Kirp stopped what he was doing and looked around. He couldn't see anything, he wasn't sure if he even heard what he'd heard.
"Did you say something?" He asked Lyle unsure.
"Uh, no." He said a little bit out of breath.
Kiro strained his ears more, but the sound never came again. He thought it must've been his imagination. So he decided to ignore, and they continued for a couple more minutes and then stopped.
Lyle wanted to keep training. Since he was tired, Kiro refused and reminded him that patience was the most important characteristic.
They came out of the meditative state with everyone else sitting around, with their hands on their cheeks. Bored out of their minds that they had to wait.
Lyle slowly opened his eyes, he weirdly didn't feel tired, he felt refreshed. His staff was on his hand, so he swung it the other way, a gust of wind came out, though it wasn't as strong it still made the trees shake.
"Th-that was amazing, thank you master!"
Jorge showed his deepest gratitude that Kiro took his time to teach his vice a thing or two. Something that wasn't even part of their agreement. He offered to pay for the lessons, but Kiro declined.
"Let's go."
The forest was darker now. Not even the moon illuminated their path, they entirely depended on their own eyes and senses. Kiro was glad he had vibrations back to work normally.
He didn't know whether he wanted to encounter another necromancer, but maybe it would be for the best. Figure a way to work around vibration disturbances.
The winds around were cold, but thanks to Hiro's creation, they couldn't feel it. Kiro had his robe that showed his chest a little.
"Aren't you cold?" Kade asked, since he was also walking without shoes.
So he gritted his teeth, as an assassin his movements were swift. He could dodge the tree roots no problem, he just didn't have the strength to completely overpower them. Your source is m-vl|emp,yr
He used short swords now, but Kiro vividly remembered him using a scythe. He was even nicknamed the Grim Reaper.
"You still have a lot to learn." Nikolai shouted appearing from the shadow next to him. "Assassins don't depend on strength, they depend on tricks, tricks that work. We don't need to be the strongest, we just need to be swiftest."
He said all this while throwing his poison daggers to the roots. He threw in a mist potion for good measure.
The trees whose roots were affected died instantly. They shrivelled up and disappeared from where they stood, leaving the spot empty and snow filling it up.
"Poison? I don't have any poisonous skills."
"You should, maybe Kiro has some. Ask if he can't sell you some."
He disappeared just as quick from the shadows, appearing on the other side, repeating what he'd done.
The trees retreated, having been defeated by this one team twice now. They didn't wait around much, they continued walking. They weren't exhausted in the conventional sense, but since there was no sense of time in this forest, that made them tired.
They encountered a few more beasts, which they defeated without losing anyone else. The drops for Chasing Madness were sweet too, they had so much at this point that they had already put half of the drops to the auction.
Since the game was locked, nobody would be able to buy until after the wars and he didn't mind much.
They eliminated a lot of guilds along the way. Kiro's biggest fear at that moment was running into Isla's guild. He didn't want that no matter what, she was still mad at him and he didn't know if he'd be able to eliminate her when push came to shove.
He wasn't soft on her, okay maybe a little, but he did break a promise and he felt bad for it, a little.
"I think I hear the cheers from the arena!" Jorge commented excitedly.