‘This isn’t good’ Mark thought with a cluck of his tongue, investigating a great many sets of tracks in the dirt ‘If a large pack of Kanids spotted us then this expedition could be in trouble’
They managed to cover a good bit of ground since their journey started, the last few days were a peaceful, the gods seemed to have blessed them with good weather and safe travels but now that they’ve fully entered the wildlands proper, with the various monsters and spirits that live in it, trouble would be brewing sooner or later.
“Kanid tracks” Akol pointed out quietly in Garrickian “What does your analysis skill tell you?”
‘Already did so’ Mark rolled his eyes as he read out what his skill told him “Kanids, Greys in particular with at least four alphas leading the pack of… I think three scores and a dozen” The human remarked, all business with a potential threat looming “Some of them are dire or greater variants as well from the size of the prints but the prints themselves don’t sink deep enough for creatures their size”
The spirit beside him gave a quiet groan “That means they’re starving and losing weight which means they’re desperate… fuck” Akol quietly cursed.
Mark shared the sentiment, Kanids usually don’t attack adventurers or even regular travelers in general but a desperate, starving pack… that’s bad news.
And it means they probably won’t be easy to scare off or forced to retreat either.
“We should head back to report to the others” Mark suggested to his brother.
Akol simply nodded.
The two of them picked up the pace to return back to the rest of their group ‘I still don’t understand why we didn’t at least get some horses’ Mark thought as he made his way through the thick underbrush of the untamed forest they were traveling through ‘I mean, not that they’ll be useful here, but the wildlands have plenty of grasslands and bushlands and plains’
Nothing miraculously appeared to answer his question as the brothers quietly traveled, without their usual mocking or jeering to keep up stealth before they reached the rest of the group, Akol giving a predetermined whistle to identify themselves.
“What and how many?” Asked Amelia, her talon still at the pommel of her sword just in case.
Mark repeated what he told Akol earlier and at least half of the party grimaced though neither Ren nor Larec gave any response other than a pointed stare.
Hans simply nodded at the information “Thank you Mark, alright people, we’ll have to keep our senses sharp” The Mercenary said the obvious and Mark gave him an annoyed sigh.
The day passed quietly into the night and that too passed quietly as the scouts rotated with each other and Mark found himself working with Amelia and even Anh occasionally, both of them were at the very least competent scouts and knew how to survive in dangerous and deadly environments by their own though Anh had some trouble communicating in Middish.
The rest of the group… had a lot of problems but they all made it the rest of the way, avoiding any trouble with a few close calls ‘Well, what do you know, we’re still kicking’ Thought Mark as he watched the sun set, sitting on an old fallen log near an ancient, hollowed tree they found and set camp in.
Watching the sun in the sky set with him, Akol spoke up “So, how are you feeling about this new group we found ourselves in?” The nature demon suddenly asked.
Mark simply hummed as he looked behind him towards the rest of the expedition group “Well, we have a walking finis, a sentient Varmilleon on two feet, a couple of Avians and a werekanid… pretty Merdique in my opinion” Mark snarkily replied, counting with his fingers with a smile.
Akol shrugged as he shifted his eyes to a flying shape in the orange sky, his hand slipping down to his wand on instinct as he watched the avian creature fly off into the distance “What do you really feel?” Asked Akol as he turned back to his brother “Without the hard ass, snarky attitude of yours?”
Mark glanced to the side to see Amelia and Anh talking “I haven’t gotten much yet, the Wrona is a good shot and knows her business, so does the easterner with the atrocious accent but at least he’s a good cook, better than any Merde you ever made” Mark commented as akol jokingly elbowed him in the knee for that last comment.
He glanced back, towards Tammy and Hans and whispered, “I don’t trust the mercenaries though… both of them seem to be keeping secrets” He confided quietly.
He saw his brother nod before he spotted movement in his peripheral and hefted his crossbow to find that it was a small lizard dashing from branch to branch ‘Still, this place is giving me the shivers’ The Ravician thought with a sigh of relief.
Turning back to Akol, as his brother nodded “I agree, I think this party’s nice, as long as we don’t fuck up, I think we’ll be in good hands” Akol explained his perspective before nudging him a little and pointed to a shape on a branch, it was a brown avian with a red crest
“Yeah, as long as someone keep his mannerism in check” Mark agreed with a whisper he shouldered his crossbow, reshouldered it to perfect his aim and let the bolt loose into the waiting Firecrest ‘At least we’ll be eating good tonight, those things are great in a roast’ He thought as he reloaded in case something worse than dinner on wings shows up.
“Hey, I’m not the one with the foul mouth” Akol exclaimed with mock indignation “Nice shot though” He added.
Mark just nodded his thanks and gave his kill up for the night’s roast after plucking the avian’s prized crest of fire affinity feathers.
Whatever spices Anh used for the bird, Mark needed to get some because the meal was fire.
…
Most of the next day also passes quietly, there were no attacks or anything of the sort as the group traveled and charted a good section of the map ‘Today’s been quiet… too quiet’ Mark kept his thoughts to himself as they picked a small clearing with a big boulder in the forest to start setting up camp.
They were nearly done as well when the man, well acquainted with his brother, saw the mild look of concern as Akol’s ears perked up.
Mark immediately grabbed for his weapons and some of the others as well before Akol could shout out “Merde! Kanids Incoming!”
“Okay, everyone back up, keep your backs to the boulder and don’t get surrounded!” Hans shouted out some orders, activating some kind of leadership skill as Mark felt himself get lighter on his feet, any exhaustion gone at least for now.
