Nar's leg was healing, and he was able to put more weight on it and call upon more of his [Speed] as he went. Not that the latter helped him much, unfortunately.

He had reached Gad and Viy's position without much trouble, but the problem was, his [Hearing] placed them somewhere below him, and no matter where he looked, or where he tried, he just couldn't find a way down to them.

How do they even get down there? He wondered, glancing up at the distant glimpses of red light. Maybe if I try from above?

He scampered up the branches, and within moments, he found himself emerging from the knotted chaos of thorns.

"My Crystal…" he breathed.

There was nothing but giant, black, thorny branches as far as the eye could see, red Miasma coating the entire, nightmarish landscape. Here and there, one of those weird, sickly looking dark-red tentacle plants took over large swathes of the jungle, and up closer, he saw that those tentacles moved almost beast-like.

Definitely not the wind moving those, he thought, his lips twisted. Crystal, this place looks so much worse when you're in it!

With a groan he turned his head, left, but he couldn't see the cliff that marked the Jungle Tops in the red, hazy distance, not even with 123 points accumulated in [Sight], thanks to his [Senses of the Champion].

That's probably a good thing, he thought, glancing to the right. It means we've come as far as possible… But how far? I can't see that lake either. Maybe it's this mist blocking me…

Shaking his head, Nar fully stood atop the wall of thorns. He remained crouching, and careful of the open skies above him, as drawing the attention of another giant swarm would mean the end for them all, and leaped on all fours until he was roughly above Gad and Viy's position.

There? He thought, spotting a gap that looked like it could be large enough to let them both through.

He jumped over to it, and his expression froze as he noticed something wet shining grotesquely in the red light.

Blood. Red… That's Viy!

He jumped down the hole and thank the damned Radiants for once, he spotted the two of them almost immediately.

"Gad! Viy!" he called them, careful not to raise his voice too much.

There were about five beasts within reach of his [Hearing], not to mention, Crystal knew how many more lying silently in ambush.

The tank, thankfully, moaned feebly at his call, but she didn't wake up. As for Viy, she looked deathly pale, and her jungle suit was soaked dark with blood from gnarly wounds on the side of her torso and leg.

He headed for Gad first, hoping against hope that he'd be more successful in rousing her than Leon and Calli's mental calls.

"Gad? Gad!"

He didn't spot any bleeding or significant damage on her buff body, but she could have internal injuries, or she could've hit her head pretty badly. But still, he needed to try, and he shook her ever so gently.

"Gad?"

"Hmm… Nar?" she mumbled.

"Yes! It's me! Wake up, Gad! We crashed into the Hungry Jungle!"

Her dark eyes flared open.

"Viy! Where is…"

"Shhhhh!" Nar said, covering her mouth. "Be quiet! She's here, but she's hurt. We need to get back to the others and we need to be quiet about it!"

Gad's eyes eased, losing the manic, worried edge, and she gave him a firm nod.

"Are you hurt?" he whispered, removing his hand from her mouth.

She shook her head, and then she coughed.

"Oh…" she mumbled. "[Touch of Rot]."

"It's alright. Put on your mask for now, it will at least keep it from gaining anymore counters," Nar said.

"You?" she asked, as she took out her mask.

"Immune so far," Nar said, awkwardly.

But Gad grinned at him. "Good!"

Slowly, the tank got to a seated position while Nar checked up on Viy. Her breathing was shallow and ragged, and she was looking just as feverish as the others, so he took out one of the masks of her size, which they all carried thanks to their over worrying party leader, and placed it around her face.

"I have potions?" Gad said.

He himself carried some potions as well, but only to use on the others in case of emergency. By now, his self-healing capability had far outstripped the cheap potions they could afford, so they had stopped acting as temptations to him weeks ago.

"Take one, then. But I don't know if Viy's in any state to drink them…"

"I've found them," he said, swapping to the party chat. "Gad is up. Viy is really hurt and bleeding from wounds on her thigh and lower abdomen. Leta, can we give her a potion somehow?"

"Do it! They're designed to work even if they go in the lungs, and even if only a little gets in her, it might help stabilize her for now," the healer said. "And make sure it's a healing one! There's no point in recovering HP with that debuff on!"

