Ver and the Kraken inside of her were quite literally fish out of water now that the crew of the Wolf's Talon had to lead the two of them deeper and deeper into the woods. Then, marking out their paths in the woods and splitting up to form a forward-moving line, the group slowly moved their way as tiny forest rabbits jumped out of their way. "I am sorry that we have gotten off on the wrong foot....." The young man that recognized Ver at the table is now walking just next to her. For some reason, whenever Ver lets out the deathly aura from her Kraken to scare off the other mercenaries and the forest wildlife, he's completely and utterly unaware of it. Worse yet, Ver doesn't know if it's because he's too weak and inexperienced to feel the tiniest shift in the natural flow of Wave around her, "My name is Wolfy." "Seriously?" Ver rolled her eyes. "Yeah, weird, right?!" Wolfy laughed, "When the old man told me that he's registered the name of this crew as the Wolf's Talon, I thought he was taking a piss!" "Nah. He still is." Ver said, walking faster and breaking formation as a shout came from the person to her other side. "Oh haha...you are funny, you know that?" Wolfy said before being serious for a moment, "Look, I apologize for the stupid things he did. The old man doesn't really know better, but I know things are different here, and now." Ver turned and looked at the young man with short black hair and a golden skin tone for the first time, and she paid attention to him. "I heard your stories." Wolfy continued, "What you did after leaving the Vaughan family behind.....it was incredibly brave. I always thought you are so cool from doing that." "It's nothing. I just had no other options." Ver said, turning and looking up at the countless trees in front of her. "Perhaps, but it's only in situations of complete desperation that the strongest side is revealed to us," Wolfy said, following along and scanning around for any signs of tracks left behind. "Here! I found some footprints!" The loud voice came from the old man, and everybody left behind a mark at where they were before heading over and gathering on his location. Sets of distinctive footprints were shown on the floor, and one of them looked to be coming from a...strange-looking shoe. It left behind patterns that looked like a pot maker's art, rather than the stripes of a flip flop or sandal. Looking closer, Ver saw a massive tick with its tail pointing to the right. (Just do it?) "What is this..." She wasn't the first one to notice this pattern as Wolfy squatted down and leaned in close, blowing away a crawling bug from the ground, "I ain't seeing nothing like this before." "If Wolfy hasn't seen it before, then nobody has." The grizzly old man said, his hands on his waist. "That must have been the mark of the Summoned one then." Wolfy said with slight excitement, "We might be on the right track!" They weren't. The leads were cut short not too long after they reached a stream of fresh flowing water. Watching their steps carefully, Wolf's Talon and Ver then expanded out a much bigger search perimeter around the flowing water and looked exhaustively for any signs and clues of the Summoned one and Lera Huten. However, there was absolutely nothing. It was as if they went into the stream and disappeared from this world completely. What they didn't know was that the Dwellers tribe had already erased any signs of their arrival moments after they have captured the two, tracing their steps back all the way to the stream that Wu and Lera stayed the night before. "Damn." After a whole day of searching, the group set up camp by a flowing stream and hunted for food. The first day was fruitless, though they have already made good progress on their whole search area. Ver set up her own tent far out of the way of the rest of the groups, and she went to rest early while the others were still sitting around the campfire, chatting. When there are a lot of things to be done, days seem to repeat themselves. In the next day, they returned to their usual formation and swept through the other side of the region when Wolfy showed his agility by climbing up to the top of a tree in a matter of seconds and looking onwards only to see even more trees. Practically, visibility doesn't really matter for shit here. After days and days of fruitless searching, Ver has finally cracked when talking to Wolfy, and they talked about their stories of the past. About that one job that they wished they had never taken, and the many times that they have bitten more than they can chew. At the end of the day, all mercenary crews are the same. After a week, they had nearly worked through the entire region, and not a single day after the first was of any productivity and progress. The forest looked just untouched as the map said it was, and the wildlife particularly enjoyed this atmosphere with wild dear cubs running around, hopping from rock to rock far out in the distance. "Well, seeing that tonight is the end of the first rotation..." Wolfy said, reaching into his bag and grabbing a pot of drinks that he's been carrying around, "Let's celebrate this fruitless search before we return and report tomorrow!" The crews of the Wolf's Talon cheered, and Ver prepared to head back to rest when Wolfy rolled a cup her way. "You are now part of the crew too." He said, pouring the drink in her cup before continuing to the rest of the group. Ver glared at him, though she didn't really move. "Oh...come on! Wolfy's been fancying you ever since he saw you!" Griz (yeah really), the old man, laughed and pointed a finger at Wolfy, "Ain't that right?" "Shut it! I am just trying to be nice!" Wolfy said before waving his arms, "Come on! Just a sip with us!" "Fine." Ver sighed, sitting down again as Wolfy pumped his fist. Then, as the entire group raised their cup to their fruitless search, they also celebrated being alive for yet another day. "Cheers!" The sweet alcoholic beverage flushed down into her stomach, Ver then put the cup down as her body started processing the contents of the fluid. There was a running warmth left behind by the alcohol in her stomach, and her skin started to heat up slowly as her head became lightened. "Ver?" Wolfy asked, raising his