No one got anything else done before all around them, grey Kanids emerged from the forests.
‘Crap this isn’t good’ Mark thought as he pulled out his hand crossbow, a light weapon he scavenged off an enterprising Goblin, the bolt already loaded and immediately loosed upon one coming up on Akol’s blind spot.
The shot hit the grey coated kanid in the neck, dropping it immediately and Mark never got a chance to reload before he had to toss his crossbow into the face of one charging at him to distract it enough to bash its brains in with his buckler.
He managed to grab his spear just in time to catch one pouncing on him midair, impaling it but losing the spear in the process as everything turned into a disorganized melee around him.
The human man cared little as droned into his body through experience and training, he went to his arming sword as a crossbow bolt courtesy of Ren went into the eye of one of the three kanids after him.
“Come on you Putains, come and get some!” Taunting the charging beasts, Mark let a small grin form on his face as the two attacking him dropped all caution and simply blindly rushed at him.
A quickly, deadly dance of death between man and beast occurred as the two starving, desperate kanids, enraged from his taunt skill came at him without any cooperation nor strategy.
That just resulted in one getting bucklered in the face and the other getting kicked then stabbed in the heart ‘Damn these things are desp-FUCK!!!’ Mark’s leg screamed in pain as the one he bucklered came in at his blind side and hamstringed him just as another two entered the fray.
Suddenly, a clay pot sailed through the air as he stomped down hard, breaking the neck of the kanid that bit him “CLOSE YOUR EYES!!” He heard the older Varmenian shout and complied immediately, even as two kanids charged at him.
Even through closed eyes, he could see the bright flash that followed a defeaning explosion.
Reopening his eyes, he could see everything in disarray but compared to the kanids whom were all in a mess due to confusion, pain, blindness, deafness or the combination of all four, the adventurers were in better shape… relatively.
Mark took the time to disengage and fall back with the rest of the group.
“Velniop, I didn’t even sense them!” Tammy seemed mostly fine, her heavy armor and kite shield kept her mostly save though with a few more minor bite marks on it, her heavy Warhammer was drenched in blood and gore.
“One of the alphas have a stealth aura” Larec simply answered, spearing a kanid that charged at her with her already bloodied swordstaff, she seemed mostly fine, but Mark couldn’t tell if the blood covering her was hers or the kanids.
Amelia said nothing as she and Anh, the only two who managed to keep their ranged weaponry pepper the confused crowd of beasts with accurate arrows and bolts.
Looking around, Mark could see the others to be fine for the most part, Hans had a bite wound on his shoulder, Ren was clutching his midsection and Mark wished death on the Kanids as he spotted his brother sporting a limp left arm.
Akol must feel the same after seeing his own limping left leg as his expression turned to anger and Mark felt him immediately giving everyone a group buff with a Hunter’s blessing spell, buffing their Perception and Accuracy.
Taking the time to regroup also meant the Kanids were regrouping as well and Mark counted the numbers after the deaths on the forest floor ‘Well then, those damn wild dogs seem to have at least 2 score plus half a dozen numbers remaining, against our 8’ Mark thought as he breathed heavily, the few moments of combat before catching up to him ‘This may be bad but I’ve handled worse odds before and I sure hope the others also handled worse odds than this’ Mark prayed as he took a traditional Ravician Sword and Board style.
A heavy howl pierced through the sky and the kanids regrouped, confusion gone thanks to the howl ‘Must be some sort of ability then’ The man darkly thought as he tightened his grip on his sword, letting his Analysis ability go off as he quickly scanned all the kanids.
Entering the battlefield now were larger kanid specimens bigger than their regular kin being greater variant, dire variant and even four alphas, one in particular eyed the group with a very hungry expression the pack father reared up and let out a roar signaling the attack into the moonlit skies above, one that rattled Mark to his very bones.
A large crossbow bolt pierced its neck in courtesy of Anh followed by an arrow to the heart from Amelia, a familiar wild amber spear to the head by Akol and Larec even contributed by throwing a throwing axe though that one missed entirely and hit a different beast in its side.
All of the adventurers who still had ranged capabilities targeted the same kanid “Tô-I, uh I am so happy that we all have the same… thinking!” Anh said enthusiastically as he went to reload his large crossbow with Amelia giving the Kanids a two fingered salute. The kanids after a dumbfounded second attacked immediately with the howl of a smaller alpha, before they even got close, Mark saw a clay pot sailing across the air and exploded some good 20ft from them into a gas cloud.
“The area of effect should be away from us but hold your breazing if ze wind is bad” Ren shouted across the field, readying another pot from his bandolier as Mark steadied himself. Half of the kanids seemed to just charge through the cloud though Mark noted them making uncomfortable sounds as blood ran from their mouths and their movements grow sluggish at best though the other half avoided the cloud.
‘Okay, if I survive, I will never insult an Alchemist ever again!’ Mark thought as another kanid dropped due to a crossbow bolt to the head and 8 more kanids fell before the lines met, mostly from Amelia’s longbow and Akol’s magic.
Before long the lings meet, Mark saw Hans spearing one of the kanids with the spike from his Goedendag killing it instantly in his peripheral, Larec also spears one of the greater Kanids on her Swordstaff before switching to wide sweeps to keep the other beasts off of her though soon a kanid was upon him and Mark had to concentrate on his own fights.
‘Well, here they come’ Mark thought as he braced himself before lunging at the first Kanid to charge him, catching it by surprise as his sword went into its maw and out through the back of its head.
