Alexander nodded, it seemed Joshua had thought things out well ahead. He liked the thought of getting wyvern scales, it'd be effective amour but still light. Rather appealing. By the time he was able to raise his agreement Joshua had already run off. "Well, I guess we go the gates, c'mon buddy." Alexander said, the last part of his statement directed at Larion and he began lightly jogging towards the town gate. At least he hoped he was going to the right gate, he didn't actually know how many gates this place had as he'd only left by one or maybe two. Bloodleaves hm. It sounded dangerous and Alex was pretty sure he'd heard of it before. From what he remembered saying that it wasn't a nice place was an understatement, what would being stationed there be like?

"You are aware, that telling your subordinates at which gate to meet would help?" Due to his tracking spell, Imgor had no problem finding Joshua after he had suddenly left with unclear instructions as to where to meet.
"For me and Sapphire this is nothing but a nuisance, but Alex doesn't have the ability to track through a city without some form of contact, be it visual or auditory. At least from what I can guess."

"Yes, but Alex isn't dumb.". Joshua said his next line jokingly, "Don't doubt my believes, subordinate! Or else you'll be... ERASED! Sneakretly!". He laughed a little.

"Nah, not really. But really, Alex doesn't seem like a complete idiot, does he? Any other questions, Imgor?"

"Of course he does not, but last I checked, he is currently heading for the wrong gate, even though it is very close to the one we're heading."

"...oh."

Joshua coughed. "...Well then. Can you go tell him he's heading for the wrong one? I don't want to go with you and then confuse Sapphire, you know? .. Wait, where is she, even? Am I going senile?"

"Damn, I haven't asked this many questions since I found myself naked and smelling of cheese that one time! ... Have I told you that story yet? Great story."

"No, you have not." Imgor sighed, "Although you owe me one, for cleaning up the mess these unclear instructions have left."
He left to tell Alex, but not before jokingly ramming the handle of his new switch weapon into Joshua's shoulder.

Joshua sarcastically held his shoulder with one hand, and put the other to his forehead. "Most ouchies, woe is me! You have caused me great physical anguish with your most vicious attack! Put me out of mine misery, Argh."

Imgor turned around: "Is this supposed to be a joke?" He then left the scene for good.

Sapphire stared at the weapon on the wall without making any reaction visible, however she was charmed by it’s elegant design. She glanced at her fellow team member’s weapons considering possible strategies involving all three, however no matter what she did, her mind always refocused on her own weapon. After the other two removed the weapons from the weapons rack on the wall she finally went to acquire her own.

While she didn’t show it, she nearly trembled due to excitement. She had never held such an intricate weapon in her hands, let alone of this size. It was clearly crafted with great care. She slid her fingers over one of the blades, feeling it’s smooth texture. Amazing, she thought.

She barely listened to Imgor’s question and what Joshua had talked about in the meantime, only picking up the fact that they were supposed to meet him at the town’s gate.

She waited for the others to leave before leaving herself, not before thanking Harold of course.
Once outside of the shop she firmly gripped the handle of her scythe and stared at it some more. The Falcate Moon, she through, that’s what I shall name you. With that she took a deep breath as she suddenly spun her weapon to the left her body. The light starmetal from which it was made allowed her to wield it one-handed, however it wasn’t an easy task regardless. Mid rotation she switched hands as the intricate motion continued unhindered on the right side of her body thanks to careful timing. She then slammed the double-blades into the ground, ending the circular motion and leaving a deep gash in the pavement. She finally exhaled and closed her eyes, seemingly savoring the moment.

The tranquil moment passed and she merely managed to take one step after she decided it was time to find Joshua, only to realize he hadn’t specified at which gate they would meet.

Ruby, please find Joshua for me, she mentally instructed her familiar. With a quick, ostensibly playful flyby, Ruby took off into the sky. It didn’t take long for her to spot Joshua together with Imgor and as soon as she did, Sapphire jogged away towards his location. Rather baffled when Imgor bolted off in the opposite direction she stopped in her tracks. All confusion was swiftly cleared as Ruby also spotted Alex . . . heading towards the wrong gate. Sapphire let out a muffled chuckle and continued her jog.

