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Chapter 54: Something’s Not Quite Right
🕑 Added 2024-11-13 02:07:50 +0000 UTCChapter 54: Something’s Not Quite Right
“I’m happy to talk specifics, once we’re back on the road,” Harvey promised, returning to his feet. “For now though, let’s get the rest of the horses back, before anything else makes a meal out of them.”
I wasn’t about to argue with that, as the more I saw of the wilderness, away from the main road, the less I liked it. Our numbers had been whittled away, both due to sending a few men back to camp as well as the more recent casualties, to the point where the drivers outnumbered the combatants.
“Should we send the drivers ahead of us?” I decided to broach the topic. “Some of them, at least. We don’t need four drivers for six horses, and they’d be safer back at camp.”
My logic proved sound, prompting Harvey to issue orders to that effect Two of four drivers scurried away, heading back to home base as fast as they could manage, along with the last of our archers. Normally, I wouldn’t have made such a suggestion, as I preferred to keep as many warm bodies as possible between myself and danger, but the presence of enemies capable of Illusions changed the calculus. Whereas Harvey and I had both proven able to resist, those with weaker wills posed a risk, as they were only one spell away from becoming the danger. As such, I was far happier to proceed with just Harvey at my side, and the final two drivers for horse duty.
With the logistics sorted, we resumed our search in silence. Harvey took the lead now, with the drivers behind him while I brought up the rear. The walk was tense, and it felt as though every step took longer than before, though I knew that to just be my nerves talking.
[Orange withdrawn.]
An orange proved a suitable solution, the sweet fruit a bit of a pick me up, giving me a hit of sugar and water, the first of our long march today. To be fair, I was the fittest I’d been in many decades, but even the humans of Frontier still had to watch out for thirst, despite being nearly superhuman by Earth standards. My eyes roamed as I ate on the move, always on the lookout for the next bit of trouble, but to my mild surprise, nothing was forthcoming. The drivers never altered their course for this latest stretch, which I’d previously seen as a good sign, but now regarded a bit more warily: dead horses didn’t move, after all.
Alas, my pessimism was proven right, as it often was, and we arrived at yet another slaughter, albeit one with a key difference: the enemy had yet to depart.
[Dire Wolf - Level 2]
I wasn’t sure what the difference was, as the wolves I saw snacking on our steeds looked no different to those the night before, except perhaps a tiny bit bigger. Half a dozen of them, forming up around the largest of the pack, discarding bloodied bones as they rose to their feet, some slower than others.
“Protect the drivers,” Harvey ordered, rushing ahead before I could get a word in edgewise.
[Knife withdrawn.]
That said, I didn’t mind the order in the slightest, given that I didn’t gain experience from killing monsters. I still hadn’t worked out the exact criteria for my advancement, but thus far I’d benefited from committing crimes, doing things for the first time, and fending off unusual phenomena. The wolves weren’t likely to facilitate any of those, so I was happy to play rearguard, especially as it let me watch Harvey at work. I’d seen snippets here and there, in previous skirmishes, but this was the first instance where I had a clear view of him from start to finish.
The first thing of note was that Harvey was fast. I may have mentioned this before, but he was a blur in motion, crossing what looked to be a hundred metres in the seconds, all while wielding a greatsword. His headlong charge didn’t go unanswered, as the nearest wolf leapt at him, jaw distended like something out of a nightmare, but Harvey refused to even dignify it with death by the blade. His pommel strike caught the wolf on the side of the head, and I got to see its skull cave in at the force of the blow. The second wolf to try, he did use the sharp end, splitting the beast from nose to tail, both halves flying apart in a spray of gore that somehow didn’t touch a hair on Harvey’s head. That still left four wolves unaccounted for, or so I thought.
“Recorded,” Harvey announced, seemingly talking to himself as the remaining pack circled, each of the four wary of being the first to approach.
“Mirrored.” Harvey swung his sword at the empty air, and four wolves split apart, in the exact same manner as his previous kill: some kind of sympathetic magic, I could only guess.
Harvey’s sword went back in storage, as bloodied gibbets rained down on the floor, shaking his head.
“One driver, back to the caravan,” he ordered, not looking at anybody in particular.
Both drivers glanced at one another, engaging in a short stare down that ended with one of them doing an about face, and quite literally heading for the hills. Admittedly, Harvey sounded rather annoyed to me, which I could hardly blame him for; I had no idea how much a horse cost in this world, but given the comments from the old blacksmith back in Allensward, I doubted they were cheap. Losing nine of them this early into our journey was a gut punch, and I was already wondering what that meant for our logistics going forward.
“Let’s keep moving,” Harvey declared, drawing my attention back to the present. “We’ve got one more group to check, before we can get out of here. The wildlife shouldn’t be this aggressive, not during the day; something’s not quite right in this place.”
