Chapter 134: The Slaving Party
It drifted silently down onto the tent, secreting a thin trace of acid that etched a faint mark into the fabric before quietly dissolving it open. It didn't slip inside right away — it watched first, careful, noting the even breathing of the figure within, apparently deep in sleep. After a moment's observation, it coiled and struck.
The instant it moved, the sleeping figure's eyes snapped open, glowing a deep green. The creature felt its head swim, understanding too late that it had walked into a trap. Before it could recover, a wave of cold surged up around it, and consciousness slipped away entirely.
Evan sat up. Two figures had appeared inside his tent, quiet as anything — Emma and Jessica.
"Just as you predicted," Emma said, holding the frozen Mind-Stealer carefully, studying it. "You knew it would be drawn to magical energy, so you left that channel open and dressed it up as a weakness. It couldn't resist the bait after all — walked straight into your trap."
Inside a block of ice, the Mind-Stealer's eyes stayed open, frozen mid-motion. Evan added a second layer of containment before handing it over to Jessica, satisfied it was secure. She tucked it carefully into her ring — no living thing could ordinarily be stored that way, but for all practical purposes, the creature was dead now.
"We owe this to Emma bringing along that invisibility cloak — the one that masks magical presence along with sight. That's what let us slip past it," Evan said with a smile.
"I never expected a Mind-Stealer out here in this jungle. Hollingburton finally gets its specimen once we're back. This half-plane is strange, though — no telling what else might be lurking in it, or whether Professor Damire's group ran into something like this too," Jessica said, clearly still uneasy.
"Let the students know they can sleep now — the Mind-Stealer's been dealt with. Still, keep them in three groups. Better to be cautious in unfamiliar territory," Evan said, and the two women left.
The night passed without further incident. The next morning, after breakfast, the group set off deeper into the half-plane once more.
...
Outside the half-plane, another party had arrived — a column of men escorting several captured beastmen, one of whom was the very same man who'd come looking for Evan's group the day before.
"Honored Viscount Modi," a middle-aged man in a mage's robe said, addressing the viscount, "the trail ends here. According to what the beastman slave told us, Hollingburton's rescue party has already arrived — impressively fast, too. Our own Gonuo Society's first team ran into Hollingburton's expedition here by chance. To keep the goddess's temple secret, we sacrificed seven men and killed six of Hollingburton's people in the exchange. The remaining twenty-odd survivors fled, and as luck would have it, the half-plane happened to open right then — they escaped into it, and our first team followed them in. Someone still managed to get word out, though — their reinforcements arrived faster than we expected, and there's a second rescue party as well, from the Solomon Academy of Magic. Don't worry about them, though — we've got someone holding that group back. Will you be entering the half-plane yourself, my lord?"
"My dear Corey," Viscount Modi said, "you mages chase after that wondrous power of yours, but I chase after something far more charming — coin. Beautiful, gleaming gold, with a magic all its own. Is there gold inside this goddess's temple?" He glanced back at the captured slaves as though already picturing walking piles of coin.
"My lord, I can't answer that with certainty, but legend holds the goddess of life keeps three treasures — the Spring of Youth, the Golden Apple, and the Scepter of Life. Wealth follows life wherever life exists, but the Spring of Youth is what grants eternal life," Corey said, his eyes fixed on the low rise ahead.
Greed flickered across Modi's face — the idea clearly tempted him — though doubt lingered too. "By the Creator, life's span is His to decree. How could it possibly be extended?"
"Heretic gods exist all the same. The old myths of Xilun aren't fiction. Our Gonuo Society has kept a secret dating back to antiquity — not one I can share here — but I can promise you that at least one of the three treasures lies inside. Most likely the Spring of Youth or the Golden Apple. There should also be offerings left by the people of ancient Xilun — gleaming gold, and gemstones bright as morning stars," Corey said.
"Very well. I'll trust the Gonuo Society not to lie about something like this. What about these slaves, though?" Modi asked.
"Post a few knights to guard them and hold them here until we return. Your company brings twenty-five knights, two magic apprentices, and three mages — fourth tier, but still worth something. Leave five knights and a handful of squires to watch the beastmen, and bring the rest into the half-plane with us. Miss this opening, and there's no telling when it opens again. The Gonuo Society doesn't leave its friends shortchanged," Corey said.
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The Gonuo Society's real strength rested with its first team already inside. Corey himself had brought only five men alongside Viscount Modi — two mages, himself an eighth-tier mage, the other sixth-tier, and three thieves skilled in assassination. Which was exactly why he needed Modi's forces to lean on.
