Matthias
Matthias was sitting at the fire. He was tired and bloodied; it had been two weeks since they started their hunt for the mana beasts.
It started quite well but by now it was just a slog of fighting resting and hunting. They exterminated giant centipedes, monster rat colonies, blood fang foxes, and other low-rank monsters. He had been in some danger on multiple occasions, but the knights were always there to pick up his slack.
A couple of meters away from him he could hear a veteran adventurer explaining monster theory to a couple of orphans that they had picked up in the last town and wanted to become adventurers. The adventurers are basically mercenaries who focus on hunting monsters or exploring dangerous regions. They didn't like to be called mercenaries because they don't normally fight in wars.
Just a formality as far as Matthias was concerned but he respected their wishes because they were exceptional monster hunters, and their support was valuable.
The veteran adventurer was just explaining the monster ranking system and Matthias chose to listen even though he had heard this lecture before, he had nothing else to do anyway.
“This here is a zero-zero monster, a monster rat.” He held the live monster down with his foot, it was looking like an actual rat just with red eyes and the size of a small cat.
“The first zero stands for their skull rating. Every mana beast type gets assigned a skull rating from zero to seven by the guild, it indicates the mana density inside of the monster on spawn and can in most cases be used as a measure of strength,” the orphans nodded.
Matthias smiled at the kids; they weren't much younger than him, but he felt much older when looking at them.
“The second zero is the number of evolutions the monster had, once a monster has gathered enough mana it can evolve and become stronger, so a zero-two monster is a good bit stronger than a zero-zero,” the adventurer continued.
“They don't seem so tough, I killed monster rats before,” one of the bigger boys bragged.
“Oh really, you dipshit,” the adventurer replied with a raised eyebrow. “I imagine it was a single rat. Have you ever seen them come at you in the dozens? I have seen overconfident newbies being devoured whole because they didn't respect their enemy.”
The boy scoffed and the adventurer continued, “As dipshit here pointed out, low-rank monsters are not dangerous in low numbers, but they tend to swarm their prey. Only three days ago we burned out a rat colony with thirty rats, a non-factor for even a small group of knights and soldiers like ours but imagine a group of two or three newbies being swarmed by thirty cat-sized rats.”
Matthias stood up and wanted to go take a walk when one of the orphans asked an interesting question, “What would a seven-skull monster be?”
The adventurer crossed his arms and thought about it for a few seconds, “They can't exist at the moment with the low mana levels, the highest I have seen in my days was a four-zero monster in a cavern with high mana concentration, that one was a big scare.”
“But from the records and legends of old and seven skull would be something like an undead dragon; breath of death, magic resistant, and near invulnerable against anything but the strongest attacks.”
Matthias frowned; he had hoped to hear something more interesting, so he left.
The next morning came way too fast, and Matthias was back in the saddle. They were currently tracking a dire wolf pack, the most dangerous monsters they had hunted yet with them being two skull beasts.
They had been tracking them since the start of their hunt, they were the only thing a militia could not deal with properly, but the beasts had avoided them successfully.
Matthias sighed, he really had imagined this whole thing differently, glorious fights and quick conclusion but all he got was running around and short monster massacres.
“Milord, you need to stay alert, dire wolves are way more dangerous and with the hunting party being split up, a fight could turn bad,” a knight admonished the count's son. It was his guardian knight, an emotionless rock of a man named Zeke Tomp.
“I know but we have been chasing after these damn wolves for weeks and they keep eluding us,” Matthias complained.
“It is a lord's duty to always be alert and be a good example to his troops,” the knight continued.
Matthias could only roll his eyes at that, Zeke had always just recited rules and virtues at him, without really trying to teach him the value in them, that part he always had to figure out himself.
The young lord sat up more straight in his saddle and began scanning his surroundings for activity as he had for two weeks already.
They were a small group of soldiers after his father had split up the hunting party into three parts to search the forest. His group contained twenty guardsmen, three adventurers with their five orphans, and three knights.
After confirming that everyone was where they were supposed to be, Matthias let his gaze wander toward the surrounding trees. The forest was mainly used for hunting game by the nobles of the area, so paths were not too well established, and the undergrowth was dense.
Matthias couldn't make out anything interesting just trees and bushes and one or two animals running around. He suppressed a yawn when a random beam of light fell on something dark for a moment hidden in a patch of tall fern.
Stopping his horse, he frowned and tried to get a better look at whatever he just saw, the undergrowth was shaking slightly in the vicinity but whatever it was eluded his gaze.
The party also stopped, and Zeke moved his horse next to Matthias. “What is the matter, milord?”
“I am not certain, but I saw something over there,” he replied still focusing on the fern.
The knight followed his gaze, narrowing his eyes to see. “AMBU… !”
A scream cut through the warning and everything devolved into chaos in a matter of moments.
Matthias whirled around trying to make out the origin of the yelling.
A large wolf two and a half meters long had crashed into the guardsmen's formation and dispersed them. One unlucky man had braved the brunt of the assault and was screeching infernally as the wolf tore him apart.
