Mantle of the Gods

It wasn’t time for bed.

It was past six, but that still left us with over two hours before we needed to get some sleep. Though after the fight, I was ready to at least rest for a while.

Trent still wasn’t back from whatever he was busy with and Rix wasn’t in her tent either. I had no clue what they could be doing, but it was probably pretty serious for them both to be so absent.

“You all did a good job in there.” Gesai was in teacher mode, “Can anyone tell me why we won?”

“We were better?” Aelin put her hand over her mouth, then raised her other hand.

“That helped, though stat wise, we were at a disadvantage.” The redhead looked at each of us, “They underestimated us and got reckless because they thought they could overwhelm you one-on-one.” She shook her head, “They won’t make the same mistake when you face them again next semester.”

She focused on Jovena and for a moment I thought she might ask the younger woman to leave. If she was getting into strategies, then everything she told us was going to get relayed to Warder and used against us later.

“What could you have done better?” She looked at Aelin, “To not have only won with four members?”

“I-I-I…” The blonde looked around for help. “I don’t know.”

“Combo skills are something that will help you out as well as something that you need to look out for.” Gesai looked at Justia, “Justia, you need to learn more Cure spells to help out your team. As well as working on your Mana management.” She looked at Aelin, “Aelin, if you plan on sticking with Magic Arrows, you should look into learning spells that combo with it.”

She looked at me, “Atlas, the Shot spells can be very powerful from a Mana conservation standpoint, but in duels like this where your magazines are prohibited…” She raised an eyebrow, “You can see how you might need to branch out into other spells. Maybe ones that work with Wave. Which…” She glared at the five of us, “We need to talk about what you did this morning and how dangerous it was.”

She looked around and shook her head. We had a fence up and I’m sure that Trent had done something to it to add protections, but it was still just an eight foot tall solid wooden fence.

“There have been reports that the Wurn Cultists have been using the dungeon here as a connection point to a lot of different dungeons and using that to harass low level Adventuring parties.” She looked at all of us, “There have been reports of kidnappings as well as party wipes.” She waited for the implications of what she’d just said sank in. If the Cultists were able to kill a group of Adventurers, then they were at least Tier Two. And that was something that only Gesai would be able to handle.

“If it’s so dangerous, then why are we going into the Dungeon…” Ether stopped as she answered her own question in her head, “You’re looking for them. That’s why you had us explore the unmapped zones. You’re using us as bait to draw them out.”

Gesai didn’t say anything as she closed her eyes. “The point is that what the five of you did was very reckless…” She held up her hand when I started to speak, “I don’t care if Trent knew and was watching you. Unless he was down there, he couldn’t have gotten to you in time if something happened.”

“I could.” Gesai jumped as Rix materialized behind her.

“That’s enough Rix.” Trent walked into camp. He looked at Gesai, “Thanks for taking over while we had to step out.” The white-haired man walked in front of all of us. “We have a few things to discuss.”