Without another look, she walked away in the barrack’s direction. Asay and his group remained standing in line, looking at her back without speaking.

The silence lasted a while, the woman’s speech slowly sinking in. They were all aware of how horribly wrong their encounter could have ended and were all quite depressed.

Opora was, of course, the first one to break the silence.

“She does swear a lot, right?” she finally said. She was always the smartass, always the first one to crack a joke. While Asay was pretty sure that the party’s [Arcanist]’s overly serious behavior was a mere front, a way for her to deal with the stress, it seemed that Opora was really just a cheerful and carefree girl. Her wittiness wasn’t always welcome, though.

“Shut up, Opora!” answered both Yva and Doïmos, the aforementioned [Arcanist], as well as Seltori, one of the group’s two [Shieldbrearer]. All the girls ganging up on Opora, what a surprise, thought Asay. Opora was a pretty girl and combined with her outgoing personality, she was popular with boys. It made the group’s girls somewhat impatient with her, noticed Asay. Then again, she could be annoying sometimes.

Her little joke still managed to break the ice, however. The teens stopped standing in line and formed a little circle a bit further away from the White Gate. Even if there wasn’t that much traffic this late in the afternoon, their humiliation had still been public and had attracted several passersby. Yva took a glance at her co-enlisted and saw them looking back at her; she took a deep breath and began speaking.

“Alright, listen up guys. Hum. So. As you might have noticed, we had our first encounter with monsters outside the protection belt.” She marked a pause there, not fully sure of what to say to the others. It wasn’t because she was the group’s leader that she was any older or more experienced than the rest of them.

“It was actually getting late, you know. We’ve been assigned to our section of the Belt for a month already and most other tyro teams had already met their first ones. I don’t know if you heard, but one of them fared even worse than us last week, two dead out of a group of nine. Anyway. It was only our first encounter, we’ve had only two months of training to prepare for this and everything sorted itself in the end but still. We terribly failed today.”

“Well, what I’m saying doesn’t apply to those who stayed back there to fight the first wolf. Good job to you guys. I’m especially proud of our two [Shieldbearers] who reacted perfectly. No, I’m speaking to the rest of us. Naochem, you fucked up. You fucked up big time. You can’t do that again, ever, because next time we’ll follow the squad leader’s orders and we won’t try to...”

“Yva, I know. Believe me, I know,” interrupted Naochem. On his face was a complicated mix of emotions. He looked both ashamed, angry at himself and somewhat sad. It was a wonder he managed to communicate so much of his emotions from behind his bandaged broken nose. He stepped forward and looked seriously at the rest of his group. “I’m sorry guys. I really am. I panicked because of that wolf, I really freaked out. I wasn’t thinking straight and I ended putting in danger not only Asay and Yva, who tried to go after me but also the rest of you guys. I have no excuse. I only want to say one thing, that it’ll never happen again. I swear to you guys that it was the first and last time such a thing happens,” firmly declared the young man. He marked a pause and looked everyone in the eyes, as if to ensure his words were taken seriously. Seeing that they were, he continued.

“You guys know that I’m really uncomfortable with all this, with our obligation to serve in the Guard for two years. I’m afraid of what’s beyond the protection belt. I have friends who are excited at the idea of confronting these monsters but, but I’m not. I’m really not. However, it doesn’t mean either I’m not going to do my part. I know what I’m supposed to do in this group, and I’ll do it. I’ll never lower my guard again and it’ll never happen again. That’s what I wanted to say. And I know I’m repeating myself, but I’m sorry for what happened earlier.”

Having finished, he stepped back to the spot he occupied earlier, face a bit red in embarrassment. Yva was still impassive, but the rest of the party didn’t seem to particularly blame the boy – even if he would still need some time to make up for what happened. Aarus, who was standing next to him, put his hand on his shoulder and winked at Naochem. Oooh, he’s such a great guy, thought Asay. Really a big fella full of love.

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As for him, standing on the other side of the circle and right next to Yva, Asay was starting to feel quite annoyed. They knew they fucked up. He knew it ten seconds after he started to run after Naochem. It had fully registered in the first half-hour after the second wolf died and it had gotten old news two hours later. Yes, it had been a disaster, but they’d just gotten their ass handed to them by the squad leader and punished for it. It was high time to move on, in his humble and irritated opinion. It didn’t help that Yva annoyed him pretty much every time she opened her mouth.

