After the incident, Satoshi spent a full day and night in Volaris. He had discovered another house, which was actually empty. He had devoted most of the day to the indoors, practicing his detection ability through the city and only ever sneaking out on demand, from his stomach. As it turns out, stealing food is quite convenient when one doesn’t have to be physically present for the felony. And if anyone does notice the crazy sight of flying food, you can just drop it and try somewhere else. Easy peasy.
He didn't uncover much from his day of stay in the city. It wasn’t all useless though. He got to know more about himself; an introspection of sorts. An epiphany, if you may. The light at the end of the tunnel. A directive from the Lord himself. The ultimate truth. The final destination. The greatest of men devote their lifetimes to seek such elevation, yet it is only through hard-practiced discipline and governance of self that one can truly obtain the reckoning that Satoshi had; that he hated those fucking lizards.
Not only had they annoyed the fuck outta him in less than half a night, somehow the way their eyes moved reaaaally creeped him out and he was actually a very tolerant guy! Okay, he wasn't. But either way, he just wanted to never see those liztards again, the extra 't' being a punny typo.
Truly, it must be for this sole purpose that the heavens had bestowed upon him the almightiness of flight! The fact that it was the same almightiness that had led him to this city was left unsaid.
He had already picked up on some carriage movements moving in and out of the city, and that meant more places to visit. Fortunately, he discovered a group of beastkins, leaving the city in the morning.
-------------
Satoshi floated alone in the jungle wearing a dark robe clearly too big for him. Inside the robe hung his plunder, namely, a leather bota bag for water and a fiber bindle bag to hold other stuff.
“Ugghhhh…. Stalking is a pain in the ass.”
Satoshi had been trailing the group of four beastkins for about two days now and had borderline contained himself from killing them six times. He had been consistently maintaining a distance of more than one hundred meters from the group. And since he couldn’t see them between the trees, he was using his ability to keep track of their movements. His reasons for wishing to detonate their air sacs like birthday balloons were for their slow pace. Unfortunately, if he did that, the only options he would be left with would be to either go back to that city of those creepy-eyed freaks or be stranded.
“I’m starting to wonder if they even know where the fuck they are going.”
He would occasionally fly up in the sky and look around in an attempt to find a noticeable destination, but would always come back down empty-handed. Hence his suspicion of whether this group of beastkins even had a destination in mind. But he persevered. He had been able to sense them fight numerous times now, and even without a reference, he could tell that they were good, or at the very least seemed to know what they were doing.
“Well, I do have a reference, but that noob-ass lizard-man was a little too weak to serve as a valid comparison.”
From their formation while fighting, Satoshi guessed that there were two melees, one ranged who used a bow and the last a magician.
Bored out of his skull, he once attempted to go and say “hi” to them but even before he came into sight, at about a distance of 15 meters, the ranged beastman had detected him, shouting for all his comrades to halt and ready their weapons. Satoshi had immediately equipped a sound-preventing barrier around him and retreated. Since then, he had been maintaining his distance till he either figured their destination or more about their abilities.
“At least you guys are fun.”, he said to the two green-skinned horned-rabbits that were contentedly flying about around Satoshi. Admittedly, they might appear to be screaming and thrashing with horrified rabbit expressions, but since no sound was heard, it was probably fine. Though one could argue that they should not be faulted for their terrified state; when their pack had tried to attack a lone weak-looking prey, by some mysterious force, all except these two simply exploded. And now they had lost all control, unable to even run away. It was a completely justified situation, wasn’t it?
“Awww.. don’t look at me with those cute accusing eyes. Being a predator, you should be ready to be on the other side as well right? And I know you've gotta be enjoying it too. It's not every day that a kind human like me comes and teaches you furry little ferocious bastards how to fly.", Satoshi said with his best smile, yet for some reason, the killer rabbits started flailing and thrashing harder.
"Oh wait! That’s it! Why didn’t I think of this sooner!?”
