[Ouroboros' End]
Snarling as his senses failed to pick up on any of their opponent's mana signatures even after a few seconds of searching, Darganth trotted back toward their base with a sour mood.
'Not even one.' He thought to himself, remembering the surprising ease with which his attempt to block the enemy's teleportation had been rebuffed.
When it comes to spatial magic, such a feeling was foreign to him, as even those spatial mages he had fought since his rebirth never outclassed him to the extent the maker of these magic items seemed to do. Certainly, the fact that they were likely powered by weeks or months of accumulated mana meant that the gap would be smaller in a direct confrontation, but neither did that mean that he wouldn't still be outclassed, nor did it change the implications for their plans.
Though while every reasonable person would say that this should worry him and maybe even make him consider a change of plans, Darganth couldn't agree less. Instead, he felt excitement at the prospect of a challenge. The ten years since their victory over the beastmen and human emperors might've been enjoyable, but the part of him that craved a thrill always felt like a scratch he just couldn't reach.
As such, by the time he reached Alicia, his anger over the fact that they had attacked her had already mixed into an excitement to tear through the group responsible layer by layer until he'd have its boss' head on a spike. Such feelings might be a bit hypocritical considering that they had chosen the property for the express purpose of baiting the group into attacking, but Darganth saw no reason why this should interest him. They had chosen to take that bait of their own volition, and a reasonable treatment and reaction wasn't something he cared to give to his enemies.
Returning to his transformed form as he passed by Alicia, Darganth left his wings unfurled and used them to shoot up onto the balcony a moment later. His sister followed shortly after him, similarly back in her human form so that she didn't damage the wall of the building by squeezing into the only a few meter wide walkway.
"Were they who I think they were?" Allaire asked the moment he landed.
"I don't see another organization they could belong to, so I hope you've already finished preparing." Darganth said.
His words were met with a mix of nods of confirmation and surprised looks.
"You still want to continue with the original plan? It's clear that they are more prepared than we thought, so they might be prepared for us to follow." Neandra asked.
"It most certainly is, just not one that'll work. With the attackers teleporting to escape, we've just all but confirmed the rumors that the smuggler's leader is a spatial mage, so I think I have a good idea what he's planning." Darganth said.
"And that doesn't include him teleporting into the wilderness the moment you're too far for me to reach quickly?" Neandra asked skeptically.
To this, Darganth confidently shook his head. They knew what the smuggler group wanted access to the wilderness for, and now he also knew what their leader was capable of. But with access to both pieces of information, gaps became apparent in the reasoning why the former required their property.
While before the problem of capabilities could explain these, with how proficient in spatial magic the leader seemed to be, an inability to reach the wilderness without the property would be surprising. Especially because, as smugglers, they would want as little visible indication of their presence once they started landing and unloading Starweavers in the wilderness, so transporting the goods through portals was even a preferable option.
While that might be explainable by something as simple as laziness from the person who would have to sustain these portals, to Darganth and Yldra, it didn't appear as that. Knowing full well the capabilities and limits of the spatial element, they recognized that the effort to sustain such portals wasn't enough for all but the most entitled of people to be too lazy to do so. But on the flip side, they had quite a few alternative ideas about what might prevent such a plan that went beyond the inability or the necessity for the mage to use his powers somewhere else.
"He won't. I'm not sure what, but I'm confident that something keeps him from teleporting here. Whether that be fear of something or some still unreported phenomena, I don't know, but I'm almost certain that we won't be finding him anywhere in the wilderness. Though he might still try to attack our base, especially if it's as I think, and this attack is only to draw us away." Darganth said.
"You think he was ready to potentially sacrifice this many of his troops just to take over what is a mostly run-down building?" Neandra questioned.
"Probably. He's likely operating under the assumption that the strongest person among us is at most slightly more powerful than him, so being in a defensive position if a battle breaks out would be a great boon."
