Helena managed to convince her father that we should join the search party. We had experience with the nightshades and we were mages. Two of us were senior mages even.

The leader of the group was Blake, a wolfkin with white hair. He was a mage with an earth affinity. He also knew some magic to track the nightshades. He was not directly employed by Hans, he was an officer in the royal army.

Further, we had 10 guards with us. Interestingly they were Hans' soldiers.

"Why is the leader from the royal army?" I asked Helena as we prepared to move out.

"Because we need someone who can track the nightshades. Lieutenant Blake is the most qualified we can get on short notice." She replied. "It's not uncommon for us to work with the royal army."

While she answered, Blake approached us. We saluted.

"At ease. I have heard good things about your group. You are going to bring some undead?" He asked.

"Yes sir! I have a vampire, a tier three skeletal cat, a tier two vampiric cat, a tier two draugr cat, a tier two humanoid draugr, a tier two ibex draugr and a vampiric armadillo… I suppose we are going to leave him here. I am not sure if he can keep up with the horses and we don't have a wagon." I summarised. Poor Chariot would have to stay behind. He could keep up with horses at their normal pace but he could not match a galloping horse.

"That is a lot of cats…" Blake replied.

"Nyx is a very strong cat, she can grow." I replied.

"I see. Two tier three undead is impressive. The skeletal cat and the draugr will be handy. There is no blood for a vampiric nightshade to drain." Blake said.

"I think if it drains undead blood it will be in for a surprise, sir." I replied.

"Hm, good point. The necrotic mana will hurt the plant. Maybe we can use this." He seemed to ponder that. Then he just nodded. "Carry on, we will move out in 15."

I had Coffee, my trusty horse. Hatsumi had the ibex and Frank was using a borrowed horse. Soon everyone was ready and we left.

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It took four hours to reach the forest where people had been reported missing. Once we arrived Blake cast a spell.

"Sir? How does the tracking magic work?" I asked.

"It's an earth spell that detects large amounts of mana in the soil. It's designed to find magical plants of a certain size. A fully grown nightshade would qualify. The problem is the range. I can't simply cover an entire forest." He explained.

I was about to suggest a joint casting, then I remembered the trust requirement. We did not know him. A joint casting would likely fail.

"Nothing so far, let's move on." He said after a bit.

We followed the main road while Blake recast his spell on occasion. We were just passing a few dense bushes when Hatsumi started sniffing. "I smell blood." She said.

"Halt!" Blake commanded, then he addressed the vampire. "Blood? Where?"

"Those bushes." She pointed at the dense vegetation.

"Hm. My spell does not detect anything." He replied.

"Sir, they could be using magical crystals to hide the nightshades." Skadi pointed out.

"True. But they don't look like vampiric nightshades. I suppose the plant could be hidden inside those mundane plants…" He replied. "Let's have a look. Be careful everyone, get your protections up. Soldiers, guard the horses."

We dismounted and drew our swords. Skadi had brought her axe.

"Send in the draugr." Blake pointed at Frank. "No reason to risk someone alive."

I nodded and commanded my undead to carefully step into the bushes. Then I told him to hack away at the vegetation. A nightshade would not care about a draugr but it would certainly defend itself.

Nothing happened as Frank went deeper into the bushes. Hatsumi looked at me, I nodded, then she followed after Frank while sniffing.

"Here!" Hatsumi announced. "I found a bloodstain on this bush."

"Hm. Let me have a look." Blake replied. I saw his skin darken, likely an earth magic spell to protect himself.

Once he reached Hatsumi he inspected her find. While he was looking Hatsumi picked something up from the ground. "I found an arrow as well, it has some blood on it." She declared.

"So we are dealing with bandits? They ambushed travellers?" Cassie asked.

"Hm. We did not find any evidence of a fight on the road. But they could be hiding their tracks and then missed the arrow in the bushes. Or though nobody would look in there." Blake theorised. "You girls have experience fighting bandits?"

"Yes sir!" We replied.

"Meow!" Nyx added. Blake stared at the cat, who was licking her mouth. Then he ignored her and looked at us.

"Ok, we will try to locate whoever did this. Keep in mind the nightshades might still be around as well. Once we are in battle I will trust your training. Make sure to keep raising the fallen, numbers matter. You do have a formation to protect your necromancer?" Blake asked.

"Yes, Nyx, Hatsumi and myself can work as tanks and bodyguards." Skadi replied.

"I am alchemy support. I do have a few nasty things… mostly explosions." Cassie said.

"There is still some snow around, I should be very effective. Also, I would like to start with a frost armour before we proceed." Helena said.

"Very well. Armour up. We will leave the horses here, they won't help in the forest. We need to find out where they went. Hatsumi, do you smell anything? If they had a wounded…" Blake said.

Hatsumi smelled the arrow. Then she licked the blood on it. "Hm. I think I sense something this way." She pointed into the forest.

"Ok, time to find those bastards." Blake declared.

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