Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

"Gather around everyone. I will take off your wristbands, and then we will have to search all of you to make sure there are no tracking devices on you. I suspect that this convoy was a setup, it was far too easy to take all of you, and there has to be a catch." Wolfe greeted them as he joined the group.

Most of the witches simply nodded their agreement, too drained and injured to do much more than that after such a long walk and the brutal ride in the trucks, but Wolfe noticed one smile on a vaguely familiar face.

He wasn't sure that he knew her name, but he was certain that she was one of the Sylvan Coven message runners.

"Check our thighs. They gave us all a bunch of injections at once, and if they implanted a tracker, then it's likely there." The witch mumbled in barely more than a whisper.

"Got it. But first, let's get those wristbands off." Wolfe agreed.

"Wait, don't touch them. If you do, they will strip your magic as well. Do you have strong cutters with you? We can try to do it ourselves." One of the witches insisted.

The bands had some sort of high-tech alloy cable in them. No standard pair of bolt cutters would get them loose, unlike the simple sleep charm bands that the bandits had been using to capture students back when Wolfe was still at the Academy.

"We don't have anything that will deal with those. They're stronger than steel, so a regular set of cutters would just bend. But they can be opened with the right application of force." Wolfe told her with a smile.

The null stone was in the clasp, and if Wolfe wanted to affect the locking mechanism, he would have to overcome its interference. It shouldn't be a problem, though. He had gotten past much larger amounts of it that were being used as necklaces in the past before he was even Rank Three, much less Rank Four.

With a jolt of mana, Wolfe forced a [Wind Blade] inside the lock to force the catch open, then slid the bracelet undone.

"There we go, good as new. Who's next?"

The witches stared at him in awe while Wolfe tossed the bracelet on the ground beside him. Most of the witches didn't know, but the Null Stone was more than a little bit radioactive, so it wasn't safe to wear for long periods of time.

The mundane army likely didn't care. They just wanted to get the witches back to their home nation and do whatever it was that they thought would force them to work for the human governments.

"This is going to take forever if we're not organized. Line up, single file, so Wolfe can get those bracelets off you, and we can start searching for the trackers. I will do that while he works on the wristbands." June instructed the other witches, who did their best to comply.

"There is food in the packs on the bikes. June, how about you spread that around before you start? It won't be much per person since there are so many of you, but a bit of meat should help your energy levels." Wolfe suggested.

June dug through the pack and came out with a cloth bag full of jerky strips. It was way more than the two of them would need, but the supply team always expected additional mouths to feed and packed something that could be easily shared.

They didn't expect hundreds of them, though, so she dug through Wolfe's pack as well and found both more Jerky and a bag of dried fruit, as well as the ration packs that he had brought for their own meals.

"Everyone grab one piece of something. I've got jerky and dried fruit for now, and I will keep the canteen full." June directed as she made her way through the group.

"Once I get the wristbands off, June will heal you as well. Keep coming forward. It only takes a few seconds per band." Wolfe explained.

It was giving him a magical workout since it took a lot of concentration to do precision work with [Wind Blades], but he didn't have another precision spell that wouldn't affect the rest of the clasp where the null stone was and make it even harder for himself.

Once the food was spread out, June healed the first group of about fifty and used the spell to help her detect anything that shouldn't be in their bodies.

"Wolfe, I've got good news and bad news. I found the trackers, but they've got a small piece of null stone in them, and I can't pull them out with a spell." She explained.

"Are they deep?"

June shook her head. "No, just below the skin, but I'm not sure that it's a good idea to have so many people bleeding out in the open, and it is going to get dark soon."

Wolfe searched his spellbook as he worked, looking for an answer. He eventually found it in the utility section. [Fire Needle] would punch a hole and self-cauterize the wound. If you stabbed a tracking implant with it, the fire magic should destroy the implant, and then you could deal with it at your leisure.

That might be too much mana usage for June to sustain, though. It wasn't much per use, but over hundreds of applications, plus healing, it would really add up.

"I will put up a barrier to keep anything from coming in. If you need to, give them the knives, and they can extract it themselves. Then you can heal them again." Wolfe directed, and the witches sighed.

Cutting your own leg open was never fun, but at least they could feel the tracker. It was the size of a grain of rice and still near the surface, so for most of them, a small incision would do after they worked it into position.

The problem was that it was in their thigh, and they were outside in the snow right now. They would have to take their hideous orange prisoner coveralls at least most of the way off to get at it, and that meant it was going to be a very cold process.

"The other option is to take your coveralls off when it's your turn to get your wristband removed and let Wolfe do it for you," June informed them, and the witches burst into laughter.

"Fine, you've got a point. Can we get a privacy blanket or something? I'm not an exhibitionist sort of person." One of the witches laughed.