Ripping it away, the man backstepped quickly to the screaming pain of his hamstringed leg, ignoring it as more beasts soon follow the first one.
A sharp thorny vine speared one he didn’t know were targeting him in the blind spot and Mark gave a mental thank to his brother as he engaged the other three after him who seemed more cautious than their previous brethren ‘Well that just won’t do’ Mark thought.
“J'ai vu des chats domestiques avec plus de cran que vous pauvres excuses!” The human taunted, banging his buckler the kanids after him in his native language and as before, their eyes turned red and they charged in, uncaring about everything other than to kill the foul-mouthed man in front of them.
Mark just gave them a bloody grin in response.
Slash, block, sidestep, bash, stab, backstep, bash, Mark flowed through the rhythm of combat as he felled the first, second and then the third Kanid after him in a dance of blade and death before something bigger came after him.
One of the fucking alphas were now charging him and Mark paled a bit in realization.
He paled much more when his Analysis showed the beast’s level, tier and a bit of its status ‘Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!’ The Ravician native mentally panicked as he barely avoided a deathblow from a beast the size of a warhorse, his leg screaming in pain as he forced himself to dodge, using one of his abilities to counter some sort of pounce skill that would’ve tore his throat off.
“Scheiße” Mark cursed in Grarickrian as he went for a quick counterattack only for another kanid to attack him and taking the 5 inches of steel intended for the alpha between its ribs.
It was then that he realized that he was now out of position, the alpha leaving its smaller kin to deal with him as it tangoed with Hans instead, the Lycan keeping the alpha and multiple others off of him with wide swings that kills or maim another kanid after every other blow whilst angling his armor to better resist against the oncoming bites against him, but he seems to be bloodied, his breathing coming in ragged clumps as he squared off against a monster twice his already imposing size.
Sparing a glance at the others, Larec was surprisingly faring the best with surgical strikes at the vital points whenever possible whilst keeping a defensive stance blocking or dodging any attacks as she seemingly swims through the battlefield with Swordstaff shinning in the moonlit skies, the blood that cover her seemingly not of her own though Mark still couldn’t tell.
Amelia was struggling to attack with her messer as it is not a suitable weapon against an animal but as a longbow wielder, she is no slouch in melee using her longbow in her offhand to block, disrupt, whack and even punch kanids off of her. Anh was doing better mainly because he has better armor on as he re-direct attacks into more armored parts of his body whilst counter striking with his heavier, two-handed saber, his breathing calm as he took one hand off of his saber to make a palm strike against the greater kanid lunging at him, stunning it for a moment.
The two of them were back-to-back, dealing with two greater variants and many regulars ‘At least they’re not defenseless’ Mark figured as another kanid charged him before he could observe the rest of the others.
A loud explosion caught Mark’s attention at a crucial time letting the kanid he was fighting take a bite out of his arm though the leather and gambeson blocked most of the blow and the kanid finds the 5 inches of steel in its neck more disagreeable in turn.
The other kanids seemed more hesitant though so at least he’s not dying soon.
Waiting for his taunt skill to come off cooldown, Mark slowly backed off, keeping his eyes mostly on the kanids as he looked around in small bursts.
He sees Ren as he chucked another potion and blew up another group of kanids before goring another one with his spear, he sported a head wound of some kind in addition to his bleeding chest, but the old alchemist kept fighting with spear and alchemical flasks.
Tammy was nearby as well, being probably the most well armored of the group, she takes almost no damage even as she dealt with an alpha by her lonesome, her breathing was ragged and it was clear she was winded as she jammed her shield into the beast’s jaws before repeatedly stabbing at any vitals she could reach with a long dagger, her Warhammer lost somewhere amidst the blood-soaked field.
Mark noted that all of her strikes were surgical, aiming exactly where blood vessels or important nerve clusters ought to be.
He couldn’t see Akol anywhere near the front, but he had no time to look for him as the kanids were tired of waiting and all four of them attacked all at once, lunging for his joints and neck. Despite the kanids losing a large amount of their pack, they still press on, mad and desperate from starvation as Mark found himself against four of the bastards as they crowded around him, bad odds for most and deadly odds for a tiring Mark as he accumulated many scratches and almost misses on his armor and buckler.
Suddenly from the ground erupted a series of brambles as they proceeded to wrap around painfully at the four kanids he was fighting and Mark smiled as he realized what it was ‘Holy shit, nice fucking Entangling Brambles there Akol’ Mark was ecstatic as he took the chance to deal the killing blow to the closest one before retreating back to the group.
It seemed that one spell gave everyone enough time and leverage to turn the tide as Mark saw Hans raise his simple weapon high, the heavy iron end glowing in an ominous black light before it went down, faster than he could track, virtually disintegrating the skull and head of the restraint alpha and cracking the ground underneath, sending blood and gore everywhere.
‘Okay, do not mess with him’ Mark noted quickly.
Breathing heavily, he looked back to Akol, Mark could see the young spirit sag as he was using his weapon to stand on two feet er paws, the spell taking a toll on him. Mark gave him a curt nod and Akol followed suit ‘Perfect timing as always’ Mark thought as he surveyed the rest of the now silent battlefield.
‘Well, that was a close one’ He thought as he realized how many kanids were dead on the ground ‘Wouldn’t matter how tough I am or how high my stats are a bite to the throat will end my life just as easily’
There were of course still some kanids left alive, an alpha and a dozen and a half or so others.
