Aaron looked over to the kid who had fainted from overexertion. It was no wonder, since his body had just gotten a traumatic shock to its system. His body would now try to compensate for the lack of whatever energy the spirit usually provided to him and fail. Then it would start to consolidate its losses. Muscles built with the help of the spirit would shrink, strength would leave, but in the end the kid did not have this class for long. So Aaron was sure he would be just fine. His panic was understandable. No matter how good your training was, this was a terrible situation Aaron himself never wanted to be in. Captured and entirely at the mercy of people that did not have his best interests in mind.

Mortimer bowed down and checked on the kids vitals, before he leaned him back against the wall and shrugged.

"He is gonna be fine. I think?"

"Losing your spirit will make you sick. But this boy has not had this spirit for long, so he will be fine. It is much worse when you have had it for a long time and your physique is tied to it." Aaron explained and stood up.

"What happens then?" Robin asked wearily.

"Your body starts to break down the superfluous mass your body would not naturally have, so muscles etc. will shrink as your body tries to regain an energy equilibrium. At least that is what happened when I used it on one of the districts enforcers."

"Well, don't use it on us." Mortimer said wryly.

Aaron chuckled.

"I won't. So far you all have been very helpful. So thank you. I am gonna go and have a look how the disappearance of one of their own affects that group of kids."

"They will be terrified. Try not to traumatize them too much." Shia joked, but Aaron nodded at that before he walked out of the camp. Roger stood guard in the nook Shia had been in, overlooking their cave. He had only a very dim light with him, but he nodded at Aaron once he passed.

"Going back to check on them?"

"Yeah."

"Good hunting."

"Thanks, don't get eaten by a darkstalker while I am gone." Aaron said and vanished into the darkness.

Aaron walked into the dark cave orientating himself by the little light that came from behind him and took a different path than the one he had taken before. This time he followed the sound of flowing water. There was a small stream flowing through the cave and he followed it down its course. Once the darkness was too thick for even his eyes to pierce, he focused on his sense of smell and hearing. He was moving down a tunnel out of the cave his team was camping in and searched for a pool of the water. It was time to absorb the spirit. He would feel better if he could entirely incapacitate one of them with Soul Catcher. A normal person was in more danger of hurting themselves than him on this floor. Also his dantian felt relatively full. It was entirely possible it would not be enough to fill his dantian with this spirit. But he did not want to risk a breakthrough in front of the group. Some secrets were better kept to himself. Breaking through required a huge amount of concentration and Aaron had no idea what would happen if he was disturbed or attacked during a breakthrough. The consequences might be dire and it would be better if this weakness stayed a secret.

Aaron paused his slow steps at a small waterfall before he knelt down and reached out with his hand. There was a small pool here and when he reached into it with his arm, he sank into the cool water up to his elbow before his fingertips touched the small pools bottom. Satisfied he stripped out of his clothes and placed them next to the waterfall. Then he slipped into the ice cold water and sat down. The pool was not as deep as Aaron would have liked, it just reached to his naval, but it would have to do. For a few minutes he just sat there and listened to the caves around him. Trying to detect any monsters in the vicinity. But besides a nest of rats two caves away he could not hear anything close by. He also scented the air for any darkstalkers, but he could not detect any anomalies so he was probably safe for now.

Sitting in the absolute darkness Aaron focused on himself, let his focus narrow down and then collapse into himself. He felt his whole body with intensity as his senses tried to balance his focus and he only reached tranquility after a few minutes of intense concentration. Calm suffused his mind when he reached the point of total sensory deprivation. There was no sound, no distraction, just him and his Qi flowing through him like an unceasing river, eternal and yet ever changing. He felt the heavy weight of the spirit weighing him down and slowly and meticulously he formed the construct of the Soul Catcher technique inside of his dantian. Then he reached out for the spirit and pulled it towards his dantian.

The spirit was fat and uncooperative. Not quite as big as Mahast's spirit, but considering the difference in time spent as a vessel between the district enforcer and this kid it was surprising how strong the spirit was. It felt more dense as the brute's spirit too as he dragged it towards him, slowly, inevitably before the spirit was finally in his dantian.