"Got it."

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Crystal, both Gad and Viy already have two counters, he thought, clenching his jaw as he lifted Viy's mask.

"How are things?" Gad asked into their chat.

"Not good!" Calli said. "It's great to hear your voice…"

The aethermancer got Gad up to speed while Nar carefully popped open a potion and dripped it slow into Viy's parted lips.

"We'll head your way, then," Gad said, when Calli was done.

"Are you okay to move?" Nar asked. "There's a lot of jumping around. They're about 200-feet below us."

Gad gave him a firm nod.

"I'll be fine. But just in case, you carry her," she said. "Lead on."

**********

Together they made quick progress through the chaos of branches, Nar's heart hammering so loudly in his chest, that he feared that it alone would be enough to draw the attention of the beasts that they passed dangerously close to. Fortunately, they made it back without anything jumping them, and in the meantime, Eum had woken up by himself and was also headed to the party.

"Leave her over there," Leta said. "I'll be there in a moment."

"Leta is trying to get Sej to wake up. We're lost here without a guide," Calli explained.

"And Leon?" Nar asked.

"Downing potions," the paladin said, raising a green tube in mock cheers. The aether potion looked a lot fancier than theirs. "I'll be up in a bit."

"And our… Neighbors?" Nar asked, grimacing as he stared back to the blocked nest, which Jaz was still keeping a nervous watch over.

"For now, we're good," Leon said. "But I don't think that's going to last in a place like the Hungry Jungle. Not with that dead ma'bat drawing in everything for miles around us."

He sighed wearily. "We need to move. Once Eum gets here, we need to put some distance between us and the ma'bat. Even if we have to carry everyone out of here."

"Where?" Gad asked. "Towards the lake?"

"Anywhere that's not here," Leon said. "But the lake is our best bet. Thankfully, the compass still works here…"

"We climbed through the top of the thorns," Nar told him. "I couldn't see the cliff, so maybe we got far enough. But I couldn't spot the lake either."

"Just thorns as far as the horizon," Gad said. "But the Miasma could've just been hiding it."

Leon groaned. "We'll have to hope we're close enough. We're not in a state to survive here for long."

A sudden gasp drew their collective stare.

"Sej! Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Leta said.

The guide gripped onto Leta's hand with a shaking, white knuckled grip, her eyes going wild with panic.

"It's alright. You're alright!" Leta said. "Hang in there, I'll heal you some more!"

"Nghh!" Sej tried to speak, shaking her head violently.

"Hang on!" Leta said again.

She tried to get herself free from the guide's grasp, but Sej only held onto her even tighter.

"Ughn!" she said, again. And she tilted her yellow eyes down and up, again and again.

"On her hand!" Calli suddenly said. "What is that?"

"Ughn!" Sej said, and finally let go of Leta, dropping back with a wheezy sigh.

The effort seemed to have drained her, and the blue skinned guide passed out again.

"What is this?" Leta asked.

She raised a narrow, long black vial of some sort to her visored eyes, trying to read the very small label on it.

"A full heal!" the healer gasped. "And an auramancer one at that!"

"Quickly! Give it to her!" Calli said.

Leta carefully parted Sej's dark blue lips, then she even more carefully downed the contents of the tiny black vial down her throat. The effect was immediate.

Sej started convulsing and coughing, and Leta turned her to the side to let the potion do its job. A smelly, foul stink reached Nar's nostrils and a black-reddish substance seeped from Sej's skin.

"Ah!"

The woman flared her eyes open, and puked her guts besides the dead ma'bat, proving that Leta had been right in flipping her to the side.

The vomit gushing from Sej was a deep black, with streaks of glowing red, and the guide puked and retched for a while.

"Is that the shit inside all of us?" Jaz asked, with a nauseated look.

"Yes," Leta corrected, even though she wasn't affected. "The mask will keep it from accumulating counters, but the damage is done. Unless we get out here, I cannot cleanse them, and any healing I do will take me three times as much aura, effort and time too."

Nar glanced at Leon with a questioning look.

"Will just have to keep downing them," he said, as he took another gulp of his potion.

