We marched on for an hour before I made the call to rest. I still felt full of energy but the makeshift formation we had formed was starting to lag. People were clearly exhausted and the stress of the narrow escape had made itself known. I picked out an outcropping that surrounded a large central tree and placed Elizabeth at its base. "Alright, who here knows anything about surviving in the wilderness?"

When no one responded I shook my head. "Really? No Girl Scouts? or Boy Scouts?"

"I have a bit of training but I don't know how useful it will be in this new jungle. Especially with how the planets changed." Paul added after several long seconds.

I nodded and took a moment to consider the situation. I had enough food and water to get us a few days. Nowhere near how long I had intended it to last but I should be able to hunt food for myself with no problem. I was pretty confident in dealing with any poisonous plants. On top of that, my danger sense should warn me well in advance of eating something. Of course, I could go and hunt but that would mean leaving the group behind.

One look at their faces told me that was a no-go. I pulled the food and water from my ring and placed it in front of the group. "Alright, don't drink or eat too much. We might need to get moving at a moment's notice. If you have any injuries then now would be the time to take care of them. I have a few healing pills but we should consider saving them. I am not sure when we will get back to civilization."

While they ate I scanned the forest. I wasn't sure what I should do. I could project my aura as a kind of warning system. Hopefully, it would intimidate any monsters but if there was something stronger than me it might attract them. The last thing any of us needed was another beast wanting to test its strength. Even if the idea had an appeal to it.

Before I could make up my mind Elizabeth started coughing. I knelt next to her and gently placed a bottle of water on her lips. "You are alright. Take a sip and gather yourself."

It took nearly ten more seconds before she was able to speak clearly. "What happened?"

"Honestly we are all wondering that. The ship exploded and I am a bit worried it was on purpose."

"It was." She took a long sip from her water bottle and I turned to surveil the forest again. "I was heading back to the room when I saw a trio head down toward the engine room." She took a breath and stood up.

"I followed them. I don't know all the engineers but I was sure I hadn't seen them before. When they got to the bottom I caught them placing something inside the engine. I called out to them but one of them threw a fireball at me. I ducked behind a wall to avoid it and by the time I looked back they were leaving. I tried to chase them but it exploded."

I sighed and shook my head. "So we have to assume one of two things. Either this was planned by the government to get us away from the mainland." I held up a hand to stop the protest I knew was coming. "Or someone wants to make sure we don't get back. If we assume the latter then I think it's likely the Commonwealth. Do we know if any of their people were on the ship? Any of their cultivators."

"Not that I know. Most of them hadn't shown any interest in the expedition." Paul replied. "I don't think I've seen many of them in the city"

"Alright so we have two possibilities but they don't make much of a difference. We still need to survive and either find a way back or wait for a new ship."

"Are you able to connect with anyone using your ability?"

I shook my head. "The continent is too far away. I can connect with..." I quickly pushed energy into Ethereal Convocation and tried to open a connection with both Romulus and Amahle. When their mental voices passed through the bond I had to resist the urge to jump for joy.

"Amari? That you." Romulus was the first to speak followed by Amahle.

"Looks like an exploding boat and an unexpected swim aren't enough to take you out."

I grinned and gestured for the others to sit. "Yeah, I am alright. I am not sure where on the continent we landed though. Are you both alright?"

"Me and mine are fine though I am told I got one of yours with me. Not too happy to be with number three."

"Same here. A few of us are wet and we are taking refuge in a cave. We are running low on healing pills and medical supplies though. We encounter monsters in the deep."

"Alright, I think we should try to meet up. Do either of you see any landmarks?" I did a quick scan of the skyline half hoping that there would be a massive billboard with "Meet Here" written on it. Unfortunately, there was no such thing.

"No, just large trees," Amahle responded.

"No, I could launch a few attacks into the air." Romulus offered and the mental image of a disappointed Smokey the bear told me all I needed to know about that idea.

"No, no I should be the one to do that. None of my spells hurt the surrounding environment. Keep your eyes open for indigo lights. I am going to start once my group has a bit longer to rest."