Aaron's Qi was much more concentrated and much stronger than before and so the spirit was dissolved much quicker than Aaron had anticipated. With practiced ease he funeled the fresh new Qi into his cycling pattern. The fiend-god art concentrated the Qi and turned it into his own just like always. But the progress was at first slow as the Qi had to accumulate and so from a deluge of new Qi only a trickle came back to be assimilated into Aaron's power. But the longer he kept it up, the more he fed the spirit to his cycling technique, the more dense and voluminous the Qi was that flowed back into his dantian. Aaron felt the limits of his dantian above him like the ceiling of the cave he imagined his dantian to be. His dantian was filled with the thick almost viscous fog of Qi. The foggy soup rose along the edges of his dantian filling it up slowly, while the spirit was subdued and taken apart. It looked in his inner eye like dissolving a great beast in acid after drowning it in fog. Slowly the spirit lost its distinct outline and became just a ball of Qi to be assimilated.

It took almost an hour to finish all of the spirit and in the end Aaron was really, really close to another breakthrough, but he guesses he was missing 10 to 5% still. His dantian was simply too massive now. The starburst technique really was showing its prowess. If Aaron had absorbed a spirit this dense and full of Qi before it would have given him significantly more progress towards his next level. But his dantian and the quality of his Qi was much better than before and Aaron told himself that it would be all worth it in the end. Still it would have been nice to reach a new level of power before facing the group again. With a disappointed sigh Aaron stood up out of the water, shook the water off like a dog and got back into his clothes. Which of course still got wet, but that was fine. He had gotten used to uncomfortable things and the irritation of his skin was a small price to pay, if he did not focus on it.

Aaron felt lighter without the spirit clinging to him and that was at least some form of comfort. Slowly he moved back towards the camp of the group from the 52nd floor. He found them relatively quickly. Their scent was the first thing he noticed, more distinct now that they had left the cave filled with lava and lava ant stink. It was not long before he could hear them. The group was moving together in formation he guessed and they were talking quietly to one another.

"You see anything?" a male voice asked in a harsh whisper.

"Nope." a female voice answered, but it was not the voice of the female captain, so this must be the girl with the perfume.

"I can't see any traces at all. Whoever or whatever took Koris did not even leave footprints in the dirt."

"How?" another voice asked and Aaron could hear the strain in that voice not to rage and scream.

"A good rogue can do this, but I still don't know how they got up to the plateau and down without anyone noticing." she said pensively.

"It does not matter for now. Ketris what about the locator slip?" the female captain asked.

"Like I said, it went dead a while ago. I can't really find it anymore."

"But you got a general direction, right?"

"Yes, but it does not help down here. The direction it pointed to does not correlate with a path. If they found the scroll and destroyed it…"

"They have. There is no other way. What about his identification badge, that carries his class signature, right?" a man asked.

"Yes, but do you know how weak that signal is?"

"Do it anyway." the captain ordered.

Aaron moved into the direction of their voices and soon entered a cavern that had light in it. He quickly spotted the group standing in formation at a tunnel entrance. The second guard, who smelled like iron was in front, armed with a shield and mace, behind him stood a woman, not the captain and peered out into the darkness. She occasionally checked the ground, an arrow knocked on her bow. A small man with a crossbow was behind her, looking down the tunnel they stood in front of. The alchemist was behind him, standing next to the ink stained man. Both were hunched over a small sheet of paper they had placed on the ground. The ink stained man had a big bottle of ink at his belt and a fine brush in one hand as he wrote on the parchment. The alchemist added alchemical solutions from his belt to areas of the parchment while they talked quietly to each other. His belt was literally stuffed with slings for bottles, pouches and the like. His whole outfit seemed to be made out of pockets. A tall man watched them do their work, holding a glowstone in one hand and he was armed with a staff in the other. The tall man had almost as many pouches as the alchemist, but they smelled herbal more than alchemical to Aaron's sensitive nose. Behind them stood the female captain, clad in armor and with a long sword in hand, peering into the tunnel wearily.

"I don't like staying here, hurry up." she said.

"It's difficult work and even if it works…" the man in the robe said. His name was Ketris, right? Orlean was the alchemist next to him and the female captain was called Myria. That much Aaron remembered. He did not remember the names of the others though. The news that the golden coin was an identification badge was bad. That meant they had a way to find the camp, where that coin still was. It would take them time, but they would find it eventually and that was not part of Aaron's plans.

