Tanner and his team start to take the fight to the enemy, but the response from the organization is swift and deadly. As the body count starts to rise, their allies start to get nervous and question their methods.

Meanwhile, the romance between Charles and Rissa heats up and threatens to put both of their lives in danger. As the war heats up, several tactical blunders threaten to unravel the entire operation and culminates in the first ever face-to-face meeting between Tanner the Old Man.

In the wake of that meeting, Tanner is forced to realize that he has made several bad assumptions. He was wrong about the Old Man, and he was also wrong in his estimation of the response.

This results in mounting casualties on both sides of the conflict, including the people that Tanner has sworn to protect. His very home comes under direct attack as a result of his mistakes.

About how many more things could he possibly be mistaken?To make matters worse, the Old Man is not playing by the same rules. Tanner has always kept his magical secrets close and not revealed the nature or methods of his powers.

In fact, he has often refused to even discuss them with the team. However, he comes face to face with the reality that the Old Man has been passing down some of these same secrets to his higher ranking members for many years.

As a result, it is fireballs and lightning bolts for all as the city becomes embroiled in the war. .