“Holy smokes.” Ril muttered, “Julius has a flaming sword.”

Felix’s grin morphed into a full on belly laugh. “He’s pretty hot stuff isn’t he.”

“He’s like a hero. From a story.” Ril said, still looking dumbfounded at the pile of corpses at Julius’s feet.

“He isn’t ‘like’ a hero. He is an honest to god hero. A prodigy.” Eren said, dismissing the flaming circlet that was floating above her head. “And that was terrible.” She directed that last bit towards Felix who just smiled proudly back at her.

“And you can make ghost fire!” Ril said, finally looking away from Julius, and looking in awe at Eren.

Eren for her part, paused, then looked down, embarrassed. “Yeah, but it doesn’t burn anything.” she said with a shrug.

“What about me, please sing my praises too, little Ril.” Felix said with a grin.

“You ... just shoot arrows though?” Ril asked, confused.

This prompted a laugh out of Eren, and Felix looked dejected. “Well we can’t all be as flashy as an Eliminator or an Empyrean.” Felix muttered with a frown.

Before Ril could ask what an Eliminator was, Julius called from the front. “Mount up guys, let’s try to get out of this forest by nightfall.”

Everyone rushed over to the horses and mounted up. Within five minutes the entire party had left the massacre behind.

“So...What’s an Eliminator?” Ril asked, excited.

“That’s what Julius is.” Eren said, “he fights on the frontlines and eliminates everything in his way. Eliminators are focused heavily on dealing as much damage as possible. Because of that they don’t work all that well without someone to watch their back, although Julius might be the exception to that rule.”

“Why do you say that?” Ril asked.

“Well Julius has an ability that makes his armor red hot. It makes it basically impossible to actually fight and hurt him without killing yourself first. Most powder beasts rely on physical contact with their prey to hurt them. Since powder beasts generally have weapons that are integrated into their bodies, they feel pain when their weapons melt off. It is a potent combo. Orden barely had to do anything to help him.”

“What is Orden?”

“Orden is a Bruiser. Or a Turtle if you want to get pedantic. His role is to protect the Eliminator and peel for them whenever they get swarmed.”

“Peel?”

“Imagine an onion where the eliminator is the center, and the monsters are the layers. The role of the Bruiser is to peel away the monsters so that the Eliminator isn’t being mauled too badly to do their primary job which is to deal as much damage in as short a time frame as possible.”

“What about you, you’re an Empyrean right?” said Ril.

“Yes, I am. An Empyrean is a combat support. An Empyrean’s role is to weaken opponents with their abilities so that they cannot hurt either the Bruiser or the Eliminator.”

“So that ghostly fire, when it passed over the badgers it weakened them? How? Can you do it to me?” Ril asked Eren.

Eren blinked. “Uhm, I could. Although it is a deeply unpleasant feeling. Are you sure?”

Ril nodded emphatically, a big grin on his face. Eren looked skeptical, but then raised her hand, and a small ring of ghostly white-yellow fire sprung to life over her head.

Immediately Ril felt horribly weak. It was not too dissimilar to the feeling he had when he was recuperating from the dungeon run and Gemma had used magical healing on him. His butt, which had been simply sore from the unfamiliar perch that he had been sitting on for the day, began to hurt, almost as if each step of the horse was actually causing bruises rather than just irritation. As fast as the feeling had appeared, it dissipated when Eren dropped her ability, and her corona of flames faded.

“Ow.” Ril muttered, leaning over to the side to rub his butt which had not appreciated the experiment.

“Sorry,” Eren said with a grimace.

“No, no,” Ril said, his grin returning in full force. “That was awesome, and you look like a queen with that circlet of fire over your head.”

“Th-thanks,” Eren stammered, her cheeks turning pink. “Anyway, Ril, Felix here is an Outrider. He does important things too.”

“Yeah, that's right, important stuff! And I don’t just shoot arrows.” Felix said. He still seemed cross about Ril’s comment from before.

