Warlock Apprentice

“Due south?” Angor tried to confirm.

“Yup.”

That didn’t make sense. They were pretty close to the exit, which meant any robbers would show up in large groups by now. This had always been the case as they encountered more and more enemies.

Those who didn’t have Meraid’s Swords should all be laying in wait and hopefully, work together. Why would someone break off from the group and come alone?

Angor couldn’t understand the reason. Nevertheless, it was good news since there was only one enemy to worry about. But again, something told him that the matter was more complicated, and perhaps dangerous.

He chose to keep the concern to himself right now instead of revealing it to others.

Nausica was getting more and more stressful as they moved farther. “Hey, Angor… something isn’t right.”

When he struggled with a decision, he saw some bubbles emerging from the surface of the sea.

Someone made it out??

A pair of black, pointy ears poked out of the water, followed by the body of a black kitten. The kitten looked pretty miserable in the water as its fur clung to its body.

“Luna??” Angor called.

Luna didn’t see Angor floating in the sky until it heard Angor’s voice and looked up.

“Marrrw!!” The creature’s eyes brightened up in joy. It jumped high and steadied itself on Angor’s clothes using its claws and teeth.

With several swift moves, Luna found a comfortable spot on Angor’s shoulder.

“You aren’t affected by the illusion?” Angor was sure Luna followed behind Keely when she jumped off.

Luna shook head and kept meowing at him.

Angor had no idea how to comprehend cat language. After some more failed conversation, Luna jumped back into the water again, and with a pleading look, it beckoned Angor with one paw.

The gesture was obvious enough—Luna wanted Angor to go help its master.

Angor sighed. He couldn’t possibly refuse Luna since it saved him from Yethew’s poison bug.

Quickly, he dived into the sea.

While moving, he took a quick mental calculation and concluded that they needed at least half an hour to reach Altar of Demise at full speed, supposing that there was nothing else to stop them on their way. This meant he had another half an hour to save everyone.

And if he failed to do so within the time limit… he HAD to leave on his own.

He wanted to save his friend, true, but only on the condition that his own life wasn’t in danger.

His life was number one in priority and nothing else could be more important than it. He believed that all wizards would do the same.

Once in the water, Luna quickly led Angor toward the depth.

Angor called Luna back and took over the gray scale Luna had been holding. Using the signals he sensed, he saw there were four swords and two scales at the bottom of the sea.

The swords weren’t moving. One of the scales was together with the swords, probably Nausica’s scale.

Angor checked the second scale and frowned. This one was moving toward the other signals.

So an expert illusionist set us up so that he could take our swords? But whatever was that vortex thing?

With multiple questions in mind, Angor cautiously moved toward the signals.