175 The Art of Teamwork Part 1 (2/2)
”So, are we going to keep moving?” He pushed. He was way passed delicacy at this point. Treat her any more delicately and she will really think that she can treat this as a leisurely outing.
”...Not moving.” Although she hesitated, Cherell still pursed her mouth, crossed her arms, and refused to move.
Greyson frown deepened as he started walking towards the direction her voice came from.
”What are you doing?”
He did not respond and continued getting closer. When he was close enough, he reached out towards her. Shocked, Cherell forgot to dodge and let his hand touch her arm. Taking the arm, he pulled it around his neck and lifted her up into a princess carry.
”I asked: what are you doing?! Put me down this instant! Where do you think you are placing your hands?!” Struggle as she might to get out of Greyson's grip, Cherell could not move from his arms. Her measly strength could not make a difference.
”Well, right now, we started late so we were behind the rest then you proceeded to walk slowly so we are probably even further behind. I need to speed up this process. If you are going to continue to complain, then I might as well just carry you like this. At least, I don't have any troubles this way. Plus, now you are in front of my body, so if you don't want to be the one running into everything, then you better start giving me better directions.” Tired of waiting for Cherell to do more, Greyson decided to just force the issue. When it came to brute strength, he had plenty of it. Carrying Cherell would not tire him out much. Unbeknownst to Cherell, the white scales on his body already began to appear under his clothes. Greyson had a lot better control over his transformation now, so he only used it for a boost in strength in his arms and legs.
In a blind leap of faith, he began to break out into a fast-paced run. Cherell broke out of her thoughts and started shouting out in fear.
”Are you crazy? Put me down! No wait... wait! Stop! There's a tree! To the left, to the left!” She still tried to get out of his arms in the beginning but was then forced to start giving directions for her own safety.
And like that, the two finally managed to start moving with good speed towards everyone's goal.
...
In the meantime, Eris and Efren made swift progress through the forest. Both of them moved well together especially with Efren's responsible directing. Eris was also confident in herself and do not fear looking silly while swinging the stick around, thus she allowed herself to move faster without fear of running into things with too much force.
They reached their general destination fairly quickly. Efren also began to frown because the visibility was already lower as the forest grew dim. The light was blocked out by the trees and leaves even the air grew chillier.
”Let's take a break and think of a plan.” Eris suggested.
”Okay.”
When they both picked a spot to sit down, Efren remembered to ask.
”How is your long distance attacking ability?”
”...trash.” After pausing in silence for a moment, Eris still answered honestly.
”...that bad?” At a loss for words, Efren also took a moment of silence before continuing.
”Well, you would not have lost to me earlier if I was not a good fighter. I certainly didn't get to my level of skill with the spear and close quarters combat by wasting any time practicing long distance spells. So, yes, honestly I'm not good with accuracy over a long distance nor do I know any great spells for long distance shots either.”
”...” Efren stopped answering and sat in silence as he began to think about how to solve this issue.
”It looks like we will have to try to lure a Jeger close enough to us that you could attack.” He finally spoke again.
”Yeah, no kidding. The problem is just how we are going to do that.”
”I have a plan.”
...
In another part of the same area, Trevion and Aphina were also starting their hunt. Aphina was keeping her eyes peeled while looking at the surroundings. She finally spotted a black piece of fur quite a distance away from them. She had enhanced her sight earlier with a support spell, so she was able to see it from far away.
Excited, she quickly tapped Trevion's shoulder and whispered over to him.
”I see one! It's over to the right!”
But before she could finish, Aphina accidentally stepped straight onto a crisp twig on the ground. A clear *Snap!* sound came out from beneath her feet. After flinching, she quickly looked back to where she saw the Jeger. She saw the beast's ears twitch before turning dark blue eyes in her direction. The minute it saw her, the beast ran off into the wind and she could no longer see it anywhere.
”It ran off...” She dropped her head in shame.
”Next time you see one, just stop moving. We will immediately stop and try to just use your hands to point my own in the direction you see it. Even whispering could be too loud unless well-controlled. Their hearing and senses are quite sharp. We will also have to start walking extremely carefully, otherwise, we could scare any of them away before getting close enough for you to spot them. It seems were are already in the outskirts of where their common territory starts, so we should be prepared. You should be prepared because I am not as skilled in attacking, so we will inevitably miss a few in the beginning while working out the kinks of our teamwork.” Trevion stayed calm and did not get upset. Instead, he started coming up with a plan and making sure Aphina understood the reality of their situation. He was not expecting much results this first day of hunting. In fact, they may not even get one today, but he felt they would be able to improve enough to catch more and more at a faster pace the closer it gets to the deadline. He was not thinking about finishing early. As long as he could reach the goal before the deadline then he was content.
”Alright, I get it. Let's keep moving.” Aphina was quick to bounce back and appreciated Trevion's stable attitude. She knew that it definitely helped her stay calm as well and keep clear goals in mind without getting too far ahead of herself.
...
With Tatyana and Braiden working together, the two had actually already managed to catch one Jeger. Braiden understood how to give accurate directions to a location, and Tatyana had great long distance accuracy with her needles. The weapon itself was a silent one that was laced with poison, so she did not even need to hit a vital point. As long as the Jeger was even nicked, the poison would do the rest of the work to debilitate it. Then, they could approach and kill it with a quick stab of Braiden's dagger. Colin became an almost useless accessory.
”My uncle should have definitely been aware that we would be able to finish this task easier than the rest if we were put together. It shouldn't be this easy...” Braiden whispered while feeling like he was missing something.
”Maybe the Duke had specific people he wanted to pair together and so our last group was just put together in the end with the people left. Who just happened to have the right skill set for this mission. Who is to say the next teamwork exercise would work in our favor? Next time, we could be the ones suffering big time. We were just lucky.” Colin was not feeling the same doubts.
”I mean the sounds logical. I just don't know. My uncle is not that type of sloppy person.” Braiden could see what Colin was trying to say, but he still had a sinking feeling that this was just the beginning.