Exploration

Charlie raised his hand and started to chant.

𝙹⍑ ꖎ╎⊣⍑ℸ ̣ ⎓𝙹∷ᒲ ╎リ ᔑ ʖᔑꖎꖎ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ╎ꖎꖎ⚍ᒲ╎リᔑℸ ̣ ᒷᓭ 𝙹⚍∷ ∴ᔑ||

and a small ball of light formed out of the small magic circle in his hand and floated a few meters in front of the group. Charlie took the front with Colby next to him holding up his shield ready for any sudden attacks.

The forest seemed to encompass the entire group, through the trees weren't as dense as before, the visibility without the ball of light was only about 5 meters.

Jason looked at the ceiling of the forest with confusion. Almost no light was able to leak through the leaves. It seems that the number of leaves was either extremely dense or somebody did something to this forest.

The group plodded on, they walked over dead trees with branches that looked like withered hands reaching out to them. Moss started to appear on the ground, but the moss looked unnatural with a black and grey color Jason didn't want to risk touching it. Large roots were illuminated as they went deeper into the forest.

The entire place looked like one of those horror games Jason had tried once and never played again after the first jump scare. Cold sweat started to appear on his back, he really was weak with horror and situations like these really made him want to just close his eyes and run away.

Jason whispered to Lyle who was next to him

"So when can we get out of her?

Lyle whispered back

"When we take care of the source of the monsters that are obviously coming from this forest."

"how long will that take?"

"depends but usually days"

Jason took a deep breath and tried not to panic.

He looked back out at the forest to see the ball of light barely illuminating their surroundings. A few tree trunks with black moss and a haunting silence were the only thing he could see or hear.

Jason desperately tried to find alternatives to walking through the forest

"Can we somehow go and walk over the roof of the trees where the sunlight hits?"

Boops retorted

'yeah and plummet to our deaths, there is no platform like in the training center dude you going to have to do this the old fashioned way, walking'

"b-but that's how people die"

Boops answered matter of factly

'then don't die'

Jason sarcastically thanked Boops for his advice while he cautiously looked around again. Later he noticed he wasn't as scared as before. The wolves were always next to Jason surrounding him like they were guarding him, when in fact Jason had a mission to keep them all alive.

Seeing the wolves guarding him like he was the most important thing made Jason feel a bit more relaxed and happy.

He recounted the adventures he had with the pack, from running through the forest at night to taking out monster camps and he started to gather more hope. He didn't want to fail this yet, and he most definitely did not want to see any wolves die in front of him. He wanted to run with them again, live in the forest together, and more.

There is a saying that when a person is determined to do something he becomes resolved to do almost anything. Jason looked back at the forest with a bit more courage than before. He wasn't scared of the forest itself any longer, but he was instead worried about the monsters that hid in it.

Jeffery who stood next to Jason suddenly perked up his head and sniffed the air furiously. His nose seemed to turn multiple directions to pinpoint the smell he had just caught a brief wif of.

Jeffery nudged Jason and growled softly in the direction of a group of dead trunks a bit in front of the group.

Jason nodded and tapped Lyle's shoulder. Lyle turned around and looked at Jason curiously. But once he saw Jason pointing at the group of dead trunks and then at Jeffery his eyes hardened. He tapped the twin's shoulders and relayed the same information. The twins also realized the gravity of the situation and relayed the information to Charlie and Colby.

The entire group quietly stopped and looked at the group of dead trunks. The leaves seemed to give a few holes for the sunlight barely to pass through like shining a flashlight into a deep fog. It was still dark but you could see the silhouette of the trunks. So that even from a few hundred meters out you could barely the rough outline of the trunks that were cut in half.

Jason's map didn't reach that far so Boops couldn't see any hostiles. But apparently, Jeffery's new skill (smell enhancement) had upgraded his sense of smell so much that it could outrange even the map Jason had.

Jason could hear Boops being annoyed and jealous already. So he promised that when they took a break he would buy a subsystem upgrade for the map since it seems they really needed it plus his points had just been stacking up without doing anything.

Jason looked back at Charlie who was thinking about what they should do. The monsters lying in wait definitely knew of their existence with the light ball floating a few feet in front of them. Unfortunately, it was so dark that they absolutely needed the light source or they would have easily gotten separated.

Boops relayed the words that Charlie was muttering to himself

"if they already know of our existence we can't just run away, but they might prepare the deadly trap, but our entire goal is to exterminate them so what should we do?"

Finally, Charlie came to a decision and looked back at the waiting group. His curly brown hair and handsome features made him seem friendly. But at this moment Jason only saw a cold calculative commander.

"We are doing an all-out attack don't die"

And saying that Charlie unsheathed his sword letting the dark blue sword touch the air for the first time after the battle against Welf.

The dark blue sword seemed to glitter in the dark almost like it was back in the place it belonged. Lyle shrugged and unsheathed his sword. Its black color blended into the darkness making the red runes on the sword look like they floating in the air.

The twins pulled out their regular well-made swords and Colby his sword.

As Jason was about to hype himself up, he felt a nudge on his hand. He looked down to see Jeffery poking him with his nose. He looked at Jason confused and asked in the softest voice he could manage

"HOOMAN WHAT WE DOING?"

Unfortunately, Jeffery's voice was like a megaphone, and even if he tried to keep it quiet. It would blare out. Jason could only watch helplessly as the loud bark echoed throughout the forest.

At the dead trunks, the bark stirred movement. And Jason witnessed something that brought him chills.

A shadowy silhouette peeked out from behind the trunk. Two bright yellow eyes looked at him. Jason and the figure seemed to exchange stares and the eyes of the figure just seemed off. Like something about them was seriously wrong.

From behind the trunks more and more glowing pairs of eyes looked at the entire team and group of wolves.

Jason counted hundreds of them. All of them were directing their eyes towards them.

A sense of dread seemed to take over Jason they reminded him of the nightmares he had as a kid. It was sort of like that time in his childhood.

Jason shivered and tried his best to think about something else.

Next to Jason, Lyle sighed and raised his sword. The red runes on his sword burst into flames. He pointed it towards the glowing-eyed creatures and said

"Well we lost the element of surprise, let's get them all"

The wolves couldn't understand the human language, but they did understand what it meant when a human pointed their weapon at another living being. And with a simultaneous growl from their 3 leaders Lance, Asher, and Jeffery. The entire group of wolves leaped from their position. Charging towards the glowing-eyed monsters.

The rest of the Blue 2 team charged right along with the wolves running headfirst towards the creatures.

Jason was the only one left behind. He looked at the rest of the group charging. He really didn't want to get left in the dark forest so he drew his regular iron sword and ran after them.

This was actually the first time Jason didn't run away or hide from the things that spooked him. Though it wasn't exactly for the right reasons it was an improvement.

So Jason sprinted after the main group of people, his hands gripped tight on his sword with his voice trembling and shakey. The calm and collected Jason or at least the regular Jason was nowhere to be seen. The facade he had put on seemed to have disappeared after getting scared so much.

The battle raged on.