Chapter Thirty

With inhuman grace, she wove her way through the jungle, soon reaching the third trio of raptors. Like the previous two groups, they appeared oblivious to them, busy sniffing for the group of Chrotile.

Why didn’t they sense her or Ione? She supposed she understood Ione, but how didn’t they notice her? If they tracked the Chrotile from kilometers away, she should be easy. Even though there wasn’t any wind to carry the scent. Maybe as an elemental, she didn’t have an enticing scent. Would she shock whatever tried to eat her? Best not to find out. She had no desire to get eaten.

Whatever the reason, she was thankful. It made ambushing stupid easy. Well, that and the fact they could take them out quick.

Elysia glanced at Ione, finding her ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. As silently as always, she palmed two throwing knives before letting them fly at trees opposite her position. The knives flew true, sticking into the exact center of each tree, causing her to pause for a moment.

She must have leveled her throwing knife proficiency. No way would she improve that much otherwise.

As the raptors turned toward the knives, Elysia let loose her Chain Lightning, which, as usual, caused the raptors to lock up. One of which fell onto its side.

Ione ignored the fallen raptor, targeting the nearest standing one. Instead of going for the kill, she sliced through both tendons on its legs, then flashed to the next one to do the same. For good measure, she crippled the fallen raptor too, though a descending smite made the crippling short lived as the raptor stilled.

Pride radiating through their bond as Elysia watched Ione stalk toward the two remaining raptors who were struggling to stand but their legs refused to move.

Understanding lit, causing Elysia to send images to Ione, telling her to play later. They needed to get back to the clearing to help the Chrotile. She received a pout back, but Ione bite out the two raptor’s throats, then stalked toward the clearing with her tail drooped.

Elysia sent a glance at the dead raptors, then shook her head as she followed Ione back to the clearing. Ione may be the size of a jaguar, but she still had house cat tendencies. Instead of toying with little mice, she tormented raptors. To be fair, big cats also played with their prey. She couldn’t blame her. Hunting raptors was getting boring. She just wanted to spice it up. Ione could probably hunt these raptors without her stunning them, but it made things efficient.

Upon walking into the clearing, they found three dead raptors and four new Chrotile tending to the wounded, which included her own team. Thauzo leaned against a tree, heaving for breath, dozens of bleeding gashes in his armor, and he was the best off.

Both Thaux and Thres were laying on the ground by the downed team. They also had dozens of wounds but unlike the heavily armored Thauzo, they lacked the defense both stat and equipment wise to take so many hits. Only the tank of the downed team appeared uninjured, as he wasn’t in the action.

Thauzo scowled upon seeing Elysia walking toward them without a scratch on her, causing him to glance at the retrieval team with indecision, but after a moment of thought, he seemed to discard whatever he was thinking.

One of the retrieval team members, a bulky Green Chrotile, turned to Elysia with a disapproving expression. “What were you doing? You should be with your team.”

Prickled by the tone, Elysia disregarded his comment as she scanned her team, finding while they had many wounds, none of them appeared to be near vitals, unlike the other team. The worst was a particularly deep gash on Thaux’s thigh.

Seeing they should be fine, Elysia made eye contact with the Chrotile, violet eyes flashing. “If I stayed with my team, we would be dead. There were three more groups of raptors in the jungle.”

The Chrotile eyed Elysia, finding her armor flawless. “I find it hard to believe a single back liner killed so many raptors when her team failed to kill three, even as an elemental.”

Elysia waved her hand to her right only to find Ione missing. A prod of her bond told her Ione was in the jungle near where they killed the first trio. “I didn’t kill them alone, but whatever. I don’t answer to you. Just check whatever tracks our kills if you want. I did what I had to do to protect my team and myself.”

Done with the conversation, Elysia turned her back to the Chrotile and gave a nod to Thauzo before walking back to her spot at the far end of the clearing. She sensed several eyes on her, but she tried her best to ignore them.

Just as she sat down, Ione emerged from the jungle slightly larger than before. Upon sensing her mother’s discomfort, Ione hissed at the Chrotile, promising retribution if anyone hurt her mother. No scaly treat had the right to look down on her mother. They saved them, yet they had the gall to treat her mother badly.

Not only that, but her mother’s scaly treats struggled to kill three raptors when they effortlessly killed nine. They had no need for the scaly treats. She could protect her mother, and her mother would protect her in return. The scaly treats were only a liability.

She sent images of them leaving with extra insistence. Her hope built as her mother appeared indecisive, but after several seconds of thought, Elysia sent images of her needing to upgrade her attributes. Annoyed, Ione rubbed against Elysia while insisting she could protect her. Another delay followed before Elysia sighed in defeat, promising she would talk to Thauzo.

Elysia leaned against Ione as her bond purred as she watched the Chrotile. Did she really want to leave? The raptor hunt proved they were capable on their own. If anything, she was better with Ione than the structured setup as a team. She could improvise on the fly with Ione, but with the Chrotile she had to sign her ideas and even then Thauzo may veto them.

