[Xander – 12 years]

  "Hey, Carter?" I mumble as we walk to his dad's truck.

  "Yeah?"

  "The body wash and shampoo/conditioner…" I say. "I was too sleepy last night, but did it have magics to remove scents?"

  I'm fairly certain I saw that in them when I took my shower last night. Like I said, though, I was too sleepy then to think about it. The memory of seeing that came back to me as we exited his house, though, so I want to ask.

  "Yeah," he yawns a little. "We're both powerful enough as mages to not produce body odor, but that doesn't mean other stuff might not be on us. So when I shower before a hunt, I use stuff that doesn't just wash it all off, it makes sure the scent is gone for sure."

  As someone's mana capacity increases, their body's ability to produce body odor decreases. No one knows why, it's just part of having mana. Once someone reaches around 400 mana, that's when they produce absolutely no body odor at all.

  They do, however, start to produce another scent. It's very subtle at first, but reaches peak strength at around 1,000 units of mana. The mage-scent, as it's called, remains at that level no matter how much more their capacity grows.

  "You know I've got more than a thousand, right?" I ask. "I make that smell. It's like vanilla sugar cookies and berries."

  "Yeah," he says. "I've noticed it. That smell doesn't 'drift', though. The mage-scent is limited to right around the mage, and you have to be really close to notice it. So it won't risk alerting any beasts."

  Oh, right. Sleepy brain made me forget that part, I think. That, or it's just me being dumb.

  We get into the bed of the truck, then Mr. Martins drives us toward Tate's house. When we arrive, Tate's waiting at the front with a camouflage backpack with his name stitched onto it, and he hops up into the bed with us. There are more backpacks and some coolers back here, including a camouflage backpack with Carter's name stitched onto it.

  All of that stuff makes it cramped after we pick up Bo, Knox, and the kid who took over for Parker on Saturday, Cooper. Rather than going to their places, their dads drive them to meet up with us, then the boys climb into the bed of the truck with us, each bringing a camouflage backpack with him.

  Cooper's a little bit cute, and his brown hair has golden-blond streaks in it. His blue eyes are as alert as the other boys', too.

  Only Carter and I are still really sleepy, and that's because we didn't get too much sleep – less than four hours of it. And I'm feeling especially tired because my nap was shorter than normal. I actually end up falling asleep on the way to wherever it is we're going.

  When Tate nudges Carter and me awake, we're on an overgrown road in a forest somewhere. The air here is cooler, probably because it's still dark and there's tree cover, though it's not cold enough to make me shiver.

  "This is absolute wilderness," Carter tells me as we all get out of the truck. "It's an official legal designation, and means that no hunting permit is needed for it. There are still legal restrictions on what we can hunt and how much, but what we're planning on hunting today isn't as restricted."

  "Restrictions?" I ask.

  "Yeah," he says. "Some animals, you can only hunt in certain seasons, or with certain weapons. What I'm wanting to try and catch for my birthday, we can hunt at any time of the year: a type of magic elk called a shimmerwave elk. It's a fairly rare one, and we can hunt an adult male at any time."

  "They're notoriously hard to hunt," Bo informs me. "My dad and some of his buddies went to hunt one awhile back. A group of fifteen hunters, and it took them a week to even spot one. By that point, most of them needed to get back to their farms or ranches. Tracking it down anytime it escaped them wasn't really doable, and they're really good at slipping people's notice."

  "We can leave the farms be for a bit," Knox opens up his backpack. "Since we have other workers and stuff, but spending more than a week on a hunt ain't something most want to do. By that point, you've probably already caught a few things to make the hunt worth it."

  "One thing to know about absolute wilderness," Mr. Martins tells me. "Is that there are a lot more magic beasts here than in settled areas, and a high potential for monsters. Do you know the difference between monsters and regular magical beasts?"

  "Monsters attack people no matter what," I say. "They view us as food, and there's nothing you can do about it except kill 'em first. They see us, they want to eat us. You don't have to do anything except get noticed by them for them to attack."

  "Sounds like you do," he says as I realize the other boys are changing clothes right here. "There haven't been any alerts, so no particularly dangerous Rifts have opened up in the area. Even if they have, every single one of us is a strong mage. Other than you, all of us have experience fighting monsters. Why'd you close your eyes?"

  I didn't just close them, I squeezed them shut.

  "Why's everyone changing?"

  "Into camouflage," Carter tells me. "They have magic in them to prevent 'em from having a scent, and they block scents as well. Makes us a lot less likely to be noticed. Oh, right! Knox, did you remember to bring 'em?"

  "Yeah," Knox answers. "Xander, I've still got some from when I was your size, so I brought 'em for you. They're clean, too – my ma washed everything yesterday."

