Hours passed and I am still stuck in the fucking tree. The motherfucking dogs keep on howling for hours as they waited at the bottom of the tree, hoping that I will come down and be their dinner and for a few times the idea came to my mind to just end this torture. I am tired, sleepy and although my headache has lessen when compared this morning, it is still a bitch to endure. A wolf was going to start to howl and I quickly threw a branch in frustration. Thankfully the wolf stopped from howling as it try to dodge the branch.
Trying to distract myself I started counting the mutts who are now asleep beneath the tree. There are total of 5 wolves camping under my tree, although I suspect there are others in hiding. The alpha must be the largest one that is filled with scars. Although they are asleep, I don't bother trying to come down and escape. Dogs have acute senses, my dog Cosmo can sense if the mailman is near our house and starts running to the dog door to try and chase him, and wolves have senses stronger than ordinary dogs so climbing down is equal to suicide.
For hours and hours I just sat in the tree branch, trying to stay awake unless I fall to my death. Oh my God! Please let this tribulation end! I would rather go back to prison and be experimented by that crazy old scientist who I suspect will someday get me killed by harvesting my organ just to study my innards than endure this tortured existence in this cursed predator infested forest. At least back in my cell I could sleep soundly, with good food and good company. Here in the forest, I don't have any food, the animals are out to kill me, and everything that is near me dies.
Wait a minute. If every plant and trees within 5 meters of my vicinity ends up a dried husk then would it also work with animals? Let me go and check. Slowly and quietly I started going down the lower branch, just 4 meters above the ground above the sleeping mongrels. There I waited silently to see if the aura of death that surrounds me will also affect them.
An hour has passed before I saw a reaction from the wolves. The alpha was the first one to react and started to wake up and howl at his friends. Once the wolves wake up, they started moving away from my tree. I noticed that they are moving slow, like their energy was sapped from their bodies. This is my chance.
I leaped from the tree branch and landed at the wolf who was straying far behind the pack. He was to weak to properly mount a defense. So I started chocking him from behind and then snapped his neck. The other wolves reacted better and tried to surround me but before they do, I quickly rushed over the weakest looking wolf and threw a rock at him which hit him in the leg. He tried to limp away but since they are already weakened by being exposed to the strange energy emanating from my body I did a quick work of him.
The last 3 wolves were a lot harder to bring down. The two lesser wolves are always near each other in order to protect each other from attacks, while the Alpha can still somewhat fight. If I charge recklessly, I will be ganged upon by these wild beast so I try to formulate a plan. The wolves seemed to be determined to kill me but at the same time hesitating to attack since I have already killed two of them so I use it to my advantage. I tried to bait one of the weaker wolves to attack me by showing my back to him. Instinct took over and he lunged at me. Unfortunately I am ready for the attack and since the weaken wolf is much slower than usual, I was able to shove my gloved fist in his mouth, sat in his back and then proceeded to break his neck. It happened so fast that before the Alpha can charge at me to help I have already killed his friend.
3 down, 2 more to go. The charge of the Alpha wolf is much faster than the others, although still leagues slower than the panther from earlier so I was still able to react. I grabbed the Alpha by the neck before the other remaining wolf escaped my notice and bit my ankle.
God damn it that hurts. I threw the Alpha away and tried to wrench open the maw of the other one. When a dog bites, they don't really let go eh? Now I know how the mail man felt when Cosmo bit him. I succeeded in making the wolf let go of my foot after kicking him really hard in the stomach. Then without any shred of mercy, I lunged at the sucker and proceeded to beat his head to a bloody mess.
Only one wolf remains, the Alpha wolf. I turned around to look for the Alpha but he is nowhere to be found. He must've ran away with his tail between his legs after he witnessed his pack get slaughtered.
Finally! It is over! I can now finally sleep! I started walking towards my hollow tree in triumph when I heard a wolf's whimper followed by a loud cracking sound. My heart was full of dread, because when I turned around, what I found is much worse than a pack of wolves. There appearing out of the thick trees is a monster unlike what I faced before. This time the one that is pursuing me is a fucking bear.
God, I hate wildlife.
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I, Phillip Krieg of Antolia sometimes regret being a party leader. Not because it is a lot of work like managing supplies, making sure we get equal profit from quest loots to avoid infighting or formulating battle strategies for any kind of scenarios that we may face and teach them to the members. No. the hardest part of being the leader is making sure the party is a cohesive unit. Which is pretty damn hard with the members of our party.
First we have Mark Anthony Porter, our human mage. He is a powerful pyromancer who is a versatile mage that can use short, AoE and support fire magic whatever the situation require.
Then we have Ortho son of Bart, our dwarven artificer. He uses various devices to help us in our quest, may it be utility or in battle he is dependable.
Next we have Kurtis our monk, when it comes to short range fight, he is unbeatable.
Last but not the least was the last member to join our group, Alora. Alora is an elven ranger who specialize in finding traps or be the one responsible in setting them. She is also deadly accurate with her bow and moves like a ghost while inside a forest.
