I forced my eyes open even as I swung my sword, cutting down the approaching beast before I could even get a sense. I didn't want to take the risk of getting damaged, not when my reserves of Health had already dwindled.
[+33 Experience]
A small gain, but not useless. I swung my arm again, even as I calculated my capacity to hold my breath, my free arm enough to keep me down underwater. Several more fish rushed forward, immediately after the first one, forcing me to swing my arm again.
The benefits of the Stats were the only reason I could treat the river as a liquid highway rather than the mortal danger it was supposed to represent. The violent pull of the water was easily counteracted by one-arm swimming thanks to my enhanced strength, and the aggressive rush of the carnivorous fish was easily detected by my Perception.
Still, I was glad for the enhancement I had received from that Ability. Without it, I doubted the experience would have been as smooth.
That didn't mean I could let my attention wander, of course. I could feel a fish that was about to take another bite around my ankle. I swung my leg promptly, kicking it away faster than it could react, while I swung the sword to kill another.
[+48 Experience]
The bigger challenge was to keep track of my distance toward the towers and make sure it didn't bring me to a dangerous point of access. I pushed out a minute later, realizing the raging waters of the river already carried me more than a mile.
"Good," I muttered as I sank back, my blade already dancing to destroy the fish that seemed determined to destroy me.
[+15 Experience]
[+43 Experience]
…
[+10 Experience]
Luckily, there weren't any strong beast underwater that was attacking me, which I felt was more about the reaction those strong beasts had against the corrupting fire rather than lack of danger.
Either way, I enjoyed the relative lack of danger as I did my best to stay underwater, holding my breath for a few minutes not even straining my lungs despite the constant effort, once again highlighting the superior nature of Vitality.
I continued slashing at a serene pace, enjoying fishing in a very novel way as I made sure to avoid any dangerous bites, but my real attention was making sure I didn't face any kind of sudden danger that would force me to push out.
Not when I was so close to the sentry towers at the edge of the forest… A minute passed, then two, as I enjoyed the speed of the stream. However, as I approached the location of the towers, at the three-minute mark, I slowed down.
By actually touching the bottom of the river, afraid that the river bottom might have had some kind of trap. I didn't expect much, as I had already checked the river was not passing next to a tower, and I believed they would have built some kind of barrier if they were afraid of that fact.
Still, it was good to have a confirmation.
Once again, I let the river take me forward, leaving the towers and the flying castles behind… After another five minutes, I started to look for a convenient location I could use to get another glimpse of the outside without revealing myself too much.
[+72 Experience]
[+110 Experience]
…
[+10 Experience]
[+42 Experience]
I continued to kill the river creatures as I moved, noticing that the beasts were getting stronger the farther I got away from the forest — confirming my earlier guess that it was the fire that was distracting the other members.
Soon, I noticed a nice curve in the side, one that would allow me to raise my head without being immediately seen by the sentry towers.
Stolen story; please report.
I pushed my head out, carefully at first, ready to delve back the moment I noticed a nearby presence. I didn't notice it.
But I noticed a veritable army moving forward, each floating just below the clouds. Four flying castles, each looking pristine, accompanied an even larger flying fortress that was several times larger, hexagonal, with six towers occupying the corners.
Suggesting that whatever Toross had done might have been an even bigger problem than I assumed.
"I'm so glad it's not my problem," I muttered as I allowed the water to take me once more.
Yet, as I swam and fought against the beasts, I was feeling the exhaustion building up. The river allowed me to travel much faster than was supposed to be possible, but that didn't mean it was easy. Battling against the furious speed of the stream was difficult enough even with my new enhancements, but that didn't even include the furious dance of my sword, almost in constant motion to keep me safe.
And the added challenge of holding my breath.
I wondered if Heath could be used for that purpose, and closed my eyes for a fleeting moment, where there was no fish around me. Time to replenish, I thought, and tried to channel Health, the same way I did when I was injured.
[-2 Health]
Shockingly, it worked, spreading a warm sensation into my body, like a hug, taking most of my exhaustion away. The exhaustion wasn't completely gone, but I was still happy with the result. I felt far more renewed than I would have felt after a short nap.
And, under the circumstances, it was a good deal, even if I had to sacrifice the same energy that could have been used against a mortal injury.
A long journey awaited me.
I let the river carry me along for a whole night, allowing me to stay outside the view of the occasional flying vehicles, which was my only option without any forest to block the view. Even after the sun rose once more, I stayed in the river. The light meant that it was much more likely for me to get caught, but I hoped that people had more important things to pay attention to.
That wasn't all the disadvantages, of course. Sunlight allowed me to observe my surroundings much more accurately.
The lack of a forest or any kind of other concealment seemed to be intentional, as the area was wholly open, the only exception being a few settlements, small towns, and villages but surrounded by thick walls — this time, ordinary, stationary kind.
Interestingly, none of those towns were right at the edge of the river. Some were close, but none were right next to it.
However, they were empty, and more importantly, they were showing signs of being evacuated in a hurry — which included some chimneys that were still smoking — the discarded items all around to show just how big of an emergency they were facing.
I stayed in the river. It wasn't a comfortable experience, and poking around one of those abandoned settlements, especially when they were built close to the river, was tempting. Yet, it wasn't only the risk of getting caught that kept me back.
They were evacuating with great urgency, the kind that people usually reserved for earthquakes and floods. I didn't want to risk delaying, in case their reaction was not just an overreaction. And remembering the way that crimson energy spread all along the forest, I wasn't willing to bet on an overreaction.
I didn't build my business on reckless bets.
Still, I wondered exactly how long ago was the evacuation, and how much away was the first group.
After a while, I received the answer. The first group of people, about a few hundred, created a small yet ordinary caravan, carts pulled by horse-like creatures, their speed little better than crawling.
However, I wasn't exactly ready to blame the beasts of burden for it, considering every cart was not only pulled by only one animal but piled to the brim, the weight enough to kill an ordinary horse.
Clearly, they had some kind of supernatural strength, but it was limited.
They stayed on the road, which moved some distance away from the river, though that didn't surprise me much. Even with all the speed the river implied, its speed was far too fast to actually allow ordinary riverboats to survive.
That was just the first, and not the only caravan I had seen. I had seen a few more soon after, some smaller, some larger, but each piled to the brim — which didn't exactly fit the great hurry they had emptied the settlements. More importantly, the limited number of caravans didn't fit with the number of emptied settlements.
Then, I had seen one of those groups, stopped at another emptied village, went through their stuff, and understood the reason for it. They prioritized profit over safety.
I let those stay back, the water dragging me away from them, my sword not stopping even for a second as I dealt with an ever-rushing beast, exhaustion building despite all the improvements, forcing me to spend another point of Heath, through the flood of experience was enough to compensate.
[-1 Health]
[+24 Experience]
[+54 Experience]
…
[+11 Experience]
[+40 Experience]
Even as I fought, I continued observing the surface as much as possible. I started to see other caravans, far bigger ones, counting in thousands.
More importantly, their carts were not piled desperately, and each cart moved almost as fast as a horse would have done back on Earth if they were running freely.
A great achievement indeed, giving me a better sense of their capabilities.
More importantly, as I traveled, I saw two caravans meet and merge, which gave me hope that I could infiltrate them if necessary… The reason wasn't too hard to understand. While it wasn't as intense as my little river adventure, the caravans were dealing with the constant attack of the critters as well, meaning, the larger is the safer.
Especially once they got sufficiently far away from the cursed forest fire that the larger beasts once again started targeting the caravans.
Still, I stayed in the water, limiting myself to my unusual manner of fishing, waiting for a better opportunity… Maybe until the darkness covered the land once again.