The rest of the guardsmen didn't fare too much better, once they tried to assault the wolf, five more broke out of the tree line from both sides and attacked their rear. The formation was in shambles it was every man for himself, and soon more corpses littered the ground.
The adventurers in the vanguard fared better, only being a group of three they moved as one and prevented themselves from being split apart. They were still surrounded by multiple dire wolves and had positioned themselves back-to-back.
Taking this all in took only a second but it was a second too long as Matthias's brain didn't connect the thing, he saw with the attack fast enough.
His eyes darting back to the front, he could only see the leaping maw of a wolf in front of him.
His training saved his life. He pumped as much mana as he could into his left arm and managed to raise his shield in time to at least block the teeth. His horse couldn't take the impact though and toppled to the side, Matthias crashed down with it and lost his orientation for a second.
Shaking his head, he tried to make out the location of his attacker and was greeted by a growling line of sharp teeth.
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He screamed at the beast and tried to get his sword out of its scabbard, but he couldn't, his current position making it impossible.
Fear overcame the boy and he thought feverishly about how he could get out of this situation. The wolf pounced and opened its maw spewing blood all over him.
Matthias wiped his eyes free of the hot blood and saw a spear tip reaching out of the monster's mouth.
Something grabbed onto his arm, he turned around and still saw Sir Zeke pulling on him. He just looked at the knight confused, and his brain didn't seem to work.
The knight then slapped him across the face and yelled, “Get up and defend yourself!”
The slap seemingly restarted Matthias's brain, he quickly got back onto his feet and looked at the battlefield. Only a few seconds could have passed maximum but over half of the guardsmen were dead. One of the knights had rallied four of the remaining guards to his side and tried to reach the rest.
Matthias couldn't see the adventurers anymore without his vantage point on his horse.
A couple of meters to his right he could see the orphans being attacked by smaller dire wolves, probably the unevolved ones.
Zeke and the remaining knight had quickly positioned themselves next to their lord, they were being circled by a couple of the large and smaller ones and basically devoured by hungry eyes.
“The pack is way bigger than the tracks suggested,” Zeke growled. “We need to get Lord Matthias to a horse.”
“I will not leave my men,” he protested, having found his bearings with his sword finally in hand.
“You will do what you must,” the knight yelled without taking an eye off the circling wolves.
The words hit Matthias hard, they were close to the family words - “We do what we must” - but he had never imagined them to be used like this.
One of the smaller wolves was the first brave enough to attack, he pounced on the other knight and tried to push him to the ground. His bravado yielded him nothing though as the knight simply sidestepped the foolish assault and cut the wolf down with a single strike.
The knights slowly began to move in the direction of their abandoned horses, which to their credit hadn't run off too far from the fight. Always keeping their lord between them they cut down two more brave small wolves as the bigger ones watched them.
“What the hell are they waiting for,” the second knight asked, his voice surprisingly calm for the situation.
“They send in their weakest to test us, they know we are the most dangerous here, but they will rush us soon,” Zeke growled back. “Once they do, I will rush in the direction of the horses with Lord Matthias, and you will follow behind us and keep our backs free.”
Matthias breathed heavily, the fear making it hard to get air but at the same time he steeled himself for the upcoming fight, and then the big ones charged.
Zeke rushed forward, catching the wolves off guard, and in a feat of strength smacked the wolf in front of him to the side with his war hammer.
Matthias lunged at the next wolf trying to imitate the move from before. He sidestepped and managed to not get hit, he then stabbed at the beast's side strengthening his thrust with a good chunk of his mana, his sword piercing only a few centimeters before stopping, he could feel the impact with the bone.
Oh damn.
The wolf threw itself to the side with a growl right into him, his sword nearly got knocked out of his hand, and he stumbled.
He jumped back before he could fall and managed to stay on his feet.
Zeke grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, as they both pumped mana into their legs to propel them just a little bit further.
Behind him, Matthias could hear the wailing of wolves and the clashing of claws on metal. Gritting his teeth he continued forward, just a couple of meters left.
Was that hope? If it was it was crushed as a huge wolf came charging out of the woods and dragged one of the horses to the ground with ease, the other ones finally running off.
Matthias had thought the other wolves big but this one was a true beast, and it knew it.
Fur black and grey with teeth as long as daggers it looked at them with hunger in its big dark eyes as it broke the neck of the horse with an audible crack.
“Ah, shit,” Zeke said stopping on the spot. “What a garbage way of finding out that the rumors were true.”
Matthias looked at his knight with growing horror, he had never heard the man curse but in this situation, it was probably reasonable. The beast in front of them was most certainly a dire wolf alpha, a twice-evolved dire wolf.
“What are we going to do,” Matthias asked panicked, looking back to the second knight who didn't look so good anymore. He had killed two of the evolved wolves but was bleeding all over and still in a fight with two more and a couple of unevolved ones.
The other three big ones were behind them, growling at their prey and Matthias could see movement in the thick next to them.
Sir Zeke was looking around frantically. “Alone I could take that alpha, but I can't fight off the other ones and protect you at the same time.” Matthias could hear the frustration in his voice.
Matthias opened his mouth to order his knight to kill the Alpha while he tried to hold off the others, as a hunting horn bellowed close by.
