After they met up when the sun started to rise, she gave them a rundown of her night and they did the same. They had found a small building that charged some credits for a safe place to sleep. They paid and got a floor to sleep on next to a bunch of other people. Everyone slept quietly and nothing happened, but for a safe place to sleep, there wasn't anything in place to actually make it safe. The guy at the door was gone when they woke up and everyone inside had been asleep.
As they walked out of the city, Tara noticed that the woman with them seemed excited and the young man seemed shy for some reason. She opened the store and went to clothes and found some swimwear, men's was short shorts and for the women it was only underwear style bottoms. In fact there didn't seem to be any kind of bra or swim tops at all. She guessed that they had discussed this last night and the woman had decided to swim without a top, thus making the young man who was clearly infatuated with her, very shy. She didn't plan on swimming since she wanted to be alert and she would never show off her body to strangers.
On the way to the beach they ran into many others heading that way as well and Stevens was talking happily to anyone who came along. Asking them where they lived and how they were doing so far in the new world, even sharing some of his story to get them to open up more. It seemed that most people just didn't know what they should be doing, and were too scared to head out into the wilds because of the monsters. One couple with a small child even said that they planned on becoming crafters and were waiting for the profession system to open up more so they could do that and not have to fight monsters.
Finally they had made it to the beach, and it was something to see, even Tara felt in awe of how beautiful it was. For a five mile stretch, there was nothing but pristine white sandy beach with waves crashing on the shore and crystal clear water. The woman in their group, who Tara just learned was Bethany, stripped naked on the spot, put her swim bottoms on and ran into the water. The young man, who she now knew was Cory, did the same but looked far more embarrassed by the whole thing.
"You should really get in too, you could do with some relaxing, and don't you want to be clean when you meet him?" Stevens said while also getting some swimwear on and starting towards the water.
She did want to be clean but, and she didn't want to be naked, there were already too many people here and while almost every other woman was topless, it didn't feel right without Eli being there for her to tease. So she got in the water up to her knees and just enjoyed the feeling of it crashing on her legs and her toes sinking into the sand. Closing her eyes, she ran through everything they had learned and everything everyone had said when two things came to mind that Eli needed to know. One was that no one seemed to be preparing for the monster horde, and the second was that someone had said that they were waiting for the system to unlock professions more, probably after the monster horde event.
Reaching down, she splashed some water on her face and arms trying to clean them a little. The water was cold enough to be refreshing but warm enough to not be cold. This relaxing scene was so incongruous to how she has been feeling. Ever since the scene of total carnage near the end of the tutorial, Tara had been putting up a good front, acting tough to hide how scared she was. As the waves crashed into her legs, she let out some of those feelings as tears. With hollow eyes and an expressionless face, a bit of the feelings she had been holding down with a vice grip were escaping. Feelings of vulnerability and insignificance crept out of her heart with every salty tear that joined with the ocean water.
Stevens was walking up to her so she splashed herself in the face again and tightened down that vice on her feelings. He could tell she was having a moment so he just stood next to her in silence, waiting for her to be ready to talk. It took almost an hour, but she finally spoke.
"The horde starts tomorrow, so many people are going to die, I hope his plans help more people survive." Tara said in a low soft voice that was barely above a whisper. "I'm not sure I can survive another scene like the one before."
"I agree, but all we can do is our best, and hope that when combined with his best, it will be enough." Stevens said.
Then a message came in from Eli and she opened it right away.
"Boom!"
No more than a second later a loud crack was heard across the entire beach to the south over some rough rocky terrain where the beach ended just outside the safe zone. A thunderous boom followed slightly vibrating the ground that Tara could feel even through the sand under her feet and even at this distance over a mile away. It took a second for her mind to make the connection due to the shock of the sound, but then she smiled, her first real, genuinely happy smile since all this started and more tears fell into the water.
*****************
After using Air Explosion, Eli looked around to see if anyone was nearby, he didn't see anyone, nor did he feel anyone with his magic sense, so he felt comfortable to move a bit closer to the rocks and cliffs near the beach area of the safe zone. He was about 100 feet away, when three guys came running over and hiding, just a couple feet outside the safe zone barrier. The forest thinned out as you approached the safe zone barrier and they looked to be hiding from someone coming out of the safe zone and not anyone going in, so he could see them clearly.
They were whispering softly, but he couldn't hear what they were saying, however, he was pretty sure that this was supposed to be a trap. No one with basic military tactics training would set up anything this sloppy though so these guys don't really know what they are doing. Eli sent Tara a message to warn her.
