For the next two days the group destroyed three goblin nests and two wolf packs.

They were now hiding near an orc village.

Andrea took the lead. They had recently scouted out the village and had counted seven females, and four males, which meant there were three male orcs which had left to patrol or hunt. She divided the hunting group into two units. The first, composed of herself, Emilia, Fergulino, and Damon would draw out the male orcs. The second group composed of three squires and the third knight would swoop in from the back, kill the females, and come assist with the remaining male orcs if they weren’t already dealt with.

The second group moved out. Andrea led her men closer to the village under the cover of bushes and trees. She could see orcs roaming about, moving fruits and meat from a food store into their houses.

“I’m sure I can kill them,” said Fergulino in a low whisper, “but must we?”

Andrea wanted to throw her brother into the village and leave; however, she stayed calm and answered her brother. “Although they may look harmless when they’re living in their village, when they have kids, they often send them off to create new villages. Since they’re very territorial, it becomes a hassle for merchants and peddlers. As nobles, if we don’t clear them, it will cost our territory, not only in coins but also in pride.”

Fergulino nodded, although with slight hesitation. When they came within five hundred metres of the village, an orc noticed them. It screamed but didn’t attack.

“Let’s go, he’s calling the others,” said Andrea. She ran and in less than fifty seconds cut the orc’s throat with her blade. In that time three other orcs had grabbed their bats and come over to support their brethren. Upon seeing the corpse, they let out an ear-pounding roar and struck at her from three directions.

Damon and Fergulino still hadn’t arrived since they were pure mages and lacked the physical strength of people with martial skills. Emilia blocked two overhead strikes with her heater shield and Emilia, who arrived a few seconds later diverted the last one’s blow with a swing of her sword. The group exchanged a few swings with the orcs until a spear pierced the flank of the orc which faced Andrea. Unfortunately for Fergulino, his spear had latched on the orcs fat and didn’t come out. Damon pushed him back before the orc retaliated with a strike of his own.

Damon pierced the orc’s foot with an earth spike, it fell on its stomach, and Damon pulled out the spear and threw it back to Fergulino. Now in a one-on-one confrontation with the orc, Andrea didn’t have a problem cutting it up. Emilia had also dealt with her partner in this time.

Andrea walked over to Damon and Fergulino, “Thanks for helping him out.”

“No worries, but I think their two males coming from behind us. It must be the patrol or hunting squad.”

Andrea looked behind her and saw two raging bulls charging towards them. She turned back to Damon but saw two other orcs coming from a hut behind the village. Two women followed in toe. They were probably too busy with the diversion group to send more arms to help the main battle. “Damon, take the two in front. I’ll take the two behind us with Emilia.”

Although she could deal with the charging orcs, Damon could slow them down with his earth magic. She saw him push Fergulino to Emilia, and Andrea covered Damon’s back.

Andrea didn’t let the orcs coming their way start to charge. She took the initiative and ran towards them. The two orcs took defensive postures, however, with her speed and strength she cut through their wooden bats.

The orcs used the lower part of their bats as batons and started to swing them with great speed. With their extended reach, they almost landed a hit on her, but she rolled away taking advantage of the height difference to avoid their blows. When she got back on her feet, she cut into the Achilles tendon of one orc. It screamed in pain and fell over when it tried to turn towards her. The other orc saw this and took a step back. Yet Andrea didn’t let up. She charged towards it and pierced its chest and delivered another blow which cut halfway through his neck.

Andrea turned back to Damon. He seemed to have killed an orc with his sword and watched over Fergulino who fought an orc. Damon stood with a straight back in the line of sight of the orc. Yet, he did not move, nor worry for anything else but the safety of Fergulio. In all honesty, he had a rather regal figure, perhaps this was the effect of the delicate-looking elvish body contrasting with his strength. The orc, on the other hand, had wounds on its legs and stomach; however, Fergulino’s spear hadn’t hit any vital points. For another five minutes the orc swung its bat, Fergulino dodged and landed a hit on the orc.

Eventually the orc had become pale, it had lost too much blood. With a final attempt, it missed Fergulino who took the opportunity to stab his spear into the orc’s neck.

Andrea ran over to Damon, “Do you know where the others went. I haven’t heard or seen any signs of another battle.”

Damon walked over to the dead tired Fergulino while speaking, “No, we should probably go look for them. However, my student is exhausted.” He picked up the boy sprawled on the earth in an underhand carry.

Andrea turned around, looked at Fergulino and then Emilia. “Take care of him. Damon is coming with me to investigate.”

Emilia looked confused for a few seconds, but the sighed and okayed it.

Damon gave Emilia the young noble and went to Andrea. “Let’s go to the other side of the village.”

Andrea nodded and they started to run. Although worried, Andrea controlled her speed to match Damon’s. If there were any beasts which they didn’t consider, she would need the help of his offensive skills. He evidently had a lot of battle experience with magic.

When they reached the other side of the village they saw blood, lots of blood, however, no corpses.

“Do you know what can do this?” asked Damon.

