“Ok, but why am I here?” asked Myra as she pulled her dress that had caught on a brambly bush. It tore badly as she yanked it free. For anyone else, he’d feel really bad about that, but for Myra it was barely an inconvenience. One dismissive brush with her hand, and the dress repaired itself.

“Hogg thought you should come,” said Brin. “That probably means we’re up against something quick that you’ll need to hold down for us.”

“I’m not an endless mana battery like you.”

Davi held out a hand, helping her over a fallen log. “Don’t worry. We won’t let anything so much as touch you. Brin has scar powers; we’ll let the monsters chew on him.”

“Oh, nice, thanks a lot,” said Brin.

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“We actually should talk about tactics, though. Are you going to be swinging that staff or playing the lute?”

Davi chewed on it for a minute, then slumped and said, “I should probably boost you with music. I get more experience doing that than jumping in myself.”

“Works for me,” said Brin. “If the fight goes on very long I’ll swap you out.”

“Thanks! But don’t get my hopes up.”

They trudged on through the thick underbrush. The forest around Hammon’s Bog was actually fairly walkable, but he was beginning to understand that was only the case because [Hunters] and [Foresters] maintained it. Now that they were two days away, the underbrush was so thick in places that they had to cut it away in order to move forward. Myra’s powers actually worked best for that, but they were making her save her mana. Instead, Brin used his glass spear. A machete would’ve worked better, or even a sword, but this is what they had. He could’ve summoned a machete on the spot, but with the enchantments on the spear it actually cut through pretty well.

This was also giving him a chance to practice with his new spear. It was so powerful that he had a little trouble controlling it with any kind of precision after pumping a bit of mana into it, but the repetitive motions of slashing through saplings and bushes helped him get used to it.

Davi helped by playing an energizing song, so even though Brin had worked up a sweat he actually felt less tired now than when they had started. He only teased Davi about making him do all the work a little bit, and only because he knew that Davi wished he could trade places with every fiber of his being.

Hogg had told them to travel southwest for about two miles, but he hadn’t told them how long it would take since they had to go so slow. He’d been at this for an hour and a half, and had no idea how much longer it would be.

[Athleticism] leveled up! 18 -> 19