Sarah was thinking, as the rain poured lightly, it didn't even hinder their vision.

They were finally close to the tall hill, the incline would soon begin.

Alex had awoken a while ago and told them his guide couldn't help them find Eian.

As unfortunate as that was, Sarah knew they only needed to find monsters to kill and soon she would be able to find Eian.

Alex had mentioned his new power was to recharge his healing power, which would be useful if anyone got seriously injured.

What Sarah was more worried about right now, was the clear problem of Alex and Jess.

Sarah had already scolded Alex and reminded him multiple times of his role in the group.

Yet the idiot smiled and said 'Roger boss' every time, infuriating her.

Life wasn't some expendable resource like money or tools.

He had to become more adept at reading a situation.

Take the last boar-fight for example, Alex had Jess on a life-link that meant she would heal even if Alex completely focused on protecting Sarah.

She didn't want him to do that though, she simply wanted Alex to read the situation and help the one most in need.

If she became completely depleted in spirit during a fight, did he not realize their over-all fighting force went down dramatically?

What if they were attacked immediately after an intense fight and she was similarly exhausted because of his stupid infatuation with Jess?

It was a recipe for disaster for all of them.

If she couldn't kill things with fire, they were all forced to rely on mundane attacks.

She wasn't arrogant, but it was obvious to all that she was the strongest in terms of raw power.

She accounted perhaps for more damage that both Alexander and Jessica combined.

'Hopefully we will find Eian and this whole problem will be resolved. It's obvious Alex is unreliable.' Sarah thought.

They soon began going up the incline, which was strangely a rather tiring experience.

Walking straight was one thing, but going up seemed to drain her body at a much faster rate.

It was almost as if she were jogging, it wouldn't be a problem for now, but perhaps later.

She had the weakest constitution of the entire group, so even though they weren't getting tired like normal, she was still the weakest physically.

'Why did Adara say it was temporary? Is it a world thing? A magic thing? Both?' Sarah thought.

Eventually she gave up and decided she would find out in time, for now survival was number one.

"Alex, could you give me your big sword. OH?! Umm I mean that!" Jessica pointed at the great-sword Alex had unoccupied.

What little Sarah could see of Jessica's face through her helmet was bleat red.

"....Roger....." Alex.

He looked distinctly uncomfortable even with all that armor as he gave her the sword, Jessica wasn't looking him in the face.

'Oh my god. That was so.....' Sarah's mouth was agape during the whole exchange.

The climb was getting harder after simply half an hour.

In some places Alex had to help both of them up, due to the mud.

Slipping could result in sliding back down the muddy slope.

Sarah saw a crude-obsidian-spear impale the ground in front of her, a branch with an obsidian-tip was almost a better word for it.

"OW!" Jessica.

"ENEMIES!" Sarah was looking around.

"WE KNOW!" Jessica had taken cover behind a tree.

"CAREFUL THEY'RE IN THOSE TREES!" Alex pointed to her right, he was of course next to Jessica.

"SQUA!" Random harpy.

Turning to look Sarah saw the bird-person throw another obsidian-spear at her.

She instinctively ran away from it, towards a tree near Jessica for cover.

Unfortunately she was unaccustomed to the muddy slope terrain and the sharp spear-tip bit into her back, though it didn't penetrate deep.

Another spear bounced off her helmet.

Two other spears landed near her missing.

"AHH!" Sarah fought through the pain and reached the tree next to the others.

The spear fell out from her sprint, her tear-ducks watering.

She summoned a fire-ball and waited for signs of monsters.

Peeking she saw the flock of nine land on the ground and instantly knew they were outnumbered!

"ALEX CHARGE THEM! YOU'RE WELL PROTECTED!" Sarah tossed her fire-ball at the center catching two harpies.

"ROGER! JESS STAY HERE!" Alex charged, the spears thrown his way bounced off his superior metal armor.

"SQUA!!" Harpies.

Alex decimated three harpies easily and the whole flock jumped and took flight.

He only took a cut on his unprotected leg, though it quickly healed

Sarah stuck out her entire head and saw Jessica do the same.

"Are they gone?" Jessica.

Sarah saw another spear bounced off of Alex.

"No there are more in that tree." Sarah summoned two white-fireballs took aim at the harpy's tree and shot her attacks together.

"SQUA!!!!" Harpies.

Several leaves and branches of the large-tree caught fire and the nesting bird-people took off and flew away.

"Are they gone now?" Jessica.

"Yeah. Bunch of cowards, attacking people then running off when it gets hard." Alex was surveying the trees around them.

"Alex heal me!" Sarah walked over to him tenderly, in lieu her injury.

"Roger." Alex met her half way, along with Jessica.

"They cut me! Stupid birds!" Jessica complained about a non-existent injuries, Alex had already healed her.

"I'm more worried if this is their territory." Sarah winced at the feeling of flesh stitching itself back.

"I got hit twice! I hate this place!" Jessica.

"Why are you complaining? You're fine now." Sarah calmly explained.

"You two need to stop doing that....Sarah you said this might be their territory?" Alex changed the subject.

"Yes. We haven't met these creatures anywhere else. So maybe they have a roost up top." Sarah pointed to the top of the hill.

