Early the following day, the encampment was buzzing as preparations were made. Hunting teams were put together, with Ray, Erith, and Chio deciding to form their own. Nevala was originally going to join them but was feeling unwell and stayed back. The trio set off, looking for more leaders to fight. When they finally got to where they were hunting the day before, they were surprised to see almost no signs of the horde.

  “Do you see any tracks?” Ray asked.

  Erith and Chio both shook their heads.

  Typically, they would have been able to track where it had gone quite quickly. It was almost like the entire horde had vanished overnight. Thunk! Ray spun around in panic as an arrow slammed into his barrier. He chanted a quick incantation as a wave of lightning sprang forth from his fingers, heading for the tree line.

  A yelp echoed out as an archer dashed out of the way of the incoming attack. Erith attempted to dash after the assailant, but a wave of spells and arrows from all directions forced her back.

  “Shit, it's an ambush!” Chio shouted, readying his great sword.

  Several black bolts materialised behind Ray. He flung them in every direction, causing panic amongst their attackers. Anything the void mana touched vanished instantly, repairing several feet away and removing the cover of their attackers. Ray began chanting again as Horde Braker started to cast a spell of its own.

  Arrows and mana bolts flew toward him, trying to stop his casting, but Erith stuck any projectiles out of the air, allowing him to finish the incantation.

  “You chose the wrong people to mess with!” he roared, pointing his palm toward the sky.

  A mote of violet energy appeared. Ray clenched his fist, and tendrils of violet energy shot out, hunting for their attackers. While he had not been able to get any void spells from the library, Horde Breaker instinctively knew how to create its own and was able to share them with Ray, leading to their current spell resonance.

  The tendrils latched onto anyone unlucky enough to be caught. They pulsed as mana was drained away from them and back to the spell, causing it to grow larger. A constant cycle of new tendrils appeared and old ones faded as their prey ran out of mana. Slowly caught each attacker.

  A few of the martial classes tried to rush Ray in an attempt to stop the spell, but they were intercepted by Erith and Chio until a tendril managed to grab hold of them as well. Within two minutes of the spell's activation, it finally ran out of power and faded away, leaving all those unable to outrun its effects on the ground unconscious.

  “That was terrifying,” Chio said, belting his sword back to his hip.

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  “Thanks,” Ray said panting.

  He looked warily at his almost emptied mana pool. While void magic was potent, the cost to activate that singular spell nearly took everything from him. Usually, the cost would be mitigated by the mana draining effect, but a spell like the one he just cast did not return any of the mana it took. Instead, it used the mana to prolong itself. He sat down, uncorking a mana potion and downing it.

  Mana E:1178/4420

  Ray winced as the potion only restored a small portion of his mana pool.

  He threw the empty bottle away and returned to his feet, his exhaustion fading. Next, he sent a feeling of gratitude to his arm and turned toward Erith and Chio.

  “You ready?” Erith asked.

  “Yeah, my mana is still low, so I won't be able to use another spell like that, but I can still manage.”

  “If you can do something of even a fraction of that power, I'm sure we will be just fine,” Chio said, still wide-eyed.

  Ray nodded, walking over to one of the unconscious bodies. He rolled it over, revealing the Ashrend crest on the back of their cloak.

  “I wonder what they were doing out here,” Chio said.

  “Do they not normally come out this far?” Erith asked.

  Chio shook his head. “We made camp near here because it was far away from their current war path.”

  “We should go tell the others,” Ray said, standing.

  “Agreed.”

  They spent the next few hours rounding up all the members of the ambush. Ray opened a portal back to camp, and they began taking the captured people back. Once they had brought the last one through, Vaelora made her way over.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Failed ambush,” Erith said, ensuring all their captives' hands were bound.

  Vaelora’s eyes widened. “How far away from camp were you?”

  “Near where we met you yesterday.”

  “Not good,” Vaelora muttered.

  “What should we do?” Chio asked.

  She rubbed her chin for a long time, watching her daughter and Ray ensure their captives would not escape. “The Highwind clan must have been wiped out if they are out in this direction.”

  “Should we move up the attack?” Ray asked.

  “No, it would take too long to round up all the hunting teams to make a meaningful attack now. Best to wait until tomorrow.”

  Erith nodded with a thoughtful expression. “A few of them got away. They might try coming back during the night.”

  Vaelora let out a sigh. “It can’t be helped. I will have to station a watch tonight.”

  “I could set up a detection field Ray offered.”

  “That has saved us once before. It might be a good idea, then everyone can be rested for the fight tomorrow,” Erith added.

  “If you think it will work. Then please set one up and let me know when it is done. I want to test it before deciding we don’t need a watch.”

  Ray nodded and left toward the outskirts of the encampment. After he was around 200 feet out, he began infusing every tree in a large perimeter with an alarm. When he was finished, he returned to a large tree in the middle of the camp and engraved a set of runes on it, infusing it with a control circuit. He found Vaelora in the middle of the camp enjoying dinner with her daughter and a few others he did not recognise.

  “It’s ready,” he said, walking up to the group.

  Vaelora nodded. “You two,” she said, pointing at two younger-looking men. “Go try to find a way into the camp without tripping the alarm.”

  They scrambled to their feet with a salute and ran toward the perimeter where the alarm system was placed.

  “Are you sure they will be enough to test it?” Ray asked.

  “He may not look it, but Jay, the one on the right, is an enchanter. If he can’t find a way through, I doubt any oafs that stayed with the Ashrend clan could.”

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