Chương 153: Chapter 152 – The Second Day

Cole watched a flare rise to his northwest as he stalked the forest." Airborne," called Arley.

"I see it," said Cole.

"Moving." A meteoric leap covered more than half the distance, so he burned a second half-charge to soar close enough to spot Delgada near the flare. From the air, she didn't look any worse for wear. Not wounded, like McHanley had been. A few dead monsters between the trees around her and the smell of gun smoke spoke to a recent encounter. But instead of her rifle in her hands, Delgada was holding her LF analyzer. She jumped as Cole landed a few meters away from her.

"Holy shit. They call you Airborne 'cause you can fly?"

"I can just jump real good. What's up? Was that your flare?" She held out her analyzer to him. <LF Class detected: Ritual Mender, Level 4 Ethereal energy manipulation class focused on providing powerful restorative healing and strong supportive buffs to multiple allies through multi-charge rituals…

"Ah," said Cole.

"Tapping out because of your class?"

"Primary healers can get on teams without finishing Curahee," she said, shrugging.

"A class this strong? Probably something I'll get power-leveled." Power-leveled, just like he'd been offered for his Arquebus Engineer secondary class.

"So you're quitting because of that?"

"I know my worth. I don't need to prove anything to anyone by slogging through marsh and mountains for another two days." No matter how useful healers were, that wasn't an attitude Cole would ever welcome on his own team. There was power in tradition. Strength in demonstrating that you would put in max effort, even when a path of less resistance presented itself. Hell, even Nona had finished Curahee. He couldn't even picture Roxy tapping out, and she'd been hoping for a primary healer class as well.

He half-smiled at the thought of Roxy kicking in a door, masked and gloved, and shouting"Who needs surgery, bitches?"

"What's so funny?" asked Delgada.

"Nothing. Think you can make it back to the ridge without a handhold?"

"Yeah, easy." Cole walked off a bit.

"Arley, Delgada just washed out. Healer class, but she says she's fine self-extracting to the base camp."" Good copy. That's fine, I'll stand by and wait for her."

"What are we down to?"

"Ten. Two taps on your side, two on Ketchup's." Jeez. Already down almost a third of the original tryouts. The fact that almost his entire push had passed Curahee, especially with Ram-head breathing down their necks and their proctor out of commission, was seeming more and more like a series of miracles. But nothing for it.

The recruits should be pushing up to the base of the mountain by the end of the day, and if they were smart, consolidating into small teams prior to braving the silk forest or the more advanced fungal zombies on the outskirts of the castle. Cole's eyes flicked between Delgada and the mountain. Her class might have been the difference between some of the other tryouts making it through the castle or not.

Cole continued to range through the valley on the west side of the river, keeping himself occupied by practicing his tracking skills throughout the afternoon to see how the tryouts worked, but not making contact to give them an opportunity to be self-sufficient and not feel like their hands were being held. Ari and Fasil added a third wood ogre to their cadre, and Cole watched as Ari tore through zombies with a pair of flaming axes that seemed to burn hotter the faster they were swung.

The wood ogres covered his flanks and one guarded Fasil himself. Neither seemed interested in using the rifles they'd brought with them. The bound ogres and flaming axes seemed more than up to the challenge. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Cole caught up with Burke in time to see the tryout pull an otherworld assault rifle out of a scaled hound. The gun itself was covered in red scales.

Burke stopped to improvise a sling for it before heading northeast, which would bring him right up to the edge of the Silk Forest. Akira made it to the Silk Forest near sunset, and either seeing or sensing something she didn't like, didn't enter. Cole tracked her progress as she moved west, probably hoping to either find a way around it or someone to watch her back on the inside.

But the firefighting brothers were moving slow and quiet enough that she passed them right up and ran into Burke just before sunset, following the sounds of his otherworld rifle fire. Wayland was the toughest to track without Cole giving himself away. The blood-sensing skill would pick Cole up, even with his cloak drawn.

But he watched as the tryout moved further west, finding the far edge of the Silk Forest that would let him skip past the crab-like spider monsters, but miss the easy path leading up to Last Fall Hold. He wasn't using his rifle much, either. Instead, monsters that rushed out of the brush withered as they got close to him, somehow losing their ability to control their own bodies. Wayland finished each one off with his otherworld spear as he gnawed on dried meat with the other hand.

