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Book 2: Chapter 38: Truncated Grinding

Quick as a striking snake, Penn caught his wrist before he could complete the movement.

Their eyes locked. Penn\'s gaze was hard.

"Tell me you\'re not crossing us."

"If I was," Arthur said evenly, not looking away. Not even daring to blink. "I wouldn\'t have told you about my escape card."

Penn held him there for another moment, clearly at war with himself. Then he nodded once and released Arthur\'s wrist.

Arthur added the Steel Fists card to his temporary deck.

At once, his hands felt... different. Like he was wearing invisible gloves that coated his skin up to his elbows. Yet when he rubbed the tips of his fingers together, there was no loss of sensation. That must be the card\'s mana protecting him.

Above, one of the white dragons roared out a command to the others. They turned on a wing, falling into an arrow formation.

An indefinable something passed over Arthur\'s mind like the brush of winter wind. It left him with the feeling of being searched and found... not good enough.

Penn shuddered and Echo let out a squeaked breath of surprise. The princess stepped forward, holding out a dipped hand to Arthur.

"You have my permission to... to store me. And be assured, if I am saved, the Kane barony will be rewarded."

That was not the incentive she thought it was.

Nevertheless, Arthur took her hand and she vanished into his Personal Space.

Penn grumbled, "I can\'t believe I\'m doing this," under his breath, but held out his hand as if to shake with Arthur.

A moment later, he, too, was stored.

Arthur took a deep breath, turned in place so that he faced directly west to the setting sun -- the direction between the town walls and the distant eruption cone.

Then he ran.

After his Running enhancement skill hit level 10, he had received a 5% bonus to all stamina and a 10% speed bonus to the first fifteen seconds of a sprint.

His feet dug into the soil and the wind rushed past his face as he ran flat out.

He grinned into the wind. The skill was currently at level 12, and he wanted to level it as much as possible.

It seemed since he had added his Master of Body Enhancement card, he hadn\'t had time to really see how it worked. He wanted to level everything.

May as well do it while he was running to put as much distance as possible between himself and the scourgeling eruption.

He\'d leap over anything, climb a tree, balance on the edge of a rock -- anything he could do to level up his skills because if this mess had taught him one thing it was that he needed to get stronger.

Arthur knew he was taking a risk, but not a dire one. He kept a firm mental hand on his Nullify card, ready to deactivate it the moment he met something he couldn\'t handle.

Then the next magical attack -- whatever it was -- would send him back home to the hive.

He\'d have to explain how he returned there, but he doubted many of the noble scions stayed within the town once the dragons started leaving. Likely, they\'d bribed their way out too.

Arthur kept to the flat fields which both allowed him to avoid obstacles and kept him at a decent speed. His running skill hit 13 in short order. With it came an extra boost of stamina. It was as if he had just come off a twenty minute breather and drunk from a refreshing water skin at the same time.

His Running skill wasn\'t the only thing getting a workout.

Skill Level Gained: Empathic Resistance

Level 5

He slowed at that and looked around. The field he\'d been running through was bare with churned mud and the remains of sprouts all stomped down from fleeing people and scourgelings.

It was incredibly ordinary. But it would be impenetrable to someone still lost in the fog.

Had he run through another illusionary trap? One minor enough that he hadn\'t even noticed?

Arthur closed his eyes and looked inward, trying to see if he sensed anything out of the ordinary.

It was a little like waking up and hearing the songs of chirping robins -- a sound he\'d only been dimly aware of while asleep.

There was a feeling in the air. A suggestion to turn and walk to the north end of the field which was closer to the scourge eruption. The farmers had diverted a small stream there and the area around it was thick with vegetation.

Arthur started following the suggested path. Not because he was caught up in its net, but because he wanted to see where it led.

It turned out he was not the first to stumble across the trap.

A team of four people lay unmoving by the canal\'s edge, their bodies hidden from easy view by tall grass.

Arthur vaguely recognized them as hopefuls for the Legendary egg, though none of them made a strong impression on him. Well, not until now.

All of them had gaping holes in their chests.

It\'s like the scholar\'s guild all over again, he thought. Hot bile rose up in his throat and he had to turn away and breathe deeply to keep from throwing up.

Adrenaline and disdain for the scholars had kept him from being so affected last time. Now... These were people his age. Innocents. And he, Marion, Echo, and Penn would have likely shared in their fate if they hadn\'t been able to break free from the illusion in time.

Now these people were dead and... wait, where were their cards?

Arthur\'s head snapped back, and he stared in renewed horror at the corpses. None of the ruined chests had the glow of unharvested cards. On the contrary they were scooped out as if something wasn\'t satisfied with what they found and had wanted every last drop.

The scourgelings had Legendary cards.

Arthur turned to the sky. The white dragons had arranged themselves into several arrow formations and seemed to be doing a search in a grid-like pattern.

Were any of them Legendary? Arthur doubted it.

If they were slaughtered that would be proof the King would need to raze part of the land.

Arthur cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "The scourgelings have Legendary cards!"

New Skill: Voice Projection (Leadership/Politician/Merchant Class)

Due to your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 3.

The white dragons were too high up to hear. Likely, too high up to see him clearly. He\'d be like an ant waving its forelimbs to get the attention of a man.

White dragons, stupid! He thought. They\'re mind mages. They aren\'t searching the area with their eyes.

He focused on the closest arrow formation and thought as hard as he could at them, projecting the danger they were in, the images of the dead Legendary recruits, Marion\'s warning.

His thoughts hit a brick wall.

It was a sensation Arthur had never felt before. He staggered back in place as if had been physically struck.

Did the dragons have a mental shield up? Or--

The notes of a song, half-forgotten and much treasured, drifted into his mind. Arthur couldn\'t help but listen. It was like being called in for a warm dinner at the end of a long day. The sound of festival bells. Of someone finally telling him, "You\'ve done enough, Arthur. I\'ll take over from here. Let go."

Arthur knew it was a lie -- knew from the first note it was the Mind Singer.

At the speed of thought, he went to deactivate the Nullify card. The moment it was off, his Return to Start would whisk him away...

And the white dragons would never be warned.

Arthur hesitated.

In that split second pause, the Mind Singer snared him.