Change of Plans

"Are you sure you're okay?" Yang asked, eyes scanning her sister for any more injuries.

"I am perfectly fine," Yin said, beginning to feel exasperated with her sister's concern. "I readily admit that I became too focused during the battle, but I have regained my composure."

Fighting the army of Iron Ant Drones had lasted around 5 minutes total, a not-too-surprising time frame when considering the number of players. Yin was in a daze for more than half of the fight for some unknown reason. No one saw a need to stop her when she started picking off Drones left and right, and no one noticed when she ran out of arrows, only to keep drawing and releasing her bow out of a desperate need to keep fighting. Right now, the majority of players were scavenging the battlefield, stuffing their inventories with dozens of Drone carcasses, handing bundles of arrows back to the archers, and letting the builders know where their logs landed.

Loran was healing the damage to Yin's fingers, while Yang and Soze stood over them, wondering what came over their normally level-headed friend.

"Yin, people don't just fall into a trance where they don't notice they've lost a few layers of skin," Soze said. "What's going on?"

After him stating the obvious, Yin paused for a moment before sighing and giving them an answer. "Yang's new Skill was reminding me of the fight with The Monster, it might have...agitated me."

Yang's eyes widened, and her heart felt like it dropped out of her chest and crashed through the floor. Yin immediately started panicking, pulling her hand away from Loran just as he finished healing her to try to calm Yang down.

"I-I don't mean to blame you I just- what I mean to say is...is..."

"I-I'm okay Sis," Yang said before taking a deep breath. "I'm fine. But if me using my new Skill is going to make you...freak out, then maybe I shouldn't use it."

"Okay no," Loran said. "You two clearly need to sort this out at some point, but you can't just not use such a powerful Skill."

"He's right Yang. It would be ludicrous for you to avoid using that Skill after having invested so much into it." Yin ran a hand through her hair as she composed herself. "I will become accustomed to it sooner or later."

"...Alright, but I'll try to hold off on using it for the rest of the expedition if nothing else."

Loran sighed. "So I guess that's two options we'll have to put on hold."

"Two?" Yang asked. "What happened?"

"Some of the melee players were being choked out by the fumes from the burning ants," Soze explained. "Loran and the other spellcasters will have to hold back on the fire magic, especially once we get to the basin since the canyon walls will make the ventilation worse."

Yang frowned. "That's bullshit."

Loran shrugged. "It's annoying but there's nothing we ca-"

"No I mean I was breathing fine the whole time," Yang explained. "Even when I was pretty much surrounded by burning ants it was a little harder to breathe, but I wasn't suffocating or anything."

"Seriously? What, were they lying?" Loran asked, annoyed.

"No, we do know from the Workshop that burning carapace does create noxious fumes." Soze paused for a moment before he came up with an answer. "Do you think it could be your Endurance?"

"That...does make a bit of sense. I do have the highest Endurance in the village, even without using Tenacious, I have more END than anyone that isn't a Tank."

"Why would Endurance help against poor air quality?" Yin asked.

"It's not helping me breathe better, I think I just need less air," Yang explained. "One time when I was bathing in the river I was seeing how long I could hold my breath and I was easily under the water for like ten minutes."

"Alright, so then I can surround the Tanks with Fire Bombs, just not the low-END fighters," Loran said.

"No, you'd better hold back on the fire just in case," Soze said. "The Tanks are spaced out in our formations. The fumes will just spread. You can use other fire magic, but no Fire Bombs."

Loran groaned. "Fine."

"Never took you for a pyromaniac Loran," Yang said with a smirk. "Why so upset?"

"I don't care about the fire, but it's my best spell at the moment."

"Since we're on the subject of changing stratagems, we may have a problem," Yin said.

Soze frowned. "How so?"

"When Yang used her Skill, the Drones on our side were still able to approach. I believe the effects of Fear are minimized without a clear line of sight."

Soze's eyes widened. "That's...that's a problem."

While the players had a prepared formation for fighting ants out in the fields, they had expected to be much more reliant on the Monstrous Helm at Ziege Basin. Fighting alongside the Mountain Goats was going to make any strategy or formation too difficult to maintain since, even if they could get someone like Alvor to speak with them, the beasts wouldn't know or care about what they were doing.

Soze wasn't sure it was even possible for them to fight in the raid while having the Monstrous Helm in a constant line of sight. If it was just them it would be possible, but the goats just made things too difficult with their huge bodies and lack of strategy.

"How bad was it?" Soze asked.

"The effects were not completely erased," Yin continued. "Their movements were still hindered, but not halted."

Soze paused, his hand on his chin as he considered their options.

"You thinking about having us turn back?" Loran asked.

"Maybe..."

Some of their players were already starting to struggle against a few hundred Drones.

Trying to fight against thousands would be a slaughter for them. But [FEAR] wasn't completely useless, so it just became a question if the diminished effects were going to be enough.

Eventually, Soze shook his head. "We'll keep going."

"You think our chances are still good?"

"I'm not sure, I still need to think on it. Maybe I'll come up with something on the way, or maybe I decide we should turn back right before the fighting starts. Either way, we've come this far, and there were going to be risks either way." Soze turned away. "Anyway, it looks like everyone is done cleaning up the Drones. Let's go."

~~~~~

Now knowing that the Iron Ants had expanded their territory, the players moved further east to avoid any unwanted conflicts and settle down for the night. News about how the Monstrous Helm would be less effective than expected was spread and concerns were raised, but the majority chose to press on and the rest followed. The next day they continued on their march as usual, with the only difference being that the players were now hotly debating new tactics for the upcoming raid.

Another change was the increase in combat. Before the end of every day, the players would provoke a large group of Drones to chase them so they could gather more EXP. Usually, this was done by having the entire expeditionary force move closer to provoke a large response, but sometimes individual parties would go out on their own for more intense training. There were only three to four more days until they reached Ziege Basin, and at this rate most of the players were expecting to have tens of thousands of EXP saved up.

But as the days passed and the morale of the group improved, some were getting nervous. Specifically, Yang, Alexx, and Alvor were noticing that, despite the shrinking distance between them and the basin, there weren't that many Mountain Goats around. They were still present, but it seemed like there were fewer than compared to when they were last at Ziege Basin. With the previous discussion about how the Iron Ants may have defeated the goats, they started to worry that they may have suffered greater losses than normal. Zed also noticed this but wasn't concerned.

Eventually, the entrance to Ziege Basin was in sight.

~~~~~

"This...this is bad, right?" Alexx asked.

"Probably," Yang sighed.

As they approached the canyon, they couldn't help but notice that, once again, the Mountain Goats were less numerous than before. On their first trip, the entrance to Ziege Basin was practically clogged with the number of goats attempting to enter and exit at the same time. But today, the spaces between the beasts were visible even from a distance, making their way in and out with ease.

As they passed by the goats, going slowly so as not to upset them with the sudden influx of players, those of them with the [GOAT WHISPERER] Skill could sense a bitter feeling in the air. None of the goats appeared injured, but for Alvor, it was difficult to see the majestic beasts that he had surrounded himself with for months be so...morose.

Then there was The Guardian Elder.

As expected, Beskyd was sitting in her clearing, watching over the entrance as still as a marble statue. She looked down at the players as they approached, intimidating several of them with her massive size and imposing aura, but paid little attention to them once she recognized Alvor amongst them.

Once they entered the interior of the basin, it was clear that the goat population had taken a big hit. For what was possibly the first time since their rivalry began, the Mountain Goats were losing.