Venture inside

After seeing Mark arrive Haiden looked at the time, excused himself, and walked back to the raid team.

"It´s time to prepare your strategy since you have guests." he told Emma.

"Yes, sir!" said the raid leader in enthusiasm. "Our frontliners are me and Tyler with Lucian and Gina protecting us from the back. Clark provides us with buffs before a fight breaks out and after that, he stands in the back. Lucian swaps with one of our vanguards if an injury were to happen until they get healed back to shape. Understandable?" she asked with an upward nod.

"Yes" said Tristan and Mark nodded in agreement.

"I would hope so. You two will be standing in the backline and providing support in case it is needed. Listen to my orders. I will not tolerate any misbehavior."

"We had a teacher like you and one of my classmates put a hair from his ass in her coffee." commented Clark.

Emma glared at him and asked. "Do you have a problem with my approach?"

"Just saying." said Clark with a shrug.

"Leave such unnecessary comments to yourself for the time being."

Haiden chuckled at her seriousness and said. "Focused team doesn´t mean a tense team. You can relax a little, otherwise the whole team will be irritated during the raid."

"I will try my best."

"I am sure you will. Lucian, I told you many times, but you have the completely opposite problem so just stay focused and don´t doze off in the middle of a fight."

"No problem, chief."

"Tyler, try to overcome the effects of [Starving for battle]. You can do it if you put your heart into it." Haiden said while placing his palm on his chest.

"Got it."

"Gina you only have to stay the way you are and everything will be alright." he said with a smile.

"Thank you very much." she beamed up.

*Beep*Beep*

"The time has come. Good luck and come back in one piece."

"And I won´t get any advice?" asked Clark.

"Leave your mouth closed for a moment. That is my advice." Haiden patted him on his shoulder.

"Well, what did I even expect?"

They left their trainer behind and stepped through the gate.

In a moment the group appeared on a tiny island surrounded by a mass of shallow water filled with dense vegetation. Mangroves grew all over the place under the constant light provided by the magic crystals embedded in the walls and roof of the cave.

The team looked around, only to see no monsters in their vicinity. They however heard two unknown voices from the distance.

"Follow me." said Emma in a quiet tone and hopped into the swamp.

She walked through the water, which barely reached her hips, towards the voices. One by one the hunters went after her and only Mark with Tristan remained on the piece of land.

'I didn´t think about this one. I need to modify the Levitate spell when I get home.' Mark thought watching the fording hunters.

Tristan tapped on his shoulder and asked. "Could you carry me over the water?"

Mark looked at him disappointed and confused. 'What am I even doing in my life?'

A swift ethereal projectile left his hand and landed on Tristan who subsequently started floating in the air.

"Put on some gear for your next raid. I don´t think many people would wanna carry you." said Mark and jumped into the water.

"Sorry, I didn´t expect the gate to send us to Florida."

Clark looked back at the floating reporter with a grin.

Mark´s boots were sticking to the muddy bottom as he marched behind the team. Emma looked incredibly focused, watching everything cautiously. Even something as small as a falling leaf didn´t escape her sight.

'Those are some great instincts. She didn´t slack off on the training.'

When they arrived at another piece of land they could finally see where the voices came from. A large village partially built over the water stood near the wall of the cave about half a mile from them.

Mark zoomed in on the buildings with his magician´s eyes and saw the monsters in their full beauty. There stood several humanoids covered in scales with large teeth protruding from their elongated jaws and long bulky legs. Some were fishing, others making tools or just talking to each other. The village was housing at least a hundred lizardmen.

"It´s some kind of a crocodilian society." Mark informed the party.

"Great, humanoids are the best. They always put up a fight." Tyler said with enthusiasm.

"Shush, they might notice us. If we fought here we would be at a disadvantage." said Emma.

In addition to the main village, there were also many small huts on the surrounding islands where the reptilians resided.

Emma jumped into the water without hesitation and walked slowly towards one of the smaller islands, hiding behind the trees and trying not to make any big waves.

When they stood just a few meters away from the hut Emma whispered. "Tyler, Lucian eliminate the two, but try to be quiet."

Before the duo came out of the water Clark applied a buff on Tyler. His whole skin turned hard and scale-like.

Afterward, they sneaked out of the water behind the two talking lizardmen and commenced their attack.

Lucian grabbed his shortsword and impaled the reptilian´s neck from behind. The blade had no problem sliding through the hard scales. Tyler chose the more violent option and stuffed his hand into the mouth of the monster in order to stop it from screaming. The crocodilian clamped the unknown hand in its jaws, but to no avail since its spine got bent like a wet noodle swiftly after.

The little injury on Tyler´s hand healed itself in no time as he was enveloped in a red raging aura.

"Let´s go for more."