  "You're fourteen and your mom still washes your clothes?" I ask.

  I always thought that once someone became a teen, they had to wash their own clothes if they weren't already doing it.

  "Only sometimes," he says. "She washed the huntin' clothes while us guys were out in the field, harvesting hay. They wouldn't have been ready for it otherwise."

  "Oh."

  "You should get changed," Carter says. "You can walk around the side of the truck if you don't want to get seen. And when changing your pants and socks, don't put your feet down. The ground's muddy."

  "Okay."

  I open my eyes and accept the clothes that Knox gives me, then walk around to the side of the truck and use magic to make sure I don't get mud on me or my clothes and the borrowed clothes. The borrowed ones are fully camouflage, and are a long-sleeved shirt and pants. There are also boots for me, non-cowboy ones but they still seem to be made of leather.

  My regular clothes get put into my backpack and my boots are put on the bed of the truck (along with the other boys' western boots), and Tate hands me a neon orange baseball cap. He's wearing a camouflage beanie, but the sleeves of his shirt – everyone has long-sleeved shirts – are neon orange.

  Orange isn't a comfortable color for me, but everyone has some.

  "It's a legal requirement," Mr. Martins tells me when I ask about the orange. "Not really required in absolute wilderness, but we follow it anyway. Makes it easier for other people to see you, but won't draw the attention of most beasts. That way, the odds of us getting accidentally shot are lower if there's someone else out here."

  "Oh."

  That makes a lot of sense.

  "So we're hunting a rare beast that can be really hard to find?" I ask.

  "Yeah," Carter answers. "And the odds of us catching it are low, but that's okay. We'll be hunting other stuff, too. We can pretty much hunt anything here without too many restrictions if it's a magic beast. If you have a question, just ask – you can do so telepathically when we're being quiet, if you know the spell."

  "I watched you use it when you were asking your parents something last Saturday," I tell him. "So I know it now. Haven't cast it, but I haven't really had an issue casting most spells that I see, and I am a natural mind mage, so I don't think a simple mind magic spell will be an issue."

  "Alright," he says. "We all know how to shield our minds and use telepathy. Only Tate can really do more."

  "My telepathy ain't that good, though," Cooper says.

  "Just a matter of practice," Mr. Martins says. "And Tate's helping with that today. Carter, why don't you tell Xander about what we're looking for? And make sure everyone knows their roles in the hunt."

  I want to ask how Tate can help Cooper with his telepathy, but they've already shifted to something else.

  "Right," Carter nods. "Okay, Xander. A shimmerwave elk is an elk that has a brown pelt with blue accents. Its antlers are blue as well, and have a faint shimmer to them – especially in darker areas. They're known for being able to make illusions, and it's used both to escape predators and hunters as well as in their courtship rituals."

  "Better and more complicated illusions means more sexy to the other elk," Tate says.

  "Yeah," Carter nods. "If you see one and it looks off at all, it's probably an illusion. Even if it looks exactly like one, check its feet. It could be a well-made illusion and you'll be able to tell by if the foliage is crushed under its feet or if it goes through them."

  "Going through them means there's not actually something there?" I ask.

  "Correct," he says. "And in addition to being able to make illusions, they wield water magic. They can all conjure orbs of shimmering water, as well as manipulate water that's already there. Males can also conjure high-pressure jets of water, so a hunt can turn into a fight. It's power level is roughly around ours, so we'll not get too badly hurt unless we take too many hits or get one from up close, like in a fist fight with someone just as strong as you who's not using magic to enhance themselves further."

  "That also means it can take a few more hits, too," Cooper says.

  "Yeah," Carter nods. "So keep an eye out for attacks and make sure to block. Wait, can you use defensive magics?"

  "I can make barriers."

  "Can you use offensive magics?"

  Now I feel really awkward for some reason.

  "Yeah," I nod. "I can cast fire breath, flamethrower, ice breath, icicle storm, gale, tornado, fire vortex, wind bomb… why are you all laughing?"

  Quiet laughing, but still laugh.

  "Do you know any small-scale offensive magics?" Carter asks with a laugh in his voice. "We kind of want as much of the elk left as possible."

  Oh. Now I feel even more awkward, and I know the reason. I only learned spells that would make sure the threat is dealt with if I get into danger. At least, for when it comes to weaker dangers.

  "Um… if I see them, I could probably learn them," I say. "But I don't know how well I'd cast. Aiming takes practice, too."

  "Okay," he says. "So I mostly invited you along just 'cause I wanted to. You don't actually have to do anything except try to make as little noise as possible and let us know if you see anything we can hunt."

