"Is there a reason you've dragged me along?" Oren demanded once they'd cleared the village's perimeter.

Inan had kept a solid grip on him the entire time, and given Oren's unimpressive physicality, he'd been dragged along their predetermined route until they were far enough away that – presumably – it would take more effort than it was worth for Oren to double back and insert himself into another team.

Inan carded a hand through his hair, evidently considering the question, then said "You're cute" in that too-earnest way that reminded Oren annoyingly of Sage. It was utterly sincere and impossible to shrug off because of it.

He could feel his face heating up in real time, the scarlet scrawl more damning than whatever stuttering was making its way out of his mouth.

Rae laughed. Oren tried to duck away from her as she reached for him, but wasn't fast enough, and he scowled as her arm came around his shoulders. "Inan has a point," she added cheerily. "And good taste. I support it."

"Gods, the two of you should have tagged along with Cross." Oren would have gladly gone with literally anyone else, and the three of them could have traded obnoxious comments amongst themselves to their hearts' content. "I'm cute? That's bullshit. What does that have to do with exterminating lizard things?"

"Nothing!" Inan said, grinning unabashedly. "But I thought you might be fun to have around, and I was definitely right about that."

Bull. Shit.

"Look at his face," Rae agreed, raising her free hand to poke at Oren's cheek as she tugged him along. "I think you're embarrassing him with all those compliments."

"That is not a compliment," Oren ground out, swatting Rae's hand away with perhaps a tad more viciousness than he should have.

Inan shrugged, linking his hands behind his head as they continued at this ridiculous, leisurely pace. As though they weren't getting paid to do a job. Starry Rose wasn't known for its sterling professionalism, so Oren didn't really have much room to complain, but that had never stopped him before.

"I'm always honest, Oren," Inan said, flashing another smile that only ratcheted Oren's ire up another level. "I'm sorry if that's not it's coming across, but I'm really only telling the truth."

"I can verify," Rae chirped, dropping her arm. "Inan is the most honest person I know."

Oren decided this wasn't a topic worth pursuing. For the sake of his blood pressure, if nothing else.

"...never mind," he muttered, taking a pointed step to the side so that he wasn't within arm's reach of Rae anymore.

Rae and Inan chatted as they walked, while Oren kept stubbornly silent apart from when he was asked direct questions; even then his responses were clipped, and likely more than borderline rude. There was a reason Gideon normally did the talking when they went out together – Oren's social skills were, in a word, nonexistent.

He tried tuning them out, distracting himself by imagining what Hawthorne must have been going through on his job with Sky. He'd gone out on S-Rank jobs before - a few times with Lock, more often with Sky - but he'd always come back worse-for-wear. His combat abilities were enviable, but he'd yet to master them, and so he always met with more trouble than either of his S-Rank counterparts.

The last time Hawthorne had come back from a job with Lock, he'd been what amounted to a walking bruise for how little unmarred skin remained, his clothes shredded and hair matted with debris - and Lock hadn't had a scratch on him.

Ugh. No thinking about that...

Strong as Hawthorne was, Oren didn't want to picture just how broken he would've been had he somehow been coerced into accompanying one of their S-Classes. So distracting himself wasn't working. His mind wandered to dangerous places when he let it roam freely. He could sympathize with Ilias sometimes, much as he hated to admit it.

That left him with no choice but to listen to Rae and Inan's inane conversation, and when mentioned that Aaramis had probably led his group to where they'd seen tracks earlier, Oren felt obliged to cough up some piece of information Gideon had given them on the drive over that had lodged itself in his brain for whatever reason.

"They like the water, apparently," he said, shrugging and lifting a hand to point to the river they could see in the distance. "So unless you've got a better idea, I vote we start there."

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It was a flat stretch of land between the path they walked and the river's edge, but that somehow made him uneasy. The lizardmen would become visible the moment they appeared, yes, but their group would be exposed, as well, and that didn't sit right with Oren, even if he had been the one to suggest the change in direction. Still, he veered off the weathered path and started picking his way closer to the river.

"It's as good a place as any," Inan said, catching up to Oren with ease, much to the man's obvious displeasure. Rae didn't disagree, and while Oren should have expected that (she didn't quite measure up to Sage's air headedness, but clearly she didn't prioritize caution on her adventures), he'd honestly been counting on some form of protest. He couldn't very well retract what he'd said, so he had no choice but to follow the two of them off the beaten path and into the heart of the valley field.

His feet disappeared in the knee-high grasses that tickled his ankles where they managed to sneak under the hem of his pants. Fragrant flowers dotted the sea of windblown grasses, reminding Oren of the guild, though he noted they weren't as brilliantly colored as anything grown by their master. She had a gift that went beyond the simple ramifications of her magic, and she breathed life into everything in that guild - the mages included. Oren could personally testify to that.

Oren watched the sun as they walked, mentally counting down the time left until the blue skies bled into twilight.

From what Gideon had told them, they didn't want to be fighting these things at night, not when their sense of smell far outmatched that of the adventurers, and without night vision they wouldn't stand a chance. He gauged they had another hour or so before the sun sank behind the lip of the valley. He told the others as much, and they both assured him today's portion of the job would be finished long before sundown.

Call him ungrateful or uninspired by their supposed confidence, but having never spoken to or interacted with either of them before, Oren found he didn't put much stock into their promises.

