Chapter 32
Downfall Theory
Sensing the magic gathering in my arm, the lizard that was charging at me try to quickly change it direction but, it was already too late, the lizard was cut in half before it even had the chance to dodge.
I examine the lizard whose body was now split perfectly in half. Confirming that it was dead. I look around at all the other corpses of monsters that was laying around me.
What the hell is going on? I’ve been getting attack by monsters left and right today. Did I do something to piss nature off? Heh, who am I kidding, just me simply breathing is enough to piss the entire world off.
“Alright Max, that was the last one you can put the barrier down.”
“Um, Anna?” As I approach the cart I look at Max who looked terrified.
*Sigh* “There’s a monster behind me isn’t it?” Max and the people that was around the cart he was guarding, all gave me an affirmative nod.
The moment I turn around I nearly felt my heart jump out my chest. I knew that there was going to be a huge monster behind me, but what I didn’t expect was for it to already be lunging at me in midair.
Seeing the monster baring it’s fangs at me, I gave up on trying to attacking it altogether and knelt down on the ground. Thanks to my sizes, the monster completely miss me and ended jumping past me. The moment I saw his shadow fly over me, I quickly got back up to face it.
The beast had thick black fur cover its entire body. Most people would mistake this beast to be bear due to its size, but I knew immediately that it was a blood wolf.
While a blood wolf may be the same size of a bear it’s much more agile and ferocious. Combine those two traits together with thick fur that’s hard to pierce, and you got yourself a pain in the ass for an opponent that doesn’t understand the meaning "stay down".
Realizing that it miss me, the beast turn around to face me. I was shock the moment I saw its face. Inside his mouth was a short sword that looked pretty similar to mines. I look down at my hand and realize my sword was gone.
That bastard took my sword!
The blood wolf toss my sword away from him. The beast examine where my sword landed, as if he was making sure that it wasn’t close enough for me to reach it. Once it was done examining my sword, turn its attention back towards me. I’m not sure if I’m seeing things, but I felt that the beast was smiling at me when it bare its fangs at me again.
"You think you’re clever huh?” While I do admit taking my sword was smart, this fight would’ve been over instantly if he aim for my neck instead of my sword, but that would’ve been too easy.
Seeing the blood wolf standing there observing me, told me that he was toying with me. The blood wolf continue to watch me, I guess with my sword gone it expects me to panic or something. If this overgrown mutt thinks I’m going to curl up in a ball and wait to die, then he truly has no idea who he’s dealing with.
The blood wolf pounces at me, I guess it realize that I wasn’t going to coward in fear. Before the creature could get close, a strong gust of wind blew it far away from me.
“Don’t you think you should hold on to your sword a little bit better?” Claire gave me a mocking smile as she approach me.
“This would’ve of never happen if you guys warn me that there was a monster approaching me sooner.”
“We did try to warn you, but the monster was moving so fast that by the time we could say anything, it was already near you. Beside isn’t this more your fault for not paying attention to your surrounding?”
*Tch* She’s right that I acted like an amateur. But I refuse admit it, especially since she got that annoying smile on her face.
“Yea well…”
“Um, ladies… I don’t think the monster is dead.” I look towards the direction Max was pointing to see the blood wolf was charging towards us.”
“You talking about me being off my game, but you failed to kill a single wolf.”
“That’s because I need to focus all my magic into a single point for it to be strong enough to kill anything.”
“You serious?” The childlike smile that usually be on Claire’s face was gone and was replace with a more serious expression. I look back at the wolf to see that it was getting dangerously close to us.
This blood wolf is definitely stronger than the last one I fought. Even though Claire hit it with a half ass attack. It still should’ve taken a awhile for it to recovery from that. Yet the moment it touch the ground it got back up and immediately close the distance between us.
The blood wolf jumps in the air and throws his entire body weight at us. Both Claire and I threw ourselves out of its path before it could crush us. Due to how fast the wolf moving, it’s slid across the ground as soon as it landed. The blood wolf turn around to face us as he tore through the ground he slid on.
“Claire, I think now’s the time to fucking focus!”
“I wish I could, but I don’t think it’s going to give me a chance to do that.”
Shit, my sword gone, and Claire is currently useless, there’s only one person I can count on now.
The wolf was struck by an arrow just as it was about to attack us again. The wolf turn his attention towards the cart, on top of it was a kid wielding a bow. Taking one last look at me and Claire, the blood wolf turn away from us and headed straight for the cart.
Aaron fire a few more arrows at the wolf, but it simply shrug off all of Aaron’s attack.