Andrea didn’t speak but continued to inspect the blood stains. There were two large pools of blood. One near the village entrance, most likely the orcs and the other a few metres away in the forest’s direction, probably her men. Unexpectedly there weren’t any trails leading anywhere. The only option was that they were eaten whole here. But even in that case you would imagine to that there would signs of a struggle.

“Andrea, come here.” Yelled Damon in the distance.

She jogged to him and saw a thick spider thread on the ground.

“Fuck.” Andrea wanted to run towards the caves in the north to rescue her men. However, she couldn’t do anything against such a beast.

“Is this a Voracino’s thread?” asked Damon in a low voice.

Andrea took the web in her hand, tugged at it for no reason, perhaps desperate for it not to be the case. The thread did not break and even clung to her hands. “It is.” She tried to place the webbing in a bag to show her father; however, it wouldn’t come off. “Damon, come give me some help.”

He looked over the thread and poked it with a branch. The branch only lightly touched it; however, it wouldn’t come off. “I’m afraid that’s not coming off.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Hey, hey, hey, will you tell me to cut off my hand?” Andrea raised her hand towards Damon, and he immediately created an earth wall.

Andrea placed her hand on the wall. When she tried to pull away, her hand wouldn’t budge. She saw Damon appear on the other side of the wall. “Did you really want to be stuck to me?”

“You wish. Now dispel this fucking wall.” She continued to push away against the wall with her other hand.

“How cute,” said Damon. He started to walk away, and the earth wall crumbled. Andrea still had dirt, rocks and bugs stuck to her hand. She tried to shake it away, however, the spider webbing latched onto whatever it touched. She ran back to Damon before a Voracino came back. They could assume that her men had died, which didn’t sit well with her; however, she wasn’t about to commit suicide in their honour. For now, they had to make sure that nothing had happened to Fergulino.

When they arrived, they saw him sitting on his ass, still tired as all hell. Andrea kicked him in the leg, “It’s already been ten minutes, so get up. We must go back, and fast. But remember that after this is over, you’re going to go hunting for a month at least.”

“What is going on?” asked Emilia, “are the others dead?"

“Unfortunately, yes.” She showed her hands, and Emilia’s eyes widened. “Isn’t that thing at the sixth rank?”

“We’re going to have to deal with it.”

Damon couldn’t hold back his curiosity, “If the Voracino is native to this area, aren’t you used to dealing with them.”

Andrea shook her head, “although it’s native, it rarely comes out of its burrows, and when it does it hunts a pray or two and leaves. In this case it took, about seven orcs and four humans. It must mean it has a nest near here. To add insult to injury, although it’s a solitary beast, when it lays eggs both the male and female defends their nest until the children come of age. In this two-to-three-year period, the parents will hunt massive amounts of food to feed its young. Normally this isn’t a problem, but this time they’re close enough to be a threat to the nearby cities.”

Damon nodded, “Then we should leave as soon as possible.”

They went a bit further into the forest to retrieve their lizard mounts; however, they were no longer there. “Fuck!” Andrea punched a tree.

“We can curse our situation,” said Damon. He gently took her hand off the tree bark, “however, we must leave as soon as possible. Or else we risk losing more people.”

Andrea nodded, “Let’s go. We’re about a week away on foot so we can’t waste time. Fergulino, come on my back, you’re too slow.”

He climbed on with a down-cast expression. He would start hunting as soon as possible.

For the next week, Andrea and Emilia took turns passing Fergulino around. Although Damon couldn’t go as fast as the two knights you could see the effort, he put in. He even smiled through pain. At night he would flatten the ground and build an earth camp where they could sleep with some degree of security. When wolves would come, she wouldn’t even need to go out to dispose of them since Damon used his earth spikes to dispose of them. Although, what worried her the most wasn’t the beasts, but the fear of getting lost. Thankfully if they found a small clearing, Damon could tell the direction with the aid of the stars. She didn’t know whether this was a spell of black magic; however, it seemed much more wonderful than even the occult.

But when she brought this up to Emilia, she was told to go fuck sailors if her sole criteria for a good man was the ability to navigate thanks to a star map.

When they saw the end of the forest and the city walls. A great deal of relief overtook them.

When they approached the city gates they were stopped. No armoured group of men should come to the city for at least a week. However, upon seeing their state, identity, and verification they were let in with the greatest honour and speed.

#

“What happened,” asked the duke. He looked over Andrea, and Fergulino to make sure they were uninjured. Next to her Emilia stood straight. Damon had left for his house since this was a private conversation regarding the matters of the duchy, even though Andrea thought it would be good for him to attend the meeting.

Andrea opened a small leather bag. She had stored the beast’s webbing which had lost its stickiness after a few days of being rubbed on dirt.

“This is?” The duke pointed to the web, but he didn’t dare touch it, “it’s a Voracino’s web. Did you see it?” he asked.

Andrea shook her head. “I believe it killed the female orcs, knight Gilberto and our squires.”

