The ropes binding the final captive in the barn came undone. They slithered on the grimy concrete to join the long train of ropes that Caen had been fashioning into two separate units, both of which were now wrapping themselves around his torso.

  The two men whom Caen had paralyzed lay bound, blindfolded, and gagged with ropes.

  There were nearly fifty villagers here, mostly werepeople, all of whom looked starved and maltreated, save for a wereperson with feline features and a short, one-eyed man who now held one of the rifles. They all watched Caen warily.

  Thimno, the Valiant who had been traveling with him on Obir's wagon, stood by the barn entrance, keeping watch as an old woman explained their situation.

  “About two weeks ago, we opened our homes and hearths to these people. They said they were Valiants moving through the region, hunting down monsters. They even had one such monstrosity in a cage.” She stopped to cough. “While we slept, they left the accommodations we’d provided them and released their monster to wreak havoc on our village.”

  Obir was holding the other rifle and looked increasingly impatient to go and find his son. “Their… monster?”

  “They are cannibals,” the old woman said. “And they feed on human flesh, just as the monster does. It ate… some of the children. And they fed on our chiefs. They hold the children in a separate barn, from which they—”

  “Oh gods!” Obir said. He looked to Caen. “Please, we need to… Ed. He's just… we can't let them—”

  “We won't,” Caen assured him. He addressed the old woman. “This monster, what else do you know of it?”

  “I never saw the creature. But I recall the sounds it makes. A terrifying shriek that made these aged bones of mine rattle.” Some of the villagers around her seemed to shudder as if in recollection. “The cannibals have a powerful Valiant among them. Their leader. She uses Force magic in dangerous ways. There is also a ruthless Fire practician.”

  Caen processed all she'd said quietly. Then he asked, “How many are there in total, and how many of them have firearms?”

  She signaled at a teenage boy standing off to the side. From what Caen has gathered, he'd been tasked with feeding the captives all week.

  “There’s eleven rifles,” the boy said. “I counted fifty-two men and women last night, excluding their leaders.”

  “Uhm… er… sir?” asked the one-eyed villager who held a rifle. “Do you have any… any plans for them?” He gestured at the two bound men by Caen's feet.

  In answer, Caen simply walked away from the bodies.

  A woman launched herself at one of the bandits with a growl. A sickly thin man in huform pounced on the other. Soon, a group of villagers surrounded the bandits, clawing, crying, kicking, and grunting loudly.

  “Hey,” Caen called.

  Most of the villagers froze instantly. Others halted reluctantly, turning to look at him.

  “Quietly, please,” Caen said.

  They resumed their onslaught, but with much less shouting.

  The one-eyed man selected three other villagers whom he claimed could fight. “The warriors among us were placed in different places,” he explained. “Our people here gave us their own food rations so we would be strong enough for an opportunity like this.”

  Obir, Thimno, and the spectacled woman from the wagon came along. She wasn't a combatant, but she was a wind practician and knew a few offensive spells.

  With the dour sky above and light rain pattering on everything, they moved through the village, sneaking up on the cannibals.

  Caen didn't have to do much, in all honesty. He flickered Soul-sense here and there, and once had to cast a Vibration spell to dampen the scream of one of the cannibals, turning it into a strained squawk seconds before Thimno had torn his throat open with a machete.

  They retrieved rifles and weapons as they went, releasing more combat-ready villagers, and were soon using the firearms openly, not caring if they were noticed.

  Some among the cannibals flung spells, or attempted to, but Caen was always ready to impede that. The villagers killed every cannibal they encountered with unsurprising brutality and vitriol.

  On their way to the barn where the children were being kept, Caen sensed several presences approaching from different directions. He alerted the others just in time for a large group of cannibals to come splashing through the rain-soaked dirt roads of the village.

  Caen hung back and turned in the other direction. He shaped Chasma into a broad, round shield.

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  A fireball came out of the wall of a mudhouse and slammed into a nearby wooden shack, blowing the door off. Caen eyed the wall. The villagers with rifles were too occupied with the cannibals to open fire on the newcomers.

  “Who let the meat out of their boxes?” a voice roared under the rain. “How dare you interrupt our lord's mealtime?”

  The speaker, a bald woman in tattered robes that covered scuffed leather armor, stepped out from behind the mudhouse. There were streaks of red around her mouth and staining her clothes. Beside her stalked the gaunt Fire practician that had ambushed Obir's wagon. The air shimmered around them: a cylindrical Kinesis barrier, encompassing her and her companion.

  Her soul structure revealed her to be a peak Attuner. Flickering Soul-sense at her caused her to flinch, but it did not disrupt the barrier. It was a stable effect.

