Climbing up the mountain with some difficulty, due to falling rocks, boulders and unstable footpaths, the girls finally found a decent point of which they could see most of the things in the forest.

"Hmm… I think I can see the lake." Kuromi muttered while narrowing her eyes. She couldn't be sure since she could only see a little glimmer due to the sunlight reflecting off the surface.

For all she knows, it may just be a very s.h.i.+ny turtle.

"Try looking for a cliff as well since the one we fell off was quite high." s.h.i.+ro replied.

"You know, there are about 15 cliffs around us right?" Kuromi raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, so only 15 locations where the lake could be." s.h.i.+ro nodded.

"Since we can't see the lake from up here, do you want to go to the closest cliff first and go through each of them one by one? We'll find the lake eventually." Kuromi suggested as s.h.i.+ro thought about it for a moment and nodded.

"Sure, it shouldn't take us too long so it's doable."

Descending the mountain, the girls made their way towards the first cliff at a leisurely pace. Since they had limited amounts of water, it was better to walk the distance rather than run so that they could save some water in case the first cliff was not near the lake.

After walking for a while, they finally reached the bottom of the cliff but unfortunately, all they saw was a cave.

"So it's a bust huh?" s.h.i.+ro sighed.

"Well at least we have a roof over our heads should it start to rain." Kuromi shrugged.

"True, onto the next cliff I suppose."

"Sir! I've found some dried blood and traces of fire near the lake!" One of the search party members shouted out.

"Show me where!" The captain replied urgently and followed behind his subordinate.

Crouching down near the makes.h.i.+ft campfire that Kuromi had made, the captain narrowed his eyes and scanned the area.

"Hmm… some snake bones and dried blood that leads towards the lake. The person that was here must have been injured by something. I can see a few marks of blood on the cliff face so I guess it must be a result of the fall." He muttered.

Looking at the height of that cliff, he wondered why they would even need to go out of their way to grab the cliff since most people can just survive that fall.

However, remembering that the two misses hadn't learned how to use the energy yet, the captain realised that she must have needed to grab onto the cliff in order to survive.

Seeing how much blood was smeared against the wall, he couldn't imagine how much it must've hurt.

"Spread out around this area! The young misses must have set camp here overnight. Try to find some traces of dried blood!" He ordered out.

While this was all happening, s.h.i.+ro and Kuromi had already visited another cliff and found nothing. But on the third cliff, they saw a party of hooded people in dark outfits scouting around their campfire.

"Could that be our enemies?" s.h.i.+ro asked with a frown.

"Maybe. Seeing as though they are surrounding our camp, we should probably try to look for a different spot. We still have some water left so what do you think about circling around?" Kuromi suggested.

"Hmm… That's a good shout. Let's go quietly since we don't know if they can hear us since they can probably use this strange energy. I'll try to cover up our tracks as well so it's harder to find us." s.h.i.+ro nodded.

Making their way around the cliff while making sure that it was hard to find them, the two girls eventually find a spot where they can collect water without being easily seen by the men.

Clearing her wound along with refilling the water bag, s.h.i.+ro then looked towards Kuromi.

"Since our enemies are here, we should probably try to find a place further away from the town or city to get our bearings. We're not sure about the corruption as well so we need to do some research too."

"Indeed…" Kuromi nodded.

Just as the girls were about to leave, they heard some rustling nearby and widened their eyes.

Quickly climbing up the tree, they used the branches and leaves as cover while readying their daggers with venom. After all, at least this way they can get the surprise attack in and maybe live while the enemy dealt with the venom.

Waiting patiently for a moment, they saw one of the hooded men crouch down near where they had just refilled the water bag. There were still some wet patches of blood around the area.

Before he could shout, both s.h.i.+ro and Kuromi jumped down from the branch.

Twisting her body, s.h.i.+ro slammed her heel into the man's temple in order to disorientate him. While she did this, Kuromi stabbed her dagger towards the man's ribs.

"!!!" Hearing some commotion behind him, the man quickly turned around to see two girls attacking him.

"I FOUND THEM!" He shouted out while trying to parry Kuromi's dagger.

"Tch." Clicking her tongue, s.h.i.+ro flicked her wrist and sent the dagger flying towards the man's eyes.

*DANG!

Brus.h.i.+ng the dagger aside with his hand that was coated with a blue hue, the man reached out to grab Kuromi.

Ducking down under his grab, Kuromi pivoted on her foot and kicked the dagger towards him.

Sinking into his shoulder, the venom entered his system as his arm instantly became numb.

"Tsss!" Taking a sharp breath in, the man retreated a few steps since he now understood that he might have startled the two girls.

However, s.h.i.+ro didn't give the man any time to retreat since she had three more daggers that could be thrown. Keeping one on her so that she could use it as a melee weapon, she threw two daggers towards his body.

Dodging out of the way, the man tried to speak but Kuromi entered his peripherals and stabbed towards his temple with one of the poison daggers.

"I apologise for this!" He shouted out since he didn't want to hurt them too much.

Flaring his aura, the pressure sent the two girls stumbling back as he slammed his spare hand into the ground.

The earth started to rip apart as roots erupted out from the ground and tried to bind the two girls.

Rolling out of the way, s.h.i.+ro glanced towards Kuromi and did a small gesture.

Understanding what s.h.i.+ro wanted to do, Kuromi only nodded her head.

Das.h.i.+ng towards the man, s.h.i.+ro jumped into the air and threw her last dagger towards him. Swiping it to the side once more, he was about to grab onto her when Kuromi also threw her dagger.

"Aiya! Please miss! We're the search party looking for you!" He cried out. He had thought this would be an easy task but he didn't know why the two misses had so much combat experience. They were actually able to push him back without the use of Celestial Energy.

"Give us proof." s.h.i.+ro said coldly while picking up one of her daggers and continued her attack.

"What kind of proof do you want?" He asked while retreating.

"This kind."

Throwing her bloodied bandage against his face, she then wrapped her legs around his usable arm.

Twisting her body, she dislocated his arm while Kuromi attacked his torso.

"GAH!" The man cried out in pain.

Looking towards each other, the two girls then picked up their daggers and ran away from this place before help could arrive.

Not too long after they left the captain arrived with the rest of the search party.

Widening his eyes at one of the newer recruits being injured to this extent, he quickly had the medic treat his wounds while removing the poison from his body.

"What happened? What did you fight?" He asked seriously.

"The two misses. I don't know what happened but they seemed to have years of combat experience. With their teamwork, they had been able to poison me and dislocate one of my arms without the use of Celestial Energy." The man replied.

"How the h.e.l.l did she dislocate your arm??? I doubt a girl without celestial energy can outpower you." The captain raised his eyebrows.

"That's the thing, she didn't out power me. I tried to get her off but before I knew it, my arm was already bending back and it was my own force that dislocated it."

Frowning slightly, he called out to one of the members.

"Track her down using this bandage. There's some traces of fresh blood so you should be able to find them." The captain ordered.

Nodding his head, the man drew a rune of sorts onto the bandage as a faint trail of blood mist could be seen going into the forest.

Following behind the mist, the captain couldn't help but wonder how the two had actually defeated one of his subordinates.

'What even happened in the time that they had been chased.' He wondered with a frown. Shaking his head, his main goal was to save them before their enemies could find them. After all, their enemies won't be as lenient as the recruit.