With all the news fresh in his mind Larkin was surprised the next day to hear that he was going off on a mission with Jorg and Jasset.

  “Cezar won’t be leaving for three more days.” Jorg pointed out. “And we’ll probably be back tonight. Tomorrow morning at the latest.”

  Their quarry was a pack of monsters that were reported to be roaming around a village nearby.

  “Odd behaviour to come so close to civilisation.” The Shieldbearer observed. “But it’s probably part of this new migration - and we’ll not know for sure what caused that for a while, if ever.”

  Apparently, the Guild in Haugar had agreed to work with the Royal Academy to find the cause of these new movements of monsters. But given the ongoing plans for the expedition to enter Califray that whole activity had fallen onto the backburner.

  Lakrin thought it obvious that the arrival of the Chosen was linked to all of this. But he didn’t want to raise the subject.

  No way I want any association between me and them, he thought.

  “What about replacing the Wardstone that the Firestingers’ destroyed?” He asked Jorg as they waited for Jasset.

  The Dwarf assured him that the work there shouldn’t be delayed.

  “The Royal Academy is duty bound to replace it quickly.” He said. “I expect that they won't have any involvement in the expedition, either, so they’ll have no distractions.”

  Larkin nodded as Jasset finally arrived. The three of them started heading for the east gate, with Jorg in the lead.

  “I’m not expecting this to be difficult.” The Dwarf told them. “Which makes it a good opportunity to practice teamwork.”

  Larkin nodded absently as he looked around. For the last few days he’d been mostly cooped up in the Guild so hadn’t had much opportunity to look around Gavlim.

  To be honest, he wasn’t overly impressed with what he saw. Once they left the big square in the centre of the city, the buildings seemed to become a pretty uniform mix of stone structures. They looked nice enough, though, with a slight variety of stones in the walls, and lots of bright paint on display.

  And the people seem happy, for the most part.

  But it looked like what some sort of medieval reconstruction would have. As in, pretty basic. When Larkin thought of all the little luxuries back on Earth, as well as the wonders that Lyzkel had spoken of, it really brought home just how simple everything was.

  She did call Girant a backwater though, he thought.

  Gavlim existed in a place that - at least apparently - had this wondrous technology almost at their fingertips. But the place seemed pretty dug into the dung ages.

  While he was occupied with those thoughts, the conversation between Jorg and Jasset continued.

  “We already work well together.” The Scout said. “You and me. So do we need to work out how Larkin fits in?”

  But the Shieldbearer shook his bearded head.

  “No, I’ll be sitting out this one.” He replied. “Unless you really go wrong I’ll let the two of you deal with everything.”

  That brought Larkin’s attention back to the pair.

  “Why?” Jasset blurted, which would have been his question.

  The Dwarf just chuckled good naturedly.

  “You can’t always rely on me, you know. You’ll have to learn to manage on your own.”

  Though then Jorg’s cheer quickly vanished. Looking around he added in an undertone.

  “And when Cezar leaves we won’t be able to travel together anyway. They’ll need to be someone in the Guild in case of emergencies.”

  Larkin exchanged uncertain looks with Jasset before the girl gave a decisive nod.

  “That’s fine, I won’t let you down!” The Scout declared, before grinning at Larkin. “Just make sure to follow my instructions, newbie.”

  Holding back a groan, Larkin instead glanced over at Jorg.

  “So what exactly are these monsters?”

  Only for the Dwarf to shake his head.

  “I’m leaving everything to you, remember?” He replied with a grin. “You can speak to the villagers and find that out. All I’ll say is what was on the initial report; people in the village of Selby have seen shapes roaming around their homes for the last few nights. They’ve seen traces of some unknown creatures too, which is why they’ve come to us for help.”

  Larkin did groan at that, partly at the stubborn lack of assistance from Jorg, but also because he was labouring under an additional restriction.

  Lyzkel had been insistent on this point - Larkin was not to reveal his Null Mage Class to anyone else.

  The problem was that he didn’t have control of the powers. He thought that it activated to stop a life threatening attack, but he was worried about relying on that.

  Having a monster freeze up when it was about to hit him would definitely not go unnoticed by the two Classbearers he was with.

