The Camp's End (unedited)

The valir squad continued to cut rampage through the camp while Bernard and Alex waited nearby the magic beasts. They were saving their energy in case they needed to fight someone the other valir couldn't handle or if something caused the beasts to wake up and rampage. Since they were relatively idle, Bernard started looking through the assorted creatures for anything interesting.

"Think we find something to feed to Rin? She's gone far with wind magic, and I think eating one of these will help unlock an additional affinity for the little bugger." Bernard stopped to inspect a panther that was cloaked in wisps of shadow.

Alex stroked his beard. "It would make Zeph and her happy, and it would be useful in the future. What do you have in mind?" He eyed the panther. "I hope you don't plan on giving that mischievous little thing shadow magic. She's not mature enough for it yet. Imagine all the trouble Rin would get into."

Bernard chuckled. "I suppose you're right. We should save that for when she's older."

"Also, it would appear that our guest has finally arrived," Alex said as he turned to see an enraged cultist running towards them.

Victor was running around the magic beast pens trying to wake the damn monsters up so that they could rampage and hopefully take out some of the valir that were attacking the camp. He and his familiar managed to escape from one of them earlier at the expense of his team members. It didn't bother him much though. He didn't like those guys anyway. Now if he could just get this beast horde moving, then it might be enough of a distraction for him to escape. His thoughts were stopped when he came upon two old men in the middle of the field.

"It looks like my luck is still going strong," he mumbled to himself. Two old mages that were left out of the initial attack shouldn't be too much trouble. "Take them out quick so we can get out of here," he commanded the lesser demon at his side.

Alex and Bernard looked somewhat surprised by the cultist's behavior. 'Didn't the idiot use his magic sense to check his enemies?' The little demon at his side conjured a bright ball of violet flames and threw it at the two of them. 'Apparently not,' they thought.

Victor grinned madly as the two old men were engulfed in demon magic. 'That takes care of that. Now how do I wake these damn things up?' he started to think of how to rouse the sleeping beasts. Once again his thoughts were interrupted by the sight of two old men. 'What! If they survived that, then they're definitely a bigger threat than I thought.'

Bernard waited for the fire magic to burn itself out and then dusted off a few bits of residual flame from his shoulder. "I must say I'm a bit disappointed. With all that confidence you had, I thought you'd have something better up your sleeve than a simple flame attack."

Victor's anger flared at the provocation and pushed any semblance of better judgment from his mind. "You want something better old man? Then I'll give you something better!" He sent a mental command to his familiar and the two started to charge up an attack.

Alex glanced sideways at Bernard, "Are you just going to wait for him to finish?"

Bernard shrugged, "Eh, I'm bored and I'm curious to see what these artificially enhanced summoners can do. It should prove enough of a distraction until we're either done here or their reinforcements show up."

"Yes, but aren't you supposed to be saving your energy just in case an actual demon shows up?"

"Well… let's just call this a light warm up."

Victor's rage fueled his spell as the dark aura around him and his familiar grew. He poured all the power he could into his palms and let out a loud roar as a torrent of black energy shot out towards Bernard. The demon sent its own beam of violet energy to join its master's. The two beams joined and spiraled toward the old lord.

Zeph watched from above as his grandpa held out a hand and conjured a quick shield of magic to block an attack that the poor cultists seemed to put all his energy into. Unsurprisingly, the beam didn't so much as ding the shield. Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Someone was trying to escape. With a thought and some magic, Zeph sent a message to Eli. "There's a cultist trying to escape the camp," he said while making sure he was recording the location.

The running cultist was wrapped up in vines before he could react and fell down. The vines continued to ensnare the man until he was completely cocooned. Eli smirked, "Thanks little dude. Keep an eye out for more. It seems like everyone is wrapping up the attack.

Just like Eli said, the cultists and valir weren't confronting each other directly like before. Instead, the valir had to hunt the remaining cultists down while they tried to escape. Zeph managed to point out the runners while Eli captured them. The attack lasted a little over an hour and it was more anticlimactic than Zeph thought it would be. Then the images of burning cultists and mangled bodies started to flash before his eyes again. He shook his head to rid himself of the images. Perhaps it was a good that things ended so soon.

After a few more laps around the camp to make sure there were no stragglers, Zeph sent a message to his grandpa to tell him the valir were finished. Bernard read the message and looked at the panting cultist in front of him. The man and his familiar had been attacking constantly while the Bernard defended and taunted him. "Well it was a nice distraction, but I'm afraid I must be going," he told the cultist.

Victor grit his teeth. Nothing he did worked and now he was low on magic and knew the old mage was going to finish him off. There was really only one option now. If he was going to die, then he was going out with a bang. "I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of finishing me off," he growled. Then he started to let his magic rampage uncontrolled through is body. His blood felt like it was boiling and his body felt like it was tearing itself apart. A loud scream escaped his mouth as his body erupted in black magic. In one last act of defiance, Victor self-destructed into a violent explosion of corrupted magic.

Alex and Bernard had to create a barrier around the cultist to prevent the explosion from affecting the magical beasts around them. A giant dome formed and contained the rampaging mana as it swirled and tore through everything inside. Several long seconds later, the attack ended and left a barren empty sphere of nothingness inside the barrier.

"That was actually quite an effective attack. We should warn the others about it in case any of the ones we captured can do the same," Bernard said.

"Right away," Alex said as he started to message Eli.

__

Zeph waited for Eli and the valir to group up before landing on the top of some rubble. It was the remains of a wall. Then he listened to the elf congratulate everyone on a job well done. They continued to talk, but Zeph was having trouble paying attention. Instead, he chose to look at the red-haired man again and try to figure out why he was so familiar. He noticed something new and decided to fly over and land on Eli's shoulder.

Max was rolling his shoulder to relieve some of the tightness caused by the fights earlier. The battle went much better than expected. Their enemies were unprepared and untrained. This made things easier than anyone could have hoped for. While he was making some small talk with Miriah, he saw that weird owl fly over and land on his bosses shoulder. It hooted and clicked a few times before Eli nodded.

"Hey Max?" the elf asked.

"Yes, Sir?"

"What happened to your eyebrow?"

'Damnit, the illusion must have worn off while I was fighting!' he thought and quickly cast the spell again to cover up his missing eyebrow with an illusion of one. It was too late though as he saw everyone else trying to hold in a laugh.

Bernard walked in just in time to hear this exchange and saw the looks of amusement on everyone's face. 'Good, that'll help alleviate some of the tension. I hope Zeph is alright after seeing his first real battle with humanoid opponents,' he thought.

Bernard leaned over to Alex and whispered, "Alex, I would like you to take Zeph home and make sure he's alright. Tell him he can keep the bike. Hopefully, the ride home will lighten his mood. I'm sure he's not feeling too well at the moment and needs a distraction."

"You're most likely right. I'll make sure he's okay while you and the rest take care of things here." Alex turned toward Eli and held his arm out. "Eli, allow me to take your feathered friend home and get him something to eat. He's performed well tonight.

Zeph tilted his head and was about to fly over to Alex's arm, but had a sudden realization. "Wait, a minute," he messaged them. Then he flew over into a large tent. After a couple of minutes he flew back out with a small bag held by his beak.

Max saw the weird owl come out and land on the old dwarf's arm with what looked to be a bag of cookies. "What the heck?" he couldn't help but ask.

Eli looked at the valir and smirked, "It's so he doesn't have to get a fish."