Chapter 1639 Through the Wall of Mist

--- Kat ---

So it turns out? The teams didn’t actually end up balanced. Meg had messed with things again and Kat hadn’t noticed. So those teams of ’four and five?’ yeah completely unnecessary. Kat and Lily both wanted to smack themselves for missing it. There were sixteen people, with four demons around to guard them. That meant it was four people to a team. Despite that? What ended up happening was that Kat and Lily had five people. Kamiko had five people, Meg had four, and Hunter had two.

Apparently everyone had been too nervous when they were leaving to call Meg out on it, including Kat herself. Lily hadn’t been paying attention, too focused on worrying over Kat being near the treants… though it was weird that Hunter ended up with the two people instead of Meg.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Then again, that probably came about because Hunter was doing the tying… Kat wasn’t sure how intentional it all was on Hunter’s part. After tying up Kamiko’s team and Kat’s, Corela had joined up with Kamiko’s group after a few moments, Meg had quickly gathered a team of four… and then Hunter was left with Amalak and Stensil, who seemed a bit confused as to why they were left in a team of two.

Kat had no idea what the plan had been originally, or if Meg intended this… but Kat was going to say that it was Meg’s fault. It did make Kat wonder how Meg had gotten away with saying it… but a review of the exact wording was ’likely split up’ which was annoying, as technically it wasn’t a lie. Perhaps at one point Meg wanted to have three groups of five, perhaps one for Kat, one for Kamiko, one for Lily and then Meg and Hunter would only have to deal with one person between them? Or perhaps Meg was going to have a larger group and share it with Hunter?

*Yeah I’ve got no idea.*

[Maybe Meg was testing Hunter to see if she’d make use of the ’mistake’ Meg made to give herself less people to look after? Hunter also took two of the older group who are, hopefully somewhat competent… but notable not Craunch of Corela the most competent. Amalak and Stensil will probably be the easiest to ’look after’ because they’re weak but smart enough to listen and do what Hunter says?]

*Urgh. Too many mind games. Still, I’m really annoyed we missed that. It’s basic fucking math!*

[Yeah almost like we were really tired when that all got decided and didn’t notice the problem until later. Which is weird because it was early morning when that happened and the both of us were definitely well rested.]

Before the mental conversation could continue Meg started to burn away mist. Kat watched as it hissed and bubbled but swiftly evaporated under Meg’s fire. Soon she was gesturing for everyone to walk through… and so they did. Once everyone was lead through Bower disappeared up into the trees to scope out the area. The mountains in the distance made for good landmarks and he was familiar enough with them to work out how to get back home at a glance.

"I thought it’d be different?" said Chasen, attracting attention from just about everyone.

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"What do you mean?" asked Kamiko.

"Well… I just thought there’d be more sunlight or something? This is just more mist!" retorted Chasen.

"Don’t be stupid," announced Sephy. "We were told, specifically, that we’d need to get through a massive mist-filled forest! Of course it’s hard to see the real sky. I can’t wait for that moment myself… but it’s not weird that everything looks like mist. We knew it would,"

"I was just expecting it to look more interesting I guess," admitted Chasen. "I mean… this is the OUTSIDE but it’s grey fog with a couple of boring looking trees. They’re just… brown and green. Like normal. It’s not glowing blue or green or orange or something crazy. It just looks like a normal misty forest!"

"You’ll get plenty of excitement if we end up in a bubble," commented Craunch. "I’m sure at least one of them will be entertaining and special enough to make you appreciate forest like this,"

Bower landed softly on the ground and said, "We’re not too far off where we want to be," interrupting the argument that was potentially about to ignite between Craunch and Chasen. "The town is right this way," Bower held an arm out pointing slightly ’backwards’ compared to where the group had been facing before.

Megg nodded and compared the heading to the compass she had in her hands. "Right… well it seems like the drake part we’re looking for is probably up in the mountains just based on what I’m seeing here. That means we won’t be heading too far out of the way returning everyone. We can likely make good time once we get back to the roads," Meg nodded to herself a few times. "Right, any bit of advice before we head out? Any questions?"

"Just keep an eye on your footing," said Bower. "Oh and don’t try to run. You’re tied together now and running will just have you falling on your ass once the rope tightens up. A risk sure, but having you get lost in the mist never to be found again is a much bigger risk so deal with it,"

Kat glanced at the old man. *

That was a bit ruder then normal wasn’t it?*

[He’s probably treating them like trainees or something. Bower can be a bit gruff… but he does need to really get it into everyone’s heads that running could cause a lot of issues. If someone panics and cuts the rope so they can run away they’re likely to get lost forever. Best to avoid that.]

"What sort of plants and animals can we find here?" asked Sephy.

Bower shrugged, "Quite a few but we don’t really have time to go over them. The trees are actually surprisingly standard, just a bit tougher then normal. The herbs though? The few you find are usually quite potent spatial ingredients that you don’t find anywhere else. The animals, well I’ve been over a few of them with those who’ve asked… but yeah going over everything would take too long. Especially if you include all of the bubbles as well,"

Sephy pouted at that but didn’t complain when she noticed Meg was nodding along. Kat noticed this as well and wondered if Meg had leaned on Bower a bit to ensure that was the answer given or if she was just happy with it.

After hearing the non-answer Bower provided nobody was all that keen to jump into asking him questions. Seeing this, Meg soon motioned for them to begin making their way into the forest. Bower set off first of course, with Kamiko behind him. Kat was off to the side, while Meg was towards the back with Hunter. It was sort of lopsided way of moving through the forest. It was also kind of annoying.

Kat couldn’t see too far ahead. She had to rely on the bracer on her arm in combination with seeing the edges of the group ahead of her. Kat didn’t want to get too close in case Kamiko or Bower had to stop for something but obviously Kat couldn’t get too far away either. In that case her bracer might swap to just the people behind her. Honestly being in the middle of the group was not a great place to be.

Kat was even more annoyed when one of the squirrels launched itself down at her group. Apparently it hadn’t bothered the ones ahead and saw someone amongst her group as easy prey. Kat was ready to attack it when she felt Lily’s own anticipation rising. Kat waited, ready to move if need be but it quickly turned out fine. A spell sigil sprang to life and blobs of shadow slammed into the creature practically devouring it.

Kat’s group shuddered a bit upon seeing that, except Craunch who was chuckling to himself. "Was… um… was that really necessary?" asked Sephy after a few more steps and no further attacks.

"In what way?" asked Kat.

"Well… I mean… it was just a squirrel wasn’t it? Or something like one?" said Sephy.

"Something LIKE one is the important part. Not sure what you know about squirrels but those ones are capable of teleporting and will happily bight out your throat if they get close enough. They don’t eat plants they eat meat," said Kat with a thin smile.

Sephy shuddered. "Really? But they… they seemed so… harmless I guess?"

Kat shrugged, "Some monsters look like that but they aren’t calm at all. Though, I will add that some are. We found some slimes earlier on that were quite gentle… except they eat all your mana and will happily leave you to be eaten by something else if they’re not trained,"

Sephy looked like she wanted to argue but held her tongue. Kat gave one more glance at the girl before shrugging as they continued into the mist. Perhaps once Sephy saw some of the more dangerous things around here her attitude would change.