Tall trees covered them on all sides. The vines creeping and along the floor were thick, and if one didn’t pay attention, they could easily stumble and fall. The sheer amount of undergrowth was strangulating. One couldn’t see more than few dozen meters; for a large tree or bundle of vine and bush would block their view. The trees stretched up, and out of view, for a thick canopy of vines and leaves would block line of sight. Alisson couldn’t tell how high they were, at least a dozen stories. The few shreds of sunlight came down in bright beams, and the jungle was surprisingly bright for how thick the canopy was. It was oddly humid here, and there was a plethora of bright and exotic flora.

There weren’t any animals in the jungle however. Not even any insects. Instead, there were beasts. Upon entering the very fringes of the jungle, they were swarmed immediately. Hundreds of Roamers, all ebbing and flowing around them, maneuvering seamlessly over the uneven terrain, making the stumbles of him and Celis look dignified. At first they collapsed upon the adventurers with no thought. Dozens were cut down in a matter of seconds. Crimson remained tightly packed, everyone was not more than a foot from one another. At the rear, were Rei and Alisson, backpedaling as they vigilantly scanned behind the formation. In the center were Patsel and Berein, due the proximity of the group, they were tightly squeezed in the middle of the other adventurers. Berein was essentially breathing down his neck, ready to cast a spell any moment. At the flanks, Celis and Amelathet shuffled alongside the rest of the team. At the very front was Dane with his massive shield up and ready. He shuffled forward step by step, very slowly, never lowering his guard, his mace poised to strike.

After the initial assault of beasts, they backed off, and were now circling Crimson, eyeing them as if they were a pack of wolves, ready to strike, all the while Crimson inched forward. There was no way Crimson could take the offensive by any means in Freigat. The reason being was right before Alisson. Him and Celis alone would be eaten alive if they didn’t expend every last scrap and scrolls they had with them. Despite it only being a few minutes, Alisson already felt deep in enemy territory.

The Roamers on occasion would break formation and lunge for Crimson, three or six at time.

Alisson was always quick to impale one or two with the long range or his rapier if they came on his side. Then Rei would engage with a swipe if she was close enough. Celis and Amelathet would step forward for a brief attack, and Dane would always shield bash them away, sending them flying across the sky. He never broke his staunch aegis to use his mace. If there were ever too many Roamers coming from a given side, then the adventurer on that side would duck, and as the flying body of the decrepit beast neared the rest of the team, they would engage. Fighting in such close quarters was a first for Alisson, but he adapted quickly because of the sheer quantity of attacks.

These attacks would happen every few seconds.

Only fifteen minutes had gone by, and they’d felt like hours. The progress they’d made was minimal. He could the same tree that’d he’d seen when they’d first entered. If Berein really wasn’t going to use mana on a horde like this…then there must be far worse things ahead of them…

Large thundering explosions quaked from the east, where Auburn’s much larger group was. Some of the surrounding beasts perked their heads up, and then promptly broke off, scampering through the jungle, headed for the east. More and more did the Roamers break off, now en masse. Soon, there were only a few dozen Roamers left.

Team Crimson broke formation and charged. The remaining Roamers fled before any battle, and Crimson regrouped seamlessly after the fake-out.

“I’ll have to buy Auburn drinks for that one…”

Dane whispered.

“Now, let’s increase the pace while we can…”

He continued. They now moved forward at a much faster rate; all the while explosions sounded from the east. That only lasted for a couple minutes, before another dozen Roamers appeared out of seemingly nowhere, vaulting over the bush and crashing into Crimson. Alisson was so taken off guard that he almost fell to his feet. They were dealt with quickly and Crimson moved on. Not before another ten beasts passed ahead of them, with thundering footsteps. He could see Bears through cracks in the trees, off in the distance. They were massive. Crimson stopped to a standstill for a long moment, everyone suddenly holding their breaths. The Bears were headed east. At their feet were hundreds of assorted beasts. The swarm passed quickly, and more thundering explosions were heard from the east.

“It’s always tough breaking through at first…they’ve been massing at the edge of the jungle more and more recently…”

Dane muttered.

So then, they continued forward, careful to make as little noise as possible.

More sporadic fighting occurred for the next hour, the same detonations going off over and over in the east. At least they knew that Auburn hadn’t perished yet. All the noise served another purpose – To attract the attention of any survivors keeping their heads down.

All the while every kind of beast imaginable were dashing past Crimson. Some turned to engage, some turned for a glance, then kept moving, and others attacked Crimson on sight.

There were tall thin humanoids, who dashed though the jungle undergrowth on their long lanky legs, more like spiders than bipedal creatures. They were fast, as fast as a galloping horse with how long their legs were. A few passed right over Crimson mid trot, not giving second glance.

There were some kind of worm like creatures that shot from tree trunk to trunk, coiling around them high in the sky above Crimson, before shooting out with explosive force to another trunk. Some were not that high up, and ran into Crimson, flying right over the adventurer’s heads at first, before wheeling on their next jump. The first time this happened, Celis was the target. In the time it took Alisson to blink, an agile pink fleshy worm now writhed around Celis’s body, its head above her own, poised to strike with some sort of sharp, bone like protrusion. Rei and Dane acted immediately, and the two of them literally pulled the worm apart. It writhed around on the ground before being impaled by Alisson.

Then, also in the sky, weaving in between the trunks of the trees high above, was a large centipede. From its size, it was evidently a Bear. Large angled plates of hardened exoskeletal material covered its body, and its thousands of legs grabbed onto trees, weaving between them like a snake. It was headed right for Crimson, down toward them.

“Berein. Now.”

Was all Dane said in a whisper. Berein acted immediately, lifting her staff up toward the Bear. After about a minute of moving forward, with the Bear nearing on them, the slithering of its segments now audible in the distance, Berein fired. A massive purple spike dissected the Bear in two, cutting through it in the blink of an eye. It wen limp immediately. Some of its severed parts fell down toward the jungle floor with loud crashes, and some of it lay up in the canopy, stuck between the trees.

Minutes later, while they were now engaged by a swarm of goblins, he saw the pieces of the centipede, still twitching in death as the team pushed forward.

The goblins here were like the ones in Davy’s basement – Sickly white. They had no discernable features, no clothing, just their hideous deformities and gnarling faces. These were however, far stronger than any he’d seen before. Much larger too. Most only carried sharpened tree branches, that had evidently come from much higher up in the jungle. Some carried weapons. They were obviously the weapons of fallen adventurers, from their uniqueness. Judging by the weapon’s rust and dirtiness, they could’ve been dozens of years old, maybe more.

They were not tough opponents however, just annoying. Alisson was nicked by one with a particularly long tree branch. Thankfully, his armor saved him from being skewered alive.

Eventually, the goblins vanished into the brush in a coordinated retreat.

“They know we’re here now…” Rei whispered. “They’re probably scouting out the other groups right about now too…”

“Do me a favor…Kill me if I’m ever dragged away by them.”

Berein almost snapped in a rushed whisper.

“Will do.”

Patsel replied coolly. No one took it as a joke.

…

Finally, the distant explosions of battle were dying down in the east, and less and less beasts were headed in that direction. It’d been a full two hours, and only a handful of words had been spoken. The last two hours were almost all taken up by battle. The On occasion that a Bear or two would stumble on them, Berein would fire off her magic, wiping them away. After only two hours, she was already at around 75% her mana capacity. Patsel had healed the team once or twice, but there were almost no wounds. So far, this was a good pace.

Berein had surprised Alisson. For the few times that the beasts were attacking in large numbers all at once, she stepped forward, and stabbed forth with her sharpened pitchfork-like staff.

The adventurers now were all heaving with heavy and bobbing chests, nothing was audible but Alisson could see for himself that already Crimson was tired from fighting non-stop.

Alisson on the other hand was already burning up in fatigue. As much as he hated to say it, he’d spent the last two months mainly on the move – Such extended battle was greatly tiring him, same with Celis. Despite the initial tire, the group trudged on.

There was one sight that made Alisson’s stomach churn. In the sky, gently floating about a kilometer away, Alisson could see some sort of amalgamation of tentacles. Like a floating octopus or something. It was sitting there, miles away. Alisson must’ve been the only one to see it. The next moment when a tree trunk passed in front of it, Alisson never saw it again.

That was in the middle of particularly uncomfortable stretch of silence. No battle had taken place for a straight ten minutes, and Alisson was personally getting antsy – Like somehow the attacks of the beasts were keeping them company. Alisson’s vision darted from tree to tree, vine to vine, expecting something.

“Amela…Do you hear anything?”

Rei was eyeing the surrounding area, wary for something. Amelathet was frowning, her eyes up.

“Some things…nothing to be a…”

Everyone saw it happen. Amelathet was cut off as her head locked onto it. A cloud of dirt was kicked up right by their sides, and it seemed as though empty air were surging toward them. At the same time, the bark of nearby tree moved out and toward them, leaping toward the formation. A bush shivered crackled, distorted, when suddenly it too charged toward the adventurers.

“Stalkers!”

Dane shouted.

Alisson had only the time to raise Enhérejär up and forth toward one of these distortions of reality. He thrust on instinct, and black blood flew through the air out of seemingly nowhere. The area was quickly engulfed in combat as Crimson came under attack by Sidonia knows what.

The second one was easier to spot now that Alisson was paying attention to the ripples in the air, how the bushes and trees seemed to crinkle like radiating heat.

“What the hell is this!?”

Alisson rushed to whisper, almost shouting, struggling to not make any noise despite his surprise. He rose Enhérejär up sideways, blocking two limbs of another warping segment of his vision. Its strength was immense, and it was at least double Alisson’s height, though about his width, judging from the ripples.

“Stalkers use camouflage-! Watch for the footsteps and ripples-!”

Berein replied quickly. Alisson saw a third limb rear up and swing at him, from behind the creature. It surged for Alisson, right over Enhérejär. Alisson sidestepped. When he did, he saw the illusion break down. Seeing this ‘Stalker’ from its side, it became evident that empty air was in fact not his enemy. It was a beast that could alter the composition of their hide to match what they were upon. These were quite large beasts, but they were thin, hunched over, and had massive jointed limbs and razor thin appendages coming out of their back and sides. Alisson grabbed hold of Enhérejär with both his hands, and charged into the beast, putting his weight behind a slash though its torso. He didn’t normally use rapiers’ sharp edges, but this was one of those times. He had no clue where this beast’s vitals were due to its half-invisibility.

The creature’s body was tough, but Enhérejär managed to rip though it. Alisson stepped around the creature once more, and then slashed down for a second time on its other side, Enhérejär now having formed serrated teeth on itself to aid Alisson. The second swing was faster the first, and then for the third, fourth, and fifth time; Alisson diced the thin creature apart within the span of two seconds.

He hoped it was dead; Because already another four were charging from his direction. He was out of position, so he turned his back toward the formation and retreated in preparation to meet the bending pieces of air. He didn’t have to play hero. He didn’t want to play hero – He had gone through the trouble of acquiring teammates for a reason.

Four arrows slammed into one of the four, killing it.

Dane stepped in front of Alisson and brought his mace down on a second, killing it instantly.

Celis lunged at the third, her stilettos barred.

Alisson stepped forward, now with the support of his team, toward the fourth. By this time a little more of Enhérejär had peeled away from the pommel and shifted into the blade, giving his swings a little more weight to them. The discolored piece of air was ripped apart by his quick successive swings. He didn’t very often use slashing attacks, but against a beast so thin, it was more viable than thrusting, despite how small a rapier’s edge was. Celis beside him was doing the very same thing, ripping the beast apart with a flurry of slashes from her baselards; By the time she’d stepped around it, with her back against the rest of the team again, the Stalker she’d targeted was already falling to the ground.

