CHAPTER 80 - Scouts II
Once I wake up from my nap, I take Bruma with me as I pay for the whole week beforehand. I use every single penny that I have left. The money that I stole is finally running out, but it's okay, I will get paid for my job now as a mercenary. The scouting job should be more than enough for my daily expenses.
I leave the inn and plan on leaving the city too after checking that everything is in order in the guild on my way out. There, I am given a map which they say will help me transverse the forest. What I can’t help but notice is how serious the whole ordeal must be, as the other scouts I see there are all carrying a lot more magical items than any other person I have seen so far.
I look at the ranks on their badges, and while some of them are wearing them below their shirts, most of them are showing them, and I can see that they are all on the Skilled Warrior rank. Every single one carries at least 3 magic items on them, mostly stealth focused, given that our only job is to get intel about our enemy.
Some are high quality items too. I look at one of them, the one with the best equipment in my opinion, and I feel as if I was seeing things while looking at him. It’s as if I was seeing an illusion instead of an actual person, but I can see him just fine. Whatever is messing with me, is not affecting my eyes, but my brain. It makes me think that the person in front of me doesn’t exist and that I should avoid looking there, though the second effect must be another item altogether.
Not delving on useless matters, I depart, only grabbing my map. I do take some of the supplies on my way out of the city. I buy a few pieces of dried meat that I stock in a pouch and hang to my hip and a small leather canteen filled with water, which I tie tightly to my chest to avoid being noisy as I move.
Happy with my preparations, I go through the security check on the entrance and set off, running in the direction of the forest.
From what I’ve seen, there are a dozen mercenaries that will be acting as scouts like me. We all had been left to our own devices as to how to approach the mission, though most of the ones selected have been asking for advice to their peers. I even saw a woman ask a guy to lend her his cloak, promising to give it back after the mission with a few coins added in.
‘So much luggage and dependence on items.’ I can understand how some of them are planning on even carrying half the things they were hoarding for the expedition. Good thing for me though, I don’t have to, I will do what I do best, run.
I will obviously be cautious and take a stealthy approach, but I am not overly concerned with getting caught. The mercenaries said that I was perfect due to my absence of mana, and that’s right, but even more than they think. If at any point I get caught, I can just hide, and if done right, I am sure they won’t be able to find me.
I can’t imagine them finding me after I use all my gathered mana into digging up a hole, sealing myself inside and stop moving. With mana, it would be as easy as a quick scan to see the concentration of mana or even the remains of the mana in the ground, but… What if I coat both myself and the soil surrounding me with qi? Shouldn't anyone be unable to track me using mana?
‘I hope I don’t have to resort to that kind of tactics, but if it comes to it… My life comes first.’
With a couple of strategies in store for a variety of scenarios that I can find myself into, I finally reach the forest. It did take some time, but a lot less than when going by cart or walking like I did before. It does make sense though, as my body is far from being considered human already. I can probably double or even triple the speed of the fastest human on Earth when running, and keep it up for hours at that.
Entering the forest, a strange feeling washes over me. I can’t pinpoint where it is coming from exactly, but I can say for sure that it is coming from the forest, so I start searching for clues about anything related to the skeletons or anything suspicious.
Jumping on top of a tree, I keep exploring the place, leaping from one branch to another with smooth movements that I soon improve over time, getting used to the feeling. About ten minutes in, I start seeing tracks on the ground of the monsters I am looking for, and half an hour later I start seeing them roaming around.
I stay clear from their patrol routes, only watching from afar and trying to decipher what or who is controlling them, but apart from them being a whole lot more and weaker versions, they are pretty similar to the ones that I fought first. ‘Those ones did evolve and got stronger as they fought, so maybe they are different?’
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With too many questions and no one to answer them, I dive deeper into enemy lines, running past some of the small villages that I had seen before when looking for civilization.
All of them are destroyed, demolished. It’s like a hurricane swept them all; broken houses, fences, huts… There is not a single thing that remains from their past selves. I stop at one of the villages, looking for clues as I move things around and wiggle in between the rubble.
