They all walked through the forest; weapons brandished with their guards raised. Despite the natural beauty of this world and the familiarity it had to the group, they had to remind themselves that they were in a world full of creatures that could damage them at a moments notice. As they walked for many hours but had yet to find themselves crossing any creatures of any kind. The sun that they had seen was now positions directly overhead, which they could only tell due to some of the sunbeams that poked through the foliage of the forest’s canopy. To their luck, Bill had prepared some food for them. He pulled out two containers at a time that seemed to contain a cake of some kind.
“What is this?” Gerry asked as he inspected the food inside the container. Lance did not wait for an answer as he opened the container and ate the food without a care in the world. He got a sweet flavour from the cake despite not being able to taste much sugar. The consistency was that of a cake and yet seemed to give Lance the energy he would need which was similar to, but not exactly the same as a sugar rush.
“It’s a protein cake, you should ration it considering we will only have so much of these and will have to get our own food at some point.” Bill responded. Lance had only taken a few bites of the cake but already felt full despite his brain still telling him that he should still be hungry. He followed his body though and placed the rest of the cake back into its container and handed it back to bill. The cake still took up almost two thirds of the container’s space. The others also ate their third of the cakes and proceeded to hand back the containers to Bill in which he stuffed them back inside his bag.
The group continued to walk as they tried to understand what direction they needed to go. Every now and again the group would have some water that each had packed themselves, Bill carried both his own water bottle as well as Lance’s. While they walked, they had found a stream where Bill had taken some water from to boil later to make it safe for consumption. They continued this for hours on end until the sun had begun to set. It was hard to determine how much progress they had made during their hours of walking, but they now could no longer see the canyon range that they had entered this world from.
They were forced to spend the night inside the forest, only when the sun had finally set did the sound of insects appear. The sounds of crickets and cicadas filled the air which made it difficult for the group to sleep.
The group all slept soundly despite the initial difficulty however Lance woke from the sounds of large footsteps that permeated the forest. The sounds also woke up the rest of the group who all brandished their weapons after being shocked awake. From the volume of the sound, the footsteps seemed to be from a large creature, and while it did not seem close to their position it was definitely not far away either.
Everyone but Lance packed up their gear quickly, they shoved their sleeping bags into their bags with Bill needing to do the same for Lance’s. Lance moved closer to the direction of the sound but made sure to use the cover of the tree trunks to hide his presence. As the sound of footsteps got closer to Lance’s new position with the rest of the group backing away from the sound, Lance realised that the sound of the large footsteps masked the sound of smaller multiple footsteps. Not too much time passed before Lance could see what exactly made the sounds.
He saw a large beast, which was sized around that of two African elephant. While it was quadrupedal, its walk seemed to be a mix of that of an elephant’s and a tiger’s as it stomped on the ground, but each step was purposeful and calculated as if it stalked a prey. Its legs were that of the stumps of elephants, but claws protruded from the front and back of the stump end. The beast had a large tail that swayed like that of a cat’s as it strolled around. It had fur on the top of its back but skin on the bottom half which made the look of the claws that protruded from the stumps look odd.
The beats head was that again of a mix of an elephant and tiger, with the nose and mouth of the creature protruded out like that of a tiger, but the large ears of an elephant. They eyes were that of a murky black which seemed to look aimlessly at its surroundings. Despite the lack of vision that could be inferred from them beast, the nose and ears of the beast wiggled about as if it was using both scent and hearing at the same time.
Lance noticed that head of the beast slowly turned towards his general direction. They both locked eyes, a chill ran down Lance’s spine as he looked into the beast’s milky eyes. Somehow this instantly gave Lance some information of this specific beast and its species. He found that he knew that they called themselves to ‘wanderers of the eternal forest that protect all from the forest’s will’, which was the closest translation he could fathom within his mind.
He could tell that the beast was depressed and while it wanted to live up to its species name, it had failed. This specific beast called itself ‘he who maintains distance’ and that it considered itself as the nurturer of this specific forest. Due to the long name, Lance decided to name the creature ‘Distance’. Additionally, Lance found himself with the knowledge of he who maintains Distance’s story. He now knew that the beast who he had to refer to as distance was captured by the small military force composed of deformed humanoid creatures which resembled that of humans mixed with lions which were beaten and broken from a battle that occurred just two days ago. Somehow a connection was formed between distance and Lance.
Lance started to move closer to distance but lowered his centre of gravity to keep out of sight with the bushes that periodically grew in between the trees. He counted that there were about twenty injured lion hybrids, all were exhausted and off guard. Bill was the first of the group to follow Lance’s movements and lowered his centre of gravity, which was then followed by the rest of the group.
“What is going on Lance?” Bill asked before he saw what Lance could which made him catch his breath. Distance had moved its head back to the front which seemed to be a deliberate move to stop its captures from becoming aware of the group’s presence.
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“We are going to save that creature, it will help us,” Lance said while he continued to watch over the lion hybrids. Gerry was about to argue with Lance’s statement, but Lance had already begun to move silently behind Distance and its captures. Bill smirked a little while the others sighed in unison as they all began to follow Lance.
They took their time to allow the lion hybrids and Distance to pass them by. Now behind the twenty-armed guards, Lance continued to follow behind each of them. Each time one of the guards started to straggle behind Lance would sneak behind them and drive his glaive’s blade into their back while he grabbed their snout to stop a scream come out. Lance had to do this three times by his lonesome before the rest of the group took the initiative to follow this method.
