Kazue had mixed feelings about what she had chosen as the second spirit to have bonded with for this portion of the expedition.

She had wanted to see what sorts of different spirits would be in the area, so she had kept only her special liminal spirit with her on the trip here, and while everyone else had been unpacking and repacking, she had meditated to search amongst the local spirits for a second one to bond with.

The spirits of this dry, untamed plains and scrublands were certainly different from the spirits of the more open regions of Kuiccihan, but they weren't different enough to be particularly interesting. There were some spirit animals too, but those didn't entice her.

What she had become interested in were the spirits of battle she encountered. Those were new to her, which seemed strange at first. After all, there were plenty of people seeking to strengthen themselves and seeking to excel in combat in the Azeria area.

It did not take her very long to puzzle out the cause of this difference; the martial contests up north were not tinged with the serious considerations of duels with a high risk of death or true battles. From her studies, she understood the cultures of the nomadic tribes to be more open to violence to solve disputes, especially between different groups.

This didn't happen with the frequency that certain books romanticized it to happen, and fighting over love interests was scorned by most tribes and elders, but such duels were real possibilities.

Their hunting was also more dangerous, given that they needed to separate individual animals out of herds, and there was always a chance that some members of the herd had developed power beyond their normal brethren.

A stampede was bad enough, but a stampede guided by a leader with the intelligence to target a hunter or a group was a nightmare.

So the increase in real violence, plus the rituals conducted by warriors before they started a delve, gave enough focus to generate persistent spirits of battle. How could she not explore what bonding with one was like?

There were certainly some upsides, she thought as she reflexively smashed a stone sparrow with her staff. Kazue might not actually be stronger or faster, but with the spirit bolstering her, it was a lot easier to commit to her actions. Plus, it had good instincts for what various creatures were going to do.

Kazue's foxfire engulfed the head of a giant weasel just as it erupted from the ground. She followed that up with a single shard of conjured ice that drove itself into the weasel's mouth when it hissed in pain.

Her heightened battle awareness and skill allowed her to be more efficient with her magic, and that was very, very useful here. But Kazue wasn't certain how she felt about the feelings that combat now invoked.

There was a wild pleasure to the fighting and violence, a sincere thrill in smiting her foes and proving her strength. This had to be what Moriko and Mordecai had described to her previously, and it certainly did have some of the same side effects.

Unfortunately, until the delve was done, Kazue did not expect to find the privacy to deal with those side effects.

Aside from that, Kazue wasn't certain that she liked feeling surges of joy and pleasure from killing creatures. Even if they looked like a cross between a lizard and an extra angry cassowary. No offense to her mom's Casey, of course.

She wove between two of them as they lunged at her and slapped one of them with a spell-charged ball of foxfire that briefly locked them both up with an arc of lightning. Then the tip of her staff swung in a perfect arc, connecting to the back of the skull of the second raptor, right where it attached to the spine.

It dropped to the ground, lifeless. The other one fell with Carnelian Flame attached to the back of its neck, her familiar's razor sharp claws tearing open arteries with ease.

Kazue felt concern that killing was coming so easily to her, even in the context of fighting nexus inhabitants that would be fine as of the next reset. But even that concern sat toward the back of her mind as the battle raged on.

At least it wasn't as frenetic as yesterday's continuous onslaught. There seemed to be more distinct waves in the creatures they were fighting today.

The beasts scattered just before a large body crashed to the ground nearby. Kazue glanced up to see Moriko waving cheerily before she started floating down to join them. Well, it looked like it was time to clean up and recover, as nothing else was coming at them right now.

In other circumstances, Kazue might take a little bit of downtime to consider bonding with a different spirit, but this trip had proven something she had been suspecting for a while. Minor spirits did not naturally develop in the territory of a spiritual nexus; the nexus was too dominating a force unless it made a specific exception. This didn't seem to be the case for Kuiccihan, which was why Kazue had not been certain at first, but it probably had to do with how Kuiccihan deliberately reduced the impact of her presence throughout her territory. So instead, Kazue turned to helping with field dressing.

All of them were becoming experienced at rough field dressing, though Kazue rather wished she wasn't. Her battle spirit didn't help her here; this was not combat. At least her liminal spirit could help a little, making it easier to find the right angle to slide a knife between skin and meat, right along a border that was normally not so distinct.

Derek was becoming one of their most adept people at field dressing their kills. Earth and rock could be shaped to hold the body exactly where he wanted, razor-sharp metal could be conjured to create perfect cuts, and water could be used to flush out the body quickly and cleanly.

Fuyuko could use shadows to shift entrails out of the body, but doing so repeatedly had proved too tiring to maintain.

Even Orchid was helping with field dressing, which Kazue had not expected the delicate-looking princess to do. But the skill and casual precision of her cuts was a disturbing reminder that Orchid's 'diplomatic' skill set included assassination. She was also a useful font of information for Shizoku, pointing out which organs of which creatures had toxins or alchemical properties.

Orchid didn't know each of these creatures specifically, but she knew what patterns to look for and how to use her aura to analyze different organs more precisely.

Given the amount of meat they were collecting, most people wouldn't have bothered with organ meat. But with Amrydor and Fuyuko in the party, it was valuable. Both of them were keeping preserved meat from each night's cooking on them, and after cleaning up, they each had what would have been a large meal's worth of meat for Kazue, but was just a snack for them.

