Chapter 56: 55: Nice Words and Not-Nice Monsters

In a clearing, one covered in a layer of snow, one surrounded by a ring of trees, one sheltered from the path the monster wave would take, was the group of adventurers. With everyone standing in a circle, Chelsea clapped her hands, wrapping up the discussion. 

“Everyone knows their assignments then?” Chelsea asked one last time with a stern face before summarizing, “Half of you will come with me, half will go with Kaitlyn. Everyone with me is in team quantity, everyone with Kaitlyn is part of team quality.” 

As replies of affirmation sounded out, Chelsea turned, reading out a number of names, before pulling the swords off of Dexter, Sasha, and Jayce’s bodies.

A cloud of swords swirling around her, Chelsea’s group walked off, leaving a group of adventurers in the clearing, all looking towards Kaitlyn. 

“Well...” Kaitlyn began, trailing off just as she began while considering how to phrase her words in an effort to sound as professional as possible, “Well, every year we kind of do it similarly... We’ll just go scout around, see if anyone finds any larger high-ranked monsters. Then, we’ll just... murder it. Not much to it, sounds good?” 

The adventurers all replying with a chorus of “yes”’s, Kaitlyn turned, thinking about where to begin scouting from, when Oliver asked a question, “How... uhh... What's the threshold really of a monster we need to kill? Rank-wise threshold.” 

Pulling out her swords while stretching a little, Kaitlyn explained, “Anything A-Ranked and above is something that needs to be killed no matter what. Shouldn’t be too many of those and it's not like we have to be perfect, we just need to... kill them, yeah. While anything below A-Rank... it's not critical, but if you see anything really big, it’s probably worth killing, the walls to the city aren’t mountains after all. Also, to reiterate, kill any non-adventurer person, they’ll be part of the Black Wing as Chelsea explained. I’m sure you remember every adventurer’s face, so don’t stab them... obviously, but the common civilians have all been notified and guards have been making sure they aren’t in the area. So the Black Wing is all that’s left.”  

“““Thank you!”””

After several people thanked her, all first-time participants either of her team, or the expedition in general, Kaitlyn sighed, “You all really need to ask those questions...” 

“Alright, we’ll just fan out from this area, the monsters are all... that way,” Kaitlyn pointed, gesturing to the trees behind her, “So don’t go the other way, you’re just going to find... mountain. If anyone needs help just make a loud commotion. That also means though, if you hear someone in a fight and you’re free in general it's not a bad idea to go give some backup. We’re aiming for no injuries today after all, I trust you all though, you’re not S-Ranked Adventurers for no reason. Stay safe.”

As she finished her own little spiel, Kaitlyn watched as everyone ran off, ready for a long day ahead of them of monster extermination. 

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Pausing before she ran off, Rachel walked up to Kaitlyn, giving her a quick hug before smiling, “Good luck! Don’t get hurt, okay? We’ll probably see each other later during fights, but bye for now~” 

With a playful smile on her face, Rachel ran off before Kaitlyn could reply, disappearing into the trees where the others had gone.

‘Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, Rachel what was that??’ scolded Rachel... to herself in her head as she ran through the area, looking to scout from the high ledge that would line both sides of the monster wave path, ‘I mean... I know you’re trying to be cool and impress her, but... but... what are you DOING?! What if she starts hating you after you tease her too much! I know she’s so pretty and you’re gay as hell, to the stars and back, but you have to think more before you speak...’ 

Said person in question, Kaitlyn, was in fact not hating Rachel, but in fact standing there with a pink tinge on her face. Sheathing one of her swords, Kaitlyn touched her now warm cheeks, embarrassment twirling around in her brain like a ballerina, “Why did that embarrass me so much...” 

Deciding to push those thoughts aside, Kaitlyn gripped her swords once more, running forward towards where the monsters would be waiting. 

Slicing a few bushes along the way that were in her way, Kaitlyn, having run for just a little bit, came to the ledge that lined the path the monster wave would take. This area, where Kaitlyn could see several other adventurers a ways away from her, was where the main stage of this attack would take place. 

With the monster wave happening every year, monsters every year carved out a path, creating ledges just taller than a person on either side of their path. The ledges on either side of the path, although filled with vegetation, flanked a path that was totally devoid of any life, a barren area of land that was only blanketed by snow. 

Seeing the path in the middle only dotted by a few smaller monsters, Kaitlyn turned, running off further into the mountains like a gust of wind, keeping an eye on the path as she ran, making a mental note on how dense the monsters were in the middle of the path. 

Ahead of everyone else in the group, Kaitlyn came to a skidding stop as she saw a large monster in the middle of the path piercing a few smaller monsters underfoot, a spindler. 

A spindler, although possessing a fancy name, was not what most would consider a fancy monster. Resembling a large spider, a gargantuan spider at times, a spindler was an A-Ranked monster that scuttled around on its 8 large needle-like legs. These thin legs that were like large poles, piercing and killing anything under them, supported the spindler’s unique frame. Having a smaller head and thorax, the spindler’s main characteristic was its gargantuan swollen abdomen that would sway in the air, convulsing while glistening under the sun. However, in a monster wave, the spindler’s greatest weapon, its abdomen that was always at the ready to spin or accentuate the monster’s web was much weaker, as it could only use it to shoot webs at incoming opponents.