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In particular, magma pools were their best friends. The ardor that emanated from those things could sometimes be so strong that it entirely blinded reapers who got too close.

Of course, that also made the pools terribly dangerous for their own reapers. Multiple times, Taj had noticed Orolix visibly hesitate when they were near one. While reapers didn’t exactly feel “pain” in the same way that corporeal beings did, they apparently still regarded being incinerated in a pool of magma as quite a horrible way to die.

“Nightmarishly painful, just in a different sense,” was how Orolix had described it to him.

He hadn’t yet gotten clarification on that. Nor was he even sure that he wanted it.

Beyond that, there was only one other method of hiding that they had been using--and even then, they’d been rather reluctant to do so. Not only was it sometimes ineffective; it was also dangerous, for them and those around them.

Because it involved crowds.

When all else failed, trying to hide their souls among a large group of other souls was an option. Unless a soul was particularly powerful, reapers would often have trouble singling it out, even if they’d already memorized its soul signature.

But of course, if they still managed to--and if they were of Abolish--then a fight would immediately break out, and civilian casualties were all but guaranteed.

Taj and his kin hated resorting to that tactic. They’d been trying to avoid it as much as they could, but it had saved their lives in the city of Karetito. And it had gotten some hapless Hun’Kui passersby killed in the city of Noromonga.

It made for a difficult decision now, because according to Orolix, they were nearing another city called Acacero.

This current network of caves they were in had thus far proved quite barren. No magma pools to try to conceal themselves near, nor any convenient ardor-infused rock formations to provide cover for a while.

And hell, even if there were, the enemy had clearly grown wise to those tricks by now. They wouldn’t pass by any magma or large accumulations of ardor without investigating those areas thoroughly. Perhaps that was why their pursuit had seemed to slow for a little while there, as they’d become extra cautious.

Regardless, it wasn’t worth the risk. And being the strongest member of this group now, the others were looking to him to make that decision now.

So they kept on toward Acacero, where he suspected that things would either go well or very, very badly.