Despite having an arrow and bolt sticking out of its black fur, the alpha kanid was an imposing sight, shadows and light swirl around the likely culprit of why they can’t spot the pack earlier.
The stare down between sides lasted for what felt like an eternity before the last alpha howled and led the rest of the pack back into the forest, fleeing the field.
Mark let out a breath he didn’t realized he was holding as he finally relaxed.
And then the adrenaline fell away and he fell to his knees due to pain and exhaustion.
Despite that, Mark was the one that broke the silence “Akol, you’re a lifesaver!” He shouted as he turned to his demon of a brother who just gave him a cheeky grin.
He wanted to quickly come over and scoop up the nature demon but was interrupted.
“Stop moving!” Tammy shouted from the side though she still stood up, breathing heavily as she went and retrieved her Warhammer, lodged in the skull of a greater variant “Whoever’s wounded stay still, do not move and try to apply pressure to your wounds to prevent bleeding! No potions or healing magic, I’ll need to come to check you first!”
The Avikarri seemed incredibly serious in her duties as she methodically went to and treated literally everyone in the party ‘Figures, she’s a medic, of course she’s going take this seriously’ Mark thought as he lied down on the ground and kept pressure on his leg.
He winced as he did so ‘Damnit, I hope I didn’t tore anything up’
A part of him wanted to argue, that part died long ago, when he didn’t value medics and had to build his own immune system back up to snuff the hard way.
Post battle healing always sucks… at least it leads to post battle looting, which is something Mark enjoyed much more than laying on the ground, waiting for the medic or priest to come.
…
“If I had a copper for every group of goblins, we killed today, I would have two coppers which isn’t much but it sure is strange that I have two now! I even really did get a copper from both groups toady!” Mark complained about the 3rd goblin… er…. Pigmy group they ran into with this one being the 2nd of the day, this one even ambushed them… with 8 pigmies… a fair fight isn’t good for them to say the least…
The first group though… he would not like to fight a score and a half of pigmies in an ambush, good thing Anh spotted them first allowing them to ambush their would-be ambushers themselves.
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“Seriously, what’s up with that? First it was the kanids and now it’s the gobbos, is this place always this aggressive? 3 attacks in a week is strange considering how weak these things are compared to the other threats in the area” Mark complained, wincing as he took an awkward step with his leg.
They had to dig to their stock of healing potions and spells to get everyone up the day following the kanid attack but even now, two days later, Mark could still feel the phantom pain on his leg.
At the very least, the skins, fangs and mana cores would sell well and pay for the expedition.
“I wholeheartedly agree wiz you, it is strange to see so many pygmies” Ren agreed “And I hate it for zat” He added with annoyance in his voice, the alchemist seemed to hate the little things.
“Tak, something is up here, there shouldn’t be that many” Amelia agreed “Usually, the pigmies aren’t this bold, especially in daylight, too many predators around here for them to be comfortable… ugh, there better not be some consolidation to raid the midlands”
Mark would like to agree, pigmy raids are no fun at all… no raids are.
Night falls and everyone gets to sharing stories and some other things as Anh cooked them up some kind of soup “What’s that?” Mark heard their medic ask in the distance.
“It’s called… finis sauce, it ads extra… er… salty…ness? To the flavor” Anh answered “It’s uh… rất uh ve-very common in uh… the coe-coaly… where I’m from”
Tammy hummed at that “I guess your people like finis then?”
“Dạ-uh… ye-yeah, we… er… really like f-finis things… to an extra… step?” Anh answered that one as well in very broken fashion.
The only question in Mark’s mind was a simple ‘Why am I here talking about sauce again?’ Mark asked himself as he took a spoonful of soup ‘Probably because Anh’s cooking is great’ he decided as he savored the flavors in his mouth.
The soup seems to be made mostly of wild plants with meat from a giant ravicas they hunted earlier. Never will there be mystery meat ever again, the party had unanimously decided that they rather die from dysentery then eat whatever merde they put in those packages
“So… how do you feel about the group?” Tammy asked a more personal question
“It’s… nice, rất tốt” Anh replied “You people don’t… against me because of my… uh, bad middish, is nice, very” Anh said scratching the back of his head, a crown of colorful feathers now that it wasn’t covered by his helmet.
‘Charming, any old bloke could easily treat you well and you’ll be following them like a young pup’ Mark thought as he simply observed ‘That trustworthiness could get you killed…’ Not that he voiced his opinion out loud… he’s done trying to warn people, especially newbies.
They never listen anyways and as such, they never leave the dungeons alive…
“Taip, I had a bit of that as well… got kicked out of the last party” Tammy admitted.
Mark blinked “Wait you got kicked out by your last party?” Mark asked, suspicion raised.
The battle medic paused at his tone “Yeah… it never came up and I didn’t figure it’ll be important” Tammy said in a slower tone.
He glared at her a bit, but her silvery eyes betrayed nothing “That would have been a good thing to tell people before you joined up you know” Mark pointed out accusingly.
“He is uh, right… for once” Anh agreed as Mark glared at the avian.
He took a deep breath “So why did you get kicked out?” Mark asked with a narrow glare “Cause from where I’m sitting, that’s a big red flag for you right there” His words laced with a bit of venom though the Avikarrian Medic just stared at him without so much as a twitch.
She seems to stare directly at him, her features unchanging before her beak morphed into a slight grin as causing the human to be confused at first and then uneased, but his body language remained neutral as always, never betraying his real emotions “I just had a falling out with the group leader, nothing more” Tammy finally answered breaking the tension as Mark just narrowed his eyes some.
