Chapter 562: Momo Express is back in Business |
The group quickly got to work cleaning up the mess of the battle putting away the bodies of the different coyotes in to their inventories. When they got back after the end of the expedition they would sell off any normal materials for regular system points while if they found anything valuable they would keep or attempt to sell it for Universe coins. At the moment getting Universe Coins would be difficult with how hard they were to come by. You can only gain Universe Coins by claiming territories which would take into account the difficulty of claiming said territory or through gambling in the battle arena. So for the most part people would be gaining universe coins from clearing new dungeons to get a claim to that territory and by taking over new towns.
After they finished clearing out the place Joshua reflected a bit on how the fight went. Now that he had a good judge of how strong just about everyone was in the group he had a better idea of what types of fights they could take on in the prairie and which would be better avoided if possible. There were several people in the group that could now take on powerful beast on their own and even when they were fighting against a dozen coyotes no one particularly had to go all out. Even Thomas and Celia didn't have to use any of their true trump cards while holding their own although they both were clearly the weaker members in the group.
Celia still found it challenging to hold one of the coyotes at bay for the moment even if she could multi task while doing so. Thomas on the other hand had beast companions that weren't nearly strong enough to take out a coyote on their own without either fighting from a distance or using several tricks. On the other hand Cinder was easily picking off coyote after coyote without a care and that was only one of Lily's beast companions. Joshua had the feeling if she had let Titus lose on them then the rest of the group might have just been able to sit back and watch as the giant gorilla would toss around the coyotes without any trouble. Even Cinder could have done more damage if she wanted to, but the spider wasn't going all out and was just playing to her strengths when it came to stealth and ambush tactics.
The fighting had answered a lot of questions for Joshua and now he had a decent idea of how he would use Celia and Thomas in other fights going forward. Celia was a good off tank that could even empower the main tank when needed with her barrier and reinforcement abilities. As she leveled up Joshua was certain that she would be able to contribute even more outside of holding off an opponent for a brief period of time, even so her sense of danger was nearly as good as Joshua's aura sense. In a situation where sensing aura wouldn't be enough to scout out ahead Celia would work well alongside Becca and Marcus to figure out any traps in dungeons or other dangers that don't involve beast.
Thomas would be put in a position that resembles a mage for now with Tails. Although the fox could probably fight a coyote head to head, it would be far more of a struggle with the level disparity and would just slow down a fight. Tails flames were far more powerful than any of his other abilities at the moment and they did some real damage when paired with the explosive abilities of most of the mages in the group. Joshua still hadn't seen Imperia in action quite yet, but for now the little bat could be used as a scout from above while they race across the open fields until there was another chance for a battle.
"Well that was a good way to kick and expedition off." Adrian said with a grin. "Nothing like taking down a dozen giant ferocious beast to wake you up in the morning."
"It's good to know that taking down coyotes is far easier than it was before." Madalyn said as she put away the final corpse. "I didn't even get a chance to try out any of my new poisons this time around."
"That might be a good thing. We'll need them for when we come against something that is actually a threat." Laura simply replied as the group gathered back up. Joshua using his aura sense to see if there were any other beast that would be trying to attack them in the area. He knew that if they came across anything at the moment it was likely to be coyotes and they were easy to find in such an open area.
"It seems like that's the only group of coyotes nearby for the moment. Although staying in this area and hunting down more packs of coyotes could help our new recruits adjust we won't lean much more about the prairie than we already do." Joshua said with a sigh. "Celia, Thomas. You two make sure to keep an eye on those who provide a similar role in the group as you do, we're going to push on to the next guardian site over the next couple of days and we could end up running into anything along the way."
"Same for me. My beast companions and I will help out alongside the mages unless you need something else from us. When Tails and Imperia are strong enough then they could help out on the front lines like Lily and her beast companions." Thomas said with a big smile.
"I'll keep an eye on him." Lily simply said as she let Cinder go back into her soul realm as Momo came over to the group in her full size towering over everyone.
"Well then let's get on the move guys. This time around we're getting back on the Momo express." Joshua said as he leaped up on to the back of the comfortable body of the giant fur ball. Some people chuckled at Joshua's little joke while others just sighed and started climbing up on Momo's back. Thomas let Tails back into his soul realm, but Imperia wanted to stay out and was sitting on his shoulder as she looked around at the surroundings. At first Joshua thought that she was like the other bats that they had come across that relied mostly on echolocation, but her eye sight seemed completely fine. In that regard she was similar to a giant fruit bat, but he knew that she could still use echolocation as well and from what Joshua had seen Thomas feeding her she definitely didn't eat fruit. There was a reason Thomas wanted her name to fit a vampire after all and Imperia drank enough blood that she could suck and entire coyote dry.
When everyone was secured on top of Momo and held on to a portion of her hair so that they could stabilize themselves the giant ferret rose up to its full height as her paws started glowing green from the infusion of wind mana. With that she dashed off at full speed as a cloud of dust followed in her wake at first before she found a rhythm where she was nearly gliding across the ground and left no tracks behind. Traveling on the back of Momo was always an experience and Joshua could see that both Celia and Thomas were surprised by how fast the ferret could move through the prairie. Even with her speed it would still take time to find the next guardian site that could stretch up to three days if they ran into to many obstacles.
Finding each of the guardian sites was the current priority and then they could teleport to them at any time after they marked them all down. Since the places were always giant deterrents to beast it would be safe to teleport near them at any time. Although Joshua was beginning to realize that the territories that the guardian sites were located in were completely different from each other. They were even finding different beast that ruled over those areas. It was likely to align with the guardians of the area so once the terrain started to shift again Joshua was going to make sure to keep an eye out for whatever beast seemed to be the most prevalent in the area.
After moving through the dry plains area of the prairie for a while Joshua and the rest of the group were starting to see a gradual change to the terrain around them once again. They had avoided any conflict while on Momo's back since Joshua could easily warn Lily about where any hostile presences were coming from. With Momo's speed they were able to run around packs of coyotes and the occasional snake that seemed to be sunning in the open dry plains. Most of the snakes ignored them since they were relaxing, but they kept a wary eye on the group as they passed by.
The dynamic between the snakes and coyotes seemed to be one where they stayed away from each other for the most part. The snakes didn't want to waste time trying to chase down the coyotes since they didn't have any tall grass to hide in to hunt from. The coyotes however knew to stay the hell away from a predator that could strangle them and swallow them whole given the opportunity. The dynamic between the two beasts seemed to be one where they stayed out of each other's way. Looking at this Joshua wondered what kind of natural dynamics they would find in the next portion of the prairie..