Thereafter another a couple dozen of these Stalkers attacked Crimson, and all perished, each one faster than the last as Crimson adapted and became less surprised. The battle only lasted for a minute, and now dozens of large hulking corpses lay around Crimson; The hide of the Stalkers still the same patterns and colors from when they were still standing, making the bodies stick out like a sore thumb upon the ground. Patsel retrieved his arrows, and, not wasting anytime, Crimson formed up and began creeping once more into Freigat. The adventurers were still breathing heavily from the fatigue of the battle, though they didn’t even take a breather.

After that, more beasts came. They never stopped. More always came. Periods of no battle lasted at the most fifteen minutes, but those were rare; and even in those moments, everyone still kept up their guards, their knees bent and holding their weapons up, adrenaline wafting through their bloodstreams.

One of Alisson’s most hellish training exercises was in fact staying en garde for hours on end, not doing anything. No matter how light the weight, if you held out your weapon in front of you, eventually your arm would get tired. The test of will was seeing how far his apprentices would put up with that. Celis outlasted Alisson’s patience, obviously, and he adjourned the exercise after six hours. It was training like that that broke in rookies, that separated wheat from chaff – It was the realization that one had that was crux of it. The realization that the current agony and anguish, would go on. That was enough to crack most men.

Alisson himself had this moment for the first time since his first day of training. That night, Alisson realized he was in for the long haul for Freigat.

Hours had passed in battle as the sun had set. Alisson’s body was weary and his mind was exhausted from being so alert and spooked by all the various sights in Freigat. As Berein spoke with the other teams though the message spell, reporting the status of Crimson, the travel portion of the first day was ended. Flares were shot up by Auburn, and both Mystic and Crimson confirmed them to gage their locations. So while beasts flooded toward Auburn as result, Crimson settled down, looking for an area to make camp for the night.

Personally, Alisson and Celis didn’t need sleep. They were Nekomata, they could go a couple days on end as long as they had a few full days of rest afterwards. But, his teammates were human, and obviously, they weren’t going to get any day of full rest to sleep like logs as Nekomata did. It was better to sleep come nighttime like normal.

They found a boulder that was nestled in between two trees, having a wall against their backs, the adventurers silently made camp for the night in the darkness. The moon was out, though due to the canopy of Freigat, the vines, and the clouds above, the moon was redundant.

“So…” Dane whispered to both Celis and Alisson. “That’s one day down…How do you feel?”

He was gaging them. Alisson didn’t want to appear deceiving or cocky, so he answered truthfully.

“We’re exhausted. I hope this tire won’t get in the way of the mission.”

Dane broke into a smile.

“I expected as much. Well, you’ve got three more weeks of this, so catch your breath while you can. The both of you and Rei are on first watch.”

He turned to the rest of the team, and, still in a whisper, said,

“Me, Berein, and Amela are second watch; Pat, you take first rest.”

Dane said, walking away.

In Freigat, one person was not enough the defend while the others rested. The simple truth was – They would be coming under attack tonight. They wouldn’t be making as much noise as they would while moving, so there would inevitably be less company. Patsel taking ‘First Rest’ Meant that he was the only one going to be getting a full night of rest. The team would be rotating based on who was more a physical fighter, and obviously, the first day in, it’d be waste to have the more physically able people rest first – They would need their breaks in the coming days after the toll of battle started to pile up.

What Dane had said was what coursed through Alisson as he kept watch with Celis and Rei that first half of the night. That realization that there was more to come. More and more, battle after battle after battle, day, and night, minute after minute, without rest.

His fingers were locked up and sore. Enhérejär pulsed a hum gently, inaudible to those of Crimson. He pet Enhérejär; It was clearly tired. It was nice to sit down and rest after a full day of battle and travel, even if it was in the pitch dark.

Beasts roared all around. This was a normal noise in Freigat, but now it was increasing in volume as the minutes dragged in the darkness. Stray howls sounded off in the distance, most likely Auburn finishing up with the flood of beasts that had been sent to them because of the flares. Branches snapped not meters away. This happened dozens of times during his watch; Sometimes something was there to make the noise, others, there was nothing. On occasion he would feel the hot breath of something down his neck, but no matter how hard he darted his vision, there was nothing next to him except Celis.

Really, as long as Celis was by his side, a fellow Sidonian, a Nekomata, his apprentice, his, friend, Alisson could handle the darkness, the noises, the peering eyes, the faces staring at him in the night, all of it…It was somehow bearable when he knew he had Celis at his back. Those faces in particular were what took most of his attention. Every fifteen minutes, Alisson would spot some sort of twisted face in the darkness, each one was different from the last and had bright white eyes that bore into his skin. Yet when Alisson blinked, the face and the light coming from their eyes would disappear.

The large shadows that moved through the night in front of him were of varying sizes and shapes. More of those long-legged humanoids, trotting through the forest mostly. Where they were going, Alisson didn’t know. He heard the slithering of worms high above in the canopy. He saw the faint light of the moon be eclipsed by one of those massive centipedes up there, hundreds of feet above, with its thousands of legs.

Alisson saw large furred beasts, double the height of a normal man with very thick bodies, walking at a normal human pace past them at one point. There were only three of them. Alisson had his hand on Enhérejär, but his heart still jumped when suddenly one of them turned toward Alisson, staring at him dead in the face. It made some sort of sound to the other two beasts, like a whimper, and all three beasts stopped to turn at Crimson’s encampment. Alisson could barely see their outlines, but he could see the glints of their eyes, beneath their thick coats of fur that covered every inch of their bodies.

Alisson was ready to attack these, creatures, but, they turned after a few minutes, and went on the way they were originally headed.

All the while Rei was staring out, with her shimmering eyes, vigilant. Alisson could only imagine what she was seeing that he could not.

There were a few attacks throughout the night. A couple were Roamers, one was the result of goblins, and one was the result of more Stalkers. There was also this large spider-like creature, most likely a bear from its size. It had twenty long thin legs, and paraded quickly across the jungle, its main body a couple stories high. It turned and lashed out a leg toward Crimson, but a combination of Rei and Alisson dicing through the leg drove or maybe disinterested the large spider.

By the time their watch was over, Alisson was drowsy. Although he most definitely wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight because he did not share the adventurer’s mystical sleeping powers, he was nevertheless thankful for the rest.

…

It’s the second day in. The first passed pretty smoothly according to Berein. We awoke at dawn, and, after checking in with the other groups, we started out. Right away we were attacked by a horde of goblins that hard apparently been amassing near us over the night. To them, they thought their numbers were enough to take us down. It wasn’t. Behind us now lay hundreds of goblin corpses. It was a good start to the day, a good wake up, more like. After traveling in the same formation for the last day, I started see just why adventurers were able to go places normal soldiers weren’t. The adventurers, Crimson, we all worked together like one single body. Each member was their own limb, each with their own ring of special skills and tools. I didn’t have to talk much over the day, no one did. If we saw a bear approach, we would duck, Berein would fire, and we would move on. If we saw Roamers, well, we didn’t really care. They were so weak that we didn’t ever need to take any precautions.

Today one of those long legged humanoid beasts attacked us. Apparently they’re called Sprinters. For being just a single beast, bastard was a tough tree to chop. It was fast, just jumped over and around our formation, slamming down with its long arms. Rei fired off one of her attack spells, and it didn’t even scratch it. Patsel couldn’t even fire off any arrows, because it was just too agile. Eventually, Amelathet broke formation, and chased down the beast, and killed it. It was a crazy few seconds. Amelathet managed to dice through one of its legs, sending it to a knee, wherein she then jumped up and ripped apart its upper body with a flurry of thrusts and swings with her falchion.

That was the first time Amelathet has been of use in combat. No one else would’ve been able to close the distance and weave around the creature.

At about midday, we felt a massive rumble. It was getting progressively louder and stronger as the seconds went by when Berein received a warning from Auburn: A Basilisk had almost broken them, and it was now headed for us. We stopped our forward momentum immediately, and just sat still, watching everywhere for any sign of a massive snake or worm, whatever it is. After a few seconds in silence, we heard a thunderous explosion, and, from the ground about a hundred meters away, in the brush, I saw a colossal black blur rise. It was as thick as five trees. And these are Freigat trees, so it was pretty damn big. After flying through the air, it dived back into the ground. A stream of its body flowed where its head had been for a solid minute afterwards, and not at a slow pace either. The Basilisk continued to crash through the ground around us, rising up and then diving back down. Berein was ready the whole time, her staff effulgent purple.

It never did attack us though, just circled us, and then went on its way. From all its movement, I could see numerous holes and smoldering craters in its black leathery scales, the result of Auburn, so perhaps it was too wounded to want to try fighting us. We formed up, and continued our advance. As we moved forward, I could see the colossal holes in the earth where the Basilisk had bored.

It made me think though, about what was below our feet. There could very well be tunnels upon tunnels full of still creatures, waiting for their chance to break up and onto the surface. Today we did take break at midday to stuff our faces with food. What we brought were very good rations – As in, they were nutrient rich, could be consumed quickly, did not spoil, and most of all, tasted like crap. Part of a balanced diet! Can’t miss that for rations, it’s half the fun.

This time me, Alisson, and Rei were second watch. So, I cuddled up next to Alisson, and tried to get some shut eye. Evidently I couldn’t, because of the area. The adventurers were much better in this regard, they could sleep anywhere, and because of that, they were much better armed for this than me and Alisson. Well, whatever. I know Alisson didn’t sleep either. We were kind of just awkwardly laying next to each other; All the while attacks and odd noises kept our eyes from being shut for too long.

…

Days had passed. The same thing, over and over, battle, battle, battle, rest, wake up and repeat. The single body of Crimson was less like multicellular organism and more like a machine. As the days went by, he was more and more thankful that he had the support of the adventurers. Him and Celis would never be able to pierce this deeply into Freigat. Among the force, there were only three deaths. All of which were from Ulroy’s Brigade, attached to Auburn. Which was surprisingly low compared to previous times soldiers had been sent into Freigat.

Although the point to point battle and tire in Freigat thus far had been strenuous and hellish to trudge through mentally and physically, overall, the expedition was proceeding smoothly. Celis and him had even started to fall asleep at night, which was also a plus.

Today marked the seventh day in Freigat. Today they would regroup with Auburn to stock up on supplies. Today was also the day they were estimated to reach the place where the prior expedition had suffered their large defeat, that forced them into a rout. They were now quite deep within Freigat. Any deeper, Rei had warned, and the danger level would start increasing exponentially over what the three-team force could handle. In Alisson’s head, it seemed that they were about half-way to their destination, the center of Freigat. Alisson didn’t like the idea of breaking off from Crimson and going at it alone for another week, in apparently harsher conditions, but Alisson seriously needed to start looking for his chance to desert the force.

Apparently Teams Mystic and Auburn had found a combined total of five adventurers alive and well, Crimson was not as fortunate. All teams did report however, coming across a combined total of two bodies. The alive adventurers, and the bodies, were taken Auburn’s wagons. four of the surviving five were fit for battle, and joined Auburn as extra manpower, which was a plus. The other one was apparently in a catatonic state. How exactly the last adventurer managed to cling to life is currently unknown.

Because of the danger of running into the same thing or things that destroyed the prior expedition on their return, all three groups would be combining for the next three days. A small basecamp would be assembled at the inferred epicenter of the last expedition’s rout; and the adventurers would begin sweeping the area around that part of Freigat in hopes of finding more survivors and bodies to recover.

