The reinforcements for the Sloth soldiers fighting on the frontline were marching north through the sea of mist.

They were all moving alongside the path marked in such a way so that only humans were able to notice it.

The journey was long and arduous, their path was twisting and turning in the most unusual way that seemed extremely impractical.

But no one dared to stray off or take a shortcut.

The thickness of the mist increased a hundredfold even a single step off the marked path and was filled to the brim with monsters that although weaker than titan-class, were still posing a serious threat to the members of the intelligent races.

Amongst the marching soldiers, was a group of people from the south.

Although everyone going north had the same equipment, for the most part, the southerners still managed to stand out like a sore thumb.

First of all, they were lagging behind.

Not because they were lazy, but rather...

"...why... couldn't we take a carriage...?"

Corvus gritted his teeth, doing his best to match his speed to the Sloth's soldiers' tempo.

"...a ride in a carriage would be amazing... and here I thought that stupid endurance run was bad...!"

Ti nodded in agreement and wiped the sweat off of her forehead.

"Aah..."

Mika, Cal, and Cri, all grunted in agreement, too tired to speak properly.

"Sorry. You heard their explanation, right?"

But there was someone in their group who wasn't tired at all even after marching for over twenty-three hours.

"They are unable to tame any of the native monsters, and even if they brought some from beyond their territory - it would backfire. The smell of easy prey would lure more strong monsters making traveling even harder. Traveling by foot is the most reliable and safest way... as long as we're on the path."

"Easy for you to say... Mary..."

Corvus shook his head and glared at the busty brown-haired girl, riding atop of the massive blue emperor griffin.

Yes.

Mary Hope, the tamer who was called for examination as soon as she stepped a foot in Sloths' territory, has rejoined the Wraths together with two of her monsters.

Just as it was planned in advance, she lent six of her wolves to help with the search quest that Dandelions received.

The heroine was comfortably seated on the back of her griffin, Blueberry, while the large but terribly skinny black wolf, Arion, was walking beside them.

To clear some doubts, Blueberry was walking instead of flying, because traversing the sky inside the sea of mist was literally impossible due to the properties of the unnatural mist - they were banned from flying until they've reached the third defense line where the mist was beginning to thin out.

"Sorry, if it was up to me I would let you hop on too, but..."

"Skwee!"

Mary bowed her head apologetically but got interrupted by an angry screech of the emperor griffin.

The blue monster raised her head tall and spread her wings showing off her majesty.

"...as you can see, Blueberry refuses to let anyone other than me on her back."

The brown-haired girl sighed and shook her head apologetically.

"Skwee!"

"..."

Blueberry folded back her wings and screeched, as if she was adding something - something that made Mary's face scrunch up in annoyance - but the brown-haired girl didn't elaborate on what that was about.

"And the wolf...? He looks big enough to be able to carry a person... would you mind if at least our Mika caught a ride on it...?"

Corvus asked, looking at the skinny wolf that was the size of a small horse.

"...! Corvus! You... you don't have to worry about me...! I'm fine...!"

The young ashen-haired girl's face got even redder than it was before - now a blush of embarrassment was added on top of the face flushed from exhaustion - as her heart fluttered when her beloved person showed concern for her.

"Raor."

The black wolf growled and basically did a shoulder shrug but with his head, which nicely conveyed his indifference to the idea.

"That is..."

Even so, Mary made a concerned expression.

"...you see, Arion wouldn't mind that, but truth to be told... he's a bit too skinny to comfortable ride him... you know... his spine would... bother her..."

She fidgeted and explained while her face was getting progressively redder.

"...?"

Mika tilted her head in confusion and looked at the wolf.

Was its spine that bad?

If she just put something over the monster's back, there should be no problem...

"A-ah... I see..."

But apparently, only Mika was thinking that since a unanimous grunt of understanding circled the rest of their group.

Their march continued.

Surprisingly enough, the mist around them began thinning out.

What was basically a milky wall was slowly becoming a thin veil.

"..."

"...something's wrong..."

Ti whispered to her companions after observing the nearest Sloth soldiers - they were clearly uneasy about something, looking around and clenching their weapons.

One would think that it would be more normal for people to relax when a thick mist was clearing out...

In the south, that would be the case.

The thing was, they weren't in the safe southern territories, but in the far north of the Sloth territory, where the mist should always stay as heavy as possible to confuse monsters.

In that place, being able to see meant being seen as well.

"Enemy spotted! Earth Dragon approaching from nine o'clock! Get ready to intercept!"

A command was issued and few squads of the Sloth soldiers got into battle formations.

"Earth Dragon...?! Just like that?!"

Mika gasped and took a step back.

*thump* *thump*

The earth trembled in the rhythm of steps as a giant, moss-green lizard-like monster with horned head pierced through the fog, like a ghost ship reappearing on the surface back from the depths of the sea.

The beast slowed down, as if surprised that it could see so so many delicious humans so clearly for the first time, its black forked tongue was constantly peeking from his jaws.

"KUOOOOOGH!"

*thump*

The dragon climbed onto its hind legs and roared, its tail smashed against the barren ground...

"Kyah...!"

Mika yelped in panic and clung to Corvus's side.

"KUOOOOGH!"

*CRUSH*

As if waiting for that, the dragon fell back on all fours and charged straight at Mika's group.