Standing up, she stretched for a moment, ignoring the eyes she could feel following her movements. She used a tiny bit of water magic to clean herself up, reveling in washing away the sticky sweat that coated her from her earlier fights and magic use.
“Well, that seems like a useful way to use water.” Marcelle grinned at the now-clean Jade, and she smirked back at her.
Gesturing, water materialized and swept along Marcelle as well, leaving her clean and refreshed, much to her obvious shock. “It really is wonderful for a person’s morale.” Glancing around, she realized that the rest of the hunting group were now standing by the entrance to the tunnel, dressed in dark clothes and weapons.
She nodded in their direction, asking quietly, “Is everyone else ready, then?”
At Marcelle’s nod, she clenched her fist momentarily, then released it and said, “Let’s get hunting.” She called her babies from their tree, and they fluttered over and landed in her hair.
She walked confidently towards the entrance of the tunnel, stopping to address the men as she whispered into the silence, “We need to be quiet and quick. The real danger starts now.” She touched her quiver, binding wind magic to her own arrows. After she was finished adding the enchantment, she turned to the entrance once more.
The tunnel in front of her seemed extra dark as she stepped into it, leaving the bright light of the room behind as she quickly opened a few illusory viewing portals when she reached the door. She checked from various positions around the camp, making sure there was no movement of predators in the vicinity before she silently moved to open the door.
This was where the hunt would truly begin.
Chapter Five – Encounter
Jade paused before she opened the door, walking over and briefly touching each person as she cast personal vitality buffs. She didn’t want to focus on keeping an aura going at the moment, and since she didn’t need to include their mounts, it was easier to maintain the personal buffs than to try to keep them close. Especially if she needed to go up above to check on anything. She also lowered their gravity a little bit, explaining as she did so. “I’m making you lighter so we can move faster and more quietly. Try to adapt quickly, and let me know if you need me to adjust it. I’ll revert it to normal before we get there so you can fight like you usually do.”
Once they were all buffed up, she opened the door, taking the lead. She got out of the way so the others could emerge from the bunker while she reoriented herself, sensing the direction they needed to head to find the dead trees. She nodded to the earth mage, who waited at the door until they were all out, then melded it back together. She smiled in approval, even though the man could no longer see her. It was blending perfectly into the boulder, and unless you were using magic, there was no reason to suspect anything was wrong in this area. Smells might be their biggest enemy, but the constant wind in the trees would hopefully make it hard to pinpoint. She’d also made sure the vents were nowhere near the entrance by causing each of them to surface at least a tree away. That was half of what made her so tired.
With their vitality raised and their gravity lowered, the group was much quieter as they started through the forest. Jade led the front while the others ranged behind her in twos and threes, with Marcelle taking up the rear. Her babies, now rested, took up patrol as well, flitting through the woods like tiny scouts. She made sure they went in pairs again, not wanting another accident. After all, that had been Andy’s saving grace.
She quickly realized why the mesmer used the treetops, however. Beneath the giant trees, the roots, leaves, smaller saplings, and bushes tried to crowd in all together. It was literally a giant mess to wade through, and a rather loud one, no matter how quiet they were trying to be. The crackle of dead leaves seemed inordinately jarring as they attempted to skulk along, the natural sounds of the forest hushing in the wake of their passing. She tried to pick the path of least resistance, but she often found herself either pushing through the brush or using nature magic to slightly alter the path for the others to more easily follow after her.
They’d been forced to walk single file as the brush got thicker, with Jade creating the path of least resistance before them. She mentally cursed as one of the men tripped on a root, tumbling loudly into the surrounding leaves and brush. She stopped, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. There was danger approaching, but from where? “Something’s coming. Get up!” She hissed back at the man, her bow ready, arrow nocked as she looked around.
Her babies were frantically trying to find what might be causing her to be so paranoid, having felt her alarm through their bond, but she was telling them to be careful and hide with the best vantage points, not wanting to lose them to whatever was making her antsy.
“Are you sure there’s something coming?” There were two other women in the group aside from her and Marcelle, and she wasn’t sure which had spoken, but she was ready to flay the woman alive. She hadn’t even bothered to lower her voice very much. If whatever it was hadn’t known exactly where they were before, it did now. The look Jade shot back at her must’ve convinced everyone else to shut their traps, filled with venom as it was.
In the silence, she strained to listen to the surroundings and tune out the breathing of her companions. She heard the barest scuff of something against stone coming from her left, and her head whipped around in that direction, trying to pinpoint what could have made the noise, but she couldn’t see anything…or maybe she could.
There was the barest shimmer in the air, a distortion she recognized from her previous experiments with her fellow light mages on creating invisibility. Without hesitation, she loosed her arrow, cursing herself for not keeping her mana sight active. She’d wanted to conserve some energy where she could, but it was a stupid thought. As soon as she activated it, she could see the white of light magic being used by two beasts on a nearby rock.
They seemed to think she was firing randomly, since her first arrow glanced harmlessly off the rock a few feet away from them. She hadn’t pinpointed their position before she fired, hoping to startle them into moving or dropping their magic. The others were staring at the area where she’d shot in confusion, clearly thinking she shot randomly into the air, which she sort of had.
“There’s two of them.” The words left her mouth as her eyes glowed brightly with her use of magic. She loosed another arrow, this time aiming directly for one creature. “Start shooting on top of the rocks!” She hissed the words at her group as the creature dodged her arrow, aware that somehow, this human could see it. They started to run forward as the others shot arrows in the same direction. They could now see irregularities in the air, and they aimed for those.
Jade focused, shooting only when the creatures dodged. She finally managed to catch one mid-dodge, and its control over the magic broke. “Keep shooting!” She heard Marcelle order from behind her, and was grateful the woman was keeping her head. More arrows began to pierce the visible one while the other was trying to sneak around the side, thinking it hadn’t been seen. Jade turned her bow slightly, shooting directly at it. It jumped out of the way, then let off a high pitched growl of pain as the arrow turned, controlled by Jade’s wind magic to follow it. It, too, lost its illusory magic.