Alexander stopped about halfway to the gate. It occured to him that there was a more reliable way to make sure he knew which gate Joshua went to. He tapped Larion lightly on the head and said, "Larion, track Joshua." He hadn't taught Larion a lot but he was a fast learner and tracking was one skill that Alex had decided Larion should learn quickly. It only took his ironback a few sniffs before he'd managed to find the scent, quite impressive considering the area, and headed towards Joshua quickly. Pleased Alexander followed quickly and with more assurance than before.

When everyone arrived at the gate Joshua was waiting at, he let out a smile. Sapphire, specifically, he could just tell was secretly bursting with anticipation. "Utterly lovely. I'm certain, with these you'll give plenty of infected peace.". The group waited at the gate as Joshua told a guard to open it. When it did, he began jogging out.

"Oh hey, would we like horses? I think we should get to a stable on the outside and get a horse. What say you three?", Joshua asked, thoughtfully. "I think there's a stable on the road, anyway.". "While we wait, should I give a bit more info on that possible Wyvern? Yes? Alrighty then!"

Joshua began to give all the info he had on that aforementioned Wyvern, "Well, it appears to be an albino, an obviously rarer type. Not necessarily stronger, but for some odd reason, as far as anybody can tell, they're 'social pariahs' in the very primitive circles that Wyverns have. They're probably quite cunning to compensate for that. You know, if you don't have any friends, you're going to have to do plenty of stuff all by yourself? In any case, as you should know, Wyverns can breathe fire occasionally, and their claws can rip off an arm if you're not careful."

Joshua reassured them, however. "Thankfully, though, this does appear to be somewhat younger. It should be mildly clueless and easy to confuse. Focus on dodging instead of parrying, and just bounce around everywhere, you should be fine."

"If we travel by horse, I would like to take a few more breaks then, to train with the new weapons. I'm sure we have an idea of how we want to fight with them, but knowing what moves to do when, doesn't equate to knowing how to make those moves quickly enough."
Imgor intentionally let his switch-weapon fall to the ground, as he continued to walk while holding the end of the chain, the chain straightened, and pulled the pickaxe-crossbow, which has yet to be named, behind him on the ground. If anyone looked at what he did, he waited until they looked at something else. He walked at the end of the quartet for that purpose, so that he had nobody behind him, who might trip over his weapon.

Imgor proceeded to use his levitation spell to lift the chain link by link, attempting to in the end lift the entire weapon alongside the chain. He focussed on lifting each link for a quarter of a second, before proceeding to the next, lifting it to the height the previous link was now levitating at. He was too weak, and he couldn't hold the chain after reaching about a third of its length, and it fell to the ground as the spell failed. He tried again, and again, and again; he was training. He could lift his previous weapons without too much of a problem using the levitation spell, he needed to do the same with his new one, as it is always useful to not have to handle the weapon, which you are using to fight an enemy, manually.

Before Coalstrike was out of sight, Imgor had already exhausted his magic so much, that he was too physically exhausted to keep walking, so he keeled over, hitting the dirt road face first. He was able to break his fall enough to not sustain injury, but he nonetheless fell.

Willo was now the sole member of Drake’s team, however the reason behind was still unclear. While on the way to the castle Drake often glanced at Willo which no doubt made her feel uncomfortable.
After fairly long walk Drake finally spoke as they neared the imposing structure before them.

“Tell me. Have you felt light-headed, sick, or in any way not yourself since we arrived in Kiruth. It is of great importance.”

His voice was indeed a relief. Willo was used to Lazarus being a bit on the creeper side, hell it was practically part of his character, but this particular brand of silence put her on edge. So much so that when he asked her a question she had no quip to tack on to her answer, no snark to add to her tone.

"N-no sir, right as rain."

