To the surprise of literally no one Grimmengap DID want to come with us on our last raid. It honestly hadn't even been a question. Danger was a fact of life for cultivators, but this kind of opportunity for self promotion didn't come along every day. The whole "last two items were on everyone's list" thing, was less of a surprise in retrospect. I'd been wondering how they would pick first place, if it would be based on time or effectiveness or what have you, but having it so only one team could really finish was certainly a simple way to decide.

Granted that meant if we got it everyone who was on their last two items would be done, and everyone else would be finished when they reached that point. I wondered it the lists would update themselves, or if there would be an announcement or something. Probably the former. It seemed more dramatic, which was pretty much their style in a nutshell. Regardless, these last two items would decide who would get first, though I wondered what would happen if a different team got each one. Would they default to time? Would they share first place?

In any case, once we clarified that they would be coming with us, we let them know we'd be going the next day and to get some rest and then we all turned in. We got up the next morning before the others, and Jessie used four wishes to pump her Vitality by another eight points. We debated for a while about who would get them, but in the end we decided pumping up our healer would have the broadest utility. She paid for it by giving me some of her memories of the first aid skill. Not enough to get me to Lesser or anything, but enough to grant me the Skill in a general sense.

Once that was done we ate breakfast together and then met outside to mount up and talk through our strategy based on the information Jessie had accrued from her scouting last night before bed. Seeing everyone riding on giant ass wolves was admittedly pretty inspiring. Despite the amazing visual effect though Callie commended everyone's attention as per usual. "Alright people. This is going to be rough, we're going to try to avoid confronting anyone for as long as possible. Luckily it seems like most of the teams haven't gotten to the point where they're looking for the volcanic materials yet. Agria, what are we dealing with here?"

Jessie was becoming much more confident with her briefings and didn't even hesitate before she picked up the thread. "Like Nightstrike said, not many teams have advanced far enough to look for these specific materials. I'm guessing the ones who haven't are staying away from the Volcano for obvious reasons, which is good for us. Bad for us is that the really scary teams will be on the way. Right now though our biggest problem isn't a team, it's a person. Fisher is already on site and heading into the Volcano, and that means we're probably going to have to fight him to get to the materials, or worse, to get them back if he finds them first."

That was less than ideal. I remembered Fisher from Jessie's briefing at the start. The motorcycle rider who could phase through objects. He was supposed to be one of the ringers in the hunt, and his decision to go solo only made his absolute confidence more obvious. Of everyone we could have run into, I honestly wanted to fight him the absolute least. His ability sounded like a pain in the ass. Luckily, we weren't entirely helpless in that particular department. We had a counter to his power, even if it was a small one.

I set my bag down on the ground and dug out the dagger that could hurt incorporeal entities, holding it up. "What are the chances this thing will hurt him? I know it's mainly meant for use on ghosts but he's going to be incorporeal and that's kind of the whole point of the dagger." Zeke wouldn't have been nearly as interested if it was just a ghost stabbing dagger. There were plenty of ways to hurt ghosts. I knew it wasn't a perfect solution but I figured it would at least give us an edge, no pun intended.

I tossed it to Callie lightly, and my girlfriend snatched it out of the air by the hilt. She had dagger training from her Balam Skill, which was higher than mine, so she was the optimal person to use the thing. She looked it over, chewing her lip. "It's better than nothing, but we should try our best to avoid running into him." She turned to the others. "If we do I want Grimmengap to run. The wolves are powerful allies and protectors, but their defense only works if they can actually stop the thing that's trying to hurt you. A phaser will just ignore them if he wants to, better to take off and let us deal with it."

Celine didn't look pleased, but she didn't object. "Very well. We can continue on and try to find the materials while you hold back the threat if we run across him. Still, with advanced knowledge of exactly what we're going to be facing we could easily avoid him. Our best bet is to rely on Agria's map to help us navigate." She looked to our healer slash recon specialist. "Exactly how comprehensive can we expect this map to be? Will it be able to lead us to the actual materials themselves?"

Jessie looked abashed. "No. Sadly not. Most of the Volcano biome is underground, there's a sort of magma labyrinth up top that leads into the depths of the mountain but there are about a dozen entrances at different points and there's no way at all to know which is the closest to our target." She looked at me subtly, and I nodded. No way at all wasn't exactly accurate. We'd saved a wish for an emergency, but more importantly Seek Hidden could be of help depending on the size of the objects and how I chose to use it.