With that decision made I turned my attention to my group, flashed them a smile, and rubbed my hands together. "Alright, so I got some good news and some bad news."

It took me nearly fifteen minutes to get everyone to calm down after I explained my plan. I couldn't believe how upset they were at basically being alerting the entire forest to our presence. I sat down in the middle of the group and started drawing in new energy. If this went as poorly as I thought it would. These next few hours were going to be a lot of fun.

I gave my group an hour of rest before I had them huddle against the tree. I gave each of them a melee weapon. Once they were ready I conjured a pair of psychic blades in the air me. "Eyes to the sky ladies and gentlemen. Let's get this started." I didn't bother to wait for them to respond. Instead, I launched both blades into the air. Before they had left the canopy of the trees I unleashed another set. Next, I unleashed my aura. I carefully watched the reaction of the others and slowly amped up.

I was forced to stop at the forty percent mark as Elizbeth looked ready to pass out. Even Paul had grimace on his face and Alfred looked like he was half a second from bolting. I had to hold back a groan of irritation. It felt like I had just started to get a breath of fresh air and I had to stop. Thankfully the forest hadn't let me down. Howls, hisses and all kinds of other sounds filled the air. My danger sense let out a dull ache. Not enough for me to worry but just enough to make me excited.

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I reached for the hunger inside of me just as the first monster came into view. It was some sort of predatory cat only it was twice as a big as a lion and a steely grey color. A blade of psychic energy was embedded in its skull before it had crossed the half distance. I pushed the thing from my mind when I felt its energy surge. I did my best to focus on the goal. On the reason that I was doing this but as more and more monsters came I fell into the thrill of the fight. Claws and talons came at me from all over none touched me.

I was the king of this area. Everything that entered my space with my permission would be slaughtered. Eventually, the tempo was disrupted. I unleashed a blast into a space where a monster should have been but there was no energy. The interruption was enough to bring me back to the moment. I blinked, cracked my neck, and surveyed the area. I couldn't help but flinch at the various bodies.

"You might be insane." Romulus' voice broke the silence and caused me to whip around.

"Oh, You made it."

"I got here nearly an hour ago. We tried to stop whatever it was you were doing but it was like you were gone. I tried to get your people out of the way but as soon as I got near that circle my instincts went crazy."

I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly and smiled. "You were probably fine. Anyway did you find Amahle?" When he shook his head I decided to reach out to her again. "Amahle are you on your way?"

"Not right now. I think we saw you earlier but you are too far from us. We aren't in a position to move that far right now."

"Alright, well do you know how far and in which direction? Romulus arrived a bit ago so we can start heading in your direction."

"North, northwest. Distance is hard to estimate but at least a few hours."

"Be there as soon as we can." I turned my attention back to the others and grimaced at the various corpses. It would take several minutes to gather them all let alone checking if any of them are safe to eat. "I don't suppose any of you can tell if these are safe to take with us?"

"I can tell you that their levels were all in the forties." One of the unknown women said while kicking at the corpse of a black and green serpent. "I would assume based on this thing's size it was a constrictor and not a venomous one. Not sure if that makes it safe or not."

I nodded and went around collecting everything. Even if we couldn't eat it the stuff might make good leather armor or weapons or something. Once I had stuffed my ring I sat down around the fire. "Amahle is Northwest of us. She doesn't know how far so we will need to set out later"

"Alright, I got two fighters in my group. One is around level 10 while the other is around level 7" Romulus stated. "We could go with a four-man formation assuming that Paul here could cover a side."

I nodded. "I think it could work though I want to keep everyone close together. My gut tells me that the plants are going to be as big a problem as the monsters. We should also be on the lookout for ambush predators. What kind of abilities do your people have? Are they close or long-range?"

"Me and Legate Alexander." He gestured to a black man who looked like he could have been an NFL linebacker. "Are close-range specialists. He focuses on Pugilism while I the spear."

I couldn't help but chuckle and shake my head. "You are going all in on the Roman history thing aren't you?"

