The main issue, I think, is that Ellie's actions lack urgency. Her friend is lying bleeding in the forest somewhere, or so she thinks, she has no idea how to help him, no idea how to even get back to him, and her wandering off in the first place didn't make much sense, either.
There's also the problem that some of the dialogue, especially the lines of the woman who takes Ellie in, feels a bit wooden. More like pure exposition than actual speech.
I did not, however, feel that any part of Kail's chapter was an infodump or filler, or anything of the sort. I fully agree with Raven, the exchange of the rings feels significant enough without any added explanation, and I think it works very well as a chapter of its own. I'd maybe even go so far as to say that there wasn't enough info being dumped.
A final thought: if Bloodbath does get offed this early, it will make him appear to be something of a deus ex machina in retrospect. He came, he helped, he died so as not to upset the balance of the plot. That may be the time delay in between submissions speaking, though, it's hard to get a sense of how much time one would have spent reading up to this point.
