As Selise rushed up the stairs that led higher up the mountain, her mind flashed back to the scene she had witnessed earlier. Being locked up inside the wagon didn't mean she didn't see the fight earlier. Through the small gap of the closed window, Selise was able to watch the battle. No, that wasn't a battle. That was a massacre, Selise thought fearfully.
But what shook her more was the sight of her new friend slaughtering the wargs without hesitation. When she made friends with the mute girl earlier this day, she thought Taloress was a sweet and innocent girl that would never harm a fly. Selise even thought the masked woman was kind of cute every time she bobbed her head to answer her questions. But seeing Taloress cut down five wargs in less than a minute made Selise reconsider her opinion of the woman. They're not what they seem, she thought.
Selise wasn't the squeamish type of girl that would shy away after seeing five dead wolves, but even with her experience as one of Belka's hunters, she had never seen anybody kill strong monsters such as wargs with so much ease that the fight looked more like a brutal slaughter.
What disturbed Selise wasn't the unhesitating manner in which Taloress and Mr. Marion killed the wargs. After all, she was a hunter herself. No, what disturbed her was the power they showed.
Selise thought she had a good inkling of the difference in strength between normal people and those who could control mana, like mages and augmenters. When she once saw Belka kill a goblin with a single punch, she thought augmenters simply had just a bit more strength compared to normal people. But after seeing Mr. Marion cast his magic, she was starting to doubt whether people like them could still be called human.
No wonder he thought of me as a liability, Selise thought bitterly as she remembered Mr. Marion ordering her to hide in the wagon. She hid it well, but deep inside, she was frustrated when they didn't even give her a chance to prove herself. She had trained as much as the other hunters her age, but people still saw her as a child. Even her father did the same, constantly trying to discourage her from joining the hunters just so she could be safer at home.
But after seeing the difference between a normal person like her and people like Mr. Marion who could bend the rules of nature using only his will, Selise was starting to get discouraged. Is there even a point to ordinary people like us when those like Mr. Marion can do crazy stuff like that?
Selise shook her head to clear her mind of such thoughts. There was no point in trying to question her own significance when the village was still under attack. If Terence knew what she was thinking, Selise was sure he would—
“Wait! Shit, I forgot about Terence!” Selise exclaimed with a panicked expression. Terence was supposed to be delivering a batch of knives to the newly-graduated hunter recruits today. The hunters' training grounds were located near the village gates, where the monster attack was the most concentrated, and that was probably where Terence currently was. I have to go get him!
Unlike Selise, who underwent combat training under Belka, Terence was just a blacksmith's apprentice. He'd stand no chance if a warg was to face him. Selise paled as she imagined her friend getting ravaged by a rabid wolf.
So without hesitation, Selise turned around and started rushing towards the village gates.
●●●
The trip through the village was quick. The roads and buildings around me were all empty, allowing Clip and Clop to run through the streets without having to worry about running someone over. It was pretty surreal to see the village devoid of people when not even fifteen minutes ago, the village center was full of people sending me suspicious glances.
But with my fabric sense, I knew where most of the people were. When the alarm went off earlier, instead of evacuating to a secure place like what happened in Erfeld during a monster attack, the people of Wildpost went straight towards the village entrance. It confused me at first, but I realized that they were helping the hunters in fighting back against the monsters. The fact that the people managed to do so quickly without any signs of panic was proof enough that they had plenty of experience when it came to monster attacks. It looks like living in the middle of a monster-infested forest doesn't allow for cowards.
Knowing that all of Wildpost's villagers were currently helping fight off the monsters, I was now regretting the words I said to Selise before I left. I could only imagine how painful it was to be called a liability while knowing your friends and family were risking their lives to defend the village.
As if reading my mind, Taloress crossed her arms beside me and managed to give me an unimpressed look despite her mask.
“Alright, alright, I'll apologize to your friend when we get back,” I said before signaling Clip and Clop to stop.
We were now close enough to the village entrance that I could hear the noises of battle. I couldn't bring my two horses there because they would get spooked by the monsters there. Leaving them behind here was also a bit risky, so before Taloress and I left, I detached them from their harnesses so they could run away when monsters got near them.
