Limitless Path

Now that they had that taken care of, it was time to actually tackle the toughest and last of their Silver missions. Not that they wouldn't be doing more missions eventually, even before going for Gold-rank, but they weren't planning on doing any for a while. Blood was leading the way northward as they closed in on the coordinates, it taking well over an hour for them to move through the rugged terrain of upstate New York to their destination.

The area they approached was a section of higher elevation hills covered in a dense forest. Some of the area had been used for logging before the Path, though that didn't line up exactly with the coordinates they had been provided. There was, of course, nobody out working this far from any of the cities currently, and Beth expected it to remain that way for quite a while. It made their jobs easier, as they only had to worry about the beasts and not any people messing with what they needed in the area.

Blood was the first to get close to the place they needed to go, finding the landscape changed a little from what they would normally expect in the area. The forest was much denser than what they had been moving through, with the trees packed together far closer, with heavier, thicker underbrush forming a knotty tangle between those thick trunks. The beasts were far more numerous and overall higher in density than what they had experienced most other places on Earth so far. Even the kobold area didn't have the kind of density they were seeing in the forest, though the average level was still a bit lower than theirs.

That all changed when Blood approached their final objective, finding a group of beasts in the middle of the one hundred eighties in level, all of them tough and resilient. It was a large pack of lizardmen, standing at close to or above Blood's height, and that wasn't even taking into account their slightly hunched posture and their slightly bent legs. They wore jerkins or hauberks with plates of armor sewn onto or into them, as well as greaves that covered their thighs with heavy plates of mana steel. Their scales were red and green in mottled patterns for the most part, areas of overlap blending into a muddy brown.

They used more than just the crude weapons that something like a goblin might have, though even goblins at higher levels were nowhere near as crude as many thought. The weapons were made of moderately pure, well-crafted mana steel, with sharp edges and long, clean blades, no matter that they were swords or spears or axes. Such beasts at higher levels could have higher levels of weaponskills, but still lacked the true intelligence of sapience, with no true self-actualization or ability to comprehend higher reasoning.

That didn't make them any less dangerous, however, as a group of fairly well-armored, well-armed enemies fighting without getting in each other's ways too badly was still rather dangerous. Or, it would have been, had it been basically anyone other than Blood and Beth, who tore the half dozen warriors apart in just a couple minutes. The girls' strength, skills, and technique were undoubtedly superior, but getting through the beasts' hardened scales and moderately well-made armor still took some time. At higher levels, beyond one-fifty for certain, it took a truly overwhelming amount of power to just annihilate an enemy without having to exchange several blows.

Blood moved forward, marking quite a number of lizardmen in a short area, but allowing Beth to slowly grind through a bunch of them while the wolf continued scouting. The forest was dense and fairly dark, as there were few to no clearings and the overhead coverage from the leafy thicket of heavy branches stifled even the noon sun. It was doubly surprising, then, when the lupine woman came upon a clear area in the forest, stretching close to a hundred feet, though not all of that space was natural. Something, or someone, had clearly been here and devastated the area, knocking down trees and destroying the undergrowth around what had originally been a small, natural clearing.

Blood sent the details back to Beth, who was still catching up, before following along the path of destruction; whatever had done this leaving a rather clear trail through the woods. A trail that, very conveniently, led directly to the very thing they had ventured there for; the entrance of the dungeon. Blood crouched on a branch in a tree she had hopped into, watching as a party of seven humans fought tooth and nail with a large group of lizardmen. The party was quite well-equipped, and they were also the highest-level people Beth and Blood had encountered on Earth apart from the Senior Enforcers and themselves. She watched them for a few minutes as Beth caught up, not needing to fight anything for the last minute as she also followed the other team's path.

She joined Blood in the tree, where they watched the team finish off the large group they had been fighting, though Beth was less impressed with the team than Blood had been. Sure, their levels were quite high, and they had some decent equipment, but their tactics were not really anything to write home about. She was a bit reminded of Bai's party, and while this party was superior in both levels and skill levels, they didn't seem as coordinated. It wasn't so bad as seven individuals fighting beside each other, but they clearly weren't very used to team tactics and fighting together, which Beth found rather strange.

That wasn't the only strange thing, as they observed the team progressing forward very aggressively, almost ignoring some of the lizardmen attacking them to charge towards the dungeon. Beth wasn't sure what their endgame was, but it was incredibly puzzling, considering they would be swamped before they even got to the dungeon entrance at this rate. Beth and Blood watched just that happen, or at least, it would have happened if one of the members of the group didn't do something, it looked like use an item, and create a massive blast that killed several and crippled a few dozen enemies.

"Fishing with dynamite," Beth grunted.

"What?" Blood asked adroitly.

"They're using some kind of tool, and it reminds me of those idiots that used to blow up a pond to fish. Effective for what it was for, but wasteful and petty," Beth explained.

"Think we should help?" asked Blood with an ear twitch.

"I think we should, at some point, see what they want. I don't want this to be a group from a different Hall and get all our wires crossed," Beth said.

"And if they aren't so friendly?" Blood continued coldly.

"We try to disable them, but we're not so great at the 'limited force' ideology. If it's us or them, let's make sure it's them," Beth replied simply.

"We going?" Blood asked, watching the team finish the last of the lizardmen around them, giving them a bit of clear space. She noted the area wouldn't stay clear for very long, especially since the other team wasn't even trying to be quiet, and far from it. Seeing Beth's nod, she hopped down from their perch, making her way toward the team as they were gathering themselves and getting ready to push deeper to hit the dungeon entrance.

