Chapter 39: Rough Mix

Chapter 39: Rough Mix In another region of the forest, the low voice of someone speaking could be faintly heard.

"We should ditch them."

The person said to the lady beside him, but he was met with silence as his response as the lady ignored him and moved to the front walking faster.

"I find it quite funny that you’d suggest something of such nature to the young lady."

Another boy said with a chuckle before catching up to the lady who had made her way to the front.

"Curse you, Liam!"

The one who had spoken earlier cursed under his breath looking at the backs of the lady and the boy he referred to as Liam, before shooting a short, hostile glance to those following at the back.

Their little group was a combination of around three teams of recruits that had been sent on a mission to the region four days ago.

More than half of them were in not-so-good conditions. They looked like they had been running from something or like they had encountered a disaster.

"What the hell does he take us for?!" one of the injured grumbled, but he was silenced by another one of them.

"Idiot! We were lucky she agreed to take us along for nothing in return. If you can’t deal with a few words from one of them, you’re better off leaving!"

The injured recruit who complained earlier kept quiet upon hearing the words of his team leader. He definitely had a point there, he definitely had no right to get angry or complain.

At the front, Sabrina frowned due to the atmosphere the group had taken due to the words of Ethan.

’What was he thinking?’ She thought to herself, her annoyance increasing steadily. She just happened to be stuck with someone she always tried to get away from for a whole week in the middle of nowhere and he definitely wasn’t planning on making it easier for her.

"Don’t think about it, it won’t help." A cool reassuring voice was heard from her side dispelling her worries.

"Thank you, Liam." She said looking to his side and he replied with a small smile whilst looking forward.

Thump!

A stone thrown from an unknown direction landed in front of their feet, causing them to move back rapidly, pulling their weapons, looking around in caution.

"Who is there?!" Liam shouted, raising his arm to make some gestures to Ethan and the rest at the back instantly putting them on alert, all of them taking their weapons in their hands ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

"How did you manage to gather such a crowd?" a figure said, walking out from the side to face Sabrina and the rest with his arms in the air and no weapons on his body.

"Jake." Sabrina said, dropping her weapon, but Liam and the rest were still on guard; still pointing their guns at him.

Looking a little confused, Sabrina asked them to stand down but Liam still hesitated. Seeing this, she ordered once more in a harder tone,

"Stand down!"

Hearing her firm voice, Liam finally dropped his weapon followed by the rest at the back.

"Thank you!" Jake said, nodding his head in a random direction.

Looking towards that direction; a little confused, they saw Kieran and Ruby sitting on two tall trees, their guns aimed in the direction of Sabrina and Liam — the two closest to Jake, only dropping their weapons after Jake’s signal

"Fuck!" Liam muttered seeing the movement of Jake’s team. The rock must have come from Kieran or Ruby.

"You can’t blame them, they just acted accordingly" Jake said, the small smile still on his face.

He was back to his composed and scholarly attitude with no trace of the wildness and hint of craziness he had shown to Kieran and Ruby. All that remained to perfect his image was a haircut, he was truly a master at pretense.

"Naturally, I understand." Sabrina replied, her voice holding no anger at his team’s reaction.

Her group had acted hostile first even after he had identified himself and came out in the open with no weapons. It was understandable that they reacted in the same way.

Despite her quiet persona, she understood the shifts among the first years. No one really trusted the other and some had even formed groups long ago. It was funny to see this happen even with their small numbers.

Jake, despite having a rather nice relationship with most of the recruits and being the number one on the ranking list, was looked upon in a hostile manner by most of them just because of that — he was the strongest!

Humans feared that which was stronger than them and always sought to eliminate that which they feared. The recruits were no exception to this, they feared Jake because they knew he was stronger than them and that fear bred hostility within them, fearing that he might one day come for them.

"I see your little group isn’t faring that well. Why not follow us to a nice spot and you can tell us what happened to them." Jake said, leading them to the abandoned outpost.

It was still early in the morning and Jake’s team had decided to move out when they came across Sabrina not too far from the outpost.

After they made their way back to the outpost, Kieran finally got a good look at all of them. Apart from Sabrina’s team, there were two more teams. One of them was a three-man team he recognized and the other was a five-man team he hadn’t seen before.

Despite how wrecked the eight recruits looked, only two of them had been injured and they were just a few light injuries. One thing though was how exhausted they were. Each of them plopped down the moment they got to the outpost, showing a small feeling of relief, like they had just escaped from something terrifying.

Glancing at them once more with a strange expression he walked to where Jake and Ruby were, discussing with Sabrina and Liam. Ethan just stood to the side with a look that expressed his complete lack of interest.

"How did you all end up together and they like that?" Kieran heard Jake ask Sabrina.

"We met them along the way...." Sabrina explained.

It turned out that just like them, they had also encountered those blue beasts and had a fight with them but unlike the pack Kieran and his team had fought with, the ones they had encountered outnumbered them by far with a high amount of those last giant type of beats; the ones Kieran had fought in the command room.

Facing a situation like that, Kieran would have ditched the mission and found a way to alert the base, it was far more than what a three-man team could handle, but he didn’t know what the leader of the two teams were thinking when they decided to try their hands only to get it cut off brutally.

They found the beasts’ encampment on their second night and had spent almost a day running from them after their failed attack before stumbling into Sabrina’s team having deviated from their original path.

Luckily Sabrina agreed to take them along, leading them to their current situation.

Sabrina’s group had also encountered the blue beasts, but they weren’t even as difficult as the ones Kieran faced, so they were easily wiped out. One thing that was common to all the beasts the four teams, including Kieran’s and Sabrina’s, had noticed was their possession of military weapons.

It turned out that there was more than one outpost in the region. That was understandable considering how huge the region was, but what baffled him was why they had all been abandoned with their weapons left intact. The beats the other team had seen had also taken over an outpost like this one, but they had filled it better with their large numbers. Sabrina though didn’t find any outpost, they had simply eliminated them in the small place they had formed along their path.

’That aside, how did they get there so fast’ Kieran pondered, looking at the two teams that had come in with Sabrina. He didn’t understand how they managed to travel that deep in just two days.

"...their leader?"

Kieran’s ear propped up at the question Jake asked.

"Yeah, it was more like a mad hound if you ask me, saying some weird things. I did manage to get a location from it though."

"Center of the region?" Kieran said, joining their conversation.

"Yes." Sabrina answered in a straight tone, making Kieran more comfortable.

"How useful are they?" Kieran asked, pointing to the other two teams earning looks of displeasure from most of them.

"They are okay, just tired. They just need some food and rest. I already gave my supplies but they weren’t enough." Sabrina said, wondering what he wanted to do.

"Alright." Kieran said, walking towards where the two teams sat, resting their bodies.

"How many of you still have some strength left? Follow me." Kieran asked and the hostile glares just increased in intensity, especially at his tone and facial expression.

"I’m still good, I’ll go!"

One of them who seemed to understand Kieran’s question, said and stood up.

"But captain—" one of them started only to be cut off by the one who had stood up.

"Shut it! If you’re gonna come, come! If you aren’t, then sit your ass and shut the FUCK UP!!" The captain said, shouting the last part. He was frustrated and tired of the recruit’s sloppy attitude.

"I’ll go." A soft voice was heard followed by two recruits standing.

Kieran looked at the three who had volunteered to come along with him.

The first was the blond-haired guy he had recognized earlier, the second was a recruit with good dimensions wearing a glasses that gave him a nerdy look. The last guy was pretty much average in every sense, but he had a look in his eyes that Kieran found interesting.

"Alright, let’s go." He said, leaving the rest behind to wonder what he was up to.