Lanek decided to spend the following day away from the camp, leaving Liv and Duristor in charge of the defenses. He had told them to make any changes they wished to the structure, but only after Duristor had completed the firing platform for the hunters. Liv, in particular, most likely had a few ideas she could implement from her village’s own fortifications. As for Duristor, Lanek had no idea if he had any experience with fortifications, but his subclass should make implementing Liv’s ideas fairly easy.
While Lanek said that he was leaving to explore their surroundings, the truth was that he simply wanted some time away from everyone. Even back on Earth, he had always been a bit uncomfortable around crowds. He could typically handle it as long as he could take some time away to decompress every so often, which is why he often found himself going camping or hiking. In most cases, he didn’t even really need to get away, just having a day to himself at home after work would be sufficient.
However, since reuniting with his friends in Caelis after being revived, Lanek hadn’t had any time to be on his own. It hadn’t been an issue with Liv on this journey as she was just as happy as he was to travel in silence, but being surrounded by the former prisoners for the last few weeks had worn him down. He feared that if he didn’t get some time alone soon, his temper would flare up and he would become irritable or angry at people who had done nothing wrong.
The hardest part of getting away for the day was making his “bodyguard” stay behind. The lot of them had kept insisting that he allow them to follow. Thankfully, Cagan, the leader of the orcs, had stepped forward and reminded his fellows that they needed to respect Lanek’s orders as a Khan of the Hordefather. That reminder had been enough, although Lanek could see that none of the bodyguards liked the end result.
With a nod of thanks, Lanek had swiftly leapt across the northern branch of the river and disappeared into the forest. As he ran through the forest, he once more pushed his body, wanting to revel in the mobility he used to enjoy. It wasn’t long before he was jumping into the trees and leaping from branch to branch to traverse the forest. I should have expected that high enough stats could replicate the effects of skills. Hell, there are normal people back home that could do a lot of this without the stats I have.
He laughed as the wind rushed past his face, loving the sheer sense of freedom and release he was experiencing. As he ran, he felt a presence shadowing him through the forest that was getting increasingly irritated at not being able to catch up to him. Chuckling, Lanek slowed down and waited for Maximilian to reach him at the base of a large tree.
“Sorry, buddy.” Lanek said as he scratched the indignant demigryph’s head and neck. “I got a bit carried away there.” Max stared at Lanek for a moment before grumbling in response, sending him a feeling of frustration directed at the forest around them.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. You could have kept up easily if you didn’t have to move around the trees.” Lanek smiled and continued petting the demigryph affectionately. Max nudged Lanek and leaned down as he typically did to allow Lanek to mount up, summoning his saddle and barding as he did.
“Not yet. Tell you what, I’ll mount up once we’re out of these woods. For now, I want to keep moving like this, it feels good.” Lanek said, projecting the feelings he had experienced in the trees moments before. Maximilian responded to the feeling immediately and rubbed his face on Lanek’s chest before sprinting off into the forest. Of course he knows how it feels, he must experience that every time he gets to go all out. Shit, it’s been a while since he’s been able to do that. Well, it seems like we both need this right now.
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With a huge grin on his face, Lanek leapt back into the trees and chased his companion. As they ran together, Lanek could feel the joy radiating from the demigryph, but also a feeling of challenge. Max didn’t like that Lanek could outpace him in the forest and was pushing himself to fix this unlikely scenario.
Lanek’s eyebrows raised in surprise when he saw Max jump at a tree and propel himself off of it. Moments later, Max decided to do it again, this time chaining several such jumps together to maneuver through the forest more quickly, his paws rarely touching the ground. Alright, that’s just not fair. A demigryph that can parkour? Yeah, not keeping up with that.
After a few hours of running through the forest, Lanek slowed down as he neared a small clearing. Despite his best efforts, Maximilian had beaten him to the clearing and was sitting leisurely while waiting for him. Lanek couldn’t help but laugh at the situation as he detected a triumphant feeling from the beast. The creature positively reeked of smug.
“Competitive little bastard, aren’t you? Couldn’t even let me be faster in the forest.” Lanek handed his companion a piece of dried meat as he spoke to show that he wasn’t actually angry at him. Exhaling heavily, Lanek sat with his back to a tree and pulled out his flask. While he recovered from the exhilarating experience, Max flopped down next to him and put his gargantuan head on Lanek’s lap.
It wasn’t long before Lanek could detect faint snores from Maximilian and decided that a nap sounded like a fantastic idea at the moment. Trusting in Maximilian’s senses to wake them up at the first sign of danger, he fell into the most carefree and relaxed sleep he had experienced since Eldros’ grove.
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When he awoke, the sun was still high in the sky. He looked around and spotted Maximilian grooming himself in the clearing, apparently as relaxed as Lanek was feeling. He was in no hurry to return to camp and had actually informed Liv that he may be gone a few days if he could get away with it. Lanek was confident in his ability to get back to the camp before the gaunts arrived once the furballs warned him that the gaunts were on the move.
Despite the fact that Lanek’s company hadn’t moved for the last two days, the gaunts were still more than two days away from the camp. This reprieve was almost entirely due to Pharaoh’s illusions and the efforts of the furballs to pick off vulnerable enemies. The signal that the gaunts were continuing their advance to the camp would be if Sanguineus returned himself to his vessel. Lanek had decided to have Sanguineus be the signal as Kazuma’s mist would be able to buy time as he and Pharaoh retreated to the camp.
After a brief meal, Lanek and Maximilian returned to their journey through the forest, albeit at a much more sedate pace and with Lanek mounted this time. He had chosen to continue going north as he figured that he could get his peace and quiet while also scouting out what was along the company’s path. Ideally, he was hoping to find any type of structure to have the people shelter in, but he would settle for identifying any potential hazards ahead of time.
The sun was beginning to set when they broke through the forest and into hilly terrain dotted with boulders. The hills continued as far as he could see to the north, appearing to reach all the way to snow-capped mountain range in the distance. However, this type of terrain was often tricky to judge distances in, so the hills could transition into some other landscape before the mountains and the mountain range itself could be much further away than one might think.
Even though the mountains looked quite intimidating and he had no clue how far away the mountains really were, Lanek still felt a sense of relief at the sight. From what they had been able to discover on their maps, those mountains were most likely the last major obstacle before Liv’s homeland. The downside to this is that it was a hell of an obstacle.
Liv had told him about the mountain trolls that resided there as well as numerous tribes of feral monsters and beasts. Sadly, Liv couldn’t provide anything beyond that as none of her people had ventured into those mountains and returned in her lifetime. The only reason she knew about the enemies was because her people’s warriors had tracked the raids to those mountains in the past.
The pair returned to the shelter of the forest, choosing to camp for the night with some shelter from both the elements and any hostile eyes. After settling down for the night, Lanek’s eyed his pack for a moment before retrieving the [Crown of Laethon].