A pause followed before Drake spoke again.
"Good. The task at hand is far more precarious than I originally suspected. Even more so now that Aelar and Ramone are no longer with us. In this castle, there is a creature, which is shrouded in mystery. I have yet to encounter one such as this, however it is rumored that it can manipulate the mind of lesser beings. Some have an inherent ability to resist it, usually those with a strong will. Aelar obviously does not. It would have been dangerous for him to join us and too dangerous to send him to the ship alone. In the end I chose you to continue on. It would seem I have chosen well. The mere fact that you have not even sensed the creatures presence speaks well for your strength of character. However, I cannot guarantee the same will be true when in close proximity to this thing." He paused and glanced at Willo, possibly to gauge her reaction.

In the back of her mind Willo was worried for Aelar, but at least he and Ramone would be alright, so long as she and Laz handled whatever beastie was holed up in Castle Bloodleaves. but of course at the front of her mind was the fact that he'd chosen her to continue on with the test. She looked up to Lazarus, eyes wide and excited, smile muted only by the teeth digging into her lower lip.

Then came the innevitable bouncing, accompanied by a squeal of delight. "We're gonna kick so much ass. Whatever the hell this thing is, it's not gonna know what hit it."

Evidentally, the idea of the creature's influence growing stronger didn't frighten her. But then she'd never dealt with anything of its caliber before, so it seemed time would tell. At the very least, her demeanor remained light-hearted.

Drake did not respond in any way to her comment, instead he took out a small peice of paper and held in front of Willo. A rune was represented on it, the same one Lazarus cut into Aelar's skin.

"If you feel yourself lost to it's influence use this. It's an unusual kind of rune. It must be drawn in blood. I hope I don't have to explain it any further. It is quicker and lasts long if cut directly into the skin." Lazarus explained.

By now the two were nearly at the castle. A long flight of staris awaited at the end of the path they were walking.

She took the paper from him, doing her best to commit the rune to memory. To say the idea of carving something into her skin didn't frighten her at least a little bit would have been a lie, but if she had to choose between that and whatever the hell would happen otherwise...well, didn't seem like much of a choice, really.

"Thanks, Laz," she said quietly, then stuffed the paper into her pocket.

Lazarus only nodded in response.
"Take the bandages off your arm." He then told her out of the blue.

She did, unwinding them until they came free. "You uhh...you want these or...?"

Before she could finish her sentence the sight of her arm robbed her of that. The cuts she had from the previous fight. They weren't just healed. There was absolutely no sign of them. No scarring, nothing.

"Good." Lazarus noted. "You can take off the rest, Your wounds should be healed now."

"Aw hell yes!" Willo quickly did just that, and tossed the remaining bandages aside. "This stuff is awesome, y'know that?"

Alex nodded in agreement, "Horses are fine and training breaks are equally important. Though the wyvern doesn't sound as though it'll be particularly troublesome with our numbers it still would be unwise to go in without experience." Alex wouldn't mind sparring a little with his new weapon to get a better feel for it and was confident that the others would feel the same. Alex turned at Imgor's sudden fall, immediatly checking for any injuries or attacks. To his surprise he found none, just exhaustion? "Hey, we had plenty of nap time, you alright?" Alex asked offering him a hand up. Had he been overusing his tracking spell? Searching for that bandit they'd run into earlier? Larion snuffled at Imgor curiously then left him alone. Larion had practically been running circles around Alex as soon as they left and periodically bounded into the woods to hunt for small, or large, animals.

Sapphire averted her gaze as Joshua eyed her for a moment. She wasn’t sure what to make it of it, the small quarrel they had earlier coming to mind. However, she didn’t let that bother her too much, especially as soon as Joshua smiled at them and soon after began his briefing-of-sorts in his usual bright demeanor.

While Joshua also explained they would likely face a wyvern, Sapphire did the same as she usually did when presented with a certain situation or foe. She tried predicting possible outcomes and coming up with tactics . . . only this time she failed miserably, being constantly distracted by her own weapon, capable of awesome destruction. She held it in her arms often gazing at it for long periods of time, instead of stowing it on her back.

So much in fact that Ruby landed next to Sapphire and used her beak to nudge Sapphire in order to grab her attention. Sapphire tilted her head to the side in amusement and let out a small chuckle. Jealous, are we? she thought, her thoughts unconcealed to her familiar. Mere days ago Ruby was the center of Sapphire’s attention as her first and only familiar. But now, a new challenger appeared.