Suddenly one of the rabbits flew up and away in the direction of the beastkin group and landed about half a kilometer away from them in the direction of their movements. Right before it touched the ground, its body exploded, spreading a mass of blood and gore around. Next, a wind carrying the scent of blood started to blow towards the beastkin and dispersed away in all directions as soon as it reached them.
---------
Fifteen minutes later.
“Where are all these beasts coming from!?”, shouted the rabbit-eared ranger as another arrow shot through her bow, impaling a long black snake in its tail finally forcing it to flee. The rabbit-ranger wore leather armor and kept shooting wooden arrows non-stop with her equally wooden bow.
“Kill first! Questions later! Rovango, blast these fuckers!”, shouted the vanguard as he bashed away the leaping hyena-like creatures using his shield. With a steel sword in his left hand, a copper shield on his right arm and a heavy iron armor from head to toe, he was distinctly the leader of the group.
“Oh signore di u focu! Scopite sta fiamma in mezu a sti scopari!” on the leader's mark, the robed mage called Rovango chanted a spell. The fireball about 30cm in diameter blasted in the midst of the twenty or so hyenas, killing two and wounding three others out of the fight.
"I have just enough mana for two more blasts!", shouted the mage back.
“Could you guys hurry up!”, the last member of their team shouted his own turn, as he dodged a gruesome attack. “I don’t know how long I can keep this up!”
The last member, a dagger-wielding cat-kin was struggling his battle against a massive brown-furred beast. If Satoshi was here, he would have described the beast as an abominable offspring resultant off a copulation between a gym-loving gorilla and a battle-hungry grizzly bear, with a small twist of giraffe sperm mixed in there somewhere. The long-necked, long-limbed, brown-furred, heavy-muscled ginormous beast stood at a height of about four meters and was clearly the most dangerous of all the foes. The cat-kin had been assigned to hold it off till the rest of the team took care of the..well, the rest of the dangers.
“There’s even a baluboor! Even if we somehow defeat all of these..”, another arrow flew downing a monkey-beast, “..defeat all of these laakadbags and bandapeds, how are we supposed to defeat that!?”
From the rabbit-ranger’s view, the leader fought to the front against the hyena-like creatures called laakadbags. Out of the pack of thirty that had initially turned up, about 15 still stood strong. The heavily armored leader did his best to push them back and reduce their numbers with the support of his ranger and mage. She shot another arrow to the monkey-beasts known as bandapeds, to keep them from getting a jump on her leader. They had joined a minute later into the fight and though weak in battle, were elusive and would jump from above on any unsuspecting prey. And once they catch hold of you using their muscular tail, it was next to impossible to break free before they choked the life out of their victims. The long black snake called Sampuzan had readily fled upon harassment by beasts and beast-kins alike. The last, but by no means the least, the gigantic bear-like creature, baluboor, was a force to be reckoned with by its lonesome. It was commonly known that one should flee should they ever encounter the mighty beast, for it rarely gave chase. But in their predicament, the group of beastkins would have been picked off by the laakadbags and had to, therefore, stand their ground. Ronaldu, to her left, kept the baluboor occupied. Due to its large frame and hence, excessive swings, dodging its attacks was not very difficult, especially for the cat-man who was particularly light on his feet. But it was only a matter of time before his stamina failed him and a single slip would cost him his life. All they could do was believe in him and finish off the rest of the dangers as quickly as possible. The last member of the group, the mage, held the highest destructive power among all the members but at the same time was the weakest in his defences. The rabbit-ranger had to protect him behind her for he would be easy pickings by the bandapeds. He would only step out from her back to cast magic and go back to being protected.
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“Don’t give up yet, Ronaldu! Hold it off a little longer! Rovango, blast me once more! And save the rest of your mana in case one of us needs healing! And Poochi, you shut up and focus on those arrows! ”
“What the fuck do you!” another arrow, another bandaped, “do you think I’ve been doing all this time!?”
A fireball blasted away four more laakadbags.
“I am almost out of arrows!” announced the rabbit-ranger.