The duke leaned back on his chair. “We can’t leave it be. Do you know where it is?”

“There’s a hilly region further to the north of the village, I’m guessing it made a borough in the vicinity.”

“We need to deal with it as soon as possible.” The duke turned to his guards; you all will go. Take three level five mages and thirty warriors, plus a squad of porters for the food and the beasts’ parts.

The guards exchanged glances. “We can’t leave you alone. You know the current political condition. This may be a ploy to get you when you’re less defended. The others know that you don’t have that many mages who can deal with such beasts.”

“Then Giovanni, you go. In terms of affinity against that thing you’re the best choice.”

“But it may be in their calculations,” said Giovani.

“Well, let them come then. Vantirano is coming back as well. They would need an army to take us all out. Now go.”

The guards opened their mouths.

“Giovanni and Fernando do not speak.”

The guards bowed in unison.

Now that they had finished their plan Andrea spoke up, “We would need to bring Damon along as well.”

The duke turned to her, “Why, although he may be strong, he’s an outsider, I doubt he would even want to come.”

“He may also be involved in this,” muttered Fernando.

“What did I say!” yelled the duke. The guard backed away. “Andrea, tell me, why does he need to come.”

“He is the only one who can guide us there. The squires had the maps as such we were lost. It’s only thanks to Damon, who can read the stars that we managed to get back here a little under a week. Personally, I have no clue how to find that village. The forest is dense in that region.”

The duke sighed, “Did you at least learn something about him?”

Andrea froze up internally, she had completely forgotten about it. “Unfortunately, not, he answered all my questions in a generic and simple manner.” Andrea felt the stare of Emilia, thankfully she didn’t speak.

“How is his character?”

“He’s a good person, from what I can tell. His worry seemed genuine, and he helped us get here safely and in a timely manner. He could have hidden his cards, such as his star reading ability, or his earth magic, but he used it to help us. I don’t think he would refuse if we asked him to guide us to the Voracino’s nest since he seems to enjoy hunting beasts and is quite proficient in this matter.”

Fernando’s lip twitched. He wanted to intervene, as talking was a tic to him, only overpowered by Andrea’s father’s authority.

“If we must use him, we will. Offer him a reward of ten gold coins if he guides us there. Even if he’s a good person at heart, no one would waltz over to a Voracino’s nest without compensation. Do you get along with him?” asked the duke.

“Yes, I think so.”

“Then go ask him yourself.”

Andrea left the room Emilia in toe.

“You know you’re being betrodden to the prince,” said Emilia in a strong but low voice.

“Of course,” Andrea flashed a smile, “he’s just a friend; and he’s a member of the occult. I might be able to see a demon if I ask nicely.”

“That’s good.” Emilia looked at the garden in the mansion. “Why are you obsessed with demons? They are dangerous.”

“I don’t think so,” said Andrea. “I’ve never heard of anything bad being caused by demons, most of the sects end up serving kingdoms in a way or another. If anything, the only demons are their employers.” She tapped her sword. “And if push comes to shove, I’ll just cut it.

“You say that when we just ran away from a … beast,” Has the shed always been covered so densely with flowers.

Andrea looked at the flowers and vines which crept up the house. The coordination of colours. From bright oranges and translucent purples gave the whole area the feel of a holy domain. “And you tell me he’s dangerous. Look at where he lives.”

“He’s an elf. This might just be how they all live whether good or bad.”

Andrea ignored her comment and knocked on the door. A few minutes passed and Damon exited the house without showing much of the inside of his house. He still wore the same clothes, yet his beige pants never showed signs of dirt and always contrasted well with his deep and dark purple skin.

“Oh hey, what’s up Andrea? Not feeling too tired?”

Andrea grinned, “Of course not. I’m doing fine. I’m a knight after all. Personally, I feel bad for mages.”

“So did you come here to show me around town or is it something else.”

“Maybe later, but for now we need your help.”

“It depends, you or the duke.”

“Which is better,” Emilia snickered. “But yes, it’s the duke, we request your help to assist us in locating the Voracino’s nest. I will also come, so think of it as two requests.”

Damon extended his hand. Emilia took it, Damon shook it away, “The money. I heard it in your purse. The diversion of funds isn’t a noble practice.”

Andrea placed the coin pouch in his hand. “That’s a yes I assume.”

“Yes,” answered Damon.

Andrea smiled, “Then I’ll see you tomorrow at sunrise. City gate.”

Damon nodded and they left.

“And what was that?” asked Emilia.

“You’re too stuck up. Anyways you should praise me since I kept half of the gold.”

Emilia’s eyes bulged out. “What if the duke found out? I thought you were just curious about the occult, but are you maybe influenced by demons.”

Emilia shooed her away, “I’m giving this money to the orphanage. That elf doesn’t need that money. He already has enough. Didn’t you see his sword? I doubt a viscount could afford it casually.”

One day your twisted ways to do good will bite you in the ass.

“Then I’ll run to my father or the prince. If it’s for good, or my curiosity, I don’t care.”