“Why?” Anh asked with a curious expression, his tone conveying his naivety and confusion.
Tammy just gave the eastern monster hunter a warm smile “It’s nothing to worry about” She replied again and was clearly against talking about it and in a suspicious way.
Nevertheless, Mark kept his suspicions to himself and his brother.
There was little need for any sort of interparty conflict here in this dangerous place.
They ate in silence for a while as Mark stir a bit at the weird stew made from dried finis and many weird spices and flavors ‘Anh is an oblivious eastern gecko that knows barely a lick of Middish’ He thought as he took a bite ‘But by the gods is he good at cooking, I might try out a Terravian establishment when we get back to town’ He thought as he finished it in silence with the others.
…
He yawned as he was on watch with Amelia ‘I’d prefer Akol but at least she’s competent’ He thought as he stared out into the dim light sky ‘At least more competent than that archer in the last party I was in, poor guy lost his arm in an ambush’
The camp was quite simple, a couple tents with a cliff face on one side and a few large boulders that fell from the cliff ages ago making decent cover if anything “Fire’s dying” Mark announced as he noticed the shadows were looming closer “I’ll go throw in another log, you keep watch and don’t get night blinded” He added as Amelia nodded and rolled her eyes which tells him Of course I will or something similar.
Mark just shrugged as he made his way back to the fire, the only noise that night was the cracking of the fire, the steps of his boots and the occasional sounds of wilderness. A branch snapped as he was halfway there ‘Damn, I thought we cleared all the branches’ Was his first thought but he quickly shelved it.
Throwing a log in the fire, he watched as the flame consumed it, like how it consumes everything and everyone. As he stared at it, he heard shouting, screams and even more shouting before he snapped out of it with a shake of his head ‘Focus Mark, that’s been ages ago’ Before heading back towards Amelia ‘Keep your attention’
“Fire’s going to last for another hour or so...” He trailed off as he met her expression “Should switch after another toss, we can Wake Up the next pair in an hour from now, the others may be grumpy but whatever, let’s keep our eyes up for trouble for the time being”
He looked out into the middle of the night, at the dark underbrush of untamed lands.
Amelia followed his gaze before shrugging as she swung her head back “Tak, hey I have a bottle of wódka back in my tent, be careful not to wake the others up” She requested, her hand motioning a thumbs up before she pointed that thumb out into the night “Your night-blinded already, I’ll stay out here and watch for them chochliks sneaking at night”
He put up an annoyed expression “You want to drink at this time when we’re supposed to be watching? How many monsters do you think could capitalize on that?” She rolled her eyes and gave a sigh of her own through her beak “dużo, I’m a fucking professional and I know the Wildlands, there’s a lot of them out there so I’d thought I’d make a makeshift firebomb from the liquor, Fire scares creatures like the chockliks or other surprises”
‘That is a solid idea’ The man thought as he thought he saw a small glint of light as if reflecting off of a reflective surface in the underbrush before it was gone.
Mark accepted that as he shrugged and made his way back to the tents noticing there were no branches on the path to the fire and making as much noise as possible as he entered the tent and quickly but quietly and as discreet as he can wake them all up as he snatched a random glass from Amelia’s tent.
He came up to her to see that she was behind the fallen boulder with her longbow discreetly strung behind it “Here’s your drink, I’ve made sure not to have woken everyone up, you need anything else? Or perhaps you want me to go get you another drink?” He snickered and loudly laughed as he said that.
“Dziękuję Ci, no, thank you, I’m fine here, you should go over there to cover that side in case something tries to sneak into camp and get rid of your night blindness in one” Amelia suggested as she grabbed the liquor and started fiddling with it as Mark nodded and went away to where she pointed to.
A few seconds later, the dark shape materialized as it was thrown out of Ren’s tent.
Mark ducked, closed his eyes , turned away and waited for the loud bang and the flash of light that soon followed the alchemical concoction going off.
Screams were heard coming all around in the night, Mark smirked as he opened his eyes to see the others rushing out of their tens, Akol casting an Amber Spear to airburst over a group of condensed pigmies, Amelia throwing her makeshift bomb to a surprisingly close group which quickly went up in flames.
‘It’s so nice to work with professionals again’ He thought as he hefted his crossbow ‘This counter ambush went off without a hitch!’ He thought as he exhaled his breath, shouldered his crossbow, reshouldered it and fired upon a bit of reflected moonlight upon something metallic.
He was rewarded by an inhuman scream of pain that was added to the ones all around him, followed by more and more as the others got into the slaughter as well.
He breathed a sigh of relief as there were no screams or grunts of pain from his side as he dropped into cover, loaded a bolt, popped out and fired into the darkness into another glint. He was good at it, but Amelia was clearly better, her shots were more rapid and they certainly hit harder coming from a dedicated longbow rather than his light hand crossbow which he found to have liked.
A loud snap and what looked to be a gigantic bolt streaked passed him and crashed straight through the shield of a charging pigmy warrior that Analysis told him is actually quite tough… was as they screamed with the length impaling their entire arm as Mark ducked into the foliage.
‘Now, let’s see if I can do a bit of bloody work upon the back line of archers and mages if they have any’ He thought as he blurred through the dense foliage, in quick stealth.
He spotted 5 goblins tight together with bows, crossbows and one with a wand casting some sort of spell at Hans who just bulled past a line of warriors.
The mage never got to finish their spell as a crossbow bolt materialized in their neck.
