Morning's sunrays caught me looking at the amulet hanging on my chest. The raven head bauble gives me a huge increase in mental resistance - 1.5 units. The young necromancers left a couple of hours ago, and the unconscious people have yet to come to their senses. All this time, endless inter-faction battles were going on a couple of kilometers away.
Another thunderous explosion made me worried.
«Those monsters might appear here at any moment»
I thought, glancing towards the unconscious six bodies.
«Maybe I should drag these unfortunates somewhere far away? There was a wheelbarrow near the greenhouse...»
“Boy, watch them over, I'll be right back.” Having given the order to the four-pawed friend, I, wagging along the path, rushed to the greenhouse.
There was indeed a green-painted two-wheeled cart nearby; inside, some foul-smelling fertilizer remained, which I immediately got rid of and pushed it towards the recent battlefield.
When I returned, the level three bald man was on his feet checking on other people's conditions. Except for that petite girl, almost everyone regained consciousness. As soon as I appeared in the view, rattling the cart, five pairs of eyes, at first with apprehension, and then with surprise, stared at me.
“Good morning, everyone!” I lowered the handles of the cart, and it rumbled metal against the stone path. Nobody answered me.
«Yeah, away for two minutes, and suddenly I'm an outsider.»
“Have you seen my dog?”
The bushes, from which the bat had recently attacked me, rustled, and the dog jumped out into the clearing: his mouth was covered in blood, and he held a long clawed stump in his mouth. The recently awakened people screamed as expected and grabbed the bone tools lying next to them.
«Yeah, I should have taken them somewhere else.» A belated thought came to me.
“Calm down! You're safe, this is my friend and he won't do anything to you. My name is Sasha, and like you, I fell under the control of the Mother tree.” In a calm and as friendly a tone as possible, I tried to start a dialog with them.
“What mother? Where are we?” The bald big man, not lowering the bone ax handle, shot at me with his small eyes.
“I'll tell you everything, don't worry!” I went to the boy and tried grabbing the piece of dead flesh out of his mouth. The dog growled loudly and worried exclamations reverberated around the district. “Give.., give it.. to me..”
I said, puffing, trying to take his food. The foolish pet understood this in his own way, and, bending down his front paws and wagging his tail furiously, began to play, pulling the “toy” back.
«Damn it, why is he so strong?»
As a result, the stump of some hideous creature slipped out of my hands, and I fell on my butt, and the dog, artfully bouncing back, began to jump in front of me from side to side, raising whole clods of soil. Then he just sat down and put the stump next to me, waving his tail on the ground like a broom. Delighted, I tried to grab it, but was immediately fooled. Dog swiftly grabbed the stump with his teeth and ran off somewhere, breaking the bushes, leaving me alone in a quite the situation. After a few seconds of confusion, I turned to the shocked audience with a smile:
“Well, have you seen it? It's just a dog, don't be afraid of it. So, put your weapons down and let's talk calmly.” I put forward a logical proposal, at least it seemed to me as one, but the request was ignored.
“What are you, a moron?” The bald man spoke again. “He is not your pet, but a level 5 neutral, and you yourself are a sketchy guy without a level! So, we will not drop the weapons! Answer my questions: where are we?!”
«Okay, I can only accept the missed opportunity to have a normal conversation.»
“In the children's park.” I spoke with a sigh.
“How did we end up here?” He blurted out another question.
“It's not me, but the Mother tree! Or rather, at first, an octopus... Let me tell you first how I got here myself, and what happened?” Without waiting for his consent, I began the story with how I ran and escaped from insects.
“... I, being under the control of the Mother tree, fought with necromancers, but their spells did not work on me. And then, they switched their attacks to the heart, and when they killed it, the control it had over me disappeared. Later, I had come to an agreement with them: I do not kill them, they do not touch you all and my dog. Then we parted ways.”
Phew…
Greedily inhaling more air, I licked my lips, dry from a long story-telling.
«I would really like to drink some water.»
“An interesting story...” The big man thought it over. “You say how long have you've been out?”
I looked thoughtfully at the tops of the trees.
“I think about five hours! I went to the park in the evening, and when I woke up, the full moon was already high up in the sky.”
“Interesting! And what do you think today's date is?”
“May 20, I think.” I furrowed my brows, counting on the fingers of my hand in my mind. “What's wrong?”
“Yes, the fact is that I left the camp with my ten to hunt on May 26th. So, you spent at least six days here. It doesn't fit somehow.” The man said ominously, and an icy wave of unkind foreboding swept over my skin.
«A WEEK'S GONE BY? Damn you, piece of wood, I've been feeding you for a whole week? Then why did I even regain consciousness?»