I got her point though. That was why she had only warned about Fisher. She didnt know who else was already down there or who could end up down there since there were so many ways in. The underground portion of the Volcano biome eliminated her raven as a scouting option, though I supposed going after something called the "Heart of the Greater Mountain" we were bound to be working underground at least a little bit. Once that was done though it was time to go, and we mounted the wolves and headed for our new destination to try to finish this hunt once and for all.

One huge upside to the wolves presence, aside from combat capabilities, was that a long distance trip could be accomplished at G rank speeds even while our H rankers were with us. Of course we couldn't go TOO fast, because if they fell off they might die if we were going top speeds, but even so we managed closer to my own on foot speed than say, Sarah's. Which was good because the Volcano was FAR. Jessie had been able to spot it in the distance because it was a Volcano, but it took her hours as the crow (or Raven) flies to reach it for recon.

Luckily with G ranked transport that came out to like, twenty minutes on paw, which was faster than we ever could have managed with the others following on foot. Not to mention with the wolves being on four feet instead of two the ride was pretty smooth. As we drew closer though we slowed down and dismounted, leading the wolves and the H rankers to the top of an outcropping that Jessie pointed out to us so we could do our own scouting. We took position up on the ridge, staring up at the rim of the Volcano and searching for any incoming threats.

Callie looked a bit uncomfortable with our possible approach. "Ok guys, not a fan of this. That Volcano is completely exposed because of the height. We're going to end up getting spotted if anyone looks up there, and we can only climb it so fast. Unfortunately we don't have another choice that I can see. No stealth or lightening skills will extend to all of us, especially not with the wolves, and we can't leave them behind because it would leave the H rankers vulnerable in there. That means we take the slow way up and try to avoid being visible by sticking to the cracks we can find in the stone."

I could see her point. The Volcano was a towering spire of black rock cut off at the top like some immense being had take an axe to a normal mountain. The gaping opening at the top spewed out black smoke, though luckily no actual lava, despite the warped and uneven dark stone of the spire making it clear there had been eruptions here in the past. Anyone who took even a short glance up at the thing would spot us if we went straight up, but the same hardened lava rock deposits created small trails and recesses in the mountain we could use to cover part of our approach.

She turned to Jessie. "Agria, can you send the bird out to do a circuit around the Volcano and try to spot any incoming threats. If we know what side any nearby enemies will be on we can try to stick to the opposite slope at least. It might give us a bit of a cushion when we don't have cover." Jessie had brought her raven with her of course, though once we got to the peak and started into the maze of lava rock where the entrances were she was going to send it back. It wouldn't do us much good underground after all.

Jessie didn't even ask for details, just lifted her wrist falconer style and dispatched the bird to do a wide, slow circle around the entirety of the mountain. As she did, Callie started trying to map a way up the slope from the side we could see, just in case. I could see her eyes scouring the uneven surface trying to find place with at least some incline to make sure the wolves could make the trip too. Luckily the slope wasn't actually sheer so it shouldn't be too difficult for the canines to find purchase for their paws. Honestly it might have ended up being easier for them than it would be for us.

Finally, after ten minutes or so, the bird came back. Jessie had been watching the landscape through it's eyes, so its return wasn't really necessary for a report, she just considered it the end of the scouting mission and had waited. She took a second to take stock before laying out her findings. "Ok, I saw four teams coming in. Three of them are on the other side and one is coming up from behind us, though not directly. We have a while before they get here in either case. Still I don't recognize any of them. Once we're out of the way maybe Celine can fill us in but my suggestion is we move before the team behind sees us.

Callie, who had finished coming up with a relatively safe path to the top, nodded. "Agreed. I think I know how we're going to make it, so stick with me. I'll put up a dome of shadow over us, and given the dark color of the stone that should give us some extra protection from sight, not to mention catching someone if they happen to slip." She looked over her shoulder. "Alright guys lets go, we need to get in there as fast as possible, but don't move so fast you have an accident. Keep pace with me and we should get in there safe and sound." With that she climbed to her feet and set off down the outcropping toward the base of the Volcano.