He was out of luck, however. Facing him, Yva started again. “Same goes for you Asay. What you did was extremely stupid. You shouldn’t have done that. It’s not because there are two of you [Marksmen] that’ll survive an encounter with a monster. I need you to stay focus during fights, Asay. You can’t just do whatever you want without thinking. You’re better than that. We’re all part of one group, together we can survive whatever the Wilds has in store for us but if you start acting recklessly we won’t survive anything, do you understand?”

He snapped out of it. “Come on, give me a break, Yva! I know I shouldn’t have followed Naochem, I’ll never do it again! It was on the spur of the moment, it was stupid, I almost died for it and I learned my lesson! And goddamnit, Yva, don’t you lecture me about that, you did the exact same thing! You brainlessly ran after me, just as I ran after Naochem!”

“No I didn’t,” denied Yva, frowning.

“What? You didn’t run after me brainlessly? Wait, what’s the matter, you don’t remember what happened? Because I clearly remember you…”

“I didn’t do it brainlessly, Asay,” she interrupted, annoyance written on her face. “I did it on purpose.”

“Oh. And does it changes anything about you waltzing in the Wilds behind me?”

“Yes, because it had a reasoning behind it, you moron. Think about it. The problem was that you two were [Marksmen], ranged fighters without any defensive capabilities. If you met a monster alone out there, it would quickly close the distance and kill you within seconds. The problem would have been solved if you had a [Shieldbearer] with you, but if either Seltori or Aarus left to get you back it would have seriously compromised the group’s defense line. And if Doïmos, our [Arcanist], or Melaen, our [Elementalist], had gone after you, it’d have just become an even bigger problem, because they are ranged fighters as well. I was the only one who could go after you without being useless or compromising the others. As a matter of fact, what happened was exactly what I predicted: I held the line however I could while you guys killed the wold from afar.”

“Ouch, she got you good,” laughed Opora. Indeed, what she said made uncomfortable sense to Asay. And the worst part of it, he was only thirty percent sure it was an excuse she made up afterward. Damn, she’s good, thought the boy, inwardly reluctant to admit it.

“Please don’t laugh, Opora. You’re next.”

“Eh? Wait, what did I do ?” said the [Shade], surprised and now a bit worried.

“I don’t know what you did Opora. You tell me. All I can say is that you didn’t do your job,” replied Yva. “Opora, a [Shade]’s job is to be the eyes of the party. They must scout out the surroundings, discover the eventual roaming monsters, evaluate their threat level and warn the group when needed.”

“It sounds an awful lot like what I just did,” answered the [Shade] defensively.

“Opora, a four-second warning before a crimson wolf jumps on us isn’t a warning, it’s stating a fact. It’s like saying ‘Oh guys, you’ve probably noticed but we’re under attack’. A warning is knowing when it crosses the two hundred-meters mark from us, then the hundred-meter mark, then the fifty-meter mark. What’s more, a [Shade]’s job most definitely isn’t leading monsters to the group. And that’s what you did earlier, am I right?’

“… Well…”

“Yes, that’s what you did. A [Shade] is the most secure person in the group. They seldom engage in direct combat, because they are useless in fights, at least at our level. To compensate, they are extremely elusive, quick as a bolt of lighting and invisible to most monsters. I know you’re not at this level yet but, Opora, please. Next time you have a crimson wolf on your tail, lose the fucking monster before you come back to warn us. Do you understand?”

“… Yes,” answered the [Shade], now ashamed of herself. “I’ll do better next time.”

“I hope so as well,” replied sternly Yva.

“You’re really unbelievable,” half-whispered Asay, annoyance and anger written all over his face. He just couldn’t help himself, he had to give her a piece of his mind.

“What was that, Asay?”

“We’ve disappointed you, haven't we?”

“I don’t…”

“We weren’t up to your standards, weren’t we?’

“Well…”

“Frankly we’re dragging you down, aren’t we? You saved both Naochem and my life after taking just the perfect decision in a split second, and you did it without putting the others in danger. You’re just amazing, you know that?”

“Asay, stop it.”

“You don’t even realize what really happened back there, don’t you? You don’t understand what was actually our biggest mistake, what could have killed us all if we hadn’t been lucky?”

“… I don’t see what you’re talking about.”

“Tell me, Yva. Even before Naochem panicked. Even before Opora kindly brought a couple pf wolves back to the party. Tell me, oh great and perfect leader, why were we sitting on our asses back there?”