The trio dove into one of the conveniently placed bushes nearby. Alwin squinted through the foliage, waiting for the humans to appear. He had expected all of them to be on horseback, but expectations often don't line up with reality. Out of the twenty humans that had gathered right in front of them, only two of them were riding horses. The rest were by their side armed with various weapons and armor that were definitely fashioned out of the remains of whatever unlucky monster was caught in their path.
Some of their armor were fur-based as in made out of a monster’s fur, some of their armor were scale-based, and some were bone-based. All of them looked threatening, except for the two on horseback. Their armors were... weird. Here, Alwin thought the guy wearing a chest piece made of bones was bizarre, there were large gaping holes in between the bones where someone could jimmy a sword through, but these guys took the cake. They wore robes, both of them. One red and one yellow.
"Young masters," a man wearing red and green scaled armor approached the duo with his head lowered. "The trail ends here."
"Then fan out and find it," the man in the red robe ordered, his long hair flowing in the breeze.
"Y-yes sir," stammered the armored man. The rest of the men scattered, prodding and probing every single instance of terrain that a monster may be hiding in with their weapons. Sooner or later, they were going to discover the three of them unless they did something.
"These lousy disciples. I'm going to complain to Elder once we return home," the yellow-robed man said.
"Can't even track down a monster. Useless," the red-robed man said.
Well, those two seem like a piece of work. At least Uchronia was kind enough to get her tail dirty alongside them instead of only barking out orders. That made her dictatorship just barely palatable. Anyway, those two seemed like the 'young master' types that Lin the Goblin had warned them about. She was probably warning them because of the large number of grunts under their command. Not because they were necessarily strong.
"What do we do?" asked Alwin. "Just run?"
Uchronia bit her lip. "We can't. Think about the village here. We can't just abandon them."
"They're probably fine... right? It's not like those guys can tell that there's even a village here."
"They tracked a monster right here. They're going to realize that there's a village eventually."
"I guess... But what are we supposed to do? There's so many of them."
"I know, I know. But I don't know what to do... I'm a shitty leader whose brain freezes up in moments like these. We already have a plan for one or two humans, but we don't have anything for twenty."
"Then what now? We either fight or we run."
"That's it. We run. We lure them away from the village," Uchronia said.
"And then what? We fight them?"
"If we have to, but when we're far away from the village we just run even faster away from them until they give up."
"You sure about that? What if we get caught? I don't think Gus can defend us against so many people."
"We have to try, Alwin."
This time it was Alwin's turn to give Uchronia a helping of sighs and eye rolls. This was going to end badly for them. He could feel it in his gut, and that wasn't the hunger caused by a lack of snackies provided by Maple's mother.
"I'll cast Haste on us. Then we run out, far away from the village. Alwin use all the attacks you have at them while Gus will stay at the rear eating anything they throw at us. Got it?"
Alwin and Gus both nodded. The Furball was being pretty quiet as of late and his face was contorted in an expression that Alwin couldn't quite nail down. He was probably just tense, the nerves must've gotten to him, and Alwin couldn't blame him. Even with all of their training and even defeating that metal golem of a trial, twenty humans was a huge deal. They'd probably be overwhelmed in a head-on collision. No matter how voracious his appetite was, there was no way he'd be able to eat all of the things that would inevitably fly toward him, and that wasn't even factoring in how he was going to defend Uchronia and Alwin at the same time. It'd made sense why he'd be so quiet and tense about the whole situation. Alwin decided to let the Furball continue staring at the ground, fake words of encouragement were the last thing that he would need.
Uchronia began muttering under her breath—an incantation for Haste. Alwin found it odd that she needed to chant to use magic, considering he didn’t. But then again, different strokes for different folks, right? He remembered Milvus’s words from their first Spirit Hands class, a rare moment when he was actually excited to learn. "Find what's most comfortable for you when molding magic," Milvus had said, or something like that. It wasn't the exact phrase but the paraphrased version was good enough. Sadly that enthusiasm for learning had faded out faster than a lit candle in a hurricane. But enough monologuing, Alwin was just buying time for Uchronia to finish up her chanting.
"I'm ready," whispered Uchronia.
Alwin and Gus both nodded.
"Haste!" she yelled out, swinging her leaf tail as she slapped Alwin and Gus on the back.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The trio jumped out, much to the surprise of the human—one donning a blue-furred armor set—that had come to investigate a suspiciously noisy bush. Before he could even let out a surprised yelp they were already on him. A spiked leaf slapped his cheek followed by a sudden shock as Gus pounced on him. A Spirit Blast, courtesy of Alwin, hit him square in the chest, sending him sprawling onto his back. It still wasn't enough to take him down completely, sadly, he was careening in pain clutching at the spot that Alwin had struck.
"Monsters!" one of the other humans in the vicinity shouted out.
The other humans began swarming their location. Each of them brandishing whatever flavor of weapon they found the most comfort in. Some spears, some halberds, but most of them carried swords.
"Run!" Uchronia shouted out.
The trio bolted faster than Gus rushing to the cafeteria. The humans hot on their heels. Even with the extra Haste boost, the humans were still keeping pace with them. Those darn humans with their long legs. A single stride from them was the equivalent of about three of Alwin's frantic hops. A particularly fast human had separated from the pack and was already closing in on them. A quick peek—that Alwin instantly regretted as he almost tripped—revealed he had cast some sort of spell on his feet. Sparkles of electricity coated his shoes and boots with every step he took.