The river was wider than Oren had thought, and deeper, too, judging by the size of the silvery fish he could see darting around just below the surface. Oren crossed his arms, his unease rising as he tried to estimate the depth of the river. The lizardmen could swim – more than that, Gideon had said it was a preferred hunting method for them, striking from the river's edge and dragging prey under the water to drown. Maybe he shouldn't have suggested they come this close; surely they could have lured them out in the field, instead, rather than take the risk of fighting on the lizards' turf.

A loud splash caused Oren to jerk his head around, just in time to see Rae's blonde head bob to the surface, her hair decidedly less bouncy now that it was partially plastered to her skull. She treaded water, her eyes sweeping over the river, and all the while Oren could only gape at her. Why had she—?

"Smart," Rae mused, seemingly more to herself than them. "This will work nicely! Brains and a pretty face. You picked well, Inan."

"You're in the water," Oren said slowly, once the shock had worn away to a dull puzzlement. "You're in the— Why? Just, why are you in the water?"

Oren had to assume Rae and Inan were aware of the danger posed by the presence of the river, because their fearless leader hadn't seemed the least bit concerned with the nature of the job. And, as if the lack of risk assessment wasn't enough, Rae had just— jumped in. Fully clothed.

What in all the hells had he gotten himself into with these two?

"To be hunted, of course," Rae replied. She rolled in the water, facing Oren as her arms swept across the surface. "Think of it like this—the sooner they attack, the sooner you're rid of us."

Sure, the logic was sound, but it was also insane.

Oren skimmed his eyes over the water, tensing with every subtle ripple. The fish he'd noted before seemed unperturbed by Rae's arrival, some of them swimming lazily around her, which was... odd, though not especially noteworthy given the circumstances.

"Just so we're clear, if you die that's entirely on you," Oren said flatly.

Inan laughed as he paced along the river's edge, one hand sliding down to lay atop the pommel of the sword sheathed at his belt. "That's the spirit. I wouldn't worry, though — Rae has a knack for getting herself out of trouble."

Oren definitely wasn't going to be the one saving her, so he hoped – more for his own sake than Rae's – that Inan wasn't overestimating her death-defying habits.

"Aaramis was right, unfortunately, " Rae announced after a few minutes of swimming in circles, her eyes trained on the river. "I can feel them nearby—watching, I think. They feel...wrong. You sense it too, don't you, Inan?"

"What was he right about?" Oren asked, wrinkling his nose. He couldn't sense anything, and it irked him that these two apparently had some sort of sensory magic to work with while he was going into this practically blind.

Inan paused in his pacing, head cocked, eyes narrowed as he swept us gaze around the field. They were ignoring Oren, the bastards, tracking something he couldn't see or feel.

"Your summons might not be such a bad idea now, Rae."

Summons? That was – unexpected. Warlocks were a rarity from what Oren understood; the only one he'd ever met, in Starry Rose and otherwise, was Ilias. Oren's brow furrowed; was that a thing people could sense? Did like call to like when it came to magic? He knew other fae on sight, sometimes, but he had no idea whether that was something innate in his kind, or it applied on a broader scale. It made him wonder if Ilias had marked her, though; the guy was skittish with strangers, but he'd seemed particularly determined to keep his eyes off Rae.

Rae sighed, drawing his attention once again, and then, without warning, there was a flare of magic – a burst of flames in the air ten feet above the river, which quickly materialized into a goddamn phoenix. The bird was huge, its spread wings spanning the width of the river, and colored an eye-searing crimson.

Oren stared, wide eyed, at the phoenix. The brilliant flames reflected against the river's surface, creating a fantastical effect that nearly distracted Oren from the fact that Inan was gearing up to peel away from the group.

"I'll take the west!" he called out, unsheathing his obsidian-black sword. "Stay with Oren, will you, Rae?"

Oren would have argued that he didn't need a handler — that he was perfectly capable of defending himself — but the memory of their last job came to him unbidden, and he bit down on his retort. He did reach for his magic, though, ready to cloak himself in his last copy's image.

Rae saluted the now empty air, before her eyes flickered to the phoenix as it landed next to the river.

"You heard him—defend the pretty boy."

The phoenix rolled its eyes, feathers rustling, while Oren bristled despite his own awareness of his shortcomings.

"The pretty boy feels capable of defending himself," the phoenix announced. But its attention shifted to the surrounding field, and in a moment it had moved to hover over where Oren stood. He blinked, confused, until he followed its line of sight and realized they had company.

An inhuman sound, like skin moving against sandpaper, curled around him, squeezing tight around his lungs and drawing every last ounce of air from his chest. It emanated from the lipless mouth of the creature emerging from the high grass, rearing back onto two feet once it was clear of the undergrowth. The lizardman was taller than Oren had anticipated and layered with corded muscles visible beneath its scaly hide. Its protruding fangs dripped something black and foul that Oren mistook for venom for a moment before he registered the spiderwebs of black veins that crisscrossed the creature's body.

Corruption.

Fuck. Fuck, this valley was corrupted, and now not only did Oren have to worry about being ripped apart by the lizards' sheer strength, if he was bitten he'd become infected with the corruption. He'd die, if he was lucky, and if he wasn't...

Just – fuck.