One by one the guards fell, some by Nathan’s hands, some by Lance’s and some by a combination between Bill, Gerry, and Martin. However, when they had eliminated eight of the guards, Bill accidently loosed an arrow from his crossbow too early, before Gerry or Martin were able to contain the hybrid, to which that guard let out a cry in pain. This caused the rest of the guards to turn around and see their fallen comrades littered within the foliage of the bushes and long grass of the forest. Despite being tired and seemingly depressed from a defeat from earlier, the remaining hybrids all brandished their weapons at a second’s notice. Lance was the first to react to this new obstacle.
“You fucking idiots! we could have done this so much easier if you had just taken your time!” Lance yelled in annoyance as he continued to charge forward to the closest hybrid to him. This hybrid held a sword that had been by his side just a moment ago. Lance spun around with his glaive close to his body to bring his centre of gravity close to him which made his spin much faster than the hybrid had expected.
He had only completed three quarters of his spin before he allowed his glaive to move away from his body. The butt of the pole of the glaive swung out at the hybrid who had enough sense to react to the action. However, as it moved its head away from the non-bladed end of the glaive, his sword contacted it. The glaive followed its circular motion and moved the sword diagonally downward away from the point of leverage for the hybrid to use. The hybrid was now wide open as the blade of the glaive swung downward from over Lance’s shoulder with his body behind it. Lance had moved forward slightly with the glaive as the hybrid had stepped back.
This had the blade slice through the hybrid’s face. Blood spurted out as it cut clean through the hybrid’s face. The body dropped to the ground lifeless. This startled the other guard by how easily Lance was able to take down their friend. Nathan was quick to follow as he dashed towards the closest hybrid to him, he remained low and aimed for the legs of the hybrid. The hybrid’s reaction was quick as he positioned his sword to block the daggers that Nathan held.
Nathan was able to quickly react to this and shifted his body weight lower to the ground and threw a dagger at the hybrid’s face. The hybrid was shocked by this which made it shift its sword to deflect the dagger. The dagger fell to the ground and in the same instance Nathan was able to take a swipe at the hybrid’s left leg. The Hybrid had suspected this and as they moved their sword to deflect the dagger, it had shifted its weight to its right side and lifted its left leg up which caused Nathan’s dagger to cut nothing but the air.
Nathan however, used the moment when the hybrid tried to catch its balance and charged at the hybrid. He positioned himself behind the hybrid and swiped at its wrist, the hybrid reacted quickly and spun, which caused it to fall on the floor but roll away from Nathan, which negated the momentum that Nathan had gained. The hybrid almost tried to snicker, but an arrow pierced its right leg. Not one to miss opportunities like this Nathan pounced, he grabbed hold of the top of the arm hybrid that held the sword while the other went to try and pull the arrow out of its leg. Nathan then shoved his dagger into the hybrid’s throat which sent the hybrid into shock. Nathan decided not to linger and gave Bill a nod to thank him for his help and moved to help Martin who had a hybrid charge him.
Gerry had also found himself being charged down by a hybrid. The hybrid took swing after swing at him, which he was able to carefully move his sword into position to change the direction of each blow. The only issue was that each blow was stronger than Gerry had anticipated and caused his reactions to become slower and slower as he was only barely able to redirect each blow. Small cuts were appearing on parts of his body which come into close contact with the hybrid’s sword, which some of his armour had thankfully taken some of the blows.
Suddenly another hybrid body crashed into the hybrid that had attacked Gerry, both of them toppled to the side. Gerry looked to the side where the body had come flying from to see Lance, who held three other hybrids at bay.
Lance swirled around like a hurricane with blades clashing against each other and the butt of the pole of his glaive swirled while also being used to great effect by Lance. A slight scowl came upon Gerry’s face before he turned back to his hybrid that had been knocked away from him. Both the hybrid were winded and struggled to return to their feet.
Gerry’s eyes seemed to become slightly bloodshot as he could feel his blood boil. He had needed that help to deal with the one hybrid while Lance easily dealt with four on his own. Before either of the hybrids could fully adjust back to their normal states, in one swift swing, Gerry cut right through their throats. He took an extra stab at the hybrid that he recognised that had flown into his opponent and took out its eye from its socket. He stepped back and turned around as he left the two hybrids to bleed out. Eyes still slightly bloodshot, he moved casually to another hybrid that continued to attack Martin who Nathan helped distract. He took another glance at Lance who had now downed two more of the hybrids and now dealt with his final one.
Bill moved around as he tried to help his comrades, as he let arrow after arrow fly from his crossbow. He tried not to aim for the head of the hybrids, but rather their legs or torsos which gave the other members of the group a momentary distraction to let them deal the final blow. The exchange of blows continued for another few moments before it died down. The hybrids that held the reins of Distance had let go of their rein to help their comrades which fell one after another.
As the last of the guards fell, as the bled out and the light in their eyes left them, Distance now walked up to Lance. It almost seemed like it bowed its head towards him. Lance looked at Distance and placed his hand on the creature’s head, he gave it a small scratch where there was fur which Distance seemed to enjoy. Bill looked around at the chains that were wrapped around Distance.
“These chains are made of kuthendium,” Bill said in surprise.