  "Okay," I say. "Hey. Um. When you said anything with magic is potentially something we can hunt right now, does that include plump birds with air magics?"

  "Depends on what they are," he says. "If they're the right kind. If it's something like a gale quail, then we can hunt them without restriction at any time of year. They're considered a pest in this state, especially because they can conjure some decent winds and are known for using them to cause damage to stuff for no reason. That's also oddly specific."

  "Those birds there are plump and have air magics."

  Everyone looks at where I'm pointing, which is down the road a little. There are seven of the birds. All of them have mottled grey feathers with some white spots, and they're all big and plump.

  They're also staring at us.

  "Yeah… those are gale quails," Carter says. "Tate? Do the honors?"

  Tate holds his hands forward and weaves together a spell. The moment he finishes, a net of magical force forms above the quails and drops onto them. Tate then pushes his hands down in order to keep the net down as the quail begin to resist and try to fly away. They conjure winds to push up the net, but Tate holds it firm.

  As he does that, Carter grabs a rifle from the truck and loads it with bullets, then begins firing off shots. Each shot is extremely silent, and he kills all seven of the gale quails. Only once he finishes does Tate cancel his spell, then they retrieve the birds.

  "Alright!" Carter says. "Even if we catch nothing else, we've got these! They ain't as good as some other stuff we can catch, but they fry up nicely! Let's field dress it."

  Field dressing, as it turns out, involves removing its guts. Carter explains to me that this helps it cool faster and helps prevent bacteria growth. Even knowing that doesn't help me with the sight of blood and guts. It's really gross and I feel like I need to puke, but I do my best not to. I want to look away but avoid doing that so I don't get made fun of. They all either help gut or just watch, which means it's normal for them.

  Once they've had their guts removed, the guts are destroyed with fire magic. Air magic is used to neutralize the scent, and the birds are placed into one of the coolers. It has a spatial expansion enchantment on it in addition to the cooling enchantment, and it can definitely fit a lot.

  So can the backpack Mr. Martins has pulled on, also camouflage, though it has a neon orange flap on it. His backpack also has a cooling enchantment on it, so it must have been really expensive. Enchantments on fabric are already hard enough, but putting on a spatial enchantment with others is even more difficult.

  Especially if the enchanter has to use materials to place the enchantment instead of using their own power entirely by itself. From my understanding, I'm actually a rarity in being able to set higher-level enchantments with just my magic.

  "Back to the pre-hunt briefing," Carter says now that they've finished dealing with the gale quails. "Tate, you're going to act as a relay point, alright?"

  "Of course," Tate says, then looks at me. "I'm the only natural mind mage here, so I have the best range. We'll split up at times and so will need mind magics to communicate and coordinate. To make it easier for everyone, having a natural mind mage who knows how to make themselves a relay is helpful. What it does it makes it easier for the telepathy spell to find me, so the caster needs less effort to do so over a longer distance. I can then connect them with someone else."

  So that's how he's helping Cooper out. It's that he's making it easier to find him with telepathy rather than him actually doing stuff with Cooper specifically.

  I'm also a natural mind mage, but I think he was referring to the five of them when he said he's the only one. Should I say something? Probably not, since it is a hunt for the five of them. I'm just coming along for the experience.

  "That's… really good."

  "Yup," he says. "It's why my friends love having me along for a hunt. I'm also good at making magical nets and ropes thanks to some of the stuff I have to do on the ranch, so I can trap something if it's in range and not too strong, like the quail. And my range for empathy is pretty good, so I'll be able to tell if something hostile is close to me."

  "Only up to about fifty feet," Carter rolls his eyes. "But yeah, it'll help with surprise attacks from things that are close by."

  "Coop and I have good eyes," Knox tells me. "So our main job is looking out for monsters and potential prey. I'll be using a bow with some conjured arrows for easier game, while Coop uses a rifle if he's using a weapon."

  "Though I can also cast some basic attack spells," Cooper tells me. "So I'll do that as well if necessary, as well as some that mess with the target's vision."

  "And Bo here," Carter claps Bo on the back. "Is good at tracking magic. If he can get tracks or something from a beast, he can use a spell to track them down."

  "As long as there are more tracks," Bo adds. "I can't do it if the trail ends. The spell essentially highlights in my vision spots created by the same exact creature. But I've hunted enough times to be good at helping take down beasts, too."

  His tracking spell sounds really amazing. I didn't know there were spells which could do that and now I want to learn it.

  "Also," Carter says. "Bo and Knox can both make nets of stone magic, which is useful with larger beasts. Ones that fight back, we usually need to just pin to the ground, then kill. So if something is strong enough, we might end up with nets from both of them and Tate holding it down."

