Chapter 7

They sat and waited, carefully out of range of the tree until eventually the liquid leaking out of the tree stopped and the leaves on the tree seemed to wilt. They approached it and seemed saddened that they hadn’t been able to gather any of the liquid substance. “Yeah alchemists can make confusing potions with the stuff. Too bad we couldn’t get any of it. Also none of us have vials anyway. Dally can you send Kann up and see if you can see the road?”

“Sure.” With this she called kann out and he went above. She tilted her head strangely to the ground, already looking from his eyes. “I can’t see the road, but i can see the city and the river so the road must just be blocked by the trees. Wow we must be 3 miles in. And it is already approaching dusk.” She called kann back.

Anne seemed to pale. “God that tree pulled us in far. We have to get out of the forest now. We are technically speaking invading the Selfborn. We need to head to the road. Which direction is it?”

Dally pointed not directly where they had come from but close and the group quickly began heading in that direction. “What are the Selfborn?”

“Not what. Who. They are a group of intelligent golems who live in high mana places. The depths of this forest is one of them and the city has an agreement not to go more than two miles from the road.”

Anne stopped short gesturing for all of them to stop. “Godammit can this day get any worse? There are wolf tracks. Fresh. We are heading towards a pack. Lets try and go around them.” With this she guided them slightly off course.

They continued for a few minutes before mason saw a form darting up from a gully, followed by nearly 20 more. He shouted “Wolves in front of us!”

The group dashed back in the direction they came from and the wolves followed, fast but it did not look as fast as they could be going. They seemed almost fearful of something ahead and it certainly wasn’t the group. As they sprinted forwards a humanoid shape dropped from the tree, revealing itself to be a massive 7 foot tall being, shaped of rock. He was wielding a massive spear in addition to a quiver of what appeared to be javelins. He whipped one of these out and sent it towards the wolves. It landed right in front of the wolves, scattering them and making them wait behind it.. “Leave now humans or I will have to kill you.” He rasped out in a gravelly voice.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“We are being chased by wolves! We did not come here by choice!”

“ I don't care. The pact makes no such allowances. Face certain death by approaching or waiting, or likely death with the wolves. I suggest you chose the latter. 10 … 9 … 8”

They got the message and started heading sideways in between the golem and where the wolves behind them were. Both kept pace, the wolves more eager now seeing the golem would not protect them. They angled towards where the wolves were going to be, hoping to get ahead of them. Mason spotted what appeared to be a roof in their path and he pointed out to the group that it had a hole in it. They instantly got what he was saying and dived in, with mason staying to hold back the wolves with the last of his mana he could safely spend shooting a shower of thorns at them, just enough to keep them at bay. With this he dove into the hole too, and found himself in what appeared to be a tunnel. There was rubble on the ground and he noticed the ceiling bore what appeared to be stairs. With this realization he reoriented himself and realized they were standing in what appeared to be a tower laying sideways. A wolf jumped into the hole after them and the group raced away from it. Anne attempted to stop as she was in front, before being pushed and windmilling her arms. Mason realized what was happening a second too late and crashed into the group, knocking them off what he could now see was an edge which had been hidden by darkness. The group tumbled into the air, falling for only a second or two before crashing into the ground, out of breath. Mason could barely see the wolves pacing back and forth above before leaving. He then felt a blackness wash over his eyes as he went into unconsciousness.

[Level up - Warrior]

[Level Up - Level Up - Level up - Mage]

[Spell gained - Vine appendages]

[Passive gained - Mana pool growth]