An ambience of death congealed around the Deep Water Organization mages, suffocating them with the fear of the unknown. Only 425 mages were left from the original 500 that had come to the Underbroom Cave, all in a matter of two short hours.
The surviving mages could not see or sense the enemy and had become easy targets, left without any room to exercise defense, let alone attack.
This was what the young mages thought.
On one side of the base, there was a group of three mages, two females and one male, who wore blue mage robes, sporting the Deep Magic Organization symbol, three circles with a wave, on it.
They were quietly discussing their worries among themselves that they did not want others to hear.
The male mage was the first to speak.
“I don’t know what we are going to do. We have lost 75 mages to the enemy, and yet, we did not encounter the enemy directly even once. We don’t have any intel on them. By any standards, at this point, there should be precautions that need to be taken.”
The two female mages exchanged a look and exhaled uncomfortably. One of them, a blonde-haired female mage looked around her, almost trying to see if she could decipher anything from gazing at the forest. But there was nothing to see in the far-reaching darkness. Only intermittent sounds of magical and ordinary creatures could be heard. The silent night reiterated that this time belonged to the predators who only knew to hunt and feed themselves.
The blonde female felt like one of the prey in the woods. The hidden enemy was the predator, and they were all his targets.
The long-black-haired female mage broke her chain of thoughts and started talking.
“I believe that Leader Elic already is thinking about something. At the very least, we need to stay alive until the numbers come down more. If the leader Elic and others see that the people are dying quicker, they may back down from the Underbroom Cave.”
The male mage nodded but the blonde female mage ruthlessly exposed the loophole in this false solace.
“How do you know that in the next three seconds, we are not the ones being killed from afar? We already backed down and are waiting for the next attack so that we can find the enemy. What makes you think that you, or I, are not the ones to be sacrificed next?”
The blonde female mage’s words poured cold water on the other two. They were reminded that there was no guarantee of their own survival.
However, all mages, who entered any organization, knew that their well-paid arrangements came with risks of death and injury. True, they were paid better in comparison to commoners or even nobles. But there was no escape or the option to do anything else, except following orders from captains and leaders.
—
Nick was chewing on some kind of tough, tasteless meat at this moment. The quality of the meal was not important for him; he had taken these from Rabial for ration purposes. He was not here for a picnic, after all, he just needed to satiate himself.
He was waiting for the enemy to make some move before he did. For about 10 minutes, he was observing a group of three young mages whispering among themselves. At first, he smiled at the thought that he had found his next target. But then he stopped and began considering more base means.
What is the one thing that human beings fear the most? This question seemed difficult, but the answer was painfully simple.
“All humans dread the unknown. Sometimes dying is salvation, compared to waiting for an impending death that could come without warning.”
Nick put himself in their shoes to understand their psyche.
Just about now, all mages should be afraid of him. They did not know who was attacking them, how many enemies there were, where the enemy was or what they looked like.
They also did not know who would be targeted next or when they would hear about another death. All of this would pressurize their minds easily.
It was basically knowing that you are watched by a sniper, but you don’t know where the sniper was, how many snipers there were, or which friend or comrade of yours would fall in the next second. Not everyone could deal with this kind of mental pressure.
For this reason, Nick did not attack and waited.
“I will eat and drink more and reenergize, while they fret and frown. The more scared they will be, the more stressful situations they will create for themselves. The weaker ones will start creating more trouble for others. All this will dampen the organization’s morale.
“As they believe the enemy is not around and begin to feel safe, I will attack and kill a whole group of 10 again, destroying their hope of survival. With this next move, most of the weak ones will start losing themselves. If I am lucky, there could be infighting.”
Nick made his plan and waited, guarding his surroundings as he fed himself. If not for his past, people would have believed that he was a human genius and a sociopath. But he can achieve all this because he uses his mind and has the knowledge of human intellect evolved over the ages, in his brain.
As long as he opened up his brain and improved his magical ways, he will have more knowledge and more magical power to destroy his opponents. He will unravel the secrets of magic and in the end, will find a way to go back to Earth.
He does not want to return because he misses Earth. It is because, with his new magical powers, he will change Earth as humans know it. Considering that he will have god-like powers when he returns to earth. Changing the system should not be hard for himself.
These were his grand dreams and goals. But there was a long way to go before he reached that point. Right now, he was just a puny little mage, pretending to be a cat, scaring the rats that dared to invade his home.