He was alert and focused but didn't seem terribly bothered by the threats lurking in the dangerous peat bogs of Curahee. Barring major injury, Cole didn't see any of the tryouts still on his side of the river tapping out before reaching the castle. By sunset, Akira, Burke, and the Attila brothers had all made their way up to the Silk Forest before making camp. Wayland had bypassed it entirely and showed no signs of slowing down after nightfall.

He did mention that his class became more effective at night, so maybe he was planning to tough it out. While making his way back south, Cole came across Morganstern making her way north.

"Airborne," she called out, raising a hand. Her heavy hammer rested over her other shoulder.

"How they doing?"

"Just fine," he said.

"The ones still going are tough enough to finish, I think. How's the east side?" Morganstern sat and pulled her pack around, pulling out a small alcohol burner and kettle along with some instant coffee packs. She filled the kettle from her canteen and set it to heat over the burner.

"One more drop on the east side. Almost a fatality, but I intervened."

"Down to nine, then. They okay?" She scowled.

"Arm almost fully amputated. Had to wake up Ketchup to sprint him back to the base camp. Still, if that's the worst injury we get away with, I'll count my blessings."

"But you don't think it will be?" Asked Cole. Morganstern poured some instant coffee into the kettle and mixed it up with a spork.

"The most dangerous part is the third day. People start rushing and the monsters are more dangerous up the mountain. It'll be all hands on deck." She dug in her bag again and pulled out a pair of collapsible cups, pouring not-quite-boiling coffee into each of them and handed one to Cole.

"Unless you care that I drank out of my canteen," she said, smile creeping up.

"Worried I got cooties, Airborne?" Cole laughed and took the cup. Even if he was about to get his downtime, coffee wouldn't keep him awake. Not after ranging back and forth across kilometers of forested terrain. He blew off the steam and took a sip.

"This is more what a typical tryout looks like," said Morganstern.

"In case you weren't sure."

"That tracks," said Cole.

"Was just thinking earlier that so many dropped. My push ended with seven out of eight hopefuls becoming full Kickers." Morganstern finished her coffee and poured herself another cup, topping off Cole's as well.

"Well, nothing about your push turned out normal. Menagerie of freaks, if you ask me.

'Cept maybe Ken and Han. Or, I suppose Vintage and Claymore, now." She looked up.

"Speaking of menageries, I know you were still looking to expand your team. Anyone weird enough for you?" Cole considered.

"Actually, yeah. Wayland seems promising. You recommended getting my hands on someone to help cover mental or psychic attacks. Seems like he might fit the bill. Fast, too. Moving by night. I think he'll be halfway up the mountain by morning." Morganstern laughed.

"Man, you really do like the black sheep, don't you? Any extended op his bag's gonna be half-full of meat. I'm surprised you don't want druid-boy on your team." Cole pulled out his own canteen and rinsed the coffee cup.

"Don't get me wrong, I think Ari and Fasil are both tough as nails. But I don't know they'd really fit with my team or their classes with our TTPs. They're civvies." He kicked out his boot, toeing Morgan's leg and grinning.

"You gonna pay them another night-time visit? Apparently you scared the shit out of them last night." Looking up from cleaning her kettle, Morganstern quirked an eyebrow at him.

"What do you mean?"

"They said something came through their camp and sped off. Fasil even tried to use his ability but said the target was either too smart or too tough."

"Wasn't me," said Morganstern, shaking her head.

"So, what was it?"

"New alpha scale hound, maybe." Morganstern shrugged.

"Sniffing out Bessie's stomping ground to see if it can become the new Bessie. I haven't sensed or found any portal magic, if that's what you were worried about."

"You'd have led with that instead of pouring me coffee."

"And Beast Cult would have made themselves known if they were back. They're not exactly subtle." Morganstern pulled out a protein bar next.

"Well, get some downtime while you can. I'll cover the western valley for now. Tomorrow we'll try and get these chucklefucks up the mountain." Cole nodded. Hopefully they'd have a new crop of Kickers by this time tomorrow. And no new permanent residents of Curahee.