Mistwoven Healer

The forest continues to be eerily silent as we walk among the giant trees, the only sounds those of our footfalls and the loud clomping of the soldiers pushing through the brush. As per usual in an incursion zone, everyone is on high alert, ready to jump at any slight sound from the trees. However, that tension is broken often as we're ambushed by small groups of volcora.

While the groups of twenty or so D Rank volcora were a threat to the other sentinel team moving through this forest, to us, they're little more than an annoyance. Apes and panthers leap out of the trees to attack us every five or so minutes, only to be swatted down by various arrows and spells. Those that do reach us are met with the blades of Akari and Claire, who quickly tear them to shreds.

A fun interaction we quickly discover upon our first ambush, however, is how my newly upgraded Divine Retribution ability interacts with my mist. Normally, the ability would add a follow-up lightning strike with every bit of electrical damage I do, but when infused into my mist, that effect now also spreads to my teammates. This means that Akari's black lightning and Claire's red lightning now also trigger the effect.

While seeing a hail of lightning strikes falling from the forest canopy to start fires and smite our foes is massively satisfying, I quickly find that the mana cost is prohibitive. It was fine when it only activated on my own arrows, but when it also triggers on every swing of Akari and Claire's flashing blades, the upkeep becomes much more demanding.

Yet, this does allow us to clear out the lower rank volcora within the forest without too much difficulty. Enough so that the soldiers with us don't even bother to fire on the volcora, which Captain Blake explains is to conserve ammunition for the anchor of the space. While I do find it odd that he values the ammunition of his soldiers more than the mana of his sentinels, I don't question it further.

As promised, Hayley's dominion art Sacred Water actually works similarly to my Living Mists, and the two have great synergy in our fights. In the same way, I can conjure and control mist around me, Hayley can do the same with her water that flashes with pink lights.

Hayley starts every fight by conjuring up water that's about ankle deep around us. Not obeying the laws of physics at all, the water doesn't sink into the ground or flow away from us but instead remains collected around our feet.

While this does make our movements a bit more… splashy than we're used to, the water can be used to send a surge of spell effects through it. The water can't be infused with a spell effect like my Living Mists, but instead, it conducts the spell through the water and to the desired target.

We don't actually get to see this in action until we wipe out three or four of the groups of weak D Rank volcora and Hayley ranks up enough to earn her first ability, Water Prison. Once she does, though, she starts channeling the spell both through her arrows and through her Sacred Water directly, leaving more than a few volcora squirming and snarling in floating globes of water while they slowly drown.

Sure, it isn't the nicest way to kill a volcora, but it is effective. Her ability to instantly take a volcora out of the fight and hold it helpless for around a minute allows us to easily pincushion the struggling monster before moving onto less vulnerable prey.

Ultimately, despite the soldiers' lack of participation in the clearing of volcora, we find the common beasties to honestly not amount to much threat-wise. As a team, we've moved past the times when we struggled with weaker enemies, and now, they aren't really much of a challenge unless they're in large numbers.

Sadly, this lack of challenge also shows itself in our lack of rank-ups. Hayley is the only one struggling with the weaker rabble of this space and also has the bonus of a faster rank-up speed by still being E Rank. As such, we tend to leave as much of the fighting to her as possible to allow her to catch up to the rest of us a touch faster.

By the time we've been in the incursion for nearly two hours, I'm tempted to feel almost relaxed. I can finally see how Kayne and Audrey are able to do this kind of thing day in and day out. However, I know better than to let my guard down entirely. Intelligent volcora exist, and if any of them are in this space, then we need to know about it. Also, the other sentinel team is still here, and there's no telling how much of a threat they might pose.

Even discounting them, I've seen enough sentinels in the GDF Infirmary and been there myself enough times to know that taking the volcora lightly is never a good idea. This is a D Rank space, so it absolutely should be weaker than what we've been facing, but I don't trust it. Generally, when things are working out around the volcora, that's just because something is happening behind the scenes.

After a bit more time slogging through the forest, we come upon yet another scene where the other sentinel team fought against an ambush. As always, we stop to evaluate.

Holding my nose to try and ward off the terrible stench of volcora bodies, I glance around the twentyish dead volcora lying around the small clearing between two massive trees. "What do you think the point of coming into an incursion zone like this is?" I ask the others, looking for a sentinel corpse and failing to find one — so far, it's only been the one we found at the entrance to the zone.

"To rank up probably," Akari says, keeping close by my side. "That's the reason we're here."

