Winning Gambit

Haoran pressed forward through the forest with the rest of their troops, using his spiritual sense to stay on the look out for the formation key. He wasn't an expert in formations, but he could at least suss out the key of a formation as elementary, as this.

Or so he thought, at least. He'd already destroyed three keys as they marched along, but the illusion showed no signs of dispersing. There weren't any kinds of formations that had more than one key, were there?

There was also something odd, about all this... and looking beside him at Lanfen, he realized what it was. She was oddly quiet, looking down as if she were thinking about something, and he nudged her slightly to get her attention.

"You okay? You're rather complaint-free, right now."

"Oh, stuff it," she said with a scowl, though her thoughtful gaze never left the ground.

"... I was just wondering who would win, between that brat and the boss."