Chapter 382 382 Not Alone
Chapter 382 382 Not Alone
As soon as Wolfe began to move the witches through the woods, he got the feeling that they were being watched. The eerie silence of the forest wasn’t helping things, and [Detect Hidden] didn’t see anything, but the feeling kept growing stronger as they moved back toward the bus.
The barrier around the vehicle was in sight when the feeling turned from being watched to being in danger, making Wolfe stop and raise another barrier around the witches on the net.
“I’m not sure if it’s a paranoia spell or a threat I can’t see, but something isn’t right.” He whispered to Ella.
“Give me a moment and some mana. I will try to break any curses and illusions in the area. Then we can finish the trip toward the bus. This place gives me the creeps anyhow.” Ella agreed quietly while she prepared the Witch Magic to check for and break the negative effects.
Her magic washed over the area in a wave of cleansing freshness, giving Wolfe the impression of a clean and pure Forest. The feeling of being watched vanished immediately, but the sense of danger was still there.
But now, Wolfe could see it. There were spectres in the woods, glaring at them with hunger in the glowing orbs that made up their eyes.
Wolfe prepared to use Unholy Fire to clear them all away, as both it and the advanced forms of lightning would affect the incorporeal spirits, but before he could activate a spell, the little Reaper was between them, carving a swathe through the closest of the spectres with its scythe and cackling with glee.
He hadn’t gotten to hunt much since he was summoned, but today, there was a small army of ghosts around him with no defence against his attacks.
The undead Familiar chopped and floated its way through the crowd, sucking up the lingering energy of the dissipated spirits and doing its best to make sure that it was always between Wolfe and anything that he tried to target.
“Where did that thing come from?” Someone shouted from the net full of Witches.
“It’s a Familiar. Just relax and let it work. The combination of the little Reaper and the barrier will keep you all safe. The hostile Undead can’t pass through Unholy Fire.” Wolfe explained.
The witches were mostly too tired to do more than simply collapse back onto the netting, but Wolfe began to move forward again now that the Reaper was here to fight, and the illusion that had been hiding the undead as they approached was broken.
“Good work, Reaper. You can have them all. I promise Wolfe will stop trying to kill steal.” Ella told her Familiar, making a few of the more energetic Witches chuckle.
The creature had claimed them all as its own, and even a single spell from Wolfe was too much for its pride to take after it had been waiting for so long to show everyone why it was called a Reaper.
Wolfe kept the pace to a slow walk, giving the creature time to hunt the spectres, which rapidly fled and then tried to return to find ways through the barrier that Wolfe had set. The behaviour made Wolfe worry about the safety of the busload of witches waiting on them, but they hadn’t honked.
Or at least he hadn’t heard them honk. There was the possibility that the spell that the undead had cast blocked his senses well enough that he might have missed it.
Little Reaper was almost glowing with all the energy that he had taken in, and Wolfe could sense the creature becoming a bit more corporeal for an instant before the sensation faded and turned to latent energy.
It seemed that the Reaper actually grew stronger by absorbing energy from the creatures that it killed, and Wolfe began to understand why it was so particular about getting all the kills on the undead here.
Not only was it bored, but its growth had been stifled by the lack of targets to kill. Even worse, it had been left behind, and only the sense that his Witch was in danger was enough to draw him here despite the warning to stay put in the Fae Forest.
Now, the barrier around the bus was finally in sight, and Wolfe could see the eager faces of the Witches who had been hoping that his return would come as quickly as possible. They couldn’t drive the bus, and they couldn’t leave the barrier that Wolfe had cast either, so they could only sit there and wait for him to come back and finish the job.
Little Reaper was looking very smug as he finished his meal, but Ella had a deeply worried look on her face and in her thoughts.
“Well, what’s got you so worried? I can feel it from here, so you might as well say it out loud. That way, we can all work on a solution.” Wolfe suggested.
“Those undead. They weren’t ancient. They were wearing modern jewellery, and one of them had a cell phone in its pocket. What I mean is that those were most likely witches and humans killed this last year, either by the curse that we passed through or by some other means.
If Reaper hadn’t devoured them, they would have returned during the next new moon to attack another group who couldn’t defend themselves. We should return here and break the curse on the area and then bury the bodies that those undead are attached to.” Ella explained.
Wolfe nodded slowly. “Or, we can tell the Headmistress, and she can send a team here to deal with it. She might also know where the bodies would have come from and who was most likely to have been able to cast a spell that large.
It covered a huge amount of the forest, so it was likely ritual magic or an old curse that had a long time to expand. That might not be easy for us to deal with on our own.
When in doubt, make it someone else’s problem.”