Once the still terrified, or Feared, he supposed he should call it, members of the hunting party recovered sufficiently to stop running in any random direction they could, TJ and Rebekkah spoke about how they thought they could escape.
"I have no idea which direction leads us out." Rebekkah admitted. "Now that I'm aware of the affliction, it's not affecting me nearly as much, but I'm no good at figuring out where we are relative to town, especially after all that running."
"Same." TJ admitted with a sigh. "I almost wish I'd taken that Orienteering Skill back when it was offered. Not the first time that I've wanted it too. I don't really notice the Skill I took instead."
"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, then we'd all have a merry Christmas. Now quit your complaining." The words rolled so smoothly off Rebekkah's tongue that it startled TJ into silence. She then realized she'd said that to a grown adult and flushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry. It's something I always say to my kids. I didn't mean anything by it."
"My Nana said many of the same things. I'm not worried about it." TJ laughed. "Zig, Farid, you have any Skills that'll let you guide us out of here?"
Zig shivered as she shook her head no, obviously straining herself to keep from indulging in the supernatural fear that had overcome her. She clung to Sarah, the two women looking around themselves for anything that would confirm the reason for their terror. Farid, though, gritted his teeth and, through a clenched jaw, said, "I might be able to. I can sense where my traps are, more or less."
"So do you have any idea of where you left the few traps at the entrance of the forest?" TJ asked, hope beginning to surge.
"No." Farid admitted, still nearly petrified from the magical fear. "If we get within a half mile or so, though, I'll be able to tell."
"Then we need to make increasingly large circles until we get a hint of where to go." Zig ground out. Sarah remained wordless, hyperventilating and twitching in fear, but staying nearby.
Everyone agreed, and started from there. After making a stack of rocks, TJ joined them, walking in deliberate circles, following from one tree to the next, trying to stay consistent in their steps. Even so, with all five doing their absolute best to maintain reason and orientation, each step was difficult, and while they kept the pile of stones in sight as long as they could, it wasn't long before the forest stretched in every direction, the light from the sun seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. The oppressive forest fought to inflict TJ with a greater affliction than before, but now that he was wise to the affliction's existence, he was able to stave off the worst of it.
Walking in circles was nerve wracking for TJ as everything nearby knew that they would return back to where they'd once been. Each time they circled by the same spot, he was convinced they would stumble across an ambush. Worse still, this wasn't merely the affliction speaking, as there was no small possibility that the pukwudgies were doing just that. However, to ensure that none of the other three truly terrified members of the party allowed their fear to hear his own worries, TJ kept his thoughts to himself. To make matters worse, it wasn't too long after being forced to internalize this fear that TJ noticed that they'd strayed off course. Something about the forest surrounding them was the same as before, though he couldn't place exactly what it was.
"Farid, you feeling anything yet?" TJ asked, trying to keep his tone conversational.
"Other than a certainty that if this forest doesn't kill me, you will?" The Acolyte joked, though he continued twitching at every sound. "No. Nothing yet."
"Ok." TJ nodded, keeping his every gesture calm.
"Why? Has it been too long? Are we going to die? What did you see?" Sarah immediately spiraled into a panic attack as TJ spoke, glancing back and forth while she prepared her posture to run.
"No, I was just thinking that, since the forest or whatever it was that did it was able to move bushes to be in our path, that it might try to move or hide our stack of rocks while we couldn't see it."
"So we're lost forever." Sarah's legs buckled for a moment but she forced herself to her feet after doing so.
TJ forced himself to remember how he'd forced himself to react every time Junior had felt like this. He'd always spiral whenever told no. If TJ said, "No, no bike rides today", Junior would say "Never? You hate riding bikes!" and dissolve into a puddle of tears. Now, he had to deal with adults stronger than him in his Divine Transformation while their mentalities fell apart just as quickly.
"We're ok as long as we're alive." TJ said. "We're all basically at full resources, so we should continue doing what we are now, seeing if that will help us get home. Right? Anybody have any other ideas that might help us move faster?"
Rebekkah was the only one who answered in the negative, the other three still fighting off the trembles of terror. With no other ideas, TJ internally groaned. He suspected that alone, he could escape the forest before too long, moving quickly and being mostly safe from ambushes from anything weaker than a wendigo. He was tempted to do so, but beyond it being unnecessary, that wasn't the kind of person he was. The desperation of the Tutorial was real, and TJ was here for himself.
