Everyone is ready for another walk in hell, the shadows are taking longer to kill the light this time, they walk almost non-stop for more than a cycle, they've made it a considerable distance from the fort, but there's still a long way to go to get away from this hell.
They didn't say anything directly to Susano, they didn't even say it explicitly, but Susano already understood that it will take them a long time to reach their intended destination.
The sparks amidst the shadows are also almost gone, Susano is one of the few paying attention, he does not belong to this layer, to this dungeon, he has already covered more than ten leagues, in this march, he who never thought he would walk even a league in straight line, he's gone more than ten and he can't see any wall in front of him.
The trees around here are scarcer and the climate is wetter, but the further they go the taller the trees get, from a little more than 3 meters on average where they came from, to almost 4 meters here, they are thicker too, some are almost twice as thick as those surrounding the fort.
The humidity in the ground is also slowly increasing, in addition to small puddles of water, they often encounter long nasty puddles.
The temperature is a little milder, and with the end of the light period falling more than usual, it will be difficult for them to run in this terrain, the shadows go down to the top of the trees again, they notice noises of creatures jumping from a tree to another one, coming close, soon after comes the sound of heavy footsteps of the running creatures and the sound of the flying creatures is much louder this time.
Quacks echo in the distance, distorted, frightening, Krastinaff's group has known few birds in their lives and most did not fly or fly low, these, even if they could be seen would not be close, the archers keep an eye out for what comes from above, this time the leader maintains his attention to the flying creatures, flying are more numerous and trekkers.
The creatures on the ground make sporadic assaults, making it easy for the warriors to repel their attacks, the archers are overloaded, controlling the approach of the creatures that move through the trees quickly and the flying creatures that hurl themselves at the convoy, the archers are hit harder this time.
The dwarf continues to protect his precious stones from Krastinaff, Amira follows them giving some protection against the few creatures attacking them, Ramon for being one of the few who can move by jumping from tree to tree, he has his effort much appreciated by the leader, but it is inefficient.
Ramon tries to attract the attention of as many creatures as he can with his attacks, the creatures resist his provocation and almost always try to hit the carts, Susano doesn't understand why these creatures that despite being very perverse and didn't showed a sign of intelligence, why they have this predilection for the carts, Susano takes a bow from a fallen archer and shows his talents, it is very difficult, he depends more on hearing to shoot his arrows, the flames of the torches reveal little about the creatures.
The biggest flocks that could do real damage to the carts are met by tongues of fire from the leader, tongues of fire rise above the treetops burning everything in their path and scorching everything nearby, Leader's squire has a lot more work this time to protect her master from lots of creatures that attack from the trees, she is as capable as Ramon and more accurate.
Ramon often falls out of the tree when attacking a creature or wastes time getting ready to jump, the squire attacks are a sequence, going from one target to the next, each attack is part of the continuous movement, as if she were just walking over bodies of the creatures, however it is visible that Ramon, despite trying harder, he gets less tired than the squire.
Krastinaff can barely hear the whispers anymore, but he has a bad headache, he's walking by 'inertia', he's forgotten what he's doing, he follows the dwarf because he was doing this before, he doesn't mind the rocks even though he feels the craving for one more stone, his infection has progressed again during the dark period of the cycle, he has a crackle when he hears the sound of a new cycle, and whatever went through his mind is left behind along with his footprints in that muddy terrain.
With the exception of Krastinaff, the rest of the troop is happy and relieved to see that the shadows are retreating again and the creatures as well, they have survived one more cycle and this fills their chest with joy, which is warmed a little more with the breakfast prepared by Susano.
However, before the news spreads, a dozen more members have succumbed to the attack, and the expectation is that if they survive the next darkness there will be half left, maybe less.
Three of these casualties were only noticed now during the enlightened period, nobody saw what happened, Susano hears the members commenting on the losses, and he hears their names, but he never hears the name of any of them who are alive.
Susano calls Amira to help him distribute the food and take turns pulling the cart with the ex-cook, the ex-cook and the others continue to treat her badly, and Susano gets some of this hostility too, finally Amira takes the food from the Dwarf.
"Sir, i brought your food" Amira says shyly, Susano forgot to warn her that she should feed him and not just deliver the bowl.
"So give it to me bitch!" the dwarf is furious, mainly because Susano forgot to take the dwarf's food in the previous cycle, but the dwarf suspects he wasn't just forgotten, that damn snake fart, I give him a good job and he lets me through hungry, when we get there I'll give him a beating he'll never forget about me anymore, thinks dwarf for the thousandth time.
"Here is it Sir." Amira holds out the bowl, the dwarf thinks of calling her many things, but has a better idea, the dwarf smiles sadistically.