That put a genuinely formidable party through the half-plane's gate — five mages, two apprentices, over a dozen knights. A force like that, if it crossed paths with Evan's group, would give Evan real trouble — his side outnumbered them in mages, but had next to no knightly strength to answer with.
Not long after entering the half-plane, they too encountered the creature hanging in the sky. Unlike Evan's group, they never recognized it for what it was — a construct of their own minds — and pressed on fighting as they went. Their magic did nothing against it, though they took no real harm either, and their path happened to converge with the one Evan's group had already taken.
...
Evan's group had no idea another party had entered the half-plane behind them. As they walked, Evan turned over the previous night's shortcomings in his mind — conclusions he'd reached after a full night's thought. Within the group, casting speed posed no problem for himself — he was, after all, an Arcanist, and a lich besides, with Xiaoshuang alongside him. Evan had no obvious weakness there.
Next came the two teachers, Jessica and Emma. Neither could cast instantly, but both had weathered plenty of combat and knew how to compress their incantations well enough that Evan didn't worry much about them either. The real concern lay with the ten students. Magic still needed time to prepare, which made sudden danger genuinely risky for them — last night had gone fine, but only through a fair amount of luck.
Evan split them into three groups. The earth-aligned mages formed one group, positioned in a triangle at the center of the formation, with a standing rule that at least one of the three stay in a state of readiness at all times. They split the duty among themselves, each taking a two-hour watch — holding a spell in readiness cost mental focus and mana, and the three of them were responsible for throwing up an immediate defense the moment danger struck, buying the rest of the group time to react.
The second and third groups handled offense, with at least two people in each staying combat-ready at all times, forming a staggered strike pattern to cover both close and ranged threats. Evan restructured the formation into smaller clusters of three or four, each cluster mixing defensive and offensive strength, each cluster watching out for the others as well, the whole formation rolling forward like a shifting triangle.
This gave the group real cohesion — no one would be left scrambling if they were caught off guard again. After several run-throughs, the formation settled into shape, and Evan finally let himself relax a little.
The people hadn't changed, but the division of labor had transformed how the group functioned — someone always on watch, efficiency clearly sharper than before. Once the formation had taken hold, Evan pressed on, and his body went briefly rigid before he kept walking, having already sensed some creature watching them from hiding.
A beating of wings sounded overhead — a flying crocodile, breathing a jet of frost down at the group before anyone could react. A half-dome of yellow light rose up to meet it, catching the frost and holding, a thin crust of ice forming across its surface. Lucas had the watch just then, and in the same instant, Peter and Bruffer leveled their wands, Wind Blade and Holy Light Orb striking the creature in quick succession. A flicker of light rippled across its hide, absorbing both attacks, though it still took some minor harm. Then the yellow shield flared brighter, and a wave of spells in every color rolled in, engulfing it entirely.
Evan had been ready to step in himself, but seeing this, he quietly withdrew his own spell — Jessica and Emma did the same. Wave after wave of attacks poured down without pause, and by the third volley, the flying crocodile let out a dying shriek and crashed to the ground.
The group cheered and rushed forward. Evan shook his head — if another beast had come at that exact moment, they'd have been caught badly exposed — but he let them have the moment without interrupting. Jaymes cast Core Stabilization, and a fair-sized water core was extracted from the carcass after a moment. Evan watched from the side, keeping silent guard over them all.
"Professor, your method really works," Selena said, tilting her head slightly, angling for his attention.
"You didn't quite follow it through, though," Evan said, watching the pleased students.
"What did we get wrong?" Selena asked, puzzled. The others stopped what they were doing to listen.
"What if another beast had attacked right now?" Evan asked in return.
Selena froze. The rest of the students caught the problem at the same moment — if something had struck them in that exact instant, they'd have had no defense ready at all.
Seeing the realization settle over them, Evan smiled. "In any situation — and especially one that looks like a clean victory — that's exactly when you need to be most careful. The Tower of Babel always loses its chance to reach heaven at the very last stretch."
Evan was drawing on a local saying: the Tower of Babel loses its chance to touch heaven in its final stretch. According to Scripture, the peoples of the world had once built such a tower in ancient times, and just as they neared completion, the Creator scattered their languages and the tower was abandoned. The saying carried the same meaning as one from his old life: the final ten miles of a hundred-mile journey mark only the halfway point.
Watching the students fall into thought, Evan let himself smile. That they were thinking it through at all told him they'd actually taken the lesson to heart, and that put his mind more at ease than anything else could have.