"UGH! Are we still going up then?" Jessica.

"I don't know. They seem easy to burn, but those throwing-spears are a major problem." Sarah.

"Yeah, I could only kill those two because they landed on the ground." Alex.

"Jess and I aren't as well protected either. One spear to the neck could kill us." Sarah sighed.

Sarah sat and debated the problem.

The other two did the same.

"I see our problem." Sarah.

"What?" Alex.

"You mean apart that we're surrounded by monsters right?" Jess.

"Jess, please." Alex placed a consoling hand on her arm.

"No! I told you both, this is a waste of time! We're going into more and more dangerous area's in hopes of finding one person! Whom is most likely dead." Jessica ranted.

"Jess. It hasn't even been a whole day. We have to keep looking." Alex was clearly determined and frowned at her outburst.

"I know! I get we need to find Eian. Really I do, but is going up this mountain really our best choice? Sarah says she can find him with deeper magic. Don't we just need to have her reach that point, instead of doing something stupid?" Jessica.

"Hm. That's actually not a bad idea." Sarah was definitely impressed, perhaps all that PSI power really does work miracles.

It could also just be she was deadly scared of climbing the mountain too.

Humans have a tendency to improvise well under duress.

Something about that thought sent a shock up Sarah's mind.

Tip of the tongue sensation, that's it.

-'What...What is it? I can't remember properly.' Sarah felt her head fuzzy.

"....Well. You both think that's the best idea?" Alex scratched his head.

"I think it's safer than climbing a mountain filled with spear-throwing flying bird monsters. I can't even hit them safely." Jessica.

Sarah snapped out of her hazy thought at their voices, she lost whatever it was.

It didn't matter it would come to her eventually.

"Yeah. Let's do that." Sarah.

"Roger. Can't say I want to keep climbing those mud-hill now either." Alex smiled.

"At least I can't smell myself over the rain." Jessica mumbled.

They set off down the incline, it was much faster going down than up.

They only took about twenty minutes.

"....roarrrr...." Distant roar.

"WHAT?! WHAT WAS THAT?" Jess.

"Relax it was probably a monster killing another. Hopefully they'll all kill each other." Alex.

"Eco-systems don't work like that." Sarah.

"Haha. I was joking Sar. Relax." Alex smiled.

"What's you're problem?" Jessica frowned at her.

"Nothing. Remember the idea is to find monsters for me to kill and secure a safe spot for three hours." Sarah changed the subject.

"We're not idiots." Jessica.

"Jess, she's just reminding us." Alex turned to look at her and lifted his hands placatingly.

They kept searching about making sure to mark distinct trees to not get lost.

An entire hour passed as they searched.

A pack of human sized monkeys swung away from them faster than they could keep tracks.

Sarah had two fire-balls at the ready, but knew shooting at trees was dumb, the branches were in the way.

They heard a sound a little later.

A huge deer ran past full-speed, away from them.

"Go for it?" Alex.

"Too much effort." Sarah couldn't get a good shot through the trees it was running through.

Soon they encountered something else.

A large bear the size of a mini-van.

It was still far away, but two regular bears were nearby.

"GROOOOO!" The huge bear charged, the two others stayed behind.

"Shit!" Sarah.

Sarah threw both fire-balls at it, formed another and shot it.

The bear was on fire and Alex was directly in front of it.

It's charge barreled through him easily sending him flying away.

"ALEX!" Jessica held her great sword, she was a little off to the right of Sarah.

Sarah was desperate and so she tried her new ability.

She focused her staff two-handed upon her staff and used lightening.

Lightening arced forward in an imprecise frontal cone and caught the bears face.

The bear came to a resounding crash and begun twitching on the floor, shaking and burning but alive.

The imprecision combined with the wide cone even caught Jessica on it's edge.

She stumbled away from the cone.

"AHH!!!" Jessica grit her teeth and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Oh Shit!" Sarah tried to readjust herself to evade harming her.

"JESS!" Alex ran over to her.

Sarah felt her reserves drain substantially and so she stopped the spell.

The two other bears roared and charged.

Sarah summoned two fire-balls and shot them both.

The bears both stumbled backwards from the impacts, they easily caught fire.

They ran around wildly howling in pain.

Alex had already tended to Jessica, but was keeping an eye out.

Sarah had fully-fried all three bears easily enough soon after.

She looked at the scene and realized something.

She went numb.

".....rah?! Sarah?! Are you alright?" Alex stared at her funny.

"Yes." Sarah blinked and reoriented herself.

"You've been like that for a while now." Alex's face contorted with concern.

"She's just tired." Jessica sniffed and turned her head away from her.

"Yes. Sorry Jessica, it was all just overwhelming." Sarah nodded at her slowly, Jessica wouldn't look at her.

"Roger. Glad that's over. Are your tattoos blinking?" Alex tilted his head at her.

She checked, even Jessica turned to look at her.

"No." Sarah simply replied.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Surprisingly a touch of concern had seeped into Jessica's voice.

"Yes. That new spell was just draining. Let's go we have to find Eian." Sarah wanted to get out of here.

"Roger." Alex half-smiled.

She didn't have the heart to tell them the smaller bears were probably babies.