  "So everyone here can take down a beast in a hunt but me…"

  "Like I said," Carter grins at me. "I didn't invite you for the help. The rest of them aren't just my friends, they're good hunters who help round out a team without being too big. You're just a friend I wanted along for the birthday stuff. That said, if you've got any magics or abilities you're willing to share and help, we can work that in."

  So I'm not here to help them hunt, but I can if I want. That's my understanding of this based on what he just said. Carter just… invited me along as if I'm one of his friends. I'm pretty sure that means he sees me as a friend even though we've not seen each other very much.

  I do like him, but is this really enough for us to be friends? I'm too sleepy still to figure that out, so I'll just answer.

  "Um… I don't know if I can do hunting stuff," I say. "And my empathy only seems to work on people, and only for strong emotions or ones that are felt mutually between two people. So I won't be of help like Tate with that. But you said that the shimmerwave elk can make illusions, right?"

  "Yeah, why?"

  "I have perspicacity," I tell him. "It means 'clear-sighted'. In the magical form, it's the ability to see what's real. Mine's strong enough that I can't see illusions at all. So if you can see an elk but I can't and we're looking at the same spot… I can tell you that much. And I can make barriers, so if we get attacked, I can shield us. And I figured out Tate's net spell, so I can help hold things down… maybe. I'm not sure if I can aim it from a distance like he did, I might have to throw it with my magic. So if he needs help, I can help with that."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Now that I think about it, I can do most of what they can do. The tracking spell isn't something I know, but I can definitely see better in a lot of ways, even if I need glasses to see normally. It's always easier for me to see things that are more hidden than others. I might actually spot creatures before the others do.

  Not like with the quail – I was just the only person looking in that direction.

  So the only things I really can't do, it seems, is use tracking magic and hunting magic. But I do know how to use a rifle, too.

  "Alright," he says. "Um… we don't know how you are with a gun, so you're not getting one. Nor a bow. You alright with that?"

  "Yeah."

  "That's a safety thing," Mr. Martins informs me. "We don't know how good you are, nor how you handle a gun. This means we can't know the risk of you accidentally shooting someone."

  "I understand," I say. "I didn't want to use a gun, anyway. Trey's guards did teach me, but Mrs. Martins said yesterday that I wouldn't be handling a gun."

  I'm not comfortable with using a gun in the first place. Changing things now after Dad was told I wouldn't be using one would only make me more uncomfortable. It would also probably make me grounded.

  "Okay," he says. "As long as you understand. And since you said you don't know spells for hunting something down, don't try using one if you figure it out while we're hunting from seeing it. Your aim likely won't be good, so you may miss or cause unnecessary harm to the beast."

  "Is that for all spells?" I ask. "Or can I still use the net if needed?"

  "You can use the net," he tells me.

  "Okay."

  "I think that's everything," Carter says. "And it's nearing sunrise now, so let's head in. Oh, and Xander? Everyone's staying at least two to three feet from each other unless we're hiding behind something. Okay?"

  "Okay."

  "Let's go!"

  "Hold on," Mr. Martins says, then holds something out to me. "This is for you, Xander. No one should go on a hunt without a knife of their own."

  They all have a knife clipped onto their belts, too.

  "I normally wouldn't give one to someone I don't know has proper knife training," he says. "But considering you do plenty of cooking, I'm assuming you've been taught how to handle it properly. If you prove you can't be trusted with it, though, you'll need to give it back."

  "O-okay," I accept the knife, which is folded shut, then I clip it onto my belt. "Thank you, Mr. Martins."

  "You're welcome," he says. "One last thing – remember that the forest is going to be fairly wet from the rain last night. Your boots have noise-suppression magics so you'll not make much noise when you step in mud, but you still need to mind your footing. The last thing you need is to fall and get soaked in mud. Got it?"

  "Got it," we all respond.

  "Good," Mr. Martins says. "Tate, if you will?"

  Tate casts his telepathic relay spell, and I can immediately more easily feel his mind now. Once the spell is set, Mr. Martins gives us the okay to leave the road and begin our hunt.

  We enter the woods, and with us spread out, it's actually a little hard for me to see everyone with my plain sight. The bright orange really does help, though I can still see them from my other senses even without that.

  Camouflage really works.

  As we walk through the woods, Tate does his job of acting as a relay pretty well. It makes it easier for us to stay together and navigate the forest. Every now and then, someone spots something which might be a beast we can hunt. None of it turns out to be something we can at first. Either that, or it's just not worth it, whether it's too little meat or its body parts don't sell for much.

  I spot a lot of things, but most of it isn't something worth hunting.

  Even when first light hits, we don't spot things worth taking out. Not for another fifteen minutes after that, when Knox spots a deer. It's a buck with large antlers that are tinted brown, and he blends in pretty well to the forest despite being five and a half feet to his shoulders.

