Well before the sun rose the sounds of preparation for the next bit of travel filled the outpost. Lleu and the others were already up and in the process of arguing how to best scout the pass they would be taking. Hours earlier, Jestix had returned from a gathering of society leaders and brought the news that they had been sadly been expecting to hear. The powerful societies had been impossible to persuade about using a safe route and the decision to use the larger of the northern passes had been made.

Thankfully the anticipation of truly beginning the expedition had prevented the various societies from dawdling so in under an hour the entire outpost was mounted and forming the column. As they would be leaving the enquian behind once they reached the pass the mounted column was very much a temporary thing. Lleu had been told that the animals refused to fully enter the lands behind the mountains and would become uncontrollable if forced there. Instead, they would put them into the care of whichever group would be waiting at the pass's entrance for their return.

Although they were moving constantly, it was much slower than when Lleu had been traveling alone with Aelan. This gave him plenty of time to play around with his lightning magic and try to make it more practical in use. The desire to do this had begun when he tried to reach for something earlier and failed. As the lightning claws he could materialize were a very close range weapon they would only be useful if he was directly next to whatever he was fighting. Therefor, his goal was to learn to reshape them and extend them at will.

It took several hours of practice but finally Lleu successfully turned the claws into spear-like extensions that were as long as he was tall and even mostly stable. His success had even brought up a bit of a discussion among the others as Lightning magic was typically used as either a long ranged weapon or for static defenses. Making the magic wearable was not something common or even commonly considered useful.

The rest of the day passed fairly quickly and although they still had at least two hours of daylight left the expedition called a halt and made camp.

In the same fashion as it had been in the outpost the land was quickly divided between the groups with their more conceited members posturing at the borders.

“Are they really going to keep this up all the time?” Lleu, already annoyed, questioned Aelan who chuckled in response.

“Oh, they will. This doesn't really stop until the expedition begins sieging something.”

His annoyance faded as Aelan seemed to decide it was a prime opportunity for some intense practice and he forgot about the tensions in the sweat of constant repetitive exercises. They kept going until close to dark at which time Lleu collapsed into his cloak. Unlike the rest of the expedition, they had no tents, instead choosing a minimalist approach that freed them from the burden of carrying anything large.

The next day came quickly and the anticipation of the people could be felt in the air, they would be traversing the pass that day!. The anticipation was especially stone since the mountains were already very close and it was already possible to see the disruption in the chain marking the pass they were taking.

Only an hour later the expedition had both departed their campsite and reached the foot of one of those mountains causing a mass dismounting of enquian to begin. Supplies were shifted from beast to man and some unfortunate initiates even ended up bearing oversized tents on their backs.

Now on foot, the expedition was far more bunched up and at a shout from someone in the center began to move up and into the pass.

The Pathfinders, with Jestix in the lead, made their way to the front of the procession while two of their number, a married couple named Gilia and Minux, ran ahead into the depths of the pass. They would be completing a part of the scouting plan they had decided on back in the outpost.

Other than them the front of the expedition contained all the Breachers and many members from several lesser known societies, most high-status ones were staying farther back towards the center.

They had not been inside long but the gigantic walls had already isolated them entirely from the outside.

“Hey Lleu!”

Lleu turned around at the shout and saw Bresia, Ranit, and one other he did not recognize run up to him.

“Hey Bresia, Ranit, and...”

“This is Ketta” Bresia introduced him to their companion. She was a fairly tall girl with curly brown hair who looked about the same age as Bresia. Her features gave the impression that she was a hawk looking for something to hunt but a warm smile somewhat broke that as she stuck her hand out in greeting.

“Glad to meet you, I’m part of the menders by the way and we wanted to know if...”

The rest of her sentence was cut off as a loud shriek interrupted her and a large shape from above flung itself down onto a heavily burdened recruit.

Blood spurted through the air as the unexpected creature ripped through him.

The creature was unlike anything Lleu had ever seen, even very different from the aberration he had faced when first starting out.

Six limbs and a tail decorated a body of black scales, each tipped with a long sharp claw. Its head was a long snake-like thing ending in a large mouth filled to the brim with fangs.

A cry of alarm was raised and instantly followed by several society members leaping forward to impale the creature with whatever weapons they were carrying. As they did so more shrieks could be heard from above as the ground became dotted with numerous shadows.

Looking up, Lleu was greeted with the view of dozens of similar creatures falling from the heights towards them. As they fell bursts of flame or rocks were flung at them, some of which even connected to great effect which added a rain of black blood to the chaos. Arrows also quickly filled the sky and although they turned several of the beasts into pincushions, most of them survived unharmed.

The monsters landed as screams pierced the air, several men and women around Lleu impaled by the falling beasts' claws. Not dawdling on their dead victims, the creatures rapidly detached themselves and leaped towards whoever was nearby.

With the moment of surprise gone resistance now met them as the defenders began fighting back.