"Are you suggesting the monsters might have gone as far as devise a strategy in order to frighten us?"

Ace makes no effort of keeping up the spooky atmosphere, not even truly realising that there might have been another layer to his partner's remark. Missions always activated a side of him that was perhaps overly strict about fulfilling the task at hand, and there was very little chance of getting him distracted once he'd set his eyes on the goal.

"That would explain the silence, but if our enemies are indeed intelligent enough to plan out ambushes, we'd better watch out. Hana, you'll need to have our--"

A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that although the moogle remained faithful to her lantern duty, there was a new shade of purple to be found all over her face, and the shaking made it clear that she was no longer paying any attention to the surroundings. Somebody was scared and it did not bode well, that was certain; for all Ace knew, Minato hadn't had enough time to practice his class' skills, and the spontaneous nature of his own Gambler job left little room for additional mistakes.

The boy let out a sigh, ordering them to stop for a moment.