‘Weird, super weird.’ I don’t find a single thing, in fact, I can’t even find the corpses of the villagers. While I would love to know that they all escaped alive, that's very much likely not the case, and the state of the village says it all.
It looks as if the same bulky skeleton that I faced yesterday with the mercenaries just came here with his friends and bulldozed the place, but that doesn’t explain the lack of bodies or blood anywhere.
Knowing full well that waiting on the village wouldn't help me, I investigate the area around too, and once I find nothing there, I keep on moving towards the center of the forest.
The first few hours go by and everything works out smoothly. I advance slowly, taking advantage of trees, bushes and rocks as cover to hide from the skeletons that walk or idle around. My speed is far from ideal, but taking into consideration the sheer amount of monsters that I already dodge with my careful approach, I better stick to it, it’s only a matter of time that I get somewhere.
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‘Fuck.’
‘I blame the tree, if only it wasn’t dry and weak.’ I put all the blame on the dead tree whose branch broke under my weight.
I was having problems on the ground due to an increase of the monsters in the area, so I chose to continue exclusively using the trees, but it has backfired rather quickly. The dead tree still maintained some semblance of its vibrant colors and vitality, making me fall for the false assumption that its branches would easily be able to hold my weight.
Taken by surprise, I had no time to salvage the mistake, falling to the floor in a rather unglamorous way. The noise of the crash attracted the nearby skeletons, who similar to the one I saw, had a bulky build. They started attacking me the moment that I touched the ground, forcing me to flee.
‘The amount of effort it would take to fight these guys would be a waste of energy in on
itself.’ Knowing the numbers of their fold, I take the best course of action that I can think of.
Run.
With the high speed I bolster my whole body a notch. I use everything in the surroundings to avoid the incoming attacks and charges as I continue deep into the forest, aiming to seize the opportunity to take a few big steps into enemy territory.
The chase starts with a small group of three of them, smashing through the trees and rocks that block their paths as they rush at me from behind, but that wasn’t the problem, not at all. The problems started to arise by the time the mastermind of the army of skeletons seemed to catch on.
A swarm of skeletons started to come at me from all angles. The surroundings that I had used so far to leap, dodge and basically avoid getting hit started to get obliterated, making it increasingly difficult to keep up moving forward.
Giving my all, I start to dodge the attacks at the last second, using my enemies as stepping stones for my advance. Little by little I was doing it, I was covering the terrain at a much higher pace than before, but it came at a cost.
‘Damn, there is no end to them. How many are behind me already? A hundred? A couple? We are talking about some big ass bodybuilders like monsters that are capable of killing hundreds by themselves, each one of them! Why are they everywhere?’
Not knowing what to think about what’s going down at the moment and definitely not wanting to start counting the guys that are chasing me, I look ahead. ‘You are kidding me.’
Beasts, many of them, and monsters too, in all shapes and sizes. The only thing they had in common was that they all were made out of bones.
‘Whoever is behind this really wants me dead. Well, as people say, the better guarded something is the better the treasure!’ Thinking like that helps me push through the obstacle on my way, but I can’t help but wince as the wave of skeletal monsters and beast rush me.
Forcing my hand, I have no other option than using mana, thankfully I don’t think there is anyone around by now watching me. The leader of all these monsters, yes, maybe, but I doubt that he or she will be sharing that information with the guild.
Gathering as much mana as I can without blowing up, I use every chance that I get to touch the ground, raising platforms up ahead made of rocks and mud. The platforms are far from steady due to the hasty approach I took while creating them, but they work just fine as I use them as footholds for my escape.
Bull-like creatures come from the front, trying to disrupt my jumps. The sturdy and chunky guys follow from behind, looking for the thinnest of opportunities to grab onto me and smash me in the ground to be stomped on.
The rest of the monsters are even worse, as most of them display a more ample skillset than the easy to read opponents that had been coming at me till now. Felines with fangs carved out of bones chase me and pounce on me constantly, hasting the creation of footholds and making me waste even more mana.
I end up fighting for my life against an unending swarm, the moment I slip or decrease my speed, I am dead.