“An Outrider is the most illustrious position on any team which decides to brave the hostile world outside of the walls. People such as I are highly valued for our knowledge and - if I am being honest - pure undiluted talent that we bring to any team. Not only are we critical in providing information to the team, but we can even rival the Eliminator in raw damage output whenever necessary. Our alacrity and raw spunk allow us to soak up even more attention than even the best of Bruisers. That's not even mentioning how our poisons can weaken even the toughest beasts better than any Empyrean.” Felix said grandly, gesticulating wildly to emphasize his points.

There may have been steam coming out of Felix’s mouth by the end of that. Ril couldn’t be sure of course since Felix was sitting in front of him and facing away, but it seemed likely. The others in the party looked back at them to see what was the commotion, and Evelyn even giggled a bit before re-establishing the formation.

“He is our scout,” Eren translated, with a grin. “Outriders also help the Eliminator during battle should they need the help, although in general the role is far more fluid than the others.”

Felix gave a harrumph. “That is a dismal oversimplification of my position.”

“Anyway, considering your skillset, you would probably be an Outrider or some sort.” Eren said to Ril, still grinning at Felix’s antics.

“I figured as much, but what about Evelyn and Cato?” Ril asked.

“Ahh, Evelyn would technically be an Overseer of some kind. She is an ice mage - cryomancer, whatever - so that would make sense. Overseers use their abilities to control the flow of a battle. They generally have large scale spells that affect an area. Oftentimes they can use those abilities to slow down or split up opponents. Blinding, or confusing abilities are not uncommon for Overseers.” Eren said with a thoughtful glance at Evelyn. “Although she seemed to only use basic attack magic back in the fight, so I might be wrong.”

“And Cato?” Ril asked.

“I don’t know what Cato does, he might not have a combat role.” Eren said, with a shrug.

“I do,” Felix said, “and he most definitely has a combat role.”

Felix stretched in his seat, squishing Ril against the rear of the saddle. Both Eren and Ril looked at him in anticipation. Felix spent a moment more luxuriating in the attention before continuing.

“See, Outriders are useful.” He said with a knowing smile.

“Out with it.” Ril said, slapping Felix on the shoulder.

“Fine, ow, no need to get handsy.” Felix huffed, rubbing his shoulder, “Cato is what is known as a Guardian. They are incredibly rare as any guardians that appear are immediately drafted to fight on the front lines, and they don’t generally survive very long.”

“Why is that?” Ril asked, although Eren had a slightly shocked face as she looked upon Cato with respect.

“It’s because Guardians protect the people in their party. Being near a Guardian is like having skin that suddenly becomes as hard as steel. If you are hit while a Guardian is protecting you, blue sparks will fly up instead of your blood. Unfortunately there is a price to this protection. If a Guardian tries to protect someone from a blow that is too viscous, the blow will be redirected to the Guardian instead. When this happens the Guardian usually dies since the blow redirects directly against their flesh, ignoring any armor that the Guardian may be wearing. In this sense, Guardians literally put their lives before yours on the field of battle.”

“Wow. That's...impressive.” Ril said, giving Cato a respectful glance. If what Felix was saying was true, then Ril already owed the old man a debt since Cato had protected him from the claws of the badger powder beast.

“Cato is here to protect Evelyn. With him around, Evelyn literally cannot die.” Eren said, like she had just figured something out.

“Bingo.” Felix said.

* * *

After that the conversation turned to more mundane topics. Every once in a while Felix would point out a plant of particular interest, but his endless monologue on plant biology was over.

Eventually the forest began to thin. The party emerged from the forest just as the sun was slipping below the horizon. A beautiful sunset greeted them as they beheld the plains on the other side of the forest.

“Alright, let’s camp here for tonight, and we should be able to make it to Anduin by tomorrow.” Julius said, dismounting from his horse.

The group settled into their campsite with surprising efficiency. Ril was tasked to go into the dread thicket and collect dry tinder that they could use for a campfire. By the time that he had returned all the horses were bedded down and the beginnings of a meal were apparent.

