“What the f*cking f*ck?!” A loud shout startled the members of the expedition awake.
The first person who woke up lazily looked around the camp only to realize they didn’t recognize any of the snoring people. Faces, hands and feet of everyone had swelled up so much, even Leo currently looked like a seasoned sumo fighter.
“It’s the poison! Quickly, antidotes!” Another guy swiftly reacted and after everyone chugged down three – four antidotes the swelling began to subside.
“Looks like even the fog is poisonous.” Gabriela thought out loud, “No wonder no one could stay awake. Check if our belongings are still there. I hope the greenlanders are not the thieving kind.”
No one was missing anything, but the problem was there were only fourteen people present!
“Whom are we missing?” Gabriela grew anxious, “Maybe any of you guys went to take a leak?”
After another headcount and face-check it was clear Jakub was gone although his backpack was still there. The group waited for twenty or so breaths in hopes he was answering the nature’s call and would soon return, but the more time passed by, the more it became clear the guy simply disappeared. The shouting also didn’t do anything – all sounds were muffled by the thick fog and most likely no one was able to hear the group from fifty yards away.
The strangest thing about the disappearance was that there was no sign of struggle, no blood and no distinct footsteps. Although regarding the last part it was impossible to tell, because the whole place had chaotic traces of greenlanders all over – they lived in rather large numbers in the tunnels after all.
“Can it be … it’s them? He kind of did kick those kids yesterday ...” One of the guys glanced at the hill. The locals were apparently disturbed by the commotion and one after another came out to greet the guests.
“Even if – don’t you think we wouldn’t have noticed anything?” Gabriela disagreed, “All of us … well – except one, are at the Foundation establishment stage. Even though few greenanders are rather fit, they at most could be compared to the level of Qi gathering cultivators and there is no way they could overpower someone so stealthily we wouldn’t notice. My bet is he woke up first and went to pee, but took the wrong step and … well, you all saw yesterday how Aldo died.”
Her arguments sounded reasonable and in the end it was decided to always go in groups of at least three.
Then the next question arose – what to do with Jakub’s stuff. He left everything behind, even his sword which currently didn’t have much value in anyone’s eyes. What was on people’s minds were the antidotes in his backpack.
Luckily no discussions or fights broke out, because it was quickly decided they would spend at least next few days here. At the current rate the group would run out of antidotes within the first month and from what it looked like the whole expedition should already be marked as a failure. Nevertheless, they could gather as much intelligence as possible, potentially learn the basics of the greenlander dialect so that the next group could be much better prepared. In short – they should take the best possible care of themselves and return when they run out of supplies.
Even Leo couldn’t argue with this logic. If the group returned prematurely – it wouldn’t be his fault, thus for now he decided to calmly practice the new lightning techniques and see how things developed.
The problem was that at some point Leo realized that the more he practiced, the dizzier and more nauseated he got and it was not caused by the Qi overuse. Clearly the air and maybe even the Qi itself were poisonous and that had a seriously damaging effect.
For him it was not as dangerous, because he carried close to a wagon of antidotes that he didn’t shy off to chug down as he wished, but the rest of the group did their best to use them sparingly. As the result most people soon felt sluggish, few got diarrhea and few spontaneously began to vomit. The locals received the new attraction with loud cheers, but the long faces of the humans told they were not close to having a good day.
The next day began much worse than the previous one.
“Didn’t I order to answer the nature’s call in groups of at least three?!” Gabriela’s face was still fat and flat from the overnight poisoning when she scolded the whole group after waking up.
This time two people were gone missing, Valeria and a guy who kind of kept staying close to her at all times.
“Uhmm … don’t you think they stepped away for another reason.” Rafael grinned back at her, but immediately shut up, because if looks could kill, he would’ve died several times over.
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Gabriela was more than furious. Either she was taking her job as the expedition leader really seriously or Valeria was her friend, to the great entertainment of greenlanders she kept lecturing everyone for almost half a day.
The two people had disappeared without a trace, just like Jakub the day before and this time they also left their bags behind, clearly indicating they didn’t actually intend to leave.
Leo was not the only one who thought the little, ugly locals had something to do with the disappearance of the three people. Four guys, all from the Sacred Order, began to stealthily discuss how to get the f*ck out of there, but since the whole group was rather stacked together, their plans soon were overheard.
Another meeting was held during which Gabriela managed to persuade everyone to stay for one more night, but this time focus on staying awake and together. There were four girls left from the Angelic Dawn, and if the nature called – they all would go together. The same with the guys from the Sacred Order – if they went, they had to be at least in a group of four or five.
