Best not to put it to the test, Hitomi thought. Just like the best defense is not getting hit in the first place.
It was then that Hitomi reflected on the results of her little experiment with her flight ability.
Just like in the game, Hitomi had complete control over her orientation to the ground. She could lounge in the air, walk as though descending a flight of invisible steps, run in circles parallel to the ground or simply float inverted with no ill effects.
That was much like how it was in YGGDRASIL, where Gazers could fly in complete defiance of gravity. While they were not as fast as winged fliers like, Birdmen or Dragons, they were far more maneuverable, given that there were no inconvenient wings to get in the way while in tight quarters.
In many ways, it was like the [Fly] spell which arcane magic casters could use, only it could not be dispelled and it did not vanish in areas which negated magic.
Even if she were subjected to some spell which specifically disabled flying ([Undeniable Gravity] came to mind), she would still land as softly and gently as a falling feather.
One could say that as long as her opponents were not faster than her, she had complete air supremacy. Depending on the terrain and the speed difference in question, she might even be able to overcome that as well.
Hitomi was still descending as those thoughts ran through her head. There were clouds underneath her, but they posed no obstacle to her potent eyesight.
Below them was a large… forest? Odd to have a forest growing up to the edge of the sea, but then again, this was a new world, and she had never been good in geography anyway.
More importantly, the forest(?) looked very dense. This meant a lot of cover… which meant she might be able to experiment with her less… subtle abilities. While she had not detected anyone observing her so far (through the grace of another one of her skills), making big, noisy, earth-shaking explosions might draw unwelcome attention.
That's better avoided, she mused. While she did not wish to plunge headlong into combat, her opponents might not give her that choice. When the time came, it would be better to know how to use her abilities for self-defense than to perish with unused skills — and being interrupted mid-training would surely lead to that.
As she made a list of things to experiment with, she quickened her descent; slightly at first, and then she plunged like a falling star as she grew used to flinging herself at the earth.
The Rock
Julian glanced behind him.
He had felt someone or something watching him for some time now, but whenever looked around, there was nothing there. He informed the others, of course, and they promised to call out anything they saw, but so far there had been no response.
The feeling of being watched still remained, but as the night wore on with nothing to show for it, he slowly grew numb to it. Eventually, he wrote it off as simple fatigue.
And indeed, he was justified in saying so. They had been walking since the sun went down and well into the night. Such was the disadvantage of being the sole human among a group of demihumans (Igni was technically a humanoid too, but he was as tireless as the mountains), but Julian was also an adventurer, and he could keep going in spite of his fatigue.
Truth to be told, this journey would have been tiring even under ideal circumstances, but the situation now was decidedly not ideal.
Their first and greatest foe was the terrain because walking through a swamp was a very draining experience. The treacherous terrain required care and agility to navigate, and it was a plain fact that the sticky mud which coated their booted feet weighed them down and made every step an ordeal.
The combined physical and mental strain was doubly exhausting to travellers. Worse, tired people made mistakes, which were fatal in this place.
Yes, the land itself was actively dangerous too. One false move could lead to a traveller plunging into a stinking morass of half-liquid earth and rotting vegetation, with no footing underneath and countless clinging branches to drag one down into a muddy grave.
Sometimes the mud was as slick as water and as clingy as treacle — a man could fall into a hollow barely seven feet deep and drown in the mud without the people beside him noticing that he had disappeared.
After that, the next biggest hazard was the light — or the absence of it. The canopy above was so dense here that the bright full moon he had seen before entering this place seemed like a distant dream. Instead, this place was dark enough that a man could put his palm on his face and not see his fingers.
Carrying light sources was not a good solution to that problem. In fact, it was actively hazardous — being the sole source of light in a world of darkness not only ruined one's night vision, but it drew hungry nocturnal predators from far away. The drawbacks of being a monster magnet outweighed the meager radius illuminated by most torches and lanterns.
Fortunately, Julian's goggles — the Eyes of the Owl — gave him the same darkvision his colleagues enjoyed, though its effects only extended up to about 20 meters away from him. It restricted his peripheral vision and rendered everything he saw in shades of black and white, leaving him essentially colorblind. Still, it beat being completely blind, especially in a place like this.
The effect was quite unsettling, though. It was as if the world was only 120 feet across, most of it taken up by gnarled hulks and the shifting silhouettes of his friends. Beyond that was blackness.
Julian imagined all sorts of nameless horrors in the darkness beyond, and he wondered how Arctos was guiding them through this lightless oubliette.
Like many demihumans, Arctos could see in the dark, but that had its limitations as well. Darkvision did not let one see through fog or foliage, and the dangers of the swamp lurked below its surface. In all likelihood, he was not relying on darkvision alone.
Julian had once heard that Wolf Beastmen like Arctos had an incredible sense of smell, so accurate and acute that they could practically use it as an alternate form of eyesight. Indeed, there was more than one occasion when Arctos had guided them out of dark catacombs by scenting the faint movements of fresh air in musty tunnels, and he had even managed to catch hiding monsters by literally smelling their fear.
Arctos sometimes spoke of "seeing" colors by smelling, how angry people were wreathed in red and how each individual had their own unique scent/hue that he could tell apart provided it had not faded too much. Julian did not quite understand the ability, but he trusted the man.
Therefore, he — and the others — followed closely behind Arctos, trusting in his nose and his instincts to lead them in the right direction and over comparatively solid ground. Granted, in waterlogged wetlands like swamps, the definition of "solid ground" was quite tenuous, but Arctos had not led them astray so far, and Julian was confident that he would continue to come through for them.
Speaking of which, there was no chatter from Arctos at all. The wolf-man's eyes were focused and his expression was deadly serious. In this place, their lives essentially rested in his hands, and all his energies were devoted to not only finding their quarry but keeping them safe as well.
Behind him, Pardus had rotated out with Nishiru once the darkness of the interior had become apparent. The druid quietly incanted a spell every now and then as he walked. This was followed by a small animal running up to or perching on his hand. He would then whisper to it in some bizarre language and then release the creature, which would run off. Shortly afterwards, it — or a very similar relative — would return. Nishiru would then speak to it — if speaking was the right word for the hushed animal noises he made to them. After that, he would tap Arctos on the shoulder, and sometimes their course changed and sometimes it did not.