Rein stared at him, it felt like the person called 'dias' was staring straight through him, as if looking at something beyond what could be perceived by mortals.
'he looks really experienced'
Perhaps it was because rein had yet to see any other older person, especially one that is Awakened. or maybe because of the aura dias exuded, but rein felt like dias was really powerful, proficient at the very least.
Rein hesitated then looked up at dias and extended a hand towards him.
"Yes, i am rein shenhe, nice to meet you"
Dias stared at the extended hand with a bit of apprehension and then simply turned around and started walking the way he came from.
"Aint got no time for y'all's greetin's and shit. The faster we leave, the faster we gonna get it done with"
Rein stared at dias' back with a irritated gaze before sighing.
"Whats his deal?"
Shionelle shrugged with her hands.
"He's an ass like that"
She waited for a moment before said in a slightly nostalgic tone.
"But dont get him wrong... He isn't a bad person"
'ofcourse he isn't'
"Tch, H—HEY OLD MAN, W—WAIT UP"
Deski yelled as she motioned for us to keep up.
And as the group started walking, he felt a bit insecure and stared at seriché from the corner kf his vision.
'all of them are Awakened... Like him'
Which meant that each of them was a monster in their own right.
Rein suddenly doubted his decision to become as strong as possible.
Why did he even want to go back? It wasn't like he had a deep enough connection with snybody except for maybe his mother, and even that wasn't deep enough to wager his life over it.
He had always been pretty distant from the rest of his family, friends... Everyone for that matter.
It was like rein veiwed everyone from a point of view that wasn't his, like he was watching a movie of sorts, never truly considering a person to be anything other than a character in his life, not even himself.
.
.
.
"Monolithos exist to the south of the great suronian forest, which spans somewhere around one seventh of the entire continent, maybe a bit less"
Seriché continued, his quite voice cutting through the rustling of the leafs in a winds.
"East-north of the suronian forest exists ivoryhold. and south of monolithos is shein, at the edge of the continent, its a costal territory"
Suddenly, shionelle raised her hand.
Rein pressed his feet firmly against the ground and tensed, he noticed both seriché and deski lower their stance and put their hands on their weapons.
Shionelle was one of the only two people in the entirety of monolithos who had a wing centered around scouting.
From what rein knew, She didn't have a feather yet, but her wings allowed her to sense a vague intent.
It wasn't like she could actually sense a monster or life. She could only vaguely sense intenr of rhe people around her. So to maximize the usage of her wing, she ignores the intent of those in her directly vicinity, about 15 meters and focuses on every potent intent outside of this area up to around a 100 meters.
'It's useful but not very strong'
Sure being able to sense intent is useful for more then just identifying enemies and presences. Shionelle potentially identify what 'kind' of intent it is, she could interpret a persons thought and actions with enough information.
But that is only at a high enough level. Shionelle currently barely had enough control over it, despite being Awakened for nearly a year.
And above that, most Awakened can hide their intent, it's just a common thing among Awakeners.
As rein observed carefully, dias suddenly spoke.
"Its a spruch"
Rein turned his head slightly towards the middle aged man before turning it back towards the front and asking in a quite, hushed tone.
"A spruch?"
Deski got closer to rein and took out her flail and axe.
"Y—yeah, its a plant like monster, they're a—actually native to this part of the forest, unlike m—mistbornes.... s—see?"
Deski pointed a tree at a distance.
Rein narrowed his eyes, and sure enough, there was a figure attached to the tree.
'how did i not notice it?'
As seriché steeped forward, the figure stepped forward, its form revealed frim earlier obscurity.
It was a bit less then 2 meters tall and vaguely resembled a human, it had a body made of dark wood and two long, sturdy legs, it had no arms and all around it's torso were dozens of long, branch like sickles that twisted at unnatural angles.
Rein could tell that each engle and the tip of the branches were sharp enough to cut from a simple touch.
It had no head, but behind the condensed branches were five glowing embers.
Rein felt a strong hand grip his hand and pull him back slightly.
"Let em deal with it, observe"
It was dias, who also stepped back a bit.
'even better for me, i guess'
"Those things can shoot them branches out at darn fast speed. I recon ya don't put em on the same level as mistborne"
'really, mistbornes looks much scarier... But these are stronger'
"Mistborne are a horde type monsters, them horde types are more about numbers than individual strength"
"Ok"
Deski was the first to move, she pulled her flail backwards before lunging forward and whipping the chain towards it from the side.
The spurch moved backwards at unnatural speed and lunged towards shionelle who had take out two long metal rods from her back.
Deski pulled the chain while putting opposite force to stop the momentum of the flail so to not obstruct her allies.
Seriché moved forward and uncheathed his tachi.
"!"
Suddenly, multiple of the branches from the monster side launched towards seriché at a insane speed.
Seriché casually sidestepped, evading most of the branches, and cut the others.
The spruch moved to kill shionelle, who wasn't scared even slightly and banged both rods together infront of her.
'woah'
Rein saw as green electricity visibly travelled from shionelle's body to the rod and then burst in a shockwave in front of her.
But it didn't do anything to her, or so it seemed as the spurch simply kept moving forward.
Shionelle lunged back as a flail landed right infront of her, forcing the spurch to move backwards as well, where seriché launched multiple slashes aiming at either the legs or the five glowing embers.
Though only two actually reached the spurch, one of them was from above and the other right after the first.
The first swing created space for the second, cutting off multiple branches with substantial amount of resistance, the second one though.
'is that... His wing?'
Seriché landed a shallow laceration on the chest of the wooden abomination, then stepped back as the shallow cut along the torso... Somehow widened.
It was as if a invisible force had clawed at the wounds and made it worse.
Not even a moment after seriché stepped back, a axe attached to a chain came with great force, lodging itself to the back of the monster.
The spurch was still alive, barely, but alive nevertheless.
But not for long, a metal rod came flying towards its knee, toppeling it over. Shionelle passed by seriché and bashed the chest of the spurch. Her lithe body somehow capable of exerting terrifying force.
"HA!"
She smiled gleefully as small shockwave of electricity came from within the spurch, burning it to a extent.
"Well that was quick"
Indeed it was quick, not even 2 minutes had passed from the initial encounter, and the beast was already dead.
"Yea, there's a lesson to be learned there, no? A darn important one at that"
Dias said as he started walking towards the three Awakeners.
Rein waited for a moment, studying his surrounding before walking behind dias, his eyebrows knitting ever so slightly.
'team work makes dream work?"
"It's that, it ain't gonna matter how strong you are, there's always bigger fish in the pond. 'cause there's always gonna be somebody.... Or somethin' that could kill you"
As dias reached the group who were rearranging themselves, he said continued.
"There are more than 800,000 Awakened in tha whole world, ya gotta think about just how many of different wings like the ones these ones have exists out there"
Dias gave a light kick to the corpse, sending it dozens of centimeters back.
"And the most important of em all..."
Dias turned to look at seriché.
"You might be stronger than one person, but another person weaker than that person could beat the shit out of you cause they could counter you. But then you'd think some sorta thing like 'i'll just specialize in everything—' "
"Not really, but go on"
Dias stared at rein for while, his gaze turning in a glare somewhere along the way.
'uh-oh'
"Aight, you gonna follow me, not these baboons. We gonnna start with defense first"