Freshly motivated by the acquisition of her new throwing knife, Kayla led the party deeper into the dungeon. After only a few minutes of walking, she suddenly launched her knife into a nearby tree and almost immediately, a spider fell from where it was hiding.
Its legs curled inwards before it hit the ground, the others speechless as she whipped the knife free and back to her hand. "Hmm, it's a bit too pointed for hunting and fishing."
"Okay I'm seriously impressed, the knife mixed with your skills is a great combo, Little Twinkle. I'll have the knife reworked if you are happy to go without it for a while, a new shape better for hunting."
"Thanks! I'm a lot more comfortable with a hunting tool than a weapon." Kayla beamed back at them before continuing, leaving the others behind in the wake of her new confidence.
Jonah was about to remind her not to get too far ahead, but Lucas stopped him and just quietly suggested they follow at a distance and watch. "Hey, you two. I don't want to overstep, but the girl's got talent, be sure to nurture it."
"We will, but I see why her mother warned her about ego as well, she's already forgotten we told her to stay close. Beyond that, it seems the difference between hunting and killing is a big one to her and I might need to remind her what the difference is sooner rather than later."
Lucas and Orcette looked at the spider and then the blood on her hand, which she didn't seem to give a second thought now. "Yeah, I'm not entirely happy about how comfortable she was killing that one..."
As the others spoke, they hadn't realised that Kayla had been unconsciously feeding mana into her ears as and when she had it to spare. As a result, she could hear every word and sprinted away from then suddenly at full speed, completely unimpeded by the terrain.
"Dammit! Where did she go!?" Lucas shouted as she disappeared almost immediately into the brush.
"You really can't sense her?" Jonah asked with genuine interest, surprised that someone in his position could actually lose track of a level 2 child.
"Course I can't. I'm only human and if a rogue doesn't want to be found, there isn't a whole lot I can do." Jonah ranted frantically as he tried to look for her without getting too far off the beaten track.
"Leave it to me then, I can still sense her emotions still, they're rather turbulent and intense so I'm guessing she heard us. I'll go fetch her, you stay here with Orcette, I won't be gone long and she isn't too far away." Jonah's insight put them at ease a bit and Lucas made a sharp gesture for him to get on with it and bring her back.
He barely made it fifteen metres before the world seemed to twist around him and he lost a clear sense of direction, but after stopping and taking a deep breath, he was able to focus on the beacon of Kayla's emotional distress.
Using that, he managed to make progress, albeit slowly and surely. As he ventured out, it seemed that every ten metres or so, the effect grew heavier and he needed to refocus. At fifty metres, even his perception of time seemed to distort.
Originally, he had estimated her to be about a hundred metres away, but by the time he reached half that it felt like he had been searching an entire day. "Kayla! Come out please, I'm totally lost now!"
He wasn't just saying that, by the time he reached a hundred and twenty metres, it felt like he was looking over his shoulder and navigating by his reflection whilst black-out drunk. He couldn't even keep his wings furled as in and out got twisted, he could only think about how glad he was that she was immune.
He continued to push through as best he could, growing more and more unsteady...
He had managed to fend off a few attacking spiders, but even against such basic enemies it was difficult and they had all been one-on-one. If he bumped into any plants like the ones he had faced before they checked stats, or even just a few of the spiders, he knew he'd be an easy target.
It was while he was imagining bad situations that he stumbled and his wing sliced through one of the plants that he had lectured Orcette about, completely covering himself in the sickly sweet fluid designed to attract prey.
He was so dizzy he didn't even realise, dragging himself forward and gathering the attention of beasts as he went. "Kayla! Could really use a hand!"
When Jonah finally heard her voice, it was distorted by her crying. "Jonah!? Are you okay!?"
Her response was too late and even as she dried her eyes and waited for a response, she suddenly heard the skittering of spiders converging on a single target. "Lucas! I think Jonah needs help!"
She shouted as loudly as she could, but that had the unintended effect of drawing attention to her as well, but unfortunately it wasn't spiders.
One of the snakes they had seen had approached silently and it was only thanks to her skill that she sensed it, like a blip suddenly appearing on an internal radar. She tugged on the leather cord wrapped around her and prepared to attack.
"Kayla! I can't make it there easily! Get to Jonah and give me a signal to locate you!" As he spoke, he moved away from Orcette and asked her to try and clear the line of sight between them when Kayla made their location known and she nodded, then he began crackling with electric current.
"Try not to fry them too."
"It will be much easier if I can see, but I will be able to sense them through the lightning a little and minimise the friendly-fire."
As that happened, the snake lunged and Kayla dived to the side, trying to keep the tree between her and the snake. Then she whipped the knife at it and leaving a gash down its side and pulling it back, before having to reposition as the snake lunged again.
As she did so, she caught herself on a broken branch and opened a cut along her shoulder that left her arm throbbing and made her eyes teary, even though adrenaline was numbing it for the most part.
The few seconds of hesitation cost her the opening the snake left as it landed and prepared for a follow-up attack. She dived violently to the side again, grazing the arms she had just cut open on the rough bark and yelping, but managed to maintain composure as adrenaline kept pumping.
She twisted sharply feeling a muscle pull in her side, as the snake lunged again, but she wasn't trying to dodge this time and threw the knife which flew into the opening of its mouth, Only at the last second did she dive to the side and pull on the leather cord which hooked onto the side of it's unhinged jaw and caused the knife to drag along the far side of it.
As it landed, it did so into a pool of its own blood at the same time the knife made it back to Kayla's hand and she started sobbing again at the wound on her arm and the blood on her hands.
She didn't stop however, the moment she was sure it was dead, she dashed in the direction the spiders were headed.
When she was in sight of Jonah, she saw him flailing around as spiders were trying to wrap him up in webbing, a few had broken fangs that she assumed happened the same way as the thorns on the vines.
'Need to get Lucas' attention...' As she thought it, she decided the quickest way would be to climb a tree and try to glare the light of her dagger which was larger and more reflective than the knife.
With her plan formed she executed it as quickly as she could, clambering up a tree and then finding the light, which was difficult since there wasn't a clear source like the sun, but not impossible and the moment she succeeded the sky crackled and made her hair stand on end.
A few seconds later, the trees and bushes seemed to wither between her and the other two clearing a path and then almost immediately they were stuck by a blinding flash that scorched the area where Jonah was surrounded by spiders.
After that a crack of thunder rang out that startled her so badly Kayla nearly fell out of the tree, but as eager as she was to get back to the others she waited.
Jonah and the ground around him were still crackling heavy from the lighting strike and even though he was singed, Jonah looked mostly unharmed and rushing in would only cause more trouble.
"Kayla! Good call staying put! The moment the energy drains, move fast!"
"Right! I'm sor-"
"Apologise when you get back! To our faces properly!" Orcette shouted back to her, doing her best to hide the fact that the little runaway was in for a pretty big lecture, but understanding why she got so overwhelmed suddenly.
A few seconds later, the crackling stopped and Kayla put her weapons away and scrambled back down, then ran over to Jonah where she smelled the sweet scent and remembered the conversation they had had.
In a panic, and unsure if it would even work, she smeared mud over the covered area until she couldn't smell it any more then shook him awake and led him back down the withered pathway toward Orcette and Lucas.