Chapter 63: Hunting The Mage

The suffocating silence of the pine forest pressed heavily on our shoulders. The freezing air burned my lungs with every drawn breath, carrying the sharp scent of damp earth, rot, and crushed pine needles. Damara’s warning hung suspended in the mist as we moved.

We were actively being shadowed by three heat signatures, pacing us perfectly through the canopy above.

I kept my boots planted firmly in the mud. The scale of the pine trees blocked out the midday sun. They cast shadows that played tricks on my peripheral vision, making the forest feel alive yet entirely devoid of wildlife.

There was only the sound of our breathing and the squish of dirt beneath our feet.

Sarah walked beside Elise, her bare feet hovering just an inch above the freezing sludge, her wings emitting a rapid, anxious hum.

"Stay close," I whispered, shifting my weight to lower my center of gravity. I kept my hands empty, ready to summon my mana at a fraction of a second’s notice.

The stalking signatures did not wait for an invitation to strike. A deafening crack of timber suddenly shattered the quiet of the woods.

Pine branches snapped like twigs as three figures plummeted violently from the canopy, slamming into the forest floor with a metallic thud.

These creatures were not beasts born of the woods. They were Alchemical Stalkers, chimeras resembling wolves roughly the size of draft horses. Their organic flesh was grafted with rusted precursor plates, and glowing wiring pulsed violently beneath their bloodstained fur.

The rogue mage had taken living creatures and fused them with technology.

The largest of the Alchemical Stalkers did not hesitate. Its metallic jaw unhinged with an agonizing shriek of rusted gears, revealing rows of jagged steel teeth dripping with acidic saliva.

Locking its mechanical eyes directly onto Elise, it ignored the rest of us and lunged forward.

I stepped directly into the beast’s path, placing my body squarely between the monster and Elise. I didn’t swing my arms blindly, and I didn’t rely on uncontrolled anger like I had during my training.

Closing my eyes for a fraction of a second, I visualized the iron vault anchored deep in the center of my chest.

I grabbed the mental handle of my core and turned it smoothly, opening the pressure valve with absolute precision.

A regulated stream of dense mana flooded down through my shoulders and into my arms. A solid white aura coated my forearms instantly. It did not flicker unevenly, and it did not burn my skin with excess heat. It pulsed with controlled kinetic pressure.

The Alchemical Stalker slammed its massive weight directly into my glowing forearms.

The kinetic shockwave exploded outward upon impact, blowing a perfectly circular wave of pine needles and freezing mud. The collision sounded like an iron cannon firing point blank.

My bones vibrated intensely, a hum ringing from my wrists straight up through my elbows and into my collarbone, but my guard held perfectly.

I did not buckle however, I let my boots dig trenches into the slick earth, locking my stance into place as the beast’s teeth ground uselessly against the barrier of my compressed mana.

The sheer physical force of the creature threatened to push me backward, but I grounded my heels deeper into the soil.

With the beast staggered, Katrina retaliated. Dropping to all fours, she blurred into a streak of orange fury. She did not waste her energy striking the precursor plating covering the beast’s skull. Launching herself off a nearby tree trunk, she twisted gracefully in mid-air and drove her claws directly into the fleshy joints situated right behind the beast’s armored neck.

The chimera let out a wail as blood sprayed across the dirt. Katrina used her downward momentum to rip viciously, tearing the mechanical plating entirely away from the exposed muscle beneath.

Our combat synergy operated flawlessly without needing a spoken command. I was the anvil holding the target securely in place, and she was the hammer bringing the execution.

The remaining two Alchemical Stalkers immediately recognized the threat of our frontline and attempted to flank our position. Damara vanished seamlessly into the shadows cast by the towering pines, her movements making absolutely zero sound.

She reappeared a second later directly above the beast attempting to circle our left flank, dropping silently from a low branch.

Driving her twin daggers deep into the runic wiring exposed along its spine, she twisted the blades viciously to maximize the internal damage. The technology sparked violently in response, sending a chaotic surge of electricity arcing across the monster’s plating, causing its limbs to lock up in a seizure.

