After getting out of sight of the capital, the two carts were disected in order to reduce the mana usage of the steam-powered engine. Instead, one of Lisryn’s guardians effortlessly pulled it along with one hand, leaving quite deep footprints as they dug into the ground for tra.

  Almost nothing interrupted them as they traveled through the pins the few days, and the whole group was feeling quite bored. The only exception to the monotony was a lone wild hog, which was easily taken down after being blinded by Viera.

  When they began to approach the edge of the wilds, however, things did bee a bit more eventful, though most enters were quickly dispatched, as with the boar. Most wly, there was one ued event where a rge hawk tried to attaiphru. None had noticed it until it was about to strike, at which point Morris’ panion, Kel, screeched out a warning, allowing enough time for Niphru to throw up a pne of force above himself.

  Immediately after his defense went up, the hawk smmed into his magic before bounding off into the air again, clearly stunned as it simply flopped rather than flew. Even as Niphru began to gather his fmes to retaliate, Miana outpaced him and unched a small jet of fme over her head to catch the bird as it tumbled.

  Having bee afme, the hawk found itself uo fly and crashed into the grass nearby, setting them alight as it tossed about, trying to extinguish itself. As the other apprentices began to panic slightly, showing their ck of experience, Dawn pulled the fmes upward while redug the heat around them. As the grass smoldered and quickly extinguished itself, Dawn stopped holding the fmes in the air, allowing the ck of fuel to cause them to fade from existence.

  A while ter that day, Morris mentiohey were nearing where they would set up camp. Hearing this, Niphru created his illusion to hide himself, quickly finding that he would, indeed, have to stay he ter of the group. While he could hide himself well, it was much harder to hide that the grass didn’t bend properly around his illusioher being crushed down by the legs nor passiween them where his real body remained. While he could try to hide that as well, it still resulted in distortions around his illusion, so it was much easier to rely on other people attrag attention first.

  The first group that they saroag didn’t find anything abnormal at first. They took the lead, which kept any of them from notig the oddities; the sed group they entered, however, had someoice, staring quite hard at Niphru.

  Sihey were expeg to share their staging camp with one mroup, Dawn addressed the other two groups, “Si has been noticed, we should mention that one of our members is under an illusion; we will only have this tiil everyone has reached the site that was decided for the camp.”

  Such a statemeo quite a bit of muttering and suspicious gnces as people realized they had been fooled, w how an illusion could be created, given their i plexity. Fortunately, they were willing to accept a dey in expnation, though a sizable gap opened up between the groups. Furthermore, both groups insisted that Morris’ group take the lead so they could keep an eye on them.

  In respoo this, their group became especially wary of their surroundings, keeping at least one person watg behind them. Nothing happened beyond simple suspi, however, despite their worries. Eventually, they reached the pnned site for their camp and found that the st group had beatehere and was already starting to fortify the location.

  As a member of one of the first groups started to head towards the new group, Dawn called out for them to hold off, shouting that she had an annouo make that required everyone’s presenbsp; Hearing her immediately call for a meeting, the man nodded and turned back to his group. Within a few minutes, everyone formed up in a crest around Morris’ group as he stood back, allowing the group to speak for themselves.

  First, Dawn stepped forward, deg, “My friend Niphru is currently under an illusion because it is likely you would attack him if you were not warned ahead of time. He is a valued panion who has done a great deal to aid me since we met, as well as having joined roup in training.”

  While she spoke, Niphru looked at the rest of his group. As he had expected, given their situation, they were mostly focused on him, while also warily watg over the others. Sending a whispering illusion to each of them in turn, he asked them to be on guard, receiving slight nods in response.

  As Dawn stepped back, the others in her group g each other, but before collectively deg on who should go forward , Lisryn stepped forward, one of her guards a step behind. After a quick bow to the people gathered ahead of her, she announced, “My name is Lisryn; I am unsure if you have heard of me. I am the new leader of the Church of flibsp; My guards see through the illusion with ease, and firm there is no threat from the individual behind them. I also firm they are quite polite, so please don’t treat them poorly, even if their appearance may shock you.”

  The rest of the group nodded, each adding their support. As they finished, Niphru walked forward alongside Dawn, everyone’s attention on him. While somewhat nervous, he trusted his group, expining, “As you may have guessed, I’m not anything like what I appear, but I am also not human.”

  As the crowd began to shift in arm, he quickly tinued, “I am, as far as anyone has been able to tell me, the first wild Awakened. Furthermore, I am the first of my species to not go mad when altered by mana. Some of you may have made some guesses from that, as only one species is known to only use illusions. Yes, I am a fox.”

  Following his statement, he dropped the illusion a into the air, nding on a pne of force he summo roughly three feet in the air. As expected, several people recoiled in shock, though more than he expected simply appeared curious. Unfortunately, two individuals in different groups reacted quite poorly and utacks toward him.

  The first ike of earth spearing upward from the ground, which would have had to gh his ptform. Before it could reach it, however, Morris swept his hand to the side, and the nce crumbled into sand, spraying away from the group. The other individual had mawo spells at once, a jet of water and a practical beam of white-hot fme.

  In response, Miana threw up a thin shield of water, whipping it from her ste far faster than the opposing mage could unch their attabsp; As the water collided, it lost both cohesion and its power, spraying against a crude wall of dirt that Thomas had quickly formed.

  Knowing of the duo’s skill with fire magio oerfered with the fire, allowing Niphru to rip it from the e’s trol. Simir to how Dawn had shown off in the past, he split the bst of fire in two, looping each around himself and back towards the two who had attacked him. Even before the streaks finished arg around him, the crowd stepped away from the aggressors. As the teachers prepared to a defense of their trainees, he had the fmes stop in pce, roiling with barely-tained heat.

  Having not even moved an inch from his position, Niphru looked at the two who had scrambled backward before chug at them and remarking, “Well, that was quite rude, attag me based on my looks. Luckily for you, I prefer warning over harming when it es to people. Perhaps we retry reetings without throwing magic around?”

  In respoo Niphru holding back the spells, the leaders of the roups rexed, moreso when he allowed the fmes to die out. Morris nodded in approval before walking off to begiing walls for the camp. After a few seds of shocked silehere was a sudden buzz of voices as everyone began discussing what had just occurred.

  Shard