Mark exited, rushing another with a spear, impaling it into the gut before wrenching it out causing a slithering mass of red to exit from the mortal wound before with a pivot that caused his leg to scream in pain, he swung his spear around, catching two others in their unarmored chest, leaving them to bleed out in the ground as he faced the last one who dropped their bow and pulled out an arming sword of some sort.
Mark arched an eyebrow at the skill of the go-pigmy ‘Definitely not some simple ruin born, nor dungeon born’ He figured as it batted his spear aside from a failed thrust, but he recovered immediately ‘Skilled too but certainly not enough’ He thought as he managed to whittled it down enough for a deathblow.
Like in all fights, his world was reduced to just him and the pigmy in front of him as, especially as the pigmy kicked its discarded bow to where he was stepping, tripping him and letting it shank him in the gut and pain flashed into Mark’s mind.
However, the dull blade of its sword failed to penetrate the thick gambeson the man wore, it hurt and would cause a bruise but his own buckler cares not for the cloth cap it wore.
As the pigmy let out its last breath, he saw that the battle was already won. He exited to see corpses of at least a score and a half of pigmies littering across the clearing beside the cliff and saw Amelia waved at him.
There was a crude arrow poking out from her gambeson but from the way she was moving it likely did not penetrate ‘Of course it didn’t’ Mark scoffed as he examined one of their arrows, it was a dirty thing crudely held together with vines and rope with a tip made of fragmented metals ‘This thing is gnarly as the goblins themselves or pigmies if you will, crude but they will hurt if they penetrate’
Still, he threw it away as checked on the others noting a burning patch of grass and a few burning pigmy corpses in it “Anyone injured?” He asked as he got near enough to see them all.
The medic shook her head “No, but it was a near thing, try not to be so reckless next time” Tammy responded as Mark shrugged.
“Hey, it worked, I’d like to see you try to plan a counter ambush” He jeered at her.
In turn, Tammy just gave him the briefest of glares before turning back to fusing over the arrow sticking out of Amelia’s gambeson.
“Still, that’s 3 fucking attacks in the same day now!” He pointed out.
Hans nodded as he shouldered his Goedendag “Za, I’d say these… pigmies are concentrating their forces here… it could be dangerous going forward” The Lycan added.
The thought crossed on everyone’s mind as they healed and then looted and then cremated the corpses of their enemies.
Later, they broke up camp and found a new spot as none wanted to see what the bloodshed would attract at night and found a nice little place which was less defensible but not bad as Mark finally got some sleep in the night.
In the end, the group decided to go for one last day of scouting before returning.
…
The next day… “Is that a village?” Mark asked unsure through his binoculars.
“No doubt about it” Akol answered nonchalantly “That’s probably a ruin, didn’t remember that on the map of abandoned settlements in the wildlands” The demon of a brother added.
“Merde, it’s a good spot as well, might be a prime candidate for the settlement location” Mark voiced his opinion as a smirk formed on his features ‘After we clear it and loot everything not nailed down of course’
Akol just gave him a sly smile “I call dibs on the first magic item found”
Mark gave his older brother an expression of mock outrage “Hey! You can’t call dibs before we cleared the ruin first!” He pointed out.
“That sounds like loser talk to me” The demon rolled his eyes.
Mark just gave him a light glare as he smirked “Well that sounds like cheater talk to me”
“Hey, if you don’t cheat in the game of life, then you’re already losing” Akol explained “But, as the kind older brother that I am, I shall allow you the honor of dibs, if you can win against me in a duel of the very fates themselves!”
“Deal” Mark agreed immediately.
They got into position, away from each other as the both of them stretched their hands, palming their chosen weapons for the duel.
“On three then” Akol exclaimed before the both of them counted down “3, 2, 1, GO!” At the same time.
Both turning around at speeds, faster than the eyes can track, the two brothers, now sworn enemies lunged at each other, unsheathing their chosen weapons at light speeds.
“Rock, Paper, Scissors!”
Paper beats rock so Akol won.
“DAMNIT!!!” Mark shouted his outrage to the heavens above as he got on his knees.
Akol just gave him an evil laugh “Hah! That should teach you to agree to games with a demon! I’m keeping my three in a row winning streak!”
Mark just pointed at him “Best of three!” He shouted.
“Mark… only an idiot would agree to that” Akol shook his head and gave him a look of pity.
“Fine” The man sulked hard as he accepted his defeat with a smile “Let’s get the other six, we can scout out the village and if possible clear the ruin of any threats and then we can go loot it up, corner to corner”
“And then I get my magic item and we mark it as a good spot for the new settlement” Akol said and looked Mark in the eyes “And, if our spot gets chosen than we can make it rich!”
Mark nodded, a hand on his chin, rubbing his stubble as Akol continued to drone on and on “With that amount of coinage could let us life off in luxury for like a month! We’ll even return home as heroes!” He said with an evil cackle.
Mark shut him with a boop to the nose “Yeah, yeah quit your yapping, we still need to tell the others and we have to make it quick, don’t want any of the other four teams finding the spot and recording it before us” The human man reminded with a smirk “Keep your excitement toned down a little, little man” He joked
“Fine, let’s go then, I’m looking for any chance I have at destroying stuff with the new magic potential level I gained!” Akol said excitedly, greed and destruction in his eyes “And I’m not little! I’m older than you and my size is above average!”
Mark shrugged “Whatever you say child” Mark commented, grinning ear to ear.
“Well at least I’m not a donkey like you” Akol fired back with a smirk that can stretch across the horizon itself.
