Joining Forces

Eo and his group took off at noon. As they trekked closer to Zone E, Eo noticed another group walking parallel to them.

Eo shaded his eyes with his hand as he peered into the distance. He put up a hand and waved it towards them. One of the members of the other group noticed them. Eo patiently waited for that person to tell everyone else in that person's group. Soon, the paths of both groups started to converge.

When Eo managed to get closer he realized that their silhouettes were oddly familiar.

"Kyros' group?"

Eo and co. got even closer. He finally saw that Kyros and his comrades were decked out in expensive-looking armor. Eo decided to ask about it.

"Where'd you get that fancy equipment?"

Kyros grinned.

"Some nice people gave it to us after they found out we were going to the epicenter."

"So you guys were going there too."

"Yeah… I'm surprised you also had the same thought."

Kyros stopped some distance away. Apparently he was still wary of Eo's former bullies-in-arms.

One of Kyros' comrades piped up.

"So, wanna join forces then?"

"Likad!"

"Heheh, I forgot to ask Kyros, sorry."

Likad turned to Kyros and repeated it. Kyros seemed extremely conflicted. Outright rejecting the offer would seem rude, but given his history with Eo and co., it wouldn't be too surprising if he completely refused.

"S-sure…"

What a good guy, Eo thought.

Kyros' group, which numbered 12, met and exchanged names with Eo's group. Apparently Kyros' group used to be 6 before merging with another group. Even the leader of the former group now followed Kyros around everywhere. Eo made a mental note to make sure his own group didn't get caught within Kyros'. Kyros' group was organized into: 3 tanks (Dezoov: Earth, Ulsher: Earth, Prezna: Water), 4 fighters (Enmio: Metal, Nimus: Metal, Nainto: Heat, Kyros: Water/Heat), 3 support (Asekyll: Sound, Swanton: Wind, Likad: Wind), and 2 stealth (Kimin: Light, Akarios: Sound).

"Um," Eo said. "How do you keep track of all that?"

Kyros pulled out a notebook and grinned.

"Cool, right? How do you organize your group?"

Eo shrugged. "I don't know. We just kill things."

Kyros was at a loss for words.

"Well, let's just continue on into Zone E then."

Eo nodded. The large group of 17 Recruits decided to travel into a zone more advanced than they.

Eo was curious about the strength of Kyros' group, so he and his own group trailed behind. If they were to confront an enemy, Eo would get to see how Kyros would deal with it.

After about half an hour, they met their first enemies: a dozen Phase I goblin-types.

☆

Eo held back his hand. The Essov squad halted. Eo wanted to see what the Kyros group could do.

Kyros immediately assessed the situation.

"Heroes, 12 Phase I goblins up ahead!"

Eo almost choked. "Heroes"? Eo was seriously going to die from laughing, so he did his best to restrain himself. To distract himself, he focused on Kyros' battle formations.

The tanks and fighters gathered into a row, alternatingly. The support came behind them. While the tanks marched on steadily, bringing a wrath of essence attacks onto the goblins, the fighters darted in and out of the formation to deal devastating attacks and then retreat afterwards to recover. The support classes constantly destabilized and immobilized enemy units with their wind or sound attacks, and the stealth classes wreaked havoc from behind the enemy lines.

Eo nodded in approval. Not bad. They both used the wind and sound classes as support. However, Kyros' group had more variety in affinities. This was the first time he had witnessed a light elemental in actual combat.

After about 10 minutes, the entire group of enemies were destroyed. Kyros turned to Eo.

"How did you like that? Pretty decent, right?"

Eo nodded. Kyros suddenly jumped.

"Eo! Behind you!"

Eo turned. There was a Phase 2 lizard-type monster. It wasn't much of a surprise anymore. Adding in the fact that they were in Zone E now, more powerful monsters would be a more common occurrence.

Kyros stammered. "Th- that looks just as, if not more, powerful as the monster we saw in the bus!

Eo shrugged.

"Attack Formation A!"

Eo's group immediately sprang into action.