Although every member of the Expeditionary Army was quite capable, generally a cut above the soldiers of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, the overwhelming difference in numbers—and the Gillian lurking behind them—meant they did not dare confront them head-on. To avoid getting bogged down, they sprinted at full speed all the way.
But they were caught in the end—they had lost their sense of direction after leaving the Hollow nest, and after circling around and around, they were intercepted by the Hollows.
After several skirmishes, a third of the squad had already died. The remaining six were all wounded, and even more despairingly... they did not even know how to return to camp.
"There's definitely something wrong with this damned place! We can't detect spirit pathways, and the positioning device doesn't work!" someone shouted furiously.
Every patrol squad carried tools for basic positioning and direction-finding. After all, Hueco Mundo had no day-and-night cycle, nor could they use the stars to navigate. With every place nothing but desert and no landmarks whatsoever... it was easy to get lost. They had to carry positioning devices to ensure they could return to camp no matter where they went.
Yet this squad's device had malfunctioned!
No one knew whether it was a quality issue, whether the device itself had reached the end of its service life, or whether a Hollow's ability was interfering... In any case, they could no longer find their way back.
To make matters worse, those hateful monsters kept pursuing them. At this rate, even though Hueco Mundo's Reishi concentration was relatively high and everyone recovered their stamina quickly, they would still inevitably be worn to death by the Hollows!
"Don't stop! Once we get tangled up with them, none of us can leave!"
"You go on without me. My injuries