Rays of sunlight poked through the openings in the thick leaves that masked the camp Yoel and his group had been resting in.
While the location of the camp was especially made to mask its location, no thick leaf could block the rays of the sun.
One of those rays, shone into Yoel's eye.
Yoel only responded by awkwardly twitching his eye, and turning around, to face the other way.
..Only to be met by another stray ray of sunlight.
How annoying. I've never been a morning person.
Yoel gave a low grunt, opening his eyes slowly. He wasn't too excited to start this day.
He'd have to socialize a lot.
Howevr, the first detail he noticed upon opening his eyes, was that Cole had finally woken up.
Ever since yesterday's skirmish, where he fainted before they got into the fray he hadn't shown a reaction since.
It was good to know that he was awake now, and from what it seemed, almost well rested.
In the periphery of Yoel's view, he could also see several other, although slightly blurry figures begin to move.
From what Yoel could discern, it implied that the time for sleep was over; It was time to face today's problems, like he had done every other time.
Without another word, he got up.
He took a few seconds to observe his surroundings, and remembered that the boy the other day wished to speak to him.
He thought if he should go alone or not, but he dismissed the thought after not even a second.
Was he stupid? To walk into a trap willingly is no different than being handled like a mouse.
Yoel was no pushover.. not right now.
A terrible headache decided to assault him at that moment, causing his stance to waver where he stood.
'...Ahead of.. yourself..'
For a moment, Yoel thought he heard someone speak, so he turned to look at his cohort.
Surely enough, they had all been occupied by something.
Vasil and Loki were fighting over something, but quietly enough to not be annoying.
Cole was still getting used to moving after an entire day, doing a series of exercises to shake the cramps away.
While Lilith was simply sitting on her blanketroll, staring into an empty space. It was as though yesterday's battle had truly shaken her.
Who could blame her, though?
It really does seem like I'm going crazy in this weird jungle.. These headaches have been so bothersome, though.
Yoel quickly dismissed the thought of having voices in his head. Who wouldn't?
With a sigh, he finally stood up from his blanketroll and clapped his hands, gathering his party's attention towards him.
"That boy from before, he told us to come meet him when the sun comes up. Are you guys ready?"
Each of them would slowly nod, one after the other. Giving careful looks to one another.
Lilith then spoke up in curiosity.
"Come to think of it, that boy never introduced himself to us. I don't think any of us had proper introductions with them, even though we've taken away their place.. It kind of feels rude."
"Well, let's go properly talk to them. They probably weren't in the mood to speak before."
Yoel spoke. There wasn't much conversation afterward, they all simply tidied up their blanket rolls, rolled them up and they stood up.
Before they left, Lilith made sure to reprimand Cole heavily before leaving.
"Remember, your leg is still not in its best condition. Run around like an idiot and it'll only worsen."
Cole could only awkwardly nod, if he hadn't been reminded of his condition, he would've tried running as soon as they got on the route the boy showed them.
Speaking of the route, Yoel was quite confused.
The boy said he left a way for them to meet up at some place, but he didn't really know which direction to take.
At that exact moment, he noticed something that looked immensely out of place.
Amidst the wild grass and trees, near a small opening, a floating arrow pointed into a direction.
The arrow was of a cartoonish shape, and a very bright shade of red. Whenever Yoel looked at it, it glew an even brighter red and its size increased by twofold.
Just what is this guy's ability..
Yoel awkwardly pointed at the arrow, and with a forced smile he then proceeded to say.
"Uhh, let's… go?"
One of Vasil's eyebrows twitched.
"R-Right.." said Loki.
The cohort quickly began following the weird cartoonish arrows pointing the way for them.
That boy's ability had been quite strange. This arrow seemed as if the world had been coming into contact with something completely alien, something that could not exist three-dimensionally and yet it had.
It was.. a weird sight, but not something they couldn't get used to in this weird and messed up world.
The path they took was near the one they had come from originally, and with a bit of curiosity, Yoel wondered why he hadn't seen such an obvious path before.
Perhaps it was because he was tired, or because he didn't care enough to learn about it.
Whatever the case was, he wasn't too keen on expanding on it until later on.
Hopefully, with this meeting.. he could learn about what was going on with this cursed jungle.
Upon thinking this, he noticed his group was nearing an opening in the thick forest.
As if waiting for that cue, the sounds Yoel had forgotten about were slowly seeping back into his mind.
"What… the… newcomers.."
"Survivors.."
"Thank… God…"
"Will… any… use…"
As Yoel neared his destination, the voices only grew louder.
The clearing was located on a small hill, with camps surrounding it and numerous other human necessities sprawled around. It showed the lack of care a teenager had for their items, while also showing their resilience to live through this hell.
When he finally arrived, he saw a group of many teenage boys and girls gathered around Brandon and the previous three warrior girls, eagerly questioning them about his group.
Yoel heard most of the questions after getting closer, so he knew that these questions were not genuine, child-like curiosity but wariness. Were they trusted enough? Could they pull their weight? Would they hesitate when it was time to act?
All in all, Yoel understood the wariness of the teenagers. Wariness was both a foe and an ally in this gruesome situation they all found themselves in.
The second Yoel came into view, the boy who kindly let Yoel's group rest at their camp turned his head.
"Ahh! Yoel! What took you so long! Ahahah.. Guys, meet Yoel! Him and his group rescued us from being surrounded by monsters, just a few hours ago."
"Now now, let's resolve this in a peaceful manner. We'll all introduce ourselves to them one by one. Let's work together on this one, please..?"
Monologued the boy, as the wary eyes of the teenagers glued onto the newcomers.
"I won't let your anticipation boil any longer. I'm Brandon. One of the team leaders of our little alliance here, hopelessly trying to survive in this place."
"I'm Irene!"
"I'm Julia!"
Said in unison the warrior girls that were with Brandon at the time they first met.
"Nice to meet you guys, finally."
Responded Yoel, matter-of-factly.
As he looked around himself, he realized that many of the teenagers of this alliance had slowly snuck up behind him and engaged in curious conversations with his team members.
He couldn't help but sigh, they were all still kids somewhat, after all.
After he turned to the front again, he noticed another boy walking up to him, with a small group of people behind him.
"Nice to meet you, Yoel. For the short time you've been here, Brandon sure hasn't left any detail. I'm Silenus, the supposed leader of this alliance."
Yoel merely nodded and gave a polite smile. The statement Silenus started off with was quite a strong one, so it made Yoel look at him with a strange gaze.
"Is there something wrong..? Ah! I know. You must be evaluating me, right? I'll show you right away."
Before he could do anything though, Brandon moved infront of him.
"Leader! Stop! Stop! It's not the time right now. At least wait until we properly speak to him and his friends. Our situation right now is what we need to focus on. No fighting until then alright!?"
Silenus froze, but only when Brandon uttered the word "stop".
"Brandon, I was just messing around, could you please not use your enigma on me?"
A bewildered expression made its way onto Brandon's face, he hadn't realized that he had unconsciously activated his enigma.
"M-My bad, Silenus."
Slightly flustered, Brandon stepped away from in-between Yoel and Silenus and cleared his throat.
"Let's move to somewhere more private, shall we?"
As he spoke, he pointed to a tent at the center of their camp.
The tent was made out of the common, large leaves Yoel saw back when they were moving through the jungle."Let's talk about everyone's enigmas, strengths, weaknesses.. our and your situation, and our plans moving forward."