Once they realized they were freed from their harnesses, Clip and Clop started roaming around to look for something to eat. “Damn greedy horses,” I muttered.
After making sure that I had enough fabric stored inside Mr. Marion and Taloress in case of emergencies, we made our way towards the large spacious area by the village entrance. The scene that greeted us was a pretty good representation of chaos.
The space where the gate used to be was now filled with nothing but a large pile of shattered wood and splinters, and monsters of all shapes and sizes were stampeding through the breach. There were large boars, wargs, lizards as big as wolves, shrieking birds, and snakes so large they could probably eat either of my horses alive. The place looked like a zoo with the animals escaping from their cages. If not for the dire situation, it would have been very impressive to see the diversity of the Wild Woods' fauna right in front of me.
But what was even more impressive was the large crowd of people blocking the monster stampede. The people of Wildpost had formed three shield walls that surrounded the breach in the gate, boxing in the monsters and preventing them from going inside the village. The men at the front carried huge rectangular shields and pushed against the monsters, while the people behind them carried long spears pointed upwards. From time to time, a random warg or lizard monster would try to get over the shield wall, but the only thing waiting for them were dozens of spears poised to stab anything that tried to go past the wall. Holy shit, what kind of training did Belka teach these people?!
The shield wall was holding back the monsters resolutely, and every time the monsters were beginning to gain ground, the villagers would shout a “Hup!” and push all at once, driving back the monsters. The level of coordination here was astounding.
But despite the impressive scene, I knew this could not go on any longer. The villagers would eventually tire out, and when they did, the monsters would ravage them. The hunters stationed at the watchtowers built on both sides of the broken gate were constantly shooting at the large crowd of monsters below rapidly with their bows, but even if they had an unlimited supply of arrows, it would take them hours to kill all of the monsters. The ones holding the shield wall would have long tired out by then.
“Time for us to save the day, Taloress,” I said confidently. Taloress clapped excitedly, although with her hands made of fabric, the only sounds that came out were dull noises.
But before I could even take a single step forward, a man garbed in the attire of a hunter shouting orders at the front spotted me and called out. “Oi, you!”
I looked behind me in case he was calling somebody else, but nobody else was there. I pointed at myself questioningly and the man shouted again with annoyance. “Yes, you! Get over here!”
I didn't like somebody else telling me what to do, but since I had no idea what to do yet anyway, I decided to obey in the meantime. When I neared the man, the other people around him shot me glares. Hey, I'm the one who's about to help you, you ungrateful bastards!
“You're the Head Hunter's new friend, right?” the man asked as I arrived. “The name's Dalton, her second-in-command.”
My eyelid twitched at the word ‘friend,’ but I didn't correct him. “Nice to meet you, I am—”
“We have no time for flowery introductions, Mr. Marion, I already know who you are,” Dalton interrupted brusquely. “I called you over to see if you can help. The Head Hunter said you're a mage?”
I wanted to remain silent just to reciprocate his rudeness, but even I realized how childishly petty that would be. “Yes, I'm a mage,” I answered grudgingly.
“Good, then we'll need your help. Follow me,” Dalton said before walking away towards the village's wooden wall.
“Wait, where are you going?! I could blast away these monsters here right now!” I shouted angrily.
“Don't underestimate the people of Wildpost, they could hold back this small group of monsters long enough,” Dalton replied as he continued walking.
He calls this a small group of monsters?! I looked at the “small” group of monsters Dalton was referring to and concluded that the man was crazy. Nevertheless, I decided to follow him. I was a newbie here, and if he said that the villagers could hold back the monsters, then I wasn't about to contradict him.
When Taloress and I caught up with Dalton, I asked him a question. “Where the hell are we going? The monsters are right there!”
“That's the least of our problems right now,” Dalton replied as he led us to a ladder that climbed up to a walkway at the top of the wooden wall. “The Head Hunter could easily take care of those later.”
“Then why isn't she here?”
“That's where I was leading you in the first place,” Dalton replied with annoyance before climbing up the ladder.