Unfortunately in the morning the four people who planned to escape the previous day were gone along with their bags. Clearly they departed while everyone was passed out, although no one understood how it could’ve happened – this time to not fall asleep the ones on the watch even sang, but as it turns out in the end it didn’t help.
Gabriela was furious at the deserters, but Leo had enough. He already began to plan his own escape. Well, he didn’t really need to escape from anyone – he simply realized he would’ve been much better off alone. Not only in few days in the Greenland they hadn’t done or found out anything, the group had lost over third of its members and from what it looked like there was a high chance of loosing more.
There was just one problem though – the passing out thing. If he secretly left during the night ignoring the pitch black darkness that already made the trekking through the swamp impossible, but for some reason, be it natural phenomenon or someone’s ‘help’, passed out, he’d probably die. That left Leo only with one option – he had to leave during the day. In fact, if he didn’t, it was highly likely the remnants of the group would wake up tomorrow and realize among the missing people was he. And it wouldn’t matter if they discussed he went to pee at the wrong place or with the wrong peeing buddies – most likely he would be dead.
After weighting pros and cons, Leo secured the Cleaver on the back, picked up his backpack and without saying anything marched away in the direction of the teleportation platform. First he planned to go and grab one set of the spirit stones so he could teleport away after he was done exploring by himself. The members of expedition in his eyes were already as good as dead, but if they wished, they could use the other stack of spirit stones and go home if they wished.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Rafael was the one who noticed Leo leaving first and drew attention of the rest.
All seven remaining expedition members immediately darted over and surrounded him, but no one intended to attack. The common knowledge was that the youngest of them was only at the Qi gathering stage thus the common sense dictated he should obey Gabriela’s orders.
Leo, of course, didn’t think so. He shrugged and said, “I’m sorry, but I’m not staying.”
“You can go, but your backpack stays!” Rafael said with a grin, but one of the Angelic dawn disciples disagreed.
“There is no way we can let him go!” She said, “The four guys from last night probably already used one batch of the spirit stones. If he uses the rest – we’ll be stranded here!”
While some found it logical, Leo shook his head and said, “Are you stupid or something? They’re dead. And I’m not leaving Greenland realm, I’m leaving this place.”
“I order you to stay! I’m …” Gabriela intended to say something more, but Leo saw no reason to argue.
He took a step in order to go past one of the guys, but a couple hands were already grabbing towards him. The rest happened purely on instinct – he kicked the closest guy in the face and dashed away into the fog. In a heartbeat he couldn’t be seen or heard and no one had any idea if they should even follow. Somehow the kid who allegedly was the weakest easily escaped and in the process knocked one of them out.
While the group was bewildered by Leo’s sudden burst of power, the youth slowed down, his heart pounding so hard if seemed it could jump out the chest any moment. Just now out of reflex he successfully used the newly invented Lightning kick, but the shocking part was that it left heavy burns on the target’s face! As it turns out, lightning can burn flesh not worse than a fire, maybe even more effectively!
‘Of course!’ Leo had a revelation, ‘It’s the mutation of the fire element! Of course it can burn!’
Leo had heard many stories of houses and trees burning down after a lightning strike, but never payed attention to them. Maybe the lightning mutation was not so bad after all? Maybe the element actually had something to offer?
Rafael might actually agree, but unfortunately lie unconscious back at the camp site. The poor guy turned out to be the one in Leo’s way and currently the remaining four girls were taking care of his burns, cursing Leo for sneak-attacking a good person and hiding his actual cultivation level.
Few from the remaining group had an impulse to immediately follow the deserter, but Gabriela persuaded them to wait until the morning. First of all – they would never make to the teleportation platform until the nightfall and second, it was highly likely Leo would die on the way. They already witnessed how easy it was to drown in the swamp and if the kid kept running like he did – it was basically guaranteed to make a wrong step.
‘Haste makes waste!’ was the phrase she used to end the discussion and Leo would agree if he wasn’t so happy about finally getting away from the creepy greenlanders. Yes, he knew he won’t make it to teleportation platform before dark, but he much more preferred to sleep on a soggy ground than risk his neck around the place where people disappeared without a trace.
He did a few precautions though. Just like Anna taught him back in the day, he backtracked around hundred or so yards, stepping in his own footsteps and then left the trail to the side without leaving any on the new path. Afterwards he chose a larger tree with an inconspicuous bush and settled there.
Of course, any beast with a keen sense of smell could find him, but currently he was much more worried about those little local people with the small eyes and big mouths.