Chapter 170 – Observations

The two of them traversed through the forest as they homed on to locations of interest. Of the other two places Yuki had pinpointed, one had an actual team. The other was a camp of what were actually hobgoblins which he and Yuna cleaned up swiftly. 

“Well, that makes two,” Yuki said as he sifted through the supplies the team he and Yuna had just taken out. “And they didn’t have much either. Why don’t they have supplies? What did they even eat?”

“I think they gathered things from the forest,” Yuna replied, holding up a root. “Which would make sense. One of them was a plant attribute so they’ll have an easier time finding edible things like this rather than hunt down prey.”

“Mmm. We should clear out now. We made quite a bit of noise this time,” he said, staring at the scorched ground and jutting spikes. “We might have over done it.”

“Yes,” Yuna nodded. “That was quite the explosion you made.”

“I thought it would be enough but apparently not,” he shrugged. “I didn’t think they’ll shield themselves that fast.”

“I see. Well, we cleaned it up nicely in the end.”

Yuki nodded and started to stroll off into the shadows of the trees. 

“Great job with the back up,” he said as he walked. “Made things go by much faster.”

“Thanks,” she smiled as she caught up with him. “It’s only natural. I am your teammate.”

“Of course. That water blade was nice.”

“I’ve been working on it. I haven’t quite mastered it yet but I’m getting there.”

“Mmm. Let’s find some other teams.”

He ran off sprinting, Yuna following him closely behind. As he ran, scanned the area around him constantly, sending out pulses of mana through the ground like a radar. He already proved he could track people this way. There was no point in slowing down his progress now.

“Two possible locations. Pretty far, though,” he said calmly as he zoomed past the trees, leaping over roots and fallen trunks.

“How far?” Yuna replied. Her breath sounded stable.

“A mile away,” he said. “Not that bad. We should be there in a couple of minutes if we keep up this pace. Ten minutes tops if we slow down a bit.”

“Okay.”

They stopped talking and focused on their running. Trees blew past them as they zoomed across the ground, the wind blowing against their hair. Yuki continued to send out pulse of mana to keep track of the two locations. He adjusted his course in order to intercept the closest point. The second point would be for later.

When he got within a few hundred yards of the point, he slowed down to a walk. Whatever he was tracking was moving at a steady pace on a route that was perpendicular to his. He motioned to Yuna to quiet her steps and began to quickly but carefully creep his way toward the moving point.

‘They must be people,’ he thought as he steadily gained on the moving group. ‘They fit the description.’

If he had to guess, it was a pair of two people like him and Yuna. They were walking at a speed that suggested that they were being cautious about their movements. 

‘Hmm. That’s interesting.’

As he continued to keep track of the pair’s movements, he noticed that the course they were taking seemed to lead them to the second point Yuki had pinpointed before. It looked almost as if the pair was tracking something to the second point.

‘This might be beneficial.’

He slowed his pace even further until it matched the pair’s. Yuna followed his lead but gave him a questioning look.

“I found two possible groups,” he explained as they walked. His voice was low but not quite a whisper. “One of them is moving and looks to be a pair of people. They’re slowly making their way toward the second possible group I located. This second group isn’t moving.”

“You think that the pair is hunting down the second group?” Yuna whispered.

Yuki nodded. “It seems to be that way. So I’ve elected to slow down and watch the pair first before going in. If the second point is a team, then I’ll let them fight it out before jumping in. If this was just a coincidence, then we’ll be in position to strike.”

“I see.”

With that, the two quietly followed the pair that was a hundred yards away from them. The pair moved slowly, so slow, in fact, that the probable second group was had begun to move. 

‘Maybe I should go and delay the second group so that this pair can catch up with them.’

He considered the idea for a bit but tossed it aside when he saw that the second group was moving even slower than the pair. 

‘My. Everyone is so cautious here. I would have expected everyone to be rushing about trying to eliminate as many teams as they could.’

He did a mental shrug and patiently followed the pair. Nearly half an hour later, the pair was within range to launch an actual attack on the second group who Yuki had now determined was a group of three with two elves and one other unidentified person based off of a cross analysis between the vibrations that he, Yuna, and the pair they were following were creating in the ground.

More time passed as the pair seemed more interested in watching the group of three rather than fight them. Yuki hoped that they were trying to gather information for an attack. Otherwise, he would just have to take things into his own hands as things were going on longer than he would like. 

