In the grand scheme of things, the attack by monsters at night had been small. But it had done much more than just defeat a few monsters. It had let any larger monsters around know that a stronger being had entered their forest.
Many people would be worried about this attracting territorial monsters. However, the angels had already explained that in this area of the Rize empire that the monsters were fewer in number. The normal instincts to battle for territory would be stomped out by the fact that they needed to survive. It would be surprising how the survival instinct took over any instinct to protect a small territory in a massive forest.
The elven scouts were moving around with mordant's dragonkin. They had confirmed this a few hours before sunrise. "Since there are a lot of monsters leaving the area, then we will have a better chance moving forward." Gil was happy with this since would be able to focus on refining the arrows he was making.
"I was more worried about the terrain moving up. We already saw that massive tree that was struck by lightning. If we encounter more fallen trees of that size…" Su was the one that had the worries over this. It was mainly because she was sure that their movement would significantly decline due to these obstacles.
"As the forest becomes thicker, you will not want to fly either. That is why from this point on we are marching." Seran had made his point as well. If the forest thickened then everyone would need to be on watch for what might pop out or just in general block their way.
"This forest is larger and will get thicker with bushes and other plants. That we already know, but what about as we climb the mountains soon? Will there be more rocks and a combination or is it a dead set change from forest to mountain?" Walker's question was valid. He had no knowledge of what the terrain might change to be like.
"They are indeed a mix. The rocks will jut in to the forest causing many falls and unexpected small cliffs. But this also creates a decent place to get water as we travel. It is also home to more cave crawlers before we enter the real mountains. Here we will need to rely on hiking and some earth magic to check the route for safety." Seran's knowledge was just what Walker needed to make sure that they were traveling in safety.
"Then from here on out we will need the scouts to pull back and stay closer to us. Any earth mages we have will pair up with scouts. Su, can you handle organizing them?"
"It can be done easily. I want to see what buffs the life mages can give them that will help us sense the dangers beneath our feet too." Walker nodded. It was a good idea. The life mages had a very wide range of buffs that had already been proven to help them at night. If they had a body sense buff or similar buff, it could help them with the feeling of the ground beneath them.
"Hiking the mountains will be fine. I can put my earth affinity knuckles on and try to dig in to the cliff more. Just leave me as an anchor." Remey volunteering this was a little of a surprise but as the group took the lead and let scouts ahead, Walker started to catch on that Remey had been feeling a bit useless. Her lack of ranged attack had been an issue.
"What about the progress with your explosive potions? Any new ones that you have been able to learn lately?" Walker knew that Remey was definitely feeling that she was not able to help the best that she could. It was written on her face.
First, they had been on the ship for some time where Remey had been unable to do anything other than alchemy. That was nice in the sense that she had made some major advancements in her potions. She had also learned to make specific antidote potions for some poisons that monsters naturally had within their bodies. But that had been the extent of things.
Besides the training she had done, Remey had stayed stagnant in most things because of her lack of swimming, long distance battle, and general lack of flight. Even Su was better able to move against the threats around since they had gotten to Sigil.
"I have a few potions that can be used but they are dangerous. If I use them in the wrong place at the wrong time I will hurt everyone instead of helping. Take a poison fog potion. Once I toss it and break it, the potion evaporates and becomes a numbing mist that causes everything that breathes it to pass out. Great against groups but if the wind moves…"
This was a lot more thought out than Walker had expected. He had thought that Remey was just silent because he was annoyed but he had actually been very wrong. She was contemplating how to best use the potions she had to fight while they were on the move. It wasn't just that, Remey was trying to diversify her alchemy and close combat skills. Lately she had just been an alchemist.
"If you use it on a wyvern you might be able to slow it down. Let alone a group of them in a cave…" Walker thought that Remey was going to be able to do much more than he expected.
"That was what I was thinking. I have the antidotes already made. It would be easy to add it to some fabric we could tie over our mouths and noses. That way we will be able to cause the wyverns to weaken without using skills at all. Then I can dig in to a spot on the mountain and take them by surprise. How often do you think a wyvern looks up? They think they are strong like dragons. Dragons never look up either. They are arrogant."
This last comment was heard by Rise who opened her mouth to respond before realizing that Remey was incredibly and undeniably correct. She had always been the highest in the sky to get closer to the sun. to absorb and meditate about the light elemental mana around her. Why would she look up any higher? It was stunning to know that a major weakness had existed within her and every dragon's actions for so long that it was an accidental habit not to look up.
"So you want to smoke out the caves or ruins with potions, we will all have prepared masks with antidotes, and then you want to climb a wall of a cave using your earth affinity knuckles so you can drop down on a wyvern and beat it senseless?" Walker shook his head with a smirk. He should have expected this from Remey. She had never changed. She was just a bit more strategic.
"That's the rough plan. I can have the angels pretend to be bats and follow me too." Her evil grin proved that Remey was more or less saying that she wanted to take the angels to be her new battle partners.
"Then do it. Talk with Seran. I'm sure that he and his angel soldiers will like your tactics. Onyx should like them too since he could bind a wyvern while everyone else pushes in to defeat it." Remey's eyes glistened a little as she heard Walker telling her to take over. It was clear that she had been worried that the tactic would seem too dangerous.
However, Walker could tell that the tactic would work. It was a gut feeling mostly but also the fact that he trusted Remey and her potions. If she said that they would numb and slow something, he believed her. If she said she would trust her strength to climb to the top of a cave, he would trust her. And if she was planning on knocking a wyvern senseless with her fists, then hopefully the wyverns found religion and prayed for their protection. Remey's real punches were no joke.
"Up ahead is a larger dip. We are going to bypass it and take a right path along it. Watch out for the edges." The scouts passed on this information changing the course of the walk they were taking. From what Walker could see, the large dip wasn't too much. But there was stagnant water at the bottom. These spots would become larger and more common the higher they moved.
Even though the entire force didn't feel they were moving higher, they certainly were. The size of the trees proved this to be true. They Were receiving more runoff from the mountains. More nutritions. They could all say that they had finally entered the real depths of the mountain base forest of massive trees.
….
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