Cain turned toward Hera, caught slightly off guard by the remark.
"Ah... well, thank you," he replied, the response coming out more awkwardly than he intended.
"I suppose that’s to be expected, considering you’re a mage," she added, her tone neutral as ever before she turned and walked away without another word.
And just like that, the twins closed in on him again.
Cain let out a quiet breath, already bracing himself. Mostly because of Ava.
"That was quite thrilling! Weren’t you excited?" Ava asked, practically bouncing in place, her energy completely out of sync with the situation.
"No."
How could I be? I could’ve died.
"Good job...surviving," Avery said calmly from beside her.
That, at least, was easier to respond to.
"And you...Too," Cain replied, matching her tone.
"Did you see my moves?" Ava jumped back in without missing a beat. "I went whoosh, and then bam, and then bodies were just dropping everywhere."
"Yeah... you were quite fast," Cain answered absentmindedly, his attention already drifting elsewhere.
"I know, right?" She said excitedly. "Did you see how many I killed?"
Cain didn’t respond.
She pressed again, louder this time.
"Well? Did you? Did you? Did you?"
"No, I did not," Cain forced out, his patience thinning. Remaining silent clearly wasn’t going to work here.
"Well, I killed one... two... three... four... seven..."
Cain sighed quietly as she continued counting. He was starting to regret ever engaging in the conversation at all. She wasn’t going to stop.
Isaac, meanwhile, had walked over to one of the fallen creatures, nudging it with the tip of his blade as he examined it.
"So... bug-type creatures, huh."
Barack clicked his tongue, irritation creeping into his expression.
"Yeah. Most likely the boss is some kind of mosquito queen, or whatever these things are supposed to be."
"Queen?!" Ava exclaimed, her attention snapping away from Cain, who let out a small, silent breath of relief.
"Ah..." Hera sighed, gripping her staff a little tighter. "This is going to be troublesome."
"And why is that?" Isaac asked.
Hera shot him a sharp, unimpressed look.
"Didn’t they teach you this in the academy?"
Isaac stiffened slightly at that, the edge in her voice making the jab clear.
"They did," he replied after a brief pause, his tone turning defensive. "I was just asking for the newbie’s sake. He might not know."
Cain frowned faintly.
What does this have to do with me?
Barack shook his head and stepped in before the exchange could drag on further.
"With insect-type creatures, getting to the queen is already a problem," he began. "But taking her down is even worse. The workers won’t hesitate to throw themselves at you if it means protecting her."
"Like ants... or bees," Ava added.
Barack nodded. "Exactly."
"That explains why this place looks the way it does," Adel said, her gaze tracing along the chitin-coated walls and organic growths surrounding them. "Bugs are efficient builders."
Cain gave a small nod. He had come to the same conclusion the moment he saw the structure of the place.
"What we should be more concerned about is locating the queen," Quasi said, his voice steadier now, his condition noticeably improved thanks to Adel’s healing.
"And one more thing," he added, his gaze hardening slightly. "We don’t know what those pincers can do. Avoid getting stung at all costs. It could be poison... or something worse."
"Right...it’s a miracle none of us got hit," Avery said, a faint unease creeping into her voice.
After finishing with Quasi, Adel moved around the group, checking for any remaining injuries. She treated Barack next, then Isaac, who had taken a cut to the shoulder.
Isaac winced sharply as the wound closed, the sensation of flesh knitting together far from comfortable. Ava laughed at him without restraint.
Meanwhile, Cain focused on retracing the path they had taken to reach this point, committing each turn and corridor to memory.
The structure of the place made that necessary, as its maze-like layout meant that getting lost wasn’t just possible; it was likely, and he had no intention of leaving their direction to chance.
At the same time, he made use of [Ignition Zone], placing controlled traps along the walls. They remained inactive, were subtle enough to go unnoticed, and, more importantly, only he could sense them.
If the group ever ended up looping back without realizing it, those markers would tell him exactly where they had already been, allowing him to redirect them without drawing attention.
The party paused briefly, giving Adel time to recover. Then Quasi rose to his feet.
"Alright, let’s get moving. The sooner we find the queen, the better."
As Cain stood, he placed another trap on the ground before deactivating it immediately, just as he had done with the others.
If one were triggered and detonated, the pattern would be erased entirely, leaving nothing behind to trace. So he had to have them be inactive.
No one noticed him do this, not even the twins, who were closest to him, which was good, as he didn’t have the energy or EQ to deal with any questions.
They kept walking for what felt like an endless stretch of time, and along the way, the party ran into three more swarms just like the first, one after another, with barely any chance to recover in between.
To make matters worse, those encounters didn’t happen in open space.
Each swarm forced them into narrow passages where movement was restricted, leaving the hunters with little room to maneuver and forcing them to fight within tight, unforgiving confines.
The strain began to show.
The constant combat wore them down physically, while the endless walking through twisting paths with no clear direction steadily chipped away at their focus. It wasn’t just their bodies that were being tested; their minds were starting to feel it, too.
Frustration began to settle in. So much so that even Ava, who had been full of energy earlier, had gone quiet.
The maze only grew more complex, paths splitting and twisting in ways that made tracking increasingly difficult. And even Cain, sharp as he was, was starting to struggle to keep up with memorizing the maze.
Still...he didn’t stop marking. If nothing else, that would give him something to rely on.
But just as exhaustion began to take hold of the group...Something else went wrong.
After another brutal clash with a swarm, one of them dropped.
A heavy thud echoed as knees hit the ground.
Cain’s eyes snapped toward the sound, and what he saw made his expression tighten.
Quasi, the very one who had warned them to avoid the pincers, was on the ground.
One of the blood midge’s stingers had punched through his armor, its length still embedded in his body.