I grumbled as I followed him up, Taloress coming up behind me. Once we arrived at the walkway that let the hunters peer over the wooden wall that surrounded the village, Dalton pointed to the clearing over the walls. “Look over there and you'll see our most important problem right now.”
I followed his finger to the large clearing outside the village entrance. The area near the breached gate was crammed full of monsters trying to burst their way in. There were so many monsters that even the ditch that surrounded the walls was filled with squirming monster bodies. “Wow, you're right. The villagers wouldn't be able to defeat all those monsters by themselves.”
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
“I'm not talking about those at the gate,” Dalton said annoyedly. “I was pointing over there, at the other end of the clearing. Right before the treeline.”
I shifted my sight, trying to find the thing Dalton was pointing me to, but I didn't even have to look far. Heck, I didn't have to find it with how big it was. “Well shit,” I muttered beneath my breath. How could I miss something like this with my fabric sense?
At the other end of the clearing was Belka, the person I was looking for. I was wondering why she hadn't shown up earlier to beat up all the monsters trying to stampede into the village, but now I realized that she was dealing with something bigger.
Towering over her by several meters, the largest monster I've ever seen was swinging a large tree at Belka. Its pale green skin was wrinkled and leathery, and its head was bald. It wore nothing but a loincloth to hide its genitals, but aside from the loincloth, I couldn't detect anything else with my fabric sense, which was probably why I didn't detect such a large monster since the beginning of the attack. Its humanoid face was an ugly mug that was twisted into a furious snarl as it tried to smash Belka with its makeshift club. When it couldn't catch her, it let out a loud roar that made my chest vibrate even from a far distance.
“What the hell am I seeing?” I asked dumbly.
“It's the most troublesome monster to kill on this side of the kingdom,” Dalton replied. “A forest troll.”
“What's a forest troll?” I asked. The only idea I had of a troll was the one I knew from fantasy stories on Earth: monsters with high regenerative powers that turn to stone upon being exposed to sunlight. But the troll I was seeing in front of me wasn't turning to stone at all even under the glaring sun, which meant trolls here were different.
“Trolls, in general, are hardy creatures that could regenerate infinitely as long as they have mana,” Dalton answered quickly. “They have many different variants, but the forest trolls, in particular, is the variant with the highest rate of regeneration. Chop off a limb and they'll have it back in under a minute.”
Right as Dalton said that, Belka dashed forward with her sword held firmly in her hand. The forest troll tried to slam its tree on Belka's head, but because of her smaller size, she was far quicker and dodged easily. When she passed by the forest troll's left leg, she swung her sword towards the back of its knee, slicing through the thick flesh. Her sword almost got stuck, but Belka pushed through, completely slicing through the limb but snapping the blade in the process.
The forest troll went down with a loud roar, throwing up a cloud of dust everywhere. Belka stood by the side patiently, throwing away what remained of her sword to the side. When the dust settled, the forest troll was already getting up on its new leg.
“That didn't even take a whole minute!” I exclaimed incredulously. “How could we even kill a monster like that?!”
“This troll is probably old,” Dalton said with a frown. “But that doesn't change what you have to do. When the forest troll bashed in the gate at the beginning of the attack, the Head Hunter told me that she'll be waiting for you before she went ahead to distract the troll. It's time for you to go.”
My eyes went to the remains of the village's gate. If the forest troll did that, then that explained my question of how a fortified gate like that got breached so quickly. “What do I have to do?” I asked as I prepared myself and Taloress to go help Belka.
“The Head Hunter didn't say anything about that, so you'll just have to ask her directly.”
I stared at Dalton with an unsatisfied expression, although it was hidden by my mask. “And how would I ask her while she's fighting with a monster as tall as this wall we're standing on?”
“It should be easy. Trolls are slow, so there will be lulls in the battle when you can have a chance to ask Belka. Now go! The shield wall is starting to crumble, and if you and the Head Hunter don't come back soon, everybody in Wildpost would end up as monster food,” Dalton said hurriedly.
