299 Costly Journeys

While Mindy's raid was crossing the Nine Kings Range, Remian and Xiao Yan were arriving back at Scorched Earth City.

Xiao Yan, at that point, was having some doubts. "Do you… do you really think I'll be okay there? In your world?"

"Of course! I'm kind of a big deal there, you know." Remian assured her.

They stopped by Scorched Earth City to make a big withdrawal of Black Crystals, then made their way directly to the formation where Remian first appeared, landing the entire Pod on it.

"Wait in the Pod." Remian told Xiao Yan and studied the inscriptions on the formation.

There. That should be the destination sigil, and the empty space was for him to fill. That board offered a list of choices, with symbols to depict each choice. Remian couldn't make out what most of them said, but one of them he recognized.

It was the symbol sequence for 'home'. It had a price tag associated with it; 130 Black.

"That one!" Remian confidently filled in the blank, then piled up the 130 Black Crystals at the formation's power supply. Carefully, he activated the formation, and hopped back into the Pod before it worked its magic.

There was a stirring of wind and a pulsing of power, and then in a flicker, the Pod was gone.

***

At that moment, Mindy was still halfway between the Nine Kings Range and the Dead Lands Zone.

"Any word from the second recon team?" she asked Joshu, who was one of the Adventurers at her side.

"Nothing." Joshu said grimly.

She fell silent, having no words left to say on the matter. What else could be said? If they hadn't reported back by now, and the raid team looking for them couldn't find them, chances were that they were goners.

"The whole team." Denise sighed. She, too, was among the adventurers out on this long shot.

They weren't the only ones who were lost during this venture. Half of the first raid team was already done for, as well as almost that many in the second and third raid teams. The first recon group was down to three people, and now it seemed the second recon group had been completely wiped out.

"Time to regroup." Mindy decided. "From now on, the third raid team is to replace the second recon group. Call in the second raid team to combine with the first. We will advance in one hour."

The raid had started with about thirty people in five teams. They were now down to half that number in just one main raid team and two recon groups.

"Two Tier 5's incoming from forward left, crossing our path." Recon Group 1 reported. "Wait for a bit to avoid them. They should pass by."

"We wait." Mindy did not want to fight any more Spectres or lose any more people.

"One Tier 6 coming up from behind." Jans warned from the back. "It's tracking us. We can't wait!"

"Six Tier 3's coming around the right side." Called Wulfgar from the right.

Yes, they were all there in Mindy's raid.

"We can't wait." Mindy grimaced. "Recon 1! Can we make it if we rush straight forward?"

"Not likely. They'll catch us." Recon 1 reported.

"What if we swerved left? Can we avoid them after they pass?"

"Maybe?"

Swerving right was a bad idea. Not only would they get caught by the two in front, they'd meet with the six from the right.

"We have to move, quick. The Tier 6 coming up from the back is getting close." Jans whispered.

"Go left! Prepare for combat!" Mindy grimaced.

Going back, whether directly backwards, to the left, or the right, was guaranteed to result in an encounter with the Tier 6 Spectre. That battle had a fair chance of wiping out her entire raid. Mindy grimaced, feeling keenly the loss of her powers. If she had the kind of strength she had before when the Flame Emperor was whole, she could have tried to blast right past that Tier 6 by herself, but right now, she was too weak. Any average Tier 6 would be able to stomp her into the ground and all her raid members with her, no problem.

Blast it, even weak old Remian would have been able to put up a decent fight against a Tier 6! Anyone with the power to take down a Lord of the Wilds could do it! But Mindy, right now, couldn't even confidently challenge a Tier 5 by herself, much less a Tier 6.

Recon 1 hesitated. "Should we engage and distract the Tier 5's?"

"No, do not engage. We'll handle them." Mindy answered. "Keep scouting ahead. Find us a place to rest and recover afterward."

"Understood." Recon 1 sounded reluctant, but did not argue.

Gritting her teeth, Mindy prepared for battle. "Almost there. Just a bit more. Almost there."

