Mia and Nikki stood shoulder to shoulder, Carmilla standing protectively behind them. The two women on the front were laying into the thinning mass of monsters with spells fired tirelessly, while the still skittish vampire held herself back from engaging them in a melee once more.

Instead, Carmilla sent javelins of Blood flying at the thickest crowds of Wolflings every now and then, conserving her energy as much as she could but doing her part in keeping the horde at bay.

The Familiar was tiring … or rather, running out of mana. Mia could feel it, its reluctance and frustration as its reserves dipped lower and lower. It had expended a lot of energy keeping the monsters back, saving Mia more than once and doing its hit-and-run style campaign of savagery against the monsters.

Still, it was now doing little more than circling around Mia, pouncing only on the monsters that got uncomfortably close. Each pounce cost it, dozens of minutes of its remaining uptime going down the drain with each flash of claws or bite it had to repair its body from.

"Wha-" Mia's head snapped around, the voice faintly familiar and distinctly male. It was Sebastian, the Light Paladin, holding his head as he stumbled to his feet. "Mother fucker, what the- Oh."

To his credit, he spent only a single second gawking at the paralysed, screaming, sobbing or unconscious raid team around his feet. His eyes were wide as he then focused on the oncoming horde of metallic canines.

Mia saw his eyes harden and narrow. Sebastian crouched, snatching up his discarded greatsword, and then speedily made his way over to the three women, making sure not to step on anyone.

Mia felt his aura spread out, a soft golden cloud encompassing the three of them. It felt like a comforting warmth wrapping around her, ever so slightly empowering her body and spirit and dampening her fatigue.

"What can I do to help?" He asked grimly, likely having caught sight of some of the dead.

"My Familiar is on its last legs," Mia said with some regret. She would have loved to take a minute away from the fight and recharge the construct some, but she didn't even have seconds to spare, or the monsters would overwhelm them. "I think keeping those that get close from mauling us would be the best use of your blade."

"The injured?" He asked, blade brandished as he stood beside them, his eyes tracking the monsters charging mindlessly at them. Only for them to end up blown apart, pierced by ice or impaled on lances of blood.

"Everyone got a potion," Mia said, her voice glum. "I gave everyone a System-made potion, everyone who was still … alive."

Despite herself, Mia felt her throat tighten and her eyes water before she shook it off. She couldn't allow herself to be distracted, not now.

She had seen death; she had seen a lot of it in her duties as a mage support of the military platoons scouring Graz. She had seen soldiers die; she had found the remains of civilian families left to rot by the monsters.

But she didn't know those people; she never knew their faces, their names, never recalled their smiles or laughs. She had protected her own platoon well enough so that none of them died.

Gwen … she could remember Gwen's shy smile, her soft voice, her eyes jumping around as fear and conviction warred in them.

She remembered her glassy eyes gazing up at the canopy with a look of horror and agony frozen onto her pale face. She couldn't forget it, couldn't even keep it from appearing before her eyes every moment she let her thoughts wander.

The shy smile and the look of terror overlapping, mixing and mingling, engraving themselves into her mind.

"I see," Sebastian said with audible grief and guilt in his voice. He spoke no more, and a brief glance at him showed Mia a look of his face twisted into a mournful grimace as his eyes shone with a golden fury.

Others woke not long after, each cursing or just grimly taking up position next to the growing line of fighters, determined to make the monsters pay.

Then the inevitable came to pass. The moment Mia had been dreading as a soul-wrenching shriek of pain and grief, echoed in the forest. Mia's heart broke a little as she recognised Lori's voice in it.

"GWEN NOOOO!" The woman's scream quickly turned into a wail and then into incoherent sobbing. "No- No- Please, God … Gwenie … "

"DEFEND THE INJURED!" Brent's voice roared in rage and grief as he charged forth, a group of fighters behind him. Konstantin and Rex among them, with even Sebastian splitting from his spot next to the mages to join the charge.

It would have been foolish, but it was the mages who had woken up first. Mia suspected it had to do with Willpower being an essential stat for spellcasting. Thus, their barrage of spells and magic had thinned the monsters greatly, so much so that the charge more than turned the tide. Mia took to the distraction the monsters provided desperately, doing anything she could to drown out the voices of grief and anguish behind her.

In another five minutes, the monsters stopped scrambling over the walls, and anyone who stuck their ugly mug over the palisades got it blown right off by a furious mage.

"Thomas, please see to the injured," Brent ordered, and their sole proper healer, the teenage boy who blessedly escaped getting trampled by the other beastkin, nodded jerkily. "Did anyone see that ugly screaming bastard that knocked us out after waking up?"

"No," Mia called out, cradling a tiny pink cat in her arms as she poured the last embers of her mana into it. It had less than a single minute of uptime remaining by the time she finally got some breathing room. "I was first to wake and I saw no hide or tail of it, only the small ones."

Brent just stared at the monster camp like he could set it on fire just by sheer force of will and hatred. "I want to know why it knocked us all out so easily, whether it can repeat that and how we can make sure it doesn't happen again."