They both started making their way back to the group ‘Jokes aside, finding a ruin in such a place is a lucky find’ Mark thought as he gave it another glance ‘hopefully nothing too bad happens’
…
“Well, that’s going to have to be up to a vote” Hans announced after Mark and Akol came back and told reported their observations.
“C-Question… ruins are the random places with… imposters and tr-trea-sures right?” Anh asked as he chose his words carefully.
“Dead center, though I would prefer prefer the term doppelganger” Amelia confirms.
‘I prefer the term fakers myself’ Mark mentally mused ‘But that’s irrelevant’
“I can probably talk to any local demons about the area after we clear it, my… species don’t like ruins in general” Akol explained “Plus, think of the loot!” The nature demon added.
Ren hummed loudly “Zere could be some nice alchemical ingredients” The Varmenina mused loudly as he scratched the back of his head and everyone else seems to agree as well.
The vote was unanimous, no good, sane, sober, moral adventurer could live with themselves if they leave good loot waiting after all.
Crossing the river was a bit of a problem but it was trivialized when they realized there was a large tree near the river and chopped it down to create a log bridge.
Then… a bit of a problem occurred after Mark and Akol returned from a quick scouting trip.
Mark sighed as he opened his waterskin “Nothing, no signs of life whatsoever in the village except for some local wildlife critters” Mark replied taking a sip from the ale he kept in the thing “It has definitely been cleared by someone else already!”
Disappointment was obvious in the features of everyone present.
“We should still go in there and check each house one at a time, who knows what’s in each of them” Tammy suggested “No risk in not checking, maybe something was missed”
Everyone shrugged and agreed with the plan, either it’s a waste of time or it’s not.
Plan decided, the group decides to enter the village from the north even though they crossed the river in the south hoping to scout out to see whether there is anything else unusual in the north opening where the walls were broken. They find absolutely nothing, no mimics, or anything as they enter from the north and as they enter Akol sensed something strange.
“There’s no decay whatsoever, this ruin is either a permanent one or one that was made real by a source of pure mana converting its corrupted mana” he called out as they entered the village feeling for the land.
‘That’s worrying…’ Mark thought as he looked at Akol, a bit of worry in his face.
Akol gave him a so, so gesture that it’ll be alright.
“Then it would be a viable way to start a village, why build one when you can just claim one yourself, there’s even a church and whilst on the weary side, the houses aren’t unfixable” Hans observed “It could be that the Wulfram smiles upon us today”
The group’s Wildland expert hummed “There’s a river, plenty of forests and groves around, decent amount of wildlife… the only thing missing here is a dungeon” Amelia added
Akol perked up a bit “Though that would explain the pure mana around here” The nature demon mused “If there really is a dungeon… out spot will probably get picked immediately and we’ll get the bonus for discovering it as well!”
That got the hopes up for the rest of the party as they went around to check the village in its entirety and clear the houses.
Whilst almost all of them were clear, barren and seemed stripped of any and all valuables. Whoever or whatever cleared the ruin missed a hidden cellar.
“Ghouls!” Mark cried out as he domed one in the right eye killing it instantly, the remainder of the ghouls weren’t much of a threat, they were simple threat rank 1.3 creatures with sharp deadly claws but very fragile bodies.
That and there were only four of them.
Mark watched as the body of the fakers dissipate into thin air, idly poking one with the butt of his spear to pass time as Akol did some looting “Well, I guess we know what’s supposed to be in the village now, most ruins stick to a theme when it comes to having fakers” The man observed.
The party’s doctor grimaced “This is the last house, I think it’s best if we clear this up and start checking out what really happened here” Tammy suggested and the others all agree.
The village center showed a lot of signs of a recent battle with blood splatters, broken walls, broken crates, lots of disturbed dust, a forgotten core crystal and fragments of cloth and bronze alongside broken claws, teeth and cast-off scales.
‘This doesn’t look like it was cleared by adventurers’ Mark thought as he picked up some kind of fang from some sort of serpent ‘Unless half of them had pets or tamed beasties’
The human pondered as he wandered “Yeah… I think some group of something cleared the ruins and by the signs here it has been recent” Mark observed “I’m going to pop my Analysis, give me a second…”
Amelia gave her observations “Perhaps even the day before recent at most it’s been a week” she added as she examined a large amount of blood.
“Wait… I know zese tracks, zey’re from kobolds” Ren gave out a quick observation.
Their monster hunter also raised his hand “And these are from… ah… big… reptilian lizard things” Anh said out loud
“Monitors?” Tammy asked.
“Ye-yes… monitors” The easterner nodded.
Mark read what his skill gave him as well “Kobolds, Monitors, Serpents, and… whatever make that big crater over there, not enough data for my skill to identify… at least a score, potentially more”
This was a problem, a group of kobolds with tamed monitors just cleared out the village recently and from their observations they were well armed in bronze equipment…
The crater… could mean so many things as well.
“Wait… look at zese scorch marks and some of zese stains… the clay pot fragments… I know zese stains… they were from alchemical potions” Ren gave out after a closer look “Though crude or basic ones at best” The alchemist added.
“And some of these marks are from spellcasters… a lighting and light caster specifically though I can’t tell if there were two or just one caster” Akol added his own observations.
‘Now it got even worse’ Mark thought as he let the others do their thing “If that wasn’t bad enough… there seem to be a lot of them and a cart trail” He observed from the tracks.