Aaron studied the group thoroughly out of the dark. They had two frontliners, two ranged attackers and what looked like three utility classes. The most dangerous of the group was without a doubt Ketris, who had probably created the locator slip. It meant he had access to magic in some way and that made him his primary target. The secondary target was shared between the female archer, who seemed to be their scout and the tall man with the staff. That man smelled distinctly of herbs and Aaron guessed from his position in the group that he had a healer kind of support class. If he took either of them they would lose a big advantage of being able to follow tracks efficiently or heal themselves. But the man in the ink stained robe was the most dangerous if he could actually locate the coin.

Sure, Aaron could head back and take the coin somewhere else and he would probably do that since it was the easiest solution to the problem. But it would be good to take the possibility of facing a magic user out of the equation even if he was not worried about the coin. As it stood Aaron had many options to slowly whittle the groups strength down to nothing. He could attack them and then retreat quickly. Harry them as they pursued or keep attacking them out of ambush as they tried to move through the tunnels. The problem was that he did not know exactly what all of them could do yet. He was weary of underestimating his foes. Just because he had been able to subdue one of them fairly easily did not mean the others would be the same. There was also the distinct possibility they had aces up their sleeve he did not know about. Another option was to take a quieter approach. He could simply wait and stalk them in the dark while observing them and then wait for them to go to sleep to attack. This had many advantages as it would make them less dangerous to him. Even if he failed in his attack then, ensuring they would not be able to sleep was a proven way to force his enemies to make mistakes. Sleep deprivation took a toll on people, even Vessels and made them reckless. This approach would also mean he could observe and find out about their abilities without actually being involved himself.

But that would take a long time and he did not know if he could find the group again if they decided to leave. Of course they could decide to leave if he took too long as well or if he harassed them they might cut their losses and flee as well. As far as he could see it would be unlikely for them to leave their comrade behind, but there was the possibility that they would make the decision anyway and that was one of the worst outcomes for him.

But no matter how Aaron looked at it, he needed more information. He listened into the darkness and searched for a monster nest. Which was not that difficult to find on the fourth floor.

It was time to test their prowess in battle before he did anything else. After that he would have a much more complete picture of their abilities and would be in a much better situation to take advantage of their weaknesses and avoid the groups strength. He could decide what approach to take afterwards.

Silently Aaron moved around the group and entered one of the tunnels that smelled distinctly like moths. He crept through the tunnel and reached a nearby cave filled with the moths, who were resting on almost every surface in the cave. In the darkness their fluttering wings sounded disturbingly like the sound wind made brushing through leaves of a forest. The harsh smell of the chemicals that were like a thick fog in the cave made entering the moths lair a very bad idea. So instead Aaron gathered a few loose rocks off the ground and chucked them into the midst of particularly thick gatherings of moths. The rocks tore through the fragile creatures and without a light source to drive them into mindless frenzy the bugs fluttered and turned towards Aaron's tunnel almost in unison. Damn.

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Aaron leapt back away from the cave full of moths and could smell the wave of mind altering chemical dust wash over the place he had just stood. The beating of wings rose as the moths poured into the tunnel. His halfhearted attempt to lure the moths had been much, much more effective than he had expected. Aaron dove into the cave where the group from the 52nd floor was just finishing whatever magical spell they were writing down on that parchment. He leapt to the ceiling moving as fast as he could around the group towards the opposite end of the cave away from the moths.

The girl with the bow and arrow looked up at the ceiling with a frown, damn she might have actually heard him in his hurry. But before she could do anything but wonder what she had heard, she turned towards the tunnel where Aaron had just appeared from. There was a frown on her face as she probably heard the sound of wings approaching.

"Something is coming." she said and the group tensed, their weapons held tighter as they looked around wearily.

"From where?" the man with the staff asked

"What do we do? Retreat into the tunnel?" the small man with the crossbow interrupted the question anxiously.

"No...which direction does the spell indicate Ketris?" Myria asked trying to calm down the group.

In that moment the moths burst out of the tunnel and as soon as they spotted the light started to swarm in a frenzy towards the group.

"Moths!" the female archer shouted and drew back the arrow knocked on her bow. She shot and used a skill of some kind that turned the tip of the arrow into a glowing mass of light. The skill burst in the group of moths, sending them into a wild flutter of frenzy around the unexpected light source, tearing each other apart to get to it, before the arrow detonated with a sharp crack. The group turned towards the arrow and formed up. Myria stepped forward her blade towards the mass of creatures, right next to her the boy with the mace. Ketris and Orlean hurriedly got up and joined them. The boy with the staff stayed behind towards the back while the small boy with his crossbow started to pull the trigger. Streaks of flaming bolts burst out of his crossbow that held not just one shot, but multiples. Aaron looked at the crossbow with interest. Now that was a ranged option to his liking.