It was standard practice that if adventurers were stranded, to try and stay put in Freigat. Running off into the jungle with no clue where one was going was stupid. Your only hope was to wait for another group, and stay close to the main road. Traveling down the road was ill-advised, as that only raised one’s chances to be attacked. Thus, it was estimated that the bulk of survivors would be found near the upcoming area. Flares would be launched to alert any surviving members of the expeditionary team.

As result, the forward operating base, FOB, would be coming under heavy attack for the duration of their search. The plan was to use up a majority of their resources, I.E scrolls and magic items, here. After that, in about a week’s time, the force would wheel, and turn.

Which meant Celis and him were only going to be with Crimson for another week before they turned around and started their return trip. The more Alisson thought of that, breaking with the adventurers and going off alone, the more it seemed unreasonable to him. Just how would the two of them manage to survive? The Jungle had gotten increasingly more dangerous as they’d gone deeper. The beasts that roamed at this level of the Jungle were all universally agile, strong, resistant to magic, and above all, had a modicum intelligence, which meant they wouldn’t be running themselves up on a wall of prepared defenders anytime soon. It felt wrong to still call them ‘Roamers’, these beasts were on a much different level than those on the outskirts of Freigat.

As Alisson rose, stretching his back, the sun beams splashing across his face, he could only think of all the sights he’d seen in the days prior. As he stared out into the Jungle brush, he could see the prior week’s worth of the beasts, staring back at him. All those faces, all those shadows in the night, all those noises…Even though there was nothing out in the brush currently, it made Alisson hesitant to get up.

The last night was the first full night of rest him and Celis had gotten. When he remembered that, he realized why there was a heavy weight over his body; Celis was on top of him sleeping soundly. He could visibly see how much larger her body had gotten in muscle mass and height being so close to her. She was once a thin little girl dwarfed by even Alisson, someone who was on the shorter side; but here it looked like Alisson’s suspicions in that Celis had been going through her growth spurt were valid.

“Wake up already…”

Alisson whined quietly, not wanting the other adventurers to turn and see Celis over him under the shawl. Eventually, Celis did awake, but didn’t recoil like she normally did in embarrassment, she only smiled at Alisson. From which Alisson averted his eyes to, his face already like a peony’s.

Within minutes thereafter, Crimson was already sunk in formation, carefully moving across Freigat once more. Now however, they were headed on a northeastern bearing toward the main road to meet up with Auburn.

Large winged beasts circled above. Ravens, they were called. Alisson had gotten very familiar with the beasts here. Ravens were more or less scavengers, though their large bodies and piercing dives added with their razor-sharp mouths and talons posed a formidable threat to a lone traveler. They didn’t normally attack groups. The reason they were circling above, high in the canopy, was that they were expecting a battle. They saw something Crimson didn’t, that beasts were coming. As such Ravens had acted as good method of forewarning. Alisson hadn’t ever seen one up close however; They were but black blurs high up, flapping their large wings.

From all the beasts Alisson had fought over the past week, he’d finally picked up on the human method of dubbing beasts. Broad names that stemmed from common animals, such as Dogs, Bears, Ravens, were categories, and didn’t point toward any specific beast. Which was why the Roamers of before were still the Roamers of now, even though they were completely different in combat ability and aesthetics – Though the general idea of a four-legged creature was there.

With the advent of battle, Alisson finally woke up.

As he thrust forward, stepped to the side, and countered with a slash of Enhérejär, he felt the fatigue of the week resurface. Alisson had long gotten used to it. A Brokert was sprinting right toward them, attempting to try and smash through Crimson and break their lines. Unfortunately for the beast, Crimson was not an amalgamation of fighters, but rather now it was a single being. He didn’t need to communicate anymore. Everyone knew what had to be done. It was like fighting alongside fellow Sidonians – Alisson never thought such a thing could be possible with humans.

If anything, the constant life threatening battle had strengthened Crimson’s teamwork past that of a normal Sidonian unit.

The sprinting beast was halted in its tracks by Dane and Alisson. Dane raised his shield to one of its arms, and Alisson impaled the other, slipping behind the beast and twisting its arm around its back. Rei and Celis leapt up over Dane, like wild animals they tore through the Brokert’s throat. Its hard exoskeleton was eviscerated by their manic barrage.

More beasts came, taking the break in Crimson’s formation as a sign of weakness. Really, fighting the more intelligent beasts came with a bonus – They were much easier to predict. The assorted beasts were ripped apart as Crimson reformed and continued on their previous path, completely unhindered.

It was incredible; The trance that the adventurers, Celis and him included, had sunk into. Freigat’s danger needed to be met with an equal level of perfect teamwork and skill – Everyone knew this. So far, Crimson had consistently delivered. It was scary how different everyone was in the Jungle compared to out on another contract. Though he supposed that this shift was just that famous human adaptability he’d heard so much about.

Hundreds of corpses, large and small, now covered their tracks. They had reached the main road. For the time being, there were no beasts in sight. The Ravens that had been above earlier in the morning had recently dived down upon the freshly slain bodies left in the wake of Crimson.

“Looks like we made good time We’re ahead of schedule. Hold it down.”

Dane whispered. Crimson tightened their formation into a kill circle in the middle of the road. The main road was barely a road, but Alisson could at least identify it as such. There was no pavement obviously, just a clearing of no bushes and trees in a straight line.

It didn’t take long until Mystic arrived. They came silently from the east out of the brush. It was the first time Alisson had seen other humans other than Crimson in a week; his gut at first took them for enemies. The two teams formed up together. No one uttered any words of greeting.

They could hear Auburn far before they saw them. The hooves of the horses were the loudest, followed by the roars of beasts. A cavalcade of horsemen came into view down the road, and filled the area around Crimson and Mystic as wagons rumbled nearer. Around the wagons, the heavily armored members of Auburn cautiously moved along in a loose defensive formation. Their once shining steel armor was now stained with blood and the scars of battle. Compared to Crimson and Mystic, it was evident that they had had it tougher over the past week. Still, no adventurers were dead, but Auburn had obviously taken more wounds.

Alisson’s and Celis’s armor by comparison was in pretty good shape. They had taken little damage other than fatigue. Alisson liked to think that their Sidonian will made them immune to mental effects, but he knew very well that wasn’t true.

With everyone now in one large formation, finally the leader of Auburn, the de-facto head of the operation, started to speak.

“Status?”

“Crimson is green.”

“Mystic is green.”

“Good. Auburn-Ulroy unit is green. Let’s continue moving down the road – Gareth and Jordsten say the attack occurred further in. In the meantime, restock your supplies.”

As the mixed mass of fighters moved down the road at a faster pace, a few members of each team ran errands between the formation, restocking rations from Auburn’s wagons. Alisson could see for himself a shivering adventurer in the back of one of the wagons, just sitting there, along with the new members of Auburn’s formation; The survivors they’d picked up along the way.

Beasts started flooding toward them as soon as Auburn had showed up, obviously attracted to the horses and the wagons. The horseman of Ulroy Brigade circled around the adventurers, picking off beasts in hit and run attacks and thinning them out before they crashed into the adventurers. The horsemen were very clearly on another level, probably some of most skilled light cavalry Alisson had ever seen. Their equipment was shoddy at best, but evidently, they were oozing veterancy and experience. They would easily beat Sidonian calvary.

The amount of beasts that poured toward the force were not three times more than normal, not four, not five…

…Alisson could see why the adventurers had split up in the first place. The mass of people was attracting colossal amounts of company. Granted, with the help of the other two teams, and the horsemen, it wasn’t that much of a step up in individual strain. However, scrolls and spells were used normally by Auburn’s mages; they stayed in the middle of the formation, watching for Bears or large masses of beasts to break up. Berein, Patsel, and the supporting members from Mystic joined them, leaving only frontline fighters on the outskirts of the wagons. Him and Celis were near the rear of the formation, while more armored fighters like Rei and Dane were at the head.

The road quickly and exponentially increased in combat as time went on. It swiftly turned into something more reminiscent of a battlefield than a scuffle with beasts; Spells flew through the air, explosions sounded all around, blobs of Shambler acid came barreling down, Ravens would dive in for adventurers that were looking overwhelmed, Bears crashed through the jungle, about to destroy the entire force with a single attack when they were then obliterated by a barrage of magic, cutting them into pieces and leaving their bodies sizzling upon the ground. Goblin skirmishers were hurling rocks and shooting arrows at them from afar, and every few seconds Alisson could spot Shamblers, set up like artillery cannons, off in the distance, shooting bolt after bolt of acid high into the sky to then come crashing down into the adventurers.

The horsemen were very helpful in this endeavor. It was only then that Alisson realized why Auburn had gone through the trouble of having horses. Ulroy’s Brigade split off from the force, in groups of five or six, and homed in on long-ranged aggressors in precise hit and run strikes. For that, the amount ranged harassment was cut down and capped, and what the mages and archers couldn’t handle, the horsemen would. Because Auburn was tied down to protecting the wagons, they had no answer to long range beasts like that. That’s was why they brought along the horsemen. They were certainly fearless, breaking away from the rest of group to attack like that.

Alisson kept Enhérejär’s abilities at minimum throughout the fighting. He didn’t need more people to see his hand. Together, him and Celis effectively held of the rear alone. He hadn’t noticed, but alone with her like this at the back of the force, she really was on par with him. He didn’t need to worry about Celis’s safety. Instead, he worried about the enemy before him. The two of them would attack as one. This method of fighting was drilled into their heads from being with Crimson for the past week – And now even alone with just the two of them, they still fought beasts the same way.

Because of him and Celis’s agility and fighting power – They really did hold down the rear all on their own. Him and Celis were just far more suited to it than rogues or heavier fighters. They could maneuver like no other adventurer, weaving into and out of combat where beasts threatened the rear.

Eventually, the formation came to a halt. The beast attacks had also died down, and now only a few Roamers were watching at a distance.

“This is it. Crimson, Mystic, spread out, keep the beasts of our backs and look for survivors while we fortify the area.”

This part of the road was where the previous expedition was attacked – And it showed. There were the skeletons of smoldering wagons splayed across the area. There were no corpses, but there was an abundance of dried blood on the trees and on the ground. The corpses had probably already been cleaned up by scavengers. Empty bags and loose weapons scattered the area, covered in dirt and blood. As Crimson set out beyond the road, into the Jungle undergrowth, Auburn stood guard as Ulroy’s Brigade dismounted, and started to assemble fortifications. They used the broken wagons, nearby tree branches, anything to form barricades, and then behind the barricades, they started digging trenches.

“We’re just doing a quick sweep for beasts…then, we’ll launch up flares to get the attention of any other survivors in the area. That will be the real fight, so consider this your down time.”

Dane said as Crimson trudged on outwards away from the road. Alisson eyed the blooded ground, and the occasional weapon or piece of mangled metal. The air grew tense as Crimson paraded through the brush, miscellaneous remnants of the expedition littered all around. Only now Alisson felt the tire of battle wear on his mind. Covering the rear like that was exhausting, and he was breathing heavily. Really, all of Crimson was, and had been, during the days of battle. Alisson now waited for an attack, but as the minutes passed, no attack came. Instead, they just kept on seeing more blood and twisted metal across the ground.

A low growl was up ahead, past a thicket. The squelching of meat could be heard. Crimson looked at each other for a brief moment, before cautiously stepping through the thicket, weapons at the ready. Before them looked to be the remnants of a camp. There were a couple crashed tents within the small clearing, and the remains of consumed rations. A small stream ran nearby and a there were four large trees providing a good defense.

