After a considerable amount of time, Yoel finally felt life return to his limbs. He was not quick to stand up again, however, enjoying the few moments of serenity and peace he felt just from looking at the sky.
It stood as a contrast to the now horrid landscape of the dungeon. The stars in the sky shined brightly and no chemical air or cloud stood in the way of their brilliance.
The moons, now decorated by the shining stars located everywhere around them.. looked over the humans as some kind of conquerors, watching their loyal soldiers fight to the death.
…
The moons?
Two moons stood close by to each other, their overwhelming presence coating all beings in a white but slightly red hue.
Had there always been two moons?
No.. this must be my fatigue speaking. From what I've heard, we were only sent 50 years into the past.. I don't think they have the ability to hide something like this from us.
"Yoel, you alright over there? I think it's about time you get up. We might've won this fight.. but who knows what's next."
It was Loki who spoke to him, Yoel found it kind of weird that a man who fights with his bare fists and has such bulging muscles can take such calculated decisions.
The meaning of "don't judge a book by its cover" really rung hard in these moments.
With a long sigh, Yoel got up, not so easily parting from the fine resting ground he lay on.
He nonchalantly brushed off the dust that had found its way onto him, and proceeded to wobble over to the rest of the team.
I don't think I've ever used my spear like that.. It must be a side effect of the silhouette technique.
The Silhouette Arts refinement technique had been Yoel's primary focus for almost the entire month he had been given to prepare for the upcoming examinations.
Yoel felt his limbs burning from exhaustion, but he understood that if he hadn't utilized the silhouette technique, he most likely would not have gotten out from this fight alive.
Once he made it to his group, he took a long minute to tiredly analyze their faces.
His own group, had generally relaxed faces, with a few exceptions, such as Vasil and Lilith.
Vasil bore a contemplative look on his face, it seemed as if he had been reevaluating something.
Whatever it was, Yoel couldn't bother to care enough right now.
Lilith on the other hand, wore a more worried look on her face. If Yoel thought back to how she had been when he had first met her, he couldn't even begin to compare them.
It seemed that during these few days, the barriers she had put up had been slowly weakening.
As for the cause of this, it could have been some unknown aspect, but Yoel came to the conclusion that the situation was just that miserable.
Why would anyone care about these mental barriers in these life-and-death situations? There was no time for weakness in the Jungle of Hell.
After a long and awkward silence, Yoel decided to take the reigns this time around.
"So… uh. That was quite an experience. How are you guys doing? I'm Yoel, by the way."
Yoel went ahead and introduced himself. These circumstances they had met under were indeed weird.
He hadn't even gotten a good look at the faces of each person of their cohort, and he had fought with them as if he had known them for years.
But in reality, if one looked at the battle from far away, they would easily notice the clumsiness in their actions.
The boy, who kept shouting weird commands spoke up and answered Yoel.
"N-Nice to meet you.. friend. As you can see, all of us are.. a bit shaken from all this– We.. we weren't expecting to lose them.. so quickly."
It didn't require a lot of thinking for Yoel to figure out what the boy opposite to him was getting at.
At the start of the fight, Yoel spared a few glances at the corpses that lay still on the floor.
Amongst the monstrous and horrific bodies, were the bodies of men and women, sprawled about and unsightly, due to the weapons of the abominations; fang marks, the scratch slash marks, and more were immediately visible on their bodies.
He realized he was looking for a bit too long, and thought he should've known better, so he threw over an apologetic glance at the other group.
"Ah.. I see. My sincere condolences, friends. I think it would do all of us some good to just sit down a bit and relax our muscles, wouldn't you say so?"
The group awkwardly looked opposite to each other and gave a nod to each other. The boy spoke once again.
"..We have set up camp a bit further away from this place, it's quite hidden, however. If you want, we can use that as our temporary resting place. While we're here, I'd also like to inform you that this won't be the last time we'll be fighting huge waves of monsters like those."
Although the color in the boy's grey eyes had been turned to dull, the words he spoke didn't seem to match his expression. He knew what had to be done, but he wasn't hopeful about the future.
Yoel could do nothing but frown at this, he wasn't the leading type, nor could he spew words of motivational words to instill flames within others. He knew that morale could not be restored in certain situations, a prime example being this exact one.
Before taking another long look around him, he steeled his heart and spoke up.
"Alright then, we'll follow you to your camp."
They then walked past the burnt and ravaged battlefield, past the sea of blood that encompassed it and soon enough they arrived at the boundary, where red and green met, where the blades of grass began to purify, to turn away from the sinful red color.
They entered a forest, more thick than the previous jungle that they had found themselves in before.
This forest possessed a much darker color to its trees and plants. It had been dark to navigate through it, and now that it was turning to night, the ground was barely visible.
An understanding nod came from Loki, these people knew how to properly set up camp.
Soon enough, they felt the boy, who had also been the main speaker for the other group whisper something.
And soon enough, his body lit up, it was not a furious or uncontrollable light, it was a calm and cold one, that just barely showed the area around them.
And needless to say, Yoel's group did not have much to say. Neat blanket rolls made of long leaves that looked extremely comfortable, a fire that had been snuffed out, with evidence that it ever existed barely visible.
"..Make yourselves comfortable. We have a lot to talk about. I'm sure you know that the most members a group can have is five, correct? You must have saw more than two bodies back at the field there."
The boy took a long sigh, he really didn't seem like he wanted to do this.
"In reality, ever since the first day.. there have been monsters several levels above our strength, whether it be swarms or individual abominations.. rarely do any of them match to any single one of our capabilities. Many of us, apart of our group has realized this."
Huh? It turns out we were one of the groups to learn about this a bit too late.
"I will also tell you here and now. Throughout these few days, each group that has met new groups they have never seen, informs them of the situation."
"Of course, many casualties had been had, as you have already seen. And unfortunately, I cannot see an end to this fight anytime soon."
At this moment, Cole began to stir awake from his sleep.
"There's still many things you need to know, that will be left unsaid for now. I can also see that your friend will soon wake from his slumber."
The boy's voice was slowly getting hoarser. A few coughs interrupted his speech a few times.
"Fill him in on the situation. And get some rest, preferably. Not too much though, do not get too comfortable here. You never know what will reach out for you in the darkness."
"When the sun is visible again, come find me. I will leave a trail to where I.. we will be at."
"Any questions you have now, or later.. I will answer all of them then, to the best of my ability."
With a swiftness the boy had never shown before, he stood up and left, the two quiet warrior girls following him without fail.
A solemn silence took over the camp, which was now occupied by Yoel's group.
They had been left to their own thoughts. A lot of mind-shattering revelations had been revealed to them.