Sapphire however, reassuringly placed a hand on Ruby’s neck while letting her forehead rest Ruby's soft feathers.

By now Joshua was done with all the explaining and they prepared to set off.

“Come on.” Sapphire spoke softly to her familiar. And so Ruby took off as the four set foot outside the gates of Coalstrike.

Not long after that Sapphire heard a thud behind her and turned around, only to see Imgor planted face-first in the ground with Alex at his side. She spent little time questioning the situation and instead turned towards Joshua only uttering his name to grab his attention.

Joshua stopped and turned his head towards Imgor, and walked over while rolling his eyes. Crouching down to help him get back up, Joshua commented "You should probably look where you're going, or perhaps you trained a bit too hard?". He gave a short lesson; "Actually, this is a good time to remind you three about something. Training your magical capabilities is all well and good, but much like physical exercise, you can't overdo it or you'll break something. And the... magical.. essence...? doesn't heal so easily, if at all, if you really screw up."

Joshua coughed unexpectedly, before continuing. "Of course, you still should exercise what you do know of the arts every so often, but you should really be careful. I'm sure you'll be fine though, Imgor.". Joshua then breathed for a second and resumed the quiet travelling. He seemed to enjoy it, going on a long trip in general. The quartet eventually saw a stable on the road, and Joshua noted that there didn't seem to be an owner or anything in the area.

"How much do you reckon four permanent horses would cost? 800 coins? That seems fair to me.". Joshua got out six 'one hundreds' in addition to four 'fifties' and left them in a small bag on one of the stables' doors alongside a note, before jumping over one of the gates. ...What are you all giving me that face for? It isn't illegal for Hunters to do things like this if we leave a fair amount of money. Didn't I tell you this already?"

Well, that's of ambiguous moral fortitude. No sense in going against their mentor's wishes, though. "Don't squabble on getting which horse. Let's ride!"

The relatively large stable had nine other horses under its' wooden roof, and all seemed well-bred and fed enough. The three students must pick a horse for the foreseeable future.

Sapphire listened in on Joshua’s lesson which prompted her to remember the time she exhausted her own magical abilities similarly to Imgor. . . while defending Nickolaus Schulze. She cringed slightly at the memory before closing her eyes and sighing. Joshua’s cough cleared her mind and soon afterwards they were on their way again.

Once at the stables Sapphire raised an eyebrow at Joshuas actions, however, for once she was the first go on ahead of the others, following Joshua over the gate. She occasionally had done similar things even before becoming a hunter in training. It was always out of necessity of course. She walked in front of all the stalls eyeing each horse from under her hood. After having seen all of them she returned to the enclosure that held one of a dark grey color. Under the cover of the night it could be mistaken for a perfectly black one.

Sapphire opened the gate and undid the rope binding the horse. She led the horse out and waited for the rest to do so as well.

After a long flight of stairs the two finally arrived at the entrance of the castle, a giant gate looming over them. Drake was the first to notice something wasn't right.

"He should have already come. They customarily have someone waiting at the gate. This is highly unusual." Drake noted.

Willo cocked her head to the side and observed the castle. From afar it was certainly an interesting structure, to command such a presence that its shadow could have been cast across the town in a more agreeable light. Up close though, it was a monolyth, and she had to regard it was far more sincerity. The gate alone was larger than anything she'd ever seen in her hometown, and she figured there'd be little good in trying to climb it, as was the case with most gates. Even still, she was eager to step inside the castle's halls, for if they seemed so aweing on the outside, she couldn't imagine what they'd be like within.

"Waiting at the gate?" she asked, confused. "Thought this place was abandoned by normal folk. It still has a bellhop?"

"They do have keepers. Considering what lies beneath the castle, leaving it unguarded would not be wise. However, you are correct. This castle is a relic, a mere shell of what it used to be." Lazarus explained while stepping closer to the gate.

