The forest of dead trees was far less intimidating now than it had been when they’d first entered it. Merlin’s wagon sped along the bumpy, untended roads. He sat alone up front, holding the reins more for peace of mind than to direct Marvin the horse. Marvin was clever enough to know not to veer off in either direction. He, just like the rest of them, was ready to leave this forest behind forever.

  In the back of the wagon, Vetica remained unconscious, lying flat on her back. Her breathing was mostly normal, though occasionally strained, and she hadn’t woken up since her hex outburst. Charlie sat beside her. He kept an eye on her, and every once in a while he’d turn to scan the forest behind them. He knew Vetica usually kept an eye out for threats. With her incapacitated, he would do his best not to let her down.

  On the other side of Vetica, a weakened Bleedy rested. The large tooth the bear had given him was in front of him. Bleedy hadn’t let it out of his sight since the bear had given him the parting gift. Mousifer sat atop the racooneever’s head, slowly petting it. It turned out he’d been hiding inside Bleedy’s fur during most of the fight. Mousifer realized he’d gotten in over his head and took cover when the giant bear popped up. He hadn’t made another appearance until everything had settled down, but the two creatures seemed closer than ever. Mousifer had been there providing moral support the entire time. It was kind of cool when Charlie thought about it that way.

  Orb floated over to observe the tooth. “Will a single tooth even work for Bleedy’s power? I thought he needed a full jaw to transform. And I thought you said those bears were under the effect of some weird spell before? Are we sure we can trust this? It could be a real trojan bear kind of situation,” the dungeon core said.

  Merlin looked over his shoulder. “What’s a—” He waved his hand. “Never mind. I’m not in the mood for random Earth references today.”

  Orb deflated a bit. He slowly turned toward Charlie, perhaps hoping he would ask.

  Charlie shook his head. “Parent? What do you think about the tooth?”

  There was a knocking sound behind the bench. The small bag Charlie had first left Troa with when he started his adventure leaned against the back of it. Nowadays, they filled it with things that they might need to have easily accessible. The fabric of the bag pulled in one direction, and then the other. Finally, two intertwined caladosian rings emerged from the bag. Parent’s usual maroon colored aura floated in their center.

  “Even though Parent can stream directly to your brain, he’s opting for good old-fashioned physical media. It really takes me back, man. DVDs, tapes, CDs. Don’t even get me started on video games! Physical is always the way to go, yo!” Orb said.

  Merlin sighed. “This is tiring. What are you even talking about? He’s still going to talk in our minds. You’re really forcing the references today, Orb.”

  “While it is true the sin bear scorpions were under an effect that appeared to enrage them and make them act abnormally, analysis of the tooth itself yielded no anomalies. It is safe for Bleedy to integrate the transformation into his arsenal. However, I cannot say what the effects will be since he does not have a complete set of teeth for this new form. I would advise trying the transformation outside of combat to ensure no surprises occur under life-threatening conditions. Though you should ideally wait until Bleedy has recovered some more,” Parent informed them.

  Charlie nodded. Bleedy had helped a lot during the fight. He’d created the opening that allowed Charlie to bring the boss bear down after all. That may have been the reason his wolf form had leveled up after the battle ended. He wondered if the second level of Bleedy’s wolf-form ability would affect the transformation itself. He also wondered what the bear form would be like. Charlie could already imagine a giant bear Bleedy, but Parent had repeatedly warned them not to get their hopes up too high. Either way, the bear might have saved Bleedy, and even given him a new transformation, but the interaction with it had created more questions than answers. How could a bear talk? Why hadn’t it talked earlier in the fight? Most importantly, how the heck had it known anything about Themis’ previous experiment?

  What did it know about the racooneever named Gunther?

  The wagon rolled over a particularly rough bump, and Merlin tensed. He looked over his shoulder to check on Vetica. “Is she okay?” he asked quickly.

  Charlie leaned over and inspected her. “I have no idea! Parent?”

  “Her condition is unchanged.”

  Merlin nodded slowly. “That hex…it really was something. I only managed to catch the end of it, but the aftermath was…well, pretty gruesome.”

  Unfortunately, they couldn’t afford to take the time to salvage more of the bear parts. The thing about guild contracts was that they usually required a little proof of completion. Typically, pelts, horns, claws, teeth, anything really would do. But in this case, Vetica’s hex had heavily decayed many of the corpses well beyond recognition. They’d collected several of the bodies they’d defeated before the hex outburst with the help of Koi Levi’s tendrils. Since those bodies had been unaffected by the hex. They really didn’t have any other choice but to transport the bodies into the dungeon whole for safekeeping. Vetica was the only one capable of taking their pelts, and they didn’t have the luxury of waiting for her to wake up. They wanted to get her to a doctor as soon as possible. The guild would probably have members with healing hexes, and if not, they’d be able to point them in the direction of someone who did.

  They would’ve left the bears behind altogether if not for the fact that they might be the ones at risk of being skinned if they left the corpses behind. Vetica had mentioned from the very start of this job that she wouldn’t fail this contact. She’d be pissed if she woke up and they told her they’d returned without any proof of all their hard work. Especially after how hard she’d fought.

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  “If she could control it, it would be a great power to have on our side! Problem is, she can’t. So, it’s just kind of a liability,” Orb said. He buzzed in front of Vetica’s face. “Wait, you guys don’t think she’s in one of those states where she can still hear me, do you? She’d definitely kill me for calling her a liability.” Orb shot up in the air a few inches, an idea coming to mind. “It sure is hard being me, Merlin, a guy who says careless and quite frankly rude things about his friends when they’re sleeping.”

  Merlin scoffed. “What? I didn’t say that! Enough! Take responsibility for your own words!”