In the middle of the clearing, hunched over an eviscerated corpse, was a large white beast. It looked like gargoyle with its symmetry and smooth skin. Its torso and hind legs were large, and it seemed to be scooping meat up towards its face with its three fingered arms. There were two small tails resting behind it. It was easily double Alisson’s height. When Crimson passed over the thicket, the beast turned, revealing its face. What a horrid sight Alisson was met with. It looked like squid, with four large mandibles, lined with sharp teeth. Its four mandibles parted in a horrific shriek at Crimson; All its dozen eyes locked onto the adventurers, burning with hatred. Something emerged from deeper in its mouth, like a split tongue or some sort of feeler that telescoped its way toward Crimson.

Alisson didn’t have the time to make out anything more. Its tails rose up by its side. The tips of these tails were orange, and shaped like tulips. They peeled open toward Crimson.

A blinding flash of light followed with an audible snap or explosion, like somebody had just set off a flashbang. Alisson’s ears rung and his vision was hazy. He almost fell to his knees out of sheer disorientation, suddenly unable to find which direction up. The stupor passed quickly – But when Alisson shook his head and opened his eyes, he could only see the beast’s backside as it dashed away into the brush.

Amelathet and Rei had stepped forward to attack, but due to the flash, they’d fallen over, meanwhile Celis had her arms raised up like she was about to swing, but her face was dumbstruck.

Within less than a second, all traces of that beast were gone, and Crimson was left in the clearing in silence, like nothing had happened.

The stench of the corpse before them finally hit Alisson’s noise, and his throat clamped shut on instinct. He tried not to look directly at the mangled body, more red and guts than actual form. One couldn’t tell it was human were it not for the bright red blood at the sheen of silver bars buried in the gore.

“…Looks like there were numerous survivors here. Spread out, this poor son of a bitch couldn’t have been the only one.”

Dane said, and Crimson wordlessly split into three smaller groups. Alisson was of course with Celis. With their weapons up they inspected the area, finding nothing more than footprints and blood, and what looked to be human bile. Him and Celis wordlessly pushed through a thicket into the brush, the both of them scanning the area. For good five minute, the two of them patrolled the area surrounding the camp, to avail. Alisson was just about to turn back when Celis suddenly pulled on his cloak, and pointed up toward a tree that was just beside them.

Up the tree, a few stories up, he could see a streak of red blood. It ran all the way up, quite thickly. At the end of this trail up the tree, was the familiar face of that beast from before. Its body was obscured by the tree as it was around it partially, but Alisson could still see clearly what it was holding. A corpse; Most likely the cause of that trail of blood. The beast was staring squarely at Alisson. A split second later, it dropped the corpse, and scurried around the tree, never to be seen again. The corpse came hurling down and him and Celis stumbled back as it landed right next to them with a thud. Thick blood splattered out from its fall. Again, the corpse was in a terrible state. It seemed that its head had been bitten off by the beast.

“That makes two…”

Alisson muttered, warily eyeing the corpse.

“S-someone! He-!”

Alisson suddenly heard a faint voice. He and Celis looked to each other, nodded, and dashed in its direction. It wasn’t far, a few dozen meters at most. They came to a clearing and Alisson quickly saw what the source of the voice was. There was a woman against the side of tree, clutching her heart, breathing heavily. On her arm, were five silver bars. She was armored with steel, but her armor in question was in terrible shape; holes and dents were all around and some parts were missing entirely. At her sides were a spear and large board shield. Blood covered her hand and her abdomen. She had tanned skin and feline ears on her head, which impulsively made Alisson want to let her die; but he shook he hatred out of his mind.

His weapon at the ready, he cautiously stepped forward. It didn’t appear to be immediately dangerous, so he flicked his head to Celis and then to the wounded adventurer. She nodded and scampered forward, kneeling and raising her hands over the adventurer’s abdomen while Alisson stood watch close behind.

“Are you alright?”

Celis whispered. The adventurer jumped and looked to Celis with a look of surprise.

“Ah? Ah?”

Her surprise quickly turned into a euphoria.

“Ah-ha! I’m saved-! I’m saved…”

She said to herself, a smiling playing out over her face. She then suddenly stood up in a blur, and embraced both him and Celis in colossal hug, forcing both Celis and him into her large chest.

“Thank you thank you! So, much…”

The woman was easily double Alisson’s height, and he struggled to free himself of her grip.

“Y-you’re still bleeding!”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Celis rushed to whisper, trying her hardest to pull her face away from the adventurer’s bosom.

“R-right…”

Hearing Celis apparently reminded the adventurer of her wounds and she stumbled on her footing unevenly, her grip weakening. Celis kept her hands glowing blue over the adventurer’s abdomen, but like Alisson, stepped as far away as she could. The adventurer still rested her arms over both Celis and Alisson’s shoulders for support.

“Who are you?”

Alisson asked.

“I-I’m Jachne…From Team Marigold…”

Jachne’s eyes were cringing in pain as she spoke.

“Is there anyone else?”

She looked away, crestfallen.

“Four…Our camp was attacked this morning…I had only woken up and there was one just taking a bite out of me…ha, ha…”

She weakly tried to chuckle, but a spurt of blood came up instead and she quickly covered her mouth.

“Will she be alright? Can she move?” Alisson said to Celis, his eyes scanning the area.

“She will…” Celis nodded.

Alisson nodded.

“Come with us, we need to move – We have a team back there at your camp.”

Jachne slowly leaned over and picked up her weapons, before starting off with Alisson and Celis, limping as she went, using the both him and Celis as supports. Alisson’s knees almost gave way from how much weight she was putting on him, Celis too, he could see her struggling. Or was her face of discomfort from the fact that Jachne’s chest was not an inch from her face?

“Really…thanks you guys…There was one about to finish me off before you showed up…I thought I was a goner…”

She said, still smiling despite the obvious pain.

“Don’t mention it.”

Alisson responded coldly, his eyes darting around. So at a snails pace with the large adventurer in tow, the Celis and him hobbled back toward the camp; All the while healing the adventurer. When they pushed toward the thicket into the clearing, Alisson saw that there was now an extra person with Crimson. It seemed that they’d also found a survivor.

Jachne’s face lightened.

“Cleff! You’re alright, thank god…”

Rei looked over to him and Celis, and cracked a smirk.

“Score two for Crimson.”

Dane looked over with a darker expression.

“Bodies?”

“One.”

Alisson responded.

“That makes Marigold accounted for. Two dead men; two dead men walking.” Dane said, nodding. “Let’s get these two back to base. It sounds like they’re having a hell of a party over there without us.” He looked to Jachne and the other adventurer, apparently named ‘Cleff’ who looked like a skirmisher. “I know you two are probably hungry and scared shitless, but can you walk? It’s not exactly safe out here with wounded.”

Dane said quietly, eyeing the two. Jachne and Cleff nodded sternly.

“Good.”

He flicked his head, and Crimson formed up wordlessly. In the center of the formation along with Berein were now the two rescued survivors, limping along.

“More beasts that run…”

Amelathet muttered to herself.

“The bad kind.”

Patsel nodded.

The intelligent kind.

Alisson thought, his eyes dark.

…

Girl-! Could you be any heavier! Not just your stupid big breasts but seriously!

I was struggling under the weight of Jachne, the large feline warrior. We were quickly approaching the basecamp that our allies were establishing. From the sounds of it, they’re under attack, and massively so. The noises of battle only increased as we neared; The explosions more frequent and the roars more plentiful.

Beasts started to appear on mass once more, leaping right over our heads, snarling, headed right for the road. Sprinters dashed, worms flitted between tree trunks and I could already hear the thunderous foot falls of Bears about to show themselves in the coming minutes.

We reached the main road as beasts now turned their attention onto us as well. Thankfully, Jachne reared off, so that I could fight. In the middle of the road, Auburn and the horsemen were set up in a half-constructed encampment. The barricades were already covered with beast corpses and blood.

“Go! Get to Auburn!”

Dane shouted, sending forward the two wounded adventurers on their own as Crimson turned to cover them. We turned toward the Jungle, and were met with an onslaught of beasts as we carefully retreated back to Auburn. It was just a never-ending tide. My biceps were burning from fatigue, but that didn’t stop me from swinging and thrusting as hard as I could. I alternated between my baselards and stilettos after every other beast, having long figured out their weakness and vitals. Anything I couldn’t handle, I’d simply retreat back a little ways, and Alisson could usually cover me. I kept a lookout for him too; We were at this point total combat buddies. He was much better at killing beasts than me while restrained to a formation like this though; Enhérejär splitting itself and precisely targeting the vitals of numerous beasts at once was no match for my in-place thrusting and swinging with my short weapons. I’d be able to do more if I weren’t locked down in a formation but; Ultimately safety is more important than killing beasts. Especially in Freigat.

We’ve probably killed tens of thousands of beasts in the past week alone and yet there’s just no end to them. Finally, we reached the holy land, the barricades of Auburn.

“Go! Come on!”

Crimson scrambled over the barricades and spikes.

“Hit the dirt! Now!”

Alisson suddenly shouted. I didn’t question it. By this point, only me, Alisson, and Berein were outside the walls. The ground was quite muddy.

…So, when the barrage of spikes came, all of us were diving to the ground. Thin black spikes now littered the area around me. I just barely managed to save myself by diving to the ground on Alisson’s command. I felt sharp needles of pain in my foot and in my hand, and a few punctures on my back. When I brought my hands off my head and into my view, a wave of nausea was sent through me when I saw that black spike was impaled right through the palm of my hand. It’d pierced my gauntlet cleanly; If it’d gone any further, it would’ve hit my head. The spikes were each about a meter long, but only as thick as a pencil.

Berein was staring at me with wide eyes, looking to be more shocked about my injuries than I. She was in front of me, and hadn’t taken a scratch. I looked to Alisson. He’d taken a few hits on his chest plate, spikes were sticking out of his back, but I couldn’t tell if any had pierced to wound him. He had only stumbled to his knees however, and didn’t fall over as I had from the sudden barrage of these spikes.

Still only having been a second from being impaled by numerous sharp objects, my mind worked fast to process the situation. I turned to try and catch a glimpse of where the spikes had come from. I got my answer easily. There was a small black beast a hundred meters behind us, I could barely see it due to the crowd of other beasts. It looked like four-legged spider; If its body had split and opened toward us like a jaw. Within that split in its body, was a cluster of black spikes, the sun glinted off of their razor-sharp tips.

Besides that one, there were Roamers just meters away, already leaping to descend on us.

This is bad. Really bad. We’re pinned up against a wall, and Alisson can’t use his barrier spell. If the Roamers don’t kill us, another crescendo of those spikes will.

“On your feet!”

Alisson spat to me, already standing up and getting ready to attack the Roamers. I would get up, but there was a problem. I’d been trying to stand for the past second. With a quick glance at my legs…I found out very quickly why I couldn’t move. One of the black spikes that I had thought had landed at my feet…was actually gouged into my right ankle, and had pierced all the way though to the ground.

Alisson’s eyes widened as he saw my legs. Berein was already trying to pull me up but there was no use. The spider monster fired another crescendo with a sound akin to rapid tongue clicks. The spikes howled toward us with immense speed. Alisson dug into his cloak, and in a flash, threw two parchments forward.

The two square pieces floated through the air, about to get blown away by the wind when suddenly they were engulfed in a blue flame. From one of the combustions, a purple transparent film appeared and expanded exactly five meters outwards on either side of us. The other parchment released a sudden barrage of green bolts forward at the incoming beasts. As black spikes were halted by the purple barrier, beasts were cut down as the air was filled with deathly green blurs.

Bourgeo‘ale Barrier and Fortuaveron Barrage scrolls.

The barrage spell cut down an insurmountable number of beasts, essentially clearing that side of the engagement; but more would quickly fill their place – Alisson had only bought a small amount of time. I had to get free, fast.

