As the cohort of Darian,Benjamin, and Galahad descended from the large hill many others followed causing them to slide uncontrollable down from the high hill,due to the bottom slope of the hill being muddy filled with soft soil layers ,and protruding jagged Rock areas.
For most people this situation would be horrible causing a free fall to their untimely deaths beneath the tall hill,but unlike many others these were trained mages,killers no in this case they were Hunters,so ofcourse such a fate was unlikely to happen to them.
Making sure they had the correct posture,and covering their entire bodies,including their clothes with translucent coats of mana,many began to surf through the muddy slippery slope,using its downward momentum to Quickly descend,some having the postures of Ice skaters.
Finally gaining their bearings Darian, and company finally aligned their movements with one another's positions allowing them to talk mid plummet,Galahad spoke first," Have you guys decided,are we going to seperate or face this together".
Darian had a thinking look," I've thought of it ,and I think for now we should stay together,I doubt this will be the first time we come here to test our strengths,for now it's better for us to just get a general understanding of the area,its monsters,and their danger levels too,according to my calculations thats going to be much easier,if we go as a team,helping each other covering each others blind spots,and so on,theres also a much higher chance that the level of the familiars we bring back while working together will be much higher than our own".
" I agree on that",Benjamin said ," well spoken",Galahad replied,Benjamin sighed speaking in a dramatic tone ," whats more concerning is that brute!, he, he,he refused to even give us the chance to change our clothes imagine going into a muddy environment,with fancy Blazers,and bowties".
Galahad had his hand over his face smiling,Darian smirked," you do have a point",as both he,and Galahads clothes suddenly glowed a magnificent ethereal light of different tailored colors, Darians glowing a mix of white,and blue,while Galahads glowed a ruby red.
Their academic clothes being instantly replaced by their respective armors or magical wears.
Galahad wore a simple dark steel armor set,containing greaves,Sabatons,Gauntlets,cuirass,plackarts,Pauldrons,Tassets,couters,vembraces,and a red Battle skirt,his cape was a dark crimson with a gold interlocking knot type art style at the edges,the length of his stopped near his knees,he also wore a Black charcoal colored crown with multiple spiked points.
Meanwhile Darians outfit mainly consisted of a black pointy wizard hat, with dark blue inner lining,a purple scarf with dark embroidered symbols, upward pointing leather black shoes,a black wizard robe its length reaching till his knees,with dark blue inner lining,a mantle,open sleeves,and no cuffs,He also wore round glasses,and a gold ring as accessories.
Darians appearance was that of a true scholarly magician,while Galahads was that of a aristocratic warrior knight of a high social position.
Benjamin being the only one who could not yet achieve this feat,was stumpt his face blank with surpise he then smiled,and scoffed
" I guess I stand corrected".realising it was not the time that Iron Claw gave that was the problem,but his own lack of skill.
," In any case our main focus should be getting down this hill",Galahad stated.
"Agreed!!",Benjamin, and Darian replied simultaneously.
Meanwhile at their side atleast 10 metres away three boys,suddenly appeared one manipulated the ground making it more volatile,causing large Rocks to protrude from out of nowhere,while the other two threw metre long balls of fire at Darian,and company's Direction.
"I can't believe this ",Galahad said with gritted teeth," this was always a possibility",Darian said softly as he manuevred through the rising jagged Rocks,their voices changing due to the increased volicity of their movements.
Benjamin's face contorted in rage ,and annoyance,his emotions could be felt,by anyone across from him.
" Have you no pride!,what are you doing attacking us for!!",Benjamin said in annoyance.
The leader of the three man squad opposite them simply laughed," your ones to talk,about pride, while hosting that red haired thing, just because we've been silent does not mean we approve,besides theirs definitely a time limit to this ,and stopping you guys from getting advantageous points over the rest of us seems well worth our time",the leader Harrod said with a spiteful tone,while laughing.
"Yeah!!!",his other three minions replied in agreement smirking,and laughing.
Darian smirked aswell completely outstretching his right arm to the side,his hand positioned itself in what seemed like a claw or grabbing motion," if your going to actually try to stop someone of our caliber atleast do it right".
"Let me teach you".
Darian said twisting,and closing his palm the name of the technique," one 100 steps mud sink hole",although Darian was not a path user yet ,and so we're most ,they still had abilities that derived or replicated less efficient variations of some path spells but with less mana efficiency.
This completely worked,as per Harrods groups perspective,the world seemed to just rise far above them as they began to sink, in an almost instantaneous fashion unable to fully move until only their heads were left sticking out from the ground.
