"You want to chase?" asked Caleb, his expression the calmest of the four.
"Of course! Ha" responded Orena, doing nothing to mask her excitement.
"No. There's no use, it's too far away for us to chase down. Just a waste of time and energy" said Stanis, releasing mana into the environment as he said so, the released strands slowly and subtly floating towards the enemy.
He could have used Scout and sense, but the problem with it was the fact that far more mana was needed when scouting larger areas as the scouted space exponentially rose. From what he guessed, he would almost drain his tank if he tried to Scout and sense whatever was watching them: nothing but a waste of energy.
Sil looked at him with a mix of disdain and curiosity. Was he lying to get their attention and prove his worth to the team, or did this guy actually have better sensory abilities than her? Despite her thoughts, she didn't voice her doubts and instead just watched him close his eyes and focus, his brow furrowing as he began to directly move the mana. However, before he had even managed to guide them towards the enemy, it had caught wind of his game and retreated.
Stanis couldn't actually see through his strands of mana but he could sense in a totally novel way, not at all linked with his other senses. And thus the last thing he had seen was a large cloud of dust being kicked up by the thing as it ran. At least now he knew how fast it was: very fast…
Stanis shook his head towards the other three and gestured to keep walking.
"It ran or something?" asked Caleb, Orena's excitement dying at this.
"Yeah" responded Stanis, his thoughts away from the conversation as he imagined what it could be. He highly doubted it was human: a human shouldn't be able to move that fast. So it had to be a monster, and linked to what Caleb had said about scouting this area since something shady was going on, most likely a strong monster. The last thing Yils had told him was to kill a tier-three and not to fall back on his strength; was this his chance?
"How do we even know there was anything there and that you aren't just crapping out of your mouth" accused Sil, her sharp tone bringing Stanis back to the real world. He merely shrugged his shoulders and walked on; he didn't know how strong she was but nor did he feel a need to prove his strength in front of her.
And like this, the group went back to normal. Well, there was a slight difference in the fact that all of them were tenser than before, ready for battle, and in the fact that Sil was now poking jibes at Stanis, alongside pestering Caleb. She was learning how to multitask.
Caleb was more than happy with the space he was given due to this, but also slightly worried about what would happen if Sil kept making jibes. In his brief time spent with Orena in the past, he had thought her calm and scary, especially during the last trial in the tutorial. She had still been like that when he had first met her back in Yona village, although less scary as he had already cemented into his mind how strong he was: strong enough to beat her. But then her character had devolved into a battle maniac as time had passed, to the point that he doubted he could now beat her. But this was fine as he knew that she had no desire for fickle things like social power and such.
As for Sil, Caleb had only met her a few days after the two villages had joined to become Yora village. There had been a large raid on a monster camp that had set up too close to the village, and the previous-Yona village fighters had clearly shown off their strength there, him especially so as he had killed the monster leader.
After that, Sil had come to talk to him more often, David joking she had a thing for him, although Caleb knew otherwise. Furthermore, she proved that she had more than enough strength to fight with him and thus he couldn't really say much against her. The girl truly didn't have that many faults, especially when compared to a few of the other people who had risen during the apocalypse.
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But one of those few faults was the fact that she was interested in fickle things like social power, so much so to the point that she was now poking fun at Stanis due to the fact that she felt him a threat to her position. Orena had brought Stanis to the group, which in turn meant that she clearly saw enough strength in him to be in this group.
But it was Stanis's and Sil's youth that worried Caleb: what if these jibes picked up and the two began to have conflict. It was something that most others were willing to let go off when they saw people at it, but Caleb knew otherwise, especially when in the heat of fighting. He had learnt this lesson the hard way from his last village…
In contrary to Caleb's worries, Stanis was actually careless about the insults Sil made. It was akin to a 5-year-old calling a grown adult an idiot; he wasn't bored enough to take any offence.
Either way, the group kept walking in this manner for many hours.
Hours slowly passed and soon it was silence that accompanied them, even Sil too tired to speak. Night had been cast over the sky like a blanket, but the group had decided not to stop walking. Their stats meant that they could go for a few days without rest, especially when they were doing light activities like walking with little equipment.
The plains had devolved into a valley quite a distance back, two sides inclining upwards whereas the middle part declined. They had chosen to walk through the valley and so Stanis could only see a strip of the starry sky as he looked upwards. He could feel something watching them…
The other three seemed to not notice and thus Stanis kept silent, no need to break the silence with a matter that would soon go away anyway. And that was exactly what happened, the watcher soon leaving without a peep.
Stanis could see clearer than the rest of them in the dark due to his trait, and thus could see the end of the valley a distance in front of them. It led towards a wider area filled with trees.
It was a few minutes later that they exited the valley, marvelling at the woodland they found themselves in. It wasn't a forest as it wasn't vibrant or lively enough, instead a magical woodland as if they had been fished into a fairy-tale.
The starry skies were now fully visible and the moonlight covered the trees with an angelic light, shrouding the woods with a sense of mystery as the colour pallet seemed deformed and yet simultaneously mystical. Unlike a forest, the woods were quiet save for the rustling of leaves as the group walked onwards.
At this point, they had given up hope at finding whatever the other people had talked off, but were also too far in the walk to go back without anything.
Stanis was melancholic as he walked, his eyes misty as he felt a novel sense of serenity pass over him. Out of all the places he had spent time in after the apocalypse, this was his favourite. The tutorial was shocking, the camp stressful, the tunnels mind-numbing, the mountain rewarding but this woodland was his favourite, despite having only spent a few minutes in it.
He felt anger rise inside of his body as he realised that his moments of serenity had illusioned him from the gaze boring on the group; someone daring to break his moment of peace.
His anger turned to fear as he used Scout and sense, realising that it wasn't actually one monster watching his group, rather several. And these didn't seem the cannon fodder type: bulging muscles, sleek midnight-dark fur, green glowing eyes, menacing claws…
However, his fears died out within seconds, his body beginning to surge with adrenaline: he hadn't had a moment of rest after the apocalypse had started months ago, having danced with the reaper countless times. How could he be scared by this?
It seems Sil wasn't as useless as she seemed, speaking up a few seconds after his realisation as she picked up on the same thing: "Something's watching us. I don't know what or how many but I doubt they come with good-will."
Caleb unsheathed his sword, its blade singing for blood in the moonlight, whereas Orena took out her spear, far more menacing than anything Stanis remembered her having. There was no time for him to stare though as the shadows that had been watching them moved, leaving flickers of black in the darkness as they shot forwards.
Anyone watching Stanis's group would be able to tell that they were experienced, none of them flustering despite the fact that their enemies were basically hidden in the darkness surrounding them. Furthermore, anyone with a beady eye would have noticed that Stanis wasn't as eager to fight as the rest of them, instead his attention seeming to wander…
Out of the corner of his eyes, Stanis could see a glimpse of bright, unnatural light behind him…