Alisson was extending an arm toward me, I grabbed ahold of it, and forcefully stood with all my might. I felt the spike gouged in my foot tear through my Achilles tendon as I yanked my leg up. My eyes shot wide in even more pain, but I pushed through it. It was definitely the most pain I’d felt in a while, but I’ll die if I don’t move. Alisson, seeing my foot, lifted me off my legs like I was a princess, and passed me over the barricade to an adventurer, who set my down behind the defenses. Alisson lifted Berein by collar and threw her over before leaping over the barricade for himself.

…

Patsel was on already descending on Celis, his hands blue.

“You’ll be fine…”

Alisson said, kneeling next to Celis. He yanked out a spike that was stuck in the back of her chest plate.

“Watch where you’re throwing me at will ya?”

Berein muttered, kneeling on the other side of Celis.

“Deal with it.”

Alisson growled, not in the mood for antics.

When he went to remove the last spike, he realized with a twist of his gut that it was sticking right through her hand – Her gauntlet had been completely penetrated.

“Pull that thing out of her – We don’t know if its venomous.”

Patsel said, focusing on Celis’s bleeding foot. Alisson nodded. He looked to Celis, who was cringing in pain, holding her pierced hand with the other. She was shaking.

They couldn’t risk any unnecessary noise.

Alisson withdrew a spindle of bandages, and prodded her mouth with it.

“Bite.”

Celis looked to him warily, but then nodded, taking the wrap of gauze and biting down. He then grabbed a hold of the spike with one hand, and Celis’s forearm with the other; Without a second to waste, he cleanly yanked the black spike out of her in one single powerful motion. Her eyes tightened and she bit harder on the gauze. Surprisingly, she didn’t burst into tears or even scream out like Alisson had thought. Alisson tossed the black spike aside – Thankfully they weren’t barbed; and were easy to remove. Most human archers used barbed arrows against other humans for just that reason.

Celis spit out the gauze, and pulled off her gauntlet now that the spike wasn’t in the way. Alisson could see clearly the hole right through her hand. Berein was already casting a healing spell on it.

“I’m fine.”

She flicked her head to Alisson. He nodded, and stood, preparing to join the defense.

“Somebody pull these damn spikes out of my back – What the hell was that thing?”

Alisson asked the adventurers. He had taken a few his to his backside, none pierced, but he still looked like a hedgehog nonetheless, and now his cloak was ripped and his back plate punctured.

“Spiker, Spitter, whatever you want to call it – Never seen that type of configuration though – That thing fired in fast, short, bursts. I don’t want to think of what would happen at a closer range.”

One of the surrounding adventurers responded, yanking the spikes out of Alisson’s backside. With Patsel and another couple medics tending to Celis, she’d be back on her feet within minutes, but her armor was now degraded – something they’d have to deal with for the rest of their time in Freigat, which was why Alisson was so conscious of it this time around. There was no ‘going to a smithy’ around here.

Alisson was quick to rejoin the defense. The beasts were already back in mass on that side of defenses, like Alisson hadn’t even used a wide-area spell. That Fortuaveron Barrage worked damn well, almost cleared the area, filling the air with thousands of little green pellets. Those scrolls had proven very useful, contrary to his Sidonian doctrine.

A blob of acid had hit the Bourgeo’ale Barrier as soon as it’d been deployed, and had been sizzling at the film for past few seconds when finally the barrier broke, dissipating away. The strength of the Barrier spell was something Alisson was yet to test – But it seemed comparable or even stronger than his Obice spell.

The forward operating base consisted of only a few barriers in a very tight circle on the road, all the adventurers were cramped together, backs against the wagons. The radius was tight, but because of that there were many overlapping fields of defense Alisson could rely on; and, with a solid barricade between him and approaching beasts, it gave him much more safety. Enhérejär quickly shifted into a long thin spear, and Alisson used that to quickly thrust at beasts from behind the barricade.

“Ior! Where the hell did they all come from!?”

“We didn’t even launch any flares and this is our reception!?”

The adventurers were clearly in a panic. They were expecting to have some peace and quiet while the defenses were built, but here the beasts have attacked regardless. Suddenly cutting the adventurer’s complaining silent, another crescendo of spikes impacted all around that side of the defense, littering the area with sharp noises as they impaled pieces of the barrier and the ground, not harming the adventurers.

Alisson’s eyes sharpened, and he spotted that same black spider again off in the distance – It seemed his scroll hadn’t blown the bastard away as he’d thought. Other than that spider, there were numerous Shamblers emerging from the brush and brazenly setting up their acidic cannons right next to the FOB. They knew that the adventurers were holding down a position – Bastards! At such close range – It was straight shot for them – The defense would quite literally melt away if they weren’t dealt with. All the horsemen were already dismounted behind the defenses, their spears were the main deterrence of beasts as the adventurers didn’t fight all that well with their short, more close ranged weapons – The FOB was reinforced in the mind that the soldiers would be holding it down solely while the adventurers were out looking for survivors, and as such, it was quite crowded, namely with the rider-less steeds directly behind Alisson.

“Archers! Get those sons of bitches!”

Alisson heard Auburn’s leader shout. In response, a few adventurers stepped back, and drew bows that had been until that point slung around their backs. It seemed all the archers save Patsel had primary weapons. Then again, Patsel was probably the only archer who was also a medic.

The adventurer bowmen weren’t coordinated whatsoever, and all their bows were of varying sizes. They all started firing at different times too – But the results spoke for themselves. The arrows flew through the air, and detonated with brilliantly bright explosions. It seemed adventurer bowmen all had imbued arrows, like Patsel. It was a powerful weapon, but damn expensive – Alisson had never seen armies use imbued arrows – Only small forces like his 51st. Even then, his archers had a separate smaller quiver for their imbued arrows and even then they rarely used them – Here it seemed the entire adventurer arsenal was imbued with magic.

The Shamblers were quite slow and large targets, and were obliterated by only a couple volleys of arrows, despite the fact that there were only about as many bowmen in the force as Alisson had fingers. That black spider though, had scurried away. Alisson saw it for himself, as the arrows approached, that beast backed up at an incredible pace toward the brush, and disappeared out of sight.

The battle resumed, the archers put away their bows and rejoined the frontline. But, then another crescendo of black spikes came. This barrage didn’t come parallel to the defense as the others had – It had come from above, and many spikes had pierced cleanly into the defenders. Thankfully Alisson wasn’t one of them, but one had just missed his head by an inch. When Alisson looked, he saw that that same spider was now high up in the trees, at about a 60° elevation from where Alisson was.

That damned thing just didn’t quit! The arrogance-! First attacking his apprentice and now this! Alisson took it as a personal attack that a beast was being so annoying. He briefly considered firing off a Pictunee spell at it. With Enhérejär, the spell could be condensed and redirected further and more accurately, essentially, he could use it like a sniper spell if he wished. Although, with so many people around, he wasn’t going to risk somebody recognizing the spell’s origins for some stupid pride.

The spider fired once more.

Thankfully, a mage deployed a barrier in time and the majority of the attack was deflected. However, a few still got through. Alisson heard screams as a spike pierced cleanly through some poor soldier’s shoulder.

“Tch-! I’ll handle him.”

Berein said. She’d been using her staff as a spear for it did have a sharp fork at its tip, and she was actually killing more beasts than some of the adventurers who had shorter weapons. She placed her staff on the barricade for leverage, and pointed its tip at the spider. Looking down the length of her staff, a purple aura began to waft around it as her lips moved, reciting runes in her head.

A minute passed. When the barrier spell faded, Berein fired. Her staff was kicked back into her shoulder with an immense recoil, a loud crack filling the air as a purple stream shot from her staff. It was thin, a lot like his Pictunee spell. It would’ve hit the spider dead on and killed it, if the spider hadn’t leapt off the tree the second Berein fired. She clicked her tongue in frustration.

Despite Berein’s miss, he didn’t see the spider after that.

“Handy spell.”

Alisson remarked. Berein scoffed.

“Nice of you to say that considering I just made it up.”

Alisson jumped in surprise. He didn’t think Berein was that good of a magician. Creating spells to fit a situation on the fly was something only Sidonian mages could do…he’d never seen a human mage do something like that until now.

It was unsettling how perceptive that beast was. Seeing and identifying Berein lining up a spell for it, and then evading it like that. There were no serious attacks after that, just more beasts that charged toward the defenses. The number of bodies surrounding the area was enough to block out the road. The pile directly before the barricade was at some places five meters high with corpses.

By the time the beasts stopped attacking, there were dozens of Ravens circling high above. All the soldiers and adventurers were breathing heavily as the battlefield fell silent. For once, they were all together, and not a single beast came for a fight. There were numerous beasts sitting out in the brush, peering in on them, some snarling and other just staring at the force. The Ravens, in the stead of the adventurer’s catching their breathes, greedily dived down into a feeding frenzy right before the barricades, in plain sight of the adventurers. Alisson could hear the numerous squelches and tears as the Ravens devoured and tore through the flesh of their fellow beast.

The process of decomposition was in fact already taking places all around them, but the adventurers didn’t care. The respite was worth more than being unsettled. Alisson too was just kneeling, exhaling heavily, his eyes still trained ahead, wary that more beasts would leap over the wall of corpses before him.

…

The initial attack was far more than anyone was expecting. The adventurers had been expecting an attack of that size to come from the force launching up flares to get the attention of any survivors. For the following hour, the entire force stayed at the basecamp, recouping. Wounds were healed, blades buffed out, and fortifications reimbursed. It was actually the longest lapse of combat that he’d seen so far in Freigat. That was probably because they’d exterminated the immediate area of beasts. Thinking like that, the battle wasn’t all that bad of a deal. All that remained was now sending up a mass of flares, and getting the attention of any survivors farther away. They would so at the break of night. There would probably be a large battle like the one earlier in the day, and needless to say, no one was looking forward to it.

Being in Freigat endowed a certain sense of constant fatigue, but pair that with having fought in that defense; that essentially had knocked out a few soldiers out of sheer exhaustion. Despite this, the force was still hungrily wanting to be proactive – Crimson and Mystic were sent out to scout for any survivors once more, while Auburn and Ulroy units were preparing the defense. This time, Crimson and Mystic were headed on northerly vectors; Crimson headed west by northwest, and Mystic east by northeast.

With the sun setting; Alisson was seriously considering if this was him and Celis’s chance to break off from the adventurers. With the large battle having taken place, there would be little beast presence to immediately halt him and Celis – The night would cover their desertion, and force the adventurers to not risk looking for them. In all honesty, it was suicide. Breaking off from the adventurers like that. However, the force wasn’t intending to go much deeper than this into Freigat. This was closest and best opportunity that Alisson would be getting to part with them.

Alisson swallowed hard. It was like walking off a cliff knowingly. He looked to Celis beside him, and felt a certain weight behind him.

“Nothing here.”

“Nothing here either.”

There were no traces of adventurers so far. No blood, no destroyed camps, no gear, nothing. They’d been looking for the better part of an hour, with little beast presence. It gave Alisson the gut-wrenching time to contemplate his next move.

“I don’t know. No beasts, no Stripes, nothing.”

Rei shook her head.

In the middle of jungle brush, with the sun setting, something carnal in Alisson was begging him to find a hole, and hide in it. After a week in Freigat, the idea of being out at night was hard to contemplate. It’s as if he could feel all those eyes and faces piercing his skin. All those shadows that twitched and moved in the darkness, all those figures that with one wrong move could end up an enemy.

“Well that’s it then. Let’s head back. There’s no use being out here. I’m getting a bad feeling about this as it is.”

Dane said, his eyes wary. Alisson could see the glint in Dane’s eyes. That gut feeling wasn’t only present in Alisson.