  "It looks like a stonebullet elk," Knox's thought-voice comes in through telepathy, shared to all of us via Tate. "Those are sooo delicious."

  "Hey, Xander?" Mr. Martins asks.

  "Yes, Mr. Martins?"

  "You're able to tell the type of magic in things, right?" He asks.

  "Yeah."

  "Stonebullet elk don't just use earth magics," he tells me. "They have it in them as well. Can you tell if it has earth magic? That could be just a regular deer, which we aren't allowed to hunt outside of regular elk season even in absolute wilderness."

  "Means we usually don't hunt 'em even if we see 'em outside of elk season," Knox says. "Since we can't tell if they're magic elk or not."

  "Yeah, it has earth magic," I tell them.

  "Are you certain?" Mr. Martins asks.

  "Yeah," I answer. "Its mana is like Knox's and Bo's, it's tuned to earth magic. So it's definitely a magic beast, since mana being tuned to an element requires a magic bloodline."

  That's something I've learned ever since getting my brain fixed and starting to learn magic. Magical aspects in mana means it was inherited.

  "Alright," Mr. Martins says. "Boys, you can go ahead and hunt it."

  There are quiet cheers from the other, transmitted to everyone mentally. I move closer to Mr. Martins so I can watch as the others hunt the stonebullet elk, but I prepare to cast a barrier just in case. One of the things they let me know is that its name isn't just a name, it's telling of its magic.

  The elk can fire off bullets of stone from the points on its antlers and they are not afraid of doing it. Ones as large as this one are also able to conjure spikes of stone out of the ground. That makes it dangerous to get too close to it, but its range is somewhat limited and as long as they're more than twenty or thirty feet away, they should be fine.

  The other boys spread out and surround the elk. Mr. Martins explains to me through direct telepathy that they do that partly for safety and partly to make the hunt easier. The elk can't attack all of them if they're spread out or surrounding it. It also can't just run off as it'll have at least two people to get past when if it does. Even if it fires at both, it'll have three more boys who can attack or try to restrain it.

  Once the five of them are in position, the stonebullet elk still having not seen them, they begin their offense. Tate creates a net over the elk, dropping it down on it to try and pull it to the ground.

  Rather than that happening, the elk just thrashes to try and throw the net off. He also bucks a little, but Tate made the net pretty heavy and is pushing it down well, so the beast can't actually buck that well. His legs barely go up at all, and his head is lowering a little.

  Flicking his head, the elk spots Carter and Bo and bullets of stone soar toward them. All of the other boys cast barriers over their bodies, their spells actually conformed to them. Even if they can't dodge the bullets, they're still relatively protected as their barriers take the hits.

  Carter gestures with his hands and creates a rope of water. No, a lasso, and one he throws towards the elk. He manages to loop it around the beast's neck, Tate releasing his net just in time for the lasso to arrive. That release seems to give the elk confidence as it tries to run, but Carter pulls on his lasso with his might and his magic and the beast goes down. As it does, Tate drops another net on it, and this one mostly keeps the elk on the ground.

  Mostly. It does start to get up, but Tate does his best to keep pressure and weight on it so it can't rise too easily or move its head very much. In response, the stonebullet elk summons more stone bullets, trying to shoot the boys it can see. That only lasts a few moments, though, as its head is held down well by the water lasso and force rope.

  Which gives Cooper, who has darkness magic in his mana, the opportunity to cover the beast's eyes in pure darkness. He's not able to just cast it and be done as darkness doesn't like to linger without help. This means that he has to maintain the spell constantly with actual effort. As a result, he does need his target's head to not be moving around too much in order to blind them. Not having the target already mostly immobile would make it difficult to blind them as he'd have to keep moving the darkness around.

  That's honestly a little scary, the power to just rob someone of one of their senses. However, it prevents the elk from being able to target them with turns of its head.

  If Cooper ever uses that on me, I'll make sure he regrets it. Though since he's good enough to have been blessed by at least one god, he probably won't. But if he does, he'll regret it for sure.

  Unable to see, the elk just keeps shooting in what direction it can, the boys there moving out of its range to save their barriers and energy.

  The beast seems to realize that it might not hit anything and conjures up stone spikes out of the ground in a radius of about thirty feet. Each spike has smaller spikes poking out of it, making it dangerous to draw too close to it. He probably thinks that will make sure that its attackers can't get too close. Since their only spells from a distance weren't harmful, it probably doubts they can attack from a distance.

  A mistake, because they can. They all have guns and bows, and it sounded like they can use magic in place of those as well.