  So, basically, don’t get hit.

  By a pack of unknown monsters. Easy.

  Once the three of them were past the thick city walls, the houses around them turned to wood and the atmosphere lost a lot of the bustle. It still seemed pleasant enough though.

  And most importantly, it doesn’t stink.

  Whatever magical drainage they had within the walls seemed to be at work here too. It also wasn’t really that large to get through, and when they left the last house behind the trio fell into an easy jog down the road. Jasset took the lead now and, at Jorg’s silent gesture, Larkin went next after her with the Dwarf taking the rear.

  It was, he’d been told, a standard formation amongst groups of Classbearers. The pace would be set by someone with enhanced sensory abilities - Jasset’s Scout Class in this case - and then followed up by a more melee class - so his Fighter.

  If they were a bigger group they’d have a similar setup in the rear as well, in case of unexpected encounters. But as it was, this formation meant that they would hopefully catch sight of foes before they were themselves spotted.

  It also meant, Larkin realised, that he had a distractingly direct view of Jasset’s leather-clad backside. Avoiding that sight proved harder than it should have, not least because the run was otherwise very dull.

  While the Scout set the pace - and she was certainly faster than he was - they still weren’t going at top speed. They had to be ready to fight at the end of this, after all, as Jorg had told them.

  Reaching a village being attacked by monsters in thirty minutes wasn’t any good if you were then too exhausted to fight them off. Better to arrive after an hour and actually have enough energy to do the job.

  So the group kept a fairly leisurely pace, at least compared to what Larkin and his Fighter-powered Class was capable of.

  It only took a couple of hours to reach Selby and that was after going through the intervening villagers too. They had to slow down considerably so as not to burst through any idling children on their route.

  It was obvious that they’d reached the right place as villagers immediately called out to them.

  “Adventurers! They’ve arrived.”

  He saw an elderly woman grab the skinny arm of a gaping boy.

  “Get the elder.” She told him. “Hurry now.”

  By the time the three of them came to a stop, Larkin had followed the direction the boy had started off in and identified the likely cottage.

  “Shall we follow him?” He asked Jorg.

  Only for the Dwarf to raise an eyebrow while he scratched at his beard.

  Right, Larkin remembered, gritting his teeth. Just great.

  “That elder will come to us.” Jasset said absently as she glanced disinterestedly around the villagers. “Anyway, let’s start gathering info.”

  The Scout raised her voice.

  “Did anyone here see anything about these monsters?”

  There was a brief, awkward period as the people glanced around at each other before a gaggle of voices responded.

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  “I saw the tracks!” One boy said excitedly. “We all did.”

  “I heard them moving at night.” A little girl said at the same time. “It was scary.”

  But it was an elderly man with a pronounced slope to his back who took a limping step forward.

  “I saw one of the beasts.” He said in a wheezing voice. “It tried to get into my house, so it did.”

  Jasset immediately focused on the man.

  “Can you describe it to me?” She asked excitedly.

  The old man nodded, his loose Adam’s apple bulging for a moment.

  “It ran on four legs, swift as a fox. And it was big too, could have bit my head right off.” The villager gave a dry coughing laugh at that, though some of the villagers listening looked sick.

  “Had a canine look about it. But it weren’t no wolf, that’s for sure. Almost seemed like it was wearing some kind of armour too. Strange, no?”

  The old man peered around at the three of them. And Larkin thought he recognised the creature.

  “Sounds like an Irontooth.” He said to Jorg, remembering the first monster that he’d killed.

  He felt a sense of relief. While Ironteeth were certainly imposing to regular humans, he didn’t think that they’d pose much problem for Classbearers.

  “This should be easy.” He added, only for Jasset to give him a sharp look.

  “Sure.” She told him. “If it’s an Irontooth.”

  The Scout turned back to the villagers.

  “Can someone take us to these tracks?”

  At that point another group of villagers appeared. Two elderly women accompanied by an even more frail man - with the young boy from before trailing them.

  “I’ll show you them, adventurers.” The old man said.

  And, despite his clearly advanced years and the cane he walked with, the elder didn’t delay them long in taking them over to the edge of one of the fields near the cottages.