“I thought you said the villagers could easily hold the monsters back long enough?!”
Dalton didn't deign to answer me as he pushed me and Taloress towards the ladder that went down the other side of the wall. This bastard!
It would be pointless to argue with the rude man any further since he was right that we were running out of time, so I hurriedly went down the ladder while grumbling about arrogant people who think they could order me about. I guess I'll have to delay showing off to the villagers and focus on helping Belka first.
Once Taloress and I reached the ground, we started sprinting towards where Belka was. Some of the monsters crowding by the breached gate spotted us and decided to give chase. Most of them, like the large boars and the giant lizards, were too slow to catch up to our speed, but the wargs were fast. Soon, the rabid dogs would reach us and we'd have to stop.
Taloress and I kept on running even when the wargs were starting to get dangerously close. I had to throw Force Blasts behind us just to slow the wargs down, but we couldn't stop yet. One of the wargs even had the audacity to nip the corner of my fluttering coat, so I responded angrily by shooting a tendril of thread up its nose and making it wriggle wildly. It wasn't enough to kill the warg, but it did make it writhe on the ground as it pawed at its face to get the foreign object out of its nose.
When we were close enough to Belka that I could start feeling the ground tremble from the forest troll's footsteps, I glanced behind me and saw what I was waiting for. The slower monsters who had been continuously chasing us earlier had given up and returned to the village gate, which meant the only ones left were my good ol' enemies, the wargs.
Unlike the battle back in the village center, nine wargs were facing us, but that didn't mean it was enough to threaten me.
Without preamble, Taloress and I suddenly stopped and turned around. While I stood in place, Taloress charged into the charging pack of wargs, her sword already drawn, to distract them while I prepared my spells.
Like living, sentient worms, small pieces of wriggling thread flew out of my sleeves and formed themselves into ten magic circles in a horizontal line in front of me. The instant they finished forming, I immediately channeled mana into them, filling them up quickly. The heat produced was enough to make me wince, but I pulled through. The entire process only took a little bit over two seconds, way faster than the three seconds it usually took me to cast Force Blasts. Pretty nice to finally see some improvement.
When I turned my attention back to the battle in front of me, I saw Taloress getting mauled by more than six wargs at once while still swinging her sword around. Two of the wargs were already dead at her feet while the last one was limping as it watched its brethren ravage Taloress. Holy shit, that is a chilling sight to see.
I nervously glanced to the village walls to see if anybody saw, but thankfully, everybody seemed to be focused on the large crowd of monsters trying to break through their shield wall to eat them.
With nobody else watching, I proceeded with my plan. All at once, I activated the ten Force Blasts. With a loud noise of explosion, the large wave of invisible force threw up snow and dirt as it traveled. It impacted the wargs and Taloress as well, throwing them dozens of meters away. If somebody else was watching, they'd have condemned me as an evil mage already after seeing me attack my own companion, but that was why I made sure nobody was watching in the first place.
Before anybody back in the village would get curious and see what made the loud noise, I quickly summoned Taloress back to me, making her fly through the air. I repaired the damages on her body as she flew so when she arrived at my side, she looked good as new, although her glare through her mask is enough to tell me that she did not like getting hit by my Force Blast.
“Come on, you're basically a cloth doll, Taloress. You're virtually immune to blunt impacts.” I turned around and started running towards Belka, ignoring Taloress' glare as she followed me.
The moment we got close enough to the raging battle between a giant troll and a relatively giant woman, Belka immediately shouted at me. “About damn time you got here!”
“I would have preferred to make a dramatic entrance, but it looks like you are in dire need of help!” I shouted back just as the troll swung at Belka and missed, the troll howling in annoyance. Now that I was this close to it, I realized there were faint green lines snaking all over the troll's skin like veins.
Even as she dodged and ran around the furious troll, Belka still managed a grin as she talked back. “Get your ass moving already and distract the troll for me!”
Without even giving me a chance to interpret her words, Belka immediately moved far away from the troll. Far enough that the next closest living thing to it was me. And the forest troll noticed me.