"We were a part of a LARP group before things went crazy and it was just easier to slip into character. It was" He paused and glanced over at Alexander who nodded. "An opportunity for us to start over. To rectify some past regrets."

I raised an eyebrow and looked between the two and could have sworn there was more to the story than that but I decided not to press for more information.

"You don't need to worry about me. I may not be in the top ten just yet but I can take care of myself. I got a skill from a quest a little while ago that has helped me make progress. I had planned on the expedition giving me the boost I need to go further." Alexander added with a voice that was so deep it made me think of a late-night radio host.

I held up a hand and grinned. "No need to worry about it. I trust you both to take care of things. If we go with this idea the way I see it we have two choices. We can have one person on each side and keep the weaker members in the middle. Or we could split into two groups one covering the back and one the front. The latter option gives us a better defense overall and makes it harder for anyone to get picked off. The former covers all sides and reduces the chance of ambush." I quickly sketched both options in the dirt with my fingers before glancing at the others.

"What I do know about military formations makes me think the four separate points option is the best but..." Paul trailed off as he stared at the ground.

"But what?" I asked.

"I think your options would make sense if we assume that we can all do the same amount of lifting. If those monsters were all really in the forties then I don't think that's true." He leveled his eyes on Romulus. "I mean no offense but I need an honest answer. Do you think you could have killed all those monsters on your own? While protecting everyone."

Romulus sat there in silence for several long seconds before he finally replied. "I think I could probably kill that many if I went all out but not while protecting the people around me. Furthermore, my abilities are fire and light-focused."

"In that case, I suggest we change the formation a bit." He knelt and drew what looked like a V with a diamond in its middle and then another diamond a bit in front of it. "I am suggesting that three of us focus on protecting the civilians. While Amari deals with the enemies in front of and around us. That way we can prevent an attack to begin with. Further, if he is attacked he would be able to fight freely while we hunker down. On the off chance that we are attacked, he would be able to get to us the fastest."

Part of me wanted to resist the idea but I couldn't come up with a good reason. It was true that I was stronger than them and that I should be able to handle most of the beasts in the area. It was also true that I could likely guarantee an escape route. Hell, the ideas was kind enough to not just stick me with the responsibility of protecting the civilians. So why did I still dislike it?

"I think your strategy is good," Romulus replied. "I think that we should divide ourselves in three. I will take the backmost position to deal with any direct attacks. You two take the left and the right." He looked up at me. "If we can rely on your communication ability we can coordinate even further."

I thought about it for a little while longer before nodding my agreement. "Alright, when will the others be ready to leave?"

"After your display, everyone is well rested. I would say we can set out in fifteen minutes." Paul looked up at the sky and grimaced. "Though it will get dark soon and we have no idea how that will impact things. I assume that no one here can see in the dark?"

When one answered I got to my feet. "Alright we will leave in fifteen and walk until it either gets too dark to continue or until we find a safe place to stop. I am going to get a bit of cultivation in." With that, I stepped away from the group and found a quiet place to sit. There wasn't enough time to go deeply into a cultivation session and I doubted there was much energy for me to get right now. Not with all these people around. It was a good time to meditate on my Tao though.

The fifteen minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Romulus ran his group with much more precision than I did. I wouldn't call him a drill instructor but more like a pain in the ass boss. However, in the current situation, it wasn't a bad thing. He did three passes through the makeshift camp to make sure no one had forgotten anything and that everyone was ready to move. The plan was to keep moving once we started.

It was nice having someone to take care of the personnel management issues. Once everything had been checked twice we broke up into our groups and I activated Ethereal Convocation. "Everyone ready to go? Let me know if anyone sees anything unusual no matter how insignificant it might seem."

"We will just be sure to clear us a path," Romulus replied. "I am excited to see just what the strongest man in the world can do."I couldn't help but laugh at that as excitement swelled in my chest. I stepped further into the forest and released a small portion of my aura. It felt like the trees around me came alive with each step. As if they were accepting a new apex predator. I knew that there would be monsters closer to the level level 50 threshold. This expedition would be my chance to push myself another step. A chance to become more than I ever could have dreamed. and I couldn't wait.