Surprisingly there was nothing to prevent the gate from being opened and despite it's size the gate must have been quite light, possibly made of star metal, the material most commonly used to craft switch-weapons, since Lazarus pushed it open with seemingly little effort. That or Lazarus had a lot more strength than he originally let on, despite not looking the part.

He cautiously stepped inside and immediately crouched as something caught his attention. A faint blood-streak lead further inside the building.

Following with admittedly less stealth to her air, Willo nonetheless crouched with Laz when something seemed to spook him. She tried to spy what had left the blood trail, but clearly the beastie -for really what else could it have been- was feeling more like enjoying its meal indoors.

"Think our friend did that?" she asked.

The huge hall continued on for what seemed like forever and so did the trail with it. Lazarus stood up and looked ahead.

"Unlikely." He responded. "There probably would have been alot more . . . mess here if it was so." He finished in an uncharacteristic way, using a rather crude vocabulary.

"Sounds like my kinda freak. So he's got buddies, then," she said, more than asked. It seemed naive to expect that the only beast they'd run into would be their target, but hey, hoping never hurt anyone.

"No. Whoever did this . . . was a human." Lazarus said.

That caught her off guard in a few ways. What were other humans doing up here? Other hunters, or treasure-seeking folk? What could drive someone to come to a place like Bloodleaves of their own accord. Friend or foe, she wondered most of all.

"Think they already did our job for us?"

"Doubtful. The presence of the aforementioned creature is still strong." He responded as he stepped forward, mainly staring at the ceiling then at the walls.

Willow once again kept to Laz's heels, eyes following his around the entrance. Atrium? Was that the word? She'd never been in a place so fancy before, it was liberating not having to worry about stretching her arms out and touching either wall.

"Guess it was a good try."

Lazarus didn't even take two steps when he suddenly stopped again causing Willo to bump into him.

"Wait." He told her as he took out a small piece of paper out of one of his pockets.

She sputtered whatever foul taste of Laz's clothing had decided to stick to her open mouth and took a few steps back, but said nothing.

Lazarus streched out his arm with the piece of paper in hand. The paper suddenly caught fire and runes lit up on the side walls and on the ceiling.

"That explains the lack of any form of lock on the gates."

Willo blinked. Yikes, she was not looking to get cut up or blown up or frozen, which was evidentally contrasting to the wishes of whoever preceeded them.

"Any way to disarm those without...y'know," she made a small exploding motion with her hands.

"Yes, but I will require your assistance. There is likely a control rune nearby that allows these other three to be temporarily disabled without removing them outright." And without further explanation, Drake began carving his own rune right on the edge of the barrier that kept them from entering.

A few minutes later he carved the final line into the rune and it's effect became visible immediately. A large portion of the barrier lit up while leaving a visible hole in it right where Drake had drawn the rune. The hole was definitely a tight squeeze.

"As expected. I won't fit. You however . . ."

Willo grinned and clapped her hands together. Sure it wasn't climbing, but maneuvering through tight spaces was something of a passtime for people of her stature. "Don't you worry Laz, I'll get that rune down in no time."

Unslinging Cinderwill from her back, she set it against the wall and approached the runic hole. Too small to dive through, she had to carefully inch through it, which again was no problem. More than one way to skin a cat. Once her head had gotten to the other side, it was only moments after the rest of her was up and standing across the port.

"Very good."

"Alrighty! Step two? How do I know what I'm lookin' for?"

"It will most likely be another rune similar to the ones on the walls, with an additional part that can be removed. Look in nearby rooms."

"Aye-aye, cap'n," she said, before whirling about to nose through the closest doorway. Of course, her eyes were kept peeled for any triggers that might set off other runes, but if she could keep light on her feet, she figured it wouldn't be too much of an issue.

At the end of the large chamber stairs lead upwards sticking to the walls and leading to two doors on each side of the wall respectively and before the stairs another set of doors. The trail of blooded ended at the door to the left.

Pushing through the first door she came across, Willo found herself hoping that leaving Cinderwill behind hadn't been a mistake. It wouldn't have fit through with her anyway, but still, it unnerved her.

