Chapter 566: The Vanishing Trick

While Sara and the Silver Howl mercenaries were occupied in searching for the stray girl, a bit of distance away from them to the north, northwest the royal sibling has finally made it atop the second plateau, the one neighboring their temporary base camp.

A small party of almost a dozen strong men and women stood in a loosely fit circle, looking, scouting at all directions atop the flat barren mesa. Scarlet and Drake joined by 8 Silver Howls, had the task to scout and make sure there are no looming threats and dangers hiding just next to their camp. 

Being caught unaware, ill-fit, and unprepared during a night wouldn't do them any good, especially after a long and tiring day. Although their camp was only temporary, and they were planning to venture further inland, later on, they weren't sure when they would take that next step. 

Although the entire team, both themselves and the Silver Howl's wanted to go and look for their missing young leader, they couldn't just rush ahead without making sure that everything they need had been taken care of.

They needed to make sure all threats have been identified and -if possible-, dealt with. Since they met intelligent life forms, they needed to make sure they could come to an agreement. Additionally, they shouldn't forget the original purpose of their expedition: They were in a contest, a weird and barbaric game, but they had to work on scoring as well. 

From what they were told, the scoring system is based on finding treasures, dealing with the many challenges and trials, and the so-called 'captives' of this world, whatever that meant.

Thus, the three teams that were sent out this morning, all had different objectives. Sara and most of the Silver Howls headed southward, where Naybeah and the twin sisters clashed with the strange wolf and spider abomination. 

Lily, Galina, two of the strongest aides of the Captain joined up with the eager amazon and her new friends headed north to scout ahead. Their main goal would be to make a path forward, whilst also search for a suitable location to transfer base to.

Lastly, their medium-sized party was tasked to scout the west, where they could see a similar plateau, like their own. Though from a first glance it seemed safe, Captain Don wanted to make sure, there wasn't anything hiding between the sparse spread rocky terrain. There were no ways to tell without checking manually if another Pillar's group would have landed close to them, even if they were reassured such a thing cannot happen.

After all, one of their own, despite their promises, was already misplaced, trying his darnedest to survive, all alone.

"I don't think there's anything here at all. This rock should be safe, brother!" Scarlet exclaimed, taking a moment to stretch her back and sigh up into the sky. The scorching heat, the blazing, heavy rays of the brutish sun of this world made their relatively simple and easy task of climbing this flat hill a much more challenging task than it should have been.

For what should have been at most an hour-long journey here and at most another one back, took more than double and they have only just reached the top. She was already tired and disgusted by all the sweat and smell she and the rest of the team were drenched in. 

She wanted nothing more than to get back and use the allotted amount of water to freshen up, even if just a bit. 

"Yeah… It does seem empty…" Drake responded with a matching sigh of his own. A light frown creased his brows. The whispers, the intents he got from Mort, his sword's spirit was that not everything is what it seemed to be. The weapon was feeling restless, though even itself was not entirely sure why it was feeling that way.

For the Silver Howls, they too shared the sword's sentiment to some degree. Most weren't too happy, or excited, but instead looked worried, concerned.

"Something is just not right… I can feel it…" A man, with short light brown hair and a thin well-groomed, pencil mustache expressed. He was nervously gripping his unsheathed shortsword in one hand, and the small reinforced, wooden round shield in his left. His gaze was nervously jumping from the far left all the way to the furthest right.

Though he seemed to be acting like an absolute amateur, looking utterly scared and agitated, he was still ready to jump into action at the first sign of trouble. His closest companions of many years, his mercenary family were just like him. 

Bowstrings were pulled, arrows placed at the ready. Swords, Axes, and Maces were raised with firm grips holding them in place. The many stern and serious gazes that scanned the horizon made sure that no threat could catch them by surprise. 

The atmosphere was undoubtedly tense. With the exception of the once-slave but now-free Scarlet, everyone was visibly overwhelmed with a bad premonition. Everything seemed too easy, too simple, to… uncannily straightforward. That was not how events would normally play out, not in their years of experience. 

When a task seemed too easy, too simple to be true, it was most often as they would expect; not what it seemed at a first glance. 

Yet, unlike normally, they just couldn't find any traces of an ambush, a trap or anything out of the ordinary. This plain, barren plateau, this small, empty mesa looked just like it did from when scouted afar. Empty, and devoid of any life, be it big or small.

"What are you all talking about? What is 'not right'? I see nothing!" Scarlet, getting annoyed by the reaction of the group and overly eager to return and shed this vexatious outer layer couldn't stand wasting any more time under this unbearable heat than what was absolutely necessary.

"We shouldn't dwindle here any longer. There is nothing to see. No enemy, no monsters, no treasu-" 

Fuming with her own awkwardness, Scarlet was rushing around, articulating using her entire body to prove that there was no point in spending more time on their task. 

Yet before she could finish her first complaint, suddenly, as she wandered off behind a close-by collection of average-looking rocks, her figure vanished. One moment she was arguing with an annoyed, heated look on her face, and in the next… "Woosh!" she was gone.

"Sis? Where are you?!" Shocked by the abrupt turn of events and the instantaneous disappearance of her sister, Drake rushed towards the place Scarlet was a moment ago. With a gradually turning, transforming distress and worry settling down on his face, Drake quickly made his way together with the stunned Silver Howls behind the rocky area.

When they made their way around, a deep frown soured all of their expressions by what they have found.

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