The group makes good time in silence for the next half hour. Then Peter stops them just before they go over a rise. With an effortless toss, he throws a boulder taller than he is and waits for a moment.

“Okay, just over this hill is another selection of swarm cats. There are five swarms that did have about 300 cats each, though one is now down a good 50. We wait just a little more and they should be all grouped up, ready for the four of you to go and fight them. Do as much as you can so I can hopefully give you all a bit more advice so the System gets off my back.”

Peter holds his one hand up while bobbing his other to an unheard beat. After a small bit of time passes, he holds up his hand and counts down with his fingers. Five, four, three, two, one, “And go!” Then, with a flourish of his raised hand, he gestures for the group to go beat up on some swarms.

As the group charges over the hill Courtney asks Rosha, “So I should have talked about this earlier, but do you need my buff? If he wants to see all I can show then I need to keep my mana open.”

Rosha laughs, “Optimally it shouldn’t matter because I wouldn’t be getting hit. Not an option against swarms and their stupid continual damage thing. Still, I should be fine as long as you keep me healed like you did last fight.”

Courtney nods, “Will do.”

Off to the side Jason laughs, “Three dps formation go!”

While a little sarcastic he isn’t wrong. The three of them slam into the near thousand and a half cats. Rosha goes to the left with her staff swinging. It must have been the side that the previously separated swarm had joined on because the cats were much looser. She would not stand for this and so the only thing to do is corral them all in.

Courtney having noticed this as well goes right. With her claws ready, shadows start to leak out of her joints and her speed picks up. Swipe after swipe cleaves through the cats at her side with much of the healing heading towards Rosha who without the buff is taking double damage.

Jason jumps straight into the middle of things. Though before landing he tosses Lily to the side away from him. That taken care of, he focuses on where he is about to land as flowers bloom on his feet. Like a silent explosion, cats fly out in a bloody mess.

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Lily has her fur charged up well before she lands. Not on the ground, though. Rather there are so many cats and she weighs so little Lily ends up balanced on top of numerous cats that all turn to attack her. She doesn’t give them the chance and bashes through the swell of cats that tried to trap her down. Once free nothing the swarms could do can hold her down and she hops freely through the chaos. Though unlike previously she isn’t completely unharmed but Courtney is on top of it.

Back with Jason, his Never Ending Threads are clad on his feet and he has taken Peter’s advice to heart. Each step is like three or more as he waltz through the swarm. Punches being used whenever some cats try to collapse on him but otherwise limits himself to his legs. Any cat that tries to climb up him is blasted off by the pointed application of his blast skill. Though those that try to get under his feet and trip him are much worse off. His threads constantly seeking the next monster to infiltrate any cat foolish enough to be underfoot is minced before his foot hits the ground.

Courtney seeing that the situation is stable judges she can kick it up a notch. Quite literally, as she shows why instead of boots, she has been wearing sandals. Because of course it would be stupid if pantherkin only kept the claws on their hands. So with claws extended on both her feet, she wades into the edge of her side. Each step shredding a cat as she crouches down to swipe at any cat trying to climb on.

Out of all of the party Rosha is having the hardest time. Her decision was right to go left, but it prevents her from using the most recent advice from Peter. It’s a little hard to hit as many monsters as possible when they aren’t bunched up. Instead, she spends most of her time on crowd control. Each sweep knocking a few cats deeper into the swarm. Luckily, her efforts are not in vain. While she is taking a lot of damage on a constant drip Rosha has solidified the swarm. Less and less cats are spread out though she can’t wait to really be able to let go.

At the back, Peter shakes his head. ‘Welp, Courtney is defo hiding something. Of all the common sapient races, pantherkin are only second to halflings anything shadow related. With the darkness literally dripping off of her right now she has to have something more that would help with the fight. You just don’t get shadows to act like a liquid without some nonsense.’

He sighs, ‘Though it would better explain wanting our variant illusion magic. Shadows mean her illusion magic already has a foot half in the door on being real. Just a little more and it would be near impossible for anything within spitting distance of her level to spot one of her illusions in a shadowy space.’

‘Though I will have to mention that little quirk of shadow magic. She might already know, but you can’t ever tell with travellers. Their world is just too strange compared to our own. Sometimes it just seems so odd that they can come here at all. Not that I would ever say anything of the sort out loud. The System wouldn’t like that too much, luckily it doesn’t care if I think about it.'