Arwin kept the looking glass to his eye. His stomach was a nervous knot as he watched the guard, waiting for Lillia to strike. Her shadows were so thick that he couldn’t make out where she’d gone.
It had been nearly two minutes since she’d left. He knew – he’d counted every second. The guard stood beside the Wyrmling, swaying slightly. The man occasionally raised a hand to cover a yawn or stretched his arms over his head, but he didn’t seem to be any bit the wiser to Lillia’s approach.
How good is a Wyrmling’s sense of smell? I never really had a reason to worry about that. I hope it doesn’t notice her –
The shadows passed over the guard, momentarily blocking him from view. By the time they’d moved on, the guard was no longer there. It took Arwin a second to find him – not standing but lying a foot away from where he’d been, his head severed.
“What’s going on?” Reya whispered.
Before Arwin could reply, a cloak of night passed over the Wyrmling as well. It remained there for several seconds longer before pulling back. The monster was dead, crumpled in a heap on the ground.
“They’re dead,” Arwin whispered as he lowered the looking glass and handed it back to Rodrick. “Go. Quickly – and quietly.”
They crept out from their shelter and headed to join Lillia as quickly as they could. She’d certainly made short work of the two. She stood in the shade of a tree, having pulled her protective darkness back so they could see where they were going.
“You made short work of them,” Rodrick whispered. “Remind me not to anger you.”
It bit deep into the Wyrmling’s body, carving through scale, but the monster’s jaws slammed shut on his neck and silenced him. The monster jerked its head back, swallowing him whole.
Arwin ducked back down.
“Godspit,” Lillia breathed. “He’s feeding his own guild to the Wyrmlings.”
“That’s why they were so high Tier but bad at fighting,” Arwin said, his skin prickling. “Jessen did the same thing to them that the Guild did to us. He’s pushing them up through the ranks, then putting them up against the Wyrmlings.”
“Killing something a higher Tier than you is definitely going to give you a lot of magical energy, even if they’re pretty incompetent at fighting. Not as much as if they were good, but with the amount of people he’s got here…” Rodrick swallowed heavily. “This is bad. He’s going to have a whole horde of boosted Wyrmlings.”
“Given the way he’s standing, he’s definitely the one controlling the monsters,” Arwin said, poking his head back up over the foliage just in time to see a mage shoot a bolt of flame into a new Wyrmling’s chest, shattering scales and leaving a deep wound – only to get consumed like the man before him. “And those idiots have power but no idea how to fight. Jessen has it set up perfectly.”
“For what, though?” Reya asked. “What’s he going to do with a giant horde of Wyrmlings?"
"And why isn’t anyone trying anything?” Olive added. “They could just run.”
A warrior let out a battle cry as he entered the clearing and charged the Wyrmling that had just killed the mage. He leapt into the air, fire gathering around his blade, and brought it down into the monster’s eye.
The Wyrmling bucked, throwing him to the side, but he hit the ground in a roll and sprinted at it again. He ducked the monster’s bite and slammed his sword through its other eye, killing it.
“Well done,” Jessen said, giving the man a terse smile. “Move to the side so another may get their chance.”
“Thank you, Guildmaster,” the man said, bowing his head before moving to join a very small crowd to Jessen’s left.
“That’s why,” Arwin said. “They’re either hopeful that they’ll do the same as that guy will – or they know that Jessen will kill them if they try to leave. Look at the other Wyrmlings. They aren’t just sitting around. They’re keeping people there.”
They all ducked back down and exchanged worried glances.
“Godspit,” Lillia said. “What do we do?”
Another scream and a crunch rang out, marking someone’s failed attempt to kill a Wyrmling. Arwin had to admit that Jessen’s plan was ingenious. He was getting rid of his weakest members, growing the power of his horde, and separating out all the people that could actually fight all in one fell swoop.
He wiped his ranks clean of the useless ones while making sure that he could count on the ones that survived to be competent. So long as someone was a heartless monster that was fine sacrificing their guild members, it was incredibly effective.
Now that I think about it, Jessen was always willing to sacrifice the members of his guild. He didn’t care at all that I’d killed Yul and Tix, and I suspect he was only mad that I killed Erik because he wanted to feed the asshole to his Wyrms.
“What do we do?” Anna asked. “If he manages to feed all those Wyrms, there’s no way we’re going to be able to take them out. Weakened from birth or not, they’re going to be terrifying – and that isn’t even counting the big ones.”
“If Jessen is actually controlling all of them, he’s got to be concentrating on it. They didn’t come from his class, which means they’ll return to their normal state if he loses concentration or dies.”
“How are we going to kill him from here?” Reya asked. “Didn’t you say he was too strong to fight?”
“He’s strong,” Arwin agreed, thinking furiously. They’d come a long way in the relatively short time since the fight with Jessen, but a fair head-on battle with him was still skewed against them.
Jessen was somewhere toward the end of Journeyman tier and he knew what he was doing. Even if they all attacked him at once, he was liable to win. That said…
“He’s weaker than last time,” Arwin said. “He’s controlling the entire horde. That’s got to be consuming an enormous amount of concentration and energy. He won’t be able to go all out against us without freeing the Wyrms from his control over them.”
“That’s true,” Rodrick mused. “But how are we going to put him at enough risk to make him lose concentration? He’s just going to sic all the Wyrms and the members of his guild on us the moment we make ourselves known.”
“That’s exactly what we need.” Lillia’s eyes lit up and she looked to Arwin. “Your bow. What are the chances it’s quiet?”