"Orlean, Moth Burst Powder, quickly." Myria called as some of the moths turned away from the light of the explosion in their midst and towards the group fluttering towards them. Myria cut four or five of them down with her blade by stepping forward, cutting in a graceful arc and then retreating a second later. The woman was deadly with her blade and wickedly quick. Aaron guessed she must have skills bolstering her movements, but damn that had been a dangerously smooth and fast attack. The boy with the mace suddenly smelled distinctly like iron as his skin darkened and from his position Aaron saw how his hand almost fused with the metal handle of his shield while his entire skin turned dark and got a metallic luster. The alchemist fumbled in his pockets, his hands shaking as a swarm of moths fell upon the group.

Ketris standing next to Orlean pulled a scroll out of what looked like a book at his hip and ripped it apart, streaks of fire burst out of a small magic circle that formed in front of him in the air and the magic seared through the moths nearby. The moths followed the burning streaks, tore into the burning corpses falling out of the sky and Aaron raised his eyebrows. This Ketris really was like a miniature mage, just as a Vessel. What an interesting class he must have. According to his mana senses the boy did not have any magic inside of him at all, but the scrolls and especially the book filled with scrolls was basically glowing with magic in Aaron's senses.

The boy with the mace raised his shield and battered into a group of moths, before tearing a bloody swath through the air as he followed up with his mace. The moths claws and mandibles did not even scratch his skin as he stepped forward into the mass of moths. The dust that came with the moths bellowed behind them like a gray fog and then Orlean finally found a small pouch and thrust it forward towards Myria who was stepping forwards and backwards cutting moths apart in her area like a particularly graceful shredder.

"Myria, I got it."

"Throw it, before the dust reaches us, you fool." she screamed.

Orlean drew his arm back and threw the pouch into the dust. The projectile turned lazily in the air and actually hit a moth mid flight, its claws ripping open the cloth satchel and spraying powder into the air. There was a sharp sound like a match igniting and Aaron had a moment to see the chemical reaction unfold. Where the moth dust mingled with the powder they ignited with a flash. The heat generated ignited the surrounding moth dust and then it was like a chain reaction. With a terrible crack the entire side of the cave where the moths were streaming out of the tunnel exploded.

White cascading light flooded the whole cave and Aaron closed his eyes a moment too late, pain shooting through his eyes as he hissed silently. But the pain was only temporary and when he turned his head to look away from the flash the pain receded quickly. His eyes still stung for a few seconds and he felt like he had looked directly into the sun. He could see bright spots with closed eyes and his hands clung tighter to the stalactite he hid behind. Aaron's ears rung from the sudden noise, but he could still hear fire, burning and a distinct burned smell assaulted his nostrils. It reminded him of industrial garbage burners. From the sound of blades and the thwack thwack of the crossbow and a mace the group was still fighting the remainder of the moths.

Aaron finally opened his eyes again, blinked to clear his vision and looked back to the group. They were all still busy dealing with the remainder of the moths. Orlean somehow had gotten a cut from a moth and the man with the staff was treating him with a bandage of all things, definitively a healer type. Myria cut through the moths like butter in a graceful display of swordsmanship. The boy with the iron skin was basically bathed in moth guts at this point and made himself a target the others could take advantage of. The boy with the crossbow shot wickedly accurate shots to keep away any moths that came close to him and Ketris was ripping another scroll apart. Only the female Archer was not fighting. She had her head turned and was staring right at Aaron.

There was a moment when their eyes met, when they both were blinking because of the bright flash of the explosion that had just detonated close to them. Aaron could see her eyes widen when realization struck her. The whole cave was lit up in a bright light as the remainders of the moths burned to cinders. Aaron cursed internally and let his instincts guide him. There was no hesitation as he pushed himself off the stalactite with a Wind Step empowered foot and dove downwards towards the group, his speed and power propelling him forward like a missile. During his leap his mind caught up to his body as he got ready to fight. Better to go on the offense now when they were still busy fighting, than take them on when they were ready for him.

The archer was well trained, as soon as she saw him she raised her bow, drew an arrow with an incredibly quick motion and shot at him mid flight. The movement took barely a second and was a skill for sure. The Arrow streaked towards Aaron, but it did not glow or have any magic attuned to it. So Aaron simply stopped mid flight, drifting gently on the air and let the arrow pass in front of him before he resumed his momentum. The girl stared at him in disbelief and opened her mouth to scream.