The alpha instantly spun around and out of the undergrowth, multiple horsemen emerged, led by Lord Rowan himself. His cloak flew in the wind and his helmet hid his face; he looked like a hero out of the fairy tales.
He charged straight at the alpha while his men circled around and engaged the rest of the pack, trying to rescue the survivors.
Lord Rowan stood up in his stirrup and threw his spear with full power at the wolf. It dodged faster than its size would suggest, and the spear landed in a tree going through half of the spear's length and sticking out on the other side.
The alpha crouched down ready to attack the horse, but Lord Rowan gave it no chance to, he jumped off and landed a meter in front of the growling beast.
Matthias ripped his gaze off the starting battle and turned around to where the second knight was. The fight had escalated but there was still the clump of wolves remaining so he charged straight there, willingly ignoring the fact that he could still easily die.
The battle had turned with the arrival of reinforcements. With their formations intact and the battle returning towards an orderly engagement, the wolves were at a disadvantage.
He charged at an unevolved wolf that was distracted by a rider and rammed his sword into his hind leg, jumping back after to avoid its retaliation. Once it turned around to bite him, the rider used the chance and pierced its neck.
The wolf went down howling, but it was held in place by the spear, Matthias finished it off with a thrust to the heart.
Next, he looked around and spotted the knight that had protected him on the ground. He ran over and wanted to help him when a bloodied evolved wolf jumped over another dead one.
Before it could reach him, Zeke was at his side, probably having been behind him the whole time, and crushed the wolf's skull into the ground.
Matthias climbed over the corpse and finally reached the knight; he was already dead. Matthias was frustrated but continued on.
Looking around for his next enemy, he already wanted to charge over to where the guardsmen had been slaughtered when a strong hand held him back.
“That's enough, milord,” Zeke told him with a stern look, “let the knights finish them off”.
“But I have to find my men,” Matthias replied loudly.
Zeke shook his head. “You can find them after the battle,” then he looked to the side a hint of regret on his face at the dead knight. Matthias gritted his teeth, and his fingers began to whiten from the pressure of his grip.
I failed, I should have stayed and fought, then he would be alive.
The fight didn't take more than a few minutes from this point on, with the alpha slain by Lord Rowan and some of the knights chasing remnants of the pack into the woods.
Matthias was striding the battlefield, inspecting the carnage. Only the three adventurers, two knights, and three guardsmen had survived, most were wounded and one of the adventurers probably wouldn't make it.
The casualties on the beasts' side were equally devastating thirty-three wolves dead around half once evolved the rest unevolved. Matthias stopped at the spot where the orphans were torn to pieces and took in the saddening sight. The boy who was so confident only the previous night caught his eye. ‘Failure’ was the only word he could think of. While he was still contemplating this disaster someone approached him.
“How are you feeling,” his father asked him, stopping right beside him.
“How should I feel,” he asked his father.
“That was not the question.”
Matthias breathed in deeply trying to contain his emotions to the best of his abilities.
“Most of my hunting party is dead, I was going to flee, and you had to save us. Pretty sure to say this was a failure on all points,” he avoided the question.
Lord Rowan sighed, not being blind to his son's evasiveness but he didn't press the issue. “From what I heard you were the first one to notice anything and you fought with valor,” he complimented his son.
“I didn't even realize what I saw and running away is certainly not courageous.”
His father shook his head and changed the subject, “The pack was way bigger than anticipated, I had planned for them to attack the smaller unit I split off, but they were smart and went for yours.”
“You planned this,” Matthias looked at him with a frown.
“We couldn't just keep running after them so I put out some bait and split up our units if they were more along the numbers, we thought they were, you wouldn't have been decimated like this even in an ambush,” the man explained.
“You were ready to sacrifice this whole unit,” Matthias said, getting louder and louder.
“No, your unit wasn't supposed to be attacked, the unit that had more augmenters with strong mana wells, was supposed to be the target and they were aware of their purpose,” Lord Rowan stayed calm.
“AND WHY WERE WE NOT INFORMED ABOUT THE PLAN,” Matthias yelled at his father, his head red and tears of frustration welling up in his eyes.
“Calm down,” his father turned towards him narrowing his eyes.
“HOW CAN I CALM DOWN THESE CHILDREN ARE DEAD BECAUSE YOU KEPT THE PLAN FROM US!”
“Enough! This group was the non-combat group, I put you and the children in this group on purpose to keep you as far away from the battle as possible,” Lord Rowan piercing his son with his eyes. “The knights knew the plan and they were supposed to keep it secret because I didn't want to hurt your pride.”
Matthias stepped back with surprise. “You put me in the non-combat group?”
“Yes, I watched you in the other engagements and you kept getting into trouble trying to prove yourself, against the lowest ranks of monsters that might work out but not here,” his father answered harshly not holding back anymore.
Matthias was red with shame as some of the adventurers openly watched the whole ordeal while the knights had the decency to pretend, they weren't as well.
Lord Rowan sighed and then continued with a less harsh tone, “You made it out alive, and so did some of the others. That is something to be thankful for.” With those words, he turned around and left his brooding son alone with his thoughts.