Sharp

I went back to the others. “We have to cross and soon. The hawk can be dealt with. I will give you a shield and keep it up. You go only as far along the log until you can jump to the other side. Don’t miss. Akemi, you are last, and you are on river rescue. The river creature is an eel type with shark teeth.”

Akemi nodded, “An Eelish.”

“We are running for the bush. It is clear as far as we can tell. I will go first as the test person,” I said.

“I should go first,” Jaha said. “I am the heaviest on the log but can also take the most damage.”

“Fair,” I said. “Jaha, Saskia, Melor, Nassor, then me and Akemi. Once you are across Saskia, see if you can confuse the hawk with false images. Jaha will set up a defensible area to go to.”

I handed out basic shields. And we got ready for the dash.

I found a spot slightly downstream where I could maybe help if needed. I had my last javelins ready and my spear out.

The Jaha was running for the log. It shifted under her weight, but her reflexes were bronze rank, and it didn’t phase her. She only took two steps on the log and jumped for the bank. The launch pushed the log deeper into the mud on the bank, so that made it more stable. She landed heavily and dashed for the tree line. I could see the Eelish moving in the water.

Saskia waited for things to settle, then dashed out of the bush and up on the log. Then Saskia dashed out of the bush and up on the log. The hawk had swooped for the first Saskia, which vanished when the hawk touched it. Saskia ran halfway across and then jumped safely.

With the hawk’s dive done, Melor decided to follow on Saskia’s heels, which was reasonable, but the Eelish had moved and crashed into the log, sending Melor into the river.

“Go!” I said to Akemi, and then I turned to Nassor, who was watching, “Go, go, go!” I said to him. He ran for the log while Akemi ran to the river, and a wave carried her towards Melor.

I followed Nassor, and he started across the log. The log moved when he first stepped on it, and he almost lost his balance but kept going and jumped from halfway.

I stepped up on the log as he jumped, watching as Akemi grabbed Melor's hand. Then, her wave disappeared from under her, and they both went under the water. Of course, the Eelish has water abilities. Nothing is bloody easy.

I walked out on the log, watching the water to see if I could help, followed by the final Kai. Then a fireball streaked toward my head, and I ducked, and the Hawk missed. Thank you, Saskia. I needed to trust Akemi, and I jumped for the bank.

I landed at the same time as there was a huge surge of water from the river and a massive wave carried Akemi and Melor out onto the bank and well into the trees. They crashed and tumbled through the bush, and I could see Melors leg was mangled and bleeding heavily.

The Eelish was not confined to the water, though, and was not happy his snack had escaped. It came after them.

Jaha intercepted it with her shield. The Eelish was larger than I thought, with the main body being a little over half a meter in diameter. There was a long fin running down its back. It wasn’t completely out of the water. But it was 8-9m long by my estimate.

“Use fire,” Jaha said to Saskia. It made sense, as a water creature should avoid fire, but that meant Ardisia was not coming out. I had my spear out, so I went in with the sharpened edge, and Nassor was hacking at it with his Halberd. Fireballs started coming from Saskia. It really did not like fire and fliched away every time.

“Try and drive it back into the water, and we will get out of here,” I said.

I glanced at Akemi, and she was binding Melor’s leg and feeding him a potion.

Saskia did drive it off with her fire, and I said, “Let's go. This way.”

“I am low on mana,” Saskia said.

“Take a mana potion. We can’t stop here.”

She did what I said, and we moved inland and then went into stealth. Melor could not walk properly with his mangled leg, so Nassor ended up carrying him.

“Excellent work,” I said to Akemi, but we didn’t have time for more.

We found a rock to shelter against and set up for a rest. I nibbled on squirrel meat. I only had one more net, and I was out of javelins, having dropped them to fight the Eelish.

“We are close,” Jaha whispered to me.

I nodded, “Somewhere between one and two kilometres, I think.”

“Should we make a dash for it?”

“No, that will get us killed. Slow and careful is the play. It has got us this far.”

She nodded. She’d had enough. So had we all, but there were still a lot of monsters between us and the portal.

I saw a shape in the sky. “I think that hawk is hunting us.”

Jaha nodded, “That is why it is called a Hunting Hawk.”

Shit. Everything is out to get me.

The night was due in just over an hour. Two kilometres an hour was normally very slow, but it was probably our maximum speed.

I went to talk to Melor. “How’s the leg?”

“Not good. I am going to need a proper healer when I get back.”

I nodded, “That's what I thought. A couple more hours, and we will be there. Seeing as you are going to be carried the rest of the way, I have a job for you.”

“Oh?”

“I need you to watch the skies. The hawk is hunting us. Go for the eyes again.”

“Gotcha.”