fingers towards her, "Are you ok?" "Yeah yeah." Ver put a hand up and stilled her head and breathing. However, the dizzying sensation remained. That was when Griz lets out an earnest laugh, and Wolfy also chuckled. Ver came to a realization of what has happened, and whatever little trust they built over the past few days were snapped in an instant. As her body became soft and powerless, she rolled the cup forward over the ground and collapsed backward as Wolfy came over. Through her blurred vision, she saw the creepy smile of Wolfy as he reaches for her shirts. No...Ver bit her lips and tried to wake herself up through the pain, but it felt like nothing more than a tickle. NOT LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE THIS! "Seems pretty helpless without me, little one." After days of silence, the Kraken has finally spoken, "Too careless now." "Yeah, very helpful." Ver growled, "So, you gonna just sit and watch, or..." "And let my precious vessel be tainted by those insects?" The Kraken continued as surges of power rose from within Ver's body. Then, a massive pulse of energy traveled out, blowing away the leaves on the ground as the eyepatch covering her right eye became loosened and fell off. The dark pattern of an eight-legged Octopus now looked clearer than ever. "They are all but fish food in my pond." The Kraken said as a massive pitch black Whirlpool formed right underneath Ver's body before long tendrils were wrapped around her waist and propped her up from the ground. "Whirlpool Black! KRAKEN ONE!" Ver commanded, as a single massive tendril of the Kraken that was set ablaze by the black liquid reached high up into the sky and slammed down on the camps of the Wolf's Talons. Griz and the rest of the crew dodged out of the way as Wolfy leaped up and around that attack. As her Mark of Manifestation pulsed, she commanded the tendril and swung frantically, wiping away Griz and slamming his body through a set of trees before a massive branch pierced right into the back of his lungs. His smile lingering on his face and becoming the last expression he would ever make. In the meanwhile, the other crews jumped up in the air, their various attacks ready as a set of blades were drawn by one of the Channelers known as Bucky. The sets of blades clashed against the body of the tendril and were melted away upon contact. "Piss off!" Ver shouted, sending Bucky flying up in the air before his body crashed against the back of a tree, leaving a trail of blood on its trunk as he slid down. "Ha! You are as strong as the stories say!" Wolfy's excited voice came from behind her before sets of poisonous needles were shot into her back. Ver used the tendril around her waist to turn around, but Wolfy had already changed his position by then. "If that's true, then why did you do what you did?" Ver asked, and Wolfy's laugh echoed in the region of the forest nearby. "Because I am fairly confident that I am stronger," Wolfy said, jumping from tree to tree and sending sets of flying darts and other projectile weapons in Ver's direction. However, learning the patterns of his attack, she then directed the tendril to block the various attacks. Unlike Ver, mere poison does not affect the Kraken at all. "Ain't he a funny one." The Kraken joked, "Pretty lively for a piece of dead meat." "Yeah, lively if we keep playing around!" Ver said, stretching the tendrils thin and shaping it into a blade, she then spun around once, the glowing red burning tip of the Kraken's tendril slicing through the trees all around them and sending all of them toppling outwards in a fan pattern. That immediately cleared out every single obstacle in their way, and Wolfy jumped from one toppling tree to another, avoiding the branches and reacting to flapping leaves before he finally fit his body through a cluttering of leaves and prepared to make Ver his tonight. However, right before he can land his attack at her back, she sunk straight down into her Whirlpool before it vanished and Wolfy crash-landed on the ground, making a small crater with the impact of his landing. "YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME!" Wolfy commanded, his voice echoing through the woods, "I WILL MAKE YOU MINE!" There was the sound of a single drop of water, and Wolfy turned to see a true monster of the sea towering over him. Truly, the biggest fish in the pond. The beautiful Ver sat on top of the grotesque monster, and a pair of tendrils sliced Wolfy right in half before he can even react. "I belong to no one," Ver said as the bodies of Wolfy were sat on fire. "No, you belong to me." The Kraken said as it lowers Ver down onto the ground, though she slapped him over the massive head as it went away into the whirlpool, "Don't get carried away." "Hehehe..." The Kraken said, "You wanted to finish him with Kraken Two, but that means I will not be able to help you for a little while..." "Yeah." Ver spit in the direction of Wolfy's burning corpse, "Fucking worth it." By the time her feet touches the ground, the overwhelming dizziness returned, and she vomited out everything she has eaten so far that day. Worse yet, the forest that she was just in was completely destroyed in the battle, and she had no intention of staying around here. To the outside world, a certain 'accident' had occurred during their search, and none from the Wolf's Talon made it out. Packing everything she had, Ver stumbled away, following the stream and trying to recall what the map said. She didn't know how long she has walked, but she knew that if she will not be able to keep going once she's stopped. The poison doesn't seem to be lethal, but it makes her incredibly vulnerable and fatigued. As Ver dragged her feet through the woods, she accidentally clipped her foot against a piece of rock and her body stumbled and rolled down a slope to the side of a river of sorts. Strangely enough, she didn't remember seeing any rivers on the map...has she gone off the course that much? As her eyelids became heavier and heavier, she pressed herself over and lied against a small drop which should at least make her hard to spot from the path she was walking on. Then, as the water sloshes away in front of her, Ver's consciousness was also taken away.