"Bitch, hold one of the wheelbarrow's arms!" Amira doesn't understand, the transition is awkward, the dwarf takes the opportunity to take the bowl from Amira's hand and she realizes that when the dwarf hand out another of the wheelbarrow's arm, she will have to take over the wheelbarrow's driving.
After he finishes voraciously eating his meal, the dwarf turns his attention to his revenge, the dwarf backhands Amira several times and curses her, this is not enough to appease his anger, the dwarf's attack leave marks on Amira's face, it's not as serious as it used to be.
The dwarf turns to Krastinaff who has relentlessly chased him for more than a cycle and takes some more of his anger out. To finalize his party with Krastinaf, the dwarf stomps his arm and breaks one of his bones, Kastinaff does not express as much pain as the dwarf wanted to see.
"You bitch! If this pile of turd catches any of these rocks I'll kill you both!" the dwarf sets off towards the last target of his fury, Snake Fart!
Susano takes several kicks and punches from the dwarf, he still tries to work amid that aggression, it takes some time for the dwarf to get tired of it and go talk to his companions about important matters, he wants to know about what happened while he was driving the wheelbarrow, Susano is spared of more serious injuries by the dwarf's blows.
Susano heard the dwarf boasting about having broken Krastinaff's arm while he was being beaten, as the dwarf walks away he runs to help Krastinaff, he sees Krastinaff's deplorable state, Krastinaff is walking around holding his broken arm, Susano improvises a splint with a branch and a sleeve of Krastinaff's clothing and helps him to eat.
The dry tear marks are clear on Krastinaff's face, and the infection has spread again, Susano goes to Amira.
"I'll be right back with your food" Amira shows a smile knowing that she's going to eat, Susano is sad seeing the marks on Amira's face.
Susano hears several insults from the ex-cook when he returns, in addition to the insults, there is something that is clearly an ultimatum.
"You have to choose! Those losers or us!" Susano was already dreading hearing something like that and already imagined that something similar was said to Rikka and Ramon.
"I know, but first we have to get out of here" Susano tries to delay his decision, he doesn't understand how Rikka and Ramon accepted changing sides so easily.
"Better not be long, next time the dwarf won't be so kind to either of you!" Susano is silent and goes to take Amira's food and is interrupted by his helper.
"Where are you going?" his voice is gruff like the first time they spoke two cycles ago, Susano snorts and responds with a lame apology.
"I'll take Amira's food, the bitch" Susano reluctantly insults Amira, but suspects that this will further his action.
"Better this way" the assistant doesn't like the action, but tolerates it in view of the sign of change in Susano's behavior.
Susano is rude to Amira and makes it loud, doesn't physically attack her, and he receives several encouragements of other people who see the scene to him be mean, Susano is able to feed Amira and take another look at Krastinaff's makeshift splint.
"Now you're alone you shit heap" Susano doesn't seem indifferent like his companions when they changed sides, he does this trying to find some way to continue helping Amira and Krastinaff, for now he can give them food, but before they arrive to their destination, he knows he will have to abandon them.
Once again everyone prepares for another difficult fight as they march, the leader makes a sign, a shout, for the convoy to pause and gather, he has something important to say, the only ones who keep walking are Amira and Krastinaff, Amira feels that she is not welcome and Krastinaff continues following the wheelbarrow by instinct.
"We're about to come out of the shadows" a cheer spreads through the troop, the leader make sign for them to be quiet and listen, he raises his open hand and clenches his fist.
"But make no mistake, this time the creatures will come to kill us all, they also know it's their last chance and they will attack us with everything, no more games, so be warned, spare no efforts, annihilate them all, you can be tired of almost three cycles of continuous march, the creatures, however, are not tired of killing us, so it's fight or die, who's with me to fight?" the leader raises his sword.
The troop responds with varied screams, and many of those screams are just shouts without meaning, they raise their weapons as well, the ones who stand out are Ramon and Susano, Ramon only raises his clenched fists but it is understandable in his case, Susano who had saved the bow he had adopted from one of the archers who died in battle, even from having run out of arrows, he lifts his wooden spoon trying to imitate the others.
The leader repeats his inquire twice more, raising his voice louder in each of the inquires, and the troop answers this twice more with increasing excitement, including Ramon and Susano.
The troop resumes marching, but Susano spends the rest of that cycle listening to everyone's jokes, especially his assistant, and he will be reminded on many other occasions of his heroic and fearless act.
"Then hearing the leader's call, he bravely raised his wooden spoon and yelled like a brave cook ready to feed the entire troop, hahahhahhahahahah" the aide recounts sarcastically once more, once again changing the narrative to make the act more 'epic' followed by the question.
"Think of how our successors will remember this moment with pride, when snake fart represented everyone who had the honor of wielding this wooden spoon and all other wooden spoons that came before it, and hopefully those will come after, ahhahahahahahhahhha" the helper even cried laughing at the first few times, but his narrative got better with every attempt.