“Belka, you damn—”
I didn't get to finish as the troll roared once again before charging towards me. It seemed I underestimated how scary the troll was when watching it from afar because seeing a monster taller than a two-story house running for me as the ground trembled was terrifying as fuck!
“RUN, TALORESS!” I screamed in panic as Taloress and I ran in opposite directions. I was so panicked that I forgot I didn't need to verbally order my own puppet.
As I ran away, I glanced behind me and hoped the troll chose to chase Taloress. Unfortunately, it seemed Lady Luck was being a bitch today, because the troll was chasing the much slower target. With Mr. Marion carrying my fat ass, of course he'd be slower. Shit, shit, shit.
I frantically ordered Taloress to come back and distract the troll for me, but she wasn't going to reach me in time. I chanced a look behind me and thanked my stars because if I didn't, I wouldn't have seen the troll's tree already swinging down for my head.
“AAAAAAAHHHH!”
I screamed—no, squealed— as I dove to the side, the high-pitch noise probably reaching all the way back to the village. But I didn't care because right now, the troll was getting ready to swing again. I was sorely tempted to start busting out my Authority and quickly finish off this damn troll, consequences be damned, but Taloress came at the right time.
Right as the troll was starting to wind up for another swing, Taloress jumped up the monster's leg and started climbing like a monkey. The troll must have noticed because it started swatting at Taloress like she was a fly, but she was fast. That's because she wasn't actually climbing up the troll. I was making her float up the troll while making it seem like she was climbing. Even when the troll shook itself like a dog to get Taloress off, I made my puppet stubbornly cling to it by simply pushing her entire body against the troll.
I didn't stay idle while the rest of this was happening. As Taloress annoyed the troll, I released a lot of thread around the area, forming all of them into magic circles. By the time I was done, there were easily a hundred of them floating around us. But I didn't immediately channel mana into them all at once. That would be stupid because the amount of heat that I would be subjected to would be lethal. I didn't even know whether I had enough mana to fuel them all.
When I looked back at the troll, Taloress was already at its head, swinging her enchanted sword against it repeatedly. I must have underestimated the troll's resilience because even with an enchanted sword, the best Taloress could do was scratch its skin, which healed less than a second after the blade left its skin. It was practically cheating, but the troll wouldn't be the only one cheating. Time for some payback, you bald bastard.
I slowly powered a magic circle and positioned it right in front of the troll's face, and just as it was about to swat Taloress off its noggin, I activated the spell, sending a Force Blast straight to its ugly mug. To a large monster like the forest troll, my Force Blast would have felt nothing more than a light punch, but that was enough to distract it.
It looked for me in a rage, and once it spotted me standing behind it, the troll lumbered towards me. But before it could even get close enough to take a swing at me, I positioned a magic circle to the right of its face and activated it, sending a Force Blast to its face and sending it stumbling to the side.
“Hah! You can't touch me now!” I taunted.
The troll roared in outrage and went for me again, but I just did the same thing and activated a Force Blast on its face when it got close. At the same time, Taloress, who had been forgotten by the troll, positioned herself beside its ear and plunged the enchanted blade deep inside the ear canal, eliciting the loudest roar I'd heard from the troll yet.
“Hehehe, that's what happens when— wait, NOOO!”
With a sharp clang, the enchanted blade snapped, leaving Taloress with nothing but the hilt. What the hell just happened?!
Before I could start raining a hell of Force Blasts on the troll for breaking my sword, Belka shouted a warning from the side. When I glanced at her, my shock made me forget my broken sword.
Belka was burning. The large woman was wreathed in flames that covered her like a cloak, and even her eyes had literal fires lit within them.
Before anyone could further process her appearance, Belka jumped, her augmented legs propelling her high enough to reach the troll's head with a single leap. Belka was so fast that before the troll could react, her fist was already swinging towards its head.
With a dull crack, Belka's fist, along with her entire arm, easily broke through the troll's skull and plunged deep inside its head. The troll tried to scream, but before it could, flames exploded from its eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Its head was burning from the inside.
