Smiling to herself remembering that Chelsea's little tease about flowers getting thrown into her face led to one of the most memorable moments during the victory parade, where Jayce and Sasha each through a bouquet of flowers into Chelsea's face, Kaitlyn swallowed the last of her food, leaping off the rock to continue her work.
Recharged after eating, Kaitlyn continued her blistering pace further into the mountains, following the path as it twisted and turned through nature.
The path, now packed with monsters, with each monster bumping shoulder to shoulder with another, be it of the same species or another, was nearing where Kaitlyn would end her range of activities, any further just wouldn't be worth the risk and the energy.
'...Nero is definitely in there, though,' lamented Kaitlyn to herself, staring further into the path, 'too bad the snowstorm is practically a blizzard in there... it's already fairly heavy out here.'
'Well, tomorrow's the day... we'll kill him for sure this time.'
Turning on her heel, Kaitlyn began to walk back the way she came, her boots making light footprints in the snow. As she began to walk away though, as the trees bent this way and that from the wind, as the snow continued to fall coating the world in a layer of pure-white powder, a monster, from right beside her, began to go crazy, thrashing back and forth, biting and slaughtering the other monsters near it.
Pulling out her swords, bending at the knees, Kaitlyn was ready to leap into the fray, ready to kill it before it could go through a potential spontaneous growth. Yet, just as Kaitlyn's foot dug deeper into the snow, a large, thin, pole-like leg stabbed through the head of the ravaging monster.
An unimpressed look on Kaitlyn's face as an exasperated sigh escaped her mouth, Kaitlyn looked up to see another towering spindler, a fair bit larger than the one she had killed earlier.
"Two? Really? For me alone?" Kaitlyn lamented under her breath, mustering up the motivation to kill another one of these disgusting monsters, "There have been years where no one in the entire raid party bumps into even one of these... and I find two this year? Two??"
A certain person's grinning face popping up in her mind wishing her "good luck", Kaitlyn sighed, leaping off the ledge before diving into the river of monsters that she had been observing.
Slice. Slice. Twirl.
A spurt of blood.
Arriving under the spindler, its abdomen still swaying in the air, swollen and filled with webbing, Kaitlyn began her tried and true strategy once more, slicing off all the legs on one side, then letting it fall to the ground before stabbing it in the head.
Stab.
With the spindler killed, with it having dealt more damage to Kaitlyn's eyes due to its disgusting figure rather than real physical damage, Kaitlyn fought her way back to the ledge, leaping up onto it before breaking into a slow jog away, running back towards where there'd be more people.
Running along, not finding many monsters after having killed most of the ones she needed to kill, Kaitlyn swept her eyes around, admiring the snow-covered scenery while her boots continued to crunch the snow below her.
The trees, though towering and making a dense forest that was almost impenetrable, were works of art, their leaves being present year round even during the heavy snowfall were thin and coarse, coloring the trees a dark green color.
Of course, beyond that, there were the mountains that pierced the clouds, each being made up of a series of sheer cliffs covered in snow year round. These mountains, although cumbersome, blocking any further northern expansion, were helpful in creating a natural chokepoint that the monsters would have to pass through.
This chokepoint was something that was key in being utilized by the human settlers to defend against the monster wave, in fact, a fortress as monstrous as the monsters themselves was built, this fortress, was of course named... Kaneth.
Chuckling at the amusing name of the city, having been named many, many generations ago, Kaitlyn, with her swords sheathed, increased her speed, trying to find some other adventurers to group up with now that they could relax a bit more.
Snow.
Wind.
Chill.
Shivering a bit under her long coat that still provided ample movement for fighting, Kaitlyn surveyed the area, having run past only people of the other group rather than her own.
However, after another few moments of running, Kaitlyn came across Sasha, blowing a few holes into a monster as she ran up.
"What's up, Sasha?" Kaitlyn asked, coming to a stop as Sasha wiped some sweat off her forehead, flicking the blood and monster bits off her rapier at the same time.
"Nothing, much..." Sasha sighed, exhaustion creeping into her voice, "Was just starting to patrol rather than actively hunt the monsters since I haven't seen many around."
Kicking a chattering mouth off the ledge—a D-Ranked monster made up of two large hands, two thin arms, and a large chattering mouth—one of very, very few monsters that could climb the ledge, Kaitlyn, asked, "Want to join me then? I'm about to start patrolling too. That's all we have to do for the rest of today after all."
"Sure," Sasha nodded, kicking her legs a few times to keep the warmth in them, "I'm assuming you're doing the same area as always then? A little further down from where we are all the way back into the deepest part?"
Giving a thumbs-up, Kaitlyn then elaborated, "Well, I'll push it a little further down this year because the blizzard is heavier so we can't go as deep as past years."
"Soundsss, like a plan, boss lady."
"You're literally the Queen of a country."
".... That doesn't matter here, I'm here as the adventurer Sasha, not the Queen."
"Fine..."
And so... the first day of the monster expedition came to a close, and with the second and final day right around the corner, the adventurers in the castle all gathered in the main hall for one large banquet before the big day...