Luckily, the pair split apart and each person took a position on each side of the group of three. Yuki signaled to Yuna to follow him and he sped up his pace, rapidly decreasing the distance between him and groups. He took position directly behind the group of three.

“They should be striking soon,” Yuki whispered. “Get ready. When I signal, we’ll join in.”

“Understood,” Yuna whispered back. “Do you want me to be discrete?”

“No. There’s no need. When I signal, we’ll rush in there like idiots.”

“Okay.”

Yuki’s eyes flickered about as he analysed the group of three. They seemed more prepared than the other two groups that Yuki had dealt with. One of the three even had a sling that seemed to have been crafted out of the hide of some animal.

‘Which means that they have hunted and that they have a fire attribute in their team since they were able to dry out the hide to make crude leather. Interesting.’

He looked to the sides and found the pair that were stalking the group of three. Yuki took in a deep breath and channeled mana into his eyes, activating his Demon Eyes. The pair were shimmering, one electric yellow and another an icy blue. They seemed to be using their mana as well, preparing spells.

‘They’ll be attacking anytime soon then.’

Just as he predicted, the two struck. The air temperature rapidly plummeted and Yuki watched as the ground shimmered a bright blue as ice magic formed over it. His eyes flicked over to the lightning attribute person just in time to see him flash forward, no weapons in hand. The person slid across the ground, zooming toward the group of three that were trying to maintain their footing on the suddenly slick surface.

‘This might be done quite fast.’

He sent out a pulse of mana to check his surroundings. Then he frowned. There was someone nearby. A solo team from the looks of it, and they were trying their best to hide their presence. Yuki could feel them only because they seemed to become slightly careless, letting their feet touch the ground.

‘Oh. I know who this is.’

He placed his hand on Yuna’s shoulder, telling her to stay still. 

“There’s someone else around. Let’s watch,” he whispered. She nodded in reply.

Yuki watched as the fight between the group of three and the pair went on. Though the pair had the element of surprise during their initial attack, their opponents had recovered nicely and were pushing back. Spells flared and attacks were launched as fireballs, thunderbolts, icicles, and plain rocks from that one person’s sling flew about. One icicle flew astray toward Yuki’s hiding place which he dodged without taking his eyes off of the fight.

‘When will you break in?’ he thought, keeping track of the lone figure that hid on the outskirts of the fight. 

The wind shifted and the presence that Yuki felt had disappeared. 

‘Show me what else you can do, Caitlyn.’

The air pressure dropped and the darkened as dust began to gather within the sky. Yuki saw the air shimmering with mana as it whirled about, wrapping around itself in a cyclone that howled as it began to descend onto the land. The fighting abruptly stopped as the teams looked up at the sky.

‘Fatal mistake.’

Yuki’s eyes tracked a lone person, shrouded in shimmering mana, as she raced toward the distracted groups. In her grasp, she held a blade of air shaped as a sword. A few deft strokes and two people fell, their barriers flaring up before they were promptly teleported away. One quick minded person began to run away immediately as the other two simple stared with confusion at the place where the two people were. They soon followed.

Caitlyn unshrouded herself, appearing for the naked eye to see. She eyed the running person that was sprinting as if their life was on the line. Placing two hands on her sword of wind, she slashed down and a blade of mana erupted out from it, slicing its way toward the fleeing figure. It connected and the person was surrounded by a golden hue before disappearing.

‘Well done,’ Yuki thought.

The sword dissipated from Caitlyn’s grasp. She chopped with her hand and the cyclone in the air faded away. Then she sprinted off. Most likely in search of her next prey.

‘This was quite useful.’

“So Caitlyn was tracking them down as well?” Yuna whispered.

“It would seem so. I think she made herself float for a large portion of the time since I couldn’t sense her vibrations,” Yuki replied. “She’s quite strong.”

“She is. I knew she was strong because of her achievements, but I didn’t expect this. She created a tornado.”

“Almost,” Yuki corrected. “She could, without a doubt, create a tornado, but this one was more of an illusion. Which is still impressive.”

“But the winds?”

“She made the winds pick up and made it spin, but the tip descending down was just an illusion. The tornado was just a distracted anyway, so I don’t think she wanted to waste mana.”

“I see.”

“This has become quite interesting,” Yuki remarked. “Let’s find the others.”