“Aaron! You’re not going to hurt him with regular arrows, either shoot him in the eye or hit him with a stronger attack!”
As the wolf continue to charge at Aaron, he raises one of his arm to cover his face.
He’s protecting is face? Does that mean he understood what I said?!
I look at Aaron who was now shaking in fear.
“Aaron! Hurry up and shoot him!”
“…” Aaron remain unresponsive, even though he had a clear shot at the wolf, he for some reason refuse to take the shot.
Why the hell did he freeze up all of a sudden? We been in quite a few fights this past week, so there’s no reason for him to be afraid…
Thinking back to all our past fight, I quickly figure out what is wrong with Aaron.
We have been in a lot of fights, so Aaron is definitely use to getting his hands dirty, but he’s never been in danger before. In every single one of our fights, Aaron took a position far behind me so he could attack without worries. I've always been the main target.
Which means this is the first he ever actually been in danger in combat. Not to mention the wolf is paying very close attention to him, there’s no way he’ll be able to catch him by surprise like everyone else he fought.
The wolf suddenly stops just as he was about to reach the cart. The wolf raise his hand up swipes it across the air where the cart was. An invisible crack appears around the cart where the wolf swiped his hand at.
He notice Max’s barrier too? This guy just keep becoming more of a problem. I look at Max who seemed to be struggling to fix the crack that appear in his barrier.
I made Max put barrier up to protect the horses and keep everyone else from getting in my way. I doubt he’ll be able keep it up any longer, since he had it up ever since every monster in the forest started to attack us.
“Damn it!” I quickly pick myself up from off the ground ran the opposite direction of the cart and went straight for my sword.
“Hey where are you going?!” I ignore Claire and continue to run.
“Aaron! Hurry up and hit that wolf with your strongest attack!!” I shouted.
“B-But it’s not going to work on him! I’m going to miss!” I didn’t look back at Aaron, but I’m confident that he’s probably crying like a baby or something.
“Yea knowing you, you’re probably going to fuck up, but that’s nothing new. Did you forget what happen last week how you nearly got yourself and me killed?”
“Sis, I’m….”
“I’m not done talking yet!” I quickly interrupted Aaron.
“That huge mistake you made nearly got both us of killed, but don’t forget that I was one that got us out that situation. So stop worry about fucking up, because you’re probably going to do it anyway.” I roll on the ground to quickly pick my sword up.
“But when you do make a mistake, I’ll fix it. Now stop acting like a pansy and fire already!”
“R-Right.” Aaron aims his bow at the wolf again. I could sense that he was gathering his magic into his arrow.
As soon as Aaron let go of his bowstring, the arrow flies towards the wolf at blinding speed. The blood wolf duck to the ground, since the Arrow was moving so fast , it was hard to tell where it was at, but since the wolf is still alive, I guess he dodge it. Which means the arrow is now flying towards me.
I place my sword and front of me to prepare myself. I figure the wolf would dodge Aaron’s attack since he was so
caution of him. That’s why I place myself directly behind it, so that even if Aaron miss, he still would hit him.
I swung my sword at an object that was moving too fast for me to see, but even though I couldn’t see it, I sense all the magic Aaron jam into. I felt my entire body get push back the moment his arrow touch my sword.
Shit, I nearly forgot how heavy this attack was, I remember last time he nearly kill me with this move. As I was getting push back, pour more of my magic into my sword, causing the arrow to fling away from me, and fly straight back at the wolf.
Unaware of the reproaching threat, the wolf raises his arm again to shatter Max’s barrier, but Aaron’s arrow lands straight into its head smashing him against the invisible barrier. Blood spatter all over Max’s transparent barrier, making it easily visible.
Seeing the wolf head split open like a watermelon, I didn’t think I needed to investigate to see if he was dead.
“Ok, was that the last one?!” I looked around the woods to see if anymore monsters wanted to join in on our little party, but I guess the wolf was the last to get an invitation, since no another monster was popping out from the trees.
“Good.” Put my sword back in its sheathe head back towards the cart. “Ok Max, NOW you can put the barrier down.”
The magic that I sense circling the cart disappear, as it faded, Max drop on the ground exhausted. No surprise, it must’ve took everything he had to keep that barrier up for so long.
“You had me scare there for second Anna, I thought you was going to leave us behind.” Claire walk up to me wearing her usual annoying smile.
“Trust me, I was thinking about it.” Claire let’s out a little laugh.
“I doubt that thought ever went into your head.” Claire jumps in front of me, cutting me off from reaching the cart.