The leader grit his teeth through his helmet as even with all their efforts in bringing down the beasts, the situation was only getting grimmer.
“Leader, I will draw the baluboor to the laakadbags. The three of you run off.”, said the rogue in a voice only the leader could hear.
“Don’t be ridiculous Ronaldu! There’s no way you will survive get out alive against both baluboor and laakadbags!”, shouted back the ranger. There was no way she wouldn’t have heard what the rogue said with her tall ears.
“What!? Don’t do anything stupid, Ronaldu!”, even the mage caught onto the situation.
“Better me than all of us! I will buy you enough time so you can get away!”, desperation was clear from the rogue’s voice.
*grit*
The leader ground his teeth once again as he bashed a laakadbag’s head into paste. It was obvious that they’d all die at this rate. Yet what Ronaldu proposes….
(No!)
He knew it was the right choice in the situation but his pride wouldn’t let another man be killed while he ran. He was just about to declare the same thing, but with him as the sacrifice when..
“There’s something else coming!”, announced the rabbit-eared woman.
“And it’s fa..”, before Poochi could even finish, a hooded beastkin jumped out of the undergrowth at a very high speed. Before anyone could even react to this new presence, a strong gust of wind blew away all the laakadbags. Half of them who struck against the trees fell down incapacitated, while the rest ran to flee.
“Aaaggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!”
Due to the distraction, the baluboor finally managed to get the shifty catkin and blew him away with a smack of its arm.
*thwack!*
The cat-kin hit a tree and fell, unmoving.
“Ronaldu!!!”
RROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
The baluboor shouted a roar of victory, causing even the bandapeds to flee.
“Rovango, heal him! I will engage…”
Before the leader could even finish his sentence, the newly arrived guest rushed to the roaring beast and punched. Even though this newcomer’s punch appeared weak and imbalanced, the shockwave it produced was unlike the group had ever witnessed.
*BOOoooOOOooooM*
The baluboor’s belly caved in as its image lasted in everybody’s head for a fraction of a second before laws of nature caught up and blew back the monstrosity that should have weighed at least half a metric ton. The undergrowth in its path all uprooted and bare soil came into sight till its lifeless body hit a tree twenty meters away.
“What in the world….?”
“No way….”
“.....”
The robed beastkin turned around, his head covered by the robe's hood to hide his affiliated animal species. But from the power he just displayed, the only possible explanation was that the beastkin belonged to one of the royal bloodlines, known to be the strongest.
Everyone readied their guard in a feeble and hopeless attempt as the robed man lifted his arm, his index finger sticking out. Everyone held their breath as their minds refused to accept their impending doom. Half a minute later, when nothing happened, the leader realized something and looked into the direction the finger was pointed in.
"Ronaldu!"
Upon the leader’s shout, the mage and the ranger finally came back to their senses from the scene of unbelievability. They turned to their comrade who seemed to be on his last breaths and sprinted their way over, all the while shouting their comrade’s name. Blood leaked through the catkin's leather armor marking the severe injuries.
The leader stood in his place unable to decide whether to run up to his bleeding comrade or address the mystery man.
(There’s nothing I can do even if I go to them….. As their leader, I have to do what needs to be done.)
The leader removed his helmet as he bent down on one knee towards the robed man and bowed his head in deference. Now that his helmet was gone, the wolf-ears were in plain sight for Satoshi to see, making him cringe a little.
“You have my gratitude for saving us, oh great warrior. I am Meste and these are my fellow party mates. We are adventurers. Would you do the honor of telling us your name?”
The man known as Meste held his demeanour and waited, but no reply came. He lifted his head to look at the powerful man who couldn’t even bother to reply to his petty existence. The robed man pointed at his ear and shook his head.
For a few seconds, Meste just stared at the man going through all sorts of possibilities in his head on what could the man possibly mean with that action.
“I see.”
Meste finally understood the apparent context and stood up, and nodded visibly to show his understanding. He hesitated in consideration of his next question for a brief moment and then did an act of grabbing the air near his head and pulling it down; a sign of asking the robed man to remove his hood.