"Spectral Javelin!" the man yelled out.
He threw the javelin in his hand without actually throwing it, if that made sense which it probably didn't. To make it more clear, he initiated the throwing motion of the javelin, but instead of letting go, the javelin glowed yellow as mana was poured into it. At the point where he normally would've released the javelin—which he didn't—a yellow javelin made out of mana materialized out of the original javelin and shot straight at them.
"Watch out!" Alwin yelled.
"I got it!" Gus shouted.
Gus jumped up and spun in the air, catching the javelin in his mouth, crunching on it with monstrous speed. Even after Gus had 'caught' it in his mouth, it still carried momentum which meant that he had to keep chomping down on the javelin, as the untouched bits of magic continued to sail forward, to keep it from impaling him. Then when Gus had finished his impromptu meal he finished his spin, and continued hopping away from the pursuing humans.
Alwin took another quick peek at the human that had thrown the javelin, his face had contorted into a look that could be summarized as 'what the frack did just happen.' That look lasted all of a second as the expression shifted back into a look of determination. A couple more Spectral Javelins came flying their way, only for Gus to leap into action once more, chomping down on the free meal.
The next time Alwin checked on the humans that were pursuing them, Gus was chewing on the tenth javelin, the expression of the human that had been trying to land a hit on them morphed into frustration. The rest of the humans that were chasing them lacked any expressions simply because there was no one else chasing after them.
"Somethings wrong," said Alwin.
Uchronia turned back and squinted. "Crap, you're right. Let's stop. It’s just one guy we can take him!"
The three monsters stopped and turned back to face the one human who was already dangerously close. Since they weren't running away anymore, that dangerously close human became a dangerously in front of their face human. He chucked another futile Spectral Javelin that flew right into Gus' mouth, then with the actual javelin in his hand he started thrusting it towards them.
Gus was still occupied devouring the Spectral Javelin, and even though it normally took a second, that extra second was enough for him to pierce their defenses—metaphorically of course. Good thing for the trio, Alwin had already been preparing a Spirit Blast. As the human lunged forward, Alwin fired, forcing him to thrust at empty air as he dodged. Now he had extra glory points for defending them.
"Formation!" Uchronia yelled out.
The past two days of drilling had taken over, and Alwin and Gus leaped into formation. Gus at the front, with Alwin and Uchronia behind him, forming a triangle.
"Monster Army," the man snarled.
Now that Alwin could take a proper look, without the risk of tripping, he noticed that the man was wearing smooth leather armor with red streaks running along the edges. Crackles of electricity still hugged his feet with every step that he took. The man gripped the javelin with both hands, his eyes darting between the three monster kids, sweat dripping down his brow. His forearms tensed as he tightened his grip, realizing he was all alone. There wasn’t anyone else chasing the monsters—just him.
Did they shake off the rest of the humans or had they given up their chase? Both options were bad, simply because their plan hinged on luring the humans away from the village. During those fleeting glimpses at the pursuing horde, Alwin hadn't spotted the two 'young masters' either. If the humans decided to double back to the village, the villagers hiding inside the trees would be screwed. Alwin's heart raced as he imagined the humans discovering Maple and her mom. They would be sitting ducks.
Uchronia began chanting something, while Gus bared his fangs attempting to look as intimidating as possible. Not that he needed much help in that department—devouring attacks like they were breakfast was intimidating enough. Plus that wasn't even counting on the fact that Gus' teeth were filled with bits of muffins and whatever snacks he was stuffing his face with. Those extra bits of food gave him an additional flair that made him all the more terrifying because for all the man knew, those extra bits could've been from somebody unlucky enough to get eaten by him.
During all the rambling about how Gus was extra terrifying to a lone human, Alwin had been preparing his own spells. Spirit Blast, followed by Spirit Scatter Blast, and lastly Spirit Burst Blast. That technique combination had been effective in achieving his very first kill, so surely it was foolproof. At least, that’s what he hoped.
Alwin was the first to attack, launching a Spirit Blast. He had expected the man to defend with his javelin, but he dodged out of the way, trails of lightning streaking below him. Well drat. His plan was a bust already.
The second attack, Spirit Scatter Blast, came hurtling towards the man, and just like before he dodged out of the way. The attack never exploded into a bunch of different shards, because Alwin had prepared it in such a way that it would explode on contact. To the man, it probably looked like another regular Spirit Blast.
The third attack, Spirit Burst Blast, came sailing forth towards him, and once again, he dodged it. However, this attack was primed with dodging in mind, the moment the technique had traveled far enough, its outer shell would give out, exploding in a brilliant burst of mana. The man was caught in that blast, just barely. It had grazed his left arm, singeing it, but no cries of pain escaped his mouth. The leather armor had taken the brunt of the damage.
That stupid human, using the hide of a monster to protect himself, what a despicable low life. Those humans wouldn't like it if a monster wore armor fashioned out of human parts so what gives them the right to do the same?
The man started circling around the trio, lightning trailing after him. Alwin spun round and round trying to keep track of him, emphasis on trying because the world was starting to get a bit dizzy for him. This fight was going to be a lot harder than he thought.