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Chapter 56 - Chapter 56

Leor finally succumbed to exhaustion after nearly three hours of training, letting his eyes drift shut and carry him into the realm of dreams. The night passed without incident, but as the morning sun rose, Leor was awakened by a frantic pounding on his door, the blows echoing along the cold stone corridor.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Leor pushed himself up from the hard floor that served as his bed and walked to the door. He expected to see Alina's face on the other side, but instead he found the face of a familiar young dark elf.

"Uh. Your name was Veyrick, right?" he mumbled.

The young elf seemed frustrated for some reason. Up close, it was clear he had recently been in combat. His left arm was wrapped in a bloody bandage, and dirt streaked his knees and right side, as if he had been forced to the ground at some point during a struggle. The bandage was fresh enough that a faint iron smell rose from it.

"Human! You must come with me!," he said, reaching out to grab Leor's shoulder and pull him out of the room.

Leor resisted the young elf's pull with his superior strength, easily shrugging off the hand and stepping back into the room.

"Whoa. Hold a second. Let me put my pants on at least. You can explain yourself while I get dressed."

Veyrick's face twisted into a grimace of displeasure, and he let out a quick huff of air. Nevertheless, he hastily explained the situation.

"You promised Thale you would lend your aid!" he said in an accusatory tone. "We have collected the first batch of defiled elves for cleansing. The others are standing guard, but the creatures have gone into a rage after the sunrise. It's getting more difficult to control them by the minute. You must come now!"

Leor's eyelids rose as he took in the situation. He pulled on his clothing quickly before rushing out the door. He didn't even finish getting dressed, simply grabbing his draconic steel breastplate and pulling it on over his head as he walked beside Veyrick.

"Where are they now?" he asked as they moved toward the fortress entrance.

Veyrick's displeasure faded a great deal as soon as Leor began to comply, and he gestured toward the exit as he spoke.

"Just outside the gates. The creatures are tied and gagged, but their threat is still great."

The two quickly made their way through the gates. The new Beasts who had been assigned the task of opening and closing the heavy doors were still lingering around the entrance, breath fogging in the morning chill. It seemed that Veyrick had entered the fortress and rushed to collect Leor the moment the gates had been opened.

Leor's brow rose in realization as he glanced over at the disheveled elf.

"Did you guys spend the entire night out hunting mutant elves?"

Veyrick gave him a swift nod, a look of determination filling his face.

"My people must not be left to rot in the filth of defilement. I will do whatever it takes to stop such a shameful thing."

Leor glanced over at the elf with an approving look. Veyrick could be arrogant, and Leor's first instinct was to dislike him, but the elf had some redeeming qualities. Leor had a soft spot for such complicated people, afterall, he had grown up alongside many.

As they stepped through the wide gates, Leor saw Thale and two other young elves pressing their knees into the backs of defiled mutants. The mutants were thrashing around in a blind rage, as if the small glimmer of red sun peeking over the distant forest was unbearable to them.

A few Beasts had moved over to help, pressing their powerful limbs into the backs of the creatures while waiting to see what the elves planned to do with them. Thale had managed to capture six mutated defiled elves in his first night of hunting.

Leor didn't waste any time, quickly pulling out his Willpower torch and sending a flood of Will into its brass handle. As the flame roared to life, the defiled were covered in a thick blanket of sacred white light.

If the morning sun enraged them, the glow of Leor's torch seemed to strike fear in their eyes. Instead of trembling with rage and trying to kill their captors, they began to struggle more earnestly to escape.

"Huh. That's new," Leor said with furrowed brows.

The mutants had never been afraid of his Willpower torch before. At most it had angered them. He couldn't help but wonder how the creatures had learned to fear his torch so quickly. It wasn't unheard of for defiled to slowly adapt and learn over time. You could see this in any severe environment, like the dark caves under the mountain. The defiled would slowly become adapted to that place, changing in small, unsettling ways.

However, it was unusual for them to change their behavior so quickly.

Leor put aside the oddness as he walked over to stand beside Thale. Even now, after less than a minute, the strength of the defiled was beginning to be drained by Leor's talent, making it much easier to hold them still.

Thale wore a tired expression on his face, gritting his teeth as he held the creature down with all his might. Leor leaned down and pressed his hand against the creature's back, letting a flood of Willpower flow into its body. The thrashing and fighting came to an abrupt end as a glazed look came over its eyes.

