Chapter 284: At Least We’re Working Together Well

I rejoined the group at the command centre in time to see that they had planned to do another survey of the area to let the two Mortal Goddesses get a feel of the rift.

They needed to see for themselves how the Anomalies of this rift acted for themselves after all.

Since we already practically cleared out the area around here and we felt it was a complete waste of time for us to comb through the city to look for those larger monkey wolf hybrids, we teleported to the town to continue our scouting from there.

Diana and Siti looked around the place before their gaze settled on the corpses of the Anomalies laying by the side of the road.

"Those are the Anomalies in this rift?" Diana asked, making a face at the creatures.

I nodded, "Yeah. Those are the ones we’ve come across so far. We’ve yet to encounter anything different. I showed you their pictures back at my place already, didn’t I?"

"Seeing it in person gives off a different feeling."

Siti hummed, "Hmm... How curious... It seems like this world is also overgrown with plants as well. They’ve been... Tainted with the miasma but it seems like the only thing miasma changed was its growth speed."

I turned to her, "You can feel that?"

"Of course? Can’t you? I would have thought you could given that your powers and mine are... Connected."

She shot me a knowing look at the last word and I’m pretty sure she was referencing what we did for me to get the power, not that I had it.

I simply shrugged at her, "My proficiency isn’t that great with it."

"Oh? Then I suppose I should spend some extra time teaching you then. Maybe we can find somewhere quiet after this and you can... Show me what you have learned so far?"

I decided not to say anything and thankfully, I didn’t need to as Diana butted in between us, the Mortal Goddess puffing up her cheeks at us.

"Ok, you two can stop flirting while I’m here, ok? I’m not going to let myself be relegated to being a third wheel."

I cleared my throat, "Ahem... We’re still in a rift right now so maybe we should concentrate on that instead?"

Our Guardians at least had the sense to secure the area while the three of us were acting so carefree.

Siti gave another look around the town before turning back to me, "So where are we going first? Do we have a place we are aiming to reach?"

I took out the map that Maylene had sketched out for us and unrolled it.

We had prepared this ahead of time where she had transcribed the map with all the markings we found to only show a small number of said markings on this map.

"We found a map during our initial scouting of this area and there were some markings on it which we believe were left by survivors to indicate something was there. We intend to see what that ’something’ is."

They peered over my shoulder to look at the map I had unfurled.

The closest marking on the map was a short walk out of the town before turning left down a minor road into the fields.

This marking was specifically drawn with a house symbol and a cross over it. Then right beside it was marked with what looked like a skull icon.

I say that it looked like a skull icon because the skull itself had a longer than normal cranium and there was a third eye hole in the forehead... I’m pretty sure the humans of this world don’t have a third eye so I’m not sure which skull this was supposed to belong to or if it even is a skull to begin with.

"These symbols... What do they mean?" Diana asked.

I gave her a sideeye, "That’s what we’re trying to find out. You in? The area outside the town has not been cleared."

"Say less, we’re going to beat some Anomalies today~"

I rolled up the map and nodded at my Guardians, prompting them to take point as the others followed along to move out of the town.

The town was eerily quiet, making it feel like we were walking out of a tomb instead of a town when we stepped out into the outskirts.

Even from here, we could see there were a few Anomalies that were just hanging around on the road, seemingly just wandering around or staring off into space.

Siti and Diana made a face at the sight of the creatures.

"Ugh... They look hideous..."

"I can’t get over how wrong this looks..."

I rolled my eyes, "You’re acting like the other Anomalies don’t look just as bad if not worse..."

Neither had the chance to respond since the Anomalies noticed us and let out a howl before charging towards us.

There were only a few scattered groups here so it wasn’t really a horde but there were still quite a number of them.

"Alright... First collaborative battle in this rift. You guys didn’t really get the chance to do it in the last rift so... Play nice, ok?" I called out to my Guardians.

Siti and Diana were also instructing their own Guardians as they took position in front of them, arranging themselves to form a defensive line.

The last time, the number of Guardians I had vastly outnumbered theirs but this time we were actually quite equal which I found to be a little ironic.

This time, us three Mortal Gods were taking a support role instead and letting our Guardians do the fighting.

I released my purple smoke to buff them while Siti and Diana seemed to have their own support skills as well.

Siti clasped her hands together and a small sapling grew right beside her which even I was able to tell was filling the air with life energy meant to heal wounds.

Diana gave a more direct support as she materialised balls of water that she directed to all the Guardians and reformed them into body armour wrapped around them.

Our Guardians moved together, the front liners charging into the small horde while the back liners supported their charge.

For my side, Dan and Olivia moved together with Olivia moving ahead and making first contact, the red Oni smashing into the pack of monkey wolf Anomalies and knocking them aside like bowling pins.

Dan was not far behind as he smashed his shield into another Anomaly that was attempting to flank Olivia, pushing it back for him to smash his mace into the side of its face.

Maylene’s figure had turned into a blur as she darted between the Anomalies to slice them apart with her knives, leaving only trails of their blood splattering across the ground.

Liliac pressed her palms together and vines sprouted out from the ground, wrapping themselves around several of the Anomalies and crushing them in their grip.

Interestingly, there was another woman amongst Siti’s Guardian’s who was also using vines as well where she shot them out from within her sleeves to restrain Anomalies and seemingly drain them of their vitality, turning them into lifeless husks.

Amongst Diana’s Guardians, there was another woman who was fighting alongside Dan and Olivia where she used water to create walls and shields that she would use to separate and crush the Anomalies that were trying to flank them.

Hmm... Seems like they are working quite well together despite the fact that they didn’t have much chance to practice.

I’m guessing this is something like their battle instincts at play or something.

Our group was quite relaxed despite the fact we were in battle as our Guardians were more than enough to take these Anomalies out.

Interestingly enough, Diana, Siti and I seemed to work quite well together here.

My purple smoke increases their strength and abilities allowing them to fight faster and harder, Diana’s water armour provided defense for the Guardians to soften the blows they received and if the Anomalies managed to get past that armour, Siti’s skill will heal the wounds they received.

I wonder if this was deliberate or something? For all three of us to awaken powers that work so well together...

Right as I was thinking about that, the Anomalies suddenly let out a howl before the remaining Anomalies turned around and started running.

All of us frowned at the sight since this definitely confirmed the fact that there was a Commander Class Anomaly that was controlling them.

"So it’s confirmed then..." Siti muttered, watching the Anomalies escape down the road. "There’s a Commander Class in this rift.

Before I could even confirm with her, a beam of fire suddenly sliced through the space in front of the retreating Anomalies, creating a wall of fire.

We watched as a figure came walking out of the tall grass beside the road, his palm raised up to point at the Anomalies before shooting out a blast of flames that consumed them, burning them into cinders.

Err... Who’s this guy?