The two girls' approach did not go unnoticed, particularly with Beth's less than stellar ability to move unobtrusively as she stomped after Blood, and the team of seven spotted them rather quickly. Beth wasn't very happy with the way the whole team formed up facing them, displaying a rather aggressive posture when meeting other people, though they refrained from open hostility. The two stopped once they were within easy earshot, pre-empting the apparent leader of the opposing party as he called for them to halt at the same time.

"We don't like people honing in on what's ours. This is our dungeon, so why don't you turn around and leave?" the man said rather rudely.

Beth pulled out her Silver Emblem and displayed it, knowing that even at that slight distance all seven of the others should be able to easily see it. "I don't know what you mean by 'your dungeon,' but we've been assigned to clear this, so I'd like to sort this out. Peacefully."

The sight of her emblem and her words caused several wary glances between members of the other party, though it didn't seem to have ruffled the lead hooligan’s feathers any. Beth was already getting a distinct impression of the man, despite having only exchanged a few words, and it wasn't a good one. He gave off a certain air, what one might still call a snake-oil salesman, as well as an undercurrent of danger that she took as a subtle warning.

"I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding," the man said calmly with a big, obviously fake smile. "As you can see, both by our preparation and the fact that we were here well before the two of you, we've been assigned this dungeon. I would also point out that it would be rather foolish to try to clear something like this with only two people."

Blood bristled very slightly but got herself back under control before Beth could even nudge her. With a shake of her head, she replied, "That's fine to say, but we were literally assigned a mission from our Hall for this, and the man who manages that stuff isn't prone to mistakes. If another Hall even had a mission for this, let alone had anyone assigned, I highly doubt he would have crossed those wires. I'm going to have to contact him and get this worked out."

"And if it doesn't work in your favor?" the man asked, still with a large, fake smile.

"Then we leave," Beth replied with a shrug. "There's plenty to do, if you haven't noticed."

She took a step to the side and held a hand up to her ear, but before actually calling back to the Hall, she turned and said, "Oh, by the way, I didn't catch your names. Or what you team is called, if you have a designation. Could I get that?"

Many teams that worked together, again referencing Dream Snake for how it was usually done, often came up with some kind of moniker that others could recognize them by. It wasn't required, but a lot of teams did it to both help others know who they were, as well as to spread the fame of the team, which could be easier than spreading an individual's fame. She didn't necessarily expect them to have a team name or respond, but it would also be a nice little indication that they were more legitimate. If they were a random group of bandits or ne'er-do-wells, it was a lot less likely they would have an established name, at least not this early in their looting careers.

"I'm Bronson," the man said, still with that fake smile, and that was it. Beth stared at him for another few moments before rolling her eyes just slightly, holding two fingers of her right hand up to her right ear to indicate she was on a 'call.' She took a moment to scroll the contacts, deciding just to call Tazeen for now, keeping her eye on the other team while the call connected.

"Ms. Beth?" Tazeen answered with a slight note of surprise in his voice.

"Tazeen, issue," she said. "There's a team of seven out here, got here right before us. Only team leader would give us his name; one 'Bronson.' Says they were assigned this dungeon. Could you double-check the assignment for the mission?"

"One moment," Tazeen replied, clearly working through his screens already.

Beth kept her eyes on the other team while waiting for Tazeen to figure out what was happening. It took only a minute, Beth noting several of the other team's members were shifting rather a bit as they all stood there. It could just be nervous energy, but it really seemed like they were too nervous for the given situation. Tazeen replied, blasting away Beth's wandering thoughts as he said, "There is no other assigned mission. No Hall but ours has a mission for this dungeon, let alone has it assigned to any team under someone named 'Bronson.' And trust me, I have the accesses to view anything happening on Earth right now. I cannot say for certain who you are talking with, but they are not doing an official commission for the CRA. Please proceed with caution."

"I think we might need a clean-up crew," Beth replied coldly.

"If you must kill them, notify me afterwards," Tazeen answered simply before disconnecting.

"So, what Hall are you working out of?" Beth asked with a slight smile, not a smirk, but just a bit of a disarming lift of her lips.

"Oh, we're working out of the Red Hall," he answered, while also subtly nodding to the rest of his group. Neither of the girls missed the nod, though neither reacted visibly, trying not to clue the group in that they already knew the jig was up and the group was prepping an attack.

"The Red Hall, is it?" Beth asked, internally rolling her eyes. Hard. "That's pretty strange, because I don't-"

That was all she managed to get out before the man, who may or may not be 'Bronson,' made a chopping motion with his left hand. It was likely the team thought that they would spring a big surprise on Beth and Blood, but they were instead shocked as both the women were little more than patchy blurs as their team leader's arm still swung. Bronson's team had tried what was likely an opening gambit they used often, though the timing was different than against the lizardmen. With the lizardmen they had to group them up and get them distracted, but with Beth and Blood they only needed to try to hurt them from the start, so they used whatever explosive they were tossing out as their opening gambit.

It was clear just from that that this team was not very experienced in fighting other sapients, or at least, other sapient beings that were as strong if not stronger than them. Tossing an explosive at the two of them was simply…bad, as an opening gambit, which the seven people learned immediately. Let alone the fact that the blast wouldn't have done them much damage, both the girls were serious speedsters, and they put that to use as they each slammed into the outermost member of the team of seven, slashing or chopping them before darting off again.

It wasn't all in Beth and Blood's favor, as they darted in several times to score blood, only to get knocked back by a massive area denial skill from Bronson. He slammed his two-handed hammer on the ground and cracked all the terrain in front of him in a massive cone, the wave of force also pushing back anybody caught in the area. It gave his team a few precious moments to regroup from their initial slight disarray, moving into a tighter formation around the leader. Not being able to get easy hits in against the group was annoying, especially because they had only done superficial damage so far thanks to the armor the seven had equipped.