"Fair enough," Nar said, grimacing. With Era down until they got out of the Hungry Jungle, the aethermancers would just have to make do.

"I'm okay! I'm okay!" Sej suddenly said, her mask already back in place, even if it had gotten stained with dark puke in the guide's rush to keep the [Touch of Rot] at bay.

"Crystal fucking dammit!" the guide panted, as she took in the injured around her. "Sarke!"

She made to rush to her companion, but Calli halted her on her tracks.

"She's okay for now! But we landed in a nest of some kind, and that corpse is going to call something down on our heads soon!" the gunslinger told her. "We need to get out of here! We need you to guide us!"

Sej inhaled sharply and blinked at Calli. "You're… Fuck. You're right. You're right!"

Calli let go of her shoulder, and the guide made to pass a hand through her hair, but instead found her hood.

"No maps, of course," she muttered. "But you did well in putting up the masks and hoods. And you, you're immune?"

"Yes. And I've been to the top. We're far enough that I couldn't see the cliff of the Jungle Tops," Nar told her. "But I couldn't see the Great Lake either."

Sej shook her head. "You can't, no matter how much [Sight] you have. The Miasma reduces visibility close to null."

She sighed and got up to her feet, and paced their little alcove. "The ma'bat did his best to keep us on our route to the southern lair, and it managed to fly a good distance before we crashed…"

She looked around them, taking in her surroundings for the first time, and frowned at the blocked entrance to the nest.

"Yeah, that's not good," Sej said. "Did you see what it was?"

"Some kind of maggot? With a sharp needle on its face?" Jaz said, gesturing to his own face.

"Parasitic maggots," Sej said, twisting her lips. "Lovely. Let's just get the fuck away from here before they get through that."

"And the injured?" Gad asked. "Do you have any more of those full heals?"

Sej shook her head with a dark expression.

"Only the one. It's a company safeguard, but it's incredibly expensive. Sarke has one too, but it's stuck in her ring," Sej said. "We're all strong enough to carry people, so for now, we'll have to…"

Nar looked up sharply as a dark shadow leaped down from above.

"I'm here!" Eum announced from behind his mask. "I'm sorry it took so long!"

"Just one counter of [Touch of Rot]... Not too bad," Sej said. "And you, Nar, that's fucking impressive, but shouldn't you be wearing a mask, though? You must be burning through your aura to keep that debuff away."

Nar shrugged.

"I think it's okay," he said, glancing down at himself. "I'm not doing much other than just cycle it around."

With his leg mostly healed, his aura bar had stabilized at a good enough 10,349/16,830.

"All of that pain had to be for something," Jaz mumbled, in between coughing.

"Right. Have it your way then," Sej said.

She glanced around them and did a mental headcount. Nar, Eum, Calli, Gad, Leta, Jaz, herself, and Leon, who rose on unsteady feet, were all that was available now.

"Eight of us, and…" she looked at the injured and sighed. "All of them."

"With some time, I can heal up Jasphaer," Leta said. "Then we can focus on bringing up the least injured. Mul, Tuk, Raf. And Jul's not very hurt. Just passed out from that overwhelming fear she sensed earlier."

Nar glanced at the small body of the quam. Her fear sense had likely saved them all, given how high up they had to climb up that spire to get a ride, but it looked as though Jul was far from anywhere close to acquiring the sense.

"We'll need to find somewhere safe for that first," Calli said.

"There are no safe places here," Sej countered, and a sudden shriek filled the air, as though to give credence to her words.

"That was very close," Jaz muttered.

"Too close," Sej said.

And another one rose in the stifling, hot and humid air.

"Was that one closer?" Nar asked, frowning.

"Yes!" Jaz and Sej shouted.

"Grab them!" Sej said. "We need to leave now!"

Suddenly, a piercing cry sounded right above them, and Nar looked up, eyes widening as he spotted several mandibles poking out from the branches, the insects' many legs highlighted in nightmarish red light from above.

"Why is it bugs again!" Jaz grunted.

"Go!" Sej shouted again. "Grab them! Quick!"

Nar rushed to grab the nearest wounded, and from above, beasts began dropping on them.

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