In response to those words, Venrie interjected an idea of her own, "What if we use that to our advantage. He likely won't commit to a full attack if some of us stay back, as he won't know whether you've left with us or not, but maybe you could fake a second expedition in a day or two? Make a big show of leaving with heavy equipment and so forth, but hide it somewhere nearby and sneak back with Vagha's group and whoever else might be worthwhile to have in the defense."
At her idea, Neandra raised an eyebrow toward Darganth.
"It's worth a try. Still, we don't know how tight the resource constraints that kept him from taking over the property actually are, so it's entirely possible that my projection of a possible attack is completely wrong. Though maybe delay for a bit and have the others work through some of the priority list of repairs before you try. And our opponent is still a spatial mage, so don't necessarily focus on taking him out and thin out his troops if he himself makes hit-and-run attacks." Darganth said.
Spatial mages were exceedingly mobile and thus hard to kill, even with the power advantage Neandra had. Especially because her two best options, ambushes and large-scale attacks, weren't really options as he'd surely be alert, and they were quite close to a city full of uninvolved civilians. As such, Darganth wasn't confident that Neandra could succeed in such an attempt, at least not without unleashing her power as an ascendant.
"I'll try to keep it in mind." Neandra said with a look in her eyes that assured Darganth that her actions would at least also thin out the number of troops from the smuggler group, even if that might not be her first priority.
Deciding that that was enough of an assurance, Darganth chose to trust Neandra's restraint. It's not like it mattered how the battle ended beyond them keeping control over the mansion, optimally without suffering any losses in the process, so there's little harm in her pursuing retribution for the attack he ordered.
"And what of the attackers themselves? Because if I sense their position correctly, it would take me all of ten minutes to reach them at my fastest." Neandra questioned, interrupting his line of thought.
"They teleported somewhere in the open?" Darganth asked, surprised that the magic items hadn't brought the attackers to one of their bases.
"Into the wilderness, yes. About halfway toward your destination, though a bit off toward the left from the straight path toward it. I could take care of them before you set out?" Neandra said.
Briefly thinking about it, Darganth shook his head a moment later. He did so in part because even just a minute would be enough for entire fights to start and end, even between evenly matched mythic ranks, at least if one made a mistake. Consequently, their enemy's leader could likely overwhelm them before Neandra even had a chance to get back, so that wasn't a risk he was willing to take as long as they had good reason to believe he'd be targeting their base soon. Not to mention the fact that Neandra's departure would be noticeable, as Darganth inferred from her words that she'd have to transform to achieve such a time.
Lastly, he also had a more personal reason for this decision. "Give me their position. I want to finish what I started, and I think Alicia might want the same, so we'll personally make them regret their ambush."
"Alright." Neandra responded. Holding out her hand as he conjured a map into his hands, she took a moment to translate the position she had sensed with her mana sense into a point on the map before puncturing that position with a claw-tipped finger to mark it.
"Thank you." Darganth said as she returned the map to him.
With this, he turned to the rest of their group, "Now then, despite the interruption, I'd say we keep to the original schedule, so we'd set out in an hour. Though with the new developments we're going to need your power more than before Venrie, so tell me if you need to prepare for these new circumstances." Darganth said.
Shaking her head in response, the elven woman indicated that she was ready.
"I hadn't held back any contingencies before, so I wouldn't have anything even if I wanted to do something. But I'm confident that the boosts that I've prepared would be enough to hold off even the enemy leader long enough that you and Yldra can teleport us away." She said.
"Then we'll continue to rely on you for emergencies." Darganth said.
Nodding with a slight smile, Venrie acknowledged his words before silently waiting for any other additions from their group, though none of these came. Recognizing that for what it was and understanding that the discussions on the topic of their impending expedition were finished, she turned to Alicia to inquire how the latter was faring after the sudden attack. In short order, Allaire joined the conversation of the two, while the others fell into the same patterns of casual conversations they typically engaged in as their group slowly made its way back into the interior of the building.