I frown, trying to piece things together. "I clearly felt Stygian Mana from the dead sentinel we found, and that should work differently than Tributary Mana. They should be able to use as much power as they want; they'll just incur greater and greater costs for doing so. Do you think that they're here trying to pay back the cost?"

"Not sure," Akari says, seeming to consider. "Are you certain that they aren't using a mix of both mana types, kind of how you are learning to do?"

"Could be, I suppose," I say, biting my lip. "I don't see how that's possible without an ability like mine, though. The two mana types together are just too volatile. It's possible that they're figuring out how to get that to work, though. There's no telling what that crazy scientist that Celeste saw has learned in his weird experiments."

I feel Celeste shudder from her perch on my shoulder, having taken a slight break from her constant scouting. [Yeah… that guy was creepy. And the way he was working with that overlord? I've never seen anything like it.]

Hearing someone come up behind me, I turn to find Captain Blake approaching our team with Thomas, the Anchor Tracker, hot on his heels.

"From what we can see, we're approaching the anchor to the space," the captain announces, looking between us.

"Already?" Haruto asks, stepping forward to respond while Baylee examines some of the dead volcora. She's been trying to figure out what kind of abilities the other sentinels have by studying the corpses they leave behind. I'm not sure how much luck she's been having other than to learn that one of them uses fire or maybe acid — something to leave behind burn marks.

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"It's likely this incursion zone is on the smaller end of the spectrum," Captain Blake says. "Either that, or the anchor is closer to the entrance than is usual."

"If that's the case," Baylee says, standing and wiping her hands off in some of Hayley's conjured water, "then we need to hurry up and find this other team. If they destroy the anchor and leave before we find them, it could be nearly impossible to locate them once they're out of the space."

"You're certain we should rush, Miss Whitlock?" Captain Blake asks, looking down on Baylee as she approaches him. "It's better that we proceed at our current safe pace, no?"

Baylee narrows her eyes in confusion, "Weren't you the one who wanted us to try and capture them?"

Captain Blake gives a saturnine smile, "Yes, but we should prioritize our own safety first. Better that we're all uninjured and ready for the fight ahead when we find them."

"That might be true for you and your men, but we are expending mana and building toxicity the longer we move through this space. The sooner we fight, the better," Baylee argues.

Captain Blake meets Baylee's eyes with a demeaning look, "Very well, but if any of my men end up dead due to this decision, I will be sure to hold you responsible."

Baylee scoffs and turns away, "Fine, we'll go slow. I don't even see what the point of you and your squad is in this incursion zone. You aren't even helping," she says, starting to stalk away.

"Serena," she says, looking over her shoulder, "if we're not going to be speeding up, can you come take a look at this volcora corpse with me? I want to get a medic's opinion on these wounds."

Shrugging, I move to follow Baylee over to a particularly messed-up-looking dead volcora ape at the far end of the clearing. Honestly, it seems more torn apart than anything else, perhaps meaning that one of the enemy sentinels has enhanced strength or something similar.

"What was it you wanted me to look at in particular?" I ask Baylee, letting my bow fall into my inventory so I can plug my nose at the horrific stench.

Baylee points to a spot near the head of the dead volcora ape, "Look here and pretend to be inspecting the wounds," she says, her voice low.

I frown, leaning in to look closer. "Pretend?"

"Yes, this is just an excuse so we can talk in private. Tell me… do the soldiers sent with us on this expedition seem… weird to you?" Baylee asks.

My eyes widen at the implications behind her question, but I diligently continue investigating the volcora corpse. "The way they aren't shooting any of the volcora is definitely odd. But I don't know if it's any more than Captain Blake having a weird obsession with conserving resources."

Baylee nods her agreement, "I just… I have this feeling. It could be nothing, but keep your eyes peeled. Look for anything strange. Also… don't trust them to watch our backs."

"Got it," I say softly, then follow Baylee's lead as we stand to head back to our team.

I can't help but feel tense as we continue moving through the incursion zone after that, fighting group after group of volcora that come in to attack us — or rather, more tense than I'd otherwise be in an incursion zone. Navigating in the forest is hard due to the lack of any distinctive landmarks and the ubiquitous tall trees and underbrush, so we have no choice but to follow the direction the GDF team points us in.

As we continue on with them, their lack of proper participation in the fights becomes more and more suspicious. The logic they're offering about saving ammunition is almost the opposite of the reasoning they should be using. GDF teams have two primary purposes for coming along on incursions like this: to help mop up the trash and to guide their sentinel team to the big fight.

