Point-of-View: Persia Gerit

  During: Shuffle Arc

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  "I don't think I can lead a group like this, could you take over, Key?" I groaned, as we headed home to put on our equipment.

  "Uh……I doubt I'd be any good at it, so……I would rather not," She replied with an awkward smile, averting her gaze.

  "……that's fair, I'd probably react the same way if our positions were reversed," I sighed wistfully.

  We were all supposed to meet by the east gate in a couple of hours and then go through the forest-jungle-swamp area and spend the night there before returning tomorrow. I didn't want to do this, but I kept myself from complaining since Kuro had it worse……at least I ended up with one member of Group D and no one too troublesome like Gela or Lamasa.

  I returned home and put on my armor and equipment, and then went out to buy some essentials, canned food, water bottles, healing scrolls and whatnot. I then used the teleportation points to make my way to the east gate of the Rustlands, Key and two of the others were already there. It wasn't long before the last one arrived. Hm……I don't know any of their names.

  "Um, hi……I'm Persia, and I'll, uh, be in charge of this group for today."

  "Uh, yeah, we already know that. Way to state the obvious," Remarked one of them, a girl with a short blonde bobcut and light blue eyes.

  Bitch. I think she was a member of Group A. If I remember right, the other two were both from Group C. Maybe we should at least know each other's names before we start fighting monsters……

  "R-right, uh……why don't we all introduce ourselves to each other, it'll be hard to work together as total strangers, after all," I suggested awkwardly.

  "I agree, and while we're at it, we should let each other know what our Elemental Magic is and in which range we specialize in fighting in," Added Key supportively.

  I sure am glad that I have at least one familiar face here with me.

  "Well, I guess I'll go first……my name's Persia Gerit, I use Wind Magic and prefer fighting in close range, though I can use mid range attacks too."

  "I'm Key Angor, I use Fire Magic and my strength is in the close range as well, and I can use medium range strikes as well, though in a fairly limited capacity."

  The two from Group C went next……

  "Uh, hello……my name is Trax Pendalb, I use Earth Magic, at most at mid range," Introduced one of them, a guy with longish curly black hair tied in a short ponytail, black eyes and a long, thin tail that looked like it was probably a lizard or reptile Anima.

  "I'm Dise Rhacater, I use Water Magic and I prefer to fight from a distance in the long range," Said the other one, a guy with short, straight brown hair and brown eyes, and didn't have any visible Anima mutations.

  And that left the bitch from Group A……

  "Fine, whatever……I'm Tulsi Dagery, I use Water Magic and can fight in any range, though I prefer mid range."

  She had a blonde haired bobcut, light blue eyes and gills on the side of her neck.

  Alright, that takes care of that……we should go now.

  "Okay, let's leave now," I suggested, heading for the gate.

  The others nodded and followed after me. It was a pretty awkward walk to the forest, no one really said anything and there was an uncomfortable feeling around our group. I hate this……

  Fortunately, we didn't have any problems against the weaker monsters like Forest Imps, Walking Trees and Orcs, so the first few hours weren't a problem at all. We passed the swamp area and headed deeper into the jungle, resting every two hours. Around early evening time, a little past 4 PM, we finally ran into a different type of monster. Devilmonkeys. They were slightly smaller than humans, and had high levels of speed and agility, along with strength superior to an average human. Apparently, they used to be found only deeper in, but had recently expanded their territory somewhat.

  They had wild brown fur, long fangs and claws, and red eyes. We had run into them for the first time since we began this Quest, and they had us surrounded, I could sense eight of them. I can 'smell' the presence of Mana, a person who had most of their Mana remaining would give off a sort of strong perfume-like scent, and if they were running low on it, the scent would be weaker.

  I couldn't differentiate between different people though, I can tell how many people are around within about a hundred meter radius, but I can't tell them apart. I could if I worked on memorizing each person's individual scent, but that was kinda gross. The only person I could identify based on scent was Kuro……u-uh, never mind, forget I said that. Though, I sometimes fail to detect enemies because I dull my nose since it sometimes gets too overwhelmingly sensitive.

  Crap, I went off topic……my point is, I knew how many Devilmonkeys were surrounding us because I could smell their Dark Magic……it was very different to Mana, but at the same time not that different. Uh, how to explain it……oh, it's like cake and bread, they're both made of flour but are totally different to each other.

  Damn it, I'm going off topic again! I……I don't think I'm good at being a point-of-view narrator.

