The Trail to Naru

"C'mon. You're not too bummed out about losing that lizard bat girl, are you?" Kosha asked. The morning had come, and they were walking through the backroad of Naru.

"I'm over it. She escaped. What more can we do?" Ryuma said.

"You sure don't sound like you're over it,"

Ryuma only grunted. Why even get into this with him? Though he was right about something. There was a part of him that wished he caught the girl.

"I think that girl has a connection to everything I'm going through," Ryuma told him.

"Whoa. That's a tall leap. I doubt a kid like that would know much about the world, let alone your situation,"

"Maybe not but she's definitely connected to somebody who does have the information I'm looking for,"

Kosha cupped his chin in thought. "Who could she possibly be connected to? She didn't look like a priest I've ever seen. Do you have blue skinned people in the Skylands?"

"Hell no we don't. Whatever that was, it was no priest," Ryuma thought about what little he's seen of her powers. She never summoned a spirit weapon to fight with, which was the main style of combat for a priest. Her claws were her main form of attack.

"Despite that, she was able to use Spirit Artes. One can only use Spirit Artes if they have the blessing of a Shining Spirit. The Water Artes if it's the spirit of the Blue Pheasant Nautero," He said.

"And you said that you felt like the spirit force of an apparition emanated off her?"

"Yeah… it was like she was everything at once, but nothing at all,"

"Well I can be certain about one thing. Something like that would have nothing at all to do with me. I'm pretty sure she came here for you," Kosha said.

"That much I deduced. What it is she or they want is a mystery. They obviously don't want me dead. It must be another group that's after my shining spirit. It's the only thing separating me from the other priest,"

"Isn't that a good thing so far? I mean, if they want your shining spirit and they don't want you dead over it, then wouldn't it be safe to assume that these people are your ally?" Kosha asked.

Ryuma shook his head. "I'm afraid not. If that were the case, they would've taken the initiative not to offend me and offered me an alliance. Just because they don't want me dead, it doesn't make them friendlies. At best it makes me useful to them,"

"Damn! Here I thought we were getting somewhere. Oh well. I guess we can cross that bridge when we get there. I think we have more important things to worry about. Like how we're going to get to Naru," Kosha said.

Ryuma nodded his head. "I agree with you. We might see her again. We might not. What's the plan on Naru?" Ryuma decided to toss that problem aside. Just one more bad guy to deal with later.

"Oh I'm glad you finally decided to ask," Kosha stepped in front of and halted him. "Your ring please,"

Ryuma tapped his ring and out popped a map rolled up into a single roll. Kosha unraveled and spread it open.

The map showed the entirety of the Alikan continent. Ryuma looked at the contents and saw that Alikan was shaped like a shuriken. With the exception of the middle, each of the four points was a region of its own. With the Rebble region in the east, it was a mostly mountain region with its capital being Notron. The two of them should be somewhere on the road between Naru and Lue.

"There are two entry points of Naru has, and two checkpoints. The rest of Naru is surrounded by mountains all around, so entry is a no go for most people,"

Ryuma looked at him. "We're not the majority of people,"

"How right you are," Kosha smiled as he said it. "Now we have three options,"

Ryuma folded his arms. "Ok. So let's hear em," He didn't mind Kosha leaving it up to him to decide. It was better that he weighed options against another.

"One. We try and sneak through the checkpoint using the cover of night. Namely you. I can walk through it just fine," Kosha said.

Ryuma paled at that choice. Though he was confident that he could conceal his spirit energy, on the off chance that something slipped, Naru would no longer be accessible. Worse yet, they could enclose on him without him even knowing,"

"What are the other two options?" He asked.

"Two. We travel through the Hige mines. It's an abandoned tunnel nobody pays any attention to. Nobody sane would travel through such a route that could be infested with field beast,"

"That also isn't a pleasant option. With limited space like that, if something goes awry, we have little chance of escape. Also a large-scale fight could result in a cave in and that's not good. What's our third?"

Kosha sighed. "Three. We try climbing over the mountain. Keep in mind that it's a higher concentration of spirit energy up there. A yellow warning area for apparitions,"

"Tch," Ryuma clicked his teeth. "That one's also a high risk. There'll be level ones everywhere. A few level two's here and there, and if we're really unlucky, a level three,"

Ryuma looked at the numbers on his katanas. With the third option it could really help to get his blade numbers down to zero. That sort of method carried risk. He could barely handle a level two one-on-one. There's no way he would be able to handle multiple level twos with a plethora of level ones in the vicinity. Not to mention Kosha. He used normal blades. He'd be dead weight up there. Though that point would be moot if a level three showed up. He wouldn't be able to handle it.

All three options carried favors and risk involved.

"You can think on it. I'll wait,"

Ryuma thought hard. Every route he had to face was a separate set of problems. Did he want to deal with priests, field beast, or apparitions?

"If you want to choose the third option, go ahead. I have my own way of survival if that's what you're worried about," Kosha said.

Ryuma's eyes widened. He didn't' expect Kosha to read his mind so easily. The first option was the least risk to Kosha but highest risk to Ryuma. The second option carried equal risk to the both. The third was the highest risk towards Kosha and Ryuma but the highest rewards toward Ryuma.

{But he just said he had a method for survival going up the mountain}

What was it? Did he carry his own secret? In the end, Ryuma decided he would make his decision now. "We'll go through the mountain. Through the Hige tunnels,"

Kosha smirked. "I had a feeling you'd go with that one. Maybe you're starting to see me as a partner after all,"

Ryuma raised an eyebrow at his remark. What did he mean by that? He shook his head of the thought. Whatever. "It's the most direct way without having to compromise our position with the Skylands. I think this'll be efficient,"

"Is that all?" Kosha asked.

"Plus, I didn't want to get cocky fighting beyond my means. I could spend my time here fighting higher up the mountain to get stronger rather than do it in one go and get us killed,"

"Oh… ok. I guess it's fine that way. We'll be crossing through the Hige tunnels," Kosha said.

"Though I'm curious. You said you have a method of surviving the apparitions. If you don't mind saying, I'd like to know what method you were going to use. You weren't planning to ditch me and leaving me out to dry, were you?" Ryuma asked.

"Man you really are paranoid," Kosha laughed the accusation off. "Though you shouldn't worry about it. It's nothing like that. But since you chose the Hige tunnels route, then I guess I'll keep my secret guarded a little longer,"

"Because I was so going to run to The Order with the discovery," Ryuma said.

"Well when you put it that way, I guess considering your circumstances, telling you anything is of no consequences. Even so, since we're going the field beast route, we'll leave it at that. If we do end up going the mountain path though, just leave the level two's and below to me," Kosha winked at him as he said it.

Ryuma was unnerved. Now that Kosha said all that he was more curious than ever before. Curious as he may be, he wasn't going to decide his path based on that. It was still the safer option to go through the mountains. If they climbed the mountain and ran into a level three, there was no way to deal with it if he himself couldn't do it.

"Fine. It doesn't matter anyways. If you have a method to fight them, we'll be seeing it soon enough,"