Paws Padded, Hooves thundered and wings beat against the air as the convoy of warriors made their way out of the city and traversed ever onwards towards a destination known only to their few members, although none of them knew what to expect from this destination itself.

All they knew was where they had to go, not why or even how, in terms of the route itself, and yet onwards they strode. It was not all down to misplaced trust in a figure who they believed no one had ever seen. Instead, it was mainly down to the information this figure had entrusted to them before their departure.

Under the guise of Corvus, their noble Lord and revenant of death, Seth had informed this team of trusted companions and combatants of the true source of this information, as well as his theories on its importance and how it could be intrinsically linked to the so called 'Shattering' - the people's name for the portal outbreak that had occurred.

Of course, Seth had brushed over certain details of the events. Such as when he told them that the information came from the dragon that had emerged from the bowels of the castle, he simply 'forgot' to inform them that she was in the form of a gothic femme fatal at the time. He had a sneaking suspicion that revealing that particular detail would only get him in more trouble than anything else.

There were mixed reactions to this information, some shocked into silence while others were overflowing with questions, and a particular slime girl got especially physical in showing her annoyance that he kept this information to himself. Ultimately, however, there was nothing they could do about their mistakes.

It was easy to say what they should have done after the fact, but they comforted themselves with the fact that there was no guarantee that they would have solved the issue before the Shattering happened even if they had left immediately. At least this way, they were here for the Shattering and prevented injuries, as well as helped make their people prepared for future events like this.

With the hunting team fully briefed on their mission, they made a quick pit stop at the Arena for some necessary equipment before heading out. That was what lead them to now, bounding through the half collapsed former city of Thraven atop their respective beasts.

Astra was mounted upon a two headed, artic furred dire wolf that, even on all fours, was taller than she was. Patches of ice were left behind white every footstep it took, and twinkling snowflakes danced in the air, lightning crackling between these beautiful flakes, creating a clear trail of the path it took as it raced across the tarmacked streets. Whenever it came to an obstacle, without a single hesitation in its step, it simply bounded over abandoned and ruined cars without a care in the world.

This fearsome wolf was, indeed, what had grown out of the impossibly cute bundle of fur that Astra had unceremoniously stolen from a gentleman who had protected it from the assault of Hemogoblins. However, for some reason she disliked this description and instead liked to say that she adopted it and simply ignored the fact it had a previous person.

For those curious, the gentleman that had rescued it harboured no hard feelings about the 'sudden adoption'. It wasn't even his dog, he simply protected it out of a love of animals. In fact, this gentleman worked in their stables, taking care of all sorts of animals that people had found, to be placed in the arena, or tamed in one form or another.

However, while Astra's Orthros leapt gracefully over the wrecked cars, as if to show its superiority to the outdated modes of transport, Alexandra's bonded mount seemed to show its supremacy another way as it simply charged through them, using its colossal body like a battering ram and forcing the steel to yield.

The stone giant was perched atop of the back of a horse that seemed more like a Rhino than anything else. It had powerful, muscular legs, six of them in fact, and a rotund body that was covered in thick, leathery armour. Atop of its head were a pair of curling horns, like that of a goat, which it was very eagerly using to ram into the sides of cars.

Cynthia had, very suspiciously, neglected to tame a mount in the arena and had simply resorted to sitting atop this tank of a steed with Alexandra, where the Amazon could wrap her marble column-like arms around the slime girls waist. To keep her steady and safe, of course. She had insisted upon it, even though a crash was absolutely harmless to her. Very suspicious indeed.

Erik, the regal, aquamarine knight actually managed to get the dazzling diamond unicorn under his control, and was currently mounted upon that, whilst Alfie was sat behind him with his arms gingerly touching the knights waist.

Unlike Cynthia, this was not by choice. Alfie simply failed to tame anything they had available and, unfortunately, drew the short straw when it came to riding buddies. For some odd reason, they didn't seem as comfortable as the girls did, and sat in absolute silence for the entire ride so far.

This regal steed actually carried three members, as the elusive Fox hid within the kaleidoscopic array of reflections that it's diamond body created.

As for Seth, the final member of this hunting party, where else would he be other than in the skies atop his best boy, the Wyvern with the fiercest and most dread inducing name in all of existence. Omelette.

He was soaring above these earthbound plebs, glad to have the opportunity to finally test out the saddle he had made for his Wyvern and truly experience his long held dreams of riding a dragon, or something close enough to it.

Much like Astra, he was alone atop his mount, and was already garbed in his armour. It was a new set of armour, curtesy of his endowment of Requitals. It was half plate armour, with a leather under armour and fur lining within the collar, bracers and trousers. He believed it was from some kind of wolf type beast, but he had no real way of knowing.

A pure steel arrow, that seemed befitting for a wrist mounted crossbow, was attached to his bracer, although he was sorely missing the crossbow it was supposed to fit into. However he didn't seem to worry about this detail. Lining his waist was a collection of the Manticores tail thorns, recovered from the battle scene and, while drained of their potent venom, were still quite effective weapons.

Corvus had been left at home, under the premise that he had duties to carry out and that he couldn't leave the city completely without powerful defenders. And while this was true, he did have jobs he still needed to do and couldn't simply delegate away, he also knew it was easier to keep up his appearances without having to constantly play a double role.

He didn't need anymore instances of speaking through the wrong mouth, like he had done with Astra in the endless meadow. So, he had sent himself in the Lords place under the excuse that he would be acting as his proxy, as well as letting the group have at least one squire to attend to their needs.

Thus, playing the role of the humble squire Seth, he was high above the others not to show his status, as he was technically the one with the lowest status here, but to act as their scout from his vantage high in the sky, since he was the only one with a flying mount.

Leaning over the side of his Wyvern, Seth idly patted the side of Omelette's neck as he gazed down at the ground. They were approaching an area that he was significantly cautious about, as they were reaching the edge of the city where nature was seemingly reclaiming the city with an alarming eagerness.

He had considered a detour, but they would have to eventually have to clear out this area when it came to their expansion and, as the group agreed, it was better that they did it than someone weaker than them. It wouldn't be a thorough cleansing, but perhaps their presence would help draw out the more powerful predators.

He was currently gazing down and examining the curious way that the trees and other assorted flora were encroaching upon the ruins of civilisation. His eyes narrowed, focusing on the growths of a particular tree cluster.

The way it was growing seemed... odd to him. It didn't seem natural in the slightest. He would have thought that these trees would grow evenly in all directions, or at least in a chaotic manner, but these ones seemed to be growing with direction and purpose. It was as if they were intentionally bringing themselves closer and closer to the city, willed by some unknown force.

However, while he was focusing on this peculiar cluster, the hairs on the back of his head suddenly stuck up on their ends as he became overwhelmed with a familiar feeling, one he had become particularly sensitive to as of late.

Whirling around in his saddle, Seth scanned the area behind him and saw nothing but Omelette's empty back and the air that was rushing by his head.

Perhaps it was by sheer coincidence, or more likely the primal instincts of a predator taking advantage the moment it sensed weakness, Seth did not get much of a chance to examine Omelette's back as before something was slamming into his side and he was thrown from his saddle.

If he had a chance to look longer, then maybe he would have noticed the severed claws grasping tight against the feathers of the Wyvern as it flew. But perhaps not, as such as sight is not just difficult to notice amongst the forest of feathers but one would naturally assume that severed fingers are not important.

Of course, one would quickly change their mind when the scaly, clawed fingers clenched themselves tighter against the feathers to secure their grip on the flying beast. It was just a shame Seth never got the chance to witness this event, or even notice the claws in the first place.