Not that Kazue wasn't enjoying some jerked meat of her own, and perhaps also enjoyed a few small pieces of organ meat with dinner, but that pair was able to eat dense organ meat like it was delicate flakes of fish.

Although, Fuyuko was the one who seemed to need to eat with more urgency. Amrydor was clearly doing something with all that energy too, given how much he ate, but he didn't suffer hunger pangs the way Fuyuko did after fighting.

When it was time to move on, Kazue gave Moriko and Mordecai each a kiss before they resumed their respective positions. Those two were the only ones fighting solo at the moment, but that was because Mordecai needed to push himself hard while using complicated tricks, as nothing less would let him grow into the potential of his avatar. He was also the only one outside of the baby dragons who could keep up with Moriko in the air. So out of necessity, that had left her taking the brunt of the aerial assaults during today's travels.

The party didn't move as fast as they could have; they were also taking the time to examine the plants they were passing. So far, most had been mundane, but there had been a few with interesting properties or traits for which they had been harvested to examine closer or used for alchemy, with the rarer ones being reserved to take back to the Azeria nexus.

They hadn't traveled far before Moriko descended once more. "I don't think we're going to be getting any more fights immediately, looks like a change in scenery is coming up first."

She wouldn't explain any more than that, and simply said, "It's just easier for you to see for yourself."

What she meant became clear when the front of the party crested a small hill and came to a stop. Soon they were all gathered at the top of the hill, which turned out to also be the crest of a deep valley that was filled with a thick forest of sturdy trees.

It was beautiful, with thick and lush vegetation growing amongst, and sometimes over, the trees, and from that vibrant greenery drifted the scent of moist undergrowth mixed with the drier scents of the vast canopy above. But that beauty was dangerous. Even from here, Kazue could sense hints of fey energy.

"Hmm," Mordecai said, "I think it's time to change our formation. This is going to be too dangerous to have our youngest members as the front rank."

"Agreed," said Moriko, and Kazue added her assent as well, followed by the rest of the adults.

Their new formation had Kansif, Bellona, Xarlug, and Paltira as their front line. Mordecai and Moriko took up positions to cover the rear quarters; they weren't there to necessarily hold the line so much as to make sure everyone else had time to react.

Inside of that loose outer ring was a tighter ring consisting of Amrydor, Yugo, Taeko, Galan, Ranulf, Fuyuko, and Orchid; the princess had shed her normal outer garment of robes to reveal the leather armor she often wore beneath them and held a short spear enchanted to double as a spell staff in one hand.

The assorted pouches and a harness of small, throwable weapons amply demonstrated why she chose her wardrobe change; the robes were useful to deceive people as to her skills, but they also limited how fast she could get to some of her equipment.

Fuyuko had her falcatas out and was fighting at Orchid's side to see how the princess fought when pushed into open melee combat. The rapid switch between melee and thrown weapons was the primary thing their battle styles had in common, but broadening Fuyuko's understanding of different combat styles was also useful for her.

Kazue felt a bit disgruntled at being in the center instead of in the second ring, but even with her battle spirit's assistance, she was weaker in close combat than the teens who were focused on it. Derek was included in the central group because of his youth and the more generalized nature of his skills. It was better for him to focus on practicing his powers that could be used at range or to support other people right now, and let the specialists do their jobs, and both Takehiko and Shizoku were far better at ranged magical combat than they were in melee.

Not that Orchid was a front line specialist, but her skills currently put her on par or ahead of the likes of Amrydor or Yugo when it came to close quarters combat. A fact that visibly disgruntled her younger brother, Prince Gou. Most of the time, it was easy to forget Yugo's real identity, but the frustrated expression that briefly crossed his face was pure sibling rivalry.

With this formation, their toughest members could be sure to intercept the most dangerous threats.

They proceeded cautiously down into the valley and then onto the path that lead deeper into the forest, the obvious way forward. The faint aura of fae energy had only gotten a little stronger, but it did not take very long before there were signs of the other inhabitants of the forest having taken notice of their presence.

At first, it was just the sound and sense of movement; the thick vegetation hid the actual creatures from view. Whatever was out there was circling them and no doubt studying them, and most of them seemed to be up in the trees.

A large figure dropped to the ground, landing directly on the path ahead of them. It was a dire ape; a larger, slightly more carnivorous, and much more aggressive relative of gorillas and other apes. When the individual in front of them rose up on his legs, it was clear that he was at least eight feet tall.

A group of dire apes could be very dangerous to most travelers, and at this point, Kazue was expecting them to also be made of stone or covered in fire or such. What this one did was worse.

With a sneer that showed off his impressive fangs, the dire ape shifted smoothly into a martial stance designed to accommodate his size and proportions. Kazue could also feel the pressure of concentrated chi being focused, which meant this was, at the least, a well-trained martial disciple or monk. That also meant it was fully sapient, which made it even more dangerous.

Several more thuds announced other dire apes landing on the forest floor before they started too advancing on the party.

Wonderful.

Annoyingly, Kazue's battle spirit seemed genuinely thrilled at the idea. This caused her to glance at Mordecai and Moriko, and her suspicions were quickly confirmed; her husband and wife also both looked excited.

She sighed and shook her head before turning her attention back to the dire apes that were closing in.