Vernon
**"If we go down, we lose vantage, but if we go up, we can potentially get too cold to be able to fight at our full. What a dilemma."**, - Byleth does slow 360 spin, scanning the area, **"I may not be a tactician, but what if I go up while you comrades guard the area around me at lower level? This way we'll be able to scan the area without exposing our flanks or freezing to ice together."**
John
"We could always just stay around the base of the mountian, better to kill the beasts near the town anyways."
*She tried to huddle down further into her coat dispite being already as far as she could go into it. Her tired eyes looking around lazily.*
Mary
*She quickly assessed the situation. A reasonable decision would be to go down and try finding the monster another day - but this could mean another attack on the village.*
"We have to go up, there's nothing here..." *She took the decision after several minutes.*
"I'll go first." *The spell's effects were wearing off already, so Katya cast it again - this time enhancing her hearing and smell. The witcher then continued a difficult walk up the mountains, still looking around for any tracks.*
Vernon
**"Here's another plan - we retreat to the village and train villagers to defend themselves. Beast attacks the village, right? So we can take it on our playground instead of chasing it."**, - Byleth looks at his spear, **"I am certainly skilled enough to train bunch of goat herders into at least semi-awful force."**
John
*She sighed as she looked up the mountain with contempt.*
"I mean they would have hired people to do that if that's what they wanted."
*Sigh*
"Guess it's up the mountian for us."
Mary
"We're not going to endanger their lives, Byleth." *She said, calmly. But she was outraged at the suggestion. The sole reason of her existence was to protect the people, not use them as meat shields or living baits. Not saying anything, she kept walking up the snowy peaks. After a while, she sighed and stopped.*
"The bastards still aren't showing up..." *She muttered to herself - although loud enough for her companions to hear.*
Vernon
**"It is their home. They are already under constant threat of attacks from vile beasts. If we kill beasts and leave nothing gonna change much. They'll get hunted down by monsters again, and then they'll hire new mercenaries who aren't guaranteed to be as good as we are, and then repeat until they die or run out of money. If we teach them to defend themselves and their home, they won't need to hire any sellswords."**, - Byleth sounded quite cynical.
John
*She sighed, not really caring to talk about this right now, or ever really. She just wanted some money and to shoot stuff without it being an accedental blast into the taveren wall. Also it was cold, could this really not wait?*
"That's not our problem is it? They've thought though the problem enough I'm sure and this is what they want us to do. If they wanted trainers they'd get those."
Julian
*While chatting, the little group adventured further into the mountains. The clouds were releasing more snow here, and a perpetuous winter wind blew on the plateaux. But as they'd have stopped and thought aloud, Katya's enhanced senses would've been able to spot a few noises.*
*Footsteps in the fresh white mantle. And discreet ones, as the targets had already closed the gap between them and the arguing party. How were those monsters so silent? One... Two... Three... Four?! Katya would've been able to realize that the foes took advantage of them while they were speaking between themselves, as they were forming a circle around the mercenaries. They would've probably been at around 10m from them, but besides snowy hills and sometimes a pine tree, nothing was really clear.*
*Then a howl rang out. A particular howl. Winter wolves. Silent, hard-to-spot creatures which hunted in packs. Who was the hunter now? Running wasn't an option. The group had to prepare for this stealthy menace.*
Mary
"Fuck. Winter wolves. Four. Cut the chatter, Byleth, they encircled us. We stand back to back, use fire-based spells. And whatever happens, don't let them get too close, they'll freeze us in seconds!" *The witcher drew her silver longsword and tried to spot any of the predators. Spell enhancements were wearing off already, but she still had her senses - well, sight - increased by mutations.*
"Fuck." *She muttered again, this time under her breath.*
"How could I miss that?"