"Thank you," Thale said with a sigh of relief, slowly rising to his feet to stand beside Leor. He still kept one foot on the mutant's back, but it was clear that the danger had likely passed.

Leor smiled as he brushed a clump of dirt from the shoulder of Thale's leather armor.

"Looks like your hunt went well."

Thale pressed his lips together as he gave a slight nod, staring down at the defiled who were slowly being cleansed.

"It's a start. Capturing these mutants is a far more difficult task than simply slaying them. We learned to quickly bring them down and use a gag to stop them from alerting the others. The whole night was a balancing act on a razor's edge . One wrong move and the horde would collapse upon us like a flood," he explained with lingering fear.

To hurry the cleansing along, Leor used up more Willpower, placing his hand on each of the struggling creatures one by one. Thankfully, his Body of Will had plenty to spare, and would regenerate it all after a few hours.

Over the next ten minutes, all six of the mutated elves had finally gone still, and fallen into a deep sleep. At that time, one of the elves was sent inside to alert their other helpers. When he returned, it was accompanied by a group of older elves, mostly women, carrying clean clothes and water.

As the former defiled elves began to awaken in confusion, the new group collected them and led them into the fortress to get cleaned up. Their steps shuffled on the stone, and the soft murmur of reassurance followed them.

Veyrick smiled as he watched them be led away, then he glanced toward Leor with a haughty look.

"The size of our rescue operation will only grow. Today it's six, tomorrow it will be more. Be ready next time. We shouldn't have been forced to come and collect you."

Leor silently shook his head as he watched Veyrick walk away. The young elf just couldn't help himself, he had to be annoying. Thale had discussed his plans with Leor but never explained exactly when and where he would need Leor to show up, so expecting him to somehow magically know that information was foolish.

Thale shook his head as he wore an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about that one. Veyrick's family was too powerful for his own good, it's likely that no one ever corrected his poor behavior because they wanted to curry favor with his father. A problem common to many children of noble families."

Leor shrugged his shoulders. It was annoying, but it didn't bother him a great deal. He had grown up with children in the orphanage who had attitude problems far worse than Veyrick's. Leor learned long ago that the way they acted really had nothing to do with him. They were like barking dogs.

After the excitement of the cleansing, Leor headed inside to have breakfast with Alina. As they ate, she passed him a piece of paper with sketches of different types of rock formations on it, veins of exposed ore running through the different rocks.

"Didn't you say something about looking for supplies for the metalworking shop? I found this in the documents I've been going through. Some of the previous inhabitants of this fortress must have scouted out mineral veins before us. These are descriptions of the different metals available on this mountain and where to find them."

Leor's eyes shone with excitement as he glanced through the paperwork. Without a word, he quickly rose to his feet and walked across the dining hall. Slag was seated with a few pretty elven women. He seemed to be flirting and making small talk as he ate his breakfast, crumbs clinging to his stubble.

When he saw Leor approaching, he waved his arm dismissively.

"Don't come bugging me already. I told ya I'd have your order finished by tonight, and no sooner!"

Leor ignored the stocky elf's words and slapped the parchment down on the table before him.

"Take a look. Which of these is best to make my new weapon?"

Slag's brow drifted higher as he stared down at the paper, glancing through the different minerals available. As he flipped to the back of the page, a gleam filled his eyes as he studied the materials.

The elf tapped his thick finger down against the page, pointing at a shiny yellow mineral vein.

"That's Sunsteel. It's a late Adept-tier ore. Even if you could find better material, I wouldn't have the talent to work it. This is perfect." Then Slag flipped back to the front of the page and pointed to a dull green vein. "That's Wildore. It's full of spiritual energy, no good for making weapons, but it'll make the best armor you've ever worn. We could use some of that around here, too."

Leor nodded his head, accepting the paper back from Slag.

"I'm going to make a trip up the mountain to make sure this paper is correct, and collect a batch of Sunsteel. Maybe we can set up a team to mine ore once more elves have been saved from the defilement."

Slag rubbed his stubbled chin, knocking free the flecks of food that had been resting there.

"If you're going after the Sunsteel, you better stop by my shop first. You'll need some gear. You're a strong lad, but you ain't gonna break them ore filled rocks apart with your bare hands."

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