"A blade is a reflection of the soul. It is not a care-less thing."

This... Is probably agreement? He takes it carefully, nodding seriously.

The other kids take this moment to demand that he shows off his new powers, and the teacher starts asking everyone to line up again. The fires from the slimes seem to be dying down, and Bys and Sebastian are watching to the sides. Nothing new has decided to come threaten them, yet.

Maya keeps the eyes on orbit, as Sable steps up to Bys and Sebastian.

"I think I saw some loot in the mess, but we need to get the group moving. What do y'all think about my heading off to grab that and then catching up with y'all as you head toward the base?"

Bys shakes her head. "I think the buddy system is important. What if there's more Ambushes?"

Sebastian raises his hand. "Loot is pretty important too though. It might even be some kinda magic? And I don't think there's any more nasties right here. Either two go loot and the rest of us move on carefully- Hey, have y'all picked clases yet?"

The teacher is a healer and wants to get a move on to the base, where the gunshots are dying down; There's three other rescued people. One of them - with a twisted length of metal in one hand - says, "Um, Guard. I took toughness powers."

"So the guard and healer and miss Goth can cover the students, while I gather stuff into a sack and you keep a lookout, since you have multitasking."

"Me too!"

"And the little Ninja too. Just catch up quick."

Sable nods. "Be safe, see y'all soon."

And then she leads Sebastian to where she spotted the loot, carefully dancing past any hazards and pointing them out to her companion, watching for anything that looks valuable.

While the eyes continue their orbit, watching for enemies, the state of the main group, and anything Neo might miss.

A few of the slimes managed to survive the explosions and fires! They're making its way towards things that are not on fire, such as that Hampton Inn a few hundred feet in the opposite direction. She can also see what looks like some kind of group far north on the highway, near the hardware store that their ride zipped right past, and hear a burst of shouting and gunfire off to the north, in a section of suburbia that's not quite Tacoma proper.

The loot consists of various bottles of water, a few little vials of gel or small sheets of plasticky material, a sturdy-looking red stick, and a bright red jerry can where the gasoline slime was, apparently full of [Super Gas].

Sebastian gathers it all up into a duffle bag, except the jerry can, which he checks is well sealed and then ties to the outside of the bag with climbing rope.

"Not sure I want anything to do with 'super gas', personally..."

The trapped school class has been walking along the road and just went past the turn towards the base a minute ago. They hadn't had any trouble thus far, and it's been quiet in that direction.

"Could be useful, maybe Mike will want it, but we'll see. Understandable to be wary," she says with a nod.

"Let's catch back up with the group." And off she heads, letting Sebastian set the pace since he's doing the carrying.

Speaking of Sebastian, has he seemed to notice anything about how "Sable's" voice seems to change intermittently?

If he has, he's not worrying about it. Sebastian sets the pace at a fast jog, duffle slung across his shoulders.

When they turn the corner, they see the other group walking straight down the middle of the road all in lookout positions.

There... Might be something small and humanoid watching them from the window of an under-renovation fast food joint. Several somethings, actually, and they're suspiciously easy to let your eyes just slide past if you're not paying attention.

Her entire job right now is watching, so she doesn't have anything that makes sense to distract her from this. No, little humanoids, you now have her full attention, in their little hiding places. Observe?

[Level ? ???]

Eyes widen for a brief moment, and then all of the faces duck into cover and vanish smart-quick.

That's fine. She'll go back to orbiting, paying closer attention to that vague vicinity.

"Small, possibly-sentient humanoids watching main group from our nine o'clock, hid on closer observation," Hailey whispers. "Let's hurry."

There's nothing really to say about that.

The teacher has the kids quietly sing a song. Ninja Kid seems to be missing? -He's there on a second count, at the back, but he's not obvious, somehow. Concealment effects galore.

Things are quiet for a minute. They hear what might be engine noise from closer to the base- The official base entrance is visible up ahead, but doesn't appear to be manned.

There's a group perched up on the flat roof of a row of townhouses, with rifles. The source of much of the gunfire that was heard earlier. They appear to be having a slime problem, the problem being: Slimes can climb, and a small swarm is creeping up the walls towards them, kept at bay with potshots that knock them off and sometimes kill them.

"I think we could get around them," Bys says to Sable quietly. "Keep going towards the base to keep the kids safe. On the other hand, kills are XP and XP might be life. And clearing the way would be good. Who knows what's lurking in the houses, or in the trees off the road? Road's nice and open."

She frowns for a moment, but eventually shakes her head. "This is basically an escort quest. Civvies to safety first, clear that mess on the way back. We've got an actual quest for a corridor back to Tacoma, so that'll be part of the job."