“Agreed.” Rei lifted her hand up and spun her finger around, about to say something when Berein suddenly interrupted.

“I’m getting a call on the wideband.”

She lifted her hand, and the familiar ball of light materialized with its usual static emission. It was static for a long while, before Dane stepped closer.

“Is it working correctly?”

“Yes.”

Berein nodded. Alisson furrowed his brow. His stomach started to twist. Something wasn’t right.

“Who’s the sender?”

Alisson asked, his eyes darkening. Berein shook her head in response.

“Unknown.”

“Why would they be broadcasting silence?”

Patsel asked, tilting his head. Everyone fell silent for a long moment.

“Flare. Nine O’clock.”

Amelathet said steely. When he looked over and up toward the canopy, there was indeed a bright blue light in the sky.

Dane flicked his head to Crimson.

“Let’s go.”

That had to be a survivor. Crimson moved quickly through the brush. The flare was close by. When they came to a clearing, presumably where the flare had been shot from however…

There was nothing there.

“Anyone out there?”

Dane hollered. Crimson sat in a tense moment of silence, waiting for beasts to come from his shout. But nothing came.

“Tch…what the hell fired that flare then?”

Rei shook her head.

“Doesn’t matter. Let’s get back to the FOB and-”

Alisson ears suddenly rung. The world flashed an effulgent blue and then a brilliant white. If felt like he’d suddenly gone through the symptoms of a flu all within the blink of an eye. Some sort noise had snapped in his ears, and the world was now white, and his head hurt. He felt like he had the worst hangover possible all of sudden. His head was throbbing, his ears pulsing, and his eyes were burning. All he could see was white.

The ringing at his ears intensified as he tried to stand and look up, but the only things he saw in the void of white were hundreds of black dots on the same plane as he, all about a hundred meters from him in all directions.

The white vision faded and he forgot about it immediately. He could suddenly hear his own ragged breath. He felt like he was going to throw up.

Alisson was doubled over on all fours, staring down into the ground with wide eyes. Sweat was covering his forehead.

What…? What’s, what’s going on?

He heard the smacking of meat. Something was devouring something, very nearby to him. He struggled to lift his head and look around. There was a flare high in the sky, though it was red, bathing the ground around him in crimson. Alisson’s vision was blurry, and dazed, but it didn’t stop him from seeing the sight that was before him. Patsel was laying limp a few meters in front of him. He was missing his head. It was but a red paste above his shoulders on the ground.

Alisson’s eyes widened, and he almost choked.

Behind Patsel, hanging from a tree, was what he could make out as Amelathet’s corpse. She was hung by her own intestines, her abdomen but a large red gash.

As Alisson looked more frantically around, all he could see was more blood and entrails splayed around him. In the corner of his vision, he saw Celis, only a meter away by his side. He body was twitching, like something was moving it. All it took was Alisson careening his head an inch to see the rest of the picture. One of those large, gargoyle creatures from before was hunched over her. With its arms, it shoveled red blobs of meat into its mandibles from her eviscerated body.

Alisson saw Celis’s wide eyes, and her face covered with dried tears. There was no glint in her eyes, and her skin was pale. She was dead.

Alisson was immediately whipped up in a fury of rage and action. When he tried to move however, he realized why he’d struggled to do. His legs were gone, but red stumps at his knees.

Alisson opened his mouth to scream, not know what else to do, but before any sound left his mouth, his vision flashed white for a split second, and he suddenly heard a loud snap.

The white haze quickly vanished, and he could see for his own eyes Celis before him, unharmed, though obviously unconscious. The flare in the sky was blue again, and there was no blood on the ground around Alisson. The rest of Crimson were all unconscious around him.

However, in the middle of the clearing, there was now large figure that wasn’t there before. It was that same squid-faced creature from ealier, the one that not moments ago been devouring his apprentice. It stood on its hind legs, fully erect, its tails pulsing white toward the unconscious Team Crimson. In one of its hands, it held a smoking sheaf of paper; The remains of a flare.

The creature turned its head to Alisson. It dropped the flare and turned, about to bound away on its hind legs when once again Alisson heard that snap at his ears and a flash of white attacked his vision. It faded within an instant, but the creature was gone, like it’d disappeared right before him.

Alisson sat there for a moment, on all fours, breathing heavily, sweat rolling across his face.

The sound of shrieking and roaring beasts shook him out of his trance. When he heard the roars, emanating from all around him in ever increasing numbers, and saw with his own eyes the state of Crimson, he knew that doting on his memory would only get him and everyone else killed.

He scrambled over to Celis, and shook her.

“Wake up! Wake up!”

As soon as she started to stir, Alisson shakily got up and almost fell over himself kneeling down to Rei, who was close by.

“Wake up! Now! On your feet!”

Rei’s eyes snapped open. Although she still had the traces of sleep, it was scary how fast she woke up. Her eyes darted around and she immediately realized the situation. With the help of Rei, he was able to just barely awaken Crimson to a defense right as the first beast dashed through the bushes.

A Roamer leapt up and over, about to pounce on Celis, still getting to her feet. Alisson lunged with Enhérejär, and impaled it through the head.

“Up!”

He shouted to his apprentice, but it was clear she was still in a daze. He didn’t hear the footsteps of the Spidertail behind him before it was too late. He was knocked of his feet and pinned to the ground. It immediately descended on him, and tore into his shoulder with it barred fangs. Its top teeth were stopped by his armor, at the very least. The Spidertail was twice his size, but that didn’t stop Alisson from trying to fight back. He rose Enhérejär, and with all his might jammed it into the side of the beast’s neck. Its body squirmed, but its jaw only tightened further around his shoulder. He could feel a crunch as either his shoulder was dislocated or one of his bones broke.

Thinking purely on adrenaline, he dropped Enhérejär, and reached onto his waist. He lifted a sheaf of parchment to the Spidertail’s torso, and inserted mana into it.

A booming clang rang out as a bright red spike materialized inside of the beast. A second later, it was engulfed in flames. The spike burned red with heat, sizzling through the flesh of the Spidertail. It went limp after two full seconds. Alisson pushed the beast off of him before he himself would be set ablaze by the Aleveron spell. Disregarding his wound, he scrambled to his feet, bringing Enhérejär up. He saw beasts all around him. Every member of Crimson was locked in a fight for their lives – There was no defensive line of cohesion.

Alisson’s free hand dove for his waist, and he withdrew a fist full of scrolls. He threw two barrier spells behind him, away from Crimson, to get some wall to fight against, and then threw a couple scrolls at the beasts who were grappling with Crimson. He only had a second to make the choice of who to help; It wasn’t hard however.

A red shot spike slammed into the head of a Spidertail who was on its hindlegs, swiping down at Celis with its massive upper body.

“Duck!”

He shouted as the second scroll went off. A barrage of green blurs filled the air. It cleared the area around him and Celis within seconds, the Roamers and smaller creatures vaporizing against the hail of pellets. The rest of the area though, was hardly changed.

Amelathet was the next closest. It looked like she’d shoved Patsel out of the way of two Roamers, and they were now biting at her collar and leg while she frantically tried to stab them with her falchion. Celis lunged toward one beast, and Alisson body slammed into the other, knocking it away before impaling down into it with Enhérejär. He didn’t have the time to even look back toward Amelathet to see if she was okay when he heard the flap of wings. This time, he was able to at least turn to what was slamming into him, and he managed to lift Enhérejär to protect himself. A large Raven, talons barred, screeched as it pummeled him off his feet. It must has dove in from the sky. Alisson was knocked back off his feet and was pinned against a tree. The Raven rose its horrific mouth, meant for eating carrion, toward Alisson’s neck.

A stiletto came soaring through the Raven’s head, and it went limp before it could take a bite out of Alisson. He pushed the corpse off him, only to realize that Celis hadn’t thrusted to save him – She’d thrown her weapon. Alisson didn’t dote, he grabbed the stiletto from the falling corpse and tossed it to Celis, who was in the middle of sidestepping around a Brockert. She grabbed her stiletto out of the air and swung it directly into the beast’s back as she completed her evasion. She was about to break off once more when Rei came barreling in from the other side, covered in blood, her sword shining effulgently blue.

The Brokert’s frontside was vaporized as Rei swung, unleashing dozens of her attack spells all at once from her sword.

Crimson is regaining battlefield control…But what the hell is Berein doing in all this?

Berein was supposed to be the ace up Crimson’s sleeve, to get them out of a pinch by using as much mana as she needed to. The second they came under attack, she should’ve been laying waste to the area in a hail of spells. Alisson searched the clearing with darting eyes, looking for Berein.

He didn’t even have the time to do that, however. A hail of black spikes came soaring from Alisson’s side. Most missed, but one didn’t. It punched right through his gambeson like paper and pierced his body. Alisson choked as he suddenly was short of breath. One of his lungs were impaled by that spike.

Alisson’s eyes whipped up in a bout of fury, and he pushed through the pain. He turned to where the spikes had come from, a glint in his eye. In the brush, there was a large black spider; It appeared to be the same one as before. Alisson broke out into a charge toward it without thinking. There a Roamer right before it, lunging at him. He sidestepped around it, yanking the black spike out of his side and slamming it straight into the Roamer’s skull as he passed. He almost tripped out of shock from pulling the spike out, nevertheless he still sprinted forward. It’d only been a second, but the spider saw clearly Alisson charging toward it, and began backpedaling.

Too late!

Alisson didn’t mean to stab it. He only needed to get a little closer.

In a blur he threw one of his explosive knives toward the beast. It detonated in a cloud of black smoke. The dust cleared quickly, and the beast seemed mostly unharmed, with the exception of one of its legs missing. Alisson stopped, and threw an Aleveron scroll forward now that the beast was disorientated. The red spike formed and surged forward. At this range, there was no dodging; The spider was impaled within the blink of an eye. Pinned to the ground, it squirmed as the spell set the beast ablaze.

With that out of the way, Alisson felt much safer. He was still in bad shape, and, realizing this, he quickly used on of his five healing scrolls on himself. The good thing about healing scrolls was that they worked autonomously, they were covered in an adhesive so that the user could just slap one over their wounds. The healing spell wouldn’t be doing much good to his broken shoulder, so he put the sheaf of parchment over his side and pushed his wounds out of his head.

He took a quick glance at the battlefield. Patsel and Amelathet were fighting near the barriers he’d set up, they were having trouble but they weren’t going to die anytime soon. Rei and Celis were in the thick of the fighting, straight in the middle. Dane was the farthest away, he seemed to be guarding against something in the brush, Alisson couldn’t make out what.

This is bad. If we keep fighting, we’re only going to draw more beasts. We’ll fight ourselves to death if we don’t regain cohesion and retreat!

They needed Dane, with the rest of the team, now. If whatever he was doing over there was more important than rallying the team, then Alisson needed to get over there.

…

I twirled over the speeding body of a Raven, slicing through one of its wings with a baselard as I passed over it. Without one of wings, it crashed into a Roamer, immobilized.

One second I’m out cold, the other, I’m surrounded and fighting for my life. Well, the good news is, I’m much better at fighting like this than in a formation. I’ve already killed scores of beasts within only a minute. Spinning and sidestepping around beasts, jumping over them, all whilst stabbing and slicing through them. The ground is already covered in the large hulking bodies of beasts. I was dodging out of the way of a Shambler’s blast of acid when I saw Alisson leaping overhead, completely ignoring the beasts.

My eyes sharpened.

