"I have a hunch " Donnie said, pointing back to where he left. the trees to the back end of the camp were dark red, and seemed to have red veins littering their trunks.
"That's a start."
Andrew chimed in. "It's the only option considering what the ripples I felt to my right were closer to the edge of the forest."
"So we gotta go deeper in" Damian said.
"Dig up the root and burn it."
Chase would usually have gotten tired of all this mention of burning but truth be told, he was also feeling in the mood after all that had happened. A bunch of disgusting mutations almost took his life. The only question is what they would find.
looking back Chase saw a few group members looking unsure. at first it was just their faces. The squinting eyes, tilting heads,
And eventually someone voiced their opinion.
a man with a full beard and a bald head came up front, his voice was deep. "How do we even believe this guy? I mean, I get it none of this makes sense but come on. The shard of some powerful demon is here and it trapped all of us in? Forgive me for being skeptical."
He said, walking forward and spreading his arms wide and shrugging.
"What are you getting at?"Chase said eager to stop the talk, at least until they started moving.
"It's simple. Me and whoever wants to live, leaves. After all even if some mysterious demon shard is here it's not like we can beat it anyway"
"We'd have a better chance in a group" Andrew said. "Splitting up is a sure fire way to get killed."
The bald man smiled. "Alright. Let the team decide." Looking to them it was clear the recent deaths shook them and made them enter fight or flight. And from the look of it, they were tired of fighting.
While most stayed with them, 4 people decided to follow him and attempt exiting the forest.
as they began walking back,the man turned around, he shouted: "When you make it out, tell me how we'll fighting that demon went."
Looking at them go Chase also realized he had to get a move on. "Let's go"
getting into the camp, they walked past the burned pile of civilian bodies and the bodies of cultists spread around here or there with stab wounds.
looking around, everyone looked at Donnie.
This was the first time seeing what he could do. Chase was honestly done with him at this point. not only did he have a cool outfit, but his face and apparently his fighting ability was top notch.
noticing the glare he was getting from Chase made him chuckle. as they got past the camp and left it behind, everyone suddenly got chills. The remaining group members pulled out their weapons.
As everyone was looking around, ready to attack anything that moved, a tree suddenly shook a bit before a clawed wooden hand slowly came further and further out.
"LOOK HERE!"
Once Damian saw it he took action, dashing towards it. The arm and head of the monster were now fully sticking out, resembling the ugly golem they saw. exept this time there was these blood red flames in its eyes.
Damian smashed the head of the monster right back into the tree, cutting the head in half. the outstretched hand of the monster grew limp. Putting fire into his axe, he began burning the tree where the monster spawned.
"Great now we have to deal with these things again"
Chase was in awe. "So that's where they come from" and now he got a bad feeling about literally every tree in sight. and now had to resist the urge to constantly look in every direction.
"Look around. Next time we won't be so lucky" Andrew chose the perfect time to capitalize. every group member chose their spot to look for the next monster to pop out.
As they continued further, they constantly felt watched. But something odd happened. a few minutes after that, nobody attacked, and while they did hear a bunch of cracking sounds nothing came from it.
"I… thought this was gonna be a lot scarier"
Chase was inwardly starting to get both relieved and worried. Damian was the same.
"Your hilarious Donnie. Maybe it's just some wacko spirit. Something light."
"Don't get your hopes up. We all know Donnie wouldn't lie and the cultist probably didn't either."
Everyone looked at him like he was crazy when he said the cultist part but Andrew wasn't in the mood to defend himself.
"Enough, I'm going up"
Donovan jumped around the treetops, looking down and concealing his mana signature.
"You think he'll find anything?"Asked Damian.
"It's THE Donovan he'll find something." Chase joked. "Yeah. You can't doubt the don"
Damian said chuckling.
"I'll help him out only for a short while" Andrew said before using his detection spell again. The water like mana flowed again. Andrew asked "what do you see?"
After a few moments of not getting a response, he opened his eyes only to see Chase and Damian with horrified looks on their faces.
Looking down at the mana he didn't see anything the suddenly every part of the pool shifted at every point. In front behind, on all sides.
Looking around he still couldn't see them.
Meaning they were hiding behind the trees with perfect precision.
How long had they been surrounded?