  The man, a late Attuner, began conjuring another fireball, but Caen interrupted the spell, causing the man to glance behind his shoulder in alarm.

  Caen blinded the Kinesis practician with Planar light just as an Impassioned fireball splashed against the force barrier. Passionfire clung to and crawled all over the barrier as though it were fuel. The woman staggered back, screaming something to her companion.

  Caen disrupted the spell she was trying to cast as he channeled Planar light into the Fire practician’s eyes, but the man wasn't blinded by it: a high Gleam affinity, no doubt.

  As Caen disrupted the man's spell, the Kinesis practician very quickly dismissed her cylinder of force and erected another in its place, causing the Passionfire to wink out.

  He crashed his existence against hers, but she weathered it this time, still managing to throw force discs in his general direction; Caen had already started moving. Chasma thankfully absorbed whichever ones slammed into it.

  Caen blinded her again, just as he sent another Impassioned fireball at her barrier. Then Caen connected to the frantic Fire practician in such a way as not to interrupt the spell he'd been desperately trying to cast. He Mimicked the man's fire affinity.

  The instant three large fireballs appeared over the Fire practician’s shoulder, Caen infected the spell with Ardor.

  The man flinched away from his fireballs, but his companion moved even faster. Blinded as she was, she abandoned him quickly, spurred by instinct.

  The fireballs exploded in a staccato of loud bangs, flinging the man like a rag doll into the side of a building. Despite the rain, Passionfire clung to his body, to the wet ground, the walls, and even the cylindrical barrier of the Kinesis practician who had barely escaped the explosion.

  Hot air rushed past Caen. With a spell chain, he sent the lengths of rope—which had been wound around his torso—to entangle the Fire practician.

  The Kinesis practician dismissed her barrier and began sprinting away with preternatural bursts of speed: a Kinesis spell. “My lord!” she screamed. “My lord, save me!”

  Caen pursued, body empowered. They wove through the village, as Caen hurled spells at her. An Impassioned fireball slammed into a new barrier she'd erected. She dismissed the barrier and erected another just as she veered in another direction.

  He couldn't tell from her soul structure if she was multicasting or not, but it was clear to him that this woman was skilled.

  “My lord!”

  A high-pitched and inhuman shriek tore through the air. Caen heard a nearby window shatter.

  Up ahead, a partially constructed structure stood. Planks of wood crisscrossed each other to form a timber frame. Some parts of the incomplete roofing were covered with thatch. Oversized and strange ritual inscriptions had been hewn into the concrete floor, and at its center was a large metal cage, holding a yellow-furred monstrosity.

  She was heading in that direction.

  Caen hadn't stopped flickering Soul-sense at her while pelting her with spells. A fireball wound around and struck her barrier from the front, while two fireballs struck from the sides.

  As soon as her barrier was overwhelmed, another took its place. Out of the corner of his eye, Caen saw a small wagon hurtling in his direction.

  He dove out of its way, and it crashed into the ground, tumbling into a building nearby. The instant he lost sight of her, many darts of force streaked towards him.

  Raising Chasma completely neutralized the attacks, but two darts had already wound around his shield.

  His mental processing was well ahead of his physical reaction time. He Mimicked Chasma’s resilience as he lifted his palm to shield his face.

  One dart broke against his palm, the other slipped between his fingers, and shattered his goggles into pieces.

  His face and palm stung, but the force darts had not breached his skin in the slightest. Resilience now outclassed the durability from his passive augmentations in Body-enhancement.

  Caen was running after her again, but the Kinesis practician had taken advantage of this distraction. She propelled herself into the incomplete structure and towards the cage.

  The creature within was a hulking mass of thick, yellowed fur with splotches of brown and red. Blood. It had a large maw of sharp teeth, but no discernible eyes or ears. It stood as tall as a man on six clawed legs, three astride, and there were sharp spikes all over its back.

  Its soul structure wasn't entirely unfamiliar, though it bore the weight of something between late and peak Attuner. It let out another high-pitched scream that caused the wooden planks and metal cage to rattle. A very weak mental effect accompanied the sound, but Caen shrugged off the impulse to stop and stand frozen in fear.

  He could sense no people within this wooden structure, and a quick mental detection spell corroborated this.

  He hurled several Impassioned fireballs at the woman, the cage, and the entire structure. Most were stopped by a pane of force, but the rest crashed into the wooden planks, causing them to collapse in some places, spreading Passionfire.

  “Endure your hunger, my lord! Destroy the intruder!” she screamed as she unlatched the cage.

  The creature bounded out in the blink of an eye.

  And pounced on the Kinesis practician.

  “Wait, my lo—”

  It mauled her.

  Caen set them both on fire.

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