After an early evening nap, Cain and the Companions were planning to head out for an overnight hunting trip, hoping to catch some nocturnal beasts, and maybe stop by a Ley Line intersection at midnight and see if the new ones were appearing there, or at random like the Crazed did.
"Boss Cain, do you have room in your group still? I've got a few more friends who enjoy a good hunt, this is Levi, and that is Erin." Prana greets him as Cain heads for the edge of the evening's festivities. As far as he can tell, with the various schedules, the farm never really sleeps.
"I don't see why not. We were going to head out on foot and look for signs of nearby monsters that the patrols might have missed, so the more the merrier." Cain agrees, looking over the two new additions.
Honestly, they're not that impressive, being level 140 Lightning mages that awakened Mythic thanks to someone granting them a spellbook. But they do have Mythic Magic, and they would struggle to get into a group any other way, so he might as well help them out.
Plus, it's good to see that Prana is making friends. New people in what is essentially a fancy refugee camp often struggle with meeting new people that they can get along with. Her odd species doesn't help her either, as she can't even go to another group of demons who have shared her childhood experiences.
The Wrath Demons talk about fighting, the Succubus girls gossip about things not suitable for younger audiences, and the Plague Demons often chat about the most recent advances in medical sciences and spellcraft.
Theoretically, that's the group that Prana would belong in, but she has no interest that Cain has seen in medicine, so hanging out with the other Plague Demons would be a snooze fest.
They don't have to wander far before coming across the first target of the night, a Mythic Quality Grizzly bear with a strong Fire Magic affinity. The beast seems to have taken a particular liking to the Wrath Demon called Levi, chasing the unfortunate young man around in the dark while the rest of his party cheers him on.
"You've got this. Just a couple more lightning shots and he's going down." Prana cheers, as he fires off a wrist-thick stream of blue electricity that has almost no visible effect on the enormous beast.
"Oh, in the face was a bad idea, now he's really mad." Erin agrees, creating an energy barrier to slow the beast enough that it doesn't eat her friend.
The demon is beginning to lag now, barely keeping ahead of the bear, so the others step in to rescue him. Prana traps the beast with her vines, while Cain uses the upgraded version of [Decapitate] to remove the head from the immobilized beast.
It didn't look very injured to begin with, but that was mostly a trick of its fur. Underneath, the muscles were in bad shape, some of them cooked enough by lightning that they were starting to smell rather good, like a smoky barbecue.
"Rule number one of joining a Hunting Team. Cardio. You did alright, but if things go really wrong, you need to be able to run faster and further than your opponent." Cain informs the tired young mage with an amused smirk.
"You guys are evil. You could have helped you know?" Levi complains, making a very valid point.
"We were going to, but when it straight up ignored us all in favor of chasing you around, it became much more interesting to see if we could understand why?" Prana explains, not helping the young man's mood.
"So, what did you determine?"
"That you didn't wash your face after dinner and you've got juice from mythic fruits all over both yourself and the front of your robes." The tall and treelike Demon laughs, leaning forward to sniff at him.
"Crap, I was in a hurry and I forgot," Levi growls, pulling a wet rag from his inventory.
"Don't bother. Since you're already covered in Mythic fruit juice you get to be our bait tonight. I swear on my honor that I won't let anything hurt you. But the way that the bear reacted to your scent, I think that hunting for monsters in the dark just got an awful lot easier." Cain tells him, taking the rag away.
"You want me to risk getting eaten all night long? Hard pass."
"We can offer you the first pick of any single item that drops tonight. Think about it, all you have to do is walk along, and you can pick the best item that any of us gets." Moana suggests.
"Do you think he will go for it?" Laura whispers to the tiny Leviathan.
"86.2 percent probability that he will. 91.5 percent if we tell him what we got for drops yesterday." The Leviathan tells the dragon with a smile. Those odds are high enough that she is almost certain he will agree. She did the math twice in her head before making the offer after all.
"Fine, but if you let them gnaw on me, you had better believe that I will tell anyone who will listen how cruel you lot can be." The demon finally agrees and the two smallest members of the party exchange a high five.
"Excellent. Now, off we go, and you can hold this. Or eat it if you want." Cain offers, handing Levi a juicy, ripe peach.
He almost takes a big bite of it before remembering what it is. Not that it will attract Mythic Beasts with its juices, but the Peaches are exceptionally tart. Eating them straight is worse than eating straight lemons.
Even just holding it is enough though, and the sound of howls in the distance begins in only a few minutes. The first to their position is a pair of Purple Leopards, a personal favorite snack of Laura's that she actually transforms to fight.
She can use claws and teeth to fight as a Dragon, but Cain suspects she simply wants to claim dibs on the bodies.
Vala calls the copies of Carnage again and the two new additions freak out. Carnage is legendary for a reason, and it isn't for his pleasant disposition. Their first thought was that they were about to have their kills stolen until the demons started working with Laura to chop apart the agile giant cats into manageable bite-sized pieces.
"How did you do that? Does he owe you some sort of favor?" Levi whispers to Vala, low enough that he doesn't think the big red demons can hear him from where they're polishing their axes after the fight.
"Oh, we forgot to mention the group skill. It's one of Cain's abilities that lets everyone in the group summon a Legendary being at Mythic quality. Normally there would be a lot more summons around the group, but we got so caught up watching the bear chase you around that we totally forgot to mention it."
Vala's explanation doesn't seem to have helped at all, the man is staring at her like she just told him that 5G Cell Service was coming soon to the Awakened areas. Total confusion.
"I like these Blight Kings." Prana clarifies, summoning an emaciated form on a spectral steed. It wears a ragged black robe, and carries a vicious-looking scythe, radiating an aura of decay that would quickly sap the life of any enemy standing near it.
Vala has a similar aura, but hers sucks the life and mana to redistribute, this one does it much faster, but doesn't grant any group benefits from the enemy's deaths.
"Oh, like a powered-up version of the Warlock's Guardian Demon. I see now." Levi nods happily, not understanding just how broken the ability to grant one to every party member is.
He copies Prana, calling the exact same demon and sending it a bit ahead of the group, so the light from its ghostly mount can light up the path in front of them.
"I don't know how you all do so well in the dark. Laura, maybe since Dragons have great senses, and you too Nemu, but how were the rest of you doing so well?" Erin asks, using her succubus tail to poke Nemu and get her attention.
"Cain is an Ancient. His senses are crazy, even without using spells to enhance them. Vala has thermal vision, and Moana uses a form of Sonar. Evangeline can see just fine in the dark as well." Nemu explains, not giving away that their one remaining Epic member is actually a Seraphim in disguise.
"We're in the forest, and despite being Demonized, I am still part Treant. I can sense anything that moves over or near the tree roots for almost a kilometer. Even squirrels and birds don't escape my notice." Prana agrees.
"And I'm a Wrath Demon. My thermal vision might not be as good as Vala's but I can see enough to not trip over big things." Levi shrugs, looking around to make sure he's not about to be gnawed on by some sneaky magical beast.
"Oh. I don't suppose anyone has a Night Vision spell, do they? I feel like an idiot now for not bringing a proper light." Erin sighs, indicating the small floating orb she has been using for light to navigate so far.
"I've got it. The night vision spell was in the early chapters of Spell Crafting." Cain laughs, casting the spell on the succubus.
Her species can see in the dark, but mostly they only see the life force of living things and rough shapes. In the city, that's enough to go by, it will let them navigate a house well enough to sneak into beds, or in a more modern civilized society, grab a midnight snack. But in the forest, all the branches and vines, plus the piles of fallen leaves are all too indistinct for her to comfortably navigate while walking without her light.