“Vadim, I went hunting on the 23rd,” the voice of sitting on the ground, a twenty-something old thin red-haired guy was heard.
Other comrades in misfortune confirmed his words, naming different dates. The triumphant smile on the face of the bald man turned into an indignant one, as inside he was sure that he had found me out. And, in the end, the words of his comrades, on the contrary, indirectly confirmed my story. Surely, he is now asking himself: how much time has passed?
He handed the bone ax to the red-haired guy and came closer to me. I was in a complete stupor, unable to put two and two together. A hefty, calloused hand landed on my shoulder.
“Um, sorry man, the world's changed and you look too suspicious. Moreover, that neutral monster-pet of yours, some crap sticking out of everyone’s chest, incomprehensible skills and abilities, and a foul-smelling cart. Oh, right, why did you even get it here?” The man's voice was now confused and somewhat regretful.
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“Oh, I wanted to transport you all somewhere, to a safe place!”
“In a wheelbarrow for manure?” The bald man asked dumbfoundedly.
“Well, yes,” the grip on my shoulder intensified, and there was an explosion; everyone turned anxiously towards the amusement park. A huge fireball swept over the trees and flew skyward. “I didn't see any other way. As you can see, there is still a fight going on here, and you have been lying around for a very long time!”
“Okay, I get it.” He finally relaxed after the lengthy explanation, finally believing me. Then Vadim turned to the other ones and shouted. “Grab a weapon and accept an invite to the group.”
Attention! Vadim Volkov invites you to join the group.
Accept or decline the invitation?
I was surprised for a moment, but then quickly said:
“Accept.”
The bald man nodded at me and moved towards the other survivors, touching everyone except the still sleeping girl. After Vadim's quick commands, people momentarily became motivated and grabbed the weapons. For myself, I chose the usual bone pair - a club and a turtle-like buckler.
Waving a crappy weapon in the air, I noticed an unarmed man and approached him with a question:
“A pacifist?”
He shook his head and answered curtly:
“Mage.” That's it. A short answer and a deafening silence.
«Dung it, how strange everyone has become.»
Feeling awkward, I was about to move away from him, but he suddenly said:
“Thanks for the rescue.”
“Ah ..” I hesitated, and became even more embarrassed than a couple of seconds ago. - No worries, man. We all got extremely lucky. Maybe you'll change your mind and get some weapons? Perhaps it will be useful.
“I'll carry Rita. She most likely won't wake up anytime soon.” Dry and unemotionally said the red-haired.
The guy wasn't very talkative, and I asked a few more simple, meaningless questions, getting short and monosyllabic answers. As a result, I pulled out a few grains of useful information from him: name's Zhenya; the girl is his friend, per the camp's higher up's command, they went out on patrol and fell into the clutches of the altered ones from green faction and the octopus. Only two of them survived. And now, I understood that all the people gathered here were part of the camp of survivors, and more or less knew each other. Another interlocutor soon joined our conversation. And I heard an absolutely similar story about the kidnapping, now from Yegor.
I did not have the time to fish out anything else - Vadim intervened, calling everyone to him. He began to describe our future route:
“Well, then, we will pass along the edge of the territory of reptiles and insects. Try to not make too much noise in skirmishes, go around large groups, don’t go for exp...”
And then we talked about the specifics of the strengths and weaknesses of the monsters, but I was already familiar with all this. And, when the short briefing came to an end, the out-of breath dog jumped out into the clearing and, with his tongue sticking out almost to the ground, rushed to me. The amount of blood on his skin increased significantly. People, swearing, shied away from him in all directions, and he, completely ignorant to all this, began to pace around me, scratching me with his rough skin.
“Sasha!” Coughing, Vadim attracted my attention. “The dog must be left behind.”
I sighed and ran the hand along the dog's nape. Looks like we have to part ways.
“Then, I wish you good luck in your perilous campaign and I hope to see you sometime in the future.” I smiled at Vadim.
“How dare you?!” Shrieked silent until now middle-aged lady. From the moment we met, she only shot at me with her eyes and whispered in the ears, first to one, then to the other. Next to her, like a ponytail, loitered around a plump man.
“Alina, shut up!” The leader of the group stared menacingly at the impudent woman.
“Don't shut me up! HE leaves people for a dog!” The restless woman pointed her long-nailed finger in my direction. “And I said right then: you shouldn't trust him! No one in the camp knows him! How did he survive alone, huh? He told you some fable, about the fact that he is our savior, hanged noodles on your ears! Idiots, he must be one of those cannibals or even worse. He needs to be dealt with right now!”