This is a perfect opportunity to split from Crimson. While they’re tied down…we can easily escape deeper into the Jungle while they draw the beasts to them. We can even launch up a few flares to make their lives even more hellish. I finished my evasion, letting the blob of acid slam right into a Spidertail and a trio of Roamers. As they shrieked, acid burning through their bodies, I sprinted after Alisson weaving around and through the tides of beasts. Every so often a bolt of blue from Rei’s attack spells would detonate near me.

Just how much mana does she have?

I was hot on Alisson trail when I realized what he was running toward. Dane was backing up from the brush, his shield up.

“Hold on-! I’ve got you!”

He shouted. There was a large hulk in the brush. I couldn’t see it too well from the darkness. As if reading my mind, Alisson fired a flare toward Dane. It illuminated what Dane was staring down. My eyes widened.

There was a large, egg-shaped beast. Its surface was rough and coarse. Surrounding it were dozens of undulating tentacles. At its base were large root like legs. It looked more like a misshapen tree than a creature. Above the tip of the egg, Berein was restrained in the air by innumerable tentacles. The top of the beast was splitting open, like some sort of venus fly trap, obviously about to engulf her.

With me and Alisson taking up Dane’s side, he launched into action, blurring forward at a speed I’d never seen Dane take before.

“Keep those tentacles off my back!”

Dane said, smashing away one of the thick roots at the beast’s base with his mace. Alisson and I split up on either side of Dane, and cut through roots that were surging for him. Dane crushed through the thicker roots before him, leaping up, and slamming his mace straight into the body of the beast. Two of the large roots, undulating up by Berein, suddenly shot down toward Dane in response.

“Now’s your chance!”

I heard him call to me, but I was already in motion, dicing through tentacles. A large one soared for me, and I easily jumped up on it, and ran across it, straight for the beast. As I neared closer, the net of tentacles only increased in density. Alisson passed overhead, cutting through some of tentacles and clearing my path. The pommel of Enhérejär had split off, and was hovering around him, acting as a reactive defensive, moving to and halting smaller roots when they neared.

I made one last jump up, and cut through the roots that were holding up Berein. I tried not to think about the fact that the beast’s open mouth was directly bellow me as I grabbed her out of the air as if she were a princess. Surprisingly, I can hold her pretty easily, despite her being my size. I hit the ground heavily with the added weight. Roots crashed all around me, and I stumbled in my scramble away from the beast. This beast is seriously no joke – If even one of those roots hit me, it’d probably go through me with how much force they have.

As I was thinking that, a large root crashed down directly in front of me, breaking the ground. I managed to just barely get over crater and avoid the loving embrace of the root that made it, but I tripped in the process.

I let go of Berein to cushion my fall, and I tried to stand back up when I realized there was something heavy holding me down. I looked down, and saw that Berein was still holding me. She had a wobbly smile over her face, and tears were forming at her eyes.

W-what are you thinking you idiot! Let go of me!

The sound of the egg-shaped beast approaching only got louder, and my eyes widened in terror. It was already too late.

“Go! I’ve got you covered!”

I heard Dane say behind me. When I looked, I saw him body slamming into the beast with his shield, physically stopping it from getting any closer. The beast was massive, its main egg-shaped body was the size of a small house. Despite this, Dane, infinitely smaller than it, halted it dead in its tracks. He began slamming his mace into its body, over and over again. As seconds passed, more and more tentacles that were meant for me and Berein turned and headed toward Dane.

He just kept attacking.

You idiot! Get back! They’re going to-!

He was impaled from all angles by the roots. They cleanly pierced his armor and turned him into a walking pin cushion within the blink of an eye.

Berein-! Get off of me-!

I looked back to her with a scowl.

“Do something-!”

Her smile faded as she looked past me. Seeing Dane, her eyes widened in terror, and she started to hyperventilate.

Grr-! Fucking humans! Use magic you idiot! You could clear the area and destroy that beast if only you act-!

To my surprise, Dane, with a swipe of his mace, cut through the tentacles that had impaled him with ease. He stumbled back. Blood was covering his armor now. It looked like he was going to retreat. I mentally sighed for his vitality and grabbed onto Berein’s hands, and finally pulled them off of me. I stood on shaky legs. I was about to grab Berein and retreat when a thundering quake shook the ground, and I almost stumbled back down. I turned to see Dane, much closer to us than before. He’d been knocked back by one of the large roots. His helmet rolled across the ground, having been knocked off his head.

The egg-shaped beast was now coming closer, its cushion of tentacles below it propelling it like it was a millipede. It was surprisingly fast.

Tch-! Where’s Alisson!? Where did he go!? I’ve got two wounded teammates here, and zero support! I…briefly considered stepping forward to shield Dane…

Alisson’s words shot through my head.

…No. I’m, my life is more important.

Dane had just barely managed to get to his feet and raise his shield when that same root slammed into him. This time though, it didn’t stop at his body. It went right past him.

It took me a second to realize what happened. The root, which was as thick as a horse, had hit Dane’s shield with such force, that the shield essentially vaporized. Dane’s left arm, holding his shield, was gone.

He stumbled to the side, and I could see for myself, the bright red of his shoulder, where his left arm used to be. His face was twisted up in a rage.

“You still need more time huh!? I’ll give it to you then!”

Dane stepped forward. He hadn’t had time to pick up his mace when he stood – He was unarmed. He stepped forward, and punched straight into the center of the beast with his right arm. Dane was strong, he could probably cave in my ribcage with a fist alone. I could see a visible shockwave from his punch. The beast was undamaged.

Dane sat still for a moment, point blank to a massive beast.

“…Huh?”

In the moment that followed, a root slammed into Dane’s head from the side. His body stood still, standing upright, but he no longer had a head. Dane’s corpse stumbled back, and fell with a heavy thud. The beast slowly neared, engulfing his body under its dozens of legs. Tentacles writhed, about to surge for me and Berein. I bit my lip, and prepared to retreat, leaving Berein behind. My hands had been glowing yellow. I didn’t want to use my spells under Alisson’s orders…But, it looks like now is the time.

A purple needle suddenly struck the beast, and it detonated in a large cloud. I saw Berein, sitting up, her hands up, breathing heavily, clearly suffering from hypoxia from her hyperventilation. The egg-beast was undamaged.

Tch! Such a weak spell will do nothing! She must of fired that as a reaction, not as a logical thought, damned incompetent-

A barrage of blue bolts came crashing against the beast all of a sudden. Within the blink of an eye, Rei was before me, holding her buckler and sword up.

“Dane you…you idiot…”

She spat.

“Get back-! I’ll protect you now!”

She said valiantly, her sword brimming with magic. Just then, Alisson came down from the sky. I don’t know where the hell he’s been, but I sigh in relief regardless. The beast at this point had stopped, and after a moment, it started to back up. When it did retreat back into the brush, I didn’t see Dane’s body. It had evidently taken it.

Alisson looked to Rei.

“We need to retreat-! Now!”

She looked to him, her eyes full of fury.

“What the hell did you just say to me!? After you-!”

Patsel suddenly broke through the two of them.

“Alisson’s right, the beasts have stopped – We need to use this moment to run before they attack again.”

Rei averted her eyes with a scowl.

“I’d rather not get eaten up by a Nursery anytime soon.”

Amelathet said, standing guard right behind me.

“Tch-! Fine! Everyone! On me!”

As we formed up, Berein wouldn’t stop clinging to me. I ignored it and kept rear guard, as Rei now headed to the front of the formation. Alisson, however, was already there, eyeing Rei. She shoved him out of the way with a growl.

We were quick to leave the area in the face of a sudden drought of beasts. Twigs and sticks snapped loudly as we rushed through the jungle, back toward the FOB. All the while, there was no lack in the sound of battle, raging all around us. Explosions went off, beasts were roaring and shrieking, and I could hear the distant screams of humans.

“Pink flares…”

Amelathet muttered. Back toward the FOB, there were a trio of pink lights in the sky. Pink flares signaled to all adventurers to drop what they were doing and regroup, superseding all orders.

“Those were shot up as soon as we woke up.”

Rei replied.

“They’ve probably come under attack – We should get back there and aid in the defense.”

Alisson said. Rei looked back to him with a glare.

“No. Don’t you hear all the battle? They’re done for. We’re going to find a hole and recoup. After that, we’ll get the hell out of Freigat.”

Alisson grimaced.

“You’re just going to abandon the mission!? You’re going to abandon our allies!?”

“We’re not abandoning them if can’t do anything to help them. We’d only be getting ourselves killed.”

Rei replied in monotone.

“That was a coordinated attack. That flare? It was launched by a beast, I can guarantee you. All the other teams have probably been decimated by now. And then that Nursery?”

She clicked her tongue.

“Dane’s, he’s dead now because of you.”

My face curled up in anger. What do you mean!? It wasn’t Alisson’s fault! It was Dane’s fault for being so stupid – I saw it right before my own eyes! And, if this idiot Berein would’ve done something, he’d probably still be alive right now! He didn’t have to die like that! I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Patsel. He simply shook his head and lifted his hand off. I took a deep breath.

A sudden realization popped into my head. My gaze was drawn to Alisson. I saw in his eyes nothing, dull, emptiness; but I did see a raging glint as he stared at Rei. My eyes widened.

He…Dane was buying time for Alisson…but…Alisson never attacked…

Alisson let Dane die.

Nothing. Cold. Unfeeling. Alisson doesn’t care at all.

He suddenly seemed far scarier to me. I talk a big game…but Alisson just, he just cut Dane loose with no hesitation…

“Berein.”

Berein, still clinging to me, didn’t respond to Rei.

“Berein!”

Berein jumped, and she looked around like she didn’t know where she was.

“Try and raise the other teams. Until then, we stay put until the storm passes.” Rei’s eyes narrowed at Alisson. “Do you understand?”

Alisson frowned.

“I’m…I’m actually getting a call on the wideband…”

Berein shakily lifted her hand up, and the familiar white ball appeared.

“Halt.”

On Rei’s command, the formation halted as everyone strained to listen. The transmission was static for a while, until gradually the sounds of fighting could be heard emanating from it.

“ - - - Ple - - - They’re everywhere-! - - - Auburn - - - defense - - - broken down - - -“

A scream of pain was heard, and the feed went dead. Crimson was silent for a moment.

“Tch…There you have it.”

With that, Rei started to pace forward. Crimson was about to follow when Berein gave a shrill squeak.

“Something is still broadcasting-!”

“Probably just a counter-jamming signal. We know that Freigat likes to block our communications. Try to raise Mystic, it’s evident our FOB is –“

“All of you-! Vermin! Cowering in the dark!”

Everyone jumped with the onset of a new and oddly clear voice from Berein’s spell. The voice was deep and wretched, as if they were spoken by a corpse.

“The gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside, the timeless chorus, awaits…Singing atrophy, everlasting…”

With those words, the spell collapsed, and no message came.

Wait a second…

I strained my ears for a moment.

The sounds of battle were gone.

“…Anything else?”

Rei sighed. Berein shook her head.

“A-a powerful jamming stream just got set up, t-there’s no way we’re going to be able to communicate...”

After a moment of silence, in the distance behind the trees, one flare was shot up, another pink one, in the direction of Auburn. Everyone stood staring for a moment.

“They’re still alive.” Alisson said angrily to Rei. She gave a glare at him.

“No. It’s a trap. Isn’t it obvious?” She growled. “I thought you were smarter than this, Alavier.”

Alisson’s eye twitched.

“Even if it is a trap, if there’s a still a chance that there’s some survivors, we can rally up some extra manpower and-”

“And do what? Continue on with the mission? Ior, you’re like a wind-up toy soldier.” She paced closer to Alisson, and grabbed his collar with a scowl. “I’m in command now.”

She stared at Alisson dead in the eyes. Alisson averted his gaze with a frown, and she dropped him.

