Chapter 68 - Pitched Battle Fever

"Well this ain't good", I muttered to myself and Rakka as the two of us were hiding amongst some recently felled trees. Whether it was luck or fate, Rakka and I managed to ride back to the town's perimeter just before nightfall. Unfortunately, we were now stuck hiding among collapsed timbers while all sorts of monsters were attacking the binders defending it. What was even more unsettling was the deep purple fog surrounding them all.

Maybe it was because of how many monsters were fighting, perhaps it had to do with it being Monster's night, but it didn't take me long to figure out that this haze was the normally invisible "fog of war". It may sound odd to be unsettled by seeing something normally invisible, but it's kind of like noticing a spider out of the corner of your eye. You normally don't care about its existence, but when you finally notice it, it freaks you out.

As Rakka and I watched the battle unfold, I noticed that the fog looked thicker in some places but thinner in others. I didn't think it was weird at first, until I noticed the fog seemed to have move with the monsters and even disappear when one of the wild monsters or bound monsters were defeated. Even stranger, some of the binders had monsters of the same species but varying amounts of fog surrounding them. However, before I could look into why the fog seemed so dynamic, I sensed a wave of unnatural aggression coming through my bond with Rakka.

[Uh-Oh].

[What's wrong with him?], Voxea asked in my head.

[It's Monster's Night. I either need to dismiss him back to his drajule or throw him at something to fight , otherwise he's going to go nuts and either try to hurt me or give away our hiding spot], I replied as I prepared Rakka's drajule to dismiss him.

[Why not just throw him at the barricade area and just let him loose then]?

[With where we currently are, I don't want to risk them confusing Rakka for a wild majimonster and be out a fighter. Not tonight anyways]. Before Rakka leaped out of our hiding spot, I recalled him to his drajule. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as his form turned back into aether and back into the drajule.

[Well... what's the plan now? The Grim Shrieker ain't here yet and I get the feeling hiding out here any longer probably do more harm than good], Voxea quipped.

What was my plan? It was kind of on an impulse that I decided to ride down here on the worst night of the year and try to be all heroic. I knew my main goal was to find the Grim Shrieker and get my friend's soul back, but I didn't have a plan on how to get to that point...well not a complete lack of a plan.

I knew I had to mix in with the defenders and work with them, but as stated earlier, I couldn't just roll up with some overly aggressive monsters out of nowhere...

"BRING IT ON YOU MANGY DOGS"!

Unless I help the unusually loud and probably powerful binder. As I turned my head to the source of that voice, I saw what appeared to be a silver grade Brambleloup, a Verdant wolf monster, getting launched out of what had to be the densest fog of war on the battle field, into the air, impact into the ground and dissolve into aether. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity, but that feeling soon dissolved as three more silver grade Brambleloups pounced into the fog, an action that was followed by a string of profanity coming from inside of the fog.

[...I want to meet whoever was able to do that], Voxea said.

[Wish granted], I replied as I readied Voxea's drajule and ran towards the dense fog of war.