“Looks like they called in reinforcements and managed a cart of some kind” Mark commented as he studied the trails, popping his skill but he didn’t have to.
A surprised squawk from Amelia alerted the rest over “They even have a freaking Yao Guai here!” Amelia cried out inspecting a certain set of tracks “Those things are dangerous and impossible to tame, how did they tame it?”
There were no answers from the gods as far as Mark coul tell.
Akol tapped his weapon on the ground as he came over “From my estimates… we’re dealing with over a score of kobolds, maybe 5 monitors, similar amounts of kanids of some kind from those trails over there and a Yao Guai… they also have an alchemist and at least one spell caster… also whatever made that crater”
‘So, a lot of fucking threats’ Mark summarized mentally “So, it would seem that we have a very big fucking warcamp it is or maybe a community with a lot of non-combatants and don’t forget they have actual equipment as well” The human added.
Their Deidric spearmaiden gave her opinion “We should at least check where they’re coming from to make sure” Larec suggested.
‘Yeah, we’ll definitely have to check on this shit’ Mark agreed and gave a long sigh of annoyance ‘At least to make sure we’re not going to get chased as we leave’
No one really would want to go check on kobold encampments or villages or whatever for numerous reasons, kobolds are way scarier to fight than most other monstrous bipeds, they have high speed, good trap makings skills and are tenacious, for a lone adventurer, one alone is no problem, 2 is a dangerous threat and 3 or more is very bad odds.
This group in particular has at least one spell caster, a tamed Yao Guai, actual metal equipment, are probably well trained, experienced and numbered in at least two dozen and probably a lot more… it was concerning to say the least.
Thankfully, unlike pigmies, kobolds are more likely to be friendly and at the very least, they’re not going to torture or eat one’s intestines alive.
Unfortunately, like any sapient the only way to tell is through a meeting ‘Which is what we have to do now… this will be a pain in the ass’ Mark groaned.
His leg ached in phantom pain at the thought of potentially another hard, difficult fight.
‘If we can win that is’ Thought the human scout.
“So… the tracks seem to lead West…” Amelia commented looking at the tracks “That means we’ll go for at least a kilometer to make sure there isn’t any community nearby and then some to see how big they are and if they’re friendly or not”
“We’ll probably get ambushed” Hans negatively pointed out.
“We’ll probably get ambushed” Tammy agreed, repeating the comment.
“Yeah… we’ll probably get ambushed” Amelia repeated what was the inevitability if the kobolds turned aggressive.
‘We’ll definitely get ambushed’ Mark also agreed, remembering the shit they can pull.
The group now had a new goal, to check out the kobold trail to at least see where they’re coming from and their numbers “This should be a bit of fun… not” Akol muttered, similarly tired and annoyed as his brother.
Mark just gave him a grunt and that was it.
Soon enough, they could see a couple of new tracks trailing back into the trail… problem is these tracks are new… very new and they seem to be in a hurry “So much for stealth” Mark sarcastically said out loud “It appears they have already spotted us, probably sent a team to double check the ruin or at least keep an eye on it”
Amelia sighed “Yeah, if they’re aggressive we’re probably going to get dragged into an ambush”
“Could be a dungeon” Ren suggested and suddenly, everyone was now eyeing the alchemist.
“Yeah right, it is as likely to be a dungeon as my chances to get laid by a dragon!” Mark teased.
Akol let out a chuckle “And as likely as you are to shut up for once” The demon added.
The man just shrugged “Hey, it’s not my fault the gods blessed me with a loudmouth here!”
Surprisingly, that got a few chuckles from the party.
“So uh… it’s, it’s not a d-dunga-dungoen?” Anh asked.
The human man shrugged “Not necessarily, dungeons do send scouts out and collectors as well” He explained ‘There’s no way though’ He thought ‘None of us are that lucky’
“Actually… I think it might be one from what I’m picking up” Akol suddenly stated “I’m getting good signals from the other demons of the land”
Mark raised an eye at that “Good for you, not everyone needs to hear your fantasies though”
Akol just elbowed him in the knee though he avoided the previously injured one “Hey, I might’ve been wrong in the past, but I have a very good feeling this time around”
“Sure, believe in what you believe in, at least you have some measure of imagination in your head” Mark tapped his noggin for a few times whilst wearing a mirthful grin as his brother simply rolled his eyes.
“Is this common for you two?” Tammy suddenly barged into the conversation, amused.
“Ye, very common in fact” Mark replied
“Why do you think we never get anywhere?” Akol added
“We argue all the time” The two brothers said at the same time, smiling ear to ear.
They resumed their travels soon after, hands still resting close to their weapons just in case.
However, Mark soon noticed Akol getting a bit… excited as his ears started twitching and his grin had started to get wider and wider ‘Oh you got to be shitting me’ Mark thought of as he too starts feeling something and then they get to the entrance… with a sign outside…“Huh… well fuck” understatement of the year by Mark
“So… is this a uh dungeon?” Anh asked.
Larec noded “Yes, it is” The Deidrin made it seemed like it’s not something special at all.
“Beware… Danger Ahead… ze sign says in Middish” Ren read out loud.
“heilige Scheisse…” Hans added in disbelief.
None of the other said anything else, too shocked or stunned to speak.
‘They should be dungeons are said to be rare as fuck!’ Mark thought.
Even though they haven’t bet anything, he still felt like he utterly lost as Akol stepped forward a bit, humming a happy jingle as he gave Mark a gigantic shit eating grin “So, who wants to go delve a dungeon?” The demon simply asks.