Cato was chopping up some greens in a corner for a salad. He had an odd way of doing it. First he would wrap up the leaves in as tight of a ball as he could and then while holding the ball down you would slice thin strips out. It was surprisingly efficient. Ril moved up to the old man.

“Thank you for protecting me from the powder beasts claws from the battle before.” Ril said quietly.

Cato looked up from his chopping. “You are most welcome, my boy.” Cato replied, kindly, “It was no trouble at all.”

Then Ril went over to Felix and together they built up the fire.

With the sun below the horizon and a warm, cheary campfire, the party dug into the meal they had collectively prepared. The conversation was light and was focused heavily on the exploits of the day. It wasn't long after that they all huddled into their bedrolls and bid each other goodnight.

Eren stayed awake for the first watch.

* * *

Ril awoke with a hand on his shoulder. He shuddered awake, and turned rapidly to see what was happening.

“Psst, your turn to keep watch.” Felix’s voice hushed out to him. The hand on his shoulder disappeared.

Ril sat up, his blanket falling to his waist, and looked over to Felix who - quite astoundingly - was already fast asleep. Stiffly, Ril rolled up his blanket and tucked it into this pack, before waking his way out some ways from the central camp.

Once out of the immediate vicinity of the others, he found a convenient spot to sit down on and activated Fade. Before he knew it, his body had faded to match his surroundings.

The day had been long, and he hadn’t really had time to reflect on what had happened. While technically this was the next day, Ril still felt the exhaustion of the previous day weighing down on him. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep.

Still, the day had been pretty amazing. The sight of Eren exploding in a sphere of ever increasing glowing white-yellow fire, and the pile of burned and broken bodies laying at the feet of Julius flashed into his mind's eye. A small smile graced his face as he thought of how cool that was. Eren didn’t appear to think so, but to Ril the Empyrean role was perhaps the coolest. To be able to help people by just watching from the backlines. It seemed almost like a dream.

The few times that Ril had been in lethal combat with powder beasts had not been pleasant. Up until now they had mostly been mad scrambles to avoid dying. Ril supposed that over time he would get better and the fights wouldn’t be so desperate. Currently, however, fighting up close was not fun.

Sparring with Evelyn, on the other hand, was fun. Mostly because it was a game. A challenge that Ril could dedicate himself to, with mistakes of the less lethal variety. Fighting a desperate animal held no glory. Only fear, pain, and a small modicum of relief if you survive.

Ril sighed. It would be pretty cool to be an Empyrean, even if the position didn’t hold the glory of the Eliminator.

Putting that out of his mind, Ril refocused on his task of keeping watch. In order to stave off the boredom that had settled deep within his bones, Ril began playing around with the limits of Fade.

Soon he figured out that he could move his eyes freely without interfering with the abilities camouflage. Moving his head was another matter however. Unless he moved extremely slowly, the concealment would fail, and he would become as visible as if he had never used the ability in the first place. Still, it was useful, and kind of fun actually. Practicing moving ever so slowly so as not to interrupt Fade, Ril scanned the surrounding countryside in a slow circle. After several attempts, he managed to complete a full circle without losing his camouflage.

With a grin, Ril stepped up his game, by ever so slowly getting up to his feet, and slow walking around the campsite. It was excruciating how slowly he had to move, and surprisingly difficult. Balancing on one foot while the other slowly floated through the air was exhausting on several muscles that Ril didn’t even know he had.

Regardless, he pushed through, trying ever more elaborate methods of speeding up. Halfway around the campsite he was rewarded for his trouble.

Congratulations you have upgraded Fade to Vanish!

Vanish from sight. Small movement does not disrupt the ability.

With a grin, Ril stepped up his game, continuing around the campsite with renewed vigor. Eventually, when he had managed to get three quarters around the campsite his antics were interrupted.

In the corner of his vision, he saw a flash of movement. This in it of itself was not cause for alarm. The sea of grass that lay at the foot of the Dread Thicket was constantly in motion due to the wind. However this motion was different. A black flash. A white of an eye. A glint of teeth.

There was someone stalking towards the campsite.