  Rather than going straight for the kill, however, the other boys keep restraining and blinding the elk. Knox gestures rapidly with his hands and the spikes shatter, their fragments swirling around and gathering together before forming a crude net.

  That's… actually really cool. The elk conjured the spikes, but it didn't have any control over them after it – it was "one-and-done", as Greyson would call it. Because the beast's magic ended the moment the spikes formed, Knox was able to use his own magic on them.

  In addition to that, the elk used up nearly all of its remaining mana to summon the spikes. He can't do it anywhere close to that level again. Which, now that I think about it, means that the other boys can move in close to him.

  "Why aren't they killing him yet?" I ask Mr. Martins via direct telepathy.

  "They want him to burn out his mana," Mr. Martins responds the same way. "He's not casting more stone bullets, but that's because magic beasts are a little bit smarter than mundane ones. They know he's faking to try and lure his attackers close in, then he'll do one last hurrah. His expectation is that that'll kill the threat. Knox's putting together a spell to provoke him into it."

  I turn my attention to Knox, who is gesturing as he weaves a spell together. It looks like… it's some sort of ten-legged golem? Except really small. Yeah, I think that's what he's doing. Also making it really heavy for some reason.

  Once it finishes, Knox sends the strange thing toward the elk. It can still move its head a little, since there's not enough weight from the net to fully hold it down. Also because it seems like Tate has lightened up the weight on its head. That lets it "look" over as the stone golem approaches, and I realize what they're doing. It saw five attackers, and the golem has five pairs of feet. They're heavy enough to make noise as they walk and that's fooled the currently-blind elk.

  Knox is tricking it into thinking all five of them are approaching. He's also doing so from a direction that the elk can still aim its antlers… and it fires off dozens of stone bullets, burning through the rest of its mana in about five seconds. The stone golem is shattered from that, undergrowth is shredded in a few spots, and even a few of the trees are damaged.

  However, it worked. The elk is fully out of mana, and I can feel its confusion. It knows that all of the spells affecting it except for the stone net should be gone now, but they aren't.

  Knox darts forward as Bo drops a stone net onto the elk's head. That weighs it down enough it can't move its head anymore, which lets Knox get close without risk of harm. Upon reaching the stonebullet elk, Knox pulls out his knife and ends the elk's life.

  "Victory!" He exclaims once the beast is dead.

  "Yeah, yeah," Mr. Martins snorts. "Let's get a picture of it, then you boys dress it."

  They cancel their spells, and Knox and Bo use their magic to remove the stone nets, tossing them off to the side.

  With the elk now freed, the five of them crouch behind it. Knox holds up the elk's head so that it's facing Mr. Martins, who takes a few pictures with his phone. They explain to me that they always take a picture after in order to be able to add it to a gallery of their bigger hunts, but also for the memories.

  So they can show it to others later on, even in a generation or two, whatever that means.

  Then, all five of them work on removing the elk's innards. That's even more nauseating than it was for the birds, and there's so much.

  As they gut the elk, they tell me that one of the things they want is the hides of the beasts they hunt. Leather is already useful, and leather with magic inherent to it is even better. That means they want the hides as intact as possible when the beast is dead. Some of it is for themselves, but they can also sell it for some good money.

  Which is why they try to minimize the amount of damaging magic they use unless necessary. And that is why they stuck to the nets, water lasso, blinding darkness, and golem spells.

  "Okay," I say. "That makes a lot of sense, and I'll make sure to keep it in mind if I use magic."

  Carter destroys the guts with fire magic and neutralizes the scent of burnt flesh with air magic. As he does that, his dad moves the elk into his backpack. Once it's gone, everyone cleans up the blood with their own magic, then the trip through the forest resumes.

  "Even if we don't catch anything else," Knox tells us via telepathy. "That alone makes it worth it. It tastes sooo good."

  "That's because you're a natural earth mage," Carter tells him. "You like food with earth magics in it. Even if we don't catch a shimmerwave elk for my birthday, I want to catch something that'll taste good to me. Fire or water magics in it."

  Even if his family has needed to use water magic for generations in order to make sure they can handle the flaremanes, they also use fire magics plenty as well. Combat fire with fire or water, but also entertain the horses or put on magic shows with them. I'm sure there are other reasons for it, too.

  But whatever the reason, that means his family has used fire magics regularly for generations. It's a part of his bloodline, so his mana has a fire aspect to it in addition to the water aspect. There's even a very slight mind aspect, probably from his family being friends with the Coxes and so using smaller mind magics a lot for generations as well.

  We continue walking through the forest, looking for things to hunt. They catch a few birds, a snake, and even a few rabbits. For each one, at least two of the other boys and sometimes all five work together to kill it. They need to, in order to make sure they either manage to keep it from fleeing or to keep it from being able to fully attack someone.