There was uncertainty in the robed-man’s actions but he proceeded to remove the hood.
“!!!”
To say that Meste was surprised would be an understatement.
“A human!”, he exclaimed in a hushed tone so that his team wouldn’t hear, “But how!?”. It was a question more to himself or to the Gods than to the man on his opposite.
And his bewilderment was justifiable. He had never even heard of, much less seen a human in these lands. Yet those round ears at the sides of the head were undeniable. There was no beastkin race that had ears like that. It was a characteristic undoubtedly known to be associated with the humans. The wheels of conspiracy turned in his head. Was it illusion magic? What if this was indeed a member of a royal bloodline and they were using illusion magic to hide their true identity? But why pose as a human? There were numerous races that they could have impersonated. In a way, a human is likely to cause more of an uproar than a member of royal blood. Though that wasn’t because of any discrimination. In the first place, how could they discriminate against a race that they had only heard of in rumors and stories? The actual human kingdoms were said to be at least hundreds of miles away and very few among the beastkin had seen one of their kind since the last Great War.
(Could he be...?)
Gathering his wits, he shook his head. He decided that whatever it was, was out of his league and out of his payroll. He looked back to his team, and it appeared that Ronaldu’s condition was stabilizing.
(The less we know, the better.)
He turned back to his guest and bowed his head in gratitude once more. The human had donned the hood back and Meste had no intention of asking him to remove it ever again.
The two stood in silence for a couple of seconds. He didn’t know what to do in front of a man who couldn’t hear, yet was powerful enough to down a baluboor in a single blow. Finally, the human nodded, breaking the equilibrium. Meste couldn’t make out the meaning of the nod. He decided to take it as a sign to take his leave and moved to his team.
-------------------
(Whoa. Didn’t think he’d be a wolf-man. At least it doesn’t seem like he’s from that village, or he would have heard of the human escapee.)
Satoshi looked at the back of the wolf-man heading towards his wounded comrade.
(I attacked at the right moment. It was his fault he got distracted. Now, if they just let me travel with them, it’d be much less boring.)
---------------
“How’s he?”, asked Meste as he reached to find the mage, Rovango resting and the ranger, Poochi bandaging their wounded rogue, Ronaldu.
“Thankfully there was only minor damage to his internal organs. Rovango took care of that before he ran out of mana.” she said as she pointed at the resting mage with his back up against the tree, “I’m wrapping up his external wounds. It’ll be a few days before he gets back to his usual though.”
“I see.”
“.....”
“.....”
“Who is our mighty savior?” she asked without taking her eyes away from the bandaging.
“I don’t know. He’s deaf.”
“And you believe that?”
“No choice but to.”
“.......”
“...what?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t realize!”, she finally turned around to look at Meste and spoke in a hushed tone, “That timing! We suddenly get attacked by so many beasts, even a baluboor! And fortunately get saved by this mysterious beastman!?”
“Poochi, don’t speak like that about our savior! We would all be dead if he hadn’t come!”
Meste intentionally didn't correct her misunderstanding about their saviour's species.
Poochi glared back at his reprimand.
“Why do you think Ronaldu is in this state!?”
“It had nothing to do with that man! Ronaldu got what he deserved for getting distracted in the middle of a fight!”
Poochi shrunk back at the reply she didn’t expect.
“Don’t give me that look. You know it’s true and Rovango would agree.”
“Tch.”, she looked away with a click of her tongue.
“You didn’t find out anything about him?”, Poochi asked again as she looked behind her leader to the hooded man.
“...No. And I think it’s better if we don’t.”, Meste said the last part in a menacing tone to get his point across which he was sure worked as Poochi’s body shuddered at the memory of that shockwave. By no means did she want to be at the end of that punch.
“...I understand.”
No more words were shared after that. Poochi continued to wrap the bandages in silence as Meste walked away to collect firewood. Clearly, they weren't going to cover any more distance for the rest of the day.