The third Stalker ignored Damara completely. Planting its steel claws deep into the mud, its chest expanded unnaturally as internal pumps engaged. The wiring wrapping tightly around its throat flared a toxic white color. It spat a concentrated glob of acidic compound directly toward Elise’s position.

"Incoming projectile!" I roared, unable to break my grapple with the first beast without letting it recover its footing.

Sarah darted forward instantly from her position beside Elise. Her hands glowed brilliantly as she rapidly projected a translucent green barrier directly into the path of the acid.

The projectile splashed violently against the defensive magic, sizzling loudly as the barrier absorbed the lethal impact.

The collision instantly filled the forest air with the burning stench of melting ozone and sulfur, the runoff melting the freezing mud beneath Sarah’s hovering feet.

The third beast quickly shook off the failed attack and lowered its armored head, preparing to charge straight through Sarah’s fading shield to crush them both.

Instead of cowering, freezing in terror, or retreating backward behind my shield, Elise stepped forward. Her turquoise eyes narrowed with fierce determination.

She realized the precursor technology grafted into these beasts was running on the exact same frequency as the relic permanently fused to her sternum. The hum of their wiring resonated identically in her own chest.

Gripping her wooden staff tightly with both hands to steady herself, she closed her eyes and reached outward with her mind. She embraced the mechanical connection instead of fighting it.

The metallic veins resting beneath her pale skin flared to life. She actively channeled a pulsing wave of magical interference directly through her relic. The localized frequency slammed violently into the charging beast.

The monster’s components seized instantly. It crashed heavily into the freezing mud, shrieking with the agonizing sound of grinding friction as its internal wiring violently fought her override command. The total paralysis gave Damara the perfect opening. Dropping gracefully from her electrocuted target, Damara lunged forward and buried her dagger deeply into the paralyzed third beast’s skull, piercing the organic brain beneath the plating and ending its misery instantly.

With a final heave, I pushed my glowing forearms forward, breaking the first beast’s posture and forcing it onto its back legs. Katrina capitalized instantly on the opening, delivering a spinning roundhouse kick that snapped the creature’s thick neck with a definitive crunch.

The three monstrosities lay completely motionless in the mud. Their runic wiring flickered twice before dying out completely, leaving the forest submerged in silence once again. The heavy adrenaline slowly drained from my veins, leaving behind only the sound of our ragged breathing and the wind rustling the branches above.

Deep inside my coat pocket, my phone vibrated aggressively. I pulled it out, the glass screen illuminating the dark woods.

[ COMBAT RESOLVED: Alchemical Stalkers Defeated ]

[ REWARD: + 1,200,000 Favor | Precursor Scrap x3 ]

I locked the device and shoved it away securely. Damara knelt gracefully beside the closest beast, using her dagger to carefully pry a piece of the wiring loose from the flesh.

She inspected the metal closely, her eyes narrowing at the fresh solder marks.

"The integration is incredibly fresh," Damara noted quietly, wiping blood from her blade onto the beast’s fur. "The rogue mage deployed these guard dogs the exact moment Elise pinged the network back at the guild. He knows exactly how close we are getting."

"Then let’s not keep him waiting any longer," I replied, rolling the tension out of my sore shoulders. I turned to look directly at Elise. "That was brilliant. You completely hijacked his technology. You literally stopped it dead."

Elise leaned heavily against her staff, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she caught her breath. A proud smile broke across her pale face, chasing away the shadows of her trauma.

She had fought back. She had used the very machine he inflicted upon her as a powerful weapon against him. She was an active member of this party now.

We regrouped quickly, checking our gear before pushing forward, leaving the mechanical carcasses to rot in the mud. The incline steepened drastically as we crested the final ridge. The pine trees abruptly parted, revealing the jagged gray peaks of the mountain range stretching into the clouds.

Built directly into the sheer cliff face stood a massive, hexagonal vault door. The imposing architecture dominated the landscape, dwarfing the surrounding rocks. The precursor metal was completely covered in dead, rusted runes.

As we approached the perimeter of the dead zone, the runes carved into the vault door sequentially lit up. They did not glow with Elise’s turquoise light. They burned with a hostile red glare.

The rogue mage had just locked us completely out of the mountain.