  Almost an hour and a half after we encountered the stonebullet elk, we're examining a creek to see if there's anything interesting when I spot something. An animal I know they're going to want to take down.

  "Hey, guys?" I send to Tate so that it goes to everyone.

  "What's up?" Carter asks.

  "There's a shimmerwave elk using its light magic to be invisible over there."

  Everyone looks in the direction I'm pointing, but I can tell even without my empathy that they're confused. Their faces all show it really well. A reason the shimmerwave elk is spotted so rarely is probably because it can make itself invisible to people.

  Which would really decrease how often someone actually sees it. Even him being over six feet in height doesn't matter when he can just turn invisible. He's also outside of Tate's empathy range right now, which is why he didn't notice it.

  "I don't see anything," Bo says.

  "That's 'cause he said it's invisible, you dumbass," Cooper mentally snorts.

  "Language, Cooper," Mr. Martins scolds, causing the other boys to quietly snicker. "You can tell it's invisible? I thought you said you see through illusions."

  "Yeah, but I can sense magic," I say. "And that one definitely seems to be making an illusion. I, uh, didn't think about that when I said I could see through illusions. That I'd see the magic of the illusion, even if not the illusion itself. But it's definitely there."

  "Hey, Xander?" Carter asks. "You said before that you know a spell which can let someone borrow your senses, right?"

  "Well, sort of," I say. "It doesn't actually let you borrow them, it lets you perceive the world the way that I do."

  That's a very important distinction, because it's still through their normal sensory input stuff and I still retain my senses.

  "Can you cast that on me?" He asks. "But only for the eyes, and only so that I can see through illusions, too? It'll be your first time, right? You said before you'd never cast the full spell before. So don't worry if you can't do it. I want to try something."

  "Okay… lemme see if I can adjust the spell formula."

  I continue watching the shimmerwave elk as I mentally review the spell formula and try to adjust it based on what I know of related magics. It takes me a few minutes, and the elk starts drinking from the stream while remaining invisible to everyone else.

  There we go, that should work.

  "Carter?" I say. "I might have it ready now."

  "Okay," he responds. "Cast it when ready."

  I cast the spell on Carter, and his mind fills with surprise as he looks around. It's strong enough I can feel it really well.

  "It worked?" Tate asks. "You're feeling really surprised."

  Oh, right. Tate's a natural empath, too, which means that he might know how to help me turn this off without me needing to ask Grandpa Adrian. I'll try to remember to ask him about it later.

  "Yeah," Carter says. "Hey, Xander? How long do you think you can keep this active?"

  "It doesn't cost me much mana," I answer. "And the spell structure is extremely stable, so I can keep it active probably for hours."

  "Cool," he says. "Can you cast it on the others and keep it active? We'll need it to hunt him, since we need to see him. That, and because he'll probably use illusions and seeing right through them will make 'em ineffective. Can you do that?"

  "Yeah… give me a few moments."

  I cast the spell on the other boys, then they spread out. The elk doesn't seem too bothered by that, no doubt confident in its invisibility. He probably doesn't encounter predators which can see through it too often.

  After about a minute, the elk stretches its neck and steps away from the creek. Something Carter told me about him earlier comes to mind just as they get into position to attack. I waste no time and thrust both of my hands toward the creek.

  In an instant, the entire creek is frozen all the way down to the bottom everywhere within two hundred feet of me. To avoid things flooding on the upper end, I create a sort of portal based on the Rift I saw to transport the water which would flow into the ice down to the other end of the frozen section. I also made sure to teleport all of the fish out of the frozen section so that they'd not get frozen to death from it.

  The elk hasn't noticed that yet as he's facing away from the water, but he will. I've just taken away his ability to draw water from the creek to attack the others. That means he'll need to use conjured water, which will increase his mana cost. Spending more mana for his spells means he'll run out faster. If what Carter said was right, then he'll only be able to make orbs of water as a noncombat spell and jets of water as a combat spell.

  I actively maintain the freeze on the creek – it's warm enough outside that it'll melt a little if I don't. That will really ensure the elk is stuck using his own magic.

  "Nice one!" Carter exclaims through the telepathic relay just as he sends his water lasso toward the elk.

  In that moment, the shimmerwave elk reacts. It's realized that it's under attack, the illusion magic wrapped around it ineffective against us. He tries to take control over Carter's lasso, resulting in it being less stable than before and a bit wobbly, but it's an active spell. The beast can't fully take control because Carter's strong enough to resist him.

