Helden grimaced as he pulled his sword out of a boar’s neck. “This is the tenth one already,” he said and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure,” Forster said and shook her head. “You only ever see animals panic like this when there’s a forest fire.” She lowered her bow and frowned. “When I was younger, a fire broke out while I was in the woods, and animals were rushing out, disregarding everything in their path. However, they avoided me. It wasn’t like this.”

“Are they under a spell?” Ingwer asked. “Maybe the fairy cursed them to attack us.”

“There’s no curse that can cause a creature to disregard its life,” Forster said and shook her head. After a moment of thinking, she turned her head towards Blau. “Right?”

Blau frowned. “It’d have to be an extremely powerful fairy,” she said. “However, I don’t think it’s a curse. There’s no hints of discordant mana in their bodies. It’s clear they’re running from something terrifying. Perhaps the evil beasts are much more dangerous than we first thought? If they’re displacing the local fauna, then it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to become more aggressive to claim territory.”

“Claiming territory?” Helden asked. “If that were the case, we wouldn’t have been attacked by deer too. Something else is going on.” He frowned. “Haven’t you noticed? We haven’t encountered any corpses despite following our target for so long.”

“You mean we’re being targeted?” Ingwer asked. “Should we retreat?”

“You’re always thinking of retreating,” Forster said and clenched her teeth. “Do you remember the last two nights? Don’t you want revenge for what they did?”

Ingwer pouted. “It feels like a cat toying with a mouse,” she said. “And we’re the mouse.”

Helden narrowed his eyes as he marched forward. “We’re not running. Haven’t we overcome countless challenges? We killed the goblin king, the kobold pack leader, the orc lord. As long as we work together, there isn’t anything that can stop us.”

“Except two dragons,” Blau said. “You might be able to distract one, but the other one will kill the three of us before coming to the other’s aid.”

Helden sighed. “I was trying to say something motivational,” he said. “Think about it, Blau. What are the chances we even encounter a single dragon? How unlucky would we have to be to encounter two at once?”

“The odds are close to impossible,” Blau said and nodded. “Didn’t the target’s companion introduce himself as a dragon though?”

Helden rolled his eyes. “Do you think dragons walk around in human form?”

“Well, the field of dragon research isn’t very advanced,” Blau said. “Not much is known about their behavior.”

Helden placed his hand on Blau’s shoulder. “You should learn to lighten up sometimes.”

Blau frowned. There was a term for adventurers who took things too lightly. Dead.

***

Tafel licked her lips. They were cracked, and the strong taste of iron lingered on her tongue. It had been several days since she had last slept or drank water, but she still hadn’t caught up to Susan and Emile. Did the phoenixes not need to sleep? Then again, they could cover much more ground than her per day because of their wings.

A chittering sound caught Tafel’s attention, and she stomped on the ground. A circle of fire erupted from her body, washing over the ground. Hundreds of insects were turned to ash, but despite that, the scenery didn’t change much. The ground was still black, and the gloomy atmosphere returned after the mist settled down, replacing what had been burned away.

A sigh escaped from Tafel’s mouth. She could always leave by opening portals randomly. The cursed region just affected her ability to set specific coordinates to her portal. However, she didn’t want to leave until she found Susan and Emile. She had already spent so much time here, suffered for so long without sleep, water, or food, but it was looking more and more like she’d have to leave and come back better prepared.

Tafel took in a deep breath and forced her feet off the ground. She’d walk for one more day. If she couldn’t find Susan and Emile, then she’d retreat and take Vur with her. Would she be in this situation if Vur’s ocean elemental had accompanied her? Maybe. It didn’t seem like clean water was possible to create with magic in this area as demonstrated by her previous ice magic.

“Hey!”

Tafel flinched and looked around, but she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just great. She was starting to hear things too. It didn’t help that her eyes were playing tricks on her, showing her faint shadowy people in the corners of her vision.

“Over here.”

Tafel furrowed her brow. A blue light flashed for a brief moment, drawing Tafel’s attention. There was a person waving at her—an actual, regular-looking human being. Was this also a hallucination? She took out Minerva’s feather and raised it. Emile and Susan hadn’t gone in the direction of the person. However, she didn’t need to head over because the person was coming towards her. Tafel’s horns glowed blue, and a black icicle emerged over Tafel’s palm. She grasped it and pointed it at the person as if she were holding a spear. “Stay back.”

“Whoa,” the person said. It was hard for Tafel to tell whether the person was a man or a woman. Most of the person’s figure was hidden within the black mist. “I’m not going to hurt you. It’s just that you seem lost. You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Who are you?” Tafel asked. “Where did you come from? Why doesn’t the black mist affect you?”

The person chuckled, and the black mist seemed to get thicker, obscuring Tafel’s view until she couldn’t see his or her figure anymore.

“Hello?” Tafel asked. Her brow furrowed when she didn’t receive a response. She waved her hand, and a wave of phoenix flames surged into the air, clearing the mist where the person had been. There was no one there. Tafel pursed her lips. Was she going crazy?