  Orb blew a mental raspberry at him. “Whatever man! Don’t be a coward! Take the fall!”

  Charlie put a hand on Vetica’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Vetica. It’s going to be alright. We’ll figure out how your power works. I promise.” If she could really hear them, he wanted her to know they would work it out. He remembered how overwhelming it had been for him when he first got his powers. Vetica was probably going to feel a lot of those same feelings. He would make sure he was there to help her deal with them.

  “That’s right, we will,” Merlin agreed. “You mentioned you’d seen a vision or memory of a hex outburst in the past. Those powers were all incredibly strong. Given enough time, Vetica will master hers too. That cloud was scary. King Scalea dragged me pretty far away, and we could still see it in the distance. Though I still don’t fully understand the nature of her hex. Are we sure this smoke thing is all it can do?”

  “According to information from Zephyr’s database, unique hexes vary the most of all hexes. It is possible Vetica will have abilities we have not observed yet. It is also possible the cloud power we saw was only a variation of the power she will eventually develop. During the memory of Geron’s outburst, his hex affected not only a single species but also other humans. Though from what Charlie observed, Geron can only target all members of a single species in near proximity to him now. Outbursts are sometimes the exception rather than the rule. Further observation and testing will be required to truly understand the nature of Vetica’s power,” Parent informed them.

  “I see. Well, we can table this for now. I’m sure hearing her own experience with it will help us understand more as well,” Merlin said. “No point in speculating until we have all the information.”

  Charlie nodded. He turned to look out the back of the wagon. They’d officially left the dead portion of the forest, and now the tree line was a strong, vibrant green again. It was nice to see their surroundings so full of life again. It was also odd. Hearing the sudden return of bird chirps and watching squirrels hard at work scavenging the forest floor. None of them were aware of the fighting that had occurred deeper in the forest. These woodland creatures were completely oblivious to the dangers they might’ve faced had they followed Merlin's wagon into the forest of dead trees.

  The thought brought a little smile to Charlie’s face. That was a good thing. It was good that even with all the evil in the world, there were some who could go about their lives, even if just for a moment. Even if it was just pretend. A moment of peaceful hunting for seeds or nuts before they had to face the cruelty of the world again. Those moments were important. Sometimes necessary to go on. He hoped after he defeated Cendra the people of Aysela would have a moment like that. A moment without fear or worry. A moment to go about their lives and enjoy time with their loved ones. So, Charlie decided he was happy for the birds, squirrels, and people of the world that lived outside the dead forest.

  And then his smile faded. He wondered if despite all their adventures, despite all the crazy things they’d escaped and fought, if they were really just like those squirrels and birds. If they would one day realize the battles they’d fought until this point would one day seem peaceful compared to what was to come. When that forest was instead a battlefield, and Cendra was the one waiting for him in the forest clearing.

  He wondered if he would think of today.

  His foot brushed against something, and Charlie looked down, pulled from his thoughts. Three pieces of crumbled dungeon material stood at his feet. Charlie had taken one piece of each of the strange acting hands with him when they’d left the battlefield. He wasn’t sure why, or what had made him want to do it. Maybe it was because he knew the hands had been alive and he felt responsible for their death. Maybe there was some other reason. But something had prompted him to collect the tiny memento shards. Maybe he’d make a nice tribute somewhere inside his dungeon or something. He’d decide later and maybe ask Merlin and Vetica for advice.

  His dungeon integrity was far too low to worry about it now. Even transporting to the dungeon would be risky enough to cause collapse at this point. Touching the hex cloud, and then transporting the bear corpses and komodons back home, had used any shred of dungeon integrity he had to spare. For now, he was about as close to a normal baby as he could be.

  Except for the fact that he traveled with a con man, an assassin, a floating ball, a floating fish with tendrils, and had a small army of unusual furry and scaly friends. Okay, he wasn’t anything like a normal baby at all, but still, he wasn’t going to be fighting any battles anytime soon.

  Normally he’d have left a few scalers out to protect them on their journey since they were all tired from the battle. But the overgrowth ability had exhausted them. Even the scalers within the dungeon were seemingly affected by the post-overgrowth exhaustion just because King Scalea had activated it. Parent said that the rapid regeneration and enhancing effects caused the scaler horde to go into a period of intense slumber.

  It was fine though; they shouldn’t be all that far now. The road to Port Carrus was pretty straightforward from here. All they had to do was—

  “Um, guys...” Merlin said slowly.

  Orb flew over to Charlie, who promptly grabbed him. The dungeon core strained to lift Charlie up above the front bench of the wagon so they could see what Merlin had spotted. There were two paths ahead. To the near left, a detour that would take them in a roundabout way towards Port Carrus, an old route no one ever used anymore. At least, that was what the guild master had told them when they went over the map before they left. The path straight ahead was the fastest road back. But a familiar face awaited them on it. Well, a familiar mask at least.

  A man dressed in a full-body brown leather suit with blue trimmings stared them down. He was blocking the direct path to Port Carrus. They’d already seen how strong, fast, and determined he’d been to catch Merlin before. The man had attacked Merlin when he went to collect the extra gold Arroane had left at the small guild for them.

  They’d fled the city that day, and Charlie had trapped their pursuer so he couldn’t follow. The problem now was Charlie couldn’t use his powers. Vetica was unconscious. The komodons were too exhausted to move. Bleedy couldn’t transform, and Merlin was Merlin.

  In other words, they were screwed.

  “Hard left! Hard Left! Marvin, run!” Merlin screamed.

  Marvin pulled the wagon down the path to the left and set out at a quicker pace.

  The leather-clad man rolled his neck, then set out at a run after them. He seemed faster than last time. He was already gaining on them.

  The chase was on.