  “Figure it didn’t realise how wet the soil was.” He wheezed as he pointed down. “Or it didn’t care to hide its tracks.”

  There was a very clear paw print entombed in the mud. Maybe six inches long and about as wide.. With the clear outline of five talons showing.

  That was as much as Larkin could see before Jasset blocked his view by kneeling over it. But it seemed obvious to him that it was indeed the track of an Irontooth.

  “Have you heard of monsters coming this way before?” He asked the old man.

  Who shook his head as he continued to watch the Scout peering down into the mud.

  “Not since them Wards were built.” The elder told him. “We did have a Rattlebird try to nest in this area but the Guild drove it off. And that was nearly fifteen years ago.”

  The old man scratched at the side of his neck for a moment.

  “There’s been talk over the last day or so that a Wardstone was destroyed, other side of the city.” He finally growled. “That true?”

  Larkin glanced over at Jorg who was still standing nearby, but the Dwarf gave him a neutral expression.

  Right, he thought, not getting involved.

  “Yeah, it was destroyed by a Firestinger Hive.” He told the elder, hurriedly rushing to reassure him. “But we killed the Queen and the Royal Academy is going to replace the Ward.”

  The old man peered at him with rheumy yellow eyes.

  “Them Wardstones are real miracles.” He finally grunted. “Glad it’ll be replaced. I can remember when they started to put them up after the war.”

  “Seemed impossible at the time.” The elder continued, eyes going distant as he got temporarily lost in a memory. “By the Six, it still sounds incredible now. When I was young the village had to keep a constant watch out for monsters. We’d ring a bell when we spotted something and then everyone would have to rush to the stronghold and wait it out.”

  The old man shook his head.

  “Dread to recall how many poor folk those monsters used to kill.” He said. “My ma’s brother got killed by one, ‘bout thirty years ago. Always felt that haunted her, bless her soul.”

  The elder’s recollections were interrupted by Jasset smoothly rising to her feet and spinning round to face them. There was an odd expression in the Scout’s face.

  “It’s some sort of Tooth, that’s for sure.” She continued, as she turned to Jorg. “But it’s injured, favouring one of its legs.”

  She jerked her head back to indicate the tracks. Larkin glanced over at the Dwarf, but he was still playing the mute so he turned back to Jasset.

  “Do you know where it’s gone?”

  The dark haired girl nodded.

  “Yeah, it’s not hard.” The Scout seemed to hesitate before glancing up at the sky - it wasn’t even midday yet.

  “Teeth don’t like being out at this time of day.” She said, eyes going to the elder. “Are there any woods or caves to the north of here?”

  The old man nodded.

  “Don’t know about caves, but there’s a large wood out that way. The Cart family are usually based there, selling timber, but they’ve all gone off to Gavlim to take old Able to the temple.”

  Jasset made a tuneless humming sound.

  “So no one would report anything, even if the Teeth left any signs.” She mused aloud. “We should go.”

  That last was directed to Larkin and then, without any further words, she spun around and started striding north. With a quick nod to the elderly man, Larkin hurried after her.

  The Scout started jogging again as they went around the fields with the growing crop and skirting alongside the nearby hills. She was going a bit faster now, and Larkin had to actually push himself to keep up with her.

  He thought for a moment that they’d actually left Jorg behind but when they started hitting rougher terrain he glanced back and saw the Dwarf easily keeping pace.

  Right, whatever his size he’s a stupidly high-levelled Classbearer. Larkin thought. No way that I could outrun him, even if I tried.

  Jasset kept them moving at that pace for about an hour. When she finally came to a halt she raised a hand and beckoned Larkin to come over.

  “They’ve gone that way.” She told him, pointing to the ground around her boots.

  After a quick glance at what appeared - to him, at least - to be unremarkable dirt, Larkin decided to take her word for it. Instead he inspected the area ahead of them.

  They stood in a slight dip in the ground with slopes on either side, and a dense set of trees rising ahead of them.

  “Are we going in there?” He asked the Scout.

  Who nodded, even as her narrowed eyes stayed locked on the treeline.

  “Doubt they’re going to come to us.” She said with a thin smile.

