Jimeneus glanced at all the members of the cohort as everyone stood in a clear circle.
He pointed at the boy called Adam. He was neither tall nor short, but he did have a bit of a lanky frame, with his pale blue hair reaching to his shoulders.
"You'll be our navigator."
He then pointed at Vesper, the fallen noble now vampyre. Jimeneus raised an eyebrow analysing him from top to bottom.
'How did this guy end up in our group…' Jimeneus sighed. What a variable, but indeed he had saved his life.
'What position do I give him….' He contemplated for a second… trying to think of Vesper's abilities from what he had observed.
Half a moment later, the captain finally nodded to himself.
"Alright…" He spoke, "Vesper you will be the scout, always a step ahead of Adam. I'll give you our only other dewflower, it will help you communicate telepathically with the rest of us."
Vesper shook his head, seriously and Jimeneus nodded back in acknowledgment… pleased with the public enemy's co-operation.
Glancing at Knoncan Derford and Amanda, Jimeneus continued.
"The two of you are going to flank behind me. Amanda on the right, Knoncan on the left."
Finally, he tilted his head to look at Danique, the bastard noble, who stood with his long blonde hair blowing in the wind.
"As for you Danisque. You are our rear. Diagonal to me."
The boy's eyes glinted as he nodded in co-operation.
"Aye."
Jimeneus nodded. "Good." He tilted his head to glance at all the members.
"This cohort will be moving in a diamond shape. Vesper as the tip… scouting for us… Adam our navigator. I am the center with Knoncan and Amanda backing me with Danisque in the back protecting us from any dangers behind."
Adam took a small breath in, and he glanced at Jimeneus and rubbed his forehead.
"This journey is most probably going to be particularly harrowing. If possible, we should avoid conflicts as much as possible and move stealthily, hiding as much as we can. The terrain is already too dangerous. If not the beasts… then the geography will take our lives."
Jimeneus nodded, a sigh escaping his lips.
"You are right, that should be our goal. The worst part is that we are already down to the last of us and knowing Troy… I have this gut feeling that this is all a test of some kind."
No one responded… but Jimeneus's words rang in the brain like a broken record player, again and again… again and again.
He was right. With Troy, there was always a catch.
Vesper mused to himself,
'What was that dialogue after all? With greatpower comes great responsibility. I wouldn't be surprised if Troy's trying to instil heroic values through suffering.'
…And when it came to suffering, who else knew it better than Vesper?
'After all, I was the savior of the human race which led it to reach this point. It was me… whose blood awakened. The Dreamer. Waking up all those humans from their soulless existence.'
Mazzy Blackrose. He never had the memories but he did experience… all the emotions… pain… hardships, skills, and bliss of every human before him.
…and every dream of humanity.
All of it came to him like living instinct, subconsciously.
If there were a system column to Vesper's talent… it would be infinite.
Knoncan, the shy tank whispered, his voice low.
"Shall we begin moving?"
The leader nodded, he handed a dewflower to Vesper who simply stuffed it in his ear, and in the blink of an eye, all of them vanished from the spot… moving ahead swiftly at an extremely high speed.
~
The cohort moved at a fast pace for a few long hours.
It was actually easy… with Vesper's natural stealth coupled with the Art of Illusions and supernatural sense… he was scouting through the terrain quickly… making sure that the cohort traversed through the path filled with the least beasts while Adamn led them through.
They'd encounter a few beasts here and there but nothing the cohort collectively couldn't manage.
It sucked that the beast meat was not really suitable for their stomach… well not unless cooked properly.
It's usually super hard to cook alien or beast meat but when cooked it can sometimes turn out to be a delicacy.
The cohort members were starting to get hungry though. While they did possess substantial nutritional paste plundered from their dead comrades… all of them were starting to miss the taste of actual food.
Beast meat was a no-no. If not cooked well, it was straight up poison… even the blood wouldnormally be acidic unless of a different nature.
The difference between Aliens… and Beasts was simple.
The former were the original species of the world whereas Beasts were something else altogether… the textbook definition of them was an amalgamation of anomalous horrors packed in one raised from lower dimensions.
It was vague but the keywords were 'Amalgamation' 'Horror' 'Lower Dimension'.
Beasts in general didn't follow the same rules as set for most living beings.
It was better to say that there were no rules for a beast. 'Anomalous'.
Danisque sighed as he glanced at another one of the beasts' corpses.
"I need to taste something."
Amanda rolled her eyes, she checked her storage… A few candies were remaining but honestly, they were to be saved for later.
Danisque glanced at her and smiled mischievously.
"Amandaaa~ Can I have a candyyy??"
The blonde lady gave Danisque a disgruntled look before replying curtly.
"No."
Danisque sighed, he looked at the beast corpse spread on the white surface.
"This sucks. We can't even eat these monsters. The moment I get out of this simulation, I'm having a goddamn feast!"
Amanda rolled her eyes.
"Stop complaining, maybe learn something from Knoncan."
Danisque tilted his head. The tall tank stood motionless, staring at the beast's blood as it hissed and evaporated in the gorge's brutal heat. His face gave nothing away.
It never did.
"Knoncan's not exactly a conversationalist," Danisque muttered.
Through the dewflower, Vesper's voice drifted back… calm and distant but with a hint ofamusement.
"She's right you know. Rationing the candy is vital."
Amanda's eyes flicked toward the narrow pathahead, where the scout had vanished into the haze. Her jaw tightened. She said nothing.
Danisque noticed. A small grin tugged at his lips.
"Et tu, Public Enemy?" he rolled his eyes, feigning hurt from being betrayed by his homeboy.
Jimeneus' voice rang through.
"Stop dilly dallying idiots, be aware of your surroundings unless you all wanna become a monster snack."
Above the gorge, the haze thickened as the fog's pressure descended even further upon the cohort making them pause for a second.
Then the moment passed.
"We should keep moving," Knoncan said. His first words in hours.
Jimeneus nodded. "Agreed. Vesper, any clear path ahead?"
A pause. Then.
"A blizzard's approaching. Stay close."
They moved.