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  Point-of-View: Kuro Black

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  Woah, woah, woah, hold on just a sec! I know this chapter isn't supposed to have me narrate, but if I might just interject for a moment……

  Persia, you're doing great! I go off topic all the time, it's totally fine, no biggie! In fact, you know what, this is definitely the best chapter so far……your POV is the best POV! So……h-hey, wait a sec, I'm not done yet-!

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  Point-of-View: Persia Gerit

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……

  okay, that was weird. Did he really have to break the fourth wall for……well, I guess I do feel a bit calmer about it.

  M-moving on!

  The Devilmonkeys flung rocks, branches and fruits down at us, and if I'm being honest, it was more annoying than dangerous. The real danger was each other……all our attacks kept getting in each other's way, which wasn't exactly surprising. Even with Group D, our teamwork had a lot of room for improvement despite months of working together, so to expect a last-minute randomly formed group to efficiently work together was……well, let's just say that unreasonable would be an understatement.

  "Hey, you two with Water Magic……fire some shots of water or ice up at them and try to knock them off the trees, we should be able to kill them easily once they're on the group," I suggested, as I used a blast of Propulsion from my hand to blow away a rock hurled down at me.

  I had, uh……already forgot their names.

  "I'll try……I can't use Ice Magic though," Said the brown-haired guy.

  "Hmph, I really hate being bossed around by someone like you. I cannot use ice either. But my water blasts will be more than enough," Added the blonde bitch with a cocky smirk.

  Ordinarily, I could just blast myself up till I reached the Devilmonkeys and then fire off a barrage of wind at close range, but……I wasn't going to risk it, one of the others might accidentally hit me with an Elemental attack, and that would suck. Key was the only one I could trust, but she couldn't exactly go crazy with her flames with all these trees around anyway, the last thing we want is a forest fire.

  The deeper we went into this area, the more closely packed the trees were, meaning less open spaces. Forget the flames, she'd have trouble freely using her sword at all in this place.

  Anyway, the two Water Magic users managed to knock the Devilmonkeys down one by one, though their aims could use some work, if I'm being honest. And even after we got them down, these monsters weren't that easy to take out. Their attacks were quick, and they were really good at evasion too.

  I fired a wide blast of wind from my mouth at one of them as they fell to the ground, wide enough to prevent it from evading, sending it crashing onto a tree, dazing it. Before it could recover, I shot towards it, blasting out Propulsion from my feet and extending out the metal claws on the glove on my right hand.

  I drove my extended claws forward as I neared it, piercing through its chest and killing it. Hm, that worked but I couldn't generate as much momentum as I'd have liked……this tree-filled area wasn't ideal for moving around at high speeds.

  As for the others……

  Key was dodging two of them with no problem, but with these trees around, she didn't have the space she needed to fully swing her sword. She was slowly grazing and nicking them, but was unable to land a decisive blow. She'll probably use up more stamina, but I don't think she's in any real trouble, she was slowly but surely wearing them down. The other three, on the other hand……

  The curly black-haired guy was trying to keep one of them at bay using blocks of earth as defensive shields, but he was raising them too slow, the monster sprang over the blocks and punched him in the face, blood trickling down his nose as he stumbled back with a groan.

  Giving him no time to recover, the Devilmonkey sprang onto him and pinned him down, he let out a cry of pain as it sank its claws into his biceps. In desperation, he swung his foot up, raising a small block of earth and slamming it against the back of the monster's head before it could kill him. The monster's head split open and it soon disappeared.

  Key had managed to slowly but finally break down the two she was fighting, having dealt enough damage to make them disappear into dust. That left four more, and they had all ganged up on the two Water Magic users, who were responsible for shooting them down……

  They had them surrounded, and were dodging their water attacks with ease. No, wait, that's not it……it's just that both of their accuracies had gone down even further due to fear and panic, the Devilmonkeys didn't actually seem to need to dodge. I don't want to save that Group A girl, she's a total bitch, but……I am in charge of this group, after all.

  I reluctantly shot towards the back of one of the monsters and swung my metal claws across towards the back of its neck, nearly slashing its head off, certainly enough to kill it. Two of the others sprang at me, I evaded to the left to avoid the first one and blasted myself straight up with a short burst of Propulsion to jump over the second one.