  The lasso doesn't manage to wrap around the beast's neck, but I quickly realize that it was just a distraction. Knox throws a stone net at the beast as Tate throws another spell at its legs. The spell Tate throws seems to be some form of rope with balls on it. It's conjured with force magic, but still weighs a lot.

  That unbalances the elk and nearly brings it to the ground, but the beast catches itself and starts shooting high-pressure jets of water in his direction. They shoot out of the points on its antlers and move really fast. Tate holds up his arms in front of him, creating an additional barrier as the ball-and-rope spell disappears.

  His additional barrier breaks after a couple of seconds of the blasts, some of which miss him and hit the underbrush and trees instead. They tear gouges into the trees, but Tate's only pushed back as his original barrier holds. It cracks a little, but doesn't break.

  Then Tate goes down, knocked over from the force of the water jets.

  The elk lets out a snort and stomps a foot on the ground as it tries to shake off the net that's adding weight to its body. A moment later, it realizes that even those were just distractions, the leg it had lifted now caught in a water lasso.

  "HAH!" Carter grunts as he pulls on the lasso with might and magic, the elk stumbling.

  It shifts its whole body to try and avoid going down as it turns its heads towards Carter, and I can feel its attempt at drawing water from the creek. That fails, so it quickly switches to shooting more high-pressure jets of water.

  Knox and Bo work together to throw more stone nets at the beast. The nets add more weight to it, but he's strong enough to resist it still. Carter has to release his lasso to defend against the jets, and I glance over at Cooper because I can feel him doing some sort of big spell.

  Right before he finishes, I realize what it is: a giant orb of pure darkness. That would definitely work for blinding the shimmerwave elk while it's still moving around. I'm pretty sure it'll also make it hard for the others to target it with their spells.

  Even with them borrowing my perspicacity. That's not an illusion, it's just pure darkness. It's the same as if I looked at a spell that created pure light. In other words, my perspicacity is ineffective against it.

  I'm about to say tell them that, but realize that he probably would have done this anyway. This might be another one of those "provoking the beast into using more mana" sort of deals.

  Something that's confirmed once the elk is wrapped in the orb of pure darkness. None of us can see into it and the beast certainly can't see out of it. In response to that, the elk sends high-pressure jets of water out in all directions, turning its head this way and that judging by how the streams move. The moment it finishes, it charges forward, out of the sphere…

  And right into two nets of stone and one of force. Carter also manages to lasso its hind legs, and that combined effort from the four of them brings the elk to the ground. His new jets manage to break the nets where they're in their paths, but there's still plenty of weight on him. Bo and Knox cast another stone net each, adding more weight onto him as Tate keeps up the pressure with his force net.

  Cooper weaves together another spell, this one similar to Carter's water lasso. Rather than water, it's made of pure darkness, but also solid darkness? It's flexible like a rope, though, and he uses it to grab the elk's muzzle and pull it down.

  That keeps the elk's head facing the same direction, preventing it from being able to send its water jets in other directions.

  They don't wait for it to run out of mana. With its ability to attack in any direction but set ones neutralized, they can finish it off now. Carter comes up from the side and draws his knife, then ends the elk's life. The moment it dies, the jets of water cease.

  "Whew!" Carter lets out a big breath. "That was fun! And a lot easier than I expected!"

  He looks at me.

  "Your perspicacity is really amazing," he tells me. "And all of the illusions it was trying to cast? We saw through them all!"

  "Wait, you could tell there were illusions?" I ask. "But my perspicacity sees right through them? I know I can tell when they're there 'cause I can sense the magic, but I can't see them."

  "Well… yeah," Carter chuckles. "You didn't fully strip out all of your other aspects. We could actually see mana as well, and now I know what you mean by 'seeing magic'. We could see that illusions were around us. I mean, I couldn't actually tell that's what they were since I can't interpret what I was seeing, but since it uses illusions… it was easy to guess."

  So I fucked up the spell? Damn it.

  "Oh… I'll need to work on that spell."

  "It was still pretty cool," he grins at me. "Made it so easy to react to its attacks faster."

  "Yeah!" Cooper exclaims. "That was incredible, Xander!"

  They all agree on that, and my face starts heating up. Is it really that impressive? I messed up my spell alteration.

  "I need to cancel the spell," I say. "I didn't realize it'd put strain on my mind, to use it on five others. So I'm getting a little bit of a headache."

  I cancel the spell right after saying that, though I'm sure it'll take a few minutes for the headache to go away. Thank goodness I didn't have to keep it active for another five or ten minutes. The fight took less than three minutes. If it was ten, I'd have probably passed out from the headache.

  "Alright, boys," Mr. Martins says as I cancel the spell. "Let's get the picture done so we can gut and store it. The faster we do that, the less the risk of spoilage."

  "Yes, sir!" We respond.