All of them could become a great adventurer in their own right if only they don't have serious flaws in themselves.
Mark Anthony gets easily distracted by things that he finds amusing to the point where he usually forgets to cast his spells if he sees a strange contraption or magic being used by either teammate or enemy, thus exposing not only himself but the whole party in danger.
Ortho gets into a lot of trouble in town with his money making schemes in order to fund his little projects. His antics usually resulting in him thrown in jail where we have to bail him out with more money than what he made with crappy ventures. If only he would part with even one of his inventions then he wouldn't even need to go adventuring with us to afford food and funding. Unfortunately he is a stubborn bastard who will soon die before another person get hold of his "Toys".
Kurtis is okay. He is the only decent member of this party, excluding me.
The one who is causing me the greatest stress right now is the newcomer, the Elven Ranger Alora. She is just so uptight on Elven rules and traditions that must be followed at any cost, that it is starting to grate on my nerve.
"Wow, so this is Elven forest huh? The ambient mana is so thick I can almost taste it!" Our mage, Mark Anthony exclaimed. He is so excited in being inside the Elven forest that he looks like a child in a sweet store.
"Hey, this is no time for sightseeing. Were on a mission remember? Get your head in the game. If you're not attentive we might get ambushed." Alora the Elf ranger scolded Mark.
"Aren't you the ranger, Elf? Then it's your job to watch out for ambushes. Let us at least enjoy our stroll in your forest. After all, it is rare to be given a quest that requires us adventurers to enter your restricted forests since the elven rangers are the ones who usually takes care of the problems." Ortho the dwarf replied while tinkering with his arcane rifle.
"I told you earlier, they must be out on a more important mission if they are not patrolling the forests. Although what mission is more important than protecting their territory is making tad a bit curious." Mark babbled as he kneeled down and put a sample of a mushroom inside a vial.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Stop doing that! This forest is sacred to our race. Other races shouldn't even be here." Alora said angrily. The way she acts is like an elder sister who is afraid her younger sibling are about to do something stupid and she will be the one to be blamed by their parents.
"Well we have accepted a mission and we will accomplish it. The quest was open to everyone and we have already received an approval from an Elven elder to enter the forest. So stop whining and start showing us to the right direction if you want us to leave the forest quicker." I let out a sigh. At least Kurtis is properly behaved, staying silent as we go on our quest.
We proceeded on our forest trek while keeping Mark from running off on his own to take samples. The quest is pretty simple. Find out what was causing the disturbance in the forest that made the local wildlife go on a massive exodus. Then report what we found out to the nearest adventurer's guild. Then the higher ups will decide what course of action they will take.
The elder who posted the quest reported that the incident happened 3 months ago. Hordes of forest animals, ranging from birds and small woodland creatures to elephants rushed through the forest, into their town as if escaping from something. At first they thought that it was caused by the battle between the rebels and Kaizer's forces led by the Ice Queen Minerva Merryweather. But even after days have passed, there were still massive exodus of animals that passed through their town causing massive damage to their livelihood and infrastructure.
Normally the Elven Rangers would have already taken care of the situation but right now they are suspiciously absent and it puts me on the edge. What could be more important than their sworn duty to protect their forest? We continued our travel and so far we only encountered a few problems, most of which our own party members started.
Earlier today we came across a lone Silverback Lightning Ape. Alora warned the party that the Ape will only attack if we show sign of aggression. So all in all we will be safe if we just circle around the beast to avoid confrontation. Unfortunately we have two stupid guys in our party. Mark Anthony wanted to see the Ape's ability first hand and if possible capture it for observation. Ortho on the other hand wanted its' horns which will fetch a high price in the market for its use in fortifying a mages' lightning affinity or used to make a lightning based elemental weapon or armor. Good thing we were able to literally drag them away before the Silverback found us.
The next instance is when we wanted to make a fire for our camp but Alora won't let us since we might cause a forest fire. We had to go through a lot to make our camp fire safe before we convinced her to let us make a camp fire.
Kurtis, Ortho and Alora debate on religion and science but they do so every day that I tire just listening to them. They continued arguing until late in the night before we all went to sleep. The next day we continued our travel, met some dangerous predators which Alora was able to chase away without killing. For days we trekked on the forest until we came across an area where the trees and grasses are all withered. The area is suspicious because it was out of place because surrounding the withered patch was vibrant forest.
All of us are confused on what has caused all this, but the look of fear on Alora's face shows that she might have some ideas on what. "Hey Alora. Any idea on what transpired here?" I asked her. She looks like she is lost in her thoughts so I nudged her to get her attention.
"Ahhh… What? What was your question again?" She still look unfocused.
"I asked you if you have any idea what happened here."
"Oh… No… No idea. What makes you think that I have any idea what happened here? Lets' just move on to see if we can find any clue where the one who caused this went." She deflected which only made us more suspicious. Ortho was about to call her out on it but I stopped him. If she wants to tell us what she know, then she will tell it on her own volition.
