The team moved deeper into the woods, all of them searching for trouble. The ill-lit woods cast long shadows in every direction, making it hard to pick out the monsters via conventional nightsight. Yet, for Lance, with his new Mana Vision, he found the entire experience rather different.

It was sort of like wandering through a mixed, wireframe and fully rendered game. Outside the pool of light cast by the floating Celestial Concentration created by Keeley, where darkness took over, the world were wireframes of glowing blue and white light.

Within, normal vision dominated, though even then, the wireframe lights and meridians of energy flowed through individuals. At times, Lance could have sworn that he spotted swirling lines of power in the sky, like a weird blue-only northern lights shimmer before his gaze. Then, he’d blink or turn his head or just stare too hard and it’d be gone.

Out in the darkness, Matt drifted from tree to tree, the group guided by small marks left behind by the scout and the occasional course correction by Lance. He found himself able to see further than ever thanks to the Mana Vision cutting through what was solid objects.

However, the overload of information also meant that he was drawing and firing slower since he was busy trying to understand what he was seeing. Luckily, as though they had killed the majority of the monsters nearby, they had yet to run into many gnolls, only a trio of late stragglers being swiftly dealt with by the team.

Otherwise, the monsters they had to deal with were different. The lingering three-foot long purple lizards that had a tendency to drop from tall limbs did not like the light, making for easy pickings for the group. More dangerous were the spore plants which looked like giant flower-fungi and which had a tendency to explode when someone got too close.

Normally, they would have been easy to avoid – except for the fact that lichen or moss grew over them, hiding their full outlines from everyone but Matt. As such, the scout had to back off more than a few times to mark the dangerous vegetation, forcing the group to track around the trapped fungi.

Worse part was, that the fungi gave no points. And once they exploded, the location was toxic for long minutes. The poison itself was, thankfully, something that Yaneesh’s new Total Healing skill boost and aura could handle, though he had to proactively fix Matt’s lingering asthma with his healing spell.

After an hour of trekking through the darkness, the team finally had their first major run in. Matt spotted them first and hurried back to the team, the silent, dark-skinned gnolls ignoring the precedent set by their previous packmates and choosing not to give their locations away by howling. Even before Matt managed to make his way back, Lance spotted the glittering, moving lines of wolved Mana and warned the team.

Coming to a stop in the closest clear patch – not too clear, with the number of trees clustered around them; offering perhaps a half dozen feet before another tree got in the way but the best they could do – Keeley began the process of throwing up lights.

Skidding to a stop, Matt looked around as the team prepped for the oncoming onslaught. “You noticed the monsters?”

“And you running back,” Lance replied. “Wouldn’t have known what to look for, if you weren’t hurrying back.”

“Damn, you all can see them?” Matt complained.

“Nope.” Neil replied, his words acknowledged by nearly everyone else except Lance and Yanesh.

“How’d you see them?” Matt asked.

“Mana Vision. What they’re doing isn’t hiding them from that,” Lance replied.

“And you?” To Yanesh.

“I got sonar,” Yanesh said, grinning. “Call me Daredevil.”

“…”

“Whatever. It’s cool,” Yanesh said, crossing his arms. “There’s minor problems, and it’s hard to track them all; and if I don’t concentrate it just kind of becomes like an annoying buzz. But if I do, I can see their outlines.”

“Huh,” Sarah muttered, looking from side-to-side. “So, that’s nerdy and all, but monsters. When are they arriving?”

“Right…” Lance nodded to the other two who could see. “On three?” When the pair acknowledged his words, he counted them down and together, the group raised and loosed their combined attacks at the monsters only they could see.

Only to find the creatures they targeted had another trick up their sleeves. As one, the attacked gnolls faded into the shadows they had been blending into to close in on the team, disappearing entirely even to Lance’s Mana Vision.

“What the blazing hells?” Lance swore. His surprise didn’t stop him from nocking another arrow though, even as he searched for the monster.

“Shadow Step!” Matt cried out, as he guessed what might have happened. “Watch your shadows!”

His warning came not a moment too soon, as the initial attacking gnolls erupted out of the shadows of the team. Three of them – one targeting Sarah, another Keeley and the third Yanesh.

Sarah reacted fastest, throwing a backwards kick that caught her assailant in the face as it struggled upwards. The blow snapped its head backwards and she followed up by completing her spin and pinning her spear through its arched body.

In the meantime, Yanesh managed to throw the Lightning Bolt he had been building at the monster. Unfortunately, being right next to it, he managed to shock himself, Keeley and her assailant all together. That was a good thing for Keeley was the slowest to react, only managing to dodge a little from the claw that tore into her side.

Seeing the quartet incapacitated, Lance swore. He took a few quick steps closer, loosing the Splitting Arrow he had nocked into Keeley’s assailant before it could recover, the trio of arrows only splitting at the last second and thus embedding itself deep in its body.

At the same time, Neil glanced back but then turned away as the other gnolls kept rushing forwards. He bounced a little, nervous as he the flickering shadows disappeared one after the other from his sight. Matt, the only one who could track where they moving in the shadows due to his own Shadow Vision was looking around, the arrow in his bow half-forgotten.

Until the first, new monster reared up, even as Lance finished firing and killing the third and final gnoll from the initial assault. The monster, surprised that it’s ascent from the shadows behind Matt had been found, stood no chance as the Barbed Arrow exploded out of its head, showering the surroundings with gore.

Unfortunately, Matt was only one man.

And the other gnolls were coming out, some emerging next to the recovering pair of mages, others swarming the sole standing Neil and Matt, while Sarah and Lance stood guard, swinging their weapons at monsters that surged from the ground around them.

Desperately wielding bow and short sword together, a thought nagged at Lance. A second later, as Yanesh managed to roll upright, leaving an open space about twice the size of a manhole cover in the center of the group, a shadow gnoll started clambering out of it.

Only for Yanesh to pour a Flame Bolt right down its throat. The monster, caught transitioning, struggled for a second before he fell to the ground, whimpering. A dagger, yanked from his belt was enough to finish the monster, leaving its half-formed body covering the earth.

“Back up close. They need a lot of space to emerge. Don’t give them enough space and they won’t pop up,” Lance cried, punctuating his statement with a stab. The short sword was torn from his grip as the monster fell back, forcing him to conjure another weapon using Mana Object, the long bat more than sufficient to shove the creature away from him.

A second later, Sarah’s spear took the monster in the throat, throwing it back.

In the meantime, Neil, his ghostly Blood Thorns was holding his own, the man shrugging off attacks with his armor and Dermal Plating, leaving him to swing his mace at the monsters. He was unable to take them down with the same ease Sarah managed, but he was very good at keeping their attention on him.

As for Matt… the occasional arrow winging out of the depths of the forest, taking a monster in the leg or chest or face, saving the team spoke of his change in tactics. Even the mages, no longer stunned, took to the attack, pushing the monsters back unleashed bolts of magic.

Then, Lance had no more time to worry, just swing and loose when he had the time.