I cut some solid poles, and Melor used his cloth to sew fabric to make a stretcher. This would put a strain on Saskia, but it couldn’t be helped.

We took turns on the stretcher. Nassor and Akemi started, and I would swap out with them as needed.

Slow and careful. Watch everything.

I had two Kais in me. One was healing, so only two were out scouting. The trickle of goodies they brought me was significantly slowed.

We froze and hid. I think the weaker aura control from Nassor and Melor had leaked, and the Rock Elemental was searching. I am not sure we had anything to take a Rock Elemental. Jaha would have something, and Nassor would have his hammer, but that was it, and that was not nearly enough.

There was nothing I could think of to do, so we waited and hid. And waited. And hid. The trouble with Rock Elementals is they don’t become impatient. We started to inch away. I was carrying Melor with Akemi at the time, and we moved step by step away. It looked like a pile of rock, but we had seen it move toward us.

When we were finally able to speed up to our normal snail's pace, I whispered, “Tighten your Aura!” to them.

Due to that delay, darkness came upon us before we were halfway to the portal. Saskia’s mana was well below the safety margin we had set, and we had no more mana potions. I made us stop and recover mana. Everybody wanted to push on with the portal so close. I refused. “Slow and careful. Don’t mess it up now. We need mana to fight.”

I used my final net to protect us but hoped we didn’t need it. I refused to move until Saskia was at least three-quarters full of mana.

The other problem was that I was the only one who could see. Others had partial sight through various perception skills, but I was the only one with some nightsight. The night here was not truly dark. It was a diffused moonlight, like the moon shining through a thin cloud layer. The trouble was we were under the forest canopy.

I took the lead as our pace slowed even more.

We avoided several nasty monsters, but I never saw them, and they didn’t see us. Eventually, we came to the edge of the forest, and a grassy clearing was in front of us. The portal was in the middle of the clearing, about two hundred meters from us. Of course, it was in the middle of the bloody clearing.

Nassor looked like he was going to make a dash for it, so I clamped down hard on him. The night was brighter in the clearing, and everybody could see better. “Look,” I whispered, pointing. “The hawk is circling. And there is something in the grass. I can smell it.”

“What does it smell like?” Akemi whispered.

“Like cut grass.”

I got a lot of puzzled looks.

I waved my hand toward the long grass waving in the field, “Do you see any cut grass?”

They shook their heads. “Then I shouldn’t smell cut grass. I am not sending Kai in there.”

I bent down, and Ardisia emerged. Then she sunk into the ground and moved slowly out into the field. She was a Blood Root Vine. She could move through her roots, although it was not fast.

“Get ready,” I looked at Saskia. “There is no fire. Watch out for Ardisia. No one will damage her. Melor, get on your feet. Use a pole as a crutch. You are still on Sky Watch. Any fighting we fight is a moving fight to the portal. There are at least silver rankers on the other side. We stick together.”

I was still holding my spear, but I think my axe might be better. I can drop my spear if needed. The last two Kais merged with me.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted in the field about halfway to the portal. It was like a great pile of hay grew out of the ground, and Ardisia’s vines wrapped around it.

“Go,” I said.

We moved out to the fight. It was some sort of grass or hay creature or elemental. I did not know what it was, but it was bronze rank, and Ardisia was not.

We were almost there when Malor said, “Incoming!” I dove into a roll as I saw a dark shape swoop through a flash of needles and miss us before taking to the air again. I shoved my spear into the haystack ineffectually, so I left it there and got my axe. I was cutting hay with an axe.

“Get Ardisia out. We have to burn it!” Jaha yelled.

I could see she was right, so I moved to reach for Ardisia. The haystack turned on me, and I was suddenly engulfed in it. It was like a million grasscuts happening all over my body at the same time. My Resistant Fur tried, but the monster was bronze rank, and I was not.

I threw myself backwards, only making small progress, when a sickle sliced a section off near me, and I dived for it, hoping Nassor’s sickle didn’t come again. Then I grabbed Araisia’s vine and started absorbing her as fire lit up the other side of the stack.

“Retreat to the portal!” I yelled as Melor used his Blanket Suppression to slow and confuse the monster and Saskia used her ultimate, high mana skill, Exploding Fire.

I heard a hawk cry, and a dark shape veered from a dive as fire and burning hay exploded upward. I counted, and we were all there, retreating backwards to the portal. Akemi was helping Melor.

Jaha waited by the portal with her shield up as Akemi and Melor went through first, then Nassor. Then Saskia and I and finally Jaha came through.

We collapsed onto the floor of the portal room, exhausted.

“Well done,” said Professor Perfiti. “I am impressed. Twenty-eight and a half hours is a new record for a four to eight-hour exercise.”