But 'almost' was actually more like a whole day away at the speed they were traveling at. Even with Frames, having the avoid Spectres every other step of the way was taking up a lot of their time.

Maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe taking a long time to reach the Rift was a good thing. That way, Remian would have more time to find his way back and she wouldn't have to face the agonizing problem of having to seal him out.

Actually it wasn't her problem, because it wasn't even her choice to make. Even if she was there, she couldn't stop it from happening. She no longer had that sort of power.

But she could delay. She could make this journey as slow as she liked…

Except that she wouldn't. Not when every hour wasted meant more lives lost that could have been saved. Like it or not, Mindy had to admit the truth. They couldn't afford to wait and hope uncertainly for Remian to return.

Neither could they go rescue him. As much as Mindy wanted to, the fact was, she just didn't know how. Nobody did…

"Rawwrr!" a claw nearly took Mindy's head off while she was griping to herself over Remian. Mindy ducked as Joshu fired his bow over her head.

"RAAH!!" Wulfgar charged in, an oversized wooden hammer in his hands. He smashed it into the Spectre's face while Joshu, Denise and Jans fired arrows into it from near point-blank range.

"Spread out!" Joshu called.

"No, wait!" Mindy gasped. "Stay close! Don't grab any more Spectres attention!���

"But…"

"Wulfgar!" Mindy barked. "It's all on you and Herman!"

Herman was the other front-line defender. Like Wulfgar, he had brought an Armored Frame, and sought to hold the attention and aggression of the two Tier 5 Spectres.

Jans put aside her bow and took out a scroll. "Water ball!"

A sphere of water splashed into the nearer Spectre, resulting in a howl.

"Water ball!" three different voices chorused behind her. Mindy turned to see three younger scroll-casting adventurers following Jans lead, spending the scroll she bought them earlier. She understood the need; they had to finish this quickly and were better off spending the scrolls than spending more time in this dangerous situation.

Of the three, two of them were actually Rhema's students, somewhat familiar with healing magic. The last one was a specialist in fire magic, actually, named…

AUM! One Spectres' teeth came down hard on that last guy.

Oh, never mind his name. He's gone now.

Mindy noted how clinical her thought was and how little she felt anything about it. When had she gone so cold, so numb? She wasn't sure. When the Flame Emperor fell it was like all the warmth and heat had gone out from her life. There was nothing left but cold and sorrow.

[Heart, Mindy. Take heart.] Chirpy tried to cheer her up.

But it didn't stir any great emotions. Mindy just felt cold and tired, even as she lit her sword with her weak fires and stabbed the Spectre with it.

Such weak flames barely seemed to trouble it. Even the water balls fared better against these foes. Mindy hated how pathetic her efforts were becoming.

WHAM! A spectral tail slammed into Mindy's side, bowling her over. She tumbled and quickly righted herself, back on her feet as fast as she could manage…

Only to see Wulfgar and Herman together hammer one Spectre's head in between their matching hammers. The other one was tearing up one of the scroll-casting healers.

"For goodness' sake! Spread out! You're supposed to keep them off the rest of us!" Mindy snarled.

"I did!" Wulfgar protested.

"We did." Herman agreed. "Or at least we thought we did. That second Spectre suddenly turned around and attacked when we thought we already had its attention."

So they said, but all Mindy saw was the other healer guy getting killed momentarily by that last Spectre whose attention they both claimed to have already gotten.

"Kill it! Just kill it!" Mindy flared, slashing down at it with her sword.

Sudden pain flared up from her left thigh. Mindy looked down, stunned, only to see that the Spectre she cut had bit at her at the same time. While her sword descended, its teeth had closed in.

"My leg…!" Mindy gasped, and then pain exploded and she let out a scream.

It hurt! All this time, protected by the Flame Emperor's aura, she'd never gotten injured like this. She'd seen people hurt, she'd seen people die, but now, for the first time… she herself…!

It really hurt! For crying out loud and skies beyond, it hurt!

"AARGH!" Mindy let out one scream before a Spectral tail smacked her in the face and the world turned black.