Joshua, Caleb, Floki, and Mercidin.
These four knights gathered around.
"I'm with Floki," Joshua called out immediately.
The young Floki's brows furrowed.
He didn't want to be paired with Joshua; the guy was talkative. And sometimes, he could be insufferable.
"I think I'd rather–"
"Then let's be on our way, Caleb." Mercidin interrupted Floki in a beat.
He didn't even wait to hear Caleb's response before he walked back to his horse to retrieve his weapons, as well as offload the heavier armors on him.
Caleb remained silent; he didn't mind pairing with any of them.
Joshua placed a hand over Floki's shoulders and smiled. "When have we had missions like this to do?" He chuckled.
"Since the young lord recovered, there have been scary and exciting things to do. How about we make this a competition? The first to find and report a target wins!"
Floki tried to pull Joshua's hand off his shoulders, but the man was stronger than he was.
"This is not a competition," he muttered, already annoyed.
At this moment, Mercidin returned, handing Caleb a long sword and a dagger.
"Aren't you going to take off your heavy armor? Its sounds could give away our position."
Upon collecting his weapons, Caleb used the hilt of his sword to strike the armor on his chest.
And surprisingly, no sound came from it. It was as if the object had become mute.
"Oh," he blinked rapidly for a second or two. It was also at this point that Mercidin recalled what Caleb's special ability was.
Perhaps because they didn't have a complete idea of what it was, they tended to forget about how eerie it could be.
Marcus speculated that, rather than just being able to erase or dampen sounds alone, it was an ability of isolation.
As for all the things–how far Caleb could isolate and the backlash of his ability is, that was something they were yet to find out.
"I guess we're good to go then," Mercidin said as he turned to face Joshua and then Floki, "May the best duo win."
With that being said, he turned around and began sprinting, jumping onto a tree branch after a while.
Caleb followed right behind him, moving quickly and soundlessly.
"Damn it, they're trying to beat us to it," Joshua said as he sprinted towards his horse to retrieve two daggers, a bow, and a bunch of arrows.
Floki, still annoyed, rushed to do the same. Although he didn't like the fact that he was paired with Joshua, it didn't impede the competitive spirit in him.
This is how they have always been since their apprenticeship days.
This competitive spirit has driven them to where they are now.
In a matter of seconds, the two of them ran into the forest, taking a different direction from Caleb and Mercidin.
While the rest of the knights moved to set up camp, they couldn't help but shake their heads at the duo.
What they were doing wasn't child's play, and yet they were treating it as one.
Oner snorted as he pulled a few horses towards a corner. "They better not come back missing a limb."
"Don't jinx them, you big oaf!" Said Asad.
"Focus on your tasks. When you're done, be on standby." Marcus cut through the knights' murmuring.
He shook his head, taking a few seconds to calm his emotions.
What he had experienced when he was forced to pause moments ago made him understand a bit of why the kingdom had left this place alone.
And even after successfully resisting the Mana, the fear of being overwhelmed didn't vanish; rather, it increased subtly.
As though the Mana had some sentience to it.
This made Marcus feel targeted.
Even at the moment, he didn't want to venture into Daze anymore. However, he couldn't give up on the plans he made.
"If it comes to it, I'll give it all I've got. My title should still be effective in protecting my mind even if I go deeper into the forest. It's just that… I hope I'm not biting more than I can chew here." His eyes squinted as he continued to feel the residual Mana seeping from the forest.
*****
Almost fifteen minutes had gone by since Joshua and Floki had left to scout for a target.
The two knights moved rapidly, hardly making any noise as they ran.
Joshua, like a born hunter, was able to instinctively hide his scent and presence, making it difficult for anyone to sense him.
At the same time, his eyesight was impeccable, spotting many things from afar. And this was all happening with him using his bloodline abilities.
Floki also tried to hide his presence, but his technique wasn't as refined or effective as Joshua's own.
Although he wasn't using his unique ability, he was still as fast as Joshua.
In fact, he was a bit apprehensive of using it. Floki had long been thinking of a name to give his ability, and he had come to two conclusions; however, he was unsure of which to name it.
The first was Overlap and the second, Relapse.
Though Floki had always been amongst the fast-type fighters under Marcus's command, even during his apprenticeship days, he was amongst the top 50 speedsters of the Sirdi Manor.
His speed transcended into something else after ingesting the things Marcus provided for him.
When he moved, he could overlap his movement, causing one step to make two, and then covering the distance of three.
Overlap came from the fact that he was folding movement to cover multiple intervals of space simultaneously.
But then the cost is where Relapse comes in.
Floki had been speculating whether he received two unique abilities since that day.
The cost of overlapping his movements was to burn what already was.
Burn the reality of the other overlap, to burn his health, to burn the muscles and recovered tissues. This was what fueled his Overlap.
But then, at the same time, he could use Relapse to heal his injuries or damage to himself quite fast, without using Overlap.
Though he had never tried this and was still unaware of what it would cost him if he attempted to do this, Floki still felt that it was a possibility.
The reason he was apprehensive of using his ability was the feeling that he kept on getting whenever he did use it.
A feeling that he wouldn't be able to stop and would be forced to continue moving forever, continuing overlapping movements at the cost of Relapse.
The moment he stopped, his Relapse ability would consume him, burning him into nothingness.
Because he's burning stable positions, stopping becomes dangerous. The body will consume its own reference points.
But this was just a feeling.
Something he speculated would only come to pass when he's able to overlap many intervals of space simultaneously.
At the moment, Floki couldn't even overlap three intervals of space simultaneously.
And since this unique ability of his also depended on his Blood Force, the moment he ran out of energy, the ability forcefully stopped.
Nonetheless, the dark feeling it birthed kept his ego in check.
"Right there. About four hundred meters away, I can see the back of a Beast. Though I don't know what type. From what I can see about its energy, it doesn't look like it can even take seven of us together." Joshua chuckled as he said.
Floki's brows rose as he thought; you can see energy?
It was a weird concept to him.
"It seems like we're going to be the winners of this little competition." He added..
Floki shook his head. "Let's confirm the species first before reporting back to the young lord."
"As we should. Wait for me here; I'm much better at hiding. I'll try to get as close to the Beast as possible without alerting it. That way, I'll be able to observe it even better."
With that being said, Joshua increased his speed, leaving Floki behind.
With a soft sigh, Floki did as he said. "Hopefully, he doesn't get himself killed." He muttered.