After walking for almost 40 minutes, they came across two groups of scouts like the ones Nathan and Syril had taken out the night before. They managed to get rid of them in a few minutes, but some of the cadets were looking a little pale after two fights.
Nathan didn't know it, but for some of the cadets this was their first mission, just like him. But unlike Nathan, who had learned what it was like to kill a human from Boreas' test, the cadets had never killed anyone, only calamities.
The problem was that the tribal calamities were too much like humans, children to be precise. But again, this was not a problem for Nathan, and besides, he felt particularly uncomfortable with the Tribal Calamities.
'Why should they look like children...?'
Nathan remembered the special category calamity he had faced years ago and could only sigh.
'Who cares...'
With every encounter they had with the calamities, they realized that they were getting closer and closer to the village. It wasn't until they had finished with the fourth scouting party that they encountered more totems, this time there were more than ten scattered throughout the area.
Even though they could not see it yet because of the thickness of the swamp, they knew they had reached the village. But Nathan still had a doubt in his mind.
'What about the special category, why didn't it attack us?'
Their mission was to retrieve the relic that was in the possession of a special calamity, but so far, they hadn't encountered it... not directly.
Nathan remembered the flute he had heard the day before, and the snake attack. So far, nothing like that had happened again, but Nathan suspected that it was the special category that had controlled the snakes with its music.
This meant that the tribal calamities already knew they were there, but for some reason they were sending out scouting parties, which was no different to sending them out to die.
While Nathan looked at the totem poles, the cadets finished their preparations. They had planned it the night before, once they found the village, they would scout the area and after scouting the terrain they would return to the cave to go over the final details of the plan before making the final attack and stealing the relic.
"All right, let's split up" one of the cadets said as he sheathed his sword.
The plan was simple, split up and scout both sides of the village for an hour, then return and meet up to exchange information.
Syril approached Nathan with a small smile.
"I won't be there to look after you this time"
Nathan sighed inwardly.
"I don't need you to look after me"
Syril just scoffed and rejoined his group, while Nathan rejoined his.
In Nathan's group were Maya and two other cadets, along with one of the soldiers who had split up to guard each group. Maya had not given him a dirty look all day and now she was silent, keeping her words to herself.
Maybe the situation in the cave had changed her mind, or maybe she was just being serious about this being a critical part of the mission. Either way, both groups said their goodbyes and set off for their own destinations.
As Nathan's group walked, everyone was in complete silence, observing and analyzing the surroundings. They could not really see the village yet, but they knew from the totem poles that they were getting closer.
Suddenly, Nathan could hear the sound of soft laughter. At that, everyone stopped and readied their weapons.
'Another scouting party...'
Nathan wasn't too worried, they had finally taken out enough scouts to know that they posed no threat. But everything changed as more and more laughter echoed around the swamp.
'Well... this is not good'
Nathan could not say how many calamities there were around him. He turned his head to look at the soldier with them, only noticing that the man looked the same, but he couldn't help noticing that the man's jaw was slightly clenched.
He had no idea what the soldier's rank was, but to have two stars he would have to be at least rank two... guessing the category was more difficult.
'Even he's not sure in this situation...'
Nathan stopped concentrating on the soldier and focused on the enemies in front of him. Beside him, the other cadets, though pale, seemed focused on survival.
He was still confident in his chances of survival, that he could face several disasters at once and emerge victorious, but all those hopes vanished when he heard a soft, catchy melody coming from a flute.
Nathan smiled nervously from behind his mask.
'Shit...'
Suddenly the laughter changed to the sounds of war. The tribal cries announced the start of the battle.
Nathan already had his sword ready, so he just waited for the calamities to approach, but contrary to his expectations, dozens of arrows fell on the group.
Nathan had to dodge some of them and deflect a few others, narrowly escaping unscathed. However, two cadets were slightly injured by the number of arrows that continued to fall, and Maya and the soldier were the only ones to escape unscathed.
Somehow, Nathan realized that the disaster's tactics had changed again. All because of the special category that was still hidden among them, playing the melody.
At some point the melody stopped and Nathan began to pay attention to his surroundings, thinking that he was about to be attacked by snakes again, just like the first day.
However, he heard a gentle breeze beside him, but the speed of the arrow approaching him was such that he was unable to react in time. The arrow sank into Nathan's neck, and he fell to the ground, clutching his throat in pain and bleeding to death a few seconds later.
When his sight returned seconds later, Nathan did not hesitate for a moment and took a step backwards, successfully dodging the arrow.
The arrow went straight ahead and ran into the trunk of a tree, piercing it completely.
Nathan gulped as he looked at the trunk and remembered his recent death.
'This isn't first rank strength...' Nathan looked in the direction the arrow had gone.
Nathan looked in the direction where the arrow had come from and saw a figure almost five feet tall slowly approaching through the trees and bushes.
The calamity was taller than a normal tribal calamity, its mask was more detailed and the muscles all over its body were more pronounced. At his hip he carried a wooden flute tied to a string, on his back the bow with which he had once killed Nathan, and in each hand a short sword made of sharp bone.
Nathan noticed that none of the tribals were aiming at or attacking him, they were all concentrating on the other cadets who were barely able to withstand the barrage of attacks.
But Nathan didn't worry about them, for there was a far more dangerous opponent in front of him, one he wasn't sure he could defeat.
Holding his katana in both hands, Nathan flexed his stance and waited for the first move of the Special Category Calamity.
'Let's see how strong you are'