Alexander shrugged. Well if they were paying it was alright then. He hopped the fence with ease and looked for a horse. Alex had never ridden one before and didn't really know what to look for, so he just grabbed the first one he could find. It was painfully average, brown, and of average height and size. It also seemed very placid, not at all disturbed when Larion sniffed it curiously. Alex jumped on, "We ready to go then?

Imgor was still struggling for strength, and thus just barely made it over the fence. He just wanted to rest right now, the state of his body left him with no other option, and a horseback was a good way of resting while traveling.

He relaxed every non-vital muscle the moment he would not just fall off the horse at the slightest movement. The horse was visibly confused by this, attempting to escape.

In the castle Bloodleaves Willo was hard at work trying to figure how to disable the barrier keeping Lazarus outside.

The first door to the right, opposing of the one where the blood trail led revealed some sort of storage room for various weapons including regular swords, maces, glaives and, uniquely, a crossbow. It's bow part was made of two sharp blades. Even lightly touching the edges would most likely result in a cut. The weapons were probably to be used in case the first line of defense was breached. It was rather curious that not only were there no signs of struggle, excluding of course the trail of blood, if that can be considered a struggle, moreover all weapons were accounted for too. As far as Willo could tell anyways. On the wall opposing the door, a vaguely familiar rune was carved into it and glowing brightly. It was the same as the ones at the entrance. However, Willo didn't have the luck of being faced with an as simple task as described by Drake. The rune had, in fact, four removable tiles opposed to Lazarus' assumption of merely one. Two to the left and right of the rune's center and the other two to the top and bottom. Each tile additionally had a word inscribed into it. The top one had 'Everything' ,the bottom had 'Nothing', the right one 'Darkness' and the left one had 'Light'.

Additionally an inscription below the rune read:

"It is greater than God and more evil than the devil. The poor have it, the rich need it and if you eat it you will perish."

Further down the wall another inscription.

"A mile from end to end, yet as close to as a friend. A precious commodity, freely given. Seen on the dead and on the living. Found on the rich, poor, short and tall, but shared among children most of all."

"Hey you alright there?" and through a mix of luck and skill his horse pranced next to Imgor's own and Alexander put a steadying hand on Imgor's horse, preventing its wild movement. That whole magic thing must've drained him more than he thought. "I got ya." Alexander said and tied a short rope from one Imgor's horse's straps to his saddle. Now it should stay calm and Imgor should be to nap or whatever. "Now we're ready to go."

“Excellent!” Joshua exclaimed as he set forth leading the trio. “We should reach that sawmill in no time. Maybe even too soon. Don’t push yourself Imgor, lost limbs tend to have a bad way with a trainers reputation, yes? Good.” Joshua finished with a laugh.

The forest got denser as the four took a turn off the main road and into the woods. A light mist engulfed them as they inched deeper into the woodland.

“I’m sure it was somewhere around here.” Joshua rubbed his chin.

"Ah! There!"

And sure enough, moments later a sawmill revealed itself through the trees and faint fog. As expected, a clearly still young Wyvern had made it it’s home, resting underneath the shabby wooden structure. It looked rather peaceful. Looks, however can be deceiving. The place itself had an eerie feel to it. As if . . . they were being watched.

"Try to make it quick though. We are running late. Joshua said with confidence that his students were up to the task before hopping off his horse.
“Well then. What are you waiting for?” He urged them with a grin.

Sapphire, on the other hand, had a bit more trouble dismounting. And as soon as she did she grasped her abdomen, clenching her teeth, which did not escape Joshua.

“Everything alright, Sapphire? Not having second thoughts or anything, are we?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, everything’s fine.” She responded.

Joshua merely nodded, but he didn't look convinced.

---

On the outskirts of Kiruth a black haired fancily clothed individual was riding his horse, which happened to be his familiar too, into the moon-lit town. The bond between man and horse is a strong one. However, that bond pales in comparison to the connection between familiar and master, their thoughts eternally intertwined.

The young man held a letter in his hands and it was likely the third or so time he was reading it. It seemed fitting though, as he was so close to his destination.
Castle Bloodleaves.

