God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 1096: Advance Teams (2).

Blaze had a strange look on his face.

To his side, Manny sat with a blade balance on his legs. To his other side, was Calio, peering into the distance with a look that said he would rather be anywhere but here.

Behind him was a cluster of Beastmen laughing boisterously and chattering amongst themselves. At their ends, with his back facing him was the huge and stoic Floki.

There was also the kind-natured Luke and his small team of fighters, a band of scimitar wielding Pilgrims, a band of Lightslayers, and Alvi’s band of mercenaries and bodyguards led by Jack, the Jackal.

Together, they all numbered more than fifty and were the advance guard of the small procession, as well as the bulk of the fighting force.

Since they were so much, they all rode on the back of the largest {Longhorn Mare} at the forefront of the group. Thankfully, the creation was quite large and so wa the cavity in its hump. There was more than enough room for everyone to be sat comfortably with more than enough leg room.

’This is quite strange...’

This was not the first time they had all been gathered in the same place. Despite that, there was an elemental of weirdness to the entire situation.

Most of the time, the situation was usually pressing and dangerous so there was not much time to think about it.

However, the current mission was relatively calm and peaceful save for what had happened two days ago.

Despite having lost two of the guards that had been on watch duty that night, everyone had gone about their time as usual.

Or at least, that was how it seemed.

In reality, he could sense that there was some silent tension hanging in the air.

The two guards that had died the night before belonged to the group of mercenaries led by the Jackal, so most of the tension was wafting off from their corner.

It did nothing to help that Floki’s band of Beastmen were being loud and obnoxious. What made it even worse, was that Floki was doing absolutely nothing to stop them.

In fact, he almost seemed to welcome it, even.

Blaze sighed internally.

’This guy...’

He couldn’t do anything about it either way, or he would end up bringing whatever bad blood was between them to the surface, which would do absolutely nothing to ease the tension. If anything, it could even make it worse.

"Oi, why do you keep sighing? It’s pissing me off."

Blaze turned to his other side.

Li and Stan were seated there. Li wore an annoyed look while Stan had a wry smile on his face,

"Don’t mind him. He’s just a little grumpy today."

Li exclaimed bitterly,

"Why the hell won’t I be grumpy?! First, it was that awful smell! Now, this stuff keeps getting into my eyes, and it freaking burns! Damn it!"

Blaze sighed. Then his expression changed as an awful stinging sensation spread through his throat, forcing him into a coughing fit.

Thankfully, it seemed not a lot of spores had found their way into his nasal tract as the stinging swiftly faded away.

Stan ignored him and leaned in towards Blaze,

"Hey, don’t you think the current atmosphere is a bit... heavy?"

Blaze pursed his lips. His gaze traveled a bit, eventually settling on the group of mercenary hunters Alvi had hired. They belonged to a few powerful Hunter parties in Valestorm, with some of them even holding impressive local fame.

His gaze narrowed when he noticed the rather dark, almost sinister expressions on some of their faces.

"Let’s just hope it doesn’t become more than what it already is."

Stan raised a brow and Li frowned as his expression turned serious,

"What do you mean by that?"

Blaze frowned and turned his gaze forward, 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"No, it’s nothing."

Li still seemed suspicious, but decided not to push it,

"In any case, where do you think those Rotworms came from? Could they perhaps be some strange type of Devil left behind by the previous ones?"

Stan shrugged, "Apparently, that’s not it. From the rumors I’ve heard, they are in fact, Mutant Beasts. But they are affected by Devil Essence, causing them to mutate that way."

Li chuckled bitterly,

"Mutant Creatures created by Devils... Surely, there is nothing more evil for us to discover, right? Because if there is, then what the hell is the point of fighting?!"

Sensing Li’s genuine agony and despair, Stan tried to comfort him,

"Apparently, there truly just might be worse out there. If anything, we should be thankful."

Li glared at him,

"You really aren’t helping at all..."

Stan’s head fell, "Sorry. My bad."

Li sighed and turned to Blaze, "What do you think? Would you like to encounter more horrors birthed by this world?"

Blaze frowned. A moment later, his expression eased up,

"If it comes down to it, we’ll only have to fight those when the time comes as well."

Li grimaced, "You say that like it’s so easy. I barely got by two days ago. Those freaking things stink and are disgusting."

Blaze shrugged, ’That... I cannot disagree with."

Stan laughed loudly as he locked Li’s head under his arm,

"In the end, we’ll simply cut through them all! Just like we’ve always done."

"Mosh puhhg smush!"

"Sorry, sorry." Stan laughed as he let go of Li’s head,

"I said, Hell yeah! Those ugly bastards think they can get the best of me?! Let them think again! My supreme fists will vanish them back to Hell, or wherever those unholy abominations spawn from!"

Blaze let out a sigh and turned away from the two.

The burning wind, laced with the very fine motes of red spores washed across his face, sending him into a coughing fit.

The corners of his eyes were tearing when he finally found relief.

’What a terrible situation this is.’

Still, there was nothing he could do about it.

The {Longhorn Mares} let out bellows that traveled through the empty wasteland of City Z...