Vadim reddened more and more with her every word; the jaws played on his cheekbones, and his huge fists clenched tightly to whitened knuckles. For a second it seemed to me that he might just hit her in the face, that hag. However, he restrained himself and further raised his voice:
“I told you to shut your mouth and stop croaking!” Giving vent to emotions, he continued a little quieter. “I take it you’re suggesting we kill him because of your suspicions?”
As soon as there was a second's pause, I decided to put in my two cents:
“Actually, I have some friends at the camp.” Vadim stopped glaring at her and looked at me with interest. “Pakhom and a ten-year-old girl Katya.”
Hearing this, the expressions on the faces of those present instantly changed to incredulous, surprised, skeptical, and the woman even frowned, as if she had gobbled up a whole lemon.
“How do you know Catherine?” Vadim broke the silence.
I scratched my nose and replied:
“When people altered, we were in one place.”
“Can you prove it?” Vadim asked gloomily.
“Ehh,” I had to think a little. “I once gave her the skill book of sacred healing.”
“Oh, I can't!” Alina started croaking, and the plump guy, loitering next to her, chuckled. “It turns out that the strongest mage-healer, one of the main keepers of people's hope, a protector, owes everything to you??? Do you even believe in your own lies?”
“Katya, the strongest mage? I didn't expect this...” I was taken aback; the news was too overwhelming. “Well, let's say it's clear with her, but what about Pakhom? He's an old grumbler, with a bald patch on his head, and his character is... peculiar, scandalous, same as the lady over here.”
I turned to Vadim, but nodded towards the eccentric woman. I'm afraid if I communicate directly with her, I'll lose Aqen's blessing again.
“Never heard of him,” the big man shook his head.
“This is bad. I wonder what happened to him...” I mumbled softly under my breath.
“Hmm, if you guarantee that the animal will not attack, then you can come with us.” Vadim suddenly offered, realizing that they, indeed, were waiting for a dangerous journey.
“What-what-what?” Alina yelled, but I ignored her once again.
“Well, my buddy never attacked you, right?” I gently patted his ear. “And while you were unconscious, it didn’t bite off anyone’s arm or leg. It seems to me that if you yourself do nothing to him, then he will not consider you as enemies or food.”
“I'm not going if we don't leave this abomination behind!” Said the eccentric madame.
“Fine,” Vadim agreed easily and offered, as it seems to me, the best option. “Hide in the administrative building, I will gather a group, and we will try to break through to you in three days.”
The expression on her face was too pleasant to look at, and I could hardly restrain myself from smiling widely.
“All right, let's move out!” Vadim powerfully clapped his huge palms, and our small group headed for the exit from the park. To my great regret, Alina pursed her lips and, after her admirer’s plea, went with us.
Leaving the par's territory, I really felt that I had spent a lot of time entrapped by a mind-controlling monster. Gazing at the current city's state, one might think that people haven't been here for more than a decade. Lush vegetation was everywhere around: on houses, roads, and cars. The surroundings looked more like an African jungle than a small town bordering Europe.
Clouds of small insects flew through the air, not much different from the common summer parasites: midges and mosquitoes. My companions, protected by woody skin, did not pay attention to them, but small parasites got on my nerves: my human skin over time forced out the old wooden roots, taken by the Mother tree, and, consequently, there was no more cool passive protection.
We advanced very slowly through the city taken by the monsters. Literally every twenty meters they stopped and looked for shelter. A little more, as it seemed to me, Vadim would begin to put his ear to the ground and lick the ground.
«At this rate, we will reach the camp in a week.»
I thought, feeling the rumbling of my stomach. Hunger and thirst insistently reminded of their presence.
Yard after yard we passed in soundless silence, only occasionally broken by the commands of the group's leader. To my surprise, no one showed off or complained, not even that pointed-nosed woman. Everyone understood that their lives depended on extreme caution and luck.
I moved almost at the forefront, next to Vadim. He said that the dog might smell enemies. However, I understood that he needed to watch me. From the curious glances of our new comrades, the skin itched almost worse than from the bites of the ubiquitous small insects.
«This gorgon was able to influence the general opinion about me. Or my story was too fable and incredible, crumpled and chaotic. The main objective is to somehow get to the camp, and there it won’t matter whatever they think.»
“Stop!” A powerful female voice broke the silence.
“Did the lady decide to remind about herself again?” I let out a sigh and turned back. Surprisingly, everyone else was looking at her intently.
“Over there.” She pointed at the three-story house covered in greenery. - I feel a monster with big loot.
“Understood,” Vadim said briefly, and led us in a completely different direction - across the road, to the territory of insects.