But despite the clear win, my mind was focused on something else. I found myself staring at the blazing inferno that the troll's head had now become, not with awe, but with fear. It was an instinctual fear, one that I knew came from my Authority. My puppets are invincible from most physical attacks. Cut them, slice them, dice them, beat them, nothing can put them down. After all, I can just reform them again. But a single ember is all it takes to destroy them.
And Taloress was still clinging to the troll's head.
“Taloress!” I screamed frantically. At the same time, I made my puppet fall. The troll was extremely tall and a fall from that height was dangerous for normal humans. If people saw Taloress fall from that height and see her stand up as if nothing happened, they'd get suspicious. But all I cared about was that Taloress was away from the inferno that the troll had become.
But instead of falling to the ground, a blur flew by and caught Taloress before landing on the ground. It was Belka.
“Be careful, now. We wouldn't want you dying just as we defeated the damn troll,” Belka said as she set down Taloress on the ground.
I rushed towards them and checked if Taloress was alright. I already knew there was no damage because of my fabric sense, but I still checked anyway. The sight of the large fire had triggered a primal fear within me, and for good reason. I finally found my weakness.
I glanced at the troll burning a fair distance away. The fire had spread throughout its body fast, turning the corpse into a blazing pyre. Looking at it was enough to make my hands tremble.
“Good work, people,” Belka said beside me. “That was some fine distraction. I knew Taloress was fast when we fought the Grisly, but I didn't expect her to be that nimble too, climbing the troll like a monkey. You did a nice job too, Marion.”
I ignored her praise and glared at her. “What were you thinking?! You almost killed Taloress with that attack of yours!”
“Don't get your panties twisted in a knot. I already knew Taloress was there when I did my attack and adjusted accordingly. I made sure to limit my attack enough that even if it touched Taloress, all she'd get is a minor burn. The worst thing that could happen to her was falling, and I already had that covered, didn't I?”
I wanted to scream at Belka that one minor burn was enough to kill Taloress, but I clamped down on my anger. Belka's actions were justified anyway. Judging by how the troll burned like a bonfire from a single fire-imbued attack from Belka, fire was probably its weakness. From Belka's perspective, it would have been fine if she accidentally hurt Taloress with a few burns if it meant killing the damn monster, which I couldn't really blame her for. So instead, I forcefully calmed myself and recalled all the unused magic circles made of thread still floating around in the air, withdrawing them into my sleeves.
Belka whistled. “That's impressive. Must be nice to be a mage, eh?”
I sighed in relief after hearing Belka's words. It meant she didn't know that making thread fly around freely like that without magic circles wasn't possible.
“How did you even turn yourself into a living torch?”
“Augmenters aren't only capable of strengthening our bodies,” Belka explained. “We have affinities like mages, too, and mine happens to be fire.”
So that explains how she lit herself on fire. I guess it was common sense since augmenters also manipulate mana just like mages do, albeit in a different way.
“Let's just get back to the village,” I said tiredly. “They still need our help with the monster horde.”
“I doubt Dalton's going to let a bunch of monsters overrun the village, but you're right. Let's get moving.”
I gathered the broken remains of my enchanted sword as well in hopes of having it repaired. I had Taloress carry the bare blade in her hands since she was made of cloth anyway. Even if the blade cut her, I could easily repair her. Plus, she could probably still use it as a weapon later.
As we rushed back towards the village, I couldn't help but stare at Taloress beside me. She was just a puppet, an object made with nothing but fabric and thread. Even if she burned and got destroyed, I could easily make another puppet like her. But the thought of it was enough to make me tremble in fear once again. No, Taloress is Taloress. Even if I made another just like her, that won't be Taloress anymore.
I placed a hand on Taloress' shoulder as we ran. You're not just a puppet, Taloress. Not you, not Mr. Marion, not Cuddles, not Tedd, not even Spider. If others learned of you're true nature, they would think of you as lifeless dolls. But to me, you're one of the people who kept me together after Mom died. All of you are my family.
For a second, I thought I saw a glimmer of intelligence behind the eyeholes of Taloress' mask, but I waved it off as a part of my overactive imagination and turned my focus back on the task at hand.