Scale of Reality

Prism Swamp: Part 7

Jax POV

It's been four days since we entered the Prism Swamp. My party consisted of Fei,, Xander, Shanna, Lapis, and Zeke, which wasn't bad at all.

Besides Lapis, they were all nobles, but they weren't bad nobles so it wasn't the worst. Plus, Lapis and Xavier was strong so I didn't have to worry about my group being weak.

"Jax! We've finished over here!"

I smirked and swung my axe, cutting two Lizard men in half at once.

"Good job everyone, let's take a short break."

I swung my axe to remove the blood before putting it down. My party members seemed to be doing fine so far, but Fei and Zeke looked like they beginning to get tired.

Xavier and Shanna seemed good, and Lapis was asleep as always, so I know I didn't have to worry about them. Without much more delay, I walked over to the two.

"You guys not dying soon are you?"

The two shook their heads.

"I am fine! Thank you for your concern party leader!"

I turned to Fei.

"I-I'm fine...I was just thinking about Blood Moon and that Red werewolf."

I remembered what she was referring to well. That Red werewolf came through and handled us with relative ease. If something that strong were to appear again...

"Don't think about that. We're fine! Three more days and we're free. Stop worrying your noble head off."

I walked back over to my axe and picked it up before turning back to my group.

"Come on everyone let's move!"

I could only hope something like that red werewolf wouldn't show up again. If it did, my group and I will probably be killed.

"Be careful out there Muji. We still haven't gotten paired up or fought against each other yet."

Elsewhere Iris POV

"I-Is everyone alright?!"

Mari called out to our group members as they were scattered across the battlefield. As we were battling the Lizard men had somehow separated us, we managed to get through it though. Mari stood alone with me way in the back of the battle as a guard as I healed the team.

"We're fine over here!!"

I heard her brother, which caused Mari to let out a deep sigh of relief. She instantly looked less worried upon hearing of her brothers safety.

Vas began to walk back with some visible scars, same with Chris. I began to heal them both while waiting for Adjest and Muji to get back.

"Lady Adjest! Muji! You guys good?!"

Lady Adjest came walking out of the dark holding her arm.

"Y-You may want to come see this."

Everyone walked over to Adjest, myself included, as we followed her back through the darkness of the night.

"Prepare yourselves, this is very unpleasant on the eyes."

We continued to walk until we seen Muji, who's eyes were visibly darker than the night around us.

It was a bit scary.

"Look."

Muji pointed forward as we looked ahead, seeing the corpses of some people up against and hanging from a tree.

However there was something weird about them. They had these egg like things sprouting out from their body.

It made me sick.

I began to vomit, same thing with Mari. Vas seemingly just comforted his sister while Chris just remained stoic.

"It looks like...they're trying to take us alive so that they can make more of their numbers."

Adjest nodded.

"This wasn't in the information we got...or of what we studied. We have to find Ms Shinmon and-

Muji looked at Adjest, and she stumbled back and reached for her weapon. I looked at Muji's face and felt a wave of fear come over me.

That didn't look anything like Muji.

Chris began to laugh as sweat trickled down his forehead. He reached for his weapon while keeping an eye on Muji.

"Don't worry...I'm not going to attack any of you. I'm just a bit pissed off."

Muji walked over to the tree and placed a hand on it, poison coating it and dissolving everything it touched.

"May you all rest in peace."

Muji turned back to us, his face back to normal.

"Sorry guys, when I get mad it gets a bit out of hand. I just...I imagined one of those people being Mya or my siblings and I flipped."

Muji bowed his head a bit.

"I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Muji began to walk off as we all just began to follow after him. I turned and took one last look at what used to be the tree corpses, giving them a small prayer before going back to my group.

Alana POV

I punched the last Lizard man as it turned to ashes before turning and seeing my group. My party leader was Ray, the kid wasn't doing that bad..

I hated the way he spoke though.

"At ease party members! The enemies have been vanquished!"

Like that.

I took a seat against a tree and hummed to myself, wishing I had some gum on me. I looked up and seen Mya speaking with Sky, Ray speaking with Lacas, and Mateo being emo or something.

"Damn brats."

When I made groups this time I purposely put the weaker ones into my group, most of them anyways. However as we continued to move I could sense many things that didn't make much sense.

The main one being that large signature of Mana to the north of us. None of the children seemed to have notice it, probably due to their Mana not being high enough.

"Eh, me and Naki should be able to handle it."

I just hope that none of those brats end up fighting against it.

They'd probably die instantly, whatever it is.