The giantess named Hartl stared out at the squat stone house that seemed utterly out of place existing on a mountaintop.
There was a mass of mana in there, something strong enough to produce a black aura that it had been hard to spot with the perpetual gloom of the sky. Her men hadn't wanted to approach, but there was no place else the little wretches that got her eye could be.
At least, not if Plick, her scout, wasn't lying his ass off about the tracks leading here. But she'd sent him and another around to look for other tracks, and both scouts agreed that there was no sign of the three.
A frustrated growl escaped her lips as she stuck a hand into the black mass of mana, only to shiver as it sent a wormy, tingling sensation into her arm.
The man she'd tried to send in was faring worse, having puked his guts out over the ridge.