His eyes turned to Carmilla, then Nikki, the latter of whom looked questioningly at Mia. After a moment, Mia's tired brain caught up with her, and she translated the question.

"It knocked us all out so easily because we are a full Rank below it," Nikki said simply. "It should have to wait a while to repeat what it did. Wendigos gather the dread they instil in others and use it to induce that magical dread we'd been subjected to. It's like a serpent's venom sac in the way that it has to wait to regenerate. Preventing it … well, you would need someone who could give you the appropriate Ward or a potion brewed to counteract that specific effect. I believe the only way we can realistically prevent it from doing it again is to kill it before it gathers enough dread to do so."

"Have you memorised a monster encyclopaedia before becoming an adventurer?" Mia asked curiously after relaying the information to a now-relieved Brent.

"I'm not technically an Adventurer," Nikki corrected absently, shaking her head. "And while I did do some studying on the matter, that's not the reason I know the details of how Wendigo magic works. There was a … novel I adored growing up that had an evil Wendigo in it. Still, being ten years old at the time, it cost me a few sleepless nights and nightmares. I don't know why my brother thought that book was appropriate reading for a ten year old, but when mother got mad at him, he taught me understanding just how the monsters worked, what their limits were, which would make me fear them less."

Nikki had a fond smile on her face as she finished, but shook her head again, banishing the expression in favour of a grave look of professionalism.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"We need to hunt it down before it recovers," Nikki said. "Wendigos are powerful, but they are weaker than other monsters of their level in a straightforward fight. It will want to ambush us, harass us, and spark fear and dread in our hearts to recover faster. We can't let it do so, I think we surprised it this time, made it panic. It won't happen again."

"I don't think we'll be able to do that," Mia said with a grimace, not daring to turn around and take in the scene of grief and death behind her. "Or we'd have to do it with diminished numbers."

She didn't know how to deal with this situation, had no idea how to deal with grief in general, especially when it came to consoling others consumed by it. All she could do when Gabriel's incident happened was try and be there for her mother, but she doubted it had much of an effect when she herself was just radiating misery and grief. It was times like these when she was glad she wasn't stupid enough to take on the mantle of leadership. She did not want to be in Brent's shoes as he went about organising … something.

Mia instead focused on her Spirit Sense, making sure no monster skulked nearby, waiting to exploit their moment of weakness. Cami was sniffing the air, her brows furrowed in concentration as she likely tried to latch onto the Wendigo's trail. If anyone could track that monster, it would be the vampire; even with Beastkin of all sorts being available, Mia would bet her girlfriend was the better hunter and tracker out of the entire delving party. But that might just be her slight personal bias talking.

It took fifteen minutes to settle in the end and they ended up costing them another fourth of their remaining fighting force who decided to take it upon themselves to escort the remains of the fallen back to the Rift portal. They intended to throw them through, saving the remains from being eaten by either monsters or the Rift itself, and then hopefully they would come back to help in the fight to come.

Alas, the departing group was led by a livid and distraught Lori, who seemed like fighting was the last thing on her mind as she gently carried the corpse of her sister.

Mia averted her gaze before the woman could notice her, a chilling bundle of dread coiling in her guts at the thought that she might very well be in the woman's place by the end of this delve … or maybe she'd be the corpse that needed to be carried out by her friends.

Before she could drown herself in melancholy or distract herself with her self-appointed task of keeping watch, something curious happened. Her Familiar, the strange pink cat, strutted up to her and sat on its haunches at her feet, a pair of sapphire-blue eyes peering up at her with some apprehension mixed with resolve.

She might have ignored its antics, having grown used to it by now, but it yanked on the temporary Bond between them, and she hissed, giving the cat a half-hearted glare. One which melted away as it regally deposited one of its front paws upon the toes of her boot.

In the next moment, she felt the temporary Bond she shared with the cat — or rather, Sprite? — subtract until her Spirit brushed up against the Sprite's own. A sudden deluge of emotions assaulted her — worry, regret, guilt, resolve, but more importantly, she felt deep parts of her very being resonate in response to the contact. The love of magic, the wanderlust, the need to explore both the world and its many mysteries, and beyond all that, an inexhaustible well of curiosity. It all became so very vibrant and alive in an instant. She knew this little Sprite was a kindred spirit in most of the things she enjoyed and knew in the depths of her soul that it would be a worthy companion.

[The Arcane Sprite, 'Sparkle', wishes to form a Bond with you. Do you accept?]

Mia's answer came a mere moment later, when she asked herself whether this was truly what she wished for. Was she really ready to commit to a permanent Bond with a Spirit? The answer was yes, a resounding yes. Had this Sprite not saved her life more than once? Had she not been wondering whether she could keep the 'elemental' inhabiting her Familiar permanently just days ago?

[You have formed a Bond with the Arcane Sprite known as 'Sparkle']

[You have gained the Trait 'Spirit Bound']

[Trait 'Spirit Bound']

You have a permanent telepathic Bond with your Bonded Spirit, allowing you to communicate with them freely through subvocalization, thought and feelings.

