Hexo, somewhat understanding what was happening thanks to his sense, gave John a thumbs up, while Shera and Satire both remained clueless.

The tiger went out from it’s hiding and walked out of the trees. 

Satire’s eyes widened when she saw it. It was big, over three times the size of John. It could probably swallow him whole in one bite.

Shera readied her daggers in case of confrontation, but Satire reassured her that it would be better to wait and watch.

John and the tiger panther stared at each other for what felt like hours, before it eventually took the corpse in front of him and left.

“Let’s go.” Said John after appearing beside another corpse and picking it up. He froze off the wound so that the blood wouldn’t get on him.

“What was that? Am I hallucinating?” Satire asked

“Nope, that was real. More importantly, why does it feel like we’ve been standing here for a long time? It’s kind of sad when I think about it.” Replied Hexo as he noticed a tear flow down the side of his cheek.

“So wait… A Griffin just appeared out of the woods and left without trying to attack us? Did John use mind control on it or something?” Satire asked

“Huh? What’re you talking about? That was an earth dragon. There weren’t any wings. And didn’t you hear what I just said?” Claimed Hexo

“What’re you talking about? An hour isn’t a long time and that was definitely a Griffin. The body of a lion, feet and the head of an eagle. What part of that was a dragon? Earth dragons don’t have wings… More importantly, if it were an earth Dragon, we’d be fighting right now.” 

“An hour?! It felt like a month! And How the hell was that a Griffin?! I felt the vibrate with it’s every step! If griffins were that heavy, then they might as well put cosmetics on their wings.” 

“Month?! We just got here! And I’m telling you, you’re the one who saw it wrong!”

While the two argued over what they had seen. Shera looked over at her dagger before placing it back inside of it’s sheath on her hips. 

She then looked over at her hand before clenching it as she gazed into the woods. 

“Fox…?” She muttered

“Yeah.” John replied 

John’s sudden unannounced voice which came from behind her, deeply started her and sent a shiver down her spine causing her to simultaneously leap forward and draw her dagger once more.

The sudden movement alerted the two who were arguing, making them quickly raise their guards and draw their weapons.

“What’s wrong? Enemy?” Hexo asked

Shera quickly glanced at John before letting out a sigh. She only realized that it was him after drawing her own weapon so now she felt bad.

“N-No… Sorry John, instinct.” Muttered Shera as she placed her dagger back in it’s sheathe while she hung her head.

Her purple hair seeped out of her hoodie and covered her clearly troubled face. 

“It’s fine.” Said John before he turned his head back towards the trees.

He could feel something approaching them.

Once she heard that she was forgiven, she let out a sigh of relief. Truthfully, she wasn’t very good at working in teams. Mainly because of her background.

As she raised her head, she felt Hexo approaching.

“Hey, Shera… I don’t know if I said this earlier but… Your combat style, the way you use your poison and dagger… Accurately and stealthily aiming for vital points, while making as Little sound as possible, you’re an assassin aren’t you? ” Hexo whispered as he placed his hand on her shoulder

She stood thinking about how to reply, she didn’t necessarily want to hide it but she’d usually have bad experiences whenever someone would find out. Assassins weren’t held in a good regard after all.

She gave a slight nod with the same troubled and hollow look.

“Is that so… That’s…”

She could already see what he was going to say. It was too dangerous, she was going to be a hindrance to the team. He couldn’t fully trust her with it. Such was the norm. After all, Assassins were assassins. They kill people for money. Opposite of Adventurers who save people for money.

“So cool!” Said Hexo 

Confused, Shera looked up at Hexo only to see an excited look on his face. She didn’t understand.

“What?” Shera asked, surprised.

“No wonder It’s hard to keep track of your presence and movements. You must be quite the skilled one, huh…”

Satire who watched and listened from afar, frowned at how clueless Hexo was being. ‘Does he think it’s some kind of joke…?’ She wondered

Shera didn’t know what to say. She looked down, nervously trying to think of what sort of words should come out of her mouth next. She was never much of a speaker, and now she was put on the spot in the middle of a conversation she had never experienced before.

‘He’s… Not mad…?’ Shera wondered

“Huh…? What are you going on… About…? Do you think this is funny…?” Shera asked 

“Shera?” Hexo muttered

‘Oh boy… That idiot…’ Satire thought to herself as she placed her palm on her face. 

Shera’s confusion had all been completely turned into anger which clouded her thoughts  as she began to speak her true thoughts.

“Cool…? It’s cool…? Tell me… Tell me what about it is cool!? I kill people for money, murder! It doesn’t matter if they’re bad or not, I take lives! I ruined everything which meant everything to me because of it, and now I have nothing!” She shouted. 

She then glared at Hexo as she muttered. “If you still think that’s cool… then somethings wrong with you…” 

After the words had come out, Shera had finally realized what she had said. She had lost her cool again, even though it was something she was taught countless times to never do.

She looked up to see the look on Hexo’s face, thinking or assuming that he’d have realized and regretted his words by now, but he still had that same smile on his face.

Right before she could say anything however, he spoke up.

“Yeah… You’re still cool. I mean… What’s not cool about doing whatever you can to survive?” He asked.

Shera had always been good at reading expressions. She could tell when someone was pitying her or sympathizing with her. But the smile on his face, didn’t seem like it was either of those. It was a smile filled with sorrow, almost as if he had experienced something similar.

When she saw it, she didn’t know what to say in return. Even Satire didn’t expect that reply. Satire was even beginning to wonder if she should have even been there. 

Shera opened her mouth to say something, but that moment was quickly interrupted by John who appeared out of nowhere in between them.

“Let’s go.” He muttered, completely oblivious to the mood as he stretched out his hands to them.

Satire who saw this was dumbfounded but at the same time felt saved. 

‘Perfect timing…’ She thought to herself.

Shera nodded and so Did Hexo. They didn’t say any other words and grabbed on to John’s hand. Satire who saw this, did the same. 

Once everyone got a firm hold over John, they all levitated up heading straight towards the small floating Earth platform they had prepared.

As they made their ways up into the sky, Satire could feel her heart sink, and in that moment she remembered. ‘Aren’t we forgetting something?’

***

Minutes, Hours and Days pass as they continued on their journey. The destination getting ever so closer with each passing second.

Currently, they were traveling at around 120 Miles per hour on the floating platform. 

John had given the platform small walls around A meter tall just in case of any accidents and four earth vaults which contained each of their luggage. 

Each once was in each corner of the platform to balance it, but due to the difference in weight from each luggage It became harder to control the platform and keep it balanced, but he soon-after got used to it.

There was no development in the relationship between Hexo and Shera, the two were hadn’t been talking much if not when necessary. 

The whole mood between the group was rather tense, and satire was the only one trying to liven it up. 

However, she didn’t have to do much as the view itself played a great part.

“Hey… Is that, what I think it is?” Hexo asked as he stared into the distance.

Shera who had been doing maintenance on her weapons and Satire who had been reading a book, looked over to see what they were talking about. 

The moment they did, their eyes widened. The sun rising from the direction of a large, deep blue ocean which stretched out as far as the eye could see. 

In that one moment and for just that one moment, The scenery along with the sun rising, had lifted all of the weight of their minds, as they all shared the same thought.

“Beautiful…” Satire muttered as a tear could be seen forming in her eye.

They had finally done it.. They had reached the ocean.