Meanwhile Isoldes group descended at high speed,just like Julius,and Edward they were lucky enough to be kept together,while only having one extra unknown female member,that being Cassidy Bermont,her family produced many powerful navy officers ,and generals,she had brown shoulder length hair,and ocean blue eyes her face round ,and seductive.
Artemis sighed as she slid down the steep muddy slope," if only we were in the two princes shoes,having no heavy baggage on our backs,am I right sister".
Isolde looked at her with an irritated disappointed look," that's enough now,Artemis theres no use in agitating a team member,we'll do much better as a three man cell".
Artemis smirked speaking in a sly tone," Dont you mean three women cell"," It doesn't matter",Isolde replied stoicly.
Meanwhile Cassidy laughed," I never pay attention to people who's opinions dont matter the mission comes first afterall".
Each member had a high capacity,and were very capable each had already managed,to summon their respective armors,as they dove down head first to the bottom.
Until each of them twitched as they heared a large explosion go off ,and a subsequent tremer traveling towards them," I see",Cassidy said sucking her lips," It seems someones playing dirty".
Isolde nodded,while Artemis looked at the direction the tremer came from," Now thats what I like",she exclaimed in joy.
Meanwhile Siegfrieds group,were one of the first to arrive at the bottom instead of talking as they slid,both Simon,and yulang had decided to out race each other,doing flips,and jumps along the way.
The princes had calm expressions using the momentum from falling to directly catapult themselves in free fall like a canon or jet,using wind magic to change direction, and blow away opsticals as they quickly reached terminal velocity, the coat of mana allowed them to feel nothing.
This strategy ultimately making them the first to successfully descend down the hill,their success was due to two major factors,the first one was genetics majority of elves being naturally talented at wind magic,the second reason being their collaborative teamwork at times it felt like these twins had no reasons to talk to each other,as if sharing the same mind,a well oiled machine,being two halves of the same coin,allowing them to complete one another becoming one whole.
Following after this example some actually attempted similar tactics,using fire magic as repulsors,and so on,but to varying successes.
When the majority had finally reached the bottom,they decided to stay,and all work together to get a gist of the situation trying to survey the surroundings,Julius quickly tried to make them all form a sort of alliance with one another.
That if one group was in trouble the others would help,but seeing that a few sneak attacks had already just occured between certain groups in the short time period between their descent,down the cliff,this was used as the argument to deny a joint invitation of cooperation not making any promises.
This was the logic used by Cassidy with Isoldes backing,who chimed in that if this deal was made those who did not abide in it but made the deal would have an unfair advantage.
Cassidy was a sly goddess of words, good at manipulateing,and gaslighting her opponents,this skill among other things caused Isolde,and Artemis her own teammates to be very wary of her,and the three having a strained relationship.
After they scouted the area from what they could see,infront of them was arid land,which was Surprising because the hill itself was luscious,Darian quickly had a theory on this that he let out,Explaining the Gate to the Outside being on the hill as the main cause of the hills surrounding areas being so dry,and desolate.
Something others agreed to as a possibility,but even using their current vantage point,they could see tall far away mountains,and large forests stretching deep into the horizon,this was something they knew for sure due to their higher vantage point while they stood at the hills top.
After some preparations each group split going to different directions walking towards these forests,unfortunately Simon,and yulang had decided to split the group apart, seeing that he could not stop them,Siegfried with the help of yulang designed methods of communication,if one of them needed help they would be able to step in, or if they wanted to rendezvous to head back or work together.
Siegfried at this point had decided to not fight the storm that was Yulang,and Simons relationship but to become a directing mechanism within it.
Meanwhile at the centre of one of the forests,stood a great thin tree the the length of about a kilometer it's width that of an elephant,on the tree sitting at a high elevation was a man with long black hair,red eyes,white skin,a pointy nose,and pointy ears,he wore chainmail like armor covering till slightly below the shoulders,a cape made from large raven black feathers that draped over his shoulders,leather belts,dark pants,and a conical straw hat,with an odachi katana held by a Black scabbard,at his side.
The creatures outfit seemed to be a mix of many sometimes non coherent styles.
Whatever this person was,watched in silence his keen eyes observing events occurring from miles away naturally without mana usage,as it smiled at the new arrival of these young boys,and girls.
A small gust of wind blew past the tree, and the next moment he was gone as if carried by the wind itself, in his place nothing but a murder was left behind.
A large group of crows,making cawing sounds.