"Ambush between u and me"
"Worried about me?" Replied Tara in a message, her excitement was getting the better of her and she forgot about the people walking with her and started to take big steps.
"I'll send avatar to help"
After sending that message to Tara he summoned the defensive form of his root avatar. And gave it mental instructions to defend anyone that those guys attack, so until they attacked it was just standing there between some trees. Eli climbed a tree making as much noise as possible, then hid, hoping that the people getting ready for an ambush would turn and attack his avatar, then Tara could attack them from behind. Two of the five seemed interested in the noise behind them and turned around noticing the wooden look-alike.
There was a still moment, until he instructed his avatar to dance until someone was attacked, then the ambushers all noticed and were very confused. All but one of them were now out of hiding and slowly walking up to the wooden approximation of him and he was having a hard time not laughing. The avatar didn't really know what dancing was so it was kind of flailing around, while standing still it's hard to not notice that it's not a person but when moving, the cloak it wears shows the carved wooden body underneath. Its mask was identical except it was made of wood and its cloak was the exact same color and pattern, but from leaves and not feathers.
One of them finally got close enough to poke it with his spear, and the second he did, the avatar shield slammed him so hard the wooden shield rang like a gong and so did the tree he got smashed into about 20 feet away. The avatar immediately started dancing again. Then he felt, before he saw or heard, he felt Tara's magic get within about 200 feet. She was close enough for him to passively observe her magic and it made his chest tight. Eli wondered what she would think of his avatar so he stayed up in the tree. He told himself it definitely wasn't that he was nervous to see her again, he just wanted to get her opinion on it, and he was in the tree so that it would get all the attention.
It seems like the last hidden guy is the leader, and Tara is getting close, it also seems like she has 3 people with her. One of them has to be Stevens but without the servant bond that he and Tara have, he didn't know which one. The hidden guy was waiting for Tara to pass but she stopped near him and told those traveling with her to go on ahead to his avatar who was still dancing, then wrecking anyone who touched it. It wouldn't kill them, just knock them back and hurt them, when Stevens caught sight of it, he shook his head, then looked up right to where Eli was. Somehow he just knew where he was and that it was him, Eli waved and put a finger over his mouth to signal to keep quiet.
Stevens put his face in his hands, then turned to see what Tara was doing. She walked up with blood splatter on her face, armor, and knuckles and was dragging a limb body behind her. She looked at the avatar and the other guys all laying in various positions around the dancing wooden Eli approximation. She laughed and told Stevens that this, holding up the one she was dragging, was a guy she beat up before they left that city and that he had threatened to kill her. Tara guessed that they had been following them and when the big boom went off and we turned to move this way, they ran ahead to try and trap them.
"Where is he?" Tara said while looking around. "I know he is here. I can feel his magic on that wooden interpretive dance puppet."
Eli used Blink to appear behind her without making a sound or even disturbing the air. The other three saw him appear from nothing and their eyes got so big they were almost coming out of their head. With Eli's 6 foot 4 height, white full face covering mask, jet black hair down past his shoulders, and cloak that covered him from the neck down in different shades of grey feathers, it was safe to say he was imposing. He crushed out his presence sending everyone but Tara to the ground and not able to move, just as she turned around to face him and their eyes met.
Eli removed his mask and put it in his inventory, then he returned his gaze to hers. His whole body caught fire and the ash effect of his cloak was ramped up past eleven. His presence that he was still pushing out hard enough to break some of the bones of those around him, pushed his emotions into Tara, so she could feel what he was feeling. Not only did she feel the depths of his love and appreciation for her, she could feel how new emotions felt to him and how they had been getting stronger and out of his control lately. As if to test what she sensed from him, she jumped onto him wrapping her legs around him and kissing him passionately. In addition to this sending his emotions into a frenzy, he heard more bones snapping and did his best to get his presence under control.
This was easier said than done, but his presence didn't seem to affect Tara, so with her still attached to him, he ran toward the rocky coast to the east and stopped when he could hear the waves crashing against the rocks. She held onto him as if her life would end if they ever came apart, both of them had tears in their eyes and they kissed and held each other. After what seemed like hours they came apart and held hands while looking into each other's eyes. Neither of them needed words to say how they felt, Tara could feel it in his presence like a tidal wave of intense affection and appreciation, and Eli could see it on her face. She was in awe of him, and quite literally their lives were forever connected.