  And then she glanced over at him.

  “Ready to go hunting?”

  There was an excited, almost predatory look to her dark gaze. And he found himself feeling some of that as he nodded back.

  “They’ll know we’re here soon.” She continued. “Teeth have good senses. Stick close to me and keep an eye out.”

  Larkin nodded, but then glanced back at a cough from Jorg.

  “I’ll go in with you but don’t expect me to intervene unless I have to.” The Dwarf told them both. “Don’t count on me to warn you if I see anything coming, either.”

  That got a snicker from Jasset.

  “Like you’d notice anything before me.” She teased.

  That drew a smile from Larkin but he also felt a knot form in his stomach. He’d managed to forget that Jorg was going to be watching. Just the sort of thing he didn’t want when he needed to keep his Null Mage powers hidden.

  “Alright.” Jasset said, pulling him out of his concerns. “Follow me.”

  The Scout then strode towards the trees. She moved like a predator, Larkin realised as he followed her. Jasset was clearly in her element here.

  That thought helped calm his nerves a little.

  I just have to not allow them to hit me, he thought. Then my ability won’t trigger and there won’t be anything for Jorg not to see.

  With a mental nod to himself, Larkin entered the treeline.

  Almost immediately the visibility decreased as the daylight was obscured by the dense foliage. Thanks to Larkin’s Fighter Class senses he was fine with it, but he imagined that a regular person would be at a distinct disadvantage.

  Jasset - who could probably see even better than he could - stalked forward without any sign of hesitation. The Scout moved through the increasingly dense bush without seeming to even slightly disturb the various plant life.

  In contrast, Larkin felt that he was raising a storm of swinging branches and cracking leaves. Jasset sent him the occasional irritated look but didn’t say anything.

  We don’t all have the ability to move like a shadow, he thought defensively.

  But then he remembered that Jorg was following them too and glanced behind him. And sure enough, the Dwarf was a few paces away - and wasn’t making any noise.

  With a grimace, Larkin doubled his attempts to move quietly, with dubious effect.

  They’d been walking for maybe fifteen minutes when Jasset came to a sudden halt. Larkin did the same as she stared around for a few moments.

  After a bit of hesitation he decided to ask what she was stopping for.

  “Hey…” He started, only for Jasset to brusquely shush him with a sharp gesture.

  He bit his tongue and waited for a few more moments. Then Jasset started walking forward again, with no word of explanation for the pause.

  Larkin gave Jorg a look, receiving another steady gaze back.

  I’m really getting sick of that.

  They walked for another five minutes before Jasset paused again. This time, though, he decided to look around too rather than just stare at the girl.

  They were surrounded by trees, and Larkin had no idea how far into the woods they’d come. Was it even large enough for them to not have gone through it already yet? Had they just been moving in circles the whole time?

  Then he realised that Jasset was gesturing at him to get his attention. He looked at the Scout as she gestured at him and then again to an area off to her left.

  Larkin blinked at her for a long moment before a hint of understanding came. To confirm it, he gestured at himself and then made a walking gesture with his fingers before pointing at the same spot the Scout had indicated.

  He got an exaggerated nod, accompanied by an irritated frown, from Jasset.

  He hesitated, glancing around the area again. It seemed to him to just be any other area of trees. Maybe there was slightly more vegetation underfoot, and maybe the ground was at more of an angle.

  But there wasn’t any sign of monsters.

  With a shrug, he tightened his grip on his spear and then started moving in the indicated direction. Despite watching his footsteps carefully he didn’t spot anything until he was standing roughly where Jasset had indicated.

  There was a gnarled tree just to his left and a smaller one a little further to his right. And the ground was covered in some sort of thorny bushy plant, which had a few pretty flower petals speckled in their mass.

  He glanced back at Jasset - noticing that the girl was looking a little tense. She made a hacking motion with her hand and pointed at the bushes.

  Larkin was growing frustrated with the charades, and allowed his irritation to drive his arm as he drew his spear back and started stabbing away at the stupid plants.

  His first thrust sent a crackling noise ringing out through the clearing, the second did the same if a little quieter.

  And at his third strike all hell broke loose.