"There are traces of some kind of energy all over this place." Mark Anthony revealed as he continue to check for more clues in the area. "Whatever this energy is, it somehow must've caused the withering of the plant life here. Although I don't have any idea if this is related to the rampaging animals, but this is a start."
"Agreed. There are multiple tracks from here? Where should we start Phillip?" Kurtis inquired.
"I say we go to the one who emits the most energy as it will most likely lead us to the source." Ortho and Kurtis agreed on my suggestion while the other two were so lost in their thoughts to even bother answering.
Mark wanted to study the area more but quickly followed us when we said we are going to the source. Alora in the other hand was so deathly serious in finding what caused this that she almost left us while running in the woods.
Seriously, couldn't this party function like a normal party for once?
As we proceed to follow the trail of unknown energy, we passed few carcasses of wolves, wild cats and a bear. "Man, look at those corpses. Are those also caused by the strange energy?" Ortho asked.
"No, I don't think so." I answered. I went to the remains of the dead animals and found that almost all of them are killed by a blunt object while some had their necks broken. "These animals didn't die due to being exposed to the strange energy. By looking at the cause of their death, they were killed by someone."
"No weapons used. Only bare hands." Kurtis added.
"Interesting. So do you think this the same guy who is emiting the strange energy or what?" Mark inquired.
"We only have one way to find out. Let's catch the bastard!" Ortho declared.
"Remember the quest guys. We are only here to investigate. Once we find the cause, we need to report back to the guild."
"There goes our straitlaced leader once again with all the rules and whatnot. Open your eyes Philip. The forest is dying because of this strange energy. If there is something we can do to stop it. I will do it." I couldn't believe those words coming out of Ortho of all people.
"I know how you feel. But if we engage the ones doing this and we fail to stop them, things will become much worse." We continued to argue till Kurtis interrupted us.
"Cool your heads. I have a suggestion that will stop this nonsense." Kurtis declared. "How about we find out the ones who are doing this first. If we are sure we can take them down or capture them, then we will. But if there is a large chance that we will fail, we will follow our original orders and take the information we have to the guild for them to handle. Do you agree?"
Both Ortho and I nodded our heads in agreement. Mark seems to be on board too while Alora is still absentmindedly looking at the direction where the trail is headed. We headed off once more and we found more signs of battle with corpses of wolves, gorilla and even a tiger. The wild animals died in the same fashion as the earlier once so we conclude that the culprit was the same.
Night fell and we were forced to make camp. While we are fast asleep, we heard some rustling in the nearby bushes and found a 2 and a half meter tall bear. Its body is large and muscular and would probably weight 500 to 600 kilograms. We quickly readied ourselves for a fight, but the bear just looked at us and with a huff he continued walking away as if he is in a hurry to go somewhere.
I sighed in relief once the bear left. I don't really want to fight wild animals if I could. Not because we can't beat it, no. I just don't want to kill such majestic creatures if possible. If the bear is terrorizing a village, that would be different.
We broke camp after the break of dawn and continued our journey. For a few hours we followed the trail as the feeling of the sinister energy gets stronger with each step. Suddenly we heard a loud roar in the distance. We hurried our steps and went to the origin of the sound.
The sound came from a large clearing in the middle of the forest. We hid behind the trees and observed the area. After a few moments we saw a figure of a man in tattered clothing, wearing a pair of gloves running for his life. Hot behind his steps was the large bear that we met last night.
"We got to save him!" I said to the rest of the party. When I saw Alora's bow is already drawn and ready to fire, I myself was about to charge in to save the man when Kurtis stopped me.
"Wait a moment Phillip." Kurtis grabbed my shoulder while Mark Anthony stopped Alora from firing her arrow. I was furious when he held me back, but cool headed as usual, Kurtis was unaffected by my anger. He continued. "Can't you feel it? That sinister energy. I feel a lot of it coming out of the man. I don't sense other people here except for us but we must be careful for this might be a trap to lure us out. Lets' watch first and make sure that he is alone." I calmed down after hearing his explanation, still I couldn't just watch another person get killed in front of me.
The stranger dodged the bear's attack proficiently, like he has a lot of experience fighting. I watch in trepidation and some amusement as he use the trees and rocks around him to get away from the enormous bear. After rolling under the bear, dodging a lunge that was enough to crush every bone of his body if it connects, it gave him more space to run away from the bear. He quickly headed towards a large tree standing alone in the middle of the clearing and started climbing.
He just made a mistake. Bears can climb trees, and to prove my point the bear started climbing after him effectively cornering him. The man's climbing speed was impressive and was able to reach to the branch 15 meters from the ground. He stood there as if waiting for something. The bear is only a few meters away from him and the craziest thing happened.
The man jumped off the branch and grabbed the bear in the torso with both of his legs locked on the bear's neck, causing both of them to plunge from dangerous height. As they fall, the man maneuvered mid-air started falling in order for the bear to hit the ground head first. Dust flew in every direction when the half ton bear hit the ground and once the dust settled only one figure remained standing.
Words are not enough to describe what I saw. All that I can say is that this man is crazy.