Now that I'm watching for it specifically, I can clearly see that the only time the soldiers do fire their weapons is when volcora target them specifically, which is a rare occurrence with us nearby to draw attention.

Feeling nervous, I take the opportunity during a brief break after a fight to check on the life forces of the men and women following us. Despite my suspicions, I don't see anything obviously wrong with their life forces — or at least, no obvious Stygian Mana taint.

This just leaves me more confused and anxious, a feeling that quickly spreads out to the rest of the team. One by one, Baylee and I find reasons to be alone with one or two other members of Team Picnic until everyone is aware of Baylee's distrust of the soldiers. Hopefully, that means that we'll be ready if they try anything. With any luck, though, we're just being overly suspicious.

Despite worrying that the soldiers were actually leading us in circles instead of towards the anchor of the space, we eventually arrive at what appears to be a small village built in and among the giant trees.

Even calling the place a village is generous, as it looks more like a collection of small huts and hollows made into the trees. In addition, the place looks wrecked. Two of the huts are on fire — giving the air a slight tinge of smoke — and several more would likely have looked better if they were on fire.

All around the village, bodies of volcora apes wearing what seems to be some kind of tribalistic clothing are littered across the ground, leaving the place eerily silent but for the crackling flames of the burning huts.

Even more surprising, a swirling black aperture sits at the center of the village beside a smashed wooden totem that seems like it was once intricately carved.

"They beat us here and already destroyed the anchor?" Claire asks, looking over the scene with hard eyes. As is her usual, when there is a proper threat in play, she's completely serious.

Standing near Claire, Hayley casts a discreet look over her shoulder toward the soldiers behind us. "Should we just leave? This incursion zone isn't a threat anymore if the anchor is destroyed, right?"

Baylee puts her hand up in an order to stop as we reach the outskirts of the village, and we all quickly halt upon her order. "I don't like this," she murmurs, her voice soft in an attempt to keep the conversation within our team. "It's too easy."

Haruto seems about to comment, but cuts himself off upon seeing Captain Blake walking up to join us. He wears a troubled expression and gestures to the open aperture out of the incursion zone. "It's a shame they got out, but they must have entered the space a good deal earlier than we did. We should get out of here and report this whole thing to headquarters. We can let them take it from here."

Baylee nods but doesn't say anything for a long couple of seconds as she watches the open aperture. "This feels wrong," she says eventually. "I don't know if it's just that our first incursion zone was so much of an anomaly, but this is too easy. I don't trust things that are too easy."

"I don't know that it's too easy, Miss Whitlock," Captain Blake says, sounding almost reassuring. "We were ordered to find this other sentinel team, which we failed to do beyond the corpse we discovered. Also, your team fought off a large number of volcora. I'm certain you all must be tired."

I wince at that, mostly because he's right. We certainly aren't in the worst shape we've ever been in, but we also aren't at our best. This incursion zone contained a lot of volcora, and since they weren't being controlled by any intelligence, they just mindlessly attacked us as soon as we encountered any group of them. We must have killed a few hundred easily, and that put a strain on our resources.

After not receiving a response for a while, Captain Blake gestures to the aperture again. "We should get moving, there's a chance we can still find the sentinels that did this out in the real world."

"Yes," Baylee says, straightening, "we should. However, my team and I would like to take a look around this village first. You and your men should head out and use the transport to scout around the area. See if you can't spot any of the enemy sentinels. We'll be out right after you."

Captain Blake is already shaking his head before Baylee even finishes talking. "I apologize, Miss Whitlock. We are to stay with you in the incursion zone until such a time as you leave, so as not to split our forces. It's protocol."

At this, Baylee takes a step away from the captain, moving closer to us and further from him. "No," she says, her voice chilled. "That isn't protocol. You are supposed to leave at the command of your sentinel team to stop unnecessary deaths if things get too dangerous. Right now, I am ordering you and your team out of the aperture, which is within my power."

Captain Blake sighs but doesn't approach further. Instead, he turns and starts walking toward his soldiers. Over his shoulder, he calls, "The rules are different with sentinel teams in E Rank and D Rank. Here, I've got an SOP booklet if you want to argue semantics."

As we watch, the captain walks over to his large group of thirty soldiers and begins speaking in a low voice. I narrow my eyes, trying to focus my enhanced hearing enough to pick up what he's saying. Haruto, however, beats me to the punch.

"Everyone, get behind me!" he roars, planting his hammer in the dirt as we all scramble behind him. A massive shimmering shield made of green light appears between us and the soldiers as soon as Baylee passes behind him.

And, a moment later, the soldiers open fire.