Wandering Agent
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Chapter 168 The Hunt Begins
🕑 Added 2022-08-20 02:50:22 +0000 UTCBy twilight everyone had had a chance to rest while our newest addition tried to adjust to his new arm. We'd sat to the side and watched as he and Glen had a bit of a battle in a small open area.
I was no warrior, and while I could barely even follow the two of their movements even I could tell that the elf was getting his butt kicked. Every time they reset he looked at the short man with a bit of a glare. Glen on the other hand seemed unbothered, almost like this was painfully routine for him.
After a few more passes the human knight called a stop to it. "Hold on, there are some issues. Who trained you?"
"The village warriors when I was a boy of course," Ormien responded.
"But in using your abilities, they taught you about those?"
"No, not really. Far as I know I'm the only physical magic user for the town, so nobody was around to teach me much about that."
"Okay, that explains it. Your movements are fine if you weren't using magic, but you need to consider how you're stronger now, and faster. Things that would be fine for a normal swordsman simply won't work for you, even if you don't hurt yourself you'll be open to your opponents."
Glen pulled him off to lead him through some basic slashes. I could hear him explaining how they were different and how to stand and all that, but I knew next to nothing about using a sword other than "Pointy end that way." While I watched Ulanion and Dras came over.
"Hey, we're gonna go and see what we can, mind joining us?" the latter asked.
"Sure, any reason?"
"Dras here tells me you're something else when it comes to invisibility, and I'd rather like to see if we can catch a glimpse of the wolf. Some illusions might help if you're willing." Ulanion gave me a slight smile as I joined them.
"No problem."
Soon I'd rendered us invisible and we'd made our way to the top of the wall, such as it was. As the sun set we could easily look around and see the fields around the town. It was weird seeing the area devoid of the trees so common in these lands. From here I could see some that had absolutely been removed on purpose, something I'd not paid too much note to before.
It was a mix of nerve wracking and painfully boring sitting there for a couple of hours, but as the last of the light from the sun faded we saw it. Far along the edge of the clearing a shadow slinked in and out of the trees, barely visible. It didn't come close, rather keeping to the edges, stalking, patiently waiting to see what we'd do.
"Why isn't it closing, for that matter, why didn't it attack us on our way in?" Dras asked.
"I think it doesn't care who comes in, only who leaves. This thing is too smart Dras, it looks like it's happy to wait for us to feed ourselves to it," I responded.
"She's right. From what I can see it could probably make it over this wall if it really wanted," Ulanion agreed. "If it's spectral it might not even need physical food. In that case we need to know what it's after."
"Mind running a test for me Ulanion?" I inquired.
"Not at all." The elf probably had a quirked eyebrow, but was still invisible, so I couldn't quite tell.
"Can you try shooting it? See if we can take it out before it has a chance to respond?"
"Alright, let's test it's reaction speed then, can you kneel down a bit? Hate to put an arrow through your face." I heard rustling as the archer prepared.
Both Dras and I got down a bit, enough that I could just see over the rampart. There was a creaking beside me as Ulanion drew his bow back, the materials used in it straining against his muscles.
"Ready when you are," Dras and I said.
"Gonna be a bit hard to shoot without seeing it, but hold tight." His voice was strained as he confirmed.
The arrow loosing caused a shock-wave like something out of fiction. There was a whoosh of air and my hair was thrown as it hurled at his target like a cruise missile. Fast as a bullet I could only see a trail of light as it powered at the wolf.
In the distance a tree exploded as if it'd been hit by a bolt of lightning. Shards of bark flew from the point of impact, which had been reduced to little more than a bunch of sawdust. Up and down the tree the wood split as the shock-wave and magic pressed out.
"Did you get it?" Dras asked hopefully, seeing the destruction.
"Not quite." As Ulanion spoke I heard a howl of rage and pain, before the shadow slipped back into the woods.
"I couldn't even see that," I remarked.
"Grazed it, but the thing's fast, don't know how it even saw the arrow coming." To be true the projectile had been rendered visible once it was a bit away from us, but it was still traveling at an insane rate by that point.
Soon enough it was too dark to see into the woods, at least for me. As I sat there I slightly regretted that we didn't have Charles along for this, with his eyes we would have been able to spot the thing in pitch black at any distance. It didn't help wishing for what you didn't have though, so in time we returned to the ground.
"Learn anything?" Olnir asked as we rejoined the rest of the group.
"It has some method of tracking projectiles, and is particularly quick," Ulanion offered.
Ormien quirked an eyebrow. "We hit it with several when I fought it, seemed to damage it too. What did you fire at it?"
Some theories were thrown around, but there was no way to be sure one way or another what this thing could do. From Ormien's explanations we knew that magic could hurt it, and the magically charged arrow had proven that. Sadly beyond that and a general estimate of physical capabilities there was little we could do but just go and fight it.
Since most of us were casters we set up a series of shields and headed out the gate. The plan was to start where Ulanion had shot at it and go from there.
"Suppose maybe I should have waited..." the elf grumbled.
"Hmm, I would have preferred it," Olnir grumbled.
"I think it was the right choice." Glen didn't often disagree with Olnir, but of us humans he was the soldier, so his opinion held weight here.
"We might have learned more had he waited, who knows what we lost because of that rash decision," the older man said.
"Perhaps, but we might have ended the hunt early and without bloodshed. Similarly," he pointed as we came to the spot the shadow-wolf had been. "He managed to damage the beast."
There was a trail going off into the trees. Inky black flood formed a small spray on the ground. Not enough to indicate a fatal injury, especially on something that size, but it did give us a trail to follow.
For several minutes we followed the drops through the woods. Even with us casters tossing out a few magical lights among the trees it was still spooky, like a haunted jungle with huge trees all around us. The trail was easy to follow, so much so that Ulanion and Ormien frowned.
"It knows it left this, either it doesn't care, or it's planning something," the former said. "If it's as smart as you say at least."
"It is," our newest arrival responded. "I also know where it's going, not sure if that helps though."
"Where?" I asked, anxious to get this done with as soon as possible.
"The old ruins up the side of the valley, nothing else much this way." The elf was a native, so his opinion was the best we had to go on for now.
"Do you know if monsters often come from those?" Leah inquired from the side. "Something similar to this?"
"No, never heard of a monster coming from there before," the elf answered.
For several minutes more we walked, the trees gradually clearing until they opened all around us. Before us stood a cliff, into which was carved what looked like a series of doors and openings. The primary one was obvious as it's archway was several times larger than those surrounding it. It was also clear that the path of blood lead straight to it. This was where our enemy had come.
"What's inside?" I asked.
"No idea, never been in," Ormien answered.
"What? Never?" Selene seemed surprised by his words more than me.
"No, why would anyone come here? It's just an old empty ruin." Our guide seemed confused by the question.
"Wait, even like... teen boys, or whatever the elven equivalent is?" Robert too seemed confused.
"Huh? No, nobody does things like that." At the explanation we humans all kind of looked at each other. Elves were weird.
"Back on track," Olnir brought us back to our senses. "Defensive formation, guards up."
As soon as we'd formed up we proceeded deep into the lair of the wolf.