  I then rapidly blasted myself back down, grabbed its head and twisted hard. I then feigned weakness by deliberately collapsing onto one knee while charging my Mana into my fingers……

  The other Devilmonkey sprang at me with a howl, before disappearing as I swiped my hand across, sending out wind claw slashes at it, cutting it into pieces.

  The last one then sprang at me, I jumped back to evade the swing of its claws as it bared its fangs at me. The blonde bitch was a few meters behind me as I moved back to get some distance. The monster jumped at me, and blondie let out a panicked cry and fired a slash of water at it. Nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that I was between her and the monster.

  I blasted myself up just in the nick of time, the water slash cutting the monster in half and killing it. That was close, she'd have taken off my right arm if I didn't react in time! I wanted to punch her in the face……but I probably shouldn't.

  "Hey, be careful, I understand that you panicked, but we can't afford to hurt each other-," I began, forcing myself to talk calmly.

  "Aw, what's wrong? Did my attack scare you?" She taunted, all signs of panic seeming to have disappeared along with the monster.

  "No, but it almost took my arm off, I'm just saying-," I continued patiently.

  "Do I really have to follow such a whiny little cunt, just shut up and do your job……Argh!" She laughed, before my patience snapped and I interrupted her with a wind-enhanced punch to the face, knocking out a couple of her teeth……

  I did say that I wanted to punch her, didn't I? I mean, here I was, thrust into a role that was way out of my comfort zone, I was nearly severely injured, and the person responsible laughs in my face……if no one's going to listen to me, then I might as well force them to listen.

  As blondie stood up with a groan, I grabbed her by the collar and slammed her against a tree with a growl.

  "Pull something like that again, and I'll punch you so much harder……same goes for if you annoy me in any way, got it? If I feel like I'm in danger of getting injured or something because of you, I'll kill you myself!" I snapped, before turning to the other two, "Don't suppose you two have any complaints about me?"

  "N-no, not at all!"

  "No complaints here either!"

  "Good, now let's keep moving. Heal yourself while we walk," I ordered blondie, who meekly took out a healing spell while averting her gaze in anger and fear.

  As we continued moving forward, Key approached me……

  "That caught me off guard, remind me to never get on your bad side," She remarked with a quiet laugh.

  "Oh, I don't think you need to worry about that. Unless you turn out to be a bitch like, er……what was her name again?"

  "Uh……I think it was Tulsi. I think she's tolerable though, especially compared to her fellow Group A member Lamasa. But I understand your reaction, you're clearly stressed over the leader role, aren't you?"

  "Was it that obvious? Well, I did request you to switch with me before we left……I wanna go home already," I sighed in exasperation.

  We ran into a few more groups of Devilmonkeys over the next few hours, and right as the sky began darkening, around 7 PM, we ran into another type of monster……Giant Poison Frogs, they were much bigger than humans in size, and could probably fit a human head in their mouths pretty easily. We were passing through another swamp, this one was much bigger than the first one we passed through, and there were a lot of reptiles and lizards around too, a lot of mud underfoot, high levels of humidity even at this time of the day……but on the bright side, there were more open spaces so moving around was easier.

  It's a good thing Kuro didn't get this area, this has got to be his worst nightmare. These frog monsters were pretty dangerous, their skin was covered in poison that would cause hallucinations and nausea if you so much as touched them, they could shoot out their tongues about ten meters, which were extremely sticky, and could spew lethal venom about twenty meters, if it touched you, you have less than a minute to use an antidote or you would die.

  Fortunately, before we left the Academy, Instructor Tabbs advised us to take a few vials of antidote for the frog venom.

  These monsters had a major weakness though……they were very slow moving, they were too heavy to hop around like normal frogs, so they sort of just crawled around. Additionally, they were easy to kill, a few good hits were more than enough. And they were especially weak against fire, so Key took the lead with her mid range fiery slashes, boosted by my wind. This area was really murky, so we didn't have to worry about anything catching fire.

  The others sort of stayed back, Water Magic was the least effective Elemental type against them, and the other guy's Earth Magic didn't have a wide enough range, he would have to get in much closer which would put him in danger of getting hit with the monster's venom.

  After we took care of the frog monsters, we continued on for a while longer, but it soon got too dark for the others. I could see just fine, so I sort of forgot that not everyone can see in the dark.

  We found a row of bushes with a small grassy clearing behind it, we put up a barrier around us in that spot and set up camp for the night. I guess this means we're about halfway done with this Quest.

  I'll be back home tomorrow, I can't wait for this to be over. I just hope it goes smoothly……

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  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.