensed on the leaves.
“Strange.” Telaika said quietly. “There should be a patrol passing by at this hour. In two days, it’ll be the Hunting Festival. There’s no way there wouldn’t be patrols here…”
Qiu Meng looked at the small cottages by the roadside used by guards for temporary rest.
The Lanterns inside weren’t lit either; the windows were dark holes.
“No one…?”
“It seems so, Miss.”
Those words made Qiu Meng’s heart sink.
She instinctively moved half a step closer behind Telaika, but her peripheral vision caught a dark red patch under the bushes.
“Wait.”
She pointed there.
“There’s blood over there.”
Telaika immediately crouched down and used the Lantern to illuminate the grass.
A dark red liquid stained the edges of the leaves, not yet completely dried. There were also scattered traces on the nearby soil, but strangely, there were no obvious footprints or long drag marks from a corpse.
“It might be wolf blood,” Telaika said. “Maybe… the patrol encountered a wolf, dealt with it, and took the corpse away?”
Qiu Meng shook her head.
“No…”
She crouched down and gently fanned the air in front of her nose with her hand.
A pungent smell wafted over.
In the smell of blood, there was a faint but unmistakable scent of alcohol.
“This isn’t animal blood,” Qiu Meng said quietly. “It seems like human blood. And… there’s a smell of alcohol in it.”
She looked down and saw that the soles of her shoes had also picked up some sticky liquid. The blood contained several small pieces of glass, like fragments from a smashed wine bottle.
Qiu Meng’s scalp went numb.
She remembered Lao Ma, who had been sitting drunkenly at his doorstep not long ago, and the lingering smell of alcohol on the guards when they drank.
Telaika’s expression also turned serious.
“Let’s head back first. This isn’t something we two can handle.”
“Mm…”
Qiu Meng agreed quickly.
But just as the two were about to leave, Telaika suddenly noticed a few crystals on the leaves of a nearby bush.
He picked a leaf and lightly touched it with his fingertip.
“What is this…?”
Qiu Meng leaned in to look.
It wasn’t ordinary frost, but a kind of ice crystal as fine as sand.
More importantly, there was a very fine scratch on the edge of the leaf, not like one made by a beast’s claw, but more like a light cut from a blade.
Telaika’s face changed drastically.
“Miss, go!”
The two immediately quickened their pace.
The Stone Road was straight; as long as they followed it, they would return to the Town. But after running for a while, the elm tree with the cracked trunk appeared again ahead.
“We… came back around again?”
Telaika didn’t answer but decisively drew his sword.
“It’s Magic.”
“Fog, low temperature, path interference… this is Barrier Magic. A Mage capable of maintaining this effect is no ordinary person.”
Qiu Meng swallowed.
“Then what about making a fire? Use smoke to attract people?”
Telaika looked at the thickening fog around them and just shook his head.
“This isn’t something smoke can solve.”
The next moment, a chill descended abruptly.
Qiu Meng’s breath turned to white mist, and her body became very cold.
“Get behind me!”
Telaika stepped in front of her, gripping his sword hilt with his left hand and holding the Lantern with his right.
From deep within the fog came the sound of something being drawn.
Qiu Meng hid behind Telaika, quietly observing her surroundings.
The next moment, a blue-white light flashed on the ground.
Telaika suddenly grabbed Qiu Meng by the back of her collar and pulled her to the side; the two quickly moved out of the attack range.
Ice spikes burst out of the ground from where they had just been standing.
Sharp ice swords pierced the ground and then slowly spread along the Stone Road, forming several curved ice blades. If not for Telaika’s quick reaction, Qiu Meng’s ankles would likely have been pierced.
But… within the mist, a figure slowly walked out.
That person wore a dark blue robe with a black cloak over it. Pitch-black hair stuck to the sides of their face.
In his hand, he held a Staff, but also had a Short Sword and a Dagger at his waist.
A Mage.