As with before the system, she wasn’t good with teams and she couldn’t see herself putting her life in the hands of the Chrotile. Would she lose her protection from Urus if she left the team though? Would they even take her back if she left her team? Maybe it would void her wristband and leave her stranded. Something told her Urus wouldn’t do that to her, though.

She needed to talk to her team, but first she should check out the pile of notifications. Yeah, that’s what she should do.

Killed Level 90 Feathered Raptor x9

Level up! Path of Lightning Level 42.

Novice Throwing Knives Level 5.

She was perfectly fine with a single level. Especially with how easy it was and since she was at a higher level. Fortunately, she leveled during their last ambush so she was topped off on charge. She had a feeling level ups would be a rare occurrence from now on. Even if she went on her own. It wouldn’t help much with her current level being near her enemies.

She would have to ration her charge soon. No more flinging around smites, though as long as she leveled every eighteen smites, she would be fine. What was the point of her regular lightning attack when she could use smite that many times? Sure, she could use it for weaker enemies, but at least in Mezo those weaker enemies appeared in groups making chain lightning her go to.

Actually, she didn’t use electrify either. That used to be her favorite skill. Maybe once she figured out how to use her whip, it would come in handy. Electrifying throwing knives probably wouldn’t be worth it. Those throwing knives really came in handy, and they were an afterthought when she ordered them. The humid air really messed with her already unruly lightning.

Still, she wasn’t sure how chain lightning worked. Why would the lightning jump from the knife to the nearest enemy? One would think it would jump to the next conductive target instead, unless monsters were highly conductive. Something to experiment with if she found a chance.

Elysia glanced back at her team who appeared just as injured as they were before. Neither Thaux nor Thres appeared capable of standing and she doubted Thauzo was much better off. He definitely wasn’t capable of fighting in its current state.

Did they even want to continue? Maybe they should go with the extraction team. But that brought the issue back to her. If her team left, would she have to leave too? If she didn’t, that would probably be the cleanest way for her to move on. It would look bad if she left her team in its current state. Even healthy, they struggled with the three raptors, so they would be doomed if she left. Did she want to babysit them until they recovered, though? There really wasn’t a good solution.

A sigh escaped her mouth as she climbed to her feet and turned toward the Chrotile. She had to get this over with one way or another. Upon nearing the group, she caught Thauzo’s eye and waved for him to come over to talk, not wanting to get teamed up on in a conversation.

He scanned his siblings, worry etched on his face, but seeing them peacefully sleeping under the guard of two of the extraction team who were at the peak of the first evolution, he calmed down. Pain flashed across his face as he limped toward Elysia, who stood several meters away from the group.

Before she backed out, Elysia spoke first just as Thauzo reached her. “What are our plans from here?”

Thauzo leaned against a tree, taking weight off of his wounded left leg. “That depends on you. Despite how I acted, I understand your side of things. Without our sibling, our team just feels off and that’s not your fault. You are far stronger than her, but the short notice and disconnects are hurting us as a team.”

Her shoulders relaxed slightly. “I’ll be honest. I feel more comfortable fighting with Ione than with the team. Like you said, there is a disconnect. You three seem to always be on the same page while I feel left out. Ione and I seem to always know what to do and if we didn’t, we can communicate mentally.”

“Am I right in assuming you want to break off from the group?”

Elysia’s gaze jerked up to meet Thauzo’s reptilian eyes but only found understanding. “I’m not sure. Ione wants to, but I don’t want to leave you guys hanging and I’m not sure what leaving will do to me as a participant.”

Thauzo fell silent, glancing back at his team, who were just rousing many of their injuries, visibly healed as the potion they drank kicked in. “We had a feeling this would happen eventually, especially after hearing you unlocked Solo Adventuring. Do you know how Thrazk crushed the record despite being a tank for his team?”

After receiving a headshake from the elemental, he continued, “he broke off from his team by the second day. His kills still counted toward the team’s total, but he was effectively solo for most of the challenge. Though they probably would’ve won even without him. They were that stacked. While we aren’t anywhere near as strong as them, we should be fine if you leave.”

Without thinking, Elysia’s eyes drifted to the raptor bodies. “This was an unusual circumstance. If we separated, we wouldn’t put ourselves in a situation like this. As callous as it sounds, we can’t help everyone.

A smile formed on his scaly face. “Besides, I have a feeling if you break off, we won’t have to put ourselves in too many dangerous situations. That bond of yours is terrifying. You two will crush anything in your path. Also, don’t think we didn’t notice your level jump. At this point, we would just hold you back.”

Elysia stared at Thauzo imitating a fish, causing a chuckle from the massive Chrotile. “Don’t worry, we planned for an eventual separation. The only thing I’d like is for you to stay with us until we recover. It shouldn’t take more than a couple more hours.”

Warmth welled up in her at his understanding, though guilt flashed when she remembered the stolen crystals. Driven by the guilt, Elysia nodded her assent with a resolute expression.