Elemental Dissonance.

Amidst the Dusky evening of Yreka, the temperatures at the moment could be considered cold, yet a caravan of 60-70 navigated through a forest of thick vegetation, it's formation was in the shape of a bucket with rows of Silver armored Soldiers covering both the Vanguard and the Flanks.

On their backs was a huge crowd of people resembling peasants, they pulled heavily crammed wooden carts in the group of fours.

From time to time, the bearers of the carriages kept rotating, the carriage pullers were able-bodied men, on their face was a pale shade skin due to fatigue and their legs quivered weekly every once in a while, yet they kept their pace perpetual, following them from behind were folk of similar semblance their numbers mostly consisted of Women and Elderly with a few Children in between. They weren't bound by anything yet they stuck closely to each other with at most a hand's gap.

And finally sealing off the formation on the rear an armed group of people walked alongside, their appearance and the equipment didn't match that of Soldiers, most of them wore Hide clothing and had a random weapon strapped or wielded, they appeared untrained and barbarous, not even a hint of coordination could be seen in their movements and they roamed however they chose, yet the Frontline didn't seem to mind.

Yet they made things work with their numbers, shielded the rearguard to suffice.

Amongst them was a Young a.d.u.l.t garbed in a Yellowish Dusky cloak which hid his face as a whole, and beneath that Cloak, he was armored with same silvery Set seen in the frontlines and underneath all that was leathery Hide apparels and the folded edge of the Cloak as a Cowl, his face was hidden.

Warily observing the route, he quietly kept walking, suddenly he felt a presence looming over his right shoulder which grabbed his attention.

"Rearguard Leader, how long do we have to walk? We might need to have a break soon" a raspy voice sounded out from behind.

Turning his head around a few degrees, the young man caught the origin of the voice, it was from a skinny middle-aged man with an average stature, he perspirated badly and looked sapped of all energy, the characteristic peculiar to him was a stretched menacing scar spreading along his forehead, which was precisely entailed in his nickname.

"Break? I'm afraid we can't right now? For now Scarface manage them somehow, the dusk is upon us and we might stop any time now" The Young man replied dryly while shaking his head in dismay.

Though not what he expected, the last sentence resounded in his mind and gathered some hope, without questioning the young man's words, scarface came back to his position assigned. And informed them whenever he got the chance, the ones hearing it couldn't help but alter their fatigued faces into a despairing frown, yet the Young man didn't appear to care, neither did Scarface as they too were in a similar dilemma.

The Young man was no other than Bilal, a person of otherworldly origin, hiding amongst their ranks discreetly.

Throughout the journey, he performed his roles assigned diligently, which was to report anything weird and manage the Rearguard, and didn't interact with them much, but that was just a pretense, he had to adopt since he found himself somewhat lacking, instead, eavesdropping appeared a good option, as he dipped into their conversations rather easily due to his Attainment which boosted his hearing and all the other senses a whole notch above.

With that he gained insights into local power politics and geography along with some general stuff, the Wind Spirit Tribe from which he ran away from and pretended to be a member of, was a Major powerhouse that had laid its foundations in the Outermost Region of the Forest two centuries ago, their current strongest attainer was someone called Shaman Eril at the Mortal Adept level of the Shamanic Path, an auxiliary branch of the Magic Path, several Low tribes inhabited the regions nearby with great struggle due to the disconnectedness from the world.

And most of the survivors present here were from those Tribes at the Outer-Intermediary regions and did not have much contact with the Wind Spirit High Tribe, that was the reason his cover still remained, they scoffed and labeled him either as a 'Traitor' or as a 'Selfish' type of a person.

Because in their perspective, if it's not for the traitors like him the Main Tribe's losses were due to traitors like him abandoning their duties.

Those he was to herd ahead weren't that co-operative especially the Scarface and two of his 'brothers', they refused to budge even an inch under his command, not knowing what to do Bilal decided to count on the Iron fist method, he easily thrashed them in close combat without even having to sheath any weapon, their physical strength, speed, dexterity wasn't even close to his, it was no wonder did the captain assigned him a higher position.

He also confirmed the theory he speculated, the Law of jungle rules is prevalent in this World and ruling with an Iron Fist must be the norm here, even the ones who were beaten looked at him in a new light, and thus he gained them under his helm.

Besides that drama, the journey went smooth and monotonous, they kept walking for hours yet they still hadn't been able to cross the remaining periphery of the Saint Equina's Forests.

He could not fathom whether this Forest is just humongous or he had no sense of distances in Nature.

Unsure of what comes ahead he opened the minimap and to his surprise, he saw the woods getting sparse with trees as they progressed further away, according to the minimap this pattern would continue for a mile or so and beyond that begins a flat landmass with no trees, which probably was the Nux plains.

Meaning, they were quite close to their first milestone after that it would be the Redrock Fire Mountains which was rumored to be a place of Mystery, Fortune, and Death at the same time.

Glancing above he saw the skylights getting dimmed minute by minute, he wondered whether they would be able to reach before it completely darkens out here.

"The Nux plains are within sight, everyone sped up…" the Old Captain's shout reverberated in the forest.

'He can actually perceive that far?' Bilal pondered deep, it would've been normal if the path ahead was clear, but it was riddled with trees from all sides.

Though badly exhausted, none of them disregarded the Old captain's and sped up exponentially within moments.

---------------------------------------

20 minutes later.

"We rest here for a while!!!" The Old man exclaimed and stopped the Caravan in an imposing manner.

As everyone had expected their long-d.e.s.i.r.ed break was there, by the arrival of the Moon which hung brightly in the Night Sky.

Abruptly, many began collapsing flat on the fields of grass consecutively akin to stringless puppets. Some with feebler bodies clutched their limbs in pain and g.r.o.a.n.e.d loudly, while some with tenacious bodies fared somewhat easier.

Amongst them was Bilal too, he sat along with the Rearguard people and as always not interacting but eavesdropping, he portrayed himself busy in massaging his sore shoulders and knees trying to soothe his pain.

"System, show me the time"

[5:40 P.M]

'What the f.u.c.k?…we 've been walking straight for 5 hours? Was I always this remarkable?' Bilal wondered with an apparent shock on his face 'This Attainment thing is really potent'

Firing his gaze everywhere, his gaze suddenly stopped at Trake who sat amongst the group of Workers. He only had talked to the Kid before the Caravan had commenced and didn't have much communication in between.

'Let's see how this fella is faring'

Reminded of his 'responsibility' he stood up and began treading down there when he got closer and noticed the 'Workers' an immediate sigh escaped his lips.

Because for the Workers there came no relief, instead they were handed multitudes of tasks by the Soldiers in their supervision, clearing up the vicinity, lighting up the field, cooking preparations and distribution works, etc. But it came not much as a surprise though as everything had been preplanned, even he had caught up to it.

From a distance, he waved his arm towards Trake and approached closer.

"How have you been Trake?"

"My legs are hurting very bad" Trake told concerningly.

"Ohhh…that's problematic, let me see" Bilal spoke in a low tone and clutched his Legs "Hmm, probably a sore leg due to overwalking, are you able to walk?"

"Yes I can, Big brother, but it pains too much" Trake said with an agonized expression.

"You stay with me for a while…if it doesn't get better, I'll talk to someone" Bilal spoke with assurance.