Lyrus' party reunited at the Guild, repeated the same banter they did every single day and exited the building shortly after. This time, however, they went to the soldier barracks in order to join the troop heading to Fort Baxter.
Lyrus as always, walked while pondering about something completely random. Jane was reading a book along the way, taking more time to read than usual because of the slight bumping she felt when walking at the somewhat fast pace the party had. Robert was a little nervous because of the battle they would soon take part in, scratching the back of his head with one hand while pressing against the belt on his waist with the other. Alice just kept playing with the string of her bow along the way while making some 'pew, pew' sounds with her mouth.
Reaching the barracks, the party joined the men that numbered a little more than a hundred that were waiting for the call to leave.
After half an hour of the party pretty much doing the same thing now as they were doing before, the acting commander of the mission arrived and stated the planned details for the troop. In short, he repeated everything stated in the quest report and gave an emotional speech about walking through the dead bodies of the monsters that only Robert paid any attention to.
Another half an hour later the acting general finished his speech and gave order for the troop to proceed through the gate and head to Fort Baxter through the humid forest.
The forest had many paths, each leading to a certain part of the shore and a small number of them to Fort Baxter.
Two hours after walking through the forest the troop finally exited the sea of trees - without fighting any monsters thanks to both the mass extermination of monsters requested since last week and the number of people in the troop - although the fort couldn't be seen, the ravine that encased it was as tall as a mountain. It was decided by the acting commander that they would march for another two hours before resting and once again proceed towards the fort, the final trip for the day would take slightly over five hours.
Alice went with other 15 people to scout the way ahead for the party and it would take some time for her to come back.
Jane finished reading her book soon after they stopped marching. Having nothing else to do, she tried to talk to someone and pass the time. Speaking to Lyrus as usual, she asked.
"By the way, did you see what happened deeper down the forest?"
"The sunlight reaching the ground at random spots, right? Yeah, I saw it." Answered Lyrus, coming out of his strange, meditative stupor.
"What's so great about the sunlight?" Asked Robert, almost as entranced as Lyrus was before, albeit for completely different reasons.
"The sun doesn't reach the ground outside the roads inside that forest because of the trees. If the sun did reach the ground..." Jane stopped mid-sentence, letting Robert's mind make sense of the rest; thankfully, he proved capable of at least that.
"There's no trees." He mumbled to himself, then asking the two of them. "You're saying that it had to do with the missing trees we saw last week?"
"Nothing else comes to mind." Answered Jane, continuing after shrugging and shaking her head. "I would happily mention it to the Guilds but this matter has already been reported to them and there's even a quest to find whatever is causing it still waiting on the corner of the board."
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Soon after Jane stretched her arms and let her body fall onto the bed sheet she brought in her backpack. Letting the reports on the board fly by her mind, as if they were right in front of her. Maybe by holding out her hand she could grasp them and read whatever is written on them, using the minimal hints left by the situation to finally see the light in this darkness that they were swimming in.
Turning her head to the side, she could see Lyrus sitting cross-legged on the earthly ground next to her, returning to his own thoughts beside her bed sheet, making the other soldiers and hunters preparing improvised beds further away seem like the background of a masterpiece. She called him, more to know his thoughts than to have an answer on the matter.
"Lyrus..." She whispered before any coherent question could form inside of her mind. The man, hearing his name being called, turned his head to look at her, he gave her a small smile with a face that seemed to ask her 'what troubles you, child?'. She thought for an instant that the world inside his mind must be beautiful and mysterious, just like the unique ways that a philosopher sees the world we live in, though having much more of a childish wonder to it.
Turning to look at the clouds in the sky while protecting her eyes from the bright sunlight, she asks. "Do you think that what destroyed those trees will be at the fort?"
Once again, Jane turned her head to Lyrus, wondering what was passing through his mind, a little sad that she couldn't hear what were his thoughts. The warrior turned his sight to the horizon, in the direction of the fort - and where most soldiers coincidentally laid on the ground. His expression slightly melancholic, he said: "I hope not, there's enough death as is." It didn't look like he was referring to the people of the troop in front of him.
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Alice came back with the other scouts after half an hour, but instead of laying on the bed sheets she played with her bowstring again. This time, however, her childish attitude was nowhere to be seen, the sounds of 'pew, pew' that she made this morning were replaced by a 'fwoosh' that came from a strange azure-colored arrow formed from the void that slowly became larger while she was pulling the string.
The air itself appeared to be twisting and scattering all around her as if scared of the girl. The arrow gave birth to multiple blue colored sparks, these sparks also seemed to have a need to disperse and they seemed excited for finally being able to freely roam through the world.
Seeing this scene, instead of being dumbfounded at the rare soul skill that showed itself to the world with wild abandon like everyone else, Lyrus imagined how beautiful this sight would be in the dead of the night - or better yet, in the sunset - instead of this boring afternoon.
He also realized that Alice's objective at practicing this skill seemed to be to contain the azure light from fleeing from the arrow. He would happily help her if he could, but soul skills were something unique that only the users themselves could instinctively grasp and master over time, someone like him that gave his entire youth to learn the ways of knights could not hope to teach someone how to master archery beyond the level the girl has already managed yo achieve, it seemed that Alice was already training to be a Grandmaster that excelled at archery.
Seeing Alice stopping her training with a bit of sweat at her forehead, Lyrus imagined how powerful this skill could become in the future. He could almost see the azure arrow making a stark contrast with her long blond hair before flying through the void of space formed from the sheer physical pressure it gave. If he could already feel the air blown by the projectile now, imagine its power after she becomes a Grandmaster.
He simulated a carriage being hit by this soul skill after it being fully grasped by her user in the future to come. While the current arrow couldn't hope to do much more than piercing through the heart of a heavily armored knight, he could see the future arrow flying as fast as thunder, ignoring useless things such as objects while it passed through any and all obstacles, consuming anything in its way and not leaving even the air itself untouched.
After Alice finished her training, everyone resumed resting before they prepared to set out towards the fort once more, they would rest again right before night, three or four kilometers away from their target and start the siege the next day.
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One day after - as planned - the troop watched the fort inside the middle of the ravine, it stood tall but its glory was being stepped on by the goblins inside of it, they numbered close to two hundred but only a few dozens were on watch to see the human army marching towards them.
The monsters on the watch warned the others and the goblins prepared for the battle against their nemesis.