Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King



Wolfe pulled Mary into a hug and then set her back on top of Pup. "We should get going. It's a shame that we couldn't recover anything from the army unit. The locals out here rely on their leftovers to survive. For that reason, I try not to destroy too much of the gear when I fight them.

Other than that, the Den is an underground camp, like the majority of villages in the Frozen Wastes, because it's naturally warmer underground here. Without the need for extra magic to keep the place heated, it attracts less attention, and the villages without a witch are able to survive.

I trade with them, and we've set up a schedule for the witches to go visit villages and heal them in exchange for goods and intelligence. Most of the news about what has been going on in the Wastes comes from them. I'm not sure what the other scouts who are supposed to be here in the Wastes are doing, but they very rarely send any useful information." Wolfe explained to everyone as he hopped onto his dirt bike for the ride home.

"So, you're the Snow Demon?" One of the witches asked.

"I would say the one and only, but we assign all the attacks that we can to the Snow Demon so that the mundane army doesn't figure out where I live.

It's not just one demon that can use a huge amount of fire magic. I've enchanted weapons for the others to use, so we can make multiple attacks with the same signature but many kilometres apart."

The witches nodded in understanding, though they would have been much more shocked if they knew the nature of the weapons that Wolfe had enchanted.

With the witches on the sled behind Pup, they were making good time, and the sled flattened their tracks, making it nearly impossible to tell what had passed by this way. Since it could be anything from a patrol to an army convoy dragging a roller, such paths drew attention but were of little use to actually track anything unless you knew when they had been made.

They were almost to the Den when a trilling whistle caught Wolfe's attention. "Wait here, that is a local scout, and they can't speak around witches because of the curse."

The group all looked at him strangely as it occurred to them who the locals were, but Wolfe was still in sight when he stopped to talk to the scout.

"We found more army patrols, all heading northeast into the Wastes. I don't know if they've got prisoners with them, but they've got trucks and trucks of supplies. I think that they're retreating from the battle before spring hits." The scout explained.

"Do you need me to take care of it?" Wolfe asked.

"We should be able to, but this sector is a bit short on good ammunition. Could you spare us some or fix up this case that I've got with me?" The scout asked eagerly.

Wolfe focused and found that it was much easier to enchant the whole case of ammunition at once now. Identical objects with identical spells were becoming a simple task for him, and in under a minute, the case was good to go.

"As always, be careful not to bump the tips of the bullets so you don't set them off by accident. But they're good to go now, and you can load up your teams. If there are witches, bring them to me. If not, then enjoy your loot. It might be some of the last for the season if they are really retreating, but we are working on a Witch Garden at the Den, so in a few months, we will have plenty of food available for those who live nearby."

"That is excellent news. Especially for the young ones. The first good root crops don't come up for a while yet, and having fresh food helps them grow much better than just mother's milk and army rations." The scout chuckled.

Wolfe couldn't imagine feeding an infant the army rations. For one, they were far too salty for anyone's taste buds. For two, they weren't really all that good to begin with and were intended for a working soldier, not a growing child.

"I will talk to them about expanding the gardens as much as they can. We've got a bunch of capable witches now, and I think they can manage enough to share some with all the villages."

"I will inform the Elders of your generosity then. We will bring your share of the loot when we finish, but I'm wondering if you will have a healer handy as well? Some of our soldiers have got bad coughs, and none of the remedies are working." He asked.

"Bring them to the Den, and the witches will check them. If we need to send someone to your village early, we will. We can't have disease spreading through the units and the scouts. It will ruin the coverage that we've achieved and spread to the villages as well."

The scout gave him a sloppy salute and headed away from their path toward the location where he had indicated that there was an army patrol.

"What did he want?" Mary asked as Wolfe came back to the group. He could sense the suspicion and caution in her mind, but she didn't seem hostile to the scout.

"The unit he was with was running low on enchanted ammunition for their rifles, and they found more army units trying to retreat. If there are prisoners, they will bring them to us, and they've got some sick warriors as well. I will ask someone at the Den to find out what they've caught and heal them so that it doesn't spread back to the villages which we go to every week for travelling doctor duties.

The witches just cast one large [Mass Heal] on the village, and it keeps them going for the week, then they send us anyone who is in desperate need as they need it. It's part of our agreement to get them to scout for us and send us supplies."