And completely different from the Light Magic Mage on the High Wall.
This person’s aura was more somber and quieter.
Like the frost that silently creeps onto the windowsill on a winter night.
Telaika held his sword horizontally in front of him; Wind Magic flowed faintly along the blade.
“Who are you?”
The Ice Magister did not answer.
He lifted his foot, and a Wind Magic array lit up on the sole of his boot.
The next instant, he disappeared; the ground sparkled with countless ice crystals. When they saw him again… he was already in front of Telaika… and then he kicked out.
Telaika raised his sword to block, but was still kicked flying backward, crashing into a tree trunk by the roadside with a dull thud.
Qiu Meng’s pupils contracted.
The enemy had been targeting not Telaika from the start, but her.
The Dagger in the Ice Magister’s hand flashed with cold light, heading straight for Qiu Meng’s neck.
However, at the critical moment, she abruptly ducked; the Dagger grazed past the top of her head, taking a few strands of hair with it.
Then she turned and ran, plunging without hesitation toward the more wooded direction.
Seeing this, the Ice Magister directly threw the Dagger.
The sound of it cutting through the air approached from behind; Qiu Meng didn’t look back, only lunged sideways based on the sound. The Dagger grazed past her shoulder and embedded into a tree trunk; the entire tree instantly became covered in a layer of thin ice, and then an array unfolded.
‘This is… Ice Magic?!’
Then a large number of spikes burst out; Qiu Meng slid to dodge… but gained several new wounds on her legs.
On the other side, Telaika charged out from a different direction, swinging his sword to stab at the Mage.
Then he threw the Lantern to the ground; the flames ignited the dead leaves and bushes.
“Miss, run!”
He shouted.
Qiu Meng decisively turned and fled, but the fear of death drove her forward, and her body secreted plenty of adrenaline. Behind her came the clashing of blades, the sound of ice spikes breaking through the ground, the roar of flames, and Telaika’s suppressed, pained grunts.
Finally, she burst out of the thin mist and returned to the familiar street.
Home was just ahead.
Her mother hadn’t returned yet. Probably because of the attack on the High Wall, the Adventurer’s Guild was still working overtime dealing with the monster corpses and reports.
“Ha… ha…”
Qiu Meng slammed the door open, rushed inside, and immediately locked it.
She knew there was a Protection Magic Array carved on the door. Her mother had had it reinforced by someone before; though not high-level, it at least provided some defense.
At least it could buy some time.
She leaned against the door, her chest heaving violently; she felt colder and colder.
She looked down and realized it wasn’t an illusion.
White frost was seeping in bit by bit from under the door crack.
Qiu Meng crouched down and cautiously peered out from the window.
In the distance, the Ice Magister was walking along the street.
He held a sword in one hand, while the other hand leisurely wiped the blood off the blade. The blood that wasn’t wiped clean was frozen by the cold, actually forming a twisted smile on the blade.
Then, he pointed that sword at the window, and the smile shattered into ice crystals, dissipating in the night wind.
Qiu Meng’s stomach clenched painfully.
That sword—
It was Telaika’s sword.
“Mr. Telaika…”
‘I can only… rely on myself now.’
She immediately pushed the bookshelf, using all her strength to block it behind the door.
The heavy wooden cabinet scraped across the floor, making a harsh sound. At the same time, footsteps came from outside the door.
The Ice Magister didn’t even bother to climb through the window; he stood outside the door, his breathing carrying laughter.
Thud.
The first impact.
The magic array on the door glowed faintly.
Thud.
The second.
The array began to crack.
By the time the third impact landed, Qiu Meng had already turned and rushed to the Training Ground in the back.
She saw the Crossbow she had practiced with during the day.
Her heart raced as she recalled what her father had taught her earlier.
She stepped on the stirrups on either side of the Crossbow, bent over, and pulled the string.
She loaded a bolt, raised the heavy Crossbow, and aimed it at the door leading to the Training Ground.