Chapter 95
“In the middle of the forest” Part 2
“Ice creation!” She whispered as she touched the earth with her right hand. Ice spread out under her open palm at the same time as the wolf growled and jumped on the fallen prey. A huge spike of ice formed in front of her, piercing the wolf’s stomach as it fell.
And as the huge animal struggled to try to use its paws to brace itself against the ice and flee, Kalysto got up and ran away, as she had always done every time her stepfather tripped over every single thing she carefully left lying on the floor every night, making sure the noise woke her up every time he came in and she had the time to flee out the window. Even if it meant she’d get beaten up the next morning before she left for school, again. But that always seemed so much better to her than the other alternative.
A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead and it didn’t take Kalysto long to catch up with them. Although she saw no trace of Katia’s mother she could see the girl being shaken by the soldier whose age was around thirty.
“Wanting to escape?” said the man, but the expression on his face and the way his dark eyes roamed the soft curves of Katia’s body said otherwise.
“Ice arrows!” Whispered Kalysto, drawing her bow and three arrows materialized in it, to then be launched against the man’s neck. The former waitress watched the body fall as the man struggled for breath, but she just watched him silently as he died, no emotion reflected on her cold face. “Come on!” She ordered, turning to the trembling, pale girl, who could not believe the ease with which the woman who had saved her three times had killed another human in front of her. “Unless you’d rather stay here with him and wait to see if someone can cure or revive him.”
“No, ma’am!” The girl immediately followed her as they both went through the thick foliage until they found a path that would have led through the middle of the forest, and not far from there was Katia’s mother, behind a muscular man who was fighting against five huge wolves, trying to protect the carriage of a small merchant. Whose other guard had already been killed. “Mom!” cried the young girl, unaware of the danger she was exposing them to by revealing their location.
“Duplication! Duplication!” Whispered Kalysto as she shot two arrows with penetration stats into the heads of two wolves.
[You have gained 700 experience points!]
[You have earned 1800 experience points!]
[You have earned 300 experience points!]
[You’ve gained 400 experience points!]
Katia started running towards her mother while Kalysto kept doubling up and shooting arrows at the rest of the wolves, saving the life of the merchant and the knight guarding him.
[You’ve gained 300 experience points!]
[You have gained 400 experience points!]
[You have gained 400 experience points!]
But before the little girl rejoined her mother, Kalysto stopped her for a moment.
“What is it, Mrs. Kalysto?” Then the girl looked at the caravan with distrust. “Are they bad people?”
“I have no way of knowing that” at that moment, to the saintess’ surprise, it was the girl’s mother who ran up to them, hugging the little girl with her eyes full of tears. “But don’t tell them that you come from the castle, or from another world. Tell them that you and your mother come from a village called Thuzar, which was destroyed by monsters a few weeks ago. If they ask, say that you were barely able to escape and have been wandering from place to place in search of shelter and work," then she knelt down in front of the little girl, and handed her a small dagger that the guards had given her before they left. “Sell it and go to the adventurer’s guild and get your guild member ID. It will be much easier for you to escape later if you have an ID.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“Thank you” whispered the little girl, as she received the dagger.
“Try to level up as much as you can by doing easy quests. As soon as I can, I’ll come and get you.”
“Won’t you come with us?” asked the girl.
“Not for now. There are those I can’t leave for the moment” the little girl nodded, thinking it was Edward and Koden.
“ I understand. And thank you for helping my mother and me all this time," the little girl whispered before the merchant and the guard approached them.
“Thank the gods for your help. Are you an adventurer? Are you by any chance traveling to the capital as well?” A plump man asked her, his eyes traveling from the bow of his savior’s hands to the bodies of the fallen wolves.
“I don’t think I can travel with you, our group was attacked by another pack of wolves and I must return to help them.”
“Damn monsters! With the times we live in, not even the capital is safe anymore! What on earth is the king doing with our taxes if he is not able to protect us?”
“No idea," Kalysto sighed as she pretended to agree with the unknown man. “Thuzar, the town we lived in was destroyed a few weeks ago, also by monsters. We had heard that the capital was much safer but..." they all looked at the corpses of the monsters. And the merchant nodded his head.
“I understand your point perfectly, young archer. May I know your name?”
“I am Kal," said Kalysto.
“How do you do, Miss Kal, I am Mephisto, I am a merchant," the man’s gaze turned back to the fallen wolves. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because I really appreciate that you saved my life and my escort’s life. But if the young lady is willing to sell me these wolves, I would be more than willing to buy their flesh and fur," added Mephisto.
Kalysto folded her arms. Pondering the offer.
How much are you willing to offer? -She said trying to sound confident, but other than what she had read in Kassandra’s books, the saintess had no idea how much these creatures could be worth.
“Fourteen silver coins," the man answered immediately. And Kalysto arched an eyebrow, keeping silent. Mephisto, nervous at her lack of response, added quickly, “Twenty, make it twenty! But I can’t do more than that since my escort would be the one to cut your flesh and preserve the fur. Please understand.” despite the change in the offer, Kalysto kept silent before letting out a long sigh.
“I’ll take sixteen coins right now if you agree to take care of and give shelter and food to my cousin and her mother for a week while I return," she said, resting a hand on Katia’s shoulder, who looked at her with surprise, but did not disown her. “Little Kat dreams of becoming an adventurer as well.”
“Of course," the man encouraged, “I’m sure she wants to follow in her cousin’s footsteps. Don’t worry, while you go back for the rest of your group, I’ll send my assistant to take her to the guild and help her sign up. And if you wish to stay in town, I would be happy to extend an offer for you to escort me on my future travels. Here’s my card. I have a small store on Brooks Street, almost in the heart of the capital. I travel constantly, so I would like to have your services in the future if possible,” the man was excited, motioning to his bodyguard to put the wolf carcasses inside his travel cart as he handed the silver coins to Kalysto, and then began to yell at his bodyguard to be more careful with the precious merchandise.
“Be careful," said Kalysto, bending down to embrace Katia and place a silver coin in her hands behind her mother’s back, “Don’t trust anyone and try to find a cheap place to live, and get a job,” the last words were said looking at the girl’s mother, whose pale face still had not been able to recover its color.
By the time Mephisto returned to talk to them, Kalysto had already left.
The young former waitress did not take long to undo her steps and get to where the fallen guard with the ice arrows on his back was standing.
“Ice manipulation!” She said, melting the arrows so they couldn’t frame her for the murder. She then did the same to the wolf, pulling a sword from her inventory and cleaving the body in two.
She then headed towards the clearing where her companions were only to find the brown-footed white wolf throwing bolts of electricity at the rest of the heroes, but especially at the four guards still left alive.
“Duplication! Duplication!” She whispered. “Rita! Edward! Get down!” Edward, as always, was the first one to obey, so Kalysto launched the first two arrows towards the two wolves that were surrounding him in an attempt to lower his guard from both sides.
[You’ve gained 600 experience points!]
[You’ve gained 400 experience points!]
“What?” Rita shouted, but seeing what happened to Edward, she quickly imitated him.
“Ice arrows!” Kalysto launched immediately while hiding behind a thick tree trunk, away from the white wolf’s sight. “Rita, finish him off!” She shouted, launching an arrow with penetrating stats into the beast’s back, and another four of the ones Caranthir had given her into the paws of the huge animal.