Warrior Training System

The situation was tricky—Kalso was dead set against striking the enemies first, insisting on heading back to warn the camp. Cassian, left with no other option, sighed, "Fine, I’ll take out as many as I can. You go ahead and alert the folks back at camp..."

"What if that mage starts attackin’ you?" Kalso asked, worry creeping into his voice. He hadn’t sensed the mage himself, but a Pyraxis-ranked mage was way too much for a First Circle Warrior like Cassian to handle alone.

Cassian didn’t seem fazed, though. "Don’t sweat it. I can always bolt if it gets dicey. And if there ain’t an attack happenin’ at the camp already, just grab someone strong to back me up..."

Though Kalso was still skeptical, he nodded and muttered, "Be careful..." before slipping away into the shadows. Cassian’s red eyes glowed faintly in the dark as his crimson domain enveloped his body. To Kalso, if he’d stayed, Cassian might’ve looked more like a cultist than the real ones—his aura was just too eerie.

He glanced at the dark bracelet on his wrist, a reward from cracking the Valtross Academy case for the city’s law department. It did a solid job masking his presence, even dulling his radiating killing intent to some extent, though it still leaked despite his efforts to rein it in.

Those mutated, low-level cult scum wouldn’t notice, even if he stopped concealing it altogether. The mage commanding them was another story, though. Cassian spotted him floating just above the treetops, moving toward the camp at a swift pace. With a soft whoosh, Cassian melted into the night air.

"Man, why’d they call us back? I was finally gonna get some pussy tonight..." one of the cloaked figures grumbled. He was a Hollow Fang, a low-level grunt in the cult, ordered to be battle-ready tonight. There were plenty of them scattered across villages and human settlements, blending in as spies, gathering sacrifices, or handling the cult’s dirty work.

Another Hollow Fang, leaping from tree to tree with unnatural speed and strength, shot back, "What, with consent or without?"

The question made them both pause on a thick tree branch. The one who asked crouched, scanning ahead, while the other, looking surprised, snapped, "Are you dumb?" His eyes widened in a creepy, moonlit glint, a matching grin clearly lurking under his black mask. "Of course without... guk!" Before he could finish, a hand shot out of thin air, clamping his throat and silencing him. Shocked, he tried to glimpse his attacker, only to see a red-haired boy wreathed in a deep red glow, standing there with a wide, menacing smile.