“No. I agree with Alavier. We have to at least look.”

Amelathet stepped forward crossing her arms, staring at Rei.

“I concur.”

Patsel nodded.

“Dane would want us to go and regroup with Auburn.” Amelathet said, eyeing Rei.

“Dane’s dead-! And so is Auburn!” Rei spat.

I was taken back by the infighting of Crimson. I saw Alisson’s smirk out of the corner of my eye, a shadow of a tree covering half his face. My mouth parted slightly.

…Is this, is this all going according to your plan?

It suddenly all made sense to me.

Alisson doesn’t want to part with Crimson; He wants to further use them as a battering ram toward our objective. To do that, he let their leadership die, and now he’s trying to insert himself as the commander. Alisson knows full well that what Rei is saying is the right decision; But he’s appealing to the emotions of Crimson in order to gain their immediate favor.

I closed my eyes. I understand, master.

“Can it, both of you.”

Alisson stepped forward with a swipe of a hand in between the two adventurers.

“No matter what we do, fighting is useless.”

I smiled to myself. Now you’re playing the ambassador in the logical right…You’re so devilish Alisson. In all his cute looks and innocence, Alisson is still a monster.

…

Rei looked to him, furious. She clearly had some semblance that he was up to some ulterior motive, but as long as she didn’t know what that was, it was of no matter. Right now, the objective at hand was attaining the reins of control from Rei.

She’s stubborn. It doesn’t help that she’s also the designated second in command, so by all logic, she should be the one in command. However, emotions can cloud one’s thought, and logic can become null with just few of the right words.

“He’s right, calm your ass, Rei. Just because Dane’s dead doesn’t mean we have to run around like chickens with our heads cut off. We can think about this reasonably.”

Rei looked back to Amelathet with a snarl.

How does it feel to have the rug pulled out from under you? You are on the logical and correct side; yet now you’re being called the very opposite.

He didn’t intend to make an enemy of Rei or kill her for that matter: She was an excellent asset. Her personality, however, is making it difficult to control her.

“How about we take at least take a look and make sure we’re not leaving them to die? After that, I agree that it’s better to retreat.”

Patsel said, nodding. Alisson closed his eyes.

Well, you have two options Rei.

He opened them and stared through the pink-haired adventurer with a piercing gaze.

Make your choice.

Rei looked back and forth, between Alisson and Patsel, like a crazed dog. Her head sunk low gradually, as she stared down at the ground with wide, furious eyes, shaking.

“Fine-! We’ll go.” She looked up, and paced toward Alisson, shoving her forhead against his. “If anything happens – It’s on you!”

With that she turned and started off toward the flares. Patsel and Amelathet looked at each other a moment thereafter, not knowing why Rei was blaming him. Alisson sighed and Crimson set out.

It’s not the best outcome, but certainly not the worst.

He was hoping that Rei would create an opportunity for him to assert his control, or if she were a little less intelligent, act malignantly toward her own team from which Alisson could use to his advantage.

All is well with Crimson, they suspect nothing. It’s Rei that’s getting in my way.

Alisson had predicted what side Amelathet and Patsel would take beforehand – He knew from prior experience that they were unfavorable toward Dane and Rei with their decisions. Alisson didn’t know what they were going to find back at Auburn’s FOB. The best outcome would be something along the lines of finding them still intact over there, and seeing Rei disproven.

With that, I’ll rally what’s left of the adventurers, and lead them straight into Freigat.

Alisson’s eyes sharpened. He ran through a few plans in his head about how to get the adventurers to do his bidding, and in doing so risk their lives for him.

It’s ideal that they have no clue that they’re executing my will; In that sense, should I reveal that I know of a secret location deeper in Freigat that can help us? Or perhaps I can say that Lavjoure’s maps show a shortcut…or maybe I can get them to split up and look for my objective by telling them it leads to our salvation in some way…

As Alisson was thinking, they encountered zero beasts on their way to Auburn, it was almost a joke. It made sense if one were to think that the flares of the two teams truly did draw all the beasts in the area away, but it was still off-putting.

Him and Rei broke through the brush to the main road, their weapons at the ready. The flares had since sunk down low, and in minutes were going die out. What little light they did give off was mixed with the scant moonlight; The scene illuminated wasn’t surprising. The road was deserted. The remnants of fortifications lay scattered about, innumerable beast corpses covered the grounds, and blood ran abundantly. Alisson didn’t have to look long to spot more than a dozen human bodies, laying unmoving, their bodies ripped apart with their entrails before them. It was odd how little traces there were of the FOB – The barricades were gone, there looked to be no wagon parts anywhere, no horses, it’s as if they were wiped from the face of the earth.

For the time being, there were no traces of beasts in the area. Both him and Rei breathed sighs. She flicked her head back to the rest of Crimson.

“Spread out, look for anyone that might still be breathing.” She whispered. Crimson nodded and fanned out across the road in silence.

Robbers in the night they were, pilfering back the lives of their allies right under the nose of the gatekeeper to hell. Alisson didn’t have a problem stomaching the scene. People he’d fought beside mere hours earlier now lay in pools of viscera at his feet.

“The FOB wouldn’t be wiped out like this from normal beasts, no matter how many…”

Alisson muttered.

“That’s why I want to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.”

Rei said, a distance away.

“Where's all that hero nonsense you spout now?” Alisson looked up to Rei darkly. “I thought you of all people would be eager to protect and save.”

Rei sighed.

“I don’t put the lives at risk for hope, Alavier.”

Alisson gave a glance to the pools of blood on the road. So much for hope.

“We’ve got a breather-!”

Patsel whispered loudly. Because of the silence of the road, Alisson could easily hear him. As Alisson was carefully stepping over the remains of adventurers to get to Patsel, he saw one’s chest bob up and down. Their body was mostly intact. When Alisson looked to their face, he realized with a shock that they were staring right at him, mouthing something. Alisson recognized the adventurer; It was Jachne, one of survivors from Team Marigold.

Alisson bent down, about to lift her to bring her to Patsel when he remembered how heavy she was.

“Another. Rei, give me a hand.”

With Rei’s help, they lifted the large Jachne to Patsel, who was already looking over two bodies. With Jachne, that made three in total. Alisson recognized the adventurers as Cleff, from earlier in the day, and the other was the leader of Auburn. The two of them were unconscious. Patsel was far more worried about Auburn’s leader, he seemed to be in the worst shape. His torso was, well, Alisson didn’t want to look at it. He was missing two of his limbs. Although limbs could be regenerated with healing spells, it took a fair bit of time and mana.

“We need to get them on their feet, ASAP.”

Rei said to Patsel. Patsel shook his head. He pointed to Jachne and Cleff.

“These two will make it.” He pointed to Auburn’s leader. “Daren though…”

The leader of Auburn’s face was flushed red, and he was breathing ragged breaths. Patsel was healing all three of them at once, but even with the healing spells, Auburn’s leader didn’t look to be getting any better. Alisson could see for himself the gash in his chest slowly resealing and regrowing.

Alisson watched as Patsel worked furiously, deploying dozens of different spells. He had small scalpels and suturing that glowed with magic. He hands worked frantically as he bit his lip, trying to tend to three different people at once.

The rest of Crimson formed up around Patsel.

“A lot of unaccounted bodies.”

Celis remarked.

“Do you think they might’ve escaped or retreated?”

Amelathet asked.

“Not with a scene like this…There would be some evidence of that…”

Rei said, eyeing the corpses around, and counting off with her fingers the number of bodies. Her fingers flitted up and down at times, not being able to tell where one body ended, and another started.

Minutes passed in silence as Crimson stood guard around him.

“Tch…”

Patsel finally clicked his tongue. With two fingers on the leader of Auburn’s neck, he shook his head.

“We lost him.”

Amelathet’s nose pricked.

“Well you might wanna hurry up with the other two…We’re about to get some company.”

Alisson tightened the grip on Enhérejär, eyeing the surroundings.

“Six south, four from the east. Two, maybe three, from the west.”

Amelathet said, her ears twitching.

“What are they?”

“I…can’t tell…they don’t sound like anything I’m familiar with.”

“Pat, get those two on their feet, we’re getting out of here.”

“I’ll hit them with a double dose of wake-up stims.”

Patsel said, putting two fingers to both of the remaining adventurers’ necks.

“Here they come.”

Amelathet said quietly.

Alisson only saw the rustle of the bush before the enemy was an inch away from his face. He stumbled back, lifting Enhérejär up, blocking a hard strike, creating sparks. What it was, it redoubled, and attacked again. Alisson sidestepped, not even comprehending what was attacking him yet before he himself counterattacked. He felt Enhérejär rip through a meager amount of flesh.

It was only then he heard the searing screech of their voices. All around him, the rest of the beasts started howling, bellowing. Alisson caught a glance of one of the beasts as he was behind it. It was humanoid, though was on all fours, and its limbs were inverted upwards and were oddly stretched out, like it was some sort of spider.

It turned and Alisson’s vision was filled with its face bellowing at him. There was red blood and rotted meat all over the thin body of the beast, like it was a corpse that had been recently slain.

-!

Alisson saw the remnants of clothing on the beast.

Alisson didn’t have time to think further as he bobbed side to side, avoiding the wind-severing limbs of the beast and retreating. He stepped forward and slashed twice in quick succession at the beast’s front limbs. Something was off however, his strikes did almost nothing, as if he were hitting fifty layers of thick hide piled atop one another.

The beast veered about a foot away, lifting its two arms over him and standing fully erect, about to slash down at him. Out of Alisson’s sight came Celis, barreling into the beast at full speed, knocking it to the ground. In a flash, she stabbed both of its front limbs down with her baselards, and left them pinning the beast to the ground. She drew her stiletto’s in the blink of an eye, and impaled the beasts throat with them. She had little success in breaking through the beast’s rough skin, but it didn’t matter. Alisson was already above her, stabbing down with Enhérejär. His rapier cleanly pierced its neck, and red blood spewed out in torrents.

“Son of a bitch-!”

Alisson turned just in time to see Amelathet punch one directly in the head, before Rei stepped forward and cut off its head with a swing of her shining blue blade.

“More are coming-!”

Amelathet said, brandishing her falchion. Alisson could now hear them, all around in the surrounding brush. They sounded as if they were spiders, with fast and heavy footfalls. That wasn’t all, he could distinctly hear the roars of more normal beasts directly behind them, of those included Bears.

“Come on-! Get up!”

Patsel struggled to bring up Jachne and Cleff on his own, so Alisson stepped back for a moment, and with a single pull lifted the three of them up. Patsel briefly stared up at Alisson in awe.

Crimson was quick to scramble north, as none of those spider-human abominations were in that direction as Amelathet had previously said. Just as they started to move in their formation, beasts started to spew out from the south of the road, making a beeline for Crimson. Among them were about dozen of those human-terrors. Seeing all of them running for him, Alisson could see clearly the shine of armor and weapons lodged in their rotted red meat.

Those beasts were human, minutes ago at least.

Alisson’s eyes sharpened at a large egg-like figure behind them all. The human-turned beasts collapsed into Crimson at immense speed. All of them were quite durable, Crimson was shattered out of their formation as howl bellowing abominations now wrestled with every adventurer still on their feet. As they were tied down by the human-corpses, more and more main-line beasts flowed into the battle. Eventually, a massive Scorpianbug came down the road, and split the adventurers even further apart as they scrambled to get out of the way.

“Retreat! Retreat! Everyone run!”

That was Rei’s final order to Crimson. Alisson saw as the top of Celis’s head vanished amongst a swath of moving beast bodies, inundating the area all around. It was then that the pink flares died out, and left the Jungle black.

***