"I think there's some way we can talk this out," Axel asked, taking as many steps back as he could without walking into a burning building.
The captain said nothing, he simply started to make a circle with his fingers.
Getting down low, Axel began to run towards his captain, before stopping suddenly and jumping back.
Right where Axel jumped away from, and stone spike quickly rose from the ground.
Axel then quickly activated a few ice wall glyph combos, the same he threw at Minti, from his coat and threw it at his captain.
His captain, recognizing that it wasn't a good idea to be hit with the spell, made a wide and tall wall from the ground.
As soon as the spell hit the wall that the captain made, the wall was covered in ice which straightened the wall and taking control of the wall away from the captain.
Seeing that he and the captain was separated, Axel quickly moved from his spot and began to think of what he could do.
'I want to leave him behind, but I'm worried that him getting his memory back-'
A large hole formed exactly where Axel was standing before he moved, not a moment after hole was made the captain leapt out of the hole.
The captain closed the distance with a right hook.
In response Axel made a fireball with a glyph and thew it at the captain. However, Axel missed by a hair causing him to be hit by the captain's fist.
The force pushed Axel onto the ground, he hadn't taken many punches to the face before.
'MAN that hurt'
"I will inform the other scouts that you perished dishonestly," the captian informed while walking over to Axel who was on the ground.
'I thought he wouldn't kill me, but I guess Minti had his hooks in deeper than I thought'
Axel quickly looked around for a way out, but there was nothing but the fire and ice of his own creation.
He knew that his captain wouldn't listen to anything he had to say, so he thought about what to do.
'If I fireball him, Captain would just skewer me here, unless he was already planning to do that to me?'
Axel franticly looked at the captain's hands and the ground, watching for any shift that would cause his doom.
But as he looked at the ground he saw something, a small patch of grass that hadn't completely burnt yet. However, how the patch burnt was odd.
The fire jumped around the patch to make a pattern, almost like it was guided by something. But that couldn't be the case, if there was a witch here, they would have helped!
As Axel looked at the pattern, he noticed that it was similar to the other glyphs that he had been using.
It had a circle near the bottom with a dot in the middle. An arrow pointed to the circle, and at the arrows other end was an upside down triangle with a line through it.
'Dear Lord, please say this works!'
Axel started to crawl backwards towards the fire, keeping his eyes on where his captain was walking.
His captain continued to walk towards Axel ready to personally finish him off.
Then, the captain walked into the circle.
"Goodby-"
Before his captain could finish his sentence, Axel slammed his food down onto the flame made glyph.
Several green vines burst from underneath the captain surrounding him. The captain's arms were wrapped up, and his hands were forced open so that he couldn't cast a spell.
'Light, ice, fire, and plants, according to the Golden Guard's book, those are the components of all spells'
Seeing the captain all wrapped up, Axel stood up from the ground and began to pace to the other side.
"What are you, what are you," the captain said before blinking and looking around, "Where am I?" he asked, "Scout! Report!" he ordered looking at Axel
'Seems Minti's dead'
"Burning town, the other scouts are already gone, let's move it!" Axel replied.
————————————————————————
Axel and the captain quickly met up with the other scouts near the outskirts of the burning town.
The only problem in getting out of the town was the ice and rock wall, which was solved when his captain made a rock ladder that the two climbed over.
Axel saw Apple petting what looked like a gryphon, though it had the head of a pidgin.
'Was Luz right?'
"Are all the civilians safe?" the captain asked.
"Yes captain, all the citizens that we know of are safe, as well the witches that we were looking for are here," Grape answered, "But captain what happened?" Grape then asked.
"Memory's fuzzy," Lettuce said.
"What were everyone's last memories?" the captain asked.
"When we at the front and someone talked to us, that's when things start going fuzzy for me," Artichoke replied.
"Scout," the captain said turning towards Axel, "You seem to have come to your senses first, report," the captain ordered.
'I can't tell them it was that memory demon, the captain probably thinks their gone'
Looking over at Apple, Axel saw that the scout was shaking his head.
Taking a deep breath in, Axel thought about the one excuse that the captain would take.
"There was a particularly powerful wild witch who used her forbidden magic to mess with memories," Axel reported.
"Where is the wild witch?" the captain asked ready to fight despite being tired.
Axel simply turned around and pointed to the town which was still on fire.
"I tried to take her in alive, but she attempted to end me with a fire spell, causing the fire which you see," Axel told his captain.
"I will inform the coven," the captain said, "We need to go, we need to take the witches to a Coven building so they may be relocated back to their homes," the captain said.
"At least we can get back on time," Artichoke mumbled.
"We got the task yesterday you know," Apple informed.
"We've been here for a day!"
————————————————————————
The group of scouts stood at attention in front of the head witch Lilith. They had in fact made it on time for dinner, though they were still a day late to turn in their mission.
"Answer why it took you a day to find the witches," Lilith asked the captain, If you were not able to find the witches before reporting time you were supposed to return and report such," she reminded.
"Miss Lilith, there was a wild witch who ensnared us and the missing witches," the captain answered.
"A wild witch? But I haven't heard anything about your group taking in a wild witch," Lilith questioned.
"The wild witch perished, burning to death by her own fire," the captain answered, "We were unable to find a body," the captain continued.
"If there is no proof of the wild witch, I am unfortunately unable to grant you the bonus that comes with killing a wild witch," Lilith said.
"The bonus is unnecessary Miss Lilith," the captain replied.
"Then we are done, you may go to dinner," Lilith concluded.
"Ma'am," the captain said.
The group of scouts began to walk over to the dining hall, with the exception of both Axel and Apple who ran over to the dining hall.
"No need to rush! We will all get there," the captain said.
"Yeah, but I'm very hungry! I haven't eaten for a day!" Apple complained.
"Agreed," Axel said.
The scouts quickly got their dinners and sat down to eat, as Axel ate his food and talked with the other scouts, he noticed a poster that hung on one of the cafeteria walls.
It was a poster saying that in a few days Hexside School of Magic and Demonics would be bringing a class over to the castle for a tour.
'A school for witches, that's going to be interesting'
————————————————————————
A red ant like demon scuttled through a forest with its six legs, looking for something.
Seeing some kind of edible mushroom, the bug grabbed it and hauled the mushroom onto its back.
The bug then turned around and scuddled back to the small cave where it was sent from.
"You have brought be something to eat? Thank you very much," the demon in the cave replied before coughing.
Minit's lungs were full of soot, and his fir was burnt off in several places. However, he was still alive.
"I'm so glad you remember little old me, but do you remember my enemy?" Minti asked the ant like demon.
The demon shook its little head left to right in response.
"You don't? Well, I guess I'll have to remind you, my enemy is a witch by the name of Beetle," Minti reminded the bug, "He's a coven scout who is trying to take over the Boiling Iles, and we can't let that happen can we?" Minti asked.
The demon shook its head in agreement.
"So, if you every encounter that witch, make sure he ends up dead, okay?" Minti asked the bug.
Excited to help their idle, the bug demon fervidly shook their head in agreement.
"Good, good,"