“That was a nice speech you told to Aaron. He was feeling really down after that last speech you told him when the orcs attack, but I bet he feels better now.”
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I looked at Aaron who quickly looked away from me, desperately trying to act like he wasn’t staring at me.
“I only told him what he wanted to hear. He would’ve got us killed otherwise.”
“My, my. You really like to play the bad guy don’t you? If you keep acting like this you’re going to lose everyone you care about. No one likes a villain you know?”
“….” I walk towards Claire while slowly pulling my sword out its sheathe. As I approach her, she quickly moved out my way just before I could reach her.
“Mine your own business.” I whisper to her before I walk away. I didn’t look back at her. But I’m sure she got the message.
The moment I reach the cart, I jump on it and fell to the floor exhausted.
That was too close. I nearly made a mistake I would never be able to take back. If Claire didn’t get out my way I might have cut her down in front of everyone. For me to get this upset over just a few words. Being in this girl body must be affecting me. Heh, that’s a shitty excuse, but I’ll roll with it.
“We should’ve never left, we was better off staying at home.”
“Where did the hero go? Isn’t he supposed to be protecting us?”
The people around me begin to nervously talk to each other about our situation. Being the anti-social person I am, I just quietly listen to all their conservations to see if I could pick up any information from it.
“That was insane, where the hell did all those monster come from?” Max looked at me like I had the answer for some reason.
“I have no idea, I’m just as confuse as you.”
It seems everyone currently in shock, even I am. We were completely blindsided by a horde of monsters as we were approaching Athens. A group of goblins jump onto our carts and attack us, I have no idea what happen to the cart ahead of us. Since the annoying little goblins that jump on our cart hijack it and threw us off the road and into the forest. And ever since then we’ve been relentlessly attack by all sorts of monster.
“You think the hero is ok, I mean do you think the cart he was on, was attack as bad as us?”
“Probably, but I doubt anything bad happen to him.” If the heroes were that easy to kill, then I would’ve been took over this planet.
“Look!” One of people standing near the cart points towards a couple of horses that was carrying a cart with people in it.
Yea, I figure nothing happen to him.
“Is everyone alright?!” The hero jump off the cart ran towards us.
“We’re fine, but we did lose a few people when we got attack.” Someone from our cart shouted.
The hero stop to see that there were five people who bodies tore apart and some way or other lying near our car. Those five men were foolish people who tried to fight creatures far stronger than them.
“Damn it! What the hell is going on?!”
“Calm down.” Alexander walks up to the hero and grab him by his shoulder
“But this doesn’t make any sense! You saw the way they attack us, it was far too organized! You think that maybe what Cain said is….”
“Joseph!” The hero immediately stop talking the moment Alexander raise his voice.
“I’ll admit the predicament we’re in is quite weird, but it’s not going to get any better if we lose our composure. Right now more than ever, we need to stay calm.”
“Yea, you’re right.” The hero takes a deep breath to calm himself down. “So then what should we do?”
…..I’ve been watching these guys for a while, and from the looks of things Alexander seems to be the leader of their little party. I don’t know how he did it, but he got the hero completely under his control.
“I think the best thing to do right now is to set up camp.”
“Huh? You want us to spend the night in the forest that try to kill us just a few seconds ago?” I’m not sure who said that, but they said exactly what I was thinking.
“Indeed, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting.” The man that spoke up steps from the crowd that was gathering around the hero’s cart.
“We’re not that far from Athens, it should probably only take us half a day to reach it now. It’s better if we make a run for it and get the hell out of here as fast as possible.”
“True, we’re not that far from Athens, but if we continue to get attack like this while we’re on the move, than we’re going to be dead exhausted before we even catch a glimpse of Athens. So don’t you think it’s better to rest and prepare for any attacks, instead of rushing into what might potentially be another trap?”
Before the man could respond again, Alexander walks up towards him. “I know that you’re afraid, but don’t worry, our job is to protect you, now that we’re all together again, no one else is going to die, I promise you that.”
I’ll have to admit, he’s pretty good at using that mouth of his. He manage to shush everyone up and make them follow his plan. I’m pretty sure he got the hero to follow him by doing the exact same thing.
“If anyone else have any ideas, than please tell me. I would like to hear what you think is our best course of action.”
“….” Crowd stayed silent, almost if they was too afraid to speak up.
“I guess nobody else have anything to add?”
Of course no else is going to say anything. If they did say something, you’ll just shoot their idea down. Not only that, but he got the hero faithfully following whatever he does, and because of that everyone here has put their life in his hand. I’m starting to understand why James warn me about this guy, he’s definitely dangerous.
