Nótt really got it right in choosing these horses they really are capable of running all day even when they are above their normal speed, the magic that Zephyr kept all day working which already and a great feat tends to put extra weight on the body of those who benefit from its effects.
The horses' stamina had been drained at a faster rate than normal for them and their legs must have taken the stress and damage from running at this faster than normal speed, but at the end of the day they were fine, tired but without an internal wound.
During the trip the group didn't have much time to get to know each other as they ride all day while everyone is very excited about hunting a dragon and apprehensive about looking for any enemy that might get in our way. But I still managed to analyze my new teammates well and as I already know two of them, I had plenty of time on the other members of Nótt's team.
Their team's defense is a warrior named Bougi he is in the final stage of the gray core and an uncommon defensive warrior; normally defensive warriors don't have either an elemental energy or have the earth element in their body. Bougi is different he has awakened the ice element which is generally a good element for mages, but not so much for warriors who tend to have offensive roles.
But the route of an ice wall is a solid defense, literally and when combined with the effect the ice element has on harming living creatures by lowering their body temperature or even getting to burn the body of enemies which is usually the way to go. that offensive warriors of this element follow, Bougi has become a shield that harms its enemies by blocking their blows.
I think he must also be able to freeze his enemy, but that is something he will only be able to do in the future when his core is stronger or if he fights my snow in an ice storm. This is the first time I've seen a defensive warrior with an element other than the earth element and it makes me curious to see his fighting style, but when our enemy is a fire dragon I really want to find out if it's Bougi's ice shield can survive dragon fire.
Final member of Nótt's team and the adorable and smiling Skadi who is Bougi's twin sister, as well as her brother she has awakened the ice element which I later discovered is one of the most common elements of her Vagues family. It seems that this is a family that was born in the north of the kingdom, but managed to make its way to the capital and become one of the average noble families in the capital.
I don't know much about her other than she appears to have a smile on her face most of the day, I also think she's Alice's friend on Nótt's team. Because I doubt that Alice is friends with Nótt since the moment the two saw each other, Alice looked a little scared and my only friend protected Gloria who was on her side at that moment.
During the trip our group wasn't attacked by any animals or magic beasts, I wasn't that surprised by that because it takes a very large group of animals or magic beasts to attack us. Most of these beasts and magical beasts have a survival extinct strong enough to know when to stay out of trouble, and a group of ten horses running close together at great speed is not a good target.
Aside from stupid magic beasts that we weren't unlucky enough to find or level three beasts that wouldn't be afraid to attack our team, wouldn't be here since we're still a short distance from town and roads, this type of magic beast turns out to be pretty territorial. and likes to have a good nest and a plain with few hills like the one we are passing is not a good place to create a nest.
Without good cover, if we were near a land elevation or small mountain that would be a slightly large hill, a flying magic beast would love to nest there, but not anywhere like this close by. And if we were lucky, tomorrow wasn't much different.
During the night break the team members finally had the opportunity to eat a simple hot meal, which is a very good thing on a cold night like today, the winds that travel across the northern plains at night are very cold and dry.
"So, what are we doing up north?"
It seems that Nótt hasn't told his team members about the mission, except for Ryas who seems to be the only member of her team who isn't curious as to why we're here.
"Simple, it's your friend's fault over there, Raziel. He wanted to go on a fun mission and invited us to run north on a good, fun hunt with a good chance of ending in an agonizing death in flames."
Their pale face is really an amusing sight, Nótt really has a gift for words. He wanted to see how she motivates her team in a difficult situation, does she threaten them with torture to keep them from running away, or does she just describe the tragic and painful end they will meet if they fail during the crisis.
The first to recover from her leader's heavy declaration was Skadi.
"I don't remember having a quest like this in the north, the quests that were available and minimally good in this aria of the kingdom were in killing two bands of magical beasts that are dangerously close to some small villages here. These missions don't require two groups to team up or watch our time, the journey is too long for a few points."
Good memory, she must have looked for quests yesterday.
"How about you explain, Ulric? At the end of the day and your idea and enjoy and tell us about the other quests, I barely managed to read some of them while we waited for our alliance registration to be ready."
"I don't care about that, Nótt, I think your way of explaining is very interesting. Tell them what we're hunting in the north, then I'll talk about the other missions."
The smile on Nótt's face only faltered for a few seconds when I returned the explanation to her.
"It's simple boys and girls, we're going to hunt a little flaming dragon. This is a new quest that was published this morning, we are the first group to leave town and chase the dragon. So, no soft-bodied, let's just sleep a few hours and leave before dawn the sooner we track the dragon the greater our chance of killing him before any other group checks near him or on his trail."
"Dragon?!"
The twins simply exclaimed one word in response to Nótt's direct explanation. Raziel had a different reaction.
"Even when I'm not part of your group anymore, I'm still drawn into your suicidal antics, Ulric. Why didn't you go and try to kill the others? Did it have to be the team I'm on?"
"Yes, your team was the best option. The strategy that I and Nótt created and very simple, let's hunt the dragon at night where the warriors and mage who have the shadow element will tie the dragon while he is cursed by Nótt. The attack team will be the three ice warriors, the others will serve as assistants, so Gloria be prepared to help Bougi withstand the dragon's attacks and flames."
My team was already prepared for this formation, but Nótt's team was still processing the fact that they are going to face a fire dragon, even if he is a small dragon, he is still a dragon that can burn any of them with his raging fire. or rips them apart with its claws and fangs.
While those who were still shocked just recovered our dinner was ready, during the meal I answered several questions about the quest to slay the dragon and about the other quests that were published today. Questions about the other quests came mostly from Nótt and Ryas, but only Nótt made disconcerting comments about the quests.
She said that she was very interested in hunting down the Necromancer and if this quest hasn't been completed by the time, we get back to camp she'll want to try this quest, even though it's not likely that we'd be successful in doing it before the test time is up.
The other mission that she thought was cool was to invade a neighboring kingdom that will soon be an enemy of our kingdom to kill a military man, according to her this was a great opportunity to do tourism and see how the normal military of that kingdom is.
During that last daydream of hers even her team looked at her as if she was completely crazy. It seems that even this is beyond her normal, but I wonder if there will be some groups that will have the idiotic idea of accepting this mission.
But before Nótt could continue to make his toasts, we all went to sleep, as she said before, there wasn't much time left for us to rest. In a few hours or so the sun will rise and before that we should be traveling again.