"Intruder!!!"she screamed before Aaron hit her shoulders feet first. Part of his momentum transferred to her body and she crumpled and shot away like a rag doll. Her voice turned into a pained scream. Aaron had made sure to pull his punches. He did not want to kill her after all. The group turned to him as one, surprise, shock and fear in their faces. Aaron used the confusion, the second of pause and reacted as fast as he could. He backhanded the boy with the crossbow, standing next to him, sending him flying as he barely brought his crossbow in front of him to block the sudden attack. Aaron shifted his weight and with a Wind Step empowered leap he burst past Orlean and the healer, tackling them both aside like a rugby player and charged towards the strange scroll mage. The man's eyes widened and his hands went to his belt where his fingers dug into a scroll. Aaron was two steps away from him when a blade appeared in his peripheral vision. Time slowed as his fist turned to a palm and he leaned aside while he swatted the cut away like a pesky insect. But this gave the boy time to activate his scroll as it ripped apart at his belt. Aaron saw the spell circle form and tried his best to move out of the way with a leap off the ground, but when the spell activated he realized it did not matter.

A shockwave of force rippled out from in front of the man, scattering the group like bowling pins and throwing Aaron back in the air as the momentum of his leap and the force of the spell canceled each other out. But only for a moment, then the spell blasted Aaron back, making him the rag doll for once. It clearly wasn't a planned response, but a panic fueled oh shit moment that had led the scroll mage to use this spell, since the spell also threw the rest of the group on their backs. Those closest to him were hit it the hardest, especially the healer and Orlean who were slow in getting back up. The boy with the metal skin stood his ground, seemingly unaffected by the spell, but Myria lost her blade and was sent sprawling as well. It was absolute chaos as Aaron took a moment to take stock of the situation. If he had wanted to kill them this would be easy now, he would pick them apart one by one quickly, using them as shields to hinder each other. But since he needed them alive, this was a much harder fight. Especially with this damned scroll mage. The man in his ink stained robe had not faltered and his shoulders were squared, his eyes sharp as he tore out another scroll from his book and turned towards Aaron.

Here was the problem. Aaron did not know what kind of spells the man had and he had no time to find out. This entire thing had been a huge mistake. He cursed the female archer's senses and in those few moments where Ketris aimed his scroll at him Aaron decided that he was not getting to him. The whole group was getting back up, regrouping. All of them except the female archer who had been sent flying into the ash smoke and burning moth corpses. The boy with the iron skin stepped in front of the group, his eyes trained on Aaron and the boy with the staff rammed said staff into the ground activating another skill or spell. These guys simply had too many options Aaron did not know and had no idea yet how to counter. Orlean was fumbling for another pouch on him and Myria was scrambling for her blade.

Aaron arrested his momentum and dove downwards as the spell from the scroll activated. He felt another wave of magic wash over him almost faster than he could react, but it was not a wave of force this time. This felt different. Aaron could feel the magic around him tense as a spellform caught. With all his might he dove away, but the spell had somehow locked onto him. The magic formed around him as Aaron touched the ground and dove aside into the darkness. Aaron had no idea what kind of spell it was and when he felt himself get heavier as the magic restricted him from all around him he had a moment of genuine fear. This was his one weakness, a crowd control spell. His mind worked quickly as if in overdrive as he assessed the situation. He could try to flee, but he did not know how the spell worked, did not know what limitations it had, so that was out. Attacking the mage was suicide with his while group backing him up, so that left only one thing. With a leap he dove into the smoking burning husks of the moths and towards the archer that was whimpering and yet was getting to her feet. He tackled her as the spell started to crush him from all sides. Aaron spotted Ketris standing with one arm outstretched in front of him as he tightened his fist. Aaron could feel the magic connecting him towards the boy, felt his rage, his fear, his cold calculating mind as he kept his eyes on Aaron even through the dark shadows and confusing battlefield.

Aaron reached the Archer and landed on top of her, his weight crumpling her as he felt his bones creak and pain rushed through him from all sides as the unknown spell tried to crush him, tried to hold him still. But Aaron was moving through Qi, Wind Steps distorting the laws of physics in ways he did not fully understand himself. So he could still move, although his muscles were locked up and it felt like he was being buried alive, like the earth was crushing and restricting him from all sides. He grabbed the archers hair and dragged her to her feet, eliciting a pained yelp from her. With difficulty he wrapped his hand around her throat. He could smell the fear from the girl in his clutches, heard her gasp and yelp, but she was too weak to struggle much, except grasp at his vice like grip weakly with her fingers.