“Well then, since we’re going with my plan. I would like to assign a role for everyone. So I would appreciate if everyone quickly gather around me, we need to hurry up and secure this area before we’re caught off guard again.”
Everyone that was around the cart I was in went towards Alexander. Seeing everyone gather around him, I jump off the cart and walk in the opposite direction of where everyone was at.
“Anna, where are you going?” I didn’t have to look behind me to know that Max was following me.
“Nowhere.”
“You’re not going to help out?”
“Nope.” The day I work together with the hero, is the day I will personally end my miserable existence.
“What about you? You seem like the kind guy who likes try to help people in any way possible.”
“Well I would like to help, but I don’t think I’m in shape to do anything after I held that barrier up for so long.”
“That’s a nice excuse.”
“It’s the truth, I’m really exhausted.” I look at, Max he definitely looked tired. His face looked slightly pale, and he was breathing heavy even though we didn’t walk that far from the cart. Those two signs show that he nearly depleted all of his mana.
“Apparently not that exhausted since you’re following me around.”
“Well.” Max did his classic, look away while scratching his head routine. ”I’m just making you sure you don’t end up in danger.”
“How kind of you, but I can take care of myself.”
“I know that, but I think it’s safer if we stick together especially after what happen today.” Max looked back at the cart where the hero and Alexander was.”
“Did you hear the hero mention Cain? You think that Cain knew what was going on with the monsters?”
“Who knows.” I heard Cain talking about monsters, but I really couldn’t hear their conversation well, since they were so far away.
“I thought things would calm down once the orcs were dealt with, but things seems to be getting worse. Monsters are getting more and more aggressive. You have any idea why they’re acting like this?” Max once again looks at me like I somehow have the answer.
“Nope, I have no idea why they’re acting like this.” Well I should say, I don’t care. Actually that would be a lie. I am a little bit curious about why the monsters are acting so strange, but I got millions of other problems right now. Like Alice, the hero, and Alexander. I really I don’t have time to worry about some beast weird behavior.
“The demon King’s downfall.”
“What?” I looked behind me to see that Claire was swaying around with her arms behind her back, like she was kid who just stole something.
“Oops, sorry did I say that out loud? You see being the nosy person I am, sometimes the info I gather randomly falls out my mouth. Ignore me, I wouldn’t want to piss you off again.”
Yea right. She said that on purpose so she could get my attention, she just like a kid who would do whatever it takes to be the center of attention. The smart thing to do would be to ignore her, but unfortunately she did catch my attention since she mention me.
“Alright Claire, what do you have to say?”
“Hehe.” Claire let out a playful giggle, which pretty much told me I made the wrong decision to let her talk.
“As I said before, I can be quite the nosy person.” Claire said as if that was something to be proud of, even though that was the main reason how she got capture by orcs.
“The monsters weird behavior interested me to the point I had to research them. I came across a lot of rumors as I investigated them, the one that stuck with me the most is evolution. But of course it was just a rumor and just like every other rumor it was quickly shot down, since it’s impossible for anything to evolve and such a short time span, but as ridiculous as it may sound I fully believe that rumor is true.”
“So what does this have to do with the Demon King?” Claire looks behind her to see that Aaron was approaching our
group. “You mention the Demon King, how does he fit in all this?
A smile grew on Claire face, as if she was waiting for someone to ask that question.
“That’s a good question Aaron, I was getting to that part.” Claire let’s out a cough to clear her throat.
“As I mention before, I believe that the evolution rumor may be true. But at first just like everyone else I didn’t believe it until I did more research. And weirdly enough my research took me two hundred years in the past, to the downfall of the demon king. You see where I’m going with this right? The Demon king’s death, and the monsters weird behavior our not unrelated incidents.
“And what makes you think their related?” Aaron looked at Claire with a stern face. Claire remain calm, unfazed by Aaron interruption.
“The history we were told is flawed.”
“Huh? What are you…”
“Shhh.” Claire raise one of her fingers to shush Aaron. “Patience, I’ll explain.”
“You guys all heard the stories of how the last hero kill the Demon King, but don’t you remember how history constantly reminded us how the Demon King just like every other entity was unkillable? They repeatable told us how every hero that fought the Demon King defeated him, but could never permanently put him down, yet out of nowhere a new hero somehow manage kill him, isn’t that weird? And what makes it weirder is that they never explain how exactly the hero manage to kill him.
Claire raises her hand up and shows two of her fingers.
“I have two theories….”