The reason Alena abandoned her primary affinity to become a healer was because she watched her mother slowly die from a strange disease that none of the healers their families procured could heal. Even as she spoke, Greg could both see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice that she remembered the powerlessness of watching her mother slowly waste away. Their family was full of powerful light mages and yet, none of them could do a thing for her mother. That's how Alena came to choose the school of life. She'd sworn to herself that never again would she lose someone close to her because she wasn't able to save them from whatever was ailing them. Later in life when she was a fifth-tier mage, she came to find out through her investigations that the disease was the result of an engineered attack by a rival clan against their family. That's how a clan that had been around for more than a thousand years was eliminated right to the last person in a single night by a single healer. "I don't

She could see it clear as day in the way his eyes regarded her, like a predator marking their prey. And yet, that part of her that enjoyed this little game of cat and mouse had convinced her to go along with it. That he was pulling her along to her room because he really did care. That he offered to massage her, not because he wanted to grope her, but because he wanted to help her relax. That he was folding her dress around her waist, exposing her breasts, and barely covering her womanhood, simply because he wanted the massage to be as effective as possible, and the clothes would be in the way. It was one little lie after the other that had allowed her to walk down this path of taboo debauchery. And now, as she lay on the bed, writhing like a worm, her mind reduced to mush by the overwhelming pleasure that was coursing through her, the truth that her mind had been trying to diligently hide from, crystalized with absolute clarity. She understood, what it was that had changed within her

It was now a week from the day he had dinner at the Valla household. While they had gotten him to agree to go on this hunt, Greg hadn't exactly been looking forward to it. It wasn't like he was blind to what they were trying to do. To them, he was little more than a gambit they needed to secure in their bid for power. Once they had what they wanted, Greg highly doubted they would be as chummy as they were trying to pretend to be. Not to mention that, despite their best efforts to hide it, Greg could see the resentment that both Valla siblings held toward him. While their seniors saw him as a ticket to power, the two only saw him as an impediment to being with the one they wanted. All of this and Greg's disinterest in being involved in the town's politics was the reason that he'd been hoping that they'd forget the whole thing if he didn't show any interest.Unfortunately for him, he found Niya waiting for him outside of the infirmary after his morning session with the healer. Greg was

Take a rhino, give it the size of an elephant, and cover it with a layer of damn near unbreakable obsidian armor that juts out randomly into ridges strong and sharp enough to cut through the bark of a tree. This was the closest approximation of what Greg found himself looking at as he stood frozen like a statue in the middle of the forest. The heart of the mountain. The words fleeted through Greg's mind as they bubbled up from Roka's memories. Everyone in town had been warned of this creature, which was why even Niya had immediately recognized it and, like Greg, also stood frozen in abject terror. Only three of its abilities were known and that was enough for this earth-element beast to become one of the top menaces of the mountain.The first and most unexpected ability of such a massive beast was its ability to move completely quietly. Whenever this beast either walks or runs, its feet don't fall to the ground like most other beasts. Instead, the ground will rise to meet its feet bef

This worked out in Greg's favor as it spared him the necessity of having to look back at the beast to know where it was relative to him. This allowed Greg to keep his cool and not be paranoid that the beast was right behind him. It also allowed him to more easily guide the beast away from town and towards a more favorable battleground. While Greg was moving incredibly fast, he also knew that it wasn't sustainable. Sure, running at three or four times one's usual speed sounded exciting until one actually paused and thought about what that kind of strain would do to one's body. Through a mix of adrenaline and magic, he was overtaxing his body. And in a little over a minute, perhaps even two if he really pushed it, his body would have accrued too much damage to keep on going as he currently was. Torn muscles and ligaments, perhaps even fractured bones were certain to be the end result of this sprint. What was even worse was that Greg knew that he wouldn't be able to get away in the one