"Release the spell or she dies." Aaron called out.

The group had formed up entirely. Myria in front, her blade towards him, the iron skinned boy next to her, stepping forward, but halting when he heard Aaron's voice. The boy with the crossbow had another contraption in his hands, he looked pale as he aimed at Aaron, his finger off the trigger of a crossbow that was barely bigger than a handgun. The healer with his staff stood stoic, a deep frown on his forehead as he stared towards Aaron. His staff was still rammed in the earth and Aaron could feel pulses of magic spread from it towards the group. Orlean was fumbling for another pouch on his many pouched vest and froze in absolute terror at Aaron's call out. The scroll mage stared at Aaron, his almost bald head beaded with sweat, but his eyes were cold and the magic in his grasp stayed steady. There was a pause of a long second as everyone caught up to the chaotic sequence of events.

Myria hesitated for another moment and then stepped forward.

"Who are you?" she asked with a look back to the scroll mage, who gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

"A hunter of sorts. It does not matter. Release the spell or I swear I will rip out her throat." Aaron roared.

"What guarantees us you won't do that either way?" Myria asked and the whole group stepped forward in unison. But only for one step. Clearly they had trained for this. Aaron tightened his grip on her throat.

"I did not kill the kid with the halberd either. But fine, if you want to play it this way." Aaron said and squeezed the archers throat. Her quick breathing and panicked panting were cut off as she audibly choked and struggled. Aaron tightened his grip even further and the whole group moved forward as one until Myria realized they would not get to him before her teammate died.

"Stop!" she called and the scroll mage gave her a furious look.

"Release him." she commanded. The man hesitated and then slowly opened his fist, his arm still aimed at Aaron.

That was all he was waiting for. Aaron released her throat and the woman gasped before he wrapped his arm around her waist and dove backwards with wind steps. The spell had weakened enough and in the few seconds it took the mage to realize what was happening and close his fist again Aaron dove with the woman back into the scorched tunnel the moths had come from. Aaron fought against the restriction that had him, while the woman in his grasp struggled fiercely, panting, screaming, stabbing him painfully with a knife she had gotten from somewhere into his back. Aaron cursed and rammed her into the ceiling during his next jump, making her scream and drop the knife. Aaron leapt, fueled each of his constricted steps with Qi he pushed into his feet and felt the spell weaken over distance. Then suddenly once he reached the next cave it cut off entirely and Aaron overshot and almost flew into the ceiling.

With a graceful twist in the air he halted his momentum, pushed himself off the wall and dove towards another cave opening he knew was there from his scouting of the moth nest earlier. He hurried through the pitch black tunnel, hitting rocks, stumbling in the dark in his haste as he fled, the female archer still slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He soon had to slow down or face the risk of falling on his face.

Aaron stopped and listened to get a better sense of his pursuers when the woman he thought had been knocked out started struggling in his grasp. She tried to get away, tried to scratch and screamed in panic before he slammed her to the ground. The sudden hit drove the air out of her lungs and Aaron gently grasped her throat again. Aaron felt her panic, felt her clawing at his hands, his arms, before he squeezed the air out of her lungs with his knees and hands and she stopped struggling. Aaron released her and checked her pulse, then listened for her shallow breath. Satisfied that he had not killed her, he picked her back up and started to walk into the darkness. He moved slowly, silently for all but those with the best senses and listened to his surroundings. Behind him in the moth nest he could hear the group follow him. Only after he left behind his current cave he started to move back to his groups camp. He took a circular path around to ensure they would not be able to follow him, while he took stock.

Things had not gone like he wanted it, but it could have been worse, much worse. That fight had given him plenty of valuable intel and he had, in the end, gotten one of his priority targets. Without the archer they lacked a capable scout and that would help him in future ambushes, although the crowd control spell the balding man had used on him was a real headache. He had to quickly deposit this girl he had caught with his group, take her spirit and then break through to the fifth minor realm. Once his power increased he was sure he would be in a much better situation. But he knew this would give them time to prepare as well. Time to plan, time to scheme and set a trap for him. But those were problems for the future. For now he had to find his way back to his group quickly and deposit the archer.

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