Even so, he refused to leave people behind simply for convenience. There was no danger to him, and beyond that, it was his fault that they were all here. Their safety was his responsibility. As he made the decision, TJ's mentality shifted, and he walked forward to put a hand on Farid and Sarah's shoulders.
"We'll be fine. Rebekkah and I are mostly resisting the Fear, so you can see it's possible. We're here for you, and we won't leave you behind. Ok?"
Still shivering, Zig grinned in a face that was honestly more of a grimace. "Are you trying to raise a death flag for us?"
"Not sure what that's supposed to mean, but no, if you're saying that my words will somehow kill you."
Zig nodded, reaching out to place a hand on my own shoulder. "I appreciate it. Now, let's get out of this hell."
The rest of the hunting party on board, TJ led the way. The few times he'd taken a group of Junior's friends to the park, it had felt something like this, since most of the people under his protection were largely helpless and easily confused, but when the first ambush caught up to them, it was immediately made apparent in what way these violence-prone adults different from toddlers on a slide.
Disregarding caution, wisdom, or planning, when a pack of four coyotes appeared, Zig immediately drew and loosed three arrows, every one splitting into eight. Twenty four faintly glimmering missiles lodged up to the fletching in the canines and all but one dropped to the ground while the survivor tried to hobble into the forest. Before it could get more than three steps away, Sarah flashed forward, her hatchet glimmering with the light from her Skill.
"Sarah, don't!" TJ called out, but to no avail. The empowered axe chopped through the creature's skull in a single swing, though she activated her Skill again and used it to chop through its spine afterwards. It fell to the ground in two parts, though Sarah still looked like she needed to find something else to hit. Her weapon began to glow a third time, but TJ rushed forward and placed his hand on hers. Sarah startled, seeming to begin to rear back for another attack.
"It's ok! They're all dead! You're just exhausting yourself for nothing. Calm down, we're going to keep moving. We're safe now, so thank you for working for us. Ok?"
Sarah's nostrils flared as she restrained her panting, the adrenaline of the opportunity to slay one of the things that preyed on her fears purging the worst of the terror. Even so, her emotions remained heightened and she twitched as the sound of blood dripping to the ground rustled dry leaves and pine needles underfoot. TJ attempted to soothe her, but every word he said didn't seem to sink through to her. Eventually, he gave up and instead looked at the others. Farid had closed his eyes as he rocked back and forth with his clenched fists pressed to his ears while Zig took calming breaths as she grimaced.
"I'm sorry. Shouldn't have done that. Almost emptied my MP." Zig apologized as they reserved circling the area. After three more rotations, an ambush of pukwudgies occurred, taking both Rebekkah and Sarah by surprise. Zig and Farid again threw an excessive response at the monsters, killing one and nothing else.
Fortunately, none of the wounds sustained were severe, but Rebekkah healed herself and Sarah while looking at TJ in growing concern. Though she refused to verbalize it and set the three terrified hunters to spiraling again, TJ knew what her fear here was. The monsters would continue whittling them down until they died to attacks they easily could have survived before.
One more rotation later, five javelinas sprang from behind the cover of a bush and rushed forward, silver streaking their rush. Sarah's overreaction was helpful that time, her shield and ax glowing as she charged forward and cut through everything she could touch. The moment when she ran out of MP was obvious, as she sagged and took a hit from a tusk that cut through her shield and stabbed deep into her thigh. As it happened, something in Sarah broke and, instead of her reckless attacking like before, she sprinted away, the fear she'd suppressed overwhelming her.
"Take care of the last ones!" TJ shouted as he rushed after Sarah. "Don't go anywhere!"
TJ was forced to use Divine Transformation and Wind Manipulation to catch up to her, pushing himself forward with gusts of wind and pulling her back with the occasional inhale. Nearly a minute passed, but TJ finally managed to wrap his body around her legs enough for her mind-numbing panic to subside.
"I'm… sorry. I-I-I don't know why I did that." Sarah gasped, trying to gather her breath.
"Well, I'm lucky you held onto the mountain lion without thinking. I doubt I could have caught you without that weighing you down." TJ answered, trying to stay positive. Just as he wondered if they'd be able to find the rest of the party, a rustling through the trees and bushes approached.
"You've gotta be kidding me."