You may use this Bond to cast spells through your Bonded Spirit, using them as a vector or point of origin for your magic. The same can be done in reverse.

Your Bonded Spirit is attuned to your mana and can now hide or rest within your Core.

Mia felt the Sprite's Spirit gain some distance, but not before the vague, fragile, temporary Bond they shared hardened into something much greater. The feeling of resonance was mostly gone, along with the bleed-over of her new Bond's emotions, but she still retained a deep connection to it- No, it was a 'him', or so she felt.

The Bond weighed on her Spirit, not unlike how casting one of her more powerful spells made her feel, but permanent and more pervasive. Still, she could handle it … though it probably made casting any of the spells that usually knocked her on her ass impossible, like Phalanx, though the only one of that kind she had at the moment was Phalanx. It was a downside, but a tradeoff she was more than willing to take if it meant her new Bond would be able to stay with her permanently.

She would never again have to worry about her Familiar perishing and never being able to summon the same 'elemental' again … on that note, what was a Sprite doing in her Familiar, anyway? Mia was sure she wasn't misremembering the Mana Familiar spell's description about it summoning Arcane Elementals only.

"How?" Mia asked, rather dumbly, crouching down to be at eye level with the Sprite inhabiting the cat-shaped mana construct.

Her question was vague, but she just knew her Bond would understand it, and she was right. The telepathic answer came a moment later in a squeaky, yet haughty voice transmitted directly into her mind. "It wasn't too hard chasing away the stupid elementals to answer your summons myself! The body you made needed a bit of adjusting to suit me, but it was effortless to one such as me!"

It was … kinda adorable, especially with the feline body it was inhabiting practically preening with a smug look on its face. Though it fell a bit a moment later.

"Stupid girl! The Sprite huffed without any heat, guilt and shame radiating from its side of the Bond. "You should have asked to form a Bond with me ages ago! It's beneath me to go begging for a Bond with a lower-ranked mortal … but I suppose I can bear the shame if it means making sure you survive."

"I thought you were an elemental," Mia said. Forming Bonds with elementals was usually not advised for anyone aiming high. They had an upper limit on their intelligence and power both, and their nature was also much more primal than a Spirits, which sometimes influenced the mortal part of the Bond. Her training manual warned her against forming such a Bond, so she never even considered it.

"As if a stupid elemental could do half the things I did, especially while inhabiting this crude form!" The Sprite said, feline eyes narrowed into a scowl as his triangular ears flattened on his head. "And even as I am right now, my eyes are the same! Did you not find it strange how I had the exact same eyes as you? If it was an elemental inhabiting this Familiar, its eyes would be the same bland pink as the rest of the body."

"How would I know what my Familiar having blue eyes meant?" Mia said a bit testily, frowning all the while. She was glad to have formed the Bond, but she was not in the best of moods, not with how the last battle ended and with what the near future held in store. "Or how an elemental should act, for that matter?"

The cat just gave her a constipated look, radiating a complex mixture of emotions as the Sprite's pride and guilt waged war against each other.

Even though she really didn't feel like this was the time for this drama, Mia felt she understood what might have been the source of the little Sprite's inner conflict. Really, he was just too prideful to admit, even to himself, that he should have been the one to approach her.

Just my luck to get a tsundere Spirit. Mia lamented inwardly, though she wasn't all that bothered. She might have even found the Sprite's personality quite adorable had she not been in a dour mood after the death of the other delvers.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Mia whispered, grabbing the cat by the scruff of his neck like she'd done many times before as she stood. "The Bond is forged now, isn't it? Better late than never. Still … why did you answer my summons in the first place?"

The question of why the Sprite, whom she should really start calling 'Sparkle' in her head, wanted to Bond with her was obvious to her. She'd felt the resonance between their Spirits, something that echoed through her entire being with a clear tint of familiarity. Why did it answer her flimsy summoning though, when it was a Rank 1 Sprite, though? That was the real question.

"Obviously, because yours was the first calling I noticed coming from the Cosmic Realm!" Sparkle said, hanging loosely in her grasp as she deposited the now miniature cat on her shoulder. Bond or no, the Sprite acted the same way as before and quickly settled onto his perch as always. "I was curious! And your mana was tasty too! I couldn't resist, and it would have been a waste to let a stupid elemental gorge itself on it."

"Mia?" Camie's voice interrupted her conversation and drew the young Halvyr's eyes upon the vampiress. "I caught the monster's trail. Are you ready to go?"

Mia's eyes hardened with resolve, and she gave her partner a firm nod, sending a pulse of crackling Arcane mana through her energy pathways to give herself a jolt. The Arcane might not have been good for physical empowerment, but she learned it had tricks of its own, and the training manuals written by one of the Elders of her Bloodline gave away many of them freely.

It was like getting a tiny shock throughout her body. Not quite like electricity or lightning, not anything she could really compare it to, but it woke her body up all the same.

"I'm ready," Mia said, glancing around and only now noticing that all the delvers who remained behind to fight looked ready to head out. "Sorry for the delay … let's go?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.