“Dear Jonathan,

I’m sorry to hear about the disappearance of your previous trainer and the disbanding of your group as a result.
However I’m happy to say a spot has just been freed up after the departure of one of my students. Therefore I’d be happy to take you under my wing. I’m sure you’ll get along well with the rest of my pupils.

That being said, I’d like you to meet us at Castle Bloodleaves in two days.
I look forward to meeting you.
Take care,

Joshua”

It was the response he got after requesting to continue his training under him.

A glance at the town’s roads distinctly visible from the hilltop revealed a crowd gathering somewhere near the center of Kiruth. At this time in the night, the only reason possible was that something had transpired there. A scuffle between bandits maybe? It was probably worth a look as Jonathan was early anyways.

Alexander shrugged and got off his horse, leaving it to graze. He took out his weapon and looked at the creature, if they got the jump on this it would be easy. But he didn't like the un-nerving feeling of this place. Like there was a bigger fish. Still they couldn't just idle here forever. "Hard and fast, if we can get close without waking it up and strike it at the same time that would be best. If not limit its mobility as much as possible and make a safety a priority. Sound good?" Alexander asked his teammates. With any luck they'd be back on the road in minutes, and all in one piece. Larion stared at the wyvern, his teeth bared in a feral grin, but he patiently waited for his chance.

By the time they arrived, Imgor had recovered sufficiently to physically fight. As he jumped off his horse, he used his weight and momentum to provide the necessary force to cock his crossbow, which he then immedeatly loaded with a wooden bolt he had crafted while waiting for his switch-weapon to be ready and aimed it at the wyvern.
"What if we were to completely limit its movement while it is still asleep?" He replied to Alexander, while asking his familiar to dig below the sawmill to cause it to collapse onto the wyvern. The mass of a building should be enough to hold it down.
However the eerie feeling of the place overshadowed Imgors planning, so just to be sure, he used his tracking spell to search for anything potentially hostile.

The moment his tracking spell was triggered, Imgor felt something like nothing else. It nearly felt like the spell was percieving the air around him as hostile and he couldn’t shake an uncontrollable feeling of dread. If simply standing in the area made them uneasy, Imgor’s spell amplified that by an outrageous factor. It felt like the entire forest was hostile and that’s what his spell was after. Imgor immediately felt his magical energy reserves being depleted at an alarming rate.

Still weakened from before, the sudden drainage caused him to collapse again. He attempted to warn his teammates: "This place...all is our enemy." He couldn't speak more words in that moment, but his familiar had already gotten to work below the sawmill, it knew, that Imgor wanted it that way, one less enemy is always better.

“Yes, I’ve felt it too. It almost feels like a trap. However I think we should still continue with what we intended in the first place. If it is, I’m sure the enemy will make their presence felt.” Joshua responded to Imgor.

His face expression changed and it was hard to mistake. For once he was worried. The fact that both Imgor and Sapphire were not at their best clearly did not escape him.

At the same time Sapphire removed her scythe from the back yet the motion was pained and slow. Her hood for the most part hid the beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

Jonathan sighed as he thought back at the circumstances that had led him here. His mentor had disappeared for no clear reason, and he had to utilize some heavy-duty name-dropping to get in touch with another so quickly. He did note he somewhat missed the companionship from his previous traveling partners, but as such things go, it couldn't be helped.

Still, things were looking up, Integrating into Joshua's group would be quite a bit easier than meeting up with the previous group... It had all really been quite a humbling experience to work with people he would have considered incompetent plebians beforehand. He chuckled at his immature self from not too long ago, so self-absorbed, so firmly convinced he would be the sole competent warrior in a wandering gang of plebians.

Talking about plebians, it seemed some were crowding together near the center of town. Jonathan thought about the distance he had yet to travel to his destination, and concluded he had the time for a small distraction. And besides, he was getting bored. It had been quite some time since he had really encountered any creature that proved to be an actual challange to his skills. Of course, a mounted warrior had quite a clear advantage over most dangerous wildlife, and even the more exotic creatures were hard pressed to really deal any damage through his heavy armor plating.

He gently spurred linda into a gallop, if there were anything of note going on, Jonathan would be the fist to get there.